A Fresh Year

I have been reading lots of posts with recaps on the previous year and what people wish to achieve in 2018.

I too have been reflecting on last year and thinking about the year ahead.  Here is the post where I was looking forward to 2017 and I nominated a word for the year "Reconnect".  How did I go? I planned to review this every month.  Unfortunately, that seemed to peter out, as did my blogging in general.  Life does that sometimes. Let's have a look now...

READ MORE BOOKS - Fail.  I read a few, but not many.  We did cull the majority of our books to the Lifeline Book Fair.  We have since bought a few more, but we intend to just keep what fits on our bookshelves. Hopefully, I will read more this year.

EXPLORE - Yes, but not as much as we had wished.  We had a few days out around here, attempted to travel around Australia, only to have it aborted.  We did have a nice trip up the east coast.  We then had a nice week or so down into South Australia before Mum got sick and that was aborted too.  Our trip down the south coast of NSW in November was lovely.

CREATE - In 2017 I achieved very little in the sewing room.  I did, however, finish my drunkard's path quilt right at the end of the year.  At least that was something.  Of course I participated in the SSCS organised by Chookyblue.

ORGANISE - Fail.  I procrastinate too much on this, and then when Mum moved into residential aged care we ended up with most of her possessions here as well.  I just don't know where to start.

NURTURE - So so.  It did seem to be home improvement central around here at times and we have spend quite a bit of time in the garden.  Cooking and baking?  Not so much.  

NEW EXPERIENCES - Yes!  There were a few. 

Firstly, getting a new pushbike was a very unexpected thing.  I'm not using it as much as I should, but it does get ridden.  At least I'm not wobbly on it now. 

The second surprising and major new experience was me transitioning to working only three days a week.  This is fantastic.  Have I made good use of my time?  Mmmm, not really.  Do I feel better for it?  Definitely.  It still doesn't seem real.  I think as I get used to it I will be more productive. 

Finally, I've started to experience the aged care system.  Not an experience we were expecting, but once it was organised, it is all good.

ENJOY FRIENDS - Yes.  We have spent time with local friends and we really enjoyed catching up with friends and relatives on our trip north.

CARAVANNING - Yes.  We only expected to use it for weekends away at this stage, so our trips to South Australia and down the South Coast were bonuses.  They were only because of our aborted motorcycle trip around Oz, but were very enjoyable just the same.  We have decided we like this caravanning.

TAKE TIME - This was always a bit vague.  Now that I am only working three days a week, I can take time to spend with Mum without feeling guilty.  Mick is also trying to work less on Thursdays and Fridays, so we can spend time doing things, or not doing much at all.

So, what about 2018?

Last year I commented that I thought things may settle down in 2017.  Maybe that will happen in 2018?  We'll see.

I've been thinking of a word again.  I tossed around a few ideas, which all would have been relevant, but in the end this is what I have come up with.

FOCUS

Most of what I wanted last year remains the same.  However, to achieve my goals I need to focus......

Focus on what is most important to us.

Focus on spending quality time together.

Focus on making our home a pleasure to be in.

Focus on finishing a sewing project before starting another and reducing the number of UFOs I have.

Focus on organising one thing at a time.  Work on a small step and finish it.  Once organised, focus on maintaining it.

Focus on completing a "To Do" list, not just writing it.

Just generally not getting distracted and not procrastinating.

And finally, try not to bite off more than I can chew, as that will certainly lead to lack of focus.

We'll see in twelve months how I go.

My Sewing Plans for 2018

This year I would love to be more productive in the sewing room, as last year I achieved very little.

Firstly, I need to sort out and organise the room.  That is a major job in itself.  There is so much of my stuff in there, and quite a bit of Mum's stuff was added as well.  I will try to do it a bit at a time and make sure I put things away and tidy up at the end of each sewing session, rather than having it pile up on the table.

I've made a  list of most of my UFOs. Some of them are very old.  There are a few more, but I'm not even going to think about them, as they are buried deep and I know there is no way I would get them all done.  I've listed them in a very loose order of priority, but that is by no means set in stone.  I've also listed how long I think they will take to complete.  Those times are very achievable and the projects generally shouldn't take anything like that long.  What I have noticed is that they nearly all need some hand stitching.  I think there may be a strong underlying theme here.  It is the hand stitching that is turning them into a UFO.  I'll have to try and do a little each day. 

