Baby round-up

Most of my quilts find homes eventually. Some of them start with a destination in mind, but mostly they are just randomly assigned to pregnant tummies or even just to couples of child bearing age. So I thought I would do a wrap-up of babies. Perhaps a swaddling ... this one ended up with Lily.

 

This one with Gus.

And one for Gus's big sister Lucy, so she wouldn't miss out.

Dammit, what did they call this little girl in the end? Ada? Ava? Alice?

Whoever it was, big sister Beth got this one.

The dresden plates ended up with Mackenzie.

And the boy quilt for her big brother Cooper.

And this one for wee April.

Last but not least, I gave the Everyday Rainbow as a memento to the Amiable Travelling Companion, who has left paid employment to travel the world. I assume this whopper is in storage somewhere, it weighs about forty kilos.

A finish

I seem to be in a finishing mood - the postage stamp is bordered up and being hand-quilted*, and I went on to batt and quilt this scrap number without even pausing to start fifteen more projects! It's a miracle!! *It is lying around on the sofa getting in everyone's way and accumulating cat hair. Occasionally a safety pin pops open and someone sits on it.

Nothing very fancy going on with this one, straight line quilting and a selection of random uglies for the back. For reasons really only I can fathom, I called this quilt "Helen Clark" after the former Prime Minister of New Zealand (and current head of the UNDP).

One of the best things about finishing a scrap quilt was getting to use my ball of random binding ends. The ball has been getting bigger and bigger for quite a while now, so it was good to do some unrolling. I didn't exactly get to the end though.

Frogstomp

This quilt just looked like frogs to me - that terribly Kermit-like green. So I've called it Frogstomp in honour (?) of the classic Australian 1994 album by Silverchair ... some of the stupidest lyrics in the history of music - google "Tomorrow" if you dare - but otherwise good headbanging stuff.  That was back when I used to care about popular music - I mostly listen to Artsound FM now, which is a local radio station run by volunteers and has a slightly barking mad quality. There's one guy who does the morning show who has a completely impenetrable rumble of a voice - there is no way to tell what he's saying, which gives the music, when it comes, the delight of surprise.

I thought I would get arty with the quilt photography today. Not so successful - I thought the flowering rosemary would be a nice combination of colours but all the bushes were packed full of bees. I am not going to linger around bushes full of bees, tweaking my arty quilt shots.

I enjoyed making this little quilt - the piecing went together easily, the balance seems right and hand quilting it was fun. One last photo of the cat waddling over to ask me why on earth I was hanging my quilt in the tree. 

Fresh as a daisy

Yesterday was a perfect spring day here in the nation's capital. Still, clear, sunny, warm but not hot and smelling like blossom.

I left the car in at work on Friday night (yes, there may have been wine involved) so Saturday morning I "ran" in to fetch it. Ran is in inverted commas because I think there was much more walking than running. Put it this way - the distance is about 7.5 km and it took me an hour twenty minutes. So that means I averaged under 6 km/hr which is not even really a brisk walking pace. But questions of speed aside it was absolutely glorious.

My route takes me through the bush over the hill, then past the embassies and fancy houses with big hedges, then around Parliament House. Which is always very green and pretty.

Then past the National Library on one side.

With the National Museum on the other side.

And over the lake - with lots and lots of other happy Canberrans and tourists enjoying the sunshine and the flowers. There is a price to pay for all this fresh air and jollity - this morning my butt muscles hurt so much I had to sort of roll out of bed and walk sideways down the stairs going "ow ow ow".

The postage stamp

And here it is!! In all its square glory. I don't really think I can call it a postage stamp though, because they are meant to have tiny little squares (like, well, like postage stamps really). These finish at two inches, which isn't tiny.

It looks so simple and straightforward, and it was such a pain to put together in reality. I don't think there is an easy way to do it (or it would be out on the internet I'm sure) so I'm quite pleased with my self-devised 25-patch method. I can't decide though, to border or not to border? On the one hand, there's something nice and old-fashioned about no border, just finishing with the squares. On the other hand, they will be a grade-a pain in the arse to sew the binding onto, and there's every chance it'll go wobbly. Mmm, I will ponder. Maybe I'll just try border fabrics and see if any of them speak to me...

Here is a photo of the finished science project at the science fair. Not quite as polished as some - he outsourced the heading to his younger brother. I was going to object but then thought, well, if he can get his brother to do his homework, good luck to him. Not sure why he has his tongue hanging out of his mouth.

Rough winds shaking darling buds

Spring is here! The daffs are up, the blossom trees are in full bloom, there's some actual warmth in the sun and it's blowing an absolute gale ... blossom petals and wattle pollen everywhere. All the hay fever sufferers are going bonkers (not me luckily) and everyone else is frantically down the garden centre with the annual burst of enthusiasm. I did some sweeping and poisoning last weekend (my two favourite things! No, not really, I actually like using the electric hedge trimmers on unsuspecting shrubs best) but it's unpleasantly windy out there at the moment. Not so great for gardening, although awesome for getting the washing dry.

Still working unusually hard, although it shouldn't be for too much longer. I felt I did my view a disservice with the picture the other week - actually if I look out the window I get this view. It looks drab and wintry, but in reality it's spectacular - those hills are a long way away and it's where our weather comes from normally. So I can see the squalls and rain showers (snow showers yesterday!) coming towards us. It's always something different. And maybe if I spent less time staring out the window and more time doing work, I would be a little more on top of things. Good point.

Number one son was helping me sort and fold the socks from out of the dryer last night. He thought it would be a good idea to line them up on the cat. Surprisingly, the cat stayed put, although she doesn't look super thrilled. I think the socks were still toasty warm. But look at what the child is wearing - it was less than 4 degrees outside, I had on trackpants, thermals and a fleecy. These Canberra boys seem to grow up tough.

LIke a blue-arsed fly

Is that an Australian expression for being busy, or in universal use? It strikes me as being Australian. Busy Australians can also be flat out like a lizard drinking. Whatever you call it, it's me at the moment - working every day interferes with your life no end! I miss my down time.

A windy weekend did give us a chance to fly a kite - here it is with a rainbow ... very pretty even though it meant that the rain squalls weren't far behind.