Never too hot to stitch!

needle turned applique

2012-01-28T13:42:00.007+11:00

I know I said I was taking a break from blogging but I guess it's more a break from daily blogging!

A couple of people have expressed interest in seeing my practice pieces after I mentioned them in comments on their blogs and if I don't post about them now I probably never will.

It is summer in Australia (although here in Sydney you would hardly know it). Children return to school on Monday after their summer break. A new academic year starts for them and so I thought it would be good to start the year with something new in my sewing class too.

I have been very inspired by both the Mary Lou Weidman books I was given f or Christmas so I decided I needed to learn needle turn appliqué.

I can already do fused appliqué with blanket stitch (by hand and machine) but hiding those raw edges was a complete mystery to me.

So my teacher showed me three different ways to do it by hand.

The first way involves ironing freezer paper to the right side of the fabric and turning the edges under using the freezer paper as a guide.

The second way involves drawing or tracing the shape directly onto the front of the fabric, cutting a scant 1/4 inch seam allowance, and turning the edge under as you sew it to the background.

The third way involves ironing the freezer paper to the wrong side of the fabric, tacking through the fabric and paper, sewing it to the background and cutting a hole through the backing fabric to remove the freezer paper.

I have done all of the above methods in the same background and labelled them in pencil.

At home I did two shapes by the second method. Both were drawn free hand and are a bit whimsical but it was the practice I was after, not perfection.

Next Monday I will lean how to work with inner curves and points and then I'll be ready to tackle a project. I already have one in mind but that's a whole new post.

And I'd like to learn how to do needle turn appliqué by machine too!

I think I need a break

2012-01-22T22:13:00.003+11:00

I don't want to be negative and depressing but I've been feeling a bit "blah" for the past week or so.

Sure, my sinuses are still playing up and my ear drums are distended and painful (and the antibiotics prescribed on Thursday haven't kicked in yet) but it's more than that.

I've lost my enthusiasm.

I'm still reading blogs but I'm not commenting as much.

I'm still sewing and knitting - I've even nearly finished stuff!

I've done more reading lately than is usual; that's what the Kindle is for after all! (Yes, I decided to keep it).

And I've watched more television because the Australian Open Tennis Tournament is on and it's the one time of the year when I can watch matches at a time when I want to be awake!

I have my first sewing class of the year tomorrow and I don't have anything I want to do! That doesn't mean I haven't got any projects on-the-go or ready to go, it just means that nothing fires me up the way the first class back should (shouldn't it?) I feel inclined not to go even though I know I'll love it when I get there.

And I haven't posted to my blog in days and don't really want to!

It's not as if there's nothing going on around here.

In the past five days I've had:
- a free motion quilting class with Kim Bradley
- a toddler's funeral
- a visit to the doctor
- house guests for one night
- a two-day visit from DD and the grandsons
- a Knitters' Guild meeting
- and our grandson's dedication

My nephew is back from the National Baseball Championships and my niece got some good news today!

Yesterday DD and I even managed to get a quilt loaded on to the frame (but no quilting has been done)!

But none of that fires me up and makes me want to write.

I'm tired of fighting Blogger to get my posts written and photos attached.

So, I've decided to take a break from blogging - just until I can find my enthusiasm again. If you see it, please send it back; I miss it!

another funeral

2012-01-19T12:33:00.000+11:00

WM and I were at another funeral today. We don't know our neighbours very well, just that they have three children. Their youngest one was born with a heart condition. Last week, his fight for life ended. He would have been four in April.

I have never been to a funeral for a child - it was incredibly sad.

I haven't got a photo to show you; I don't have his parents' permission to use the one from his funeral service sheet.

Harley David

26 April 2008 - 11 January 2012

Rest in Peace

I'm off...

2012-01-18T11:03:00.001+11:00

Here's a hint:

a pile of 14" square quilt sandwiches (calico front and back with Warm and Natural between)
quilting gloves (Ansell Hyflex)
spare bobbins
lots of thread
walking foot (built in to my Janome)
darning foot
sewing machine
miscellaneous sewing tools (scissors, spare sewing machine needles, etc.)
pencil and paper

Where do you think I am today? :-)

a little bit sad

2012-01-17T14:06:00.001+11:00

The last few days have been a little bit sad for me - last Friday was the anniversary of my maternal grandmother's birth: she would have been 103 but she passed away in 1989. She is the one who taught me to crochet (even though I'm left-handed), bought me my first sewing machine and taught me to use it. She would be proud of quilting efforts.

And today is would have been my FIL's 83rd birthday. It is the first birthday since he passed away last April so it's a bit weird not calling him today - WM will call his mother instead and make sure she is okay!

In addition, yesterday was the 2nd anniversary of my father's death. It brings tears to my eyes just typing that - I miss him so much!

other crafts

2012-01-16T11:22:00.002+11:00

A long time ago, when I was a "winter" knitter, I decided I had to find a different craft for summer because it was too hot to knit!

I had tried embroidery which I showed you in this post. I enjoyed it and thought I might do some more of it.

We were going away for a few days because our cork floor tiles were being recoated and the smell of polyurethane is unbearable. We had some long-forgotten reason to visit a local store and, though I looked all over their small craft department, I couldn't find an embroidery kit. However, I did find a small cross stitch kit. Ideal! Everything I needed (except scissors and a hoop) was in the package. It was small so I could work on it in the car and it was inexpensive so if I didn't like it, it was no big deal!

I finished that first cross stitch, framed it with the embroidery hoop I had used to stitch it and gave it to my mum for Mothers' Day. It's still on display in her china cabinet.

But I was hooked! I started making people cross-stitch bookmarks. I bought "waste canvas" and began embroidering on tee-shirts and socks. I bought a couple of kits and worked those. I think people even began to expect that they would receive small cross-stitch embroidery from me for presents.

But then came Big Project #1. DD and I still smile at how I finished it and was washing it in the bath while she stood lookout for Daddy coming home from work. It was his Christmas present and I needed to block it! He loved it.Then my sister got engaged and I began a cross stitch of blue and white crockery on a dresser as a wedding gift. I have no photo of that one to show you but I know it still hangs in my sister's dining room (even though that marriage is long over).

DD was given a cross-stitch for Christmas one year but she outgrew it and we had to take it from her room and hang it in the hall. She says she still loves it (or maybe she has renewed her love for it) so maybe, one day, she'll hang it at her place.Mum's 60th birthday came next and what better thing to give a "new Australian " (she had become a citizen just six years before after living here for thirty one years) - Australian wild flowers! I took this photo over the mantlepiece, way above my head so please forgive the funny angle. The photo below shows some detail (if anyone is interested it is 14 count Aida cloth); the big red flower is called a waratah.It is the floral emblem of my state and grows only in sandy soil. We have clay soil so, unfortunately, have not been successful in growing one (WM dislikes pots). You can read more about waratahs here.

Then mum and dad gave me a pattern for a piano done in cross stitch (yes I do play - badly). I never finished it, I think all that cream (on the left) was just too much for me! It has become one of my many UFOs about the place!
What about you, did you once have an obsession with another craft?

a funny way to quilt

2012-01-15T11:03:00.006+11:00

DD and the Grandsons usually visit on Friday, stay overnight and go home on Saturday evening after dinner. We make our plans based on this schedule, but we have to fit them in around the wants and needs of a nearly-two-year-old and a demanding six month old.

This weekend we planned to get our first quilt on the frame.

MIL came for lunch on Friday and wanted to see how the quilting frame worked. We gave her a demonstration on the sample calico (muslin) we still had on the frame. Just as well I hadn't decided to take it off the previous day.

After MIL left, I ironed the backing for our Disappearing Nine Patch quilt. I took it to the garage to put on the frame - and Older grandson grabbed hold of it and wouldn't let go! He just loves all our quilting fabrics, and this one was big enough to play "boo"! Of course, I had to iron the backing all over again!

This time, I realised that the bottom of the backing wasn't quite square because I had not squared off the end of the fabric that had been cut (with scissors) in the store. I needed to wait until OG went to sleep (or Grandad took him somewhere to play) so that I could lay it out on the floor and trim it. Friday afternoon was very hot and muggy and we abandoned any attempts to get into the uninsulated garage and attach the quilt to the frame.

Instead, DD and I went into my sewing room. Not to sew - oh no! WM had shampooed the carpets on Tuesday and the boxes of stuff that had been hiding in the corner in front of the wardrobe (closet) were now stacked on my cutting table. This meant that we had clear access to the wardrobe for the first time in months so DD began to look through her stuff (it used to be DD's bedroom). She threw away piles of stuff (mostly paper from courses she has taken in the past), filled a small box with stuff for the op shop (thrift store) and managed to move all of her stuff into less than half of the space. This operation took most of Friday afternoon and Saturday morning but hey, I now have some space to store things I want in here! And with design wall rolled up, we can admire the front of the wardrobe doors (WM and I assisted an artist friend to paint these as a surprise when DD was a young teenager!)

After lunch yesterday (Saturday), WM went to our neighbour's house because OG wanted to play with their little boy and WM always supervises our grandson. DD and I took advantage and finally tried to load our first quilt onto that frame. And guess what?

It was too big for our small set up. We had to wait until WM and OG came home. I entertained OG inside the house, while DD attempted to assist her dad and look after her nearly-crawling-and-therefore-grizzly six month old!

To make a long story short, WM finally finished extending the frame just before dinner but the screws that hold the middle section together are too long and the cart that holds the machine can't pass over them smoothly so we still can't use the frame!

At least I can get my cutting table cleared off and get onto some sewing!

works in progress?

2012-01-13T11:03:00.002+11:00

Or at a standstill? Then they'd be UFOs, wouldn't they?

So, what have I carried from 2011 (or before) into the Not-So-New Year?

And what do they need to be completed?

I'll start with the most recent and work backwards (according to date of cast on), knitting then quilting.

knitting

I finished mum's socks on Wednesdayand immediately cast on another pair. I turned the heel on the first sock last night so am powering along with those. William's blanket: the knitting is finished, I just need to sew the ends in and block it. I stopped working on it for two reasons: the weather was not conducive for blocking at the time I finished it (about ten days before Christmas). When the weather warmed up I had house guests for nearly three weeks so it wasn't appropriate to cover half the living room floor with blocking boards,etc. I became sick a week before Christmas and didn't want to share my germs with baby William so put it aside to do the ends later (and forgot about it until now). Sideways Striped Baby Jumper I finished the body of this and need to pick up stitches around the neck to do the collar. I can't remember why I stopped; probably I just didn't feel like picking up all those teeny tiny stitches (sock yarn).

Soft Blue Socks knitted from the toe up; I have no idea why I stopped working on these. Purple Cocoon Socks knitted from the toe up; I was questioning whether to knit the second sock or rip the first because they were a bit too snug for me and I though the Cocoon, although 75% wool/25% polyamide, was too loosely spun to wear well as socks (it was designed for baby knitting). I might finish them and give them to mum; she'll wash them by hand!Merlot Socks need to find the instructions for Jeny's Super Stretchy Bind Off and get them done! My computer is always turned off when I'm ready to knit. Hey, I could use my Kindle, couldn't I?intarsia blanket - I was working on this just four weeks ago but it's too hot to knit blankets/afghan from 8ply (DK) now. This project is 40" (1 metre) wide so don't be fooled by the small photo. striped garter stitch afghan: this is the project that I had to rip because something had eaten big holes in the acrylic; I was still working on this project four weeks ago too and have put it aside for the same reason as the intarsia blanket - I work on them alternately: the intarsia requires more attention to details than the garter stitch afghan

I have other projects on needles but they are hibernating for one reason or another - they are certainly not WIPs; just UFOs. If you really want to see the list of them, here is a link to my Ravelry projects page!

quilting

Scrappy Coin quilt: this one kind of started itself; I have a 66" panel of small strips left from my over-enthusiastic piecing for the backing of another quilt so I decided to make a Scrappy Coin quilt. Since then I have used up most of my own scraps and most of the donated scraps; I think I have enough for about three-quarters of a quilt! I still have some scraps to cut and then I think I'll have enough. the photo may not look like much but there are 248 little pieces there.Disappearing Nine Patch: top and backing completed; sewing machine on quilting frame hopefully now sorted, this quilt should be loaded and started either today or tomorrow Scrappy Strings II: top and backing completed; waiting to be quilted when the Disappearing Nine Patch is done Hunter's Cabin: pieced and quilted; just awaiting finding the correct flannel fabric to make the binding; flannel isn't easy to buy in the middle of an Australian summer! Country Houses: the QAYG blocks have been sew into rows,

the rows are waiting to be sewn into a quilt top. I have procrastinated on this one because it is too big for the single bed for which it was intended and I haven't yet found the fabric I have in mind to make it into a top for our queen sized bed.

Finally, another work in progress is my newly created family history blog Are We Related? I thought I may as well use every resource available to try and find some long lost relatives!

it appears to be working

2012-01-12T13:53:00.000+11:00

Thanks for the advice on dealing with the looping issues on the back of my quilting.

This morning, I brought the machine inside, took it apart, and cleaned it once again.

I wound another bobbin using another spool of thread (which has been using successfully on another machine).

I set the machine for straight stitching - feed dogs up, 1/4 foot on, tension dial set to 4 (where it worked yesterday) - and gave it a test run: perfect stitching top and bottom through two layers of homespun.
I lowered the feed dogs and changed to the quilting foot (which had been lightly oiled as per the instructions in the Brother manual).

But I ran into the a problem - holding both thread above the foot put strain on everything! What was I thinking? This must be the cause of all my looping problems! When my former teacher said bring both threads to the top of the fabric, she obviously meant to hold them under the foot! (not on top of it).

So, I let go of those top threads and put them under the foot, then ran the same two layers of homespun through the machine in a straight line, and lo and behold... tiny, perfect stitches top and bottom.

I changed my two layers of home spun for a quilt sandwich and eased the pressure on the presser foot. I proceeded to try and write my name in cursive. Not bad at all (my FMQ is improving)
- and still no problems with the machine looping on the back.

So it was time for the big test.

WM took the machine back out to the garage and we loaded it back onto the quilting frame. Making sure that the threads were under the foot plate, I began stitching slowly - such big ugly stitches as you've never seen (unless you've tried FMQ or using a quilting frame or machine)! I sped up the foot pedal and my arms and wow! Things worked - no thread snapping.
Yes, I realise the tension is not quite right but I was more interested in seeing of the machine would work after being re-threaded, re-bobbined, etc!

The real test was what was happening underneath - yep, no loops!

Hurrah!

Perhaps tomorrow DD and I can load our first quilt and get on with it! (We'll practice some stitching first to sort out the tension issues, don't worry).

Stay tuned! And thanks!

advice needed from experienced quilters

2012-01-11T13:00:00.000+11:00

(and a gasp/giggle for non-quilters when you see the photo at the end!)

On the weekend, DD and I completely cleaned the Brother PQ-1500S that came with my quilting frame (which I bought on Ebay several months ago).

I rethreaded the machine with new, high quality (Gutermann) cotton thread, checked the bobbin and made sure it was inserted correctly.

I sewed a straight seam. The top tension was a bit loose so I tightened it slightly.

I sewed another straight seam through two layers of homepsun - beautiful!

I sewed another straight seam through a quilt sandwich - even more beautiful!

I changed feet. I dropped the feed dogs. I attempted some free motion quilting. The problems with stitch length and wonkiness are due to my inexperience - the machine appeared to be working just fine.

I carried the machine out to the quilting frame in the garage.

I moved the needle just inside the two selvages of my two layers of calico (muslin) on which we have had successful quilting practice before.

I hand-lowered the needle to pull the bobbin thread through to the top.

I sewed three or four stitches in place to anchor the threads and I tried to sew a straight line.

Why then, having worked brilliantly in the kitchen, did I get this on the bottom of the layers before the top thread snapped?

