Cocktail Wednesday (on Thursday)

Another week has rolled around and it's Cocktail Wednesday again.   Well it was yesterday, but as Thea has picked this weeks gem and she lives on the other side of the world and is therefore a day behind, we have been waiting for her to give us her verdict before Shay and I posted our "results".

Below we have a photo of most of the ingredients, I forgot about the other two ingredients when I was taking the photo, although I didn't forget to add them in when it was time to make this cocktail.

An eclectic mix in this one

The recipe called for Calisaya Liqueur but as both Shay and I discovered, it is not available in Australia or anywhere else in the world except Eugene, Oregon.  After quite a bit of research, and many emails back and forth between Shay and myself, we thought that Angostura bitters would be a reasonable substitute.

The ingredients: rum, Calisaya liqueur (Angostura Bitters substituted), maple syrup, coffee, and frothed milk. I'm not going to give you the recipe. You're welcome.

The piéce de resistance, see the photo below.

Yes, that is bacon

Another shot of the bacon

The Bacon Maple Syrup Cocktail.

I  couldn't decide whether it was going to be really bad, or it might just be an interesting mix that couldn't be as bad as it sounds.  Well I'm here to tell you that I think Thea may have been trying to poison us.  In the defence of the cocktail, it possibly could have been much better if we had the Calisaya, but I'm not ever going to try it even if I miraculously find that stuff, (not that I'm ever going to look for it either.)

Thank god for the bacon. The bacon was great. It almost masked the taste of the two sips I tried. Why did I take a second sip?

On a more positive note, BP has finished university for the year and is back home for the summer break. She has found part time work locally, so I'll have the pleasure of her company for the next three months!

BP and Bailey selfies.

Ooops I seem to have disappeared for almost three weeks

Sometimes time just flies.

As usual, not a lot to show, but I have had a finish and almost a finished quilt top.

What have I been doing? Not much really.  Life has been tootling on and I just don't seem to have the time or inclination to get into my freshly rearranged and tidied sewing room.

A bit of this

and Scooter is finished.

Scooter

I was inspired to make this quilt after seeing this. I don't enjoy copying, I like to put my own spin on things. This is one of those times that what I had in my head and what I made, is not the same. I don't hate it but I don't love it.

Quilting in progress

Backing and binding

It's backed with a cute flannel and I'm not sure of the name of the fabric for the binding. I wanted to use something from my stash, but was having trouble finding what I wanted,  J went through the fabrics she had brought up here to work on, found it and it was a good match.

Crinkly after washing

Speaking of J, she has started on a hand sewing project which is absolutely gorgeous.  Personally, I think she is crazy, but unlike me, J is disciplined and will finish her projects.

It's a design by Sue Cody called Gelato Rose. Quilt as you go, so at least after finishing each block, the batting and the backing is finished as well. All you need to do is sew them all together.

These are the first two blocks she has completed.  Only 18 to go!!!!!!!!!!!!

I also played with Kirsty a couple of weeks ago. We went to the  Brisbane Stitches and Craft Show, you can read all about it here.  I bought a few things, including these blues.

Wow, Kirsty is a great photographer, but she introduced me to Happy Street, a time sucking game that is addictive.  I want to curse her.  I have Angry Birds on my iPad and phone and hardly ever play it, so was delightfully, blissfully unaware of what would happen to me if I started playing Happy Street. Take my advice and don't play it, but if you do, I would love to be your friend so that I can move through the levels quicker, mwah ha haa.  It is addictive. Be warned.

A couple of weekends ago I pulled out this pile of fabric and started cutting.

Fabric pull

I was very smart. I planned to use some white charm squares for some of the triangles in the layout, to save having to cut a WOF strip. So off I went, and cut 5 inch WOF strips of all my blues and greens, then cut the triangles. Next step, to cut the triangles from the charm squares. Hmm, as usual, I didn't think it through before hand or do a test run. That's me, jumping in feet first and worrying about the details later.  It often kind of makes for some interesting design ideas/choices though.  I then realised that  even though the triangle was 5 inches high, it's more than 5 inches wide, so the charm squares weren't big enough.
I swore,
quite a bit,
took a breath,
and then had a play.
I used the off cuts from the WOF strips and added them to the charm squares to make them big enough to cut, and voila, an interesting addition to the layout.

Two pairs of rows ready to be sewn together

I became more creative with the cutting as I progressed.

