WIP Wednesday

I'm back on the proverbial bike. It's been almost 5 weeks since I last used my sewing machine. I completely lost my sewing mojo. Yesterday I made the big decision to do something, anything to try and get back into sewing again. It worked, yay.
First off I cut up some Hope Valley, Hometown  and some solids into eleventy million 3 inch and 3 1/2 inch squares for a scrappy chevron quilt. It seemed like that many!

Sorry it was very dull here today and I'm not used to taking photos in such poor light, so the colours in some of the photos aren't great.

Thanks goes to Shay who suggested making a Jelly Roll 1600 or Race quilt with her. As usual I procrastinated and took forever to decide which jelly roll to use. Shay had already finished her top, before I even picked out the roll.

I found the remnants of this Pure jelly roll in the bottom of a drawer and had a lightbulb moment.


I made this quilt top back in July 2010, it has been a UFO ever since. The jelly roll race would be perfect to make as the backing for it, and I'll have a two sided quilt.
Of course I can't do something without tweaking it a little. I saw this on flickr and came up with my own version.

Annoying spots and diamond print near the bottom where the fabric cut and the prints don't line up, grrr.

It didn't take long to sew it together and today I've basted, quilted it and I'm about to sew on the binding.

What a comeback after 5 weeks of nothing! I sure hope it lasts.

Worked On This Week
Pure quilt
Modern Chevron Quilt

Sitting On The Sidelines
Material Obsession BOM
Starflowers
Amitie BOM
Charm Pack Mini Quilt

Ignoring/Possibly Given Up
McFlurry
Mystery Quilt
Paper Piecing For The Terrified

Statistics
Finished - 0
Worked On - 2
Waiting Patiently For Me To Show Interest - 7
New - 2 (technically one was a UFO)

Check out all the other wonderful WIP's this week over at Lee's at Freshly Pieced.

Translation Tuesday

As it's Anzac Day tomorrow I thought digger was a good word to highlight this week.

image from here

I probably should explain ANZAC as well.

Anzac Day is the 25th April and is the anniversary of Australian and New Zealand soldiers landing at Gallipoli in Turkey in 1915 during World War 1. ANZAC stands for Australia and New Zealand Army Corps.  It's the day we remember all Australian and NZ soldiers who served and died in all wars, conflicts and peacekeeping operations. The spirit of Anzac, with it's qualities of courage, mateship and sacrifice continues to have meaning and relevance to the Australian national identity. On Anzac day, ceremonies are held around the country at dawn to acknowledge the service of our veterans.

image from here

During the First World War the term digger became popular to describe the Australian soldier, because in France and Belgium they were continually digging trenches. Aussie soldiers are still referred to as diggers.

BP's father was in both the New Zealand Army and the Australian Army, not at the same time! Many years ago, when he was in the Australian Army he was in Hawaii for a military exercise.  While he was there, his commanding officer, who shall remain nameless, was walking around the U.S. base. As U.S. soldiers saluted him when he walked past, the Aussie commanding officer would return the salute and say "G'day Digger". Apparently a completely natural thing to say in the Aussie Army. Unfortunately most of the U.S. servicemen had not heard the term "digger" and assumed he was saying something completely different. Suffice to say it nearly created an international incident!

Tomorrow is the 97th anniversary of ANZAC day

They shall not grow old, as we that are left grow old:

Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.

At the going down of the sun and in the morning

We will remember them.

Festival of Half Square Triangles

I've decided to enter Urban Stars into the Festival of Half Square Triangles. Nothing like leaving something to the last minute.


I originally posted about finishing this quilt (here) in December 2011. I used my Baby Go Cutter for the very first time, to make the HST's for this quilt. They were a breeze to cut and sew. It's all HST's except for the sashing and has a few more HST's on the back.

Lots of Hometown by Sweetwater was included, plus various co-ordinating fabrics from my stash. I'm so very pleased with this quilt, and it's perfect in my living area.

Unfortunately it hasn't been used yet as the weather has been too hot and humid here to snuggle under quilts, but it's been a lovely piece of eye candy draped over my sofa. We are heading towards winter now so I'll be using it as much as possible during the cooler months.

The back very crinkly straight out of the tumble drier.

