WiP Wednesday!

I love Wednesdays.

I didn't always love Wednesdays. I used to regard Wednesday as nothing more than the day before Thursday, which is the best day, because it holds all the anticipation of the weekend, with still a little left to go. If you needed to get something done, you still had Friday, but freedom was still close!

But Wednesdays...they are growing on me. :)

This week was mostly intangible accomplishments. Getting everything sorted to make this week work was actually a lot of effort! Having a baby makes life more complex - who knew? Jokes. I did, of course, and even though sometimes I take my tiny love with me to visit our friends (and terrorize their kitties), I have organized a few hours this week for myself. Of course, as I do, I've given them to many people. Loads, in fact, on Saturday, for the start of the Sydney Modern Quilt Guild. Are you coming? We'd love to have see you there!

But sewing...I did very little. The dreaded Headache came and knocked me out for two days. I did not miss these. I had nearly no headaches when I was pregnant. It was wonderful! But yesterday I was reduced to a glassy-eyed, television-staring mass of apathy. My house was messy and I could not care less. My mother and sister get terrible migraines, and luckily, my headache yesterday stayed in what I call functional territory: meaning I could do stuff if I had to, but I still felt awful. So despite having a pattern cut out, I didn't get it pinned or anything. Boo, me.

I did force myself to get outside and clear out some of the potted plants we had. I have saved or donated most of what I am not keeping, and I'm slowly getting through what I am keeping. But we have SO MANY SEEDS. A lot of herbs and flowers are going in these pots! Aren't they beautiful?

I revamped the garden plan. I like it a little better now. Clearer. I found the fattest possum ever, so I'm pretty sure I'm going to have to fully enclose my garden. I'll add that to the list!

But! On to the sewing I did do!

I started quilting the Sunset Swimmers quilt. I am "straight line" quilting it with the #4 button on my Bernina 440 QE, stitch length set to 2.90, which is enough to elongate the wave but still be a good, fastened stitch. I love the way this looks. I will have to struggle to not quilt everything like this. It is so beautiful.

The difference in the gold and pink threads is subtle, but I like having the variety.

And, not that this is a WiP, but I found a few treasures this week. The Shape Workshop for Quilters was hiding at Cottage Quiltworks (and by 'hiding' I mean right there in plain sight, with everyone behind the counter thumbing through it, talking about it). Of course I picked up a copy. It is so beautiful and so inspirational - I just can't wait to bring this book to SydMQG for everyone to have a thumb-through!

And then, in the mail, my beloved, much-awaited happy present to myself: Angela Walter's Free-Motion Quilting book.

I may have actually squealed while standing at the letterbox! It was great timing, too - Piper had just fallen asleep in the car, so I sat right down in the front seat and read the whole book cover to cover while my beautiful girl napped. Yay. It is perfect and I want to make quilt sandwiches and just quilt forever!

I have been trying to get around to all the quilt shops in the area this week and give them a list of dates for MQG, and when I walked into Craft Depot, they immediately said, "We have some of that Michael Miller you were after!" And indeed they did. They had four colors (and many more to come!) so I chose two little half-meters, of Geranium and Coral. It is very reasonably priced and the hand is just gorgeous. I literally want to make pajamas out of this fabric. It feels that good. And the colors are so rich and vibrant. Kona is my standby, but this...this might be giving my Kona a run for its money. :)

So that was my week. No finishes. Lots of busy-work, though. If you come by on Saturday I'll see you then, otherwise, have a great week! Don't forget to go check out what's happening at Freshly Pieced and link up!

xx Penny

Fabric Friday!

Well it has been a fun week! How about you guys?

Today the little Miss and I bundled up and braved the gusting winds to head across the bridge to Alexandria. If you've never been to Remnant Warehouse and you're local to Sydney, you must go. You must. This store does not know what it has. There are so many OOP fabrics and still more hard-to-find complete ranges. I dwelled. I doted. I yearned. And eventually, I found some red fabrics I liked!

I have been trying to build my red stash up. A month or so ago I noticed that I had four red fabrics. FOUR. Granted, I did gain a few more when I untied a bunch of half-yard bundles and released them into the wild, but still. I needed more. So I've been trying to only buy reds.