That was a couple of weeks ago, and I still haven't finished the top. I've sewed the rows and even sewed pairs of rows together, and I'm crossing everything that I will have this project finished very soon, so that I can move on to something else.

Sewing circles

I've been very very quiet on the sewing front the last few weeks.  All kinds of stuff took over and I totally lost my mojo.
I have been doing bits and pieces but nothing worth blogging about. A few more diamonds sewn to the starflowers and cutting some pieces for the Material Obsession BOM.

I finally sewed all the pieces together for the centre of the BOM block below. I'm months behind now.

After having a couple of free hours this week and yesterday. I made the outer ring for Block 1. 

I was pretty darn pleased with myself.

Until I put it next to the centre circle and thought, gee it's a little bit bigger than I thought it would be.  

I soldiered on regardless. 

I should know better than that.

I sewed.............very carefully...............the centre circle to the outside circle, 

OH SHIT

I've made a shower cap!

Seam Ripper Sunday

After weeks of no sewing, today was THE day to get back into it.
I decided to start with the backing for the HST quilt, which needs a name but I think it's destined to be the HST quilt. Or that F^@#!^% quilt.
I had already made one strip with the left over HST's and decided to make two more for the backing.  Three strips of HST's later and some 2 1/2 inch sashing sewn between them, I put it on the floor to bask in the glory of my fabulous sewing. WTF, I had taken six straight strips of fabric and sewn them into a very curved piece that would have probably worked really well on a lampshade. Unfortunately no photos because I was so annoyed, I picked it up straight away and pulled out the seam ripper.
It looks like this now.

Not too bad but that was a total waste of an hour of my time. After that little setback it was time to try something else.

I shouldn't have bothered.

I want to make a quilt for some friends. The colours they like are grey/browns and orange. I used some Design Seed colour swatches as inspiration. I thought this would help because these are really not my go to colours.  This one below was one of the colour swatches I used.

Design Seeds

For the design I decided on another raw edge circle quilt as I really enjoyed making the last one.

I raided my stash and found some fabrics. I wanted to try popping a few batiks in there as I quite like the odd batik in amongst other fabrics. 

These are the background fabrics I chose. I liked the batiks but didn't like many of the other prints. The lighter browns are especially blech, way too light and shouldn't be in there at all. One teeny tiny problem I don't have enough fabric in the good colours to make the quilt and I really don't want to buy any more in these colours. 

Added in lots of oranges and then added the creams to help with more contrast for the foreground. By this stage I was thinking, either I'm a genius and this is going to be so freaking good, or I've totally lost my mind and I'm going to make the world's ugliest quilt. 

Time to make a test block. I could have picked all the nicest fabrics to make the first block to see how nice it could be or I could have picked the worst fabrics to see how bad it could be.  Which did I choose?  A sensible person would have said let's see how nice it could look. 

I'm not sensible. 

I really dislike it.

This was after I had measured to make sure one of the circles was dead centre of the square, sewed it up, took one look at it and pulled out the seam ripper again and promptly pulled it apart. Sorry no photos of my disasters. I really need to be more prepared with my camera to prove that I'm really crap at sewing sometimes a lot of the time. 

I wonder whether they would like a nice pink and aqua quilt instead.

That was my day, my sewing mojo returned but was missing some vital parts, common sense and accuracy.  I'm hoping they will turn up soon.

The only bright part of my day was that I wasn't the only one with a seam ripper as a constant companion.  Shay and I complained all day by email about our disastrous sewing attempts! It was nice to be able to swear (a lot) and know that Shay knew exactly how I felt.  I think we may have broken our own unofficial swear count today. We may have also invented some extra words too. It's amazing what spell checker will let through! Auto correct is not my best friend either, at one point, apparently I called her something very rude and very politically incorrect when I didn't check my email before I sent it. Fortunately, Shay is still talking to me. At least I think she is, hmm, I haven't heard from her in the last couple of hours!

Pyjama Party Sunday

This post could probably be called - Should have..........

A month or so ago I had the opportunity to buy reserved seating tickets for the Australia v New Zealand rugby match that was on in Brisbane last night. I had brilliant seats lined up, 7 rows from the front and near the try line. Instead of buying a ticket for me, I organised tickets for friends. They had a fabulous night, said the seats were in a fabulous position, and the game was excellent.
I stayed home and wished I had bought a ticket, sigh.

During the week I was invited today to a BBQ lunch on the Gold Coast. The weather forecast was for crappy weather so I declined and stayed home.
The weather was beautiful today.

