AHQ: Takeoff

It’s done, and on its way to the Leading Aircraftwoman.

Front

Back

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I hope it keeps her warm and comfortable on cold nights, and is a reminder that not everything is a regulation shade of grey.

I won’t be taking another one on till after I’m back at the end of November, but hopefully by then I’ll be raring to go again.

Front: One jelly roll of Moda Scrumptious
Back: generic white on cream print wideback from Spotlight
Binding: Seaweed and Submarines by Tula Pink in Orange

More soon.

AHQ: formation quilting

The quilting is finished.  

I decided not to just keep on making concentric squares – the quilting isn’t quite flying geese, but there is a sort of flight-y, arrow-y direction to it, which is appropriate: its intended recipient is a Leading Aircraftwoman.

Over the next few days, I’ll deal with all the loose threads, trim it out and attach the binding and label. And then it’s good to go, together with a number of goodies to fill out the mailing box and give her something else to smile about!

I’ve located the box containing Steampunk, so I’ll be cracking on with lots of hand sewn pieces for that over the next few weeks. It’s been ages since I’ve been able to do any work on it, so I’m looking forward to getting out all those fabulous reds, golds, rusts and bronzes for the next wheel…

Trouble is, I’ve also located lots of other project boxes too!

AHQ: stolen hours

Here and there over the last two days I’ve snuck an hour or two of stealthy sewing.

Generally it’s been a guilty pleasure, since I’ve known very well that there’s a long list of other, more constructive, things I should be doing. But bother the list. This is what I love to do, and if I could only find one or two bits of important equipment (the stitch ripper for example!), my pleasure would be complete.  I finally gave in and bought a reel of thread, since I couldn’t find the box that had the threads in it.

So here’s the almost complete top of the AHQ Scrumptious quilt. All the strips are now pieced together and the edges are trimmed. I have to measure it again, and add either white sashing round the outside too, or perhaps just the binding will be enough once it’s quilted. I reckon a couple more hours of solid work will see the top finished.

The poor Husband of Chiconia is part way through 16 straight days of night shift, covering for a colleague who’s away. While he’s home and also awake, I’m trying to spend the time with him, since we have no off days together for a couple of weeks. This means not retreating upstairs to the sewing machine unless he’s engrossed in something else, and sadly the chores have made it clear they will not do themselves, so I’m not progressing as fast as usual with this quilt. On the upside, we have from time to time thrown responsibility to the winds and have taken off on Miss Scarlett, our Big Bike, for a little outing and adrenaline rush… All unpacking and no fun makes Kate a dull blogger.

On a completely different subject, we had a Willy Wagtail making free with the trickling water in Frogtopia. He had quite an extensive bath, shook off, had a bit of a shout about it, took another bath, and while this was going on, a Sunbird came to inspect proceedings as well. Both of the little darlings are helping to keep the place clear of insects, so are welcome. The froglets, of course, headed for cover while all this went on, knowing full well that the birds’ larger cousins are not averse to a spot of frog protein in their diet…

Right, back to the evening handwork, which is fast turning into quite a large number of EPP hexies in mostly black. I have no idea what it’s going to become, but until I locate the box that contains Steampunk, it passes the time.

More soon.

 

 

AHQ: back in action

I have been unable to withstand temptation any longer.

Out came the Moda jelly roll I have been hoarding. Pre-cuts make life much easier when you’re not operating at full efficiency. I contacted Aussie Hero Quilts for a new mission, and have been given the ideal task: a quilt for a Leading Aircraftwoman who has left the colour and theme entirely up to the quilt-maker. So I’m going totally girly, as an antidote to the large quantities of neutrals she’ll be encountering in her working and living environment.

How’s this for an antidote to grey?

In case you’re interested, this range is Scrumptious, by Bonnie & Camille for Moda. I’m going to be joining the strips horizontally in the order you see them, then slicing through the lot vertically about 2/3 of the way across, inverting the narrower section and inserting a white sashing strip between the two sections and a white border round the outside. I shall have to see what I have for backing, and there’s plenty of colour choices to pick from for the binding.

What I’m going to do for quilting is still an inscrutable mystery, but I expect it’ll reveal itself soon. Whatever it is, it’ll be done by machine as I have a time deadline to meet which doesn’t allow for hand quilting.

But before I start, I have a lot of fairly tedious but very necessary pressing to do, o joy.