15 Minutes with Kate

I'm joining in on Kate's 15 minutes linky party again this week to report back on my progress. You can join in too . Just pop on over and pay Kate a visit at Life in Pieces for all the details!

I realised on Monday my holidays are half over and I haven't really done all that much in the sewing department so I decided to see if I could focus. And while not everything on my list from last week got ticked off  I'm pretty happy with the results.

Aside from finishing my Merry Go round quilt (thankyou so much for your comments about my quilt - I feel very humbled by your kind words ) I also  started and finished some other projects this week.

The zebra cushion became a pair . These are for Miss P who is positively potty about zebra anything.

The Christmas bunting is done . This would have been far more newsworthy if I had pulled off a finish BEFORE Christmas but I'm telling myself the late finish means I'm amazingly organised for Christmas 2012. I'll be pulling out that old chestnut again when I finally finish my Flurry quilt. 

You know how I said I was going to try to take more interesting photographs this year . Above was one of my attempts. A photographer I am not. Bunting is incredibly hard to photograph.

Four more rainbow scrap blocks got added to the pile.

I came to the realisation that The Love Heart Applique quilt was NEVER going to be a quilt so I started making  it into a cushion instead. It's backed in white chenille  (have I mentioned lately how much I love chenille ?) so it's perfect for snuggling up to . It's a gift for a friend so I'm valiantly trying not to get too attached to it.

And I cut hexies for a rainbow scrap cushion I'm going to start this week. Im loving playing with my scraps. Colour makes me happy. 

My Goals for this week
Pay some attention to my hourglass blocks
Finish 4 more blocks for the Rainbow Scrap Quilt 
Start sewing hexies together for the scrappy cushion 
Give one of the roadkill rescue footstools a makeover 
Pyjamas for Brooke 
Survive Babysitting Little P (the terrible two's have hit hard !) 

Life is A Merry Go Round

My first quilt finish for 2012 is  done. Merry Go Round got the final stitches in the binding this afternoon.

I don't usually blow my own trumpet . In fact I'm often self critical and deprecating. That being said I am completely , utterly and hopelessly in love with this quilt. I'd go so far as to say it's my most favourite of all the quilts I've ever made. It's close to perfect. 

My original vision was for this quilt to be done in 30's repros. But then I saw the Tonga Hard candy line I ordered that as well as the repros. The second the fabrics  arrived it was no contest. 

From the fabric to the quilting (Thanks Sharon - you did an utterly fabulous job !) I LOVE it. My cruddy pictures don't show this well but it's quilted in variegated thread the same colour as the fabrics. 

To the binding which caused me so much grief on Saturday and led to an almost tear fuelled breakdown with some very sailor like swearing....

I love the back and I think it's very "me"

In all it's glory.

This one is staying here to be loved and used by me ! I love every single stitch in it. 

In other news I went on a fabric buying kick a couple of weeks ago and this parcel of yumminess arrived today from Fabricworm.

Pinks and Greys 

Im loving chocolate and blue at the moment. 

And check out this "scrap " pack. Scraps ! They're huge and look at how beautiful they are. And only $13.50 for all of this. Amazing!

I also may or may not have done a run to Spotlight today where further fabric buying may or may not have occurred....but I'm just going to absorb that into my stash and pretend it never happened. I can't resist a sale. 

Recipe Wars

Something I haven't blogged about to date is that my sister and I are have been engaged in an ugly standoff since Christmas.  I am usually not the type of person who airs dirty laundry in public but this is just too big to keep to myself and we're all friends here right? 

I know you're imagining some deep dark family scandal. Like the revelation my sister was adopted at birth and I've known all these years and didn't say anything. Some of you probably ran and got your popcorn already and are settled down waiting for full disclosure.  So here it is : Our standoff is over trading recipes. 

