Throwback Thursday - Farewell to Fangirl

In 2003 our daughter, known here as Fangirl, was selected to go to Malaysia for a year long exchange with AFS. She left in January 2003 and returned in December that same year. She had learned Indonesian for 5 years at school and 85% of the vocabulary of Indonesian and Malaysian was the same so she was slightly advantaged over someone who had none of the language at all. However when she got there she found that the 15% of the language that was different was the 15% that was mostly used. She had expected to become quite fluent in the language whilst she was there but she found that many people over there spoke English or were trying to learn it so when she would speak to them, even though she would use Malaysian, they would reply to her in English. Her best friend was another exchange student, from Iceland who excellent English so when they hung out they tended to talk in English.

She lived with a Malaysian family in Bandar Tun Razak, Cheras which is a large city that runs into KL (Kuala Lumpur, the capital city of Malaysia) They were a muslim family but were happy to take her to Christian worship whenever she wanted to go. Her parents owned a food outlet in a food court. They worked long hours.The home was close to the food court and they rarely cooked at home. Instead when it was time for dinner one of the family would go to the restaurant and pick up some dishes to bring home to family to eat.

As Fangirl prepared for her trip, learning more about the culture of where she was going, collecting gifts and souvenirs to take with her, choosing culturally appropriate clothing to take with her, I prepared by making her a quilt to take. I cut 6.5" squares of calico which we got people to write messages to her on. She took  a heap to get her classmates to sign on their last day of school and we got our friends at church to also sign a pile. I put her school friends blocks on one side with a souvenir tea towel from one of her school years and those from our church family and friends on the other side. I interspersed the signature blocks with 6.5" squares of picture fabric featuring things significant to her as well as Australiana fabric.

She took this quilt with her even though she only had limited amount of luggage. She was glad she did as the messages of love and support were important to her and supported her through some tough times. Living in another culture is not easy and living with another family is harder still. Whilst she was in Malaysia her grandfather, my Father in law was killed in car accident which was a really difficult thing for her to go through whilst living so far away.

Fangirl came home after 11 months having grown and matured a whole heap. We missed her very much whilst she was away but were really happy for her to have such an amazing experience. Her host family were very special people and we are forever grateful for the love and care they showed. her.  She was able to travel back to spend some time with them whilst at university and then I got to meet them once when Fangirl and I travelled back to Malaysia in 2007 for the wedding of her  host sister. She visited them again on her way to live in the UK in 2011 and in April 2015 Fixit Guy Fangirl and I are going to Malaysia for a week to spend some time with them which will be great.

Fangirl's two mum's. Just a slight difference in height!

The bride and groom. Both had multiple changes of clothes over the 2 days of wedding celebrations but this was my favourite.

Fangirl with her Ayah (Father) and Mak (mother) Sabri and Ina was what I called them (although I forgot and would call them Ayah and Mak... mum and dad! oops)

Roslyn with the bride and groom. Annis and Irwan

Linking up with Quiltin Jenny at Throwback Thursday

WIP Wednesday. Progress on a few fronts

Sunburnt Zebras is finished... apart from the label. I really have to get a few of them made and stitched on. I got it finished off on Sunday so I could count it in my stash report. And then I forgot to actually link up with the Linkup even though I said I was on my blog. When I wrote it Patchwork Times didn't have their link up set up yet and I forgot to go back later and add it in.

Denim Quilt
My new project at home is the blue jeans quilt using circles of denim and squares of fabric. I worked out the size of the circles I needed to cut in order to use the 5" squares I have cut. I was trying to do it the mathematical way... working out what the length of the diagonal of the square would measure which was also going to be the diameter of the circle by using the mathematical equation ie the square of the hypotenuse is equal to the sum of the squares of the other two sides. (reminds me of a joke - will tell it to you all one day) I was discussing this with my Fixit Guy who is an engineer (oops retired engineer) expecting him to help me with the maths. He said "Do you have the 5" squares? and I said yes I did and he very simply said "Why don't you just measure it if you have the square?" Doh... so simple. There was I tackling the maths and formulas and really it was that simple.

Anyway drew a circle using a compass I just happened to have and KNOW where it was courtesy of my desk clean up. I cut it out of the thickest cardboard I had on hand and used it to draw circles on the denim jeans I had on hand. I had some off cuts from jeans of Fixit Guy's that I had made into shorts. I had also bought 5 pair of jeans at a denim sale at the 2nd hand shop a few weeks ago.

