Mail, it's a new Block of the Month!

Mail from Hettie!

So I guess I am a little crazy, but I have signed up to a new BOM from Sue Daley. (She is the pies and tarts designer) Here it is newly arrived from Hettie's Patch. It is more English paper piecing and is another one of those long term projects I am sure. It's called "This Goes with That" and involves fussy cutting, hexies, and (for me) contemporary fabrics. (There is a reproduction option too!) I am itching to get started on it and am hoping that it will complement the pies and tarts. (You know, when I am sick of the pies and tarts out will come the hexies!)

Pies and Tarts (an update)

Tarts at the top, pies newly appliqued in the middle and pies waiting to be appliqued at the bottom.

It turns out I am still doing the pies and tarts quilt. (See posts in 2009 and 2010 to see my previous struggles!) My excuse for not having finished it is an interesting one. I lost them. In April 2010, I think. The pies and tarts that is. I took them away with me and promptly lost them when I returned home. I searched high and low for them (A little frantically at times! I had spent so much time on them!) but to no avail. Then, in January 2011, as we packed for the big move to Melbourne, I found them in the bottom of a bag I was sure I had searched a million times. (I am nothing if not an exaggerator!) Phew! What a relief! Then I packed them, little knowing that I wouldn't see them again until July 2011 when I finally unpacked them in Melbourne. I am not quite halfway there yet with the pies, and as for the tarts, I am barely started. So this really is a long term project. L  O  N  G    T  E  R  M!!!!!!! Anyway, I took heart from all those people doing the 15minute per day sewing challenge and other such similar schemes and thought, "You know what? I CAN finish this!" Of course, I have set no date. (I am still me you know) My goal though is to work on them a little each week. I have set up a stitching basket which lives in my bedside table and I am ready to go! I'm sure I will do more some weeks than others, but my plan is just to plod along. I will update you with my progress as I make some!

Cookie Monster Cupcakes

Captured!

  Look what Miss 14 caught tonight. Yep. Cookie Monster! One of her school friends is selling cupcakes at school tomorrow to raise money for the RSPCA and Miss 14 promised to make cupcakes to help out. She announced her intention just as I was looking at Pinterest. (What's the odds of that happening? I'm hardly ever on Pinterest! Lol!) So I showed her some Cookie Monster cupcakes and she went for it!

Aren't they cute?

See, who says nothing good comes from surfing Pinterest?

I finished something!

A table runner for a round table

 I had a goal this week to finish something, and I did! This table runner is something I started last December. In fact I had nearly finished it, but then I made a mistake. I layered my top, batting, and back in the wrong order. (I was just sewing it around the edge and then turning it through. No binding.) I didn't discover this mistake until I had clipped all the corners and trimmed all the seams and was actually turning it through. Of course, I couldn't simply unpick it and carry on. It just made me mad and I was completely over it. Then we moved and my sewing things went in to storage for six months. I was sooooo glad to see it when I unpacked it at the end of July! So this week I unpicked it, repinned it, sewed it again, and then today I quilted it. I'm pretty happy with it.

Up close

 This was made completely with scraps and there was no rotary cutting involved. I just used scissors to cut up the fabric and I just kept sewing strips on until the blocks were about the right size. I did trim them a bit to get them together (with the scissors). Do you have problems layering things? I often do. I'm at my worst with bags. Linings are a nightmare, but I have trouble working out where and how to put pockets and handles as well. I often get muddled and then have to unpick. I'm sure I have quite a few projects in this muddled and needing unpicking state. (I get too mad to work with them!) Of course, after being separated from my sewing stuff for six months I have had time to cool down and may even finish some more things next week.

On our letterbox

I am not yet finished unpacking or sorting out the sewing room. It seems that this may never happen, so I have finally begun to sew in the middle of the mess! (The best alternative I thought!) I haven't done any sewing since the end of July when I altered Miss 14's new school skirt. And that hardly counts as sewing! After today's quilting I can tell you without hesitation that my sewing machine is just perfect (I love to use it so much) and I have many, many good things that enable me to sew with ease. Gosh I missed my stuff!

Hahndorf - Battle of the bands

Saturday, whilst we were in Adelaide, my Bradley and I wandered up to Hahndorf with grandson to check out the battle of the bands. That title makes it sound just a tad more adventurous than it was, because they were brass bands, not rock bands. It was a really fun family day with free face painting and balloon animals. The local school was open and the kids had a wonderful time in the playground there. Of course, the bands were in competition and took it seriously, but we had a lovely time.

Balhannah Road, closed for the bands to march later in the day and the results of the free chalk!

Grandson once he had warmed to the idea of drawing on the road.

Drawing!

We met up with my Bradley's sister and our niece and nephew.

A band marching (they were judged in lots of situations)

It's August?

Mr 10 with his new niece. His first cuddle with her.

If I have seemed to have fallen off the face of the earth, I must have landed in Adelaide. I have made a couple of trips there so far this August. The first trip was to visit my new granddaughter. She is so sweet and lovely (Of course! That's the way of newborns.) We spent a hectic week cuddling a newborn, carrying a one year old and playing with a three year old. (It's all go at their house!)

The playground at Keith

The second trip was to be a helper to my grandson as he underwent his first general anesthetic. This trip was a surprise as he got his hospital date the day before he was due to be admitted. Of course, his Mum was there too along with his baby sister and we actually had a lovely day. All is well with him and he is fully recovered now. So much so, that when my Bradley and I drove home to Melbourne yesterday we brought him with us for a little holiday. So it is all go here now! Plans for today include making some playdough because this three year old loves to play playdough!

I still have boxes to unpack and cupboards to organise. (Which will get done eventually!) And I am dying to get to my Tis the Season quilt to quilt it! Perhaps I will fit that in somewhere!