SOP served an awesome potato salad on Christmas night and I asked for the recipe. Past experience dictates that I should have stood over her with a stick until she gave it to me there and then but I'm a trusting soul.  Sharing is not her middle name. Case in point : I have been begging for her scone recipe for YEARS and she steadfastly refused to give it to me. She just used to smile enigmatically and say she couldn't give it out.  It had gotten to the point where the thought of her taking that scone recipe to the grave was keeping me awake at night. She eventually confessed last July after 20 years of baking the best scones ever, that she uses the CWA box scone mix you buy at the store.  

Then on Boxing Day I served up that awesome galette I snaffled from Mrs. X who shall remain nameless (for reasons that will be come apparent as you read this sorry tale) and my sister asked me for the recipe. Now it isn't that I don't trust her and it isn't like she's promised to swap recipes with me before and they've never materialised (cough cough) so this time  I told her I'd happily give her the galette recipe just as soon as the potato salad recipe hit my Inbox. And for good measure I told her I'd throw in my cinnamon bun pancake recipe for free because I'm a loving sister and I'm not precious about sharing my recipes.

It's been three weeks since Christmas and I've got nothing and I've been hankering for that potato salad because it really is THAT good. Like Veruca Salt "I Want It Now !". I'm starting to wonder if my sister is waiting for potatoes to become extinct as part of some dastardly plot to ensure she continues to have world domination of the Best.Potato.Salad.Ever.

SOP keeps asking me for the galette recipe and I keep telling her she can have it just as soon as I have that potato salad recipe in my hot little hand because up until this point I've been using that awesome galette recipe as my insurance. I've even taken my plight to Facebook as a way of shaming her into sending me the recipe.  And still nothing. (Insert your own visual here of me sitting round tapping my foot , looking at my watch and doing nothing besides waiting, waiting, waiting for a bloody potato salad recipe......)

Then today I remembered that Google is the font of all knowledge.  Google knows everyone's secrets and isn't hoity toity about blurting them out. So accordingly I googled . And look what I found.

So, guess what we had for dinner tonight....

A mature and loving sister would hand over that galette recipe to her sister now for free wouldn't she ? Even though her sister didn't come through with her promised recipe. 

I'm still thinking about it. But the potato salad was awesome. 

Favourite Things Friday

Late to my own linky party this week!  I confess I forgot what day it was. That happens when you don't have a point of reference like going to work Monday to Friday. 

This week, I've been thinking about what I want to achieve this year. I don't do New Year resolutions. Bitter experience has taught me that if I resolve to eat better, or lose weight or be a better person or whatever - it just doesn't happen. But making some goals for a little direction and to make sure I'm getting the most of out life seems to work much better for me. 

The truth is - I bumbled my way through most of  2011 with little or no direction. In fact for the last half of the year I was hanging on by the skin of my teeth and just taking things one day at a time. Most unlike me , I didn't have a grand plan or goals beyond surviving week to week. 

But this year I'm feeling ready to conquer the world and so some goals are in order. And then Thea came up with the  brilliant plan to list her goals for this year and get people to join in and report back so my favourite thing this week has been making a list of things I want to do. Here it is : 

1) Eat out once a month and keep the budget for the year under 300 bucks 

2) Do something social at least once a fortnight -if I don't make this goal I'll  never leave home 

3)Go to the movies at least 6 times this year

4)Watch an entire series of something on DVD

5)Go see a live show/theatre at least 3 times in 2012.

6)Make a quilt using greys

7) At least half the birthday gifts I give have to be handmade or thrifted 

8) Make February a frugal month 

9) Have two weekends away this year 

10) Crack FM quilting 

11) Finish 10 quilts this year including 2 quilts using scraps 

12)Start knitting a blanket

13)Cook a new main meal recipe once a fortnight

14) Work my way through at least half of one of the baking cookbooks SOP gave me for Christmas 

15) Practice taking better photographs 

16) Start planning a big holiday 

17) Buy 52 individual items worth a buck each -stolen from Thea - I love this idea 

18) Buy fruit and vegies from the Farmers Market at least 6 times 

19)Teach my Mother in law how to hand piece hexagons

20) Secret goal - to do with quilting but it involves putting myself out there a little more than I have in the past 