Please, please help me!!

I do so knit!

2012-01-10T10:37:00.005+11:00

Cast on 1st January.

First sock finished second of January (I had a stomach bug so was at home in front of the television alone for most of the day).

Mum admired the sock, tried it on and it fitted! So the socks will be hers.

Second sock cast on 3rd January, heel turned last night. The colours in the photo below are more accurate.

What's on your needles?

not here today

2012-01-09T11:52:00.006+11:00

WM and I are at a funeral this morning followed by a light lunch; and then visiting with his mother afterwards. WM's aunt, his father's older sister, passed away last Tuesday aged 84.

Normal blogging will, hopefully, resume tomorrow.

more fun with sewing machines

2012-01-08T12:50:00.001+11:00

Yesterday was very hot and humid. DD brought the Brother 1500S machine in from the garage where it has been in use on the quilting frame. We have had some issues with it - notably the top thread keeps breaking. (Any hints?)

While I quilted the change mat I made the day before, DD cleared the kitchen workbench (well lit by a skylight) and opened up Big Brother. Using a standard machine cleaning brush, she took a fair amount of lint and loose small threads from the area under the feed dogs. Then I gave her a pipe cleaner and a straw (something I'd seen on a blog somewhere some months ago) and she was able to reach further back into the machine.

WM then put machine oil in the six insertion points and I put the machine back together. (Isn't team work great?) I carefully threaded the machine with the manual open beside me and set the tension dial halfway. My first attempt on a piece of scrap fabric showed that the bobbin thread was couched, not sewn as it should be. So I changed the tension and before long I had a perfect row of stitches

I grabbed a sample quiting sandwich that I have used in the past to practice free motion quilting, it sewed beautifully. I then lowered the feed dogs, changed to the darning (quilting) foot and attempted some FMQ. It wasn't great but the machine performed as it should.

We have not yet had a chance to try it out on the quilting frame (it was too hot in the uninsulated garage) but hope that the clean and oil have done the trick.

Back in the sewing room I pieced the last five disappearing nine patch blocks from this top into a panel. I then measured and cut some fabric for the rest of the backing. It would seem that inserted panels are my "look of the moment"! They are certainly a classy way of getting around the fact that quilting fabric is not always wide enough in itself to be used as backing!

held by DD while standing on the lounge

The photo below shows some of the detail of panel.

The fabric used for the backing was a donated fabric - two metres from "The American Woman's Home Collection" (pattern #23998). It was very soft and may be too thin for a backing fabric but it was all I had that was big enough.

So, we have two tops and backings ready to be quilted when the chance arises. It will be exciting to quilt a real project instead of practising on calico!

ETA I am linking up with Fun Thread's Sew What Monday

some sewing at last!

2012-01-07T12:16:00.004+11:00

DD and I finally got into the sewing room together yesterday. Well, we had been in here in the late afternoon of the day before but we found deciding how to make the backing of a donation quilt with the fabrics that had also been donated too difficult for our tired minds so we didn't end up doing anything!

So, yesterday we came in with the intention of making the backing for another quilt. But we got distracted on the way. For Christmas, WM and I gave Older Grandson a set of skittles which he loves. They were in a plastic carrier which was way too difficult to put together, especially for a not-quite-two-year-old. Yesterday he stood on the lower part of the empty carrier and snapped it in two places. So we decided to make him a drawstring bag to keep the skittles and balls together. OG was given three flannelette fabrics to choose from and chose the one we thought he would.

finished size: 19" x 13"

While we had the machine threaded up for the bag, I thought I may as well make another change mat for him (he has only one here) so cut out the same fabric as the bag and a coordinating stripe.

It's a bit scrunched because OG loves it and has been carrying it around the house - to sit on or as a skittles bowling lane! DD hasn't even done the quilting yet!

While DD was working on the drawstring bag, I chain pieced and cut some scraps left over from the Scrappy II quilt top to insert into the back. We needed 48 inches of width for the quilting frame and, of course, our fabric was only 44 inches wide. So a panel of scrap fabrics was inserted to gain the extra width. WM had to stand on the lounge (sofa) so I could take a photo - thanks WM!

finished backing 48" x 88"

I finished the final piecing at 11:30pm - I just couldn't go to bed with one seam left to do! Here is a close up of the 4" wide panel.
Only thing was, I made a panel that was 154 inches long - boy that gave us a huge chuckle! Now we have some scraps left to start a "coin" quilt!

Perhaps today we'll figure out a backing for the other donation quilt!

I'm back and adding to my fabric stash

2012-01-06T11:37:00.007+11:00

Before I start, I apologise for the layout of this post! I spent over an hour trying to get it to look the way I want but Blogger has other ideas! I think it's time to move my blog to W---!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Life has been full with Christmas and New Year celebrations and the coming and going of house guests.

We've had some summer weather at last!

We've been on a day trip to the beach.
WM and DD have taken Younger Grandson for his first swim in the pool.
Older Grandson is learning some independence in the pool while wearing floaties.

But more of that later.

Today, being my first real post of the new year, I'd like to welcome and thank all my followers. It seems like only yesterday I had 19 followers when I signed up for Lily Quilt's Small Blog Meet Up (in October). This week I hit 40! How exciting! Thank you all so much.

DD and I celebrated the start of a new year of sewing by attending the sales at our local Big Box Store.
Inspired by this book (we can't wait to get starting on our first story quilts)

...we bought 52 half metres of fabric.

random florals

random prints

blenders

brights

little diamonds

medium sized florals

red paisleys

tone on tone

tone on tone leaf

spots

and stripes

Of course, this fabric could be used for other kinds of quilts too; I think we might have a stash now!

Happy New Year

2012-01-01T00:00:00.001+11:00

May you have more time to do the things you like and not just the things you must!

update and thank you

2011-12-29T11:36:00.001+11:00

Not much happening here in crafting land.

I am still sewing in all the ends of my "in the ditch" quilting. I like them all tied off and buried in the layers; I don't mind doing it but it is taking a lot longer than I expected!

We gave my 77yo mum a Nikon Coolpix as a Christmas present last night (she arrived for a week's stay yesterday evening) - she is currently reading the manual!

WM has gone to pick up DD and the Grandboys as a surprise for Nanna/Gran-Nan.

Thanks for all your suggestions: WM and I are still sorting through all the options regarding the Kindle. The files from my local library (ePDF or ePUB) have "digital rights management" (as do the ebooks from the Book Depository) so they cannot be converted to Kindle readable files. We can't return it because I have used it and it is not faulty; I don't want to sell it because that would be insulting to WM after I specifically asked for a Kindle and I don't want it to become a paperweight! At the moment, we are leaning towards taking out an Amazon "Prime" subscription (currently $79US per year); I get a one month free trial to see if that's the path I want to take.

eta: I've just discovered that the Lending Library included in this subscription is limited to one book a month - hmm, more thinking required!

Because the next week will be full of family activities, I may not have time to post to my blog but I will be back early next year!

quilt wrangling

2011-12-28T13:32:00.000+11:00

Last night, I finished quilting my Hunter's Cabin quilt and spent the later part of the night watching television and sewing in about half of those ends that come from "in the ditch" quilting.

I'm very pleased with the quilting pattern on the back - I just wished I hadn't been so careful in matching the thread colour to the fabric - a darker colour would have showed off that "log cabin effect".

I really want a dark binding for this quilt but it's almost impossible to get flannelette (except that designed for babies) in the middle of summer!

Lessons I've learnt while quilting this project:

gloves are remarkably effective in getting a grip on the quilt; without them my hands just slide over the flannelette; with them, that quilt is only going where I tell it! I use Ansell Hyflex which I bought for about $6 at my local supermarket.
my hands are for holding the quilt flat and gently guiding the seam in the right direction not for pushing the quilt through the machine - that is the job of the feed dogs and the integrated feed system!
don't try to put the bulk of the quilt through the throat of the machine - the flannelette stubbornly refuses to move through the throat making smooth quilting very difficult.
I should make sure that the excess backing fabric is not folded under the quilt when beginning a line of quilting - otherwise I'll have to unpick it and re-sew it!
consciously relaxing my shoulders is absolutely necessary!

reality check

2011-12-27T11:06:00.023+11:00

It's my own fault really. Not understanding the technology, I shouldn't have assumed; I should have checked the list of devices that I could use to read ebooks from my local library.

Kindle, my Christmas gift from my husband, is not one of them!

The Book Depository, my favourite online bookstore (because it has free shipping to Australia), also does not sell ebooks that can be read on Kindle.

I rarely buy books - the exceptions to this are gifts and craft books: I prefer those in printed versions so I can look at them over and over, in colour. Yes, I got one craft ebook for Christmas - I read that on my PC because the screen is larger so I could see the images in full colour but I would have preferred a "real" edition! (BTW, I'm not being ungrateful - I chose all four of those Christmas gifts myself and the ebook was the only format I could get of that particular book)

I had pictured being able to carry several books when I travel without the bulk of actual books. But I never planned on buying them: that's what my library membership is for, especially now I can download both audio books and ebooks (without leaving home).

So, what will I do with my Kindle?

a very happy Christmas

2011-12-26T11:03:00.007+11:00

Both grandsons got so many presents that it was all a bit too much for Older Grandson even if we did take it slowly and give him time to play with each new toy. Trouble was he wanted to play with all Younger Grandson's toys too!

I also had a very happy Christmas.

From my motherfrom my sister

from DD and family from Santa

and from WM

I think I see some reading and sewing in my future!

Merry Christmas to you and yours

2011-12-24T11:03:00.014+11:00

May the peace that passes all understanding fill your hearts and minds at this holy season.

another family emergency

2011-12-22T15:56:00.000+11:00

Yesterday, was my first day out if the house in nearly a week after having a respiratory tract infection. At around 9:30am, DD called me to say that SIL had fallen over in their local shopping centre. That's all the information I got before the ambulance arrived and SIL was taken off to hospital with what the paramedics believed was a broken ankle.

DD called me again about 10:00 to say she was home; a kind stranger had offered her and the Grandsons a lift. SIL drives a manual car but DD can only drive an automatic so the purpose of her call was not only to update me, but to ask me to pick up SIL's car from the shopping centre.

So, I drove the 15km (10 miles) to DD's house, put her and the Grandsons in my car and drove to the shopping centre. Upon arrival, DD jumped into the driver's seat and drove my car home while I collected SIL's car.

DD then hung a load of washing on the line and packed some things to come to my house for the day. We were no sooner all back in my car than SIL rang to say he had been released. I now had to drive the 25 km (15 miles) to the hospital to collect him. I took Older Grandson with me hoping he would fall asleep in the car but no such luck!

Fortunately, SIL was waiting outside the hospital entrance with crutches. I took him home and then brought DD and the Grandsons back here so that SIL could get some rest.

The good news is that the ankle is not broken but is badly sprained. The bad news is that it's his right ankle so he won't be able to drive for a few days and therefore won't be going back to work until after Christmas.

We pray that his employer decides that SIL is eligible for sick leave for this episode!

thank you

2011-12-20T11:04:00.003+11:00

Thank you all for your kind wishes for my speedy recovery. I am over the worst of it but my head is still fuzzy, my right ear drum feels like it's several millimetres in my ear from where it should be, and my sinuses - well, let's not go there!

I have been very remiss. While I was away in Moree with my mother, a package arrived for me. When I got home I decided to wait for DD to visit before I opened it because I knew what was in the package.

And then I forgot to post about it here.

A couple of months ago, I won this from Debbie's give-away. (I borrowed the photo from Debbie's blog as the weather here is not conducive to photos being taken outside and an inside photo wouldn't do it justice).

I have to say, it is more beautiful in real life than this photo shows. Debbie does the most amazing colourful work, whether in watercolour quilts or bargello - I just love what she does. She is also the instigator of "get your Mrs Claus on". She didn't come up with the title but she did get it started - she needed to make thirty doll quilts in a hurry and asked for help and, well, you know what crafting bloggers are - she was soon receiving quilts from all over! And she is a lovely correspondent as well.

Thank you Debbie. WM starts his holidays on Christmas Day so while he is at home, I will ask him to hang this over my computer desk so I can see it all the time.

the dreaded lurgy

2011-12-17T09:50:00.002+11:00

I have come down with a respiratory tract infection (not surprisingly) with a terrible headache. Any bright light, including a computer monitor, hurts my eyes so I'll be back in a few days!

What's the buzz (tell me what's happening)?

2011-12-15T11:01:00.001+11:00

Random updates from our household:

weather:
It's still about 6°-10°C (10°-18°F) cooler here than it should be at this time of year so it certainly doesn't feel like Christmas is a week away.
Moree has been flooded again and the roads I took to get mum home two weeks ago are closed again.
The eastern side of Australia is under the influence of La Nina - rain and floods are more likely. When we are under the influence of an Il Nino weather system we have high temperatures and droughts!

Christmas
The presents are bought and wrapped.
Most of the food is bought and stored - I still have to buy lollies (candy) and chocolates. I will leave the salad vegetables until Christmas Eve.
Puddings made yesterday and boiling as I write this.Older Grandson loved throwing the threepenny pieces into the mixture - he was having so much fun no one thought to take any photos!
Cards to be written and posted today.
Christmas lights up on the outside of the house.
Curtains and windows in lounge (living) room and dining room need to be washed before decorations can go up - if only it would stop raining!
A "live" tree will be purchased next week and decorated on Christmas Eve. It will stay up until 6th January - the twelfth day of Christmas.

Family health
Younger Grandson has had lots of tests - they have all come back normal so no cause for his febrile convulsion has been found. He had an EEG on Monday - we don't have the results of that yet.
Son-in-law was off work last week for three days with a respiratory tract infection.
DD rang on Friday morning saying that she couldn't visit because she had caught it.
SIL dropped Older Grandson at our place then went to work. By lunch time OG had a runny nose and a cough and was feeling miserable.
DD and OG are now on antibiotics. YG is sniffling but not on antibiotics.
Yesterday, WM stayed home from work. He saw a doctor in the afternoon and has today off too. He has - you guessed it - a respiratory tract infection.

Stitching
I am working on "in-the-ditch" quilting my Hunters' Cabin quilt. I'm about halfway.
DD and I still need to piece backs for the two quilt tops I showed you earlier this week so that we can get them on the frame and quilt them.
I am about twelve rows from finishing Blanket for William - then I will need some warmer weather to get the 10ply (Aran) cotton blocked.
I have reached the cast off the first Merlot toe-up sock (Ravelry link); I need to check the instructions for Jeny's surprisingly stretchy bind off. I won't hurry because then I'll have to cast on the second sock and, although I love the look, I find Judy's Magic Cast On very fiddly on dpns and my circular needles are otherwise occupied!

And we have no hot water! The element was replaced about two months ago so they think it might be the thermostat this time! Someone will be out to have a look this afternoon!

another quilt top done

2011-12-13T11:09:00.002+11:00

Some months ago I mentioned (in this post) that I had been given a pile of disappearing nine patch blocks and asked to "do something with them".

The history of these blocks is that someone gave them to my sewing teacher who gave them to Margaret (the founder of Caring Hearts Community Quilting Group) who gave them to me when I joined the group.

I didn't know what to do with them so they languished in my sewing room, being shifted from one place to another (they were always in the way), including a short stint on the design wall, before finally being put away "somewhere safe" (you know that place, don't you? LOL).

Last week when I wanted them I couldn't find them. When I came home and started looking again, they were staring me right in the face. I took them out of that "safe place" and put them in another - and promptly forgot again where that was!

Anyway, to cut a long story short, when I found them late last night I put them in my sewing bag and today they went up on the design wall in the classroom.

A couple of hours later, I had this:The reason I didn't know what to do with them was there is such a mixture of fabrics: florals (both large and small), novelties, geometrics, paisleys, and text. Here is a sample in what is now the top right of the quilt.

Now to measure it and make a back including the five left over blocks.

