Friday Fitness - not the best of weeks

Its that time of the week again when I report in on my fitness aims. My weightloss aims have bitten the dust for the time being since I'm on holidays and no scales... and I'm on holidays... and enough said.

I have been keeping up with my steps. Well I've been monitoring them anyway. Can't say I've been keeping up with them. My aim is to maintain 10 000 steps a day as counted on my fitbit. I;ve been doing really well up till this last week, making that goal plus most days and on the days when my steps were low I would do some on the spot jogging to get me over the line.

This week in Melbourne... things have been a little... meh. Well a lot meh. For a starters we were staying in a caravan park with in the city of Melbourne... Coburg actually. It was a nice park, with a goodly amount of space per site and lots of grass and trees and greenery. But there was no lovely beach close by to walk along, nor walks through the national parks. Our activities were a lot more sedentary. Suffice to say my steps this week have been down... well down. 

Friday We packed up camp at Duck Point and Moved to Melbourne Set up camp, met up with our son and had dinner out with him at Grill'd Steps 8 714

Saturday MM (our oldest son Massage Man)  needed to do some shopping. He had only just moved into his new flat that he is sharing with his cousin. He wanted to show us Costco and he wanted to go to Ikea to check out some furniture. We didn't buy anything much... a few bits and pieces for Christmas stockings. Despite out big shopping day didn't get as many steps as would have been good  Steps 7 421

Sunday. Church, lunch out with friends, making curtains for MM and then dinner out with MM and his new girlfriend... not a big step day but late night meant I didn't feel like jogging on the spot to get my steps up. The curtain making I did was just sewing a hem on some sheer curtaining we had bought at Ikea to go on a glass door.Steps 4 812

Monday. A big steps day! We went to the zoo and spent about 5 hours walking all over it. Then in the evening we went down to St Kilda Breakwater to see the fairy penguins that have a colony there. We grabbed a park as soon as we saw one and ended up walking for ages to get to the peer and then the breakwater... but it was great for my step count Steps 15 619

This Zebra appealed cause she looked like she was a bit sunburnt so matched my quilt Sunburnt Zebras

Tuesday. Another pretty slow day. We went to a fabric shop Spotlight and bought fabric to make MM curtains for his bedroom. I took photos of various ones and messaged them to him to choose the one he wanted. We then went to his place and I spent the rest of the day sewing the curtains. When MM got home from work I had managed to complete 2 of 4 drops (without hems) We drove into the city to meet up with his friend again for dinner to celebrate his 27th birthday a couple of weeks early. We ate at the Portland Hotel which we particularly went to cause it has its own micro brewery and MM wanted his dad to try some of their beers. . We gave him Ikea vouchers... 3. 1 from us for his birthday, one for his Christmas and one from Fangirl for his birthday. He is going shopping on Sunday to choose a few things! Anyway not many steps (but some yummy food) Steps 4 857



Wednesday. Lunch with a friend, sewing curtains... afternoon tea out at MM's favourite coffee shop and then later dinner at one of his favourite local restaurants. I got the curtains for the bedroom finished and cut the other sheer curtain off and hemmed it to go on the back door which has glass just at the top. Not a lot of steps but when I got back to camp I was determined NOT to have a slack number again so I jogged on the spot for about half an hour and got the 4500 steps I needed to make 10 000; Steps 10 079
 

Afternoon tea out with my gorgeous son

Thursday. We packed up the camp and moved to Ballarat. We visited a fantastic exhibit called M.A.D.E.. Museum of Australian Democracy at Eureka. The Eureka Stockade is famous in Australia for being the start of democratic government. The miners rebelled against what was seen as unfair, tyrannical practices by the colonial government of Victoria. Their list of demands included votes for men, regardless of property or rank amongst other things. The rebellion was put down but most of the miners demands were met over the next few years. Although a number of men were charged with treason, none were found guilty and in later years several of the rebels ended up in parliament. It was a wonderful exhibition, not just about the Eureka Stockade but about democracy in general. 



We both had hot chocolates in their cafe... cinnamon spiced hot chocolates. The chocolate was made by a local chocolatier and have to say it was the best hot choc I have ever had. 

Later we made our way to our camp and set it up and then went off for a drive. First stop was a quilt shop listed in the local information booklet. FG's idea... what a sweetheart.  It was called Eureka Patchwork and they have an online store as well as a shop front. I bought some cream tone on tone to make hourglass blocks for Vanishing Hours. 