Despite my really bad judgement calls, I made the most of today, and stayed in my pj's until way after lunch time and finished a couple of crafty things. So as I stayed in my pj's I'm hosting Pyjama Party Sunday. I don't know why, as I wouldn't exactly say it was a party around here today, more like a pity fest. See above ⬆ and below⬇.

Firstly the block for Kat. Kat asked for a scrappy log cabin and bright colours. I'm pretty sure I got the bright colours, but oh dear I  really have a hard time with scrappy. This took me ages to make, because I kept on changing my mind on the colours/fabrics. This will probably be the first and last time you ever see a scrappy block from me. I kind of enjoyed making it, because it was interesting to see how far I could go out of my comfort zone, BUT, I will never make a scrappy quilt for me.
I've finished it a bit bigger than the 15 inches Kat asked for so that it can be cut down to size.

I also finished the Tiggly Winks quilt top. It almost ended up an art installation. When sewing the last three panels together I managed to sew the first one where the third one should have been. I was mildly pissed off, but persevered and started to use my trusty seam ripper, after a few choice swear words echoed around the house.  I was resigned to undoing it and sewing it back in the right order, then I realised I had started undoing the wrong seam.  It did get tossed on the floor at that stage, but I didn't quite get around to setting it on fire. After swearing A LOT more and walking off to take a break, common sense prevailed and I sat down and unpicked the correct seam and then sewed it all together in the correct order.

Don't look too closely at it, there are a couple of seams that leave a lot to be desired. I'm not pointing them out, because it annoys me enough and I took this pic from far enough away you can't really see them. It's not very good lighting, the colours are a bit off, and I just whacked it onto the design wall without flattening it out, as I wanted to quickly try and take a pic before I went out.
Despite the not so relaxing finish on this, I kind of sort of don't mind it now.

Now for the fun bit of my weekend.  Because I didn't go to the Gold Coast today, I was able to go out for late afternoon drinks with a girlfriend who I haven't seen for weeks.  We had a lovely relaxing time and a drink or maybe two.

Hastings St, Noosa Heads

It was quite busy on Hastings St (even though it doesn't look it from the photo) the sun was out, it's still winter and the temperature was about 22 C (72F) at 5 o'clock in the afternoon. So despite the pity fest earlier, I had a very nice end to the weekend.

WIP Wednesday - Roller Coaster Ride

Surprisingly, considering I had visitors staying for the weekend and I didn't do anything at all before Monday I achieved a lot more than I thought I would.

The Mystery Quilt block from week 2 is finished.  It took me 4 1/2 hours to make and it made me cry. Not much, but it's a long long time since sewing made me cry.  I have never tried foundation paper piecing before and probably definitely should have practiced first. Let's just say I was on a very steep learning curve and I probably won't attempt making that block again for a very very very long time.  Having said that, it looks pretty good, and it didn't become an art installation *, you can't see the bit that is a bit too small, but it's nothing a good shot of steam and some olympic ironing won't fix, because I AM NOT re-doing it.

A miracle happened and I finished quilting Spice Boxes, a happy dance is happening here right now.  Fanny Pfaff stayed on her best behaviour and I didn't have any more crazy dramas with it. I do think that unless I'm just piecing, the machine doesn't like being on for hours at a time and shows it by playing with the tension.

I now have to sew all the ends in by hand, which I can do in the evenings, cut off the feet, lol, I forgot to crop it before adding it to flickr, and then bind it. I'm going to have to order some fabric for the binding, as the print I had originally set aside for it doesn't look great, and there's nothing else in my stash that is big enough. I thought about a scrappy binding but I think that will be too busy.

Because I'm totally crazy, I've jumped in on a Christmas QAL. Shay at Quilting in my Pyajamas and Larri at Seams Inspired have started a Christmas QAL and of course, as I had a Kate Spain layer cake lying around I said I'd do it too.

I have all the pieces cut and ready to go to sew the boxes, now I have to cut the background fabric.


And just to prove that I'm totally out of my mind, this arrived in the mail today.

Yep, I'm going to be starting another project.

"Why?" You ask.

Good question. Hmmmmm..........................



Joining in to Lee's WIP Wednesday posts is really helping me keep a record of what I'm working on, and hopefully will make me finish some of these WIP's that have been hanging around for way too long.

