Happy New Year!

2017 was a busy year, but overall much more productive and successful than 2016 - onwards and upwards worked a treat.

On the (quilt) blogging front I almost managed to double my meagre 4 posts in 2016 to 7 posts in 2017 (my e-learning blog only had 5 posts oops). I have made some use of Instagram (18 posts) which is very convenient when you just quickly want to get some feedback / want to show off progress or a finished project without needing to write much.

Work was a blast, I really love the mahi (work) and what our team have been able to achieve in 2017 - from no one with any experience in Museum Education whatsoever to 3 teachers who continue to rework and refine programmes and have worked with more than 6500 young people this year - and 2018 is looking even more exciting...

Our boys are growing up so fast; the 'bonus child' has returned home to his family and woke up to this on his first morning:

The oldest DS has finished school (!!!) and is off to university next year. He managed to score himself two scholarships which in combination with the new government's first-year-fees-free policy seriously cut down the amount of money he has to borrow from StudyLink. Middle DS is now starting to pursue his interest in film and television more seriously, it's so cool to see when they realise what approximate direction they want to take in life. The youngest DS is doing well also, still a little off from making any of these serious life decisions but he is proving to us that he can be responsible and think before he acts (a big thing for a 13y old boy!). DH has been in a permanent position since mid year and spent his free time gardening and building / doing repairs around the house. As per usual we celebrated German Christmas on 24 December, this year with 11 people and on the new extension to the deck: 

While we have a had nice summer weather since the beginning of December, it was grey a drizzly over the Christmas holidays and right now it's raining outside! In contrast, this is how we spent Saturday:

On the quilting front I have managed to achieve most of my resolutions from 2017 (which has really surprised me, I'm not one for making and sticking to resolutions lol):

• Finish Press Start (binding, bury threads)
• Finish Giant Chevron (quilting, binding, bury threads)
• Finish Opal Essence (quilting, binding, bury threads): This had been finished with faux piped binding (inspired by Suz) for a little while and but there were still heaps of threads to bury. I finally got my act together and finished it yesterday:



Airing out on the line; going over it with the lint roller helped me find a few more threads to bury...

This is what it's meant to look like on the bed.

Close up of the quilting: Straight lines (walking foot) to support the 3D look on the cubes, and fmq pebbles of varying sizes in the dark background. The pebbles helped sort out any excess bulk, too.

And here the back; I tend to quilt with the same thread in the bobbin as on top to avoid tension issues.

I like the finished look of the fauz piped binding though my execution on the back needs some more practise. I prefer narrower binding in general, so I will experiment with this technique more in the future.

• Complete remaining Vintage Quilt Revival blocks (anything else is a bonus)
• Piece Metro Rings top (anything else is a bonus) 
• New litte Plus Block project
• Something 'arty': I have just picked up my Pohutukawa improv project again.

So here are my resolutions for 2018:

• Quilt and finish Vintage Quilt Revival.
• Quilt and finish Metro Rings.
• Complete, quilt and finish Improv Pohutukawa.
• Learn how to use rulers for quilting on my Pfaff machine. 
• Use the remaining blocks from Aniwaniwa - Rainbow in some new project, and / or create something with my charm squares.
• I have also asked DH to come up with an idea + technique for an arty quilt he has been nagging asking me about for a few years.

Given two of these projects are for my California King sized bed, this should keep me busy, shouldn't it?

Happy Sewing!!!