Another Week Over

I’m finding it interesting to try and remember what we got up to in the last week.  It never seems to be much, but once it is written here there is just a bit.  I suppose the fact that we are not having to try and fit everything around going to work makes life much more relaxed and enjoyable.  So, what did we do?

On the stitching front I seem to be setting a trend of not sticking with any one project, rather jumping from one to another.  I probably need to settle on something and finish it soon.

Firstly, I finished cutting out the background for my Denyse Schmidt project.  It is now nice and tidy in a project box, waiting its turn.

Last week I mentioned that I was in the process of adding the borders to my Twister Quilt.  I told myself that I wasn’t going to bed on Tuesday until it was finished……..So, I cleaned the bathrooms, pulled everything out of the big hall cupboards and tidied them up, did the washing and ironing, cleaned and descaled the coffee machine and my iron……in effect, just about anything to avoid adding the border.  

Finally, at about 9 o’clock at night I bit the bullet and went into the sewing room and got stitching.  I hadn’t realised how big this quilt would be.  It is 84 inches by 75 inches.  After only quilting a tiny baby quilt it will be quite a jump to quilting this on the frame.  I’d really like to have it done in March, but will do a couple of more small ones first and see how I go. 

Here it is, ready for the next step.  I do still have to piece the backing and fortunately, I will have just enough fabric for that.  I now realise that I have not made the binding long enough, but will fix that up a little later.

Ages ago I made a pile of bibs from a couple of panels I found hiding in my stash.  However, they haven’t had their snaps added, as that is another job that I just do not enjoy.  I have been using the metal snaps and quite often they don’t go on properly.  Anyway, my neighbour’s grandson needed a few bibs, as he is teething, and this was the good excuse to get them finished, so he could have a couple.  Yes, more dramas with adding the snaps.  I have now been shopping and have a pack of a squillion colourful plastic snaps.  They should last me for the rest of my life.  So much easier to apply.

It is such a good feeling to finally have them all completed.

At my stitching groups I have continued to work on my EPP Dresden sections.  I now have enough for two sides of the quilt completed.  If I continue to get four done each week, they will all be completed by the end of March.  I would be very happy with that.

Finally, I have once again picked up my knitting needles.  Remember a couple of weeks ago I had started a scarf/shawl and said how I was rather obsessed with it?  Well, not long after that I dropped quite a few stitches, in the pattern section.  I tried to pick them up and continued to get in more and more of a muddle, so I decided to rip it back to the garter stitch section, but still had no joy picking up the stitches.  By then I was over it, so ripped out the whole thing, back to the start.  Even as I did it, I didn’t mind too much, as I knew I would enjoy knitting it once more.

On Wednesday I started over and have now passed where I was up to previously.  Yes, I’m really enjoying it again.

I have completed my 15 minutes each day last week, although most days it wasn’t all that much more.

My tally to date is:

15 minutes day/week = 7/7

15 minutes day/February = 25/26

15 minutes days in 2023 = 55/57

Success rate = 96.49%

I’m pretty happy with that.

I’m linking up with Kate from Life in Pieces.

Now onto other things.

Tuesday was Shrove Tuesday, so we had to enjoy some pancakes for breakfast.  Yummo.

We’ve been making preserves again.  This time Tomato Sauce, using my Grandma’s recipe.  There is another pile of tomatoes sitting on the kitchen bench, so more cooking this week.

We were out and about on Saturday, as the annual Bathurst Street and Custom Motorcycle Show was held in the centre of town.  Mick took in “Floyd” the new to us black BMW and “Snubby” the silver BMW sidecar.  “Snubby” didn’t want to start, so a jump start was required.  He nearly stayed home.

It was a good thing that Mick did take him in, as to our surprise he won the trophy for “Best Engineered Motorcycle”.

We had to laugh, as Snubby would have been the scruffiest bike down there.  However, all that red section at the front is rather technical and not something that was just bought off the shelf.

Two of our mates also won their sections, which was pretty nice, as most of the bikes were from out of town.

The number of bikes on show was huge and it was just as interesting looking at the the bikes that just came as lookers.  The streets were lined with motorcycles.  A great thing for town, as most were visitors and many stayed for the weekend.

Here are just a few of the variety of bikes on show.  Lots of sparkling chrome.

Later that afternoon we went for a drive out of town.  Some friends had gone camping and we popped out for a short visit.  

They were camped at “Flat Rock”, a popular spot by the Fish River, out at O’Connell.  You can see why it got its name.  There are lovely big, flat granite rocks by the river.

It is a really pretty spot, and was looking lovely with a nice flow.

On Sunday we went for a drive as well, this time visiting the Sofala Show.  It is always a nice little country show to attend.

After a few years of entries being down, the pavilion was looking good.

We didn’t stay all that long, as it was quite warm, but it was a nice little interlude.

So, that wraps up another week, and nearly, but not quite, another month.  I can’t believe how fast time is flying.

I’ll be back with a wrap up of the month and March’s goals next.

To finish, here are our nice bright crepe myrtles.  When we bought this house the back corner was a thick shrubbery.  We notices a tinge of bright pink just at the top of fence height and were surprised to find two crepe myrtles.  They have grown quite a bit since and add a nice pop of colour to the garden at this time of year.

Ta Da - Times Two

It has been a fairly quiet week this past week, but I do have two little finishes to share.

Yes, I have continued to spend at least 15 minutes in the sewing room or knitting every day.  That keeps my copy book unblemished for the year.  100% success rate.......so far.....  That will shortly change.

Anyway, most of the week consisted of just a short time knitting my sock and today I finally finished it.

Ta Da!

