It's ready to go

I've finished the quilt and attached the label and Carol was right.. the more quilting the less you see of the mistakes.... I can see where I could have put in an extra line or two but the sewing machine etc and the housework is done. REady now for my friend Myra to arrive tomorrow after work. My quilt has to be at the show tomorrow for judging. I dont expect to win anything but it certainly was fun playing with selvedges and challenging quilting it!!
Here's my label:

When George and Cameron
Were young they would
always say
“GO GREEN GO GREEN”
when we were travelling
towards the traffic lights.
And sometimes the lights
would change to GREEN
and the boys would think
they were magic.
But sometimes they would
stay RED and we would
just have to stop!!

Made and quilted for RCQ Challenge GO GREEN 2 May 2009
By proud ‘Nan’

I'll post a picture of the finished quilt after the show.



I was the 3rd person to post a comment on Little Bear Studio http://draffinbears.blogspot.com/ so here's the details:

PAY IT FORWARD

To play Pay it forward with me, you must be one of the first three commenters on this post and I will send you a little handmade gift within 6 weeks.Then you must do the same.That is, you will post this PIF Picture on your blog and promise to send some handmade gifts to three others, as well.

So be one of the first three and I'll send you something I've made. (If you don't like handmade stuff please don't comment haha).

"Quilt it to death" she said!

My wonderful friend Carol came to my rescue yesterday afternoon and she said "Quilt it to death" So I did. Now you can't see the horrible lines so much because there are heaps of them haha. It won't win any prizes but I will enter it cause hopefully not many had the same idea.The backing was $3.00 metre from Spotlight awhile ago and today I went to Arthur Toye to find the binding. I laid my quilt out and this lovely lady came up and admired it. I told her I was looking for a binding fabric and the next thing we came up with this gorgeous fabric which suits it well. Turns out she owns the Janome shop in Whangarei and is down here on holiday. Aren't quilting people lovely?

So tomorrow night I'll put the binding on and then take it to work Wednesday and Thursday to sew it down. Thursday night tidy my house because my friend Myra is coming for Tote and Gloat. I am so excited cause I haven't seen Myra for 4 years... we email all the time but it's not the same. Oh god, I am EXCITED!! She's to blame for my addiction... tich tich!!

Tonight we had our monthly club meeting. I'm the Librarian and it is soo busy but after a crap day at work it's nice to feel 'important' and quilters are so friendly. I spent the day at work behind closed doors. In four months time my secondment is over and I have to go back to being an Advisor. I've been so happy in my legal job and am not looking forward to returning. Ever;ything has changed in the last 18 months and the pressure is enormous. I'm not very confident and I was thinking of finding another job elsewhere but in this economic crisis ... well, what do you do?? Also the girl who relieved my position then has to go back to front desk, and the front desk reliever loses her job.... do I feel stink!!!

Anyway it was nice to be hormonal and work in the peace and quiet for a day. Life is full of challenges.. these are the only times I really miss having someone at home to listen and talk. Off to bed to read the latest Australian Patchwork & Quilting mag. the monthly treat I really enjoy!! haha

Night ladies and thank you for all your comments about my Wombat.

ANOTHER WOMBAT

Waste Of Material, Batting and Time!

The next time I say I'm going to do a challenge remind me to stick to the A3. Yesterday I started quilting my selvedge quilt. Well, I see things done and I think yeah, that can't be too hard but when you start and you've got this huge quilt it's no easy task. I tried to do curvy lines and some times I got it, but more often theyre just crooked and a mess.

In the morning light, it's all puffy and I can imagine quilters comments about my poor quilting. It's not good enough to put in the show.

I'll unpick it slowly and get a good quilter to do it for me as I liked it before I quilted it.

I"m in tears. I imagined it would look so good!! As usual, I thought I could do anything and I must learn to keep my mouth shut as heaps of club members have given me selvedges and will be waiting to see what I've done.

