Bee Blocks

green plane

I have been quite slack this month and my bee blocks have only just been finished tonight. (Hence the bad photography!) I will post them off tomorrow. This month's blocks were planes. I'm not sure why these took me so long to make. I think I had a mental block. Check out the other blocks from my do. Good stitches group here.

blue plane

Long time...

Grandson4 and Molly20 make a bed for me to sleep in.

It's been a long time since I blogged, but it feels barely a moment ago. This is some of what I have been doing during the said moment.

1. I flew to Adelaide to visit with my grandchildren. It was so fun to go to their house and hang out with them. Grandson4 had some doctors to see and blood tests to do, so I was able to help him and his Mum (picklesticks) do that. Grandson4 and my Molly20 made a bed for me to sleep in on Molly's floor. He was so helpful and so crazy, sometimes all at the same time! His sisters were just lovely and we had some fun times together.
2. I hit the 15kg mark in the weight loss stakes and I went down a dress size. I wonder why we say "a dress size"? I don't really wear dresses and, in fact, the smaller items of clothing I bought were jeans and a shirt! I have 60kg to lose, so I am now a quarter of the way there. I'm pretty much sticking with the dieting thing, even though I am getting sick of it. (I think I am more sick of being overweight though. Everything is relative!)
3. We moved my sewing room from the dining room into the family room. The new room is about twice the size of the old room which means that there is more room for others to sew with me. My daughter Sophie26 has a permanent sewing desk in there now and we plan to sew up a storm! She had success selling some items in her etsy shop and we wanted a big space to work together in. She plans to restock her etsy shop once we get the new room fully set up.
4. I visited some quilt shops here in Melbourne that I had never been to before.

Yeah, that's about it! We have settled into the routine of school again and the year seems to be flying by. We are off to Adelaide again next week and then home again to get ready for the Monbulk Quilt show (March 16) where we will be having a stall in order to sell the results of our destash (all part and parcel of moving the sewing room!). I am off to bed. So tired. Still haven't caught up from living life on the grandchildren's terms. (Gosh they get up early! My kids never did!)

Best laid plans...

I started out this week by making an iPad pouch for my relatively new iPad. It has a cover from Typo on it, but if I take it out with me in my bag it needs a little more protection. Those of you with great spatial awareness will realise that this pouch is far too small. Yep. I pieced, then quilted, then trimmed. And I trimmed to the wrong measurement. So I decided to make two smaller pouches for ???, no idea what for, but two smaller pouches. I'm still working on the second and this one just needs a snap on it. So my iPad is still pouchless. Perhaps I will make one next week?

I have been meaning to go to the fabric shop for some time now and finally made it there today. I was looking for fabric with planes on it for my February do. Good stitches blocks. (We are making this block from here.) There were lots with planes, but I couldn't seem to settle on any. I was very taken with the kite and hot air balloon fabrics which I figured were almost planes.

Planes and almost planes.

Tomorrow I plan to stay home all day and sew. Not sure if I will get as far as the plane blocks, but I will be sewing something!

Mended slippers

I wore holes in the bottom of my favourite slipper/socks from last winter and they only sell them in winter! So this morning I grabbed out some scrap polar fleece and mended them. I'm not sure how Melbourne people think of Melbourne summers, we are only experiencing our third summer, but it's pretty cool here. Adelaide (where we used to live) warms up more quickly each day and stays warmer longer into the evening. So here in Melbourne I wear slippers all year round. Of course, that said, this week's forecast looks to be a pretty warm one. After the mending I did a little sewing, but didn't get finished. Perhaps tomorrow!

A birthday surprise!

A gift from Loz

Last week when I came downstairs one morning I could tell there was something on my front doormat. It was a package from Loz and this is what it contained! A beautiful bag that I had admired on her blog (her stitching is always so beautiful!) and a lovely book I have been hankering after, all wrapped up with some ric rac. (Love me some ric rac!) My head was so full of "the party" that I can't even remember what day I received it. My first job today is to get into the Zakka Style book more thoroughly  and choose something to make. I'm keen to have a making week this week and some little projects seem just the go. I'm hoping to notch up some finishes!

This week...

This was the entrance to Lily's party on Friday night. Through the Tardis door into our house. (And yes, it was bigger on the inside.) The party was a success I think and the best bit about it for me? It's over. I'm not much into parties!

This week I have a raft of goals I want to accomplish. Anything seems possible the day or two after an all-encompassing event! When you have been sooooo busy concentrating on one thing that you have to curtail other activities, you feel so free when it's over. That's how I feel right now. Better get and do something!