About a Boy progress

This month I've done quite a bit of work on Alex's quilt, 'A Boys Story' designed by Anni Downs. The applique blocks are really coming together, I only have about 4 left to stitch... and then I really must get cracking on the stitcheries!

Here is the kite block... I tried to use as many colours from the other blocks in the ribbons as I could.

And here is the castle block. What do you think of my stripey green grass?!

I have also appliqued the boat block:

Slowly but surely this quilt is coming together! I now have just under 20 weeks to get this one done if I'm going to finish it before bubba number two arrives :)

Until next time xx

My baby boy turns two!

How time flies?! Today my little baby boy turns two years old. I can't believe how time has passed, he's getting so big now after starting out so small (despite being a full two weeks late!).

He had such a great time opening presents this morning...

And then enjoyed the morning playing... must concentrate, do not distract, there are cars involved don't you know?!

I was able to pull him away long enough to help me bake a couple of cakes. Of course, some of his new cars had to come too.

Alex got the very important job of taste testing/licking the bowl! Apparently it was yummy... had to stop him 'double dipping' into the cake itself.

We made two cakes: a simple banana cake for morning tea and to share with a couple of friends during a morning playdate; and a second which we'll decorate later and have tonight once Daddy is home from work. According to Alex the banana cake didn't need icing... just put cars with it Mummy, it'll be ok!

Haha. I iced it later anyway, and I think the butter-icing was appreciated even without the cars :) Mmmm-mmm.

Happy birthday my cheeky munchkin!

Until next time xx

A completed project!!

Since our internet downtime I've been dying to share with you my first finished project (and hopefully not my last!!) for 2013 :) Very proud of myself.

You may recall in an earlier post I wrote about putting borders onto some red-stitch stitcheries which were to become a tablerunner. After those borders went on, the project was once again put to the side... calling out to me from the side of my sewing machine. Last week it's calls were answered and I finally added the prairie points and backing, then finish with simple quilting. What do you think of the finished product?

I quite like the prairie points, they really finish it off

The pattern suggests hand quilting: criss-crossing each square on the inner border. I started doing this but wasn't happy with how it was turning out. So back to the machine I went and just basically did a top-stitch job. I'm really happy with the result and I think it means the stitcheries are the hero rather than the quilting.

The same day, Tom arrived home with the post... in amongst which was a delivery for me!! I recently decided to order some of Anni Downs' new fabric range 'A Love of Gardening' for another unfinished project I have tucked away (well, no longer tucked away... I was inspired to pull it out again, but more on that later!). I ordered it directly from Anni's website/shop, Hatched and Patched and it only took about a week to arrive. I restricted myself to only five fabrics from the range... all so pretty!

Lots more stitching from this month to still to share with you, although I've recently started Indonesian language lessons so that might slow me down for a bit :S

Until next time xx

Nyepi, a day of silence

I've been wanting to update my blog all week, but unfortunately our internet has been down since last Saturday - apparently a tree had damaged the ethernet cables, or something like that... anyway, Bali being Bali, it took awhile for the problem to fixed. It didn't help that this week there has been a public holiday here on the island... and no ordinary public holiday!

On Tuesday Bali went into silence for Nyepi. And when I say silence, I mean silence. No one is allowed out on the streets from 6am that morning until 6am the following morning. And the streets are patrolled just in case - with people charged if they are out. It's also a day of no electricity - no lights, no TV, nothing. Just silence. Fortunately, there are some exceptions negotiated for expats or those staying in hotels - while you still can't venture the streets, you are allowed some lights (so long as curtains were drawn so they couldn't be seen) and you can cook and watch TV (although only movies as the TV stations, including pay-TV are all turned off for the day). We rather enjoyed the quietness of the day - currently there is construction occurring both next door and in front of our house with workers there 7 days a week, working from 8am until around 9pm. For one day, no hammers, no drills... bliss! 

Apparently the idea of Nyepi is that the people of Bali are trying to trick the bad spirits into thinking the island has been abandoned so that they leave! Later this month there is another holiday (not a silent one thought!) where they celebrate good defeating evil. 

The night before Nyepi there are ceremonies and parades with "Ogo-ogo's", which are odd looking monsters that supposedly scare away any ghosts on the island. We headed to the end point of the parade at the beach to have a look. It started to get quite late (and Alex was a little scared) so we didn't stay for much of the ceremony. I did manage to get a couple of photos before my camera battery died...

Much to report on the stitching front, but I might come back in a day or two with another blog update on that :)

Until next time xx

Did I mention I was inspired?

With all the blogs I've been reading in between voters, each work day I've been itching to get home and add a couple of stitches to fabric. But the cushion cover I mentioned in a previous post wasn't quite cutting it for me... not sure why. It's a lovely design by Sylvia Frazer, which I started late year using a bright turquoise on black, but it's just not what I felt like doing. So I finished a circle of chain stitch and put it to the side... again.

The ever-tempting idea of a new project was calling my name... how could I resist?! So I pulled out a pattern that my Mum passed me. My very talented mother does a lot of beautiful cross-stitching, and it was her that first taught me how to sew and stitch. Mum is coming to visit in May, and I would love to have this little stitchery done by then :) I just love the crispness of a newly traced stitchery awaiting colours and to be brought to life...

My original attempt at taking a photo was slightly obstructed by a small hand waving at mummy. He thought it was so funny that a few more attempts were required before I managed an Alex-less photo (above).

Such a cheeky boy!! Look at that grin...

Back to the project at hand... this elegant lady walking out of a hat shop has been the stitching I've been picking up of an evening. I'm rather happy with how it's coming along!

The days that I haven't been working I've been spending some time in my craft room working on 'A Boys Story' while Alex has his afternoon nap. My applique blocks have all the elements cut out and ready to be stitched, here is the kite block half appliqued, just the kite tags to go and then the stitchery to finish it off.

Hmm, that photo really brings out how badly I need to iron it - oops!

So it seems a little inspiration can make for a productive few days!!

Until next time xx

Blog browsing

As mentioned previously, I have been heading into the office with Tom a few days over the past fortnight, helping out with WA elections and early voting. Unfortunately there hasn't been much to do in between voters, and my supervisor suggested I 'browse the web' as entertainment. I'm not usually much of a 'web browser', never really knowing what to look at... so after checking my emails, doing some online banking and catching up on facebook, I started checking in on some of my friends' blogs. And then started following links to blogs they follow... and then more links... I think I'm blogged out! But, I'm also really inspired to get home and stitching! It's amazing how seeing what others accomplish can spur you on and give you the push you needed to get some projects finished!

What inspires you to get into your hobbies?

Until next time xx