A happy reunion

Bernie and I had a very happy reunion yesterday. My little (but so very heavy) sewing machine smells so very clean, is so very quiet again, and has no tension issues!

To celebrate, I quilted the placemats I made the other day and sewed on the binding. I had planned to bind the mats in green, but couldn't find the perfect green in my stash, so settled for this beige-ish colour instead.

On the back of the mats, I used a cute fabric from my stash called 'Harvest Melody' by Nancy Halvorsen. It's a really cute fabric, and will make the mats reversible for use throughout the year. The binding fabric I ultimately used was from the same range and matched both sides pretty well.

I hope to hand sew the binding down this morning, and then this afternoon I'll head to the grocery store. If I have the chance this afternoon I'll spend some time tackling the Winnie the Pooh project. I know I'm not going to be able to strike that goal off my list this month. I don't have enough batt to use for the quilt, and I won't be heading to the quilt store today as I'm teaching there tomorrow.

Well, that's it from me. Happy Halloween to all those that celebrate it, hope your day is grrrrrrreat!

Celebrate!!

Bernie is home!! Hooray!! Can't talk ... quilting!
x o x

And I'm sewing ...

Here is the little featherweight baby I sometimes sew with. My other featherweight is always on display, and to be honest, I'm not sure if I've ever sewed with her. I feel sure when she first came home we must have checked her out, but apart from that, she's been in retirement here.

I had to think carefully about what I wanted to sew with my little feather-honey, as it had cream coloured cotton in the bobbin, and I have to get out the instruction manual every time I need to thread the needle or change a bobbin, so I wanted it to stay the same.

The first item I set to putting together was four placemats which will go towards my Mum's Christmas present. The braid was something I'd already pieced a long strip of, and these placemats were something I'd had a practice go at a couple of months ago. I can set them aside now for quilting. Bernie will be home tomorrow so I can get them machine quilted. We use the practice placemats every day on the kitchen table. I really like them!

Next I decided to make some more of the blue and cream 'diet' blocks. I was making these a little while back while counting WW. I'm counting points again, and I'll hopefully have a good result at the end of the week. Things are going okay so far. I made around 10 blocks, and also many half square triangles and four patches to make maybe 6 more. I've laid the blocks out on the cutting mat, but I don't necessarily know if this is the way I'll lay them out. I really like the way Bonnie laid hers out in more of a 'barn raising' style.

This block is for Nancy, I thought she'd like to see the kitty on there :-)
The cream fabric in the bottom half square triangle is from the first quilt I ever made, and so is the blue square in the top four patch. Who would ever have thought I'd have some of those fabrics still laying around! I love Bonnie's scrap patterns, I've said it so many times ... I just love her inspiration to get the old stuff out of the stash!

Collections & Nine patches

I started to lay out the nine-patches yesterday, just to see how they'd look with the background fabric. I managed to cut out all the setting squares, and I'm super happy with how they're all going to look together. Linda sent me over a piece of fabric she'd got last year at Carolea's in Sunnyvale. I was sad to hear that Carolea's closed recently. They had the best back porch where you could pick up some bargains. I went there when I was in the US, and I was able to get some great toile fabric for just over $3.00 US a yard.

See how easy it is for me to go off on a tangent ... I don't have much red in my stash, so for the setting triangles around the edges of the nine patches I'll get a red something from the quilt store after this month's fabric diet is done with. There's not too long to go!

Not much sewing going on in this house. I was due to go and collect my Bernie this morning, but when I called Otto told me that he just hadn't had an opportunity to look at it yet, and would I mind collecting it on Monday morning? You know, since I've had her, apart from holidays I don't think I've ever been away from her over a weekend! I'm going to have to put one of the featherweights in the sewing room. I have to sew on the weekend!

Yesterday Nancy asked about what people collect. I love her collection of cats. I collect blue and white china. Mainly Spode and Johnson Brothers, but if there is a piece that takes my fancy, I'll give that a good home too. This is the dresser that lives above our kitchen table. It's filled with the Blue Willow china I received when we were married, and the Spode Blue Italian set my Mum gave me one Christmas.

