Throwback Thursday

I have many nieces and nephews (being one of 8 children who all married and had between 2-4 children each you tend to get that) My parents had 24 grandchildren (and currently 18 great grandchildren) 

In 2002 on of my nieces,C,  developed anorexia. She was 16. It was a really worrying time for all of us - especially her parents. At the time I was a member of an online group of Christian quilters. 

I had shared my niece C's story and my concerns with the group and they were praying for her. They decided that they would like to contribute hearts to make a Healing Hearts quilt for her. The members of the group stitched brightly coloured hearts onto 6.5" squares of cream calico or muslin squares and sent them to me. I stitched them into a quilt using some of my hand dyed fabric and some 9 patches from swaps. The back was pieced from hand dyed fabrics. I quilted it with various heart motifs

.

The back of the quilt

The great news is C recovered from her illness. We nearly lost her but she fought back and regained her health. She went on to complete her high schooling and complete a nursing degree. Today she is a great mother to two adorable children (who have of course received their own quilts from Great Aunty Pip) and she works part time as a nurse as well as caring for her lovely family.

C with her daughter little C!

Linking up with Throwback Thursdays at Quiltin' Jenny's

WIP on Thursday

The week has slipped by and Wednesday has come and gone and I didn't get to do my WIP Wednesday post so here it is on Thursday

Camping Holiday
After a delayed start to the camping part but not the holiday, we are at last camping at the beach at Maroochydore. We have our camper trailer set up, awnings all pegged out. We can't actually see the sea from here but we couldn't be any closer, There is a small sand hillock with some trees on it between us and the beach. We can hear the waves and can be on it in about 30 secs so its pretty good. I only have a couple of days to enjoy it really as from tomorrow night I am in meetings. Synod starts with a worship service and the induction of the new Moderator. Then Synod itself gets underway from 8.30AM tomorrow and runs through till 9PM Saturday to Tuesday (we get Sunday evening off actually) and then 8.30-3PM on Wednesday so pretty full on. We are a about 2 km from the venue so will walk up there each day and that will get me a few steps on what will otherwise be intense but sedentary days.

We got a text message on Tuesday at midday to say that the camper trailer was repaired which was wonderful. Fixit Guy picked it up yesterday whilst I was enjoying a day at the Brisbane Craft Fair. I then caught the train to Nambour and he picked me up from there. He had got to Maroochydore and had set the trailer up before coming to get me.

Brisbane Craft Fair
I caught the bus into the city and was able to spent 4.5 hours wandering around the craft fair, checking out the stalls and also the magnificent quilts on display at the Quilt show.

 Wow. There are some talented people out there. As it was 30 years since the Queensland QUilt Guild had been formed they had a special display of past winners of the quilt show so extra stunning quilts on show in places.  I was super excited to see a gorgeous quilt by my friend Peggy not only on display but winning a ribbon too... she

Peggy with her quilt "Jerry's Owl" (Peggy's photo)

Peggy's Ribbon and award

I also got to have a coffee with Peggy as she was working at the show and we ran into each other in the lunch area. Yay. Bonus. I missed out on catchin up with my Sister in Law Christine due to me having the wrong phone number for her which was disappointing.

I also saw Podcaster Charlotte Scott aka The Slightly Mad Quilt Lady's dragonfly quilt hanging in the special exhibition there too. Woot. Got super excited then too. I was talking to the curator and she was very knowledgeable about Charlotte (I think she listens to the podcast too) and as she said "Our Quilts will travel where we can never go".

Summer Dragonfly - Charlotte Scott

I didn't go crazy at the stalls. My most expensive purchase were some buttons for a pattern that I bought. They cost more than the pattern. I was a bit shocked.The pattern is a Scarlett and Grace Design called Road to Bethlehem by Meredith Griffiths 

My other little bits and pieces purchases included some pigma pens, scissors snips and unpicker, a bundle of rotary cutting blades and some threads. No fabric that I would have to count in my stash report though. I have trained myself to only buy fabric that I have a particular project in mind for. Its a 

Jean's Jean Quilt

I finally got to start sewing on this. I got it all prepped to go on this holiday and it has been so hard holding off working on it till we started. But now I get to work on it. I did some sewing whilst we were at our sons' place. First though I had to do some mending. Jeans would you believe. One pair couldn't be fixed but I sacrificed it to mend the other pair.

Then I got to work on the Jean's quilt!  Joined heaps of circles in pairs

 and then joined pairs in pairs and then added the centres

Its trickier than it looks and things aren't lining up perfectly but as with lots of quilting projects I've been fudging it a bit and it is coming together okay. So far I have made 11 of these 4 circle blocks and have about 80 pairs of circles joined. 

Tea Shop Quilt

Another project that I have been saving up and having finally got to start. Did a little bit of applique in the car coming down and a bit more in the train yesterday.  I expect to get heaps more done in the next week with all the meetings I will be involve with. Stay tuned.

Just one of the many blocks I have for this quilt

Linking up with

 

Sunday Stash Report - and our camping trip

Another nil all draw here this week. Nothing in nothing out.