Worked On this Week
Mystery Quilt -1 block  -  3 finished now, still have to catch up
Spice Boxes quilting - finished, yay, need to sew in the ends
Xmas Quilt QAL - cut fabric

Sitting on the Sidelines

Floral Bouquet

Monochromatic Block - blue for July

Still Procrastinating
Tiggly Winks  - applique

Plume quilt - make backing

French Roses quilt - first border (sorry have no idea why the font is different - Blogger!)


Still To Finish
Spice Boxes - cut to size and bind
Jacobean Flower mini quilt - quilt
Don't look Now cushion/mini quilt - quilt........ I think this probably should be in the UFO pile by now




Weeks Statistics
New Project -1
Completed - 0
Working On (or pretending to work on but really ignoring them) - ummmm, maybe 10 or more, uh oh I'm into double figures.


* Art Installation - referring to previous posts, where something I was making was quite possibly going to be burnt, stabbed, run over, or all three, these didn't make me cry though. If you go searching, be warned, one of them has lots of swearing.  I'm not angelic all the time!

Update on Exercise

I spoke too soon.

I am pretty much 100% positive I've either broken or chipped the bone in my middle toe on my right foot.  This happened during Monday's aquarobics class. I can pinpoint exactly when it happened, I tripped over my toes, yeah I know, how the heck do you do that in the water, I did, and it hurts a lot.

Symptoms, it's throbbing, my toe nail is not exactly how it should be, (I'll spare you the gory details), and my toe is swollen.

So far my record is 100% strike rate, every time I have exercised in the last 12 months  it has been detrimental to my health.

I'm thinking about taking bets on what will happen at tomorrow morning's aquarobics class.

Yes I am going to go.

I'm a glutton for punishment, either that, or I'm an idiot!

Exercise + Me (still) = Bad Outcome

"The definition of stupidity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results." - Albert Einstein.

OK so I don't think I'm stupid........ yet, but clearly I don"t think I'm meant to exercise.

Today was the day to start exercising again after being a little very lazy for quite some time.

After my previous not so happy attempts at walking, I thought aquarobics would be nice.

Hmmmmm

The class started at 8.30 this morning and ran for an hour, I smothered my face and hands in SPF 50 but somehow forgot about all the other bits that would need sunscreen.

Now I resemble a tomato,

or possibly a cooked lobster, 

no, 

definitely a tomato.

Mug rug

This is my first attempt at a mug rug.

I hope it won't be my last BUT...........

it's one of those works of art that when riding past (galloping as opposed to trotting) on a horse with your eyes closed it looks great. 

Up close...

not so much!

This photo looks fine, except for the HUGE hole in the yellow flower, left by the basting pin.

I massaged that out after seeing it in this photo.

What happened? 

A week ago I bought a Janome Jem Platinum so that I could go to classes and take a lightweight machine instead of carting the 13 kilogram monster Pfaff.

When the Pfaff went on strike I pulled out the Jem to practice and thought I could try making a mug rug.

Now you need to know that I have only ever sewn on Pfaff's since the dark ages (when sewing machines were first invented) so the Janome was new to me.

I merrily started piecing and was going really well, so thought "this is easy, why not try to quilt this mug rug!!!"

Hmm, in hindsight it would pay to practice before forging ahead.

Firstly I didn't load the bobbin properly, that meant that after stitching...... oh ...... about 1/3 of it I finally realised that it wasn't doing a particularly good job. I reloaded the bobbin and pulled out the worst lines.

Secondly, apparently I had the stitch setting set too short and it pulled the fabric when I was straight line quilting.

Thirdly, I'm an idiot and used waxed hand quilting cotton in the bobbin, in my defence I didn't realise it was waxed hand quilting thread or I wouldn't have used it, I'm not that much of an idiot!

The consequences of these:

The quilting is highly questionable.

The straight piecing on the right is now slightly wavy piecing. It does give it an interesting finish, ha!

It didn't end up square (or rectangular, lol) as after I squared it up and then sewed a basting stitch ( oh that's right basting stitch is large stitches not tiny little ones) around the edges it pulled it out of shape.

SO I give you my first ever mug rug. 

Actually I don't/won't  give you my first ever mug rug because I don't dislike anybody that much!!!

So glad I'm not in a mug rug swap and I bet a lot of other people are too!

I was going to pull it apart and fix it but I think it would be better to leave as is, as a reminder of what can go wrong if one doesn't take up the offered lesson on how to use the new machine and practice first.

