Progress

In between refining my workshop (how share trading works - an operations perspective) and shooing the baby chooks out of my herb patch....

Some came over to check out the shiny thing in my hand (my camera).  The little rooster on the left is feeling particularly brave after lasting a couple of rounds with Big Red, my fully grown - and 4 times larger - rooster

I've been putting together one of the CFA quilts...the blocks were pieced by some of my wednesday evening ladies and they've done a fabulous job......next to do is the quilting but first I'll have to find some backing before I can throw it on to the Gammill.....thinking flame shapes all over - ladders and flames - must be for the fire brigade of course :-)

Making a stationery box (with blank cards and notelets) for my ma-in-law's birthday...some days she doesn't get out and I thought this would be handy in an emergency - I followed this fabulous tute - and have to say the blank cards I put inside took me longer to make than the box!.

the box packs up to this

when you take the lid off, it opens up to this - space for cards, tags, stamps, a pen and a little booklet for writing down reminders

I've also done some work on my school assignments (so much more to do on those - and time is running out!) and contemplated how I'm going to quilt this...

busy, busy, busy - thanks gawd for school holidays.

Linking up with Cindy's Really Random.......check out the diverse range of doings this week

catching up.....

It has been a little while since I posted last - there's been quite a bit going on this last couple of weeks, not least of which was a wonderful visit by one of my nephews and his gorgeous wife - Ian and Mads usually live in Manchester UK and they took time out to travel very south after a wedding in FNQ (Far North Queensland, Oz), to catch up with family - which was just brilliant - I hadn't seen Ian since he was 15 and now here he was, with a beautiful wife too - we spent a fabulous couple of days and then dropped them off to spend their last night in Melbourne before their flight home - thanks to them both for coming south, putting up with the rotten winter weather and joining in so marvellously with us lot here - it was fantastic sitting around the dinner table on saturday night and getting on with the 'craic' - they also took 'The General' home with them as it is destined for one of my sisters, who just happens to be Ian's mum (Finona, if you're reading this, make sure to remind Ian about it!!)

one of a few photos with various members of the family - I don't think I have one with us all!

I've been knitting - I've pulled it back 4 times but now it looks like this one sock will be finished soon....then onto the next (and the next pair..)

My bestie and I bought a knitting machine - and can't wait to get some time to have a decent play...

it came with wool for practice and all sorts of clever bits and pieces

I bought a new book and it's awesome..

We have some new babies (who were really cheesed off when I stuck my camera with the flash under their cover) - they're too young to go outside overnight as it's still too cold - so they're making a hell of a mess inside!

we have 5 chooks here - 2 black ones and 3 creamy yellow one - I think there's 2 roosters among them (damn - they may be destined for the pot!) - and they're at the very ugly, reptilian dinosaur stage....

...and last, but not least, some fabric I ordered in March arrived - it's called 'Garden go round' and it's really pretty - here's 3 of the bolts - there's about 9 bolts all up - and I have to get off my butt and organise selling it...

and now I have to go to bed - I spent the last couple of days quilting a quilt top for a client on the longarm - I used Aurifil thread for the first time and it broke too many times to mention - drove me absolutely insane and I spent a lot of time unpicking and or sewing ends in......don't think I'll be using it again......good job my bestie was helping me otherwise I think I would have done a Basil Fawlty and wallopped the Gammil!

Busy, busy, busy

As I'm sure everyone else is too - this week I've been concentrating on creating a survey for my patchwork classes next year - it's our Christmas Party today (in about an hour, I best get my skates on..) and it's hosted by the lady I'm taking over from next year.  Chris has been the tutor for around 20 years and is an absolute font of knowledge, let alone a wonderful and generous soul (she's the one who had me adopted into the Threads club - a group of multi-talented ladies who did the course I'm starting next year some time ago - and all have offered help , resources and supplies - I LOVE crafty people.  She's also the one who has encouraged me to take the next step down the teaching path and offered me her timeslots as tutor when she retired - as I say, very generous soul).

The 'classes' really are a general get together where you work on your own thing and Chris is available to help as required; sometimes the ladies don't bring any work with them, they come for the chat (and one lady brings the most divine date scones!).  I know why I joined the class and through the time I spent there this year, I was able to complete my hand pieced Doubled Wedding Ring quilt as well as get to know a group of wonderful ladies with their own stories and experience to share. 

So, I got to thinking, I really need to understand better why these women stay in the class - there really isn't much 'teaching' going on, obviously friendship is a huge part of it - and what is it that I need to do to encourage them to keep coming to class.  So I wrote a survey - I have ideas to introduce a monthly sew-along, incorporating small projects that could be finished in  1-2 sessions.  The remaining time can be spent on their own thing - or a BOM - and create a new quilt - whatever, I'm hoping for a great response rate and have been up making these little pouches as incentive to voice their needs:

I'm going to pick out a random, completed survey and the winner gets to choose one of the little bags.  I've got all bases covered - cute, bright, traditional and japanese fabrics so one of them should suit the winner.

Chris has left me gigantuan shoes to fill but I hope by tailoring a program for the class, I can continue her legacy and provide a place where these women can gather to spend time together, to learn something new and have some fun along the way.

A quick update on the chooks - we've got 5 chicks so far - mum is sitting on about 10 more eggs - we've checked and they all seem viable so we'll wait for another week before we start surreptitiously removing them if they don't hatch (she's very good at donking your hand when it strays too close!)

Here's 4 of her brood - the little blighters won't all stay in the frame at the same time!:

Favourite thing friday

I'm linking up with Shay for favourite things...

I've had a broody chook sitting on 18 eggs - and look what we found yesterday..

The black texta marks were to keep track of the eggs - the mama chook was pushed out the way every day by a couple of the older chooks who insisted on laying their eggs in this box - any in the box without a mark were safe to collect

This is the first - and I've just looked in the box and now there's 3.  I can also see another egg with a little hole in it, so now doubt we'll have no. 4 soon.  This is my favourite thing for this week - the Circle of Life - don't you just love it?

They're just adorable - but it's awfully hot outside (32c or 90F) and they keep hiding behind their mum - I'll try to get another photo with a few more in the frame when it cools down later.