An equatorial quilt

I finished this one at quilt guild on Thursday night - sewed down the binding while watching a slide show of the truly amazing quilts from the Sydney quilt show. It does make me feel a bit downcast with my little bits of things ... but not really. I'm not making show quilts, I'm making MY quilts, and they may not be great but I did every single one from start to finish to my own taste. Which sounds good, but sometimes ends with a yellow, pink and red extravaganza like this one...

I pieced it when I came back from Kiribati and was feeling warm and exuberant. To me, this is a warm and exuberant quilt. That's the thing about medallions, the choice you make on each border is a pretty good indicator of how you are feeling at the time.

I feathered it to buggery. It seemed like a good opportunity to really practice and practice so I tried different types of feathers, and outlining them and doing filler bits. It took ages and some worked better than others but it was a good experiment (and really doesn't matter for a quilt that is going down the beach to be used as a groundsheet in the tent...) You can see the quilting a bit better from the back - backing is some cheap and ghastly duvet cover that was too hideous for the bed - but I'm not going to waste all that fabric.

School holidays ... again

Didn't it just seem like we had holidays? Do these children ever go to school? It is so cold and miserable that we are mostly restricted to indoor activities this week ... which is fine by them although I might go a bit stir crazy. Luckily the icing fad has continued! I took number two son to a party supplies shop one day and our eyes about bugged out of our heads at the stuff you can buy. We didn't even know what half of it was for ... but we bought it anyway. There's always google. So this cake was meant to be a "basket of fruits".



Yesterday we were a bit more adventurous and went off ice skating - there is one rink in Canberra, just down the road from us. It was packed full of kids of various sizes; none of which could actually ice skate. To be honest ice skating is not a skill that many Australians have, but everyone seems willing to give it a red hot go. Including me - I've got no idea but how hard can it be?  I took a couple of whopper stacks but managed to wobble around without holding on a couple of times. We all got a bit cold and wet and bruised after an hour or so, but it got us out of the house.



I took myself off for a walk one afternoon despite the weather and ran into this little guy - hasn't he got a sweet face? I think it might be a young one just out of the pouch, but really I have no idea. Could be an aged sort of particularly baby-faced kangaroo, who would know.

A slightly better walk

Yesterday's walk was slightly better in that we actually finished it, but I don't know if it was a great deal warmer - and there was certainly just as much whining as last week's abortive attempt. We went up to the northern edge of Canberra, which isn't an area we are very familiar with, and walked up and along a hill and through some bush. A little bit steep for me (which means it wasn't perfectly flat) but the boys didn't seem to mind. Off they go, up the hill, hoodies on. It was cold.

And we got a good view of Canberra spreading out to the south - not a view we see very often. It's not a gaspingly spectacular city, but this is probably a good angle. We like that the trees hide all the houses (it is so strange when cities have their buildings higher than their trees) but it does mean you can't really tell where the city stops and the countryside starts. This is looking down into Namadgi where the cold weather comes from ... and a big grey cloud is headed our way.

The second half of the walk was a bit more boring - along paddocks mostly. But there were lovely horses who were keen on some human interaction, which is a novelty for my townie boys. The walk was 9.2 km according to the book (nearly six miles) and we were all a bit tired and cranky by the end and ready for our lunch. Number two son then spent the afternoon at a birthday party at the ice skating rink! He had NO trouble falling asleep last night.

Feeling a bit traditional

I must be having a traditional moment - check out this dresden plate in old-fashioned colours. Not a lairy bright or yellow to be seen.



This is the start of a medallion quilt I'm happily going around and around, border after border. It is looking very old-fashioned; I like making medallion quilts because they are a real reflection of how you are feeling. Because you have to make design decisions all the time, the quilt becomes very influenced by each choice, and if you happen to be in a subdued, or exuberant, mood it really shows.

Not that I am feeling very traditional, as least as far as I can tell. I am feeling quite happy though, because my very large order arrived from Hancocks of Paducah during the week. They were having severely reduced shipping - so I cleared off the clearance table in my usual way. The Australian dollar is sitting nice and high at the moment (about 0.95 US) so it was a mega-bargain.



I tidied my shelves in preparation. I think I have about 130 yards (pre-Hancocks that is) which isn't at all excessive! Look at all that space, I might need to shop a bit more...

Not getting any warmer

Lordy me it was hard to get into the pool this morning ... well, not actually the last step of dropping into the pool because it is delightful and warm, but the whole thing of wriggling into swimwear and shivering down through the fog knowing you are going to have to take your fleecy off sometime in the immediate future ... it was hard. But I did it. This is the view from the garage up into the street.



The fog didn't really shift all day - just lifted a bit before dropping back down. After school we went for hot chocolate and churros, which was delicious and very warming. Next time I might try the hot chocolate with chilli in it - for that extra boost of heat.



Number two son wanted to make a special cake for a favourite teacher who is going to teach another class - and thanks to the Great British Bake Off he has very unrealistic ideas about decorating it! We reached a compromise which involved our first foray into fondant icing. I was a bit nervous but the boys had a ball - and not too much mess. We bought the smallest brick that you can but I think it's still got another four cakes in it! Maybe on the weekend.

Severe weather warning

They said a nasty cold front with rain and strong winds would come through today ... and by golly it has. The snowfields a couple of hundred kilometres to the south have had blizzards - which is good for them and the skiers I suppose - but it feels like winter here.  The front wasn't supposed to come through until lunchtime so we went out for a walk this morning - but close to home, just in case. We were going to do the "diplomatic canberra" walk around the embassies; and got about ten minutes in when it started  with horizontal freezing rain. Here are the boys are the start of the walk - looking pretty dubious about the weather. "I'm cold. It's going to rain. We should go home." "Nonsense! We'll have a lovely brisk walk. There's a patch of blue sky over there! Isn't this FUN?"



We will have to do the walk properly at some point, because it is quite interesting looking at the embassies. They were encouraged to build in their national architectural style - or some ghastly 70s pastiche thereof - so it's the Chinese embassy above. The Kiwis, unsurprisingly, did their own thing and put corrugated iron cows on the lawn.



So we did exactly eight minutes of the walk before sprinting back to the car, and now we are all tucked in for a cosy afternoon at home. The rain is drip dripping down, the heaters are all on and the cat wants to go outside, for thirty seconds, then inside, for two minutes, then outside, for thirty seconds ... I have been doing some sewing and the boys are on the Wii.

This photo was last night - a boy and his cat. I think the sofa scene could be re-enacted tonight ... that window is bare because the blind was broken and had to go into the shop and we haven't quite put it back up yet. Perhaps today.

Back home

I  came home from Indonesia on the weekend ... eventually ... a bit delayed but I got back to Canberra eventually and it is FREEZING! The temperature today and yesterday hasn't got above 8 degrees and there is a cold biting wind that drops the perceived temperature down below zero ... which is cold. I went for a swim this morning - they have toddler classes in it and it is always beautifully warm. I sort of dropped to the bottom and sat there for a while, thawing out.

I quilted this one this afternoon - it's a charity quilt and I didn't make it (or pin it! Yay!). I will do more of these once I figure out how to drop them off and pick them up. It's good practice and they go to people who appreciate them, apparently. Although when I did the quilting bee one lady saw me peering doubtfully at my own handwork and reassured me that lots of the quilt receipients are legally blind. Good-oh.