My stash looks healthier now, for sure!

Piper is getting really good at playing by herself. She likes to know I'm near, but more often than not, when I sit down to play with her, I get a microcuddle...then she scoots off to do something more interesting! I usually end up spending these hours at the machine. Today I finished piecing the back for Sunset Swimmers.

It's HUGE, much bigger than the actual quilt, but I am relieved to report back that once I laid it all out to pin-baste it, it fit very well. No stretching. No chopping into my precious borders!

I took advantage of Daddy being home & Piper crashing out early to pin-baste this sucker.

I don't know why I complain about pin-basting! It's actually not that bad. Someone remind me of that next time I moan about it, will you? I was done within an hour and it's sitting next to my machine, waiting for my quilt sandwiches, wound bobbins, and test quilting. All in good time, young Padawan.

I have other projects in the works. Anyone hazard a guess what these will turn into? I posted the test block a few weeks ago... :)

And of course, a nod to my inspiration cubby! Books from some of my favorite authors (some are acquaintances now!), all my color cards, and some spiritual nudging too. Perfection, having all my books close by. I am planning a major destash of quilt books soon, because I simply have too many. I'll put the info up on Etsy once I get it all organized. Those ones, however, are firmly mine. :)

Well, that's about it for Fabric Friday... I'll be out and about at a few local quilt shops this weekend and early next week, talking about SydMQG, so if you see me, say hi! I'm friendly. I promise.And I'm hoping to make it to the inaugral Greater Western Sydney MQG meeting, too, which is next Monday!

Have a great weekend!

WiP Wednesday!

I have been very naughty, and have not been blogging as much as I should have been. I have valid, er, excuses, though! However: the link lives on!

Go forth! Link up and talk about all your awesomes!

First of all, the biggest WiP I've been working on is this bad boy. Getting this finally, absolutely, totally sorted for our wee harbour city:

That totally counts, right? I hope so. I've been cobbling together dates, organizing the venue, chatting with the founder, getting a feel for what it means to run a MQG...here's hoping I don't completely stuff it up! Haha. I'm so optimistic. :)

This week I took a break from quilting and did a few smaller, easy-to-finish projects. I made the Mad Quilter a fierce birthday present!

You must understand, I've been hoarding that chicken fabric remnant. I had to do some really interesting piecing to get it to stretch out through all 6 baskets! :)

I used this excellent pattern and it was a breeze to do. The only change I made was instead of using fusible fleece and Pellon, I used a crummy midweight interfacing from Spotlight ($1.50 a meter, on both sides). Pellon is really hard to find here. Really, really hard to find. And I don't fancy paying $17 for shipping every time I want to make something. So I make do. And you know what? They turned out GREAT.

So great, in fact, I made one for my husband!

He is in negotiations for another one. I have my sights firmly fixed on some killer Star Wars fabric I picked up from our USA holiday at Jo-Anns; he has other ideas. We shall see. :)

I also started working on my Sunset Swimmers quilt backing. It's pieced mostly from Kona Cerise & Kona Charcoal but with lots of Mendocino on it! I have been very judicious in my use of scraps here. :)

I of course have my own little nesting bowl! It's 6" and perfect for loose scraps!

I have been basting like a crazy person, and now I've got a little start on...something. (Maybe a kitchen mat for the floor in front of the sink.) I like this fabric and I love it in little 1" hexagons!

I received happy mail, too. More paper pieces, for my lone star quilt (in heirloom! oh man. It's really happening. Or it will be) and more 1" hexies. Sigh. Blissful.

I laid the Sunset Swimmers quilt top on my bed to see how it fit. You guys. I can't wait to get it finished. Look at it. It's so PRETTY.

Oh, quilt. I want to be under you. All winter long.

Hey, practising some quilting! This is stitch 28 on my Bernina 440, all stretched out, in varying lengths. Pretty cool. I'm thinking pink with a few mustard yellow wiggles, too, and then some bubbles in between. Must practise before going for it, though. This quilt matters! I want to be AWESOME. :)

And of course, what WiP Wednesday would be complete without a picture of Piper? She conked out on Daddy in the study a few nights ago. Teething makes a cranky, tired baby. But so sweet.

