This one has a Story

and it is a Story with a capital S. I've just finished this top

I quite like it and all I had to do was add the red border. The story goes like this:

Back in 2002/ 2003 a friend and myself decided we wanted to do a quilting course. My son was less than a year old, I think I was back at work, I'm not 100% on that. We found a local quilt shop that was doing hand piecing classes and we signed up. Each week we would be shown a different block, taught how to make the templates, how to cut it out, how to sew the block together. After six weeks we would be given another 6 weeks of no classes to finish off as many blocks as we wanted. We would then return to the shop with our blocks to be shown how to finish it all off. So we bought all our materials - fabric, needles, thread, scissors, template plastic - the lot. About 4 or 5 weeks into the course, I had the box with all my stuff, included finished blocks (I was half way through the Jacobs Ladder block) in the boot of my car. I picked my son up from daycare and on returning to the car, took the box out to put the pram in and forgot to put it back in! Needless to say I never found the box and lost everything! So, I started again - remember this was all hand pieced! New fabric, new thread, new needles, new everything. I sewed my little heart out and was determined to have all 12 blocks done by the finishing class. We went down the coast one weekend and I took only the block I was sewing at the time - Jacob's Ladder. I lost it. Got home, didn't have it, never found it. I don't think I will ever sew another Jacobs Ladder as long as I live!

Anyway, I caught up, had all my blocks ready and was ready for our finishing class. About a week before we were due to do our finishing class the shop went up in flames. Literally burnt to the ground!  They never reopened. So I had twelve blocks and no idea what to do with them. In the end, they went into a cupboard and stayed there for quite awhile. 

Fast forward to 2007 and I decide to get myself a mother's day present I want - another quilt course. This time I go for a course that starts with hand piecing and progresses to machine. This time the shop doesn't burn down and I walk away with this.

Very different from my first. It has hand piecing, paper piecing, applique and machine pieced blocks. It is also hand quilted which is pretty atrocious, but at least it was finished!
So now at least I knew what to do with those blocks I had, but still they sat in the cupboard. In October 2007 I finally put the sashing on and joined the blocks together.

Alright! I was almost there, surely I would have it finished by 2007! However, once again, it went into the cupboard, sitting in the back of my mind, begging to be done. The other day I went and bought some red fabric for the border, some blue for the back and I swear it will be an April finish, one way or another!

So, once I finish here I am off to sandwich the quilt. I'm still not sure how I am going to quilt it - suggestions are welcome. Another problem is the name. I have had a few thoughts.

From the Ashes - the ashes of the shop, the ashes of lost blocks

Lessons Learnt - I learnt so much sewing this quilt, including log cabins by hand are no fun, measurements count and left long enough, a quilt will quietly reproach you every time you open the cupboard and don't take it out to finish it!

Finally Finished - self explanatory

Second Time Around - the second lot of blocks I made for this quilt

1200 Kilometres - the distance between the house it was started in and the house it will be finished in!

Long Time Coming - again, fairly self explanatory.

And, having trawled through my earlier blog entries, I discovered this entry from October 2007!

Emma suggested Burning Desire - both representational of the shop burning down and my desire to finish it!

Leah suggested Bright Beginnings.

So, what do you think I should call it? And how should I quilt it?

Pencil Rolls

I've been meaning to make my kids some pencil rolls for ages. Given that at Easter we will be heading to Canberra, which means up to 14 hours in the car, I decided it was time!

I was given the link to this excellent tutorial over at Little Munchkins. It was so easy to follow and works beautifully!

This one is for Luke

This one for Kira

And here they are both rolled.

I want to buy the kids some new pencils for them, but this was the best I could do for now! I can see lots of these being made for future presents!

A March Finish!

I have a March finish and it's not at the last minute!

Presenting Back to Front!

And the back.

It still needs to be labelled as does mums quilt and Luke's Frog Quilt, so last night I designed and printed all three on printable paper. It's tonight's job.

I must admit, when I went upstairs to bed last night and I checked in on the kids, it was lovely to see them both snuggled under their quilts. They are perfect for this time of year - too cold for just a sheet, too hot for a doona. The quilts are just perfect!

Rainy Days...

...are perfect for quilting.

 

Doing dragonflies all over. I have a template which I trace around and then follow loosely. (Creative license I claim!) I am having some issues with what sort of marker to use. I find the chalk/ dress maker's pencils don't show up well enough and the fade pen I have that says it fades in 24 - 48 hours is more likely to fade in 24 minutes! What do you use??