15 Minute Challenge with Kate

Thanks to the magnificent Kate for hosting another week of the 15 minute challenge. I'm posting early this week, although it's Tuesday here already. In case I haven't mentioned this in the last 5 minutes I'm going away this week so Im working against the clock.

It's been a reasonably good week for sewing at Maison Pyjamas. I've gone fabric basket crazy.  You may recall my disastrous attempt last week. Not to be beaten by fabric and bad mojo I went ahead and tried again.   I'm happy to report success.

For a friend who is having a birthday this week

For my scrappy Swap partner - Side 1 

Side 2

For a special friend 

A little bit of quilting happened on the Blue and Brown Quilt. I have a lot more to do ! I'm making this a priority after I get back from holidays.

I started a new stitchery from one of Michelle's patterns. 

I played with some selvages.

And the Merry Go Round quilt got quite a workout. Getting to this stage was not without a significant amount of unpicking and quite a bit of swearing. I had a case of "everything I touch turns to s***" on  Sunday.

Can anyone else see where I managed to stuff up?

Discovering I had sewed them together upside down did not thrill my heart. 

Unpicking is not my favourite thing this week. Neither was realising I was 9 blocks short when I thought I was finished with the block making! Hopefully my relationship with this quilt will be repaired by a little "absence makes the heart grow fonder" therapy.

Current tally on the "7 quilts finished before the end of the year" deal:
1 completed 
1 ready to be quilted (by me ) 
1 in the process of being quilted by me
2 ready to be quilted (by the quilting guru ) 
Lots of progress on the Merry Go Round Quilt this week 
No progress on the poor Hourglass Quilt (sorry Thea!)

Drum Roll Please

Unaccustomed as I am to public writing I just wanted to take this opportunity to thank everyone who entered my give away over the past week. In just a few minutes we'll know who the lucky winner is. 

But first ....One of the cool things about being part of the blogging community is that when all of Australia is snoring it's head off and I'm pretty much one of sixteen people in the country who is awake at 3.20am, I have my Northern Hemisphere friends to keep me company. Thank you people on the other side of the world for getting me through another night of cruddy sleep. I took the opportunity to get busy in my sewing room as well. Naturally I'll be asleep tonight at 9pm but I'm starting to enjoy living like a 90 year old woman who has to get up 43 times a night because she has  a bladder capacity the size of a pea. 

Ok I was just sort of building the tension there ...I like being dramatic. Let's hop on over to Mr. Random Number generator and choose a winner.

You’ll just have to trust me on this because I can't get that little number doodad result thing to paste in my blog....The winner is:Number 53

 Pokey said...

 

I'm glad to have you blogging, Shy, and even more, to visit with you in your blog window, and you in mine. Keep it comin' girlfriend, you are a bright spot on my computer ~

:-}pokey

Pokey will be mortified that the very first time she doesn't proof read her comment and and calls me Shy (I can hear most of you rolling round on the floor with laughter at this point )  random number generator picks her comment to be regurgitated for all the world to see. I'm pretty sure  that the universe wanted you to have this fabric as consolation Pokey! Congratulations. Please send me your address and I'll get this off to you this week.

Thank you everyone for playing!

Favourite Things Friday

I was blown away by all the participation in FTF last week. Thank you for dropping by, linking up and playing.

My favourite thing this week was prompted by an influx of mail which had me doing a funky happy dance. You may recall when I asked for donations of selvages for a quilt I'm making next year. Some lovely kind people responded and my selvage pile is growing ever larger!

First from Thea over at California Dreamin'

And from Kat at Mumma's Time to Create 

Who also sent me these because I'm a Babushka addict.

 And a chocolate addict.

And  from P at The Way I Sew It (who sent them all folded like this - I'm pretty sure she has a touch of the Virgo about her . Who else but a Virgo would send these folded?)

Who also popped in this piece of beauty that I had admired on her blog a few weeks ago.

It's not that I don't adore every single one of the goodies I was sent this week. But the selvages made me squeal like a 13 year old at a Justin Bieber concert. 

What this means is that I think I have enough scraps to start my selvage quilt as soon as 2012 hits. It took all of my will power not to roll around amongst this pile of gorgeous-ness. 

