Favourite Things Friday

Welcome to Favourite Things Friday for this week. After a brief hiatus I'm ready and raring to get back into the swing of sharing my favourite things and I hope you are too. If you feel like playing along and sharing, just link up at the bottom of this post so we can all come to visit and see what your favourite thing is.

This weeks favourite for me was playing hostess in my home town. One of the best things about having a friend come and stay is getting to see your city through their eyes. So join me while I give you a tour of some of the sights of  that I shared with Marg this past week.

This is where I live. Adelaide. Home of the Festival Theatre, The River Torrens and one of the best cricket grounds in the world. Not that I care - I hate cricket.

No visit to Adelaide is complete without a visit to Haighs which is a chocolate shop/factory and naturally at the moment they're gearing up for Easter. The shop (and the chocolates) are Adelaide Icons. I really must get some more Hot Cross Bun chocolates...

Mmmmmmm Chocolate Peppermint Truffle Bars -my favourite!

 I kind of think of having a house guest  as a food free for all where you get to eat what you like every single day without worrying about how much calorie value it has or whether you're eating "right". And the Brown Dog is one of my favourite places to eat.

Yes-I ate salad. And it was delicious.

It's a great place to chill out and the food is fabulous.

Then it was  off  to the Central Market in the city. People flock to the market which is undercover because you can get just about anything there. I saw black beans Elizabeth! We were on a mission to get yummy things for dinner Friday night.

In addition to the Easter Bunny Australia also has the Easter Bilby. Here's the proof. That means we get twice as much chocolate as the rest of the world on Easter weekend.

And when we got home it was just a matter of throwing things onto platters and eating until we were full. Yum! Antipasto anyone? I love help yourself dinners.

This is Marg ripping the head off a Balfours Frog Cake. You may recall I have a particular fondness for these. She liked them too.

And while she was here I made sure she had some of the best Iced Coffee in the Universe as well.

On Monday we wandered round Hahndorf and had lunch at the German Arms (Sorry no lunch pics - too busy eating) Hahndorf is a town nestled in the Adelaide Hills that was settled by German people who emigrated to Adelaide in the 1800's. It's very pretty and has lots of German influences in the buildings and food. We had schnitzel for lunch, bought more chocolate, wandered up and down the main street  and hit a couple of tiny op shops.

Monday night saw us at one of my favourite cafes- Assaggio at Newton. This is their famous chicken vegetable soup. Yes - I ate healthy food twice in 5 days. Gold star for me! No pictures of dessert - I inhaled it too fast. Citrus tart in case you're wondering.  If you're here at any stage- Assaggio is a must.

Overall I had plenty of other places I would have loved to play tourist at with Marg but I guess we'll have to save that for the next trip! We packed a lot of stuff into 4 days.

So...if I came to visit you - what's the one thing you'd absolutely have to take me to see?

P.S. Would have taken a picture of our jail cell but the cops confiscated my camera.



Gadgets, Bargains and Fabric

Naturally a girly weekend wouldn't be complete without some form of shopping.  One of us did so much in fact that purchases had to be posted home in order to avoid excess baggage. Guess who?

Before Little Miss Sunshine arrived, I expressed a wish to learn to crochet while she was here. When she arrived she presented me with this gift. I think she was being incredibly optimistic or possibly practicing blind faith.

It says 20 easy projects on the front cover.  Let me say with the benefit of hindsight  -that's bullcrap.

But before I knew that I raced out and bought these because I believed a granny square blanket would be easy. It said so right there on the cover. Aren't those yarns pretty? In fact they look so pretty I'm thinking of leaving them like that forever and putting them in a basket with crochet hooks somewhere highly visible so it gives the illusion that I know what I'm doing.

Unusually for me , I resisted buying a jelly roll in these fabrics and just stuck with  the fat 8ths and coordinates. As you'll see later -that was fate.This is the the Pom Pom De Paris collection . Not my usual fare are they? Man , I'm hoping this doesn't end in disaster like the pastel quilts I've attempted. I have no idea what I'm going to do with it - any suggestions?

A fantastic quilt store has just opened up 5 minutes from my house called A Quilters Odyssey. The weekend wouldn't have been complete without a trip to at least one other quilt store.  They sell some pretty fabrics including these pieces which didn't cost me much and are perfect stash builders. Notice those girly bits on the bottom left ? Again , I ask,  what was I thinking?

Since I'm as classy as all get up, my threads have formerly been stored in ziplock bags like this...

I lashed out and bought one of these....makes it look much more like I actually know what I'm doing.  

It's OK don't panic - my black and white threads still live in this little old lady op shop tin.

 And I bought one of these too....which is just about the best invention ever. You should all rush out and buy one so I can kid myself I'm a trend setter.

We did pop into a couple of op shops Monday and I found this.  How fast can you say "quilt backing"? Probably about as fast as I snaffled this up- elbowing two German tourists and a little old lady out of the way to get to it .  I'll get at least two backs out of this and it'll be perfect for one of Little P's quilts. Crazy bargain. According to Sara's theory of fabric logic (which is a universally recognised theory just like Newton's Law of Gravity) this doesn't count as actual fabric because it's a doona cover.

