Tiffin for Two

On Friday I went to the Canberra Quilters' exhibition and saw it for the first time as a non-exhibitor. It was a fantastic show. The winning (judged) quilt was made by a girl who lives in Tokyo, and I thought it was spectacular - red, hand quilted, hand pieced, hand appliqued, and gorgeous. It was very deserving of best of show, in my opinion (although I know there are some who don't agree with me, and that's fine. We don't all have to agree). I really wish I could show you the photo of the quilt, but I'm not allowed to blog it. Hopefully the website will be updated soon with photos of the winning quilts. If you have Friday's Canberra Times, there is a photo in there too.

Last night we had the annual Southern Cross Quilters' dinner. The company is always lovely and it's good to laugh and share with quilters that we often only see once a year at exhibition time. So on arriving back home, I was inspired (it may have been the beer) to lay my hexagon quilt-in-progress out on the spare bed, to check for length and to also see how much further I had to go.



Seems that I have progressed further than I thought, so now I'm fired up to finish it off. I still have the bottom half to finish, and about 15 half-hexagons to insert into the top and bottom, to keep the edges straight. I still haven't worked out what to do with the sides, but they may stay pointy.



This photo was taken this morning, after a deep sleep filled with dreams of odd shaped quilts and corners and piecing papers and pricked fingers. (Again, it may have been the beer, rather than the excitement before bedtime over seeing my quilt so close to being a completed top that caused such vivid dreams!)

I want to finish the top by my 40th birthday in late September. That will give me at least 9 months to hand quilt the monster. If I can do it, it will be the perfect birthday present to myself.

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A blog I only recently discovered is Attic24. Have you seen it? It's filled with crochet and bright colours and flowers and life in a northern English village. It is a very happy blog. Did I mention the crochet? I love, love, LOVE a beautiful crochet blog!

So the other day, Lucy posted her recipe for Cranberry and Pecan Tiffin. I was having a Project Runway Australia viewing session this afternoon with my friend who is also a massive Attic24 fan, so I made Lucy's tiffin, but I used dried cherries instead of cranberries.



Verdict? Delicious!