July wrap up

It's only been about a month since my last post, which is pretty good compared to some of my recent efforts :)

Things are going fairly smoothly on the family front-nothing major to report which is good. It's nice to have stability sometimes!

Crafting wise, I've made some progress with a couple of finishes. I finished the binding of the jelly roll quilt. I didn't actually take any photos of the finished item before I took it to it's new home with my in-laws, but I do have a couple of in-progress shots while I was working on the label.

I also finished our July project for the SAL, which was a bag from 'Tis the Season' book. I chose to use the 'Scrumptious' line of fabric by Bonnie & Camille, along with some stash pieces.

As far as WIPs go, I'm finishing off a simple charms square lap quilt, and working on my hexagon quilt at the moment. I'm planning on making up a goals list for August for craft and may even put that here on the blog.

I've also signed up for an online class to extend my quilting skills- it's The Penny Sampler quilt class and should be lots of fun.

Late April Wipocalypse Update

Well, March seems to have slipped by... We have had a busy time, including Luke's 16th(!) birthday (he's going to take his driving learners permit test tomorrow), our Tasmania trip, our 20th wedding anniversary, and our long weekend trip away for Easter. It's currently school holidays and just the perfect Autumn weather-mild, sunny days and cool, crisp evenings with the wood fire. I'll do some other posts with holiday pictures another day, but for now will just do some craft updating.

Here's the socks I finished earlier in the year-finally a photo! The pattern I used is a free one from Ravelry called Charade, using a self striping yarn from Spotlight, I think.

I took The Bramble and the Rose with me to Tasmania, and did work on it a little as well as when I got home.

 I've also made a little bit of progress on the Wiehenburg Mystery Quaker Sampler:

 Here's my few hexie flowers-I do have lots of hexagons ready to sew though so I hope to get more done on those soon too.

I also got some (not many) into my Chatelaine's Medieval Town Mandala-I really need to get stuck into these leaves and gates so I can get to the next, less fiddly part!

I have also started a pair of socks for Luke-they were ideal car/plane knitting while we've been travelling. I've finished the leg and heel flap on the first sock so far-no pictures though.

I've got a new start planned-it's Lizzie*Kate's Less=More sampler and as it comes out in parts it's a kind of monthly stitch-a-long.  I'm using Butter Creme 32ct Lugana from Stitches and Spice and Naomi will send me new patterns each month. Here's the fabric, first pattern, and most of the threads (a couple are on backorder).

I think I'm going to have to come up with some kind of rotation or plan as I seem to flail around deciding what to work on instead of having more progress. The cooler weather is also giving me the urge to knit more, and I want to get some quilting done too... I think a craft room sort out is on the cards too! School holidays should be the perfect time to get organised, right? ;)

Time Marches On

It's been another hectic couple of months. Our trip to the South-East went very well. The weather was perfect and it was great to catch up with some family members; some of whom I haven't seen for a long time. We also had time to make a trip down to Mt Gambier to visit my Nanna-she can't travel any more so it was good to be able to see her. The rest of January was filled with preparations for the new school year. We also made it to the Adelaide Oval on Australia Day to see Australia and India play test cricket. Caitlin has settled into high school quite well. It's been a big challenge for her as it is very different to primary school, and only one other kid from her school started there this year, and he is in a different class. Luke has started year 11 well-he is doing IB and seems to have himself well organised.

Ron and I are coming up to our 20th wedding anniversary in March, and are going to have a 'second honeymoon' in Tasmania in a few weeks time. We have managed to book into a few of the colonial/cottage accommodation that we stayed in 20 years ago.  We will be away for a week, and the kids will be staying with Ron's parents. It will be lovely to go back, and spend time doing things that might be considered 'boring' by the younger members of our family ;)

Now, to craft. Even though there's been no Wipocalypse updates from me (oops, sorry), I have made a bit of progress, but today I'm going to post a few pictures I took late January so when I do an update (in about a week I think) we can see the progress (or lack of progress...).

The Bramble and the Rose-Ink Circles

2008 Wiehenburg Quaker Mystery Sampler

Fred & Albert (HAED)

I finished knitting the socks for Caitlin but don't have a picture, so I'll have to take one for the next post. I have more hexagon flowers made, and a new HAED start as well. I should be back in a few days with more pictures and my Wipocalypse progress report.

Happy New Year!

Well, December seems to have come and gone without a post, but as it tends to be for many of us a hectic time of the year, I'll let myself off the hook ;) 

Some of the highlights since I last posted include the end of the school year including the end of primary school for Caitlin and our official association with the school, and Christmas day which included all of Ron's family here in the evening (I think the count is currently 32!).  We had a quiet new year, and next weekend we are off to the South East (of South Australia) for a family get-together with my side of the family.  Luckily the weather looks like it will be kind to us-we had a nasty heat wave last week with temperatures peaking around 42C (108F). 