What have you guys been up to this week? :)

Secrets Revealed :)

I have a confession to make. I've already spoken about this a little bit, but... I am a recovering bossy-boots. It's a serious affliction, affecting eldest children all across the world. But! I have managed, as an adult, to hang up the bossy boots and content myself with organizing things, but one can only move her living room furniture around so many times before she has to search further afield! As luck would have it, something rather wonderful popped up and I took the opportunity with glee. WITH GLEE, PEOPLE!

I'm now helping facilitate the Sydney Modern Quilt Guild. YAY!

I've kept it quiet, mostly because I didn't start the group, but I've wanted to help for ages. Of course, I've never run a guild anything. (My writing group is hilariously informal, and we're all such good mates that all it took was a year of bookings and we were off and running. Really.) So it's a learning curve for me, but I'm so happy to be on board! Thank you Claire and Suzanne for giving me a chance to exercise my organization skills! :)

If you're Sydney-based or nearby and you're interested, head on over to the blog for details about the meetings and sit-and-sews! I'm super excited to be able to help out and get the ball rolling, and once we're all there, it'll be great to get to know everyone!

Hope to see you soon!

WiP Wednesday!

Fun times. I actually get to post a WiP Wednesday this week! YAY!!

I miss that little button when it isn't on my blog!

It has been a crazy few weeks since my birthday. First of all, I feel like I haven't stopped! We got sick (all three of us, starting with Piper) and have just recovered enough to actually do things like work and go to baby yoga and drink coffee IN the cafe, as opposed to running in and getting takeaways. I did get some sewing done, but mostly, the first week was a lot of chicken soup and rocking the miserable baby. And she was so miserable. All she wanted was milky, cuddles, and more milky. Thank goodness we are still breastfeeding. There were days she would not eat solids at all, but I know she was getting enough from milk to get better.

But she's up and running now, and being absolutely brilliant. It was her first birthday on the weekend! I am so amazed at how big my baby is. No longer a baby, more like a "tobbler" now. Complete with wobbly, arms-up running for the door when Daddy gets home...or when Mama comes in from outside.

I copped a bit of flak for taking her shirt off to eat her birthday cupcake, but I confess I did it for the photo to send to my mom. She has one of her first baby (me!) enjoying a shirtless birthday cake and I knew she'd love to have one of my first baby getting icing everywhere too. Family traditions are important.

Piper loved her fairy cake and was not shy about getting rid of the whole thing in nanoseconds. Haha! SUGAR. DELICIOUS.

Piper loved her gifts (a few nice toys, a book, a puzzle, a sweet little friend doll, and a swing we have yet to install) and has been busy figuring all the outs and ins to play with MAXIMUM EFFECTIVENESS. Because she is our child, and she is nothing if not thorough!

In sewing news, I had a run of GREAT post. I'm sure the postman thinks I am a crazy old lady. First I got some color cards (Bella Solids & Michael Miller Couture Cottons):

Then some MORE color cards (Art Gallery Pure and Oval Elements):

The new range of Kona solids in a fat quarter set:

And some paper pieces to start my EPP project. (Whatever it will be. I'm unsure. But now I can plan it better.)

There is more coming - another round from Paper Pieces (seriously, how good is that site? And their international shipping is so reasonable!!) and some Pellon from Etsy to make my Nesting Bowls. I hope that the Pellon gets here soon. I need it by like, next Monday. (Eep!)

But, let's get on with the PROJECTS!!

Started:

I'm working with my lovely mate the Mad Quilter to create two patterns/tutorials based on this Madame Parfait block. I drafted the block on isometric graph paper and cut out a stack of diamonds. It's still in the embryo phase, let's just put it that way.

Ongoing:

I've been doing Outfoxed hexies, so taking my handwork wherever I have a chance to sit and sew, and it's been chugging along. I have a lot of thoughts for what I'm going to do with this when I'm done with the hexagons, but for now, it's still in the basting phase. Which I love. I'm not gonna lie: hand-sewing is super satisfying to me. I'm such a go-go-go person that stopping to sit and sew is really rewarding. I love the enforced calm. I love having to pay attention. And I love making something beautiful. Plus, they're tiny enough I can keep them out of my very grabby baby's hands (unlike, say, a quilt if I were hand-quilting!).