The stripes don't line up.  However, this was my first go at socks, so I'm pretty happy with them.  I think I may have to knit some for Mick now.  We'll see.

My second Ta Da is the little baby quilt.  What a drama!!!!!

My test quilting had been going fine.......then......

I loaded the little quilt on the frame, changed the colour of the thread and stitched the first partial row.  I had a look and it had skipped a few stitches.  Not enough to undo, but still not good.  I changed the needle, although it was very new, and the problem went away.  Yay!

Then, I quilted three rows and after I wound it on I discovered that the bobbin tension was too tight!  Aaaaah!  At one spot there was a birds nest as well.  There was nothing to do but unpick it all.  Not that it was too hard with the tight tension.

Let's rethread top and bottom and see if that makes a difference.  Tested and no.  I then put my previous test quilt back on and fiddled with the tension until it looked OK.  I hadn't touched the tension, but let's hope that does the trick.

It ended up OK.  I know that it is fairly rough and ready, but as my Dad used to say "A blind man would be glad to see it".

I used a free pantograph called Flower Power.  The texture on the back looks rather nice.

In other happenings, Mick has been plugging away with the mechanics of the BMW motorcycle he purchased while we were away.  There was more needing to be done than initially expected.  He would fix one thing, just to find another problem.  He took it for a little test ride today and he thinks it is ready to get registered on historic plates.  It's been quite a journey to get to this point.  Mind you, it has kept him occupied.

The other thing Mick has done is remove his company name from his ute.  He has decided it is finally time to wind down his business and be fully retired. It's a bit sad, as it is the end of an era.  He worked for himself for 23 years.

Now you see it...

Now you don't... It looks rather plain.  He may have to have a decal of some description added.

And that’s about it for the past week.

I’m going to link up over at Life in Pieces.

Last Weeks Happenings

Last week was a little more sedate than the previous one, which was a nice change.

Once again, the weather dominated our plans for the week.  As I mentioned last time, there was flooding in the Central West of the state.  At the time of my post, we were not fully across the full extent of things.  Locally, as the day progressed the flooding got worse.  The town was cut in two with many people stuck on the opposite side of town from their homes, including lots of school children.  

I took these photos late on Monday morning and the river was rising fast.  The water level on my gauge of the Gordon Edgell Bridge sign was much higher than the previous moderate flood.  I saw a photo later where the water was up to the sign and the poor sign had a decided list downstream.

I grew up on the flood plain and where we used to live was under water.  We moved from the street in the late 1970s. After the 1986 flood the local council commenced purchasing the houses that were on our street and there is now only one standing, which funnily enough doesn’t get flooded.  There are now football fields where the houses used to be and the clubhouses are built up, so were on islands.  Since the 1998 floods levees have been built and this was the first time they were tested. They worked well.  Last time about 200 homes were inundated.  This time there were six.

Further afield, there has been major destruction, particularly in the little town of Eugowra, which is located beside what is normally a very innocuous little creek.  A tsunami of water came down the creek in the early hours of Monday morning, flooding nearly all of the town and completely destroying 21 houses.  Some were washed several hundred metres down the street.  Sadly, two people lost their lives and it is a miracle there weren’t more.  Over 100 hundred people had to be rescued by air from roofs and trees.  It will be a major effort to get them back on their feet.

Molong, another small town had a huge flash flood from their creek, going well up the main shopping street, which isn’t flat either.  It must have been incredible to see so much water.

Canowindra has also had major flooding, but it wasn’t flash flooding to the same extent, so hasn’t received as much publicity.  Forbes, Condobolin and Hillston, on the Lachlan are also receiving record flooding as the water makes its way down the river system.

These are all small towns that we like to visit and we feel so much for them.  It all seems so much more real when you actually know the area and it isn’t just another news item.

Enough of that, what did we get up to?

I continued to work on my 15 minutes a day of stitching.  Here’s how I went.

14th, 15th, 16th, 17th & 18th

It sounds like a lot of work on my secret stitching, but on some days I didn’t spend much time.  I’m happy to say that it was all completed on the 18th and I can play with other things now.

15th, 17th, 18th, 19th & 20th

As you can see, on most days of the week I also worked on the shawl I am crocheting.  This was taken on Tuesday when I had completed my first ball of wool.  I am now well on the way with the second ball and will have it finished very soon.  On Saturday I was distracted and couldn’t count, so ended up frogging all I did that day, so on Sunday it was just a catch up to where I was the day before.  I don’t mind too much, as crochet is so easy to fix, not having to pick up stitches like knitting and I am enjoying the process.

Now that the days are longer, it has been rather pleasant sitting in Grandma’s chair in my sewing room in the late afternoon and working on the shawl, as the light is so good.

I will have to get out my Blue Quilt EPP and work on it this coming week to meet my One Monthly Goal.

Mick has another new toy for his shed.

To make it easier to work on “Floyd” and his other bikes he has bought a pneumatic bike lift.  He finds it is getting harder to work on the ground, so this will make life much easier.

On Saturday we had a garage sale as part of the nationwide Garage Sale Trail.  

It went well and the weather was perfect.  A glorious, warm spring day.  The only one we had.  I was sitting in the sun crocheting between customers, which is how I was distracted and lost count.

There was a huge Christmas Markets on the weekend, which incorporated a truck show on the Saturday, which we obviously didn’t see, and a car show and swap meet on the Sunday. We had considered having a stall, but after the lovely day on Saturday, the weather changed once again, with rain overnight and then a wind picking up. We decided against it and are glad of our decision.   We did go and have a look.  There were some lovely cars on show.  Come for a stroll.

And that about sums up our week.