A little catch up on the home front

Its not all international travel in my world I will have you know, in fact very little, which is why I am always banging on about it!
So I will change the subject just for now to start my New Year and start to make sense of all my projects. 
Also not a bad time to reintroduce myself to the blog.

 A corner of my creative space, my room is my sanctuary and now I no longer co inhabit with the family computer..its decorated exactly how I want....no excuses, no explanations it is mine to clutter and mess up and put up things and take things down and move other things around. 
In fact I do that a lot, which Feng Shui followers would tell you indicates I have too much clutter and waste a lot of time arranging my "stuff". 
Yeah well. (shugs shoulders). 
 Having said that I did read as much as could glean from other blogs about the new KonMari method and it did make sense. I used to try and store things.....and let me tell you storage is the new devil.
Now its out and proud, and I am trying so hard to let go of things that no longer bring me joy. Trouble is like most collectors I see possibilities in all my "stuff"......I was strong and I did cull a lot of extra things and did NOT buy more storage. (Except for the heaving shelves...are shelves strictly storage???)

 

The other side of my creative brain space.

 The whole hot mess!

 From one side to.......

......t'other!

The well dressed headless apparition is my dress maker form, I found the bra helped getting fittings correct over my bumpy bits, a great necklace and an apron I think stops her from being immodest.
Design wall to the left, and whats that on the floor? Well how sweet of you to ask!
This is one project that stewed a lot on the back burner of life and is now on its way to being finished.
 Its Maple Leaf Rag from Sarah Fielke and it features in "Material Obsession Two".
Its my scrap project and after a few fits and starts and learning a lot on the way, I think I have it almost right.
There are quite a few teaching moments in this project like accurate foundation, cutting and piecing.....it has a few rough patches but its coming together and I like it.

This is Sarah's version, I think hers has points that meet neatly in the middle on the webs...mine not so much.
But you can really not tell unless you were looking closely at mine.
Its what makes mine all my own work and the errors are all mine too. 

 This is a new slow project from Audrey at Quiltyfolk.
Her 365 quilty project.
Its awesome, select a scrap piece of fabric that sings to you on that day, do this everyday for a year and then we have a fabric mood diary of sorts.
I applique a circle each day and note the day on the back, then I intend to sew them chronologically.
Lets see if my fabric choices change with seasons or moods.

 Audrey started hers in Oct...but my schedule would not allow me to do that and I felt New Years Day would be a place to start so here we are.

I started this on the 15 hour flight, I mean you have to have something to do in airports besides shop and eat.
Now of course I have to finish it......

And this is the staging post for all the flimsies that have yet to be quilted, that is a whole other story, but a spare bed does come in handy and I really am going to try and finish a few more than I start.
Wish me luck and lets see what the year brings!
 

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