Not a Skerrick

No sewing this past weekend ...nothing ..nada. I wasn't inspired to sew a stitch. This no sewing jag I'm on is now getting to the point of ridiculous. If I don't create something soon - I may just explode. I did however play a lot of Hayday and Candy Crush Mania in between doing other stuff so I didn't feel like a complete slacker. 

When all else fails I like to do a little organising because I can convince myself that's a worthwhile activity and so I started with my pantry and wardrobe. I seriously have a lot of clothes and probably too much food. The too much food thing inspired the thought that I could probably eat out of my pantry and freezer for a month so I'm going to give that a crack for April. Stay tuned-I'm sure this will result in some very interesting meals....does anyone know what I can do with two jars of redcurrant jelly? And why did I buy a jar of brandy butter? Did I have a plan or was I merely enticed by the 99 cent price tag post Christmas? 

One monkey that I got  off my back this weekend was finally finishing the curtains for our bedroom. I bought the fabric in November...hemmed the sides of one half- put it up to check for length and there it stayed until two weeks ago when I finally hemmed them , and then got round to doing the second half. The second half has been sitting in a scrunched up mess  on the sewing room floor since then because the idea of pressing 10 metres of heavy fabric with blockout coating was just all too hard.....

It's nigh on impossible to take a good picture of anything hanging at a window but I gave it a shot anyway. I'm pretty much thrilled that I can open my curtains again and that they ended up hemmed at the same length (more or less) 

A spot of cooking this weekend. Prep for Bun Cha later this week 

And I hand made some gnocchi that turned out to be so large I've rechristened them gnoccioli( a cross between gnocchi and unfilled ravioli) 

My greatest achievement for the weekend was finding a floor rug for the guest room at the first shop I went into ....this room is still not finished but here are some "in progress" shots for you. It definitely needs some wall art and decor staging.   

A chunk of my weekend also went into transforming this 

into this....

Currently masquerading as a towel rack - it's destined to be a quilt rack , as soon as I screw up the motivation to decide which quilts I want to hang on it...folding them to fit just seems too hard. 

Not Quite Sure Where That Week Went....

It looks like I've turned into a once a week poster.  Lately I haven't been doing much that's particularly blog worthy or exciting and I'm sure you don't want shots of me making the bed, doing laundry or playing on my iPad.

Work continues on the guest room makeover. Mr. P is a crazy anal good painter and has insisted on doing 5 coats on the dressing table to get it to his satisfaction so I'm still waiting for that to go in the room. I have house guests next week so he's been told he is on an actual time frame and cant fluff about taking his sweet time like he usually does. 

Progress was made on the Seville Quilt this week. These orange peels are haunting me in my sleep. I counted them up and I still have 33 to do.....this quilt is starting to feel like I've been making it forever and 33 isn't all that close to a finish. But I will soldier on and I will prevail! (Yes it really is starting to feel like this is war) 

I've just come from Katy's blog where she talks about a photography course she's been doing , which just reinforces how crappy my own photos are!

My Not The Farmer's Wife sewing group met this weekend. There was a lot of laughter and some hot topics of conversation (missing planes, changing careers to become a phone sex worker, and ladies hoo ha's- don't ask!) No shots of the lovely ladies but I did get shots of some fabulous finishes.

Claire's orange peel quilt. She is now jiggying me along to finish mine, seemingly without the realisation that my peels are 10 times the size of hers... 

Val's Star Wars quilt. I think the force was with her on this one. It is fabulous. 

And Lorraine's scrappy stars quilts (she has recently discovered the joy of rotary cutting and is churning quilts out like nobodies business) 

I dragged out my poor neglected triangle quilt this weekend and added a few rows to the total. This picture was an "in progress" shot...Somehow I don't think this is going to make the finished list as I had originally planned for this quarter.

Some Saturday Stash enhancement for the yet to be started Lucy Boston quilt...not my usual colours and it was quite challenging stepping out of my comfort zone and purchasing these.

