Moving along in May

After a technology induced hiatus, I'm back to report on my latest creative endeavours.

Autumn is well established, and I'm spending some evenings snuggling under a quilt, with my kitty on my lap. There's been some knitting; I'm working on a Milo vest, as part of a knit along on Ravelry.



My knitting's not as fast as it used to be, so I'm just doing a few rows here and there, and giving my hands frequent breaks.

Tomorrow, I'm planning on completing my latest block for my analog Rowmakers group, and making some decisions about my exhibition projects.

I'd also like to make some YoYo biscuits, using Mum's recipe. They won't taste quite right, since I don't have the Stork margarine that was Mums usual choice, but I'm expecting deliciousness in any case!

Saturday update

This week has seen a couple of creative moments.

I spent some time quilting... ran over a pin and broke a needle. The new needle shredded my thread. So I took a break.

My motherinlaw celebrated her birthday, for which we contributed Nigella's Malteser cake. Which was delicious.


After attending a monthly quilting meeting, I attempted the featured block, and was quite happy with it. I think it will become a cushion.



No finished items to report, but no fabric purchased either so I'm neutral on the Sew Your Stash Thin front!

A little sewing + Bloglovin

Like half the world it seems, I'm experimenting with replacements for Google Reader. I'm trying out Feedly and Bloglovin.

For Bloglovin, I apparently need to claim my blog.

Follow my blog with Bloglovin

In other news, I've been sewing.


I'm hoping to sandwich and quilt this week, so more details in a big reveal post.

Ten years

As the news has been reminding us, this week is ten years since the war in Iraq began. It's also ten years since The Da Vinci Code was published. In our house our main focus is that it's ten years since our son was born.




Lucas was born six weeks premature, which was quite a surprise.




He's a wonderful, kind and enthusiastic boy and a great big brother.



Happy birthday sweetheart!

Saturday Update

This week has been busy - the children are back at school, and we're trying to filter back into our routine.

We also attended an international cricket game. Seeing the Australian and West Indies teams in action was fabulous - and it was a pity we had to leave early and miss the ending.



Saturday Statistics;

Previously; 3 fat quarters down.

This week; two jelly rolls and a layer cake joined the stash (26 fat quarter equivalents!)

Currently; 23 fat quarters up.

In summary, better do some sewing!

Saturday Statistics

This should have been a stash neutral week, since we were on holidays. However, a quick stop at Ikea saw a 2m addition to the stash (which is 8FQ equivalents.)

2013 FQ summary; 3 out; 8 in.

Not too bad.

And a quick summary of our week;

Saturday Statistics

So far, my stash thinning mission is going well. This week has seen three Fat Quarter Equivalents (FQE) leave the stash, and none enter. It's a triumph!

This year will see less online shopping by me from the US, as their postal service has seen fit to increase overseas shipping rates by around 60%. I guess free shipping events from my favourite quilt shops will be far fewer.

Today is also Australia Day. I'm celebrating by getting my patriotic quilt onto the couch.

Listmania One

Deb , of Home Life Simplified is spending time this year writing lists, and I've decided to join her. Every Monday, Deb will provide a prompt, and I'll do my best to respond. I figure anything that encourages regular blogging is a good thing.

First up, Currently I Am.

Reading; Sookie Stackhouse. The whole series (again.) I've needed something familiar, funny and multi-booked, and this fit the bill. I'm up to number nine currently, so hope to finish them in a couple of days.

Listening to; Kasey Chambers and Shane Nicholson's Wreck and Ruin album. Also whinging. But I much prefer to listen to the music.

Laughing at; Sookie.

Swooning over; pretty pictures of quilts. So, so many.

Planning; a holiday. It struck me today as I was (internally) cursing the heat, that I probably should have chosen a cooler location for it. Oh well - I am looking forward to a(nother) break.

Eating lots of; ice.

Feeling; like I'm ready for our year to start. I think I'm ready.

Discovering; how many photos we took on our New Zealand holiday. And how few I am in. Even considering a lot of them are scenery. I think this is the sole solo picture of me. I love remembering how happy I was when my daughter took this shot.



Looking at; the West Wing. We're watching 2 or 3 episodes a night, and enjoying it. Lots more to go - love a good boxed set.

Wearing; teva sandals. I love them, particularly with red toenails.

Cooking; as little as I can.

Wondering; when my children will catch up on their sleep.

Trying out; eating no dairy at all. It's not much fun.

