Confessions of a Novice Blogger

The previous blog, posted yesterday, was in fact written on the last day of last term. I was intending to take just one more photo and then post it...

Then the  school holidays struck with force. Everyone was sick. Princess E, the introvert saw too much of us all, The boy, an extrovert, didn’t see enough of his friends, and  I was a grumpy sick Mummy (and didn’t feel better until end of the second week).

We did have some fun times – went swimming, maxed out all our cards as the library (20 books X four cards!),  everyone had some time with Grandma and Granda and plenty of games with Dad.

I got my assignment finished enough to relax about that at least and it’s handed in now.

Here’s a picture of the last day of school –Pyjama day for preschool  and a opposite Mufti day for the school kids.

Blessings,

Cheri

Work Completed

My Man ran away with my computer on Wednesday (That was part of the deal... I get a mini machine and he uses it for work trips!). But... I couldn't write my assignment. So...  I wrote my self a list of things today and settled into finishing Princess E's duvet cover...it took me all day.

I finished it in time to throw it over her as she came in the door from school. She promptly grabbed a "fairy book" and read on her bed under it until tea time. She loves the soft backing, a random furnishing fabric I found for $4/m from Morelands Fabric Outlet, in Palmy.

I started by pin basting it, which turned into to red thread basting when I ran out of pins.
(210cm x140cm x 1 pin/ 10cm = lots of pins!)

As for the quilting. I tried free hand quilting around the hearts but wasn't happy with the results, let along the process! (Did I mention I don't like wrestling big quilts?) I'm attempting to give up the fantasies of free hand quilting on large items but the dream isn't dying easily...

So I got out the walking foot and with the 'roll up the sides' method, quilted wavy lines, roughly parallel, (that's why I made them wavy - so they could be 'roughly' and it not matter!)

Project completed - except for a wash which isn't going to happen soon with ran and storms for two weeks straight at least.

Although, the sun is attempting to show this morning!
Yay - I need the boost - feeling a bit fluy and am planning to write my assignment all morning - it's due after the school holiday, so I'm trying to get it done before, only today left...

Blessings,

Cheri.

Works in Progress

Here's a couple of things we've been working on:

Princess E decided she wanted a flowery duvet cover and as a quilter, I couldn't settle for a 'normal' one (the light cotton ones drive me nuts as the duvet moves around and doesn't lie flat). We headed for Spotlight and she bought these fabrics with 'her own money'. I've contributed an old woolen blanket and quilted it behind the top. The backing is coming soon. Hopefully it'll last longer that way as the soft flannelet isn't very strong or closely woven. I replaced the blanket with another one from the Hospice Op shop for $5.50. Much cheaper than woolen batting. More photos coming later...

The Boy wanted a piece of the action a while back and choose these fabrics as

a blanket for his 'babies'. I'll post a picture of them all tucked in sometime.

I'm at home in the thick of my assignment and extra kids at home, one 'sick'. The Boy coughed all night and had trouble waking up so we erred on the side of keeping him home. He's having a fantastic morning playing with Madam Four. We'll see how things go for the obligatory sleep/rest after lunch for all sick people.

Blessings

Cheri.

It's my Birthday and I can study if I want to...

The day was spent at Massey University for a contact course for my Social work course.

It's not to heavy a load for the two days (another one tomorrow) and I enjoy the change of scenery (I only have 8 of these days for the year, the rest of the course is at home, extramurally).

I caught the early bus - out of the house by 7.15am so I can dedicate the day to study and avoid making breakfast and lunch :)

So being my birthday...

 I came home to a house full of excited children awaiting with balloons, cards, presents, chocolate, dinner cooked by hubby with soup by my friend and hot chips from the local, flowers from mum, cake from my Palmerston North Grandma (delivered complete with the required amount of candles:

 

I don't feel terribly old but there's enough candles to be impressive... 

 But not scary for long.

All the helpers for the blowing out.

(Quick to reduce spit factor :} )

33 sounds much easier to remember than the numbers before!

Blessings, Cheri

Art Restoration - a messy job.

We live our lives under works of art.

Our late 1920s bungalow has ornate plaster ceilings and our current 'home renovation' project is restoring them to their glory!

 Looking closely on this picture you can see cracks in the paint on the bottom left quarter. Our plasterer craftsman tells us that these ceiling were originally whitewashed and when they were first painted people often just painted over the whitewash, not knowing the paint would not stick well. Later generations have sanded the cracks, skim plastered and then repainted.

Without the luxury of  that ignorance we're taken the advise of our expert and have been pealing off the paint and washing off the whitewash. This photo shows a pale yellow area, stripped and washed, a darker area that needs to be washed and the detailed areas we haven't stripped as the paint appears to stick better there and we're only stripping what we need to.

The stripping is quite satisfying - it comes off far too easily! The washing is more effort - the whitewash comes off well but it's thick and my rag and then my bucket gets quickly saturated with the stuff. The worst patches are where someone has patched with new plaster and so the paint is sticks properly!

My job is the striping and washing and my man has started plastering and will sand then paint it with an oil based sealer before the ceiling paint.

We have at least three rooms to do and Miss Four insists her room needs doing - "I've can see cracks". Her and Mr Six have been earning money by scooping up the paint and putting it in the rubbish bag.

Some days a shower is just the best thing!

Blessings, Cheri

Sewing and Unpicking Cushions

Today is Thursday and this morning is my study-work time, as I tell the kids, one of whom is home with me today. Hopefully it will be boring enough for her to want to be at Preschool, and to want to be well behaved at Preschool. Madam Four is now one of the oldest left (in NZ you start school on your fifth birthday) and thinks she has a chance at being the boss!

On to the cushions mentioned above:
One day I'll tell you about my friend Chrisy sometime but for now: she made my Mum a quilt and I'm using the scraps to make some cushions to go with it.

This one I'm really happy with.

But...if you have a fine eye for detail you 'll see that squares are all equal, not allowing any seam allowance. I was purposely not taking hours to work things out and got my maths wrong. It was either chop the middle smaller or make other cushions with the triangles. I chose the former as I was so happy with the colours.

Cushion Two

I wasn't happy about the higher contrast of the triangles here but didn't trust my judgement and started sewing. I've now unpicked them and are thinking about using greens:

In the scraps from quilt there was only darker greens of sufficient size so I'm thinking about adding on from my stash (after all there's no rules, are there!). I'm leaning towards the one with gold and red leaves and flowers in the top left corner with the green that's in every corner (which comes from the quilt). Any suggestions?

Best go and use my study-work time to make notes for the assignment I'm writing about social work assessment. A somewhat dry topic but one I recognise as important. The main task is to not get distracted with the interesting bits in the books I ordered from the library!

Also to not get stiff cold fingers while  typing in my sleepout/study

on this almost frosty morning in the Manawatu.

Blessings, Cheri