Re-Visiting an Old Friend

I decided during the week to revisit with an old friend,

this old pal and I first made acquaintance in 2009 and the

friendship continued into 2010, then life took over, we shifted 

states, and our 'friendship' suffered for it.

Yes that Old Friend is Dear Jane

My progress over the last 2 days. 

All handpieced and appliqued and my 

Scrappy Jane 

will be a mix of Tula Pink, Cotton & Steel 

and whatever else takes my fancy. I'm using 

Michael Millers Cotton Coture in White/snow

as my base fabric.

B3 Mirror Image

8 pieces

B1 Batchelor Buttons

5 pieces

A7 Dad's Plaids

8 pieces

A3 Hunters Moon

6 pieces

A6 Uncle Homer

9 pieces

A8 Florence Nightingale

11 pieces

Friday morning with blocks prepped and 

ready to stitch

B8 Water Lily

12 pieces

C9 Janes Tears

5 pieces

B9 Tinker Toy

13 pieces

C1 Trooper Green's Badge

13 pieces

B2 Sweet Tater Pie

16 pieces

our much used washing machine died, halfway through

a load, on a Sunday.......1trip to the local

laundromat and a visit from a repairman later

we have a new washing machine, a 9.5kg beast

its perfect, its quiet, and works

miss 15 and I took over the boardroom at the 

hubsters work and pin basted my Confetti quilt

ready for hand quilting

1 quilted hexagon later

Miss Walli decided it was a great place for a snooze

just keep quilting

I've designed my Mary Tolman borders

well I tried to until this happened

all finished the next day

and this is the face of someone who had to catch the bus home 

this afternoon from the next town over, because the hubster was

at golf and I didn't want to drive 30 minutes there to collect her

and another 30 minutes home.....its  

mean mother central here today

New Beginnings

there are parts of 5 different quilts

on my design wall

FIVE quilts people, what am I doing

In random order the quilt parts belong to 

1 Dancing Grandmas

2 Wagon Wheels

3 Bring Me flowers

4 Dresdan Plates

5 Secret Stitching project, which is very close to being 

FINISHED

Wagon Wheels, 5 more of the wheel blocks to make

to be caught up

the epp bits for wagon Wheels, 13 more to be caught up

Bring Me Flowers, this is month 1

month 2 is waiting for me to get time to work on it

still need to appliqué the flower centres though

Yesterday was these girlies first day of High School

they were so excited  and had a fabulous day

The short one started year 5 and got the teacher she wanted

happy days

and Henrycat who is put out because he has lost

his normal sunning spot due to the chaos in my

sewing room

I am still here

Time flies when you are having fun

there has been a lot happening in my neck of the

woods, with Christmas, school holidays,

NSW Cuboree and now we are at

the final day of the school holidays.

Christmas last year was a quiet affair

just the hubster, the girlies and our son

we had a lovely day I was very spoilt

we ate too much and played lots

of board games, ds girlfriend joined

us the day after boxing day and we had

them here for a week, which was

lovely.

I received a gorgeous iPad pouch in

Chookyblues secret santa swap, I must take a photo

and share it here 

New Year was also very quiet

we stayed home, watched the fireworks 

at midnight and went to bed, no hangover for me

Sophie and Imogen went to Appin, for the NSW

Cuboree, they had a fabulous time and it was a very quiet

week while they were gone.

Since then we have spent our days lazing around

going to the beach, sewing and just being

sloths in general.

Its been fabulous

Sophie and Emma start high school on Wednesday

so last week was a rush of getting uniforms,

shoes and books. Both girls are very excited

Imogen will be in year 5 this year, I can't 

believe they are growing up so fast, and it will be so nice

to have a lovely clean house again, and food in the pantry

for longer than 2 days.

What else has been happening, there have been some

not so nice phone calls from my sister, I have

wiped my hands of her at the moment, she has said

and done some terrible things that I will never forgive her

for, worst of all, she went running to my dad and

involved him (she is 46 not 14) but dad and I are ok,

my brother and I are ok and she can go to hell in a 

hand basket for all I care at the moment.

We've had a flea infestation, that was pretty gross and we still

can't work out where they came from. Henrycat is an inside cat

who never goes outside or comes into contact with other cats, 

and the dog is an outside dog who never comes inside....

but we fixed it, we bombed the house, twice and so far

so good.

Australia day saw us wood collecting in preparation for winter

today the hubster split it all and the girlies and I stacked it,

another 3 ute loads and we should make it through without 

to collect more or buy it.

Sewing wise I have been busy making another quilt for

Lynette, it will be postal to her at the end of next week

I am aiming for 5/2 mailing date.

I am slowly catching up on my Wagon Wheels BOM

I was given Amities Bring Me Flowers BOM for Christmas

I have made 1 little flower so far, with its partner cut out

waiting to be sewn.

DH and the girlies gave me another Amitie textiles

Quilt kit for Christmas

'Midnight at the Oasis' 

which I am BUSTING

to start, but after Lynette's quilt is done, I have

a baby quilt to make by March, and a quilt to finish for the 

Holman Clinic (where mum had all her treatment) 

to raffle so hopefully 

by the end of Feb I can get Midnight started.

Thats my plan anyway

Sew, Sew Busy

I am looking forward to the school year finishing

just to get a break from the frantic end of

year school happenings

Miss Sophie received 3 awards at the last

school assembly.

