busy weekends

 I have bulbs to be planted in my garden.... one hundred of the bloody things!!  They will look magnificent when they flower, I have miniature  daffodils, jonquils and hyacinths,

 Love these, they look like hairy monsters! I should put googly eyes on them and freak out the family.

 my yellow climbing rose is flowering, they look and smell lovely but they also don't last very long and blow open in a day.

 Cookie looks a bit stoned here.... think he might have just woken from one of his many slumbers.

 I finally picked up some fabric to make my cousins baby quilt.  I needed a jelly roll and a charm pack but they didn't have the charm pack so used a layer cake instead and have a little left over... gotta love left overs!

 I also discovered  that trying to sew a true 1/4" seam without the correct foot on your machine makes life extremely difficult, in fact it totally stuffed up my blocks and I had to cut them smaller.  Fortunately this particular pattern worked with a smaller block and no one will know.. except if you read this blog.

 Last week the noisy one joined me for my second tough blokes adventure.  Some of you might have heard of tough blokes... this one is slightly less insane.  You run a 7km course filled with 24 obstacles... the first being a mud pit... this year we dressed up as school girls and boys and running in a short muddy dress was much easier than last years flannel PJ's... bananas in PJ's!!

The mud also had a lot of stones in it so our knees and elbows got rather grazed this year.  We completed the course in a good time and had lots of fun again.

The next event is the mothers day classic, my buddy and I will be running 4kms for our friend who has been battling bowel cancer and now has been diagnosed with breast cancer.  She used to run all the time so we decided to run for her.  Then we will join up with our daughters and other gym buddies to walk as a team for her.  Will be a day with many emotions.

triple layer slice!

 The noisy one is a real sweet tooth.  When i saw the cover of the newest food magazine that I sometimes buy (I used to buy it every month but find it has become very repetitive).  We had to use a spring form tin but I think it worked really well.

 She is doing 2 cooking electives at school this semester so has become quite food obsessed orientated. So I have once again pulled out some of my favourite recipe books and encouraged her to choose some to help me make in the coming week.

 She did a fantastic job at getting the layers to do just what they were supposed to do, she chose to use port wine jelly and popped a few pink marshmallows into the mix but it really tastes great!!

This is what it looks like when its professionally made and photographed, I reckon she has done an awesome job to recreate it using what we had in our kitchen!

How many of you have made something from a mag or book only to find it comes out nothing like the picture?

recent happenings

Here is the beast resting after doing nearly 50km a few weeks ago.  I did 70km on this particular ride.

Since that ride I haven't been able to get out on the road but have been seen loitering at the gym doing various classes at ungodly hours.

I have been doing a little stitching as there has been bugger all on the TV and the Internet can only entertain me for so long.

the noisy one is doing not one cooking class but 2 this semester so has been showing interest in cooking (yay!).  I bought the latest super food ideas as there is a recipe on the cover that I know she will like.... a choc-mallow jelly slice.  I will get her to write out the ingredients we need to buy and make the first half tomorrow... photos to follow if we don't eat it before I have a chance lol.

The froglet has started her hospitality course and is really enjoying it, there are challenges of course but these will help her become a stronger manager for when she goes out into the work force.
 

quilt exhibition

 Today was the day I finally got to go to the dear Jane exhibition that I have been waiting to see for what seems forever!!

 There was dear Jane galores!!  for those who are uninitiated into the world of dear Jane, this is a quilt that has billions of little blocks with billions of little pieces that we insane people decide that we simply must make.

 There was traditional ones that followed the pattern and colour precisely, then there were the variations on colours and placement of the blocks themselves.  Each and every quilt was a joy to behold.

 I took many photos of the quilts and then the blocks themselves to use for my  own reference while I attempt to drive myself mad reproduce them exactly as the photo shows them.  The one with circles and leaves I have always thought for some reason was a bike!  therefore to me its the bike block!

 There was one quilt that rather than piecing with material she embroidered all her blocks, one for Maddie!!

