This week my copy of 1000 Quilt Inspirations - Colourful and Creative Designs for Traditional, Modern and Art Quilts by Sandra Sider arrived. How exciting!
I knew Speed, my little bycicle quilt, would be in it, but was surprised to see Black & White #3 and #2 in it as well:
As the title says, the book is full of inspiration. There are no patterns or techniques and there is very little text (just a 2-page introduction) - it's just lots and lots of images of gorgeous quilts. I spend a wonderful evening going through it slowly.
I showed the book to a few non-quilting friends and they really enjoyed looking through it. A perfect coffee table book!
Last week I had the most fabulous mini holiday in New Zealand. It was wonderful to see my best friend and her family again after almost three years. And wat a stunningly beautiful country!
With my friend and her three girls (the same age as my boys) I did a 3-hour beach and cliff top walk - and a pod of dolphins swam along with us for most of the way!
We found this piece of beach art :-)
Near Matakana I saw this beautiful horse sculpture:
Of course there were lots of ferns:
For my friend's birthday I had made her a Dutch post bag. She loved it :-)
On the last day of my stay, Mathea and Charlotte came down from Kerikeri to visit. I have 'known' both of them for years through their blogs, Facebook and email, but it was lovely to finally meet them IRL.
More photos of New Zealand can be found on my photo blog.
This past weekend was filled with two of my favourite things: gymnastics and quilts. My eldest son competed both days in the Senior State Championships and when we weren't at the competition venue I was busy piecing this quilt top:
Yesterday I quilted it and today I hand-sewed the binding on. Very happy with this very green quilt! It was the first time I gave equilateral triangles a go, but it won't be the last time, I think.
Hugo did very well at States:
He came second on pommel horse, third on parallel bars, fifth on rings, sixth on high bar and fifth overall, earning a place on the team that will represent Queensland at the Australian Gymnastics Championships in May. Yay, we are going to Melbourne again!
But first I am going to New Zealand - tomorrow! I am going to visit my BFF who is living there for a year with her family. Coming back on Monday night. So looking forward to this trip!
Here are a few videos of Hugo at the State Championships. All these routines are compulsory and have a maximum score of 11 (except vault, where the maximum score is 10). This is his parallel bars routine on day 2 - score 10.7!
High bar on day 1, score 9.75:
Rings day 2, score 10.1:
And buck, score 10.2 (boys in Level 7 Under 12 do pommel on day 1 and buck on day 2. His score on day 1 was 9.8).
The boys also compete on floor and vault. Hugo's scores on these apparatus are always a bit lower because he has very rigid shoulders and upper spine, so he isn't a very good tumbler. This is his vault on day 1 - score 8.95
His floor routines weren't very good at States, so I'll share his routine from the Regional Championships, two weeks earlier. That one was quite exceptional for him; score 9.25.
