My Creative Space

It's been a long while since I've been part of My Creative Space.  But today, there is actual creativity happening on a Thursday morning, so it seems right.

I've spent some lovely time fossicking through my stash, in search of the perfect pillowcase fabrics.  I figure this is the perfect use for those fabulous florals that I can't bear to cut up.

Cassie has a wonderful tutorial for making pillowcases with a crocheted edge.  I think they look adorable, and need some now.  So far, I'm up to Step Two, making the Posh Pillowcases.

More creative spaces over here. 

Happy patterns

Today, I'm cutting up some fabulous prints. They've been marinating in the stash for some time. In fact, some for a LONG time, and I'm happy to be using them. It's not for a quilt, but it does require the use of my large cutting mat.



As the weekend was devoted to moving my bookcase, and swapping it over with our buffet/sideboard thing, I have my cutting mat once more.

The moving was a huge task, and resulted in a large cull of the collections (9 greenbags of books are gone to charity.) It's also sorted logically now. One shelf for children's picture books, two for children's chapter books, one for photo albums, one for my wildlife collection, and the rest are assorted novels. Mainly collected by author. There's room for cookbooks too. I've also established a box, where books not yet read wait. They're not making it on the shelf until I've judged them worthy.

It's making me very happy, seeing these organised shelves. And making me feel I can spend time making things. It's a nice feeling.

Preparing for Sew It Together 2012

There are only a few weeks left until Sew It Together 2012.  Register fast if you'd like to join in the fun.

This year, it's being held in my home town of Canberra.  So no travel arrangements to make, but I do have stitching projects to do.

First on the list was the Name Tag Swap, organised this year by Gillian.

I made a badge for Lily, another Canberra girl.

Today, my nametag arrived from Becky.

I'm very happy with my badge, and am looking forward to wearing it.

This was a particularly enjoyable swap for me, since I've met both Lily and Becky already.

Cutting diagonally

Cutting diagonally is essential right now. My large cutting mat is stored upright behind my bookcase. Perfect - flat, invisible to childish eyes and easy to access. Except. Last time I put it away, it cartwheeled. It's now far out of my reach, behind the bookcase. Which is full of books. It's a big bookcase, and I have a lot of books, so each shelf has books, with another layer of books on top of those, and where the books are narrow enough, there's another row in front, and another layer on top of this row.

So I'm cutting diagonally, because my 'class' mat isn't wide enough for a fat quarter. Still, the blade is sharp, the children are at school and the sun is shining. Things could be far, far worse.

Poxy

Way back in primary school, the derogatory word of choice in my set was 'poxy'. "That tshirt is so poxy, Mum, I can't wear it."

This week, I've been using poxy all the time. We brought chicken pox home from New Zealand with us. My darling daughter has gone from her usual 'I don't want to go to school' whinge to 'I want to go to school' instead.

This too shall pass, but in the meantime it's very annoying. We
went for a bike ride earlier today, hoping to exercise without infection. I figure the sun was shining strongly enough to kill any poxy germs anyway.



In my spare time, I got a quilty idea, and actually acted on it. Only cutting today, but who knows what tomorrow may bring.

Dithering

Astonishingly, it's nearly a month since my last post. So here are my bullet points guide to what I've been up to in April.

• Quilting.  It's ongoing, and no, won't be adding to my 12WIPin2012 total.
• Crocheting. Lovely Posh Yarn.  Lovely to work with, can't wait to wear it.  Especially since the weather is so cold.
• Farewelling.  All my children's grandparents have set off on adventures; they'll be back in August.  We'll miss them all.
• Organising.  For Easter, for our holiday.
• Travelling.  For two weeks in New Zealand's beautiful North Island.
• Photographing.  574 photos in those two weeks.
• Thinking. About geology.  I did pay attention in those lectures in first year Uni, but I want to know so much more after visiting geothermal hotspots.
• Walking in an active volcano.  Highlight. 
• Washing.  We brought back an awful lot of dirty clothes.

Winter is coming

Daylight savings ended here this morning. We used the (putative) extra hour to indulge in pancakes for breakfast. I don't know what diabetics are supposed to eat for an indulgent breakfast, but I'm pretty certain it wouldn't involve a choice of chocolate topping, maple syrup, frozen raspberries, lemon and sugar. They were delicious.

