Wip Wednesday

I finally got myself motivated to get moving on the POD quilt. I've only had one block to do - the last block and one block to redo... block 10. I'd messed up the labels on the books so decided to remake. A fellow PODer, Cassandra, from the facebook  group "Project of Doom"  kindly offered to send me some fabrics that she had used in the block. Block 10 is the one with the Standard Book of Spells, volume 1-7 (or 1-6 if you preferred cause Harry didn't do his last year) and she had 7 coordinating fabrics that looked great as the book spines. I got both the box for the jelly beans (Block 30) and the Spell Books (block 10) done Sunday.

I thought I hadn't printed them out yet and the printer wouldn't talk to my pc despite lots of stuffing about so I put the files I wanted for the blocks onto a memory stick and Fixit Guy used his pc to print them off for me. Then when I went to the box with my fabrics and completed blocks in it ... yeah you guessed it I found that I had already printed most of them off already. As well as Block 30 and block 10 I want to do some special blocks to go on and beside the book shelf. I want to do the broom stick, the sword, Dobby, flying keys and perhaps a cornish pixie or 2. I had trouble finding the Dobby pattern I wanted ... printed the wrong one twice but have found it now. I'll have to get it printed out.

In the meantime I have sewn all the book blocks together into rows and have started removing the paper from them. What a painful task that is. They look good on my design board

On Tuesday at Handmade Love I made some baby bibs. I had found the pattern on April Rosenthal's website here

They are really simple. We didn't use a charm pack but took 2.5" from the fabric we have been donated... there is heaps of it. (our co-ordinator said we are going to have to sew till we die to use it all up. Lol) I was going to cut some units but found some already cut. I got 2 made and working on a 3rd with the help of one of the other women who comes. The bias I used was pretty narrow but it was the best I had... no photos sorry. Forgot to take any. We will make some of our own bias at some point... but didn't worry about it today. I did end up cutting some more 2.5" squares from the scrap stash to use in future bibs. Have one young mum in our group and she loved choosing funky colour combinations so we'll make sure we do some of those too as well as some more traditional colour combos that the grandmas seem to prefer.

I have made good progress with some hexies.... have basted just about all the ones that I had pinned (think there are 3 left) so have to get some more prepped and ready to go. My aim was to make 100 this month and I've made in excess of 160 so pleased with that. Still a long way to go. 

Last year I made a panel of the 23rd Psalm into a wall hanging for the worship area of the aged care facility that Fixit Guy and I help out with on a weekly basis. The residents loved it. Recently I was able to purchase another religiously themed panel featuring a Lion and Lamb. I decided to make it into a wall hanging for there as well. I would like to have it finished to take up tomorrow but I had some assistants today whilst I was working on it. Haven't got as far as I would have liked!

The reason I have had these two helpers this week is that our daughter, Fangirl has been in Brisbane for the Comic Convention there. She had a stall there selling her cross stitch patterns, some kits and some made up items. She dressed up in her Hogwarts cloak for the occasion and Boyo, our youngest who was her assistant was also decked out as a Hogwarts school boy. If you want to see her patterns visit her Etsy shop... she's into all things geeky

 

Sunday Stash Report - kats and Kaftans

I've only had one finish this week but as I had to buy the fabric for it its almost the equivalent of a nil all draw.

At Handmade Love on Tuesday (that's a sewing group I am part of that makes things to sell to raise money for Our Rainbow House, a school in Zambia) a visitor to town who is also part of the Our Rainbow House Community, taught us how to make kaftans. I had forgotten about it till that morning so had to dash to the shop as soon as it was open to get fabric to use. I chose a lovely soft batik that had a gorgeous pattern and was soft enough to drape well.

It was really easy and straight forward to make. Basically I measured my length, folded the fabric in half and cut it off to that length plus 5 cm for the hem, cut a neck line, faced it, hemmed it, sewed the side seams and boom it was done. Well that is how it was supposed to go. I had trouble with the neckline initially but we got there. (Peggy, our co-ordinator for HML, is a very experienced sewer and she was able to fix my issues) I didn't even have to hem my sides as the batik's selvage was so beautifully finished.

If I make another one (who am I kidding... when I make another one) I think that instead of just folding my fabric in half I will do shoulder seams. It might help to stop it slipping about so much. It's not bad but just slipped back a bit.

The 3.6m of fabric bought and used in this project was my only purchase for the week although I do confess that I have ordered a fat quarter bundle on Massdrop. I'm collecting cat fabrics so this is just perfect. But it hasn't arrived yet so I don't have to count it this week. Whew.

Speaking of cats, we've been catsitting our daughter Fangirl's 2 felines this week. They are gorgeous and playful and far more attention seeking than our old boy cat

 

Fangirl is out of town this weekend to attend the Brisbane Comic Convention. She has had a stall there for the first time selling her Geeky cross stitch patterns, kits and some made items. Her youngest brother has gone with her to help her with the stall. Not sure how much he knows about cross stitch but by the end of the weekend I'm sure he'll know a lot more. He's been company and has meant she can go for bathroom breaks if nothing else. Actually apparently yesterday he was able to go off and go to the forums etc and look at the other stalls and displays and today it was her turn.

