Ginger’s Quilts

Well, here we are once again on the 16th of the month - although this month I am writing this the day after cause I was waaaayyy too tired to write it out last night.  Slacker!

So here I am, writing this out now and watching the Vicar of Dibley.  It is the funniest show ever and I’m so putting the box set on my Xmas list.

Yesterday I was at work, then I went to the gym and then I went out for coffee and cake so it was a busy day.

So without further ado, here is what I did on the 16th May 2008:

4.50am - hit the snooze button and again at 4.55am

5.00am - bugga, better get up then.  Hang on… I don’t have to get up ’til 5.20am.  Bonus!  Reset the alarm for 5.15am.

5.15am - hit the snooze button yet again and also again at 5.20am.

5.25am - hit the snooze button and turn it off.  It really is time to get up :(  Cuddle Ginger and then get up.

6.40am - leave the house and start driving to my friends house close to the city where I’ll catch the bus from.

6.50am - listen to the radio and am reminded that we are supposed to have a massive storm with hail, rain, thunder, lightening and if you are lucky, floods and decide to be paranoid about trees falling on my car and change where I’m going to park.  Take a left and drive straight into the city to park in a car park for the day.

7.10am - stop at the cafe near work to grab a coffee.  My first for the week.  It’s been a long week and today is day 7 out of 7 with most spare time spent at the gym or tafe.  TGIF!!!

7.30am - there’s no sugar in the kitchen so I decide to try honey and milo on my porridge and hope that it will taste good.  Eat my breakfast and decide that honey and milo and porridge just don’t go and I will not be recommending it to anyone.  Wash my bowl out and look out the window at the world.  It still looks pretty nice out there.  Wonder if I should be annoyed that the weather is fine and I have paid for parking or that I should be thankful that the weather is fine and then there won’t be any problems.

7.45am - start work and answer some calls.

9.50am - log out late for my first break, go have a snack, check my emails and bloglines.

10.10am - find out that I didn’t log out and realise that I’ll now have to do more work today than I was anticipating to be able to meet my daily targets

12.00noon - log out for lunch and get a piece of pizza and sushi so that I can keep my sandwhich for dinner.  Ring Grandma to check in on her.  Find out that the freezer is ok and we won’t need to buy another fridge, thankfully.  Get back to work and check my emails and bloglines again.

12.30pm - log back in to the phones.

14.15pm - log out for my last break.  Talk to my desk buddy who I’m going out for coffee with later and have a hilarious conversation with her cause she thought we were going to Spatz and I thought we were going to the Elephant Walk.  As she isn’t fond of the Elephant Walk we confirm to meet at Spatz.

15.35pm - log out for the last time and I’m freeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee to start my weekend.  Hip hip hooray…….

16.00pm - leave the car park feeling like a drowned rat and madly try to keep the windows from fogging up so that I can see where I’m going.

16.30pm - pop into Quiltaholics to buy some wadding for the baby quilt that I’m making.  Only problem is is that Cheryl has a customer already and she seems to be buying all the pink fabric in the shop.  It looks like it will be a pretty quilt.  Tell Cheryl I’ll get the wadding on Thursday when I’m in for quilt class.  Cause really there is no rush and I’ll be busy enough this weekend doing my assignment and homework due Tuesday.

16.40pm - get to the gym and change.  Get to the room and wait for the class to start.

17.00pm - start the class.  It’s Attack tonight, my second for the week.  Feel like death warmed over and really sore from all the other exercise I’ve done during the week.  Wonder what I’m doing there but just keep moving…

18.00pm - finish the class and feel very proud that I finished it!

18.10pm - start walking on the treadmill and get the ipod sorted to listen to Week 2 of the Couch to 5km Podcast.

18.20pm - Friends is on the tv in front of the treadmill and although there is no sound and I’m listening to my ipod I remember the episode and am laughing whilst I’m running.  Wonder what everyone else thinks of the strange girl at the end who is laughing for no reason whilst she is running.  Decide I don’t care and keep laughing cause it makes me happy.

18.40pm - finish the podcast, refill my water bottle and go get changed back into my clothes, ready to go out for coffee and cake.  Yum.  Get in the car, eat my sandwhich and drive to Spats.

19.00pm - arrive at Spats, ring my friend and find out she is minutes away so I go on in and get a table and peruse the menu to work out what I’m going to have.