To help me work through this list I have decided to join in the One Monthly Goal challenge hosted by Elm Street Quilts.  The goal doesn't have to be large, so hopefully it will be something I can achieve.

For January I have decided that my goal will be to finish the Sewing Box made from a steamer basket that I started at Nundle in March 2017.  It won't take long at all.  I just have to attach the pincushion to the underside of the lid, glue the stitching and trim to the top of the lid and make the needle keep.  Quite achievable.  

I'd like to finish my blue and white sampler quilt, but that is very dependent upon when the quilting is finished, so I won't include that this time.

At the other extreme, I have been tempted with a new project - the Rainbow Scrap Challenge - after watching it for a couple of years.  

My initial plan was to make log cabin blocks, but the girls are hosting a sampler quilt along, so I have decided that I may as well do that instead.  They nominate a colour each month.  This month is light blue.  Funnily enough, I have all the leftovers from a certain blue and white sampler quilt nice and handy, so that will an easy one to start with. The idea is that you make three blocks each month to end up with a medium sized quilt.  I will make mine 10 inches square.  Nice easy maths.

I do hope to use only my stash during the year, and not impulse buy.  Fabric required for a specific project is allowed. Believe me, there will still be oodles for me to work on, if I so desire.

I think that I may reward myself when a major finish is achieved, or several smaller finishes (no, that doesn't mean more fabric).  There needs to be some incentive, other than the wonderful feeling when something is completed. 

Quilt Top Finished

Chookyblue and Googy Girl have decided to egg each other on to get some stitching done. (Oops!  I that bad pun wasn't intentional.) (Click on the links to see what they are up to.)  Anyway, they are attempting to do at least ten minutes of sewing each day for 30 days.

As I want to make a serious dent in all the projects in my sewing room I thought I could play along as well.

The project I am focusing on at the moment is my Modern Half Square Triangle Sampler Quilt.  I have all the blocks done, and I was undecided whether or not to add sashings.  Mick liked the idea of the sashings, and as I couldn't make up my mind, I went with that.

On Thursday I cut out the rows of sashings and cornerstones.  That took about half an hour.  Challenge met. I was doubtful if I would have enough of a suitable dark blue, so was thrilled to find that I had just enough of this one that I have used in the blocks.  I have less than a charm square left over.  That means that the entire quilt, including backing is from stash. You have to be happy with that.

Late yesterday afternoon I thought I could join all the rows of sashings to their cornerstones.  That took about twenty five minutes.  What the heck, let's join the short sashings to the sides of the blocks and create those rows.  Now I was up to three hours!!!! Time to get some dinner on.

I could see progress, so why not keep going after dinner and get the sashing rows joined to the rows of blocks.  Eleven o'clock at night and it was done - five and a half hours of stitching later!! So much for ten minutes.

What is it about cats.  As soon as you put a quilt on the floor they have to walk straight onto it.

I was really on a roll now, so I got up very early this morning and cut out the final border and stitched it on.  Two hours of stitching before breakfast and I have a completed quilt top - 84 inches square. Woo Hoo!! Happy Dance!!

After lunch I thought I'd better join the backing fabric.......then I thought about it some more. I couldn't just sew two widths of fabric together, as that doesn't provide enough for overhang.  Blast!  Get out the leftover fabrics and piece a strip for up the middle.  That took a bit longer that anticipated, but it is done......and no photo....I forgot.

After a phone call to see if my friendly quilting fairy was at home it has now been delivered for her to work her magic.  Hopefully it will come back in a couple of weeks.  I was aiming to get the top done this month, but depending on how soon it is returned, it may now be a goal to have the whole thing finished this month.  Wouldn't that be wonderful.

Tomorrow I think I will prepare the binding.  That shouldn't take too long, but will meet the challenge.

Does all this work give me credits?

Making Progress on my Modern HST Sampler Quilt Along

I have made some progress on a quilt that had become a UFO.