Stalled:

• Swoon quilt (need to finish cutting the blocks and start assembling them)
• Os quilt (though I did sew about ten more Os this week)
• Orange Soda quilt (I have one lone block up on the design wall)
• Triangles quilt (I think my colors are wrong)
• Handwork (curved hexies)
• 1930s repro tumbler blocks (just sitting in a bag. I just need to sew them together.)
• Linen picnic rug quilting
• Sunset Swimmers quilting
• Downtown Dots quilting

BUT! I HAVE TWO FINISHES!!

The Garden Fence quilt is finally, painfully done. PHEW.

I backed it with an older print I got from Spotlight that was a lot of fun to match, and I cut the borders down quite a bit to match the feel of the garden fence block. I used a grey stripe (Sarah Fielke's From Little Things line) to bind it. It is quilted with a loose stipple all over to give it structure but not stiffness. I like it a lot now that it's done.

And I finished a commission: Pond Stars.

This is going to a baby boy, and I am excited to see it in its new home, all wrapped up keeping a bub snug. I also stippled this one, in a denser pattern, so that it can be dragged around and used for hammocks and made into a play rug and all the other things that baby boys do with treasured objects. :)

And finally, I made some (more) changes to my sewing room. I just wasn't happy with my shelves being against the eastern wall, and my desk facing south. Since my desk has solid legs, I couldn't really get into four of the shelves, and I was constantly bumping into things. Introducing the SEWING NOOK!

Oh I like it SO much. I can swivel completely in the chair and still see ALL my fabric, which, by the way, I REORGANIZED.

And everything is nailed to the wall just perfectly. All my rulers are easily grabbable but still out of baby reach. And my little drawer unit can be accessed too!

Mostly because we bought three baby gates on Sunday, but that's another story. :)

So yes: sick, but better, and now productive finally!! So if I've been ignoring my email or fellow bloggers it's literally because I was full of snot. Not meanness, just mucus! EW. So glad to be on the mend!

It's time to get dinner sorted - I think corn fritters, bacon, and avocado. That sounds yummy. I guess technically it's breakfast, but in the immortal words of Leslie Knope and Ron Swanson, why would anybody eat anything other than breakfast food? Srsly.

What are your WiPs this week? Be sure to link up to Lee and check out what everyone else is doing!!

See you soon!

xx Penny

Older for sure, wiser perhaps? :)

When I was in sixth grade, our reading teacher made us list what ages we'd like to be and why. I wrote down 17 22, and 27. Seventeen was a great age because I could go off and do whatever I liked as long as my mom knew where I was, and I was home by curfew. (I think it was 10pm? I was pretty tame. I pretty much just watched movies with my then-boyfriend or best friends or hung out at Tobby's. I was NOT the kind of teenager you worry about.) Twenty-two was also great: it was my first birthday in Australia, I'd finally moved over here to be with the guy of my dreams, I was in uni making awesome friends, and I bought a sewing machine. Then came twenty-seven.

We welcomed our beautiful daughter to the world.

And watched her grow.

We bought a sweet little house, all of our own.

I was gifted an even better sewing machine.

I got to see my Mama for the first time in four years and my best friend for the first time since my wedding.

And, I learned SO MUCH THIS YEAR. And we're really focused on being autodidactic, so learning is a big deal around here. You know what I can do now? I can patch holes in a ceiling. I know the difference between gyprock and villaboard. I can look at a screw and tell you if it'll work for what I'm doing. I can paint without using masking tape. I have an entire house I caulked more or less myself! I made a design wall, created six shelves and hung them myself, can safely and confidently operate a power tool (I love you, little Bosch drill.) I can go to Bunnings and get what I need without feeling like a Dumb Girl and I can even -- GASP -- project manage and keep a renovation to budget.

It wasn't all renovation, though. I learned two new ways to bind a quilt. I learned FMQ, triangle piecing, how to press properly. I learned English paper piecing, and I took a class to build my basic sewing skills. (Another one forthcoming. Watch this space!) I bought many quilting books and began learning how to follow patterns which, as a former dressmaker, I should be good at but I'm just...not. Er. :)

Since I had a birthday on the weekend (hi, 28, it's very nice to meet you), it is a new year, and time for some new goals.