19.05pm - my friend arrives, she and her friend sit down, we order and enjoy our desserts.  We talk for a while and enjoy just being somewhere other than work, the gym, tafe or home.

21.00pm - I am nearly falling asleep, it is so comfy there!  We decide that it’s time to leave so we pay the bill, collect our coats and walk outside to our cars.

21.30pm - get home.  Way too tired to take anything other than my handbag inside so leave everything else in the car.

21.40pm - write yesterday’s post, check emails and bloglines, chat to Grandma and watch the end of the football.

22.00pm - bedtime!  I am sooo looking forward to getting a good restful sleep and being able to sleep in in the morning*

*little do I know that I won’t be able to get to sleep for ages and then will wake up every other hour, hear the pouring rain and start worrying (irrationally) about trees falling on the roof or the roof caving in due to excess water and I’ll be up at 8.30am.

So, I’ve been feeling bad that I haven’t been posting much lately however, I don’t have anything quilty to report.

I do have a baby quilt that is nearly finished (flimsy wise) that I’m going to try and finish on the weekend.

And I feel like making a doll sized quilt - probably in pink!

However, this weekend I have a whole tonne of stuff that I need to do so we’ll see.

I also have my “Day In A Life Post” to write for today but I don’t want to do it tonight as I’m nearly asleep and if I start thinking about my day then I’ll wake up and won’t be able to sleep

Life just seems to be getting so much busier for me at the moment; it’s unreal.

Ok, so just so I have an idea of what I am going to achieve this weekend I’m going to write a list here and report back Sunday night with what was done.

• pedicure
• manicure
• facial
• clean the house
• label Blue + Tan
• assignment
• homework
• write an upper body weights program
• tidy study
• organise hearts
• finish baby quilt to flimsy stage
• do backing for baby quilt
• cut 1800 2′ black squares
• tidy room

I think that’s enough! Let’s see if I get through all of that. If I do I have plenty more to add to it!

I had something else I wanted to say but now I can’t remember so I’ll leave it at that and get back to you tomorrow about what I did today.

Hope you all have a loverly weekend

I haven’t been doing a lot lately just finishing things up.  I’ve now finished the binding on Blue + Tan and will label that this weekend, finally finished hand sewing the binding onto the last remaining 8 placemats and I got Asian Pinwheels up to a point where I could quilt it at quilt class.

I went to quilt class yesterday and quilted most of it and then last night when I couldn’t sleep I finished it off.  I’ll attach the binding by machine tonight.

I’m also going to get some hearts ready to applique onto the background for Doreen’s Hearts so that I can take them with me to do when I have down time.  I have been doing this with my placemats but now they are thankfully all done

I’m also going to concentrate on finishing off Memories of Spring.

It was funny at quilt class.  One of the ladies asked me how many quilts I’ve got on the go.  And I said that I wasn’t sure but then I semi worked it out in my head and it’s around 8!!!

So I definitely think it’s time to start finishing them off.  Although except for Memories of Spring - which needs the applique done - I don’t have any other completed tops, they are all quilted so it’s not that bad….

I also got to see Tazzie’s Cinnamon Xmas quilt which has the balloon fabric in this post on the back which I’ve fallen in love with and also the quilt top (it’s beautiful).  I also know which quilt I’d put it on the back of.  Now, just to save up to get it!

Well, I’m now off to do the binding on Asian Pinwheels.  I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend and a wonderful Mother’s Day

***

So, my current list of things to do as at 8/5/08:

• finish applique on Memories of Spring
• attach binding onto Blue + Tan by machine - 15/4/08
• attach binding onto Blue + Tan by hand - 5/5/08
• finish butterfly placemats - 25/4/08
• hand sew binding onto Jan’s placemats - 9/5/08
• attach binding to Asian Pinwheels
• handstitch binding to Asian Pinwheels
• applique hearts

Well, I’m still busy!

I just had a weekend off which for me is quite rare as I usually work them (at my choice) so it was nice to pretend to be “normal” for a change

Friday night I hung/hanged at a friend’s house for a few hours before coming home to drop into my bed exhausted.

