California Girl in Oz

And here it is, in all its glory. Finished size is just over 50" by just over 60". And here are the wishes...first up, Spirit, Hope and Peace: Joy and Kindness: Grit and Patience: Grace, Love and Humor (though my Aussie friends tell me I've misspelled it!): Then there's the back: This was just such a fun quilt to make. I almost hated to see it end. BTW, DON'T embiggen these...you might be shocked at how really bad I am at free-motion quilting...

It was such a gorgeous day here that I thought I'd post a few pics I took at cocktail hour, as DH and I settled in with a glass of wine on the verandah, to enjoy the kitties and the view. I know lots of you are dealing with severe weather and short days, and I wanted to remind you that summer WILL come again...here's proof: Of course, when summer comes again for YOU, WE'LL be shivering and hiding under the covers Down Under... Alfonse, Cloudy and Patch decided to hang about and enjoy the late afternoon/early evening with us: And isn't Patch a handsome fellow? Of course, Alfonse believes that he is ruler of the roost: While the donkeys hung out under the trees, looking for a cooler spot: I meant to get pics of the other kitties, but Frank and Chloe decided it was cooler to lounge on their straw bales in the outdoor room of their kitty condos, while Cassie and Spike were in a deep sleep inside...being Ladies of a Certain Age, they need their beauty sleep!

Yes, there has been quilting going on, even though it is the holiday season. Hot outside yesterday and today (sorry, folks in the Northern Hemisphere!) so it was a good time to sit inside under the ceiling fan and work on the Ten Wishes quilt. Got the quilting finished yesterday, and today I made the binding and got it machine-stitched on. Isn't this fabric a perfect match for the quilt? I don't think it misses out on any of the colors in the quilt! One more pic of the quilted top, just before I put on the binding: And best of all, the binding fabric was from stash, too, which means that aside from the batting, I bought exactly zero fabrics for this quilt. Embarassing, isn't it?! And in other news, I finally finished these little ankle socks I've been working on for a few weeks. The Crystal Palace Panda Silk was a dream to knit...a mix of wool, silk and nylon. It's Grumperina's Jaywalker pattern, only with a short leg part so I can wear them during our

And here it is, in all its glory: Doing the wishes using Tonya's techniques was SO much fun! I learned a lot...don't use fabrics that are too busy or you won't be able to read the words. Ask me how I know! I had to remake Spirit because you absolutely couldn't tell what it said, and even so, the new fabric I chose still isn't the strongest. And I was able to use up a bit of fabric by just using 11" squares of many of the fabrics used in the blocks for the backing: And see that orphan block in the top left of the pic? That will actually be the bottom right of the back of the quilt, and I'll use that block as the label, just adding the text I want. So now, it's off to the LQS to pick up some batting, and the final phase begins. I've chosen a wonderful diagonal stripe fabric for the binding...it has all the colors from the quilt top. And I'm thinking either an all-over fairly nonfussy meander for the quilting, or possibly a wavy grid...what do