Annie kicked my butt!

10 am :

Vague idea (really very vague) that making a quilt for Mr Ric-Rac's Granny's impending 100th birthday might be a nice thing to do and I cannot think of another thing that a one-hundred year old woman might possible need or want- or that we haven't already given her.

That's a lot of birthdays and Christmases folks!

11am:

Ring Grandma for helpful suggestions and then decide if I have to make anything like she suggested I would rather give granny a gift certificate for colonic irrigation or skydiving. Trust me , it was wrong...................very wrong.

12

Send some emails. Email a quilty friend with technical questions, email Annie ! Confuse myself with lots of questions so ring Annie instead. Blither vaguely to

Mr Ric-Rac about other present ideas for Granny - a nice teapot?

1pm

Decide that maybe a gift voucher would be a good idea as I give myself a good talking to about my inability to finish anything, my lack of quilting knowledge , my growing disinterest in the project and complete lack of inspiration. I'll have to make something all boring and "nanna".

2pm

Annie says she'll visit and bring one of her quilts over to show me how easy it is. I tell her I only have till October to do it.

3pm

Annie arrives and we begin the fabric auditions. We choose from the stash and I am impressed - Time for a cuppa?

Annie says "get out that cutting board- we need 27 eight inch squares." "I'll iron , you cut"

Wow I think, chosen and cut. Maybe this is do-able.

"OK," says Annie "chuck 'em on the floor we need to make 3 blocks of nine squares each. "

4pm

"You sew " says Annie as she passes me each square until the rows are sewn together. Annie runs in and out of the sewing room , ironing the rows while I sew.

She is a hard taskmaster - pointing at the machine every time I stop for a chat.

Then we cut up the big blocks and I have the 12 blocks needed for the quilt.

5pm

We have a beer and a giggle- I give Annie her "blog finished" present. (That means I had meant to sew up the turning hole while she was here but she had me so busy on the quilt that she went home with a pin still in it !)

Annie knows that what we have done so far does not commit me to the project by any means so she has booked me in to go shopping for sashing and backing on Tuesday lunchtime during our craft-at-work time.

5:30

Bye Annie......

Stay tuned folks - this could get interesting..............or it might all end in tears.

Excuse me doctor, I think thats my lung on the floor

O.K, so without being too graphic I have been sick ! I could go into involved explanations, but really - do you want to know the colour of my phlegm? Funnily enough, the doctor did...and my graphic description had him reaching mighty quickly for the prescription pad.

While I have been busy coughing up internal organs and sandpapering the end of my nose off with tissues the rest of the world kept on doing its thing and small shots of happiness were delivered to my bed / couch by way of the postal service and the I-know-mum-is-trying-to-sleep- so-I will-just-play-my bongo-drums-quietly teenage boy.

My blog VIP package from Amitie


A great gifty swap from Sooz big adventure

Gorgeous wool fabric from Cass who scored big at the op-shop and thought I could use some for softies (what a darling). Thanks Cass.

Delicious new fabrics from Retro Mummy

A double whammy of goodness from Robyn who sent me this great bag when I won a giveaway on her blog and also this scrumptious apron as part of my Pay-it-Forward gift. The attention to detail is amazing , and I love the covered button closure on the bag and of course being a collector of aprons , I really love this gift.

You know in blog land you often see posts where people say -"Oh there was also chocolate in the parcel but I ate it before I could take a photo" ...yes, well with me it is a bit like that with selvedges, so yes I did receive a parcel of selvedges from Christie as well but they have already been consumed by the big project.

I am thinking of just randomly hanging out at the two patchwork shops in town and approaching customers as they leave ....."pssst got any spare selvedge........?" I mean I have had the look down pat , disgusting bag-lady dressing gown worn over any odd assortment of clothes, hacking cough, questionable hygiene, breath of death.....

"come on, help a chick get back on her feet......anything you can spare....just to tide me over...I used to be like you , you know, I had it under control........c'mon , just a few inches.......

Sunday !

Do you come here often?

I have been wanting to make a simple softie for ages. You guys have seen some of my misguided attempts.

I wanted something without too many bits and pieces that would be quickish to complete. I find simplicity quite hard at times - I always always always want to add more.

This week while I was at work I drew up a picture of these guys and had to hang out till today to get a chance to get into the sewing room.

Can you imagine the fun I can have with these?

How about "I'm a softie at heart". Maybe "show us yer stash".

