Design Wall Carpet???

Was reading a post on 'Sew Me Something Good' blog about the lack of a design wall..

I dont have a design wall, and to be honest, a creative space.. At the moment I have taken over the sunroom, which is a very large 9x4m room (or about 33x15 ft for you non metric non 21st century peeps *W*) we have an eight seater table in there that we can't sit at, as it is covered, hmm maybe covered isn't strong enough a word, stacked-to-the-roof full of my 'craft crap' as dags calls it or my 'treasures I am still using sometime this millennium stuffs' as I prefer it to be known as..

I dont have a design wall.. or a wall I'd like to even put one on.. I have a design 'carpet'.. Now I can see you guys thinking, design wall carpet does have its drawbacks, but hey, the blocks dont fall off.. they might get walked on by a bastard cat from time to time, but I thought I could live with that until....




My usual trick is when I have laid something out, I like to take a pic or three and I can remember 'how' I did it.. of course with something as scrappy as this, you wouldn't do that, but I did want to take a pic to share with a net friend.. I went to get my camera, and when I come back.. well... hmmm if he wasn't so cute I would of strangled him.. I shoo'd him away.. and bits of my quilt were stuck to his fur.. so I was chasing him (which isn't easy to do when you are a fat blonde tart) and trying to rescue pieces of a quilt :O)) all the time the 'Beast' (aka eldest boy child) was laughing at me.. I am a constant amusement for my children! The funny thing was, Cosmo (aka the bastard cat) had bits stuck to his botty, and he kept sitting down trying to get the block off his botty whilst sitting on it.. he truly is a dumb blonde cat, lucky he is soooo cute or he'd be outta here!

Anyways.. the quilt I am working on.. Well I had what I thought was a great idea, why not make TWO quilts at once, if you are going to cut 2" strips for a 'worlds fair quilt with a pie border' why not cut heaps of strips of lots of fabric and make a postage stamp quilt too?? I mean, its only a little more work isn't it?? these are the ones I made yesterday, all 208 of the 4 patch units.. they go together pretty easy and this is about 1/4 of one quilt..

I am also at the same time cutting out tumbler blocks to swap with a dear friend of mine (who is lucky that she lives 1000kms away otherwise I'd annoy the poop out of her).. She has been a slacker and not even got the template yet but I have done the first swap already *W* I think she has been to busy surfing the net trying to tempt me with cheap fabric from the states!


Anyways, thats enough crap from me..


'til next time..


Lissa
PS Quilters aren't greedy, we're just materialistic! :O))

Busy Week, doing, um Nothing???

g'day possums...

well its been a week but I thought I'd update you guys!

Last Monday was a long weekend in Australia and I celebrated it with getting shingles (4th time in 7 months, yeah me!) I am doing ok though, never fear!

But it was a public holiday so no mail man.. well so you would think!!! But the the 'beast' (eldest DS) come in and said 'mum there's a parcel for someone'.. so we had a squiz and sure enough, a brown paper baggie filled to the brim with parcels for ME!!!! My angel from the scquilters swap I am in, was in Newcastle for the weekend and snuck by my house and dropped off these lovelies.. am I spoiled or what?? She told me later she was here at 10am! I got out of bed about 10am! LOL (had been reading for HOURS, thats my story and I am sticking to it!) how lucky am I???

I also got in the mail last week my PIF gift from Vickie ... Its a Chantelaine (bad spelling here) and each pocket had a giftie in it, a needle threader, an unpicker, scissors and a gizmo that threads needles lickity split! It was wrapped in the blue fabric and gold braided cord (which will be recycled) so thank you Vickie! I also loved the fact you adressed the parcel to 'Lissa Poo' gave the parcel deliverer a chuckle! I love it, and have used it while I am sitting at the machine sewing, so thanks you so much Vickie!


The 'Biggie' of quilt shows was on last week in Australia, in Sydney. Now I did feel poorly on Thursday but thought, I'll be OK tomorrow, I'll catch the train, have a wee rest on the way down and on the way home and a wander around to have a lookie at the quilts.. was I ever wrong?? um YES!!! As soon as I got to the train station, I knew I should of come home.. but I pressed on... And then when I was on the train, I heard the dreaded words every train commuter hates.. 'Trackwork - Delays'.. ARGH!!!! my 2 hour trip, took 3 hours, two train trips and a bus ride in the middle.. I wandered around the quilt show, was a little disappointed with the stalls, a few I had thought would be there weren't this year (dunno why??) but I did manage to spend some $'s.. The trip home took 4 hours.. *sigh* I was absolutely stuffed when I got home :O(

Heres a pic of the 'stash'

Just some Civil War Repros I didn't have or have much left of, cheddar prints are very hard to find.. one was sold to me as a Civil War, but it isn't, but 'tis OK, I like the fabric so it still will have a home! I also got Anni Downs new book, its so cute, I think there is a dozen 2" stitcheries inside very very cute.. and very do-able..

So I was at the quilt show for only about 2.5 hours, managed to quickly see all the quilts seen all the stalls, the only thing I wanted to do was 'test drive' a few sewing machines, I am getting a new machine before the end of the year, and I want a machine with a deep throat and a stitch regulator, I am leaning towards the Bernina Aurora, but not sure, have plenty of time to make up my mind.. my Janome I own now is a piece of shit to be honest, I spend more time reloading the bobbin, it jumps out of the hook all the time, I have spent $500 at least on this )(#*$%(#*$& machine in the past 4 years getting it looked at, and the needle threader doodad dont work now.. last night I ended up crying at the thing cause I just wanted to sew some strips and I had to keep rethreading the bobbin and unsewing where it had jumped out... To say its frustrating is an understatement. I have to save up a little while to get the machine so I'll have to make do with the bulimic thing until then (it chews fabric up and then spits it out later, very very annoying).. I have bought a single hole plate for it and it has stopped the bulimia to some extent but still does it with triangles...

