Managed to finish the bag I started last week from the remains of an unfinished English paper piecing project.
It’s a simple zippered pouch, lined with the bag handles attached. It’s not big, but the perfect size for a purse and phone when you don’t need anything else. They are rather lovely handles, but I can’t remember where I got them. I must have picked them up somewhere on my travels. I have to confess to having a drawer in a cabinet just for bag handles. I see a few more bags in my future.
In some ways it feels like it has been a very slow start to the year, mostly in terms of not getting much done yet. In other ways it feels like it has just sped by. We are already in March, which means almost a quarter of the year is gone. It’s a bit of struggle, because my goal for this year was just to relax and have some fun. No goals, no targets, no must dos. I’m going to travel, try some new things and go with the flow. After years of always having a plan, this is actually really hard. It feels bad that I haven’t ticked some boxes on a to do list, when in reality there are no boxes to tick. I actually think I like having a plan better, even when I am failing miserably at said plan.
I did manage to complete the 5 km virtual fun run I signed up to do (very slowly and with much huffing and puffing). It’s a bit of an accomplishment, given that 9 weeks ago I couldn’t possibly even imagine running half that distance. Got to say I am very impressed with those running apps which help you train. Not sure that running is something I want to keep up though as I was starting to feel it in my knees by the end of it. It has however, given me the confidence to try some other forms of exercise and push myself a little more in this space.
Sewing wise, I finished the 3 advent calendars and a Christmas panel table runner, and now I am moving on to mopping up some UFOs. The first is a quilt that I started hand quilting many years ago, but never finished due to not having time to hand quilt. A perfect project for the year of no goals. I see many hours of couch time and trashy tv ahead of me on this one.
Next on the list is the beginnings of a triangle quilt I started English paper piecing many years ago before I realised I didn’t have the patience to make this into a full size quilt. 2 inch triangles – what was I thinking? Maybe when I retire or a project for when I’m travelling but for now I am going to square off the panel I have so far and see if I can make it into a bag for my niece for her birthday. I think I like the blue zip better even if it does make the bag a little smaller.
When I did my clean up over Christmas and new year I found 3 unfinished advent calendar kits in my cupboard. I’ve been slowly working through them and have two finished, one more to go. These are the finished two.
Just tossing up whether to add some tabs for hanging or just leave them as is.
My other project this weekend was installing a new blind in my kitchen. I have a very ugly old kitchen that I am saving up to replace but decided I needed to do something about the window straight away because my neighbours can see straight into the kitchen from their lounge. This way I don’t have to feel self conscious if I want to go get a glass of water or something while still in my pajamas. It looks way better than in the photo. It was kind of fiddly to install, for a start I had to get up on the kitchen bench to do it. Somehow I managed to drop a drill bit and it fell down the drain in the sink. I don’t think it will do too much damage. I should probably check the pipes under the sink to see if it is stuck in the bendy bit, but that’s a job for another day. Now I have to go give my kitchen a good clean to get rid of all the install mess.
It feels good to have my sewing machine set back up. I spent the week making this cute Missouri Star pattern with 3 mug rugs. For some reason the cups ended a little wonky, especially the ones made with the strips. I think it might have been bad cutting. Not sure what I’m going to do with the bigger quilt, because I was mostly after the mug rugs, but I’m sure I’ll find a home for it somewhere.
I am almost done on the redo of the sewing room. I just have to get rid of a bit of rubbish, donate the stuff in the donate pile and install the new smoke alarm.
The good news is that I have everything set up and was able to get the sewing machine running yesterday.
I am still procrastinating about finishing my online course. I only have two pieces of work left to submit but am in go slow mode for some reason. And… because I am crazy, despite not having run anywhere in the last 25 years, I signed up for a 5 km fun run in March. It’s a virtual run, so I can do it anywhere, which is nice, but some training is required. My neighbours must think I am nuts because I downloaded a training app for my phone and have been doing laps of the garden. It will hopefully raise some money for a good cause and do my health a world of good. I had to go on blood pressure medication in the middle of last year because my blood pressure was too high. Since I started the running I have had a couple of instances of head spins where I know my blood pressure has gone too low, so am hoping that after a visit to the doctor next week I will be able to stop or at least cut back the medication.
