Up for a swap?

Fat quarter swap happening over at 2 Hippos.  Check out the link over in my sidebar if you want to join. The more the merrier

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Fabric lover

The bigger my scrap pile gets, the more Cameron loves to play in it

Maybe he’ll grow up to be a fabric designer

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Felting fun

I went to a class to learn felting today. So much fun!  It was great to do a class with a friend, and I’ve been wanting to learn felting for such a long time.  As usual I’m astounded at how easy the process is, and mystified as to why it looks so difficult in books.  I met a group of fabulous ladies, some of who have offered to teach me how to knit socks (something else I desperately want to learn), and will teach me how to spin wool as well if I want.  A really, really good day out.  Here’s pics of my work for the day.

 

 

 

 

I even did a little bit of needle felting on the ball.

I might have to go to the local wool carding place next week to get some wool. I would love to do some more, and can easily see me making felted squares to use in quilts.

Last night i sewed up the squares for the mini quilt. Would you believe there’s 99 squares there?  Lots more to add yet, borders and embellishments etc. But I feel better that it’s under way.

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A start

It’s taken me ages, but I’ve finally settled on a design for the spring mini quilt swap.  I’ve cut out my main fabrics, ready to go.  I’ve also cut 104 seven inch squares for a raggedy flannel quilt, and almost made a final decision on what to use my Park Slope fabric for.  Here’s a sneak peek of the fabric for the mini quilt…………………….

The ones on the left are the very last scraps of the hand dyed fabric I got a while ago from Crafter’s Heaven, I tried to get some more, as I’d rather use this for my mini quilt but there was none available in the colours I wanted.  The fabrics on the right are just store bought tied dyes, but they’ll do i think.  If it’s not as good as I want I can always make something else.

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Haircut day :-(

I held out for ages, but it had to be done eventually.  Cam’s second haircut.  I think the last one was in May last year.  He was looking remarkably like Crusty the clown, so I took him to the barber.  From this…………………….

To this……………………………….

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Tuesday

So here we are at home instead of Playcentre.  Cam’s got a bit of an upset tummy and runny nose.  He seems cheerful enough though.  I’ve had a few busy days.  I sewed nearly all day on Sunday.  I got another 20 nine patch blocks done for the One-a-day challenge, so instead of being behind, I’m now in advance.  I have 34 blocks done.  Here’s a pic of them.

This morning I finshed off a sleepsack that I had been asked to make.  Turned out pretty good. Merino and cotton.  I really need to learn to charge appropriately for my work though, I barely covered material costs for this one.  I’m used to sewing for friends, so try not to charge much.  Oh well, I’m sure the recipient will be pretty happy with it.

Jack caught his own breakfast yesterday

A promised pic of the Emily blocks all together.  I haven’t started sashing them yet. I have a few swaps I need to start on first.

Brian (our steer) went to the butchers yesterday. I was meant to make steak and kidney pie with the fresh skirt and kidneys, but the neighbours freezer went on the blink, so she kindly donated some topside to us, we had a nice casserole instead.  I’ll make the pie today.

We have a bumper crop of Feijoas this year.  Last year we had a good crop, but the frost killed them all.  I made a few jars of Feijoa Relish, today I’ll make some jam.  I’m trying to avoid freezing any, as I’ll need the freezer space in a couple of weeks when we get our meat back.

If anyone wants the relish recipe, let me know and I’ll post it here

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A busy week

Made a few inroads into my current list this week.

I got Cam’s two pairs of cord pants made.  The blue ones are lined with merino, as I can’t put longjohns under his pants, they are too hard for him to get down.  The lined pants are still loose enough for him to take off by himself.

The embroidery on the tan pair was made by my MIL on her really fancy Bernina

Last night I got my two May blocks for the cottage quilting bee done.  Carolyn asked for houses, and supplied the patterns for us.  This is mine. A Highrise. 

Ashley asked for scrappy rainbow blocks.  I had an idea in my head of what I wanted to make, using foundation piecing (or paper piecing if that what you call it), so I attempted to draft a pattern.  However I’m not terribly logical, and have little experience with pattern making, so I couldn’t get it right   I think if I had EQ it would have been very simple to make.  Oh well.  So this is what she’s ended up with instead.  I do like it, but it’s frustrating when you want to do something different.

