New Quilt Top and a bit of Gardening

The last few days have been a frenzy of activity as I have tried to cram in all the activities I have put aside while I have been working. On top of this, despite being childless at the moment, I have been trying to sort out all my sons' issues from afar. Things like uni enrollments, teacher registrations, stat declarations, illness and early returns and job terminations. Thank goodness for wifi and smart phones. In between I have been stitching and preparing a few tops for basting. Today, I hope to get 2 done.

I made this over the last 2 days.

I lovely lady at work was cleaning out her garage and had rolls of fabric to get rid of.

When she gave them to me, I was a bit unsure of what I was going to do with them so I packed them away for further thought. I am unused to having large quantities of fabric and most of the stuff I work with is less than a metre long. Here were metres of plains that were of a very unusual palate.

Because I had so much of it, I thought I could afford to experiment. I have always wanted to make a triangle quilt but was a bit scared of the joins. I took all the fabrics, chopped them up, laid them out and this is what I got. I didn't stare at it, rearrange, nothing. This is pretty much my first layout.

In normal situations, I would never put these colours together but I am really quite pleased with the result. There is bright red and rusty brown as well as 3 shades of yellow and the pink. The colours are a bit hard to discern from the photos. I found the triangles to be a cinch! Much easier than diamonds to put together.

As for the gardening, a rather rare thing is about to happen at the Royal Botanical Gardens in Melbourne. They have a Titan Arum plant which is about to flower. Flowering is very rare and quite spectacular. I had never heard about this plant until I started teaching Year 2. One of the first comprehension pieces we use is about this monster plant. For 3 years running I have been talking about this plant and here it is in real life! I dragged my poor and only mildly interested husband along for the viewing. The plant is only about my height at the moment but it grows 10cm at day and by Christmas Day it should be open.

When it opens the frilly lower section peels back and is a rusty red colour on the inside. The point bit is covered in lots of tiny flowers that stink like off meat to attract flies and bugs to it so that they will pollinate it. It is in flower for about a day and then it dies.

I am coming back when the action starts. It should be at least 2 metres tall by then and very smelly.

The gardens are stunning at the moment and worth a visit.