Another Try!!

I know it seems like forever since I posted, but over the last two weeks I've written five posts ... It's just that none made it to the blog ... SIGH!! A couple were somehow erased before I could save or post them, a couple went to the wrong blog (sorry Chookyblue!) and the last try said it posted ... But it never showed up on my blog, so goodness knows where it ended up!

I confess that after the last mishap, I threw up my hands in disgust & defeat & SULKED! :0) Then life got a bit crazier than usual & blogging went on the back burner. Today I thought I'd give it one more shot before resigning myself to having to post only from my laptop rather than the convenience of my iPad. Fingers crossed! :0)

I can't quite bring myself to write about our Easter adventures for the sixth time, but thought I'd share some pics of an actual sewing finish - yay me! :0) The life stuff that happened last week was my 94 year old Grandma having a fall which broke her leg & hip. Thankfully, she moved into supported living in December so a nurse found her pretty quickly & got her off to hospital. 

Here's Grandma & my aunt having a celebratory birthday drink back in March.  So, after her fall, Mum & Dad did a quick reshuffle of commitments, packed their bags & headed to Bundaberg to be with Grandma. She has since undergone surgery to pin the damaged leg & faces a pretty lengthy hospital stay, so I wanted to send something special with Mum to cheer Grandma up a bit & maybe help her stay be a little more comfortable. So, I made her a new peanut pillow ...

Here it is sitting on our bed ...

It's made from some pretty pink floral fabric that was tucked away in my stash. As well as making a nice giftie for Grandma, it's also a finish for my OPAM tally. I've done quite a bit of sewing this month, but not complete finishes, so it was good to add a finish. OPAMers, we've run out of another month, so please remember to update your sidebar lists & email your tallies to me or my GORGEOUS Partner-In-Crime Sweet Peg.

 I'm now off to have a cuppa & a bit of a read before hitting the machine again to work on a new quilt design ... Stay tuned! :0) Hope you're having a great weekend whatever you're up to. Til next time ...

BEAR HUGS!

CHEERS!

KRIS

PS. Apologies to all who've left comments or emailed in the last couple of weeks & haven't heard back from me ... I'm way behind in answering but will get caught up ... One day! :0) xx

 

 

 

Technology ... SIGH!!

 

Hello to you all out there in blogland! I'm still here & believe it or not I've actually posted five times in the last week ... Just not successfully!! Ah, technology ... Keeping us connected ... Unless it doesn't feel like it!

You may now have guessed that I've been experiencing technical difficulties. That would be an understatement! Five times I wrote a fairly lengthy post sharing some photos & adventures we had over the Easter weekend. Five times something went wrong & my post vanished into cyberspace or ended up on the wrong blog (long story ... Sorry Chookyblue!). GRRRRR! In the end I became discouraged & gave up! Then, I got busy, so still haven't come back to share our Easter adventures. I promise I will ... Just as soon as I meet a deadline I'm working to at the moment.

In the meantime I hope you're all well & having a lovely weekend so far. I'm madly sewing ... That deadline! :0) OPAM gals ... The month is slipping by quickly ... Don't forget to update your sidebar finishes list. And enjoy the rest of the weekend. I promise to be back soon ... Once technology & I make friends again. :0) Til next time ...

BEAR HUGS!

CHEERS!

KRIS

Treasures & OPAM Winner!

Happy Sunday to you all out there in blogland ... Whether you're just starting it in the northern hemisphere or (sadly!) just finishing it like we are in the Southern Hemisphere. SIGH! Why do weekends seem to disappear so quickly?!

It's been a fairly uneventful but productive couple of days here at the Meares' Madhouse ... I finally seem to have caught up with the grown up chores around the house & we spent quite a lot of time in the garden trying to wrestle it back from the weeds which went BURKO after the rain. Seriously ... If the world is ever destroyed by a nuclear holocaust, I reckon the two survivors will be cockroaches & cobblers pegs weeds! :0)

So, due to the domestic battle front, there wasn't any sewing to speak of, but I finally remembered to snap some pics of the treasures I found during my recent play date with my Bestest-Buddy-Since-We-Were-Nine Lynette. I was on a budget due to our trip away the previous weekend (which I came in UNDER!!) but I managed to snaffle some bargains. :0)

Here's my haul. One of my fave finds was the tablecloth on the table. It's a lovely cream linen with lace inserts & almost long enough for our ten seater table. Here's a close up of the lace insert ...

Isn't it GORGEOUS?!! These are spaced around the centre of the cloth to form an oval. It will be perfect for our next garden party ... Or stitching play date. :0)

Here're the rest of my finds. Another couple of crochet lace tablecloths, an embroidered supper cloth, some odd doilies, a pretty green Meakin jug (gravy boat??) & a Royal Doulton trio. The trio really caught my eye with its handsome Scotch Thistle design ... & when I turned it over to find that it is a Glamis Thistle, it was even more special. You see, Glamis was the Queen Mum's home & there is a connection on our family tree to the Queen Mum ... apparently! :0)

There were MANY other gorgeous antiques seen in our travels, but I was good. I really am a sucker for pretty vintage linens & china though. :0)

Right ... On to the OPAM draw. A big thank you to everyone who emailed their finishes to me or my GORGEOUS Partner-In-Crime Sweet Peg ... it's a huge help each month to just have to transfer tallies from emails to the spreadsheet. And everyone must have been busy bees in March because we had a total of ...

