Ta- Dah!!

Edit: I am linking this post with Quiltstory's Fabric Tuesday linky party.

I am thrilled to announce that Wonky Stars is finished! I am so pleased, other than the fact that I will now have to send it off to a new home and a huge part of me wants to keep it for my selfish self. But I won't. It had a purpose right from the very beginning and that purpose is in Finland. A new home awaits.

I utilised Helen as my assistant to hold up the quilt outside so I could get some photos. There was a height problem.

We stitched positions and Helen became the photographer and I became the assistant.

Here it is in more close up.

I have had prior discussions about why I like this quilt and the fact that I am pleased with what I have created so I am not going to repeat myself. I know that the person who will be getting this quilt loves it so it is going to a good home.  Here are a variety of shots of it -

The back.
Plain white, other than that one scrappy strip.
White on white quilting, other than the perle stitching around the stars.

It measures 54" x 45.5"
(134cm x 116cm)

Each star has perle cotton hand stitching around it -
in a thread colour to match the star.

The scrappy border and backing strip is 4.5" wide.

The white on white FMQ quilting highlights the border and
works around each star.

And scrappy binding was the only way to go to finish it off.

I have officially completed another project. And now I sit here in the quiet. Because I am the only one home. John is doing his usual having to work away. The girls have gone to Brownie Camp. Until Friday!

Do you think I will last that long without them? I am going to go and do some sewing and contemplate it - in the quiet.

Susan

Emily's Day to Shine

Helen was at a sleepover last night, which gave me uninterrupted time to focus on Emily today. One on one with a child is an extremely good thing. At least in this house it is. It usually leads to better behaviour and an increase in that loving feeling.

Emily took it up another notch though. Because she started the day with a small miracle. I heard her get up and listened to her singing to herself as she played happily in her room. Only she wasn't playing. She was doing this, without even being threatened!

She just got out of bed this morning and tidied! I was gobsmacked, and incredibly pleased. She put toys in the storage provided. It was an unprecedented act on her part and one that had to be documented.

The next task for the day was a shared one. It was time to make her summer top with the pattern she chose. Now this pattern is the same as the one I used to make her an outfit before she was three. She loved that outfit. It now resides in her memory box and she talks about it still. So she is going for the same happy feeling, I presume.

Emily at 3 in the first outfit (and her brand new shiny birthday scooter).

This time Emily was more involved in the creation of her new top. She mumbled a lot about how hard it was to sew curves, and got distracted making patterns in the pin cushion with the pins - but she persevered.

Yup, I know she needs a haircut. She is booked in while we are at Mum's.

It was a very easy pattern. Six pieces, no zippers, buttons, or anything complicated at all. And the great bit is - if you have made it before you realise this because they don't tell you - it is reversible. So Emily dived into the fabric stash and pulled out a different fabric for the reverse side. Since she had cherries on a pink background for the first fabric she went all out and went for apples on a pink background for the other. Umm, a little variety here please. But it was her top, for her to wear, not me so apples it was.

Here is the finished article -

I would call that a successful project. She's happy. I'm happy. We had fun together. The sun is shining. It feels like summer again. We are about to go for a walk. A barbeque is planned for tonight. Life is good!

Susan

I've Been Wrestling a Walrus

Maybe I haven't actually been wrestling a walrus, but I sure feel that way. How on earth other quilters manage to quilt much larger quilts on a relgular every day sized sewing machine is beyond me. Trying to do the FMQ while keeping the weight of the quilt from pulling this way or that, or trying to slide to the floor completely has been...   um...   interesting.

This has been a completely different sort of quilting for me because any other quilts I have done free motion quilting on I have just covered the whole surface with my pattern of choice, started on one side and stopped when I had successfully negotiated a route to the other side. With these wonky stars I had to work around each star and make sure that I got around every side before I cut off a route of escape and sewed myself into a corner, so to speak.

It was a very convoluted route to sew.

It's a bit like map reading. Most men think we can't do it, but we get to where we want to be in the end.

Seeing as how I discussed my lack of prior planning when it came to doing the quilting on this quilt on yesterday's post, you might understand my amusement at my ability to learn as you go. While I was doing the borders I just jumped in and went with it. Therefore the first corner was a bit of a car crash in terms of knowing which way to go to accomplish a graceful 90 degree turn.

