Hello, I'm still here!

It's been a while! I'm still here I promise... It's just been a busy couple of months. The quick summary: work, kids, travel, work, kids, came down with influenza, work, kids, moved house. And no, sadly there not being any 'stitching' in there is not an oversight.

View from Castle Hill on our quick holiday to Townsville, June 2016

Well, that is until last Sunday. With the excuse of needing a wedding gift, combined with some energy now that I'm not sick and not moving, plus a desire to try out my new sewing space... a small 'weekend' quilt project was just the ticket. I decided that this was a good opportunity to use one of the Bali batik jelly rolls that I bought back when I was living in Bali.

I pulled out my quilt-pattern book Growing up Modern by Allison Harris (aka Cluck Cluck Sew)... I've flicked through the book countless times, dreaming of what I could make Sofia or Alex (because they don't have enough quilts between them!!) but never made anything from it. I decided the pattern 'Breezy' from the book was the perfect quilt to use one of my batik jelly rolls... so I got sewing, and cutting, and assembling!

Before long it had come together. The pattern was so easy to follow, and using the jelly roll meant hardly any cutting... I completed the quilt top within the afternoon, and after I had put the kids to bed laid it all out and pinned it ready for quilting.

I settled on stippling for the quilting, although straight lines would have looked equally good. It took me two evening sessions of around 90 minutes to get the quilting done, and then I was onto binding. Given it was a modern quilt, I decided to attempt machine sewing the binding down. Cluck Cluck Sew has a tutorial on this on her website, and I'd read it in the past intrigued but hand sewing the binding had always won out for me. Another evening session and the binding was down... and I was quite happy with the results. Not something I'd do for every quilt I make, but definitely something I'll do again.

I love the finished quilt, and really hope the newlyweds (who married yesterday here in Canberra) do to!

I also loved sewing in my new sewing nook... we've now moved in with my partner Al, combining our families and trying to make sure everyone has their own 'space' to be able to retreat to. What used to be a formal dining space is now a play room for Alex and Sofia but doubles as a sewing space for me. I'm looking forward to decorating my nook a bit more, but for now it's not a bad space at all... and I'm dying to get back in there and work on the next project... ok, or maybe finish an old project!!

Until next time (and I promise I won't leave it such a long time!) x