I think DD and I might quilt this one first - it has less seams than the other so less places to break a needle!

Any tips?

second top finished in five days

2011-12-12T11:07:00.002+11:00

I must be on a roll!

For your viewing pleasure I present the completed top I have called "Scrappy Strings " because it's made of string blocks made from scraps of fabric. (poetic I'm not)

We chose a very dark brown sashing because, of all the colour choices available at the Big Box Store, it worked best with our blocks. I had anticipated using a crimson-red because most of the fabrics had some kind of red in them and most of those were more crimson than orange, but the red we needed wasn't available.

Brown is a relative of red (if mixed with yellow and black) and this brown had a slight tendency to green which is also in quite a few of the blocks.

We will quilt this one on the quilting frame. Apparently DD spends "idle moments" (like when she's feeding the baby) practising quilting doodles for this quilt so it's time to hand it over to her (first I have to piece a back!)

I'm not too sure that I like the look of this kind of scrap quilt - I think I like a more controlled look.

So our next quilt, which I have already started cutting, is in shades of blue, blue-green and purple: many different fabrics but a more-controlled palette.

I wonder if I'll like this one better?

Do you like scrappy quilts? It's okay to say you don't - I genuinely want to know!

it's beginning to look like Christmas

2011-12-11T11:12:00.000+11:00

The cool temperatures we have been experiencing over the last two weeks challenge the fact that Christmas is two weeks away. It doesn't feel like Christmas when temperates are hovering around 25°C (77°F) instead of the more normal 32°C (90°F).

Because I was away for longer than expected and because Younger Grandson was hospitalised, the Christmas puddings have not been made.

Because it has been raining and raining and raining, the curtains and windows have not been washed so the decorations have not been put up inside the house. But that's okay, school term doesn't finish for another week and traditionally we put the decorations up after school ended for the year.

I plan to finish my Christmas shopping on Tuesday; I have an appointment at the hairdressers at 9am but the department store is open 24 hours so I will go shopping in the early morning then have my hair cut and be home before 10:30am when the crowds really take over!

However, it has started to look like Christmas around here. WM spent much of yesterday sorting through the lights, checking that they worked and then working on and in the roof to get our Christmas display done. It looks better in reality that these videos show. Older Grandson was fascinated when the lights were turned on for the first time at 9 o'clock last night.

Above our bedroom is this train (I still wonder what trains have to do with Christmas) - Older Grandson looked at it and said "toot-toot"! (All forms of transport say that apparently!)

Over the garage, unimpeded by things growing in the garden, is the display that says what we truly believe about Christmas.

Usually we also put lights around the three large front windows but last night we realised that not one of the windows can be seen from the street because of the growth of the garden!

Do you have an outdoor display for Christmas?

my place

2011-12-10T13:40:00.002+11:00

Inspired by Janet of Caribou Crossing Chronicles, I started thinking about this place where I live.

If I say "I live in Australia", you may get a very different picture to what I see every day.

Even if I say "I live in Sydney", you may think of this:

image copied from http://web.hcsps.sa.edu.au/projects/cities/allyn/sydney.htm

It may surprise you to know that Sydney is a sprawling metropolis stretching 41 kilometres to the north, 51 kilometres to the south west, and 50 kilometres to the west. That line of hills - we call them the Blue Mountains for obvious reasons - in the background of the photo is about 50 kilometres away and the suburban sprawl goes all the way to the foothills.

Metropolitan Sydney is made up of more than 600 suburbs in more than 40 local government areas; many of them cities in their own right because they have populations in excess of 150,000.

We live in the furthest west of those local government areas, close to the foothills of the Blue Mountains and the beautiful Nepean River. But, though they are only a few kilometres from my home, I cannot see anything but suburbia!

So this is the view I look at most often:

The sky changes, the colours in the plants and trees change, the cat comes and goes, but the view remains the same.

For the fact is, like most Sydneysiders, we live in suburbia. We have a neighbour to our right, a neighbour to our left, and two neighbours behind us because we have a short, wide block of about 720 square metres (7750 square feet).

WM and I live in low density housing; for us that means a single house on a single lot of land. Other parts of Sydney have medium density housing (townhouses, villas and small blocks of apartments) and other areas have high density housing -- DD and SIL used to live in a block of that had over 100 units (apartments) and there are many bigger blocks than that around commercial centres and transport hubs.

The view I showed you before is the view I see if I sit in my usual spot in the family room. If I turn my head now and look out the window, I will see some tree begonias (about 3m - 10 feet - high) leaning against the window because of the wind and heavy rain we've had over the past few weeks. (The photo shows you what they looked like before the rain and what a colourbond fence looks like.)1.2 metres (4 feet) from my window is a 1.8m (6 feet) colourbond fence and perhaps 0.6 metres (2 feet) on the other side of that is a colourbond garage. Because the street in which we live is on the side of a hill, their land is higher than ours, so from where I sit (halfway across the room) I can only see about 30cm (12 inches) of sky the width of the window on account of that garage; sometimes I need the light on in here all day to get enough light to cut fabric accurately! My sewing table is under the window but the only place for my cutting table is as far from the window as it's possible to get and still be in the room (which used to be DD's bedroom to give you some idea of size).

I can't say I love living in suburbia, but it is "normal"; I have done so all my life! But I love the fact that if I travel for five minutes in a northerly direction I am out in the rural area yet I can be "in the centre of town" in ten minutes!

Perhaps I've inspired your to write a post about your place. I hope so, I look forward to reading them!

comments and word verification

2011-12-09T11:04:00.015+11:00

On Wednesday, Jennifer at Ellison Lane Quilts posted this discussion starter about how to make commenting easier.

Basically, she posed a question about the number of blogs that have word verification and how life would be easier for readers if they didn't have to go through that process.

As many of you know, I read and comment on lots of blogs every day (there are 165 on my reading list) and, as I commented to Jennifer, I am so used to word verification I hardly give it a thought. It is easier on some blogs than others; some are so difficult to read it takes me two or three attempts to get it right! And sometimes it's Blogger that makes things difficult! My on-again-off-again internet connection doesn't help either!

It would, of course, be faster for me to leave comments if I didn't have to go through the word verification process then wait to see that my comment has gone through.

Jennifer's post gave me cause to think. I use word verification on my blog. In what I now think may be overkill, I also use comment moderation. I think I have always used word verification to keep out spamming and when that didn't work (I had spam a few days in a row), I added the moderation.

So, how do I choose to respond to Jennifer's thought provoking post?

It seems I have four choices:

~ Do nothing.
~ Remove word verification.
~ Remove moderation.
~ Remove word verification and moderation.

I have chosen to take up the challenge and remove verification from my posts! I can always put it back if spam becomes an issue. I am still thinking about the moderating; one step at a time please!

If you are using Blogger, and want to remove word verification from your comments, Jennifer has the technical know-how on her post so there is no point in me repeating it here.

So, do you use word verification? What do you think about not using it?

slowly moving forward

2011-12-08T11:12:00.004+11:00

I have not heard from DD since Younger Grandson came home from hospital so I can only assume that "no news is good news". I half-expected them to turn up on my doorstep on Tuesday morning but they didn't. DD obviously felt capable of coping on her own, which is a good thing.

You may wonder why I haven't called DD myself but there is a good reason: with two little ones in the house there is a good chance that one of them will be asleep and I don't want the phone to wake them.

They are usually here on Fridays so I can only assume they will be here tomorrow as usual.

I have made good use of the "alone" time over the past two days although, for all the hours I have spent in my sewing room, there doesn't appear to be much to show. However, I have been so engrossed in what I have been doing that I have not taken any photos!

Because it doesn't look like much after hours in the sewing room, I am keeping a "craft diary" to show me what I actually achieve each day!

I have started to tidy things up by putting things away and moving some stuff out of here -- a quick glance might show that not much has changed but progress has been made and if I do a little bit each day, rather than trying to tackle it all at once, I will get there in the end.

I have put all the sashing strips between each of the blocks for the Scrappy Strings II quilt to make seven rows and today I plan to cut the rest of the sashing and attach it. I will then need to piece a backing for the quilt: it is just a little too big for the two metres of fabric we bought to fit! *sigh*

But the most progress that has been made around here in the past couple of days is to the Hunter's Cabin quilt. (This is how it looked the last time you saw it on the design wall).

I have been avoiding it because it is flannel and has been giving me a lot of grief. On Tuesday, having finished making the rows for Scrappy Strings II, I decided, on the spur of the moment, to just "suck it up" and get on with it. Finishing that quilt was not on my "to do" list at all but you know what they say about the best laid plans ...

Anyway, I finished piecing those blocks, then joined the first four blocks into pairs, then a group of four. It quickly became obvious to me that I needed a pressing plan - otherwise all those joining seams would get tricky!

So I drew up a pressing plan, taped it to the bookshelf next to the ironing board and marked off each block, pair, four-patch and section as I did them! I finished piecing that quilt yesterday morning and, while I am not particularly feeling the love, I am pleased to see a completed top!

So why stop there? I set up my cutting board on the lounge (living) room floor, covered it in a plastic cloth (which I always do for blocking to keep the moisture out of the cardboard) and proceeded to pin baste! All well and good until I tried to pick up the sandwich - I had pinned to the plastic cloth! I had to start all over again!

I also learnt that masking tape is no good for me - it is better to closely pin the backing fabric to the cutting board (without the plastic cloth); masking tape doesn't hold things taut enough and frays the edges of the fabric when it's ripped off!

Anyway, after a couple of hours crawling around on a carpeted concrete floor, I arose stiff and sore, with a completed sandwich which is now rolled ready to be quilted. All I have to do is change the foot on the sewing machine, decide what colour thread to use, wind a few bobbins and I'm good to go!

After all that, I spent a few hours in front of the television with my knitting. I have only one ball of yarn left to finish the Baby Blanket for William, so that should be done by the weekend. Now if only Sydney's weather would "summer up" so I can block it!

the story of a house

2011-12-07T11:01:00.001+11:00

In November 1990, WM and I sold our scuba diving business for much less than we had paid for it in 1987. When we sold, we were in the "recession we had to have". We then owed the bank most of the money we had borrowed to buy the business and our family home was mortgaged to that loan. If we couldn't make the repayments we would lose our house as well as the business that we had already lost.

I went back to teaching and WM took a temporary (four to six week job) with the railways. In May 1991, he was made a permanent member of staff and still works for CityRail.

In July 1991, I saw an advertisement from Agency C for an "open house". In those days, open house was not a common way to sell real estate (at least not in our area); it was mostly "inspections by appointment". I wanted to go to the open house so talked to WM but he wanted to look for a new car.

Needless to say, we bought a "new" second-hand car in July 1991.

Mitsubishi Sigma station wagon

I didn't think any more about the house I had seen in the advertisement.

In October 1991, we put our first house up for sale and began to search for a new home.

We found an agent called Michael we were comfortable with - it just so happened that he worked for Agency C. We looked at eighteen houses on three consecutive Sundays (WM worked six days a week) - one of those was the house I had seen in the advertisement in July.

We decided (in frustration) to take the advertised house because we were sick of looking and, more importantly, the house we had on the market sold in five weeks (during a recession).

our first home - purchase in 1977

The house I had first seen in July met almost all of our criteria but one - the second living room was smaller than we would have liked.

WM rang Michael, the real estate agent (from Agency C), on Monday to tell him of our decision. But, somewhere between Sunday when Michael had showed us some houses and Monday when WM called, Michael had left the agency. The receptionist told WM that the house we wanted "had gone".

We were talked into viewing yet more houses with another agent (from the same agency) the following weekend and ended up putting a deposit on one of them - a five bedroom, two bathroom house in the suburb in which we now live.

But, I didn't feel right about our proposed purchase.

The following day, WM phoned Agency S. He knew a couple of the agents that worked there because they had handled our tenancy when we owned our business. While WM was talking to this agent, Michael entered the agency, looking for a job. WM was given a chance to speak to Michael who told WM that Agency C was in turmoil because the owners, a couple, had decided to divorce. She had taken over the agency and pushed out all the people he had employed. In the meantime, her husband had gone to work at Agency R, taking with him all the stock that he had brought to the business. This included the house we wanted to buy!

Unfortunately, the owner had decided to put the house up for auction because it had already been on the market for eight months. We made an offer but the owner was committed to going to auction. So we attended the auction.

We had never been to a real estate auction before and had no idea what to expect. But the agent who had handled our offer knew how much we were willing to pay so he told us not to enter the bidding at the beginning but to wait. Eventually the bidding was down to two couples and we hadn't even placed a bid. My parents attended the auction with us and my mother was praying like crazy! The agent acting on our behalf put in a bid and one couple fell out straight away. The other couple kept bidding, then suddenly she burst into tears. We offered another two hundred and fifty dollars and it was all over - we had got the house for nearly eighteen thousand less than we had offered for it six weeks earlier!

I don't believe in coincidences - I just believe this house was meant to be ours. On 7th December 1991, we moved in.

Happy 20th anniversary house and spouse!

update on Younger Grandson

2011-12-05T20:26:00.001+11:00

More tests were carried out today, including one for epilepsy. All tests were normal s no cause has been found for Younger Grandson's episode on Saturday.

DD and Younger Grandson are now at home.

More tests are to be conducted in the near future and Younger Grandson has to revisit the local hospital in February for a follow.

And to cap off a dreadful ten days, yesterday, Older Grandson (aged 21 months) fell flat on his face on the neighbours' steep driveway and broke a tooth!

I've had enough!

family news

2011-12-04T16:57:00.001+11:00

WM and I celebrated out 34th anniversary yesterday. He gave me these (which I pre-bought in the book sale I mentioned in a previous post):

I gave him a clock movement (the clock I bought him many years ago had stopped working) and a book (bought in the same sale):

In not so happy news, Younger Grandson was rushed to the Emergency Room yesterday afternoon and was admitted to hospital for observation and tests late last night. It appears he had a "fit" (febrile convulsion) the cause of which may never be known. The most common reason is infection but all the blood tests show that he has none!

We are hoping he will be released tomorrow. DD is, of course, staying at the hospital; at the moment we have Older Grandson - his daddy will collect him some time this evening so Grandad can get some sleep before starting work at 6am tomorrow!

If you are the praying kind, we would very much appreciate your prayers. The doctor says that one possibility is "epilepsy" so we are standing united against this prognosis.

I will keep you informed as we get further news.

Moree in flood

2011-12-03T11:06:00.008+11:00

As promised, some of the more than 100 photos I took while in Moree last weekend.

Firstly, the consequences of flooding, lines of trucks waiting outside town - they weren't going anywhere.
This is the park on the south side of the river. As far as I can tell, this was not the result of the river flooding so much but all the water that flowed from the storm water drains; it is deliberately built to catch water and stop it flowing back into homes on the south side of town.
This is the path we walked along the previous day.

And this is the purposely built Geoffrey Hunter bridge: it is a few metres higher than the worst flood on record. This photo was taken just a few steps back from the previous photo.
The whole area had a surprisingly carnival atmosphere about it as locals and tourists alike came out to see the river.

You can get some idea of the speed of the water from this photo.

I mentioned yesterday that the road to the north of the bridge had water flowing over it on Sunday morning and was closed on Sunday afternoon. Early in the afternoon it was closed to traffic but pedestrians could walk across. On the other side of the river from where we were staying, the town side, there was a gauge to measure the water depth. That's not 0.0 metres I've photographed: it's 10.0 metres (30 feet). The river peaked at 10.20 metres, just six centimetres short of the highest flood ever recorded.

Later in the afternoon the bridge was closed to pedestrian traffic too - the water flowing over the road by then was deep and fast!
Yesterday I showed you a picture of the Edward Street bridge, a low lying bridge about one kilometre west of the much higher Geoffrey Hunter bridge. That photo, seen again here, was taken on Saturday afternoon.