I’m hoping to catch up on my One a Day nine patches today, I think I need to make about 7 of them.  I also have a job I’ve already been paid for, so I better get on to that, it’s making a baby sleeping bag.

I got 3 pairs of waterproof overalls made in the last week, I had orders for two, and just enough fabric to make a spare pair, which sold in a matter of minutes. That’s all my Hydrotex fabric gone now. It was very handy having something so easily saleable though, as I freaked out a bit last week when i got my specialist account in the mail.  $120, geez I was there for all of 10 minutes. When I last saw him about  3 years ago it was only $65. Talk about inflation.  The upside is that he has put me on the public waiting list to have a Hysterectomy.  Yay.  After almost 20 years of various gynae problems I’ll be glad to get rid of my uterus.  He will leave my ovaries behind.  He said the waiting list is about 6 months, so it might even be done by the end of the year.

Lilly had her first game of soccer for the season on Wednesday.  I got to watch some in between chasing Cam around the field.  They lost 3-1, good game though.

Matt is home this weekend.  He didn’t come home the last two, I was surprisedat how pleased I was to see him.  I am enjoying the cheaper food and power bills while he’s gone though.  He must have missed us too, he talked non stop for about two hours when he got here on Friday, which is a lot.  Matt’s usually a man of few words.  Nathan was pleased to see him, I think he misses Matt quite a lot when he’s gone.

Here’s a pic of Cam, taken on Friday. I put some loud music on while I was getting dinner ready, I don’t know if Cam didn’t like the music or was just tired, but this was his response

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The worst quilt ever!

Yep, looks ok from a distance. Visually stunning with the black and colours.  However the workmanship is shoddy to say the least.  As the coins are all different sizes I couldn’t get it to sit square, then I did my usual not big enough backing, and have to add in an extra bit up by the top.  I cut the seams to short on the binding and had a few split (which I’ve hand sewed together).  In the end I just rushed through it to get it out of the way and off my list

I am pleased with the quilting though   Spiderweb pattern.

Now I only have one unfinished quilt. Yay. 

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Free Dinner!

Ian was out yesterday morning trying to get a shot at the Magpie’s that are harassing the chickens.  He happened to see a bounding bunny in the paddock below, so he took a shot.

Not a rabbit though, a much bigger feast than that.  A hare.

He was very tasty too.  There was enough there for two meals, so some is in the freezer for later.

Even better than that was the entertainment

Ian had to cross a big ditch full of water to get his kill, he had the misfortune to slip on the way back and fall in.  I happened to be watching at the time.  Bugger, It would have been cold too.  Oh the joys of being the hunter.

 

Mother’s Day was great. I had breakfast in bed, Lunch with Mum and Kev, and our Hare casserole for dinner.  Lilly even made dessert.  Ian and the kids got me a voucher for some pampering at a Day Spa. Nice

 

The coin quilt is all but finished, just a tine bit of hand sewing left.  I won’t take any pics till it’s properly finished.

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A bit of this and that

Ok, here’s the crafty stuff first

I’ve finished quilting on my coin quilt.  Hooray, might have pics tomorrow.  I made the scrappy binding for it too.  i even double sewed each join so i could cut the triangle of each join and use it later.. see the pic below.

Here’s the binding.  I love the way it looks when it’s all rolled up.

 

So if I’m lucky I’ll get time to finish the quilt tomorrow afternoon, and will only have one unfinished quilt left to do.  Then I can start on a new one.

 

I made Cam  pair of all in one footed PJ’s.  I had suspected that they may be a big big. Think I underestimed a wee bit.  Oh well, they’ll still fit next year :-)

 

 

After a week of rain, it was good to see the sun out today, so we made the most of it.  Lilly was at a friends, Nathan glued to his laptop, so we took Cam for a walk up to Henley Lake.  He’s a few pics of our day out.

Ian was teaching Cam how to roll down the hill.  We spent the next 15 mins trying to get him to carry on with the walk, he would have stayed there all day rolling about.

Toadstools, and the study of toadstools

 

Stopping for a fluffy after our walk.  Cam’s first one.  He kept asking if it was his.

 

 

 

 

Happy Mother’s Day for tomorrow

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