15 Minute Challenge

I have been steadily stitching this week and cutting, and cutting and cutting.  I'm preparing for my Kathy Doughty class on the weekend and another on Tuesday and a Wendy Williams class on Wednesday. Do you think I will be all classed out by then.

The weekend class with Kathy calls for a wide selection of 2 1/2"strips from the fabric stash, I read the book and it calls for 24 different fabrics of each colour way.  It has been an interesting study of my stash to say the least.  I ended up not trying for purple I just couldn't stretch to 24, green was a problem too not lime/light green but true green, I found enough in the end and red was a problem as well.  Pink, and blue were no problem at all and yellow turned out to be easy as did orange which really surprised me.  Some of the colours I managed to get more than 24 which is a good thing so I will be able to audition the fabrics which I think is the whole point of the exercise.

It was fun to reach back into the back of the stash and find some treasures, and there was plenty of fabric that I bought a couple of metres of which for the life I cant remember why, I'm sure there was a reason once upon a time but its gone now.

Squid's has decided she likes the look of the pile and has claimed the quilt for her own so I guess I will have to make sure I finish it might be a good birthday present in January for her.

At the moment I haven't even thought about Wendy Williams class but I am sure I can pull together a stash of stuff on Tuesday night for it or there is always the shop as I haven't bought anything for Kathy's Quilt...if it comes from the stash its free isn't it?

Thursday saw me waiting for a tradie that never showed for a quote for the roof, when I rang I got the feeling he was a floater, I'm glad he didn't turn up.  I rang another guy today and he sounded more professional so fingers crossed he will turn up (I don't have to be here they can quote using google maps from the birdseye view) he just has to drive by to check the battens.

Better get back to the run down.

Wednesday: embroidery
Thursday: another embroidery sketch
Friday: embroidery
Saturday:embroidery, cutting strips
Sunday: more cutting strips, embroidery
Monday: embroidery, more strips
Tuesday: embroidery, more strips.

Head on over to Kate's to see who else has met the challenge.

BARF Diet

Coco has been on the raw food diet for a week.  I met with the pet Naturopath yesterday just to see what supplements we should try to help her allergies.

Coco has taken to her new diet with gusto and she hasn't turned up her nose at anything so far.  I was told to give her one vegetable meal and one meat meal, add a few other ingredients including sardines a couple of times a week to boost her immune system and a couple of supplement thrown in daily for a month to get her skin in top condition.  My blender is getting a work out.

I have found with just the raw food and stopping the dry food she is not scratching so much or biting her feet to get relief.  We have even been able to go for walks which I have avoided recently because it just make her allergies worse (we don't have grass in the backyard but the grasses in the street was setting everything off).

If you want to read more about BARF head here.  There are a number of locations throughout Australia where you can get the prepackaged BARF patties ready made for you.

What A Week

My son had a Karate grading on the weekend which he passed (he is now a blue belt), he was asked by the powers that be to come out for State Training, he is apparently pretty good at the fighting bit.  I think my hubby was thinking about it all the way home, and when he told me I just said NO, especially after the fact my son's ankle failed (footy injury that has come back to bite him) during the grading and and has resulted in a Dr's visit and now ongoing physio.

Hubby says if he gives up footy maybe he can do Karate, I just told him that Maestro giving up footy is just not an option he will continue to just want to do it all.  The 3 hours of training on a Sunday night is also a major deciding factor, it is already hard to drag him to school after any major sports activities on the weekend, this Monday included and the 6pm to 9pm training on a Sunday night is just not attractive in any way shape or form.

At the moment I have warded off the extra Karate lesson once a week.  I think DH hasn't pressed it because I have as little to do with Karate as possible and it will be up to him to do the running around for yet another lesson each week.   I can't say I have ever liked Maestro doing Karate and have left it as something that the boys do and organise together.

I am feeling much better, though my knee and arm still hurt but at least today I am home and can keep moving around, yesterday was torture sitting at my desk at work.  Another visit to the Chiro tonight to straighten things out and I fingers crossed that little episode will be put to rest.

More exciting new on the quilting front,  I am all booked in for a couple of classes with Kathy Doughty of Material Obsession and Wendy Williams in the first week in November at Hetties.  I can't tell you how excited I am to be going and I will probably have to start looking in my stash on the weekend to get my stuff all together.

