Autumn is Here!

Hooray! Autumn is here, which is probably my favourite season. There's still a little warm weather around-low 30s tomorrow with a fire ban. Hopefully, a last hurrah before some cooler temperatures.

Family-wise, it's been busy-ish. Luke has started uni, and seems to be enjoying it. He also turned 18 which he celebrated quietly-a family dinner, and dinner with his friends. Dell has started year ten at OAC (Open Access College) which in on line study. Work has been ongoing as usual for Ron and me. We celebrated our 22nd wedding anniversary last week, which coincided with the arrival of our new car. It's a Holden Calais, replacing our other car for towing. Ron's softball team made it to the grand final last Saturday, but unfortunately didn't win this year. We have decided not to head to Barmera in the Riverland for Easter this year. It should be a good break as Ron has taken time off between Easter and Anzac Day.

I also got to meet up with a new on line friend Cassie who loves quilting, which was great as we have quite a lot in common. More meet-ups are planned!

On the crafting front-I finished something-I know it's been a while, but this was cross stitch, which can be on the slower side. It's 'The 12 Days of Christmas' by The Frosted Pumpkin Stitchery.

I haven't framed (or ironed in this picture!) it yet but Christmas is a long way off ;) This is the only item I've got for this month of OPAM but I'm glad to have it done. 

I've received my first quilt block for the Modern InstaBee-it's from Letitia, and I love it-it should be a colourful quilt when it's finished.

I can't show you the block I made yet, as the recipient wants a surprise. I was quite pleased with how it turned out, although because I didn't read the instructions properly, some of my seams are extremely bulky, and a few of the points don't line up as well as I would like, so I may end up making another one for my partner.

I've got a few things on the go, or in the pipeline, but I'll talk about those another time. The rest of this week will include some costume sewing as Dell has plans for a new costume for Comic-con. I'm sure it will be a challenge as garment sewing isn't my forte and it tends to be sewing without a set pattern-definitely a challenge!

To finish, here's another cute cat photo ;)

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March, Easter, and a Finish

So-it's April already! March is usually a busy month anyhow, with Luke's birthday (he'll officially be an adult this time next year-yikes) and our wedding anniversary (21 this year) but with an early Easter thrown in, it's just flashed by.

We travelled to Lake Bonney at Barmera as we've been doing for...22 years-with only 2 of those missed, but it was only a short visit as it doesn't fall in with school holidays this year. I don't have any pictures for this post as they are still on the camera.

Before we left, I finished my SAL 2013 March pincushion from Anni Down's 'Some Kind of Wonderful' book. It turned out quite well, and I was very pleased to make the deadline amongst packing.

I did get a little stitching and knitting done while we were away (especially during the car journey) but I admit I did spend a fair bit of my down time reading too.

The SAL project for April is a Christmas wall hanging and it uses the same stitcheries for the quilt from the same book ('Tis The Season by Natalie Bird) which I started some time ago and has been languishing in my WIP/UFO pile. I made an executive decision to use the stitcheries I've done-I just need to finish off one. Here's what I've got so far.

 Hopefully this means that not only do I get a good start on this month's project, I'll get rid of a UFO as well. I'm also hoping to get caught up with my cross stitch SAL this month, so when I've got some decent progress on that one I'll take a picture.

Stash enhancement & general catch up

Firstly, thanks for everyone's comments. There has been some progress on the health front for my daughter, but it does seem slow some days, and we are still working out the best plan of attack.

Just a quick catchup post today so that I get back into the habit of blogging.  I picked up a couple of fat quarter bundles the other day from Spotlight-Sarah Fielke's new range called 'On the Pond'. I don't have specific plans yet for them, but I coincidentally received a few more of the same range from a swap so I may grab a couple more so I can make a good sized quilt.

We had some cooler weather a few weeks ago (I think one morning I even put the heater on-in February!-in Adelaide!) and consequently got my hand-quilting out, and am almost done. I don't have any pictures at this stage, but will try and finish it up on the next cool day, and then take one. Then it will be the binding, and finished-hooray!

I'm at various stages with my stitch-a-longs so I'll wait until I finish February's progress before I post pictures of those.

And to finish, here's another picture of the new kitten, Archie.

Is that a pulse?

Yes-the blog is alive (barely), but they say that if there's life, there's hope ;)

It has been an eventful 6-7 months since my last post. Without going into lots of detail, I've re-entered the paid workforce after an absence of 16-17 years (customer service officer at my local library/council), and we have also been dealing with our youngest child's onset of depression and anxiety. This hasn't left me with time and/or inclination to blog over the last half of 2012.

I've decided that I need to try craft more (and blog) this year as it's a great for de-stressing, as well as something I can have control over and can see progress, when other things seem to be way out of my control.

I did  refrain from joining all the stitch-a-longs, knit-a-longs, quilt-a-longs and craft-a-longs that were around at the beginning of 2013. I did sign up for one Stitch-a-Long that uses books I already own to make a small item each month. I finished the first item (thread catcher) in January as required so a good start.

I also signed up for a Facebook stitch-a-long with a group of Australian stitchers. The design we are stitching this year is here. We plan to stitch one small square each month, and the centre design as we go.  I stitched my first section in January on a Stitches and Spice fabric with DMC 4240.

I've signed up for the HAED BB stitch-a-long but haven't made a start on it yet. Another thing I could have started this month, but will leave until later in the year is Sew School.

I also have some WIPs I want to finish, and of course new projects, but I'm not making any specific plans for any of those at the moment.

I should be back soon with some more updates but here's picture of our newest family member-Archimedes-usually known as Archie.

I finish something, and a weather report

 

I finished something! I need to start using my sewing machine on a regular basis, as I need the practice to improve my skills. This pattern is called 'Little Wallet' by Valori Wells Designs (I bought it from Ballarat Patchwork) and it turned out well-even for a novice like me. I used fabric from my stash and even used some vintage snaps I picked up somewhere. The pictures aren't the best, but winter really isn't the best for taking photos, and I invariably decide to take pictures when it's dark! I have other small patterns stashed away, as well as ones earmarked on the Internet, and I plan to start trying them out on a regular basis.

Today was strange weather, with the temperature up here getting to over 20C, before thunderstorms, rain and hail moved in. I managed to get into the garden before the weather changed (and the temperature dropped 10C).

A 'helper' in the garden

The change moving in

I have other WIPs on the go, but I'll update those another day when I can get better photos-and maybe have another finish to report. I'm enjoying watching the Tour de France, although I usually watch a lot of it the next day when I watch my recording. We've had a fairly quiet school holidays-only a few days to go, and Caitlin and I are planning to head to the city tomorrow.