Bright spot

A very cute cardi spotted in a shop along one of our dog walking routes.  Taking a photo while keeping 2 x 24kg dogs under control is very challenging but I just had to snap this beauty.  Doesn't it look nice and toasty warm?

Day 123: My creative space

My creative space contains:

• One finished granny hex and one in progress for use in the construction of the granny shrug. There really is no excuse for why this is taking so long because once you get used to the large hook, it’s quite simple
• Fabric for my very first quilt. I cut up the strips last weekend to find that the fabric quantities must have been wrong; i.e. being able to cut 11 x 2.5 inch strips out of half a yard of fabric? Anyhow, I’ve had to get more fabric, so Stos came to the rescue and picked some more up for me tonight. So now I need to wash, trim and cut it up – I am really looking forward to putting this together.

• A cheat entry, as it's actually from a few weeks ago. I’ve put up a very bad picture (unfortunately the only one) of my contribution to the Melbourne Modern Quilt Guild name badge swap. I didn’t want to show it until I was sure the recipient had it in her hands; as neither she nor I could attend the last sewing session, it was mailed out. When set the challenge of making a name badge incorporating patchwork and/or quilting, measuring no more than 9cm by 9cm, I was a bit stumped, but during a Pump class, I dreamed up the idea of quilting some cute Alexander Henry fabric and using some bling for the name (note to self – must need to increase weights if one has the time to think about sewing projects while exercising). I’m not sure if the execution was that great, but I thought it was cute and original. I hope Bec did too!

On the house front, we caught up with Bob last night. He’s working towards having us back in by mid November, which is music to our ears. However, we’ll plan on the end of November – while things have gone well to date, we do need to be realistic and allow for some delays. The roof will go on the front of the house next week, the hand rails for the deck and external stairs should be installed by the end of July and the window and door frames will be under construction shortly. And the missing garage door has been cut in – a minor victory. Our jobs this week are to look at the glass samples for the external doors and windows, talk to cousin-in-law G about smart wiring, look at kits for ducted vacuum cleaners and think about the colour for the hydronic heating panels. A lot to do this weekend but I really do want to start sewing up the quilt strip sets.

We also need to meet up with someone who I hope we can stay when we have to move out of the Landlady's place next month.  We are going to have a chat with her about how this might work, but my secret weapons are going to be R & K - as she loves corgis, I am going to take them with us to put her in a good frame of mind!  Seriously, she has said that we can stay, so I hope we can make it work to everyone's satisfaction as it would be a good solution for us.  And it will only be for 3 months (knock on wood).

For more creative spaces, hop on over to Kootoyoo.

Day 98: The Wall(s)

A bit of a long time between posts, but it's a bit hard to update with images at this timeof the year when it gets dark so early.  The other reason for procrastinating is that I don't have much to show on my granny shrug update - I have only done another two rows since the last update, so feel a bit guilty. 

Anyway, there has been quite a lot of progress since Day 88.  The deck/boardwalk wrapping around back, side and the front of the house is finished and Bob has put up most of the frame for the street level of the house; the side wall for the lounge room and study and the walls for our bedroom, walk-in 'robe, ensuite and loo.  Stos has been helping with the frames while he has been on leave but is now back to his day job.  There have also been some discussions with more of the supporting cast:  the man making the roof trusses for the front of the house, Paul the steel man who will produce the railings for the deck, gates,fences and the brackets for the sails and the Sail Maker also dropped by.  Stos also met Sparkie Dave who will be handling all things electrical at the appropriate times, but in the meantime we need to think about what we want in terms of controls, switches and wiring.  Bob has been having a chat to them about our job and it was good that Stos was there to put in our viewpoint.  Hopefully the frame will be finished by the end of this week, but the weather forecast is pretty dire, so we are keeping our fingers crossed that Bob will have a productive week before taking some time off for the school holidays to spend time with his boys.

The shot on the left is looking into what will be the lounge room.  The windows are much bigger than I imagined, but they are built as per the plan (Bob hasn't been making more enlargements without telling us!).  We will definitely have to put something up on/in front of the fence to make the view a bit more interesting - something like a green wall perhaps.  I have seen a large plastic sheet with pockets for planting greenery that can be used on walls, so will look into this further. 

The last week has been a biggie for catching up with family and friends.  Last Saturday we caught up with a posse of Stos's cousins, their partners and his aunt.  On Sunday we cooked dinner for my sisters, partners and my parents and gave R & C their wedding presents (better late than never).  Yesterday we went to see Animal Kingdom while open house was being run at the Landlady's place and when we came out, had an invite to meet D & P and their daughter J for dinner.  That was a lovely surprise so we ditched our plans to stay in and cook for the much better option of joining them at our favourite Indian restaurant.  Today was a planned lunch with R, K and N who we haven't seen since the beginning of 2010.  It's times like these that reminds me of the importance of keeping up with the people who are close to you; Stos has a lot of cousins but these are the ones that he saw most of growing up, and he lived with B for a number of years.  I also lived with him as well for the first 6 months after we got married..  Stos saw all of them this year for the first time in ages and this was at family funerals.  Which is very wrong.  So more efforts need to be made to ensure that we all stay in touch with not only the cousins, but other people that we love, whom we tend to forget from time to time.

While I am on the soapbox, go and see Animal Kingdom.  We need to support great Australian films and this is a cracker.

Day 82: My creative space

Well it's not much but I have made some progress on the Granny Shrug.  I also consider "progress" to include starting three times and pulling it all out before finally launching on the real thing.  I am not a novice to crochet but I have found the 15mm hook and the two strands of wool a bit tricky to get used to.  Plus, as someone who knits and crochets a bit on the tight side, the looser tension required to effectively use a large hook has been a challenge.  However, I have finished five rows, have started the sixth and am fairly happy with the "drape" of the work.  Next challenge is to see if I can finish the two hexagons for the body and sleeves by next week - I should set myself the goal of finishing it but as I have never joined crochet using crochet, I think that's probably a bit ambitious.  Also, I need to think of something to take to the next meeting of the Melbourne Modern Quilt Guild.  I took along the Japanese Kaleidescope Patchwork squares to the last meeting, and haven't done anything on them since.  I have bought a few books to help me get inspired, but haven't done anything more about it.  Maybe I should just concentrate on finishing enought squares to make something out of them before launching on something new.

For more creative spaces, where clever people obviously have no problems with progress or thinking of things to do, head over to Kootoyoo.

Day 75 Part One: My creative space

I am posting this yet to be commenced project because I'm hoping if I put this on file, I will finish it.  As the Queen of Unfinished Projects (i.e. jumper for husband started in 1987 and final sleeve still half finished), I need something to make me commit to starting AND finishing something.  So I have shown the materials obtained to make Kirsty's Granny Shrug, which everyone in blog land seems to creating.   Morris and Son are having a sale so I bought some bargain Cleckheatons Machine Wash 8ply crepe in a lovely aqua, plus the required monster crochet hook.  I'll use two strands of this yarn and see how it goes.  So the challenge is now to have some progress to post for next week's creative space.  For more creative spaces  that are more likely to be works in progress or finished, jump over here.