15 Minute Challenge and a Milestone

 Maestro turned 21 yesterday, he took some friend out to dinner on Friday night and is planning to take out people from work later in the month.  He didn't want a party or presents so we just gave him the money to pay for his friends meal.  He sent us a picture of himself that his coworkers took of him asleep on his break the next day, I think he had a good time.   

Mo has only a couple more weeks of Uni and she is finished her first year.  

My husband hopes to finish up at work soon though the official end date is end of December he is going to take leave for as much of the remaining months as possible.  Things are going to be changing for us.  

So what have I been up to.  All the blocks are finished for quick quilt 5, this one has only been a semi quick quilt but we will go on with the theme.  This will be the last quilt I need to make as I already have a quilt done for the final block.  The last couple of months have been a bit of a slog a quilt every 2 months has been a lot of work I think there will just be one quilt next year.  

More sock knitting this week and some more work on my cryptid cross stitch.  I found a group of Black Bird Design patterns on instagram that I just had to get.  I managed to find 5 patterns at the one shop there are 9 all up so I will be on the hunt for the next 4 or maybe just 1 more for an even 6.  

Check out Kate's page to see how everyone is going .

15 Minute Challenge Lovely Long Weekend

 This past was a long weekend the first day was glorious with lots of sun shine, then we had 2 days of rain and wind, but that was fine.  I really needed a break from work so it was good to have that extra day to recharge the batteries.  It was also the start of day light savings here and I needed some extra sleep to recover from that as well.  

Quick Quilt 5 is all cut out and I have put together 4 blocks.  I probably could have done more this weekend but decided to do other stuff than staying in my sewing room all weekend.  

I finished another pair of socks and have started 2 more pairs.  

There has been a bit more progress on the cross stitch front, one cryptid is finished.  

Here is a sneaky peak at what Mo has been working on in the pottery shed ( I took a couple of sneaky pics while she wasn't looking).  She has another pot with more sculpture on it but she hasn't finished it yet.  She is so clever.  

Thats it for this week.  

Check out what everyone is up to over at Kate's

15 Minute Challenge and a Couple of Finishes

 Was MIA last week, full on day at work and just couldn't face sitting in front of the computer so decided to give myself a break for the week.    

Kids get their 2nd vaccine dose this week so will be glad when they are both covered.  Mo is on mid semester break at the moment and has been throwing lots of pots, we took a few to be fired this week.  Over the last few months she has mainly been just practicing and its been months since she has got anything  fired.  DH made her some batts (these are circles of marine ply that go on the wheel) which means she can start to make bigger things and there is less likely they get damaged when removed from the wheel.  She is still working but she is only getting one or 2 shifts a week so it hasn't been too bad but she has reach a year so she will probably resign in the next couple of week so she can concentrating on setting up her business and maybe do some markets next year.  She found the demands of school/work and being creative too much at the end of last semester.

I finished my first pair of socks this week and Quick Quilt 4 is all done.  I have started made 1 block for Quick Quilt 5 and are half way through cutting all the other blocks.  It a long weekend this weekend so I might get some sewing done.  

Both last week and this week was 7 out of 7 for me.  Head to Kate's to see how everyone is going.  

15 Minute Challenge, Kids get Vaccinated some Quilting, Cross Stitch and Knitting was done too

The kids had the first Vac this week, Maestro took himself and I took Mo which ended up being a good thing as she fainted while doing the 15 minute wait.  Can't fault the facilities response at the Government Clinic, nurses ran from everywhere and she was taken off on a stretcher for observation.  Turned out to be one of those flight or fight responses nothing really to worry about but we will need to tell them the next time and they will administer while she is lying down.  She recovered pretty quickly and returned to normal colour after about 1/2 an hour, she just felt a bit embarrassed, but apparently she wasn't the first one to faint that day and they assured her she would be the last.  

Another couple of weeks and they will be done and I will breath a sigh of relief. 

Work is still a bit busy not over whelming I'm hoping I won't have to work extra for much longer, they are interviewing possible candidates interstate and have put on an extra admin so fingers crossed it work load might be resolved soon.  Hubby is set to retire at the end of the year and he is counting the weeks and trying to work out how he can work part time up until D day.  

Finished the quilting the centre of Quick Quilt 4, hopefully I can get the border and binding done this week.  

I took the plunge and bought myself a yard swift on the weekend, and got all my skeins of hand dyed yarn made into yarn cakes.  I couldn't resist and started knitting one up yesterday, the yarn is super soft and yummy can't wait to get the socks finished, these are for me.  Will get back to the 2nd sock of Mo's pair tonight, I'm up to the heel.  

Just about finished the frame on the Cryptid Cross stitch, the bottom didn't quite match (1 row out)but I should be able to fudge it without unpicking too much so I am not stressing over it too much.  Got some gorgeous linen (apple green) for another cross stitch but I'm waiting on some threads to start that but its edged and ready to go when the threads arrived.  Yes I know I might need to sprout some more hands but I am having fun and not getting bored.

