October roundup and Some me time...

I made only one commitment for the month of October.

The wedding dresses.

Anything beyond those would be a bonus.

On October 9th a very exciting and tempting new toy arrived, but I was focused.

On Saturday Chooky held a special Cancer zoom. In order to gain an invite first we had to make a donation to a Cancer organisation. I chose Cancer Society NZ. As they were recently very supportive to our family.  

I was able to put the finishing touches to the wedding dresses. They are finished, done.

The bride came for one last try on and brought her flower girl along too. The girls who were on zoom at the time got to see them both in their dresses. A special preview peek. Jewels too!

Once Lee and Charmaine had left I was able to relax and get on with some me sewing. so out came my Blue lanterns.

It went from this...

To this.

A whole blue row and the beginnings of the next white row. Eleven blocks were added.

I also cut fabric and basted it onto the last few papers needed to complete the top.

There will be one more row of blue and a row of partial whites. Nearly finished.

While on zoom I went stash diving and showed the girls my ideas for the next one. We settled on Batiks. More about that another time.

We had a lovely day and between us raised just over $1000AUS. Chooky converted all the international amounts to Aus $$ to get the total.

Thank you Chooky for a great day.

Work got in the way of life for a day or two, as it does, but today is the first of 7 days off. I took annual leave over the weekend, for the wedding but the other days were rostered. It's nice when I can get a whole week off but only use two days of leave.

After a morning in the kitchen I set about finally playing with the upgrade that my lovely husband purchased for my quilting machine. It's been here since the 9th and installed and working since the 11th-12th October. 

A Grace Surestitch regulator. 

My old stitch regulator was a very basic model and I was having some bad issues with it. Fingers crossed all goes well with this wonderful upgrade. I was very happy with my efforts this morning. The 'Pacific' pantograph was still on the bed of the frame, so I just used that after loading some large off cuts of fabric and batting.

All went very well. In manual mode I was fine, the regulated stitches will take a bit of practice though. LOL

Buoyed on by my success I pulled out my 'Ready Set Sew' quilt that I purchased as a kit from Jude last year. It didn't take long to find backing and batting and to get them all loaded on to the frame.

I also loaded a new to me pantograph.

Some clamshells.

I've done a few rows and I'm very happy with how things are going.

So there you have it. October is over and I achieved my goal.

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November goals will include the final Chookshed goal. Which for me is to complete some cross stitched Christmas ornaments.

Everyone else has completed their Chookshed challenge, the last one was scheduled for October, but I gave myself a pass to focus on the wedding dresses.

I might leave it at that. A nice easy goal and anything else will be a bonus.

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The wedding is Saturday, three sleeps away. I'll be back with photos of the October goal after that.

Keep your fingers crossed for a beautiful day.

Acquisitions

Tony and I had a day out on Friday. We hopped in the car and headed to Christchurch. About a two hour drive away. We visited a few shops for a look about. He found some paint for his model and we visited a new to us store, Art and Frame, which stocks some beautiful giftwares as well as artwork, they have a framing service and also have a great cross stitch collection. I found a pattern to bring home.

This is the second in a series of three. I stitched one and gifted it as my swap at Baradine last year.  Now if I could just find the Christmas pattern....

I also treated myself to a new embroidery hoop. I read on a fb group that these Nurge hoops are the best there is at the moment.

The bride and flower girls dresses are progressing. 

Yesterday was club day, so my EPP progressed also. No pic, the holder upper is playing his game.

Jo the activities lady at work is a treasure, she always visits the big car boot sale on her way in to work on Sundays and this week she found treasure. 

Firstly a bag of fabric scraps for a dollar.

This piece was all sewn together in a very rough hand stitch, it's now a pile of pieces awaiting the attention of the iron. Also in the bag was this collection of pieces.

At the same table she found a bag of doilies and wondered if I could use them?

Yes please and thank you very much.

On another table Jo spotted this huge piece.

The label says eight meters! For a dollar!

What a score. I think it will be great for a few girly quilt backs.

