The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2011 annual report for this blog.
Here’s an excerpt:
A San Francisco cable car holds 60 people. This blog was viewed about 2,500 times in 2011. If it were a cable car, it would take about 42 trips to carry that many people.
So it would seem that another year is over. This year for me has just absolutely flown by so quickly I have no idea of where it went…..
I travelled to Sydney in January, February, May, June, August and December. Twice for work and the rest for holidays. I travelled to Mount Gambier on New Year’s Eve 2010 and 2011.
I didn’t work much at my second job but I did work some crazy hours at my first job. I had 8 people leave my team (with another one on the way as we speak) and I trained another 8 to take their places. Right now, I’m still one team member down and with the one that is currently leaving this will take me to 2 down and I still have someone going on holidays for 3 weeks in January.
When I did have a full trained team it was awesome. Unfortunately, those times have been far and few between. I learnt how to juggle even more and I also learnt how to be flexible and also how to ignore work.
For the year ahead; I want to learn how to be more balanced, how to actually walk out the door on time. I plan on going to the gym more often and also more consistently. I have applied to uni to study a Degree in Management with the view of going onto the Diploma in Project Management. I’ll also help my Dad with his business and work are currently talking to me about a new role that is completely different to the one that I have.
I started going to quilt class in 2011 mainly for the company and to meet people that have the same interests as me. It was good and I really enjoyed it and look forward to going again next year.
This lead to me sewing more. I finished 12 quilts (10 quilts, 1 bed runner and 1 quilt cushion) of which 5 were WIPs/UFOs.
2011 Finished Quilts
I also started a few more tops than I finished and I finished quite a few from the bits and bobs stage to a completed flimsy top; there are 13 in total, but I could only find photos of 11 of them.
2011 WIPs
I bought 3 lines of fabric; Sunkissed by Sweetwater, Kingdom by Jessica Levitt and Woodland by Natalie Lymer. I drooled over Countdown to Christmas by Sweetwater and I very nearly bought that as well but I managed to restrain myself and only purchased a Jelly Roll. I also bought lots of other bits and pieces. Some to finish quilts, others for backing purposes and some just ’cause it was pretty 
I spent a lot of time on the computer reading blogs and hence I have quilt a few more quilt ideas in my head that I haven’t even begun!
And now, I just want to wish you all a very Happy New Year!
May it be full of growth, fantastic opportunities, challenges, ups and downs (to appreciate the ups), new friends, old friends, fresh starts, inspiration, creativity and enough to do it all in
I dragged Grandma down to Tricia’s early this morning and bought black and white homespun, backing for Asian Bricks, Made in Cherry and I also bought wadding for Made in Cherry.
When I got home I cut the black homespun up so that I could finish Made in Cherry. Unfortunately, it seems and that black is not always black 
Anyways, I trolled through my stash and found some black homespun that matched in a quilt kit that has the fabric for Asian Bricks in it.
I re purposed one 3.5′ strip and finished off Made in Cherry. It ends up being 60′ square so it’s quite large. I can see that I’m going to have fun (not!) quilting this eventually!
Made in Cherry (60' x 60')
From there, I started sewing Asian Bricks together. Asian Bricks is quilt kit that my Mum bought when the local quilt shop in Mount Gambier closed down. I thought that she had forgotten about it but she keeps on making comments about me finishing it in time to give it to her for her 60th Birthday – in October…..
So, knowing that this year is going to be busy (helping Dad with his business, possibly going back to uni and still working FT) and that as the quilt is (to me) a monster 83′ x 85′ it will need to go to the quilter as I certainly won’t be able to quilt it. This means that I will have to be extra organised with it to ensure that it is finished in time to give to the quilter and then give her time to get it back to me as well.
Asian Bricks
It’s coming together quickly which is good but as the 3 main bricks are 9.5′ x 16.5′ it makes it a bit hard to manuever both on the sewing machine and also on the ironing board. It will look awesome when it’s done though.
Unfortunately, my holidays have now come to an end and I’m back to work tomorrow which is a pain as it will seriously hamper my sewing time 
Although, I’m thinking that my credit card thinks that it is a good thing!
Anyways, it’s late (for a school night that is) and tomorrow will be an early start so I guess I better head off to catch some zzz’s.
Sweet dreams y’all
{Nearly} Made in Cherry
I’ve been sewing on and off today on my Made in Cherry Quilt and all day I have been umming and ahhing about whether I should make a trip to Tricia’s or not. I rang at 2.45pm to find out what time they closed and they advised in 15mins so that kind of sorted that for me
I then kept on sewing but I hoped that I had enough fabric to finish the top. I took a break around 4pm and came back to it at 7pm and continued sewing until about 11pm. This is where I found that I didn’t have enough fabric
As I’ve been sewing the quilt together I have also been thinking about the quilting and binding. I think I will go with my bodgy squiggles all over (but change the thread colour for the star and the black blocks) as I think if I do a grid it will take away from the star pattern. I’m also going to bind it in plain black for the same reason.
Just 13 more 3.5′ square black blocks and I would have finished it. Oh well……
Off to the fabric shop tomorrow!
After Grandma finished at the Doctor today we ended up at the local shopping centre to finalise our Christmas shopping. I’m very pleased to say that I have now got everything that I need. Now all I need to do is wrap it all up!
Actually, it’s funny. I knew that Christmas was close but it was only today that I worked out that it is next weekend. That’s only 5 business days away!
Anyways, when we finished I came home and started sewing on Made in Cherry again and after stopping for dinner I have now finished it to the halfway point.
Made in Cherry (Halfway)
I can’t believe it is coming together so quickly. I wasn’t sure about how it was going to turn out but now that I have done half I can see that thankfully it will work with the scraps that I have on hand.
I’m thinking of quilting it in a grid form like Rita (Red Pepper Quilts) on her latest quilt.
The only problem that I can see with quilting it this way is that this quilt is going to be 60′ square so doing it in a grid form means that it will take forever to actually quilt it. Even knowing this, this is the option that I’m leaning towards.
The other option is to quilt the star in a beige thread in my squiggles and the black fabric in black thread in squiggles.
If I was better and cleverer at quilting I’d do something fancy with the star and then feathers or something similar in a contrasting thread in the open black fabric.
Binding wise, I’m thinking black or perhaps red or even the orange (Michael Miller) fairy frost that I used in Rolling Along. I’ll have to think about it some more…..
Although, I’m not sure how long I’ll be able to think cause I’m leaning towards finishing this one next instead of Pink Windy Days or Choc Coconut Ice.
Anyways, I’m off to bed to catch some zzzz’s and I’ll finish this quilt tomorrow.
Sweet dreams y’all
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