I'm back in the land of the living, unlike this softie.

Dead lizard.

 I have been sick, and busy. You know how it is. I have been working on some lovely things, but can't share them with you because they are part of Chookyblue's Secret Santa Christmas Swap. (I'm actually really pleased with the gifts I made. Can't wait till Christmas to see how they are received!) I managed to send my parcels off to somewhere overseas today. (Yes, a bit late, but last week was a dreadful week! Couldn't go anywhere or do anything!) So, since I can't share the lovely things I thought I would share a gross thing that Miss 25 made last week. A dead lizard. You know you want one! Of course it is her own pattern. The dead lizard is the first in a series of softies that Miss 25 and Miss 19 are collaborating on. They have been working on a dragon, a cupcake, a snail and a pocket watch today. My sewing room and lounge room (which are connected)  have been filled with making and doing the past few days. It has been lovely as we each have been working on our respective projects. There is fabric everywhere, and beads, and embroidery threads, and three sewing machines set up on three tables. Hmm... perhaps I need to do a little tidy tomorrow morning. And then on to more sewing. (I have so many things I want to make at the moment!)

Exposed guts and ribs.

Bluebirds of happiness.

The bluebirds

 Longtime readers of my blog may remember my bluebirds of happiness. Or not. I haven't featured them for a long time. They are lights that I bought from Ikea (<3 Ikea!) and attached to some good old Patchwork Apple pipberries in my sewing room at Holden Hill. They didn't make it out of the box at the last house, but I have put them up in my lounge room today. Aren't they pretty? I feel happy just looking at them! We are starting to get our house Christmased-up ready for December. Miss 25 decided that our brown glass light fittings needed some Christmasing-up and instead of brown glass we are now looking at this...

We Christmased-up the light fitting.

Muuuuch better! As for sewing, I sewed the other footstool cover yesterday and I spent today tidying my sewing space. My desk was shoulder high in some places with "stuff". As I cleared the desk I also repaired items I found. Cushion covers, trousers, you know, all those things that a sewing desk accumulates. So now I'm am ready to sew! A lot! When I get back from my long drive this weekend that is. I'm making a flying visit to Adelaide to pick up Miss 19. Uni is over for the year and she is coming to visit us for the summer! Hooray! Catch you when I get home!

A better day.

It was a better day today. My head felt much better. So much so that this afternoon I made a footstool cover.

 

 

 

 

new footstool cover

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I bought these footstools from Ikea in Adelaide some years ago now. They were flatpacks from "As Is". A discontinued item and there were no covers for them so they were very cheap. It took years for us to get them out of the boxes and quite some time for me to make these covers! You can see an uncovered footstool to the left in the photo. The second cover is almost finished too. They are great footstools, with storage under the cushion. I keep the spare covers from my Ikea Ecktorp sofas in them. (Gotta love a sofa with washable covers. Especially at my house!) I also did some secret sewing too. (Shhhhh!)

Struggling this week...

... because I have been doing those headaches again. Who knows why. If I was really serious about getting things done I would just stop having those headaches I think! So, no sewing done (Although I did go visiting teaching and gift some ornaments.) and no decorating for Christmas done either. (But we did get our piano delivered from the prison they call storage this week. I personally feel the piano is really just an oversized Christmas dekky. Christmas tunes, singing around the piano...) Last night I was pretty much over the whole headache thing and decided to just do something and pretend I didn't have a headache. The something that I felt I could do was painting, so I dragged out my easel out of the garage and my acrylic paints out of the cupboard. Actually it was an episode of Australian Story, "When William met Sarah", which is about actor William McInnes and his producer wife Sarah Watts who recently lost her battle with cancer. She was a remarkable woman, which got me to thinking about women in general. Most of us are pretty remarkable. Most of us are also remarkably hard on ourselves. We need to be kinder to ourselves! We are remarkable! (More on this theme here from President Uchtdorf.) Anyway, so I painted a little last night and plan to paint some more today. I haven't painted for sooooo long, I thought my paints may have dried up and been completely unusable, but they were fine. So the list for today so far reads:

1. Paint
2. Sew
3. Decorate
4. Clean house
5. Wash clothes
6. Change rooms around

A snap I'm sure! Oh. And the "change rooms around" relates to Miss 19 who is coming to spend the summer with us in Melbourne. Woohoo! Happy dances all round here! (We can't wait!)