On the walls are my Spode Blue Room collection plates. I just love all of them, and even have a Blue Room clock.

This picture is looking from the kitchen table toward the hallway that leads to our bedroom and front door. I love the Spode Christmas plates, and you can see all the ones that I have! Gosh, it looks so dark in our bedroom? I must still have the curtains drawn.

I do collect other things, like old Singer sewing machines, but I don't have nearly so many of those. That may be something to share another day. Thank you for asking about our collections Nancy, who's going to be the next to share?

Ohh, I mustn't forget, a couple of people have asked me questions in comments, but without return mail addresses. I haven't forgotten about you, but I'll have to go thru and find your messages again to respond. Don't give up on me!

Disjointed

I love my Bernina. I really do! This morning I can't seem to settle. I know it sounds crazy, but every time I think I want to do something, I realise I can't because it requires me to use my favourite sewing machine, or break my fabric diet!

First of all I thought I'd make up one of the bags toward the Xmas list, but then realised I'd need to quilt the pieces before assembly, and I don't think I can put my Featherweights through that. They piece like a dream, but I'm not sure about their quilting capability.

Then I started thinking about the Atlantic Jewel top I pieced not so long ago ... but of course, it needs quilting, so I'll wait on that one too.

Next, I thought I'd start putting the nine patches together, but realised I don't have the fabric for the setting triangles. I've only a few days more on the fabric diet, so don't want to break it. Hmmm ... I'll say it again ... disjointed. My friend Cheryl calls it the 'nadges'. When you just can't settle to something, you've got the nadges.

So, what I'll do is this ... I'm going to choose the 144 nine patches from the 190 odd that I have made up with Linda, and then I'll cut the setting squares. Linda sent me a lovely piece of fabric to use for the setting squares. I've put it there next to my pile of nine patches. It's really sweet, and will look great with the solid dark red fabric I have in mind for the setting triangles.

The nine patches that Linda made are the ones closest to the setting square fabric. The ones I made have some really old and ugly fabrics in them, it will be fun to use them up in a quilt. They even have some little pieces of fabrics I used in my first ever quilt. Those fabrics have been sitting in my stash for 14 years! Thank you so much to our wonderful friend Bonnie Hunter for giving us the inspiration to use up our stash!

Two more toward Xmas

Strike another goal off the list! I have completed the scarf for my MIL, I will make her a quilted bag too to complete her Xmas gift. Knitting seems to be really in vogue right now, so it wasn't hard to get into it at all. Cameron loved the scarf while I was knitting it, and he's asked for me to make him one too. He's chosen the wool already (from my very small stash) and I've cast on and started a few rows.

I've also made up a little Xmas gift for one of Marty's cousins. I found these really cute coffee cups and thought I'd make up some little mug mats to go with them. I really like how the cups look with the mats, so I may find some more cups and put them aside for birthday gifts for my friends during the course of the year.

Yesterday was a superfun day. I always love my teaching day at the quilt store. We have the loveliest bunch of girls come along, it's more like a social group. One of the girls, Maureen, is just learning how to machine quilt, and she's got a few projects backed up waiting to be quilted. She's been making up these little table runners lately, they're made up from those little 5" squares of Moda fabrics, you know the ones, right? Well, I felt like it would be fun to do a little mindless machine quilting, so I offered to quilt one for her. Her favourite design is the peacock feathers, so I happily quilted it for her last night.

This morning I'm taking my dear little Bernie in to be serviced. It's really due to be done, but you know, I can never bear to be away from it. I called Otto, and he asked me 'What are you going to do?' because he knows how prolific I can be ... and I told him that this time I'll just have to go into withdrawal for a little while. If I really need to, I can crack open one of the Featherweight boxes. My last goal for the month could be interesting without my favourite machine, but where there's a will, there's a way!