I wish I'd just done a small one now.. so much easier to quilt.

In fact that might be today's job.. Can I make a finish an A3 size quilt in 4 nights??? Make that 3 nights, I have a club meeting and a night in Wellington this week. Might cancel that... Well, who needs sleep anyway???

Friends are like Diamonds

Ain't we cute. This is my best childhood friend and I on our back porch .. I guess we look about 6 months at least.. I was born 3 weeks after Carolyn (yeah I was the biggest and still am haha). They lived right next door for many, many years. I have a photo of my son with Carolyn's parents so it was at least 22 years... In those days you spent hours on end with your neighbourhood friends, we did skipping on the street (although I was always the sook when I fell over). And a little bit older.. I had to wear glasses at the age of 5 (and yeah I was still big). We walked to school together and if it was raining Carolyn's mum took us in the car as my Mum couldn't drive till she was in her 50's. We were both nice kids until I went off the rails.. I hated high school.. hmmmm

Isn't it wonderful that NEARLY 52 years later (shhhh) I found Carolyn's website and we've been in touch again. Carolyn is still a wonderful friend and it's so good to keep in touch even if it's through blogging.

Today when I got home, I was so thrilled to see her familiar handwriting on a parcel sent to say how pleased she was with my good results on Monday. Inside is this gorgeous handmade bread ornament. This is so cute. I love it Carolyn and it is very precious as it's from you.
Thank you so very much.

Procrastination grrrr!

Last night a friend asked me to go to the Topp Twins movie with her. I should have been here sewing but I really wanted to go and see it. Well, I'm not sorry. It was fantastic.... happy, funny but sad too or maybe not sad just realistic. I have to admire these girls and how they've stood up for themselves and what they believe in. I reckon every women in the audience shed a tear when Joel's was going through chemo ... so close to home for so many.

Quilt well I'm getting nowhere fast! I keep looking at my selvege quilt and wondering how to quilt it??? Then I start procrastinating and go to bed. I have to do it though so I'm just going to have a quick look at how to quilt a log cabin block on net then get into it. Tote and Gloat is next weekend. The challenge for RCQ members is "Go Green"...It's been fun making it, I'm just not a good quilter (proven when someone told me my quilting I did at symposium was too big and sloppy) !!

Found a gorgeous pattern for a little girls quilt on allpeoplequilt.com. I get their weekly newsletter and it has some beautiful free patterns. Take a look!

All good news

Yuck, yuck what a horrible process a cholonoscopy is and thank god I don't have to have another one anytime soon. I still feel like the All Blacks have used me for a punch bag. They were running very late on Monday and I'm sure he did 'the rounds' twice as fast. I had heaps of painkiller evidently but it still hurt bad. But I lost 4 kgs so how's that for a cleanout!! Watch it go back on before weighing in day I'm sure.

But the great news is I have diverticulitis so nothing compared to what they were looking for and just a case of altering my diet (which is crap anyway cause I hate cooking for one).

Tonight I have to get cracking on my Go Green entries. I am so unmotivated sewing at home by myself but now I am running out of time. So every morning I'm going to post the picture of what stage I'm up too. AT the moment it is in rows.... and my plastic entry is in pieces.

Plan of Attack
Wednesday night - put rows together and sew up backing fabric
Thursday - pin 3 layers together
Friday - check out the plastic and make some progress
Weekend - Start and finish quilting??? Sew on binding

Monday - Plastic
Tuesday = Plastic
Wednesday - Away from home getting my tattoo done you know where. Will take plastic to work on if I stay in Wellington overnight.
Thursday - Quilt to shop (will have sewn binding on during lunch at work).
Thursday night tidy up cause my quilting buddy Myra is coming to stay .. I haven't seen her since I left Hamilton in 2005 so its going to be WONDERFUL!
Saturday is Tote and Gloat!!