At the start of 2016 I joined in on the Modern Half Square Triangle Sampler Quilt Along hosted by Blossom  Heart Quilts.  There were to be 24 blocks, released fortnightly, starting with very simple blocks and getting progressively fiddlier.  We would learn different tips and techniques as we went along.  At the end of the year we would we would have a lovely quilt.

I was going along famously until life got in the way and I lagged behind. You can see where I was up to here and here.  I was determined that this quilt will get finished. but life continued to get in the way.

The Bathurst Blog Meet retreat at Perthville this year was the ideal time for me to get started again, so I kitted up each block, ready to go.

On the day I did manage to complete a couple of blocks and got the rest started.

I decided that I would make a 25th block, so that I could make a square quilt, which would be a bit more practical for us.  This is the bonus block that I added to the mix.

That was back at the start of November.

I really wanted to at least have all the blocks completed by the end of the year, so yesterday afternoon I got cracking and finished off the last ones.

It was such a good feeling knowing that all the blocks had been made and now I was up to working out sashing and borders.  Phew!  Time to go and celebrate the end of the year.

This afternoon I got all the blocks and lay them out on the floor.  Hang on.....there is a gap!  We looked for a block stuck at the back of another, then I went right through the list of blocks to see which one was missing.  OK, worked that out and I can't remember stitching it! Darn! Blast! Let's look to see if I at least had the pattern printed out..... Yes, there it was, at the bottom of the project box with the block half made at Perthville.  Phew!  At least I didn't have to start from scratch.

Just over an hour later it was done.

Time to lay the blocks out on the floor again.  This is what it looked like after Mick and I had a fiddle with placements.

I had planned to sash it with a stripe from the main range of fabric that I used and have dark blue cornerstones.  Everything has been from stash, so I would have to have a hunt around for a suitable blue for the corners.  My dark tone on tones have been somewhat depleted.  It will then be finished off with a dark blue floral border.  

However, now that I'm looking at the photo of all the blocks together, I don't know if it needs sashings.  Maybe just the stripe as a narrow border around the outside before the floral? Thoughts please.

I'm really pleased with how it is turning out and can't wait to finally finish it. The quilt along was a great exercise.  I didn't like the method of making four units at a time, which ended up with edges on the bias, so after the initial block didn't use it again.  I'm amazed that I am now fairly confident to even make small half square triangles with the points working out well and hardly any unsewing required.  Quite a change from a couple of years ago when I avoided them like the plague.

Happy New Year

We have just returned from the New Year's Eve Party held in town.  We've never attended before, despite it having been running for several years now, so weren't sure what to expect.  We enjoyed a picnic with some good friends, sitting in the park, soaking up the atmosphere, listening to good music and people watching.

It is hosted by the local council and is a really family friendly event, culminating in a spectacular fireworks display. The weather was perfect and a full moon in the background added to the charm.

My favourite one was right at the end.  I'm not sure if that was the intention that it look just like a moth hovering over a dandelion, but I love it.

Have a very happy and safe New Year.

Ta Da - A Teensy Finish

Following my elation at finishing my big quilt I decided to complete another project this year.

Ta da!

This teensy pincushion was started back in June when I visited Chookyblue.  We each made a tiny log cabin pincushion that only measures 2 1/4 inches square.  At the time we didn't fill them and Chooky asked if I had walnut shells, to which I replied "Yes".

Of course, when I got home do you think I could find them?  No, not on your Nelly, so it just sat there waiting.

A couple of months ago I was looking for something else and I found the walnut shells.  Somewhere that I would never have suspected. (Does that say something about the state of my sewing room?)  However, I didn't do anything at the time other than put the walnut shells next to the pincushion.  I suppose that was a start.

Anyway, today was the day.  It took a whole five minutes or so.  Huge job, but a job well done.

Another project to tick off the list before the start of the new year.

Ta Da - A BIG Finish

Way back in August 2014 I attended a retreat at Nundle and made a quilt top in a day and a half.  It was BIG! 96 inches square!

Straight away I made a pieced backing and arranged for my friend to long arm quilt it.  After that I bundled it up and put it in the cupboard.  It's not that I don't like it.  It is just that the thought of binding something that BIG was a tad daunting.  

It became a UFO.....a mill stone around my neck as I kept telling myself "I can't do........ until I finish the BIG quilt"........

