15 Minute Challenge & Workshop

 Work is pretty full on, the co-worker who has been with us for 12 months resigned and after saying they'd work the week left 3pm the first day of the week and wasn't seen again except to drop off the keys to the office.  That was 2 weeks ago but it feels like 3 months ago, it has been lots of work to mop up the mess.  Though today I feel like I am almost back on track.  I will be back to being busy most of the time but at least I don't have to micromanage a man child.  

Last weekend was the Summertime Stitching with Petra Prins and Judith Ebbelaar they showed some interesting techniques for applique and most of their quilts are hand pieced.  It was a fun weekend but I should have done the 4 days not just the weekend, but with everything that has been going on at work I wouldn't have been able to have the time off.  They showed us how to do Dutch Binding which I think I will try out soon.  

Saturday was crochet guild, I have volunteered to help man the stall at Fibre Feast for a couple of hours in early March and help steward at the Royal Adelaide Show in August.  The group is still quite small and we have a fun time once a month showing off what we have done our latest pattern we are working on.  

I've just signed up for another workshop with Judy Newman and Margaret Mews at the end of March this is 3 days, I just told the boss I'm having Friday off but I might need a swap with my Thursday.

Sit and Sew is on 1st March with Fibre Feast on 2nd I'm up for a busy few weekends.  

I think I only stitched one day last week, so not good, did a bit of crochet on the weekend but managed to put together the last pieced border of LaCropte which I'm back to not liking again.  Let me know what you think... my thoughts are fabric vomit.  

I'll leave you with my redwork progress, which has been slow as I think I may be developing arthritis in my index finger.

You know the deal head to Kate's to see what everyone is up to.  

15 Minute Challenge & Long Weekend

 We had a long weekend this past week, but I did end up doing some work so it wasn't all enjoyable.  Hopefully the issues at work will be sorted by the end of the week and although I will be a lot busier again it will be a bit less stressful.

Its Mo's birthday today, she is 22 where did that time go.  I think she is bit miffed she had to work on her birthday.  She made a cake, ran out of cream but because of the holiday with no shops open the top is a bit half finished.  I am sure it will taste just fine.  She has booked a trip to London and Europe in May so we got her a few travel essentials.  

I had a finish, a pretty bag from Hetties Patch and finished another border on the La Cropte Quilt.  

I am looking forward to a weekend workshop with Petra Prins and Judith Ebbelaar should be fun and I won't be thinking about work and will probably end with another couple of projects to finish.  

Head to Kates you know the drill.  

15 minute challenge Happy New Year

We had another super chill Christmas even though it was very hot.  The airconditioner was put on at 8am and didn't go off until we went to bed.  Ended up with a sinus infection between christmas and new year so I was pretty fed up with myself by New Years Day but after 5 days of yuck it finally lifted.  

I had a wonderful day on Saturday the local quilt shop (that went online 2 years ago) has started a sit and sew day the first weekend of the month.  So I'm all booked up. 

Over Christmas I picked up a number of Japanese embroidery books so I have started a Christmas Table runner on some white linen.  That was my project for the first month.  The first motive is powering along but I'm not committing to which Christmas it will be finished.  

The table cloth from my last post has gone back in the cupboard.  

I've moved along with the hand piecing the end is in sight.  

Over the break I did a bit more folding and tidying of the fabric cupboards (mainly to find the linen to do the embroidery).  In my travels I found a project that I thought might be worth finishing.  Here are the blocks so far.  When I first pulled them out I was planning a 3 X 4 block quilt not realising how big these suckers are when finished.  I think the blocks are 23" so there is no way its going to be bigger the 3 x 3 now, so I will have a few left over blocks which I think I'll join and put on the back.  

Might contemplate hand quilting as the  blocks are far from perfect and I think a bit of big stitch quilting with pearl cotton might be a bit more forgiving with these wonky blocks.  

IT was my first day back at work today. I'm taking all my plant babies back to the office in stages because it is a bit of a chore to take them up the stairs to the office.  DH and I repotted them all (which was more work than he was anticipating) but they are all in fresh soil and hopefully with thrive for another year.  My succulents that have been on the balcony filled up the previous container so I got a nice bowl removed  all the babies and put them back into the old pot to grow again.

The rest of the plants will go back tomorrow.  There are a few more for the balcony and for my window sill.   

Thats it for me I'll try and blog a bit more regularly this year.

Head to kate's  you know the drill.  

15 Minute challenge and Hot Christmas on the horizon

 The forecast for Christmas Day is 37C as today is a balmy 21 and tomorrow is 28 I am hoping they have got things very wrong.  Mo and I did the shopping on Friday and we planned a hot lunch so we will be cranking up the air-conditioning early and keeping it on all day.  

Mo is working late tonight and working again tomorrow (Christmas Eve) so she can't have the usual day with her boyfriend where they put together a gingerbread house and exchange presents.  She is making a cake house this year not sure when its going to get finished tomorrow after work.  

Last week wasn't a good week on the stitching/crochet front as work had a bit of drama again... I was glad to walk out the door on Wednesday.. fingers crossed things have settled down when I return in January.  There were a couple of days where I just was so damn tired of it all I didn't do anything and went to bed early and read a book.  

