Let the Festival Begin!!!
Blogtoberfest 2010 is back! Hosted Once again by the wonderful Tinniegirl Why don’t you come & join the fun & festivities with us!
This year I’ve been brainstorming & have a fair few ideas running through my head to keep up with the pace of daily blogging! But be warned: there may well be more than 1 post a day!!!
“Blogtoberfest 2008” I managed 27 posts…
“Blogtobefest 2009” I managed all 31 posts…
Hello “Blogtoberfest 2010”
You know it's gonna be a hot summer when the summer storms start in spring ;)
This is the second day in a row we've had a storm and today it put a stop to my bookwork and some blog entries!
So Im here tapping away on the iPad and making many spelling mistakes along the way and hoping it passes soon.
Meanwhile you will find me curled up with my book, enjoying the rain on the rooftops.
It’s late. It’s grey. The shots today are all late afternoon - indoors on my 1.8mm lens… they didn’t turn out good at all, but hey apparently practice makes perfect (or so they say!)
It was raining most of the last week - so there’s not been much need to do anything major with the gardens… the plants are all blooming and some are most definitely water logged – I’m not sure our strawberry plant is terribly happy about the recent deluge!
I’m yet to dig up the garden bed for our vegetable garden… and judging by the size of some of these recent seedlings – I’d best be wanting to do it sooner rather than later!
Even the ones I planted last Sunday in my new special pots are sprouting (already :o )
Dare I say it… my brown thumbs have turned green???
Another new addition standing guard(en) gnome!
And check out the colours of my hydrangeas! They are glorious I tell you, glorious!!!
It’s been feeling almost festive around here of late!
Reading The Christmas Quilt
Buying Christmas fabrics
& other stuff that just happened to fall into my shopping cart ;)
Sewing Secret Swap Stockings!
My stocking is nearly finished… (aside from a minor mishap this morning… sewing two fronts instead of a back and a front *sigh* now I get to keep one just for me!) once I decipher the remainder of instructions on finishing the top section, it will be ready to send - well before deadline… here’s hoping anyhow!
It’s been a good weekend!
So I can remember what’s what!
I bought two seed raising boxes and some seedling mix as the pumpkin seeds were dug up once more *cry* let’s hope these little beauties get a better start in life!
& more Sunday Shots from around my garden! It’s been a miserable grey weekend, a little splash of colour was in order
ETA ~ anyone know of a good ‘dog’ deterrent? I’ve been using an organic fertiliser on my plants that contains blood and bone… yesterday I discovered Buddy trying to eat the soil around the base of my new Hydrangeas (actually at first I thought he was actually trying to eat my hydrangeas… lucky for him he wasn’t ~ At $18 a plant, I’d have been very cranky with him ;)
Just a little worried as it has ‘seek medical advise if ingested in large quantities’ not that I’m using a lot of it on my plants… just annoying if I have to turf it all because the dog can’t help himself!!!
Anyone else lucky enough to have little helpers while they sew?
* Me trying to wrestle through a quilt (& attempting to stay in the ditch)
* Miss K sitting on my lap ‘helping’ (although her idea of helping is to place both hands on the quilt and stop it from going through further)
* Buddy jumping up and hoping he can sit there too (just because it was overcast and cold and he wanted to curl up on our lap… god knows where he thought he was going to fit ;)
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I always lament my sewing room is too crowded and until now have put it down to simply having too much stuff… but I really don’t think this is it. When I escape to sew ~ my helpers follow.
Big Girl pulls out the Rabrics (aka Fabrics) and proceeds to make herself a bed of 15 or more pieces.
And god forbid if she walks away…
Someone likes to get cozy and snoozy on the little beds she makes…
I’ve been quilting ALL weekend! Perhaps it was the arrival of these books earlier in the week…
Perhaps it was the realisation that I still have a WIP ‘welcome baby’ quilt for a little girl who will be turning one in a couple of months… eeek… yes this one has taken me simply forever and I haven’t been able to blog my usual sneak peaks because the day I do will be the day my Best friend decides to sit down with a coffee and have a marathon catch up on my blogs ;) so until it’s finished and gifted…
Actually – you know what… here’s a sneak peak anyhow! I am so close to gifting this – a little teaser is not going to hurt ;)
I spent the better part of yesterday Quilting this one. I wanted it to be special, because this is probably by far the most difficult quilt I’ve done. I’ve literally had blood (caught my finger on the sewing machine needle – not while it was going thankfully) sweat (piecing teeny tiny triangles and squares during the heat of summer) and tears (listening to Neil Diamond yesterday and toasting my Nan ~RIP~ the first year went by so fast, miss her like crazy) over this quilt and finally after nearly a year of it, I can finally say I LOVE IT!
The Quilting is very basic. In the ditch. I managed to stay in the ditch for a change!
Today was spent working on my Doll Quilt for the EB Quilters DQ#4 Swap. That one I can’t show you photos of… although it looks GREAT! I’m not sure if it will be my partners cup of tea, but I’ve sort of loosely based it on her flickr mosaic likes, so quietly crossing my fingers it is acceptable! Good news is I am ready to baste that one and do some very basic machine quilting.
Are you a sucker for FREE stuff?
