Fabulous weekend

I love the Gold Coast! So close to home, so beautiful and so affordable. Angela and Paul gave Bill the Builder a weekend at the Gold Coast for his birthday. Naturally, I had to go too! We stayed at the Holiday Inn and it was just fabulous! This was the night view from our room on the 20th floor. It was pouring rain when we woke up on Saturday morning, so we didn't leave until later....................

............which was a good thing because I had to make my block of the week for the Sylvia's Bridal Sampler.

 

 BOW 1 Ladies' Aid Album Block F~8

How would that have looked if I was in charge of choosing the blocks and setting deadlines and all sorts of other official stuff, and then I didn't get done in time??? Ooowaah! It wouldn't have been good at all! And now to announce (don't you just love announcing??) BOW 2 to everyone ie Lynda.  Lynda has already done her block for the week.

 

Lynda says this photo doesn't show the colours very well. I think it will be just amazing to compare our different colours with the same blocks as we get further along. We were planning on putting the quilt together when we go to Kingaroy in April next year but that means 14 blocks a month and we just aren't up to it yet!

Here is where we are going in April next year. I am going to be the guest speaker! Gads! It is an open day and all funds raised go to really worthwhile charities. There are all sorts of demonstrations and it is a fabulous day. If anyone is in the region, make sure you head on out. Food is fabulous too!

I have to go now. I have to  'announce' the block(s) for next week. There are two because they are easy and somebody got a jump start on me!

Let's have a fantastic week!

PS - I knitted three more rows of my beanie!!

Who's been sleeping in my bed.......

Every Friday, I look after this gorgeous little package! He is grandbaby number 3 - aka The Sweet One. We have a wonderful time together - lots of goofing off! Today, we cleaned the car, did some washing, chased Barney No Friends, had a loooong nap and watched Madagascar. It was a full day!

Snappy dresser!

My friend Lynda and I had a really stupid great idea.  We are going to start making the blocks in Sylvia's Bridal Sampler.  Each Monday, I will choose a block (two if it's a really easy block) and we both have to have it made by the following Sunday.  We figure we should have them all finished by about 2020! We are both working on heaps a couple of projects but if ever once we've got those finished, it will be full steam ahead. Bill the Builder and I are going to the Gold Coast for the weekend at daybreak tomorrow so I'll need to get my skates on.

P.S. I knitted another row on my beanie!

Learning to Knit

My mother is teaching me to knit.  It's not panning out too well, let me tell you.This is eventually going to be a beanie but it sure is hard going! The needles Mum gave me were too short so I bought longer ones. Now the ends stick down into the sleeves of my jammies. When I reported this to Mum, she gave me a stunned look and said "how the hell do you manage that?" which I tend to feel is not what an encouraging teacher would say. Sometimes, I think Dr. Spock would have a field day with my mother.

It's been a while......

After much nagging from someone who shall remain nameless (but whose initials are Lynda), I am back in blogland! I have found so many new blogs and I get such pleasure from reading them, that I've been shamed into resurrecting my own blog.

It has been a busy few months - some birthdays, a trip to the USA, a scrapbook retreat, a Christmas, a road trip down south, some more birthdays, a quilt retreat and another scrapbook retreat.

I am now unemployed and only just starting to get used to that and enjoy it properly. It is a learned skill, just as being employed is a learned skill. I thought I'd have a lot more time for quilting, sewing, reading and the other good things in life but it seems like I have less! Note to self - get a grip and get organized!

I embroidered a set of 7 "Days of the Week" tea towels for Angela's birthday (yes, she did want them!) and they turned out really well. Bought cotton/linen blend towels from here which were just a treat to embroider. Service was amazing and the towels arrived the next day! Then I used designs from Embroidery Library. They turned out beautifully and Ang was delighted. The last scrapbook retreat was also part of her gift.

Our trip to the States was just fabulous! San Francisco, New York, Boston, Washington, Los Angeles and heaps of other places because Bill the Builder is obsessed about car hire and we always do a lot of driving around.  This results in nasty slurs against my navigational abilities, even though we had the trusty Tom Tom on board. We were driving from Washington back to New York, hopefully via Philidelphia but ended up alarmingly close to Canada!! MUCH abuse as we got further and further away from New York!

Oooops! Turned out I had left the "no toll roads" option on and all roads from Washington to New York must have been tolls! We chose "no tolls" so that we could see something of the countryside. It was a fabulous holiday and we are thinking of going again around the same time this year.

Bill the Builder says I have to get a job if I want to go anywhere, but I think..................naaah!

Further along than it looks...

