Tree Progress

The tree is progressing ever so slowly haven't done much this week as I am back at work.  I think the Dr was overly optimistic telling me I could go back to work after 3 weeks.  Can't get over how tired I am not sleeping well at night as when I wake up things hurt and then I can't go back to sleep... catching up on all my podcasts though.  Last night I decided to go to bed really late so stitched until midnight and I slept through... yeah....

The second picture shows why it is taking so long... tiny tiny spirals.

Last night I stayed up and stitched this little guy... you might remember him from atc's I did here.

Squids Birthday

It is the Squid's 7th birthday today.  She was very excited and couldn't get to sleep last night.  Here she is opening her brother's parcel.

And the next one is her main pressie THE SEWING MACHINE.

She also got Printee's (thanks Sue for doing some shopping for me) and a couple of Sewing Books by the Possibility Girls who do some fantastic Kids Learn to Sew Books and a Make It Kit from Hetties which is a Bunny to stitch and stuff.  So  I see a lot of Mother/Daughter bonding happening.

Here it is all set up ready for her when she comes home from school.

Back to Work

I'm back at work today.  Don't know if it is too soon, but as I pretty much sit at a desk for just 4 hours I think it will be ok.  Hubby is going to drop me off and pick me up and help me run the morning and end of day errands for the first week.

After my vent yesterday I managed to quilt for at least 3 hours yesterday with only two thread breakages, so maybe in that section there was just too much glue baste.  I still have to go back to that bit to finish to the borders but hopefully the glue was only heavy in the centre where the applique was .. fingers crossed.  So far the otherside of the tree is behaving itself.  The centre of the quilt is probably two thirds done now I want that section done first because I know once I start doing all the background my swirls are going to start getting bigger and it would be more balanced if this was done gradually.

I am planning to go to this in March.  Now that all the designers are finalised for the Bazaar their blog has a little snippet of what can be expected I think I had better save my pennies from now until then.  If you are in Adelaide it will be worth a visit.

Love/Hate Relationship

No not marital problems ... my love/hate relationship is with BottomLine.  When it works it looks fantastic on a quilt, trouble is I am having problems and I am well past the point of no return on the Christmas Tree Quilt.  At first I had trouble with the tension slipping after a few stitches.  Fixed this by passing the bobbin thread through the little hole in arm of the bobbin case.  Then it all worked fantastic for over a week then the last two days the top thread started shredding uggggrrrrr.

The good thing with Superior Threads is they have an excellent education program on their website with lots of troubleshooting information.  So after an hour of swearing I decided to get the laptop out and refer to it.  Found out that the thread needed to come off sidewise of the spook.  Ok fixed that.... so got a bit longer before the shredding started ... don't know why it worked perfectly for a whole week though before this.  Ok the shredding is now down to every ten minutes my second problem is the Glue Baste that I use which isn't supposed to glug up your needle well it is....

I found if I soaked the needle in non acetone nail polish remover it came off (Don't tell the quilt police).  So now I am rotating 3 needles and leaving them to soak.  I don't know if it is the fact that the needles I am using have a channel running the length of the shaft or whether I just used too much glue in the section I am working on at the moment.  Either way I won't be glue basting again and I won't be using bottom line on a large project again so it will be back to signature thread which is way more forgiving.

Down by the Beach

Sue came down to visit me yesterday and we had a little trip to the quilt shop.  Squid came too and was very well behaved.  It was a little warm and I did a couple of circuits of the shop and made my purchase then started feeling a little blah so sat down for a bit while Sue continued to look around.  We then went for coffee which ended up being lunch at one of the local cafe' food took ages but I had a chicken caesar salad and it only cost $10 and there was enough to feed a couple of people.

I am still waiting for my package from Fabric Shack which has some more Flora and Fauna by Patty Young in it.  I plan to make skirts and a couple of Amy Butler tops but it still hasn't arrived.... probably sitting in customs somewhere.  Fabric Shack are always reliable and and they posted it on the 9th grr I know it will be our end that the problem will be.... bloody Australia Post.

I have been feeling the need to get out, hubby dropped me off to have my nails done when he came to pick me up he said that they had checked out the Beach and it looked really nice down there.   So he decided to take the kids down for a swim and a play in the sand, I really wanted to get out and I told him to leave me at the jetty and I would sit on the benches or on the grass (I did both) and read for as long as they wanted to stay.  I didn't want to try to get down on the beach as the soft sand is heavy going at the best of times I didn't want to end up trapped with no way to get back to the car.  Here is my view from the bench and what did I read?     It has been a real page turner.  For Aussie girls if you have the Australian Women's Weekly there is a voucher in the back book section and you get it for half price at Dymocks until the end of the month.  A friend works at Dymocks said that she thinks the Weekly might be doing the same thing for the next 2 in the trilogy over the next couple of months but I don't know if I am going to be able to wait another couple of weeks for the new weekly to come out.

