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Fun times at Chez Sunshine.

MARG AND SHAY

Getting to know you - me

I saw this a few weeks ago on Sarah's blog at Sara in Le Petit Village and I think it's a fun idea. It also doesn't require tagging other people. If you want to join in please do.
I don't usually share much about other stuff in my life so some of the newer visitors to my blog, (hello new readers and thanks for stopping by) will probably be interested bored stiff, to find out some incredibly exciting facts about me.

So here goes,

Age: old, but I don't feel old, I get a fright sometimes when I look in the mirror as I expect a twenty something to be looking back at me!
Bedsize: queen
Chores You Hate: vacuuming
Dog or Cat: both, 1 dog, 2 cats and Arnold the Siamese Fighter Fish oops, Arnold passed away last week
Essential Start to Your Day: waking up
Favourite Colour: this week, aqua
Gold or Silver: I love gold, but I wear a lot of silver these days.
Height: short 5' 2 3/4" that 3/4 of an inch really counts
Instruments You Play: piano, very badly
Job Title: slacker, mother of teenager,  once upon a time, long long ago in a land far far away - Credit Controller
Kids: 1
Live: Sunshine Coast, Queensland
Mother's Name: my sister and I call her John, not her real name,  long story.
Nickname: none
Overnight Hospital Stays: a few including tonsils, appendix and DVT
Pet Peeves: rude people, especially those that don't say thank you
Quote from a Movie or Show: I can't remember what I did five minutes ago, so no chance of remembering a line from a movie. Hmm how about - Go ahead, make my day!
Right or Left: right
Siblings: yes, 1
Time You Wake Up: too early
Underwear: yes
Vegetable You Hate: snow pea sprouts
What Makes You Run Late: the internet
X-Rays You've Had: too many
Yummy Food You Make: lots of things, Prawn (shrimp) and lemongrass risotto, I make a pretty good omelette too (most of the time), guacamole
Zoo Animals: penguins

Random Stuff

Nothing to show craftwise, so I'm sharing this instead.

Shamelessly taken from here

Organising, bats and geese

Im going to get on my soap box and whinge. I know it's wet season here, and in the last few years, March has been notorious for a lot of rain, but I'm over it. Well and truly over it.  In the last couple of days we've had another 110+ mm of rain, yep that's another 6 inches. That takes it to over 400mm (almost 16 inches) in 13 days. Sunshine? Paradise? my @ɹ$€, no sunshine and it's definitely not paradise when everything is damp and going mouldy.

OK off my soap box now.

I've been de-cluttering, and will be for the foreseeable future, as it's slow going.  More photos to come eventually.
My sewing room.

A partial tidy up. So far, my yarn stuffed in the shelves, fat quarters in Samla boxes and yardage jammed carefully placed in shelves, and Karma, surprised that there is carpet in this room, not just fabric and crap all over the floor.
It's going to look crap again very soon, as this room is going to be painted this week, so I have to move everything to the centre of the room and cover it with drop cloths and then move it all back again, yuck!

During the week I had a visitor. I had one of these last year too, lucky aren't I. I'm glad I'm not the type to freak out at having a bat flying around my house.

Sorry the photos aren't great, I may not have been screaming like a girl when the bat came in, but I wasn't about to get up close and personal with it either.  This time the cats and dog didn't notice it, so I shut them in the bedroom, opened all the outside doors and crossed my fingers that it would find it's own way out. It did, phew! You may remember that last year I woke up in the middle of the night to the gentle noise of a bat flying into the rotating ceiling fan above my bed and being flung across the room into the wall. No harm was caused to the bat. This time it was because I forgot to shut the screen doors before dark.

On the sewing/crafty front, I worked on another block for Foundation Paper Piecing For The Terrified. Katy has posted some fab tutorials and I can genuinely say I'm no longer terrified of paper piecing. I'm still not sure whether I love it enough to make a whole paper pieced quilt but I'll certainly feel confident to give it a go to make smaller things like potholders or pincushions. On the other hand I've wanted to try a pickle dish or New York Beauty quilt for awhile now. Maybe just a mini quilt later this year.

The Circle of Geese is my latest attempt. It was not without problems, like forgetting to check that the piece I am about to sew is sitting in the right place and not folded over so that I sew it all wrong. That happened twice. Also not checking to make sure I haven't picked up the next couple of pieces along with the piece I am sewing, because they were sitting too close to the machine and as I sewed, they came along for the ride.