"I think therefor I blog"

Of course being a bit of a potty mouth , I have already whipped one up that will be a gag gift for a friend. (Didn't pass censorship ). How about some cheesy pick-up lines?.......

"Do you come here often"

Or what about "Your'e Dumped" painful and to the point yes, but delivered by a softie has to be better than a text message or whatever dumpers use these days.

I have a feeling you guys are going to get sick of these long before I do.

The big questions !

It is not often that I edit posts, I usually just log in and waffle on but I have rewritten this massive apology three times, I have explained and spelt it out and put up a pretty good argument in my own defence............ but all I really want to say is this.

I really really suck at the whole tags, awards and memes thing. I am sorry.

I mean , it is not that I don't appreciate them. If you have given me award I thank you.

I would have read it and probably got a bit embarrassed and then started to think about who to pass it on to. I would have started to worry about who to include and then worried even more about who leave out. I may have even jotted down a few people only to find out they had already received it last week.

I mean , is it like a birthday party invitation? you know.... like in grade three when the really mean girl who stood on your lunchbox invited you to her party and even though you pretended you were sick and didn't go, your mum still made you invite her to your party in return (not that any mean lunch-box squashers have tagged me of course- just nice bloggy people).

Do I just pass these things on to my real life bloggy friends so they feel obliged to join in?

Is it a huge bloggy faux pas not join in? Will I be struck off the giant nice-bloggers list and put on the naughty list? Will there be coal in my stocking this year because I am so hopeless? Do I appear like a Mrs Big Head if I don't play?

If this is a craft blog (and I use that term loosely) do people really want to know what I had for breakfast or what I was doing twenty years ago ? Could I remember what I was doing twenty years ago?) I can't remember what I did yesterday.

What was I doing twenty years ago?

Miss Eloise and I have been discussing this all morning, and I have to say things got a little heated. I am not proud to admit that I may have actually pointed out to her in a rather unpleasant tone that as she is actually Eloise NO-BLOG she couldn't possibly understand the extreme pressure and stress I am under, and as such had no right to comment !

So Miss Eloise yawned and went off to play with her sequins.....and you what?

When faced with those things bigger than ourselves, the existential thoughts, the big questions of life the universe and blogging, when all our problems seem insurmountable (after 6 nights with very little sleep) and the questions unanswerable......

I think yawning and playing with sequins is as good an answer as any.

Softies for Mirabel round two

Suffice to say this week is HUGE ! We have bumped in (ALL DAY yesterday) and the show starts on Wednesday. I do not expect to be in bed on the responsible side of Midnight until Sunday night . Miss Jemma (Dorothy in the Wiz) is coping admirably and is getting very excited. You need to know I am far more nervous than she is.

I missed posting last night, but wanted to let you all meet Mirabel again and let you know she is currently on Ebay in round 2 of the softies for Mirabel auctions. This is an auction to raise money for the Mirabel Foundation

In nutshell she has 3 reversible dresses, some swimmers with floaties, a cardigan, a scarf, a handbag (of course), a duffle coat with hood, a sunhat, a set of shorts and monster T-shirt, some pink linen pyjamas, a dressing gown and some bunny slippers. She also has a small selvedge quilt and a zip up bag in "dick and Jane" fabric to carry everything in and a tiny weeny little toy to sit in her pocket and keep her company.

I didn't win any of the softies I was bidding on last round as I away from the computer all day yesterday , so luckily this weeks offerings are just as cute. I have my heart set one or two of them (really I want four but that would just be greedy)

Just because....

Just because all the crafting I am doing at the moment is so brain-numbingly boring, I thought you might like to meet this little guy.

He was really fun to make - I cracked myself up with the surfboard.

On the dolly front - Miss Mirabel is coming up in the next round of

Softies For Mirabel auctions

this Sunday night.

If you want to check her out you can take a look at this post. She is a bit naughty but Pip tells me she has been very good lately and has not been calling people poo- poo heads at all. She has a little selvedge quilt to bring with her and she and all her clothes and accessories come in a zippered bag. I'll post the link on Sunday night when she is up.

The first lot of the kits are ready at long last - I know it has taken forever. These kits are of the little bluebird cages. I will pop them in the shop tonight at about 9pm.

Maybe by next week I will have some with red birds

maybe.............

( Thankyou for all the lovely birthday wishes. I wish you could all come over here for cake. I'd even tidy up the sewing room for you......and you know I wouldn't do that for just anybody.

It took me a while to figure out how everyone knew.

Thankyou Annie!)