I am!
Today at the shops was all about the Freebies!
The new Notebook magazine yielded FREE Salad Tongs… perfect for Christmas salads!
The Gardening Magazine not only had a FREE magazine, but a tonne of FREE samples things, including some seedlings, dog treats and garden food!
I don’t usually buy gardening magazines, but I couldn’t go past the Free seeds LOL! Plus it has an article on protecting your seedlings from animals… considering I have some sort of animal that is persisting on digging up my seeds EVERY NIGHT (I’m guessing a mouse as my pumpkin seeds are usually first to go) I am in dire need of this article!
Target were advertising the 2010 campaign “50 books you can’t put down” and well the extra 2 books were FREE…
The Freebies on offer this year are “Short Stories you Must read in 2010” and “Tickled Onions”
I’ve noticed “Diary of a Wimpy Kid” & decided to buy it on a whim as I actually do enjoy the diary style books (remember the Adrian Mole books – I loved those! And I had a Kylie Mole book which was pretty funny!) I’ve only just started flicking through this & it’s actually rather funny, for a kids book ;) Guess what I’m reading this weekend!!!
You’ve been warned!
There’s been sewing (finally) finished off a cover for my machine that I started yonks ago! It’s not much to look at and I haven’t even hemmed it yet, but it’s done and I can now throw it over the machine between uses since I never ever use the Horn cupboard to house the machine when not in use ;)
No pattern necessary! I used one charm pack that I bought for a swap and never used! I sewed up 7 rows of 4 (well actually I admit to doing it all ass about, sewing up 2 x 3 rows of 4 and then 1 row of four and attaching that 1 row to the 2 blocks *sigh* this is why I don’t design things for myself… I’m to back to front!) I then sewed together a row of 3 blocks x 2 and connected them to the sides (ie sewed up three blocks, turned and sewed the edge across the next, turned and sewed down the other three blocks – confused yet?)
It’s all about Fabrics and Mess!
Busy choosing fabrics for the swaps I’ve joined up too!!!
These fabrics, I’m thinking of using for the Great Stocking Swap of 2010! I don’t think my partner reads my blog… but anyhow – if you are in the swap, how about telling me what you think??? And Selina – if you think I am WAY off the mark, please, please, please take pity on me and email me!!!
It’s funny I usually don’t get an idea in my head until quite late in the swap and then it’s a mad dash to get it done and posted on time… this time however I have woken through the night and gone “yes” that’s it! Let’s hope I can pull it off and that it looks as good done as it does in my head!
Same story for the Doll Quilt Swap this year! Of course if I show too much I’m sure it will be a dead giveaway…
I’ve picked out the fabrics, now I’m in the process of getting the main design from my head to paper… it will be interesting to see if it works out – first time I’ve done a mish-mash and am definitely stepping out of my comfort zone… there may (or may not) be some hand sewing involved in this one!
So what’s happening at your place this fine (& very bloody hot – 28 degrees!) Wednesday?
Absolutely NO crafting this week (well apart from laying out some fabric to see how my EB DQ swap may look like!)
There has been some gardening today! My lavender is going great guns, check out all those lovely purple flowers! It smells great and looks great! So with that resounding success behind me…
I jumped in yesterday and purchased 2 x Hydrangeas! At $18 each I cannot afford to kill them… I am slightly worried but willing to take up the challenge! Aren’t these the most beautiful pink you ever did see?
I also got a blue one (see the pot to the right of the picture!)
And of course some Staffy action! Here’s the budster in fine form (note how his hair has nearly grown back on his legs!)
Our natives are flowering & the birds just love it! Zoom in to see the bluey!
Qld turned on a miserable grey fathers day today :(
A splash of colour was needed to brighten this dreary day, so I pulled out this 3/4 finished quilt top and finished the FMQ on each border. I started this quilt top back in 2008 *hangs head in shame* Hopefully it won’t take me too long to bind it and finish it completely.
My FMQ… not the best, but improving slowly. I just can’t seem to get the rhythm going with the BSR foot. For some reason my machine revs into gear even when I’m moving the fabric slowly and then it just bunches up my stitches… so I tried with bigger stitches and am having the opposite problem of getting HUGE stitches when I move the fabric too fast.
It’s far from perfect, but this quilt was for practice purposes only… infact my little girl has already snagged it and is cuddled up under it on the couch watching Dora *heart*
What stitch length do you use on the BSR… (if you have one???)
The last weekend of Winter was spent curled up watching a movie and winding (too) many DMC threads onto cards…
The box is looking so bright and colourful now!
Today, although my sinus’ feels as though they are about to explode, I am tired to the bone and feeling quite hormonal ~ I managed a little secret sewing – all to be revealed at a later date!
There has been play time with my new toy :)
which arrived just in time for Meet me at Mikes’ September book club!
The book “Anne of Green Gables” and check it out!
It’s on the book shelf ready to read!!! Love my new IPAD!
I caved & signed up for the Annual EB Doll Quilt Swap – September and October are sure to be busy months indeed with that swap and the christmas stocking swap too… eeek…(I am so looking forward to Blogtoberfest to keep me on track & under control for looming deadlines!)
What’s been happening at your place?