And here is the same view on Sunday afternoon - that red and yellow temporary barricade in the middle distance is the same one as the foreground of the previous picture!
I chose not to take photos of peoples' homes inundated with flood waters - who am I to intrude on their grief?

But this sight saddened me too: Moree Family Services is just at the foot of the Geoffrey Hunter bridge. Anyone for basketball?
This fence is the only thing saving their children's play equipment from floating away.
I'm not very competent with the video function on my point-and-shoot camera but I thought it was the best way to show this scene of the play equipment; it was together in one piece when I first saw it on Thursday morning - now look at it!

the saga of the floods in Moree

2011-12-02T11:06:00.001+11:00

warning: very long post!

The optometrist that mum has been seeing in her local town (Bingara) visits about once every couple of months but is based in Moree, which is a smallish town in north-western NSW. It seems that Ross is the only optometrist in the area!

A specialist eye surgeon from Queensland's Gold Coast visits Moree two or three times a year to do cataract (and other eye) surgery at the small hospital for patients who would otherwise have to travel 1000 kilometres (625 miles) or more to get the appropriate treatment.

Mum had to see the specialist on Thursday morning before her scheduled surgery on Friday. She had to see him again on Saturday morning to have the bandages removed and to get the prescriptions and instructions for the various eye drops that she would have to use for the next four weeks!

I travelled to Bingara on Wednesday. Due to track maintenance, the train wasn't running, so I had to go to Tamworth by coach, then change to another coach to Bingara. Due to the torrential rain that fell non-stop on Wednesday, we were more than an hour late getting into Tamworth and, of course, more than an hour late getting into Bingara, finally arriving at 7:35pm! I had left home at 7:55am so it was a very long day!

Thursday morning was warm and overcast.

taken from mum's front yard looking towards Moree

We drove the 119 kilometres (75 miles) to Moree in dry conditions but this photo shows that the rain was on its way!

Behold! The rain comes! Notice how flat the Moree Plains are.

We arrived in Moree, had morning tea, and then saw the specialist as required. We booked into our motel, visited the tourist information centre (across the road) and had some lunch at the indigenous art gallery in town. By then it had started to rain.

The rain got steadily worse; so much that, on Friday, I had to drive mum to the hospital which was only 200metres from our motel! Mum's surgery was scheduled for 9am and they assured me she would be ready in less than an hour. I didn't see her until after 11am by which time it was bucketing down! We spent the afternoon quietly in the motel room. Unfortunately for mum, she had left her hearing aids at home so she was unable to follow the audio book I had specifically organised for her for this occasion! She tried to knit but ended up just watching television for most of the afternoon.

That evening we got a phone call from the hospital telling us we could go back to Bingara if we wanted to avoid being flooded in, and speak to the specialist by phone the next morning! But mum wouldn't budge! She didn't want me to drive in the rain and the dusk (that hour before dark is always a difficult time for driving, particularly in the country where native animals, usually kangaroos, are likely to appear in the middle of the road quite unexpectedly!)

And so we stayed -- probably not one of my greatest decisions (but my mother had spoken so what could I do?)!

It continued to rain heavily; during the night it got worse. At 3am on Saturday, the rain woke mum up (no hearing aids remember) - the water was literally coming down in sheets. I have never seen anything like it except during brief thunderstorms; but this wasn't a thunderstorm and it wasn't brief!

The next morning we drove into town to see the specialist as scheduled and heard the news that the road to Bingara had been cut off during the night! Nothing we could do now but wait (and go for short walks between showers). At first we were told that we'd probably get out on Monday. But the river continued to rise and a major flood was declared.

The showers eased on Saturday and by mid-afternoon the sun was out. But flooding has nothing to do with current weather conditions!

Water in the hospital grounds - from rainfall not flooding!

Edward Street bridge; Saturday afternoon

We tried to go to church on Sunday morning but the street was partially flooded and I couldn't find anywhere to park the car. Even if I had, how we were supposed to get from the road to the church?

the street outside the Catholic church - doesn't look like much, does it?

now see it in context - it's too wide to jump across - about 3 metres (10 feet)

I turned left 90° to take this photo; the church is now on my right; the cars give you an idea of the extent of the flooding;
this is not from the river, this is stormwater that can't get away!

I was glad we didn't attend church; there was water over the road leading into town when we went towards the church; later the road was closed and we may have been trapped on the wrong side of the river from our motel!

Drivers and pedestrians come into town over a bridge which joins Balo Street (the main street) here;
this is what the foot of the bridge looked like and the reason why the bridge was closed!

The river peaked on Sunday at 10.20 metres: just six centimetres (4 1/2 inches) less than the highest flood on record! The bridge separating us from the main part of town was closed due to flooding on the other side.

The police woman I spoke to later on Sunday (a hot, bright, cloudless day) told me it would be unlikely if we got out by the Gwydir Highway (the shortest route to Bingara) by Thursday and if the predicted rain returned on Tuesday, it would be at least a week!

We were paying normal rates for our motel room (about $100 per night) -- no discount for surgery or for being stranded! We had to eat take-away food or in a restaurant for dinner. (We had bought cereal, milk, plastic bowls, paper plates, bread and fillings form the supermarket after we arrived). We had to buy clothes because mum had arrived in Moree with only the clothes she was wearing plus some clean underwear, so she wore one of my lightweight skirts. I had planned to be away from home for a minimum of five days and had two lightweight skirts, three short sleeved tee shirts, plus a long denim skirt, two long sleeved tee-shirts, a tracksuit and jeans in case the weather was cool.

By Monday I'd had enough. So I made a decision (which mum didn't like but I had the car keys!!) We were leaving via the Narrabri Road. I was told I could get through to Tamworth that way! By the time I reached Narrabri, I found out that one of the roads I had planned to use had been closed since we had left Moree and we would have to go an even longer way via Coonabarabran! That story is all in a previous post so I wont bore you with it again except to say, praise the Lord, the road from Narrabri to Bingara reopened within half an hour of us leaving town!

And so, we arrived in Bingara at 4:20pm on Monday (instead of the estimated 9:30pm if I had been forced to take the longer route). Mum got to her other specialist appointment in Tamworth on Tuesday (this specialist came up from Sydney and she had had the appointment for nine months so there was no way I was letting her miss it!).

I got the coach to Tamworth and the train to Strathfield (inner west Sydney) on Wednesday, arriving only twenty minutes late! WM picked me up and drive home in the horrendous peak hour traffic with light rain falling. I closed my eyes and thought about something else entirely!!

Next year, when mum has the other eye done, we will take changes of clothes, hearing aids, a picnic set and I will make the urgent decisions!! And, because I don't think it will flood again, I will take photos of what the river should look like!

More flood photos tomorrow (I think this post is long enough!)

home again; first of summer

2011-12-01T14:07:00.000+11:00

Hurrah! There's truly no place like home!

I have spent about twelve hours over the last three days catching up on blog reading and commenting plus answering comments and replies to comments -- I'm finally caught up but now I need to get away from the computer as my neck and shoulders are stiff and sore!

The promised saga of being stranded in the floods will be posted tomorrow - sorry; I just can't sit here and type (or edit photos anymore).

Today is the first of summer but with a maximum temperature of 20*C (68*F) you'd never know it! I'm still wearing track pants and it's after 1pm!

So I will leave you with another photo from WM's garden: this time from the backyard. Can you guess what these are?

still not home

2011-11-29T09:53:00.001+11:00

But at least I have access to the internet!

It's a long tale that can summed up in one phrase: "too much rain".

Yes, you guessed it; last weekend, Moree, the town where my mum had her cataract operation, had the second highest flood on record!

We were trapped until yesterday. Mum needed to be home becasue she had another appointment (which was made nine months ago) in the town of Tamworth today and needed to come home first to collect ehr x-rays,etc.

Even when I made the decision to leave by the "long way home", I had no idea that the planned route (due to flooding in other areas) was 631 kilometres (395 miles). That is really the loooooooong way home - Moree to Bingara, mum's home town, is just 117 kilometres (73 miles) by her preferred route.

This map shows the route I thought I would be taking; the road between Narrabri (B) and Bingara (G) is the one I wanted to take!

View Larger Map

Anyway, I was about 40 kilometres (25 miles) out the Narrabri-Coonabarabran Road when something told me to stop and check mum's phone. Sure enough, there was a voice message from mum's friend at the tourism office in Bingara, telling us that the road from Narrabri to Bingara had just been reopened. So, of course, I turned around and headed back into Narrabri, through town, and onto the Bingara Road! Yay!

What could have been an nine hour trip turned into a four hour trip (counting lunch stops, asking for information about road conditions, buying fuel and heading 40km in the wrong direction before being turned around! Thank you Lord!

I have managed to change my own ticket and will return to Sydney tomorrow - three days after I planned!

I will have photos of the flooding (if they worked) for you on Thursday!

And, mum's operation was very successful. Hopefully the other eye will be done next year.

Scrappy Strings II

2011-11-27T11:05:00.005+11:00

DD and I have been practising using the quilting frame with two layers of calico. Rather than "waste" more calico, we continued on the calico we had already used for practice! Here is a sample of my freehand stippling in red thread (the purple is the old practice) working from right to left.

Here is a sample of DD's freehand work - pretty good, don't you think?

Thanks to a hint from Cindy of Tops to Treasures, I bought three metres of beautiful blue polar fleece to use instead of batting but it is so pretty we can't bring ourselves to use it! Being the end of spring, the Big Box Craft Store has very little polar fleece in stock - they need the space for summer fabrics.

So, DD and I decided what we needed to do was to make a quick and easy quilt top, then get some batting and practice on a "real"quilt.

To that end, we began making string blocks. Each is 9 3/4 inches square, and made up of six or seven strips. Here are the first five (of 24) that we have completed. Since I took these photos, four more blocks have been finished.I spent several hours, cutting and pressing strips and matching them into pairs. This pile doesn't look like much but it consists of 80 pairs of matched strings, plus some strings that have been sewn into pairs and are now pairs waiting to be joined to pairs.

This pile was all sewn togehter on Tuesday. DD and I worked together, I cut and press, and DD chain pieced - the production line keeps us both happy and is quick and efficient.

Hopefully it won't be long before we have a quilt top to work on!

(And hopefully by the time you read this I am on my way home from mum's).

late spring in his front garden Part 2

2011-11-26T11:03:00.000+11:00

Are you fully recovered now?

And are you enjoying your tour?

You know, a lot of people say Australian native plants are boring but they obviously haven't looked closely enough!

Before we cross over the bridge to the front porch, we'll make a detour along the narrow path that leads to the meter box. In this part of Australia, the electricity company has a meter installed on the outside of each house and every three months they send someone to "read the meter" so that we can be charged for the amount of electricity we have used. That's the theory anyway!

Anyway, we're not here to discuss the failings of large utility companies, let's rejoin the tour.

The little path I mentioned leads off to the left of the bridge (as we face the house); on the left of the path that small plant with the tiny seed pods is leptospermum scoparia; we shall meet another version of this plant in a couple of minutes.Before the path makes a sharp turn around the side of the house, on our left we see a very old westringia, commonly known as "native rosemary".

It is the plant in the foreground with the grey-green foliage. (The plant in the background is a bottlebrush, not in flower at this time of year). The Westringia plant was here when we moved in nearly twenty years ago, so it is old and gnarled, and almost devoid of foliage. It won't be long for this garden.

It has light mauve flowers, a colour common to many Australian species. It does look a lot like rosemary, doesn't it?
Turn around now and head back towards the bridge. The rest of the plants in this area are not in flower and not very interesting.

To the left of the path, you will see this graceful little shrub, not much taller than knee height. Aren't those flowers dainty? This austromyrtus dulcis - the Midgen Berry! The name doesn't do this plant justice. Those tiny flowers are so cute but you have to bend in close to see them. Don't worry about the native bees -- they have no sting!
Now we are back at the the bridge. Crossing the bridge, to our left, we see another low growing shrub, under the bedroom windows, a species of leptospermum scoparium, known in Australia as "tea tree" and in New Zealand as "manuka". This is the flower that produces the seed pods shown above. As you can see, it's a tiny flower - that's my thunb nail (again) to give scale.
Now that we're over the bridge we enter the front porch. To our right is another small shrub; a species of melaleuca. Larger versions of this genus are known as "paperbark". This one comes up to my lower thighs. Isn't the flower gorgeous? It's one of my favourites - both for its shape and its colour.
Well, here we are on the porch. There are other plants to see in our front garden but they are not in flower at this time of year.

Please come back and visit us again - the bottlebrushes are spectacular in summer and autumn.

late spring in his front garden Part 1

2011-11-25T11:05:00.001+11:00

WM is the gardener at our house. The front garden completely covers the space between our house and the footpath, except for our double driveway. We have no lawn on our property at all! When WM does the mowing of the the footpath (we call it the "nature strip"), it takes him less than an hour to get out the mower and edger, do the jobs, then clean and put the tools away! Too easy!!

Because most of the plants in the front garden are currently in flower, and because most of them have teeny, tiny flowers, I will do this "tour" in two sections: today and tomorrow. The front garden is completely planted in Australian natives so many of these plants will be "exotic" to most of you!

We begin our tour at the garage doors. To the left of the driveway (looking at the street), is this magnificent stand of "kangaroo paws" so named because the shape of the flower looks like the tiny front paws of Australia's most famous marsupial!These plants in flower are over five feet high. The plants themselves come up to my lower thighs.To the right of the driveway, on the fence line (no one in our street has front fences), is the letter box. Between the letter box and the driveway is a low growing but wide plant which I call the "spider" grevillea
- again because of the shape of the flowers although it is much prettier than any spider I have ever seen.

There is curved bark-covered path leading from the letter box to the front door. To the left of the path and quite close to the grevillea is a very bright stand of everlasting daisies (a native of Western Australia). The plant itself is short, barely eight inches tall. The bright flowers' petals feel like paper, which gives rise to one of its common names - paper daisy; although in florist shops it is called "everlasting daisy".

If you want to pick it, it's best to choose young flowers,
as the older ones can look quite scruffy.

Lest you think that all Australian native plants are yellow, look at this plant opposite the daisies, on the other side of the path.

I call it star flowers for obvious reasons! It's certainly easier than "isotoma axillaris" and prettier than "Rock Isotome"!
Following the path towards the house, we come to the little wooden bridge built over a dry water course (man-made). It once flowed but because neighbourhood children were attracted to our garden as a place to hide and play, when the lining of the creek wore out we chose not replace it.

To the left of the bridge is a very low growing ground cover called scaveola. It, too, has the mauve flowers so common in our garden.The flowers are very small, about the size of my little finger nail and roughly resemble the shape of fans - hence their common name.
I will leave you on the bridge, just a metre and a half from the front door, to catch your breath. Relax and enjoy the view. Feel free to wander around and take a closer look.

I hope you'll join me for Part 2 tomorrow.

to all my readers in the USA

2011-11-24T11:42:00.002+11:00

away from home / knitting progress

2011-11-23T11:09:00.004+11:00

I will be away for a few days, probably without access to a computer, so if I don't leave comments on your blog it's because I haven't read your posts!

By the time many of you read this, I will be in transit between Sydney and Bingara (the town where my mum lives). Because of track work, I will be travelling by coach to Tamworth instead of the usual train (which I am not really looking forward to because I can get up and walk on the train!). Then another coach to Bingara - a journey of about nine and half hours!

On Thursday I will drive mum 100 kilometres (62 miles) to the town of Moree, where she will have an operation to remove a cataract on Friday. We will be staying in Moree on Thursday and Friday nights, and I will stay with mum on Saturday night. If all is going well, I will return home on Sunday.

I have pre-written some posts to keep you entertained while I am away! Enjoy!

Today I will leave you with a photo of my knitting: this is the blanket for William, my newest next door neighbour.