This year I want to grow a ton of food for my family. Despite being a work-at-home mother, I feel like I don't contribute to our income, and that bugs me! Having a garden will reduce our grocery costs, and consequently, eating better and teaching my daughter where food really comes from will ease my conscience about not working. (And, actually, nothing makes me feel worse than the thought of going back to work at a job. Honestly. I decided to go back for three hours a week and I cried all day and then quit for real. I'm needed here.)

This year I want to continue my quilting education. I have plans to take a machine-quilting class to grow my skills and then afterwards, I'm aiming to do an appliqué class. It's not my usual cup of tea but it's a challenge and I saw some beautiful and inspirational appliqué quilts at the Craft Fair so I'm ready to learn new things. After that? Paper-piecing. I can do English Paper Piecing but I get really stuck on foundation piecing, and I think I need a class where I can ask the instructor lots of questions to understand the process! :)

This year I want to tackle fitness. Not in a "I want to be a size zero" way, but in a general busy & active as a family way. Because so much of what I love to do is sedentary (writing, quilting, reading) I have to push myself to get out there and work out. The goal is to drive less, walk more, and spend an hour a day outside in fine weather. I can easily achieve that in the garden, and I am hoping when it fines up a bit I can start running in the evenings. I'm taking the approach that my body is awesome and I should treat it really well.

This year I want to commit to keeping my Etsy store stocked, refreshed, and promoted. I have a ton of beautiful things to sell and I love making them: there's no reason, other than my own busy-ness, not to be on top of that. It all changes now! It will become more of a priority, especially since the idea is that my store should fund more projects!

This year I want to grow in Christ and grow with our church family. This is a hard one for me. I am not good at talking about my faith, primarily because it feels like I'm undressing in front of a crowd, but we have joined a church we like. We are both introverts, which makes it hard to meet new people, but it isn't just the two of us: we have Piper to think about now. Faith is important to us, but because it is so deeply personal it makes it hard to connect. I can't remember my mother talking to me about God or Jesus very much, except one time when she told me if the Rapture happened, would I rather be folding clothes like a good girl or misbehaving? Church wasn't something I did with my family, and though they are back into it now, I missed out on experiencing a Christian family upbringing. I won't let that happen with my daughter. She will know her parents love Christ and act on that love every day.

I want to be hospitable, not merely tolerant. This is my ongoing goal in life! Instead of just tolerating people who are different, I want to seek to truly understand them, and if I can't, then to act with compassion. I might gripe and grumble but I want everyone I speak to to feel like they are important, valued, and that they have my attention. Again, as an introvert, I struggle with this. Sometimes it takes all I have just to hold a conversation! But people are important. And being kind is a wonderful thing.

I want to seek publishing for my manuscript. It is time. Draft #1 is done, I'm halfway through the edits, and I'm feeling very much like this is NOW OR NEVER. I believe in my work, I love to write, and it would be awesome if I could make that my full-time job!

That is a pretty big list! I hope I can get even half of that achieved, haha! It seems like a lot but I have 365 days to try. (Well, 362 days.) And if I don't make it, I will change and grow and try my hardest to do it next year! That's be beauty of birthdays: they come around every year! :)

Today my goals are more immediate and simple: to get the outside windows painted (or even just primed!) before it rains again on Thursday. I have a sitter lined up for Miss Piper and my lovely father-in-law is bringing a ladder today. Let the year of good hard work begin! :)

Catching up.

Well, it is a rainy, awful Thursday, and I am just plain exhausted. Yesterday was a big day: Piper and I drove all over Sydney, plus Spiders' Group in the evening, so I felt like I started at 8 and never really stopped. On top of that Piper was still in cloth last night when she went to sleep, so she woke up at 3am sopping wet (luckily she was sleeping on a blanket in our bed!) and once she was changed she had no interest in going back to sleep. I took the bullet on that one and let Mr Poppleton sleep but now she is napping and I am glaring resentfully. Except, aw, she's pretty cute!