 I had several light bulb moments when I looked at a block such as the one below that I had tried to make and put aside in frustration.... duh!  applique the outside diamonds!!  why didn't I think of that?!

 I am also making the outside pieced triangles between some of the squares for several reasons.  One is for variety and the other is so that when i have finished all the squares and then I realise I still have all the bloody triangles to go I wont think stuff it and not complete them as I will be either finished them or at least halfway through!

 The hand piecing was spectacular, the applique simply exquisite.

There was one quilt that had a block that instantly appealed to my bogan side.  In the outside top corner was 4 blue stars, I saw them to be the southern cross... I'm so going to copy that idea!!

There was several with fun names, some baby Jane's that are smaller sometimes due to quilters deciding they cant finish them or change their minds or run out of time!!  Its always wonderful to see other peoples work and take home with you an urge to get your project out of mothballs and finish the blessed thing!!

Triathlon pink and ninjas

 Yesterday was the BIG day that I have been training for over the last 8 weeks or so with my best friend and training partner.  This year they let our family and friends onto the pool deck so they could cheer us on, take photos and tell us later how terrible we looked lol.  My friend and I were the first 2 pinkies in the water for the day!

 By the time we got to our first buoy we weren't coming first any more... I'm the one just coming up to the buoy with my right arm coming out with my black watch!  We swam 300m and usually I enjoy the swim and feel okay at the end... not this year, for some reason I really didn't enjoy the swim and found it hard going.

 The bike leg.... my favourite leg!  I did really well on the short 9km course. My stats of 27.7km average and 39km max speed. I took 19mins to ride including running with the bike too and from the racks.  Best of all I came 1st in my age cat and 13th overall out of 313 entries, gotta be happy with that!!

 The run was a hard slog, we hadn't trained very much for the run this year due to my partner having back problems and other aches and pains.  I saw a message on face book a few days ago that one of my friends, friend has breast cancer and had received some bad news.  As tripink is all about raising money and awareness for breast cancer I told her I would run the entire run leg in her honour and not stop even when it was really hurting.  I told my legs to shut up twice and sucked it up and thought about Tracey and her family and how much harder her journey will be.  I didn't stop for the whole 3km... didn't go fast but I didn't stop or walk.
My overall time and placing was 48.16   I placed 5th this year in my age division and 68th overall.  I will say I had hoped to be under 45mins but my swim and transitions let me down, however in the end I finished and I felt good at the end and still do today so I'm very happy.

 I must have exhausted the beast so much that her front wheel fell off LOL.... no seriously I had to take it off so that I could fit my other daughter in the car after her Judo training.

 speaking of Ninjas.... here is the other little ninja that I finished.... they both went for a ride on the beast.

 Then they did what ninjas do best.....

I don't think Milly was very worried about them as they stalked her in the long grass.

I have been sewing

 Now I can hear some of you thinking OMG there is the beast again, what does this have to do with sewing?  But wait.... the saddle isn't quite matching.... yes its a test saddle, I'm looking for a little comfort on the old hoo harr!

So, the sewing?  well I thought I could incorporate my two loves.....

 Ive been working on my double wedding ring and as the weather has been hot I have gotten a few done.

 I thought I could skillfully drape them outside for a photo shoot and then spied my beast, perfect for draping.

 I have had this pattern for a while... bought it at the quilt show last year with the fabrics.

 I must admit I thought this second photo had the photo and name of the pattern.... Its Ninjas!  From Melly and Me.

 I finished one of them and he wanted to go for a ride on my beast straight away to go down to the dojo for some training.

His partner in crime will have to wait as I don't have any red thread in my stash and horror of horrors I go back to work tomorrow after a wonderful 5 week break.  Its always the way, I don't do anything till the day before I go back to work!!

Bed runner finished

 I finally finished the bed runner for my friends for their wedding pressie.

i chose a Japanese fabric for the backing as I know they love those fabrics and I put in Bali fabrics as they were married unofficially in Bali so thought that they were very apt.

here it is on my bed, which is a futon so not high enough so show how long the runner is.