Finally, when I visited Chookyblue in June this year, I bit the bullet, trimmed the sides, made the binding and machined it to the quilt........and then bundled it up into the cupboard again......

In October I dragged it out again and started hand stitching down the binding.  However, I soon ran out of puff and bundled it up again. It's not that I don't like hand sewing binding - I do - it's rather relaxing.  It's just that it is BIG and unwieldy.  I think I already mentioned that.

It had now become a WISP (work in slow progress).

I was determined that it was going to be finished this year, so I thought sitting in front of the Boxing Day Test cricket would be the perfect opportunity to finally finish it off.  Well, I did a little bit here and there.  However, today was day five, the last day of the Test, so I thought it was time to up the ante and get it finished.

Tad Da!  See - It's BIG.  I had to climb onto the fourth rung of the ladder to take the photo. (That's brave for me.)

The back, being arranged by my quilt helper.  Unfortunately, you can't really tell the colours too well.  There are three pieces of fabric together with the left over blocks from the front.

Finally, how it looks on our bed.  Like I said, it is BIG!  I'm used to having quilts of about 72 inches square on our bed as a topper.  You can't see it, but it has heaps of overhang on all sides.  Anyway, it doesn't look too bad.  It may just stay there for a while.

That is one finish that I am very pleased to tick off the list and a nice thing to have behind me for the start of the new year.

Not Quite a Tomato for Christmas

It has always been the aim of vege growers around here to have a tomato ready by Christmas.  Unless you have a greenhouse, plant very early in pots and bring in overnight for a couple of months, or are just brave and plant outside early and fluke a lack of late frosts it doesn't very often happen.

Well, we planted early and had a lack of late frosts.  This morning we picked our first couple of tomatoes.  They are a mini Roma variety.

We planted Improved Apollo (a normal sized tomato) at the same time and they are way off being ready, although there are some green tomatoes starting to get some size about them.

However, we will take the opportunity to brag while ever we can.

A Lovely Christmas Gift

My good friend Loulee, or Manxgirl, who I met years ago on the Isle of Man sent us a gorgeous Christmas gift.

I was to open one present as soon as it arrived, but I was being super strong, so didn't open the envelope until Christmas, so didn't realise.  Anyway, there is a really cute cross stitched ornament, which will look lovely on our twig Christmas tree.  There are quite a few ornaments from Lou on there.

The main gift just blew us away! Lou knows we love the racing at the Isle of Man and this is just gorgeous.  The entire picture is cross stitched.  So much work, and beautifully executed.  The Manx fabric top and bottom finishes it off nicely.

Mick straight away announced that it will be hanging in the office.

Thanks so much Lou.  It really is appreciated.

I can't share Lou's gift yet, as I'm not sure if it has arrived in the post as yet.

Last Minute Christmas Stitching

This year I didn't get stressed by the lead up to Christmas, but that isn't saying that there wasn't a little last minute stitching.

Last year I made Mum a Christmas place mat and at the time said that I should make some for us.

So, just a couple of days before Christmas I pulled out some fabrics from the stash and made a couple of quick place mats and coasters. They'll do the job.

The other project was for Mum.

She has been lamenting that she needed a set of cutlery for eating a piece of fruit or something, so I pulled out some fabric from the stash and made her a little pouch to keep some in.  The lining is a tana lawn floral in similar colours.  Something so simple, but greatly appreciated.  Win.

I'm currently working....slowly.... at sewing the binding on my drunkard's path quilt.  This has been taking forever.  It is just so big, at 96 inches square.  Two sides to go.  I'm doing it in dribs and drabs in front of the cricket.  Hopefully I will finish it this year.

SSCS Received and Sent

Now that Christmas is over it is time to reveal what lovely gifts I received from Gail in Missouri USA in Chookyblue's Secret Santa Christmas Swap.   You can see the lovely ornament Gail made here.

Mick likes to take a photo of me opening the present. You can tell I was happy.

Wow! What a lovely collection.  The main gift is a Christmas table runner, which is perfect, as I use lots of table runners at Christmas time.  

