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.  

15 Minute Challenge and a busy Month

 The usual September hoo ha is over today.  Lots and lots of invoices to finalise and our accounts department decided they needed to do end of month at 11.15, then wouldn't let us in the system for another hour which is the longest its taken all year.  I'm not sure why all the managers weren't up in arms, at least I managed to get everything done in the end, but I wasn't happy.    

My co-worker was back today so that is one less thing to worry about and I go on holiday in 2 weeks.  Yay can't wait we have a road trip planned.  

Mo's market prep is in full swing, she is making lots of props for a her products and she is printing off her stickers and art prints now all the other items are done, fingers crossed she does well.

Maestro's apprenticeship  is finished and he is now a fully qualified Chief and starts a new contract.  He was hoping to drop a day now and mainly do front of house but I'm not sure how that will go as they had one of the cooks leave unexpectedly so we will have to wait and see.

I've been busy and have had a few finishes the last couple of weeks.  A couple of sewing boxes and a quilt finish.  

My latest crochet throw is finished just have to wash and block it, so that will have to wait until next time.  

Head to Kate's you know the drill.

15 Minutes and Bits and Pieces

 The year is definitely wizzing by I cant believe we are well in to September.  We have had quite a few warm days even though spring has just started.  

My co-worker had to head off this morning as his wife was in labour. The count down is on for me to finish the quilt.  It's lucky I finished the quilting on Thursday afternoon and started the binding on the weekend.  Will need to get on to the hand stitching (I don't like machine stitching it down).   I have loved getting back behind the machine and doing some machine quilting.    

I started having a bit of mini clean up in the sewing room, I need to find some more yarn storage.  There is already have a couple of bags that need to go to the charity shops shortly.  While cleaning a rediscovered a couple of small cases that I want to make into sewing boxes.  Below is the plain painted box.  I've got a few stickers and elements to paint up and go on before I start looking at the inside.  Have you seen the travel sewing cases on instagram that are made out of travelling jewellery cases.  They look darling, mine is on order from Amazon but I decided to make a start on a bigger one for paper piecing projects.  After trawling through instagram I have found a couple of how to's (in Italian) but I think I can follow the photo's.

A couple of weeks ago I did an afternoon class making this sewing bag.  The clam shells are hand pieced from a small template (not paper pieced).  It took me about a week to finish and it came out lovely.  I have another pattern for small purse that originally used hexies but I want to use the clam shells again, they are so much easier than paper pieced clams and they look pretty much the same.  Not sure when that is getting started though.  It was lovely doing the class I miss regular classes the most since COVID. 

 

Mo is getting ready for a market in about 6 weeks.  Its at a gaming convention, she is making a few gaming character inspired pieces.  She has also been working on these cute animal figurines.  She has also made polymer clay phone/key fobs as well as earrings.  I think she will be doing some art prints and stickers as well if she has time.  She has also applied for another market closer to Christmas just hope she can make enough stock by then.  

I'm down to the last square of a crochet blanket I have been working on.  Need to get them all together and work on a border.  Crochet Guild meets this weekend it will be good if I can get all the squares together by then for some show and tell.  

Hope you are getting your 15 minutes in.  

Head to Kates' to see how everyone is progressing.  

15 Minute Challenge and its been a while

 Sorry its been over a month.  Monday night has been problematic for blogging so I'm giving a go on Sunday night.  We have been picking up Mo from work Monday nights she doesn't finish till late and then we cook dinner and it better to sit in front of the TV and stitch or crochet than blog.  

I also was sick for a couple of weeks, got some bug thanks to Mo who caught it off her boyfriend.  I can't really complain haven't been sick with cold since before covid and have so far missed out on Covid joy.  We all did Covid/Flu test and it wasn't either of those so just garden variety cold with a bit of a lingering cough.  

But as you can see I have been busy even with a week break spent on the lounge doing zip.  There is a finished quilt top and a finished embroidery piece.    I'm unsure what to do with the embroidered piece I'm leaning towards framing it, just don't know where I will put it.  DH doesn't like to hang things on the wall but I'm thinking I could put it above my sewing draws in the lounge room, but might have to sneak it there and see if he notices.

Work has been busy on and off, we probably need to divide some the work a bit better as I am getting bored at times waiting for things to come back from clients.  Its a nice break from been constantly under the pump but I don't like having so little to do.  But as my offsider is about to go on paternity leave for a couple of weeks at the drop of a hat I am probably going to regret these comments soon.  

I leave you with a picture from my walk around the lake this morning.  

Head to Kates to see how everyone is travelling.

