Don't be surprised...

..if I am M.I.A.....I am off on a tangent....LOL

Do you like it??

So I have been making some changes....but I think I need to change the picture....??

The Winners are.....

I will keep it short and sweet....I know you are all hanging out to know....here we go.

1st Prize (Pattern, Handles & Flower Maker)

Beth Freeman

2nd Prize (Pattern & Handles)

Lara

3rd, 4th & 5th (Pattern)

Pamela Gilfoyle

Kerry

Faye Souder

Congratulations ladies...if you can please email me your mailing address I will get your parcels off to you ASAP.... (lynda@patchworkpromises.com.au)

Just one final note I would like to mention Naomi V, Beth F, Vickie O, Jenny F (& Max) & Kath B for their help in proof reading this pattern....and they did it in a hurry. Was especially impressed that Naomi even MADE one about 24 hours after receiving the draft instructions. Ladies please accept my most sincere and heartfelt thanks!!

Things that make (Shed) life FUN.....

Tonight I have been completing a task that most people might consider boring...but for some reason I LOVE it... I buy my post packs in bulk..and they ALL have to be stamped, twice!

As I have stamped away...I have pondered, wondered why it is that after doing this for close to 5 years now I have not tired of it. There has been moments over that time that I have questioned what it is that I am doing, is it practical, sensible or even financially viable to continue? A few months back, my mother asked me to give a presentation at the Ladies Fellowship group at her church, my topic?? Me and my business. I guess this chain of thought started back as I prepared for that evening and tonight the monotony of stamping 100 envelopes, allowed me to gather that chain and add a few more links.

I have always considered myself a non finisher...I am a GREAT starter...always got a new idea, and skill to master....but often after than flash of enthusiasm wains or life reminds you that that there are other more practical matters that need your attention...things get left behind. So I have spent my life time gathering what seemed like a random, useless set of skills and experiences....where as other people had careers or degrees to show for their time...I was often left struggling to explain who I was or what I did? Until now....just in the last few months I have come to understand that all of that stuff I gathered along the way has FINALLY taken shape and is giving life to Patchwork Promises. I will be honest and say that this all started out as a hobby, something for me to do while the children where young and while I recovered my confidence from many years personal struggle. In June I gave it all a really hard think. SHOULD I continue or is finding a "real" job the best thing for me and the family. The conclusion....there is nothing else in this world that I can even contemplate me doing....and as long as I find joy in stamping return addresses over and over again....I will keep doing THIS.

Thank you all so much for your support and encouragement...I feel the very least I can do is just occasionally brighten your day with the chance at a little something from me...tonight I am feeling very content!




PS Don't forget you have around another 24 hours to comment for your chance to win an Accidental Bag Pattern click HERE to get back to the original blog post or visit the FB Page and scroll down till you find the post entitled "Free Stuff Friday"

Free Stuff Friday......

I really did enjoy giving stuff away last week!! So lets do it again...

I usually give away some patterns when I have a new one, and I have just remembered that I have not do that yet sooooo lets give away some Accidental Bag patterns...

1st Prize - Pattern, Handles & Kanzashi Flower Maker
2nd Prize - Pattern & Handles
3rd,4th & 5th Prize - Pattern

Sound good?? I hope so... SO leave a comment here on the blog or on the FB page once this post appears there... GOOD luck



Lynda

And the WINNER is.....

I am very excited to share with you just WHO won the quilt I donated to the recent fund raising event for a friends daughter. The winner was Merle Brown of the Mooroolbark CWA...I think you can tell from her face she is a little excited. I am am very pleased that the quilt is going to a home where it will obviously be loved and cherished. The event raised $4'500 towards the cost of getting the family's car converted for Leah's wheelchair. I am so proud that the quilt raised $400 of that total.

Merle Brown

Merle being presented with the quilt by Sandy who is Leah's grandmother

A quilt for Leah... all FINISHED

Here it is...all finished. Thanks to Jennie for quilting it for me and Tracey for getting about 7m of binding sewn down....

