busy month.

I can hardly believe how quickly January has gone by.

For example, this one started school.

I've heard surprise from a few people - as the Tiny Blonde One is only 4 in July it seems like "school" is the wrong word. It's pre-primary at a nearby Montessori school, and she goes 5 days a week, all morning. So this is it, for us. There's no "proper school" starting moment beyond this one. Her first day she wore a handmade dress and cried on the way home from school. She didn't want it to end. I am so glad this is where she's going! It is wonderful how much she loves it!

Meanwhile, the Little Fellow is a bit bereft at the loss of his only playmate. He's extra cuddly these days. Not that I'm complaining, but I utter the phrase "please give Mama some personal space please!" an awful lot. Daddy loves cuddles though!

And for some crazy reason (teaching!) I've committed to teaching a class on the Aviatrix Medallion. I needed a class sample, of course...so I started another one. (Heaven help me!) I'm up to Border 3.

School gives us a good routine, and I do my shopping on the same day each week...it feels like things are levelling out. I'm involving the Tiny Blonde One in more of the food preparation at home. She helped me stir the salt into the yoghurt and spoon it into the strainer to make labneh.

And she is a pro at making "chocolate cakes". She gets so excited to help stir! Maybe because I let her lick the spoon after. :)

I'm also keeping up with my book pledge this year. You can check out my Goodreads here. This is the series that has caught me the most. I kind of knew it would. Ugh, I just love it so much. Ronan is my bby.

I am still stitching away on my original Aviatrix Medallion. We have been watching The 100. I am up to episode 5 of season 2, and I love it. It reminds me of The Vampire Diaries but less about romance, more about the uncovering of the plot twists and the things people will do to survive.

I get a lot of quilting done while I'm watching TV!

And the back of this quilt is looking wonderful too. I love how soft this is.

Finally, I have been working on a La Passacaglia quilt. This is a lot of fun. I got my copy of the book from Busyfingers Patchwork and they sell starter packs as well (note: you'll need extra triangles!).

I think that's about it for January and early February!

work in progress

These are two blocks of a quilt I am working on for my sister. I've decided to title this one "a walk in the woods". My sister is a very down-to-earth woman. She was a total grub as a kid; she was outside until her hands and lips were blue in winter and until her tan lines were baked into her skin in summer. When I think of her, I think of all the forts we built and games we played and the ear-to-ear grin she got when we get our hands dirty. She is now an incredible artist now and it is hard to believe she is grown up.

The trees are self-explanatory; they are a gorgeous organic fabric from Cloud 9. The dragonfly fabric is Moda, as are the stained glass blocks in brown and turquoise. The dragonflies were the last fabric I chose. They really tied the quilt together. (Haha...just like the Dude's rug and his living room!) The orange made me think of the sun sinking through the trees and the way the light looks different in those late-summer forest fire hazes. I used white homespun as my base for the snowball block. My plan is to do a 10x10 quilt but it might get shortened to 8X10 (each block weighs in at 10" so it's quite large). I like a quilt that you can cover your head up with but still have toasty feet, but for my first large quilt it might be a tad ambitious. I haven't decided on hand-quilting yet but I'm leaning toward stitching leaves and tiny flowers.

It is nice to be quilting again, and it is doubly nice that Mr Poppleton took care of the baby all weekend so I could use my rotary cutter and my sewing machine with relative ease! We'll see how the week will go: I would be very happy indeed to get the majority of this quilt top blocked by this time next Sunday! I have another sister's quilt to make...so I have to light a fire under my tail feathers. Time to get busy!