Saturday I went to Big W and bought a container to put all the clothes that I no longer want into it.  I then went out with my friend Tony.   We started at Officeworks as I needed a new ipod cause I accidentally drowned my old one in my handbag - I put my water bottle in my handbag not realising that I had left the top open.  Result, a drowned ipod and a very wet handbag!

Then we went for lunch at a yiros place on O’Connell St before heading down to Semaphore for some icecream.

That night I went to learn how to put movies onto my new ipod and accidentally deleted my whole iTunes library.  I was not happy but was expecting it as when I was deleting I wasn’t sure if I was doing the right thing or not.  Obviously not!  Lesson learned… do a system restore point on the ‘puter before you delete important stuff.  Or at the very least, back it up.

So last night was mainly about learning how to put movies onto my ipod and also downloading all my songs again as well as starting to upload the ones that I do have on cd.

Today I did heaps of things.

I started with my wardrobe(s).  They have been bugging me forever as they are really messy and full of clothes that I don’t really want.  So I tossed a whole heap of clothes on the floor and will put them into the container that I bought yesterday.  I’ll see if I can give them away to friends/family and if not, I’ll try to sell some on ebay and then give the rest away.

They look much nicer and neater now

So then I went to Spotlight cause I needed some more fabric for the baby quilts that I’m making.  I’m really proud of myself.  I only bought what I needed and no more than that.  One of my cheaper visits!

From there I went to Caltex to put petrol in my car, then I washed my car, dropped into Woolworths for some groceries to tide us over till Friday when I have the day off again, Gloria Jeans for a coffee and finishing my outing at Foodland for some ham - Grandma thinks that theirs is better and keeps fresher.  I don’t really notice the difference; but, it keeps her happy if I get it there.

Then when I got home I put some washing in the machine, continued making a backing for Asian Pinwheels, uploading songs and leader/endering the baby quilt - Green Ladybirds.

I then pinned Asian Pinwheels ready for Thursday’s quilt class - can’t wait - had some dinner and then did a little bit of hand sewing on Blue + Tan.  I don’t have that much to go and once that is done, I just have to label it, wrap it up and wait for the first weekend in June.

So that’s what I’ve been doing this weekend.  Sorry it’s not set out any better but I need to go to bed cause 5.20am is really early and I need my beauty sleep

Quick question though for those that have read to the end….

Should I:

(a) pay off my loan first or;

(b) start saving for a house deposit that I will need in the next 3 - 5 years?

I know what a financial planner/accountant would say and I know that if I pay off the loan sooner I save money in interest and all that but that doesn’t really help me if I need to move out in the next couple of years.

Cause when I have to move out I would really like to buy my own house and have some stability instead of renting.

Thanks in advance

Kathleen, quite often I stay in my jammies for the day ’specially when I have days off and I feel that I’ve been overworked during the week. In fact, I feel another coming on for this Sunday!

Paula, thanks for the comment. I love my jammy days. I always feel like I get heaps done

***

Long time no write!

I’ve been really busy this week with working, TAFE starting back this week and actually going to the gym that I haven’t had a spare minute to myself let alone do some sewing

Poor me

I have been working on Jan’s placemats here and there and also my hexagons when I’m at work but other than that… nothing!

I now have the weekend off so I’m hoping to get Blue + Tan’s hand binding finished and perhaps a back for Asian Pinwheels and also pin it so that I can take it to quilt class on Thursday to quilt.

*fingers crossed*

Hope everyone had a wonderful week, a fantastic weekend

Thanks for playing along with the Fluff Five Paula, Andee, Rose and Tazzie.  I really enjoyed reading your answers too

***

Phew.

What a busy weekend I’ve had!  Although I went to work today I would have really loved another day off.  Why does it feel like you don’t have a long weekend when you have Friday off but it does when you have Monday off?  Strange….

Friday

I went with my Mum and her partner to the Inglewood Dawn Service.  Going to a Dawn Service is something that I’ve wanted to do for a while but haven’t gotten around to so I thought I’d do it this year.

I took quite a few pictures and then when I got home I had fun playing with them in Picnic (Flikr’s version of “mental blank”).

I think I made some of the pics look heaps better!!

This photo is after Picnic.  The before pic is in my Flickr group in the Inglewood Set.

Then I spent all morning working on the butterfly placemats and got them finished and wrapped up ready to give away.  I then worked on the placemats that I had promised my second cousin.

