15 Minute Challenge

Lots of hand quilting has been happening this week.  I did miss a couple of days because we had a birthday party and coffee out with the girls on Wednesday however, every other night there was a fair bit of quilting going on.  The frame is up by my seat and have been managing an hour at least when I do sit down to watch tv at night.

Every year around this time I like to try and have a clean out of the sewing room, this year I am getting really serious about it.  I'm going to clear some of the magazines out that I haven't looked out in years.   Just have to work out what I am going to do with them I would prefer that they go to a good crafting home but if not they will be heading to the recycle bin. There are also some old novels in there that just have to go the local library has a section where you can donate books so they will be heading there. I have a draw or 2 of dress patterns that I am biting the bullet over as well I'm hoping the local Op Shop might be interested.

I'm handing over my wool supply to Leanne because I'm over my wool addiction.  At the moment the sewing room looks like a bomb has gone off, well that would be 2 bombs because it usually looks like a bomb has gone off.  I am determined to find room for all the fabric that is not sorted and stored which means I need to get more organised.

So now for the challenge the week went like this:

Wednesday: Coffee with the girls
Thursday: quilting
Friday: squids birthday recovery
Saturday: clean up , quilting
Sunday: clean up, quilting
Monday: quilting
Tuesday: quilting

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

The Party's Over

I woke up Thursday with the day well planned, trip to Glenelg to get the party stuff with Squid, drop Squid off and head to my massage appointment at 11am. Heading down to Glenelg the phone rang, I did the right thing and left it got to the car park looked at the phone my massage appointment reminder is staring me in the face and Lucy has left a message where was I for the 9am appointment.  

Fortunately Lucy's 10.15 appointment got it wrong as well and turned up at 9 so she was able to do a straight swap.  So after a bit of swearing I calmed down and we did the fastest party shop ever at Cheap as Chips and then a run down to the Reject Shop for String in a Can which was the one demand for the party.

More shopping was done in the afternoon for food and party favours and we were pretty much set. Squid did a run down of activities in the morning and we pretty much followed the schedule.

It went greetings, a couple of games, waterslide, water balloon fight, pool activities, boat races, get dressed, food, and a couple of more games and then apparently the best part the Silly String fight.  And then the parents arrived.  I don't know if the kids were tired but DH & I slept well.  

Lets just say I am glad the silly string fight happened outside in a well ventilated area and where it was reasonable easy to clean up.    That stuff is truly foul I don't think I would be saying yes the next time what a stink.  But they had fun.

15 Minute Challenge

Where did that week go.  There were a couple of finishes this week.

Squid had the whip out she wanted a new pencil case for school, there were a few design requests that made it a little bit difficult but in the end it turned out ok.  She wanted plastic to protect the fabric on the inside, which meant I had to sleep on how I was going to do it.  By Thursday I had it all nutted out and was able to make a start Friday night with a supervisor watching the proceeding.

Thursday I gave the cot quilt to my nail girl, and she was so appreciative and loved it to bits.  I even got a late night thank you text, she must have been feeding the little man.

The weekend saw me get on with Soul Searching and I finished my final block and stitched it all together.  I got it in my head to hand quilt it, because I wanted a soft finished.  I am using silk batting, which is a dream to stitch through and cotton voile on the back the finish quilt will have an amazing drape.  Wonder how long it will take to finish.

That should keep me pretty quiet over the next few weeks anyway.

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

Favourite Things Friday

About 8 months ago my 4 year old dishwasher died.  I should of known that it wouldn't be a long term proposition when it got a recall on it within 3 months and then another at 6 months.  It then just stopped heating up the water, thinking it was probably just a thermostat I rang and got a tech out, to find that no it was the computer gizmo thing that was gone and the part would be $400 and then there would be a couple of hours of work involved after that to get it working again.  So I paid the $120 to hear that cheerful news and decided we could do the dishes by hand for a while it wouldn't be that bad.

Well it was that bad, and we decided that we would get a new dishwasher.  I was all for spending not much getting an el cheapo thing because if it was only going to last 4 years I wasn't going to spend big bucks.  Then I had coffee with the girls last week and one had had a Bosche for 30 years and the other swore by her Miele.

We happened to be in the city last week and decided to have a quick look before our dentist appointment.  The bottom of the range Bosche had a plastic bottom which didn't excite DH, but the Miele bottom of the range although it didn't have the pull out cutlery draw (Dishwasher Nirvana) it did look roomy inside was all stainless steel and $200 off.

There had to be a bit of demolition to fit it in the gap, however it is installed, with another minor hiccup being that it required dishwasher salt. DH did a "What the (*&^%^" This is going to be a piece of ^%$#.  I made enquiries and made the purchase of dishwasher salt from the place where we bought the dishwasher (why the hell the sales guy didn't tell us about it is beyond me but it did take him 1/2 hour to complete the sale with his 2 fingered typing).