The Shop at 143 Victoria St Ballarat

Then we went to the local lake, Lake Wendouree and had a walk. We had thought we would walk around it but it was 6kms so we only went along the foreshores for about 2kms. Lots of waterbirds about with their young. Heaps of energetic people around... there was a sailing class on the lake, several group s of rowers and then on the track with us lots of joggers, bike riders, walkers with their dogs.... it was busy. We were walking late afternoon so were too late to visit the various attractions in the area like the Tramways Museum, or the Adam Lindsay Gordon Cottage  but we were able to enjoy the lake, the Olympic Rings display (the lake was the Olympic course for the rowing, canoeing and Kayaking for the 1956 Melbourne Olympic Games. We also visited  a lovely children's play area based on Aboriginal traditional stories and symbols. It was a great walk. Steps 13 601 

Friday We have packed up and  headed to Apollo Bay. We have 3 nights booked into a little cottage there so we don't have to unpack the camper till Monday night. We drove part way along the Great Ocean Roads. This is one of the most famous roads in Australia and the most scenic. The weather wasn't the best... its cloudy, windy and overcast but even so the scenery was magnificent. I took lots of photos.... but..... I think I have left my camera cord in the internal pocket of the tent. So at best no photos uploaded till Monday night. At worst no photos taken (if it goes flat) Stay tuned for that. At least I have my phone which takes reasonable photos on it. Oh and I have my bigger camera which I haven't used at all this trip. Might be the spur I need to get it out and get moving with using it. When I can access my photos I will upload them for you to see. 

Anyway with the walks we did along our way down the coast to a few view points, plus packing up, unpacking etc I was just 1500 short of my daily aim of 10 000 so I jogged on the spot and have got my 10 000. Yay.  Steps 10 028

With my few slack days this week I have slipped down the ratings somewhat but managed to regain a couple of positions. I'm 11th (I was 13th at one point today)

So how about you? What have you been up to this week?

WIP Wednesday. An unexpected project

Since my big finish last week (Jean's Jeans is done whoot again... sorry will stop it soon) I have been working away when I have had the chance on making the borders for Vanishing Hours, my Disappearing Pinwheel quilt from Missouri Star Quilt Company here I didn't bring the top with me on this trip but I did have the measurements of the blocks put together so I could make the borders... only for some reason I deleted the note off my phone when I was cleaning up one day. I don't know why I did it. But I did. So I have been mentally calculating how big I think it is (or it will be. Do you know I can't even remember if I have put the blocks together... I don't think I have... but maybe I did...)

I bought all the leftover scraps from the blocks with me the big and the small pieces so I could work on the borders. Firstly I made the piano key borders. I decided that they would be 5" wide. I cut my scraps... well some of them anyway ... into strips varying between 2" and 1" and sewed them together then cross cut them into 5 " strips and ended up with 4 long strips of piano keys totalling 330". I made each strip 70-80"plus a 5th that I can add to any strip to make longer. So... piano key done (I hope)

 I also wanted to do an hour glass border. I like to feature the block that was "disappeared" in the border if I can (well that is what I did with my Disappearing Pinwheel) so started to make those whilst camped at Duck Point. I was able to cut 51 5" squares from my remaining green scraps and when I did the calculations I think I am going to need 52 so that is pretty good. I have more green fabric at home. I was able to cut 20 x 5"cream squares also so am going to need to buy about 25" of cream tone on tone at some point on this trip. Actually I am visiting a quilting friend when I am in Adelaide so might be able to scrounge a 5" square from her if I need to.

I have done a little hand sewing on Teashop Quilt but not much. We did visit a little teashop in a small town we came through when travelling from Duck Point to Melbourne. We had the most enormous scones with a bucket (It seemed) of jam and cream. Pretty good.


My other major project here in Melbourne has been curtains. Massage Man, our oldest son whom we are visiting here in Melbourne has recently moved into a new flat with his cousin Peter(whom I keep calling Pete, which he doesn't like but lets me get away with it... but I should stop it if he doesn't like it... if only I could remember)  and so I have been making a few curtains for him. Not the most exciting sewing but I am pleased to be able to do something for him whilst we are here.



He chose the fabric by instant messaging. I photographed some and sent them to him. He chose the green


Sewing them has been a bit of a challenge. We had to take one of our folding tables with us to his flat as he has no tables. Getting curtain rail up was a challenge for Fixit Guy but he managed it. Then whilst I sewed the second curtain, FG and later our son, put the hooks on, drew the cords in and hung the first one. I have the second one ready for their attention now but still have two more to get sewn. Hopefully will manage to get them done this evening when we are over there as we leave town tomorrow. They  might not get hemmed!! I'll add more photos when I get them this afternoon.