You will be pleased to know that I have now had a lesson in how to use it.

(That's how I know what I did wrong!!!!!!!!)

Angst

I suffer from terminal worrying. I worry about whether my plants have been watered enough or have they had too much water. Have I bought too much food, not enough food when friends come to stay. Will the world really run out of food. Do I have on the right clothes today, is it going to rain, be hot, cold, sunny or cloudy. I worry about global warming, world peace, world war. Should I be wearing my granny knickers today, what if I am knocked over by a bus and end up in hospital wearing ugly knickers that they'll have to cut off and people will talk about me............


But my biggest worry of all and the one that keeps me up late at night, way past my bed time, is the whole commenting in Blogland thingy. That's the real worry.....


Where is the rule book on commenting in Blogland? 
Am I supposed to reply to every comment individually, do I comment in my own comments? Who will go back and read them, who will miss my reply? Do I personally email each person who takes the time to comment? This is what I've been doing, but what if I get mega famous and have a squillion followers? If I stop replying to every comment individually,will everyone think it's because I'm famous and I'm far too famous to reply? Or, will they realise that if each email takes one minute and there are one squillion comments it will take me one squillion minutes a day to reply to each and every comment. My fingers would be red raw and I would get RSI and then I wouldn't be able to reply to anyone. Then will everyone think I'm too famous to care about comments, and then they won't comment anymore. Ohhh the worry...................................

When you think you have made a mistake.......

When you think you have made a mistake, you probably have............

The offending row

Note to self:
When you are sewing all your blocks together for the quilt top and you think you might have made a mistake....STOP, and check, I mean really really check it properly. Don't just think, oh it should be ok. Because if you don't check it properly chances are that when you have finished sewing all those lovely blocks together to make your quilt top they are going to be in the wrong order, and it is going to really really really bug you.  In fact, bug you so much that you have to unpick all those beautiful straight seams, that have been neatly ironed open, and re sew them in the correct order. What would have taken a couple of minutes at the most and might mean unpicking one,maybe two seams, now, involves unpicking a whole row from the middle of the quilt top and then unpicking the blocks in that row,and sewing them all back together in the correct order.


I hope I learn from this mistake.

It's all  better now.

A scruffily quilt, pattern from Moda Bakeshop , I love the colours, the design of the fabric, Rural Jardin by French General. yummm.

I am very happy with it since fixing my error. Now for the fun part, basting, not. Then on to quilting, binding, and washing it to make it all crinkly, yay!

The joys of dating when you are not 17

Hope your sitting down with a cuppa as this is longer than normal.


The joys of dating when you are not 17, or should I call it the joys of dating when you are not 20 30 40, ok lets just say when you are not 40
and
you are

NOT

5' 10"
tiny
athletic

blonde with extensions

enhanced with plastic surgery

a sex goddess

and you don't like

men who think they are god's gift to women / the universe

large stomachs

hairy backs

lots of facial hair

I have been divorced for awhile now, and have dated a few men over the years. I genuinely enjoy my own company and have lots of great friends, but sometimes I think it would be nice to find someone to share life experiences.

It started with

Mr Boring

I had known him for many years before we started dating, although I hadn't seen him for quite a few years.  He seemed like he would be the perfect partner for me. We had lots in common, we knew each other well, but he treated me like a wife, not a girlfriend. There was no romance, he was pleasant, but not an ounce of zing in the relationship........nothing.
I was very comfortable with him, but I didn't want to be comfortable, I needed romance, attention, consideration, all the things I had been missing for years from my marriage.

He eventually moved to the States for work and was soon married within a few months of arriving.

I was hoping that one of my friends would be able to introduce me to one of their friends, but not one had a friend who they thought was suitable.

Next step was to try internet dating, I am sure there are many successes but I could write a book on the many failures, but I won't as I don't want to put off anybody who is thinking of trying internet dating. Here are a few of the more memorable ones that I can't forget, boy I wish I could.

Mr Ice Cream Man

Not quite as bad as it sounds, he owned an ice cream franchise.

We went out on our first date, a nice meal, pleasant conversation. Afterwards we went for a walk along the water front. He kept on trying to squeeze my breasts while we were walking, it didn't matter whether there was anyone else nearby, I would like to say he tried to fondle my breasts, but no, he squeezed them. He didn't last long!