I am up to the fourth of the ten balls of Cleckheaton Fiddle De Dee cotton that will be needed to finish this blanket. With about sixteen hours of travelling and time in the hospital, I hope to have a UFO by the time I come home.

the weekend that was

2011-11-22T11:08:00.007+11:00

This past weekend was one of the busiest weekends I have had in a long time.

I've already told you that DD and I went to "high tea" on Sunday and visited the discount book store on the way home.

There's a post coming next Sunday about our newest project: a scrappy string quilt top; the why and wherefore will be given then.

So I guess that leaves Friday and Saturday.

On Friday it was 38*C (100*F) here. DD and I had great intentions of spending some time using the quilting frame but the garage, as I may have told you before, is not insulated so it was way too hot to be out there most of the day! We did spend some time out there in the cooler evening and some of what we accomplished is also shown in next Sunday's post. (I'm not trying to tease you; there is a reason for the delay and it will become apparent over the next day or two!)

We visited the Big Box Craft Store because I received an email to say they had 50% off selected quilting fabrics. When we got there it was off those in the $16.99 and $19.99 ranges only; and, since we had no notion of what we wanted, we bought nothing! Yes, you read that right; we drove across town to a fabric sale and bought zip! zilch! nada!!

On Saturday I took DD to a discount fashion store where she bought two tops and a new skirt. We then drove to the monthly meeting of the Blue Mountains group of the Knitters' Guild of NSW. We had two retailers there - one was selling cashmere blend yarns and one was selling alpaca fleece, yarns and items. Again we bought nothing! Aren't we good? (No wonder I didn't feel so bad buying all those books on Sunday).

DD was voted in as the new treasurer for our knitting group - congratulations to her and the new convenor and new secretary.
D. you've done a great job over the last three years and I'm sorry that you were not properly thanked!

On Saturday night WM, DD and I went to a local production of "Pygmalion". This is one of my favourite plays (and one of my favourite musicals in it's other incarnation: "My Fair Lady").

photo from stagewhispers.com.au
showing Bob Sparrow (Henry Higgins), Ali Gore (Eliza Doolittle)
and Alan Pope (Colonel Pickering)

The costumes were great, and the acting was pretty good. The one character that stood out for me was Mrs Higgins, plated by Robyn Pope - what a fabulous performance. Not a falter with her lines and she just played the part with what appeared to be consummate ease.

Well done to all the Glenbrook Players.

don't let me near the discount book store

2011-11-21T11:03:00.009+11:00

Yesterday, DD and I had "high tea" for lunch. I won't go into the details - it is sufficient to say that it was basically the same as when I took mum in September. You can read about that on this post.

After lunch, we had to pass the discount bookstore to return to the car.

Well, when I say "pass", I mean, we had to go into the book store.

And I came out with a few books (as you do).

If you read Quilting Arts magazine, you'll recognise this one; the author of the book, Robbi Joy Eklow, writes an essay for each edition of the magazine under the same title.

I nearly didn't buy the next one except for the second sentence in the introduction:

The concepts presented also apply to quilting on a short arm machine or a domestic machine using a quilting frame.

A quick flick through the book convinced me I wanted to own this one.

I bought a few others but they're for Christmas presents so I can't show them here!

Are you giving books as gifts this Christmas?

I like chocolate cake batter

2011-11-20T11:05:00.006+11:00

On Saturday 12th November, Baseball Nephew had a training session at the Olympic Baseball Park in western Sydney. My sister and nephew stayed with us on Friday night.

In honour of their visit (we only see them two or three times a year), DD made a chocolate cake.

Older Grandson learnt the delights of licking the spatula

...and the beaters.

Younger Grandson watched on but only smiled when he was tickled!

scrappy on Saturday

2011-11-19T11:06:00.014+11:00

Over the past two weeks, I have been cutting and piecing madly to "catch up" with the Rainbow Scrap Challenge.

eta: I've linked up over at Angela's blog.

I have now done blocks for seven of the eleven months for this year.

I "cheated" by combining two months (August and September) which were white and black respectively. I chose to make black-and-white blocks; I think you can see why!

Here are my February (red) four-patch, nine patch, string, improv and Wonky Window blocks.

And my April (purple) string and improv blocks. Coincidentally this is my birthday month and my favourite colour combined.
My June (yellow) blocks: string and improv.

My October (orange) can be seen here and my November blocks (brown) can be seen here.

I have no intention of doing the July blocks (red, white and blue) because I don't have enough red or white scraps.

So I have only pink, green and blue to go!

Can I finish them all before the end of the year?

I just had to share this with you

2011-11-18T11:04:00.005+11:00

- found on Mary Lou and Whimsy Too!

exciting news

2011-11-17T11:07:00.001+11:00

It may surprise you to know that baseball is not one of the most popular sports in Australia.

It is not broadcast at all on free-to-air television.

It is certainly not the big deal that it is in USA.

However, my uncle (dad's brother) played baseball for many years. Dad's first cousin also played baseball, as did his sons, and at least one of his son's sons.

My sister's son, my only nephew, started playing tee-ball when he was much younger.

From tee-ball he graduated to baseball.

So, in summer he'd play cricket (one of our most popular national sports) and in winter - yes, that's right, winter - he'd play baseball.

This is a photo of him after the Grand Final of the B-grade earlier this year. He also played in the A-grade grand final.

photo copied and cropped from Cougars Baseball Club Facebook page

This summer he will not be playing cricket.

Instead, he has been named in the 2012 Under-18's NSW Country Baseball Team as a pitcher. So he will spend the early part of the summer travelling around the state for training and then compete in the national championships in Geelong, Victoria, in January.

This is very exciting news in our family. He has made a state representative team and may, if he plays really well, make it to the national team.

That is great news in itself.

But my nephew is still six weeks short of his sixteenth birthday!

scrappy rainbow

2011-11-16T11:07:00.003+11:00

Late last Thursday night, before I went to bed, I sorted through all my scraps to find everything I had in different colours.

This is what greeted me when I walked into my sewing room on Friday morning.

All of those colours have been put in separate bags (black and white together) and then all the bags have been stored together in a paper shopping bag (which shows that there isn't all that much really!).

I have been in my sewing room quite a bit over the past few days. I've already shown you eighteen of the nineteen brown blocks here.

Here are the two orange blocks. They are brighter than this picture shows but could still pass for brown blocks! There is no white/cream in these blocks, it's actually a pale apricot colour - I'm not too good on correcting the colour balance of my photos!

I've also done purple and red blocks but they can wait for another post. The weather today is very overcast and they are two colours that don't photograph well!

I'm working on yellow now! But I don't think I'll get too many blocks - I have a limited range of fabrics and the tones are too similar!

As you can see from the first photo above, the colour I had the most scraps for was blue; and most of that came from our sewing rather than from donated scraps: what would be the most common colour in your scrap basket?

second Christmas present finished

2011-11-15T11:02:00.001+11:00

Two down and two to go!

This is a book about opposites and was much easier to make than the last book because the panel was printed more squarely so less blocking was required to make the pages match!

Next week my calendar is really full so I'm spending some quiet time this week in my sewing room working on more blocks for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge - I have several months of catch-up to do!

that was the weekend that was

2011-11-14T18:10:00.000+11:00

On Saturday evening, I was reading and commenting on the some of the many blogs on my reading list when my computer froze!

I rebooted it and got an error message - "looking for a driver" - before it froze again.

I rebooted and found a new symbol (icon?) on my computer - right where the strength of Internet connection is usually shown. I clicked on this strange new symbol. "No connection available."

WM and DD looked at the computer but there was nothing for it. I turned the computer off and used WM's slower, older computer to finish reading the blogs I was reading.

Today my tower went to the computer shop. Some kind of new card was put in it. And now I have connection to the Internet again! Hurrah!

DD and I were out on Saturday. When we came home we did some quilting on the "new" frame. The Brother machine works best with the top and bobbin threaded with Gutermann cotton thread; cheaper threads and Gutermann polyester break!

All practice so far has been done on calico (which is called "muslin" in the USA I believe) top and back with no batting.

We didn't get any pantographs with the quilting frame so we created our own.

Here are my attempts to follow the laser light accurately (not too bad for a complete novice!)

The lack of symmetry is exactly how I drew it!

I enjoyed doing this one the most!

On Saturday, DD and I went to the Glenbrook Spring Fair. We looked around the fair in the morning, had some lunch and volunteered our time (and Younger Grandson for added cuteness) at the stall being held to raise money for Caring Hearts Community Quilting Group. There were five of us volunteering. In three hours we sold less than $100 worth of goods - between us! I certainly hope the team that volunteered for the morning sold more!

DD was very disappointed; not one of the wheat bags we had made and donated was sold. The coasters she had so carefully made were also unsold at the end of the day.

So, a frustrating weekend but, as is often the case, it had some wonderful moments. I leave you with a picture (taken in Glenbrook) that can't help but make you go "awwww!"

Younger Grandson aged 20 weeks

We make 'em cute in our family!! LOL

November is scrappy and brown

2011-11-12T11:04:00.002+11:00

There is an old saying that runs: "Better late than never!"

At the beginning of 2011 I had a blog but wasn't blogging.

I discovered quilting blogs soon after my return to the blogisphere in March. Along the way, I found Kate's Arty Bits Blog. Kate had been participating in the Rainbow Scrap Challenge since the beginning of the year. Curious, I followed the links and found SoScrappy. Angela encouraged quilters to use up their scraps by setting a different colour challenge each month.

But I was still a new quilter back in March. I had no scraps to speak of.

In August, I joined the Caring Hearts Community Quilting Group. At my first meeting, I was given a shopping bag full of scraps "to do something with".

Also in August, we began to make string blocks for Oz Comfort Quilts. I began to organise my scraps as follows:
- strings of three different lengths -- less than 6" inches, between 6" and 15", and more than 15"
- crumbs
- triangles
- larger pieces (less than fat eighths)
These are not separated by colour, only size and shape. Because I still have comparatively few scraps, these categories suit me at the moment.

In October, I participated in the Rainbow Scrap Challenge by making one scrappy appliqued heart (seen here). I was going to put an orange frame around the white background - but I had no orange scraps that I thought would work!

This week, I determined that I was going to participate in the challenge more fully so I went through that shopping bag and all my scrap containers. This is what I came up with (most of it came from the shopping bag):And this is what I made (while I was practising accurate piecing):

four patch blocks (6 1/2 inch unfinished) - one block is missing from this photo
nine patch blocks (6 1/2 inch unfinished) string blocks (6 1/2 inch unfinished)

Yes, that is a green in there; it looked brownish next to my other greens so it slipped in!

improv blocks (6 1/2 inch unfinished)

wonky window blocks (variations on the log cabin or square on square block - 6 inch unfinished)
The dark brown fabric around the centre of both blocks was cut into bias 1" strips when I got it so I found it impossible to keep it straight! Hence the title "Wonky Windows".

Nineteen blocks in all.

As I said, better late than never (And I haven't even cut my brown hearts yet!)

Do you have any brown in your stash/scraps?

this, that and a winner!

2011-11-11T11:13:00.004+11:00

Just some bullet points today -- a little bit of this and that!

Today DD and I are going to attempt to do some practice on the quilting frame. Thanks to all the readers who wrote tips and advice for us - we have taken it all into consideration and will let you know how we go this time.

The last of the twenty five blocks that DD and I sent to Jan Mac at Oz Comfort Quilts last month have been used in the quilt shown below. The block on the bottom right and the the block two above it were made by either DD or I.

photo borrowed from http://ozcomfortquilts.blogspot.com/2011/11/time-for-three.html

The winner of the three novels by Claire Donohue is

... Sana Saroti!

Congratulations Sana -- please let me have your postal address and I'll get them into the post as soon as possible next week.

And I'll finish with another fabulous quote I've taken from Bonnie Hunter's website.

one thing at a time

2011-11-10T11:13:00.003+11:00

warning: long wordy post!

It has been a long time since I worked on one craft project at a time as my normal modus operandi.

Way back, when I was a child, my mother bought the materials she needed for a project and worked on that project until it was done.

Understandably, that was the way I was with my knitting!

Like mum, I would knit in winter and when the weather started to warn up, finish the project in hand and that was it - until next winter.

Until someone gave me an embroidery kit. I can't remember who or for what reason; but I clearly remember that, although I had never shown the slightest interest in embroidery, I decided to open that kit and give it a go as a summer project.

I didn't know what I was doing and I didn't know about embroidery hoops - I just did what I always do, read a bit (in this case the instructions in the kit) then got started.

It didn't turn out so bad, if I do say so myself. A couple of summers later, we were going away for a week and I wanted a small project to do in the car. Knitting was out because people don't knit in summer, do they?

I bought a cross stitch kit of some violets. Quick and simple, I was hooked! (Oops no, that would be the small "rug" I made from a kit when I was a teenager - I still have the latch hook; I told you I am a hoarder).

Anyway, that kit led to another, then to bookmarks for gifts and finally to the purchase of large patterns. But, I digress... I think I'll save those for another post!

So, in winter I worked on one knitting project (usually it took all winter to knit one jumper anyway) and in summer I worked on my cross-stitch.

Then, in the early years of this decade, I got involved, briefly, in scrapbooking. It didn't take me long to realise that working on, and buying supplies for, one project at a time was very limiting and I began to collect papers, card stock and embellishments. I didn't know the word "stash" back then - but I still have a stash of scrapbooking supplies (you're not surprised, are you?).

In 2004, I was tired of working from other people's patterns in knitting and cross-stitch, some something deep inside me was trying to get out. I was inspired by the knitted works of Kaffe Fassett, so I decided to design and knit my own jumper (sweater). I started collecting yarn; to quote Kaffe: "if in doubt, add more colour". It took me two winters to finish; it used 63 different yarns and weighs a ton!

Inadvertently, I had started a stash - I had left overs of all 63 balls plus the ones I had decided not to use. I immediately went on to plan my next fassettesque project (which has never been started) and began collecting yet more balls of yarn. At that time, I used only natural fibres - wool, mohair and a little alpaca.

In 2007, I was introduced to the world of knitting blogs and, of course, I just had to have one. But my blogging was infrequent and I mostly only wrote about knitting.

By then, I was a member of knit4charities so buying discounted yarn (usually acrylic) seemed sensible given that I was knitting much more - even into summer!

Reading blogs introduced me to the concept of "stash" (up until then I had leftovers and a collection of yarn for the next project plus some discounted acrylic which would be used soon). But, more importantly, reading blogs introduced me to the radical idea that one could work on more than one project at a time!

And so, dear readers, just like every other knitting blogger I know, I almost always have several projects on the needles.

Last year I stumbled into quilting. DD and I bought too much fabric for our first quilt so we made two quilts from the same fabrics. We made the first quilt top and then cut out the pieces for the second! We had already succumbed to polygamous quilting and had only been involved in this fantastic new world for less than a month!

I'm pretty sure everyone who read and comments here works on multiple projects at once, but were you ever a one-project-at-a-time crafter? When, and why, did things change?

yarny gifts

2011-11-09T11:03:00.001+11:00

Back in September, I was supposed to tutor a workshop on knitting socks from the toe up. It didn't happen because I was sick. A very dear non-blogging friend, D., was going to assist me with the workshop. She always has socks on the needles and normally knits her socks cuff down but she is willing to give other methods a try.

We met a couple of weeks before the date of the workshop to talk and to correct any mistakes in my sample pattern (which D. had test knitted). That day, D. realised that I did not have any hand knitted socks of my own.

A few days later these arrived in the post. They are Nanner Socks from "wendyknits" and the yarn is Julie Spins Superwash Merino (colour: Pickle). Unfortunately the socks were too small; I couldn't easily get them on over my heel. But I was very grateful to be the owner of such gorgeous, beautifully knitted socks.
About a week later, another parcel arrived from D. Inside were these socks in my favourite colour. They are Simple Socks by Cat Bordhi knitted cuff down in Hedgehog Sock yarn (colour: Hush). Before the weather got too warm for socks, I wore them on several occasions.