15 Minute Challenge & More Stitching

 I've been doing more stitching this week.  Everytime I crochet it makes my shoulder hurt so  I turned to stitching which doesn't seem to be so problematic.  I have started another hand pieced border and finished the last appliqué square for the Lacropte Quilt.  On the weekend I did I started cutting and stitching small 4 patch squares that make up the next border and cutting the squares for the pinwheel.  Still have quite a bit of cutting and machine stitching to get them finished but probably by the time the hand piecing is done the cutting and stitching for the machine pieced borders will be done.  

I also started working on a baby quilt for my co-worker, his wife is due to have their first child in 2 months.  The quilt is Posie by Judy Newman, it has cluster of hexagons appliquéd to a background.  I picked the fabrics and fussy cut most of the hexagons so that it will be  like a small eye spy quilt.  Have to get something simple for the background thinking either a small dot or something similar in a light green though he did tell me they are having a boy.  

I have dowloaded another CAL by a crochet designer that I have been following, I'm struggling with the pattern at the moment so it isn't taking much for me to leave it alone.  I think I much prefer when there are charts so I can check against my understanding of the directions but this one only has pictures and words and it is US terms which I struggle with at the best of times.  Will go back to it when my arm is feeling better or I just feel like a challenge.  

Mo has started reformer pilates which has a class on Sunday morning, the class looks out onto a manmade lake near us so I took the chance to have a change of venue for my daily walk.  Its saltwater and a bit smelly in places but it was good to have a bit of change of scenery and I got a nice long walk in while I waited for the class to finish.  

Think thats it for me.  Work is busy but I'm glad I have some stitching to keep me sane.  

As usual head to Kate's to see how everyone is going.  

15 Minute and Decisions

 Another busy week just flew by.  Work was a bit manic trying to make up for the public holiday.  Feeling a bit more on top of things today but still have lots to get done, decided to work from home tomorrow so I can have a good stretch of uninterrupted  hours to get through some of my tasks done.  

I have a decision to make for one of my new starts.   What should be my centre for this quilt.  I only have 1m of the fabric and of course the bird I like is at the top and bottom of the 1m piece.  The last image is the one I want to go with but the girls think I need a more central image.  

My reasoning is that the focal point of the last bird is the centre and the flower on the left also faces the centre.  It would be easy if I like the parrot but I don't like that particular bird (it is also in the centre of the fabric piece so makes it an easier choice, but its a hard no from me.  

The pattern also has a few more smaller frames like this around the edge which I think will be perfect for more birds 

I'm going to let it sit for a while, do some more of the frame and make a decision latter.  

I've made a bit more progress on my crochet square but need to give it a rest my shoulder is causing me some grief if I do too much.  Back to more sewing this week.  

Head to Kates to catch up with everyone.  

15 Minute Challenge and a Long Weekend

I was going to do a maybe login a do some work this weekend but instead  I managed to do lots of sewing and crochet, a much better way to get through 3 days.  

Saturday was Crochet Guild Meeting and it was perfect timing for Knitting/Crochet in Public DayThe Cove had an outing for show and tell and now it is back safely on Mo's bed and I've started a new project, it is using my lovely Poll Merino Yarn. 

I have also been moving ahead with LaCropte that was started at the workshop a few weeks ago and have pulled the fabric for another Judy Newman Quilt.  This one is huge it will definitely be a long term project but I have the perfect focus fabric I just have to decide if I want to use the birds or the flowers as the focus.  

I have finished the first hexagon ring and am going to use it to audition the centre.  I have done enough paper piecing today, tonight I am going to get back to some appliqué for LaCropt.  There is still some Octagons to cut out and plenty of squares, so there is plenty of hand piecing for the coming weeks.  

That's it for me at least I am managing some sewing the last few weeks, as Mo works most Monday's when I usually blog, it has been hard as we drive to the city and pick her up at the end of the day, it is dark when she finishes work and she has to walk through badly lit parks to get to the train station.  

Head to Kate's 

15 Minute Challenge A Finish and Progress on A Quilt

 Its been another busy week.  It was Mo's boyfriend birthday and it seemed like we were driving her everywhere this week what with work pick ups now that it is dark when she finishes and needing to be places. I think this week will be quieter.  

The Cove is finished. Luckily it has been unseasonably warm this week apart from being freezing in the mornings so only 3 days to dry on the blocking mat.  I'll take nicer photo's on the weekend or maybe sooner as it is supposed to start raining in a few days.  

Now that the Cove is done I have returned to La Cropte which I started in the class last weekend.  I have just finished the centre block.  There is now lots of hand piecing to do and a bit more appliqué for the next border.  

That's it for this week short and sweet.  I'm off to first aid training tomorrow the pre learning took up most of yesterday afternoon which I had planned to binge watch something and stitch instead I read about CPR and Snake Bites.  

Head to Kates to see how everyone is going.  
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