Well, the plasterer did his thing all day Friday (I am assuming, since I was at work and he was here) and the plastering is finished and sanded. Boy is it sanded!! There was plaster dust over everything. What a mess. But at least it's done and ready for the electrician and paint. It doesn't look like much, but Bill the Builder and I worked all weekend, cleaning and sorting and cleaning and throwing out and cleaning....

Not sure when the electrician is coming. Hopefully this week. Bill the Builder has cut out for power points and it's all ready to go. What a nightmare job it all was and with very little to see for it.

The next thing I want to do is measure everything. One of the reasons I started this blog is that I searched the net for ideas for setting up a room like this and couldn't find anything useful. I will do a floor plan of everything I want to do in this room, with measurements of the room and measurements of what I need to fit in here.

I want to be able to quilt on the doover without banging my hip on the cutting table and I want to be able to use my hot glue gun without getting third degree burns. Well, I'll probably still get third degree burns but I want it to be because I am careless and not because of lack of useable facilities. Yes, there is a difference.

Here's what I want to put in there: my quilting doover and be able to use it with ease, a cutting table that I can walk all the way round and will take a quilt that will fit on the doover, my embroidery machine with room to set up the pattern on one side and all the cottons on the other side, my sewing machine with room to put the pieces on one side and the finished blocks on the other side, my ironing board and iron close to the sewing machine, my fabric cupboards, plenty of book shelves, a rod to hold my roll of batting, my design wall (thank you Miss Lynda), enough bench space to do scrap booking and card making, something workable to hold all my embroidery discs as well as paper patterns including pattern books but separate to all my magazines and some kind of rod system to hold all my 2 1/2" strips (because I have become obsessed with 2 1/2" squares but that might pass soon because of the quilt centre I have just finished for my gorgeous DIL), proper storage for WIPs including tops that are yet to be quilted.

I'm still getting my head around everything that I actually want in there. I want to get it as right as I can first time round and if anyone has any suggestions, I would love to hear them. I am thinking that tomorrow I will shove everything out of the way so that I can quilt a top I've made for my daughter's friend. Did I mention that I've four quilts to be finished for handover by the end of September?

Oooh....off for a glass of red to soothe my shattered nerves!

Moving right along....

Last night, Bill the Builder and his trusty slave (that would be me) replaced all the cornice in the soon-to-be-but-not-soon-enough quilting room. Bill the Builder started barking orders at the slave until the slave stomped off in a sulk and poured a glass of red wine.

The slave soon returned after being fortified by a particularly snappy little red, which warmed the slave's tummy (and personality). My quilting doover is under those blue and white sheets on the left.Bill the Builder says he is very keen to have this project finished because he is fed up with all the mess. Clearly, he is a neat freak and I think I can prove this theory with the next picture. It is the front and one bay of his shed.

It is a four bay shed, with a huge skillion to the front and a smaller one to the back. He has oozed out of the shed in both directions and has started planning where he is going to put the camping gear in the new room. As if THAT is going to happen! That wooden sign above the door reads "Old Ba#%$^ds Shed". I bought it for him. I am SUCH a good wife.

This morning at daybreak (actually, an hour before daybreak) the plasterer turned up again. He is plastering away out there now and I'm thinking I should rush out with coffee or something, to keep him alert and plastering. Oooh, I do hope he can finish it today.

It's a challenge!

This is Barney No Friends, Bill's psychologically damaged cat, soaking up a few rays and getting sun energy to power him through whatever nasty plans he has for today. Following are the "before" photos of my soon-to-be-and-well-deserved new sewing and quilting room. Bill the Builder is going to convert the carport into a lovely, dust-free and well lit room for me. At the moment, everything is pulled away from the walls to have the plastering done.
These two sets of cupboards are out on the driveway and hold all my clothes sewing stuff (don't do that anymore) and my papercraft stuff. That is Barney No Friends striking a pose in front of them because he thinks everything is about him......and it's not.

This is what the carport currently looks like. Urkle!! Everything is pulled away from the walls so that the plasterer can do his thing. Hopefully, he will finish this coming Thursday. And then what I have to do, is fit this (in current small sewing room)

and this (one door of three door cupboard in laundry)

and this (cupboard with fabric and thread in current sewing room and recently tidied up by dear friend, Miss Lynda, but since messed up again by me)

and this (one side of current small sewing room)

and this (cutting and embroidery table in current small,unworkable sewing room)

and this (other side of current small, uncomfortable, unworkable, de-motivating sewing room, including built-in wardrobe full of plastic tubs of fabric, UFOs and stuff)

all back into the remodelled carport! It's not as bad as it looks........actually, it's worse than it looks!! But I shall do as my mother is always advising and "haul myself up by my own bootstraps" and "gird my loins" and get on with it. Oh, hang on. I don't HAVE any bootstraps! Perhaps I shall just get on with it.