Lists

I'm a list person. I love to write lists! Truely, I really do enjoy writing my lists. I write shopping lists, things to do lists, cleaning lists, appointments to make lists. Who remembers Wayne's world?? Got that damn song running through my head now!



When we go camping I often end up writing about 3 lists, I write out the menus, then write the foods needed list. Then I write the list of food we have in the cupboard and the list of foods to buy. Of course there is the list of stuff to take... shouldn't really need to write that one any more as we have camped often enough, but like I told you I enjoy writing lists.

OK call me obsessed!

I am looking forward to tomorrow as the girls are off to school yeee harrr! I have written an Enormous list of things I have to do over the next few weeks. I am taking my annual leave now that they are back at school hehehehhe. Yes its now MY holiday time. The noisy one starts high school and will have to walk home on the days I work so we will walk home together each day until I am happy that she can make the short journey home safely.

Back to the gym big time for me, need to see if I can get a new program to inspire me to keep up the fight of the flab. (just need to look in the mirror or try on clothes and that is pretty inspiring!)

The last few days have been very hot and we are now having some lovely rain and thunder... the dog doesn't like the thunder terribly much and is groaning outside on the back veranda.

Looking forward to getting some mega sewing done, but I do have a bit of a spring clean listed also......

my daughters quilt

I have been working the last couple of days but last night I managed to baste a quilt for my niece, thanks Maddie for the help. I will post a photo of this quilt when I have quilted it.

In the meantime I thought I would share some photos with you of an epic quilt I made for the noisy one. The centre fabric was a special gift from a special friend who taught me a lot about quilting, most of it via the Internet. I love pretty fabrics, especially the Robyn Pandolph ranges and similar ranges and have amassed a decent amount of fat quarters.

I finally found the pattern I wanted to use, its a Jane Austin style pattern, but instead of using diamonds, you use squares. The pattern is from an Australian patchwork and quilting mag, but I must confess I don't know which one.











The quilt ended up being enormous so I decided to have the quilt professionally quilted. Anita Ellis of Hillside quilting in Warrandyte did a fantastic job and custom quilted it perfectly! I asked for feathers and basically left the rest of it up to her!

Hope you all have a quilty weekend, or whatever floats your boat! :)

success!

This is the little 1/4" strippy bits that I had to trim off all the strips. It wasn't as bad as I thought it would be so my mum is still going to have a quilt made from the same pattern, although hers will be the full size.

I finished the top but still had to fudge it a bit as I didn't take into account the fact it would be different due to me not making the quilt to its finished size. I'm happy with it... and I doubt the baby will complain!



I hung it on my washing line with the scrappy boarders (don't look at my weeds!).

A lot of people went back to work today, all the teachers are back organising themselves for the new school year (and mentally steadying themselves too no doubt!). The froglet is looking forward to going into year 10 but her best friend is really stressing and hates school before she has even started. The noisy one is in year 7 this year and is very excited about starting high school. I hope they have some great teachers like the ones that have blogs that I enjoy reading.

Have you got little ones starting school for the first time or bigger ones going into high school?

jelly rolls

Here is one of the mangled jelly rolls I got to make a quilt for my cousins new baby girl. The range is oh cherry oh. fresh and pretty!
note to self *don't wear dark clothes when handling jelly rolls*
(I should mention to my non quilting friends who read my blog that jelly rolls aren't the edible kind, they are rolls of fabric pre-cut into 2 1/2" strips)The noisy one even knows the lingo now



This is the chez moi boutique range. A particular favourite of my friend Claire. I am going to make a quilt for my mum, she dropped a very unsubtle hint that she was due for a new quilt. I have made lots of wall hangings and cushions and things for her, but I guess she due for a new quilt.




I had trouble with the pattern to start with as it uses a jelly roll which is 2 1/2" but this pattern said to cut off 1/4"!!! bloody Nora. Well after going into patchwork melt down I talked to friends and another quilter emailed me a suggestion which I used on a tester block. I then made 12 blocks this afternoon!



I didn't quite get away without a little frog stitching, but I did use this rather cool looking quick unpick that I bought myself a while ago. After unpicking another block I decided that I should give up for the night and sit down and eat some chocolate! I only ate a couple of pieces of the creme brulee chocolate. The froglet devoured an entire block of black Forrest chocolate!

