Fibromylgia, CPAP machines and Polymer clay.

 Guess I won't be posting everyday, those of you with fibromyalgia will understand the days when you get next to nothing done, you feel lucky just to survive them.

First off, just saw a clip of channel 9 news starring one of my lovely nieces, Michelle Kelly. I think she's the star because she literally saved my life by hooking me up with a CPAP, I didn't know why I was only getting an average of 4 -5 hours of sleep a night but when I had a bad fall in the kitchen in the middle of the night (one minute I'm getting a midnight snack and the neck minute I wake up as I'm hitting the floor, knees first and dislocating my elbow on the cabinets). It made me stop and consider how many times during the night I'd found myself somewhere in the house I hadn't meant to go, or waking up leaning my head against the wall of the hallway with no memory of stopping there, scary stuff and amazing how much you can ignore about you health, especially when you're living in a mental fog. 

 We knew something had to change so I had a sleep apnea test and yep, needed a machine, I was really petrified at the idea as I'm a bit claustrophobic, but caught up with CPAP expert Michelle and she fitted me with a mask, soothed my fears and now I use my machine and get a great nights sleep and have some level of intelligence through the day. Yahoo!

On to Polymer clay. I did get a few little bits made over the last few days but last night I worked on 'assembling' (for want of a better word) some jewellery while watching some recorded "Voice" episodes. I got 3 finished, well actually 2 as I'm not happy with the third, in the picture it's the lowest one on the stand and I don't like the chain, will have to find a navy blue cord of some sort. I selected and attache the cord on 3 more but still have to glue the cord into their rings, clasps etc.

Today I hope to put a matte finish on some more jewellery and I'm waiting for my hubby (Rob) to put some holes in a bunch of pieces that are waiting (about 30 or so, they've been waiting for a while for me to get them ready). So over the next little while I'll be updating now and then on the progress of these pieces and I hope to finish the first 'vessel' I made last week and make 2 more.

Counting down to the opening of the 'Creative Clay' exhibition at Gallery Central Nhill you can check out a few of the galleries goodies at Gallery Central | Facebook.

Happy Crafting....

      Well here we are, several years later and I don't even know if blogs are 'in' any more, I don't know what I'm doing, can't even work out how to change the background colour of this post!

     But I enjoyed it in the past so I'll have again go now, rambling to strangers.

I'm watching the movie Julie and Julia as I type, love the comedy, the romance and the life lessons, mainly not to be so self absorbed that you forget about your friends and loved ones. Just the thing when you're starting a blog.

So... about me then....

     Covid gave many of us the time and inclination to start crafting, I've always loved crafting and really enjoyed playing with polymer clay in the last couple years (except when I'm totally frustrated by it!)

     Here in Nhill, Victoria we have a community gallery called "Gallery Central" and we're having a "Creative Clay" theme for the month of June. I decided to try my hand at making something other than the jewellery I've been doing and so here is a picture of my first objet d'art.

     I still have to put a base on it and probably put a varnish on it perhaps some effect on the inside, not sure yet.

     I've made a bunch of jewellery too, it's all waiting now for me to add holes, varnish where required and then add the 'findings', what an odd word for what I would call fixings, you know the wires, jump rings, earring bits and bobs etc.... perhaps it's called findings because you have to find so many bits and pieces to complete each jewellery piece!

     Well, back to work.

    Happy crafting ....

Cute Baby Quilts

I've been having fun lately making sample quilts for Jennifer Meeks store here in Nhill.

This one is my design and is great for a neutral nursery, soft yellows and blue/greens with really cute animals and houses, it's reversible with more fabric from the collection at Jenny's.

It's so pretty, I wish I had more grandchildren on the way just so I can have one of these

(quilts that is).

It

A New Start

Hi all or any,
It's over four years and all sorts of things have happened, so this is me now....
Rob and I, together with two of our daughters now live in the Wimmera, half way between Adelaide (and our Son, his partner and their five kids) and Melbourne (our eldest daughter and her three kids plus various other relatives -Hi Mum).  We love it here, such a pretty location and friendly town.
We are early retired and I still love Quilting but am unable to make Teddy Bears any more.
I've been fortunate enough to enjoy helping out Jennifer Meek's Giftware store, she has great clothes, jewellery and housewares as well as YAY! quilting fabrics. I make the sample quilts etc for her store.
Here's some of the Christmas things I made for here this year.
A Scandinavian style fabric in a reversible table cloth, I also made a set of placemats.

And a lovely tree wall hanging and I also made a reversible table runner to match.

Bye for now.

Off to Europe

Well I'm starting with time travel,yep, didn't get time to post before I left or along the way so I'm going to start a week ago and make my way forward to now, hopefully I'll catch up with myself soon.
Naturally, I need to take lots of craft projects to do in case I get bored touring Europe, right ?!?
Here's some pics of the hand sewing I'm taking.

.Sorry but I can't upload pictures. I'll try again later.

NewFO and a Lovely year of Finishes

NewFO
I had a great time this month starting things ..
I was so inspired by a quilt made by one of the Woodpatch Quilters group that I joined in February and am having lots of fun there, here's a pic of her quilt taken off the group blog http://woodpatchers.blogspot.com.au/

Isn't it beautiful, well so far I've bought a few fabrics while on holiday the last fortnight (that's 2 weeks in case you're wondering), well actually with the addition of 4 fabrics mum gave me out of her stash I have 24 fabrics .... hmmm still a couple more quilt shops to go past on my way home (insert wicked, gloating giggle).  I just have to convince my DH to stop as it's about 9 hour drive home.

I also started a mug rug and mug wrap for Mum and one of each for my sis-in-law's birthday in April, a new hand sewing project for the Rainbow Scrappy Challenge 2013, the Apple of my eye fabric quilt, the vintage motorbike quilt, the Wangaratta Exhibition quilt ummmm I think that's all the new ones.

This is what I've got done so far.

And I took my lovely Apple of my Eye fabrics and made the quilt shown in my last post.

I also 

A Lovely Year Of Finshes,
I didn't get around to posting my quilt for March to finish but this month I've completely finished . . .
1) A Thread of Hope for the Quilt en Sud Exhibition in France
2) The Exhibition entry finished and entry posted to the Wangaratta Contemporary Textile Award

Top finished
1) Apple of My Eye (started and finished)
2) Vintage Motorbike quilt for my father-in-law who has Alzheimers (started and finished)
3) Mug rug and Mug wrap for my Mum (started and finished).
4) A snowball and autumn leaf design made with gorgeous batik wolves and bears etc fabric, that was about half made over 18 months ago.

I think I'm going to struggle with just choosing one thing a month for ALYOF, I guess I'll have to select one and put the rest on the Monthly to do list, yea that should work

I think tho, that next month needs to be a quilting and binding month ....... boring!!