21) Participate in at least one swap and one quiltalong online 

22) Finish my Farmers Wife Quilt by the end of the Year 

23) Go to a Basketball Game 

24) Attend at least two festivals 

25) Let the little things go 

26) Practice random acts of kindness

27) Get a professional manicure 

28) Have a pamper day with a friend 

29) Spend time quilting with my Mum 

30) Make fresh bread and foccacia at least a dozen times this year 

31) Update the front veranda 

32) Reupholster something to give it a new lease of life 

I'm sure I'll think of more as the year goes along but I think that's a good start. I just want to be present in my own life a little bit more rather than going with the flow. 

Does anyone else have any goals for this year they want to share? 

15 Minutes with Kate

There hasn't been a huge amount of sewing going on round here since I'm currently playing "Let's do the annual Pyjamas house cleanout". That involves going through every single room in the house and taking everything out of cupboards, drawers and wardrobes and freecycling or chucking out things we don't need. I get to ask myself burning questions such as "Why am I keeping plumbing hoses for a washing machine I haven't had since 2001?" and "Holy Cow how can one person have so much underwear?".

But occasionally a gal needs to take a break from organising and when that urge hits I head for the sewing room. I spent some of Sunday cleaning out my scrap bins. There was some real crap in there. I got really serious and went through every single scrap and "retired" a lot of stuff I am never going to use. Ugly stuff. And now I have about half the scraps I used to have but it's all use-able.

Playing with my scraps inspired me . There has been a lot of scrappy talk in the Blogishphere lately and so I jumped on the bandwagon and started making blocks for a quilt. Because goodness knows I dont have enough unfinished quilts lurking round here that I could be working on. I need another project. 

 I made a couple of cards from scraps while I was at it. 

Remember the zebra cushion that pissed me off beyond belief a week ago? I dragged that out of the rubbish bin and finished it. My first finish for 2012 ! Now it needs a mate because it looks lonely. 

 I made some more selvage blocks . 

And since I've been fairly slow in the sewing department lately I should probably make some goals for this week so I'm aiming to :

Work on the binding for the Merry Go Round Quilt 

Finish Christmas Bunting 

Finish another Zebra Cushion 

Make another 20 selvage blocks 

I'm linking up to Kate's 15 minutes challenge this week. Pop on over and have a look at what other participants have been up to. Thanks for hosting Kate!

May the Craft be with you. 

Favourite Things Friday

Welcome to the first Favourite Things Friday for 2012 !

Favourite Things Friday is my version of a linky party where all you have to do is write a post about something that made your week a little brighter and share it with the rest of the Favourite Thing Friday crowd. It's a way to reflect on at least one positive in the week and to float blissfully towards the weekend. I'd love you to join us. 

Unless you're from another planet you wouldn't be ignorant about the fact that I'm on holidays. Looooong holidays.  Let's face it , I think I mentioned it in just about very single post I did pre-Christmas and I had grand plans for my holidays which included a long list of things to do.

I've been on holidays now for just a smidge over two weeks and nothing on that list has been finished. Of course I'm not being helped by Little P, who doesn't understand I have a master plan. I spent most of yesterday changing Little P's jocks since we're hitting the toilet training pretty hard and he is currently having an accident approximately every 3 minutes. 

One of the nice things about being on holidays is that there is always another day to do the things on my massive list of things I hope to eventually achieve. Another day to clean my house , another day to shop for a new car seat, another day to bind that quilt, another day to work out how to change that halogen recessed globe in my kitchen that burnt out a month ago. Holidays are meant to be as different as possible from your real life or what's the point?

So my favourite thing this week is chilling ...doing nothing, achieving nothing and dreaming of the day I'll start ticking things off my list ...eventually... because right now I have to go watch Shaun the Sheep with Little P and then make a triple layer chocolate cake. 

Hello 2012

Happy 2012 to each and every one of you! 

My final sewing finish for 2011 happened yesterday afternoon. It was inspired by Little P showing great promise as a budding chef with mixing cinnamon bun pancakes this week. I'm secretly planning to enter him in Junior Masterchef in 2012. 