We're preparing for Easter this weekend. I'm making a chick wreath, using some wool the kitten kindly delivered to the lounge room. Very helpful. If she has access to it, it's not important, so ripe for crafting with.


This year, I'm attempting to decorate for Easter with autumnal influences. To help with this, I've gathered an enormous amount of acorns, which may well be rolled in glitter shortly. My favourite view from our lounge shows autumn has definitely arrived already.


I should be publishing my March finish for the 12 WIP challenge, but my machine was (is) playing up, and my life has been busy. On the bright side, I'll definitely make the deadline for April.

Historically speaking

Today, I thought I had found Billabong. A beautiful homestead, lovingly restored. A glimpse was enough to transport me to my childhood dreams courtesy of Mary Grant Bruce.




In truth, it was Lanyon Homestead which I visited with a school excursion as a parent helper.
I'll probably never live on a farm, but oh I wish I could. It was an envious day.
On another note, the title of today's post is the name my fabulous Dad has used for his newspaper columns on local history. Today was an important day for Dad - his last regular day of work before embarking on various holidays and long service leave before retirement. He's spent the last 37 years at the one place of work, in a combination of journalism, cricket reporting and proof reading. He and Mum are really looking forward to a summer holiday, as Dad's cricket work has meant he hasn't had one in all that time.

*actually, this wasn't Dad's title. But it was a historical play on words like his title.

This week

There's been quite a bit of yellow this week. My boy has turned nine, and the cooler weather seems firmly established.


I've started a new crochet project, a ripple rug. Since I'm still in the first row, it didn't seem worth photographing. I'm also not entirely committed to the design - possibly I should be doing a granny square type design. I'll do a couple of rows before deciding for sure.

Quilting is also happening, but slowly. Machine quilting still isn't quite natural for me, and this quilt I'm working on for my darling husband's birthday is quite large. Still hoping to have it done by the end of March though.

Swapping Mug Rugs

While I had avoided the mug rug trend sweeping the blogiverse, a good swap opportunity is not to be passed up.
The lovely Amanda made this mug rug for me - rainbow piecing and lots of white makes it very nice indeed.




For Andrea, I made this little one;




I really enjoyed making this - something about a restricted size maybe - and it was so small that machine quilting was a joy.

Progress

Lately, I've been spending time on Twitter instead of blogging. It can certainly be rewarding, and I'm loving participating in the weekly talknt quilting chats. They're creatively invigorating, and the timing works for me (for a change!)

I'm also loving instant news. Australian politics has been exciting the last few weeks, and I'm loving reading informed and often snarky commentary as an alternative to tv news. (I'm Canberra_Leah if you're on twitter too.)

However, it means sneak peeks of my latest projects have been shared on twitter rather than here.

So today we've spent the morning at the Zoo, and now I'm spending some time working on a swap mug rug. This is the back;


That lovely heart is from my Prints Charming off cuts pack I bought at Sew It Together in Sydney last year.

Unfortunately, it's not part of the UFO challenge. I've done a little hand appliqué on the biggest UFO this month, but it's nowhere near done. Better get onto that tomorrow, I think.

Water is a good thing

We've had so many years of drought, it still seems wrong to be complaining about rain. There's been so much rain this past week. By 9am on March 1, Canberra had already received our monthly average rainfall for March.
This afternoon, the rain was continuing and it was cold. As an alternative to turning on the heater, we went to the pool.




Now, that's the kind of water we can enjoy.
Last night, the urge to knit struck. So I browsed Ravelry, looking for the perfect pattern. I came across a lovely shawl, and started considering what wool to use for it. Then I remembered. I already started it. Some time ago. What a deflating thought!
Instead of starting a fabulous new lovely, I pulled out a practical project - a red vest I've already finished the back of.
It's still knitting, just not with the adrenaline rush of starting something new.

Leaping

It feels special, that extra day of February you only get in a leap year.

I've had a good day. I made a postcard sized quilt 'camping' and am quite pleased with it.


This evening Mr Puggle and I attended a Belinda Carlisle concert. I was a big fan while at Uni, so it was great to revisit her music. Actually, it still features heavily on my iPod playlist.

If I'd been to one of her concerts back then, I'd probably have brought a tshirt home. As it is now, I got a souvenir tea towel,and am very pleased with it too.


Last leap year, I blogged on this day, about a round robin quiltI was making. Sadly, I don't think I sewed another stitch on that project, and haven't seen it in years. Not such a bad thing - I don't need another UFO.