I didn't do WiP Wednesday this week, because I had way too much going on to sit at my computer for more than five minutes, but I did get a few things worked on! The week I finished my manuscript I did maybe 25,000-30,000 words, which is a LOT of time on the computer, even for a prolific gal like me. I had noticed my right eye was fuzzy, scratchy, and really tender. I finally went to the optometrist this morning and surprise, surprise, I need new glasses. So that's a relief, that I don't have like some eye-hugging Alien-esque brain parasite or a death tumor or anything. I've been ordered to rest my eyes more, write more sensibly, and always use nice, bright lights. WORD. I love my optometrist, though. She didn't even mind when my mischievous baby tried to turn off the projector. So I've chosen frames and lenses and will go tomorrow to finalize it. I can't wait, because man, I am just ready to be able to SEE again!

Anyway, having taken myself off heavy-duty writing time even before this appointment, I still had post-coffee-run-baby-in-the-car-nap. Now, sitting in the car reading is fine, but I have just ended up putting my book down and staring at the garden. It's in dire need of some love and affection! I know that the previous owner, Jean, really loved the garden but she was way too old to care for it in the last ten or fifteen years of her life in this house. As a result the garden went nuts. Bulbed plants are way too dense. There are jonquils EVERYWHERE. I have a LAWN of jonquils.

(But they smell beautiful. And look so pretty on my windowsill.)

There are two crepe myrtles that looked like crazy trees. (I pruned them. One of them is going to be cut down though.) Please don't even mention the word "privet" to me. I will probably cry. There are a million tiny cactuses. (What is with succulents? I don't get it.) I also have some geraniums which smell FANTASTIC so I'll transplant those to pots. And once the jonquils are done, I'll dig them up and put them somewhere nice. Against the fence maybe? Just not EVERYWHERE.

And the previous owner left lots of pots in the garden. I'm donating or giving away all the plastic pots, but anything terracotta or ceramic I'm keeping. It was like a treasure hunt, digging all those gorgeous pots out of the overgrown beds. Check these out!

And these little guys! I love that little turtle. He's going to have a back full of yummy herbs!

The thing is, I'm not a "pretty" gardener. I am removing a dozen shrubs and (hopefully) a tree. I'm taking out a huge azalea bush, a cotoneaster, about thirty privet trees, and a big mystery bush along the fence. I am leaving the beautiful jacaranda that is being choked out by the thicket of cruddy shrubs and vines, and of course all the camelias. (They'll get a good prune though.) We are planting privacy hedges (probably lillypilly as it is native, quick-growing, and easy to maintain), but as for pretty plants? I'll keep the agapanthas and grow some ranunculas. But the thing I've always wanted a garden for is food.

I've chosen three spots to do my kitchen gardening and I have my eye on a fourth spot, too. I think a few different places is a good idea, especially since I bought something like 30 seed packets from Green Harvest the other week.

Mm, dreamy. Seed catalogues to me are super addictive...and very costly haha!

So now I'm clearing out the spaces for my kitchen garden, so we can get to the azalea and whatever else is back there and cut it back, clear it out, and get it ready. I have cow manure. I have seed-raising mix. I have a sunny propogation nook. I've been busy!

This was my first project, the side yard. I went scorched earth, baby! Technically our property ends where the concrete does, but the little side-yard there was choked with bromeliads, native violets, and scrubby stuff that wasn't really doing well in such a small space. I spoke to our neighbor Kevin about it, as it's actually his land, and he said "go for your life!" He's pretty accomodating about stuff like that, and as it's on the blank wall of his garage, in a 1/2m wide strip he can't get to without coming through our gate, I think he's just glad I'm not making HIM weed it. :)

I am sorry for the blurry phone picture.

This is the kitchen garden nook. ALL OF THAT IS GOING. These are my swishy sewist's hands, crying at the thought of what all that pruning, sawing, and pulling out is going to do to my poor little paws. I need my renovation callouses back!  There I've only done about 8%.

Obviously it will need to be cleared to get enough sunshine to be worth putting plants in. It'll get about 6 hours of direct sunlight a day which will be perfect for a kitchen garden in Sydney summer. I've seen plants grow in a lot worse conditions. So fingers crossed.

