Kitchen Window and At the Beach

I have finished the top of Kitchen Window and am really pleased with how it has turned out. I will do a pieced back from some of the fabrics that I have used on the front and hopefully quilt it his weekend. I am going to FMQ it so wish me luck...it will be my first effort.

It is also Hannah's 15th birthday today. I can't believe that she is already 15. Sarah and I got busy in the kitchen once Hannah had gone to school and made her a cake. She is always lying outside trying to get a tan, so we thought this cake summed up her existence very well...complete with book, iPod, phone (which I believe may have to be surgically removed from her one day!) and her water.

Decadence

My daughter, Hannah, decided she wanted to make a little something special for dessert last night for her little sister. She found a recipe in one of my magazines White and Dark Chocolate Cheesecake. Oh my gosh, my hips automatically put on 5 kilos just reading the recipe! It was very easy to make apparently and she whipped it ip very quickly. The hardest part she said was resisting the urge to dip her fingers into the mixture and keep tasting it.

My strawberry plants are abundant with strawberries at the moment, so we decorated it with a few strawberries from the garden. The verdict....scrumptious.

Guess what I bought today....

Anyone that knows me knows I love technology and gadgets.  I especially love Apple!!  I started with an iMac and an ipod nano, then bought an iphone 2 years ago. When I went to Vietnam I bought an iPad.  My husband rolled his eyes and I could see he was thinking "Oh just another toy" and he referred to it as a silly little ipad. Well, he uses that silly little ipad more than me now!!!

The iphone 4S was released here in NZ yesterday, so I popped into town this morning and am now the owner of a new iphone.  Siri is fun, but there are obviously issues in understanding my Kiwi accent!!! Oh my, it's a hard decision whether to sew or play with my new toy!!

Source: geeksfever.com

I have found a couple of quilting applications that I use on the ipad...BlockFab HD and the Robert Kaufmann quilting calculator. Does anyone have any favourite apps that they can't do without?   I find I use my ipad a lot in the kitchen if I have found a recipe online. I also store pdfs of quilting patterns and photos look great on the ipad, so it becomes a virtual photo album.  If you have an ipad, what do you tend to use it for?

Kitchen Window

A little bit of Anna Maria Horner and a little bit of Pat Bravo mixed together with Kona solids in the first 4 blocks of Kitchen Window by Elizabeth Hartman. I have her book Practical Guide to Patchwork and I like all of the designs in this book. Her instructions are simple and easy to follow and her diagrams make sense! This is stitching up really quickly and hopefully I will have the top finished tomorrow. Wow! That's got to be a record for me.

We are home from the hospital and Sarah is doing really really well. Each day she surprises me more with what she can do. She is transferring independently to and from her wheelchair now and I can hear her rattling around in the kitchen making something to eat!!  That girl sure has got determination.  Still gets very tired though and needs to have a couple of sleeps a day. That is my "me" time (aka quilting time).

Bloggers Quilt Festival

My entry into the Blogger's Quilt Festival this time is my Bliss quilt using the Wild Things pattern by Thimble Blossoms. I love this range of fabrics and wanted to showcase the whole range.  The aquas, reds and greens look so lovely together and I find them quite restful.

I finished this quilt last night sitting beside my daughter's hospital bed.  I had started the binding before her accident and all it needed was to be handsewn down.  So the quilt is covering her in bed. I had strict instructions from her that she didn't want to be in the photo!! I think this quilt will always remind me of this ghastly week now.

I had really wanted to do FMQ on this quilt, but ended up chickening out. Didn't feel confident enough, so I straight line quilted it. I pieced the back using my fav fabrics from the range.

How quickly life can change...

Right now I am sitting at the hospital next to my little girl. Last Friday I got the call that every parent dreads...."hello, There has been an accident and your child is hurt". I was on my way to pick up Sarah as she had been away at school camp for the week. The parent who was driving the car turned into the school driveway without seeing an oncoming car. Sarah was the rear seat passenger and took the full brunt of the impact as the car hit her directly. When I got to the scene, she was trapped in the car and was unconscious. She needed to be freed from the car by the fire service and was air lifted to the hospital. She has sustained a subdural haematoma with a head injury, facial and nasal fractures, fractured pelvis and fractured femur along with more bruises covering her little body.

I can't get any photos to upload at the moment but there is a pic of the car on flickr. http://www.flickr.com/photos/61671915@N02/6302961567/in/photo stream

It has been a roller coaster these last few days but she is making progress now. She is such a brave little girl and so strong. I can't bring myself to leave her side and when I do, all I think about is getting back to her. It is going to be a long haul for the next few months...

I did go home last evening for a couple of hours and brought back my Bliss quilt to finish the binding on. She sleeps an enormous amount as a result of the drugs and the head injury so I will make good use of the time she is asleep!