DH would marry the dishwasher if he could he is so happy with it.  Plenty of room for plates, the dishes dry and he doesn't have to stand a wash dishes with me anymore.  Either one of us can't stand each other's dish washing technique (his involves washing each dish, glass or piece of cutlery separately and I am not kidding took minimum an hour to complete).  After putting up with that for 8 months I might even marry the dishwasher.

So Miele is my FTF this week.  Head on over to Mrs P to check out everyone elses.  

15 Minute Challenge

Its still school holidays and last week was my first week back at work, I did still manage to do a few things last week to keep up the challenge.  The cot quilt is all finished and the binding is done it is already wrap and give away tomorrow, need to fit in quick trip for a card and wrapping paper before heading off to deliver it.

I've come to the realisation that my 12 year old son has a better social life than me.  He has had friends over, followed by lazer skirmish on Monday and a day at the water slides yesterday.  We are heading for another super hot day tomorrow and I think I might take refuge in the sewing room for a while.  Squid has put in an order for a pencil case for the new school year.

We took Squid to the Botanic Gardens yesterday to fill in the morning/early afternoon.  Monday night it was reported on the nightly news that the lotus flowers were in full bloom.  As we had seen the pond in winter when it was all dead I really wanted to take some photo's of what it looked like in Summer.  Squid was happy to go as long as she got to play in the trees.

Better give you a run down of the week it sort of went like this:

Wednesday - Nothing coffee with the girls
Thursday -  Quilting Cot quilt
Friday - quilting cot quilt
Saturday - quilting binding
Sunday - more binding
Monday - binding
Tuesday - finished off the binding and a bit of photography

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

I'll leave you with some pictures from yesterday's adventure.

Favourite Things Friday - well Sunday

I'm a bit late, I was having trouble deciding what to include as my first FTF and the return to work obviously didn't help have my head together.  But this morning during my tea making ritual I decided that my Favourite Think Friday would be T2 and all the wonderful teas that I have so far discovered there.

I can get to the SA shop quite easily from work, and have already done a couple of quick jaunts during my lunch break.  The week after Xmas I took the family in tow to check it out as my sister had given me a T2 voucher.   Maestro is always one for taste testing so he had a good time sampling all the various jugs of come and try beverages.  I think I could easily spend a small fortune on all the tea paraphernalia let alone the tea.

T2 also featured heaving in my Xmas present I purchased a ice tea jug box set, the jug is a permanent fixture in  my fridge with a brew of Pumping Pomegranate which is just so refreshing on a hot day.

My favourite tea by far is the French Earl Grey it is now my go to tea... think I am going to have to upgrade the size of the tin.  But still the  Girlie Grey and the Creme Brûlée aren't bad either.  

T2 is my favourite think head to Mrs P to see what everyone else's favourites are today.

15 Minute Challenge

Don't actually know where the last week went.  I know it was stinking hot in our neck of the woods and reached a high of 44c at one stage last week.  The one saving grace is it was a dry heat and the aircon worked pretty well but it was still just foul.  Luckily the aircon in the sewing room works better than it does in the house so I escaped for a couple of hours with the dog to enjoy the refrigerated cooling.

Monday saw me return to work so it will be interesting to see if I can keep up the sewing momentum long term.

The week went like this

Wednesday - Borders on Cot Quilt
Thursday - Soul Searching
Friday - Mixed Media Play
Saturday - bit more Mixed Media play Soul Searching
Sunday - nothing
Monday - nothing
Tuesday - pieced back for cot quilt and started quilting.

 Here is the start of another Soul Searching Block.  I have just left the fabric there.  I think the bottom right corner needs a real work over and I will be replacing some of the fabrics just have to search the stash.


The green block is all stitched.

Here are the finished 2 pages from my mixed media play.    Just Be is still a work in progress.  I have one more background to work with as well.  Noisy is quite 3D the butterfly an flower stand out from the page so I am going to have to rethink how I put them all together as I don't want to crush those elements.

We have a couple of cooler days this week then the temp will be going up again but not as high as last week.  I think I will be quilting the cot quilt for most of the week and I might get out the paints again and finish my media play.  Time to head on over to Kates to see who else met the challenge this week.

15 Minute Challenge

Looks like Kate has decided to get it up and running early this year, with some get creative theme's thrown in.

I can't remember what I did the week before Xmas, there was sewing involved.  I can probably give a run down of this week though.

 Tuesday (Xmas day) No sewing
Wednesday - Soul Searching Blocks
Thursday - Soul Searching blocks
Friday - Soul Searching blocks
Saturday - Soul Searching blocks
Sunday - Soul Searching Blocks
Monday - more soul searching
Tuesday- x stitch sampler

I have 4 soul searching blocks finished and the 5th is waiting for the neutrals to go in.

The final photo is a little something I knocked up yesterday which should probably feature next week but I thought I'd post it as well.  Squid wasn't too happy that I interrupted Soul Searching to do it I might had but a baby came early to a friend.

You know the drill head to Kate's to see who else met the challenge. and maybe join in yourself.