Here is my overall garden plan. It's a year-long project, including the raised beds, a retaining wall along the fenceline, building a compost and green-bin enclosure, and putting in hedges. Obviously my first priority is to get my grocery bill down by growing food! :)

Sigh. So much to do. But I am looking forward to it! Now if only the sunny warm weather would come back. Yesterday was PERFECT...and of course we were in the car all day!! Drat. Whereas today I'm home and it's cloudy and threatening rain.

Lest you think I've been all work and no play, I began cutting into my Across the Pond last week. It's a commission for a baby quilt for a friend's new-nephew-to-be. Here is a sneak peek of the laid-out stars. Aren't they cool?

I got this idea from Cille, with a little nudge from my Marti Michell 60º triangle ruler. I LOVE THAT THING.

Well, the baby has woken from her naptime and I can TELL she needs to be changed! After that we'll head up to Kmart so I can buy myself some "rubber boots" (as my mom calls them), aka "wellies"! I am tired of having with scrub my poor pathetic Converse every weekend. Gardening calls for cheap waterproof equipment!

Cheers, everyone, and enjoy your Thursday and Friday!

xx Penny

I finished my manuscript!

The final words of the first draft are done. I finished my manuscript.

Oh man. I feel a little crazy. I'm so proud.

94,218 words. They are all mine and they are all out. It has only been two and a half years to get to this point!

Okay I don't care if it's one in the morning. I'm going to wake Mr Poppleton up and tell him. :)

WiP Wednesday, the "finally did something" edition!

Oh hai! What day is it? WiP WEDNESDAY, HOMESLICES. That's what day it is!

Tell me you're all going to click that button and check out WiP Wednesday. It's so pretty. It's so buttony. DO EET.

So, let's gloat over those finishes first.

This week I have actually, um, kind of been on fire. In a good way! I got really sick of looking at my design wall covered in orphan blocks, so I decided to do something about them. While watching Red (Bruce Willis! Morgan Freeman! Helen Mirren! Spy and espionage and humor!) I started with my Elwood Rose blocks (made from the templates I purchased here), appliquéd a center circle using my Perfect Circles templates, and added a border. Throw in a little Insul-bright and leftover batting, a pretty back, and voila! Potholders!

Why stop there? I had a couple of blocks leftover from my Sunset Swimmers quilt which called out for doing something with...why not more potholders? Wham, bam, thank you ma'am:

I especially like the straight-line quilting on the back, with this lovely tile fabric I couldn't resist picking up in every colorway. The binding is the tumbling blocks pattern in Sanctuary.

Finally, I wanted to do a little skill-building, so I decided to dedicate these little tiny whirligigs to some free-motion quilting. Because they are so tiny, I decided to do itty bitty quilting to go along with.

This one is my favorite.

But I like this one too.

These were test blocks from my Nicey Jane challenge with Pinky, and I'm glad they are no longer languishing in a basket somewhere. Now they are trivets and can be used and adored every day!

My final finish (actually, my first finish) is the mug rug for underneath my dish drainer. My mom always used a plastic or rubber tray to catch the water; all of the places I've lived in until now have had stainless steel sinks with a radiating drainer. When we remodeled the kitchen here I opted for a ceramic sink and the cutouts of the Caeserstone didn't work with the sink we chose, so we needed SOMETHING under the drainer. I was tired of using tea-towels, and then I found this little bag of half-square triangles in my stash. They were already sewn, cut, and pressed to perfection. A few wiggles on the design wall and I had a pattern. I sewed it up in an evening and bound it with a remnant of binding from two other quilts. I love it and it makes my whole kitchen much more cheerful!

So those were my finishes for the week, and I'm decidedly proud that for the first time in AGES, I got something done!

I do have some stagnated WiP though...

• Swoon quilt (need to finish cutting the blocks and start assembling them)
• Os quilt
• Triangles quilt (new as of last week, but I got sick of it quite quickly)
• Handwork (curved hexies)
• 1930s repro tumbler blocks

Crying. Worst. Sob sob sob!

I have to bat, back and bind a few quilts, too...

• Sunset Swimmers (Mendocino mermaids)
• Garden Fence
• Kokka/Linen

I am actually really looking forward to getting my sewing machine into the dining room, slipping the Garden Fence quilt into my Bernina, and whacking a stipple on it. It's a wedding gift and it's embarrassingly overdue.