And every junior chef needs a special apron. 

So here's a recap of what I did with the other 364 days that made up 2011. 

I grew a lot as a quilter this past year. I tried things I hadn't done before like paper piecing and hand stitching and more complicated blocks and it didn't kill me nor was there more swearing than usual.I'm still avoiding free motion quilting quite successfully and will probably continue to do so as long as there is breath in my body. Some things are beyond even my capabilities. Fiddly baking also makes that list. I was mildly obsessed with quilting last year and here are my finishes for 2011. 

There was lots of other craftiness going on at Maison Pyjamas too. It makes me wonder when I had time to go to work.

And as usual I'm starting the new year with plenty of WIP's. I'm not even going to pretend I'll finish all of these before my ADD kicks in and I start something else.I swear my Dresden quilt is going to be vintage before I get the binding on. 

I publicly bragged I  was going to buy under 100 yards of fabric in 2011. At last count I was up to about 310 yards for the year so I don't think we can call that an unqualified success. Needless to say I wont be making the same vow in 2012 because I obviously have no willpower. I really admire people who do (I'm finger pointing at Kate here) 

I participated in my ever first swap hosted by Kat and my first ever quiltalong hosted by Becks in 2011. Both were a lot of fun. I'm joining in a Farmer's Wife Quilt Along this year with some fabulous people which I'm sure will teach me patience while I try to make 100 different blocks with seams that actually line up.

Little Miss Sunshine and I visited back and forth between her house and mine. It's always fantastic when you meet a blog friend in real life and they even awesomer than they are in the virtual world. 

I finished a computer room makeover, a dining room makeover and a sewing room makeover and there wasn't nearly as much bitching and whining as when we did the kitchen and laundry in 2010. Maybe I'm maturing.  

That just leaves the bathroom (which is truly hideous) and the garden, which I didn't touch in 2011. In fact many plants suffered from involuntary planticide at Maison Pyjamas in 2011. 

I keep waiting for the plant police to knock on my door and drag me away to be locked up for cruelty to plants. I already have my defence prepared and my lawyer on speed dial.  

We lost a car because some peanut wasn't looking where he was going.

 and I almost lost a finger trying to make Assaggio root vegetable soup. 

2011 was the year of the never ending haircut. Every time I went to the hairdresser I got another 3 inches cut off. I started the year looking like this. 

and ended it looking like this. Thank goodness the year ended because another month or two and I would have ended up with a mohawk. 

My Dad managed to be in hospital or requiring medical attention for his birthday, my birthday, my mother's birthday and my sister's birthday. Pure attention seeking. Thank goodness we ran out of birthdays. Kidding Dad. I'm glad it was nothing seriously serious in the end. 

But if you pull the same stunt this year we're going to Grandpa dump you at the hospital and leave you there until all the birthdays are done. 

Miss P  thrilled my heart by stitching something. I had high hopes she had been bitten by the crafting bug but alas she used up all her crafting mojo in one hit for the year. 

And finally, in 2011 I got my arse kicked by a sock monkey. That frigging thing was never going to get finished. It was a blessing when I lost it's face and had a legitimate excuse to put it in a plastic bag, although a demented sock monkey without a face staring at you accusingly is the stuff nightmares are made of.  Susan offered to come on over and help me stick pins in it voodoo style while we drank wine and chanted a spell to rid my house of the demon monkey vibes but in the end I decided death by binning was the kindest thing to do. Sometimes you have to know when to fold. 

Meantime since I had visions of becoming the queen of sock monkey making I'm stuck with these two pairs of socks.

If you're impervious to the possibility of demonic possession I'll send them to you  so you can make your own sock monkeys. Otherwise they'll just sit round here mocking me.  

So, as the sun has set on the old year I have created this pin up board of 2011 memories to remind me of the wonderful people who have shared  my life in the past year. Thank you for being one of them. 

Here's to a fabulous 2012 !