My resolutions? Nailed it

My word is discipline. 

Which means don't spend money on fabric you don't need.

Nailed it.

(well, in my defence, I ordered it last year, when I was on a big of a 'finish all the chocolates in the box before your diet starts' mood, and it was not awfully expensive, and I had to buy the orange reproductions from the same place and it would have been false economy and wasteful postage had I not brought more to offset the postage costs.  And it's soooo pretty......)

Allietare

Every year I've done the Bonnie Hunter mystery quilt, and mostly I've liked them.  I haven't loved them, but I liked them.  Last year I didn't like it one bit, but that's no secret.

I decided with all my Christmas responsibilities I wouldn't do this one as a mystery quilt, but make sure I really liked it before committing.

Of course, this one is stunning, and the choice of colours is right up my alley.  So I've started it.

For the first time I've used the Easy Angle tool and all I can say is, why didn't I use it years ago?  How easy it is to make the half square triangle units now?  I will never go back.

Of course, I have made nine of the 292846393 units required so I suspect I shan't be finishing this quilt in a hurry, but that's okay.

Have a lovely, quilty day!

Some quiet show and tell

Today has been a weird one.  It's been very hot, very windy, and now very rainy.  Four seasons in one day.  The end result is everyone here is 'ratty'.  Do you know what I mean?  I'm sure it's the wind.  Everyone gets short tempered and crabby and a little bit silly, but not in a good way.

I've had no time to do sewing today but I have a few show and tell posts I'd be pleased to show you over the next couple of days.

I had a book a few years ago that I adored - it was called 'P.S. I Love You' by Lynda Milligan and Nancy Smith.  This quilt was in it, and I loved it from the first moment I saw it.  It's all cut with templates, and made out of my very quickly diminishing box of pastels.  

I will probably have this one custom quilted on the long arm, if and when that day comes.  Yeah, it would look beautiful handquilted but I already have a waiting list of quilts for handquilting, and the current one on the frame is moving at a snail's pace.  I have to be sensible, don't I?

And conveniently I have a free Long Arm quilter who will do that for me if I ask her very nicely.  So that's the plan.

I hope you're having a fabulous weekend.  The wind has finally blown itself out here and the household is asleep and to be honest, I am loving the quiet.  But I need to get a halfway early night, so I'll say goodnight for now!

Totally Tutorials - Resuable Lunch Sacks

There are many lovely tutorials over at http://zitzmanfam.blogspot.com.au/ and I found some lovely reusable snack bags there.  

Whilst this is a great idea for lunch bags, don't you think that it would make an excellent bag for a young girl to have in her school bag filled with sanitary products?  I'd have used that when I was a teenager!

I'm still struggling with this blogger interface.  The Livewriter website assures me that they have fixed any issues, or nearly fixed perhaps.  I plan to spend a chunk of tomorrow afternoon sorting it out, all being well.  Finding time to carve out on the computer is quite difficult right now!

Hope you've all had a lovely, quilty day!  

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

I did what I promised myself - we stayed home last night and played Monopoly with the kids, and I was in bed by ten thirty.

Again, SUCH a party animal.  It was brilliant.

Today we are doing Christmas Mark Two for the other half of the family who were not here on Christmas Day, so I am sneaking a quiet minute before it all begins.

I've seen the Bonnie Hunter reveal and yes, I am totally going to do it.  I'll even go with the same choices I had mentally penciled in - all of my reproduction Civil War fabrics will work fabulously so when I have a spare five minutes I might grab a start.

I hope you're having a great break, I'll see you another day!  I'll leave you with some photos of what I achieved in January last year.  Last Year.  Hah.

I'm sure I achieved more than this, but that's all I blogged.  Another one of my resolutions is to be more vigilant in blogging my workings - it's a really lovely reference to the year.

Have a good one!

Out with the old...

We are ahead of most of you, and tonight is New Year's Eve.  For the first time in I don't know how long, I told my husband that my idea of a perfect NYE is to stay home and be in bed by ten o'clock.  I'm such a party animal now!  Seriously, our Christmas leadup and Christmas break has been so busy - filled with lovely things like family and swimming and eating and socialising, but I'm just so tired.

So that's the plan.  Quiet evening in with the children, maybe a game of scrabble.  Sounds blissful.

Obviously there's been little sewing done.  I'm waiting for another thirties order, as I can't finish making my log cabin quilt until the thirties oranges I've run out of arrive.  I did sort out the big box of scraps that has accumulated over the last twelve months, and after ironing and sorting, I'm thinking I might do a variation of Bonnie's Scrap Saver System.  Only for the scraps - it seems too wasteful to go cutting whacking great bits of fabric up when I'm overflowing with scraps in the first place.

I'll keep you posted as to how it goes.

I'm keeping a watchful eye on all the Allietaire quilts happening, deciding whether or not I will participate this year.  I am thinking I will, some of the variations look just beautiful and I have a feeling I will like the final reveal very much.  But, again - time is the enemy right now and I can't, I just can't start something else this year!

I wish you all the very best NYE celebration, I hope you stay safe and warm and dry in the US and UK, and safe and cool and hydrated down under, where it is a sweltering temperature again.

Someone asked me how my year had been, and I was very happy to say it was a busy, happy one - nothing went wrong personally, we ended the year with the same amount of loved ones as we started, and everyone seems happy and settled.  What more can you ask for?

