So that's where my week goes....

“Don't say you don't have enough time. You have exactly the same number of hours per day that were given to Helen Keller, Pasteur, Michaelangelo, Mother Teresa, Leonardo da Vinci, Thomas Jefferson, and Albert Einstein.” H. Jackson Brown Jr-author

You may recall I announced my intention of doing a time and motion study of my life last week.  I didn't solve that pesky world peace issue  and I didn't invent anything that will ultimately benefit mankind. In fact I should have picked a quote that contained the words sleeping , eating,  internet,  and the phrase "sitting on my fat bum stuffing my face with salt and vinegar chips "  because according to my carefully collated research that would have accurately summed up my week.  

I start every week with a clean slate and 168 hours to fill. Every week I vow to make the most of every minute. And every week I wonder where the  time goes  and now that I  know -I'm kind of horrified.

Last week I caught Rip Van Winkle disease and wore a dent in my lounge cushions from falling asleep there most nights.  I went  from having a midnight bed time to falling asleep at about the same time as Little P, who goes to bed about afternoon tea time. Just when I was booking myself in for tests to determine whether or not I was suffering from narcolepsy,  I managed to stay up past 9.30pm. Last week I managed to clock up about 49 hours of bedtime which is pretty much unheard of for me. Last night I fell asleep at 7.30pm again which gave me plenty of time to write this post when I woke at 3am.

Earlier in the week I was patting myself on the  back because I managed to cram an entire working week into 4 days. How efficient is that? Strike off another 38 hours for work and give me a resounding clap thankyouverymuch. Let's hear it for superior time management. Wait until my boss gets my time sheet and sees that I've managed to clock up a whole new load of flexi.

Apparently I spent  three whole hours showering, dressing  and making myself beautiful last week which seems kind of ridiculous. I don't know how I manage to knock out the vision of loveliness that is me in a mere 25 minutes a day but apparently I do. Obviously running through the shower with a cake of soap and calling it bathing helps. Wearing my hair in a constant pony tail helps. And  slapping on  moisturiser and calling that "makeup" is a massive time saver.

Under the housework/cooking heading which covers pretty much everything that isn't sewing/quilting/picking lint out of my belly button  I logged 16 hours last week. I'm not sure how -since Mr. P actually cleaned the house but numbers don't lie people. I did spend a load of time cooking meals for the freezer because I'm scared I'm going to get to the point where I'll be wanting to go to sleep at 6.00pm right on dinner time.

I spent 3 hours talking on the phone last week and another 2 hours gossiping randomly in person.  Don't worry - I wasn't gossiping about any of you. And  I re-acquainted myself with television which reinforced why I gave it up in the first place. I'm going to say outright that Jersey Shore which started on free to air TV here after heavy promotion for what felt like months  is the worst show EVER and I only lasted 15 minutes. How can ANYONE watch that rubbish?  I wanted to punch Snooki at about the three minute mark. I did however log 6 hours of Melrose Place episodes for a total of 12 hours of TV because that's quality TV programming from the 1990's.  It would have been more but I kept falling asleep. I fully intended to stitch in front of the TV but since I  was falling asleep at the drop of a hat I thought I'd cut my losses and keep myself safe. There's nothing funny about poking yourself with a needle.

I got 14.5 hours of crafting done. That included a quilt finish, sewing half of two other tops together and fluffing around getting mad with one of my stitcheries. Some weeks I really enjoy the creative process and some weeks it's just a means to an end. Last week was the latter. I bombed on doing 15 minutes a day ...again. I feel like an abject failure.

Sadly all these figures add up to one thing. 30.5 hours left- all of which I apparently spent on the computer and since Blogger was down for a good 32 hours of the week that's just sad. I realised that despite all my attempts at being uber cool I really am a geek girl after all. And that I don't really have a life. And that I spend a huge amount  of my "free" time   meandering round the internet. Blogger and Google (and you lot ) are a bad influence. On the up side it's not like I'm off smoking crack or something in my recreational time so the internet is relatively harmless in comparison. Does it sound like I'm in denial?