And lastly from the quilty front I'm currently working on a restoration project for a friend. This well loved quilt is about 15 years old and has been adored by three kids and really needed some TLC. It had no binding left so I've started with replacing that and I'll see what else I can do as I go along. 

I also worked on hemming curtains this weekend..but since that still isn't finished the results will have to wait for the next post and I have a feeling I'm going to be doing some weeping and wailing about them being different sizes. That'll be a fun post! 

Happy...

After what seemed like an interminable week at work last week, where I hurtled along at about 200 kilometres per hour, I was determined on the weekend to do only things that fit one of three criteria. Everything I did had to be either fun, exciting or it had to make me happy.

I started my weekend by leaving work 15 minutes early so I could get to the post office to get a parcel that was waiting. 

You can call it ridiculous that a woman of my age gets excited about Hershey's syrup. I don't care. It's the simple things that make life worth living and Hershey's is one of them. That and the sweet and sour mix that also came in the same box so I can make cocktails...

This is a Fruity Toad and while it may look like watered down wee it was actually really good...I think Sweet and Sour mix has magical properties.... 

I made some red velvet cupcakes 

I pottered around doing some sewing when I felt like it. These two blocks are destined to head off to Little Island Quilting  to be made into quilts for Mexican street kids. It doesn't take long to whack a couple of blocks together. Check out the post here if you want to know more or you want to help out. 

I dreamed of new projects and as soon as I finish the Seville Quilt I've decided I'm starting this one. I even raced out to buy the paper templates so I cant chicken out. 

This beautiful quilt was made by Hilda at Every Stitch. I was so inspired! 

We moved forward on the guest room re-do. I have officially vowed never to paint the walls dark colours ever again. It took 4 coats of white to cover up the previous colour. But it's done and while I'm freaking right out about having such pale walls I think it'll all come together and look fabulous in the end...

Before and After...

New (to me ) furniture has arrived, and re-painting and re-purposing has begun. 

Vile stool before (this was seriously one of the worst upholstering jobs I've ever seen ) 

After shot of the same stool once I'd had my way with it. 

And the piece de resistance - an antique dressing table which Mr. P has the pleasure of re-painting (in pretty much the same colour it is now- but it'll look fabulous with a new coat or two of paint) 

I pottered about in the kitchen...or sent Mr. P out to forage for food, and dint fuss about calories. 

And all in all I just did what made me happy. It was the perfect way to spend a long weekend. I think this is how weekends are meant to be. 

I'm Crabby...but it's not what you think

I had a crazy , crazy week at work last week. By the time I limped home Friday night all I could think about was eating, collapsing and sleeping in that order. This week is going to be the same so by Friday night I'm going to need something to relax.  Since hitting the bottle is socially frowned upon ,and makes people talk about you behind your back,  I joined up to this month's Friday Night Sew In as an antidote to the stress of the working week.   I'm planning to achieve greatness. Feel free to join me /us /half of Blogland as we sew our way to zen. 

In early December Sara posted a picture of a softie stuffed crab she had made.   It was utterly cute and I told her so. This week when Sara came to the big smoke for a flying visit - crab came too. When Sara went home Crab  decided to stay because Little P would like a crabby friend and because Crab was being bullied by all the other crabs because she's half albino. Thank you Sara. That was such a sweet thing for you to do, especially since you had to run all over Adelaide to deliver her.  Isn't she cute? Little P is going to adore her.

 

Achievements for this week included:

3 more Dresden Blocks made and 6 extra blocks appliqued  that were laying around applique-less. So far I have 16 of the 25 blocks done...minus the centre circles, sashing and borders...I did say this was going to be a long term project.  

I made 19 blocks for Little P's new quilt. This is not the quilt I originally planned to make for him this year but I saw it and fell in love. The thought occurred that if I concentrated on one thing at a time instead of at least three, I probably could have finished this top in a weekend. Marg originally sent me the link to  this quilt over at Diary of A Quilter  so I can't take credit for the idea since I am shamelessly stealing Marg's thunder and even more shamelessly copying the quilt almost identically.