That would be the two white strips hanging from the bottom of the block, after being sewn in to the seam of the white piece pinned diagonally across the block. This may have happened more than once. 

Yes, I'm a slow learner.

Anywho, despite a couple of setbacks and seams unpicked, I'm very happy with the result.

I used some scraps of Amy Butler Soul Blossoms, the fabric I'm using for the Starflower quilt. Amazingly, some of the geese even worked with fussy cutting. Now that's a minor miracle!

Pinterest

There has been a flurry of posts and discussion about Pinterest lately. I'm sure you have seen a lot of the discussion popping up too.
Thanks to Anna at Thimbleanna, I found this article Pinterest at opensource.com on why you should keep on pinning and allow your pictures to be pinned.

This quote was particularly interesting and I think he has hit the nail on the head, so to speak.

Photographer Trey Ratcliff of the Stuck in Customs blog embraces the open approach to the web.He writes:

When it comes to sharing your photographs online, you can go in two directions. You can put small images online, watermark them and then spend some or all of the week chasing down people that have used them inappropriately.

Or, you can be like me.

Offer up all your creations in maximum and beautiful resolution to the will of the web. The web, and the universe, has a certain flow to it. You can become one with that flow and enjoy the ride. You can let the opportunity of what-can-be motivate you rather than the more poisonous fear-of-loss.

This I think is also an interesting and valid point, taken from the same article. 



But if you’re truly dedicated to being a barrier to sharing, you’re going to have to stop using the Internet. Anything you put online is going to be seen—and that means it’s going to be inspiration for someone else to create. Further, you can’t help but be inspired and create your own work through the lens of your experience. So if you’re not willing to share, what it really means is that you’re online, taking inspiration from others, but you’re not willing to give back to the community.

I think that there will always be people who blatantly copy and take the credit, you don't have to see things on the internet or on Pinterest to be able to copy something. I hope common sense prevails and we are able to use Pinterest how it was intended.

Isn't sharing what the internet is all about?

When I first joined Pinterest I pinned what others had pinned, with no thought to who it belonged to originally. Most of those I have removed if I haven't been able to find who it was originally attributed to. These days I personally make sure I'm pinning something that can be credited directly back to the original. If I can't find who initiated that picture etc I don't pin it. I don't pin purely photographic photos. I pin pics from interior design blogs, crafting blogs, food blogs, tutorials or online stores all with links to the original site. I love it when someone pins my photos. It makes me feel good. It shows me that someone actually likes what I make.
The jury is still out on whether it is still legally ok to pin, in the meantime, I'm not going to delete my boards but I will take care as to what I pin.

Who's Your Favourite?

So cute!

A bit quiet

Karma, check out that tongue!

It's been a little quiet on the blogging front at Chez Sunshine. Life has a way of taking over sometimes.  I've been trying to read as many blogs as possible but unfortunately have not had the time to comment.  I don't think I'm the only one in this predicament either, what's with this time of the year being so busy?  I'm crossing my fingers that over the weekend I'll have some time to get back to normal.

Pyjama Party Sunday

Mrs P at Quilting In My Pyjamas is hosting PJ PS this week, so hop on over to link your post and see what she has been up to this weekend.

Pyjama Party Sunday

Come and join in Pyjama Party Sunday. You don't need to have been in your pyjamas to participate, it's just that Pyjama Party Sunday sounds a whole lot better than Tracky Dacks Sunday (translation for non Aussies: tracksuit pants) or T-shirt and Jeans Party Sunday or Saturday.  I'd love you to join in and link up so we can all share in the love of PJ PS.

I was hoping to have this finished by this afternoon. Didn't happen.

I waged a war with the sewing machine and finally won, and had it fmqing for me without it changing the tension every 5 mins. Until then, my stitching was not exactly show standard, lol.

Just sneak peek photos today as I worked on the Red Monochromatic Block  today too, but can't show you the whole thing until it's finished. A huge thank you to Melissa for sending me some gorgeous snippets of red fabric to help me with this month's challenge.  A colour I love but for some very strange reason I don't have very much red in my stash. I will have to change that, I can feel a shopping spree in my future!