Things That Make (Quilting) Life Easier...

So ......I am sitting here stitching on some binding. Bondi Rescue is on the tele....and I am thinking. Right at this moment....about how much I used to HATE binding even the smallest project. I didn't like the way I joined the ends. The hand stitching part was hard work, on my hands, my back AND I never liked the way it looked once I was done.There was also the time factor...it seemed to take FOREVER. The last couple of years I have been on journey to discover what makes a perfect binding. I believe I have hit on the perfect formula...and today I have decided that I must share it with you....This is what works for me....and since I switched I have not been disappointed with the result, I have way less fatigue in my hands & back and most importantly it is FASTER!!!

1. I cut my binding 2 1/4 " wide. This is for cotton quilts, with a batting with a standard loft. If you are working with flannel or a thicker batting you will need to adjust this accordingly.

2. I ALWAYS use a bias join for joining the strips together and joining the last 2 ends. This is called a continuous binding and I have also switched to mitered corners. I managed to do this on my own, but it was awkward and clumsy....so I trolled around the interwebs and found the PERFECT tutorial. It is by Bailey's Quilting HeadQuarters......watch it....book mark it.... How To Attach a Continuous Quilt Binding

3. I have switched to a ladder stitch for the back. Once you get a rhythm you can go super fast and it is also invisible if you do it right. Here is a picture of how it looks....

4. and lastly I use binding clips....they are magical. They hold fast and most importantly they don't stick you as you work around your quilt.

SO now that I have shared 1 of the things that makes MY (Quilting) Life Easier....I am going back to my binding....LOL

Cheers

New Plan

So I am taking a side step for this post...still working on the free motion and beading AND working on some samples for the Heathmont Baptist Quilt Show coming up....because of all of that and factors in my personal life I felt the need to introduce a New Plan for the day/week/month/forever maybe...LOL

My husband is away at the moment...working......for 3 months! I know...fun hey! In reality it is not the longest he has been away but I guess I know very well what it will be like...sigh. One of the tasks I must take over from him is running number 1 son to the station....at 5.45am! The first week I got up, took him and came home to bed. Because I was so awake it took ages to go back to sleep...so realistically I had to ask if it was worth it?? Well the way I felt all day suggested it was not. So a New Plan was put in place....get up at 5.30am and stay up!

Now I have always seen myself as a night owl...so not a morning person. I sat down and had a good hard look at myself and WHY I often end up working so late into the night. I have always felt I do my best work under pressure and really seem to need an impending deadline to motivate me: even if that deadline was bed time......LOL. I am also a ditherer...so is it a case of having learned to work under pressure because that is the corner I box myself into ALL THE TIME??? I have never really given myself the room to plan and organise to see if I actually get a better out come....not just in the practical things but emotionally & physically too....coz being under the pump is sure stressful!

So the New Plan was conceptualize and realised in the form of a spread sheet pretty much programming every min of the day from 5.30am to 10pm. I have acknowledged, work needs, family needs, social commitments, exercise and time for me to play at things I enjoy! Coz honestly when we get busy...isn't it the fun stuff that goes out the window but it is also the stuff that can help keep us sane!

So 3 days in....how is the Plan functioning...

Firstly I am getting through the things I have set for the day...that is good...I guess I have not gained myself more time in the day I am just shifting the hours that I am up and operational...LOL But the true key to the New Plan is going to bed early enough to make up for the early start....and it is where I am struggling...old habits are hard to break. Today I am sooky and feeling very hard done by. Yesterday I layed down to relax my back and fell asleep (surprise surprise) so that in turn made it difficult for me to sleep last night..Today I must resist the nap...I guess I just have to push through the first couple of weeks...so sorry if I am grumpy!! It will get better.....wont it??

Now I must get back to my stitching...my sashiko sampler will not stitch it's self!! New Plan in action......

Free Motion Madness ...... Part 5

No picture tonight....coz there is not much visible progress. I was going to bead then remembered I need to finish the edges....D'oh! I have had 1 win....I have a tub into which I deposit all those odd bits of binding...some short, some long.....tonight I found a use for them!! Because I used them more like a facing, the colour did not matter....YAY!