Retreated and rested

Well, it was a lovely weekend.  

Good company, lovely destination.

Time to stitch. 

And  by lunch on Sunday, my latest quilt was finished.

I loved making this pattern - it's incredibly simple and effective. It's a Moda Bake Shop design, called Patchwork Chevron Quilt, by Jeni of In Color Order

This quilt's for one of my English nephews. My parents are planning another trip over, so I wanted to take advantage of their services as couriers. I haven't made quilts for any of Australian nephews or nieces (apart from their baby quilts, of course) but it doesn't feel as urgent.  I spend time with these children - I know them, and they know me.  Whereas my English sister's children are disconnected from our lives.  We reconnect with a fortnight of togetherness every couple of years, but it's not the same.

The other really cool thing about this quilt, is that it's my second finished object of the year for AJ's challenge.

Preparations

It's my favourite type of organising - quilty preparations for an upcoming retreat.


I'm planning to complete a quilt this weekend. It's part of the UFO challenge, but hasn't yet been started. I cut out some squares yesterday to bulk out some charm packs, so am ready to sew now.

In case I finish that (cough, cough) I've ordered a pattern for another quilt to take along.

My only concern is that my body will get too stiff and sore with such intensive sewing. Best take along a book, I guess.

Summer's End

The summer holidays are over.  The last week of the school break was spent decluttering, cleaning and tidying.  My husband was away for work, and the children watched a movie each morning.  The house looks fabulous.  Comparatively, of course.

More to the point, I think the reorganising we've done will help keep the family going in a logical and tidy way.

The main stimulus for this orgy of organising was the visit of my uncle and aunt.  We don't see them often, but love to catch up.  They stayed with us on Saturday night, and we hosted a family dinner for our local relatives.  It was great.  Dinner for 15, and it all went well.  Lovely to talk and share pictures and memories.

On the last day of the children's school holidays, we visited the Zoo.  I haven't been there for a few years now, and was very impressed with the improvements they've made.  In fact, we joined as members so will be visiting again soon.

I have fallen behind in my obligations to Simplify Your Life. I was overwhelmed by the idea of making a family mission statement... and panicked.  I still haven't done a mission statement, but believe I have clarified more in my mind our goals.

So for the next month the goals I will be working on are

*  keeping the new school stuff organisation system going.

*  trying out one new recipe a week.

*  making time to make things EVERY day.

*  participate in #talknt on twitter each week. 

Not in this list but still worth noting because we do them and they are good;

*  menu planning and shopping with a list.

*  seeing family.

*  enjoying the outdoors.

School has been back for two days now - the children are enjoying it, and have shown no reluctance to go.  It's great!

Clown vomit

I've recently come across the phrase 'clown vomit' on a knitting website. Commonly used to describe multicolour fun fur effects.

Which led me to wonder if my new knitting project will look like clown vomit? And is that something I want in my wardrobe?


Quite possibly not. But I think this project still has hope, so I'll keep knitting for a while.

I was thinking all this through at my quilting guild meeting last night, and easily imagining a clown vomit quilt. One of my long term UFOs definitely has potential in this direction. In fact, since the top is finished, I've limited options to change it. Quite possibly the best idea is to choose a lovely backing. And regard it as the front.

Definitely a Potteresque Holiday

As my boy reads the Harry Potter books, we're watching the movies.  He's just finished the Prisoner of Azkaban, so we've re-visited each movie leading up to the new one.

We've also spent a lot of time playing with the Christmas harry Potter Lego haul, and of course some roleplaying.

And playing with the broomsticks Mum made them.

The longest week

We've had 41 days of school holidays, with 6 to go. My husband is away for work. I'm decluttering, cleaning and rearranging half the house.

Tonight, we couldn't find Maggie the kitten for more than an hour. The kids were distraught. Eventually, she was found safe and sleeping in the bottom of the open linen closet.

I'm behind with my sleep, organizing, and (online) with attempting to make my life simple.


Luckily, our road continues. There's time. My family will visit no matter what the state of the house. The kids are loving watching Harry Potter while I push furniture around.

The sobs have subsided with kitty cuddles, and the children are asleep relatively early. Maybe I'll follow their example.

Holiday Hexagons

Hexagon table centre for a round table, a photo by pugglelogic on Flickr.

Made using the same hexagons as my table runner, I have put together this small quilt for my mother's birthday. I think it will look fabulous on her round table.