October Quilt Goals

Sandy from Quilting for the Rest of us podcast had a challenge at the beginning of the year asking us to come up with 3 quilty resolutions for the year. Well instead of being resolutions they were monkeys on our backs - things we wanted to get done. Each quarter we have the chance to report in on our progress.


My Three were

1 Make a quilt for my great nephew Lukas. He was born in August and I was overseas and since I got back just haven't managed to get to it.

2. Sort my stash to get out all my little bits out of the stash and into my scrap bins cut into the sizes that I use

3.Sort through my 2nd hand fabrics or repurposed fabrics and get them into usable piles.

These were all achieved by the end of April and since then I have been coming up with monthly resolutions 

October Goals
We will be travelling for the next couple of months so don't expect to get through as much sewing. However hope to work on a few

1) Work on my Jean's Jeans Quilt
2)Finish all the blocks for Vanishing Hours
3)Finish prepping Hand work on Tea Shop Quilt. Cut all the squares for the appliques squares. Start work on it
4)Make some mini quilts as gifts.
5) Practice some of the stuff from Photography class on Craftsy

That should do it!

What are your Quilty Resolutions
Linking up with Sandy's linky at Quilting for the Rest of Us

Wrapping up my September Monthly Goals

Only one more day of September to go so time to review how I went with my September Goals

1) Jeans quilt. The circles are all cut and 190 of them have the 5" square traced onto them. I want to get the other 65 circles marked and the 255 5" squares selected. Completed

 


2) Finish tracing off the applique pieces for the tea shop quilt. Select fabric and get the applique ironed onto background fabric ready for our trip. Sort out embroidery threads to take with us. Completed apart from sorting out the threads. I have worked out a design for the quilt and will be able to work out what extra blocks I need to make, hopefully tomorrow and get them packed for our trip

3) continue working on Disappearing Hourglass Vanishing Hours quilt. I completed 30 blocks which I thought would be enough with sashing but have since decided to do a different arrangement without sashing so needed to make another 10 blocks. I have completed two and have the other hour glass blocks made. Still have to cut them up and remake them into the disappearing aspect

4) put together the quilt that is currently on my design wall. The Orphan Block Quilt - Orphan Annie is completed

5) Do that Photography class on Craftsy. I have rewatched parts of this class. I have found my disk for my camera and starting to make work of understanding it. Not got far but have started.

6)  So Make curtains as required for Fangirl's townhouse. Completed! She moved in Friday (well that was the first night she slept there. She had the keys from Wednesday) The curtains were all hanging by then although she then decided she needed another sheer curtain for a window that she had previously thought that she would just have a block out curtain on so we got that done Saturday. They really are very basic curtains but she is happy with them.

So with just one day left in the month I can say I have covered all my goals for September. Well the Craftsy class isn't complete but have worked on it a bit

Now to work out what I want to accomplish for October. How are your goals for the year coming along?

Sunday Stash Report - a couple of little finishes

I surprised myself this week with a couple of finishes that I wasn't expecting at all. Earlier on in the week I made 2 new cloths for the head of my steam mop. I made them out of towelling. One was an old towel my husband had from before we were married and the other was from some towelling my aunt had in her things that I was given when I helped her daughter-in-law clean out her things after her death. (I talked about making them in this blog post)

I also made a postcard for a Fall swap organised by Sandi@QuiltcabanaPatterns That shouldn't have been unexpected as I knew it was coming up however it suddenly hit me that I would need to get the postcard finished before I left for our camping trip so I had to speed things up a bit. Still can't show you pictures of the finished product as my swap partner won't have received it yet (waves to Nonnie) However as soon as she lets me know that it has arrived safely I will post my pictures. I was rather pleased with how it turned out.