A quick share

Blogger doesn't seem to be playing very nice this morning, so I will keep my post short and sweet lest it be lost in a blogger-abyss.

While we were at the beach house recently, I had a little inspiration for a new quilt, and so drew it up so I wouldn't forget all about it. Here is a picture. Amy and I are going to make it together, it should be a fun one for us both to do.

A few people asked if I'm using EQ5 to do my quilt drawing. I don't actually use a quilt program, I use Corel Draw. I find it's great for what I want to do, but the downside is that it doesn't do any calculating of yardage etc for me. The reason I love it is beause I have the freedom to draw any applique shapes I like, and of course I know the program so well. Having said that, I am considering purchasing EQ6 when it comes out. I think it would be a great tool to have. I'll decide later.

Well, that's it from me for today, I will save while I'm ahead!

Drawing done

One of the things on my list of goals for this month is to draw up the Zig Zag Nine Patch quilt the way I want to make it up. This is one of Bonnie's Leader and Ender projects, and I fell in love with it the minute I saw it. In Bonnie's quilt, she has cut some nine patches in half at the top and bottom of the quilt, and I decided I'd rather not do that, and I also wanted to check out how many blocks and setting squares I'd need. So, here's the quilt I drew up last night.

I have found that I already have too many blocks, so I may end up making a lap quilt also. I don't think I want to make the quilt any larger, as it's going to be 70"x90" already.

So that I can finish off a couple of last things from my goals for this month, I'll hold off on putting this quilt together until next month. I'd like to get a few more Xmas gifts made and I would love to get the Winnie the Pooh quilt on the move again.

Last night I did some more knitting, I've almost finished the scarf for my MIL. There was nothing I wanted to watch on the box while I was knitting, so I put one of my favourite movies on and clicked away. I chose Breakfast at Tiffanys, I just love that movie.

Well, that's it from me, have a great day! x o x

It's outta my hands ...

That's it ... the tiny baby quilt is outta my hands now. It's a wierd feeling putting your quilt into someone else's hands. Will they look after it as I have ... will I see it again ... will it play nicely with others :-) ... anyways, it's in the hands of the show's convenors now, and the next time I see it will be along with lots of other people. Regardless of my result in the show, I had fun making it, and I did the best I could with the design I chose.

I've just wandered into the 'sewing room' (it's a sewing room this weekend, cuz hubby and his guest are away), and this is what I'm faced with ... It just doesn't inspire me to pick up anything and start sewing. The machine is on the other side of the room, and it's still all folded away. Hmmm ... maybe this is a mini creative slump? Or maybe I'm having separation anxiety from the teeny quilt?

I think instead I'll start working the layout for the nine patch quilt on the computer. Linda and I have made up lots of scrappy nine patches over the past year or so to use in the 'Zig Zag Nine Patch' quilt from Bonnie's website. I just need to figure out how many nine patches I need, and how many setting squares and triangles to cut. That'll keep me busy ...

I'm sure I'll be inspired by this evening ... who knows ... I could catch up some reading ...

Ebay - thy name is friend

Gosh Ebay can be wonderful! Anything you ever need, you can find it there, along with lots of things you don't really need, but you'd really like!

Here are my two latest purchases. One is the book Kathie shared on her blog. I saw it and knew it would be something I'd love to own. It arrived last week, and I haven't had much of a chance to read it, but I'm impressed. One thing I did notice was that some of the people featured in the book have sooooooo much fabric, and stored so neatly! I can't even imagine owning so much!

The other item is a mouli. I've never had the need to buy one of these before, but this year we have the possibility of a huge crop of tomatoes. I have plans of putting loads of tomato puree, tomato sauce and pasta sauce in my fowlers jars, so on the advice of my friend who has Italian inlaws, it seemed a mouli was the way to go!

I was tagged! May Britt shared her favourite sewing space with us all, and here is my favourite Summer sewing space. The family room is much cooler than the lounge in the Spring/Summer, and I can keep one eye on the kids outside in the patio.

