15 Minutes and A Finish

Its been a good week for the challenge 7 out 7.  Work has been quiet which means I haven't had to catch up on too much after our big September.  I talked to the boss today and its probably because he hasn't been absent doing work travel/conferences this time of year so things aren't left until he is around.  Wonder if we can make it a policy in the future.  

I have finished the Blackbird button bag, here is the picture all pretty resting against my antique sewing machine.  The next project is 1 thread over 1 linen thread a bit of a challenge something I probably won't be repeating anytime soon.  

More crochet was done and I managed to work out a decent layout of the colours, playing with my second sampler pack when it arrived.  Still haven't finished the first pack worth of granny squares but I think I will try and get half of it together if I have enough cream.    

Last week of offical classes for school for Mo this week.  She has only one more assignment to hand up for year 12.  We picked up here potters wheel on the weekend, she can still get things fired at school for a few more weeks so she wants to throw some more pots over the next few weeks.  

So how did your week go.  Head to Kate's to see how everyone is traveling.

15 Minute Challenge Back to School

Mo went back to school today.  She was a little bit cranky this morning but seems to have brightened up this afternoon.  Yesterday she finished her Art Prac and I helped her put them in frames.  Photo's have been taken these are what are submitted to the board for grading.  

There has been no more dress making progress but I'm guessing she will get back to it once school is finished 2 weeks and 3 Wednesdays (Design Class) to go and she will be done.  

We went and had a formal dress fitting for the hem to be done.  The shop was a zoo, all the schools have left formals till the end of the year, luckily we had an appointment as they said they had to close the shop to more customers earlier in the day as they had reach their max people allowed in the space.  I'm glad we took the gamble of getting her dress early.  

There isn't any news of when she starts her job yet, so it looks like she will be well and truly finished with school before she needs to start.  

I've managed to make time for crochet, sewing and cross stitch everyday this week.  It was a long weekend last week and I had an extra day off which was lovely though I had to really hustle at work to get things done.  I'm planning on having 5 weeks off starting in early December this year so I can spend some more time with Mo and Maestro (if he isn't working too much).  DH is hoping to have a similar break, he has already started working out his summer projects.  

I traced a couple of more smitten blocks and just about finished the cross stitch I have been working on, tonight should have the cross stitch all done and I can make up the bag on the weekend.

These are all my granny squares, I nearly have run out of coloured balls, but I was able to get another sample pack so I should be able to make a 10 x 10 blanket out of them now.  The cream is on back order  so I have given up on alternative cream blocks, so I will undo what I have done and use that for the edge.  I am going to start putting them together once the first group of sample colours is done.  Not sure how I am going to do the colours if i will just do pot luck or arrange in colour rows like the original design.  

How has your week been?  Head to Kate's to see how the crew has gone this week.  

15 Minute Challenge and Dressmaking 101

 First week of school holidays is gone, Mo did a couple of job interviews, one was for a Xmas casual position at Spotlight (which is a sewing/craft/homewares store) and the other was an ongoing casual position at Kmart.  She didn't like the woman that interviewed her at Spotlight but liked the attitude of the woman at Kmart and they seemed more flexible with working arrangements.   They called her the next day to say she had the job and to come down and collect her starter pack.  

They set her up with a login and she has to do some online training and then she will start work.  I was really impressed with all the documentation she got it was very thorough... more information than I have ever gotten before I started a job.  

Over the weekend we started dressmaking 101.  The dress is probably a bit more complicated than it needs to be for a first attempt but Mo has followed along patiently every step of the way.  I have a feeling we may have needed to do a bigger size.  She keeps telling me she is a rectangle and she doesn't have a waist now I'm tending to agree, her bust size keeps fooling me. Luckily the pattern has a D cup alternative pattern pieces otherwise I would have had to try and remember how to do Bust alteration.    We have adjusted a couple of the seams and it fits the mannequin now we may need to do another adjustment at the waist.

Sewing/crochet wise it was only a 5 out of 7 week this week.  With Mo heading to 2 interviews and then getting a job I had to deal with Mo's anxiety.  She anxious about a presentation she is expected to do at school that they have just sprung on her.  She has been struggling with dealing with a woman that was brought in to mentor them in her Design Course and then the last week of school they said Mo has to do a pitch to her group.  

There was a bit of progress of cross stitch and I did some more granny squares.  After finishing the wrong colour on some of the flowers but I like the darker blue.  

We have had a long weekend and I have taken an extra day off.  More dress making today I think but Mo and I have had a sleep in.  

Well that's it for this week.  Hope you have had a good one.  

Head to Kate's to see how everyone has got along this week.  

15 Minute Challenge - School Holiday Give a Big Cheer

 Its school holidays, which means no school drop offs which have been horrendous the last few weeks as the school is one big construction site and the road is full of trucks and tradie vans.  

Mo has only 2 official weeks of school left after a 2week break, though her Design Class which is held on a Wednesday is probably still going to continue for a few weeks after that.  None of her subjects have exams just big pieces of work that have to be handed in.  The school formal is going ahead which is great since we have already purchased the dress.  