Dinner with friends

Last night my friends from noty and I finally had our christmas dinner and kris kringle swap. I received a lovely gift from Jenni (thanks!) A cute little tin and an awesome bundle of civil wars, perfect for my dear jane quilt that i am plodding with.



We had a lovely dinner of thai food.



Once again I was so hungry I forgot to take a photo of the food before we devoured it, we had just finished and the power went out! We missed out on our dessert *sob*



Today though, I had coffee and a gluten free banana muffin at my favourite place with a good friend. This evening I spent several hours browsing through my favourite blogs and watching a movie with my family so my weekend has been okay.

I am however struggling with a quilt pattern and tommorrow I am going to make a tester block using 2 different methods that have been suggested to me by friends to see which is the most accurate. Hopefully one will work and I will post a happy message with some photos.

pizza

Wednesday night I went out for dinner with work. We went to an amazing pizza place called Pizza Farro, Im almost tempted to not tell anyone and keep this to myself, but I wont. Its in High St Thornbury and has a website. The best pizza I have ever had and they have gluten free and spelt flour. I didnt take a photo of my pizza as I was too hungry but wow it was excellent!




The decor is very cool. I wouldnt be suprised if some of the bloggers that I have on my favorites know about this place already. The tea towels reminded me of curly pops and her aprons!



They have rolling pins hanging from the ceiling, the tables and chairs dont match but they go together brilliantly.



Excellent coffee and gingerbread men (gluten free) to finish off... ate him too quickly too!

Today I had another adventure but will post that tommorrow as I need to take some photos of the goodies I bought... Also going out for dinner again with my quilting buddies so will try and take photos before I devour the food this time :)

happy whatever!

new background

I added a new background to my blog today. Thanks Kay for showing me the link that was too easy! But then choosing a background oh my goodness!

I chose one and decided bluk... changed it to this one but hmmmm not really sure about this one either.

Quiet day today.., got to go and get some milk as the froglet drinks it by the litre. Extra day of work tomorrow... think of the money...

Raining again today yippee! need to fill that tank up.

Have sat here and opened up a million tabs full of other peoples blogs,
saved a few that I liked more than others. need to get up and do something.
Or do I? *evil grin*

Lunch with family

Today the noisy one and myself met up with my mum and my sister in law and beautiful nieces for lunch. The meal itself was presented very nicely but the muzza waiter we had could have done with a rocket up his proverbial! Coffee was nice but way too cold for my liking. The chocolate fudge brownie and icecream was excellent. I need to bring my camera with me more often. Thanks Jess for bringing the dragon lady up for the outing :)

A few weeks ago I commented on one of my favorite blogs that I have been following for the past year and I won a lovely prize of fat quarters, a yummy pack of charm squares and a delightful panel for a baby quilt. Thank you so much Linda! You can see Lindas blog is on my favorites under gum valley patchwork which is her shop in Cooriemungle (where? if hear you say!) Near Port Campbell on the great Ocean Road have a look at Lindas Blog as she has details on her shop location. If you are going down that way make sure you make time to pop in, if you have the family with you tell them she makes wicked cookies!



The froglet and I made a bag together last year from fabric we bought from Linda and the pattern as well which I can't find and don't remember who designed it (I know someone will tell me) I think I know who designed it but I dont want to say her name then find it was the other designer! It a lovely bag.... just call me sieve head!




We dumped the contents of our rainwater tank onto our front garden and lawn yesterday as rain was predicted today so the tanks would fill up again. I dont think we have had that much rain but I hope the garden enjoyed the 3000 ltrs! A few weeks ago the front garden flooded from the rain, it didnt last long!
Hope you are all enjoying the cooler weather and your rain tanks were topped up today.

bit of sewing

I have been busy with school holidays and made the fisherman a little bag for one of his fishing reels. I had this fabric sitting just waiting for the perfect project for him and when he asked for a bag...well how perfect was that!

Uniforms have been bought for the girls so just have to pick up books and we are set for the new school year.



Block number 7 is finished and Im now working on number 8.

I had coffee with two of my friends yesterday and last night the swim club started back so I joined in the training session and swam laps with them (I think I startled some of the kids!) LOL.

