Lots of sewing & time to pack!

Posted on 30/10/2023 by Jan

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

Blockheads 5 progress

Posted on 13/10/2023 by Jan

Just found last weeks post in my drafts folder, so I’ve updated it a bit.

I’ve wanted to do Moda Blockheads for a few years now and this year I’ve been able to join in and am only a little behind. A blue and yellow quilt has been on my wish list for years!-They are such cheerful, summery colours so I decided to use a beautiful fat quarter bundle – Moda Harmony – as well as some blue and yellow from my stash.

The theme this year is stars, with 6″ and 12″ blocks. I’m not sure if I’ll make all the blocks in both sizes yet, but the little blocks sure are cute!

I fussy cut the bees for some blocks.

I like the phrases on this fabric and I added some dark blue to the corners of the centre square.

I’ve been working on trimming and joining the Blue Ridge Beauty blocks, still a lot to go but it’s coming together nicely. Can’t wait to get it all up on the design wall – not sure if its going to fit though.

We’ve been away a couple of times in the last two weeks and busy with tradespeople quoting for jobs around the house so its been very busy here. Next on our list of jobs is to finish the insulation in ceiling, get wallunit/bookcases built in and have the veranda added to the front of the house. I think renovating is going to take MUCH longer than we planned but its keeping us busy so that is good.

It’s only three weeks until we go on our cruise to New Zealand – our first cruise since before Covid. We did the same cruise in late 2019 and really enjoyed it. It will be nice to visit again.

RSC – Blue Ridge Beauty

Posted on 25/09/2023 by Jan

About 4 years ago I made a start on Blue Ridge Beauty – a beautiful Bonnie Hunter quilt pattern that I really wanted to make. But it has been put away for at least 3 years now and when I saw that aqua/teal was the RSC colour for September I knew it was time to get back to work on this UFO.

After I found, unpacked and counted all my blocks, I had 230 four patches to make and 28 half square triangles. So for the first three weeks of the month thats all I worked on and I’m happy to say I now have all the small blocks made – ready to be trimmed up.

I did make four of the larger blocks and I love the way the pattern is turning out! My plan is to just poke along with it now in between other projects.

September has been a productive month all round here. I’ve started volunteering a couple of hours a week tutoring and am really enjoying it. At home we’ve continued working on cleaning up the garden and are waiting on a quote to get some long overdue retaining walls built. We’ve had several tradespeople in quoting for various jobs inside and also got security cameras installed. I feel that we are settling in to good routines now and retirement is starting to feel like the ‘norm’ rather than a holiday.

We also finalised the sale of our investment property and have paid off the mortgage. After years of working we are now fully debt free. I remember years ago when we had a lot of debt ( my blog was originally a personal finance blog) and the stress associated with that. I used to listen to Dave Ramsay and it seemed so far away to think we could ever be fully debt free, but here we are – living like no-one else after years of living like no-one else. So now our finances are very simple and not something I stress over or spend much time on anymore which is a big change for me.

I’m trying to get back in the habit of more regular blogging again so will do better in October. I’ve always wanted to do Moda Blockheads and this year I finally am! Loving it so far so will post those blocks shortly.

Linking up with: SoScrappy, and OhScrap