Had a job interview last week, well I THINK I had a job interview.. was with an agency, and they advertised 'positions vacant' was up my alley and with a government dept (so lots of $'s) and did well at the interview and then they said 'well there isn't any positions available at the moment, but we'll be sure to send your resume off when there is'.. I said 'what?? it said current positions, current contracts?' To say I was disappointed was an understatement..



'til next time


Lissa

PS There is a giveaway here. It is for some lovely Long Arm quilting to be done on yoru quilt!!! So go and check out Canton Village Quilting!!!

More Mail & an epic post (with a linky to a giveaway)

g'day petals...

well this week the postman has delivered some lovelies...

My mini swap quilts from the Lucy Locket swap!!! woohoo...

the 30's lovely on the left of screen is from Miss Lucypoo herself... Lucy also sent me a local rag about the area (my dad is from Geordieland where Lucy lives) so dad has had a squiz at that, a lovely card and a postcard as well.. so thank you Lucy!

The lovely 'home sweet home' is from SewToBed how cute is this?? and the fabrics and the gorgeous hand made card are fantastic! Thank you so much!!!

What else have I been up to? hmmm I have just organised a swap with a girliefriend to swap 'tumbler' blocks, the plan is to cut two from each of our civil war stashes and make a tumbler quilt, we do know we'll get some double ups but hey, thats half the fun isn't it??? will get busy doing this on the weekend! I also plan on getting a tumbler cut from every 30's in my stash (that'll be ONE humungous quilt, I have over 500 30's now I would think eeek)



speaking of 30's and being a slackarse blogger... a few weeks ago, Catherine had made a 30's quilt and asked if anyone wanted the novelty fabric she didn't use in the project? well being a 30's WHORE how could I not put my hand up and say 'pick me'.. I was first in and definately best dressed here.. there is only ONE fabric in this pack of goodies that I had in the stash.. yes I know I have a lot of 30's, but the Grandma's flower garden project I wanted only ONE of each fabric in each flower, so finding ones I dont have is a miracle! Catherine also sent me some embelishments AND a lovely pattern!! It is in the pile of 'to-do's', thank you so much Catherine! Catherine also has lots of giveaways lately, so pop over and check out what she is up to!

Speaking of Catherine, we had discussed in an email about 'old & quirky' things.. now I am only 38, but I am feeling everyone one of those years at the moment, and some would say I am definately quirky.. BUT I had a couple of kitchenalia things I thought I'd share a pic of. The long tube thing has a biscuit cutter doodad in the end of the metal piece, so I am thinking its exactly that, a vintage biscuit maker, the other? hmm no idea, it has serrated edges so I am thinking it was used to slice things up.. couldn't be anything too hard cause it is a bit wobbly, but I am thinking apples or cheese maybe with those serrated FANGS it has..


I also did a 'Biggest Morning Tea' swap with an internet group I am in.. You had to send something from a eclectic list of things but most importantly, a mug! Biggest morning tea is a fundraiser for Cancer Research in Australia.. I haven't been to one in the 'flesh' but I always support charities, but now I am only supporting one or two, the Heart Foundation as mum died from a Heart Attack and a local kids charity.
Anyways, here is my swap I received from Suzy.. There was also a pair of bedsocks but I wore them and forgot about taking a pic of them! LOL the kids keep stealing them too.. they are very toasty!!!



and to finish off this blog.. a pic of the bastard cat.. well I shouldn't say that.. Cosmopolitan Bernard (aka Cosmo the bastard cat) has been VERY poorly of late.. when I got home from Perth, I noticed Dags the EXsuper DH but NOW evil DH 'forgot' to clear out Cosmo's tray.. now he took out lumps (tryin' not to be gross here) but didn't put in new crystals.. now this cat of ours, is very clean.. VERY clean.. if he is outside and wants to go to the loo, he comes to the backdoor to be let in to use his tray.. I cleaned his tray out for him on the Friday when I got home, and he spent all day going back and forth to it.. which was a little odd I thought.. the next day I had a look in his tray and it looked 'odd'.. I flipped him over (he was cleaning himself yet again) and there was blood on him.. the poor cat had held on for so long, he gave himself a very bad urinary tract infection.. I was so cranky at Dags I didn't talk to him all day.. I mean, cleaning a cats tray out isn't a HUGE deal.. the cat has two, so he could of even used the clean one and left the dirty one outside.. Lucky our vet isn't into making $'s I am sure of it, it was $80 and tablets for the cat for the past fortnight and the cat seems ok now.. but giving a cat a tablet twice a day, is not for the fainthearted... he seemed to get used to taking the tablet (or looking forward to the treat at the end, until the LAST one, he bit me so hard it hurt... blooming cat!



'til next time...


Lissa
PS my dear friend Bundy is having a very very generous giveaway on her blog, now I wasn't going to share the link, cause I am greedy but I thought I should, so go and check out her blog and leave her a comment, (ps let her know I sent you she doesn't think I have friends)...

PPS have put a few links on this blog so why not go and check out these blogs and tell them Lissa (the not so old but quirky one) sent you???