I have also signed up for Material Obsessions Fabric Club, you all know I need more fabric,  and I got my first package today.   I think I will put this away to use for my next Sue Daley Quilt which will be Square Dance once I finish Lancaster which I must get back to soon.

I am loving all the talk of the Aussies heading to Houston I will have to live vicariously through them, because a trip to Houston I don't think will be coming my way any time soon.

15 Minute Challenge

Well the challenge has fallen in a bit of a whole at the end of the week but beginning started out good.

I nearly finished another one of my secret squirrel projects just to test the pattern as it is a little bit complicated and I needed to make sure I had all the steps right.  Just need to do some hand stitching.

The embroidery for my other secret squirrel project is just about finished, I'd say about 1/2 and hour to go on that one, I just didn't have it in me to finish it Sunday night.  

Monday I headed to a meeting natural health for your pets, it was a worthwhile meeting as my dog has allergies which means she gets lots of ear infections.  They talked about how a raw food diet is best for dogs and not the commercial dry/moist foods that we all tend to feed them because we just don't know what is in them as the manufacture isn't required to tell us.

I'm glad it was worthwhile because I managed to fall down a step in the dark on the way out, and now I am feeling pretty sore and sorry for myself.  So 2 days have been without sewing this week.

Coco is now on a BARF diet and I think she is actually a bit better today, she has been really off for about a week as she is on antibiotics but today she is a lot brighter, instead of just moping around.

The week went kind of like this:

Wednesday: nadda (coffee with the girls)
Thursday: embroidery
Friday: embroidery
Saturday:SS project
Sunday: SS project/embroidery
Monday: nadda
Tuesday: nadda but it did put together this little goodie which is for all my mixed media supplies.  I am going to get another one for my sewing stuff.  It took just over an hour to put it all together.

Head on over to Kate's to see who else has met the challenge this week.  

Its a Finish

I'm having a breather.  I have just sent off one of my upcoming deadlines with much relief that it is all done.  I have another version of my little project which I will go out and put the finishing touches too this afternoon.  Here's a sneak peak.  Got so say I am falling for this little range it is just so feminine and has a few abstract prints to go with this stylish panel.  If you think you like the look too head on over to Sarah's she has quite a bit of the range.

The summer tennis season has started for the kids and Squid is starting to play her first season.  She doesn't have the boundless energy or drive to compete that my son does but she is doing quite well in the first 2 weeks fingers cross she will continue to enjoy it.  I worked it out and we are at the tennis club 4 times a week now, I am so glad it is 2 minutes down the road and once the season gets in full swing I will be able to have a couple of hours sewing time while I watch training.

Our house is decidedly tired and has been in need of reroofing for over 10 years and we keep putting it off, this week I took the first steps in getting quotes for reproofing.  Hubby has been telling me the price he thought it would be for a couple of years and I assumed it would be double what he said.  Thankfully the first quote was in my hubby's ball park figure, and hubby really liked the guy who answered all his questions (he alway has a lot) and had a lot of local knowledge about the kind of condition the roof was in without even looking at it.

DH has told me I still need to get  couple of more quotes, though I am inclined to just go with this guy because he did a job around the corner from us and it was completed within a few days and the house looks amazing and more importantly DH liked him.   Oh well a couple of phone calls this week and I think we will bite the bullet.  

15 Minute Challenge

Here's a sneak peak at a little something I have been working on.

More pattern writing is also happening, I really need to finish some of that pattern writing but I am procrastinating.  I should have just bitten the bullet and got it all over and done with but it is progressing and that is the main thing.

I have taken on another commission, this one from my sister just a couple of throws and a few cushion covers should be able to slot that in somewhere.  I spent a fair bit of today scouring the internet for fabric to show her as she is in QLD.

The week went like this:

Wednesday: Secret squirrel project
Thursday: Secret Squirrel project
Friday: Nada - hit by migraine
Saturday: Nada
Sunday: Prototype of secret squirrel project/ sketching embroidery/Pattern writing
Monday: embroidery
Tuesday: more embroidery/pattern writing.

Head on over to Kate's to see who else kept up with the challenge this week.