  

How'd your 15 minute challenge go this week.  Check in with Kate to see how everyone is doing.  

15 Minute Challenge, Quilting, Sock Finish and more Cross Stitch

Another 7 out of 7 week boring I know but sewing at night is keeping me sane in this crazy old world at the moment.

This week at sewing I was able to baste Quick Quilt 4 and started quilting it on the weekend.  Had all sorts of problems with the first thread I wanted to use Signature, I think it may be the needle and I might have to search for one with a bit bigger eye or it might just be that the thread is super old and past its used by date.  I ended up using an aurfil thread, its not quite the colour I wanted to use but I had it on hand and so far I've only had to pay for the wadding, backing and the fabric for the top has completely come from my stash.  

I purchased some linen last week for another cross stitch and got as many threads as I could from the local quilt shop then went online for some additions.  Found an Aussie store on Etsy that appear to stock the whole range of comso threads so I'm pretty happy with that find.  I'm near the end of the frame for the Cryptids cross stitch sal, the first Cryptid has been released, I'm not sure if I will jump to do that or plod along and finish the frame.  

Finished 1 sock, modelled here by Mo (and yes she is in her PJ's in the middle of the day), just have to start the next one, but am a lot happier with the yarn used and the finished product than the first sock I made a couple of weeks ago.  I have decided that I need a yarn swift to help with my ball winding efforts so that will be the next thing on the agenda.  

I promised that this weekend I would get me tax info together....I lied, but I've now sorted most of the stuff out now.   I need to get Mo's sorted as well but that will involve her ringing the tax office and she doesn't want to do it but she is going to have to.  

Both kids are off for their first Covid shots this week, I will breath a sigh of relief when they are done. 

Check out how everyone is travelling at Kate's Place.  

15 Minute Challenge, Knitting, Quilting and Cross Stitch

 Didn't have a great week last week, woke up in pain during the night on Monday and Wednesday after another sleepless night decided to get to the Drs.  He thought I had a stomach virus and gave me some tablets I was pretty sure it wasn't that.   I was having a massage that day and my back was also sore I went.  Turns out I had twisted a rib and the nausea was caused by pain after the massage therapist had relieved some of the tension the pain became more localised in my back rib area.  Ended up taking a sick day on Friday and sat in the sunshine on the swing chair with a heat pack on my back and did a bit of knitting.  

Though the back is still sore it is a lot better this week.  I worked on the border for the quick quilt over the weekend  Here is the picture but the corners are all different so I am seriously considering removing the border or I might change the corder stones to beige to see if that sits better with me, serves me right for trying to be clever.  If I get over it I will baste it at sewing on Thursday and start quilting on the weekend.  

My next sock is nearly finished, decreasing the toe at the moment.  These should fit Mo or me so if she doesn't like them I get to keep them.  I friend put me onto another youtube channel for socks, so I might try her patterns next.  Apparently she has an easy way to do heels.  

The cross stitch border is coming along nicely even though I've been unwell, I've started on the next 2 charts so I'm way past my unpicking point from last week.  I know that the next pattern releases soon so I will have to get a wiggle on with it.  I'm waiting on more black thread in the post,  I'm currently using DMC but most of the other colours are Cosmo threads which are so soft and silky and lovely to stitch with.  My local quiltshop didn't have any black cosmo when I wanted to start.  It's just that postage take so long within Australia at the moment, I'm checking the letterbox a couple of times a day to make sure it hasn't arrived and I've missed it.

I've been following the Needlework Expo on instagram and it really is a worry  there is so many patterns that I would love to do, I need another couple of pairs of hands to get everything done or another couple of lifetimes.   

So how is your stitching going this week.  Head to Kate's to see how everyone is keeping up with the challenge.  

15 Minute Challenge and Not really achieving anything

 I have been doing lot so of sewing this week mostly the reverse kind.  I looked at my cross stitch SAL border that I was doing at sewing class on Thursday and looking at it in daylight I realised that there was quite a few errors on the right side.  So there was no option but to unpick.  

The pieced border for  Quick Quilt 4 is all cut out.  I've decided to do reverse geese, beige geese with a scrappy backgrounds of red and blue but I haven't got round to stitching them as the machine didn't come back from service until Saturday and the weekend was really beautiful with lots of sunshine and DH and I got in a couple of walks to the beach each day and neighbourhood.  

Managed to get to visit the yarn shop I've been wanting to go to for a long time and I picked up more sock yarn.  I then ordered some more Sunday night so I have a few more colours, its a bit fluffy but it knits up really nice.  I've started a shorty sock.   I misread the band pattern so it is a bit longer than the pattern called for but I don't think it really matters.  The sock pattern is striped but I'm just going to do a different colour for the band, heel and toe and keep the foot the one colour this time.  Will get more adventurous next time when I have few more colours. 

Doesn't look much like a sock at the moment but I will get there.  

I'm off to look at other sock patterns now for my next one and maybe a coffee.

How did your week go.  Head to Kate's to see how the gang is going.