Mo went to a party last night, they didn't stay long just a couple of hours, it was held in a dingy warehouse.  She came out looking a little bit wide eye'd.  Pot was being smoked and someone had an adverse affect after drinking too much.  She isn't a big party person anyway and neither is her boyfriend so they were both happy for an early one.  I think she has a couple of more parties to attend this holidays everyone is turning 18 which is drinking age here in Australia. Mo isn't really interested in drinking and pushing boundaries I'm sure she will go through that phase at some point just not now.  

This week I have been crocheting.  Here are my finished square about a 3rd of the way through.  Have to get some more wool for the cream alternate squares but it is on back order.  

Cross stitch progress hasn't been as much this week and I've worked out a mistake in the border, but I know how I can fix it.  

I think I will be doing cross stitch tonight so I can get this done this week.  

All in all it was a 7 out of 7.

How did you go this week.  Check out Kate's page to see everyone's progress

15 Minute Challenge and still more of the same

 Work has been pretty heavy this last week which is usual for September, hoping I can catch up tomorrow. 

We collected Mo's pottery on Saturday and they turned out pretty good for first efforts. The one bowl I had my eye on she gave to her boyfriend.  Oh well I am sure there will be more in the future and I will be sick of the sight of them.  She has been spending lots of time at school using the wheel and she will be making more for her Design Class as her product.  

We were promised lots of rain on the weekend which didn't eventuate, thought apparently the farming belt got a good soaking.  We just got lots of wind.  

I made another start this week.  I decided to do make Smitten By Lucy Carsson Kingwellwhich uses Marti Mitchell templates but I also have a few of the shapes in singular template form from another pattern the fit perfectly with the Mari Mitchell Hexigon set.  It has really big Hexigons combined with smaller ones and is hand pieced I'm just going to do blocks now and again when I feel the urge.  

I also did some more of the applique whole piece which has been neglected over the last few weeks I really need to get stuck into that again. 

The cross stitch is also coming along slowly and I got another kit last week as well as a couple more cross stitch patterns ... I think I have a problem.  

And I've been burning along with the crochet I may have just bought a couple more crochet patterns as well.  

All in all it was a 7 out of 7 week for me.  How did you go this week head to Kate's to see how everyone went.

  

15 Minute Challenge and Spring has Sprung

 This last week we have seen quite a bit of warm weather.  Mo and I have walked most days down to the beach.  We also went to a market that I can't say I was comfortable going to... too many people in a confined space but Mo wanted to go.  

She wanted to see one particular vendor that she thought would help with her Design Subject at school but they weren't there so I was uncomfortable for no reason.  

We also put a deposit on a potters wheel for Mo.  We wanted to hire one but they are all on loan and in short supply so we bit the bullet.  From what we have been lead to believe the resale value is pretty high so I don't think we will lose money if she loses interest down the track.  At the moment losing interest doesn't seem to be on the cards, she is spending more time at school in her free lessons using the potters wheel there.  It will be a combined Christmas/Birthday present and she is contributing to the cost as well.  

I managed to do a bit of quilting on the weekend (not much) and started a belt for Mo's formal dress, though we did get a silver belt on Ebay it was too big so DH had to alter it and we both are concerned that she isn't going to be able to sit with the belt on as it is a solid piece of metal.  We found a strip of sparkles in the ribbon section of local habby store that has adhesive on the back the width of a belt and I'm going to apply it to some belt fabric.   So I think this will be a more comfortable options.  She has to sit through the Valedictory assembly and then dinner so she doesn't want to be uncomfortable.  

There has been more crochet squares done.  Though I think I need some more yarn but they are out of the cream which I want more of.  Maybe it will be back in stock when I need to do the border.  

I have been working on my cross stitch and am toying with the idea of starting another hand pieced quilt.  

All in all its a been a 7 out of 7 this week. How's your week been.  

15 Minute Challenge and a few starts

I was feeling off most of last week, just upset tummy so I decided to take a course of probiotics and things have started to settle down.  One night I just went to bed and didn't feel like doing anything.  So it was a 6 out of 7 week and no finishes but a couple of starts.  

It is the last week of Pottery Classes for Mo, she is full steam on getting ready to do some more at home and looking into hiring a wheel for a couple of months.  They have also let her use the wheels at school and they have a kiln so she is making a few pots in her free lessons.  She is also working on making her own logo and setting up an etsy shop and a website.   They had another class she wanted to do which thankfully was full by the time she mentioned it.  We could do with a brake from the double trips to the city of an evening once a week.  She wants to do the intermediate pottery class but you have either had to have done 2 beginners courses or had more wheel experience.  She might be able to do it next year if she keeps up at home.  

Maestro has settled into Uni and seems to be keeping up with work/life/school balance.  He is a lot happier than he was last year so the year off has been a good thing even with Covid thrown in.  

So what have I been up to this week.  I started a new crochet project and project 4 from Crewel Goblin's Blackbird Design Project of the month which will be a little button bag.  

Well that's it for the week.  Have you managed to make 15 minutes a day? Head to Kathy's to see how everyone went.