Reveal

The quilting is finished. The binding is on. The quilt has been posted to my Punk's wall to brighten up her playspace.

Do the edges look a little wavy from where you're sitting? Because they are. They really, really are. And I don't care.

I took a few pictures of the quilting while I had a sunbeam this morning.

I haven't counted how many fmq designs I came up with. I may catalogue them in my design book for future reference.

I feel a little like a quilting genius today.

I ended up using one or two of Leah Day's designs.

I'm certain that one or two of Malka's techniques ended up somewhere in the mix.

I may have even ventured into the realm of McTavishing.

This was a lot of work!

And what does my Punk think about her new wall decor? She doesn't even notice a difference. I guess I can't expect her to; but I think the room echos less - and for sure there's more colour in there!

Moving right along to WIPs that require my attention...

...Starting with another trip to my chiropractor because I woke up with an owie neck this morning!

Something That Starts With "E"

That is..... EVEN More Quilting!

Although some of the strips are very skinny (I've been using a lot of "doodle" stitch), most of the quilting is unique and I tried to be inspired by the fabric itself. I love how that rainbow strip turned out.

A quick sneak peek of the back for you. This is Very. Heavily. Quilted.

I did manage to put a quick label on this quilt; this is often the step I neglect.

26 out of 32 blocks are quilted. 5 1/2 to go. I want to bind it and move on!

Still Quilting

There are 32 rail fence blocks on this quilt, plus the center rectangle. Between housecleaning, cuddling, and homeschooling a three year old I have finished 11 blocks. This corner turned out lovely. (I'll just keep working at it.)

Wanna see a happy Punk? This first grader got to sit in the front seat of the van to go to school yesterday.

Here she is in her very own desk! She is so excited that she hasn't been able to eat breakfast for two days. Today I packed kale chips in her lunch, and she's pretty excited about that, too. Have a good school year, my Darling.

FMQ Sampler

The trapunto turned out well. I used a washed-out variegated thread.

The remainder of the quilt is slowly becoming an FMQ practice piece....an unplanned zen tangle....a sampler, if you will. I am using a very bright variegated thread. I am running out of ideas, but a quick visit to Day Style Designs should set me up - forever. This is very intense quilting. I would never quilt this much for a bed quilt.

This little Punk starts grade one tomorrow. She saw the camera and went into smiling-and-posing mode. She is so excited to meet her teacher this morning for her IP planning.

My Pixie had decided that she needs food prep lessons. Here she is chopping olives for our salad; It was her first time using a knife and cutting board. What the picture doesn't show is how proud of herself she is - or how many olives made it into her mouth, and not into the salad bowl!

This is the recipe we made up, and it was very tasty!

Green and Red Salad

1 bunch curly parsley, finely chopped
2-3 cups sunflower sprouts, washed and spun dry
1/2 red bell pepper, chopped
2 tomatoes, chopped
2 small cukes, chopped
15-20 stuffed green olives, pre-schooler chopped
1 avocado, chopped

Sprinkle with sea salt and pepper, 1/2 tsp dried basil, a swirl of EVOO, and a dash of balsamic. Toss and enjoy!

Punk-ish Love

My Punk starts grade one on Thursday! I had better finish the back-to-school shopping and sewing!

This lunch bag was made with this tutorial at Pink Penguin. The Punk loves it and the only change I made to make it more autistic-friendly is to put huge beads on the tie ends to make it easier to close. I only had to show her a couple of times how to open and close it. She caught on like a pro.

Note the rainbow of quilting thread on the right - waiting to be stitched onto House of Love.

 The quilt for the Punk's wall is coming along nicely. In fact, it's already basted and waiting to be quilted. I did a bit of cheater trapunto....

I spray basted some random leftovers of batting to the back of the letters.

And then, without backing, I stitched in the ditch around each letter to secure the extra batting.

The pictures that didn't turn out showed me cutting the extra batting away from around the letters. Also, the last two rows of rail fence went on after the trapunto was done. I just didn't want to mess with the extra size while stitching. Then I basted to regular batting (pieced, cause I'm cheap), and I used an old brown sheet for backing.

I actually ran out of strings for the blocks, and had to root through my flannelette scraps to make up the deficit.

Quilting is next up, tomorrow.

...Right after two doctor's appointments, shoe shopping, and folding Mount Laundry. (You might be pleasantly surprised to know that I don't dread folding laundry anymore. My only excuse is laziness.)

The Absence of Children

This morning I dropped the girls off at my cousin's house so that I could have two days to recover my mommy mojo. Afterwards, I headed straight to the fabric store.

But I didn't buy anything; instead I added a couple of books to my Christmas wishlist. Then I went home and....

filled the dehydrator with Kale Chips...

juiced a huge bowlful of veggies....

and sewed the rail fence blocks onto the new wall quilt.

Then I watched a movie called Forks Over Knives, followed closely by Food, Inc. You may never, ever eat an animal product again after watching these...Warning! I am already vegan, so it just reinforced the decisions we've made as a family.

A quick dash to Stony Plain (about an hour from me) yielded the fabric purchases for the day. Why go so far for fabric, you ask? Because not a single fabric store in Edmonton carries laminated cotton! I phoned every one (and I refuse to shop at Fabricland when there are locally owned businesses to support).

These are all Amy Butler prints, the far right is the laminated cotton. I've never bought Any Butler before - nothing against the woman - but her choice of colours is not up my alley. She seems to start every colourway with that awful pale green and go from there. These are for the Punk's new school lunch bag.

This rainbow is the remainder of what $50 got me. The pink cupcakes print is for the Pixie's future quilt, of course.

And one more thing: I've decided to join a procrastinate-a-long. Er....Quilt-a-long.

My first cuts:

AM/PM

Here is what the wall quilt looked like in the morning:

 And then I got a request for tiger tails.....yup, distracted!

But then I went through my scrap bin and pulled out every string longer than 7"...and cut then down to seven inches or so. I just eyeballed it against the markings on my cutting board.

Press.

Pile o' awesome.

Here's what I did with them:

I sewed them all to WOF strips of BG. Six fit on one WOF.

Without pressing or cutting, I sewed more to the other side, being careful to mostly match sets.

Then I eyeballed the cut between sets. Cut bravely! It's only scraps.

Press. Add another strip to each side. Press again.

Add another strip of needed - after all, some pieces are more narrow than others.

And then, trim to 6 1/2"

PM shot: still need six more strip blocks, and I have to increase the size of the center to fit.

After that? Maybe a couple more block strips (top and bottom), to square things off a bit.