Resting and planning

The children and I have had a very quiet week. We've been at home, in front of the fan, reading and cleaning, and listening to Harry Potter and watching DVDs. A time of recovery, from all the company and fun.

I haven't created anything, except dinner. Which has been a little creative, since I've been needing fresh and spicy food after our weeks of cooking primarily for the lowest common denominator, an unadventurous three year old palate.

Its feeling like this is a true holiday, with time to relax and think. Perfect, if only Mr Puggle was home with us, not back at work. I have been thinking about my goals for the year, which include creative and work. Creatively, I'd like to work primarily from my stash. This shouldn't be hard really - I've been very lucky with Wollmeise updates lately, and have plenty of fabric.




So I'm signing up once again for a challenge with AJ. The rules are simple - more out, less in.

I didn't have much success with 12WIPs in 2012, but I'm hoping this is one I can manage.  And to increase my chances, I'm unsubscribing to as many online fabric shop emails as I can find.

Shining bright

It's been a long time since I blogged - life got in the way.

December was a blur. Mr Puggle spent the first couple of weeks working overseas, while the children and I were in a whirlwind of ballet rehearsals and concert, choir concerts, carols nights and general end of year school activities.



We then flew out to meet up for 10 days in the South Island of New Zealand.


It was astonishingly beautiful, and we had a great time.

We returned to Australia on Christmas Eve, and embarked on another holiday, this time with family. My middle sister is visiting from the UK with her husband and children, which is a great treat for all of us. When you add our families together, along with my youngest sister's family, and our parents, we had 8 adults and 8 children (aged 3-9) staying on one suburban block. Stir in jet lag, and it was a busy Christmas.

We've all been visiting Canberra this week, and have another week to go, split between Sydney and the coast.

We love spending time together; but it's a marathon.

The Space Between

The time between my blogging last and now was filled with stress. I wasn't dealing well with planning, or organising, or changes planned. The changes are great (like adding a trip away to our year plans!) but I wasn't coping so well.

So there's been no crafting, other than a little hand stitching, and a lot of cleaning and sorting and organising.


Now that the laundry is sorted and organised within a inch of its life, and the holiday plans are coming together, I've been able to return to some stitching. Thank heavens - there are deadlines looming!

Shameless appeal for your vote

Yes really - please vote.

The only saving grace in this is that for the vote is not for me, but my lovely sister.  Look what she made;

You can read the full story about it in Bell's post here. 

I should note here that we have another sister, and she is the one about to have a significant birthday and be given this lovely little book.  Not that I'm complaining - I have one in rose.

Please vote for Bell's project here - Fab Folds Challenge.  Voting closes at the end of October, and can be done once daily

She'd love to win a blog badge.

Thanks!

Of course, if you're an ACT resident like me, you'll also be voting in our local elections.  Unfortunately, we have to get dressed to do that one.

Stitching and cutting and hooking

It's been a slow day, with time spent stitching my long term block of the month English paper piecing project, cutting fabric for my next quilt and crocheting.



We've had frequent pauses for delicious food, and regular checks on the resident kangaroos and honeyeaters.


I've also made another Christmas decoration from thread and cardboard.


It's a good retreat.

Retreating

Abandoning freezing Canberra, I'm spending the weekend at a quilting retreat. No sewing machines permitted, so the pace is slow. Along the road here, I was thrilled to see a paddock of acid yellow canola and a small herd of belted galloways. My favourite crop and my favourite cattle. Perfect!



(I studied agriculture at university - of course I have favourites!)

Tricks

A great advantage of talking quilts with other quilters is learning their tricks. I learnt a cool trick tonight for half square triangles, and am keen to put it into practice.

Not time tonight though - too much driving in the rain has left me very tired.

The other side of the swap

Far removed from the anxious quilt making side of the swap is the delightful surprise of receiving a quilt.

And look at the lovely quilt I received;

It was made for me by Shaz from Alsha's Space.  I really like it's graphic lines and fantastic bird print features.

Thanks Sharyn!

Granny Square Doll Quilt

Lately, I've been working on different ideas for the Down Under Doll Quilt Swap.  It's my first time as part of this swap, and I've been somewhat worried about every choice I have made.

After abandoning my first English paper pieced project, I turned to the granny square block, which I have seen in lots of places around the net.

It was easy to piece, although the instructions I followed meant every edge section was a bias edge, which worried me.  I'm typically terrible matching things up, so followed every pressing and pinning instruction, for pretty good results.  The finished quilt is around 17 inches square.