Alright! I did roll around in the pile. Sheesh.   At least I wasn't naked because that would just be plain weird. 

I also didn't have the internal fortitude or sense NOT to start the quilt either. Could you resist with all those selvages staring you in the face and begging you to come and play?

So...my favourite thing this week is selvages. The ones I've been collecting for about two years and the ones that have been gifted to me by awesome friends. Thank you awesome friends! 

Kat is some kind of comedian - she sent me a zipper. Apparently she is expecting me to make some dolly zipper purses. Pftttttttttt...that zipper is likely to perish  from age before I attempt a zip. I'm planning to leave it to one of my grandchildren in my will with the story of how hilarious Kat is.

Maybe I should frame it....

P.S.I will be away next week visiting Little Miss Sunshine (go me !) so FTF will be on hold while I'm actually enjoying one of my favourite things- holidays! I'll be back the following week though so hold onto those favourite things thoughts.

The 15 minute Challenge with Kate

You know when you put off a task forever and then when you make a start it gets done really fast and you wonder why you put it off for so long? That wasn't me this week. I know why I've been avoiding finishing my quilts. It's the basting process.  Ever since we laid tile my basting has gone to crap. My tape won't stay taped. My backs don't stay taut. I get puckers when I quilt  and I end up crying like a three year old. It's even got to the point where Mr. P finds something massively essential to do out of the house in another suburb the very second I drag out my basting pin container.

That left me with a choice this week. Do I baste one of the two quilts lurking round here that are ready to take that next step towards quilting greatness? How resilient was I feeling? Did we have any alcohol to soothe my wounded pride if it all went pear shaped? 

I decided to ponder those questions and other mysteries of the universe (like why you can't actually tickle yourself) while quilting and binding Hamish's quilt which was already basted. 

And then because I am a whizz at practising avoidant behaviour I moved on to finishing the Wonky Blocks quilt top. Since this one is going out to be quilted the finish felt amazing instead of "Oh shit-another quilt to baste ".

Then I wandered away and played with my stash for a while (which sounds a bit rude now that I come to think of it ) and pulled some fabrics for Kat's scrappy stash swap. These are for my secret partner. 

And then ,and only then, I decided to suck it up and baste the blue and brown quilt. And since I have the un-stickiest floors in the known universe I did it outside on my table , with high hopes of a stellar result since I used about 84 clamps and 33 bulldog clips to stretch that backing nice and taut.

And then I moved it very carefully and basted the other side. There are so many pins in this it looks like a freaking hedgehog. 

I know you're all waiting for the punchline. The one where I tell you I managed to pin that sucker to the table top , or that my  dogs jumped up on the table as I turned my back and danced a rumba across the top.

I've got nothing people - except this slightly puckery quilt back. And the fabric basket with the popped seam that I've fallen in love with in spite of it's imperfect-ness.

Pop on over to Kate's for a look at her "15 minutes" of manic Christmas sewing as well as what other participants have been working on this week.

Current tally on the "7 quilts finished before the end of the year" deal:
1 completed 
2 ready to be quilted (by me ) 
2 ready to be quilted (by the quilting guru ) 
2 still in various stages of undress

^@#*!%#!!!!

If you've been a follower for a while you'll know that my rampant bag insecurity makes an appearance every so often. Some people can't bake , some people can't garden and some people can't make bags. I am all three of those people. 

Encouraged by a recent bag success (my only success in fact ) with Kat's pouch tutorial I decided to make a fabric basket. I started it last night and finally finished at half past midnight. Look! When I turned it right side out I still had the handles in the right place. That never happens for me. I was doing the happy dance because it was so darn cute.  

Until I was admiring my awesome-ness from different angles and telling myself I could make 20 of these because they are so easy and I spied this..Bugger.

See that popped seam on the orange square? Too late to fix it unless I whip out the glue ...which is exactly what I'm going to do. Why do bags hate me so? 

..it's enough to drive a girl to eat half a kilo of Belgian chocolate. 

Back to the drawing board....sigh.

Time for a Giveaway

Almost two years ago I tentatively dipped my toe into the world of blogging after reading some quilting blogs by accident. I'd only been playing with quilting for about a year and wasn't  a hardcore quilting addict. 

