At The Sleigh Loading Dock...

…my SSCS parcel has begun its journey to ???…will it cross oceans, seas, deserts, plains, forests, tropical rainforests, mountains, valleys, rivers, streams, fjords, glaciers??? who knows what vistas it will see as it travels on the sleigh…

Crappy photo courtesy of trying to hide names on tags - wrote tags then remembered photo shoot! - and needing to get to post office

 

I'm a bit very jealous of its journey as it is heading off to a place in an area that I have always wanted to go, wish I could have hand delivered it, now wouldn't that be fun!

Happy Stitching...

Zebras and Giraffes...

...romping across fields of yellow and grey…

(Totally crappy weather not conducive to any kind of decent photo taking.)  A couple of days after baby arrived I casually asked the daddy what colours they had used for bubba's room and I was sooo happy when he said yellow and grey with animals wall art!!!! They went gender neutral not knowing in advance and I had bought the yellow feature fabric weeks ago which included grey zebra's and giraffes so their colour scheme played right into my hands...it looks blue in the photo but it is dark grey around the centre square and a white/dark grey-black pattern in the second border which will also be the binding.  When I first drew it up I was going to do a 6" centre square with one border but the fabric worked better with a 4" square so I added the second round…having an idea of how big it would be but not being entirely sure (the perils of making things up as you go along and also why I had to amend the outer border to be a bit narrower than originally planned - not enough fabric left but you get that, just redo the maths) I now know how much fabric I need and also what sort of fabric I want to use so it just has to wait now until I can get to a shop…but considering I started it Cup Day (Tuesday) afternoon and now it is a top I'm feeling a bit like I've achieved something this week…

OK, what else can capture my attention now that is done…

Hope you're having a stitchy weekend…

Happy Stitching...

Time Flies....

...and I'm not even having fun! The boring stuff taking up too much time and not much of a look in for the fun stuff…so what has happened since August?…August!! and now it's November, seriously! would the person with the calendar remote control please please take the finger off the fast forward button!!!

I did get to go play at Crafty Hijinks in Ballarat in September...Jodie & Gilly put on a fabulous inaugural event and I got to hang for the day with Merrilyn, Christine, Melody and a whole bunch of other crafty peeps for a lovely day out…for pics that convey to me the feeling of the day go to the second half of this post on Nicole's blog…she has captured the day perfectly (and I don't have pics)...

I won pretty bag handles from Katherine back in August, thank you Katherine...I bought a skirt pattern from Nicole Mallieu at Crafty Hijinks which revived my want for her book "You Sew Girl" so I gave it to myself for my birthday…

I have been to Spotty (because it is 500 metres up the road from a work site and I gave myself a 10 minute window of opportunity while running around doing that day's out and about stuff) and purchased some cheapish $6/metre fabric for the test run at the skirt pattern (a combo "toile/but something that can be worn" to get the fit right), but it's still a cut length and has yet to make it further than being brought home and tossed in the sewing room...

Early October I wandered back to the Home Country and met Mistea for an afternoon at the NOTY quilt show followed by a yummy late lunch at the Tea Pot Cafe…lots of lovely quilts to look at and be inspired by, a chat or two with people not often seen, some "who is that person, she looks so familiar" and, for me, a giftee for my birthday…

Crochet squares craft bag with flower fabric lining…pretty…

the chocolate it held at the time of giving didn't last, he he he...

A project a year in the making finally reached a conclusion including actually putting in the post and sending to intended destination…a team project that came about when Kerry had a clean up and, while discussing who would benefit from excess fabric for charity projects, we thought it would be a plan if she sent me some of the fabric and I sewed up laundry bags for Aussie Hero Quilts…I was expecting enough fabric for maybe, oh, say 5 bags…nope, 17! 17 pieces cut to size...the owner of a business I was doing some work for, Broadford Curtains and Blinds, helped me out with some remnant fabric to add to the linings pile and also donated the thick piping cord for the drawstrings…thank you Cherille…worked on in definite fits and starts in production line method…but eventually...

I've had a lovely email from Jan-Maree to say they arrived and were suitable…whew!!!…Jan-Maree also conveyed her thanks to the other members of the "team".

"Anna" is spread all over the kitchen table, has been for weeks, resulting in some progress…

The top border is actually stitched on, the sides are just modelling, the bottom border is semi-put-together and didn't want to appear in it's state of unstitched nakedness.  I've been so tired that it's just too hard to concentrate or see properly to hand-piece so progress is very very slow although it has been interspersed with hexie preparation for the large borders...

Apart from that it's been work, study, head wobbling exhaustion, rinse and repeat...steps have been taken to rectify the imbalance (the indicator needle during the year moved from moderate, to high, to very high to reaching catastrophic and threatening to tip me off the edge completely) and compress the working part into the days between Monday and Friday with only the occasional Saturday/Sunday thrown in rather than one or both every week...yay!!!!...looking forward to getting some sewing time back into the roster...especially I need to get back to the priority of finishing my SSCS main present...

Hope you get to have crafty time in your day...

Happy Stitching...