Re-Arranging the Sewing Cave

it was uber cluttered and I couldn't find

anything so today I asked 2 girlies what they were

doing and when their reply was nothing....

I got them busy. We have unpacked cupboards and shelves

re organised plastic tubs of fabrics

we have moved shelves and cupboards

and moved them again.

My one issue was my design wall. In our house in

Tasmania and the house we lived in when we first

arrived in Eden, I had a full wall for my design wall

in this house I didn't, I had a quarter wall......

well I almost have a full design wall again

here is my new and improved sewing cave, please

excuse the floor, I haven't vacuumed it yet

looking in from the doorway

see my design wall......

my design wall, with the centre block for

Aunt Grace's Circle of Friends, Butterfly Garden,

Mum's quilt, 2 Bee Blocks and my hexagons

this shelf unit used to stand upright,

dh suggested we flip it on its side and I must say it was

a fabulous idea, I can see a narrow shelf topper in my

immediate future :)

Dh also took the door off my Horn cabinet, as there was 

no room to stand at my cutting table when it was open

suits me to a tee as my sewing machine had mm to spare

whenever it had to be put away in the cabinet

my cutting table, back in the corner with my rulers

hanging again 

& all my little quilts, I still have to find room

for another 3 small quilts

this black box is cause of all my lack of wall

space issues, sadly I can't move it as its got something to do 

with the Port believe me if I could move it would be

out in the sunroom not in my sewing room

Its Clean Up time

my Christmas creating over the last few weeks has

left my sewing room looking more like a

bomb site than a place to sit and sew 

and enjoy the space.

See what I am faced with

pins, cotton and who else knows what under my sewing cabinet

my cutting table, which I can use ONLY if nothing needs to be cut

larger than a 4" square

even the floor below my design wall

and my computer desk, I can't get to the ironing

basket so that is piling up on the chair too

the empty lindt chocolate tins need to be binned, they were

for the girlies Christmas gifts for their teachers.

its not even organised chaos...sigh

The final 4 blocks of mums quilt... 1 done 3 to do in the New Year

because

month 5 of Lancaster has arrived, so I will be working on this

until all the appliqué borders are complete

4 more big sleeps until my mummy and daddy arrive 

(hence the big clean up lol)

and this morning I had the awful job of

telling dh that his uncle had passed away in the early hours

of the morning. 

I have kept him home from work (compassionate leave)

and sent him to golf.

We won't be attending the funeral but have flowers on the

way, there really isn't much else we can do from here.

RIP Uncle Lloyd.

The world lost a true gentleman this morning.

I've been Sewing

In between going to the end of year presentation assembly

for the girlies school, going to the supermarket and the usual

day to day stuff we all do I am so pleased I managed to get

some machine time in, working on Mums quilt

This block mum hand pieced

these blocks I machine pieced

now I have finished 9 of 13 blocks

YIPPEE

the next 4 blocks are going to be a mix of machine piecing and

my favourite needle turn appliqué 

sadly tonight I have 4 bon bon's needing their little

stitcheries to be stitched.

and a proud mummy moment,  Sophie got an

award at the assembly, she received her classes

'Citizenship Award'

and yesterday she informed me that all year she has been helping a little

girl in year 2 with her reading,

I am so proud of her, and so proud to be her mum.

Gunna Goanna

Thanks to Telstra I am back with lots to share

I bought home a quilt to make for mum,
as she can't do hand sewing anymore, with

lots of needleturn appliqué and hand piecing.

Saturday I thought that maybe I should 

pull out my finger and start getting the appliqué 

done.

Mum had started 2 blocks already, a flower

on 1 and the stem on the other, so I 

spent Saturday night and Sunday night

finishing them off

this is the block I am currently working on, and

I am also prepping for the next block

My Lancaster BOM is up to date, this is what it looked

like on Saturday afternoon

and by Sunday afternoon it looked like this

and our unwanted visitor, meet Gunna Goanna

he was chased around the house by the 

naughty puppy and cornered in a rabbit proofed

garden,so the only way was up

he was HUGE, and Imogen and I spent a lot of

time at the sunroom window watching him

eventually he turned a corner and discovered

Henrycat sitting in the window

after eyeing each other off Gunna got bored

and climbed down off the house  and went up the 

Norfolk Pine to hide in the branches and by 

7pm he had climbed out

of the tree and made his escape.

Bye Gunna, don't rush back.

Whales, Clamshells and More

As promised, here are the photos of

what I am sewing, whales and more!

The whale shots I have had to crop so you can see them

they were a fair way out and I obviously need a bigger

zoom lens for my Canon

The pattern I bought at the Quilt hanging

its all foundation pieced, love it

block 1 of  'mum's quilt' this is actually my block

I will collect hers when I am home next next

that it will look like finished, I have to make the 9 centre blocks 

and the triangles for her. 

3 more block for Erin's quilt

and clamshell progress, they are rather fiddly things..

not sure if I actually like making clamshells

so there you have it, thats whats in my sewing pile at the moment!

I'm Still Here.

Now that school has gone back .....phew
and dh is back at work after his 2 wks on the golf
course

life is returning to normal and I am sewing again

I have a little Christmas list to finish making

I have made the next blocks for 'Erin's Quilt'

I have started making blocks for a quilt that mum gave
me the pattern for, we were living in WA at the
time and I have been quilting for 6 months, so I have
been hanging onto it since 2008, but I do have a
good reason for starting it, she has asked  me to do all
the needleturn appliqué on her quilt, as its the last
grandchild's quilt (she has made 8),
and she is unable to do any
hand sewing these days due to issues from one
of her Chemo drugs. So I thought I would start mine
to get back into needle turn appliqué.

I have also started block 2 of Lancaster, it only took
2 weeks to arrive from Qld! Not happy Jan at all
so at my monthly sewing day today I cut out 60
clamshells and glued the fabric to the papers, and started
stitching mums quilt.

I have made my main SSCS gift, it just needs the final
touch and then I need to make the ornament, but I need some
wool felt for that, hoping I can get some while I am home.

I went to a quilt hanging on the weekend, and I bought a
pattern and sewline glue pen and refills, even thought they
had 35% off all fabrics and books, that was my
only purchase :) such restraint

Last Wednesday my baby girl turned 9,
sometimes I wish she still was that gorgeous, chubby
little girl who loved Dora the explorer.

Why do they have to grow up??

we have had email issue due to setting up a T-Hub 2, blogger
has changed my primary email address and won't let me change
it back...........

oh big excitement is last week I was able to do a spot of whale watching
from our yard, amazing creatures.

So I will be back tomorrow with photos of whales, sewing
new quilt, clamshells, Erin's quilt.