What next?

Back in the post about my pincushion I mentioned a Little Quilt that seems to find its way around the house doing interesting things. When I put my photos on my computer today this is what I found amongst them. My 14 year old son has taken up building card houses (and taking photos of them - I think there were 8 on the camera showing different stages). Obviously my quilt is a good way to stop the cards from slipping. What will I find it doing next, I wonder?

Ta Da !!!!!!!!!!

I have finally finished my UFO. It is a wall hanging with needleturn applique and hand quilting. I sould still add more quilting in the borders but it is okay for the moment.

I bought this as a kit probably about 12 years ago and did all of the work except for the binding back then.I can't believe that I haven't done anything about it until now.

An interesting thing is that I have always liked Santas, and moons, and so now 12 years later it is quite possible that I would have still chosen to make this pattern ( although maybe with different fabrics, there are so many more choices now.)

And I can see that I still need to work on my blog skills to try to get the photos in the places I want them. But for now my goal of finishing and posting is complete.

A musical interlude...

Last night we went out ( without children, like real grown ups) to see Ron Sexsmith, a Canadian artist we like. This is the second time we have seen him.
And next week we are going out again to see a great band ( they are friends but that doesn't change anything) called The Flood.
Tomorrow I am going to make a big effort and finish that UFO I mentioned - the bindings are on and all I need to do is stitch down two sides of binding and the hanging sleeve. That shouldn't be too hard as it is only a wall hanging. My goal is to finish,photograph and post. Fingers crossed...

Special time...

I decided that the last photo was all one colour (boring,lol) so I thought
I would post something with lots of colour. Here is Colly doing what he loves best - swinging. This is at a big park in the centre of the city. We were here waiting while his brother was at a drum lesson on Saturday morning. Just a nice time for the two of us.

A quilt in an afternoon...

This quilt ( top) is for a friend's upcoming 50th birthday. I have been putting it off for quite a while but with the birthday only about 6 weeks away I thought I had better get moving. The pattern is Just Can't Cut It by All Washed Up. I started yesterday after lunch and had all but the top and bottom borders done by last night. If I take out all the interruption time I would have finished it yesterday, even with the extra thinking I had to do because the main fabric was directional. What an easy pattern! I have another one planned in the same fabric ( Sentimental Journey by Robyn Pandolph) but in the pink rather than this one. That will be for a 70th birthday next May.
Unfortunately the flash made the quilt look quite orange. I'll take a more natural picture when I have quilted and bound it.

My Pincushion.
A number of people have mentioned their pincushions so I thought I would add a photograph of mine (the one I use anyway). It is made from two small log cabin blocks which were left overs from a small quilt I made about 12 years ago. You can see the quilt in the background - it has faded a bit but it has been used around the house as a table centre, a doll's quilt and all sorts of strange things that children adapt for their games. The quilt came from a Little Quilts Book and I think I also made about three Little Pillows - this one became a pincusion. I like to have a pincushion beside my sewing machine to put pins in as I sew. I sew on the dining room table at the moment so I need to make sure that everything can quickly be picked up and put away. One day I will have my own little corner ......

A Textile Afternoon ....
My daughter's class have been doing a large learning unit on fabrics and textiles. Today they had an art show - they had been knitting, sewing, and even tie dying. Here is Panda with her sewing - hmm - I hadn't realised that she could be so neat - her room certainly doesn't show that. Still I think it is great that they have been learning about the types of fabrics and what you can do with them.

Good news - I have found the binding strips so hopefully I will get my UFO done very soon.

Before I started this blog I had so many ideas. Now that it is actually in existence my mind has gone blank. So I though I would just put a photo of my youngest (Colly,4 years old). I was working on a 10-12 year old UFO which only needs binding but somehow the last two strips have gone missing. Hopefully I will find them today and complete the task.

And to show the quilt we try to upload a photo.

Once upon a time there was a person who was far better at starting things than finishing. Once she did actually finish a quilt ( because it was gift). It was a simple quilt ( Warm Wishes from Quiltmaker) but it has the distinction of being the only quilt that has been finished - right down to the label. Hopefully there will be some other finished quilts to join it soon.

First try....

So, what does a person do? After reading other people's blogs I guess the next thing is join in with the fun. Here I go....
This is just a first attempt - no pictures yet - that is for when things are set up to my satisfaction - but I need to see what happens.