In the last week of the holidays the kids and I took a little road trip down the coast so that Leanne could help me with some photo's for the new quilt.  As you can see from the brilliant blue in the background the day was perfect, though a little windy.  Don't ask me how I managed to take a photo with a curved horizon (I think I may have lost my balance as I was taking it). 

The kids were having fun running over the rocks and you can see the surfers in the background just hanging around waiting for the perfect wave.  

Here are the final shots.  

15 Minute Challenge

Another week of school holidays, we travelled down the coast to visit my friend so she could take some better shots of my quilt as it is going to be advertised in a magazine.  The day was really bright and sunny but the wind was proving to be a bit of a problem.

My day job has been a real pain in the butt this holidays, the end of September is always really busy and this year was the worse yet.  This year the school holidays were a week early which meant I couldn't have any time off and this year I worked a heap of extra hours.  Squid decided to lay a guilt trip on me this weekend which has left me pretty flat, and it caused a flood of memories of my Mum who never was able to have time off during the holidays and similar guilt trips that I would have sent her way.

The pattern writing continues and I am finalising all covers, templates and the final drafts.  Sarah will be running it again.

I have also been working on a pattern for another online event which will be announced soon.  I picked up some fabric yesterday to do another version of the items but until November it is all ...

Time for the run down.

Wednesday: pattern writing

Thursday: pattern writing

Friday: another project for December

Saturday: Top Secret project

Sunday: Top secret project 

Monday: December project

Tuesday: December project

Head on over to Kates to see who else met the challenge

15 Minute Challenge

Nearly forgot this morning to do this.  It is a glorious day today and I have to go to work :(.  Really should be going in early to catch up on some stuff but that doesn't look like it is going to happen because I just feel like taking it easy.

Stitching time has been fitting around school holiday activities and yesterday it was the ironing pile from hell.  Most of my stitching time has also been taken up with pattern writing as well which I count towards these activities because otherwise somedays might be a bit bare.

I woke up thinking about the Sweet Sixteen again this morning and how amazing it would be to own one, however yesterday I pretty much decided we can't afford to purchase it, unless I was prepared to quilt other peoples quilts to pay for it.  Which I could do but I doubt I would get enough business to pay the thing off.  In the meantime I'll go in every raffle I see and buy a couple of x-lotto tickets.

I apologise for the picture did this on the run this morning.  Some of my clams are looking a bit sick after a dunking in hot chocolate and a quick wash.  I am fixing them up as I stitch them down the last row is still only glue baste.  I promise they will look like clam shells when it is done.

The week kinda went like this.

Wednesday: Pattern writing
Thursday: Pattern writing
Friday: Pattern writing
Saturday: Appliqué the centre medallion of Lancaster Quilt, fabric shopping for project to be completed later in the year.
Sunday: Secret Squirrel work for November project.  Prototype complete yippee
Monday: AMQF lots of shopping and centre medallion again.
Tuesday: Pattern writing

Head on over to Kate's to see who else has met the challenge this week.

Holidays

Its school holidays at the moment, 2 and bit weeks (kids have pupil free day on Monday) of a break from the routine.  The last week in September is my busiest time at work, my hubby usually has some of the days that I work off so I was able to work a few extra hours guilt free and fingers crossed this week will be a little more sane.

We've been to a couple of movies, had a birthday party, the kids have done lots of outdoor activities because the weather has been pretty fantastic most of the time as well as just vegging out and recovering from a busy term of sport and school activities.  Squid has had a cough/cold for most of the holidays and getting her to veg is pretty easy but my son is the Energiser Bunny and getting him to rest even though he has had lingering injuries from Footy/tennis/playground has been challenging.

Sunday we had a couple of hours to fill in and we headed to the Old Adelaide Gaol, which my son had wanted to visit for some time now.  My hubby works for the government department that looks after it and has visited the Gaol numerous times as part of work so he new his way round so we didn't have to wait for the official tour, but it probably be worth going back when we had more time and listen to more of the stories.  There are plenty of gruesome exhibits and the well placed mannequins gave the kids a few jumpy moments.  My son wants to go to the twilight tour but I think the place was creepy enough during the day without heading there at night.

Yesterday I headed to AMQF, because of work I really couldn't do any classes, but I did hit the Venders hall yesterday and saw the quilt Exhibition and now I am seriously thinking of looking for a second job to help fund one of these little babies, because I had a bit of a play yesterday and it is amazing.