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It’s hard to believe in just a few minutes it will be 2012.  This year has seen lots of changes for me and has just flown past.  I finally started working for myself a little more seriously in web development as well as in the quilt related area.  My youngest son left school, went to Chefs school, got a chefs apprenticeship and left home to live in the city.

Oh what bliss! I gloated to friends who still had children at home, and less than seven days later his big brother turned up at the door, “Mum, you know how you said, if I really needed to, I could come home?…”  and since then its been busier and louder than ever.  My eldest comes and goes, his friends and girlfriend are often here, there’s music blaring, the phone rings,  there’s dishes in the sink and smelly boy socks everywhere.  I sometimes think the boys might be playing tag as the eldest goes to his girlfriends in Melbourne and I come out to the computer room only to find the youngest has appeared on the couch sometime during the early hours of the morning.

I know none of you were in the house when I went to bed!

I popped down to the supermarket this afternoon, only to see said boy outside instead of miles away in Melbourne, ” Hi Ma, just up for a party, might pop in later!”  Everyone told me I’d miss my boys when they left, but its not me that misses them.

We missed you!

Since last I posted back in November I’ve had a birthday and Margaret & Katherine took me out for a lovely day of quilting and eating at Mill Rose in Ballan, I was spoilt, got lots of quilt related pressies and fabric.  Less than two weeks later it was back to Mill Rose, this time with Irene joining us, for a lovely Christmas morning tea hosted by Sue.

Back in about October I decided to do a quick scrap quilt using only fabrics in my stash.  I wanted to try and use fabrics I didn’t like but of course more and more fabrics that I do like went in to it.  I joined fabric pieces if I needed to and am really pleased with how it turned out.  And I only bought fabric for the backing.

Raiding the stash

here’s the fabric that I picked up on Thursday at Darn Cheap Fabric, only $4 a metre, which here in Austraia is super cheap, a Lecien fabric and they had bolts of it and I’m starting to wish I’d bought a bolt.

Quilt backing

while I was there I also picked up a little bit more fabric, my stash really does need those lighter coloured fabrics, but I was very restrained, as I had already been to 2 or 3 other shops before this.

A little more Lecien fabric & some pretty reds

On Thursday I was a woman on mission, I’ve designed another quilt and have decided that I want to do a version of it in bright, bold Kaffe Fassett fabrics so with nowhere around here to buy such fabrics it was off to Melbourne in search of fabrics to seriously challenge me.  When I was purchasing these fabrics at GJS Discount Fabrics I kept asking the ladies, who were very friendly and helpful, “Do these fabrics go together?  Are you sure?”  They just looked at me, and I said, “I’m a Repro Girl, I don’t know about these fabrics.”

For my new quilt design

This project will have to be a machine applique project if I want to get it done as I’ve now got so many things either on the go or ‘on the drawingboard’ that it just wont see the light of day.  And I’m being very good and not starting it till I’ve got all the prep done for my new Sunflowers & Willows quilt.  Here’s a quick peek at it.  It’s already past this stage, as I’ve got about 70% of the borders prepared and reading to hand sew.  This has gone together very quickly and I’ve used a new technique to get the frills on those flowers.

Sunflowers & Willows

This was another, ‘I just want to use up some of those taupes I’m not so fond of.’  The result, I had to buy more and now I really like them.  I naturally prefer plain backgrounds so this was once again me trying to challenge myself to broaden my design ideas.

Yesterday I cut out lots of assorted red dogtooths for my Texas Flower Basket quilt and laid them on the work table to get an idea if they worked, and I fairly happy with them, although there’s one I might remove.  However I left the door to my studio open and Charlie my cat, who seems to have a thing for any fabric with green leaves on it, was found laying on the quilt top with an expression I can only say is belligerent.

It's got green leaves so it's my quilt!

So have a happy and safe new year and see you on the other side.

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