Ohh, what's that you see there? Could it be the mini quilt bound and completed! Well, yes it is! *lol* I'm so pleased it's finished, today I'm doing the label and travelling bag, and I hope to deliver it tomorrow. One week earlier than expected. Thank heavens it's done. There were many moments I wondered if I'd get it done in time at all. Thank you all so much for your many words of encouragement and praise. It's really meant so much ... really! Now ... it's my turn to tag some people ... I choose .... Kathie from Threadlines ... Mama Koch from Oklahoma ... and Hedgehog from Finland. I want to choose everyone (I have 70 of you as my favourites in Bloglines) ... so go on ... share with me anyways!

Have a great weekend everyone! x o x

Quilting done!

Last night I finished the last of the quilting on the teeny quilt. I then washed the quilt to remove all the marking lines and blocked it. I set it out to dry on a towel last night, and here you see it this morning.

The men have headed off now, so today when it's completely dry I'll add the binding. I'm so pleased to be so near completion one week earlier than expected. It means that I have extra time to work on other goals. I've actually completed one item on my goals list, and I always forget to mark it off. I'll mark it done when I mark this quilt off the list.

I'm working with the phone-camera again, as Marty has taken the d-camera with him, but I think the picture is okay ... just as long as I don't feel the need for close-ups this weekend, all will be well. Have a great day everyone!

Up for air ...

Hi everyone. Just a quick post to let you know I'm still around, I didn't get trapped under anything heavy while tidying the sewing room! Marty's guest arrived last night to a lovely tidy 'guest room'. I'm so pleased. While I'm sure he wouldn't have minded if it was not so tidy, my pride wouldn't let it be anything else.

I had lunch again today with my long-lost and recently-found school friend. It was wonderful once again. I'm so pleased we bumped into each other all those months ago, it's like 20 years never went by!

Also, I'm still quilting away on my mini quilt. I will have the quilting finished today, I have only one or two more inches to go. I will get the binding on tomorrow after the men have headed off for the beach house. A bunch of buddies are heading off for a manly long-weekend together. After having two full weeks to myself in the USA, I feel that hubby is definitely entitled to a boys weekend away!

I was searching through some old pictures on the computer today, and found this picture. I had forgotten all about this quilt. It was made for a work friend of mine when she was expecting her first baby. Her baby is now in school, so it must have been some time ago. I made it up from a series of orphan blocks, and with some paper pieced animals from the Margaret Rolfe book, I think it's called a Quilter's Ark? Gosh, this quilt must be an oldie now, I wonder if she still loves it?

I have discovered I've got over 50 new posts in bloglines to get through, so I hope to get to all your blogs soon, don't give up on me! Have a great day everyone!

L'hotel Tazzie

Would you like to sleep here?? OMG, Marty has a friend coming to stay tomorrow, and looky, there's his bed! Can you guess what my task for today is? I'm going to sort, store and reorganise! I hope you all don't mind me sharing this mess with you, but putting the mess out there really gives me the impetus to fix it!

I'll have to fold down my cutting table for a few days, how ever will I cope?? I have already folded down my sewing machine station and put Bernie to sleep. My sewing room/study is in a tie with the laundry for the worst room in the house, so it will be good for me to get in there and have a clean up.

I'm still working away at quilting my miniature, and I'm really on the home stretch now. I've quilted all the blocks, and I've half completed the border. I anticipate I'll be ready to sew the binding on by the weekend. If I get it done in time I will be able to drop it off this weekend with the competition coordinator. The absolute last minute for the drop off is Sunday next weekend. I feel sure I'll make that deadline. Well, I'll TTYL friends ... have a great day!

Mum & Dad safely home

Mum and Dad made it safely home from Italy yesterday morning. I feel for them a little, because they both have to go to work today, I hope they managed to get a good sleep last night. They had an amazing three weeks, and saw so much.

