No Guilt Quilting

Now, can you see, if you look very carefully, a sewing machine in there? Good grief. I thought I'd share the progress of my quilt with you and as you can see I have finished the piecing together and am now sewing together the three layers - the pieceing, the wadding (the big fat mashed potato stuff) and the backing.

That curious looking lump in the picture of the quilt here is, of course, a toy combine harvester, in case you were wondering. Ah, the scourge of many a quilter.
Now like a complete loon, I have of course gone great guns at this and determined to make a very large quilt, instead of starting nice and small with a lap quilt, and now have an enormous great cloud of stuff to try and sew through. Seriously. It's a wrestling match. There were things flying off the table as the great lumpen mass of quilt whoomphed into things, quite impervious to its massive bulk. Of course if I'd tidied my sewing basket off the table first I wouldn't have had to pick up its entire contents from where it bestrew itself in all directions on the floor. Now would I. It's like an iceberg, this quilt; it just slowly barges into everything in its path. Only it's a bit softer, I suppose. More like a giant marshmallow man like that one in Ghostbusters. It's one heck of a monster to steer through a sewing machine I tell you. Anyway, that's where it's at.
Now maybe you're wondering who this will be a present for? Well, forget it. This will have taken me about a thousand hours by the time it's finished. No way. Hands off. This is going on my sofa, thank you. Which isn't very gift-minded now is it?

You see, I thought I'd throw something fabricky up here in case you like nothing better than a nice spot of fabric to look at in a blog post, because my present making has ground to a slight halt. I was in the middle of a gift last night which required a zip.
A 7 inch zip.
7 inches.
Not 17 inches, no.
So the 17 inch zip I tried (and obviously failed) to sew into it was, you know, just a little overlong. So, that gift's on hold until I learn how to a) read instructions through properly before buying the makings and b) go and buy another zip.
Not to mention the fact that Isla will be big fat 4 soon, and so we were making her birthday party invitations. Now, can I just explain something, because many people say to me, very admiringly, oh how do you find the time, mine were just bought from Tescos, what lovely home-made invitations...
Well, I say to you, I'm not really being very yummy mummy, I am in fact being selfish with my time. I quite like efficiencies, and making your own invitations doubles up on loads of things. Firstly, it's a lovely bit of re-use. All the bits and bobs used on these cards (pipe cleaners, cake cases, fabric, glitter, tissue paper) were dug out of our Old Chinese Takeaway Craft Cartons. Secondly, I get major Good Mother points for doing kitchen table craft activity, thus imbuing in my children a sense of imagination, thrift, the joyous act of making for giving, plus the ability to learn and repeat construction process, spatial awareness engendering, um, teamwork, errr, um, determination to achieve a goal, er, target-driven reward enculturing and er, you know, other really important things they'll need before they're 4.
But mainly, it means I don't have to do it in the evenings! I can do what I want to do in the evenings! Party planning? You're joking aren't you? I don't think so. Sewing, eating, reading, sitting mindlessly in front of the gogglebox craving a pudding? Yes please. So there! You see. Not really such a good mummy after all.