Ornaments

A variation on a Christine Book design.

The kids and I made a whole bunch of these Christine Book hearts quite some time ago now. (Years in fact!) In some ways it seems like just the other day. Anyway, I discovered some of these felt hearts cut out in a box whilst searching for Christmas bells the other day and decided to stitch one up for another friend. Miss 14 made one for our tree too. I know it was a long time ago that we made the originals because I still have hers and the difference in ability is amazing!

Not much else was accomplished this weekend. I seem to have had a lazy weekend with quite a lot of time spent at the shops! Gosh that eats into your day! I even managed a bit of a sleep in this morning. (Perfectly allowable because church doesn't start till 11am.) This week we are planning on moving more furniture and changing some more rooms around. It will have to be finished off this week though because the kids are hosting a farewell party on Friday night for some of their friends who are moving to the Gold Coast. So, I'm not sure how much sewing will get done this week. We will see!

Finished!

Funny colours! Those pink squares are not so pink in real life.

I finished the snipping on Mr 11's quilt yesterday, which was a very good thing because he had already been using it, he was so keen to have it! I spent yesterday evening stitching some more Christmas dekkies. One of Miss 25's friends popped in and sewed with us, making a star to take home to make her place more Christmassy. (You can see her star in the photo below.) I can't show you exactly what I was stitching last night, because some things just have to be secret! (Especially when you are involved in Chookyblue's Secret Santa Christmas Swap!) There is quite a bit of secret sewing going on here at the moment! Christmas is a wonderful time! I was going to start decorating for Christmas yesterday, but just didn't get that far. Then in conversations with two of my Adelaide kids discovered that they had both begun Christmas decorating already! I felt proud. I have taught them well! Don't know if I will get to the decorating today or not. I have lots of chauffeuring to do today. (Some days are like that when you have kids.) And some secret sewing. (Shhhhhh!)

Another star!

PS Don't forget to check out picklesticks' giveaway!

Christmas Stitching and a Giveaway!

So I started snipping Mr 11's quilt today, I really did, but Miss 25 started sewing Christmas decorations. How am I supposed to resist that? So I didn't. This is the table she set out in front of me to tempt me.

Our stitching table

 I decided to sew a heart for a friend of mine. It was so much fun. Beads, sequins and embroidery threads are some of my favourite things!

Heart (mine)

Miss 25 decided to make a star just because. We are going to start decorating for Christmas at our house any minute now, and we probably need a few more stars!

 

 

 

 

Star (hers)

 We had so much fun today with this Christmas stitching. It is so much fun to be able to complete a project in a day. It makes you feel so productive! As for tomorrow, I'm planning to continue the snipping. Really, I am!

Two Christmas Dekkies!

Now for the GIVEAWAY. It's not mine, but my daughters. Pop on over to Picklesticks and have a look!

Just snipping left!

It fits!

Here's Mr 11 laying on his new shaggy flannel quilt. I think it's big enough for him to enjoy for a while. I just have the snipping left to do. That's slated for tomorrow. I am having "sewing day" at my house tomorrow. I have to admit to sewing every day at my house, but Wednesdays I invite others to come sew with me. I have only had two people pop in to sew with me so far, but I am quite happy with that. I am here sewing anyway! So tomorrow my sewing will be snipping!

Do you like books?