The Acc Reader Champion award, which was a certificate

and a book (The Diary of Anne frank), she read

2407198 words during the school year, and received a 

certificate for her effort, and she also received a

certificate for completing the Premiers Reading Challenge

Then last Wednesday was Presentation Day,

Sophie received the

Dr Peter Hendy MP Literacy Award 

(a medal and certificate)

Emma received a Quality Achievement award

Imogen also received a 

Quality Achievement award

We are very proud of our girls

this is the photo we MMS to Grandpa

I haven't been doing very much sewing,

but I am doing a Cross Stitch

its been 13 years since my last

foray into the world of Cross Stitch and I am much further 

along with it than this photo shows.

I also made 90 mini christmas puddings

for the girls to take into school for their class

partys

and these balls were part of their teachers gifts

fiddly but oh so sweet

Wednesday is the bigger girls last day EVER of primary 

school, they are having a Leavers Luncheon

then a disco on Wednesday night, both requested

dresses for their disco, so we bought new dresses,

shoes and hair thingies.....

Our son arrives in the early hours of Monday morning

all the Christmas shopping is done (yay)

well except for me :(

and the girls and I are off to Bairnsdale on the 28th

to drop our boy off at the train station and possibly

do some shopping.

I for one will be so happy once 2013 is done and dusted

its been a shit year!

A Big Finish

Ta Da

Tail Feathers 

designed by Natalie Lymer of CinderberryStitches

using Butterscotch & Rose fabrics

dodgy photo but the holder uperers are at school

now I need your thoughts and opinions

remember I cut up 4 jelly rolls to make a hexagon quilt

well I pulled what I had done off the wall on Sunday and

started sewing the hexagons together

and yesterday it hit me as to what I should do with all those

hexagons

I will add another 2 rows to the outside of the uber large diamond

then appliqué it to the centre of the background fabric 

then I thought I could make 2 half diamonds to appliqué

to each side of the background fabric 

sheesh here is a really bad diagram of what I mean

will that look ok or should I make 4 half diamonds and

have them appliquéd top and bottom also??

I am open to suggestions, please

and yes I have more than enough hexagons to create this

big quilt for my bed

we are going away next week, home for my mama's birthday

can you guess what I will be doing as we drive to Melbourne

on Wednesday and then as we sail across 

Bass Strait on Thursday

go on have a guess :)

and big congratulations to 2 of my girlies who are 

SSC reps for their classes with badges!

Unintentionally I made....

Sophie and Imogen double bed sized quilts for

their single beds.

Its been a week of bargain hunting for me,

on Facebook there is a local buy,swap,sell group and

I have paid no attention to it before last week.

For a grand sum of $100 we bought the girlies this

a 12 foot trampoline for the huge sum of $30.00

and it does have all the springs attached

Hubby and Em went for a drive yesterday to collect 

Sophies new bed which cost us $70.00 and

included an exceptionally clean innerspring slumber-pedic

mattress

Ta Da, complete with her quilt which is a perfect fit

she loves it, I adore it and as soon as the weather

warms up I will spend a few days, sanding it back then 

re staining it.

Saturday night we had friends join us for drinkies and dinner

so we got a chimnea to have on the deck on cold winter

evenings, it was a fabulous night with lots of laughs, lots of chatter

and possibly lots of alcohol consumed.

Sophie and Emma had an all night movie night at

scouts last night, there obviously wasn't much sleep had as both girlies

went for a nap about 2pm and still haven't surfaced.

its school holiday time for us, I plan on getting some neglect machine sewing

done, perhaps start a new project and having daily sleep ins. Later in the week the

girlies and I are off to Bega to collect Sophie's and my new glasses and to get some

stitchery backing as this week my copy of Anni Down's new book should arrive, and

I am waiting on season 3&4 of Lark Rise to Candleford to arrive from the ABC shop.

Sewing, DIY, Happy Mail & other stuff

Its been a busy kind of week for me

Last Tuesday I bought a desk for the computers

and I even put it together myself

ta da

please excuse the mess beside it and I need to get

some cord tidy things

I worked on my Kaleidoscope Hexagon Quilt

I have 2 rows to add to the side and then 2 rows to add to the top

it will just be a topper, its so happy and bright and I am

loving it

I worked on my Some Kind of Wonderful Quilt

I have 2.5 blocks left to stitch then I will sew it all together

We watched the Super moon Rise

both photo's taken from our deck

yesterday hubby brought the

Bark Endeavour into Port, we are lucky and get a personal

guided tour tomorrow after school

and this ferry which called in to refuel as it is on its way to Noumea

Happy Mail time,

I ordered this book on March 28, it has FINALLY arrived

and my sneaky shopping

LOVE LOVE LOVE Gail Pan's designs

and I LOVE these 2 as well

The Rosalie designs are for when I have no hand sewing to do at night

time, which will be very soon as my SKoW quilt blocks are almost done

and my KHQ is so close to being finished.

I Love Happy Mail :)

and my long legged girl Emma came 2nd in the Cross Country on Friday

this Friday we are off to Wolumla so she can take part in the

Far South Coast Zone Cross Country. We were very proud of her

especially as the bulk of her run last Friday was on sand.

Today I hope to get those extra rows made and ready to sew on the KHQ,

I am housebound waiting for the Austar man to come and connect our 2nd box

hubby is suffering football withdrawals