Mr Rum

Another nice chap. We got on well, I enjoyed his company for the first couple of dates, until I found out he was an alcoholic, and would have work "lunch" meetings that would involve copious amounts of alcohol and last all afternoon. He would ring me all day and evening, telling me how much he liked me in a slurred booze addled voice, leaving messages on the answering machine. Not good for a long lasting relationship and quite frankly a bit scary.

There were quite a few other dates over the years, none too bad, none really good, until 

Mr Superior

I thought I had become well versed in weeding out the "duds".  Mr Superior and I emailed a lot, we had quite a few phone calls. I asked lots of questions.  There was one thing that was not quite perfect with this guy. He had told me that sometimes he initially came across as arrogant, but he was adamant that he was not arrogant. I was rather concerned as my ex had been somewhat arrogant, and that is one trait I do not like. 

I agreed to meet in Brisbane for lunch.  I met up with him, he was well dressed, he actually looked exactly like his photo, pleasant, polite,  until he started asking questions, well one question.
What did I find erotic? Now, hmmm, first date, who asks someone what they find erotic on a first date?  I was polite stupid and kept changing the subject by asking questions. He then started asking me when I was going to move down to be with him, and how we would have to rent a larger apartment as his was too small.  At one stage during the "date" he leant back in his chair, crossed his arms, looked down at me and told me that he would not support me financially. I bit my tongue and replied only, that I was devastated that he had ruined my plans for the future. I should have got up and walked away, but I was trying to be polite, so instead of walking away I was able to witness Mr Superior writing on the bill how much my coffee cost and how much I owed.

Mr Hook Up Man aka The Octopus

After Mr Superior I thought it was a waste of time emailing, talking on the phone first, because it didn't seem to make it easier to weed out the crap. I agreed to have a coffee with Mr Hook Up Man after only a couple of emails and one phone call.  We had a pleasant time, got on well, he was polite, interesting and   I agreed to go out for another coffee  the following day. Again, nice conversation, not possibly the man of my dreams, but a nice enough guy that I thought I might possibly like to get to know, until we were walking back to my car, when he grabbed me, pulled me to him and proceeded to try and kiss me madly in the car park. Now I'm no prude, but I don't think it entirely appropriate for two people to be grinding and kissing etc in a public place. I like holding hands, hugs, but overt public displays of affection are just not my thing. I pulled away from him, mumbled something about public displays of affection and got out of there fast.
He later apologised and said he wouldn't do that again,  I accepted and I thought as we had got on so well before he tried the stunt in the car park, I would go out with him again.
We went to a movie together, yeah I know, a risky business going to a movie - dark room, confined space, with a possible groper. However he had apologised for his previous infringement and we were seeing Inception, not a movie conducive to romance.  WELL, he tried every trick in the book. The movie is one that needs concentration to watch, and all through the movie he tried to grab my hand, rub it, rub my arm. It was so annoying, I wanted to pull my arm away and punch him in the face. I leant forward at one stage to stretch and he took the opportunity to slip his arm behind me and pull me towards him.  I should have punched him and walked out but it was just annoying as opposed to downright gross. There I was being hugged close to him with my neck at about a 45 deg angle away from him so he couldn't get close to my face. Eventually I pulled my arm away, he started rubbing my leg. I figured having my arm rubbed was better than having my thigh rubbed so I grabbed his hand. Occasionally he would turn to me and I think he was trying to see if he could get a kiss in, unfortunately for him my head was about as far away from his as possible while I was still sitting in the chair next to him. I was seriously contemplating getting up to go to the toilet and not going back to the movie. I don't know why I didn't.

The other thing that annoyed me, was his dress code. I know some guys are not exactly clothes horses and don't have a clue, but you would think he would have made an effort to wear something decent.  Shorts and flip flops are not my idea of a way to make a good impression when you are trying to "woo" someone. Unless you are at the beach.

I just don't get it.

"Why do men in their 40's and 50's revert to being 15 again." 

I'm starting to think that men believe that if a woman is over 40 and not a sex goddess the woman should feel grateful that they will go out with her, even more so if they actually want to have sex with her.

For me, it's back to the drawing board. I also need to walk out earlier instead of staying, although then I miss out on being able to tell my friends how bad these guys are, which makes for great conversation, and then they realize how lucky they are because they don't have to go through this crap.

I'm giving up on internet dating dating for the time being and going back to enjoying my life without the complications of beating off men who just want me for my body!!

My 100th post

I have something special to share with you today, as this is my 100th post.

