WIP Wednesday - Lots of progress made

Have had a very busy week quilting wise.

I got the back for Not So Sombre Stars for Derek finished last Sunday and talked about it in Sunday Stash report. I was thrilled with how it turned out. Still haven't had a chance to get it pinned but am taking it with me this weekend on my quilt retreat that I leave for tomorrow morning after some other commitments.

Sunday evening and Monday I worked on getting squares cut for my black and white quilt. I am making "Trip Around the World" using half square triangles of black back ground with white design and white back ground with black designs. At least one row will include some black white and red fabric. Decided on 4" finished squares which means that if I use the 4 at a time method of half square triangle construction I need 7" squares to start with. I already had some squares that were 5" plus had left overs from my cutting that could be used to make 5" squares. These I can use to make HST of the required size 2 at a time. I worked out that I need some more white background fabric plus more red white and black fabric so will get some at Spotlight on my way through Rockhampton (they are having a 40% off all fabric sale this week... yay)

I decided my new design wall looked empty so I dragged out some of my left over blocks etc and set about designing a new baby quilt incorporating some of mum's embroideries, some left over half square triangles and some 2 patches that I had started making for a long forgotten project. Also some flying geese. Came up with a design I was really happy with that had pinwheels, 16 patches and square in a square blocks. I needed to make a few more half square triangles in order to make enough pinwheels but the rest is from leftovers. I have made all but one of the pinwheels and have started on the 16 patches. (I made them as leader and enders at the workshop today)

Our patchwork group has just had a 2 day workshop with the woman who was flown in by the show society to judge the patchwork section. Her name is Sue and she was a lovely person and a great teacher. Her sister joined her to assist in the judging and in the tutoring so we got 2 for the price of one!

Yesterday she taught us how to do tumbling blocks. For many of us Y seams had put us off attempting this block but she was so lovely and had a great technique which made it easier. We had a choice of making a table runner or a bag and I opted for the bag and managed to insert the zip with lots of patient tutoring from Sue.

Today Carol taught us Disappearing 9 Patch with a Twist - which was the traditional block with Pinwheels in two corners. Carol told us to iron all our seams open on the pinwheel. I have never done them this way but have to say that the pinwheel lay a good bit flatter as a result.

Again we could do a bag or a table runner and I was going to do the bag again to try to cement the techniques but realised I had neither zip nor batting with me (forgot them both) so decided to make more blocks and make a quilt. The quilt used all 5" squares.  Whilst most of the ladies had charm packs all my 5 " squares are cut from my scraps. I got 5 blocks completed and will make another 4 at least and perhaps 8. I think this will be a donation quilt for local charities.

Tomorrow (almost midnight so that should be today) I am going to a 4 day quilting retreat at the coast that I go to each year. Its called Patch N Peace and I really enjoy it. I am taking my SOMB quilts with me as it was here last year that we did the shirt swap which was the beginning of the challenge. I had wanted to have all 4 of my quilts completed but alas the last one is yet to be pinned. I hope to pin it this weekend.

Hopefully on Sunday Stash report I won't have too much damage to report re intake and maybe a couple more finishes... or even just one more. We shall see.

Linking in with WIP Wednesday at Freshly Pieced

Sunday Stash update

No finishes this week and no purchases but my numbers change... all will be explained eventurally.

The baby quilt that I was working on is pinned and ready to be quilted. Perhaps I might get some time to work on that today.

Not So Sombre Stars for Derek is ready to be pinned. I gathered up the last of the signature squares during the week and was able to get them pieced together along with a border of fishing fabric. The border is a bit at odds with the colours in the quilt but Derek is a keen fisherman so I thought that it was appropriate. I sewed in two blank squares and this morning I took the completed quilt back to church with me and showed it to the congregation. I was able to get a few more signatures from people whom I had missed including his dad. Whilst it was hanging up at church for people to look at I realised that I had put one of the borders on upside down. Oops. So I had to take it off when I got home and turn it around and restitch it. All good now.



I made one square from strips the colours of the rainbow to represent the Emmaus community that we are a part of and whom have been praying for his recovery. Derek himself has been on Chrysalis and their symbol is the butterfly so I am thinking that I might applique a butterfly on top of the rainbow to represent that. With the backing now completed I should be able to pin my quilt but unfortunately I can't use the pinning tables at our club rooms to do it and I have become spoilt with them and have no desire to crawl around on the floor to pin it out. OUr club rooms aren't available to us this weekend as they are being used to judge the quilts for the local agricultural show. The quilts were received there today and will be judge tomorrow and then on Monday we will take them to the pavillions at the show grounds and hang them. I was going to enter some but didn't get around to it... not really an exhibitor type of person. I might take them up to our church and pin them there. We have some tables there that I could put together to pin the quilt.

I am off to a quilt retreat on Thursday for 4 days. It is very exciting. Before then I have 2 days of workshops with my own quilting group. The judge that has come to judge the quilts is also going to run some workshops for us whilst she is in town so its going to be a very quilty week for me one way and another.

