Category Archives: decluttering

Floods, snow, decluttering & new Tilda fabric.

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 What an interesting week we are having here! It’s been raining for days and we have lots of flooding in town and across the state. We had planned to travel to see DS today but the roads are closed so we have cancelled. There are some backroads but the last thing we need to do is get stuck somewhere and not be able to get home. 

Yesterday, as well the flooding we had snow! It was quite heavy falls just outside of town. I’ve never seen snow in November here before. It’s usually hot and sunny but it’s been quite cold.

But it’s been a good week for sewing and decluttering! I have been working on my overflowing 5″ square scrap bins – mostly children’s prints. I’ve just been joining squares ready to be made into eye spy quilts later. I started with making strips for the disappearing nine-patches 

… but after a lot of sewing I just wanted to get them done faster so made the rest into 4 patch blocks…

It all fits neatly back in the drawers now and when I want to make an eye spy quilt it will be much quicker to join a few of these larger blocks. 

I also had some beautiful Tilda fabrics delivered this week. I just love Tilda fabrics and so I decided to treat myself and join the Tilda club so I get a project each two months. While I may not get them done straight away it will be nice to have them in my stash for when I want a change from sewing quilt tops. 

Here’s my first month of the Tilda club – its just gorgeous!

I also bought a Chic Escape fat quarter bundle and some dots & plains for a paper piecing quilt top I want to make.

  and a Hometown fat-eights bundle for a wall hanging project

I hadn’t planned on doing Bonnies mystery quilt this year as were to be travelling but now that I’m not and after seeing the beautiful colours she has chosen I’m in! I am going to use batiks and have ordered them this morning. I’m quite excited to be doing it again! Are you doing Bonnies mystery this year? What are your thoughts on the colour choices?

I’ve also been decluttering old work ‘stuff’ with five large garbage bags of old files & paperwork shredded this week. After a lot of thought I’ve decided to let my professional registration go and I’ve now given up on the idea of perhaps doing some occasional work in retirement. After seven months I’m feeling so much healthier but I’m also realising that I am still quite burned out and seeing how much of a toll work took on my health. It’s time to just stop and smell the roses. 

“Smell the roses. Smell the coffee. 

Whatever it is that makes you happy.”

Rita Moreno

Catching up & a few more blocks.

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Last week we all ended up sick – fortunately not with covid, or the flu but the last few days I’ve just been resting/sleeping on the lounge all day. Today I’m feeling a lot better and have been up and about getting things done again.

I did get a few more blocks done for Summer in the Country:

I have the rest of the blocks cut out ready to sew. I’m looking forward to seeing this quilt top completed, its such a bright happy pattern.

DH and I are starting to work out new routines to our days together. Mostly its work about the house, having a leisurely morning tea together out on the front verandah when the weather is nice and planning our trips to the shops or to do errands together. I am enjoying this more relaxed pace so much 🙂 

This morning DH finished changing all our door handles over to lever handles instead of doorknobs. They look great and they are so much easier for me to use. I have arthritis in my hands and have found it difficult at times to turn the door handles.  

I’ve been plodding away at decluttering so we took 8 bags to the op shop today and stopped off at Bunnings on the way home to get some potting mix and some geraniums that were marked down. I’m planning on starting some seedlings this week but I cannot remember where I put the packets of seeds! As my family say – I put them in a safe place, I just don’t know where that is! If I have also been saving some seeds from my veggies and some cuttings. Vegetables are getting so expensive it just makes sense to grow them to save a bit of money and growing the from scraps saves even more. Do you grow veggies from scraps or have a veggie garden?  If so what do you grow – open to suggestions – I am cold climate NSW.

So Scrappy RSC

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 I’ve been looking forward to having the time to do The Rainbow Scrap Challenge where each month you use scraps in a specific colour. It’s a fun challenge & it helps keep the scrap stash down.  The colour for January is red.

I decided to use Bonnie Hunters Carolina Chain pattern from Addicted to Scraps as its all from 2″ strips in light & dark colours. I made these give blocks:

I played around with a few different arrangements:

I do have more red scraps than this though & some of those are being used in the Table Scraps challenge which I’m working on getting finished for next week.

After that I worked on Rhododendron Trail. I still have a lot left to do but I find I can only trim blocks for a little while & then I need a break so my wrists don’t get sore so I just do a bit of block trimming each morning & try and get the trimmed blocks sewn by the end of the day.

While I was looking for something else in my sewing room I found some 4″ squares that would work for baby boys quilts and started joining them up as they won’t take long to put together.

It’s been a lovely weekend just sewing! 

This week I need to do some ‘work’ decluttering and get rid of some books & resources I won’t need anymore.  I think I will just give them away to some junior colleagues.  I’ve finished all the ‘work’ shredding which felt good and I’m plodding along with data entry tasks. Overall I’m on track to be all up to date before I leave and I’m still working from home which is good. 

Linking up to So Scrappy Saturday