I didn't even get to work on very much during the week. I did get all the disappearing hourglass blocks made for my Vanishing Hours quilt - eventually - having made and then unpicked the pinwheels blocks I had made by mistake. The blocks for that are now all packed up into their own little plastic box and await my return from our camping holiday in 10 weeks. I did bring the left over bits and pieces to work on the border for the quilt should I get to it.

I am not sure if I will be able to resist fabric whilst I am away as I may call in on the occasional local quilt shop should we happen to pass by any. And this week I just may get to the Brisbane Craft Show since it starts on Wednesday whilst we are still in Brisbane. When I travel I do sometimes buy fabric as my souvenirs for my trip but I usually collect to a theme of for a particular project. Since I am trying to NOT buy fabric unless it is for a project I am not sure if I am going to be able to resist or not. I don't have a project on the boil that I need fabric for so we shall see how it all goes.

This week's figures are the same as last week
Used this week:                               0.00m

Added this week                              0.00m

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


Our camping trip started yesterday morning when we headed out from home with our camper trailer attached and 2 of our offspring on board. We were taking Fangirl to Brisbane with us to go to a show and returning Boyo to Brisbane after his mid semester break for university. Everything went well till just after lunch. We were only 19 kms down the road from our lunch stot when we broke a spring in our camper trailer.

The broken spring hanging down under the trailer

Great. An hour and a half's wait and the tow truck arrived to take our camper trailer back to a workshop to get it fixed.

Add caption

We were able to continue on with our trip to Brisbane as we needed to be here for commitments today. Not to mention that we had free accommodation in Brisbane and not in Chinchilla. We are staying with our sons in the town house we own and can stay here till our camper trailer is fixed. Not sure how long that will take. Its a long weekend here in Queensland so the mechanics workshop won't be open till Tuesday. Then they will have to order in the parts and hopefully that will be able to get there the next day and so maybe it will be fixed that afternoon. Who knows. Our next commitment is Friday when I am a representative at the Uniting CHurch Queensland Synod. It starts Friday evening and runs through till Wednesday in the following week.

A ray of sunshine. I will be able to go to the Craft Fair. Fixit Guy even suggested that I go to it whilst he goes to pick up the trailer if its fixed on Wednesday. What a man

Add caption

Not a great start to our camping adventure but could be far worse. Heard today from a friend whose daughter and family were heading out on a long awaited camping holiday and they weren't far out of town when they wrecked their car. Its a right off. Our trailer is totally fixable.

How has your week been? Hope its been more successful than mine

Linking up with  Stash Report@Sunday Times

Fitness Friday

Time for another fitness friday report. I was thinking back to when I first starting doing this weekly reports. I had definite goals I was trying to achieve. I was running and trying to up my running times and distances. I had something I was aiming for. I was also actively trying to lose weight.

I seem to have lost my mojo for both of these things. Having definite races that I was aiming for was a great incentive to keep running and aim at increasing the distances I covered and my speeds. But since the races here in town finished that incentive has gone. Fixit Guy's retirement has also put something of a crimp in it too as he now walks with me on the mornings I don't go with my girlfriend and even on those mornings too of late. I would much rather walk with him than stress my body by running. So I have only run once over the last few weeks. Even then it was without my phone which have my running aps on it so no idea of time or distance. I would like to get back to running but I  like walking with my husband even more. I was saying to a friend this morning that  when I walk with FG we don't talk much. He isn't a real chatterbox. Sometimes I talk a lot and he answers but frequently we walk in silence. When I walk with my girlfriend she and I chat the whole time. Another thing I have found since he walks with me morning and evening is that I am not getting through my podcasts! I used to listen to them when I walked/ran on my own but now I have company on all my walks my podcast listening time has been severely diminished.

And as for weight loss. yeah. Lost my mojo there too. I am not putting it on but haven't lost any either. I seem to hover between low 88's and mid 89s (ie 88.3-89.5) but I haven't been game to hop on them for a week or so and now my daughter Fangirl has my bathroom scales. She has to weigh some packages and doesn't have bathroom scales so we lent her ours.

Whilst we are away I hope that we can maintain our 10 000 steps a day (or more) but on days with big travel that isn't going to be likely. Also I have 5 days of meetings coming up at the end of next week so again those days will be a big challenge but I am hoping to keep up as many steps as I can. We are staying off site and so I am going to try to walk up to the conference each day although I might have to get someone to drop me back (or get Fixit Guy) to come get me. We shall see (He isn't a representative to the conference although he can attend if he wants - just not vote)

This week our Steptember challenge finished. Our team ended up being 85th for steps which we were pretty happy with. Maybe next year we can go even higher.

