Lagging Behind

I know that I haven’t written a post for a while and I do apologise however, the reason that I haven’t written is that I just haven’t had a lot of time for quilting lately.

I started TAFE on Tuesday nights, so there is now homework for that subject plus I’m doing a subject externally which requires me to write 2 essays.

Now, I hate writing essays so I’ve been doing a lot of procrastination and wasting a lot of time doing nothing spectacular as I’ve been avoiding the essays.

I’ve finished the first one just now and will start the next one next week.

I’ve been doing a little bit of sewing.  Mainly hexagons at work and appliquing the hearts for Doreen’s Hearts.  I’ve also been doing Snails Trails here and there.

Friday night was our annual work do which I got dragged to but surprisingly I had fun and I’m glad I went.  Yesterday it was the RPM quarterly where we got our new music for the next 3mths.  Today is the Pump quarterly but I’m feeling tired so I’ve skipped it in favour of sitting on the couch in front of the heater!

So, in the next few months I’ve got heaps to do for TAFE and I’ve also lined up a class with the GFM at the gym to see if I can start taking my own RPM class!  Very excited about that and then I’ll start to learn Pump again.

I would like to have at least 3 classes by the end of the year.

Hope you are all having a great weekend and I think I’ll go and spend some quality time with my sewing machine!

August 08 Goals

Since I am feeling just a tad overwhelmed and I felt a sense of success once I completed the 5 4 goals that I published in July I thought I’d post another list of goals for August.

1. Doreen’s Hearts – 1 heart per day
2. Asian Pinwheels – finish hand binding + label
3. Blue Pinwheels – get to hand binding stage (pin, quilt, sew binding on)
4. Doll Quilt #3 – finish completely (quilt, sew binding on, hand quilt)
5. Green Ladybirds – get to quilting stage (pin)
6. Berries for Breakfast – finish hand quilting the border and lattice
7. Snails Trails – get to flimsy stage if the mood strikes

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Optional extras:

1. Galaxy of Scraps – finish to flimsy stage
2. Thousand Triangles – sew half square triangles together to form blocks

Overwhelmed

I had the weekend off this weekend (yay!) and believe me I needed it.  For some reason this week just went down from about Tuesday on.  Nothing I can really put my finger on but by the time I finished work at 16.10 on Friday I was just glad it was all over.

I talked myself into going to the gym after work on Friday however, they had moved the 5pm Pump class to 6pm and hadn’t really advertised it and I just didn’t feel like hanging around for an hour to do RPM so I was slightly disappointed but really it kind of had a fitting end to the week.

Although, if I had of known that I would have gone to a different gym but you know, nothing I can do about it now and tomorrow is a brand new week

Saturday I went to the hairdresser as I felt like a pick me up and I had regrowth so it was an opportune time to go.  I just wanted some more streaks but looking at it now I think that my hairdresser has a mission to make me a complete blonde before Summer!

Whilst I was there I asked about her b’day and found that it is in October and I felt like making a quilt for her and asked about her favourite colours.  She told me tan’ish’ and also likes Moroccan and I had been looking at this Snails Trails pattern which what do you know….it’s in tan’ish’ colours!

Fate!  So I hurried on down to Spotlight and started it this weekend.  Naughty naughty

I remember somewhere where I said that I wouldn’t buy any fabric that wasn’t to finish off something I already had or another project until I finished what I had already started.  Yeah right!

As it rained most of Saturday I just sat and sewed and sewed and sewed.

Today I did a dash to Foodland to stock up on essentials and I also started my essay for a TAFE subject that I’ve decided to do externally.

*sigh*

I hate writing essays.

So far I have:

• a title page
• a contents page
• headers and footers
• and I have typed up the list of questions that I have to address in the report

Tonnes of progress….not

Effectively, it looks pretty but it has no actual substance….

I have Wed and Thurs off this week as well so I’ll try to get more done on it then.  I’ve also got to practice RPM before Wed night.

I think I need more hours in a day or perhaps more days on a weekend.  Does anyone know how to do this yet?  If so, please tell me

Cause I have like a thousand things that I need to do with not nearly enough time to do it in – and that’s just in my sewing room!!!!!

Hope you all had a wonderful weekend

Making Progress

Howdy all

Thanks for all of your help with the quilting question. I googled it as well and I found a page that says to make a small knot (at the back) a little way out from the back of the quilt and then you sew it into the batting. Hmm, I think I’ll post the link – go here for a better explanation! – cause that just didn’t make sense, even to me!

I am making progress on it but I’ve started in soooo many places I just want to sit down for a week and finish it now! Funny thing is is that I started doing this so I would have something to take with me to when I go to TAFE and also when I visit my Nanna.

I’ve hand quilted around the shapes and then I’ve also started to quilt a grid 2′ apart which you can see in this photo.

The grid is turning up better than the quilting around the shapes which I’m finding a bit disappointing but I guess it will all turn out in the end And if it turns out too terrible I’ll just give it away and make myself another one!

And that’s about it from me today. I’m off to finish watching the Farmer wants a Wife and drink my Milo (yum!).

Mindless facts for the day:

• someone found my blog by searching for ginger > cute bum (I know right?????)
• a 200g bag of crispy M&Ms has 980 calories

Quick Question

Ok, so a quick question for all you knowledgeable and wise people…..

I’ve started hand quilting Berries for Breakfast and am slowly realising that it is going to take me days months years more time than I thought it would.  I seems that sewing machines have been invented for a reason!

Anyways, so back to the question.  I know how to start it off, how do I finish it?

I have a few loose threads around cause I don’t know how to finish them properly.

Any help would be much appreciated

Wee Hee!!

So life has been just a bit crazy over here at casa di Ginger!

There’s been the normal work gym stuff happening and lately as well I’ve had to learn my tracks for RPM so that I can learn how to teach them.

I think I’m due for a holiday soon

However, I did manage to take time out yesterday and go to quilt class with Tazzie. I was excited as I hadn’t been for ages and have been missing the quilt shop lately.

Whilst I was there I worked on another baby quilt, another doll quilt – I take 5 things as I never know what I’ll want to work on. I also took Berries for Breakfast.

The girls at quilt class absolutely loved it and 3 even bought the magazine cause they saw me working on it! 1 also bought the fabric to make it. I told Tazzie I should get commission (joking )

So after quilt class I took a quick pit stop to Spotlight to buy some white beads for the butterflies eye and then came home and worked at it all night until all the applique was done. Then whilst I was waiting for my Mum to arrive I started cutting up the squares for the border.

Then, this afternoon I sewed them all together and then put the borders onto the main bit. I was a bit long on the border for the top and bottom so I trimmed those squares which you can see on the left hand side but I don’t think anyone is going to notice unless I point it out!

Now I need to work out how I’m going to quilt it. I think I’ll machine sew around the white bit in a ditch with the machine and the outside of the border as well and then practice my handquilting and hand quilt around the shapes and in the squares. I’m also thinking of hand quilting a lattice like pattern in the background.

Can’t wait to find time to do this. Perhaps Sunday????