Less than two weeks until the wedding. Tomorrow I'll be putting a zipper into Charmaine's flower girl dress.

That's my news, now I'm off to make Thai chicken curry. 

Progress.

The wedding dress was almost complete, then we discovered that the bodice is pretty tight!

Hmm, we measured again and yes we got it right, the bride is smaller than she was and according to the pattern she should fit in to the smaller size......?

I blame the pattern, it's not a recognised brand but one that was found and purchased from an internet designer/seller.

I'm going back up to the larger size bodice and will take it in, down to her size, a LOT if I have to.

That is a job for this coming week. Good thing we bought plenty of fabric.

Meanwhile Chooky had two zoom sessions yesterday, so out came my Blue Lanterns EPP.

I added the last blue piece on the previous row and almost a whole row of white blocks.

I'm very happy with how this is looking.

I think two more rows of blue should do it.

I'll get them on and see how it looks.

I'm the holder upper here by the way, my usual holder upper has a sore shoulder so he was demoted to photographer. Sigh, I had to ask him to talk lots of pictures so I could chose the best. LOL

He thought only one was enough. Pft!!

In other news, I've been baking

On the left, banana muffins for my colleagues and on the right keto chocolate muffins for Tony and I. The chocolate muffins now have a yummy chocolate ganache topping.

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In between zoom sessions yesterday we were busy in the garden. Our two mini greenhouses are now planted with capsicum and chilli peppers. There are also lettuce, raddish and spring onions in. Our potatoes have sprouted. More brocolli has been planted and two courgette. The cauli I planted in the Autumn is finally starting to look like it might heart up and produce a few heads. The winter brocolli is already finished, I got three flushes off that.

There is still a bit of space out there for something else, we'll have a think and plant something when we decide what.

Oh and I want to put some dwarf beans in somewhere too, probably in pots though.

 

Goal #1 achieved.

After two and a half days of continuous rain, which at times was quite heavy, we finally have some sunshine today. Everything is still soaking wet though and I wasn't going to step on to either of our lawns to try getting pretty outdoorsy shots of my latest finish, so instead I tried a shot over the deck railing but that wasn't quite right.

So I persuaded my holder upper to step outside and perform. First he took a bow. LOL

Actually I think he has spied a bug!

Then we got on with some photos. Still not the best but you get the idea.

I just had time to get a quick shot of the quilting....

He wasn't sticking around for more. 

Sigh, it's getting harder to find a good holder upper.

And finally a look at the binding and my label on the back.

Sorry these are not the best photos. 

As the holder upper scuttled back indoors I lingered to get some garden shots.

Old man tree is starting to get his leaves and the snowball bush is in full bloom already.

I think judging by the scent, that this version of snowball bush is actually a lilac, it smells beautiful.

And finally, taken on a rainy day while I was quilting the wedding cake tree is also getting it's greenery.

I've done some knitting in the evenings, prepared the pattern for the wedding dress, did I mention that the bride has dropped two dress sizes?  She seems to have levelled off now so on my next run of days off I'll start cutting.

That is if I get my days off, I went in to work on two of my three days off this week, not in my usual role but as the diversional therapist! I read the news paper and we had discussion group in the mornings and in the afternoon we played housie/bingo and some board games.

That was something different.

October Goals.

In my last post I mentioned that I have a colleague wanting to purchase my Town Square quilt. That means I need to finish it for her.

It's been on the frame and is now quilted. I used a pantograph from Urban Elementz called Pacific.

It works well with the Maori designs on the fabrics used to make the top. The swirls and curves also soften all of the straight lines made by those squares.

I just need to trim and bind the quilt then it will be ready to go to it's new home.

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So, goals for October.

1) Finish the Town Square Quilt.

2) Make the brides dress.

3) Make the flower girls dress.

That's it. Anything else that I achieve this month will be a bonus.

Sorry Deana, no Chookshed Challenge for me this month.

All I have left there is to make some more Christmas ornaments anyway. I need two more and should easily get them done before Christmas. 

I'm off to cut satin and tulle.