The other bits and bobs are great - a tape measure, note pad and pins from the famous Missouri Star Quilt Company, as well as a sewing machine bookmark and charm, which will go on one of my pairs of scissors.  I was intrigued by the fabric which depicts "Kokopelli", a Native American deity I had never heard of.  Thanks Gail for the fabric and the information you provided on the design.

So I was thrilled with what I received.  Thank you Gail. 

Now, to what I sent to Martine in France.

I had fun with the L'il Twister Ruler to make  a wreath table centre or mini quilt, whichever you like.  I also made some coordinating hexy coasters.  Add a Hatched and Patched pattern, (as I had an inkling that Martine liked her style), a little notebook and pen and a scented sachet.  I think she liked it.  Happy dance.

And, of course, thanks to Chooky, with Denise's assistance, for pulling it all together once again. It really is a special part of Christmas.

Mum's Christmas Decorations

Way back in 2010 I share pictures of some of the handmade decorations on Mum's Christmas Tree.

Well, now that she is in residential aged care there isn't a lot of room to put up a tree, so a little lateral thinking was needed.  I searched high and low in town for a suitable tree to decorate and found nothing like I was hoping for. (Of course I have found a couple that would have been suitable in the week before Christmas - so be it.)

However, I did see a tree in Anni Downs' shop that might just work, but it was just a shop display.  I went home and described it to Mick and suggested he could make something similar.  He, of course tweaked it and we now have a "bespoke" Christmas tree to suit Mum's decorations.

So simple.  Just timber and a craftwood star from Bunnings, painted with chalk paint.  There are hooks attached that we just happened to have in the cupboard.  We were a little concerned that it wasn't terribly stable, so after this photo was taken, Mick attached a quarter inch thick steel plate to the bottom and painted it white as well.  After that it wasn't going anywhere.

We weren't quite sure how it would fit in Mum's room, but I secretly hoped it would fit on her desk and I was delighted when it did.  It is easy to see all her decorations, takes up no room and is not in the way.

Mum was thrilled to have so many of her hand made and special decorations on show and has had a wonderful time showing them off to everyone she can. The majority were made by Mum over the years.

For someone who doesn't do patchwork there are quite a few fiddly paper pieced and cathedral window decorations.

She also has a few other Christmas creations from over the years and I think she was happy to have them out on show.  Mum has always made small fiddly things, things that I don't generally have the patience for.

I forgot to take a photo of this year's creation.  She has crocheted a granny Christmas tree, added red beads to it and turned it into a brooch.  It looks great.

There has been no shortage of Christmas entertainment for the residents where she now lives, with concerts and entertainment of some sort or another several times a week right through December.  It makes our lead up to Christmas seem quite boring.  I'm just so pleased that we could add some Christmas cheer to her room as well.

So, on that note, Mick and I wish everyone a very Merry Christmas and a wonderful New Year.

Our Christmas Lights

Last year I shared here how our new home is in the centre of a popular Christmas Lights neighbourhood, with the house just up the road being one of the main decorated houses and how we made our own little contribution.

Well, this year we have put up just a couple more lights.  Still only a modest display compared to many of our neighbours.

Firstly, I need to show you our front garden in the day time.  It is rather different to this time last year when it was just newly planted.  "Mervyn" and "Murial" still look quite at home there.  Plenty of feed for them, and fortunately, they haven't destroyed the flowers.  The rose has just finished its first flush of flowers and is now starting to bud up again.  It looked a picture in bloom.

I was amazed, when I looked at last year's photos at how much it has filled out. 

We have just made a couple of additions this year.  I bought a little string of lights for inside, thinking they were white, but they ended up being multicoloured, perfect for twisting around our wreath on the front door.  It looked rather sad, being all dark at night.

We decided that a star on the gable above the garage would be nice, but we couldn't find a nice one in the shops, so Mick got creative and we now have a "bespoke" star.  He made a star out of flat steel and we then attached a length of rope lights to it.  We are rather pleased with how it turned out.  We had a string of white lights that weren't doing much, so we got a flower pot and put in the frame we use to grow our snow peas, which have just finished their season.  Wrap the lights around the frame, which coincidentally were just the right length, and you have a nice little tree.  Perfect.

That's enough lights for this year.  Who knows, there may be more added next year, or we may leave it as it is.