Fitness Friday - creeping up the ladder

After putting in a fair effort this week I've managed to creep up my fitbit friends list and even made it to 3rd for a little while. That means I snuck ahead of my friend Sam albeit briefly but I made it. I tried very hard to get a screen shot of it but the instructions for getting a screen shot on my iPhone 6 but some how holding the two buttons required was tricky for me. I either turned the screen off or activated Siri. I did manage it twice... the first time though the volume icon had come on and obscured my name. The second time worked beautifully.

Now I have proof that I managed it, at least for a few hours (till Sam logged in and synced and blew me out of the water) Actually I have crept past Sam most mornings (she must be having a slow week) although by the afternoon when she syncs in she passes me.

Friday                              17 665                

Saturday                          10 393            

Sunday                            10 466

Monday                           14 357

Tuesday                           13 443

Wednesday                      13 084

Thursday                          10 436

Today Sam has zoomed past me - that's because I lost the big steps from last Friday. And I think she had a good day too.  I am trying to get the steps back up there but don't think I am going to make it. Still I'm up to 16 000 so that is pretty good effort.

Hope you have had a good week and made your goals

Cheers

Stash Report Sunday

Busy week meant I had a couple of moderate sized finishes this week.

I started a quilt last Sunday afternoon. I had decided on the design during church and came home and laid it out. It was a new banner for our church for lent. I got the top put together that day and was able to finish it off on Tuesday. Its hanging in our church today. I based it on a design I found on the Fat Quarter Shop. It was 80cm square (approx 31.5") and used 1.6m of fabric

As reported in yesterday's post The Tale (not tail) of Annie's Quilt I got it finished in time to give it to a friend whose house has been deemed uninhabitable after Cyclone Marcia. I forgot to measure it before I gave it to her however I could work it out from the size of the blocks and calculate its size. It was approximately 182cm  x 162 cm (72" x 64") using 6.82m of fabric

We have hosted 5 guests this weekend who were in town for an Emmaus training day. They each bought us a thank you gift and one friend (whom we've known for years) bought me two bundles of fat quarters - 10 of them all together.  He said he had a fabric intensive as he shopped in Spotlight learning about jelly rolls and charm packs and fat quarter bundles.

One bundle was called Traveller and another was of greys. Such a thoughtful gift. That was a total of 2.45m in

There isn't going to be much movement for a while now. For a few weeks now I've had the silent thrill of knowing I had 2 big finishes just waiting in the wings, with just a little bit more work to be done on them and then BAM there would be a big jump in fabric usage. I do have the Teashop Quilt top done now so getting it pin basted and quilted will be another moderate finish but there is nothing big planned. I am going to have to get stuck into little things to sell at the Our Rainbow House stall at the afternoon tea at the end of the month so that will take up a fair bit of my stitching time. They will all be small projects and not account for much stash usage. It will be good to get it done though.

So this weeks stats

This Week

Fabric Used                               8.42m

Fabric Added                              2.43m

Year to Date

Fabric Used                               37.68m

Fabric Added                             12.78m

Net Fabric used                         24.90m

The Tale (not tail) of Annie's Quilt

Annie's Quilt - a special quilt, made up from orphan blocks from various projects collected over the years. Its name came from orphan block quilt - Little Orphan Annie blocks quilt - Annie's quilt. The name was special too because of our gorgeous dog Annie who died last year. We loved her very much. ( go here to read about her last days) 

(

My grandma was also Annie but the dog was NOT named after her. 

    

These are some photos of my Grandam Annie aged 16, 24 and about 55

Grandma was Annie Mabel (set the table) and Annie was properly Annabelle, named by my youngest son (known on this blog as Boyo). He doesn't know where the name came from (mind you our other dog Daisy WAS named after my other grandmother... cause our neighbour had a dog Bessie and that is my mother's name. I asked what their mothers names were - Vera and Annette... nope they weren't dogs names. So I named her after my grandma... yeah long story and not that funny in the retelling... maybe you had to be there) 

I digress!

I started working on Annie's quilt last year. It was to be a quick project - using up some of these orphan blocks I'd collected. To be a donation quilt - no biggie. But in putting together the blocks I needed to make some fillers - I had some mini pinwheels - I made some more. 

I made some checker boards.

 

 I had some flying geese but needed more (ended up making enough for borders - yeah so I made 130 or so... just a few more) 

I had so much fun but it was a lot of work and I really loved it. There were so many bits to it - so many stories in the quilts that the blocks came from. So many bits of fabrics from so many other projects as well. I really didn't want to give it away - at least not to someone I didn't know. It was special and I wanted it to go to someone special

And that made me feel guilty. Do people who have fallen on hard times for what ever reason need less than our best? Why did I think that only people I knew and loved deserved a quilt from me?

