Organised? Who, Me??

As I have mentioned before on this blog I am challenged when it comes to being organized.
It just never seems to happen.  Especially in the sewing/crafting space.  My excuse has always been I need MESS to create.  Lately I have been looking at the blog called “Blissfully Organized” and dreaming of being just that.
The mess and confusion was actually starting to get to me, so when my dear, organized friend Shirley had listened long enough to my moaning she decided I needed help.  
THE BEFORE PHOTOS
                  (Overflowing box of selvedges!!!)     
THE AFTER SHIRLEY PHOTOS
    
There is still more to do but she has put me on the right track now and all I have to do is be a good little girl and put everything back in it’s place  (hard part).
Thank you Shirley and I think you have missed your vocation.  You should be a professional organizer.   Mwah to you, Shirley      

Another Birthday and Sweet Friends and a Rant

 Does anyone else use Picasa to upload photos directly from the "blog this" button?  Well for the past couple of weeks IT WILL NOT WORK!!  It is so frustrating.  Is there someone out there more bloggy technical able to instruct me on how to upload photos without first having to compress them?  Picasa does this automatically, but it seems a lot of people are having issues with it right now and Google hasn't fixed it!!@@@???!!!


My birthday was about 2 weeks ago, but I am just getting around to blogging it.  Life seems to be getting busier and busier instead of the expected slow down. 
One of the sweetest ladies in Blogland, Judy, from cjstitching and blooms sent me some wonderful gifts for my birthday.  All the way from Michigan.  Thank you so much, Judy.  Big hugs to you.

Some beautiful fabric, a special pin which she made herself, and a laying tool which her husband made and it is painted in my fave colour:-)  That is the really neat card on the right of the picture.  A town being covered in a whirlwind of quilts.  The card is from Sisters, Oregan.  Looks like a great place to visit - well one can dream!

My younger daughter sent me these lovely flowers and the older one gave me this gorgeous vase from House and Garden (oooh love that shop). 

 P.S.
 Shirley is still in hospital and we hope she is going to be discharged tomorrow.  We will have to just see how her blood test comes back in the morning.  She is feeling much much better and itching to get home and start reading all her emails and messages.

"I'm just a Girl that can't Say NO"

That is why I haven't been able to blog for so long.
I have been blogging -  but over on the quilt club site.  It has been a busy few weeks with our annual exhiibtion and my not being able to say no.  I am passionate about our quilt group and have made many wonderful friends, enjoyed the company of some interesting quilters and shared ideas and dreams.  It has come time now that I must say NO.
Currently, I am newsletter editor (once a month but taking two days to do it - on a weekend),Vice President and maintaining the blog.  In addition to this, I maintain membership and email lists and co-ordinate the sales table at our exhibition. 
"Yes" - I can come to that meeting, "Yes" - I can help with the raffle, "Yes" -  I can shuffle equipment from one place to the next, "Yes" I can post that to a new member and so on. 
 At the same time I am a partner in my husband's business and a housekeeper, mother and grandmother.  
NOoooooooooooooo
Now, I am not blaming the quilt group, it is entirely my own fault and, in 2011, I am intending to take a giant step back for my own sanity and so that I may enjoy what I really joined a quilt group for, yep, quilting, sewing and crafting.

To soften this blog post I will now post some pictures of my favourite quilts at the show.
 
I have always loved the Storm at Sea pattern and vow I will make one one day!  This one was done by a friend, Vicky, and she has used a beautiful variegated red fabric with the cream.
 
My friend Robyn Ginn has made this spectacular quilt using silks and she has used the traditional crazy fan design, and made them into little silk purses.  This quilt is all done by hand apart from sewing the blocks and borders together - amazing.  The entire outside border is hand embroidered.  I am in love with this quilt!
 
Close up of some of the purses WOW WOW WOW
 
Lynn did this one which was a Debbie Caffrey mystery quilt.  I love it because it is full of Kaffe Fassett fabrics and I am a sucker for star quilts.
One of my darling girlfriends, Yvonne, did this beauty.  It is called "Daniel's Pineapple Farm" and was made for her nephew's 21st birthday.  Daniel always wanted to work on a pineapple farm when he was little.  I just love circles.
 