So... what have you been working on this week

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Monday Musings... a day at the Zoo

I went to the zoo today in Melbourne with my husband. The zoo was very easy to get to from where we were staying and it had come highly recommended to us by a number of folks and it was a lovely zoo. Its not huge, like most inner city zoos but it was really well laid out and the enclosures were on the whole pretty good.. the  modern sort that leave out the bars as much as possible and let you see the animals in more naturalistic settings. 

Fixit Guy and I got there pretty early since we were out and about dropping Massage Man off at an appointment in the city. Thought we were doing so well going not in school holidays or weekend so beating the crowds. I had reckoned with out the school groups and all the yummy mummies out with their toddlers and friends and sometimes grandparents.

Discovered I am becoming a bit of a cranky old woman. The thing that I found really annoying was what I perceived as the competitive parenting. The mummies speaking in oh so peppy enthuisastic tones about what there was to see at each exhibit - that super bright voice that always smacks to me of being more designed for the people around to hear so that they will know that this is an involved keen mother educating her little darlings at the zoo. It just grated on me. But I'm an old bag. I was secretly hoping to overhear them at the end of the day and seeing if their tone of voice was quite so chippy and super happy or if they had toned it down a bit or a lot and were resorting to a growl. 

The kids were largely charging on ahead with their mates... delighting in running up the little ramps, and climbing on the little ledges, and playing with their friends than taking a whole heap of notice of what was in the enclosures. 

I recall taking my niece to the zoo when I was still at teachers college. She would have been 3 probably. I had to plan an excursion to the zoo as an assignment and actually take a child with me. Lots of my friends didn't have non school aged children that they could take (it was during the school week) like me they came from the country or they didn't know any little kids whose mothers would let them take them to the zoo so Bindy, my little niece (now a stunningly gorgeous mature mother of 3 little boys... where did the time go) had about 6 college students taking her to the zoo. She was  a delight to take but we were all very amused that with all that there was to see at the zoo she was most interested in the ducks that weren't caged and would waddle around us when we sat down to eat our lunch. And the sparrows. Apart from that ... the monkeys were a hit but the rest of the animals she could take or leave.

10 years later I took Bindy to the zoo again. She had a friend with her this time and she was more likely 12 or 13 and again I had a 2.5 year old with us as well... my own daughter Fangirl. Once more the toddler was interested in the ducks and the sparrows with a dash of monkey thrown in. I was 6 months pregnant with Massage Man so doubt very much that I was a happy chirpy yummy mummy. Probably a snappy snarly cranky old bag then too 

To make up for the narkiness in this blog I shall add my favourite pictures for the day. We didn't go near the Australian Animal display... we've had them in the wild all trip. 

Lemurs are so cute

Gorilla ... so contemplative

this big little cutey was blowing bubbles in the water

The baby orangutan was a real performer... forward and backward rolls then put the hessian bag on her head

The Orangutan in the opposite enclosure would put his hand on the glass for you to put yours on top of

Love giraffes .. they are amazing to look at

I forget what this was called... it started with P and not it wasn't a pig. Edit. Its a Peckary. I had never heard of them before. Thankyou to Scooquilt for the heads up. I checked the zoo map as well

Fairy Penguins. Came right over to the glass in front of us and delighted us

Swimming around and around

and another swim past

Reminded me of going up to the high board to jump off... will I won't I, here I go, no its too high... if you go I'll go

sunday Stash report... some movement at last

I'm so excited to write this post. At last I have another finish. Its been a long haul... week after week of reporting in to say that there has been no changes cause I hadn't had a finish and while I wasn't having a finish I wasn't going to go buy anything either... well no fabric

However as of Tuesday this week I have a finish. I have spoken about this finish in the last 3 blog posts I have written so won't go on about it any more but if you haven't been following the blog then if you look here or here you will be able to read about the story of this finish.

The stuff for today's post though is how much fabric I used. The quilt measured 212 cm  wide by 222 cms long - or for those of you playing along in inches that's . Putting that into the Excel spreadsheet using Pam from Hip to Be a Square Podcast trusty formula and the settings my Fixit Guy set up means I used a whopping 10.72 metres of fabric used. Whoot Very excited by that number! I didn't buy any actual fabric for this quilt. I did buy a few pairs of jeans from the Op Shops and some friends gave me their old jeans as well - or in Jean's case she gave me a bag of jeans from the op shop she volunteers at that were going to be discarded.

I didn't count the fabric from the jeans as fabric in because I didn't know how to calculate it and some of it I already had and some I got in extra... so in a way I am cheating by counting it all. My FG thinks I should only count half of it but stuff it... I'm counting the lot... so sue me!