The blocks are going to end up 5". If I make the quilt 12x12 rows that made it 60". If I made it 14 rows square it will be 70" and 16 rows squares will make it 80". I am thinking that this will be a good quilt for our camper trailer. The one I have on our queen mattress in that at the moment is a bit skimpy. I would like one that is a bit wider and longer so think 80" square will be good. That means I need 256 blocks. That is 256 denim circles. I was able to cut 101 from the jeans that I had on hand. I asked on facebook if any of my local friends had denim jeans that I could have to cut up for the quilt. As a result I now have 190 circles cut for the quilt. A few other friends have jeans for me and hopefully that will be enough but if not on Tuesday I have the opportunity to go to the Salvation Army shop that has good sales on and hopefully that will be enough.

Tonight I drew the 5" squares on about half of the circles that I had cut so making a good start. This is the stitching line. Despite carefully measuring to make sure the circle would fit the 5" square in some how the square template that I have is a little big for the denim circles I have cut. Its a bit annoying but hopefully I can fudge it enough that it will fit. I can trim down the 5" fabric squares that I use a bit to make them fit. That is going to be really annoying to have to do that but might be what I have to do. Will see what it looks like when I sew them up. I do have a stack of 4.5" squares which  might work ok. Stay tuned!!

I am still debating with myself as to whether I will include a piece of wadding as well or if I will leave it with just the denim and the fabric. Denim is so heavy on its own it may not need extra. I will think about it some more. I have used up lots of my scraps of wadding in frankenbatting which I have used in recent quilts so don't have so many scrap pieces. It will be rather ironic if I now have to cut up large pieces of wadding to make these 5" squares. I used up the last of the roll of batting I had so will have to buy another roll shortly for my next quilts. I do have some thinner flannelette which I could use instead which would give a bit of body but not be as heavy or as warm as batting. Will have to think about it some more

Disappearing Hour Glass
Today at patchwork I made all my half square triangles. I did the four at a time method sewing two 10" squares right sides together and slicing it on the diagonal. I know  a lot of people don't like this method as it results in lots of biased edges but I am quite happy with it. I wasn't so happy with my slicing as a couple of times I strayed off line whilst chatting to the other ladies. I will see how badly they turn out when I trim them up. I would have stayed on longer at patchwork and trimmed them up but I didn't take my Quilt in a Day ruler with me to the rooms so called it a day when I had cut all my squares into triangles. I gave them a thorough spray with Crisp before I cut them up to help persuade them to stay in shape.

So that is my quilty progress for this week.

I have been working on cutting up my scraps into useful units and got my scrap basket emptied. But ... with cutting up the denim jeans the basket is filling up fast with the scraps from that. I will cut them into useful units shortly but think I will keep them separate to use on another project. I initially sort the cut scraps into shallow boxes labelled with the size scrap going into them. I then carry the boxes over to the plastic drawers I keep the scraps in to put them away.

Decluttering.

I have fallen off the wagon rather thoroughly this week as far as the daily challenges go. I should have done challenges 13-20
13 Skinny clothes - yeah well currently losing weight so not convinced I will do this yet but then again I might anyway.  14 Tea towels - didn't look at them although I did go through the drawer a year or two ago. Need to do that. 15 Kids clothes... none live at home. They can do their own. 16 Inside handbag - do this every time I go away. Going away on Friday so should sort through  17 Stationery - did the desk a week or two ago so yes. I have done this. 18 Bath towels. Sorted through them when we redid our bathrooms. I have a box of towels that my Massage Man son has indicated could be useful and Kombi Boy said they need more towels so they will go to family shortly.  19 Handbags. I only have one that I use all the time and a few clutches 20 Email Box. yes I have been going through these this week and deleting hugely and also setting up message rules so things go into separate folders.

 I have also cleaned up our office. All the surfaces have been tidied off, and one lot of shelves tidied. Fixit Guy was able to vacuum it thoroughly on Monday. (you heard it right. Fixit Guy does the vacuuming now he is retired. Mondays is our housework day. He vacuums and dusts. I clean the bathrooms and mop the hard floors. This week he cleaned the front of the kitchen cupboards as well.) We have started cleaning out the filing cabinet drawers as well which has been a good to do. We are working through them atm. 4 drawer cabinet almost done. The 3 drawer one will be quick to do as two drawers are relatively empty. I am going to move my family history stuff into them and then Fangirl can have her filing cabinet back

Run 60Km Outback Challenge.
Fixit Guy and I have continued to walk every day. Most days we walk twice but occasionally (like today) it was only once. I went in the morning with  my gf and he took the dogs this afternoon as Fangirl dropped in right on walk time and I stayed home to chat to her. Our walks are usually at least 4kms each so we have well and truly covered the 60kms already.

Yesterday morning there must have been a school of fish in the river. The Pelicans and native ducks were all swimming in a group and lots of duck diving going on.