In the afternoon my cousin came along and we went to the picutres and saw “Forgetting Sarah Marshall” which was quite funny.  Not completely my sense of humour but it was funny in some parts.  There were parts that were really funny but no one else was laughing so I couldn’t!  Although my cousin was as well so we sat there chuckling to ourselves

Then we came home and had dinner and she/we looked through the patterns that I’ve liked and kept from AP&Q.  She choose a pattern that we are going to do together and for me to teach her how to patchwork.  I don’t think I’m the greatest teacher so we’ll see how we go.

I’ve cut out all my fabric and made one block as an example.  I think it will look pretty when it’s finished and this will then end up as a Xmas quilt for me or someone else.

Saturday

I took my Mum shopping at West Lakes.  She wanted to look for something to wear to my brother’s 21st.  She didn’t find anything however, I did remember an outfit from Noni B that I thought would be suitable for me.

So that afternoon I went down to Marion to meet a friend for coffee and we also looked at the outfit.  I tried it on and bought it!  There are a couple of pictures in my Flickr stream as I have been getting feedback from all my friends :)  Feel free to tell me what you think.  I’ll be taking the photos down by the end of the week as I don’t really like to be on the internet.

So, I then came home.  Watched Harry Potter #4 and finished sewing the binding by machine onto the placemats.  I just want to say now that if you ever hear me mention making any more placemats, slap me!  I just have sew the binding down by hand now and they are allllll done.

I also decided to change the ladybird quilt to pink and blue pinwheels.  That way I just have to make 2 and it doesn’t matter if the babies are boys or girls cause it will suit either.  Problem Solvered!

I now have a couple of spare blocks and yellow half square triangles that I don’t know what to do with.

Hmmm…..

Sunday

I spent most of the day in my jammies.  I did do a run to the fish shop to get fish for Grandma and also to Gloria Jeans for a coffee and from there I spent the afternoon and evening hand sewing the binding onto Blue + Tan quilt.  I now have 1 side plus a little bit.  Then it’s a label and that’s done too

I also finished sewing the flowers onto Memories of Spring.  All that’s left on that one is the four butterflies but they’ll have to wait until the binding on Blue + Tan and the placemats are done.

After that I’ll start appliquing the hearts on Doreen’s Hearts and making backing for Asian Pinwheels to take to the next quilt class to do the “mental blank” on it.

But, I’m getting ahead of myself!  First things, first….

Finish the binding on the quilt and the placemats

***

updated 29/4/08

Emma, I enjoyed reading your Fluff Five as well :)  I only did it as soon as I saw it cause I knew that if I left it to later it wouldn’t get done!  Kind of like the rego sticker for the car……

Tazzie, yes, you must!  Lol

Oh, and how could I forget!  My (baby) list of things to do!

So, my current list of things to do as at 28/4/08:

• bind 16 Patch - 12/4/08
• bind Heart Love - 22/4/08
• finish applique on Memories of Spring
• attach binding onto Blue + Tan by machine - 15/4/08
• attach binding onto Blue + Tan by hand
• finish butterfly placemats - 25/4/08
• hand sew binding onto Jan’s placemats

Gah!  Gotta go back to work.  Hope you all have a great day

They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old;
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember them.

Ohhh, Kathleen….. is that a challenge????

Ok, you’re on!  But only quickly as I do have to go and do some more hand sewing!

Five things found in your bag

1] My IPod Shuffle and IPod mini 6gig

2] Wallet with credit card as well as money and many loyalty cards so that I can get “free” coffees!

3] A spare bag of silver, cause I get sick of carrying it around in my purse

4] My Polar F11 Heartrate Monitor so that I always have it on me when I go to the gym

5] My mobile phone.  I feel lost and naked when I don’t have it

Five favourite things in your (sewing) room

1] My sewing table.  It used to be Grandma’s kitchen table.  Perfect for pinning quilts

2] A couch that I bought at Christmas so that when my Mum and her partner comes down I have somewhere comfy to sleep

3] An empty vaccuum cleaner box that I’ve now filled with in progress quilts

4] My laptop, cause it is much warmer in here than in the study!

5] A TV with DVD and VCR, cause I need to be entertained whilst I create my quilts

Five things you have always wanted to do

1] Visit Europe.  Really, really, really want to

2] Be a size 10

3] Get married

4] Buy a house

5] Finish my Accounting degree and maybe actually use it?