Another Robyn Ginn quilt.  "Hearts for Hannah".  Robyn made this for her granddaughter.  Whilst Robyn was making this quilt, Hannah was involved in a very bad car accident.  She was seriously injured but is now fully recovered.  This quilt has many loving thoughts sewn into it.
Close up of Hannahs heart - all hand embroidered.  All Robyn's quilts are hand quilted as well.

I so admire the patience it would have taken for Dorothy C to make this confetti style quilt entitled "Murphy".
Imagine cutting up all those tinsey bits of fabric and fibres.  He is so cute.

There were so many quilts I loved at the exhibition, but if you would like to view more, I have put some up at www.toowoombaquiltersclub.blogspot.com

Crochet & RSI

Why do we do it?? We know we should listen to our bodies....but no... we keep on going.


Yesterday I decided to crochet a dishcloth with some cotton I got at a very fine price at the Peachester quilt show.  Just wanted to finish it in one day!  Tonight I am paying the price.  Have rubbed some ointment into my arm and now sitting with a hot pack on it.  Looks like I will be taking a rest over the next little time with the crochet and hand quilting!!     
                       

 Here is the culprit - the funkiest dishcloth ever.  A little rough around the edges but my crochet is a little rusty. 


Here is our little granddaughter with her great Papa.

When Size Does Matter

We had half the new renovation tiled when we decided to knock down walls.  This meant we had to order some more tiles or use carpet as before.  Fortunately, the supplier had some more of the same tiles.  They were a different batch so he advised us there may be a slight colour difference, but mixed in with the left overs from the first lot it would not be noticeable.  


Sounds just fine and dandy huh?  Well the tiler arrived this morning to finish it all off so we can get our living area back to normal (??) by Easter.  Now if you purchased a 450mm x 450mm tile you would expect it to measure 450mm right?  Nuh,  they were smaller than the other batch by about 4mm !!@@@??@??!!! (Replace with expletives.)

So people, if you are buying tiles just keep this in mind.  What to do?  We cannot lay them the same as the other area as it flows through and the line would be all out.  We can't have a big wide ugly grout either.  Soooooo, we have got around it by separating the two areas with a feature tile and laying the new tiles on the 45 deg. angle. Off tile shopping again on Monday. Whew!  Well of course this can't be done til next week now as the tiler has other jobs to go to.  It could still be done by Easter though,  fingers crossed! 


 Our living room.  Come on....you must feel a bit sorry for me!

Cough Cough Cough

Not much of anything doing around here as I cough.  Picked up an ugly coughing virus from somewhere and it has really knocked the stuffing out of me.  
Lethargic isn't the word for the tiredness I am feeling, and I am not even motivated to pick up a needle.

This little blossom cheered up my day today.  It doesn't flower very often, because yours truly doesn't look after it as she should.  One thing I did discover, after losing many African Violets, is that they don't like too much water.  Water only when dried out, and a tiny little bit of liquid fertilizer every now and then.


Tomorrow, health permitting, I am going to tack my Kaffe Fassett quilt and get it all ready to do some hand quilting.  I am on the look out for some No 8 perle cotton, I think in a variegated yellow and golds, for the quilting, and using a No 7 crewel needle as Sarah Fielke does on her quilts.  Should make the process go quicker, I hope.

Sleepless in Toowoomba

Don't you hate it when you have a big day planned for the next day and you lay awake in bed eyes wide open?? Grrrr. Not only was it the wee small hours when sleep finally came, I woke a few hours later at 5.00am and decided it was pointless staying there.
Maybe I'm just plain excited - like a kid in a lolly shop. You see, I am off to do a workshop today on felting at our local museum - The Cobb & Co museum. It is always exciting to try something new.
What was I thinking about whilst wracked with insomnia? Quilts of course! I designed in my head, an idea for an art quilt - just have to put it down on paper now and do something towards getting it off the ground. Don't I have enough projects on the go? NEVER>