Free motion madness...... Part 4

Tonight I just went for it....not sure if it was sensible....LOL I am very very tired...I have just stopped sewing and now I feel quite sick. You know sick and tired....was woken at 4.15am by a text from the alarm company saying the power was off. (We have this weird intermittent tendency for the safety switch to go off, usually in the wee hours, when we are not actually using much power??? We can't pinpoint what is causing it...it has been happening for years?? )Anyway it means they think back at the base that someone has turned the power off to break in...SOOOOOo they text me and if I don't get up and make it right...they ring...and If I didn't answer they would probably call the police...LOL So outside with the torch at 4.15am flicking the switch, then up again at 5.30am to run #1 son to the station, then back to bed till 7:30am up, showered and dressed...took the youngest to school then was waiting with #2 son at the hospital to see the Surgeon for a Post Op checkup by 8:45am......it had been a long day by then already..... and it is now 11pm on the same day......yup....so right now Sick & TIRED!


Anyhow this was supposed to be being quilted to become a beading sample....but the quilting sort of took over. LOL Oh well the quilting was fun and now I shall set about cover it up with Lisa's lovely beads...It has been an awesome learning experience and has proven to me that I CAN freemotion quilt. If this is what I can do with just a couple of hours work....it will get better with more practice...and practice I will.

This has been a lovely week....doing something I wanted to do, and putting aside some of those HAVE to do things...back to the grind on Monday... after a spot of cleaning tomorrow I plan to face/bind this piece then try some beading...be back with progress of that little adventure....

Night night

Free motion madness...... Part 3

TODAY has been a real turning point!! Last night I stumbled across Leah Day of Day Style Design. She has an AMAZING catalogue of free motion designs and most importantly tutorials!!! So much excitement.......is that sad?? I have purchased and downloaded the book of her Free Motion Quilting Project and have decided to work my way through and learn some of the designs....every day if I can. The more I read the more it becomes clear that I need to practice practice PRACTICE. I want to be good at it NOW and I guess that is one of the reasons why I tried a few years ago...then gave up. Here are the 2 designs I have learnt today.

Shadow Waves

MatrixHere is the whole piece so far...as you can see I am just working my way through filling in the foundation lines I stitched yesterday. I am beyond excited this is a true milestone for me.....can stitch straight lines to the cows come home.....I guess it was what was trained into to me for years and years so there has been an element of unlearning to be done. YAY for the unlearning!!

Free motion madness...... Part 2

I TOOK THE PLUNGE......I got bored of the calico and I felt like I had a good flow going... I am very happy with the lines, the bubbles....well I don't hate them.!! Still improvement to be made but I am happy with this first little step. I started with some lines across the piece to section it up...that left me with some less daunting spaces to fill. I will practice some new designs then fill a space with that......but now bed!

Free motion madness....

So I am burning through the thread...not sure that I have much worth showing you yet...LOL I am still working on calico...not being brave enough to move onto my purple piece. I have learned one thing though...KEEP BREATHING!!!!! I find I hold it...especially when I am coming up to an edge and I panic coz I don't know where to go.... I guess the most useful thing I have discovered is the alarm that sounds if I move the fabric too fast. Consistent steady movement of the fabric is the key, to nice even stitches and a good design. SO back I go to practice some bubbles...LOL

A Slight Departure.....

So I have gone on a bit of an adventure. For my birthday I bought myself a 6 week online Beading Course with Lisa Walton of Dyed and Gone to Heaven. I have been working so far on small sample pieces, but now I want a slightly larger ( but still relativity small) quilted piece to put my new skills to the test. I am starting with this (10" x 17")....
BUT before I get to the beading (which is a challenge) ....I need to conquer this.............One of the reasons I bought this machine was because it has the BSR foot. I have fiddled but never mastered....so it is now or never! I plan on showing you the results unless it is horrid.

