Salster74 Hobbies

Cross Stitch, quilting, patchwork,bags and other similar nonsense.

Sunday, 10 January 2010

Testing

Trying to activate this blog again
Test post ...
Welcome to 2010
eekkk it has been just a small time since my last post.

I'm still here, in a new job.

Fed up of the snow.

Not doing enough (OK I admit any) quilting yet this year, but do have my new machine :) Bernina 440QE its fabulous, just need it to warm up before I can get into the dining room to start playing.

Tuesday, 1 April 2008

Here are both my boys, Aten and Amun Ra in the background.
demon cats 0308

This is my little girl, Grizz. She was recovering from tearing a ligament in her back leg on Dave's lap.

grizz feb08

Weigh in day at Slimming World, hopefully I will have lost weigth as I've been to the gym twice this week. 2 stone and 1/2lb lost so far (28.5lbs) Fingers crossed.

Finishes so far this year

Teresa Wentzler Sun Dragon finished. xs tw sun draggie

Teresa Wentzler Sub Fob finished. xs tw sun fob

Dragon Dreams Moon Dragon. xs dd moon dragon

Dragon Dreams Moon Fob xs dd moon fob, this and the sun fob above are the same fob jus different sides. :)

Not sure yet how I'm going to finish the dragons I'm open to suggestions, but I don't want any bokmarks.

Haberdashery Designs Voodoo Boy in black. xs voodoo boy blk

Haberdashery Designs Voodoo Boy in glow in the dark Krienik. xs voodoo boy

I really enjoyed stitching this design, but cocked it up when I came to positioning it on the fabric. I left myself with too little fabric to finish it how I wanted but it still looks good.

Wednesday, 26 March 2008

1 of my boys

rara 0308

Tuesday, 12 February 2008

Been a while

I had been holding out to post until I had my new camera, but as yet I'm still waiting.

I will post pictures when I can of my latest finishes.  These include: Voodoo Boy, Teresa Wentzler's Sun Dragon
and Celestial Sun Fob, and Dragon Dreams Moon Dragon 
and Celestial Moon Fob.
  Not a bad start to the year even if I do say so myself.

I have also attended Day 2 ofa quilting class in Weedon.  I was really impressed with the blocks I completed for Day 1. A Card trick, and a Jacob's Ladder. I will be turning these into a table cloth for our new lounge coffee table.  Just need to find some fabric to border it with.  But for Day 2 we designed a Dresden Plate block from graph paper to create the paper templates.  I'm not overly impressed with this, so may just be linger in the WIP box.  I have booked on a third day, I'm hoping to book more then as well.

I did join Slimming World, and so far I have lost 13lbs.  YAY me!  So pleased with myself and so far I'm not finding it too difficult, hopefully today I'll make the stone mark.

Monday, 7 January 2008

This year has started with me trying to organise my stash. Although it is usually all neat and tidy in its little boxes I didn't have an up to date list. So starting after Christmas I would take a box out of the shelves and then painstakingly go through each item. I'd add the details in a book, with hopefully designer's name, name of pattern, what status it is, whether it was a freebie or not, and finally if it was a Halloween or Christmas pattern. I managed to go through all bar 1 of my boxes, but stalled on the freebie one. I have so many freebie patterns its silly, most of which I've printed out then stuffed in the box never actually stitching it.
Now these lists are slowly being imported to an excel file, I'll probably post a shameful list later in the month showing the totals. It has made me motivated to set a few goals.

Enjoy my stitching time
Do not purchase any new patterns or kits
Reduce my number of kitted projects and WIPs
Take time to learn to quilt
Try to remain organised and keep track of progress
Ornamentify all outstanding ornaments
As you can see No. 5 has already been started with the lists I've been making.
On Saturday I made a step towards No. 4 I went on a Block by Block course run by The Bramble Patch, a local quilting shop about 25 miles north of me. I had a fantastic day, there was about 12 of us in the class, and although I was 1 of 2 newbies I didn't feel out of my depth. There was plenty of 1 on 1 tuition and I finished the day with 1 complete block and 1 almost complete. I completed a 12 inch Jacob's Ladder Block and had pieced most of a Card Trick Block. They both used half square triangles and rotary cutting. Although I have done some rotary cutting before this was the first time I was actually shown the 'proper' way to do it rather than my muddle along way.

I spent yesterday doing 1 more of each of the blocks, with the intention to combine them and create a small tablecloth for our new coffee table. I did make 1 silly mistake yesterday, I very carefully measured and cut what I thought was a 5.25 inch square, to discover as I was layer it out with the other squares I'd cut a 5.25 * 4.25 inch rectangle *ARGH* Oh well as that was my only mistake that I couldn't undo I feel very pleased with myself.

  • As to other parts of life: Hospital appointment on 19th January to discuss testing to see if I may have the cancer my sister has just been diagnosed with
  • Thinking of joining Slimming World at a meeting tomorrow night
  • Swam 10 lengths 4/1/08