PS. Pop on over to Kate's to see what people got up to that didnt spend 37% of their life on the internet this week in the 15 minute challenge.

15 Minutes A Day -Weekly Report

This week's effort has been completely abysmal.  I'm blaming the finger but we all know the truth. Quilting Gremlins. Yes - that's right. They stole into my house and nicked my crafty mojo. I didn't do a crafty thing until Saturday. That's four whole days of uncraftiness. I'm kicking myself.

I spent this week second guessing myself 8 times on the Dresden centres and sashing fabric. I decided it absolutely needed some obscure Aunt Grace fabric that was in print 5 years ago but ultimately couldn't find anywhere. Trust me - I spent 8 hours online looking. I went from being convinced that blue was the way to go , back to my original dark pink, through auditioning greens and yellows , back to pink, back to blue and finally settled on a medium pink. If you hate it for crying out loud don't tell me because  I just ordered three more yards of it for sashing. I ended up making 5 Dresden centres and tracing and cutting another 11.  I'm just relieved I made some bloody progress.

Fabric shopping happened again this week. Can I help giving in to temptation when I see stuff on sale ? I went to buy some plain black and came home with 8 metres of that and another 12 + metres of these two for backing. It was on sale for 40 % off and then if I took the rest of the bolt they gave me a further  30% off . It would have been criminal not to buy it.

I also bought solids and plan on  making them into something spectacular at some point. I've never worked with plain solids before. I usually consider them the plainwrap bread of the quilting world. (kind of beneath my notice )  I have been completely inspired by new ideas this week. It's like creativity has taken over my brain.

And in news you already knew -The Chocolate Star Quiltlet (happy now Becks ?)  got finished.

And I started cutting something fabric for something else. It seems that no sooner have I taken something off my WIP list than I'm putting something else on it.

These are already starting to look like a quilt top...sort of... I'm sure you get the idea.

Come back next week for another thrilling installment where Shay finds her sewing mojo and gets a load of things done! Hopefully.

Meantime , pop on over to Kate's to check out other sewing legends.

15 Minutes a Day Challenge

I've discovered there's nothing like almost slicing the top of your finger off to put a crimp in your crafting plans. There hasn't been a lot of sewing going on around here since that unfortunate incident  but I've had a lovely time dreaming about projects and planning. Sometimes it's nice to do that. 

My project for  the paper piecing quilt along is almost done. I haven't decided yet whether this is a wall hanging, new born baby quilt or table topper. Originally this project was going to be 4 full stars but after tracing the templates, cutting the fabric and piecing and sewing another 12 of these blocks to 3/4 finished I realised I had sewn the wrong fabric to piece number 3 on every single block.  Sometimes you have to know when to pack something away to try again another time. Having been introduced to paper piecing I'll definitely try it again at some point with a larger project (and this time I'll number my fabrics !)

The Dresden Blocks have come out of hiding as I contemplate how to attach circles to the centres with the least amount of pain. I keep reading that people do this before they put them on the backing blocks. The fabric I thought I'd use for the centres is not really "right" (far left ) and I set about auditioning and choosing a new fabric. I've decided on the blue because I think that's the most striking of these choices.

I finished another block for the Tis The Season Project. Yes ...those are blind mice. And ironically there are three of them.

The Australian dollar continues to do magical things which surely can't last forever so I felt justified  in indulging in a spot of shopping this past week. I bought backing for future quilts using Verna

 and Wild Thyme

And I treated myself to a fat 8th pack of  40 bits of Collections for a Cause - Faith fabric. I love this line more than anything I've bought since I went Meadowsweet mad about 15 months ago.

And this fabric is for the 'Tis The Season Blocks. And I went to an actual store to buy it!

 I'm on a shopping hiatus for a while now. No.... seriously.

Pop on over to Life in Pieces for the scoop on what other crafty peeps have been up to this week. Thanks for hosting Kate. Barring further unforeseen medical emergencies we'll see what I can come up with for next week!

A Crafty Week - 15 Minutes with Kate

I am happy to report I had a great week this week, probably helped by the 5 days I didn't have to go to work because of the Easter long weekend.

