Wednesday windup

I have had a busy two weeks, and find that although I have the best of intentions to tell you all about it... I get home from work, I check my emails and my blog list to see what everyone else is up to... then it's time to start dinner... then evening jobs and time to roll into bed.  So today is the day... I've checked emails and everyone elses progress, even planted some seedlings and hung out washing, so I have a few minutes of guilt free time to tell you all about what I've been up to.

Well, after my day at The Country Yard and coming home with an assorted pile of bits, I now have more order in my life.

 My pile of strips with freezer paper attached have been reorganised back into their proper places, all ready for me to start sewing again.  This is 9 layers so I will end up with nine blocks.

And I had a little play with placement of the blocks I have already sewn.  There are twelve star blocks, and 9 of the wonky log cabins with dark centres. There are still the 9 unsewn cabins with light centres, but I won't need all these log cabins as some will get cut in half and form a border around the central panel. 

As you can see, the design wall is working great.  And it makes it so much easier to take pictures without getting that distortion thing going on.

Last Friday I had to take my truck in to get a new windscreen.  So had a three hour wait in Kaikohe instead of visiting with my patchwork group.  Not quite the same!  But I took along my applique, and made myself at home in the library stitching away.

Then Saturday morning was spent at the hairdressers with Nadia having a special 6th birthday treat - pink highlights!  It was a bit of a mission... a total of three hours mostly just sitting waiting for chemicals to develop... but she was a very happy wee girl once it was all over.  She also got her ears pierced... all of a sudden so very grown up.

I baked a cake for her to share with her class, which we then forgot to take to school... so she took it the next day.  Then her class had a trip to Puketi Forest, and Dylan's class had a walk up to Taiamai Rock as part of the school wide focus on forests this term.  Today Nadia's Kapa Haka group went to perform at a local retirement village, which I'm sure enjoyed the kids performance.  Roll on school holidays which start at the end of next week.  Unfortunately daylight savings has started mid term, so everyone is really suffering from the extra early starts.  I think I could just sleep for a week!  Well, sleep and sew!

Sunday was a teachers class, and we investigated different ways of making quilt sandwiches, then basted three quilts.  Everyone was keen to learn free motion quilting, so we started practicing using large sheets of paper and sewing machines with no thread.  While I wasn't entirely sure whether it would work - it certainly helped to get everyone started and give them the idea of what was required.  They have all realised that practice is the key to success, and that they will get better.  It is hard when you are not instantly good a something... perhaps a good lesson for teachers to learn or be reminded of.

So, do you feel caught up?