My Fitbit Stats this week
Friday 26                           12 390 steps
Saturday 27                        13066
Sunday 28                          11645
Monday 29                        12240
Tuesday 30                        11175
Wednesday 1                     10370
Thursday 2                         14638

I made my 10 000 steps each day but no really big days. There were a number of days when I only got one walk in and I need to get 2 in to get good numbers. Fitbit guy had some really low days due to being busy fitting blinds and putting flatpack furniture together for Fangirl but he is back a fair bit ahead of me again now. I mowed the lawn at Fangirl's home she was moving out of. I had a visitor who hung around catching grubs and insects stirred up as I mowed

Hope you are all having a good week and making your goals and looking after yourself. Take time to do some self care of you. Sometimes we are so busy meeting schedules and taking care of others we fail to take care of ourselves.

Fixit Guy and I head out on our 8-10 week camping holiday tomorrow. I better go finish off the last minute packing and such.

Don't forget to link up

An InLinkz Link-up

Throwback Thursday - Cat Wall Hanging

t

I bought this pattern as a kit at the first Craft Show I ever went to. It was in Brisbane and happened to be on when I had to go down to Brisbane for a special Synod for the Queensland UCA Synod for which I was a representative for the Presbytery I belong to. It was most fortuitous as Synod paid my airfares, a friend from Synod offered me accommodation and I got to go to the show and see my son (Massage Man) all in the same visit. BONUS

I loved the funny sayings on each of the squares. The black work embroidery was fun to do. Originally the background was white but the border fabric, which I had found at a travelling fabric shop, known as the Big Red Bus which frequents various craft shows and festivals in country Queensland, had a creamy background. I was encouraged by fellow quilters at a retreat I went to, to try tea dying the embroidery. I was very tentative doing this but it worked well and I was happy with the results. Originally I had also been going to use the design in the whole piece it came in but again encouraged by the fellow retreaters I cut it up into individual designs which I then sashed and put back together. I was so happy with the end result. It now hangs in my sewing room and sometimes gets moved out to my foyer area.

Linking up with Throwback Thursday @ Quiltin' Jenny's

WIP Wednesday

Vanishing Hours
I decided after considering my options to not use sashing on this disappearing hourglass quilt. I would therefore need some extra blocks so I set about making another 10 blocks for the quilt. I decided to make another 14 so that I could take out some of the blocks that weren't working so well out. I made the half square triangle blocks using the 4 at a time method. On Monday I got a great go on and put all the triangles together. I was making great time. I cut up my first block and then when I was contemplating the cut up pieces trying to remember how to make the disappearing hourglass block I realised... I had made them into pinwheel blocks instead of hourglass blocks. Arghh. I had 14 perfect pinwheels.

I had cut one up so that one had to be a disappearing pinwheel. It is going to have to go on the back

 I spent the next few hours unpicking the remaining 13 and putting them together again as hourglass blocks.What a total pain AND waste of time. As I was cutting them up ready to rearrange for the disappearing bit I made a mistake and measured incorrectly. So now I have a wonky block. Another one for the back

Wonky block... I rather like it actually

I got them finished up the remaining 12 today. So I can only swap out two from the front. The extras will also go onto the back. On the good side I still have 4 extra blocks on the back!

I won't have time to work on putting them together before I go away and I am not taking them with me because they are cream and not really suitable for camp sewing. I have got the bits and pieces left over from the blocks that I will make into a piano key border for the quilt. I might also work on some hourglass blocks for the other border.

Tea Shop Quilt. 
I have worked out a design for this quilt. I drew it up on graph paper with each square being 4" block. I worked out a combination of blocks to put it together - a mixture of 16" 12" 8" and 4" square blocks, as well as 4"x8", 4"x12" and 4"x16". I worked out  how many I needed of each size and then how many I had already, with applique already prepped on it. I cut up some cream backgrounds in the required sizes and also cut some out of the fabrics I had collected to go into the quilt - featuring cups, cakes and other tea shop fabrics. I haven't put the appliques on the background pieces but have instead prepped some of the fabric so that I can cut out pictures from the fabric and applique them on when I need them. I have also got the patterns with me that I can make some more of them if I want.

Packing for Camping.
Fixit Guy and I leave on Saturday for an 8-10 week camping holiday. So we are rather busy getting ourselves organised for that. The trailer is basically packed and ready to go. We just have to add our food. We have almost packed our clothes as well... just a few more things to put in. Importantly I have been organising my crafts to take with me. I have most of myself packed up and organised. Now we have to fit them into the car! I told FG that the stuff I have in my pile are non negotiable! When we leave here we will also have Boyo and Fangirl with us. So the car will be a bit more crowded. We are taking them to Brisbane with us. Boyo has been home for mid term break and we are taking him back to university. Fangirl is coming with us because the 4 of us are going to see Spamalot on Sunday. She will fly back home for work on Monday.

Brisbane is our first stop on our holiday. As well as going to see Spamalot we will be catching up with our other son and his partner, Kombi Boy and Gamer Girl. We will be doing some repairs to the townhouse the boys live in including getting them a new fridge. Hopefully we will catch up with some other friends and... I get to go to the Brisbane Craft show for one day. Yay.

We will be heading up the coast after a few days and then I will be attending the Uniting Church in Australia's Queensland Synod meeting.

Linking up with

  

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