Sorry, whiny post coming up

My dh has had a slight mishap and has broken a rib and his shoulder blade.

Needless to say, he is a poor patient and I am a terrible nurse. Two weeks off work and he's going to be unbearable.....he's almost unbearable already!!

Of course, he had to do it this week - the week that I have to get the car back to the mechanics (looks like the turbo has to be replaced...under warranty thank goodness!), Miss R starts her social skills group, has 2 dress rehearsals and a dance concert in which I'm supposed to be helping backstage, a visit to the GP for her and for dh, plus drama and Scouts (I think we're giving Scouts a miss.....) And to top it off, the vet rang today to remind me that the dog is supposed to go back for review this week (he had an abscess and was on antibiotics) .....I just laughed (before I cried) and said I'd see him next week, thank you very much.

And did I mention that someone tried to use my credit card last week to buy concert tickets in Sweden?? So the cards had to be cancelled - new ones turned up on Friday, but I don't have a PIN for it yet and so can't access the ATM. Oh well, at least we know that The Falcon works.....got a phone call from NAB within minutes of the transaction going through, so they were able to reverse it but I'm still puzzling over how my details were stolen. Guess I'll never know....

Hope next week is better. :-)

Update #2

has taken me a little longer!



The pirate quilt is finished and ready to hand over to the recipient - my great nephew who had his first birthday on Friday. We've only seen him once, back in January....long story....we had a falling out with SIL and while we *think* niece #2 (the baby's mother) is neutral, we've been reluctant to contact any of the 3 nieces after niece #1 sent some very nasty texts and confronted dh at his place of work. (We've since heard that she's left the state, so perhaps I don't need to constantly look over my shoulder any more in case she pops out of the bushes screaming abuse....)

Anyway, niece #2 and baby J will hopefully visit next weekend so I can pass this masterpiece over. I took it in to work with me a few weeks ago and showed it to someone with a boy about the same age and she was in raptures over it, so I'm hoping that the gift will be used and appreciated.



I think this pattern is called "box in a box" (or similar) and I've pieced the back with 2.5" squares. I particularly like how the binding turned out - not just the stripes but I made the binding quite wide and I think it looks great. Seems to sit better than the narrow binding too, so I might use that more often.



The quilt turned out to be 48" x 71". I have quilted it in straight lines (one day I'll have the confidence to try some free motion quilting), diagonally through the squares. I learnt a great deal from this quilt and am very happy with the result.

I am in love....

with my new Janome DC 2101 sewing machine. It's so quiet......and the 1/4" seam is so accurate.....and I love the needle up/down feature. And it comes with a quilting extension table, the walking foot and the 1/4" foot. Will take me a little while to get familiar with all the features, but so far, am loving it!

Did you know....

that Marie Osmond was a quilter? No? Neither did I.

Update #1

Ok, so here's the first finished project.....pink quilt for Miss R. Very pleased with the end result and I LOVE the back.....fabric from Ikea that was dirt cheap and looks great (so thanks Theresa for putting me onto it) and then I just added pieced scraps in a strip. Binding is the Ikea fabric.

Recently Read....

Yes, occasionally I do something other than quilt....when I'm waiting for Miss R to finish an activity (usually dance or drama) then I'll knit or read. Couple of books I've read recently that I thoroughly enjoyed:

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Schaffer

and

The House of Special Purpose by John Boyne.

And I'd also like to recommend The Book Depository. Even though it's based in the UK, it offers free postage worldwide and they are usually cheaper then here, even after converting from pounds to australian dollars!

Nearly there

No pics yet but a couple of quilts are on the verge of finished. I'm very pleased with how the pirate quilt has turned out, especially the binding, and the pink quilt for Miss R.

Miss R is away on camp this weekend, so I'm hoping to (a) finish the 3 'almost finished' projects; (b) start quilting the cream one for the leather couch and (c) go to the movies. Haven't even seen the new Harry Potter yet and now I'm afraid I might be too late to see it on the big screen!

So stay tuned....hoping to have some pictorial evidence by Sunday!