Saturday, October 15, 2011

How have you all been .... Probably busy busy ... Me ... I have been busy too ... but it would appear that I have been doing very little for all of my busyness .... The weeks fly by and I get older and older and I get busier and busier ... But it all seems to produce less and less as time goes by ...
 
And as the weeks approach I make grand plans filling in days on my calendar and adding bits to my 'to-do' list ... but I tend to find the same things being put on these lists over and over again ... Maybe I am totally unorganised ... or maybe not as good at time management as I thought I was ... or maybe I don't get much achieved cos I am just plain out and out muddle minded ... lol..
 
Oh well ... let's see what this next week will bring .. getting put on the lists are ..
 
swap blocks to complete .... and
 
a quilt for my grandson's 18th birthday to cut out and hopefully start on .... and ...
 
hubby is going away for 6 weeks working and I have to prepare and freeze meals etc for him while he is away ....
 
hmmm ... I hope my time management and to-do lists start working or he will be very hungry over the coming weeks ... haha .. because I see the sewing things getting priority .....
 
 

Friday, October 14, 2011

Have you ever lost ...

The pattern sheet from your quilting magazine ... ??? ... Isn't it annoying ???

There you are reading through the lovely (and well fingered) pages in your quilting mag and think to yourself ... 'self .. that would be fun to make' ... so you get all your bits and bobs ready .. and then go to get the pattern sheet from the centre of the book .. just to find it is not there ... and oh where on earth could it be ... probably tucked away in of one of the other (1,000) magazines you have stashed in your sewing room ... gone .. but not forgotten ...

This was shown to me by a lady from the US .. I purchased a mag from her via ebay years ago and it is something I try to do when I pull the pattern sheet out .. Hopefully it will help you stay intouch with all those pages you are forced to rip from the centre of your magazine .. and once ripped .. easily lost ... sometimes forever ............

Firstly I take a plastic sleeve .... A4 is plenty big enough ... then I pop that plastic sheet into the back of the magazine .. just inside the back cover ... and using my rotary cutter and ruler I trim the plastic sleeve back to just under the cover size ... this will fit the pattern insert ..



Then trimming the side with the reinforced edge and  the top of the sleeve at the opening ...




Next I have to repair the side of the plastic sleeve so the pattern pages don't fall out ..  this is simply done with cello tape ... neatly down the side ...





Then I put double sided tape on the back side of the sleeve ... and with the pattern sheets inside the sleeve I remove the paper from the double sided tape ... if the pattern sheets are not in the sleeve the sleeve tends to move all over the place and the tape sticks to itself and trust me ... it can become very frustrating ... to the point of ... having to leave the room .. maybe grab a bottle .. i mean a glass of alcoholic beverage and then return to start all over again ... so .. by just popping the pattern into the sleeve you can still have your drink and enjoy your work ...





Then you carefully lay the whole thing onto the inside of the back cover of your magazine ...








And there it is .. preserved for all time ... in the correct mag .... safe and sound for the next usage ... that is ... as long as you remember to put it back in there once you are done ....

Happy stitching ...

Wednesday, October 12, 2011

i really suck at blogging!!!! lol

I have been getting little reminders from my sweet friend that my blog is still not been updated .. and as I truly promised I would do something HERE I AM ... haha ...

I really am not very disiplined at all ... at anything really ... like this morning .. I have just finished writing out birthday cards for three of my grandsons ... one had his birthday last month .. one on the 5th of this month and the others birthday is friday .. and his card will also be late as it won't travel fast enough to get there in time ... I really do start the year with good intentions ... but that lasts all of January ... and then it goes down hill from there ... but I am pretty certain once the cards are open and the $$$ fall out the children don't care that the card is late ... gee I don't even think half of them read the card to find out who it is from ... haha .. they are just happy to get the cash ...

I have been doing a touch of sewing ... some block swaps ..which I am pretty sure I am behind in ... and .. a ring cushion for my niece for her wedding last saturday ... I have been asked to make a couple more too ... so maybe I can generate a few $$$ for the grandies birthdays by making these .... I do really enjoy these little cushions ... they are very relaxing and certainly get the creative juices flowing ...


The best part of making this was the look on the brides face when she saw it ... now that really was priceless ....  I love you my darling Lesleigh-Ellen ... and I just know you and your Casey will have a long and very happy life together ....