15 Minute Challenge and Strict Lockdown

 After my post last Monday we were sent into Level 4 restrictions with mandatory mask wearing when out in public.  By Tuesday morning it was announced that we would head into full strict lockdown with only a few reasons to leave home.  Of course I was at work because we were having a new phone system installed, it wasn't very successful and I ended up telling my IT people to just divert the phones because I was heading home I was no longer comfortable being out and about.  

From 6pm Tuesday we needed to stay home.  One person from each household could go to the shop but only food retailers and chemists were open, all business were effectively shut.  We were able to go out to exercise for 90 minutes a day, but the weather has been so bad with wind, rain and hail that its been quite fine to be home, I've only ventured out twice over the whole week.  19,000 people have been ordered into quarantine and all the cases of the Delta strain that have popped up in the last couple of days have all been in isolation so tomorrow evening stay home orders will be lifted and restrictions will be lessened.  

Maestro has just been put o full time hours so he hasn't lost any pay but will probably lose leave time.  Mo had a zoom  class today but will probably go back to in person classes on Thursday.  

We found out on Friday that new Manager interstate didn't cut the mustard and he was given his marching orders this morning.... so no end in sight for the work overload.  They are going to try and get an admin worker which I can hopefully send some of my work to but it will be at least a month before someone is put on.  

At least lockdown has been good for sewing.  I finished a By Annie bag for a friend and of course I want one so I have cut another one out for myself, but  smaller version. I've ordered more foam stabiliser so I can make more bags and get my Christmas sewing started early.  

Dreaming Frida is coming along nicely and I've discovered floss tube and signed up for another SAL.  

Hope your week was productive.  Head to Kates to see how everyone is going.  

15 Minute Challenge No lockdown yet

 As of last Thursday my hubby and I are now fully vaccinated.  There is no news when the kids will be in line for vaccines.  Apart from a sore arm (not as bad as last time) and a bit of a headache there were no adverse side effects at the moment it doesn't give you any privileges but I guess we ticked the box.  

There was a Covid case reported today in one of the public hospitals, and there are a number of exposure sites.  The guy is elderly, and so far there is only 4 exposure sites none of them are anywhere we frequent I'm sure it will expand but hopefully we won't head NSW and VIC's way.   

Due to work I haven't really been able to concentrate on any one project so am a bit all over the shop.  I've done some knitting, cross stitch, crochet and worked on another By Annie project (which I can't show as its a gift).  

The Babara Ana Design project has been unpicked a couple of times.  First to change the shadow face colour and last night because I mis read the chart for the hair.  Back to stitching tonight fingers crossed.

I purchase the first month of this cross stitch pattern.  Its the biggest project so far I have attempted.   It is the same price if you purchase the whole chart or just a month at a time.  I decided I wouldn't be under as much pressure if I just did it one section at a time.  The instagram feed has lots of colour inspiration and starting it late I get to see all the combos.  I settled on pink and burgundy on the grey linen.

Bought some new (cheapish) wool to start a square from Spincushion's new Granny Square Patchwork book.  The square ends up 15" I'm up to row 11 or 12 not sure there are 29 rows so not quite half way.  It wool is varigated with long distances between colour changes which seem to work well with the patten.

Sock progress, half way through the heel need to watch the youtube video to finish that bit off.  

I purchased some more sock yarn, linen for another cross stitch project and Jen Kingwells book which although had been orders days apart all arrived on the same day which happened to be the day DH had off which is always the way.  Luckily he ducked out to take Mo to work when everything arrived so my parcels managed to get in under the radar.  😛

Mo has one more week of mid year break and then its back to Uni.  One of her classes is at a different campus but luckily it isn't to far from where I work, we need to take a drive sometime this week to sort out how she is going to get there, public transport or come to work with me and I drop her there.  She's in avoidance mode at the moment but I don't think she can avoid it for much longer.  

Well I think that's it for this week.  I'm heading off to the physio.  