Work continues with the painting of the french provincial dresser...the top is primed and ready for it's first coat of paint. The base needs another primer coat. The big question is - will we make the end of February deadline for the dining room and computer room reveals? Once this and the computer desk are done we're going to take a break because I can't face any more renovations at the moment. (I'm sure most of you  are breathing a sigh of relief too!)  Money is also an influencing factor.

Eventually my back patio won't have paint cans, heavy duty tools, half my kitchen dresser contents and all manner of renovate-y type things strewn all over it. I'm kind of used to it by now since it's been that way since July of last year.  Marg's visit in April will be a good excuse to tidy it up so we can pretend we live like normal people for a while.  

I won a giveaway at 13 Woodhouse Road a few weeks ago. My Sudoku Quilt Kit arrived this week. I chose the Central Park fabrics. Pretty! Thanks again Shruti and Fat Quarter Shop. And the rainbow batiks for Little P's other quilt arrived this week so I haven't been entirely deprived of fabric on my No Fabric February Journey. I am happy to report I haven't bought a scrap of fabric so far.  Thank goodness I can surf the Internet quilt shops for free because I am suffering serious withdrawal.

I finished the quilting for Lounging Around at  7pm tonight. I'm doing the Happy Dance. I'm really liking the way it turned out. Here's a sneak peek. I'll show off the whole thing when the binding is done and it's been crinkled.

Call me a legend. Despite my incredibly busy week I managed to achieve all my quilting goals.  Now if I could just work out where the weekends go or convince my boss to give me every Friday off my life would be complete.

I hope your weekend was full of crafty moments.

Goals for this week :
3 more blocks for Dresden Heaven
Finish Mr. P's Quilt
Finish the  remaining 8 blocks for Little P's quilt

P.S. I  baked this weekend. Pop in tomorrow for a laugh at the results.

A Post About Nothing

Oh good - you're all still here . It's been so long since I posted I wondered if when I came back you might have wandered off to read other more committed bloggers.  My only excuse for not being here is that  "I sat in the computer chair for 5 days until it moulded to my butt shape " isn't exactly a riveting blog post title.

It's Australia Day today so we celebrated the day by eating Aussie food in our pyjamas. Vegemite for breakfast- snags and sauce for lunch and roast lamb for dinner. I also spent the day talking in an Aussie accent. I'm really good at Aussie accents....

I had hoped to bring you Mr. P's completed Loungin' Around quilt a few days ago, but the quilting deities decided it was not to be.  I wasted 2 hours basting, then another two hours unbasting and attempting to stick the backing to the floor with 83 different kinds of tape and it just wasn't happening. If I could have used the staple gun I would have - it just seemed pretty extreme, not to mention detrimental to the tiles. Eventually I spat the dummy, cried and told the quilting gods what I really thought.  It wasn't pretty. It involved a lot of profanity. Bad profanity and 400 basting pins sailing through the air.  So  I decided to ignore Loungin' Around for a while. It's gone to the naughty cupboard. Mr. P confessed that  if I had dragged it out again today he was planning to go to a mates house to watch the cricket and he doesn't even like cricket.

I spent a few days pondering whether quilting and I are really suited to a long term relationship. What do we really have in common? Can we make this work?

By today I was going crazy with sewing inactivity so I decided to whip up some Dresden's since I have sadly neglected the poor Dresden quilt for a few weeks.  Dresden's  are mindless and repetitive and hard to stuff up. I got 6 done.  More than halfway home. I still like this quilt.

Confidence restored I decided to tackle the windmill quilt this afternoon.You all know my history with this quilt. It exists to taunt me. It has been poking it's tongue at me for over a year. Today I dragged it out of the cupboard and hand sewed all the mistakes. It took me quite a while. There were lots.

Then I finished piecing the backing too...I was too lazy to smooth it out properly for the photo op...

On to the dreaded basting next. I'll wait for Mr. P to be at work since he's still recovering from my last attempt....