This week's new project was an accidental bonus! Aneela Hoey did a destash on Instagram (guys, seriously, get on Instagram and follow your favorite bloggers/designers immediately) and Pinky and I both had our eyeballs on the bundle with Heather Ross fishes (Pinky's fave) and Mendocino seahorses (me me me!) Pinky snatched it up as soon as it went on sale and we split the swag! Now we have to figure out what to do with it. This is my half.

I pulled some similar fabrics from my stash. Lots of light blue and orange.

I needed a solid that wasn't too "bossy" but that also wasn't white, snow, or charcoal...then I remembered I'd bought something like three meters of Kona Stone at Hobbysew four or so months ago.

I knew I wanted to do a block similar to the Rectangular Squared block from Film in the Fridge but I was NOT going to make them super tiny. (Well, those blocks FELT tiny, anyway. So I experimented and came up with a plan...

...and then put together a block!

Yep. I like this. It's 12" unfinished and the Kona Stone is the perfect color. It'll give those oranges and aquas a neutral enough background from which they can POP, and it'll let my bigger pieces of Aneela's scraps shine. I'm very excited about the quilt and I hope I can get the top done this week before Scquilters this weekend! (Oh how ambitious. I can hear you other mothers laughing now. Yes, I have a child who is almost walking and definitely teething. I will do my best to get some sewing in! Laugh away!) :)

Finally, on a non-sewing note, I just have to talk about writing for a minute. I'm almost done with this manuscript. It's at 85,795 words (my goal was 90,000) and the story is wrapping up in a pleasing way. I am scared of finishing. As soon as the final two words are typed ("the end", obvi!), the longest-running project of my life will be over. I've been plugging away on this story since March 2010. I think I'll be done by the end of this week. I honestly don't know what I'm going to do. In some ways, this project is one of the most important things I've ever done. I will try and write a proper blog post later this week for those who are interested! Talking about writing is one of my favorite things, but might not be yours – so I'll be sure to label the post really clearly. :)

Phew! So that's a big week!

So, what have you guys been up to this week? What finishes and WiPs are in your quilty arsenal? Make sure to head over to Lee's and link up, and check out the other beautiful WiPs for inspiration. I'll see you there!

Cheers,

Penny xx

Sunday, planning.

It has been a very quiet week, blogging-wise, and I apologize, but my life has actually been very quiet as well! I have been trying (and not quite succeeding) at getting a few projects completed, but after last week (which was very full on) we all took a step back and just inhaled...exhaled..collapsed in a heap!

That isn't to say I did nothing all week. On the contrary. I got a shedload of grocery shopping done. I found time to write another 20,000 words. (What! CRAZY.) I cooked almost every night this week, no ordering in, which has been a bad habit left over from a) the baby being born and b) living on take-out during the renovation and our 18 hour working days. I even found time to scootch over to The Fabric Cave and Needlecraft Emporium and buy myself some vintage children's clothing patterns. (PS. I am not even kidding, but I got 20 patterns and four spools of thread for less than $15. If you don't know about Needlecraft Emporium/Fabric Cave and you live in Sydney, take heed, and get yourself down there. Good thrifting, good cause, and I always leave feeling chuffed!)

I did not have time to work on any of my projects that currently need working on. Instead I started a new one. (Nerrrr.) I began idly playing around with my 60º triangle ruler and some fabric I loved. I added a few more, and then a few more, until I had a stack I liked. Then bang, out came the rotary cutter. Whizz, slice, and voila: a whole new project to add to my list.

I have been organising and focusing a lot on my stash this past year, as you guys know, and I was surprised to see that I have mostly blue and green fabric. I was convinced I had no green, no orange, and mostly pink, but what I didn't have any of and hadn't even thought about was red.

I asked Mr Poppleton for some "me time" this weekend, as I'm feeling quite overwhelmed, and he happily pushed me out the door in the direction of Craft Depot, so I cruised the aisles feeling very loved. I found some reds I adored and brought them back to be part of my stash!

I make it a point to only buy fabric I REALLY love, and I REALLY love all of those scarlets!

Well, Miss Piper is not letting me finish this so I will conclude here...but stay tuned for a hopeful little plan of the week!

Cheers, Penny xx