Mum always brings home some little surprises for me when she travels. Here is what she surprised me with this time. A really lovely red bag, this one I love more than any other bag I own. There is a little purse there in the middle, a fat quarter from a quilt shop she managed to find somewhere! A lovely little piece of Venetian lace, and a super bag made from fabric which is from Venice. It will be lovely to take to quilting! Mum is truly so good to me. I love each and every thing!

Today Amy is back to school after the two weeks of school holidays, and this afternoon Cameron is back to kindy. I love the kids being home, but I'm also going to enjoy getting back into the routine and getting more done. Have a great week everyone. x o x

At the Port

Down on Torrens Island there is a farmers market we like to go to on occasion. It's only there on a Sunday from 6am-1pm. This morning we thought we'd head on down there. Growers go there to sell their fruit and vegetables, and it's by the water, so there are a couple of fishmongers there too. We got a few bits and pieces, and took Cam down to where the fish were being sold, there were some pelicans and seagulls hanging around for a feed. As the fish were being cleaned, they were being tossed the scraps. Cam was transfixed by the pelicans!

Often we purchase cases of seasonal fruit for bottling, but today there was nothing I really wanted to buy in bulk. Later in the year there will be stone fruit, so I'll head down there again depending on the yield from my fruit trees. This is the first year they're bearing fruit, so I don't really know what to expect, or how much will be eaten before we get to it.

We've even had to net our strawberries more heavily this year, the blackbirds are getting so tricky!

The market is not far away from Port Adelaide, so we had an amble around the wharves. I'm always the over protective Mum and got worried every time Cameron got close to the edge. I remember my Dad taking me to the same place as a child, and worrying about me, so I guess nothing changes!

We were going to head to Ikea afterwards, but Martin got a call telling him something was busted and he would have to go to work. He would have had a 5 hour drive, fix something and come home again, so it was going to be an overnighter. By the time we got home, the site had come back online and he doesn't have to go. Oh well, there will be other opportunities to see Ikea. That is just the nature of his work.

Hope you're all having a great weekend! x o x

Mini quilt - close up

A few people have asked to see closer pictures of my miniature quilt, and Fiona asked if I could show it with a tape measure. Well, of course I'm happy to oblige!

Here you see a couple of the blocks that I've already quilted. The basting stitches are still in place, and I haven't washed out the blue guide lines for the quilting yet.

I have quilted around the yellow part of each flower, and if I have time to do it, I'd like to quilt down the center of each leaf. Each day the deadline draws closer, so I'll do what I can in the time that I have.

Thank you to everyone for your lovely comments and encouragement regarding this quilt. It means so much!

Friday the 13th

Here is my mini quilt again, can you see the quilting lines in the picture?

Probably not ... I've been working away at it, and the top 6 blocks here are quilted, and I've started quilting on the block on the bottom right. The applique is outline stitched, and the background of the blocks is quilted in a 1/4" grid. It's slow going, but I have to get a move on, I have 2 weeks to finish it and hand it in! I'll need to get some more done today, or I predict some sleepless nights in my not too distant future!

I'm a night owl anyway, so I probably wouldn't mind!

Clearly in Australia, the onset of the hot weather is the prime time for wool and yarn shopping. I told you not so long ago about my 99c finds ... well, yesterday while out shopping, I stumbled across these little honeys for 50c per ball! Well, of course I had to have them! I would have chosen even more, but I have more than enough projects to take me through this spring clear through to next spring! The multi brown yarn is to start a scarf anew for my MIL. I'm just finding the other yarn too hard to work with on a deadline, so I'm going to put it away for now. The blue in front is for me! I'm a blue girl ... I will really appreciate a new scarf come winter netball season.

In the picture at the top, you can see that I just couldn't resist starting a little of the scarf. I'm actually knitting it in a wide rib pattern, just for something a little different.