I am very blessed to have such a wonderful and generous friend. Thank you, D.

On top of that, Sally, who blogs at PomPom, celebrated her 2000th post with a give away. I didn't write the 2000th comment but apparently I am the person who has commented the most so I also won a prize. Thank you, Sally.

Some yarn-y goodness arrived at my place a couple of days ago -- sock yarn made in Germany by Schoppel Wolle. Sally wrote that she has never seen this yarn in Australia, so I can only assume she bought it on a recent trip to England. Looking at the packaging, I think the colour way is called Sputnik Welle (which translates, according to Bing, as "Sputnik Wave"). It is 100g of very soft hand-dyed yarn -- two strands dyed together to get identical socks. The packaging even comes with instructions to unwind the two strands without getting into a tangle! How cool is that?

knitting progress

2011-11-08T13:33:00.000+11:00

I don't seemed to have achieved much on the sewing/quilting front lately but I have done some knitting.

Last Friday my next-door neighbour had their second child and second son, William, by Caesarean. I was hoping she would have a girl (there are so many pretty things I want to knit) but it was not to be.

Last night I cast on Tate by Melissa Leapman from "Quick Knit Keep Sakes Book 2". I'm using lemon coloured Cleckheaton Fiddle De Dee cotton (discontinued) on 5.00mm (US 8) Knitpicks Harmony needles (borrowed from DD). I haven't given you the Ravelry link because there is no photo there - it seems I am the first knitter on Ravelry to cast on for this pattern! The photo below is copied straight from the book and has been photographed sideways - the cast on edge is to the right of the photo. It is knitted on 151 stitches and has an eight row border of moss (seed) stitch then an "intermediate" lace pattern involving "slip two stitches knitwise, K1, P2SSO". I have done only ten rows so far - I don't know if it was the humidity or my tiredness but I just couldn't seem to knit quickly last night. I have taken no photos of my knitting because who wants to see rows of moss stitch?

In other knitting news, I have finished the body and sleeves of the striped baby jumper. The pattern is Mexicali Baby Ole (Ravelry link) by Mary C. Gildersleeve. It is knitted from the right cuff to the left cuff.The pattern says to block and sew up seams before adding collar - I'm wondering whether to add the collar first: what do you think?

update on "frustration"

2011-11-06T11:03:00.001+11:00

Thanks for all the support and helpful tips in the comments section of my last post. I thought I would update you on our "progress"!

The quilting frame remains the same length. WM was very tired (and cross) yesterday so, rather than take it apart and put it back together again, he came up with this solution! It works!

We will be getting a new copy of the DVD to watch but in the meantime we took the DVD and a laptop to the garage so that we could set up the quilting frame correctly. The DVD and the laptop did not want to play nicely, so we ended up just doing it as we remembered (and as seemed logical to us)!

We only used two layers of calico fabric (I think it's called "muslin" in USA) with no batting. Batting is very expensive so, until we get a feel for the machine, we'll just practice without it! When we have an idea of what we're doing, we'll sew together some batting scraps and practice with that. Then it will be time for the real thing!

The quilting frame was built for a Husqvarna Mega Quilter but I bought a Brother 1500 as part of the package. Here are the controls on the quilting frame: the knob regulates the speed. You can see the cable coming out of the control handle. This is the three-pin plug that goes directly from the controls into the Mega Quilter.

Since this doesn't fit into the Brother we have to use the foot pedal which is a bit more clumsy.

We have managed to break one needle so far and have had threads tangle in the bobbin case which meant we had to remove the machine from the quilting frame, carry it inside (from the garage) to a suitable workspace, and take off the the needle plate. We managed to removed the offending thread and gave the machine a much needed and thorough cleaning while we were at it.

The needle threader is broken on the Brother so we have to thread the old fashioned way which would be okay if the thread (Gutermann) didn't keep snapping all the time!

So, after several hours we managed to "quilt" two layers of calico 36" x 6"! Not much to show for the hours we had spent! This photo is DD's very first play! She wouldn't let me show her anything - she just wanted to "have a go!"
This next photo shows my quilting as I came back between the shapes DD had made. On the left you can see where we stopped because the thread had broken yet again!
Are we having fun? Not yet!

Are we learning many things? Yes, patience among them!

frustration

2011-11-05T15:40:00.002+11:00

The quilting frame is ready to go.

I have purchased ten metres of 120cm wide calico to practise on.

But...

...the quilting frame is set up at half size and the velcro leaders are full length. We could and will make new shorter leaders but right now we just want to have a go! Now WM must dismantle and rebuild the frame because he has no idea which end to extend!

... the instructional DVD won't play right through even though we have had it professionally cleaned. Before cleaning we got about 17 minutes of viewing from the 50 minute DVD, after cleaning we got thirty minutes.

... there is no way to connect the sewing machine I was sold to the quilting frame - the plugs are completely different. Since I bought them (as a package) on Ebay I have no recourse. We called the local dealer - he can sell us an adapter -- for $799!

To say DD and I are frustrated is to understate the obvious!

three steps forward, one step back, four steps forward

2011-11-04T11:07:00.005+11:00

On Tuesday night I prepared to sit in front of the television for a couple of hours and knit.

The weather was warm so the two blankets I have on the needles did not appeal.

I have three pairs of socks on the needles but one is being held up by another (I need to buy more 2.25mm dpns). The one doing the "holding up" needed me to concentrate -- which is hard to do while watching television. The third pair is "on hold" while I consider my alternatives.

There was nothing for it but to cast on something new.

But not just a new project. Something never before attempted (by me).

I have a large quantity of sock yarn so I thought something for a baby/infant might be a good idea. Then I remember the Mexicali Baby Ole pattern (Ravelry link) from "Babies and Toddlers". I have admired the pattern since I bought the book in 2009.

I thought it would be a practical marriage of sock yarn and baby sweater.

The first yarn I tried was supposed to be "fake isle". Unfortunately, it turned out to be one of those yarns that has very short colour bursts - maybe only ten stitches or so. It may work in the round on 64 stitches but knitted back and forth it was. just. awful!

I ripped it out (I was watching TV remember?) without a second thought.

During the commercial break, I changed to a self striping yarn, working on 3.50mm (US 4) needles.

I knitted a sleeve and cast on for the body (it is knitted from cuff to cuff).

In the morning, the first thing I thought of was "rip out the knitting". And so, three hours of knitting looked like this in just a few minutes!

My brain must have been thinking about my knitting while I slept. 3.50mm needles with sock yarn and knitter with a loose tension -- what was I thinking? I needed a needle between 2mm (US 0) and 3mm (US 2+) for a satisfactory result.

On Wednesday morning, immediately after ripping out my knitting, I found a 2.75mm (US 2) circular needle and cast on again. After four hours of knitting (interrupted by the arrival of DD and two grandsons), I had this: one sleeve and the beginning of the body.

And for those who like the details, it looks like this:

A lovely bright jumper for a little one!

more yarn for the stash

2011-11-03T11:01:00.000+11:00

As you would know, if you have been reading this blog for more than a couple of months, I make semi-regular trips to the Big Box Craft and Homewares Store. Last week I found 100g of sock yarn for $2 per ball. Obviously they are clearing current stocks and not intending to carry this line again next year. A few balls decided to come home with me!

It is not the softest yarn I have ever knitted with but it washes and wears okay and softens up after the first wash, especially if rinsed in hair conditioner (thanks for the tip, Susan).

Yes, I know it's called sock yarn but it could also be used for other things like children's jumpers or cardigans, or even a lightweight blanket.

On Tuesday I visited the store again. I bought twenty metres of 120cm wide calico to practise quilting on my frame! I also bought a new pair of embroidery scissors to replace the ones I 've had for so long I can't remember where they came from. I think they were manicure scissors. I know I've had them since long before I was married thirty-four years ago!

"Christmas Basics" fabric was on sale for $6.95 per metre (usually $9.95 per metre) so I bought two metres of this print.

So what do you think: drawstring Santa sacks or Christmas stockings for our fund-raiser stall?

the little boy and the hat

2011-11-02T11:11:00.015+11:00

Once upon a time, not very long ago, there was a Little Boy who didn't like anything on his head.

He fussed when his Mummy dressed him.

He fussed when his Grandmother tried to dry his hair after his bath.

But, as he grew older, about twenty months or so, the Little Boy began to run around the house with a sheet over his head.

Sometimes he stepped on the sheet and fell over, but at least the Little Boy had something on his head.

His Grandparents, worried about his fair skin in the harsh Australian sun, thought it was time the Little Boy learnt to wear a hat.

After all, the Little Boy loved being outside and fussed if he had to stay indoors.

His Grandparents bought two hats.

"Perhaps he will learn to like one of them," they said to each other.

And so it came to pass that his Grandfather, who had outgrown his hair many years ago and therefore wears a hat year-round, showed the Little Boy one of the hats that had been bought.

When the hat was placed on his head, the Little Boy tore it off and threw it on the floor.

Patiently, his Grandfather retrieved the hat and put it back on the Little Boy's head.

"You cannot go outside unless you wear your hat," the Grandfather told the Little Boy.

The Little Boy was only twenty months old but he seemed to understand.

The Little Boy left the hat on his head and together he and His Grandfather went outside.

The Little Boy ran down the path, laughing.

Then the Little Boy tore off his hat and threw it on the ground.

Patiently, his Grandfather retrieved the hat and put it back on the Little Boy's head.

And finally the Little Boy understood.

Now, the Little Boy wears his hat when he goes outside with His Grandfather.

And with his Grandmother.

And they are both very happy and proud of the Little Boy.

spring fever / book give away

2011-11-01T14:51:00.000+11:00

Thirty four years of marriage and twenty years living in the same place means an accumulation of clutter! Unfortunately, more "things" keep coming in and the walls are not made of elastic!

In an effort to find an indoor home (that is not the garage) for my quilting frame, WM and I have been "spring cleaning" or, more truly, de-cluttering. We have emptied cupboards and wardrobes, thrown away, given away and tidied away!

And still we're nowhere near done!

...and no closer to finding a permanent home (at this address) for the quilting frame.

But at least I have a tidy linen closet, and most of my yarn is now in the same room - even in the same wardrobe!

In the spirit of de-cluttering, and because I believe in passing on my good fortune, I am offering you the chance to own three books by Claire O'Donahue.

Basically they are murder mysteries set in a small town in New York State. The central characters are Nell and her grandmother, Eleanor, who owns the local patchwork shop "Someday Quilts".

I won these books in a giveaway on Cindy's blog. I have read and enjoyed them and now it's time for them to find a new home. If you would like them (international readers welcome), please leave a comment on this post. I will use the random generator to pick a winner on Monday 7th November (Australian Eastern Summer Time).

Good luck.

wheat bags - a tutorial of sorts

2011-10-31T11:24:00.001+11:00

On 12th November, Caring Hearts Community Quilting group will have a stall at the Spring Fair in the village of Glenbrook (in the Blue Mountains, west of Sydney).

DD and I are preparing items for sale. Our first thoughts were place-mats, coasters and wheat bags.

DD was most excited about the latter so that's where we started.

We viewed a few tutorials on the 'Net but then made our bags to suit the size we wanted and the fabric we had. We decided to make removable covers (after testing one with the outer cover and inner cover made in one piece).

So here is a tutorial (of sorts). I have written it primarily for us so that we can remember what we did next time we want to make some!

Decide what size you want your wheat bag to be. This could be determined by how much you have of your chosen fabric. Use only natural fibres; synthetic fibres and microwaves don't mix - synthetic fibres also tend to sweat, leaving a wet patch in your bed if you use it as a bed warmer - something your guests may not appreciate! LOL)
Cut two pieces of your chosen fabric, half inch wider than your finished width. The first piece should be one inch longer than your desired finished length; the other piece should be 4 inches longer than your desired length (to fold over the end and keep the wheat bag inside).
Cut one piece of unbleached (prewashed) calico twice your finished width plus 1/2 inch. The length of this piece of calico should be 1/2 inch longer than your desired length.
Fold the shorter edge of your unbleached calico down 1/4 inch and press. Stitch this down to hold it in place.
Fold the calico in half lengthwise, right sides together, and sew a 1/4 inch seam across the short end (opposite your folded end), pivot at the corner, and sew 1/4 inch seam along the length.
Now sew the seam again, this time a scant 1/4 inch. This will reinforce the seam and keep the wheat seeds in place.
Turn the bag right side out. Don't fuss too much with the corners -- the wheat will sort them out for you!
Fill the calico sack with clean feed (hard) wheat, then carefully stitch the opening closed (if your needle hits the hard wheat seeds it might break - so be very careful). I think this is the most complicated part! If you have an extension table for your machine use it -- otherwise the weight of the wheat in a bag lower than your needle plate will make sewing very difficult!

How much seed is up to you. We used approximately 900g for an 18" x 6" wheat bag.

Now to make the outer bag in your decorative fabric.

Fold one short end of each piece over to the wrong side 1/4 inch, then fold it over 1/4 inch again, press and stitch down (separately please!). This will give a neat edge to your finished bag.
Place the longer piece of fabric right side up. Place the shorter piece (face down) on top, matching the bottom (unhemmed) ends. Fold the longer side over the top so that it is the same length as the shorter piece: that is the hemmed end of the shorter piece is between two layers of the longer fabric (look at a pillow case if this doesn't make sense to you!!)
Stitch a 1/4 inch seam along the length from the folded end to the bottom, pivot at the corner, seam along the bottom, pivot again, and seam along the other long side. I always start with a few reverse or lock stitches and finish the same way.
Turn your bag right side out. Trim the corners across the diagonal if you want to (we don't!).
Press so that the seams are flat and everything is neat.
Insert the filled calico bag into the decorative cover. Try to match the bottom corners of the two bags inside each other.
Turn the whole lot upside down and match the two corners of both bags under the flap you have created on the decorative bag.
Ease everything into place.

our first four finished bags

Write or print the following instructions onto a tag:
Microwave 1-2 minutes. Do not overheat.
Attach the tag using a ribbon or pretty raffia.

You could fill one third of the calico bag, seam across it, fill another third, seam across it and fill the rest of the bag but we prefer not to do that. This makes the bag more rigid and we prefer to have the bag more flexible than that.

If you find any errors or have a question, feel free to email me.

If you make some bags using this tutorial, please let us see how they turned out.

first of the Christmas presents done

2011-10-30T11:09:00.000+11:00

Older Grandson loves books.

Older Grandson thinks it's fun to count.

Older Grandson's grandmother likes to sew.

Combine the three and you get a hand-made, cloth, pirate-themed counting book!

(panel bought at a craft show from Patchwork with Gail B)

Are you making gifts for Christmas?

What have we here?

2011-10-29T12:23:00.002+11:00

This arrived at my place today. it has just been unpacked from the ute* (pick up truck).

Of course, it wouldn't be any use without this.

A semi-industrial, straight stitching machine!

The former owner has replaced it with a computerised twice-as-large version (she is a professional quilter) so this one has come to live with us (via an online auction site).

Now WM and I have to put it together (when we find a suitable home place for it).

And DD and I have to watch the DVD that goes with it.

Then it will be time for some fun practice!

*ute = abbreviated form of "utility vehicle"

accuracy required

2011-10-28T11:02:00.025+11:00

Piecing patches of fabric together to make quilt blocks requires a great deal more accuracy than piecing the larger pieces of fabric used in garment assembly. Even 1/8 inch can be crucial.

That's why string blocks and improvised piecing can be very relaxing: there is no matching of seams or points, just sewing.

But, while blocks made this way can be quick and effective, they can also become monotonous and not very challenging.

Remember yesterday I quoted Bonnie Hunter on striving for excellence not perfection?

This just doesn't make the grade. It certainly isn't perfect or excellent!