It was a 7 out of 7 this week.  See how everyone is getting on at Kate's 

15 Minute Challenge and No Good News on the work front

 Got what can only be described as shitty news today on the work front, the 3 months of taking on the big interestate clients  has been extended indefinitely which isn't the news either my boss and I wanted to hear.  When he was told by head office he said he didn't know how he was going to tell firstly firstly and secondly his wife as he had promised her he would be able to have some time off soon.  

Don't forget only a couple more days for free Quilt Quilt Pattern 3.  I haven't started 4 yet so that is on the back burner for a bit considering the above news.  

I've had a couple of finishes on the weekend.  I put together 2 Blackbird Design cross stitches one is the  drum I have been working on for the last couple of months and the other is the Christmas pincushion which was just waiting on me finishing the drum pincushion to be able to put it together as they were both on the same piece of linen.  They look so pretty.   I was truly sadden by the news of Barbara Allen's death on the 4th of July I have loved Blackbird Designs from my earliest quilting days.  

I have started on Dream Frida which is a Barbara Ana Design,  I did a cosmo substitute for the threads but I am contemplating unpicking most of the face because it is way to dark looking at the birdy up above I think that would have been a better colour choice for the darker sections of the face.  Oh well looks like I will be unpick tonight or I might just start again.  I plan to do 2 of the Barbara Anna Dreaming girls and make them into a rice bag.    

Hopefully you had a better week than me (though I did get my 15 minutes in everyday). Head to Kates to see how everyone is fitting in 15 minutes.  

 

15 Minute Challenge, Restrictions Rolled Back and More Storage

We managed to avoid lockdown, the spread of the Delta strain in various state was avoided here.  The one case we had FIFO miner returning from his shift in the Northern Territory.  He and his family did the right thing when he heard that the Mine where he worked had Covid cases.  The entire family including a 4 month old baby all came down with it, but they stayed home got tested and were put into the Medi Hotel.  A couple of hundred people ended up going into quarantine but there have been no further cases apart from this one family.  NSW has not been so lucky, another 35 cases reported today, I'm grateful for our smaller population and people doing the right thing.  

The last couple of weeks I have been slowly cleaning out a couple of draw units in my sewing room so that I could replace them with a 4 x 4 box unit.  I finished most of the clean out on Thursday and DH and I put the unit together on Saturday.  I did all the draws but I needed help with the installation of the cupboard doors.  Before and after shots are below.  I was able to change a bit of my other storage around and throw out some more stuff that I don't want any more.  I think I will probably do some more clean up in the coming weeks.  That back wall of cupboards really needs going through and me deciding what I need and what needs to go.  

The draws in the 4 x 4 unit now hold all my machine threads.  There is also draw dedicated to zips and another to english paper piecing which I don't really enjoy but I can't bare to just throw out.  You never know might get the urge to return to it later.  

I put my knitting needles on display, I don't knit much (apart from the socks that I have just started) but I have both my mother's and grandmothers knitting needles they have been in a box on a shelf for years.  Putting them in a glass jar and on display is more practical and there were a few just hanging around because they were too long for the box and they all fit beautifully in the huge jar on top of the unit.   

A great discovery was my big cutting mat that I forgot was behind the old draws and I also found a few things that have been missing that I have been looking for which is always a good reason for a clean out.  

I did manage a 7 out of 7 this week as well as all this time spent cleaning out.  I'm up to the heel part of the sock (more Youtube watching will need to happen before I go on).  The binding is finished on Quick Quilt 3 but I need to remove basting tags before I take pictures and some more cross stitch was done.  

I think Quick Quilt 4 may be a bit delayed as work is taking it out of me at the moment, I haven't even thought about putting the quilt together or pulling fabrics.  I'll decide for sure next week I might just put the block up in August if I decide to delay it and do the quilt recipe in September.  

Hope you all had a good week.  Catch you next week you know the drill head to Kate's to see how every one is doing.  

 

15 Minutes Challenge, Covid Vac and likely to Go into Restrictions again

 Today the government has announced that they are tightening restrictions again. There has been a large outbreak in the eastern states and smaller ones in the NT and WA.  At the moment there are non here but it probably is only a matter of time as there has been lots of travel between the states and it is this new Delta strain that they say is more contagious.  Our borders are closed again to all but Tassie and Victoria.

