Putting a Line under 2-0-1-9

DH Retired December 31st, 2018 and I thought we were to spend our early "Getting to know ourselves again" time Wandering Wineries and Windswept Beaches.  

The 2019 Bushfires put those ideas on hold. 

2019 was also the Year we decided to start a Temperature Quilt.  

He meticulously recorded the Highs and Lows each day of his first Retirement year and whether we had Rain or Shine.

I started pulling Fabrics and piecing Blocks and even made a couple of Progress Posts on my Blog. 

The Blocks started to become a Quilt over the year and early 2020.

Somewhere between my Post of the 5th March and the next on the 18th March Covid had made it's way here and it was time to take it seriously. 

Monash University had been planning for On-line and Remote learning since February, with many of their Students stranded overseas. 

And making working from Home possible became the top priority.

Work on my Quilt also stopped, Like so many of us - At the Borders!  

It was in danger of becoming a UFO - Unable to decide on how to finish it, It was put Aside but not Away.

I went to move it the other day and thought "What is Stopping me Finishing This?"  

My newly acquired Very Empty Workspace soon filled with a Very large Quilt.  It may just be the biggest Temperature Quilt ever made.

The Final wide Yellow Border 
(For Hope for the Future) was now sewn to the Grey Smoke - a Reminder of the Horrific Bushfires of 2019

Hexagon "Stepping Stones" recording the Wonderful Weather on our Trip to Darwin, and Our Retirement treat of the return Journey on The Ghan are Appliqued onto it - 

With a Celebration for the Last Stitch!

It is now Pressed and waiting now Lockdown No 5 is over so I can get it to the Quilter.  

I look at it and I think that This was to be the start of New Beginnings for Us.

And now it is a Reminder of the Precious Freedom we enjoyed -      -Before Covid.

Getting Side-tracked.

The decision to move the hand worked EPP to the Sewing Table was in theory a good one. However, I quickly came to the realisation that there was too much clutter on my table.

The solution was to tidy up - which in true fashion always starts Somewhere Else!  In my case it was under the table.  

Of course all my Cake Decorating Equipment and Ectaras that are minding their own cluttered business in drawers needed to be sorted.

And then once they were neat and Tidy. 

The Table that is under my Table needed sorting as well.

Icing Bags and Nozzles now sit beside Photography bits and bots.

Together with the Scrap Fabric Bin and my Mother's ancient Laptop.

And then the reason for the whole distraction was to move my Printer (Re: Holiday Scrapbook Project) onto the top of the Horn Sewing Cabinet. This houses my Overlocker, so that also needed cleaning off.  

And finally, the Scan and Cut found a Home back in the Sewing Room.

While that was happening I remembered that Officeworks now Recycles 'Dead Pens'.

Awesome! Another side-track.  Locate all the dead pens and bundle them up to go to the Shop.... after lockdown.

Eventually - I had an empty Workspace!  I sat and admired it for what was left of that day, contemplating that I may have too many Hobbies. 

Mystery Quilt - Another Catch up

The last Progress report on my Mystery Quilt from Jemima's Creative Quilting was back in March where I had just finished Part 10.

Part 11 involved making 24 Rosettes which were to begin the rows that Square up the Quilt.

They were all finished by the 11th June.

The quilt is getting much bigger and I can no longer work on my knee while watching TV.

The hexagons were also getting damaged requiring some repairs. 

So moving to the sewing table was the best place for stitching them to the growing quilt. 

However - At that time we were also Cat Sitting for our Son. 

Doogal apparently, is an undercover member of the Quilt Police and decided I needed to be observed intently!

In the meantime I have been unsettled with working on this project.  I remember that I started this to take me out of my 'comfort zone' in Colour and Fabrics but there was just something that wasn't right.

DH came to the conclusion that the Centre was "Too Light and Unbalanced" and suggested replacing the centre Hexagon 
(Yes - the First piece of the Quilt) 
with a darker fabric.

It took a bit of work to reinsert all the papers carefully back into the Second row before unpicking the Central Light hexagon and replacing it with a Dark Blue. 

His idea, was that this will now draw your eye to the Centre and not be overwhelmed by a lot of Lights.

It is better but in hindsight I would choose different Light Tones for the Quilt. 

There was just not enough definition between my lights and mediums for the Centre.

Part 11 is now complete.

I am working on Part 12.  

Now that The Quilt is no longer a Mystery, I can choose to work on each row or complete a Corner at a time.

Something to Contemplate!

Half Hexi Challenge.

Since January I have been participating in a Challenge Group on Instagram that is making Blocks from Focus (Fussy) Cutting HALF HEXAGONS.

It would seem that I haven't given my Blog Readers an Update on this project since April.

MARCH: Our Theme was BOOKS 

(and International Women's Day)

My Blocks featured:

The Adventures of Blinky Bill
Pooh Bear
Jungle Book

The Thursday Next Series
as well as A Bookworm in the Library

Also a Tribute to all the Women in Science

APRIL: Had a Theme of GARDENS.

My Blocks showed that I have a Bee Hive in my Garden,

New Holland Honeyeaters visit  our Grevilleas on occasion

and Snails  - They come out at night and graze on the Lawn!

As well as the Fish Pond - with no fish at the moment.

MAY: Was a month that featured the SENSES.

I used our Trip away as inspiration.

Starting with the Sound of Music I also included the Sound of the Train on the Tracks.

The Smell of freshly Ground Coffee. (A Good Cup was hard to find.)

Sight - A Classic Aussie Outback Sunset.

Taste - The Food and Wine that was available for all to enjoy and Finally Touch. 

My block was made of 'Gold Leaves' for our visit to the Perth Mint.

JUNE: The Theme was TRAVEL.

Was I ahead of my Time or an Inspiration? I didn't ask!

These blocks saw me finding Fabric with Medallions from all the Capitol Cities in Australia (That I have visited.)

The Wheels on a Yellow School Bus from Michigan was my Hidden motif.

Caravanning "Down the Peninsula"  hit the brief for our Pattern Matching week.

AND - April in Paris!  A 'Never in my Wildest Imagination' Trip away.

That brings me up to date with the Focus Cutting Challenge - marking our halfway point with Week 26.

Note:  You can see my Posts on these Individual blocks on AUSSIE.KILTED.QUILTER on Instagram.

Constantly playing Catch up.

In my defense - My Laptop has died! So - This post is being brought to you by...

My Mother's very ancient and never used Dell Inspiron which is running Windows 7.  
It's a long story involving DB, a Nephew that moved to Darwin and a Mother that is a HUGE technophobe.

We are in Lock down - AGAIN. Version 5.0 and the shops are shut for anything other than Click and Collect. So what better time to work out if I actually need a new 'you beaut, all the whistles and bells' computer just to write my Blog?

The poor thing has no programs to speak of other than Office 2010 so I will have to find a photo editing program that will actually work on Windows 7.  Maybe there is something in the "Great Stack of Useless" before they go to Recycle?

I suppose that this experiment will also help with the Other question which is "What do I do with a 14 year old laptop that is basically in Mint Condition!"

The Verdict?

It is actually a nice machine with a large non reflective screen.  I think it will certainly make a very good back-up for Word processing and Internet searching and watching Tutorial Videos in the Sewing Room. And the odd 'Instagram Style' Blog Post.