I think this dilemma apart from having other projects on the go made me push the finished quilt top out of my priority list. I finished the top sometime before we left on our big trip last year (9 weeks driving through Southern parts of Australia) but didn't get a backing done for it. After we got home we were busy with Christmas and visitors and other things and so the top waited. I had a piece of backing big enough for it and so in late January I got the quilt pin basted at patchwork. Then the quilt sat, folded up near my machine waiting for me to get around to quilting it.

Thursday I finally  decided that it was time I got Annie's quilt finished. It had waited long enough. I still wasn't sure who it was for but I knew that the time had come to get it done. I thought I could give it to our former minister Suzy who is now living in a town that was badly affected by Cyclone Marcia last Friday. She would know someone who would appreciate it.

 It wasn't long before I was muttering crankily under my breath. Two lovely ladies from my patchwork group had helped me pin baste it a few weeks ago and my friend Lindi got a bit enthusiastic with how many pins she put in!! We had both laughed about it at the time... but as I had to stop start my quilting so frequently I didn't find it quite as amusing. I muttered "Thanks Lindi" a number of times as I stopped and sewed and stopped again.

I chose to use a gorgeous multicoloured King Tut thread which I've had it for a number of years. Its  colours vary from yellow through orange to pink - just beautiful. I had never come up with a project to use it on but it suited this project perfectly. 

I chose to do a simple stipple design - I love stippling but I'm not perfect at it and unfortunately there is a bit of eye lashing on the back. I love the rhythm of it - sort of dancing with my hands. That's why the pins were aggravating me till I decide to go a bit bigger and dance around them.

I was able to finish the quilting off Friday afternoon after work and on a roll I made the binding - I chose orange - and got it on machining it on front and back. I chose a wavy line decorative stitch for the front. I didn't think that the thread I used for the stippling would be enough to do the decorative stitch on the binding so I chose a variegated orange Aurifil instead (from Tula Pink collection). It worked well but I wish I'd had enough of the other as I loved it. I have a bit left over of the King Tut, not enough to quilt anything but a moderate wall hanging but I will eventually find a project for it.

As I quilted I wondered about who my quilt would go to and then I had a wonderful thought. My friend Liz's house was badly damaged in the cyclone. Liz and I had met through the Emmaus movement. I was the assistant table leader on her table the year she did her walk. This weekend it is the Emmaus training weekend for this year's Central Queensland walk and it (the training weekend) was being held here in our town. We were billeting 5 of the team members in our home including Deb, this year's lay director of the women's walk Deb had been the table leader to my assistant table leading and therefore Liz's table leader. I had a feeling that Liz was on team this year. Would she come to the training weekend with her home having been wrecked only the week before. 

It was fairly late last night when our billets arrived at our place. Over breakfast this morning I checked with Deb. Was Liz on team? Yes! Had she been able to make the training weekend? Yes! Another of our billets Mary (another lady I have known for many years who is the mother of a dear friend from our days in Moranbah) had been her prayer partner that evening and Liz had shared some of her story.

It was confirmed who my quilt was for. The colours in the quilt and bright and cheerful - the colours of the rainbow. The rainbow is the symbol for Emmaus. 

Liz put this status on fb recently

Thank you butterfly for flying up to me as I sit outside my wrecked house and landing on my arm. you showed me that we're fine and life goes on and we're never alone. There is still beauty and wonders to be seen if we stop and look.

As it happens there are a number of butterfly prints throughout the quilt! 

I gave the quilt to Deb to give to Liz at a time that she thinks is suitable. I can trust Deb to find the right time - that God will show her the right time just as he has shown me the right person to give this quilt to. 

Our current only dog Jack decided he should be in this picture too... how could I say no

Des Colores (The Colours)

Update. Deb gave Liz her quilt on Saturday evening and she was thrilled with it. I am so grateful to God that he guided me in the making and the gifting of this quilt.

Linking up with Tgiff and Can I get a Whoop Whoop

WIP Wednesday

Busy week with several finishes as reported yesterday and in my Sunday Stash Report. I did enjoy making those little Minion wall hangings.

 

Today at Patchwork I was able to get 2 quilts pinned. Annie's Quilt is pinned and ready to go. I forgot to take a photo of it laid out and pinned. It looks the same as it did before hand just with lots of pins in it!! Thinking about how I am going to quilt it. Its going to be a combination of stitch in the ditch, echo quilting and stippling. Its such a busy quilt with so many different blocks in it.....