So, with the aid of the "quilter's favourite tool", I turned it into this:

which became this (it is straight; I just didn't notice that the fabric had curved before I took the photo):

Much better, don't you think?

Actually, the problem was inaccurate cutting of the square (3 1/2 inches x 3 3/4 inches) but I didn't realise that until I had ripped all three seams! However, I have had the same problem with inaccurate machine-piecing, like this one:

There are 48 of these "half-blocks" in my Hunter's Cabin quilt. Here they are on my design wall. The first four "half-blocks" (top left) have been sewn into full blocks.

It's quite a dark quilt so I spaced the eight cream-based patches evenly across the quilt.

Since that photo was taken yesterday I have turned four more of the "half-block" into blocks. I became discouraged after ripping the same seams three times so thought it was time to take a break from that project.

I knew there was a reason for having more than one work in progress!

string blocks in a quilt

2011-10-27T11:02:00.012+11:00

Jan Mac, of Oz Comfort Quilts, has been very busy. Do you know that she has donated over 480 quilts so far this year? That's an amazing achievement and she deserves support and congratulations.

DD and I sent twenty-five string blocks a couple of weeks ago. Before we sent them, I forgot to take photos. Jan has now used some of them in two quilts and our blocks are playing nicely with the others.

Once again I have borrowed the photo from Jan's blog. If you imagine the quilts as a grid with the columns labelled A-E (from left to right), and the rows labelled 1-7 (from top to bottom), I will point out which blocks are ours!

A1, D1
A2, C2, E2
C3
A4, D4
B5
B7,D7

Now that you know what our blocks look like, you can see the second quilt on Jan's blog and find ours for yourself! LOL

And, let me finish with a quote from this post by Bonnie Hunter which is a great reminder to those of us who strive too hard for perfection:

Hand crafted does not, will not ever mean PERFECTION. The pursuit of excellence is worthy, the pursuit of perfection is INSANE. IMPOSSIBLE…..

eek! a steek!

2011-10-26T11:04:00.006+11:00

Last Saturday, the Blue Mountains group of the Knitters' Guild of NSW held a steeking workshop. DD and I arrived very late but I caught the end of the workshop. Our guest tutor, Mary-Helen, was very gracious and showed me how to steek the tube I had prepared in advance.

Step 1
Knit your garment (or, in this case, a small tube 10cm - 4" - high)

Step 2
Using a hook a couple of sizes smaller than the needles used to knit the item and a contrasting yarn, crochet a column of stitches three stitches away from where the steek will be -- on both sides of the steek.

Step 3
Take a deep breath and remember to keep breathing! Cut the column of stitches along your steeking line.

It's all very well to be "gung-ho" about cutting a sample tube. I'm sure it would be quite a different matter to cut into a garment on which one had worked for many hours!

But at least I know how to do it and that can only be a good thing!

first anniversary

2011-10-25T11:28:00.015+11:00

Twelve months ago today, DD and SIL left this:

They moved into the house they had just bought, with an eight month old son and too much stuff.

Today they have two sons - aged twenty months and four months (tomorrow) and even more stuff.

Due to a lot of hard work from WM (and regular mowing by SIL), the front of the block no longer looks like this!

Happy anniversary, kids!

imagine a cushion*

2011-10-24T11:10:00.002+11:00

Finished at 51cm (20") square.

This fabric on the "envelope" back. Doesn't it look like the surface of water?

This hand-dyed fabric for a two inch border on the front.

And this as the feature fabric - a sixteen inch square. I bought this from Patchwork by Gail B when I went to Canberra for a craft show a couple of months ago.

I gave the cushion to my sister (for her birthday) on Friday night and she seemed well pleased. She told me she was taking it to the baseball to sit on it while her son tried out for the State team yesterday.

Unfortunately, I forgot to take a photo of the finished item and she lives five hours away!

*In Australia, we use the term "cushion" for decorator items or for use on sofas/lounges/settees and even beds. Pillows are for sleeping on.

Scrappy Saturday on Sunday

2011-10-23T12:59:00.000+11:00

It is early afternoon here in Sydney, Australia, but it's still Saturday in USA so I'm not too late. Angela, of So Scrappy blog, lives in USA. All year she has been running a Rainbow Scrap challenge and all year I've been watching others use their scraps. Today I realised that I have started a block with scraps of orange so "better late than never" - I've decided to join in!

There's still another Saturday in October so perhaps I will get the block finished before then. But here is my beginning - an orange heart from the fabric left from my Country Houses quilt, cut with my Accuquilt Go Baby! and fused onto a piece of white homespun. I plan to blanket stitch around the heart by hand then make an orange border for this piece, which currently measures 5 1/2 inches square.

one woman's trash is another woman's treasure

2011-10-21T10:16:00.000+11:00

A few weeks ago, I won these two patterns from Kate's Arty Bits Blog when she was clearing out things she didn't think she would ever use.

DD loves bags and my sister likes penguins so I'm sure they'll be put to good use here.

Thanks Kate.

playing catch up

2011-10-20T11:33:00.002+11:00

I am nearly a week behind with my blog reading because I was sick again last week. If I am a follower of your blog, I am trying to catch up. At the moment I have about 300 posts to read so I'm doing my best. I may not comment in my attempt to catch up -- I know I will fall behind again this weekend; I always do because DD and the Grandboys arrive on Friday mornings and stay till after dinner on Saturday nights which precludes spending time on the computer!

Last week I forgot to take photos before DD carefully rolled up twenty-five QAYG blocks and crammed them into a post bag.

They reached their destination last Friday. I have "borrowed" a photo from Jan's Oz Comfort Quilts blog to give you some idea of what we've been up to. The blocks are 10.5 inches square (unfinished) and I can't wait to see how they play with other donated blocks to make a quilt. They don't look so good after being rolled tightly but it was the most efficient way to fit blocks into the postbag!

adding to the fabric stash

2011-10-19T14:10:00.000+11:00

Last week I took DD to the Big Box Craft Store; this was the result:

I think we begin to have a stash!

a new beginning

2011-10-18T17:23:00.000+11:00

After the "insect attack" which was the subject of my last post, I realised that I had underestimated how many stitches I ripped out! I think it was more like 60,000!

Want to see what that looks like?

That, friends, is a solid, reasonably-tightly-wound ball, 15cm (6 inches) in diameter weighing nearly 300 grams (10.5 ounces).

Or 900 metres (984 yards).

But there is light at the end of the tunnel; some of it now looks like this:

200 stitches wide, 30 rows long on 3.5mm needles

Or, to give you a better idea, here is a close up of what I have been working on for three days (most of the ends are woven in during the knitting process - sometimes I forget!):

An intarsia rainbow at the end of the frogpond!

a warning to my knitting friends

2011-10-15T11:15:00.002+11:00

We all know acrylic is a bi-product of the petroleum industry; that is: a form of spun and plied plastic. It melts when heated and become brittle when frozen.

And insects don't eat plastic, right?

Well then, can anyone explain these?

Which came from this?

The only explanation we can come up with is that Younger Grandson threw up on my knitting (which was packed away in a bag near where DD was feeding). DD cleaned it up but left a protein residue which was attractive to whatever chewing insect did this!

Moral of the story - make sure you wash you hands after handling food or other protein products (including some hand creams). If you spill something on your knitting, fix the stitches somehow and properly wash the knitting.

Otherwise you might find yourself ripping out hours of work (in my case 96 rows -- 18,720 stitches!)

progress on Hunter's Cabin quilt

2011-10-14T11:09:00.000+11:00

In mid-August, I designed a quilt for the "men's fabric" I had been given. I cut the pieces and there it stopped. You can read about it on this post.

At the time, I was waiting for a design wall so I could plan my quilt.

Now I have a design wall but I have instead decided to make a random scrappy quilt. I often overthink things so I'll see how this goes!

I need to practise straight stitching and this quilt will be a great vehicle. If you look at the design again, you can see it is made of 48 rectangular blocks consisting of two shorter strips, one longer strip and a square. Perfect for practising straight, 1/4 inch piecing!

So, I finally stopped procrastinating and just did it!

I joined 96 short strips to make 48 units, then joined each unit to a fussy cut square to make a larger unit.

I then began to match the strip/square units with one long strip to make half a block.

This half block has not yet been trimmed to size.

I will then join two opposing half blocks to make one block.

Can anyone tell me how one can sew using a 1/4 inch foot and still not get a straight seam?

More practice needed.

high tea

2011-10-12T11:09:00.003+11:00

On 30th September, WM (who had a rostered day off) and I took my mother to the nearby town of Windsor for a belated birthday surprise.

We took her to Mishy's for "lunch". Every table had a different setting - DD would have loved the table in the middle of the room; it had butterflies on the crockery.

This was our table. We had floral cups and saucers with striped plates. The tea pot had leaf tea inside (hence the strainer behind my cup of tea); the big white pot on my left was hot water. You can't see very well, but the water (from the pink bottle) and the freshly squeezed apple juice in the background was served in cut glass goblets. WM had the plunger of freshly brewed coffee which was replaced during the meal. And look at those tiny hand-made meringues on the plates!

I had pre-ordered the "elegant high tea" for three: mini pie, mini quiche, quarter sandwiches with the crusts cut off (egg, smoked salmon, ham and, of course, cucumber), scones with jam and cream, tiny cup cakes (one each of banana, carrot and chocolate) and tiny cream filled profiteroles.

Sadly, the cafe is in the back of an arcade with little passing foot traffic. Business is slow. We were there at 1pm and only one other person came in for a sandwich and a coup of coffee.

I don't know if this is the reason the business is on the market but I know I will be telling everyone to go there before it closes at the end of November. WM is going to take his mother and will mind the Grandboys while I take DD.

in which I speak of socks

2011-10-11T11:21:00.025+11:00

Last month, I was supposed to teach a full day workshop on knitting socks from the toe up. Unfortunately, I became very ill with acute sinusitis and was unable to stand, let alone tutor all day.

In the weeks leading up to the sock workshop I had, of course, concentrated on sock knitting.

In a previous post, I showed you my sample sock (seen again at right with my 20cm long dpns).

Before I even designed the sample sock, there was the pair I started in April and finally finished last month for the Wonderful Man.

Next, I cast on another pair of self striping / "fake isle" socks. I thought I might wear them but they are way too big for me. I had become so used to knitting man-sized socks that I automatically made them 72 stitches - much too wide in the foot for me!

Moda Vera Noir colourway Merlot

So, two days later, I cast on yet another pair of socks -- I had to keep practising Judy's Magic Cast On. For me, it's the trickiest part of the sock. The cast on itself is easy but knitting those first two rows can be a little fiddly on 2.25mm (US 1) needles.

The socks I cast on are Ribbed Ribbon socks (Ravelry link) by Wendy Johnson from her book, Socks from the Toe Up. These socks don't have the short row heel we were going to do in the workshop. However, I decided it wouldn't hurt me to try something new so I did the heel exactly as the pattern stated.

I knitted the first sock on two circulars (according to the pattern). I find it cumbersome - sliding the stitches from the plastic cable (where they often catch) on to the needle; and the needle-not-in-use always seems to be in the way.Give me dpns any time!

The combination of circular needles and a lace pattern makes for very slow knitting. It took me three hours to complete one pattern repeat of 24 rounds! With dpns and "plain vanilla" socks, I could finish the whole foot or leg in that time!

I also can't decide whether I like the socks or not (for many reasons):

I think they may be a couple of rows too short in the foot. They are perhaps a little too snug!
I think I'd like the toe area to be a little longer; perhaps twenty four rounds instead of eighteen.
The yarn (Cleckheaton Cocoon 70% merino, 30% nylon) has gone fluffy already and they haven't been worn or washed. I know it's baby yarn but it has the same composition as sock yarn - obviously it is spun less tightly! Why did I choose to knit socks from it? I only have self striping yarn or variegated yarn in my stash and didn't think either would do this lace pattern justice! Mind you, I don't think this yarn is doing the pattern any favours either!
I have gauge but my pattern looks clunky rather than elegant like the photo of the sock in the book (which I can't show you here for copyright reasons) or the ones seen here.

In our house, we have a saying: "If in doubt, don't!"

Because I couldn't decide whether to continue or rip out the Ribbed Ribbon Socks, I cast on yet another pair of socks on the Monday afternoon. It would have been good to have gone to the workshop on Saturday wearing a pair of handknit socks!

This third pair is knitted from Patonyle (the old 50g balls) which I bought at the Australian Country Spinners Mill Shop in 2008 and had almost forgotten.

In fact, the yarn didn't have a label but a search on Ravelry confirmed my suspicions. The pattern is "plain vanilla" because the yarn is self striping. I used Judy's Magic Cast On (32 stitches) and increased in every second row until I had 64 stitches. I knit until the ~~foot~~ instep touched my leg then did an hourglass heel (which is what I would have been teaching the following Saturday). Because it was late at night and I was tired and not well, I made a mistake and had to rip out the whole heel again. I went to bed that night thinking about socks.

When I woke on Tuesday morning, I knew the answer! The increase in alternate rows creates a narrow toe which doesn't suit the shape of my foot. I need a completely different shape, one more like a commercial sock.

And so I did the only sensible thing -- I ripped out the whole sock! If I had continued and ignored the toe, I would have regretted it and probably never worn the socks.

I still have to bind off the first sock and cast on the second, so it's just as well I didn't want to wear them to the workshop-that-was-postponed, wasn't it?

As for the Ribbed Ribbon socks - what do you think? Should I finish the pair, or count my losses and rip this one out?

Wonky String quilt finished

2011-10-10T11:13:00.001+11:00

Last Wednesday I wrangled this quilt through the sewing machine to complete the sashing on the back.

The quilt is made in a "quilt as you go" method. The blocks were originally made by (someone unknown to us)sewing strings to a calico foundation. DD and I then quilted them onto wool/polyester wadding and a backing made from hand-dyed fabric that had been donated to the quilting group.

The combination of the thicker backing fabric and the extra layer of fabric between the top and the batting made the quilt very stiff and heavy. When I tried to sew the sashing on, I really had to wrangle the quilt. When it hit the back edge of my sewing table, it was so stiff it didn't bend and go down the gap between the table and the wall, it just crashed into wall and sent my stitching way off (It's rarely straight at the best of times).

I finally got the machine work finished. I'm not at all happy with it but it's done. On Thursday I took the quilt to the Caring Hearts Community Quilt group monthly meeting to hand sew the binding down. I made the mistake of stitching every 1/4 inch or so - only to remember (too late) that binding a quilt is not the same as hemming a pair of trousers! Nevermind, more stitches is better than less (I guess).

I finished sewing the binding on Friday night and washed the quilt and put it in the dryer yesterday.

So here, for your viewing pleasure, Wonky Strings completed!

What's in a name?

2011-10-09T10:35:00.004+11:00

Today I'm linking up with (fellow Aussie) Dawn's blog As Sweet As Cinnamon. Dawn is having a giveaway and asks the question: What's the reason behind your blog name?

I started this blog because a friend had a blog and it sounded like fun. We had met at the Knitters' Guild and we both had "knitting blogs". Sadly my friend no longer posts on her blog -- she has discovered Twitter! Because I like to knit all year round, not just in winter as my mother (who taught me to knit) does, I called my blog "Too Hot to Knit? Never!" The URL was the result of me thinking it was cool to use numerals in my address.

A couple of years ago I joined a site called ravelry.com, and my user-name there is never2hot2knit. For the sake of consistency, I changed my blog name to "Never Too Hot To Knit".

Last year, my DD and I discovered patchwork and quilting but we didn't take it too seriously until this year when we began classes with Elizabeth Wallace of Aussie Patches in May. I was hooked! And my knitting output decreased dramatically!

A couple of months ago, in acknowledgement that this is no longer a "knitting" blog yet reluctant to start another one, I changed the layout of my blog and the title to reflect who I am now: someone who makes stitches with knitting needles or a sewing machine (and occasionally even a crochet hook)!