Amy was prowling around the house this morning looking for the cat, and look where she found her. I hadn't gotten to moving this quilt yet ... and Madaline is taking advantage of it! Gosh I don't like her being on the table like that, but I can't help but feel like she appreciates my quilting! *lol*

** Exciting news ... while typing up this post, I just had a call from our cabinet maker. He's just doing the last bits of our kitchen cabinets, and they're going to be installed sometime next week! How neat! I've been looking forward to more cabinet space for a long time! I'll share pictures when they're in! **

Happy Friday the 13th everyone! 13 is my lucky number, so it's sure to be a great day! x o x

Quilt top & Fowlers jars

This morning I finally added the last border and mitred the corners. In the picture, my Winchester quilt is not pressed yet, so don't look too closely, but you can get the effect of the fabrics weaving along. This quilt was inspired by one of the parquetry floors at the Winchester Mystery House in San Jose. I don't know which room the floor was in, I had just taken a picture of a floor and thought it would make a nice quilt sometime. I will take this top to the quilt store sometime soon to help sell a selection of lovely reproduction fabrics that have come in recently.

Nines asked yesterday for a closer look at my Fowlers jars. This will probably be more information than she ever wanted to know *lol*! I've photographed one each of the different size jars I have. Along the back row from left to right are sizes 20, 31, 36 and 65. Sizes 20 and 31 are the only ones you can buy new now. Although I have heard rumours that size 14 has come back into production. Size 20 is about one pint, and size 31 is about one litre. The 36 and 65 are getting hard to find now, and are kind of huge! I'm reading from my old Fowlers book, and the 36 takes 3lbs, and the 65 takes 5lbs.

In the front are my size 10 and 27 jars. Size 10 is really cute and great for baby foods at 1/2lb. The size 27 is my particular favourite and holds 2lbs. I have sooooo many of these jars, you wouldn't believe it. You saw the picture of my shelf yesterday, well, the shelf above which you can't see is almost full too, and additionally, I have three cartons full in the attic.

The thing is, I have a lot of relatives that live in the country. So many of them in the past did preserving as a matter of their daily life, and so many of them don't do it anymore. When I first decided I'd give it a try, I talked to my Nanna about it, and she spread the word. Before I knew it people were sending me boxes of jars that they had no use for anymore. These people were friends, relatives, and people I'd never heard of before. Additionally, my Nanna's bestie runs the charity shop in the town they live in, so my Nanna would buy any that came thru the shop for me. Well, let me tell you, with my four very young fruit trees, I have more jars than I will ever need, and when I hear of anyone that can use them, I gladly give them some.

So, that is the story of my Fowlers jars ... thank you to Nines for asking!

Today Amy and I are off to quilt group. It's the last week of school holidays here, and because Amy is a budding quilter, the group are presenting her with a junior membership badge. We're going to start working together on a quilt I designed while we were away. Today we'll start tracing off the flowers onto vliesofix. Should be good fun. Have a great day everyone! x o x

We're ba...ack

We're back from our little mini-break at my parent's beach house. We all had a great time, the kids played at the beach every single day! Each and every day I would forget to take the camera with me, and so the only picture I can share with you is this one which I snapped on the morning before we left.

The house has actual beach frontage, and so this is the view from the back of the house. This picture is looking left toward the lighthouse. When you come out the door, there is a small sandhill, which has a path thru the foliage, and then you're on the beach. My parents have owned this holiday home since I was a very little girl, so I have lots of wonderful memories of long summers spent here.

Here is a picture of our 'fur-person' on what she has claimed as her new bed! I had folded up the 'Sunrise' quilt which was quilted last month, and it was on the dining table ready to be put away into my quilt cabinet.

While we were away my brother was looking after her, and she has obviously decided that the quilt warranted further investigation, and she has declared it comfy!

I'm going to have to break it to her that this will not be a permanent situation. Love her as we do, I don't care too much for her black hair on my quilts, so I will have to make a quilt specially for her. Ohhh what a chore ... another quilt! *lol* I love to find reasons to quilt!

