MY DAY OFF........

Yesssssss, I thought yippee, midweek break, well earned and now for "me" time. First I will have a quiet cuppa.............

 Then I will head to my sewing room to crack on with the many and varied projects I have to complete..........

 Yup, its gonna be great!!!

Well, I did have a little snack with said cuppa tea, a little smack of bread, jam and cream. Gasp! I hear you say? Don't knock it until you try it, its my weakness and I find it keeps me well fuelled for the day. Well as I said a wee snack and a cuppa and I was set to go.
I started well, I got chopping into my scrap pile, I downloaded photos, swapped an old cutting mat......and that's when my day became a little unravelled.

You move things at your peril in the sewing room in mi casa, it exposes dust, and once you move a pile 'o dust you have to keep going. So it was downstairs to get the duster....dust around sewing area....not bad.....OK...NOW to start sewing!

Hmmm snack has digested a little and cuppa has done its work, I think I may just pop to the loo before I start.....nah just been downstairs so I will use the kids bathroom upstairs. (the kids are 21 and 25)
 NOT A GOOD IDEA!!!! IT WAS FILTHY!!!!

So then it was downstairs to get the cleaning bucket and hours later I am exhausted, the bathrooms clean but I am exhausted. And you know what, they will hardly notice, hubby will come home and ask how my day off was?.....and what did I get done?..because he doesn't really notice either......aaaaarrrrrrggghhhhhhh!!!!!!

Thank goodness I have sewing to calm me down and I will get some done later..............just as soon as I have a cuppa and a snack..........

This is the said scrap basket and I am determined to empty it. That is my current top of my list project.

 And these are some more of the blocks I need to complete. So the scrap basket has been well mined for fabric there. This quilt has quite a history. I bought the pattern in 2008 and worked sporadically on it. At one stage my daughter did a block as a distraction when she was having bully problems at school.

The quilt will be finished now I have made it my mission to clear old projects before starting any new ones ......this year.......maybe....we will see! The block my daughter did is the top left hand one of the angel and house. She did a great job but decided that quilting wasn't really her thing. She now sews her own clothing and cons me into taking her to the local fabric store just as a girly thing and of course I end up buying the poor university student any amount of cloth she needs to create an outfit.

And the scrap basket has been mined for these blocks.

They are for a quilt by Sarah Fielke from the book "Material Obsession Two"  Maple Leaf Rag.

I am having a blast using scraps and creating this odd fabric. It is liberating not having to be accurate. Like colouring outside the lines, in fact its like scribbling and paying no attention to any lines.

Then when you have thrown together a piece of cloth you cut it according to the template and like magic it looks amazing.

I have 128 of these little suckers to finish. 

So that is a little of what happens on a  so called day "off"

I blame the coming of spring for my cleaning frenzy too, have you noticed that as the sun shines through the dirty windows it exposes the dust bunnies just that bit more..........Love the sun, don't love dust. 

Well bye for now...remind me to tell you about this woman I knew and her three daughters and her way of dealing with bad bathrooms.Oh well may as well tell you now.

You see I used to go to this woman's house for a sewing night. She was a single mum and had three lovely girls.....but they were feisty and teenagers to boot. They had two bathrooms, the girls sharing one and mum having her own. This woman was quite strict, as you have to be as a single parent and three girls. So there we all were sewing quietly, when one child comes in and asks if she could get the key to mums bathroom as she didn't want to wait for her sister to finish. Mum replied "No, you didn't keep your bathroom clean and you are not using mine"

We kept our eyes on our work pretending we didn't hear the exchange of mutterings from the thwarted child.....but then it was ON!!! 

For the rest of the evening we were visited by any and all combinations of the three girls pleading, acting and wheedling and crying and collapsing spectacularily on the floor,

PLEEEEEESSSSE we don't want to wait for her to finish can we use your bathroom!!

This woman had nerves of steel and she didn't give in......

Yeah great story, glad I waited around for that......says the little daog

AHHHHH SUMMER TIME........

and the living is easy, so easy in fact that time gets away from you and before you know it another day has passed.

I have been reading blogs but just not motivated to add to mine until now that is.

Those blogs I do follow came up with some interesting facts over the festive season.....I appears that those blogs and bloggers I find most interesting and resonate with me....wait for this spooky occurrance.....it appears we all....you'll never believe this , we all have ....BIRTHDAYS around Christmas.........we are a majority of hard headed Capricorns!!!.......I KNOW...SPOOKY!!!!

Well here is a big hello to all you fellow festive birthday babies.

This is a project that has bubbled along, I have appliqued hearts slowly over the year and it appears I am getting close to a finish here.
The pattern is by Sandy Klop from American Jane and her book, 
"Quilts for all seasons...and some for no reason"
I love this book and have my eye on several other projects in her book to put on the list.

This is another I have been itching to start and this is the year I venture into its complexity.

It is from Material Obsession two by Kathy Doughty and Sarah Fielke.

I love the whole scrappy thing going on there, so in that spirit I dove into my scraps and started to sort and prepare.

And I am using the bench my wonderful husband built over the air conditioning duct......its been awesome.

This new year has also seen me sort out a lot of my materials and try very hard to reduce and take some direction.
I have over the years boarded on "hoarding" in the true sense of the word, I struggled to relinquish those scraps that really were not going in the direction I wanted, and they were holding me back.

I would sort them, and stroke them and sigh, not knowing what I could do with such a mish mash of styles. I wanted to do scrappy but didn't have the time. I didn't want to "waste" good fabric that I had spent dollars on, but they no longer sang to me and if truth be told I often bought them in a frenzy because they were a bargain.

So I got organised.... and let go......it was a great feeling.

Now I can see what direction I want to go, what makes me happy and doesn't hold me a state of guilt and "must do"....I have come to realise that I have the right to do what makes me happy. 

My load and stash is lighter, I am tired but not pressured to use those uninspiring fabrics just because they are there.
It is a conundrum because so many of you are finding uses for the vintage hoards that others kept.....but as they say one mans treasure .....

My feelings about hoarding are well known by my family, but I have a parent who hoards and I can see how she makes do with broken and worn out items, how she holds herself prisoner by stuff that she deems valuable.
I vow not to be held back by things and only to have items that make ME smile, that I use and want to look at every day.

Dont get me wrong, I am no minimalist, I adore the cluttered look of so many inspiring blogs and photos that are shown....but I have decided to develop a place that I am happy in, and it is only having to satisfy me.

Phew that was a huge download and confession! If you are still here, Thank you for listening!

See pretty things that make me smile