cushions and driving tests

 So the froglet conned me into making the boyfriend a cushion to go with his quilt.... I was thinking bout something along these lines, just going to quilt this to make it a bit more sturdy and then turn it into a nice cushion.

 My biggest news though and really scary too, is that the froglet after 135 hours of driving with me passed her driving test on Friday and is now a fully fledged red P plater!  omg.... I knew she would pass but now I have the worry of her out on the road on her own.  She is on her maiden solo trip into work in the city.  She called me when she got there and had parked, she was worried she would be fined but we had sussed out the parking weeks ago and I reassured her she would be fine.  Its now 11pm, she text me to let me know she is on her way home.

Most of you will recognise the hungry Caterpillar fabric, the froglet loves this story and asked me for a cushion a while ago.

 I decided that passing her driving test was good enough to reward her with her prized cushion.

 I used a pattern that I bought from gumvalleypatchwork.typepad.com a few years ago and made for my mum.  Obviously this isn't the fabric or design but I was able to convert it without much trouble to utilise the fabrics.

I also managed to finally turn a project that I started at our guilds symposium into a cushion.  this was kellie wolfson of dontlooknow.typepad.com who seems to have fallen off the Internet... I hope that she is well and just taking a break from the pressures of blogging etc.

Was a busy weekend with the noisy one going to a party and dressed up as Abby from NCIS, she had to dye her hair black and I used a sharpie to give her tattoos... something is wrong with my photo card and it wont download my photos eeekkkk!  hope that I can get them onto the pc as she looked great.

quilt top complete

I'm very pleased with how the quilt has turned out and how quickly it came together

 The boarders went on like a dream and then I was able to take it to my guild night and baste ready to quilt.

 I laid it on my bed to see how it looked.... quite suits my new wall colour....

 I sat down on Friday and quilted it using a nice simple stipple.  I like to think about the recipient of a quilt when I am working on them, I also think about the label and what needs to be said.  I'm a little stumped with this label but I'm sure I will figure it out while I am stitching down the binding.

still sewing and riding

 oopps... these photos are sideways!!  oh well will give your neck a stretch to the side heheheh.  As you can see I have finished the blocks and sewn them together.

 The boarders need to go on... they are the dark blue and I believe will frame the quilt nicely.

 Ive been on 2 weeks annual leave and been trying to sew in between some stinking hot weather.

 On Sunday I rode up Arthur's Seat as part of Amy's ride.  I have done this climb 2 years ago and i had hoped to see some improvement in my time as I had done very little riding 2 years ago.

 I knocked off nearly 10 minutes on my climb, gotta be happy with that! 

 The climb is actually quite short at just shy of 3km.  But there are some brutal corners with some very steep gradients.

 There was another descccent further into the ride, it had a warning sign saying caution steep decent... I couldn't see the road as I approached it and then when I got to the crest it just plunged down and had 2 hairpin bends.... I must say I really enjoyed the decent, didn't really bother with the brakes and got my top speed ever..... 68.8kmph  I didn't know at the time I was doing that but my friend said I just disappeared over the edge woo hooing.

 Unfortunately it was 30degrees when we started at 8.30am and that took its toll on many many riders.  We got to the 41km drink station only to find that there was no water for us... I can tell you we weren't impressed, along with nearly 1000 other riders.  We went into a farmhouse and got water from them... but a little further up the road we were informed that due to the high temps (now into the 40's) and the high winds (up to 70kmph) the 100km ride was cancelled and we had to turn off to do the 60km ride.  It was bitter sweet as we were looking forward to doing another 100km ride but it was getting rather hairy with the wind and debris on the road.

This is the view from near the top of Arthur's Seat, looking down towards Macrae... we went and had a well earned coffee and date scone there before going home.  The Jayco tour was supposed to have their final race on sunday after we had finished our ride, but it was also cancelled... so we drove up to take the photos, we couldnt quite believe we had ridden up there a few hours earlier :)

Blocks complete in the heat

 the heat knocked the stuffing out of the cat... he was on top of the TV and fell off with a thunk and then decided to just stay there... note the left paw its across his chest lol.

 Milly also was pretty quiet but still wanted to be as close to me as possible.  The weather has been really hot here, but today we had a lovely cool change.

 I have now completed the blocks for the boyfriends quilt, so now to lay them out and sew them up.

 So many different colours....

 Even though there are some flowers I think it wont be too girly.  Some of the fabrics actually remind me of Hawaiian shirts.








This is an updated photo of the war wound. Ive decided its like a carpet burn... I think my poor beast got more damage than me, I broke my drink bottle cage... its got good old gaffer tape holding it together till I buy a new one.... chipped a hunk of paint off and the end of my left hood (for non cyclists its the bit that has the gear levers on).  Might seem trivial but imagine your sewing machine with hunks out of it!! 

tram tracks

Today's post is brought to you by the letters T and W.

 Today's valuable lesson was in how to fall gracefully off ones road bike on tram tracks.  Yes Road bike wheels fit into tram tracks very nicely.

these aren't my actual wheels (wishful thinking there!) But they give you an idea of my wheels

 

 This is however an actual picture of my elbow that took the brunt of my fall today.  could have been much worse, my bestie who fell a few weeks ago is still nursing a sore arm, but is riding with me still. (waiting for someone to tell us that perhaps we shouldn't ride together any more lol)

So here is my garmin... shows you the time I started, how long we rode for and the distance. Was a nice ride and we missed most of the heat (36 degrees here today)

So the quilt for the boyfriend continues... strips are being sewn together, and four patches are now ready to have the next part sewn to them.

S

 I'm really pleased with the colours and pattern, I hope that he will appreciate the quilt, I usually only make them for those that I hold close to me and that will understand the time and love that has gone into them....

Have you ever given a handmade gift to someone and realised that they have no idea how much time and effort can go into something specially made?