Linking up with 

 WOW - Wip on Wednesday

Sunday Stash Report - Sunburnt Zebra finished

I have been working all afternoon on Sunburnt Zebra and I am delighted to be able to say that it is finished. I have just finished stitching down the binding. Its almost 11 PM so no chance of a finished photograph today but do have a few sneak peaks of it folded up. Tomorrow I will take it out into the back yard and peg it on my clothes line and get a full length photo of it.


I got it pinned at Patchwork on Wednesday but didn't get to put it under the machine needle till this afternoon. I quilted it very simply. I echo quilted around the dark and light diamonds. I extended the quilting lines over the border as well. As I was stitching on the last of the border to the back of the quilt I found a pucker but decided that since its for me I really couldn't be bothered to do the unpicking I would need to do to get it out so its staying there. I machined the binding to the back, flipped it over and then chose a decorative flower stitch to secure the binding down to the front. I messed up the last corner rather badly but once again I decided that it would be okay. Can you tell I am not a super fussy quilter.

So that is my finish for the week. The quilt is 2.15m square so that was a total of 10.35m of fabric used up. Whoo hoo. I had no fabric purchases so my stats are

Used this week:                          10.35m
Added this week                                 0m

Year to Date Used                      125.52m
Year to Date added                     80.27m
Net Used                                    45.25m


Linking up with  Sunday Stash Report @ Patchwork Times

Fitness Friday

Its been a pretty ordinary week for me. I had 3 days where I didn't make my 10 000 steps. The other 4 days I made over 15 000 so my weekly step count is 83 214 (and I am planning to get another 750 tonight to get over 10 000 today.

Saturday was so busy I didn't get to walk at all and on Sunday we only walked in the afternoon. Walked twice Monday to Thursday and only once today as starting about lunch day we've had some much needed and prayed for rain. We may not be able to walk by the river for a few days depending on how long the rain hangs around. Mind you it is so terribly dry that its probably gone straight in and not formed puddles.

Weighted myself this morning and was back under 89kgs again... just which was pleasing although still a long way to go. Still not tracking my food which I know I need to do to make much progress but motivation is lacking. At least whilst I am keeping up my steps I am keeping from putting on more weight.

We've had pelicans on the river for a few weeks now. See how dry the grass is

Clouds beginning to build up last night as we walked by the river. Today we benefitted from them

Can you see what I saw on my walk this morning?

Its a bit clearer in this photo

Kangaroos on the move

They were interested in staring at us.

So how have you gone with your fitness efforts this week

Throwback Thursday - nine patch quilts

I started quilting in 2001 when a friend dragged me along to a patchwork class at a local shop. Soon afterwards I joined some online quilting groups including one
"Southern Cross Quilters" especially established for quilters in Australia and New Zealand, or for Australian and New Zealand quilters who were living overseas. So many online quilting groups were (and still are) dominated by quilters from North America, especially the USA. This group was to cater for the Australian and New Zealanders.

Part of what was offered were online swaps and block exchanges. The swap that was particularly for newbies like myself were the 9 patch swaps. Each month there was a theme or a particular colourway for the swap. We would send our blocks into the swap hostess and she would divide them up and send them back to us. I can't recall how many we were allowed to make but I know it was carefully done so that they would fit into an A4 envelope and qualify for the large letter rate.

I participated with great enjoyment in these swaps over many many months. The different themes meant that I had to go shopping for fabric because as a newbie quilter I dind't have a stash to draw from. I loved getting the parcels in the mail and seeing the array of blocks and the ways other people had interpreted the theme. The trouble was I was busy making the blocks and was accumulating quite a stack of them but I wasn't actually making them into quilts. Eventually I decided that rather than making these 9 patch blocks I really needed to make quilts so I stopped being part of the swaps. I intended to rejoin once I had made up some of my blocks but some how I never did.

I don't recall all or even many of the different themes that we had but some I do recall were Christams, music, jewel tones and sewing related. I recall these because the quilts that I made from these blocks I still have or I gave to family and I have photos of them.

There may have been more than one Christmas themed swap or else we were allowed to make extra blocks or I made extra blocks for myself. I don't recall but I do know that I made two small lap quilts as gifts. ONe was for my mother and father and the other was for another couple I called Mum and Dad. They were my Sydney parents when I first went to live in the city to attend college. They belonged to the church I attended and each Sunday night they hosted dinner before church for the youth group of the church. At one point I dated their son, until we both realised we were just good mates and not at all romantically inclined towards each other. (we still are mates although we don't see much of each other)

My Mum and Dad with the Christmas quilt I made for them

Gotta show you the back too

Mum and Dad K's Christmas quilt

Mum and Dad K's quilt with grand daughter Leah

back of Mum and Dad K's quilt

The musical blocks I was making in to a quilt at the time my middle son, Kombi Boy was learning the saxaphone in the school band. He decided that the quilt must be for him as he was the musical one. Not sure how he came to that conclusion as both his older siblings Fangirl and Massage Man were also in the high school band. Later his younger brother was also in the band. In fact the other 3 stuck with their music for far longer than he did. Whatever... I was pleased that he was showing an interest in what I was doing and he scored the lap quilt.