178 FINISHES!

WOW! Well done everyone! :0) And well done to those of you who are working on longer term projects if you've managed to make some good headway on your projects in the last month. With a drum roll ... the winner for the random draw for March is ...

KIRSTEN

Congratulations, Kirsten! If you'd like to send me an email with your snail mail address, I'll pop a little something in the mail for you.

But right now ... I'm off to heat up some yummy homemade pumpkin soup left over from Friday night's stitching play date and afterwards, dessert will be a toasted hot cross bun with a nice mug of hot chocolate. OK ... so there are one or two things about cooler weather that I don't mind so much! Tee! Hee! Hee! Have a fantastic week and be kind to yourselves and each other. Til next time ...

BEAR HUGS!

CHEERS!
KRIS

Good Friends, Good Food, Good Fun!!

Hello to all of my lovely blogging buddies out there in blogland! I hope you've had a fantastic week. Mine seemed to disappear in a flash, but I didn't mind too much because it meant Friday came around quickly. Now even though Friday is usually a good day because I don't have to go to work, this week was extra special because a few of the Friday Nighters were meeting up for a play date ... At the Meares Madhouse! :0)

Since I missed our last mini retreat, our last sewing night got cancelled & our next one falls on Good Friday, we were worried about having stitching buddy withdrawal symptoms. :0) My crazy-busy week meant I spent the morning racing around like a crazy person to make the house look like two reasonably responsible adults live here rather than two irresponsible & messy teenagers :0) but that's been good, because now I'll have more time over the weekend for fun stuff! :0)

So after lunch ...

.. This mottley crew gathered around our dining room table to chat, eat, drink tea ... Oh! ... And stitch. :0)

Look at those cheeky faces! And then they try to tell me that I'M the instigator of the Naughty Table! Hmmmmmmm!!

Just to prove there WAS some stitching done ...

... Sue finished the stitchery part of a Nikki Tervo Brandy Gully design. (She's holding it carefully so she doesn't get vanilla slice stickiness on her work! Tee! Hee! Hee!)

Since the weather has taken a cool dip, (RATS!) I made a big batch if pumpkin soup & a fresh loaf of sourdough rye bread - YUMMO! Then for dessert, Chris made ...

Trifle! DOUBLE YUMMO!! I have to tell you, we all waddled away from the table! :0) Thanks for coming to visit me, girls! We'll have to do it again soon. :0)

But now, it's past even this night-owl's bed time, so I'll sign off for now. I'll be back before the end of the weekend with the OPAM prize draw winner, so stay tuned. Til next time ...

BEAR HUGS!

CHEERS!

KRIS

 

 

 

 

Who Ya Gonna Call??!

Ok ... Did all of you children of the 80's answer that question with ...

GHOSTBUSTERS! :0)

My brother & I both loved the original two movies ... Bill Murray still cracks me up when a rainy day sees me curled up with some stitching & a movie marathon. 

So what has this walk down memory lane got to do with sewing, you may be asking. Well ... It all began when I shared a call for help put out by Jan-Maree at Aussie Hero Quilts. I'd heard of this wonderful group of quilters who send quilts to many of our defence force members who are serving overseas. It's a little bit of home when they're a long way from it & a reminder that their service is appreciated.

It seems an increase in requests for quilts & laundry bags combined with a lot of quilts & quilt tops being lost when Jan-Maree's house was gutted by fire last year led to requests outweighing supply of quilts.

I happily shared the call out for help, but I wasn't planning to put my hand up to make a quilt as I have my own deadlines to work towards. But ... As I skimmed through the list of requests, one caught my eye ... A quilt with a theme of "Original Ghostbusters". Growing up I remember my Mum making my brother a doona cover with the Ghostbusters logo on it. I had to do it! :0)

This quilt was not without its challenges ... How do some simple projects seem to throw up challenges?!?! However ... I persevered & it's now FINISHED! :0) Wanna see?? Ok ...

Ta da! I'm really happy with how it's come up. I've done this as a raw edge appliqué ... Which was the biggest challenge as it meant manoeuvring the 70"x42" quilt through my petite Husky ... Which in turn contributed to the problems I had with the easy fix not staying stuck. GRRRRR!  I've bound it in a fun red & white diagonal candy cane stripe fabric.

A big THANK YOU to my GORGEOUS Quilting Fairy Fabulous Fiona for squeezing this into her busy schedule so I could meet my tight deadline. Fiona has once again worked her quilting magic, though it's a bit hard to see as its black on black.

 So now I need to stitch the label on & it will be ready to be posted off. If you're interested in helping Jan-Maree & her merry band to encourage our defence force personnel by making a quilt or a laundry bag pop over to the blog to find out more HERE.

PHEW! So that's what has been keeping me busy ... What have you been working on? And OPAMers ... What have you FINISHED?!? If you haven't yet emailed Sweet Peg or me, you've got a couple more days before I do the draw.

Right ... That's it from me for today. I hope your week is going well so far ... & that it continues to do so. :0) Til next time ...

BEAR HUGS!

CHEERS! 

KRIS