I also tried something new with the quilting - (mostly) parallel closely spaced lines of stitching.   I really like the effect this gave, but if I were to do it again would sash the edges with some white fabric.  The heavy quilting meant the edges were quite distorted, despite varying the direction of the stitching lines, which meant my points at the binding were not good.

Despite this issue I am very pleased with this little quilt, and hope my swap partner enjoys it too.

An evening with friends

Delightful company, and I got the bindings stitched on. Photographs of the finished quilt and popping it in the post tomorrow!

Words fail

Too many errands, too many whingeing children.



Guacamole for dinner, and things start improving. Thank heavens.

Saturday

Saturday has been slow. I spent the morning transferring Harry Potter 5 from cd (24!!) to computer to iPod.

I also spent time on animal chores. At my most green, I disapprove of feeding wild birds. Trying to affect their lifestyle least, we put out seed sporadically, but do always provide water. Today we were rewarded with the king parrots dropping by the feeder. Such vividly colored birds - they're Christmas on the wing!

After writing that, I cannot figure out how to move my photo from to this computer, so instead, here's an Eastern Rosella for your enjoyment


We also had the inlaws over for dinner and cards, so it's been a busy day. If boring to read about.

Fabulous!

Today, I spent quite some time washing (5 loads - thankfully, it was lovely drying day.) I also rearranged my Tupperware cupboard. It's fabulous now, but not really something I'm keen to show off here.

Instead, here's a progress shot of my granny square blocks, which I decided to go with for the doll quilt swap.




Tomorrow, I'm planning to get into the quilting. I'm looking forward to it.

The Beach

We spent two hours at the beach this morning, as a last hurrah before returning inland to home.


The children had such a good time. Holding hands against the strength of the waves, building a castle of kelp, and rolling in the sand.

It was bright, hot, sandy and accompanied by freezing water. I much prefer to look at the beach, rather than spending time there. But then, I also like looking at mountains, rather than climbing them. Murder mysteries probably fall into this category too.

***************************************

Tonight, we're back in Canberra, very tired. The kids are home with my husband, listening to Harry Potter, their latest obsession.

I'm waiting for the action to start at Canberra Quilters. It seemed more polite to blog than fall asleep.

Visiting

The children & I have spent a few days visiting my parents at their home. We've spent time gathering macadamias (averaging 70/day at present), have had seaside fish & chips fir dinner, and listened to Harry Potter 3.

We've also spent time in the park across the road. This magnificent old gum is the heart of the park.


We worry about it.

There has also been time for sewing - I hope to finish my blocks tonight.

Blossoms in my garden

Spring is my favourite time of the year in the garden.  Endless potential, and the plants we've forgotten about return.

Not that I'm much of a gardener.  I have ideas, but am a terrible weeder, and maintainer of pretty things.  Sadly, my husband's the same.

So, we'll enjoy springtime, plant a few summer vegies, and then let most of them die off when the weather gets hot.

I think I should make a spring time quilt - flowers with no need for weeding!

October means Blogtoberfest

Well, in certain spheres it does anyway.  This year, Kat from I Saw You Dancing is hosting, and it's already looking good.  In fact, just Kat's blog name is enough to get me thinking happier thoughts.  Despite the looming pressure of daily blogging.

I'm starting my festival of blogging with a creative dilemma. I'm a participant in the third round of the Down Under Doll quilt swap, and am suffering major performance anxiety.

My English paper pieced block was progressing nicely, when I realised another quilter was using the same block.  Being mature and all, I decided to proceed anyway.  But now I have no confidence that my quilt will be at all what my swap recipient would like.

Last night, I had a brain storm.  It's an alternative that could work very nicely, but there's only a week left.  It's doable.  I think it will make me happier, so tonight I'll be diving into that so very well organised stash of mine.

Organising once more

My spring cleaning has reached the craft room/office/excess toys storage/outgrown clothes storage disaster zone. Any time a room has more than one purpose, I figure it's a time bomb. This particular bomb has exploded.


Our cat Maggie has a fondness for wool, so it needs to be all stored in a solid cupboard with a shutting door. Which is currently occupied by a fair portion of the quilting stash. Most of the toys have been removed from the built in wardrobe (school spring fair next weekend seeking donations = perfect timing), so I have a bakers rack thing to build in there to put the fabric on.

The computer desk is piled high with random craft supplies, books and other un-categorisable objects.

There's a long way to go before order is restored. On the bright side, I found a previously unused Buttontree Lane project bag (win) and (less bright) many, many knit/crochet UFOs.  I'll count them later, as I move them into the very secure cupboard.