Tuesday I did nada which didn't auger well for the rest of the week. Instead of sewing  I made a mountain of fudge and rocky road and bagged up a load of Easter gifts for people at work so my entire evening was taken up doing that. Sometimes real life intrudes and that's just the way it is.

Wednesday - I attached the binding front and back to the Sparkle All the Way Christmas Quilt. Yes - I cheated. I machined that binding on. What's even more shocking is I used zig zag. And guess what - my head didn't explode.  This quilt was a PhD from August of last year. I'm glad to see the back of it. This years Christmas quilt is so much prettier.

Thursday - I attached the binding to the front of Little P's Go Crows quilt in preparation for hand sewing it to the back .

Friday and Saturday - I hand sewed the binding down on the back of the above mentioned quilt. Another finish. Extra brownie points should be added because I also taught Little P  to scream "Go Crows" at the top of his lungs.

And here he is examining all the different Elmo's and having quite an earnest conversation that only he and Elmo understood.

I bought Christmas ribbons on sale  ...yep I'm getting in early this year. Now I need one of those ribbon holder doodads because I am amassing quite a collection of ribbons.

Sunday - I finished two stitched blocks for the 'Tis The Season quilt. I'm hoping to find gorgeous fabric this week so I can complete the blocks as I finish stitching them. Naturally I have 100 metres of Christmas fabric in my sewing room and nothing goes well with what I have in mind for these blocks. I'm pretty happy with how they're turning out given my track record with hand sewing. An even stitch length would be nice but one can't have everything.

And I only just realised my reindeer and my birds are blind...poor eye-less things. Tough.

Monday - I finally got round to making 4 Paper Pieced Blocks for the PP Quilt Along.   I'm hoping to get a load of these done this week since I'm so far behind I'm probably never going to catch up. I've already amended my original "I'm going to do a full sized quilt" to "this would make a great baby blanket ".

And I started another stitchery for 'Tis the Season. It's actually really hard to stitch in a moving car, especially if you're driving.

I'm kidding. Mr. P was driving.

I'm pretty happy with this week. 2 quilt finishes , a new project and two stitcheries.  I'm feeling like the Queen of the Crafting world!

Hop on over to Kate's for more 15 minute reports.

15 Minutes A Day Challenge

Kate at Life in Pieces is holding a "15 minutes" challenge. If you haven't checked it out you should -because it's a sure fire way to get you being crafty every day or every couple of days, or how ever often you choose.

I did quite well this week. Tuesday-I cut and started making  the binding for "Saturday with Sara".

I tried to make sense of the Paper Piece QAL directions. Patterns and I are not friends.This is what instructions look like to me which is why I never work from an actual pattern.

現在，您可以重複步驟 所有其他件描圖紙（如果我有一個 4塊被子，我就這樣做，但如果我有塊被子，我按照下面的方法），也可以行約件描圖紙（“茶多酚“現在 的我已經厭倦了打

Wednesday I finished the binding ready to go on the quilt

Thursday - I cut the quilt to size.

Friday- I sewed the binding on to the quilt and called it finished. Yay!

Saturday-I did some stitching and started a new project

Sunday-I finished sewing the rows of the zig zag quilt together.

And had another look at the QAL instructions which now look like this ...

Bəziləri yalnız cant nümunələri oxumaq və ya təlimatlara əməl edin. Bu doesnt onları pis insanlar etmək .I'm planning to wait for the instructions to appear to me in a language I actually understand.

Monday-I  realised at 6.10 pm that tracing paper and freezer paper are NOT the same thing. Some minor swearing occurred and I planned to get tracing paper in my lunch break today. Ultimately I decided to use baking paper and see how it goes. I'm calling that 15 minutes because I worried about it for the next hour and then went and cleaned my oven ...this occurs annually so it was well past due. (Bicarb and vinegar works a treat in case you're interested and wont burn the living crap out of your hands if you touch it like commercial cleaners)

So not a bad week in all. A quilt finish, two stitcheries done, the start of a new project and lots of thinking about the QAL . How did you do with your 15 minutes?