Now, I'm off to my sewing machine and perhaps tonight, some knitting in front of the television!

Thanks, Dawn, for that bit of fun!

And since I still have a "small blog", I'm also linking up here at Lily's Quilts:

a brief summary of Camp

2011-10-08T10:25:00.001+11:00

I arrived at the Knitters' Guild of NSW (Inc) Camp on Friday evening at 5:20, after an almost three hour trip - half an hour of which I spent travelling just four kilometres (2.5 miles). A police operation was underway in Castle Hill (a motorist been shot by the police the day before) so there were major roads closed in the area.

I was given a nice twin bed motel-style room with en-suite which I shared with a member of my own knitting group so the accommodation was much better than I was expecting. The word "camp" conjures up bunk beds and dormitory style rooms so it was a very pleasant surprise. The food was quite good and there seemed to be enough for everybody although those at the end of the queue missed out on pumpkin for dinner one night.

I took my camera, charged the batteries overnight and then was too busy to take any photos!

On Saturday I tutored an all day workshop on entrelac knitting. I am by no means an expert but I have knitted quite a few blankets in garter stitch entrelac so I am very familiar with the technique.

All the samples I prepared were knitted in acrylic (I don't like "wasting" wool for knitting samples and I hope they'll be protected from insect attack!) and unblocked: I wanted the participants to see what their work would look like on the needles - which is not always like a blocked piece; this is especially true of entrelac.

In the first session of the day, I taught the participants how the squares of entrelac are joined together. We worked in garter stitch: but some of those squares were knitted entirely in purl. The samples show the same square knitted in one handpainted yarn and in two contrasting yarns. The participants all made the sample with two yarns so that hey could see how it comes togehter.

After lunch came the harder session: not only did the participants learn how to knit traditional entrelac in stocking stitch, which meant making triangles at the base, sides and top of their sample, but I also taught them to knit backwards and asked them, if they could, to knit with the right side facing for the rest of the day. Knitting backwards is knitting the work from the right needle to the left needle; this saves turning the work around at the end of every eight stitch row which, with practice, is actually faster than knitting and purling.

Most of the participants got it and were happy to keep knitting that way (slowly) for the remainder of the afternoon. Some of them said they really enjoyed knitting backwards, which was a real bonus!

The sample shows the difference in size and finish knitting the same pattern in stocking stitch versus garter stitch - same needles, same yarn, same number of stitches, same knitter.

For the fast finishers, there was a bonus sample: lace entrelac. Well, a combination of lace and garter stitch as seen below.

I was given many thanks and compliments for the workshop which I really appreciated.

On Sunday I was exhausted. 8:30am-5:50pm was a long, long day for me! The weather was miserable, and got worse as the weekend progressed. I had planned to leave on Sunday afternoon after the intarsia workshop I was taking, but the combination of heavy rain and fatigue made me decide to leave at lunch time on Sunday.

I had a good drive home, despite the heavy rain at the beginning of the trip, and was home in about two and half hours. It was the first time in a very long while since I had driven that kind of distance (170km - 106.5 miles - each way) so I was quite pleased with myself.

I had a wonderful time (despite the weather and the exhaustion) and would encourage Guild members to start saving now for Camp 2013. And be sure to let the Committee know what workshops you would like to see at the next camp.

I'm back!

2011-10-05T14:02:00.004+11:00

Today life returns to something resembling "normalcy".

My sinuses are still not completely clear but that is normal for me! At least I can do something other than sleep or sit with my head as still as possible. Thanks to all those who sent good wishes and prayers my way during my fight with acute sinusitis.

I have been away from home the past two weekends: the first we travelled to Armidale to my niece's 21st birthday. The second, this past weekend, I went to the biennial camp of the Knitters' Guild of NSW (Inc) - there will be a separate post about that; all I need to say here was I had a great time!

In the week between Armidale and the Camp, we had my mother staying with us. There were visits from DD (mum's eldest grand-daughter) and the Grandboys, a visit to my MIL, a visit to my brother and his family, and a special birthday outing - the subject of another separate post (I need to have something to write about! LOL)

I must be the world's most boring daughter because while mum was here she had time to read two novels: The Tin Ticket (the central character of which is my dad's great-great-grandmother: a convict originally from Glasgow, Scotland) and The Drovers. Mum really loves Australian novels so once she started reading she couldn't put the books down.

The truth is that while mum was here (and reading), I had to finish knitting some samples for Camp. I had knitted samples and written patterns, but I had to test knit the patterns! Let me tell you that is not as easy as it sounds; my brain knows how to do entrelac and it was hard to follow the pattern word for word so some mistakes were, unfortunately, found over the weekend!

I foolishly also thought I could knit a short-sleeved jumper in two weeks! Who am I kidding? I did about twenty percent of it, I suppose. Which, in the end, is just as well, as I have decided to rip it all out anyway. It is being knitted in Moda Vera "Bamboo Wave", which is textured (thick and thin) yarn: 60% bamboo and 40% cotton. I have gauge for the jumper but it's still too loose and drapey - and given that cotton drops a lot, I have decided, after consultation with another knitter whose skills I admire and trust, to rip it out (and, maybe, start again).

The jumper is the Morning, Noon and Night Sweater (Ravelry link - third photo) by Gwen Bortner, in her book Entree to Entrelac. I was quite happy with most of it (apart from the slowness of entrelac) but, as explained, it must be ripped out -- when I can bring myself to do it.

I have also been knitting on my garter stitch blanket (since I came home, happy, but exhausted, from Camp). I am just past halfway with that.

What you see here is approximately 40 inches wide and 45 inches long. The top edge is on a Knitpicks cable, ready for me to knit in the other direction. The bottom is on the 4.5mm circular needles I am using to knit this DK blanket. I got bored with one row per colour so I am now knitting a Fibonacci sequence: 1-1-2-3-2-1-1-2-3-2- etc. Yes, all those ends are still hanging out but wait till you see what I do with them!

There has also been some sock knitting - again the subject of another post.

Why so much knitting? It was the only craft I could cope with for the last month or so! And even then the pattern needed to be fairly simple! I knitted in front of the television for up to five hours a day, staring straight ahead - moving the head as little as possible!

In the midst of my pain and woolly-headedness, I just couldn't face sewing so there has been very little of that. In fact, I have only used my sewing machine twice in this past five weeks; once to do the block which was the subject of this post, and on Monday last week when I went to sewing class for the first time in three weeks. I attempted to make another block but I have either lost my ability to sew in straight lines or perhaps I never had it in the first place! Either way, patchwork is dependent on cutting and sewing accurately - the more seams there are, the more accurate one must be! Much, much more accurate than one needs to be for dress-making! And I have discovered that I am not accurate enough!

Sadly, these two blocks were to be sent to So Sarah Sews to be sewn into quilt tops for girls in the foster care system who have been doing it tough. I really wanted to be part of this, but just felt that my work wasn't up to scratch. I had to write to Sarah and ask to be allowed out of the group -- I feel bad for letting her down but I'm sure it will be easier for her to make two extra blocks than to make mine fit! I could make new blocks, but Sarah wanted them by 7th October - two days from now; she lives in the USA and I live in Australia so it was never going to happen for me!

Having been away from my computer since before the trip to Armidale, I have spent hours since I came home from Camp trying to catch up with other people's blogs. Since there are 165 blogs on my Blog Reading List, this is no mean feat. I spent three hours today reading all and commenting on some of the posts that were published three days ago and two days ago, so another few hours should find me caught up.

I cannot set even weekly or monthly goals - they seem too daunting; I will just have to take things as they come for the next little while.

So now, I'm off to re-acquaint myself with Jan, before she forgets who I am entirely!

sorry friends

2011-09-27T09:37:00.000+10:00

Hello everyone

I just wanted to let you know that I am still here and still reading your blogs.

Since posting last week, I have been busy.

On Friday, DD and the Grandboys visited for the first time in two weeks (due to my being sick). It was so lovely to spend some time with them.

ON Friday afternoon, WM and I left for Tamworth in Northern NSW, arriving there at 9:30pm. We stayed in a motel overnight and picked mum up from the railway station the next morning. Then we drove to Armidale - a university town in the New England Highlands - for my niece's 21st birthday party.

The party was better than I was expecting; I had expected a smaller venue, more people and a greater amount of noise - so I enjoyed myself far more than I thought I would!

We left at around 11:30pm; we didn't have far to go - the motel was right next door!

On Sunday we drove the 500 kilometres (312.5 miles) back home in dreadful conditions - heavy rain and thunderstorms. We arrived at 4pm; DD and family were there to greet us which was lovely - especially for my mum who was meeting Younger Grandson (asleep) for the first time.

Mum is staying with us until Saturday so I have stolen a few minutes while I wait for the washing machine to finish its cycle. I don't expect to post again until after the weekend.

Hopefully, regular posts will resume next week. Thanks for your patience and support.

Lynne

update and sewing "progress"

2011-09-22T22:08:00.000+10:00

Thank you to all who sent good wishes for my recovery from sinusitis. I'm now on my second course of antibiotics and am feeling much better than I was but am still a little "stuffy".

Today I tried to do a little sewing for the first time in three weeks. Perhaps I shouldn't have tried to piece this block.

I cut the pieces as accurately as I could. I sewed and ripped and sewed and ripped and sewed and ripped and pinned and sewed and ripped... well, you know what I'm saying.

I couldn't sew a straight seam. Not even for two and half inches. Everything was slipping and sliding all over the place (Yes, it's quilting cotton). The square in the centre of the block was not square (although it was cut perfectly square). It had curved edges and a corner that was definitely not square. The white strips were more curved than straight.

I think part of the problem was not knowing which way to press the seams to prepare properly for the next step. I know I should press towards the dark fabrics, but my seams didn't want to lie that way.

Even when I tried to square the block with a rotary cutter, it looked more like a kindergarten child had attacked it with a pair of scissors. I gave up in the end and really felt like giving up sewing for good!

Fortunately, I have enough fabric left to cut some more pieces and try again!

I couldn't even get any decent photos for you! Taken with a flash at night, they were still out of focus! What's wrong with me?

Do you ever have days like that?

news flash

2011-09-17T06:28:00.000+10:00

Lynne is being treated for acute sinusitis
and will be away from her blog for a few days.

Regular posting will resume as soon as possible.

spring has defintely sprung!

2011-09-13T10:20:00.000+10:00

The forecast temperature for today is 21*C (70*F) - not particularly warm but when there's a cloudless sky and absolutely no wind, the micro-climate of our garden seems much warmer.

The flowers on the archway I showed you on 1st September are nearly all gone - it's a short flowering season and last Saturday's winds didn't help.

But other things are in their full glory.

The azaleas by the back tap.

The screen of banksia roses (to hide the back neighbours' house).

And my personal favourite: the weeping cherry (almost in full bloom).

perhaps I should return to work

2011-09-12T10:51:00.001+10:00

When I worked, I was very rarely sick. Perhaps that's because I was employed on a part time (casual) basis and if I didn't work I didn't get paid. Perhaps it was because I don't like to let people down. I believe in honouring my commitments.

But truly, I rarely was so sick that I couldn't work. Sure, I went to work with allergies and sniffled (perfectly acceptable in many cultures) or had runny eyes.

In June, I told my boss that I either wanted to work two days a week or not at all. One morning a week - two and half hours (so that I was away from home for about five hours) - is just a pain, it interferes with real life and becomes a drudge. The long shot of that, for those who weren't following my blog back then, was that I received an email saying there would be no work for me this semester. That suited me fine. WM was happy for me to stay home so it caused no friction. I was in "forced" retirement and "happy as Larry"!

Since July, I have had a heavy cold four times. The first three times it came unexpectedly, knocked me down for about twenty-four hours, and was gone almost as quickly as it came!

This time my sinuses have become infected. I have an appointment to see the doctor -- this Thursday; by then I will have had this heavy infection for a week. As I type this, the occasional tear rolls down my face (I'm not crying), my head is throbbing, my nose feels like I've gone backwards into the swimming pool and the centre of my face feels like I've been punched several times!

I missed another sewing class today - I just couldn't face driving my car or driving my sewing machine! I haven't done any sewing for more than a week and it doesn't seem likely I will be doing any in the near future.

Enough of the whingeing - I'm off to knit!

Perhaps I should return to work?

When is enough enough?

2011-09-11T12:25:00.000+10:00

On Friday a good friend came to visit (Hi D!). I picked her up form the railway station and when we arrived, DD and the Grandboys were already here. We had a lovely day knitting and talking and eating and talking and knitting and talking and ...

DD and the Grandboys stayed overnight. Older Grandson didn't sleep well because his ears were bothering him. He's okay when he's upright but lying down obviously puts too much pressure on his ears. Because he slept in our room, we didn't get much sleep either. Well, we did but it was definitely broken sleep!

Yesterday we visited the Farmer's and Artisan's Markets at Castle Hill. The Farmer's Markets were good; we looked, we sampled, we bought some strawberries and navel oranges and I was given a bar of goats' milk soap to try - I hope it works because I have very dry skin which becomes itchy and when I scratch it sometimes tears! We ate freshly made spinach and feta gozleme. OG loved the samples of yoghurt he got to eat! And now he loves strawberries too!

The Artisan Markets were a bit of a disappointment. Apparently some stall holders had already packed up and gone (was it the bitterly cold wind?). The markets have only been operating for four months and there were less than twenty stalls when we got there more than hour before closing time. It didn't help that one of the stall holders was complaining to the one of the other stall holders that people walk past (obviously us since we were just about the only people in the hall at the time) without even stopping. Doesn't she know that people walking slowly can look at the same time? And that there are some things in this world that are just not that interesting to some other people even if she finds them endlessly fascinating?

On the way home, we stopped at the Big Box Store for the much advertised Quilt Expo - a total waste of time! The store in Castle Hill had a much larger range of fabric than our local store but our local store displays fabric by colour and the CH store by some other kind of system - so if you wanted fabric in one colour you'd have to look in three or four different places! Needless to say, DD and I didn't stay long (WM was in the car with the sleeping Grandboys) and we didn't buy anything!

And now to the point of my post. Because the last couple of days have been filled with other things, I haven't had any time to read blogs. This morning I've been catching up! It's midday; I have spent four hours reading and commenting! I'm still in my pyjamas. I haven't had breakfast! I haven't done any knitting (I'm working on a pair of socks that I started last night and plan to finish them in time to wear next weekend - am I mad or what?)

I enjoy all the blogs I read but this is a total time suck! Imagine what it will be like when I go away for the weekend, bring my mum back to stay for a week, then go away for another weekend! I'll be days catching up!

What do you think: when is enough enough?

a letter to my quilting friends

2011-09-10T20:28:00.000+10:00

Dear Quilting Friends

I haven't given up quilting but I do have two full day knitting workshops to tutor in the next three weeks (17th September and 1st October) so please bear with me if this blog seems heavy on the knitting content at the moment.

Quilting posts will resume soon!

Lynne

knitted FO

2011-09-08T10:15:00.002+10:00

Back in April, I started a pair of toe up socks for WM.

I learnt a long time ago to knit two socks at the same time to save gauge issues later!

I finished the first sock but the cast off was too tight so I put the sock away.

At that time, the toe and the foot of the second sock had been knitted.

Due to workshop I am tutoring next week, I thought I should unpick that too-tight cuff and finish it. In the process, I discovered the second sock which I hadn't even thought about.

So, on Tuesday night I turned the heel and knitted most of the leg.

Yesterday I finished the leg and knitted the cuff.

Both socks were finished after dinner last night and so the colours may be a little "off" due to the use of artificial light and flash.

the colour changes in the yellow are in the yarn not the photo!

WM is very happy with the socks; they fit perfectly - which I guess is the point of knitting socks from the toe up!