I had intended to make a cover for my sewing machine out of the sewing related 9 patch blocks but the sewing machine had a good hard cover so it wasn't needed. Later I got another machine that was a good bit larger and I have now got an even bigger one so I am glad I never made a cover for the first machine. Instead I made a bag to carry my cutting mat in. I still use it frequently.

Some of the other blocks were made into baby quilts for my great nieces and nephews and my cousin's grandchildren.

They eventually all got used. The nine patch swap was a good way for me as a beginner quilt to start to get involved in the wider patchwork community. It was a long time before I joined the local patchwork group and my support and education came from the online community. I was more meticulous when making blocks for swaps, correcting any split seams of flip overs, squaring up the blocks carefully, making sure my seams matched. It was a great way to hone some skills

WIP Wednesday

Today at Patchwork Group I got Sunburnt Zebra pinned. I didn't get a photo but you are just going to have to believe me. One of the best things about our Patchwork Group is the large pinning out table with have there. Its great to not have to crawl around on the floor to pin out quilts

Still don't have a photo of the quilt with its borders on but with any luck by Sunday I  might have a completed quilt... now would'n't that be grand :)

After I got Sunburnt Zebras pinned out I started work on my next project. Disappearing Hourglass quilt as demonstrated on Missouri Quilt Company. This one is going to be for our bed. I am doing it in greens and creams. Today I sorted through my box of green fabric and chose the ones that I thought that I would use. Then I cut them into 10" squares along with the tone on tone cream fabrics. This is going to be my new project to do at Patchwork Group.

I have started to sort out my scrap fabrics again. Its an ongoing project isn't it. Haven't got far with it yet but have ironed the scraps to make it easier to trim them up.

31 Days of Decluttering.
Hmmm yes well. I have been dipping in and out of the challenges that are coming up daily on the Facebook Page  Spring Organising Challenge with Forever Organised. 

So far I have done Shoes (only one pair disposed off but got them all tidied up which was a bonus) Appliances: got rid of a hair straightener.

Bath Toys - nope got none

Magazines - got rid of a pile of newspapers (well put into a box  which was put into the shed for Fixit Guy to use as mulch on the front garden bed.

Coffee Mugs -14 disposed of

Medications - tidied the whole medicines cabinet and threw out a heap of out of date stuff and stuff we don't use. 

That's as far as I've got with the list but I have also done some other sorting out and tidying up done including cleaning off my kitchen desk and sorting all the drawers. Now I am in the midst of cleaning up the office. Its not really a room... more like a walk in cupboard. It doesn't have any windows. It has two walls of built in cupboards and bookcases and a 3rd wall with 2 filing cabinets and small desk. I'm planning on decluttering the cupboards, filing cabinets and bookshelves but at the moment just working on getting the floor cleared and the junk that has been stuffed in there dealt with.

This might not look impressive to you but if you saw what it was like before you would know it really is impressive

#Run Outback 60km challenge is another challenge I've been participating in. The idea is to run or walk 60 km over August. Fixit Guy and I have both been doing this. We are only walking it (although I did run one day) We walk down by the river usually twice a day. Its about 4km each walk. So we have covered this challenge pretty quickly.

Linking up with



and WOW - Wip on Wednesday

Sunday Stash Report - almost there

Sunburnt Zebra, my latest project is almost done. I had to buy some more fabric for the border. I ended up buying two different fabrics thinking I would put on two borders. One was black with white flowers on it with red centres and the second was bigger black white and red floral. When I got them back home to the quilt I realised that my original idea of a plain black border was better. I still liked the black with white flowers so used it as the second border but decided that the big floral was too busy for the rest of the quilt so its gone into my stash. I got the borders on and the top finished Friday night but I keep forgetting to take a photo of it.

I am very tempted to make a pieced backing for this quilt too as I have some left over half square triangles and various bits and pieces from the HST however I have bought a piece of backing fabric to use for this quilt and feel I might as well use it.

That was the only project I worked on this week.

So its 0 out and 1m in and no photos.

Whilst I haven't had a finish this week my darling Fixit Guy has. His craft is wood turning and his project since retiring has been this gorgeous clock which now sits on the desk in our kitchen. Isn't it wonderful! It doesn't quite reflect our lives are newly minted retirees but we are certainly more relaxed and less bound by the clock.

Used this week:                          0m
Added this week                          1m

Year to Date Used                     115.17
Year to Date added                     80.27
Net Used                                    34.90 

Linking up with Sunday Stash Report @ Patchwork Times