In my early posts when nobody was reading I struggled with showing my actual personality. In real life I'm the kind of person you either really really like or really really don't. And because I wanted to be liked in the great kingdom of Blogland all  of my early  posts are about as exciting as watching paint dry. I worried that I might offend people by being me, which is sometimes a problem I also have in real life because I say what I think in the very moment I think it and often have to pull my own foot out of my mouth. I swear sometimes. I'm not always very rational. I have an unusual way of looking at things. I have strong convictions and opinions and sometimes I share them without being asked.  Some people call that refreshing and entertaining and others roll their eyes a lot and run to avoid me when I walk in their general direction.

At some point I put on my big girl panties and decided  I was just going to be me. So I started ranting on bad days, and saying crap and bugger if I felt like it and thinking out loud on my keyboard and people started to show me they liked what I had to say. And, unlike Vincent Van Gogh I didn't have to cut my ear off or wait until I was dead to get some positive feedback. 

Blogging has opened up a whole new world for me. I've made friends , real friends, and I love conversing with each and every one of you. I love to pop over to your place with a cup of tea or coffee and have a sticky at what you're getting up to . You inspire me , you lift me up, you make me laugh , and you touch my heart. 

This week I reached the magical milestone of 200 followers (!!!)  so it's time to send out some bloggy love of my own.  I'm offering this fat quarter pack of Joel Dewberry Modern Meadow in the Berry Palate as a way of saying "Thankyou". 

I'm going to put some guidelines around this giveaway to keep it fair. To enter all you have to do is leave a comment but you must be an existing follower at the time this post was published because it's all about celebrating the people who have come and commented, supported and read and generally helped make this blogging experience so much fun for me!

I'll draw this sometime next Saturday 15th October (Australian Central Time ) so you have a week to enter and I'm happy to post internationally. Good luck !

You guys rock my socks. 

Favourite Things Friday

Hello Friday. Do you have any idea how much I love you? It seems like only a few days since you were last here but you're always welcome. 

My week has been full of good intentions and subsequently a healthy dose of feeling sorry for myself. I intended to get into work early some days this week and it didn't happen. I intended to sew after work - it didn't happen. I intended to keep my house tidy and clean during the week so this weekend would be completely mine and free of housework  - and that didn't happen either. And that set me to thinking about how much it sucks to have to work , and how I don't get to sew whenever I want and how much I hate house work.  A lot of my time this week  has been spent feeling resentful about the things I have to get done every week and the fact that a lot of my life is taken up with things that given the choice,  I'd rather I didn't have to do. 

Until last night when I was reflecting on my week and playing my favourite mental game of comparing my life to every other person I've ever even heard of. I love that game because I start off by thinking about how much better or cooler or easier everyone else has it and wind up by coming to the realisation that everyone has stuff they wish they didn't have to do-no matter how great their life might look from the outside. 

Sometimes in the hustle and bustle and mundane of every day life we forget to be thankful for the things we have . Things that seem like annoyances or barriers or mundane things and so we take them for granted  or spend a lot of time being resentful of them. The conclusion I came to was that  I was spending too much time looking at those every day things all wrong. So I started thinking about the things that had been making me pissy in a totally different light. Epiphany.

I have no right to complain about my job. I'm lucky to have a job when so many people don't. It's a good job and I work with fantastic people. I have a boss who believes in giving credit where it's due and recognises that the people who work for her are experts in their field. There is no interference or micro managing or checking up.  Plenty of people would kill for my job and while it comes with a high degree of stress and unpredictability  I can't think of anything else I'd rather do. (unless I won lotto and opened my own book store )  And that job brings in the money that enables me to have a life when I'm not there. 

There is no point in whining about housework. If you live in your house stuff is going to get dirty. It shows you're really living. And the fact that nobody is home during the day should mean the house doesn't really get that grotty. Oh who am I kidding? We have inside horses dogs . Our house is a tip. But our house is still ours and we have a roof over our heads and this house reflects who I am. It's my safe haven from the world. This is the place where living and loving and crying and wound licking happens when the world is unkind. It's warm and dry and full of the things and people I love.  Lots of people don't have that security.