And I found this  too  and thought it would be great to work into a quilt border or something  at some stage. It's the bottom of a linen dress and there's 40 inches of it and I can use the white linen dress part for a cushion front or something. Not bad for a buck.

And I acquired these two jelly rolls as well...this one was a gift from a friend. That's the bit that was fate because it's Pom Pom De Paris to go with my weekend purchases. Sometimes the planets do align.

And I bought this Lilac Hill fabric just because it was pretty-the more I look at it the more I love it. Again -I'm clueless about what it will end up as...oh the possibilities!

And I was totally kidding about leaving my yarn in balls...Marg actually taught me how to do crochet  while she was here. She uses aversive teaching techniques which helped me learn really fast because she threatened to slap me every time I made a mistake.. So I learned really fast that I can do it !

Mr. P and I will be living on two minute noodles and dry bread for the next two weeks. I really need to get a second job since I cannot stop buying craft related paraphernalia....anyone want to hire me?  

P.S.  Haven't touched the crochet since Little Miss Sunshine left. I'm thinking about unpicking it and knitting a scarf. I can knit proficiently. Or perhaps I should do some more of those poor neglected stitcheries. Or start my paper piecing blocks. Or finish the zig zag quilt....

What happens in Adelaide Stays in Adelaide

I'm sure I missed all sorts of amazing stuff while I was away and I don't have a snowballs chance in hades of catching up with what you've all been up to in the last week  but I was flat out living my own brand of hectic and wonderful in the last five days.  As a result I'm completely exhausted and I'm planning to be in  bed in about 5 minutes.  Yep-I'm a complete party animal.

First off I want to publicly state that Little Miss Sunshine is ten times as fabulously awesome in person as she is in Blogland. I am going to make it my life's mission to convince her she needs to move to Adelaide so I can have this much fun all the time. She is amazing, and talented and generous and down to earth and one of the loveliest people I have ever met. There wasn't one awkward moment and a lot of bloody funny ones.

You will be happy to know that with the aid of a good lawyer we beat the drunk and disorderly and subsequent resisting arrest raps. Like Gremlins,  you shouldn't give women of a certain age wine after 7 pm.Marg and I have agreed what happened in Adelaide largely stays in Adelaide because sewing weekends are just like footy trips. We laughed, we ate , we drank and got merry , we danced on tables, and we tried to trade sexual favours in return for our freedom from the cops ...and that's all I'm saying because the rest is still a matter for due legal process.

So much went on over the extended weekend , that I have to break it up into a few posts lest your heads explode from the gloriousness of it all so I'll start with the quilting class since this is a quilting blog. I'm going to publicly state I have never been to a quilting class in my life and I'm fairly sure that after this weekend my name has gone on blacklist somewhere(probably held by the mythical quilting police ) that will ban me forever more from all quilting classes taking place anywhere in the known universe with the possible exception of Kyrgyzstan.

What I learned this past weekend is that there is a naughty corner reserved in every quilting and sewing class. They put you in it as you walk in the door if you look like a troublemaker. It's usually out of eye sight of the person presenting the class.  I think I look sweet and innocent but there you have it. Apparently others can see right through me. Guess where I sat?  I also learned:

Some of us don’t play well with others and some of us don't respond well to pressure. That would be me...

Some of us don't like to follow the rules. That would be me...I spent most of the second day attempting free motion quilting patterns that had nothing to do with what was being taught and trying not to sew my own freaking hand to my practice sandwich. Kris - I think I finally have that hand /foot/speed thing down. Sort of.

Logical types really struggle with FM quilting. It's hard to let yourself go when your whole existence is based on being in control of your universe and everything in it.   Again, that would be me....

Sometimes you will almost cry in public when you feel you are the class dunce. That might be acceptable when you are 4 years old  and Kathy Smith refuses to share her icy pole with you or when Michael Jones calls you "stinky".  It's kind of whack when you're 44 and a half and it's over something inconsequential like  being unable to raw edge applique the very first time you ever try it.

It is possible to take a Kellie Wulfsohn pattern and make it look questionable. I bet none of you knew that.

It will look so much better BEFORE you start sewing on it. I excel at cutting fabrics and steam a seam-ing them onto more fabric. In fact I'm mildly peeved that isn't an Olympic sport. I'd win gold.

The people sitting in earshot of you won't think it’s cute when you loudly mutter expletives in class because you forgot you weren't at home in the comfort of your private sewing room. While your actual real life neighbours may delight in learning new swear words the lady sitting four sewing machines down will probably be  quite shocked when she goes home and googles"Hitto. Jumalauta. Voi perkele." You will spend a lot of class time apologising for being profane in multiple languages. However, your quilting buddy will be really glad you are swearing louder than she is and taking the focus off her. And she will appreciate all the smuggled in snacks you brought.

You will realise the sewing machine you love so much is really pretty sucky when confronted by other people's machines in a group setting. It's a bit like boys playing "my willy is bigger than yours" in a footy change room.  I didn't even know sewing machines came with something called "needle down". Duh. Clearly I need to get out more. I came away feeling like I rock at knocking out such fab creations on my humble machine. 

