I'm back!

We had a great holiday in Germany, caught up with lots of family and friends but even better the kids enjoyed our showing them where we grew up and want to go back! There were stressful times, e.g. when Mstr 13y old decided that it was time to go home to New Zealand at around day 25 of 36 and continued to tell us so at any occasion for the next 10 days, or when same boy and Mstr 8y old got quite airsick on the way home or when the nights after 36degC during the day just were unbearably hot and all three Mstrs (short for monsters?!) would not go to sleep until just before midnight... There was plenty of hearty food and drink which my hips have taken a liking to (a moment on the lips...), we have visited castles and churches, rode on trains, buses and subways etc. etc. While still not complete, you can see some of what we have been up to on our travel blog - kernzholidayingermany.blogspot.co.nz.

I have only been to ONE quilting shop in Germany - I simply couldn't see any! There used to be plenty of material shops when I grew up (about 500y ago, I know...), but the one shop I found had no fabrics I couldn't get anywhere else and just as expensive as here! I asked at one material shop that carry some quilting fabrics, the owner didn't think there were any specific German lines of quilting fabrics (here in NZ we have Kiwiana fabrics, batiks with NZ motifs etc.). Overall I was very disappointed! The only highlight in this regard was my visit to Ikea, the spoils of which will hopefully arrive per parcel soon (the suitcases must have shrunk between arrival and departure, just like my clothes while I think of it, so I had to send a parcel).

I didn't get much done as you can imagine, but one afternoon I got into some EPP:

One day this will go onto the Great Barrier Reef Quilt I plan to one day (!) make for middle DS :-)

I had a weekend at home before I went back to work, and on the second day back oldest DS came home with a request for a fundraiser item to go into their Auction of Promises, so after some checking of my stash I launched into what I think I have seen called a race quilt? Very quick and painless, backed with light polarfleece with a layer of polyester batting and by now already quilted with freehand swirls, ready to bind:

I'll take some better pics at day, the quilting shows up better on the back. Not sure that I want to make another one, it would get boring I think?

What next: Firework and Summer All Year Long need finishing, I have picked my materials for my next bag for the Bag Along, and Suz has cut the strips for the next two blocks of the Tokyo Subway quilt. Do I really have to go to work tomorrow???

Happy Sewing!