A quilt for Leah... Part 2

Was so relieved to get the top finished for Thursday night...it is now in the hands of the very capable Jennie R who is going to quilt it with a simple edge to edge meander... THEN Tracey R will bind it for me....Then to hand it over to Leah's mother Belinda....Me...VERY Happy!!

A quilt for Leah...

I am in the middle of a moment of madness.....a few months back I promised a quilt for a fund raising event...the smart thing would have been to start on it then hey??!! Did I??!! hhhmmmm NOPE! So of course the deadline is closing and now it MUST be done...I spent an interesting and exhusting 4 days at the Quilt & Craft fair so was in the perfect spot to find inspiration! I purchased a "Giddy" by Sandy Gervais for Moda Layer Cake, and have devised a simple but effective design. I got it cut this morning and have started piecing when I returned from my afternoon engagement. Here is how it is looking at the moment....and here is one block up close


I hope to get a good portion of it together this evening....but I MUST have an early night. SO it is an oven dinner tonight...ie turn the oven on, open a packet and heat it up...LOL Kids are fine with that and husband is out working so.....away we go......

Slow & Steady is ok...right??

Still not getting much time at the machine everyday...thinking it is just me...LOL Maybe I need to assess how and when I work best, and go with it rather than try and fight it...I don't know!

Anyway it is coming together and I am very very happy! I MUST get the borders finished tomorrow....4 days at the Craft & Quilt Fair will definitely affect my productivity.

Frustrated....

...really I am! This weekend just disappeared & I got no where near what I needed or wanted to get done...Monday is one of my out of the house days...well the afternoon is anyway. So the morning I usually spend doing housework etc. I did some today so maybe I can keep working on these borders....hhmm Will see how the day goes. At LEAST everyone should be at work/school...fingers crossed we have broken the chain of the lurgy...been about 63 hours since the last person started chucking...but I will not be completely happy will we get about 4 days clear...Anyway I am taking my grumpy self to bed....night night...

I know have...

....25 FINISHED blocks...!!

Oh man WHAT A DAY! As I said this morning, husband and youngest daughter came down with a lurgy...so it was disinfecting and washing for me all morning. Then off to the Post OP appointment with DS2...good & bad news there but that is for another post. DS1 somehow managed to collect his car, yes his first car!! He still does not have his license so I supervised him while he took it for his first drive... Oh DD1 had her car serviced so I had to drive her over to collect that...AND I got to stitch those pesky blocks...and I have done it all on about 4 hours sleep....and all day wondering "do I feel sick??" uugghhh Tomorrow the top goes together!! But NOW I sleep....the alarm is OFF ( and there is a bucket next to my bed just in case....)

So....

Don't you just LOVE life and the loops it throws you...I might get to sew today after all...that is the upside of 2 family members having a gastric bug....!!?? So I am not going to lead Playgroup (bad idea for me to go to a place with babies, children & their mothers some of whom are pregnant) Also not babysitting this evening as my sister wants her kids as far away from us as possible... Still important that we get to that Post Op appointment ....I just hope I stay well over the next couple of hours...LOL

sigh......

More of The "Other" Quilt.....

Spent the evening stitching these together..I LOVE big long lines of "flags"!! Such a sense of achievement. The are now pressed and the next stage has been stitched even.

The last couple of days have been VERY frustrating...I have not been able to get to the machine till after dinner and as I have set myself a strict (ish) deadline for locking up the shed...I am only getting in a couple of hours of sewing a day. Today I had planned my day to get these blocks finished and my back got cranky and I was forced to rest for the morning, that put me behind on my "List" of jobs (Packing parcels always takes priority and today I had lots to send)...In light of the issues with my back I probably should have skipped the sewing this evening and gone to bed early....might pay the price tomorrow.

Anyway heading to bed now (just a smidge past that deadline tonight) and am already frustrated about tomorrow...full full day..Playgroup in the morning, Post Op appointment with the Surgeon for my son, then babysitting my nieces & nephews (4 in total) tomorrow night while my sister and her husband go out for dinner...what do you think my chances are of getting into the shed??