I excelled at lunch. I got an A+ for that. The food was wonderful and could only have been improved by serving champagne with the chicken although that may translate to some messy after lunch sewing accidents.

Ditto fabric acquisition. If there was a class for that I'd have a double degree. I defy anyone to spend two days at a quilting shop and NOT buy fabric. It simply can't be done.  I skipped out of the last hour of class to go roll amongst  the bolts of fabric which is another thing people will look at you like you're a weirdo over.

You'll be shattered by the end of the day because you cant get up every 15 minutes to go outside, check your emails, read what's going on in the Blogisphere , plan dinner , bake cupcakes , talk to your Mum for an hour on the phone and mentally write blog posts.

Did I learn anything else? Yes-there are some very talented people out there. Little Miss Sunshine is one of them. Talk about being gifted at swirly stuff. If she hadn't been with me Im sure she would have been the star of the class.  And I'm still looking for the crafty/quilty technique I can excel at. It isn't trapunto, swirly free motion or raw edge applique I can assure you of that.

More tomorrow.  Kirsten, I took food pictures for you.

P.S. Just want to say despite all this tongue in cheek humour, the ladies at Hettie's Patch did a wonderful job of making everyone feel very welcome and catering to our every whim.  They are fabulous and the shop is seriously wonderful. I can see some of my hard earned cash being spent there in the future. And they have the cutest resident cats ever. I accidentally appliqued one to my cushion front at one point ....

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.

Weekend Adventures

Mr. P went back to study this week for the first time since 1984. It's weird having a student in the house and hearing him whine "I need the computer for my assignment". When Miss P used to say that, "homework" was really Facebook. I'm just so used to turning this darn thing on first thing in the morning and hopping on it every 5 minutes it's been quite an adjustment. It's not all bad though because it's given me extra sewing time which I used to finish "Saturday with Sara". I love the end result. These photo's are pre-crinkling.

I am equally in love with the back.

And this is what was left of the 10 fat quarters Sara gifted to me by the time I was finished. Aside from selvages there's about an 8 x 9 inch square of fabric left over. And since I keep selvages even they'll get used at some point . Those other bits will end up in a scrap quilt.  And I kept all the offcuts from squaring up. Maybe I can stuff a pillow or something..or just throw out the scraps like a normal person. Whatever.

And because I was on a mission to use every little scrap of this fabric  I pieced  parts of the binding from leftovers too. Some people call that anal.

(Erin, you will recognise the main binding fabric as something you sent to me a while ago. It was perfect for this quilt)

Saturday I went out for lunch and a stitching session with some of the loveliest people I know. Val , who hosted, Claire, Kris , Loz and I  stitched the afternoon away. I would like to publically announce I am probably the quietest member of this group. It's kind of nice to be the quiet one for a change. It's also something I never thought  I'd be able to say since I kind of adore talking.Naturally I charged the camera and then left it at home. But if you hop on over Loz and Val's blogs they were organised enough to catch some snaps of the day. I managed to finish two blocks from the "I'm not actually doing the Stitchalong " stitchalong. It was a wonderful way to spend a Saturday afternoon among crafting royalty.

 

 

I started a couple of new things, both of which are technically more challenging than my usual projects. I'm sure there will be a lot of profane language during the making of both those quilts.  More on that in the next couple of weeks. Progress reports - not swearing reports.

Favourite Things Friday

Welcome to Favourite Things Friday ....can you believe how fast this year is speeding by?  For those of you not familiar with this little linky party- Friday is the day to post something that you love and share it with everyone who wants to pop by and have a look. You can choose anything you like.  Easy! Just use the linky widgety thing at the bottom of this post to show off your fave thing.

My favourite thing this week is a finish. This week I am thrilled to announce  that we had a finish on the dining room renovation.  After months of painting and sanding and goodness knows what else it's done!  It doesn't get much favourite-r than that.

This is what the dining room  looked like before we started. Dark, Dreary and Yuk. I was auditioning tables and chairs for months. I auditioned at least three sets of chairs, which means I was at set Number 4 when I finally got the ones that were perfect for this table...I know. I'm insane. Wanna buy a used not needed chair anyone-I have plenty!

And for those of you who may not recall, just when I had given up hope after months of looking for the "perfect" kitchen dresser I found this gem ...which I thought had massive potential. And then we had to have the "will I /wont I paint it" conversation. Several times...before a decision got made.

And here's what it looks like now...

Everything in this room was picked up on the cheap, recycled and painted into submission. Did I mention it's all second hand?- every last stick of it.

How I love Ebay...

Those chairs look exactly the way I imagined they would with this dining room. Perfect! It's amazing what 25 bucks worth of funky upholstery fabric can do .  

It's going to take some getting used to all that white. But I'm happy with the results - even if I am still hunting for the perfect light fitting. Repeat after me "It's finished " . Next stop- bathroom renovation. Ugh. I cant even think about it.

FTF is having Friday off next week because I'll have a house guest and I'm going to be busy trying to show Little Miss Sunshine as much of my part of the world as time will permit. I'll be back the week after with more Favourite Things!