So this weeks stats

Week 37

         Fabric Used                       3.4    
          Fabric Added                     3.4

Year To Date
         Fabric Used                    134.72
         Fabric Added                    52.81        

Net Used/Added                       81.92

Linking up with Judy at Patchwork Times

Friday Fitness

I've been up and down this week diet wise... good days where I haven't eaten too much empty food (ie high calorie, low nutrition) but others where I did over indulge in various goodies. Still the weight has started to come down a little.... 1 kg so its a start (17.2 to go)

Walking has continued apace and I have managed 2 walks a day most days. Missed out on Sunday but managed it even on Saturday which is unusual for us. We have walked most days with our friend Maree, sometimes accompanied by her dog and sometimes Chloe has stayed home. Chloe is a big dog and not well trained to the lead and so she pulls constantly and Maree's arm and shoulder get very sore. Jack is hilarious when we walk with Chloe, especially when Chloe is allowed off the lead to run when we are down by the river. Usually he is off exploring everywhere, especially if we have Digby with us. But when Chloe is charging about Jack stays really close to us and he monitors where she is all the time. He is such a tiny dog that she would knock him flying so easily. He stays close cause he knows Chloe can see us and so not run into us... but he's another story.

Even when Fixit Guy hasn't been able to walk in the evening because of his commitments I have still taken Jack out.. usually with Digby to take Dig home. I've made my 10 000 steps every day without having to do any on the spot jogging, apart from Sunday when it was only a couple of hundred I've had to do. It does feel good.

I've been making my way up the Fitbit stats too... it was only a couple of weeks ago I was excited to make it into the teens of my Fitbit friends and then I made it into the top 10 albeit the bottom half of them. This week I have made it into the top 5 consistently.... and even got to 3rd and 2nd one day... for a little while.

          

See I have proof!! It happened twice!!

Yeah, I know it was cause Sam's Fitbit was playing up and didn't record her steps properly but for 12 hours I was coming 2nd to the amazing Terje. Between Sam and Terje who average high teens daily for the steps I will never get back to number 1 but still... its great to have 80 000 to 90 000 steps for the week. I'm pretty sure I'm going to be back to 4th soon. Another friend Jody is usually way ahead of me too but her jogging partner is away this week so her steps are a bit down. Still ...

Mind you today is going to be a low day. Maree was away today so we didn't have to get up to walk at 6 and ended up sleeping in late and then it was 9 and we both had things to do so... no morning walk. Oops. Hopefully we will get an evening walk. Must make my 10 000! I'll jog till midnight if I have to. He he he

I have been wondering about trying to jog again and maybe restarting C25K again... but then I wonder if my hips and knees really need to thumping. I might give it a go... but then Fixit Guy and I go together for our walks and it is great to have some us time. I also thought about getting a tread machine but again... going out walking is great so maybe not.

Steps for this week
               Friday:            15 398
               Saturday:        13 880
               Sunday:          10 036
               Monday:         12 148  
               Tuesday:         13 873
               Wednesday:    12 036
               Thursday:        14 886
TOTAL for the Week    92 257

WIP Wednesday

Sewing this week was all systems go up till Saturday and since then has slowed down a lot

I worked solidly to get my Raggy Hearts quilt finish and I managed it and posted it off to my friend on Monday. I forgot to include the card I had written out for her which is a bit of a bummer but it does have my name on the outside of the parcel... must post it off to her - but its already been 2 days. Oops

I have been working away on my hexies. I got a pile made during church on Sunday and some more in the evening whilst watching tv. Had a meeting at church Tuesday night and in the hour or so got 20 done. Quite a few people were asking me about them afterwards and they were universally amazed that I would be attempting a quilt that needed over 1500 of them. My aim for this month is to get 100 hexies made and I am heading towards that already.

Tuesday at Handmade Love, our visitor CaAtherine taught us how to make a kaftan. I stuffed up the neckline and it too a bit of working to get it right but I managed to get it finished in the morning. What a thrill. Next time I think I will make a slightly different neckline.

 

Today I went to Patchwork group and worked the whole time on my Twilter's swap blocks. I made 12 so I now have 19 made. Think I will make 30 as I'd like to have a 5 x 6 layout.

So its been a pretty busy week on a variety of projects. What about you? What have you been doing?

  

Tuesday Museday - mid month review

Its half way through the month already and time for a goal review. I don't seem to have made much progress but I know I have ... really

1) POD quilt. Make the last "weekly" block (no 30) Remake block 11 and work on some other extras to go around the bookshelf. 
I haven't worked on these at all. Hopefully they are next up on my working list

2) "Going Green" Finish this quilt - its pinned. Needs quilting and binding.
This is finished. That was a big job

3) "Pink Pizzazz" Quilt and bind this club quilt
This is completed. Yay.

