Thank Goodness It’s Finished Friday

Today I’m hosting the linky party for TGIFF and, yes, I have a finish.

It’s not the one I hoped to have – although that came close.

This is an previously unpublished project.

A few weeks ago, my quilting teacher was talking to us about making a quilt each for the Gift of Hope project. Basically, the quilts are made and donated to families whose babies are still-born or die soon after death. My teacher says “born asleep”.

It’s a sad project but I wanted to help.

Here is a picture of the backing taped down ready for basting and the flimsy lying on top.

I tried hard to buy some suitable green fabric for the binding.

I had plenty of the pink but felt it would overwhelm the whole thing. I didn't have enough of the white-on-white print to make binding and thought a slightly darker blue-green would be perfect. Of course, the colour in my head was not available.

At Caring Hearts Community Quilting group yesterday, someone found a white fabric with a tiny gold print on it that I could use.

So last night, I made binding and hand-stitched it down. But, of course, I had to wait for daylight to take photos!

First the backing – a hand dyed fabric donated to the quilting group (I also used this on the front).

I quilting diagonally through the floral squares. This photo also gives the most accurate colour of the fabrics.

Finished size - 24" x 24".


Thank goodness I had a finish to show!

I'm also linking this project with Barbara's New FO party. Pop over to Cat Patches and see the projects that were started by other bloggers in March.

What about you? Do you have a finish to show this week?

spring cleaning in autumn

We spent the day at DD and SIL's new home. Well, it's new to them but the building itself is about fifty years old. It's had quite a few owners and some have left a little bit of rubbish behind them.

Today the four us filled a two cubic metre (70.6 cubic feet, 2.6 cubic yards) skip bin with broken bricks, concrete and pavers, plus timber (lumber) and the loppings from several trees that were too big to go through the mulcher.

GS#1 had a wonderful day - he had a picnic in his own backyard with Grandad and Grandmum as well as Mummy and Daddy, and he got to play outside for several hours and to explore places he's never been allowed to go before. His favourite "toy" for quite some time was the whipper-snipper! Children find the strangest things amusing! He was not fond of the noise of the chain saw or the mulcher though and decided it was time to retire indoors when Grandad decided to use either of them!

Unfortunately, my camera-crazy SIL and photo-mad WM were both too busy to think to take before-and-after shots. There's still a lot of work to be done but we can all be proud of what we achieved today - the backyard looks better (though nowhere near complete) and a full skip is testament to how much work was really done!

I expected to spend the day looking after GS#1 so took plenty of knitting but got caught up in the madness that is garden renovation! Not one stitch knitted today! I'm exhausted and off to bed.

another family announcement

My brother [who is 46 next week] and my sister-in-law [who will be 37 next month] were married in 2003. They are expecting their first child in early April 2010. I'm going to be an aunty as well as a grandmother!

My SIL may not appreciate hand-knitted items so I want to knit something that is special but not so good that she puts it in a drawer as "too precious to use". I considered a blanket. The one I have in mind would be simple garter stitch or basketweave in the centre with a fancy wide border knitted in 4ply [baby weight]. Fellow-grandmothers and mothers-of-babies: would this be practical? After all, when a baby is wrapped, most of the blanket disappears! Perhaps a beautiful variegated yarn and no fancy border? Your thoughts please!

PS DD is getting better; she is seventeen weeks into her pregnancy and only has morning sickness in the mornings now! Because she's a knitter herself, she will appreciate and use anything I make for my grandchild!