Lastly, here is a photo of my laundry. I think it may be the worst room in my house in terms of me looking after it. This thread was started by Nines, and it's a great idea. I'm not ashamed to share the mess with you all.

I didn't even make any effort to tidy up to show it to you ... you can see the dirty laundry there on the left, and the stuff that needs to be put away on the right.

Cleaning stuff on the shelf under the washing ... my Fowlers jars on the groaning shelf above ... and my old Fowlers unit. Haven't managed to Flylady in here yet! My old hand-vac on the wall that doesn't work anymore ... need to get rid of that too!

Well girls ... I've shown you mine ... let's see your laundry!

Tidied ... and thank you!

My friend Jane came over yesterday with her twins for lunch. I had resolved after yesterday's 10am post that I would tidy up the 'hotspot'. Here is the end result. It looks so much neater, and I've been able to move the laptop from the kitchen table. It will be so much easier to live with, cuz I won't have to tidy the computer away every time we prepare to eat. Let's see how long I can keep this neat!?!

The reality is that Jane and the girls probably wouldn't have cared in the least about the cluttered area, but it was bothering me. Screen Door had an interesting point yesterday ... It's Life! I think sometimes we set expectations of ourselves really high, and forget about all the other good things we achieve in a day. It's great to know that I'm not the only one who's not a member of the 'Sisterhood of Spotless Surfaces'. Maybe the majority aren't members?? Thank you so much for your positive (and fun) messages!

Today I'm heading into the city to one of my favourite furniture stores - Early Settler - I'm going to pick up a couple of bar stools for by the counter, much easier for long sessions of blogging and blog-hopping! I'm also going to stop by the quilt store ... I ran short of background fabric for the quilt top I'm working on ... by 6 inches! It's a legal purchase, I can't finish the top without it! I promise I won't get distracted by anything shiny!

I'll be offline for a couple of days, we're heading to the beach house for a few days, and there is no net connection there. It will be superfun to spend q-time with the family, and I'm sure to have some beachy things to share when I get back. Be good everyone! x o x

For shame ...

How on earth did this happen?? I figure if I share this shameful corner in my kitchen with you all, I'll be obliged to clear it away and report back with progress. My dear Flylady would call this a hotspot ... I call this a bushfire!

Does anyone else have a corner where things just pile up? Please don't let me be the only one ...

Red

Thank you to Mama Koch for this fun link :-)

You Are Crimson Red

Down to earth and warm-hearted, you instantly make everyone feel at ease around you. And while you have an understated passion - you lack the uncontrolled passion of most other reds. You prefer to sit back and enjoy every situation life has to offer. You put an optimistic spin on everything. And even when things are going well, you don't get too amped up. You prefer to keep your emotions as steady as possible.

What Color Red Are You?

More blocks

I wanted to show you that I have been working on more blocks, but I haven't been able to get enough blocks into the picture so that it looks any different to the last picture I showed you! Please trust me, there are so many more blocks! I did take a picture (with the phone, I don't know what's going on with the camera right now) and it was so blurry that it would give you a headache to look at it!

I hope to have the top completed by tomorrow, I'm not sure if I'll quilt it before I take it to the quilt store or not. I'll see how I'm going on the hand quilitng first.

With the kids on school holidays right now, I don't seem to be able to get so much sewing time in. I don't really mind though, it's nice to be able to spend some time with them.

On the way to the grocery store, we stopped at this ride at the shopping mall. Cameron always loves the rides, and this one is a favourite of his. Cameron doesn't really understand that Steve has gone, we've explained it to him as best we can, but seeing him on the TV etc has meant he doesn't really get it.

I'm not going to press the point, when he's ready, he'll understand.

Ohhh, and on an entirely different subject ... in case anyone is wondering ... I'm having a break from 'points' counting on the WW front for the holidays. Not that I was doing a great job anyways ... but I'm allowing myself the holidays to be a little more free, and hopefully I'll have the determination to count points in earnest when the kids are back at school and kindy. Well, that's my rationale, and I'm sticking to it! *s*

Bits and pieces ...

