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Time for an update!

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After a long break, I’m looking forward to getting back to my sewing and blogging again. Since my last post in January I ended up having quite a bad post-covid reaction which set off my arthritis badly. It took almost six months to resolve it and get a new medication regime working and a lot of that time was spent resting on the lounge and also not able to sew or walk much due to such painful joints. I was also diagnosed with Type II diabetes and hypertension, both are improving now that I can go for walks again. So while the covid itself was only like a having a cold, it certainly set off a chain of health issues for me. I’m glad to be coming out the other side of it.

We did get a few more things done around the house. We put down new carpet in the lounge room, got rid of a lot of clutter and an old sideboard that took up a lot of room. I replaced it with open shelves and baskets from Ikea where we keep hats, keys, handbags, wallets etc, all the stuff that used to get dumped on the kitchen counter now has a new home.  I now have a nice spot for some decorations near the front door & a space for a wallhanging above.

The other room that got a makeover was the laundry. It still had the original laundry from when we built the house over 35 years ago, just some shelves on one wall. I just love my new laundry which has timber bench tops, lots of cupboards and a pull out bin. The washer & drier are up on stand now which is so much easier. I smile every morning when I go in there! DH still has a few little jobs to finish it completely but as you can see its a big improvement. We used  Bunnings kitchen cupboards and saved a LOT of money installing it ourselves.

Once my health improved we were able to fulfil one of our retirement dreams and we have just returned from almost 2 months visiting the UK, Spain, France, Denmark and Norway, part cruise and part land based. It was just wonderful!. I loved visiting so many historic places, grand churches and also some of my family history sites.

I’ve had lots of time to reflect on retirement and how I want to spend it. I just want to read, potter about the house and get back to my sewing. Of course I have lots of UFO’s to work on and some new projects on the go. I’ve started making DS a tumbling blocks quilt  using  a tumbling blocks pattern without Y seams.

I’ve got a colourwash quilt growing on my design wall, lots of 2.5″ Kaffe squares. In the years I was blogging about my debt & mortgage payoff I used to buy a packet of these as a ‘reward’ when I reached a financial goal. Now I finally get to play around with them.

And of course Bonnies Mystery Quilt is coming up soon and I’m looking forward to that.`

“Enjoy the little things in life because one day you’ll look back and realise they were the big things.”

Kurt Vonnegut

All I want for Christmas… (liberty fabrics & walking again!)

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A belated Merry Christmas to everyone! We had a lovely relaxing day with family yesterday. DH’s mum had been in hospital for some urgent, unplanned surgery in the two weeks prior so it was nice to have her home and on the mend.

Well December did not go as planned. Unfortunately I have spent the last month dealing with a very bad flare up of arthritis, mostly in my ankles & wrists, and I am only just able to walk about a bit better the last two days. So needless to say I did no Christmas decorating, no sewing at all and a lot of watching TV – finally watched all five seasons of Poldark! But today I am finally up and walking and feeling able to sew and generally get moving again.

I was given some really beautiful fabrics for my birthday and for Christmas by DD.

These two for my birthday.

 

and this gorgeous Strawberry Thief bundle for Christmas!

“Strawberry Thief is one of William Morris’s most popular repeating designs for textiles. It takes as its subject the thrushes that Morris found stealing fruit in his kitchen garden of his countryside home, Kelmscott Manor, in Oxfordshire” (Wikipedia)

Sarah Fielke is doing a beautiful quilt -“Stop Thief’ inspired by Strawberry Thief fabrics so since I was given the fabrics I had no excuse not to buy the pattern so that will be one of my quilts for 2024.

On the home front we finally got on to a good tradesman who came and built two walls of bookcases in DDs room in just 4 days! Such a relief after so long and I’ll happily get him back in the future. Now it needs painting to DH is working on that this week.

This week ahead I’m packing up some donations, making my sewing lists for 2024 and setting up my planner. I’m hoping for big things around the house this year, lots of quilt finishes ( finally), more regular blogging  and a great holiday/cruise in August.

“Have nothing in your houses that you do not know to be useful or believe to be beautiful.”

William Morris.

Lots of sewing & time to pack!

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The last two weeks has just flown by! I’ve been busy sewing, doing my volunteering and still dealing with tradies and quotes. We will need to modify our renovation plans as it becomes clear that prices are more than we planned. But thats OK we’ll just go slower and do a lot more DIY around the place. We leave for our cruise on Thursday so I need to start packing today. I am quite excited thinking about getting back on board the Royal Princess and going cruising again. I’m planning to blog our holiday this time so lets hope our internet at sea works OK.

On the sewing front, I bought myself a Stripology ruler. I’ve wanted one for years but they are quite expensive but now that I have it I can really see the value. It just makes cutting fabric so much faster and easier. Great for cutting down the scraps and cutting strips from meterage. Its going to get a lot of use.

Another Blockheads 5 block is finished. This is the 12″ block

and this is the 6″ block

I haven’t made all the blocks but heres what I have so far:

My scrap strip bins are getting pretty full so I made a lot of 1.5″ strips into 4 patches. I want to make some mini-quilts and wall-hangings next year so they will come in handy for those. I enjoy just making simple patches.

Then 3″ and 4″ bins were overflowing so I decided to make HST’s and play around with a few ideas on the design wall. HST’s are so  versatile!

And on the weekend as I was sorting through some flimsies waiting to be quilted I pulled out my Sweet Dreams top. I want to make it bigger and so there was enough leftover fabric to make lots of 3″ squares so I’m going to make a border of those. Thats what is on my sewing table this morning.

Well time for me to get organised and start packing. I’m taking my Owl Hare & Hollow embroidery with me to do on the ship. If all goes well my next post will be from onboard.

Linking up to: Oh Scrap, and NinaMarie