I haven't had a finish this week ... well not a quilty one but I have had one in my quilting room. Fixit guy made me a design wall today. Its mounted on the wall and is covered in batting fabric and looks great. Did have a bit of a hitch when he was making it. He tried to drill through the batting (after we'd attached it to the board) and the drill grabbed the wadding and tore a big hole in it. Had to take it off and patch it. It was pretty easily fixed but then ... ran out of staples for the staple gun, so he went to get more from the hardware shop, and they were the wrong size so he had to go again. We did eventually get it mounted and I am very happy with it. Now to get a quilt on the go and put it up on the design board. 

My part in the construction was to measure and cut the batting 

My Fixit guy using the staple gun

The finished product

I got my lap top back this week. Yay. It meant that I could put in the dimensions for my postcard finishes. I realised the problem I had when trying to calculate it without the spreadsheet is that my log is in cm's and I was doing it in inches so that's why my results looked so terribly small and insignificant. So I worked it out that

4 postcards 6"x4"  24"x16" or 62cmx40cm. Fabric used .68m

 Year to Date Used                     65.65
Year to Date added                   38.31
Net Used                                      27.34

Linking up with Stash Report at Patchwork Times

Friday Fitness on Saturday

I have been really slack with my blog post this last few weeks. Sorry about that. I was on a really good roll there for a bit but not sure what has happened to me of late... computer hassles sure haven't helped at all

A bit of an update on my fitness.

Haven't run at all this week. Yeah I know slack. What can I say. Also my plans for running in another fun run tomorrow didn't come to anything. Oh well. I have the excuse that my knee has been a bit sore this week but the real reason is I have lost the desire to jog too much. Hope to get my mojo back this week but we shall see.

I have walked every day and usually have walked twice. I have kept my 10 000 steps a day on my fitbit up for the whole week. Most days I have managed a couple of thousand more than that. In fact tonight my fitbit is showing 93 951 steps for the last 7 days and I am once again on top of my friends list. The two Twilter friends that usually beat me are not doing so well this week. Terje, as I mentioned last week, has a broken leg and can't weight bare at all which is awful for her. Not sure what has happened to Shari. My dear friend Maree has asked me to start walking with her again in the morning and we have agreed to walk 3 times a week at 6AM although I managed to persuade her to leave it till 6.20 cause its still dark at 6. We have walked our 3 times so that is good.

I managed a whopping 17 666 steps on Tuesday when I went walking in Carnarvon Gorge with my sister and her husband. They were camping there having travelled up from Sydney and I drove over to join them for the day.

I have been trying to track my food this week and am happy with my efforts there. One day this week my weight dropped to under 88... 87.8kgs to be exact. It climbed over the blooming 88 again a day later but it was so nice to be down there. The main thing with careful tracking is that I have been able to have my treats without feeling like I was cheating or not doing the right thing. Trying hard to make good choices as far as my cholesterol intake goes. It was recommended to me to have porridge each day as a good source of fibre to act on the cholesterol in my blood. LSA (ground Linseed, sunflower and almond) was also recommended to me. Not sure whether or not that is actually beneficial. They are good fats in the mixture and is nice on my porridge.

I need to upload my photos. I should put a nice picture from my walk in the gorge but haven't uploaded them yet and yet again I am on the wrong computer in any case.

WIP Wednesday

Disappearing Into the Blue

Today at patchwork I was able to get all the strips made for the piano key border. I forgot to take a photo of my progress. I did discover that I have bought two lots of fabric for the binding. Oops once I get this border on I'll put it on the bed it's being made for to see if I need any more borders

 

Not So Sombre Stars for Derek

Slowly getting the signature blocks back for the quilt back. Still waiting on some from his sisters family. I started to piece the blocks together today I'm not sure how many blocks I'll end up with which is making it all a bit tricky

Baby Quilt

The baby quilt that I started last Wednesday I was able to pin today and I might get it quilted by Sunday. A finish would be nice:) Usually I make the quilt for the baby after they are born but for once I am ahead of the game. In fact there is not even a prospective baby in the family. This quilt features some of my mum's embroideries so will only go to a relative. 

Frankenbatting 

I have made the batting for the baby quilt and NSSSFD quilts from left over bits of batting. I still have some bits which I'm going to make sew together. Not sure what size it'll end up bit probably big enough for another large cot quilt at least. It's quite satisfying using up the scraps

Sunday Stash Report

Another week with no purchases. Yay. Go me

I have only had 4 small (I mean tiny) finishes. Actually I finished them last week but forgot to count them. I had to make a postcard for a summer post card swap being run by Sandi Colwell of Quilt Cabana Patterns. I had never made one before so was a bit nervous. I made 4 checking out how to do it. The postcards are 6"x 4". I am still without my excel spreadsheet which has the formula from Pam at Hip to be a Square in it. I tried to do it with a calculator but it was really weird. I got .627.... and like I said that was just plain weird. 

So I am going to leave my stash stats as the same as last week.

Year to Date Used                     64.97
Year to Date added                   38.31
Net Used                                    26.66m

I have made more progress on some projects. I now have 31 completed signature squares now. I am going to start to sew them together I think. I'll give the other contributors till Sunday to get them to me or else they will miss out.