Looking at my craft goals in my last post-I did actually work on a few of the things on the list.  I restarted the cross stitch, worked a bit more on the sock, and I did piece the jelly roll quilt top.  I got as far as trying to quilt it, but my basting wasn't up to scratch, so that's on the to-do list.  The 'Favourite Things' quilt has been put on the back burner-I've pulled out of the quilt-a-long, but I did try needleturn applique and was quite happy with it.

I know that many people make resolutions at the beginning of the year, but I prefer to make goals and plans ;)  To help me with my crafting, I'm joining the 2012 Wipocalypse.  I'll be working on some older WIPs and I'm sure there'll be new starts as well.  I'm still working on balancing stitching, knitting and now quilting but some of that will happen naturally as I'm not going to be knitting on big garments in summer, even with airconditioning! 

For the moment (i.e. until I change my mind) the three stitching projects I'll be focussing on will be Fred & Albert (HAED), The Bramble and the Rose (Ink Circles), and 2008 Wiehenburg Quaker Mystery Sampler.  I have quite a few other WIPs and I'd like to get back to working on one (or more) of my Chatelaine WIPs and perhaps to add some Christmas ornaments along the way as well.

At the moment for quilting I want to work on my Tis The Season quilt, the hexagon quilt, and to finish the quilting and binding of the jellyroll quilt.  I don't plan to do a lot of knitting during the summer, but the socks I'm working on at the moment are my travel project, and when they are done I may start another pair.  When the weather cools down, I'll come up with a list I want to work on.

Just to liven up all this writing, and because I need to take some photos of my WIPs, here's a picture from a recent beach visit.

Progress

I thought I'd take the opportunity to write a blog post as it's quiet here at the moment-Ron and Caitlin are at Pedal Prix practice, Luke is in his room, and I have got a chance to sit down and have a coffee while I catch up on reading blogs.

I've made some progress on a few craft projects.  My Christmas stitchery  got some time.

I started my hexagon quilt-I'm still experimenting to find my preferred thread/needle combination, but I've got one 'flower' done.  I'm going to prepare more hexagons so I can pick up this project and stitch a little on it each week.  This will be a long-term project I think.

Finally, I started knitting on a scarf.  I picked up this yarn from my local yarn store.  They don't have a huge stock as it's more of a small town craft/haberdashery/school uniform shop but I try and meet up with a local knitting group there each week.  The yarn is Panda Sashay and you can see a picture of the pattern I'm knitting on this page-you just need to scroll down a little and look on the right hand side. 

I also added a couple of things to the stash.  I picked up a fat quarter from Spotlight, and also nabbed a ball of Patons Jet from an op shop.

I must apologise for the pictures-they're taken with my iPod Touch so they're not the best-I will get the camera out next time.

It's one week until the 1/2 marathon, and I only have a couple of smaller runs to do before then-here's hoping we get lovely weather like today-but maybe with just a little bit of cloud cover in the morning.

Tap, Tap.........

....is this thing still working? I knew I hadn't blogged for a while, but I really didn't realise how long until I popped back here. I've changed the name (it really needed something snappier than "Leonie's Blog"), template and header, as well as updating things in the side bar.  

So, what's news?  Well, today is my daughter's 13th birthday-I now have two teenagers, although I think that's been the case for some time-this just makes it official.  We are going out to dinner tonight to celebrate, with cake at home afterwards.  Due to it being a week (and school) night, we have postponed the viewing of Harry Potter until Saturday.  

I also received my race bib for the half marathon here in Adelaide on 28th August-the fact that it comes in a plastic sleeve reinforced the fact that the weather may be less than ideal. Training in the Hills should stand me in good stead-I'm hoping we don't get a day that is too warm!  This is my first half marathon, so I'm feeling a little apprehensive, but I've had a good training plan, and only had a mild virus to interrupt my training, so I'm sure I'll be fine (sore, but fine).

I have been crafting here and there-but just at the moment I've got the quilting/sewing bug.  Not that I have much experience in this area, but still...........  My current project is actually a stitchery block which will become a small wall hanging-I started this some time ago with thoughts of doing the whole quilt, but have since shelved that idea.  

I've got some more ideas for future projects, including a larger quilt/wall hanging for Christmas, and several projects from this book.

Actually, there aren't too many projects I don't want to make from this book-I may change a few things here and there, but I love the bags, needlecase, and quilts especially.  

Another project that will be in the pipeline is a Hexagon Quilt.  It's made using paper piecing, and is hand stitched, so I should enjoy that as it's portable and not so far out of my comfort zone.  You can also use scraps, so I can use stash for it.  I have a surprisingly large fabric stash for someone who hasn't really quilted or sewn much before ;)

 I have also been knitting, but as it's a gift for someone (who might read this blog), this is all you get to see for now-the project tucked in it's travel bag.