I bought some new fabric  (Sara made me do it )  She posted about these fabrics on her blog and I realised they would be perfect for Little P's next quilt.

Unfortunately I have vowed to finish 2 quilts before I start another new one. That'll leave me with two Phd's. I'll feel justified in starting something new. A girl needs a few projects on the go at once to stave off boredom. 

  

I'm back to work next week (where did that 3 weeks go?) so I am going to spend the next few days in a frenzy of activity doing everything that has been left undone.  I'm currently on the hunt for some turn buttons  that are proving to be the most elusive doodads on the planet. 

I'm making February Frugal Grocery Month....stick around for that! Since I cannot fit another single thing in any of my three freezers I doubt we're going to starve. Anyone else want to play along? Last year I got really creative by using what I already had and saved 500 bucks for the month. (That amount of money can buy a lot of sewing related items!)  

P.S. One more coat on the dining room table and it's done!

The "D" Word and Other Stuff

You'd think with me being on holidays I would have spent this week being a whirling dervish getting all sorts of things done. I managed to get some annual cupboard cleaning done but I lost my puff by about Wednesday.  I'm calling that my down time for the holidays. Expect activity/results this week.

I spent two and a half days this week sulking and holding my own little pity party about having to go to the dentist. But I went.  I want to acknowledge that I know my dislike of the D word is completely irrational. For a grown woman to be throwing up in fear the morning of a dental appointment is so not cool. I've got my big girl panties on and am going back Tuesday. And next week too. I am about to make at least 6 months worth of payments on this dude's beamer or fund his next holiday overseas. 

In other news, I finished the table runner for the outdoor table. The outdoor table currently has the dining table on top of it - so I had to improvise for my photo shoot.

The horror of the kitchen renovation has started to fade and I'm tired of looking at my dark wood dining room furniture so all aboard the renovation train. Next stop - the dining room.  Decision made -I was on it this weekend.

I bought this table two years ago thinking it would be a nice table to refinish. It spent 18 months on the back patio when I decided I didn't like it after all and now the kitchen is finished I've decided  it's perfect for the dining room.  It was cheap , and it came with chairs which Miss P has since inherited along with our old dining table.

Here it is with one coat of primer. Since I'm thinking two coats of primer and three top coats and then curing time this is going to take a while.  I don't want to poly it when it's done because of yellowing ...any other suggestions to protect it, from you experienced painting type people out there? I'm going to distress it because Little P likes to use his spoon to play drums on my dining room furniture at mealtimes. Any experiences you'd care to share about how else I can make sure the paint doesn't peel off 4 minutes after it's finished will be most gratefully accepted.

I did the mental maths on cleaning the existing upholstery on the dining chairs I bought last week versus whether it was cheaper to bite the bullet and re-upholster them.  I can attest there are some truly ugly upholstery fabrics out there. I saw most of them yesterday. I found something perfect ...eventually.

I have RSI from pulling all the old staples and upholstery off. I know this is not going to be everyone's cup of tea and doubtless some of you are thinking "Has that girl lost her marbles?" Wait until you see the whole room finished. It's going to rock.

I've never had an actual light shade in my dining room. Yep-we're so classy we've had the bare bulb hanging out of  the batten for 9 years. I defy anyone to say I'm high maintenance. The hunt is now on for the perfect light fitting.

I whipped up a cover this week for my work diary and then shoved it straight back in the cupboard. Touching it while I am on holidays seemed almost sacrilegious.

I got all Betty Crocker this afternoon and baked Neenish cupcakes. I'm trying to lose some weight so obviously I had a brain snap when I decided to bake freakin' cupcakes.

Mr. P and I popped off to the movies last night to see "The Dilemma". Not being a Vince Vaughan fan I wasn't expecting too much . I wasn't disappointed. Save your money and go see Harry Potter twice.  

  

My goals for this week - my poor neglected Dresden's and some movement on Mr. P's quilt. Watch this space!

I hope your weekend has been wonderful.