more flaming monsters

I am well and truly over these monsters.  I originally made one quilt, then with some left over made another quilt, and so on and so on and now I have lost count.

The plan with this final one was to make one big quilt, but halfway through I decided it was far too big, so I've split it into two.

I finished one (well, I topped one) today.  Looks okay really.  I'm planning on quilting it up and giving it away to Ronald Mcdonald House.

On the right is the finished one.

On the left is the second one, still to be stitched up.

And this is a leftover block, all set to be a label on the back.

Happy quilting!

More monsters

Hello lovely readers.

I've been plodding along with my monsters, little by little.

My time has been limited at home this week, what with school walking and canteen and all the dance.  I was hoping next week would be better but it's not shaping up that way either.  And to top it all off I've been diving head first back into my family research which just sucks up free time like you wouldn't believe (but it's soooo much fun!)

I cut out 150 or so squares for the sashing, and as I finished sewing I realised I have to cut another 200 more.  So that's this afternoon's job, when I finish talking to you guys.

I think this little man may be my favourite.  He's a sweet little monster.

Things are all well and good here in my neck of the woods.  Tomorrow's Saturday, and apart from Miss Teenager having a party to go to that I have to drive her to, I have no real commitments, and neither does my husband.  So for once, we might all be able to spend some time together IN THE SAME ROOM!  Gasp!

Have a lovely weekend!

Slow Cars and Slow Computers

We are fully back into the school run swing now, and things are going along as they should.  Term one is traditionally the 'cram it all in' term around here.  I've had a million things to attend for both schools and to be honest, I'll be glad when the next two weeks are over.  They are full on, to be honest.  Lots to do, places to be!

I've not had time to sew - I've been the parent helper this week at swimming, which involves walking the class down to the pool, sitting for an hour, and walking back.  I don't really mind, it does my soul good to be around little people (though they are increasingly not so little) and it gets me walking twice a day.

The annoying part of my day is this:

Four times a day at least, from January until April (which knowing Australian road builders will be October.  Excuse my messy windshield please!

The other annoying part is this:

Twice a week, this time is much worse, I had to wait fifteen minutes here the other day with a very distressed child knowing she'd be late for ballet.  What can you do?  This one only goes till July.  Insert sarcastic eye roll.

Some brilliant bureaucrat decided to fix all the bridges in our area AT THE SAME TIME, with the one group of workers.  So they move from bridge to bridge while leaving the roadworks in place.  They started on the 4th January and who knows when they will be finished, working on a particular bridge as the mood takes them.

I know it's a job that needs to be done but everyone is very frustrated here right now.  It's right in vintage (which means grape harvesting trucks are everywhere) and they need to be at the wineries quickly.  

Never mind, deep breath and all.

This is my view when I am at the swimming pool.  Could be worse.

And this is how I spend my hour.  Making my socks.  Again, could be worse!

I hope we're all coping with the weather.  It's been hot and muggy here but really, it could be so much worse.  I keep thinking about my lovely friends in Townsville, they're really getting smashed with rain at the moment, so much rain I can't even imagine. Our yearly rainfall in an hour.  I'm thinking of you all, I really am.

Happy quilting!

more aliens....

I worked hard the last few days to find time to stitch my little aliens, and I'm pleased to say that they are done.

Still terrifically annoyed with Livewriter.  I can't edit photos through this method and it's a bit of a pill to have to do it first and then enter it.  But I'll continue on.

I spent my day at an all day Childsafe training workshop.  I'm out of practice at using my brain in that way, so needless to say I am exhausted.  School is back in full swing and so it brings my Mum Taxi Duties back into the open, but you will be pleased to know that my hand piecing is going great guns!

Driving home from my workshop I was listening to the news on the radio, and it was filled with the floods in Townsville, heatwave in South Australia and bushfires in Victoria.  Droughts and flooding rains sure sums us up at the moment.  Please know that I'l thinking of all my friends in those places, as well as my US friends freezing their proverbials off.  This weather!

Have an excellent week, my friends.

UFO's of a different kind

I'm jumping all over the place at the moment with what I am working on.  The plus side of having so many UFO's, I guess.

Remember these?

I decided that as it was 45 degrees (again, third day in a row but who's counting??) it was all I could do to just sew strips.  So I got quite a lot done, given it was 45 degrees.  Did I mention it was 45 degrees?  It's actually been a record heat wave here in South Australia and it's NOT FUN.

 I only have a couple more blocks to stitch which I hope to do today.  We'll see what the day brings though.  It's Australia Day today, I should be feeling more patriotic but not so much.  Just all worn out in general really.

Other than sewing, we have had our week filled with appointments for haircuts, new school clothes, picking up school books - all those sorts of things that the last week before school brings.  Eldest goes back on Tuesday, youngest on Wednesday and just like that, the school holidays are gone.  I'll miss them, to be honest.  It's been lovely to just do nothing and plan nothing and wear daggy clothes with no waistbands.  From Monday it's back on the diet and the walking and the getting myself in shape agenda, which is no fun at all.  But totally necessary.  

I hope you're all well, not too hot, not too cold.  We keep waiting for some sort of cool change to arrive but none yet - so until then I shall continue to stay inside in the cool.  

Happy quilting!

Spaceships

So Livewriter is being such a pain in the butt.  It won't let me post posts with pictures.  So I'm working through blogger.com.  Which is equally as crappy.  So I'm in a mood with computers in general.

This was the original plan for this quilt.

I've decided that it's too top heavy.  Do you think?

Yeah I think.  So I halved the top border, do you like that more?

I could leave the top border off altogether?

I don't know.  I need to think about it.

It's not so hot anymore.  At least for now.  My routine has been thrown totally out the window but it's okay, I'm enjoying the lack of any sort of routine.  We only have a week left of school holidays though and next week needs to be filled with 'back to school' stuff - haircuts, picking up school books, you know the drill.

I hope my US friends aren't freezing their fingers off - it looks both grim and oddly exciting over there with all the snow.  

Happy quilting!

Aliens Landing

I think I’ve fixed what was going wrong on here – Livewriter decided to throw a hissy fit and give me grief.  Let’s see if today is more successful.

After thinking a little bit, I decided that my planes didn’t really work with the strips.  I feel they needed to be a bit bigger.  So what do you do?  Start something new.

I really, really need to replace my ironing board cover.

I think these guys are going to work better.  I have so much homespun, I barely made a dent in the scrap pile, let alone the actual stash box.

I’ll iron them on to the backing fabric so that I can stitch them when I’m out tomorrow.  It’s promising to be cooler.  We can only cross our fingers!

*edited to add, Livewriter is being a total pill and I'm very cross with it.  Anyone got a suggestion on best offline editor?  I don't like the blogger.com website much.  

testing….

Big awful computer problems here….is this thing working?

Grampians Road Trip

It seems ridiculous that I haven’t shown you these before, the trip was in 2017, for goodness sake!  So in the spirit of cleaning out my draft folder, please enjoy some very belated holiday snaps.  Taken in the Grampians, in Victoria.  You’ve seen some before, but these are pretty too!