The end is nigh...

The end of the month is coming up fast, REAL fast, and my monthly to do list is 50% completed and still have so many things to do.

I am thinking that I won't beat myself up about not doing the whole list, but I will make an honest attempt to do as much of it as I can, and whatever is left over can be put to the top of next months list.

I was catching up on Google Reader with the blogs that I follow and realised that I had forgotten to pick up this weeks pattern for Stitchers Angel 2009 because of our spontaneous weekend away, and WOW!! I really like this pattern. I think this could be such a handy gift for christmas, and I think I know exactly the right person that it would suit, (mothers-in-law, can be so hard to shop for).

I have completed block 2 of my Angel BOM. I ended up doing the pieced blocks by hand, because I always need to have some sort of hand piecing project on the go. These are so good when you are relaxing after dinner and your not really interested in what is happening with the television.

I dug out my cross stitch project bag during the week and discovered that somewhere during our house moving my folder that housed my pattern for "Miss Hathaways Garden" got separated from the rest of the bag. So I spent two days searching in all the places I thought it could be, and decided that I would give up for the moment because it is probably tucked away in one the many boxes that are still packed. So I have had to put that project aside for the time being and will hopefully make some progress on "Purr-fect Patterns" by Paula Vaughan. I am half way through this stitchery.

I still have some photos from our trip last weekend and here is a picture of one of the cubby holes in one of my storage units. I was playing with the macro on my camera. I figure that if I don't play with it how am I going to get any better at taking pictures.

Until next time, happy stitching

Out and about...

Sorry but I have been "MIA" so to speak. Mainly trying to get some of my September to do list out of the way, but also because we just decided to on the spur of the moment to visit my parents in Russell.

I forget how nice it is at this time of year, blossoms and blooms everywhere, house maintenance going on all over the place (minor fixes after winter) and not as many tourists around. The car ferry trip over was absolutely beautiful, but for the rest of the weekend we got to be the "tourists". I didn't realise that there were so many places that I hadn't taken my husband to, you would think that after 20 years of marriage you would have shown him all those wonderful places you got to enjoy as a child (but then again, you tend to take these things for granted).

He wanted to go up to the flagstaff, the views from here are
wonderful, (you don't appreciate those as a child, and because you've already seen it, you don't go back), my biggest mission was trying to get both the flag pole in Russell and the flag pole in Waitangi in the same photo. Not that easy as you will see, the odd white outline on the left of this photo is the flagpole in Russell and over in the distance you can just make out the one in Waitangi.

Over on another part of the hilltop is a giant sundial, and the base is made up of a mosaic of the Bay of Islands, we were trying to pick out where my parents live and the township.

Look at what was right in front of our car when we parked it.

Our next stop was the next bay and we decided to go for a walk around the rocks, really because I knew there was another bay on the other side. It was so lovely and private, so we sat there and talked and looked for "sea gems", (old glass) and basically wasted the rest of the afternoon, dreaming about what we would do in the future, like what to have for dinner that night.

Mum and Dad lead such an active life here that from Thursday to Sunday they eat out at all sorts of different places. What a great life, I am definitely going to retire here, hubby wants to begin retirement next month, after we have broken the sad news to the kids. (I can see that going down like a big lump of dirt)....

So I am going to take myself back to the secluded bay and dream some more, because in those dreams I have completed all these "to do's" and living the dream.

Until next time, happy stitching

I just can’t help myself…

I’ve been plodding along nicely doing all my little mini projects to get some of my WIP’s completed. If I must say so myself, I think I’m doing quite well. But I do want to begin on my quilted diamonds.

Now hand piecing is my all time favorite thing to do when quilting. I like to sit and just sew away, it is so nice to have my hands working away with needle and thread, and still be “present” with my family.

That is the only thing that I don’t like about machine piecing, it “takes” me away from my family in the sense that I am so focused on using the sewing machine and getting as much of what I am working on completed that I need to be in a separate room.

Until next time, happy stitching

Been there, done that…

Well so much progress was made last month. I can’t believe how much of my “To Do” list I actually got done. I surprised myself, when going through it all and began crossing off items and eventually I got to the end of the list and everything had been crossed off. Yeehaa!!!

I know that my list looks a bit, shall I say “Over the Top”, “Too much information” maybe, but, for me to get anything done, I really need to break it down like this or I will get nowhere. Honestly!!!

I have so many projects that I have started and I get maybe the first couple of blocks together, or three quarters of the top made and I hit a speed hump, (like shifting house, and everything is so difficult to locate because even though boxes were labeled and inventories taken of said boxes, everything is still 85% in storage and I am unable to carry on, don’t you just hate that, I do), anyway, I digress, once the speed hump has approached all I can think about is the next project. How it's going to look, what colours it will have, and then "If I start it now, maybe I will get this project finished because I have lost interest in the one I am already working on".

So am I the only own that this happens to? Would you believe I already I have 12 projects that I have started within the last 12 months. These are all packed up in boxes and I work through a mini project on the more important projects at least once every month. But, I also have 4 projects that I have only just begun to receive as BOM projects and I would so love to have begun all 4 projects, like, last week.

I am currently keeping the urge in check. But as a self confessed quilt project beginner. I also feel that I may need help in keeping my urges under control. So that I may be able to concentrate on completing projects rather that just starting them.

Until next time, happy stitching