WOYWW 4th Anniversary

Four years... it seems totally unreal that this weekly jaunt through peoples' desks and craft spaces is 4 years old.  I first started doing WOYWW when we were living in Saudi Arabia in 2009, since then we have lived in Canada, had 6 months at home in Scotland and now we are in Australia.  I am sure that Julia has no idea what her weekly WOYWW really means to many of us.  To me, it is a wonderful constant in my ever changing world, a connection to so many like minded people, many of whom have become personal friends even though we have never actually met!

These are the ATC's I made for the 4th Anniversary Swap.  I thought the theme of Time Flies was appropriate for the anniversary.

All stamped with WOYWW4 and today's date.

Backs all signed and dated.

and little protector envies to keep them safe on their travels

and into their stamped envelopes, which have been addressed and stamped and are on their way...

except for the list one... which will go in the post as soon as I know who it belongs to!! Eugene, the wee mannie that runs my local post office (I know, it says a lot that I have only lived here a few weeks and we are on first name terms) was impressed with the envelopes and promised to put proper Ozzie stamps on them... none of that printed out version because I said they were going to artists!!  Way to go... so now all my swappees are artists... because Eugene and I said you were... ;)

Thank you Julia.  Here's looking at another 4 years!!

It is also our Grandaughter's First Birthday today... Happy Birthday Caitlyn!

WOYWW - 22nd May 2013

Here we are again ready to do the rounds of the blogs of the world! I actually have two desks going at the moment (3 if you count the one I am sitting typing at)!  

When I was unpacking new furniture and things I found a couple pieces of cardboard that looked fabulous... and Chris, bless his heart, he didn't even query why I would want to keep them, just nodded in that resigned sort of masculine way that indicated he was prepared to just go with the flow, even though we had a garage full, floor to ceiling, of the stuff!  So I gathered a few bits and pieces from various drawers and cubbyholes and had sat them all on the desk till a light bulb lit up in my head.

Just look at it... I just knew it was going to be fabulous if I peeled a bit of the paper covering off!

It reminds me of honeycombs... I keep expecting to see a bee buzzing around my head at any moment.

This is it at the pre-glue it all down stage... so it may look nothing like this in the end and has been moved to a table next to me while I figure out what to do next... 

and on my desk is this... yes, ATC's for next week!  I am going to make 12, one for the woyww4 list and 4 others already have homes to go to.  That means there are 7 going begging... so if you would like one, mention it in the comments and I will do a first come first served.  I allotted $30 to postage for these but if that gets bumped up, I may make a few more, but there are no guarantees! LOL

If you are reading this and wondering what on earth I am rabbiting about go to our esteemed leader's desk here and read all about it... you really won't regret it!

The Poppy Finale

If you saw the post about making the poppy quilt here then you will know what I am talking about.

I had a bit of a sharp learning curve with bias binding and mitred corners... which actually sounds as if I was a success at both but in reality I sort of winged it!  But, not being the type of person that will allow lack of skill on my part to stop me from doing something I persevered!!

I decided that the big pillow with the large bow would look better with the black edging like the quilt, so I had another go at the bias binding and edged the poppy material and it was a success!

 I found out two things with regard to bias binding, the first is that you should sew your strips of bias together before you iron them in half... it saves a heap of grief if your brain is totally incapable of figuring out what direction something is going to go when you join them with that slanted sewing seam, the second is that no matter how much bias binding your brain says you will need by measuring and adding all the sides up... do an extra strip, because if you run out two inches from the end it is really not funny.   Of course, I didn't actually have to mitre any corners for the bow but it did give me the boost I needed to try them once more.

Ta da!  I had a spare bit of poppy material so thought I would make a place mat for the bedside table And yes the mitred corners are more mitred rounders... but I am getting better!! LOL

Voila!  The guest bed is all dressed up and ready, complete with cats! ;)

The raggedy poppy quilt from hell...

it seemed like such a good idea at the time.... but when I sewed all the squares up some of them didn't match! :(  and it was supposed to be queen size but then I decided that it actually looked better as a runner across the end of the bed... to keep guests feet warm. (that is my story and I am sticking to it).  

So then I think that it would look really nice with a narrow border around it... in quilty peeps terminology this is known as binding the edge of the quilt.... but I didn't have any red material just a large piece of plain black and I liked the stark contrast of the black edging so went YouTubing to find out how to do it... first you have to make bias binding... that was fun... NOT and then I watched fifteen YouTubes clips on how to do the binding and fell under the spell of this lady who made it look easy.... no really, she made it look easy and said it would take about 20 minutes and used terms like 'easy as pie' when it came to doing the corners.... that must have been a typo in speech terms because it took me all day and I invented some new words when it came to mitering those corners... even the cats decided that it would be better to go upstairs and sleep in their new tree than remain down here in the scraproom with me and the sewing machine! ;)

But... it is done and I love it!  Poppies for my guests who have to share with my scrap space... and I will only invite polite people who wouldn't dream of inspecting the seams too closely or make comments about the squares not lining up nicely in places... and I will make them pancakes and maple syrup for breakfast which should be ample compensation for their discretion!!

and it is double sided for those people who would prefer not to see a raggedy quilt... Tom-Tom has also given it his seal of approval.

What's on Your Work Wednesday - 8th May 2013

I'm back!  We moved in to the house two weeks ago and I am all unpacked and sorted! The scrap room was the last place to sort and I am exceedingly happy that it is now done.

The room I chose for the scraproom is in the basement and has a little nook study on the side and a shower room... it will also be the guest bedroom if anyone decides to come and visit.  Hopefully any guests won't mind sharing it with my stash! On my desk today is a light weight quilt cover I am making for the guest bed.

I have started it as a half quilt... I didn't want to put myself off on seeing it full queen size and think I will tackle it better in two halves!! LOL

This is my scrap desk and new Expedit units (to replace the ones I left behind in Calgary because they didn't fit in the container for shipping)!

This is the other half of it, think it will work out fine for what I want to do.

Just to prove I have not been sitting about on my bum... this is the lounge/dining room.

and this is the bearded dragon lizard that lives in my back garden!

One of the things that attracted me to this house was this... an outside cat run for Tom-Tom and Pandy.

They love being able to go outside and sit in the sun.. the sides and roof have cat net completely covering it so they can't wander off.

Tom-Tom... very glad to be home again.

Pandy loving sitting in the sun hidden by the ficus tree.