Friday after spending most of day at the shops including a trip to the Market in the city I pulled out an old Christmas UFO.  It is a design by Viv's Creations, luckily I have a few of her patterns I love her naive designs but sadly Viv passed a few years ago.  This one has lots of lots of detail to go and I have all the threads and the plan was to use beads for the berries.  Must say my stitching isn't as good as it use to be it will probably pick up as I get on with it.  

I've also done some work on my Judy Newman quilt.  Still haven't finished the hand piecing part but pretty much all the other blocks are done, when I get sick of the embroidery I'll get back to the hand stitching.  

Got a bee in my bonnet about finding some linen to make a table runner for Christmas (next year)  ended up pulling out most of my white/colour fabrics and ironing then a refolding.  Found quite a few pieces of linen that will be good for embroidery.   

I have bought myself a couple of Japanese embroidery books for Christmas which was
why I was on the hunt for linen.  

That's it for me this week.  Everyone have a lovely Christmas head to Kate's.  

15 Minute Challenge and Holidays are Almost here

 2 more days and I am on holiday I can't wait to just leave work behind for a couple of weeks.    It has been less than great at work the last few weeks I am so glad it is pretty slow client wise this time of year and we have time for all the other things that are happening behind the scenes.  

DH and I spent a lovely night away at the Adelaide Oval Hotel, and enjoyed a great meal at one of the city pubs for our anniversary a couple of weeks ago.  

The trip to Skein machine with the crochet guild was so much fun.  The 2 guy's who run the shop are just so talented.  One is a knitter (of only 3 years) and does the most incredible shadow work knitting check out his patterns on the site and the other  is a crochet guru.  They dye their own yarn and stock lots of local  products and yarn from the area.  Shopping was done and a picked up some sparkly yarn for my crochet baubles.  

Here is my piles so far.  Not all will make the finished wreath but they have been fun and easy to do.  I've purchased a polystyrene wreath, and i'm also working on a crochet piece to cover it using a sparkly sock yarn.     I need to get working on some candy canes and will do some flowers as well to help fill in the gaps.  There is no way it will be finished this year, I'm aiming for next year. 

The weather has been a real stinker the last couple of days 40 yesterday and 39 and humid today.  Work at least has very good air conditioning so it was good to be in the office for a few hours.  

Coco has had to have another tooth removed and she has been a bit flat the last few day, the heat probably isn't helping.  She had a reaction to the anti inflammatory meds she was given but is a lot better today.  

I really need to get back to the quilt I'm working on, most of the blocks are done apart from 2 more strips of hand piecing.  I want to top at least finished for a class in March so I need to get back to it.  Hopefully over my break I will get back to it.  

That's it for me today head to Kate's.   Hope to get back before Christmas.  

15 Minute Challenge Christmas Making

I've been working on getting the quilt top finished that I started at the Judy Newman/Margaret Mews workshop that I did earlier this year.  I've finished all cutting.  I'm not sure if I am going to like the finished product but I will preserver.  My problem is that they didn't stipulate light and dark for the half square triangles and now I am having trouble getting the value right in the finished blocks.  I've decided that I'm just going to suck it up and finish it and see what it looks like.  I have a couple of sides of hand piecing to finishing and more pinwheel blocks to sew then I can put it all together.  Their next workshop is in March so I still have some time.  

I have finished the first French General embroidery, and worked out how to frame my Topiary embroidery.  Still haven't managed to hang it.  

After much nagging in the house hold we have started doing Christmas decorating, well I have started making some stuff for Christmas decorating.  Our wreath has been looking a bit sad I want to make a wreath, but there is no way it will be finished in time, so I have made a temporary one for this year and will work on some ornaments to add to it.  Of course I found one on instagram using crochet baubles so bought the pattern and started last night.  I also have 12 days of Christmas felt ornaments that I am going to make so it will end up being a mixture of handmade things to replace the store bought baubles.  

The pattern for the baubles are much bigger than these but I didn't want to use plastic balls in them so I made them smaller (4 rows not 8) with a larger ply but same hook so there wasn't open weave and stuffed these with toy stuffing.  

This was this weeks project which came out so cute but doesn't want to stand up so well, she is a bit top heavy.  I think I will make a few more and maybe join them together so they stand up or put a loop on her and hang her on the tree when it goes up.  

That's it for me, the crochet guild is going for an excursion this weekend, travelling to a yarn store on mass.  One of the ladies from my end of town is picking me up.   Should be fun.  

Head to Kates.  

15 minute Challenge and Holiday Fun

 We are back from a 2 1/2 week road trip and we managed not to murder each other.  It was mostly good fun and the driving wasn't nearly so terrifying as our Tassie trip last year.  I managed to do some stitching or crochet most nights back in our accomodation, I think there was only 2 nights in total that I didn't do anything.  Progress on my embroidery 

We hired a car from Adelaide and then drove every couple of days (mostly to a new spot). We got a cracked windscreen on day 2 of the holiday which meant we needed to stay a bit longer in Bendigo in order to get it fixed but all in all we pretty much kept to my original plan.  Bendigo was my favourite place so an extra day didn't really matter to me. 

The beware of snakes on the trail the last day came in useful we were just finishing up a coastal walk and there was a young brown snake (I think) on the trail.  We clapped and made lots of noise and he/she headed back into the bush.  

Friendly birds at Lorne

That's it for me I have lots more pictures, I need to do a photo book.  

Head to Kate's to see how everyone is travelling.