I also finished making the quilt top from scraps that were sitting around waiting to be flung together.... no one in particular for this quilt at this stage (another UFO!) but at least I have a spare topper if I need to whip up a quilt for someone in a hurry.



Another warm day looming, washing out on the line, airconditioner running gently in the background. Laptop on with time to check my favorite blogs and sit and sew.

survivior

This is my favourite television program. The family and I sit down each tuesday night to see who is going to be voted off... then I go to work and Leo and I discuss the tactics and who we would have voted off and who we think deserves to win. This series is in Samoa and Russell is the evil one! he is really good!

OMG yet another blind side has occurred!! AND they have announced the next series which will be villians vs heroes. Hot debates are happening all around me about who is going to be in which camp... if you were in the villians camp who would you trust hmmm??!!

do you have a favourite tv program?

Damn hot

This christmas the girls and I created a gingerbread house. I think they enjoyed eating it way more than making it.




this is my last BOM I completed, also a Leanne Beasleys design.


Phew how hot did it get today?!

I had to work today so was in air conditioned comfort so Im not complaining. However I will complain about smokers. Where I work recently banned smoking on site. Does anyone take any notice? no of course not, so today I had to put out a small fire in the rubbish bin out the front as they have removed the smokers sand boxes and they simply throw their butts into the bin *sigh* Lucky for them I was on the scene and was able to bring the fire under control without any casualties (apart from the contents of the bin lol).

Hope you all had a cool place to hide in today, or if you are on the other side of the world I hope you found a warm place to snuggle

hugs

Shopping for shoes

Last nights dinner wasnt the most healthiest but eh! I have to have a slack night sometimes!!

Today I took the froglet and the noisy one to buy school shoes, it was looking like it was becoming an epic and very painful trip with further journeys to other shopping centres looming in the future but all of a sudden we found the right shoes. Ended up with identical shoes AND the same size!! More school uniforms to buy later next week.

My friends from the gym saved me from a caffienne deficiency, (thanks girls!) we partook of several cappachinos with a very interesting conversation about colonic irregation! (thanks Caroline). hehehheheh

Time to hit the gym

Went down to the gym to do an early pump class.

had coffee with the girls after.....

Came home after doing the shopping to sit in the coolest spot in the house and work on my current project.... The quilters journey by Leanne Beasley. Only have 2 more blocks until its complete!

Some of the girls from my guild and I are listing all our UFO's and are going to try to cross off a few of them this year before we start any brand new projects (HA!) Perhaps I should list them here to keep me honest and I can cross them off and post a photo to prove its finished!

keep cool today

happy stitching

Kokoda Trail Walk

Ealier this year some of my friends from the gym and I went up to the Dandenongs to 'walk' the 1000 steps. I managed to complete the walk 2 times. We hope to return to the track again soon and next time Im going to complete it at least 3 times!! If you havent done this walk before I can highly recommend it, but I do warn you its not an easy walk, the stairs get steeper each time you go up.

Going down is the easy bit! I prefer the steps themselves rather than the Lyrebird track which is hard on the knees.

Do take some time to think about what the track represents and read the plaques as you go up. If you live in Melbourne and are thinking about doing the real Kokoda track this is the place to go to train.

Remember to take plenty of water and have comfortable sensible shoes!

Welcome to my blog

G'day everyone,

Here goes my first ever post on my new blog. I have been reading blogs for sometime now and thought perhaps I will give this a go.

Let me introduce myself.

Where did I get the name for my blog? those who know me know I am abit of a gym junkie and have done a few bootcamp style challenges in the past year. Im also a quilter thus the name :)

I have a husband whom I will call the fisherman (not that he has caught much recently lol)
2 daughters.... the noisy one is the youngest and the froglet is my eldest.

Cooking is something else I enjoy doing and am exploring the world of gluten free. This is a huge thing and until you start to look at what you are eating you dont realise how much gluten is out there!!

I belong to a quilt guild and have a terrific group of girls that I hang out with, we are all different but this is great as we can all help each other with ideas and skills. We go on retreat each year and have lots of fun, eat great food (anything i dont cook is great).

I could go on and on here but I need to find out how to add photos and other things so that you have something pretty to look at

hugs