PS. Becks took pity on me and posted video tutorials on how to paper piece....Hallelujah! Maybe this quilt will actually get done after all!

PPS. Im not hopeful that much stuff will get done on a daily basis this week since I have visiting royalty coming on Thursday.

15 Minutes A Day Weekly Report

It's reckoning day for the  15 Minutes a Day Challenge over at Life In Pieces (Hosted by the lovely Kate ) It was not a sterling week for craftiness at my house. When I went at it - I went at it hard . The rest of the time I totally slacked off! This is how the week crafted out.

Tuesday of last week - I pressed about 30 HST blocks and squared 81 blocks up. Then I laid out the design for the quilt. Then I sewed three rows together...Looking good.

Wednesday, Thursday and Friday were all bombs. Miss P and Little P came for a few days of sleepovers  and by the time Little P went to bed at night  I didn't have the energy to do anything but collapse. (Where do almost 2 year olds get all that energy from?) Friday I got home from work at what felt like Twenty dark o'clock and blobbed around for a couple of hours (that part involved aperitifs to end my working week ) and then I  spent a lot of time on the phone talking to Little Miss Sunshine because neither of us appear to know the meaning of a short phone call...

Saturday I finished the HST quilt top, then raided my stash and made the backing and then basted it all together.  I know 8 inch  HST's are not technically very challenging  but making this quilt  was more to prove I can do HST's without wanting to commit hare kare. I've decided to call this quilt "Saturday with Sara " in honour of the bringer of these fabrics and the lovely Saturday I spent with Sara last week. I love the simplicity and colours of this quilt. It screams "snuggle me".

Saturday also saw some stitching. I couldn't be outdone by Miss P.   

Sunday I bought these fabrics while I was at Spotlight...I went in with Miss P so she could buy an erasable marking pen. What can I say- they were 20% off - so they were down to $3.98 for a half metre. And they stack them  all together so they look all enticing and pretty and scream "Buy Me".  By the way, you each get blamed in turn for my fabric purchases.  Sara has had her  two weeks but I swear I'm moving on to someone else this week. I like to vary my excuses to Mr. P.

It wasn't all beer and skittles and fabric shopping on  Sunday. I quilted about 70% of "Saturday with Sara". In between I made chocolate chip cookies and did some other things I'll talk about later this week. 

Monday night after work I quilted the rest of Saturday with Sara! It's not perfect but I'm planning on washing this at one billion degrees so it crinkles up a lot to hide the imperfections. I'm not too fussed since I think a little imperfection will give this particular quilt some more character. I want it to look well loved and old.

So there was my week in craft. I'm committed to doing 15 minutes  every night this week. It all counts and once I start it's an enjoyable way to shift mental gears from the rigours of the work day.

I hope your week was full of 15 minutes. Thanks for hosting, Kate!

15 Minutes and a Giveaway

Kate over at Life in Pieces has been challenging herself for the last few weeks to do 15 minutes of sewing/crafting  related activity a day . I've been watching her progress.

I'm a slacker. I tend to do my creating in huge hunks of time on the weekends and on my other days off. I start the week with good intentions and then  tell myself I'm too tired after work Monday to Thursday and sit on my pattootie in front of the computer instead of doing anything.

Kate has made it official with a linky and she's challenging us to report our weekly progress. 15 minutes a day is all it takes. Or 15 minutes every other day if that's what you decide.  I'm in. If you want to join in here's the link. So from next week my Tuesday posts will be all about what I worked on/did DAILY in the previous week.  Yesterday after work I went ribbon shopping. As far as I'm concerned that's craft related activity.

Elizabeth at Such a Sew and Sew and her friend Wanda are giving away a stash of Reproduction Civil War Fabrics and a copy of the Civil War Diary Quilt book so if you win you'll have everything you need to make a gorgeous quilt. Even though I desperately want to win them for myself after seeing this finished top by Loz over the weekend - I like to play fair  and  so I'm sharing the chance for you to win this wonderful giveaway too.

So hop on over here and throw your hat in the ring. Even though I'm going to win them...I'm feeling lucky this week.