I've also finally come to the stage where I need to stop buying fabric. Previously when I've gone on a voluntary fabric buying ban it's been for reasons of economy. Now it's because I have achieved SABLE status (Stash Acquisition Beyond Lifetime Expectancy.) Lordy.

Mooching

Lately, I feel like nothing exciting's happening in my life. I've been spring cleaning (which is completely out of character) and been feeling consistently headachey for some time.

The deadline's fast approaching for the Down Under Quilt Swap, and I've been working on some paper piecing for my quilt.

Last week, I was fantasizing about giving up cooking. Completely. Never doing it again. Today, I decided to wait on that until the children move out. Only 10 years or so. So I celebrated by cooking Nigella's Zucchini Cake. My sister and I both enjoyed it, and we weren't at all concerned when only one of the five children present liked it.




While over thinking cooking, I've also been considering modern quilting. I'm not convinced I'm a modern quilter. Still, I like using modern fabrics, and my eye prefers to look at modern quilts, so maybe I am.

Tonight I'm grumpy about missing the modern quilts group meeting run by the guild (my husband has been working ridiculous hours lately.) Best go and read a few more blogs to make up for it!

Weekending

We've just returned from a magical weekend at the coast.  Wonderful sunshine, beautiful beaches, and time and space to reconnect with my sister and her family, and our parents, who have recently returned from an extended visit (to our other sister) in the UK.

We didn't visit the beach much as children. We all burn easily, and were never very good swimmers. In contrast, my kids love the beach, and are confident swimmers. Not that they were actually swimming this time - its only August, after all. We spent a lot of time on the sand this visit, and enjoyed it.

On our last day, we enjoyed the (free) breakfast at 8, then spent a quick hour on the beach before showering the kids again (an ongoing theme) and checking out by 12. This last beach play was definitely worth the trouble as while we were there a couple of dolphins cruised past us slowly. Magic!

After leaving the beach, we went for a family bush walk. It went through both rainforest and dry eucalypt forest, and had fascinating remnants of logging throughout. A lovely walk and the perfect length for the children to manage.


Most of the time, I'm happy to live in Canberra. But when it's nearly the end of winter, it's such a treat to go to the coast, feel the warm air, and use my Sunday again. Now I can manage to wait for the warm weather.

Ducks on the wall aka Grandma's Hallway

My second entry in the recent quilt show was a miniature.  It measures 25 x 35cm, and is a representation of china ducks flying across the vast spaces of my grandparents heavily wallpapered hallway.

The fabric I chose for the 'wallpaper' is a Jinny Beyer print which has been in my stash for a very long time.  In fact, the selvedge says it is called "Millennium", so it can probably be date to 1999.  It's quite heavily machine quilted following the pattern of the fabric, although this is pretty much invisible in these pictures.

I didn't have any ducks, nor any confidence in the idea of making a duck shape so instead fussy cut these pukeko's from some souvenir fabric I bought in New Zealand.  In any case, I think they look far funkier than any duck could.

I also tried something new when it came to binding the quilt - a facing, as explained here by Brenda Smith of Serendipity Patchwork & Quilting.  It worked really well, and I was pleased with finish this gave.

It was lovely to see it hanging in the exhibition.

And I have hung the china ducks in our bedroom, where they look quite unlike this little quilt.

Challenge Quilt DONE!

Yesterday was quilt drop-off day, and I was very happy to be delivering my exhibition quilts.

First, my challenge quilt, Centred Red.

The challenge was to make a quilt with the theme "Red Plus One."  Each quilt was to be 70cm x 50cm in a portrait format.

The centre of Australia is known as the Red Centre, due to it's red dirt and rocks, including Uluru.  At first, I intended my quilt to be a mass of pieced Uluru blocks, but as time went on, my plans changed, and I ended up with only five.

I've never properly visited the red centre, but did stop in a plane in Alice Springs once for an hour. When I was in primary school, my grandparents brought back a jar of red dirt from Ayers Rock (as Uluru was known then), and I was astonished by it.

Some day (probably after winter stops being my husband's busy work season), we'll visit, and get to know the heart of our country.   Until then, the country of my heart is the coastal, high rainfall areas, where dairy cows can live.  Hence the vibrant green of my quilt, contrasting with the reds of the dirt.

My free motion machine quilting finally started working as it should during the quilting of this piece.  I'm not sure if it was the thread (Rasant) or the settings, but it worked beautifully, and I am still surprised and delighted with it.