It was hard to calculate fabric used in these two projects as neither of them was straight sided but I did a bit of a guesstimate on them and came up with .57m for the mop heads and .28 for the postcard so the grand total used was .85m

No fabric bought... no surprise packets in the mail of forgotten Massdrop purchases so my YTD figures are


Used this week:                               0.85m

Added this week                              0.00m

Year to Date Used                       123.13m
Year to Date added                      90.82m
Net Used                                          32.31m


Fangirls curtains are hung and looking good. She decided she needed another sheer curtain in a window that faces the street. Its at the top of the stairs and gives a lot of natural light to the stairs and the hallway upstairs. She had a heavier curtain that would be good there at night and in the afternoon when the westerly sun streams in but needed the sheer curtain as well to give her privacy during the day. I just have to shorten it for her and my curtaining duties are DONE. I wasn't able to get decent photos of the other curtains I've completed due to the light coming in the windows but it is good to have the done and Fangirl is pleased with them so all good.

Linking up with Stash Report@patchwork times

Fitness Friday

This week I have been walking up a storm. I have made my 10 000 steps every day and am over 100 000 for the last 7 days actually up to 104 721. I've even managed to pass Fixit Guy for a few days... mind you that's mainly because he has been so busy helping our daughter move into her new home and all that that has entailed that he hasn't had time to do much walking. Still I have passed him and must admit that I am very tickled by that. My friend Sam though has 160 000 steps for the week. That is just insane! I have no hope and no intention of catching her.

Friday 10466
Saturday 15026
Sunday 14 264
Monday 12 842
Tuesday 16 152
Wednesday 19 893
Thursday 14 242
Friday  12 302 (till 8.30PM)

I even managed a run this week. Not a proper one and not a long one but I did run - about 2 kms all up. It was good to be able to get out there and do a bit. I was still able to walk this morning as well so that was good too.

Last Saturday I called in on my friend Betty and David. They are from PNG and were busily getting organised for Independence Day celebrations they were holding later that day. They were preparing traditional food and I was delighted to be able to stay on and watch them. There was various meats - chicken, fish, pork and lamb. There was also vegetables most of which was grown by Betty in their yard including Taro, Sweet potato and greens. They had a pit dug in the back yard and had built a fire in it which had burned down.

They had put a wire cage of rocks in the pit which had been heated till red and white hot.

They had another wire cage that all the prepared food was placed in. The wire cage was then placed in the pit and the hot rocks were put on and around the cage of food.

Then the pit was covered with leaves from various palm trees (and wet newspapers and old cloths since they didn't have enough palm leaves) Then the pile was covered with earth and it was all left for an hour or two. Traditionally the food was wrapped up in banana leaves and tied with twine but now a days Betty and her friend used aluminium foil trays and sheets of foil.

I was invited to come to the celebration that were held in local park. I arrived on time but discovered that things were running on "island time" and didn't get started for an hour or so later. I couldn't stay long due to another appointment but I had a lovely time whilst I was there.


So how has your week been? What have your fitness achievements for the week?

An InLinkz Link-up

Throwback Thursday

Throwback Thursday

Straight Circles

This quilt was made at a workshop run by  Sandi Corrie. She had designed the pattern based on a mosaic tile pattern she had seen. It is made up of triangular pieces arranged in circles. The sides are all straight but gives the illusion of being curved. The pattern also creates an sensation of motion. The designer, Sandi Corrie, has a daughter who gets motion sickness and Sandi said she has to take the quilt down when her daughter visits because it causes her to get seasick.

This is a quilt which remained a UFO for many years.I completed the centre motif not all that long after the workshop but didn't get the top made for ages. I was somewhat intimidated by the finished quilts of some of the other members of our group. 3 of the ladies made the most beautiful quilts with lavishly complicated settings and surroundings. I  had started to make a very simple finish and then thought no, I should do something more special for such a complicated and challenging design. 

So it sat, not done for a number of years. Until I hit my “UFO busting” year. I decided done is better than not done and so I returned to my original simple design and got the quilt done! Since then it has hung at  two quilt displays our group has put on and has garnered lots of positive comments. I am very proud of it. It has also been hung at our church several times when its theme and colouring have suited the theme of the day/season.

I don't hang it at home. I don't really have a space for it but I enjoy getting it out when I can.