4) Hexagon Quilt Continue to work on hexagon quilt - make 100 hexies
So far I have made 70. I have a church meeting tonight and that should mean I get a few more done

5) Mend 2006 hexagon year quilt

Its still on the couch waiting for me to mend it

6) UFO Finish or at least work on one UFO from sidebar list

Nope... not done a thing

7) Work on Christmas Project

Nope not done a thing

8) Make extra Raggy Hearts.

Made the extra ones

The reason I haven't made as much progress as I would have liked to is that I have made a whole other quilt. I added this to my side bar of goals after I made my initial goals. I made the raggy hearts from our club swap into a quilt which I have posted off to my friend.

Sunday Stash Report - some finishes and some purchases

Last Monday in my Monday musings I was regretting fudging the line in finishing Going Green late Sunday night or early Monday morning and counting it in the previous week's stash report because ... on Monday morning my order from Massdrop turned up and I had 4 metres of fabric incoming that would go as a minus on this week's report. I don't like negative figures! I don't mind nil all as much as I dislike going into the negative.

In pushed me on to get Pink Pizzazz finished off so as to have a little incoming. I got it done on Tuesday evening in time to take it to our patchwork gathering on Wednesday to show it off. It was a group project so it was appropriate.

I was on a bit of a roll by then so pressed on with Raggy Hearts. I had only really started it the previous week when we did our block swap (well I did my blocks a few months ago but we swapped our half hearts Wednesday a week ago) but had managed to get the centre together and then on Wednesday I got the 2nd border on it. It was pieced using a mixture of breast cancer fabric and some other heart fabric. 

I had thought that I would piece the backing using some Quilt for a Cure fabric that I had (I am giving it to a friend going through breast cancer treatment atm) but then decided to use some lovely minky fabric. Its so lovely to touch and I have heard that some people having cancer treatment find their skin gets really sensitive so this would be ideal. I didn't have to piece it at all as it was just wide enough. I  was able to lay it out on my cutting table and get it pinned by Thursday morning and then started quilting. 

I got it finished by Friday night which was my aim as my big machine had to go in for a service on Saturday. I finished up the binding etc yesterday using my small travel machine (Janome Jem) 

My friend Lindy and I had been discussing at Patchwork on Wednesday about how joins in binding so often end up at the corners. When it happened to me I just had to photograph it and put it on Facebook for her

... so that was another finish for the week... which is just as well because....

Thursday afternoon I went shopping for background fabric for the upcoming Twilters swap. I needed to buy 2.3m. Its a plain white... nothing special. The  tone on tone whites they had in our 2 LQSs were $22.20 plus a metre so I wasn't paying that. I got some plain white stuff for $11m that I was happier paying. Its boring and not worth photographing! 

Anyway since then  I have been beavering away with my blocks (we are doing the wonky pound block from Amy Gibson's 2012 Craftsy BOM) and have 7 completed. I think I will make 30 as that will give a good sized quilt. Not sure how many participants we will have in the swap but if we don't get that many I can keep some for myself and if we get more than that... well I'll see. But at the moment I am working on 30. (Twilters is the name giving originally to quilters who tweet. We were a bunch of women who found each other via a number of quilting podcasts. We have since formed a group on facebook and many people find that easier as they don't use twitter. I must admit I like Facebook better as posts are more easily kept together and you can find everyone who comments under the one banner. If you are a quilter who listens to podcasts or are interested in joining us drop me a message and I can work on joining you up.

So this weeks stats

Week 37

         Fabric Used                     9.04
            Fabric Added                   6.92

Year To Date
         Fabric Used                    131.23
         Fabric Added                    49.32        

Net Used/Added                       81.92

Linking up with Judy at Patchwork Times

Friday Fitness

Running late this week... got the blog written but hadn't gotten the photos uploaded so it took till today... sorry

Diet has been less than ideal all week - we had chocolates in the house as well as the cheesecake I had made my husband for Fathers Day. We've been eating it all week but the last slice has now been served up so that temptation has gone however we now have a box of chocolates to go through... 

I haven't managed to make 10 000 steps every day this week... close but no cigar... well a couple of thousand under. One evening I was busy quilting getting a project finished and worked till 1 AM and it was after midnight when I remembered I was still short on steps. Another evening I realised I hadn't made my goal but was tired so went to bed.

But on a positive note I have managed to start walking again in the mornings again. My friend Maree was keen to restart our morning walks and even when she hasn't been able to make it Fixit Guy and I have stepped it out. Jack dog is loving it. Means I get more opportunities to take photos too. The pelicans (well one anyway) is back at the river and so are the ibis and ducks.

 The roos are back too. I managed to get this photo on my phone before he bounded away

Its still very dry here. There was rain about 10 days ago and so there is some green shoots about but its dry and parched

Even though I haven't made 10 000 each day I have made over 70 000 steps this week. I have also crept up my friends lists and am lodged pretty firmly in my top 10 friends. I doubt that I am going to get much higher than 7... some of my friends get crazy step numbers.

Fitbit Stats
Friday           12 786
Saturday       10 561
Sunday           8 183
Monday        11 664
Tuesday          8 111
Wednesday   13 514
Thursday        15579