Don't worry, it's so normal for me to be running late.... My niece and nephews always call me 'the late Aunty Karen' cause their birthday cards have often been late. Haha. which reminds me it's Staceys birthday this weekend. Far out.

Have a good one.. Photos tomorrow

Blown the budget

It's 4 am, have been awake for an hour, not hungry though.. the white stuff I had to drink last night has cemented my stomach I think. It looked like watered down PVA and tasted like it too. I'll be glad when 3 o'clock comes and this is all over. I will be told the results today if they haven't done a biopsy so I will be celebrating tonight.

Here are some pics of my 'necessary' purchases at Symposium. I still haven't studied my new camera so the pics ain't too hot. I had to buy more batiks from Wright Fabrics in Morrinsville. They are so cheap and so irresistable and anyway I have been using some of mine lately so I feel it's 'necessary' to start collecting them again JUST IN CASE! I'm sure I have a pattern that I could use with this piece so I bought 2 metres (@ $12.00 a metre it's a bargain). I had to have it. The folded fat quarters and the three on the left are from Toad Hall.
The cottons are Australian polyneons but these were from a little shop in Johnsonville I think. 5 for $25 (my friend uses them for quilting and says they are fantastic!!)

These big pieces underneath are also from Milton Wright's shop

And the smaller pieces again from Toad Hall in Otaki. Susan Clare has a beautiful range of fabrics (never stop there when you're in a hurry) and she had them all marked down to $4.00 per fat quarter. Some were in a basket at 10 for $20.... well isn't it wise to buy a bargain when you see one. The patterns are also from Susan's shop. Have I told you about her mystery quilt. It's into the second month. Have a look at her website www.susanclaire??They are laminated too.. wicked idea. $6.00 each .. bargains, bargains, bargains. And lastly I found Quilt Books from Hamilton. I bought myself More Reversible Quilts which is a Quilt As You Go book and the other two on appro for the Club. If the Committee don't want them I might end up buying them myself.

JUST IN CASE I need them of course!!!

I'm starving!!!

Geez, this is horrid. It is nearly 3pm and I am starving. I have another 24 hours before I can eat food!!!! My last meal was all white food as it has been the last 4 days......rice and fish followed by creamed rice at 6pm last night. I'm finally having a cholonoscopy tomorrow to rule out Bowel Cancer so it is worth it but this is hard yakka. I'm being 100% positive and have had times today when I think I should cancel it because I'll be okay but the surgeon said in December I needed one so .....

The diet sheet says I can drink beer.. I'm wondering if I drank enough I would feel happy and not hungry haha! But I'd probably fall over and break my leg, knowing me.

Why is it that when you can't eat food, every programme, every advert on tv, or in a magazine is about fillet steak, beef burgers and chocolate!! I'd love some broccoli, or cornflakes even!

Well, I need to go to the supermarket and buy ginger ale and more clear soup (oh and barley sugars which is all I'm allowed after 11am tomorrow......Grrr I know I'm gonna smell the hot chickens today haha.

23 hours and 55 mins and counting!!

Quilts, Quilts and pics from symposium

Some more pics from the 'dying class' at symposium - pieces of art drying in the sun... the objects on top were removed when dry leaving shapes on the fabric

Me 'the angel' with Shirley Goodwin (see her blog on my list) luvely fingers.. the glove had a hole in it!