See you next year!

Merry Christmas to all!

I'm on a facebook group called Quilting (funny that....) and it's currently going mental over a lovely quilted candlemat/wreath design.

I wasn't going to sew one, I wasn't sure how much I liked them but over and over again they appeared, all in different colour ranges and all really lovely when done in the red, green and cream.

So of course I made one.  I must stress I didn't have a pattern, I just sort of nutted it out with some pictures.  And I'm really pleased with it!

I don't have a candle big enough to do the centre justice, but this little one looks rather pretty with the way it throws those radiating lines.

If you would like to make your own, the original designer is Poorhouse Quilt Designs and it is called the Fold'n'Stitch wreath.

On that note, I would like to wish all my lovely readers a very Merry Christmas.  I'm not sure when I can pop back in (sure as heck won't be before Christmas because that's tomorrow here!!!) but hopefully I can slide back into blogging once all the food is cooked and the visitors have gone home!  I'm really keen to start the Quiltville mystery quilt if I can find enough fabric (ha!) and I'd like to do the annual tallyup of all the UFO's I have currently got happening.  Seems to be my tradition at Christmas time.

Have a lovely, safe, happy Christmas!

Suzie

Flimsie-ing

I won't go on about how hot it is.  Just know that it's Very. Hot.  And I am officially over it.

 The year has whooshed by and while I've often struggled with time to get things done, I am pleased with myself that for the most part, it's been a productive and quilty year for me.

Next year's word is Discipline.  I want to be a better, more accurate quilter, disciplined in slowing down, doing it properly the first time, being proud of everything I put out in the world.  Some of this year's work hasn't been brilliant, to be honest and I am not too proud of some of it.  So let's hope next year is a more Disciplined one.  I can try, at least.

I don't know if I've showed you this one before.  I suspect I showed you the workings of it but now it's a flimsy and while there's been no sewing, I thought you might like to see one from the vaults.

I am quietly pleased with this one. It's my own hand died fabric, and I can't for the life of me get my hand dies to be bright and joyful.  I tried and tried, and end up with lots and lots of very muted and soft colours, which are very pretty but not what I wanted.  So I have cut my losses, made this very nice quilt that number two daughter has already put her name on to use the fabric up, and I'll just BUY the hand died fabrics I need.  So there.

Hope you've had a great day!

The Christmas Roast (and catching up)

***please forgive the DUMB centering of my text on this blogpost.  The computer is doing it all by itself.  The Blogger interface SUCKS, to be honest and until I can find a replacement to Live Writer, I am stuck with it and all its annoying drawbacks**

The girls and I are currently in hibernation mode.  It's well over forty celcius today (Thursday), tomorrow is meant to be hotter and Saturday is hotter again!  'They' are forecasting 44 degrees, with a cool change on Sunday - it should only be 37 C then.  Have to break out the wooly jumpers!

Both the dog and cat are inside with us, and I've been watering the chooks often during this weather (by watering I mean squirting with the hose trying to cool them down) and crossing my fingers we don't lose any.  I seem to lose a chook a year with the hot weather, but maybe that's just old age and the heat helps them along.  

I don't know how the Northern Hemispheres 'do' the heat, but in Australia we learn to close all the curtains early on a day like today, and I have done that for a week or so now.  The house is quite dark now, but very cool due to a gold plated airconditioner, stone walls and large bull-nose veranda.  One daughter is tinkling away at the piano, teaching herself Christmas carols (we recently acquired a free piano, but not one of us is musical at all!).  The other daughter is sharing the lounge room with me, cartwheeling over and over.  She's just learnt how to do that and she thinks she is just fantastic.  She's more fantastic than me, I never learned to do any sort of clever gymnastics.

I've been baking today (seems entirely sensible given the heat!!) and have made about 2029475 pizza scrolls.  Yesterday was chocolate chip cookies for Christmas and tomorrow is the big Christmas Honey Biscuit Bake.  I make these biscuits once a year, work my little buttocks off doing it and swear I'll not do it again, it's just too much hard work.  But year after year I do it, and give the biscuits away to my husband's work colleagues.  Every year he asks when he can take the biscuits in, so of course I'll keep going as long as he likes.

Sewing is sadly not happening much this time of year.  I've been watching the Bonnie Hunter Mystery Quilt happenings over the internet, and for the first time I haven't begun it with the others.  It's a combination of too much happening and also being so turned off (sorry Bonnie) by last year's design.  I've decided to wait until I see the finished result before committing myself to making it.  I have a very strong feeling that this finished quilt will be something I'll love (I keep imagining Roman tiles) so no doubt in January when life is quieter, I'll make it at my own speed.  It would be Murphy's Law that the one year I decide not to make it is the one year I adore the design.

What else is new?  Nothing really.  I haven't got any of my own quilting photos to show you so I shall leave you with another tutorial I enjoyed finding.

Sew Mama Sew has a million (well, maybe not that many but A LOT) of beautiful tutorials that you must check out.  I found this really lovely penguin designed by DelilahIris Designs.  I might make more than one!

Hope your Christmas planning is going well!  If you're in Australia keep cool please!

Happy Quilting!

Suzie

Log cabin-ing

This is what I have been doing:

This is what I should be doing:

So much other stuff to do, and all I want to do is sew!

Have a lovely day!