I also got Tardis Tree pinned. I think that I am going to echo quilt around the shape of the tree and then do a little stippling in the rest of it. Its made up of so many little squares I don't want to compete with them too much. I am just not too sure what I am going to do. Might have to wait and see what happens when I start.. that is what I usually do. I will use the variegated white.cream thread I have on the white and a darker blue or grey on the blue parts. Watch this space. I would love to think that I am going to get at least one of them finished to report on in Sunday Stash report but that might be being a little optimistic given I haven't started quilting and I have commitments most of Saturday and Sunday morning.

Here they are, piled up near my machine ready to go. Ready set... oh look squirrel

I started a new project at Patchwork today. We are making Quilts of Love for our local hospital to be used for babies born too early. They only need to be between 20-24" square and don't have batting in them. I am making a log cabin using 1.5" strips. Something has gone a bit skewiff with them and they are a bit out of whack but hoping some judicious trimming at the end will put it to rights. Not sure if I cut the strips a bit wrong or if the 1/4" foot on my machine is a bit out. I am also not that thrilled with the colours but hoping that it will be ok. I am making 9 of the log cabins so it isn't going to take me very long. Hopefully it will work out okay in the end.

This isn't finished - the 2nd bright green fabric and outer blue still to be stitched down. This is just to get an idea of the colours.

I have managed a little hand stitching during the week on my Christmas Delights project... but only a few stitches. I am hoping to get a lot more done at the meetings that I will be attending on Saturday... unless I have the quilting done on one of my projects and am up to stitching down the binding.

Fangirl bought me back a lovely little stack of embroidered blocks that my sister Joy had done using the BOM designed by my sister in law Christine (of Bluebirds and Bumblebees) Joy had made them 7 years ago when the patterns were first released but hadn't gotten around to making them into a quilt and she offered them to me. Of course I said yes and she sent them to me via Fangirl. Now I am contemplating what pattern to use with them and who it will be for. (A reminder that Christine has listed her patterns on Etsy. The January block is free... for this month at least. Go check it out here

Now I am anxiously awaiting the release of the next pattern in the POD on Fandom In Stitches. I am getting rather hooked on paper piecing it seems.

I have joined a new challenge group. Its called One Project A Month - OPAM.

You commit to trying to complete one project each month (of any of the fibre arts) It can be a new project that month or it can be a UFO or a slow project. Each month you report in what you have completed. And they encourage you to have a side bar with your completed projects for that month.  I have added the list of my completed projects for this month to my side bar. I don't think it actually starts till February but I thought I'd add my projects already. It looks rather impressive cause I have made so many little projects this month. If you are interested in joining in you have to sign up by February 1st so hurry!

  

WIP Wednesday

This week I worked on paper piecing and completed the first 2 blocks in Fandom Stitches POD 30 week challenge. I also completed a paper pieced TARDIS from a pattern on their website. I have downloaded a heap of others which I may or may not get around to doing sometime soon.

I completed the 3 little zipper pouches using the MSQ tutorial and really enjoyed making them... so much so that I have ordered 20 pretty zips from eBay and keenly waiting their arrival in a couple of weeks. (ordered from Hong Kong so have to wait for them to be shipped here) After I had posted on this blog about running out of zippers a local friend, Lindy,  told me that she had a box of zips that she had been carrying around for 20 years or so and she was happy for me to help myself to a few. She bought them to Patchwork today and I gladly took 6. 1 which I used straight away and 5 to make into pouches.

Fangirl (my daughter) asked me to make a cushion out of a cross stitch that she made in 2005. I sashed it in 3 borders and then made the back and (get this) inserted a zip. I made it today at Patchwork using one of the zips Lindy gave me. I don't have a photo of the finished cushion. I wish I had fussy cut the 3rd border but by the time realised I should have done that the top was already together and I wasn't remaking it.

I am waiting on a bolt of batting to arrive in order to be able to complete some more projects. Ive made the backing for the Tardis Tree and also for the Orphan Block Quilt. I thought I would piece a backing for it but in the end I had a piece big enough and so used it. I have decided to call it Annie's Quilt... you know Little Orphan Annie.... also our dog who died early last year was called Annie so I like the name.

       

I have been working on Vanishing Hours. I got all the borders on and so now the top is finished. YAY

I've started on the backing, using up extra blocks that didn't make it onto the front - including one vanishing pinwheel that I made by mistake instead of the vanishing hourglass. Also some extra hourglass blocks and some left over piano key border. Its got a way to go but hopefully I will get it done by the end of the week so I can post it off to my friend Kym to get quilted.

 So its been a very busy and successful week. How have you gone this week.