Tail Feathers + Giveaway Alert

While I have been "doing nothing" I have been stitching these little darlings.  As you can see I haven't started the applique yet as I like to do that last but might have to start as I have nearly finished the stitchery on block 6 and I don't have any more blocks made.  Please ignore the first two blocks I got the placement of the applique all wrong so I will have the two birds facing each other here and I might have to juggle the last two blocks to make it balance out.

Check out this You Sew Girl blog for a little girl dress pattern give away.

And the Winner Is...........

We are off to the pictures again.  Poor kids haven't had much adventure this holidays as I still am not up to getting into too much so we have seen every kids picture out over the holidays.  Today it is The Fantastic Mr Fox.


And without further ado the winner of the give away is.......

 Terry said...

Oh it's just beautiful!! Thanks for the great giveaway! :0)

4 January 2010 12:34 AM



Terry email me with your sail mail address and your wrist measurement so that I can make sure that it will fit.

Probably Shouldn't Be...

Doing this but...its all set up and I just did a little bit.... this evening.

Have had a minor surgery set back seems I have an infection so Dr did some tests this afternoon and put me on antibiotics ... you know the super dooper type the ones the size of a small torpedo which is going to do wonders for my systems better crack that bottle of probiotics.

The other day I got an email from my favourite dress shop (Flower) they were having a sale.  As I am not allowed to drive I got DH to take me as we were half way there when I went to see the surgeon.  Normally I don't want him anywhere near me when I do clothes shopping (I like to keep a certain amount of mystery about the process of getting clothes in my cupboard) but I really wanted a couple of tops that were on special, which in the end, they didn't have in the colours I wanted but I found some colours I liked only they weren't on sale but I decided I still needed them.  Then just as I was about to leave I decided to see if my most comfortable trousers ever came in other  colours.  They are linen like fabric I got them in white before Christmas now I have them in beige (they also had them in slate grey but I thought that might be pressing it) and like most of Flower's clothes they are super comfortable and ooooh soooo flattering to the less than perfect figure.   If you go to a Flower's shop I dare you to get just one piece.

I'm Back ..... well almost

One week and one day ago I had major surgery.  I didn't really think of it as major surgery until I looked at the sickness certificate that the surgeon had given me which said in big black letters MAJOR SURGERY as the reason for the time off work.  I guess the ankle to hip stockings that I had to wear in 42 degree heat should have been a give away.  I have had a few rough days but yesterday I decided that I felt heaps better and of course I over did it.  So I spent this morning in bed with a book.

You would think... well I did think leading up to it that I would have been spending all these idle hours sewing but I haven't ... mojo is a bit missing at the moment.  Did do some purchases from Sarah though as she has a sale at the moment and as soon as I feel up to it I am sewing a couple of skirts and a couple Amy Butler tops to go with them.

There is still a few days to add you name for my give away so don't forget to put in your comment.

Not the 300 post give away

Here is my give away it is a bracelet called Flotsam, it features wire wrapped beads and a vintage watch face with some flotsam floating in it.  Leave a comment and I will draw the prize on the 19 of January.  I have another bead in case the winner has a bigger wrist than me which is quite likely as mine are pretty small (only thing that is lol).

Lazy Days

We have had a lazy couple of days since Christmas, I can't actually believe that it has only been a week. It has been a week of total relaxation which is good after the rush leading up to Christmas.  It has also been incredibly hot which is the main reason we haven't done much.  We have been a couple of times to the beach but only in the morning before the full heat of the sun hits.  

We did have breakfast down the kiosk on the beach on Tuesday which previously had been a lovely experience this day it was not (obviously the previous time there was a bit of a breeze which kept the fly's away this time not so good).  Here is a picture of my hubby before the fly's descended on our meal.... happy, I didn't bother taking an after shot.....

It was all made better for a nice walk down the beach after...

I have just finished taking down my Christmas decorations.  I do this on the 1st of January every year that way it gets done and doesn't get left to weeks down the track.  I put all my lovely home made prim decorations away and thought about the lovely swaps I have been in over the last few years.  The prim forum has met a slow but steady death I guess we all move on and have other things in our lives that fill the spot the forum once filled.  I know I have moved away from prim myself but I still love all my lovely ornies made with love by the girls.  I put my Valentine ornies from the last swap last year (I only took them down at Christmas) I think this was my favourite swap probably made more special because it was the last.

I mentioned in my previous post that there is going to be a give away, and no I haven't started it yet.  Will have to make a start this afternoon.   I passed my 300th post in November so I am a bit behind (just a tad) but I am heading into hospital next week and will be out of action for a bit so I will post the give away just before then and give you a week or so to post a comment.  So be on the look out Sunday or Monday.....