We had a lazy start to the day, Bitchypoo cooked pancakes but didn't quite read the recipe correctly.

Melt the butter before adding it to the mix!
Check out:
a) the large lumps of butter in the mix
b) how grotty the pan is, and
c) the smallest pancake, it has eyes and ears, should we try and sell it on ebay?  I could use the funds for my red shopping spree, lol!


Hope you all had and are having a lovely weekend,  and especially if you have an extra day this weekend for Memorial Day.

Pyjama Party Sunday

Easter, it means three days so far of playing in my pj's, woo hoo. Monday and Tuesday are looking good too. Although Monday pyjama playing will be interrupted by a family BBQ lunch at my parents house.

I have been playing and achieving quite a bit, for me, anybody else would have probably started and finished a couple of quilts by now!

I played with these.

I finished this quilt.

I worked on this.

I even realised that I had a tiny bit of wall behind the door in the study/third bedroom/fabric and wool stash room where I could have a design wall.........finally. So up went the piece of flannel that I use as a design wall and a bit of painters tape, voila a design wall.  If it works, I'll think about putting something up that is more aesthetically pleasing, in the mean time it is ok, even if it does look a bit crap!

Lots of playing with fabric. Always a winner when I'm procrastinating.  I'm still not sure what I'm going to do with the first bunch. No lovely neat piles of fabric for me, more like messy and spread out to see how they look.

It's funny, if you asked me whether green is a favourite colour of mine I'd say no, but look how much green is in the above two pics of fabric stash. I do think I'm partial to those light yellowy greens.  The greens in the second photo are going to be part of another quilt I'm about to start.  I have about 10 quilts on my to do list, but when I was playing with my fabric, I decided to skip all of those and start on something that I hadn't even contemplated doing. Oh well, at least I don't have to buy any fabric for this one, it's using up some of my stash.

 The weather has been absolutely glorious, so a fair bit of this has taken place too.

 Look at those beautiful blue skies. Normally at Easter the weather is 99.9% sure to be horrible, wet and grey, but as Easter is so late this year, the weather has been perfect. We stayed home this year, because Easter is so hectic on the roads, I went away only a couple of weeks ago, and we just love staying at home and hanging out, who wouldn't with this view.

I finished unpicking the circles of doom, now that was an achievement. I had to double check that I hadn't missed any as I really thought it would take me f.o.r.e.v.e.r to unpick those. Now to start quilting them.............again, sigh!

Take a look at this little pile. I've finally started English paper piecing. How cool is that. It was so quick and easy. It didn't take me long at all to do these. Not that I will ever attempt to make a whole quilt out of these, but it's something else I can do at night which doesn't involve much brain power.



Link below to Pyjama Party Sunday, so that we can see what fabulous achievements happen when you play in your pj's.
Remember you don't have to have been in your pj's, we're not going to check on you, but if you have something crafty or exciting to show please join in.
I'm off to play in my pj's for the rest of the day, I hope everyone is having a wonderful Easter break too.

Tuesday ? and it's a bit late - and tails

It's been a very busy week at Chez Sunshine. Including, my dad's birthday on Friday,  partying on the Gold Coast, meeting people I haven't seen in f.o.r.e.v.e.r., meeting up with people I first met in Singapore 20+ years ago,  moving everything out of all the wardrobes, new wardrobes, trying to put everything back into the new wardrobes, going to Brisbane, and a teensy bit of craftiness.
The only craft oriented activities that happened in the last week, were finishing the binding on my dad's quilt in time for his birthday, I'll show pics in another post, and a couple of crocheted carrots. I spent a lot of time finding lots of inspiration (that I don't need) on the net. I already have way too many projects lined up without needing to add any more.

My list of things to finish:

• Disappearing nine patch quilt - backing/basting/quilting (this is going to end up a UFO)
• Spice Boxes - quilting
• Not Karma's quilt - backing/basting/quilting
• Bitchypoo's quilt - backing/basting/quilting
• Summer In Paris quilt - backing/basting/quilting
• Lily's quilt quilt along - everything!!!!!!
• Charley Harper quilt along - pretty much everything
• Brown block for Monochromatic challenge - it's almost the end of the month and I still have the embroidery to finish.
• French Roses quilt - 21 blocks to go
• Start the Sarcastic Quilter quilt along
• Crochet throw, crochet more squares and sew ends in.

