Wild and Woolly

Since yesterday morning weather conditions have deteriorated at our place and up and down the east coast of Australia. The wind and rain were shrieking outside last night and I found it very hard to sleep. That and the frightenned children who snuggled in and forced me out from about 4:30am.

A wet and bedraggled rooster yesterday

I have been worrying about our chickens and hoping no large trees or branches fall on their coop. Fortunately the roost is brick and there is access to a run and a couple of nesting boxes, however it is wet. Unfortunately we have re-scheduled our plans for a BBQ and backyard cricket lunch with friends until next weekend. Conditions on the road would be hazardous with fallen trees and large volumes of water. We've had 70mm of raing in our gauge in 24 hours.

Fran was drying the hens but it was a fruitless task given the
weather conditions and that the chickens would wander out into it.

But it has forced me to finish a few sewing projects I have been avoiding. I did some alterations and repairs to clothes and then labelled all of the kid's school uniforms, swimmers and towels. There was no fun in that but a tiny amount of satisfaction.

I did manage to complete some paper piecing blocks including my own version of the 'Measure Twice' block. If you plan to join us for the Quiet Play 'And Sew On' paper pieced Block of the Month - you have only three days to get FREE January pattern. And the same amount of time to enter your block in the fabric give-away.

Sad to hear that the folks of the Lockyer Valley have been evacuated last night and that Ipswich and Brisbane are expecting moderate floods again. It seems that the floods of 2011 are NOT a distant memory. The weather is just crazy! We still have bushfires in Western Australia and some folks in Bundaberg got hit by five tornados. I hear that the northern hemisphere is experiencing freezing conditions right now. So keep safe people.

Update: 10am - We have whole trees and lots of branches down around our 5 acres. The gusts are increasing in velocity - some clocking 100km per hour.

That's our house and in the foreground is our driveway.

October Roundup

Sewing

Even though it had 31 days - and I blogged on every one - October went FAST! Too fast for me to achieve all of my sewing goals.

Achieved
House block for Jane
6 Halloween pillowcases
Gingerbread embroidery (Duncan)
Polaroid blocks
Low volume 'wonky cross' blocks for Kate
Embroidery pouch for Duncan
Empire State Building Needle Case for Duncan
Snowglobe embroidery 
Hot air balloon embriodery 
Repurposing a zip pouch

Not Achieved
Mystery Quilt back
Baste 'Katie Jump Kites'
Start 'Sherbert Dreams' quilt
Craftsy BOMs from June, August, September and October


Home Organisation 101

I think I achieved far more with Home Organisation 101 though.

Sorting and Tidying

Purging - off the the dump

Giving Away - toys

baby items and clothes

and, even though the last 5 days I had to write in advance and schedule, I managed to BLOG everyday of October! 

It's in the (activity) bag!

Last Wednesday I was asked if I could sew up 30 little bags for my daughter's PreKindy class. Each afternoon they have a 'siesta' but many do not sleep, so the teacher wanted to put together some quiet activity bags to keep children 'resting' but quiet during this time. 


The teacher wanted to pay me but, after some thought, I refused. I'd rather donate my efforts and leave them more money in their budget to buy activities to put IN the bags!

So I got sewing on Saturday night when the kids were watching a movie and my husband the cricket. I had a lot of 'boys' material left over from my son's I-spy quilt last year. I also used 2 fabrics from my 'ugly stash' (you know the ones that you can't really use in a quilt, or anything really?). See if you can guess which 2 they were.

So there's my pile of 30 little bags of various sizes. I used my overlocker mostly and the fastest bags were the ones I made from quartering a pillow case.

February QCA Bee - Scrappy Log Cabin Update


It's nice to get 'Bee mail', as I have termed it. Makes heading out to the letterbox a merry affair and a welcome change from the usual bills and statements. So far I have received from 6 of the 11 other Bee participants. So that is over 50% of the quilt blocks and it is only February 8th! Aren't my fellow bees wonderful? Such hard workers!

Some of the ladies have been generous enough to sew 2 or even three blocks to donate.

Monday's 'bee mail'

Today's 'bee mail'

Here they are together

and then mixed in with 5 of my blocks

Isn't it looking delicious? Like a log cabin gelati!

This week's stats:
Completed projects - 1 (but technically 30 little activity bags)
New projects - 4 (but technically 2 blocks - by the end of Feb, 1 custom strip quilt - will start when I receive 50% deposit later this week, 1 Feb  scrappy log cabin quilt - once all the blocks come in)

Currently in progress - 3 dolly quilts to back

How has your WIP week been?

Holiday Sewing

Since 2010 our family has vacationed at the seaside town of Port Macquarie, on the New South Wales coast, just as the new year kicks in. My husband's parents, sister, BIL and nephews are literally next door to us. And this year we were joined by Dean's cousin, her husband and their 3 kids (but staying elsewhere). So it was a great time. The apartments are just across from Flynn's beach (we don't get there until after 4pm to avoid the UV rays) and on the ground floor closest to the in-ground pool.

Last January I cut and sewed most of the fabric for my son's older I-Spy. So this year I had high hopes that I would get a lot of sewing done. I packed my machine and two crates of fabric. However my plans went awry for a few reasons:

1. the furniture in the apartments had been upgraded and the table was too high, and the chairs too hard, to sew comfortably for long periods. Plus the desktop size had shrunk considerably...and one needs a lot of space to lay fabric out.
2. the kids have all grown in confidence and spent a lot more time in the pool this year.
3. we kitted ourselves out with a toddler seat on the back of my new bike, and a tag-a-long frame on the back of my husband's mountain bike, in order to do a bit of cycling with our whole family. Post Mac has a lovely, but hilly, beachside track into Port Central.
4. I spent time at the 2nd hand bookstore, around the corner, browsing (everything in easy-to-find order), reading (I re-read 'The Perfect Storm'), buying (Mao, Lazarus Rising and Portrait of a Killer by Patricia Cornwall) and drinking iced chocolate.
5. It was just too nice to stay indoors and sew.

my collection now numbers 5

But I did manage to sew myself 2 cotton skirts for the summer. The one at the back was made from fabric I bought in 1993 but just did not know how to sew a skirt until now. And the other is second from the right with the gorgeous browns, greens and blues.

I had plans to make more...but maybe next year.