Things had improved a few corners later.

While I sat and worked my stitchy way around the quilt Helen was at the computer. (Briefly, the ban is not 100% any more but it is very much controlled time allowances now.) Helen was laughing away and I finally asked her what web site she was on. 'Your blog!' she replied. 'You are really funny, Mum.' Bless. One day she might even realise I am a person in my own right, not just her mother. Time will tell.

Going to go work on the binding now. I don't think that there is any question about it, it will have to be a scrappy binding. I don't think anything else would work with this quilt. Time to dig through the stash. Fun!

Susan

The Quilting Has Begun

The quilting has begun on the Wonky Stars that is. I sat and thought about it a long time. Because the back of the quilt is almost exclusively white I wanted stitching that would give a little more character to the open expanse. First I did straight line quilting around each section of the scrappy border. That way the border becomes a part of the reverse side of the quilt.

Then I hooked up one of my favourite things in the world - my Bernina Stitch Regulator. I have spoken about it before but cannot stress enough that for people like me (in that statement read severely lacking in coordination and the ability to control foot, hand and eye all at the same time) FMQ would not be possible without a little electronic help.

First off, I went all the way around the outer edge, loop-the-looping as I went. I came off the quilt at the white sections of the border which will give me my entry points for quilting the stars. The less starting and stopping in the middle of the quilt the better. That means less threads to tie off. A mundane task at the best of times.

My next stage was to quilt the border sections. Now, while I would like to say that after a great deal of thought I knew exactly how the lines of my stitching would create a pattern I loved - but I didn't have a clue. The plan was to take that loop-the-loop, enlarge it and flatten it out on the loops, crossing back and forth as I moved down the border. Make sense? I didn't think so. The resulting pattern gave me tear drops and diamonds. Who knew? Not me, but I love it.

And I also love the way it stands out well - white stitching on white - on the backing fabric.

So a good start made on it. Throw in three loads of laundry and a grocery shop and you have a day of getting things done. Beef Stroganoff for dinner - haven't had that in ages and it is sooooo easy. Last Brownie meeting for the girls tonight and nothing but holiday stuff scheduled between now and September. I'll be off to school shortly to collect my two. I cannot believe that I will have Y5 and Y6 girls come September. Someone please slow time down!

I am going to link this post with Shay over at Quilting In My Pyjamas. She has a Favourite Things Friday linky party and I do believe that my Bernina Stitch Regulator falls into that category. She also has an excellent blog.

Have a great evening, everyone!

Susan

What Have I Learned Today?

Today I learned that sitting and holding your eight year old's hand while she has a tooth pulled is a very unpleasant experience and one that I do not wish to repeat - ever! I feel so bad for Emily because this has been a situation that has been largely out of her control.

While we were on the Isle of Wight I was thrilled to finally get them signed with a dentist because that was like gold dust around this area before we left. The first dentist I found on the island was a nightmare. We had a major falling out. It could have been me taking offence at him taking one look in my daughters' mouths and stating, 'It is obvious that these children are on a very bad diet.' Or maybe it was when he told me (and them because they were there, after all) that I was better off giving them coca cola than juice. And then he refused to treat Emily because of my 'attitude'. Either way, a complaint was lodged with the NHS and it was followed through by them. Small satisfaction can be found in that fact, but I still needed a dentist.

I found another one. Helen's teeth were fine, no fillings required (not bad for someone who was obviously on such a bad diet). Emily needed two small fillings done. He did them. End of story.

Well, not quite. Fast forward to last summer, after our return to the mainland, and Emily getting a tooth ache. It turns out that one of the fillings had not been done properly and while the tooth looked fine it had been slowly rotting away underneath. Major dental work required. Then repeat the whole procedure for the filling on the other side a month later, while we were on holiday.

Which brings us to today. There was always doubt whether those two teeth would make the distance until her adult teeth were ready to come in. Today one of those poor teeth finally reached the end of its usefullness. And I held Emily's hand while she trembled and whimpered. Not a good day.

I shall end this post on a good note. Here are the latest two blocks I have done for the Farmer.

No. 61 - Northern Lights

No. 48 - Homeward Bound

Tomorrow will be a better day than today. It is the last day of the school year. They have a disco. And I have bought them sushi for their lunch. That is enough to make it a good day. I am looking forward to it.

Susan