I'm sure I've missed things in that lot too.  Gosh that's a little daunting, did you notice how many backs, and quilting need to be done? I think that tells you something doesn't it, I like making the tops but not the rest of the quilt!!!

Sunset photos from this week.






A lovely photo of Karma, taken by Bitchypoo.

Poor boy, how embarrassing.

One Hot Rabbit

You all know how I've loved George Clooney from afar. Lake Como is just way too far to go to stalk him sit on his doorstep.

Unfortunately even though I've bought a Nespresso coffee machine in the hopes of wooing him, he hasn't shown the slightest bit of interest.

BUT when I saw Kirsty's photo of George I knew that I had been going about it all the wrong way.

I needed a plan.

Thank you very much Kirsty for sending me the photo.

I needed something more than just a Nespresso machine, after all, they are everywhere.







What Chaud Lapin (Hot Rabbit) could resist one of these?

Even the cat couldn't resist, so I think I'm on a winner here.


George Clooney come on down!!!!

P.S. I have a back up plan too, if he's not particularly partial to crochet, I can sew some up too.

Friday Night Sew In

Fridat night I stayed home instead of going out partying/clubbing, lol.  Pj's were on, ready for my second ever Friday Night Sew In.

I had been sewing all day to finish this quilt top, so even though I got myself organised (pj's on),  by the evening I had run out of steam.

I had grand plans to attach the binding on this quilt,

but I hadn't trimmed the quilt to size and I wasn't in the mood to get it out and move everything off my large cutting mat.

Instead I pieced a block for the Monochromatic Challenge.

That didn't take long and I was going to join in on the great carrot sew along party, but by then I'd had enough of sewing so I made this instead.

The cat seems to like it.

Then I cut a few of these for the Lily's Quilts Quilt Along.

Not quite as productive an evening as I had planned, but at least I've pieced the block ready to embroider, and I started on cutting out the Dresden blades, so not so many to do today. I caught up with google reader and flickr.  Oh and I started on developing a prototype for a crochet carrot. Hopefully I'll be able to post a crochet carrot tutorial soon.

Friday Night Sew In is over at Handmade By Heidi, so check out all the other (and probably far more productive) posts from everyone else.

Tuesday Tidbits (and tails)

I'm making up for yesterday's post. I suppose I could have eked out all of this over a number of posts, but I'm finding it easier and quicker doing it this way, which gives me more time to quilt and crochet, and that's a good thing!

The backing for Strawberries and Champagne (pre-pressed).

I used most of what was leftover from piecing the front, 12 inch squares and a vertical and horizontal line of 2" x 6" strips.

Bitchypoo has sort of tidied part of her room. She bought the comforter and a couple of the cushions on sale with money she has saved from her part time job and she commandeered a couple of my cushions.  The rest of her room still looks like a clothes bomb has exploded but at least her bed is made and looks ok.

Friday we drove down to Brisbane to see Wicked on Friday evening, it was fabulous, I spent half the evening drooling over the fabrics in the costumes, looking at colour combinations. I especially loved one of the Emerald City costumes. Unfortunately I can't find an image of it.

Photo from The Age newspaper.

We stayed in Brisbane Friday night and came back Saturday. Instead of shopping we opted to go to the Museum and had a look at the Science Centre. It's quite small compared to others we've been to but it was fun.

A couple of photos of my "angel" pulling faces.

On the way home I picked up Fanny Pfaff as she was back from brain surgery and now should be like brand new. I haven't set her up yet as I'm really enjoying using the Jem.
Quilting has begun on the Strawberries and Champagne quilt, it's going ok, not quite as well as I hoped but it looks ok, and as the pattern is so busy the mistakes are not going to stand out, phew (I hope!).

Beautiful morning light and little wispy clouds this morning.

I've picked these for the next monochromatic challenge - guess what colour, lol!

This gorgeous stack of deliciousness is for something I'm designing. Cross your fingers for me please that what is in my head will work and look just as good if not better once it is pieced.

Finally, we can't have a Tuesday post without my wonderful Bailey.

This is his current favourite spot to chill out when he's resting from being Keeper of the Quilts.
Excuse the mess in the background, that's my pile of stuff that's ready to go out to the recycling and rubbish bins.