I will leave you with a couple of pictures of my new sewing room set up. Despite having a decent cull, I still obviously have way too much stuff.
I’ve been to Tasmania before about 10 years ago but that time I only got to the top half. I never made it to the capital city. Just before Christmas I decided to book an impromptu trip to Hobart. It was mostly a city stay, but I did do a couple of day trips out to the countryside.
It’s a lovely city with lots of historic buildings and nice parks. There is a big dock area with lots of restaurants and shops and historic boats. Most of the time I just spent wandering around checking things out, visiting the museums, eating lots of amazing food and checking out the arts and crafts.
One of the highlights of my trip was a trip to the historic town of Richmond where you can do a tour of the old Richmond Jail and take a lovely walk along the river to see one of the first stone bridges built in Australia.
Equally interesting was a trip to the Cascades Female Factory (https://femalefactory.org.au/) where you can you tour the prison where most of the female convicts ended up. It’s quite a horrific story in many ways, but so important to acknowledge the past.
I got the the painting done just in time before the furniture arrived and the furniture set up just in time to go on holiday. I’ll post about the holiday another time, but for now here are some photos of the finished sewing room.
I have the room all set up but still need to sort out and move all my stuff back in. Here’s the room before the furniture was added. The photo doesn’t do justice to the colour which is more a teal than the darker blue seen here.
Here’s the room with furniture. So plenty of work space and storage.
I set my computer up and made curtains yesterday and today need to start moving all my fabric and supplies back in. Am going to do it slowly and take the opportunity to cull a little and make sure everything is more organised than it was before.
I’m making very slow progress on the painting job, mostly because I made a deal with myself that I wasn’t going to work on it for more than two hours a day. It sounds crazy, but I’m not the worlds fittest person and painting uses a whole bunch of muscles I’m not used to using. Lots of up and down ladders and stretching and bending. If I overdo it I figure I risk being so sore that I need a days off to recover. So progress is slow but slow progress is better than none at all. After two sessions I have the walls scrubbed and patched and the first coat on 2 walls. This is the room empty and ready to paint.
New furniture is supposed to arrive on the 17th so it needs to be done by then. Until then I’m camping out on the kitchen table and using the break from sewing to catch up on some reading
The plan is to paint my sewing room/study over the Christmas break, with new furniture arriving in the third week of January (hopefully – the place I ordered from has had problems with delays in the past, but they do really nice furniture).
I started tidying up yesterday, and realised I have a bigger job ahead of me than I thought. All I did was clean and move a desk with six drawers and it took hours, mostly because it had the paper drawer in it. You know bills, warranties and the things you decided five years ago you needed to keep but now can’t figure out what they are. Then I stood on a nail that fell out of the bottom of the desk when I was moving it. My foot is surprisingly fine, and am just trying not to stress out about tetanus or any other bunch of nasties that can get in a wound.
So, not a lot of sewing has been done at my house this weekend and probably won’t have time to get back into it to after Christmas. I do have a cross stitch in my lounge room I can work on while watching tv if I get desperate for some stitching, but will be a mad rush to get some last minute presents done this week before everything gets packed up for a while.
I can’t believe its been over a month since I last posted. It’s on my to do list every week. It’s just some weeks I run out of time and energy.
I do have one big finish. The photo was taken before the binding was on, but I have finished my exploding hearts quilt.
Now I’m in that strange spot between projects. I’ve got a couple of hand projects on the go but nothing that is inspiring me. Also, I promised myself that I would paint my sewing room over the Christmas holidays and to do that I need to pack up all my stuff and move it to another room. Not a job I am looking forward to. Nothing makes you realise how much stuff you have like trying to move it.
Being, Nothingness and 1000 quilt blocks 