Yesterday for a fun treat, Amy and I went to the movies. We saw 'The Devil wears Prada'. Gosh it was a good movie, I really enjoyed it, and so did Amy. We were talking about it in the car on the way home, and Amy was suprised to learn that it is a book, and it's considered to be somewhat of an autobiography. I can't even imagine what it would be like to have a boss like that ... doesn't bear thinking about! I knew we'd love the movie, I remember when I talked about seeing The Lake House, a lot of you mentioned this movie and how good it was ... thank you! Feel free to leave suggestions for our next outing! *ggls*

Hello to Sheila in Ohio ... she wondered if the blocks I made had come from a book or a magazine. Well, I drew the blocks up myself, but that doesn't mean that they've never been published before, it's possible, and I just haven't seen them. There are two blocks, one has slightly different colour placement than the other.

I made a couple more blocks last night, but other than that, not much interesting happening here ... off to the grocery store today ...

Blocks

So here you see them, just a couple of the blocks I've been working on. I'm working with the camera phone today, so once again, don't pay any attention to the lack of picture quality.

I have so many more blocks to make before I can call this a quilt, but it's super easy piecing, so it won't take too long. I'll just need to commit some time to sit at the machine and sew. I'm finding I keep getting pulled away to work on hand quilting the mini quilt. When I'm just inspired to work on something I try to go with it, because who knows, I may not feel the same later on.

When you have the chance, go and check out Kathie's work in her sewing room, she's done a great job organising, and reading about it has given me inspiration to do some work in mine too. She mentions a new book, and I loved the cover so much, I whipped over to ebay and put a bid on one for myself. The book will give me further inspiration to get moving! I have a lot in the sewing room that could be Flylady'd away, so I've decided that not only will I spend 15 minutes per day reducing paper clutter, I will spend 15 minutes per day 'sewing clutter' busting. I have already decided that I could use some of the cupboards that Bonnie uses for her fabric stash ... Hubby and I need to visit Ikea or something ...

Well, that's it from me ... have a great day everyone!

Goals

I can't believe it's October already, where is this year going? This year is racing by so fast, I feel like I need to hang on tight, or I'm going to be thrown off this ride!

It's time to analyse my September goals ... how did I go?

September Goals

• Mark and pin Winnie the Pooh quilt
• Applique all nine mini blocks and put top together
• Make two gifts for Xmas
• Sort one basket of scraps into scrap boxes
• Quilt 'Sunrise' quilt

Okay, so this month I was a bit of an underachiever. You know, as I was setting the goals, I didn't realise that I'd set the bar quite so high. I'm super pleased that I managed to get as much done as I did. I don't think I'm going to bother with the 'sort scraps' goal again this month, the reason being: I need to work the scraps for a bit, the scrap boxes are getting really full! I almost can't get the lid on the 2.5" strips! I had a good go at the Winnie the Pooh quilt, and I'll aim to finish that one this month.

All in all a good month, and I did get one nagging UFO done! Happy days!

October Goals

• Mark and pin Winnie the Pooh quilt
• Make two gifts for Xmas
• Quilt and bind miniature quilt
• Piece repro top for shop
• Draw up zig-zag quilt
• Stick to fabric diet

That's it ... I've decided to have a go at Peach's fabric diet again. Maybe this should be a bi-monthly activity for me? Thank you so much Peach for making up the neat graphic, you do amazing things for us!

I will make myself one concession though, I may hear from the magazine about commissioning a quilt, and if that happens, I will have to get a little more of the repro fabric, as I don't think I will have quite enough.

I wanted to show you a picture of the blocks I made yesterday with the repro fabric, I'll have to wait until tomorrow. Hubby has run off with the memory stick from the camera, and my phone is flat ... I'm all out of picture options!

Anyways, happy October 1st everyone, it's going to be a great month!