Same old, same old....

Another week has just disappeared! Plenty to catch up on when you are away for 5 days, but it was well worth it. Our favourite, Garth Tander, won. He drives for (GM) Holden.

On the way home we saw his car carrier setup, thought there may be some petrolhead out there who'd appreciate seeing that!

Not sure if quilting and car racing are generally 2 hobbies that go together, but why not!

Came home to photographing the school athletic sports, getting the ball rolling for this year's school fete, getting back to the gym, buying a new bull and 13 stud angus heifers....amongst the normal!

Today I took family photos for a Church family at their farm...an actual paid job! I am very happy with them. Then spent the afternoon cooking Apple strudel and sausage rolls-my girl baked muffins

... I felt like my mother!- the only thing lacking was Dolly Parton on the radiogram! Instead I was watching Transformers on the big screen, my Mum wouldn't have imagined anything like that 30 years ago!

I bought a few things last week at the closing sale, the photo of the main bulk I accidentally scrubbed this morning making more room on my card...and by now everything is dispersed to where it belongs...pretty much!

I did have these photos of a couple of the panels I grabbed.

Hope everyone is great, I have lots of emails to reply to and posts to read...if only the world would stop for a day of two just to allow me to catch up! It reminds me of one of my favourite Helen Kelley quilting stories that I originally read in a a magazine and is in a selection of her work i have in book form as well... about the night she was given the gift of time...her clock stopped and she kept working most of the night!! It felt like such a gift...that's the kind of gift I need!

A holiday and a hex

Hi from sunny Adelaide in South Australia! DH and I are on holiday...at V8 supercar racing! At least there is one other woman with our group this year, last year I was the lone ranger! She and I headed into the city for 7 hours shopping yesterday, well and truly made up for me missing the gym!

I am here for the car racing as well, but I love the proper racing, I don't need to trawl the pits and watch all the lead up races. I will glide into my grandstand seat, joyously shaded from the rapidly increasing temperature this year, just in time for the start. I may even take some pics if I can get more batteries for the camera this morning..was going to have a few hexagon photos but it's gone flat just after this dud! I made hexagon's all the way over here with a vision to making my oldest friend a special something for her 40th. This isn't the layout I am going with, I am thinking i will go with Libby's layout. She is actually lucky enough to have a husband who bastes!

I am about to head off to the stitch in Time quilt shop, used to be in Naracoorte and do a lot of field days, their email says they're not going to have a shop front anymore and are having a closing sale...would be criminal of me not to support them while I am in the area!LOL! Better go, would never be able to explain it if I came 600 kms and missed the race!

So, did it get presented on time.. and on budget?

The "on budget', is of course a joke!! This is my lowest budget quilt ever...unless you count what 12 years of my girl's clothes cost me!! We could call it my Hurt Locker quilt..rather than my Avatar!~The foundation pieces are an op shop pre quilted cotton bedspread...cost $2! And the backing is some left over bright pj flannel I had in the stash.

But, yes, it was presented on time, here she is tucked up on the couch

after having it presented....

And here is a big picture for you...

She just loves it, what she doesn't recognise she loves hearing the stories about...about her mother's learn to sew process with her as the guinea pig. There are smocked pieces of baby clothes, the top of corduroy overalls, satiny nighties, stretchy pjs and the skivvy she is wearing in the first photos of her baby brother at home. Because I went so gung ho at it I have 9 left over blocks...and they're 13 inch. I have some strips left as well, so i am thinking I may just make a few more and the birthday girl's mother will have a little memory quilt to keep as well!!

All the leftovers are being put to use( I feel like I am going for recycle queen of the year award!) The leftover strips from trimming the blocks to size, though only a maximum 2 inches, looked cute so i sewed them into braid type strips for baby Born. Baby Born has a lot of this fabric in her outfits as i used to make them both dresses to match-so it was only reasonable that she get the keepsake as well!

And what was the picture from the last post? All of the leftover fabric scraps went straight into this old tablecloth I sewed up and are now being very happily slept on as Rosie and Archie's new dog bed...all those clothes...all those happy endings...I feel like I should be chasing Laura and Carrie Ingalls down the hill!

Happy Birthday to a great kid it was a pleasure to spend 26 hours sewing time on in the last 10 days! And hope your day was great, Tracey

One day til d-day..or is that b-day!

I must have held my mouth right and have internet connection tonight, yay!!
Well, that is one big stack of trimmed string blocks, looks a good sign? Well, watch this space tomorrow to see if the quilt is handed over to my girl on time! They have ended up huge blocks, over 13 inches trimmed, I allowed for a lot of trimming and didn't need to do too much. Next time I wouldn't make them so big when using children's clothes, if I hadn't had a number of bigger recent dresses and a bunny rug I never would have been able to manage to get enough of the long strips in the middle of the strings blocks.

Very little of my girl's clothes collection will go to waste, even the trimmed offcuts have a job. Can you guess?

Had quilters here on Friday night, Robyn is making a braid one from the jelly roll book Dawn sent me in Chooky's Christmas swap. Virtually no waste and the cutting came together really quickly, I love the look of them, of course it's now added to the list! I am going to have to live a long, long time to make this list....Tonight there's only one quilt on the list that matters..so I better run! Have a great day, Tracey

Daughter's Memory quilt..Step 2!

It looks much brighter than this, bright yellows, pinks and blues...her cat, Magnum, is helping!

We have an amazing amount of progress so far on the birthday quilt..especially considering the birthday girl has been home with a cold. As of 5 minutes ago there are 19 out of probably 42 blocks done, just needing to be trimmed to exact size later on. They're all around the 13 inches at this point. I showed my little boy and he was flat out telling me which fabric came from what dress, so if a 9 yo boy can pick them out, she should have fun!

It's late here, i am watching the olympics closing and the light is shocking for photos, but I still took you a few progress pics.

The strips are all cut, the next 23 foundation blocks are all cut and have 2 strips attached, so I am on the home stretch for getting it together sooner rather than later. When I get a chance to just sit and sew like this it makes me wonder why I don't spend more days this way...is there really much better fun than watching something bright and fun appear from a heap of now unwanted fabrics/clothes? I can't think of anything anyway!

Tune in soon for the next exciting installment..and have a great day!

Tracey