Next time I whinge about not being able to eat fillet steak every night or that we have "nothing to eat in this house" I really need to remind myself that we eat very well. Sometimes I cook things just to see if I can. I don't usually worry about the price of things too much. If I want a lamb roast I go and buy it. Lots of people don't have that luxury. I've never known actual hunger like many people on the planet who would be grateful for that two week old suss looking avocado in the bottom of my vegetable crisper. 


The conclusion I came to at about midnight last night is that I have a pretty good life. So ultimately my favourite thing this week is the ability to be thankful for those things and the gifts I've been given. Good friends, my health,  the ability to make choices and have a bit of fun occasionally. (But I'm never going to adore doing house work )

I'd love to hear what little things you're thankful or grateful for or any other favourite things you'd care to share this week. 

15 Minutes with Kate

As the sun sets slowly on another week of 15 minute snippets hosted by Kate,  I had another productive stint in the sewing department. I feel like I'm in control and this finishing projects stuff isn't just a pipe dream. By next week I may be a gibbering mess in the corner cursing my stupidity but I'm living large this week.  


I've decided not to be all show off and "look at me"  this week with my 15 minute achievements. Nobody likes a braggart and I'm trying to get to 200 readers so I can do a giveaway. If I alienate anyone with being a smarty pants it'll take me that much longer to get to the magical number. Honestly I don't keep tabs on the numbers or my stats usually but someone pointed it out to me and I got pretty excited. Who would have thought that there are 198 people out there that read my rantings and ravings and misadventures. If you've hit the follow button by mistake and don't know how to un-follow can you not google the tutorial until I get to 201 because I haven't done a give away in ages. Thanks.

I worked on a few quilts this week, too fickle to stick to one project again.  I made two lots of binding and a certain quilt got lots more blocks done.  It's starting to look like a rainbow exploded in my sewing room. I'm still not doing 15 minutes every single day but that's the way I roll. Some days are diamonds where I'm full of energy and some days I'm ready to go to sleep at around 3.30pm , which is unfortunate since I work until 5.00. 

I ignored two quilts totally this week. Eventually they stomped off to the cupboard in a huff and I'm sure I can hear them crying occasionally. It's a good thing there are no laws for quilt abuse.  I'd have the department of quilting on my door step demanding I hand over my quilts so they can go live with someone who doesn't practice  quilting neglect. 

So the tally is this: Of 7 quilts currently laying about here in a WIP state , three are completely done including backs and binding and are waiting to be quilted. One quilt top is significantly on the way and is likely to be a finish this week. One is nowhere near finished and one is halfway. I can hear you counting on your fingers and saying "That's only 6"....

Yeah ...well...I made this over the weekend. That's number 7 just waiting to be quilted. When I knock this off I'm back to 6 . This is a gift for my fur brother Hamish. As far as I'm concerned dogs need pretty quilts as much as people in the Pyjamas family.

In other news, I got lovely mail again late last week . Michelle sent me my first lot of begged for selvages and managed to trip and stuff the postal bag with a whole load of other things. You have to watch Michelle because she'll pretend to want your address so she can send you selvages while in reality she's trying to do a sneaky and is plotting all along to send you a birthday present.  Little P adored the Babushka bag and wouldn't leave the "happy lady" alone.

And Elizabeth always knows the way straight to my heart. Birthday Sugar. 

Oh and a gorgeous hand made notebook that I don't want to use because it's so pretty. I think I'll just put it somewhere I can stare at it. Thank you both for your surprises. 

My youngest nephew pretty much cleaned me out of Oreo's last night. I think he was going for the world record for eating the single biggest number in one sitting. Eventually I hid one pack for myself while fending him off with a few well placed ninja kicks. This is the same kid that considers his greatest achievement in life thus far is the ability to not shower for 17 days straight. If only he would use his talents for good and not evil. Sigh. 

For more classy, crafty and sewing filled posts pop on over and visit Kate. 

The "I Haven't Been Quilting My Butt Off" Post

There hasn't been a lot of sewing of current projects going on here this weekend. I spent Friday with Miss and Little P at my sister's and then was back there yesterday for Grand Final. Collingwood got pasted. I just want to say that out loud because I was going for Geelong. 

Apparently it's rude to take your sewing machine to other people's houses when you're supposed to be socialising so I had to take some hand stitching. That meant starting another new project (that would be number 8 in my current queue)  I'll do a round up of current projects later this week because even I'm starting to lose track of what I have on the go and what needs to be done.