Quilts from the Exhibitions

Symposium 09

Geez, I am wasted!! What an amazing, exhilarating, innovative but mind-blowing 5 days! I am mentally and physically exhausted... that's not hard I know. The quilts I've seen, and the experience was absolutely fantastic. I had two classes Norma Ewart's Quilt as You Go was so amazing. Now I can make a quilt in pieces, quilt them and then sew them all together.. I found a book about it too so I'm really keen to get started. I was an Angel for Shirley Goodwin in her dying and painting class (an Angel in a Dying Class!!!) Shirley let me have a go at dying fabric - so I did this red piece - I put a few folds in the fabric and then laid matchsticks and sprinkled rock salt before putting it in the sun to dry. This piece was going to be bright turqoise. lime green and yellow. I had rubber bands, matchsticks and a plastic peg basket laid on it. Ready to take it outside and 'the fallen angel' knocked a mug of pink dye all over it (and the floor!!) ..... so I had to start again and it's a tad darker. I will have to have another go at it sometime... this was my first experience at dying and sundrying, but I did try painting on fabric however it was a disaster!!and then on Monday I was in June Nixey's class on Stitching outside the Square. This was one of about 40 quilts she showed us. What a wonderful tutor she was... and gave us heaps of patterns and ideas. How to make scrappy quilts .. nine-patches, diagonals, stars simply and quickly. The Exhibitions were huge.. most quilts beautiful but some of the arty ones were a little weird but hey, I am not an expert and don't profess to be a judge.

I bought batiks from Wright Fabrics - Milton Wright's are so reasonable at $12 metre.

Cottons I bought from a little shop from Johnsonville but they are imported from WA.

Beautiful fabrics from Toad Hall in Otaki. SusanClare had marked her fat quarters down to $4.00 each.. and some were out of her bargain basket 10 for $20. Her patterns are great value too at $6... laminated so I can't lose them.

I'll post some photos soon. So no more spending for me for a few months. I should have lost 30 kgs to get all this fabric I've bought, books and cottons.. eeek. (I only lost .2 kg last week but I have tried to be good over the weekend.) I hope to get a head start next week on the pre choly 'diet' over the next few days. Have to load up the bathroom with puzzle books and magazines!!! Hehe

Getting REady for Symposium

4 more sleeps! Symposium New Zealand starts on Friday. This is the first time I've done classes at Symposium and I am really excited. I've finished my blocks for my Quilt as you Go class with Norma Ewart, and I have hundreds of charm squares to sort out for June Nixey's class. I'm going to be an Angel on Sunday... believe it or not!! Haha if my Dad was alive he'd be having a good old chuckle at the thought of ME being an Angel!! Haha



Here's my blocks which will have a frame around them on Saturday, be quilted as a block and then joined together. I think I'd like that kind of quilt... I get too stressed trying to quilt big ones! These blocks were made by ladies in a Row Challenge in 2007. I made the first row of 7 blocks which include the squares in top left corner of bottom left and middle blocks. Then I sent them to the next person and she made a row similar but using her own ideas before sending them to the next person. 6 people later I got it back. Meanwhile I'd done a row for 6 other people using their criteria and fabric. It was fun but I decided to undo the rows and use them at the course. I think they'll look fantastic.

It's been a really busy few weeks. I had a surprise email from a client 4 weeks ago. I'd last seen him in October 2006 and we talked so much at the appointment we ended up going out for lunch before he went back to UK. Well he emailed and wanted to see me ... Work I thought.. so I made an appointment but he wanted to catch up with me??. We've been out 4 times for a meal in the last 3 weeks. Wow, it was amazing, we laughed and talked and talked and laughed and talked (yes he did get a word in haha). He was a real gentleman, very generous with his thoughts and $ and lots of fun. And no pressure. He didn't even ask to come round for coffee! (Phew.. I hadn't had time to springclean after all.) Reckons he'll be back in 12 months if not sooner. I'm not silly though and won't hold my horses! But it was sooo nice to feel special and spend time with a guy who was really good company FULL STOP.

Two weeks ago I signed up to Weightwatchers AGAIN!!! Only had one weigh in and lost 1.5kg.. Will go again Thursday night since I'll be away for the weekend. Discipline is what I need but I also need to get well. Have spent so long feeling sick and I'm sure it's weight related.


Well I'm off to square up these blocks so they're all 12 1/2" and then work out what I'll use for frames. Take care everyone and if you're going to symposium look out for me... I'll be the fallen Angel probably haha. (as Dad would have said. I do miss the big fella and his wit!!)