The baby quilt I was making has the backing made and the I have made frankenbatting for the filling (pieed together bits of off cuts and scraps of batting to make a larger useful bit) Its a term coined by Pam (again) and she talks about it on this blog post. I am in the process of doing another piece of frankenbatting to probably use in Not So Sombre Stars for Derek. It will be in keeping with my recycling/repurposing/frugal quilting theme with the SOMB quilts. (although to be honest I used new whole pieces of batting for the other ones)


Good news re the laptop. The company fixing it called on Friday afternoon and said it was good to go and they would ship it Monday (Today... running late with this blog update) so should have it midweek. Its coming from Sydney so will take a few days. The tech didn't say anything about having to wipe the drive or anything. He did say they had to wait for parts when he'd emailed earlier so sounds like it was a hardware issue not software so maybe all my data will have been saved.


Linking up with Patchwork times stash report

Friday Fitness coming to you on Saturday

Pleased to say I have continued to walk most days this week. Today might be the exception. I missed my morning walk and its going to be crazy busy today. I have made my 10 000 steps each day which is pleasing but not much more than that so have surrendered my Poll position amongst my friends as to most steps in 7 days. In fact a couple of days I slipped to 4th (shock horror) Currently I am 3rd! Why did I add Tazitaff (my friends husband)? He is ahead of me now

I had planned to run 5 kms this week but instead managed to do a couple of run walk sessions of c25k and one run jog ie where I jogged for the walk sections and ran harder for the running sections. My girlfriend has asked me to start walking with her again at 6AM 3 times a week. It means I am going to have to go to bed at a decent hour (Fixit guy will be pleased) and not quilt till midnight. Of course its cold and dark at 6AM. I must be mad. The dog is going to think we are so weird. Won't be going down by the river at that time of the day. 

It is good to have been active each day. Food choices have been ok... have been eating some cornflake biscuits at night but now they are all gone. Did have croissants again for breakfast this morning (Fangirl slept over so we ate 3 between the 2 of us) She has been away all week at a conference and flew in last night and we went straight to the theatre for the 2nd last night of the production. Then came home here afterwards at midnight and decided it was easier for her to sleep here than find her keys and go to her own house. Suited me. Fixit Guy was away so it was nice to have the company.

Fixit Guy had gone to Townsville Friday morning for the funeral of his godmother and mother's cousin. I would have gone with him normally but it was the play and I am prompt. Normally Fangirl could have stepped in and done it but she was away and flying in just before performance. She got there in time BUT planes can run late, be cancelled, etc so it was all a bit too iffy. And the play has to have a prompt. There are only 3 actors so have huge amount of lines each so its really tricky. He comes back today.

I saw my dietitian on Monday and we discussed my cholesterol levels and diet. She told me that there were only 3 things proven to help with cholesterol. Increased fibre, plant sterols and something else I have forgotten. We already do most of the things that are recommended for decreasing it in the diet. She didn't give me a magic bullet for how to get it down or anything. Its hard work. Just like weightloss. Any easy weight loss solutions aren't going to work. You have to be committed to the process. She was pleased to hear my weight has dropped to the 88's.... i was 88kg on Monday but back to 88.4 today (and has been higher this week) 

The bouganvillea is in full bloom around our town at the moment. This one is on the corner of the street is looking very striking

The river on one of my walks this week

Pippin on the bed this morning. He was feeling very feisty and kept biting my toes.

WIP Wednesday

I am running late with my WIP Wednesday and now it is almost midnight so I should be in bed and not writing this so late

Not so Sombre Stars.

I collected a few more signature squares for the back from people on Sunday and have them sashed and ready to go into the back. I could start to put the back together but I want to wait till I have more in so I can arrange them better. Some ladies in the church are wanting to do some embroidery on their blocks which is really lovely of them but I just want to get them in so I can assemble the back. It will get done...eventually

Disappearing into the Blue

For the first week in over a month or more I spent a long day up at the sewing room and got a fair bit done on the quilt. I added the narrow white border and started to make the piano key border. I am using1.5" and 2" strips of the fabric in the pinwheels in the border. They will be 4" finished. I accidentally cut a few 1/2' short so they will go into the backing. I have made almost half of the piano key border although I have not attached it to the quilt.

Baby Quilt

I started to put together another baby quilt today using some of the teddy bear embroideries my mum made and some left over nine patches from another baby quilt. It is an organic design... I am making it up as I got along and determinedly using up all the pale green fabrics that I had bought for the other quilt. I don't like baby quilts to be too small. They aren't useful for long enough. So far I have grown it to 38" square but am going to need to make it to at least 40 to begin to satisfy me and perhaps even larger if i can work out some things to go extend it. It has come together quite quickly since I had the 9 patches in it already made. I am slowing down now though as I am having to make the units I need. Still I should be able to get it finished in a few days. I don't have a baby in mind for this quilt but with so many nieces and nephews in my family it is bound to be needed before too long. 

Linking up with WIP Wednesday at Freshly Pieced