So my figures for this week are

Used this week:                               10.72m (whoot whoot)

Added this week                              0.00m

Year to Date Used                       133.31m
Year to Date added                      90.82m
Net Used                                          42.491m

The entire quilt has been sewn on my Janome Jem whilst I have been travelling with my husband in our camper trailer. We've been on the road since early in October. I have sewn it in lots of different locations. Here are some of them

on the desk in the spare room at the town house my younger sons share in Brisbane

in the camper trailer in Lane Cove National Park, Sydney

Sewing in the camp kitchen at Gambell's rest, Morton National Park near Bundanoon

Beachcombers Resort, Potato Point Bodalla, NSW

Bega

Lake Tyers

Linking up with Sunday Stash Report at Patchwork Times

Finish It Up Friday - Jean's Jean Quilt is done

It was so great to get a finish this week. I have already blogged about it on WIP Wednesday but when you haven't had a finish for a while its hard to let a good thing go.

Jean's Jeans Quilt.
This quilt has been my machine project for our camping holiday. Fixit Guy and I left our home in Central Queensland October 4th and have been on the road ever since... well sort of. We have had lots of stops along the way. (for between 2 and 7 days ... we did have had a couple of overnight stops that we haven't put the tent up for. One time we stayed in a motel and once we stayed with my sister)

I did all the prep for this quilt it before I left home... cutting up the jeans, marking out the circles, marking the square inside the circle, cutting all the square fabric (well they mostly came from my 5" square scrap drawer). I didn't do any sewing though and I was busting to get down to it

 

THe pattern I used was The Blue Jean Quilt by Penny Halgren as demonstrated on her YouTube video here

I started sewing the circles together Monday October 6th and finished it on Wednesday November 6th so that was pretty organised of me now wasn't it
         
I had planned to make the quilt 17 rows by 15 rows. To make the quilt I sewed 4 circles together to make one "flower". I then sewed in the coloured squares os, zigzagging the petals down on two sides to secure them.


Because there was to be originally an odd number of rows both length and breadth of the quilt I also made some 6 circle units and one 9 circle unit. Then I sewed the 4 circle units into strips with one 6 circle unit to make 7 strips 2 circle x 15 circles long. I also sewed one strip using all 6 circle unit strips plus the 9 circle unit to make one strip 3 x 15 circles.

 

Once I had all the strips completed  I decided I would like it a little wider. I had enough extra circles with me and almost enough of the 5 " squares. I had some other scrap fabric with me to do another project and was able to cut enough squares from that to enable me to make all the extra units. So eventually the quilt was 17 circles by 16 circles, a total of 272 circles.
 
I sewed all this using my little Janome Jem which, whilst being a work horse, doesn't have a very big harp to squish fabric through. Its been made a bit smaller by Fixit Guy adding some extra lights there for me. I had to be very particular how I sewed things together adding one strip at a time to the next - not making it any more than 2 or 3 units being squished under the harp to be zigzagged down. Usually I tend to keep adding to multiple units and then sew some bigger units together but this had to be just one getting added to the bigger unit at a time.
 
I did run into a few problems along the way. The main was that I kept getting little holes where the 4 circles would meet up. It didn't all fit neatly together like Penny's did in her video. The main reason for this I believe is that my initial circle wasn't drawn out properly. I wanted to use my 5" squares that I already had cut. So the circle had to fit the square. After some difficulty trying to work out what the radius of such a circle was my FG pointed out that I already had the diameter... just fold the 5"square on the diagonal and measure that... simple really. I did that and then halved it. However when drawing my circle I just used the "tie a pencil to a bit of string and pin the string at the length you want the radius to be  and trace around" trick... and I did it on my own and in a hurry and... I think my circle was a bit wonky. I traced off heaps of circles and then started to draw off my square and I knew straight away that the circle wasn't quite right... but since I had already traced and cut out a heap I just kept going... and as a result it wasn't accurate and so it didn't fit properly.

It meant a bit more fiddling around... a bit of darning of holes. It meant that not all the petals are the same size and its not all nicely matched up. BUT... it is done. Its on the bed. It looks lovely and its been keeping us warm. It was never going to be a show quilt. Being a bit vain I didn't take photos of the holes.

Anyway its done and on the bed and I love it








I've sewn this quilt whilst we have travelled down the Australian Eastern Seaboard from Maroochydoore to Lakes Entrance. I have sewn it  in my sons' town house, 3 National Parks, and 3 caravan parks so its been a well travelled quilt. My sewing room has been in a lot of different places. I have photographed most of them... flick back through my blog over the last month if you don't usually follow me and you can see some of the lovely places that I have been

We still have another month on the road so I have moved on to another project although it won't be a finish this trip... making the borders for a quilt that is at home still 


Linking up with Crazy Mom Quilts Finish it up Friday

and Mrs Sew and Sows blog