Night night....

The "Other" Quilt .......

..... is taking shape ...... tis always nice when something takes shape the way you have seen it in your head! Plan set for tomorrow....12 more blocks to make! Then borders...


PS if this looks like a post from yesterday it is....I just had to delete that and make a correction...LOL

The Accidental Bag...

I promised some people a proper look at this bag days and days ago..but you know...other stuff got in the way...LOL Good stuff, and some not so fabby like a vomiting child...but you know that is life. I am WELL pleased with this...and love that I just stumbled across it so to speak...hiding out there in the recess of my brain. Making it has distracted me from making the other quilt samples but honestly you gotta go with the flow when it comes to creativity...SO what do YOU think??

An Accidental peak....

Photo's never quite seem to do the fabrics & colours justice do they! OH well...this is it! The "Accidental Quilt". Well a bit of it anyways...I am very pleased with the way it comes together. It ticks all MY boxes: Easy & uncomplicated fabric shopping, efficient & economic to cut, a dream to piece (if I do say so myself) AND adaptable...This is a scrappy option but I see other possibilities with the basic design. Great size too...it is going to be approx 160cm square. NICE!! I am happy! AND happily working on the matching Accidental Bag that I am making out of the scraps...he he he he!

The sewing is going to slow down a little this week. My 16 Y.O. son has to have an operation on Thursday. He is having a Mastiodectomy to clear out and repair a Cholesteatoma in his left ear....We know he will have to stay in for a min of 1 night..maybe more depending on how exactly the operation goes. NOT something I thought we would be facing ever but it is what it is I guess....I will have several things with me...runners for nervous walks around the block and I have to prepare some hand stitching for when it is dark. Thursday will start early as we have to be in there prior to 7am....and it is about a 40min drive to the Mercy Hospital. This is definitely when I would rather not be someones mother....lol

Will be back next week with some more updates...

cheers




PS if the fabric does not look like the fabric I posted about the other day...it is because it is not. THAT fabric is for the quilt I was meaning to design when I accidentally stumbled across the Accidental Quilt

Just a little peak....

I am SOOOOOO relieved to have these finished....they are the last of the Angel/Mortal swap gifts from the Scquilters Retreat I was supposed to attend. I am mortified it has taken me so long to tidy up my final contribution to this commitment...and I hope that my Angel & Mortal understand....I guess after all this time it will be a lovely surprise in their week...well I hope so anyways.... I am now going to wrap them ready for sending tomorrow ....THEN after I get the kids home from school..I am turning on EQ6 to start nutting out the particulars of this next quilt....

cheers

I am still here....

I really am...LOL I know I apologise every time for my tardiness and lack of attention to my blog, but honestly I just don't know where the time goes...7 weeks since I last posted??? UUgghh really I cannot believe that this year is almost half over!

I am enjoying winter...This is my favourite time of year, the heat seems to do horrible things to my body, brain, mood and level of motivation. But WINTER....ahhh so lovely, easy to get warm and toasty under a quilt!!SUCH FUN!

So here are the fabric form my next quilt FQ friendly quilt. It is in my head... there just BURSTING to get out...but I have a few outstanding things to tidy up before I start cutting I HOPE to be at it by tomorrow afternoon....I PROMISE to keep you updated.

Relay for Life

Hi there....been a while again I know....and today I am checking in for an nonquilt related project. I have talked to you about my weight loss project...(tracking very nicely..I have lost 27kg now.)Apart from losing weight I have also wanted to challenge myself physically. To that end I have signed myself up for the Relay for Life to help raise funds for the Cancer Council of Australia....It is a 24 hour walking challenge where a team has to relay around a course for the 24 hours...I have not yet thought about how much walking I personally want to do...we have a big team so there is lots of opportunity for rest and recovery...Excited & Nervous all at the same time...

What I really need are sponsors...no point doing this unless I raise some money...So here is a link.....

Lynda Bosworth - Relay for Life

Please consider contributing to this worthy cause.....will let know how it all goes...


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