So now July

June has gone and so has half the year. We are in the depths of winter and at least two quilts are being used at night.The granny's garden which I completed in June is glorious to sleep under. The silk batting is amazing. It was lovely to quilt and even more fun to sleep under.
I thought the wool batting would be the best, but the little worms seem to have beaten the sheep. I have now used cotton, bamboo, wool and silk as battings and each of them feel great and have suited the quilts that I have used them in. I love the way all of them drape once they are quilted into a quilt. I ready do like the lightness of the wool and the silk and the amazing thinness of the cotton batting.

The next thing that I have been experimenting with is the thread I use. I absolutely love YLI, but, it seems to be impossible to get my hands on any. Nobody imports it here and all the companies I have tried, refuse to send it to me.

It is severely trying living in the further reaches of civilization. So for the Starry quilt I got out my old threads and have tried them again. I have used the Gutterman and I find it a bit stiff and over polished.I have been using it for 3 weeks now and it ok to use. I know that is feint praise, but at least I am not saying it is horrid to use. I also had one spool of Metzler. I do so love the brightness of the thread. It also stitches so nicely. The other thread I wanted to try was Aurifil, but once again I can't seem to source hand quilting weighted thread. Maybe Aurifil will bring in a heavier weight of thread so that I can try it, otherwise I will just have to grow as a person and use whatever I can get my hands on. I have one spool of YLI left and this I will crack open when I finish my next large quilt.

My next large quilt is the next item on my anxiety causing list. I am in search of the perfect vehicle for my entertainment for the next year or two. I try to only do one quilt at a time so I need to be committed to the creation of the quilt I choose. Whilst deciding what I am going to do , I have bought some fabric to make mug rugs. I need to practice applique and I thought that doing mug rugs would be a perfect way for me to practice. I am even going to try and used the required muted colours that make so many applique item look beautiful. I went on the prowl for plaid fabrics. This too was not available. I found some nice fabric, but only one plaid. My dear husband has many beautiful plaid shirts....ok I will behave and not take snippets of fabric out of his shirts.

Hope you all have an amazing July and find projects that bring your fingers joy.
Have a good one! 

Happy April Fools Day

Welcome April, the only month to start with a Fools Day.

I love the fact that even though we all think we are so advanced in our concepts of civilization, we still practice so many of the Roman holidays. So much of the symbolism that is attached to religious holidays comes from the original Roman holidays. So next time you eat a chocolate bunny, just have a think about why you are doing it. Well yes it is in the very question... chocolate... duh.

March whizzed by with much comings and goings. My daughters’ wedding was lovely. She looked lovely and I did the silly thing of tearing up when I saw my husband walk her down the aisle. She looked beautiful. Yesterday for the first time I saw that she had changed her name on Face book. That was a bit of a moment. I try to be a non-clingy mother and allow her to be an adult, (She is turning 30 this year) but sometimes it is a bit difficult.

Our ASDL line went down for 4 days. Oh the horror! I tried with a 3g USB stick, but the slowness was too much. I was going to use it today if I had to, but, thankfully the line came back last night. First world problems are such a bother.

The weather is getting to be the way I like it. Just the way that goldilocks liked her porridge, neither too hot nor too cold. We had 3 weeks of rain and that was lovely. I know that most people were getting grumpy about the moisture, but I love it and so did the garden. I hope we get a bit more before winter sets in and then we have to hold our breaths until we get rain at the start of summer. Living with no rain for many months is really not nice. Eventually there is soo much static, that you can believe that you have a new super power, and that your name should be either Shocky or Sparky. 

  Progress on the Dear Jane is occurring. I have less that 10% to go. This means that I have 21 blocks left to quilt. Yay! It seems that the closer you get to the corners, the easier it is to do the quilting. I am so excited to think that the end is nigh... LOL. (This is my youngest doing a Kilroy for me)

I finished another YLI quilting bobbin, that makes it number 2. 

I have started have stress however, about the finishing of the quilt. The question that is currently plaguing me is the sequence in which I should do the binding. Currently I think I will stitch on the bias binding, then cut the excess fabric. Then roll hem the cut edge and then finally wrap the binding over and stitch it on the back.

This past weekend, my family helped my make the Bias binding. I think we got just a bit carried away as we made 27 meters of the stuff. I bought polka dot fabric from the one fabric store which is 75 km away and then when I popped into the fabric store that is 2 km away I spotted this fabric. I think it is lovely. I think it will frame the quilt nicely.

The other thing which I have to resolve is how I am going to Label the quilt. The two options are, sewing on the corner like Jane did, or put the label on the back. Which way are you going to do it?

Hope everyone has an amazing April.

Have a good one.