About 10 days ago the government also announced that they no longer were going to give the Astra Zeneca vaccine to 50 to 59 years old.  There have been a number of deaths due to blood clotting and quite a few hospitalisations, I admit I was waiting.  I am not an anti vacser as my mother had polio in the 50's and she always instilled in us the importances of vaccination but the side effects to Astra Zeneca even if it was 1 in 200,000 were too great.  As soon as they did the switch my husband and I made our appointment. Thursday we went off and stood in line and got the jab.  We are due for the next one in 3 weeks.  

Work is still a bit of nightmare, I found something I missed from a couple of months ago and had to come clean to the boss.  He found something he missed as well and his comment is that he is sure there is more. This is the type of stuff that happens when you just have too much going on.  I'm not really stressed at all about it which is surprising me, I've given up on trying to get it all done just have to try and get what I can get done.  

Well this week on the challenge front I've managed 7 out of 7.  I actually started socks this weekend, and finished the main part of the cross stitch drum, I'm working on the top now.  Quilt Quilt 3 is quilted just have to put the binding on.  Might get a chance during the week ... fingers crossed.   I also did some more on the Hetties Embroidery Book, but that's a bit slow going.  

Hope your week is going well.  Its been pretty wet here winter is sort of here I think the weather is really up the creek.  

Check out how everyone is going at Kate's.

15 Minute Challenge, Quiet Weekend for Once

Work continues to be a bit more than the hours I am getting paid, but I think the boss has decided to give all these interstate clients back to the other state when these couple of months are over.  What management  have tried to sell as a growth opportunity is really more work and stress for the same pay.  

Mo has decided that she really doesn't want to work, she isn't a really big spender so the anxiety that working gives her doesn't really have any reward apart from saving money.  As she is on semester break at the moment we have told her just work out the shifts that she is given over the next month and then make a decision.  We also talk to her about going to counselling for her anxiety, and she has booked herself in.  The job kept ringing her to do shifts when she was trying to get stuff finished at the end of semester but instead of just telling them to back off she wouldn't so she was stressing about work and the amount of projects she needed to finish.  I think she is a lot happy now that we have told her that she doesn't have to work if it is causing that much anxiousness and we are happy for her to concentrate on school.  

She has plans to work on her business, get a portfolio started and website and maybe do some small markets over summer, so she will not be idle.  

I finished another Carry All, basted quick quilt 3 and worked on some embroidery and cross stitch so my hands have been pretty busy.   

Maestro made a flying visit last week to clean out my medicine cupboard.  He is still fighting off a cold that he has had for a couple of weeks but he seems pretty happy still, though he is working too many hours at the moment.  

How has your week been.  Head to Kates to see how everyone is getting on with their stitching.

15 Minute Challenge, Fibre Feast & Quick Quilts 3 Ready to download

 Work is still a little nuts but I seem to be coping.  It was a 6 out of 7 week this week and we had a long weekend so I have sewn for the last 3 days a bit in the sewing room and a bit of embroidery.  

I've been working on another carry all I have the binding to go but I am  sure I am going to have a sore shoulder tonight from wrangling the thing under the machine to put the sides on.  I'm not sure if my bernina would have gone through all the layers the juki did it but just... never again with Home dec fabric.  

I found a nice piece of voile that is the right size for the back of Quick Quilt 3 which you can download for free from here  .  So that will be on the agenda for next week.  

Yesterday I went to Fibre Feast a market for all things yarn inspired.  I made a serious dent in the cc and I only was there half an hour it was pretty packed with people and there was a line up when I left.  I am really glad I got there just after opening time.  My loot is in the picture below.  There are a couple of things for crochet and a few more sock yarns to add to the stash and it won't be long until I start on that adventure.  

I worked on the Hetties Embroidery page, I've added to it since taking this snap.  

Nothing to report on my cross stitch this week, I think I will get back to it this evening.  

So how have you gone this week.  Check out the list at kate's