SURPRISE!!

Big surprise ... not only am I posting twice in two days (Chookyblue just fell off her chair! Tee! Hee! Hee!) but I'm also about to share a photo that has been five years in the making (or six? can't remember!!) ... something else that might give Chooky heart palpitations. :0)

Back at a time so far in history that I can't pin it down, I signed up to be part of a stitch-along to make Anni Downs' "A Gardener's Journal" quilt. I had the book tucked away and I thought joining the stitch-along would motivate me to get it done.

I dutifully stitched away on the blocks ...

... I slowly pieced them together ...

... and muttered and swore about one and a half inch blocks! :0)

... Until I had the bulk of the quilt together! YAY! And then ... I came to a screaming halt!! You see, when I started the stitch-along, I made myself (and the long-suffering Beloved Geek Boy!!) a promise that it wouldn't cost anything, I would only use fabrics from my stash. That was pretty easy until I got to the border stage. The problem was ... the largest cut of fabric I buy 'just because' tends to be 40cm ... half a metre if I REALLY love it. So I just didn't have enough of one particular fabric for  the outer border in my stash ... and the quilt got stuffed in the sewing room cupboard. BLUSH!!

From time to time, I'd pull it out and look at it, um and ah ... and put it back in the 'too hard' basket. Until last week ...

I FINALLY came up with a way to make it work with what I had in my stash. So I stole the last couple of days of my holiday to hit the machine. Do you want to see what I came up with?? OK ... :0)

TA DA!! It may not be the way I would have chosen to finish it, but I rather like it. :0) (The photo doesn't really show the true colours as it was taken late in the afternoon.) I had three pieces of different green fabric, but they were all a little different, so to pull it all together, I decided to mimic those swear-word-inducing one and a half inch squares in the border ... with bigger squares and lots of bright colours. It reminds me of a favourite saying of most quilters ...

When Life Gives You Scraps ...

Make Quilts!!

So it is now ready for the Fabulous Fiona to wave her magic quilting wand over it ... but I'll let her settle into her new sewing room first! :0) Thank you Chookyblue for wielding the "get it don" whip on the stitch-along. I'm probably one of your tardiest participants, but I got there ... a few years late! :0)

That's it for now ... no more surprises ... just another gentle reminder to all you lovely OPAMers to update your sidebar lists and email your finishes to me or Sweet Peg. But right now ... I'm off to put on my jim-jams and crawl into bed. This pretending to be a grown up is an exhausting business! Tee! Hee! Hee! Til next time ...

BEAR HUGS!

CHEERS!
KRIS