Tour de France in July takes over

Well, not completely, but I have spent a lot of late nights watching these amazing athletes during the 3 weeks of the TdF, admiring their stamina and courage, and enjoying the scenery they travel through as well.  It's meant I haven't done as much hand stitching in the evenings, or stitcihng in the daytime, as my sleep pattern has been even more disrupted and erratic than usual.  Not complaining, and it's been good training for the Olympic Games, which have just begun.

Daytimes have been focussed on completing the binding, at last, of my "Iris quilt", begun in a workshop in 2007 with Anjii Solomon at The Paddocks.  Very unexpectedly and tragically, Anjii passed away last year, so it has been really important to me to finish this lap quilt.  However, I had run out of fabric for the binding, and had difficulty sourcing the original Moda range in Australia as it was no longer current.  Fortunately I located sufficient in an online store in USA on my second attempt to get the correct shade of blue, so here is my finished lap quilt, which I will keep as a personal memory of a very lovely lady.

I've also ordered wide-back fabric and wadding for 3 charity quilt tops I made in April and May, so am ready to get all 3 quilts sandwiched together now, and start some basic quilting as soon as possible.  Hope to have at least 2 completed in next 3 weeks, even with Olympics taking some of my attention.

I've almost completed the machine applique of the Geisha girl 'Tea Ceremony' panel that I began  in early  May - it's been more complex than I'd expected, but I'm happy with the overall look. [ Photo when it is finished.]  Off to stitch some more before TV is switched on again for the Games.