The eventual plan for these blocks is for them to be a part of a much bigger quilt with flowers and butterflies and 9 patches in 30's repro fabric. I am still at the concept stage because I had to bang together something to do 10 minutes before I went out to my sisters yesterday, so this hasn't had a lot of thought yet.

I got the urge this weekend to use some of my other creative talents and wandered out shopping and bought about 100 bucks worth of scrap booking supplies. We'll see what eventuates from this lot.

The wonky block top is half together. I'm really liking how this is turning out. Let's hope nephew No 2 does too. I don't think I've uttered one profane word yet while making this. Spooky- and most unlike me.  

And a bit of retail therapy today with a Spotlight gift car yielded the perfect binding for the brown and Blue quilt . Of course I got it home and realised I already have some of that blue and white dot in my stash but that doesn't mean I love it any less. 

And the perfect backing for the Merry Go Round Quilt. I love it when I get things on HUGE sale. Half price! They'll be able to see this quilt from deep space without the aid of the Hubble telescope. 

I'm hoping tomorrow which is a public holiday (yay a free day off !) provides an opportunity for some actual sewing to get done although it's been relaxing being a bit slack for a change.

Favourite Things Friday-Reality TV

It's a long weekend here this weekend. Our first since June. Imagine me doing a very vigorous happy dance at the thought of four days off. It's also AFL grand final weekend which means all of tomorrow will be a testosterone filled day at my brother in laws because his team is playing. Loz will also be very happy. AFL is a big deal in this country for anyone who lives in Victoria or South Australia. Other states have the distraction of rugby. I have never watched an rugby game in my life. Sorry New Zealand. I know rugby and the TV show "Outrageous Fortune " are your main exports.

Anyway, on to FTF for this most wonderful of long weekend Fridays. 

I'm really putting myself out there this week with a confession that I am sure will subject me to much ridicule and pity. Obviously that doesn't worry me too much or I wouldn't be making a public confession. I need to unburden my soul. For far too long I've been pretending to be classy and high brow (I'm rolling round on the floor with laughter here ) and it's time you all knew the dirty truth. 

Until my sleep went to pot in April I had pretty much sworn off TV. Give me my internet and my sewing machine and I was a happy little vegemite. With the weird sleep thing I started to sack out on the lounge in front of the TV a little more and discovered a whole new world. At the start I was hand stitching and I told myself that I only had the TV on because I needed background noise and something to glance up at occasionally to break my intense scrutiny of my awesome stitching. You can imagine my horror when I started working my weekly after work sewing schedule  around some very trashy "reality" TV shows.

Looking back I should have seen the signs. In 2000 Survivor debuted and I loved it. All that skullduggery and back stabbing was pure gold. In 2001 Big Brother appeared on Australian TV for the first time and I became seriously hooked. 7.00pm BB was a viewing must and I didn't miss it for anything. If a crisis hit at 6.59pm you just had to suck it up until 7.30 when I was back in the real world again. Nobody was allowed to speak to me, call me or knock on my front door for that 30 minutes a day. Seriously.

Big Brother was axed in 2008. I was devastated and lost the will to live to watch the 400th season of Survivor and the 221st season of The Amazing Race. I figured I was over my reality TV stage and went on happily with my life.

Until recently...

When I discovered such gems of TV shows like Hardcore Pawn, Pawn Stars and Operation Repo. Something about seeing unfortunate people having their cars repossessed really appealed to the "sucked in, deadbeat " side of my nature. I've since found out that the show is totally scripted and it's kind of lost it's appeal for me. That Matt is a classic over actor, a bit like Jim Carrey.  Ditto watching people come in and pawn stuff. And argue about stuff they've pawned.  And bitch about how much they're being offered when they try to sell stuff. I've  never been in a pawn shop in my life and it's fascinating TV viewing. It's like a train wreck . I don't want to watch but I can't look away. 

My favourite thing this week is (un)reality TV ..I admit it . I'm addicted.  What's the trashiest TV show you'll confess to watching? 

Big Brother is coming back for 2012. I can't see this trashy reality TV kick ending any time soon. And I'll be there with bells on watching at 7.00pm every night. Don't bother emailing or calling me- I wont answer.