My First Quilt Top

Okay it's not brilliant but here it is, my first quilt top...



I've got the next course a week today and have to have at least one quilt top done for it so I'm ahead of schedule :)

Time Flies...

Firstly, how can it be nearly a month since I posted here? I'm constantly mooching round other peoples blogs wishing they'd update theirs and yet here I am just as bad. All I can say in my defense is that time has flown since my last post and I'll try to do better.

So what's been happening with us?

Well, it's not just the last month that's flown by it's the last 10 years. Last friday DH and I celebrated 10 years as a couple! I can't believe it's been that long, especially as he only came to this country for 11 months to do his Master's Degree. When we got together it was only supposed to be short term, a bit of fun really, but somewhere along the line he forgot to go back to Greece and here we are, 10 years later, married and parents!

To celebrate the momentous date we left my parents babysitting and we headed to London for a meal and a show. Foodwise it was nothing spectacular - Tapas at a chain restaurant that we like - but the treat was not having to worry about making sure the wet wipes were on hand LOL. As for the show, we saw Avenue Q which we'd wanted to see for ages and was fantastic. I can't imagine it's to everyone's taste but if you like musicals, Sesame Street and your comedy a tad un-PC then this is the show for you.

We had fantastic seats in the Royal Circle. I was on a course in London the week before and had picked up a copy of Metro (a free London newspaper) one morning on the way in. Inside there was an advert for discounted tickets to see Avenue Q making the top price seats almost half price so, whilst it still wasn't what you'd call cheap, we did have a bit of a bargain.

That course is another reason I've been away from the net for a while. It was a technical course for work and was actually a lot of fun. My work bulk buy training with a company called Learning Tree and are pretty good at making sure we all get some training every year. Pre Lia I'd done three courses there but until June this year I'd not been back so I've done two courses this year and have another one booked for March.

It's not quite the same experience as I had previously as before I stayed in London so could go out and about, meet friends, etc but now I'm going up and down each day on the train as my Mum has Lia during the day and I need to get home to relieve her. Still, the courses are good and I passed this one with 88% so it all looks good on the CV.

Lia's doing fine - she had a nasty tummy bug on Halloween that she was kind enough to pass on to me. Unfortunately I woke up on 5th November thinking 'I'm going to throw up' and proceeded to do that for the next six hours. Not too nice and we had to cancel our Bonfire Party that I was so looking forward to. We had two sets of friends coming, both of which we hadn't seen for ages, but as there were lots of kids around I certainly didn't want to risk passing the bug on. As it was I didn't make it out of bed until the Sunday lunchtime so I wasn't really in any fit state to be a hostess.

Crafting wise I've been focussing on my quilting this month as I'm attending the third course on the 24th which is for finishing. I've got one Advent Calendar panel done that I want to finish as a wall hanging, I'm nearly done putting together one small quilt top and I'm hoping to have the blocks done for a second quilt top with the idea that I can get some tips on different ways to put them together.

I've got my wadding and backing fabrics so I'm good to go. I have ambitious plans for a third quilt top but I'm not sure I have enough time to get it done. DH is being really good about it - I've told him that I have to focus on quilting for the next ten days otherwise I'll be wasting the money for the course LOL.

As for stitching, I'm still getting on. I've joined a SAL for Cirque des Cercles and have done some stitching on that (which reminds me I have to post a progress pic on that blog). I've got the next part of Bent Creek's Big Zipper and have made a start on that, I've done all the stitching on the Cat's Whisker's Spring Fever Biscornu and almost finished the stitching on their Alyssum Scissor Pocket (both shown at the bottom of this page). I'm hoping to get a few more smalls done between now and Christmas and have a finishing session over the festive period. I've got a pinkeep ready to do plus the accessories for the Cat's Whisker's Birds of a Feather Dilly Bag and I hope to get at least one ornament done and maybe even something that I can finish into a bourse.

I'm actually starting to really enjoy sewing as opposed to dreading it which is fantastic. I have two other Cat's Whisker's projects - Grandma's Thread Minder and the Dilly Bag itself - that need the stitching finished and I'm aiming to get them done early in 2008. For some reason I'm not that bothered about big designs right now but I'm hoping that once I've completed the finishing for all the above I'll get back to working on Sleigh Ride. The Cirque des Cercles SAL is at least keeping me focused on one of my other WIPs.

Whew, see I don't post for weeks and now I've written a small essay! LOL