Goodbye February

It's the last day of February , and the last day of the Australian summer, and I know you're all DYING to know how Fabulous February  went. I'm going to give you a re-cap  since  I feel like I should be accountable because  I made such a big deal out of it and not because it's wildly interesting.

Drought like sewing conditions were experienced during all of  February , aside from the ottoman cover and 5 blocks I did for “A quilt for Illene”. I didn’t even come close to finishing anything from my WIP's. I did however have time to plan another project. Several actually.  I'm learning imagination and quilting vision are terrible things when you have two or three UFO's staring you in the face. I want to start something new but my conscience won't let me. On the up side, at least I have a conscience.

From planters , to garden cleanups, a re-purposed coffee table which metamorphisised ( is that actually a word?)   into an ottoman , and the start of our laundry renovation I feel like we made a dent in some of the projects that have been  germinating ideas for a long time.  So I'm doing a happy dance about having finished some of those things.The desk I'm going to re-finish is still sitting on the patio taunting  me. It's cool isn't it, that inanimate objects speak to me? Please tell me that's normal.

Those poor dead people are just going to have to wait a bit longer to be found. I started out with the best of intentions and did a bit of  genealogy but sputtered early in the month. It’s not like a 200 year old dead guy is going anywhere –he’ll still be right where he is in March. Deceased ancestors are reliable that way.

Damn you McDonald’s for building within easy walking distance from my office – I can practically see the Golden Arches from my desk. I’ve done multiple Macca’s runs for work lunches and have become increasingly  friendly with other junk food retailers in my local area. (Hello Vietnamese Takeaway , Local Cafe/Sandwich Shop, the place that sells those mini sache tortes, and the local Bakery  - you should probably be sponsoring my blog  )  I gotta confess I 'aint feeling very foxy. Ronald and Hamburgler are gonna have to find some new playpals in March.  I need to make water,  fruits and vegetables my alternative friends.

On the frugal front if you don’t count my slip with the fabric from last week (which I forgot to mention to Mr. Pyjamas) we've done pretty well. Grocery savings this month amounted to a couple of hundred dollars which went towards the new computer.  I know we could still do it better, so I'm particpating in a grocery game/challenge at 1 Crazy Journey in March. Flamingo Mama is posting the rules Thursday so come check it out - it looks like fun.

I’ve been a social butterfly this month. Fringe is on here  and we've been to two events so far, as well as doing something else every weekend.   All this socialising has been very challenging for me but I’ve survived. Watch me play hermit for the next month.

And dammit - I am going to finish something quilty before March 31st. I promise.

Round up of my week

Meatless Monday is on hold this week since we’re going to be at my in laws for dinner tomorrow to celebrate my father in laws birthday and they have decided on Chinese. So we are having Herbivorous Tuesday instead and will be pretending pasta is a plant. Awesome vegetarian and pretend play all wrapped up in one meal! How can we lose?

Just a couple of other observations. I want to reiterate that while our northern hemisphere pals are experiencing ridiculous levels of cold and snow, we are having ridiculous heat here. Most days this week have been over 100F. I’ll send you some sun if you send me some snow and maybe we can get the weather tolerable for all of us.

My husband saw Hot Cross Buns in the stores this week for Easter. All I have to say is WTF!!!! Apparently they are there because of consumer demand. Exactly which twits are demanding Easter arrive three months early?

I’m going to round up my week from this post , because I am going back to work tomorrow (boo hiss ) and will go back to having about 10 free hours a week in which to craft and quilt….I have sooooo enjoyed being on holidays. (insert long and wistful sighing noise here –making sure you use an Australian accent for authenticity)

Gobble Gobble coin quilt.

Cant find a backing I like for it, so it’s on hold. It’s in my WIPS and I’ll get to it (eventually)

Beaded Curtain tiebacks

Done, installed, and looking positively fabulous.

Mirror Mosaic

At last count I had earned myself about 21 years of bad luck with my mirror smashing, and I have one more to smash . It’s been too hot to glue anything here this week unless you want the glue to dry as it’s coming out of the “instant nails”gun. I don’t, so I’ve laid the pattern out and when the weather gets tolerable again I’ll glue it and go from there. Another WIP.

Possessed Vintage Sheet Quilt

Was on my WIP list , off my WIP list and is now back on the list . I unpicked all the quilting this week, unpicked the squares and re-sized them and am in the process of putting it all back together. If I get it together and STILL hate it – I’m warning you it’s popping up as a blog giveaway.

Kashmir HST quilt 

Nothing accomplished this week. I was too busy unpicking the devil quilt.

Mini Quilt and Pyjamas

Done! And those pj’s are oh-so-comfy. I spent about 140 hours in them this week.

Family History- I did quite a bit this week and found out some new things especially relating to Military Service of some of my ancestors. ( can hear you all snoring with boredom) William Wates remains largely a mystery and I think I’m going to have to dump him for a while and work on someone findable. It’s not like he’s going anywhere.

And to all of you that are on my blog roll , my Mum finally came onto my blog last night and spent 12 hours trolling all your blogs. She reckons you’re all pretty darn creative and she’s all quilting enthused again. She also understands why I spend so much time checking out blogs now!