I can't believe that I have actually already written 99 posts. I usually have the attention span of a gnat, and lose interest after 6 months.

Now for my 100th post, I thought long and hard about what I should write. Firstly I thought I could talk about the changes we have had over the last few years in the weather, where we are supposed to have sunshine most of the year, but now it rains an awful lot,  that is why I called my blog Sunshine? Paradise?. But really, who is interested in the weather, other than weather geeks? What a boring post, that could have been.

The *#!* Snowball Block Saga (cont'd)

Well, here we are again, Tuesday, the fateful day of the week that I chose to do those beautiful, wonderful, marvellous blocks.


The days have flown by and I figured I had enough time to calm down from my disastrous attempt at *#!*ing Snowball blocks.  I attacked  (not literally, at this stage) them differently this time. I thought, maybe it was due to my haste and inexperience last time, that they were so utterly crap. This time I didn't rely on my nifty diagonal straight line sewy thingy (technical term). I actually drew the lines on this time and gave the nifty diagonal straight line sewy thingy the flick. I was told by a wise quilter that this was the only way to do snowballs that worked, and by the way 5" snowballs are very difficult. Thanks for that info now.


My other decision today was to only do a few, that way I was less likely to make mistakes and get pissed off annoyed with them.


So I only made 6  *#!*ing Snowball blocks.


Only 2 were pretty much 5" square. One, I only needed to re-do one corner, two were close enough, they weren't actually, but I was beyond trying to do them again, and one was total crap.


So that's it folks I now have 25 *#!*ing snowball blocks that are sort of squarish and roughly 5".


A crappy photo below taken in the early evening, it was getting dark and I wanted to post about them  get it over and done with, tonight.  A crappy photo of crappy blocks, he he.

(They actually don't look as bad as they do in the photo, they are not very photogenic.)

No more, it's all over, finished!!!!!

I am hoping that if I sash them with a very dark grey they will look absolutely fabulous. 

I can still hope can't I.

It is going to be bigger than a placemat,  maybe a table topper size. BUT, I am never ever going to put it on my table.

Please, please warn me, and/or remind me, if I suggest I am going to do anything other than really basic blocks next time.

Back to the crochet, and maybe a bucket of some Moose Milk to help me forget.

PS. Mrs P you must have been out of your mind when you suggested I only needed to make 120.

A teensy bit annoyed

Snowball Night is a great idea, just maybe not for me. In defence of my language, some of the  following words are terms of endearment in Australia.


Please do not read any further if you have an aversion to swearing.


This is a copy of an email I sent yesterday.

Dear ........

I am going to do serious damage to myself. I hate those little bastard squares. What the hell was I thinking. I can't sew a straight line on the diagonal even with a nifty diagonal straight line sewy thingy, and get those shitty 2" squares to sit square. I have completed 20 snowballs, 3 of which are actually 5" square.  The rest are any bloody shape other than square, or if they are square they are 4.97" squares give or take a 1/4 inch or two. Bloody bloody bloody snowballs.  I think I might do some installation art with them, like stab them with a very sharp knife, repeatedly. Throw red paint all over them, and then burn them with lots and lots and lots of fuel. Anything that will be a very painful death for those shitty little m*****  f***** squares shapes.  Failing that I can probably make two placemats out of them, coz I am pretty sure there is no way on God's earth I am going to make a bloody quilt out of those bastards.

I hope you had a nice day.

Marg



Maybe you can see from that email that I have been having a little bit of a problem with my snowball blocks.

Not only am I not loving the colour of the ones I have already made, (especially as I had this absolutely fantastic vision in my head before I started), but now I can't make them properly either.

I was really looking forward to doing them, but making them small, leaves much less margin for error. And to think on the first couple of blocks I actually did the second line of sewing so that I could use the cut off corners as blocks in another quilt. HA HA HA bloody HA.  At least I saw the light after the second one, when I actually opened it up and looked at the size. If I can't piece a 5" square how am I ever going to be able to sew two triangles correctly into a 1"square.

Now I am beginning to remember why I gave up quilting last time. I need a bit of patience, something that I am obviously completely and utterly lacking. Great!  I am going to keep quilting, as I have about 8766 yards of fabric in my stash, double great!  Not forgetting I just ordered some more on the weekend.

I think I will join all my fat quarters together, minimum cutting, that should be easy peasy.  In the meantime I will let somebody else run for Quilter of the Year, as I am seriously not going to make the cut. (pun intended)

I'm off to crochet now.