February? Already??

How did it get to be February? This year seems to have raced away leaving my blog floundering in the wake. There has been no shortage of stitching featuring in my activities - first I had the challenge of getting the birthday quilt finished for my dear friend. There were many days of concentrated stitching leading up to us heading to the beach and the odd meltdown when I was convinced that I wasn't going to get there!

Thank goodness Marilyn was able to urge me on when things got hairy with the free motion quilting...

and the lines that just wouldn't stay straight! The quilt came to the beach with me so I could stitch down the binding in the evenings. The only thing not finished was the label which was stitched to the back of the quilt over a gin and tonic (it appears to be fairly straight!) after I had given it to it's new owner on her birthday. I'm happy to say that she loves it.

It was a tight finish to the deadline - never again....famous last words I suspect!!

So what else have I been doing? While up at the beach I played with a bit more eco dyeing. There was a huge eucalyptus tree on the property so it seemed a shame not to do something with all the leaves that were lying around. 

No sooner were we home than we headed to Queenstown for a family wedding - my job was to get the binding onto the quilt for the happy couple - accomplished but without a photo taken. What was I thinking?

Now that I am home, and life is reverting to normal (back to work, all the children back to school including our two boys starting at two different secondary schools on the same day... etc etc) I've turned my attention back to Frida and the amulets. I've started putting sashing between the blocks and getting it all put together. So exciting...

And best of all it's a long weekend here - with a fair wind behind me I hope to have the top all together before work beckons again on Tuesday.

Happy stitching where ever you are - and a belated Happy New Year.