I also love the backing. I used some of the left over HST's to piece a couple of strips and then added Lecien Basics Dots. The binding is Hometown City Streets in Mist. The machine quilting is organic straight lines, and the finished quilt is 53" x 53".





I'm sorry but for some reason Blogger is not letting me link within the pretty Linky button so if you click on the link below

here it will take you to  Canoe Ridge Creations page where you can check out all the other fabulous HST designs that have been entered into the festival. Thank you so much Megan for hosting a great party!

Aussie slang Translation Tuesday

I was having an email conversation with Thea over the weekend which involved explaining a couple of Aussie slang words and expressions.  I thought it might be nice to have a regular post on translating a quintessential word, phrase etc each week to try and help Aussify the world and maybe help with some confusion as to what we are really saying.  With Mrs P's blessing I'm starting Translation Tuesday.
It's always interesting to hear the different pronunciations of English words around the globe, but in Australia especially we have our own take on the English language.  Some words and phrases have developed from Cockney rhyming slang,  others have developed because one of the things about Aussies is that we love to abbreviate.  I'm sure it has something to do with the heat of summer here and the extra effort it takes to talk when it's so darn hot.  Although, a one syllable word or name is often lengthened  eg. John = Johhno. We're a strange bunch!

Image from here

Or if you prefer, this one below

Love this map Image from here

The inaugural Aussie Tuesday Translation word is

Oz

What better word to abbreviate than Australia. Australia has 4 syllables, that takes a lot of effort to say that, lol. A lot of Aussies blend syllables too, so it comes out sounding like Ozstraya. Most of the time we call it Aus,  from there it's been shortened to the written version, Oz.  So now you know why Aussies refer to their homeland as Oz and remember that when you pronounce the word "Aussie" you say it with a z not an s.

Waving madly - I'm still here

My blogging/sewing/quilting mojo has left me. I still have the will to live but that's about it.
I've contemplated a number of times about writing a blog post but just couldn't think of anything exciting enough. I've been lurking and reading blog posts but haven't had time to comment.  Thank you to my wonderful blog friends who sent emails wondering whether I was still alive. I am. Sorry Shay you'll have to wait  a bit longer for my fabric stash.

I had every intention of sewing madly over the last two weeks but it didn't eventuate.


I've been hanging out and socialising in Brisbane. I planned out my sewing before I left home. I brought down my baby sewing machine just in case, and put together a couple of bags of hand sewing projects to work on while away. It would have helped if I'd remembered to pack one very important bag in the car. The one that had the mat, rulers, rotary cutter, templates, the pattern that I was working on etc. Finding out that I had left all the important stuff at home, put me in a sewing funk. To pull me out of the funk I planned a trip to Spotlight to enhance my quilting paraphernalia and grab the tools I needed to work on my projects, that was fun and they had a sale at the time too! I only doubled up on one thing, which was another small rotary cutter. Everything else I bought including a mat and rulers, were different sizes to the ones I had at home. I even found this fabulous tool.

A doo wacky that you attach to the rotary cutter and allows you to add a seam allowance to your traced template pattern. It was really easy to use once you fiddle about to set the right distance from the blade. It made cutting out the pieces for the Circle Game BOM blocks so much easier and quicker as I didn't have to draw a seam allowance and then cut. I just had to follow the drawn line on the fabric from the template  and voila a 1/4" seam allowance was cut. I'm sorry I don't know what it's called and I've searched on the Olfa site and can't find it to add a link to it.

My spending spree should have motivated me, but life kind of took over and despite having all the stuff I still didn't sew much, at least the pieces I need have been cut out.

Last week I took a trip back home to see if the house was still there, secretly wishing it wasn't so that I didn't have to keep on getting rid of stuff so that it will be clutter free for the sale. Also to see whether the work had finished on the outdoor decking. It was and doesn't it look spectacular, sorry not the best photo as I just took a quick one with my iPhone.

While I was there I picked up my bag that I had left behind.

I'm slowly working away on anther Amitie BOM block, almost finished.


I'm enjoying the process of these blocks although it's slow going and I don't have much to show for the hours of work I put into them. I've almost finished the outer ring on this one, which I'll show in a later post.

The weather has been fabulous here. Blue skies and sunshine.




Lovely sunrises.

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