Five things you are currently into

1] Becoming a Les Mills RPM & Pump Instructor

2] Actually finish my quilting projects!

3] Eating healthy and going to the gym

4] My cat Ginger

5] Chocolate Almonds

Five people you want to tag

I’m not sure if the people that I tag will do it as the are also busy but I’ll tag ‘em and if they want to, they can.  I look forward to see their answers

1] Tazzie

2] Rose

3] Emma

4] Paula

5] Andee

Hi Rose. Yes, I’ve been up to some “fun” mischief! I’ve also started sewing the left over blue half square triangles together to make a quilt out of them for my Mum’s spare room. I know I seem busy, but I think I forgot to mention I have absolutely no intention of even starting Butterfly Garden when I get it (hopefully soon, I can’t wait!) or in the near future. I’ve loved this quilt since I saw Leanne start to create and it have wanted to be able to do the BOM since it became available. I’m so glad that I can now do this.

Hi Kathleen. Terminator? I love the Terminator. Specially the second one. I’ll be back! I reckon, those demontors are enough to give me nightmares, let alone younger kids!!!

***

So, I haven’t been doing much. Well, not quilt wise anyways. I’ve been working lots and went to the gym Monday night and tonight as I’m still on holidays from TAFE I went for a Bowen Therapy treatment and then decided to come home and just be.

I managed to finish the binding on Heart Love and with a label! I’ve also even written a post on it! How’s that for organised????

I’ve also started the seriously focus on finishing the Butterfly placemats. I’ve started taking them to work and doing little bits here and there in the spare minute or two I have and I’ve even done a little on the bus! I have 5.5 to go.

I haven’t done any more on Memories of Spring since I last “talked”. I plan on doing more of that on the weekend along with starting the hand bind Blue + Tan.

I’ve also got 2 Thursdays off in May so I’ll be able to go to quilt class, yay!! I want Memories of Spring all appliqued by then so that I can get help in stitching the antennia on the butterflies and then I can finish them and then hand it to Tara to quilt and pin (shhhh, don’t tell her cause I haven’t asked her yet!) so then I can perhaps finish the whole thing when I’m home looking after Grandma in July.

So, my current list of things to do as at 22/4/08:

• bind 16 Patch - 12/4/08
  
• bind Heart Love - 22/4/08
• finish applique on Memories of Spring
• attach binding onto Blue + Tan - 15/4/08
• finish butterfly placemats
• finish Jan’s placemats

Catch you all later, hope your week is going well

Finished Size: 44″ x 44″

I started this quilt January this year after finding the pattern in a digest from the Yahoo Group ‘Stashbusters’.  I followed the link and liked the look of the block and thought that it was just the thing to help me use some of my 2′ squares.

I started out with the one block with a black fabric that I bought in Spotlight in January ‘08:

After thinking about it and letting it stew in my head for a while I decided that I wanted to do a 3×3 setting with the first dark border and then the bigger border, like I did for my Mum’s quilt.

However, I wasn’t totally happy with the black fabric so I as I had just bought some black fabric with a white flower pattern that I thought would work really well.  Then I decided to put the blue flowers with it as I had just bought a metre or so of it from the cheap aisle.

As I was making it I had no idea of who it would go to.  It was also around this time that I decided to start quilting my own quilts.

This was the second one that I quilted myself, although Tara did quite a bit of the work on it as when I took it to quilt class to quilt I just wasn’t all that interested in doing anything!

It was quilted with a blue King Tut thread that I had heard good things about.  It worked well, but at this point I probably wouldn’t use it again.  Only, cause I don’t have a local store that supplies it.

As it was sitting in the bag waiting for me to finish it I thought that I would give it to our next door neighbour who is a really good friend to Grandma and I.  She comes over every day to have afternoon tea with Grandma and often if she is going to go to the Chemist she will also grab Grandma’s prescriptions.

It is now bound and labelled and all ready to go.  I want to give it to her now (cause I totally suck at waiting to give people their presents) but Grandma thinks that I should wait ’till July when Grandma is out of hospital and home again.

So for now, it will live on the couch in the sewing room with Scrap Basket Lattice and 16 Patch.

Ginger helping me quilt it.  He is actually sitting on top of the quilt!