I do. I have always loved to read. Ever since I got the hang of reading in my head (without saying the words aloud) I have loved it. It was such a significant moment for me that I remember it distinctly. I spent most of my spare time in childhood reading. I used it to pass the time, to cheer myself up, and to distract myself from pain and it worked brilliantly for all those things. It was also fun. My brother and sister were regularly sent to their rooms for time out or for a punishment. I never was because my mother recognised that I was never as happy as when I was alone in my room reading. I read everything. Even labels. It was all fascinating to me.

My local Lincraft store has craft books 3 for $20. This is one I bought today.

 I love to look at quilting and craft books. Mostly I don't make anything from them, but I love to look. I guess they are all inspirational. This is one I am looking at tonight. I love the piecing in these blocks. Piecing is one of my favourite parts of the quilting process.

So after today's jaunt to the shops I have three new books to read. All with fantastic photos too! Oh. And an update on the shaggy flannel quilt - I have got it half put together. A little more work tomorrow and then it will just need snipping. I am off to read and then hopefully dream of piecing fabric together!

Machine piecing is my favourite!

Shaggy flannel quilt progress

Pinned, ready to be put together.

I have had a busy weekend. Friday Mr 11 and I drove to Adelaide with Mrs 27 and the three grandchildren. It's an all day drive, especially with a three month old in tow. Saturday we got to go op shopping with Miss 19 (Gosh that girl can shop! We had a lovely time with her.) and then we attended an 80th birthday party. After the party we drove home, arriving in the wee hours of Sunday morning. Today has been a go slow kind of day. Too much driving this weekend I think. Anyway, this afternoon Mr 17 and I laid out the shaggy flannel quilt for Mr 11 on the lounge room floor. (Mr 17 has a good eye for these things you know. I have to think less when I have his help. I definitely needed that today!) We fiddled a bit with the blocks and then we pinned it together. Now it is ready to sew! It's tomorrow's project I think! (tired, tired, tired.)

A post with a photo!

I have been thinking today. Thinking about how much I have learnt in the past couple of years. This line of thinking came to me because of a discussion on ABC radio. Some study had shown that the first three years of a child's life are vital to their learning and someone had posed the question, "Should we be starting children's formal education earlier?" I thought all the discussion would be agreeing with the question, but it wasn't. In fact a couple of people pointed out that learning is not confined to institutions or certain periods of life and that it should be a lifelong thing. And then I began to wonder just what I have learnt of late.

How to use a computer and how to blog topped my list. Blogging, and the contacts I have made because of blogging, is one of my funnest things! My eldest child taught me everything I know on that score! And whilst she has been visiting with us she has taught me something else new. I can now sell things on eBay! For those of you who are very computer literate this may not sound too impressive, but I am impressed! I sold something this week and posted it off today. (Hopefully it will arrive at it's destination!!!) Nothing can stop me now. Decluttering, here I come!

Uncomfortable. Grandson napping when he really didn't want to. Curse that DVD and that comfy quilt!

Hello November, a Public Holiday, and a Transformation.

Today is a public holiday here in Victoria. A public holiday in honour of a horse race. I was happy to have the holiday although I didn't watch the horse race at all. Oh. And it's November. Hard. To. Believe. Christmas is almost here which means that 2012 is just moments away. Oh well, this year has just flown for me. I am going to take a leaf out of the "Blogtober" book and attempt to blog more often so I can remember better all the things that just fly by! Today has been a day of buttonholes for me and hopefully this evening will be an evening of buttons! Mrs 27 has been busy sewing whilst visiting and I am doing the buttons and buttonholes for her. (You can see her sewing here.) Oh. And I did finish the lounge room transformation. Here is the proof!

The new sit and do space.  Mr 11 was building a flat pack for me. I stapled fabric to the inside of the "Billy" doors to hide the stuff. I like the cupboards much better now.

The TV and sitting area (with the superhero, The Blur!)

The TV and sitting area without The Blur. My sewing room is to the right of this picture through a large opening. It's floor space and the sitting room's floor space combine to make it feel like one larger space. It's not for everyone, but having my sewing area in the center of our family living seems to work best for us.