Have a great week!

"I See Dead People "

Haley Joel Osmont said it best when in the 1999 flick "The Sixth Sense " he whispers to Bruce Willis " I see Dead People". Completely creepy!

Here it is :

I don't like to brag Haley Joel,  but I've been seeing  dead people since 1995 and my people are way deader than yours. Some of them have been dead for hundreds of years.  However, I only see relatives. I'm selective that way.

You see Haley Joel,  I am a genealogist.

Sometimes days go by where I live more completely in the past than the present. These are the days where coffee cups pile up on the computer desk, beds don't get made, animals get ignored,  and I announce we're getting takeaway for tea when my husband walks in the door at 6pm, like I planned it hours ago. Chances are I didn't even know it was 6pm. As far as I'm concerned it's half past 1832.

Once we ate takeaway for 6 straight days when I was tracing my great grandfather who came from a Russian controlled country, jumped ship in Fremantle harbour and swam ashore changing his name to something anglo-sounding without the benefit of legal process. The man never filed a tax return. Never became an Australian citizen. Didnt he realise how difficult that was going to make him to find 100 years down the track? Eventually my  9 year old begged me for vegetables with tears in her eyes and whispered the magic words "I'm sick of McDonalds". Thank you Genealogy for setting my daughter on the path to righteous eating habits.

In the pre-internet days, when dinosaurs roamed the earth and man had not yet discovered fire,  family history was done the old fashioned way. You used to hand write letters and use an actual stamp and envelope. You had to wait weeks before you got a response if you got one at all. You used to talk to members of your family and take an oral history. The internet has changed everything. So many resources online, so many people willing to share , so many people with an interest in seeing their own dead people. Genealogy has exploded. What used to take months can now sometimes be found in an hour. Sometimes it still takes years.  Or never.

I guess with family history you're either into it or you're totally not. I am aware I can wax lyrical about  1738 in Ingoldsby Lincolnshire, and can bore you with the statistics of what an agricultural labourer earned in Sussex in 1851 and that not everyone is interested. Just let your eyes glaze over ever so slightly when I start talking and I'll get the message. And keep right on talking.

For the rest of us that share this obsession it's amazing when you find someone tracing the same family as you , even if they are your third cousin seven times removed and they live in some place in Wales you never knew existed and they think Australia is actually somewhere in Europe. ("That would be Aust-ria, I'm in Aust-ral-ia -southern hemipshere -bottom of the world- yes it is a long way away- no we dont keep kangaroos in our back yards") 

Dead people have fascinating stories to tell. It's better than any soap opera. My great grandaunt cut my great grandfather out of all his own wedding photo's because she hated him so much. Nobody knows why - or if they do they aren't talking.   I've found a few tragedies, and the odd skeleton and scandal. I've dreamed of having a convict pop up because it's just so darn trendy to have felons in your family branches. One of my family died tragically in a fire 90 years ago. I had him pegged as a romantic hero until I discovered he was a tramp living in a box and set fire to himself while drinking cheap booze.   This hobby is like having my own personal episodes of Days of Our Lives.

So next time Great Aunt Maud pulls out her photo collection and wants to talk about the good old days, let her. You might learn something interesting.

And if anyone is related to the elusive William Wates please contact me !

The Week Ahead

Mr. Pyjamas goes back to work tomorrow. I have another week off work, and I'm going to try to use it creatively. I'm doing a happy dance here at the thought of another week off.

I'm hoping to finish the Gobble Gobble stacked coin quilt this week, (I still have to find the perfect backing) have lunch with a friend, and start another DIY project for the house from an idea I got in July of last year that involves broken mirrors but hopefully no bad luck.   I want to make some beaded tie backs for our bedroom curtains and have to start hunting down some old filing cabinets for another makeover project.

I've given up on one of my quilts from 2009. It's currently in my WIP's list on my sidebar. It's time to be realistic and take it off. I hate the vintage sheet quilt top as it is and to continue quilting it is a waste of time, creative energy , batting and backing. So it's off to find a seam ripper and recycle the batting.  Maybe I'll use pieces of the quilt to practice free motion quilting or use some of the squares in a scrap quilt later. I am "emotional quilter. " I have to love what I'm doing and believe in the project for it to work. Am I crazy or what?

The doomed vintage sheet quilt top

I'm a third of the way through sewing half square triangles for my next quilt, using oh-so -cute Moda Kashmir IV fabric. I love the paisleys in this line and this is the first time I've worked with triangles. Let's hope all my points line up when I'm done!

I was over at Teaginny Designs  yesterday where she was showcasing her stacked coin quilt. How sweet is this mini quilt! I really have to start making some mini quilts for my sewing room wall. Darn you internet quilters for being so inspiring!

I'm going to try and squeeze in some genealogy this week.My great great grandfather, the elusive William Wates is driving me nuts and I have to do something about him. And I keep having this insane thought about making some pyjamas from my sheet stash so I'll see if that happens this week....

Have a sensational Sunday!