I'm linking up with Throwback Thursday @ Quiltin' Jenny's

WIP Wednesday

This week
Made my postcard for the Fall Postcard Swap run by Sandy@ QuiltCabanaPatterns. I got it made yesterday and then did a bit of extra tweaking on it this morning. No pictures though until my postcard partner receives it. I posted it to Nonnie, my swap partner today so she should have it in a week or so and when she lets me know she's received it then I will post photos here. Got to keep the surprise. I also made two cloths

Vanishing Hours Disappearing Hourglass.
I posted two photos of my blocks on a Facebook group I belong to. In one I had arranged the blocks without sashing and in the second I had left a space so the cream of the design wall's wadding would show through to mimic the sashing. I asked for opinions as to which one to go for. I have received heaps of comments and people are reasonably evenly divided as to which they prefer. Some people were quite strong in their opinion and offered other comments as to what I should and shouldn't do which amused me somewhat.

Then someone on Facebook suggested this arrangement (which apparently is on Missouri Star)

Alternate arrangement for the block

I really really like it. Its not as busy as the other arrangement. I liked the idea of sashing because it was less busy and I love the cream spaces. This has the cream spaces but also has some interesting secondary patterns. I think I will do this one. I am going to do another 14 or so which will mean that I can swap out some of the blocks I am not so happy with particularly the one on the far right of the 2nd row. Its so pale it is reading white/cream

I have cut up the cream fabric and have selected 14 green squares from my stash so am right to go. Not sure when I will get to make them though... would love to get them made before I leave next week but we shall see.


Tea Shop Applique quilt.
I have made up all the blocks I had traced off. Working out how many more I will need to do to have enough for a quilt. I was figuring out alternatives in my design book the other day but haven't reached any conclusions.

My other project this week has been to get curtains made for Fangirl's new home. She officially took possession of it today. She and Fixit Guy spent a good bit of the afternoon putting together some of the furniture that she had bought and which got delivered today as well. They have been having fun with the directions... not always particularly clear. Tomorrow they are going to put up the curtain rails so I can hang the curtains and work out the hemline.

bedroom and loungeroom curtains

So that is my work in progress for this week. What have you been up to?

Linking up with
 

An Unexpected Finish - and a really dodgy tutorial

Didn't think that I would have any finishes before I left for our camping holiday in 11 days but I surprised myself. Its not much but it was a finish. It was a start and a finish all in one day!

 I love my steam mop but the cloth mop heads were falling apart. Not sure if I can buy more of them or not.

My steam mop isn't a big name brand and its just as likely that the shop where I bought it won't carry the consumables that go with it. So I made myself two new ones this morning. I cut up an old towel that has a lot of history. My husband owned it when I first met him. Not sure how long he'd had it but it was the only towel he owned when he moved into the flat that became our first home. I had a small pile that I was able to add to his meagre linen store and our wedding a month or two later further augmented it.

His towel as I recall was pretty thin then and very small for a bath towel. When we got a dog a year or so later it quickly became the dog towel. But 30 plus years later we STILL had it Cutting it up for a mop head was a good use for it. Well I thought so anyway. He looked a little pained when I showed him the remnants. I offered them to him to make something of and he thought they would do well as rags. I agreed. All I did to make the replacement was to trace around the shape of the current one onto the doubled over towelling. When I cut it out I added half an inch for seam allowance. To make the side piece I measured the width and length of my existing on. I added half an inch each end for a turn over and half an inch to the width and then doubled it. I zig zagged the two base pieces together (I did it double because the towel was pretty thin. If I'd used a thicker towel I'd have done it one thickness) Then I folded over both ends of the side piece and stitched them down half an inch each. I folded the side piece length wise and then pinned it around the base piece, starting mid back and ending up back there too, butting the two ends up against each other I stitched it down using an wide seam. Then I threaded elastic through the side piece. I put the mop head onto the steam mop and pulled the elastic tight enough that it held on firmly but so as I could still get it on and off.

I made two mop heads. The second one was made from some towelling I inherited from my Aunty. It was just a strip of towelling. I had contemplated making some hand towels out of it but really... it was pretty ugly fabric and makes a better mop head.