Playing catch up

Man, you leave the internets for a few days and suddenly you have 172 posts on Google Reader and about 15 photographs to post and some more to take. She's a hard task-mistress...

So my thesis is bound and looking fine, I've submitted it in pdf form to the University and tomorrow I'm taking the two bound copies in. My parents fly out for Canada in the afternoon after 6 months touring the country in a camper van and Mat is having a small surgical procedure tomorrow afternoon too. On Saturday I'll probably have a small mental break-down ;) I'm also scheduled to have a mole gone wrong taken off next week, it's an occupational hazard of living down here sadly, even growing up in Canada doesn't make me immune and I'm definitely noticing 15 years of accumulated sun damage on my face too. So all of this has, or will, interfere with this whole blog thing but I've been taking photos.

I finally finished baby Amy's little something, but that will wait until Jess gets it in a couple days. I'm pleased with how it turned out but let me just say that sewing Minky is the devil's work. 'Nuff said.

Usually my projects take hours and hours and progress can be slow and the whole thing is complex and takes brain power. I like it like that mostly, but I've just discovered the joy of the quickie. Get your mind out of the gutter! I made myself a pincushion :) My pin tin has been driving me mad, never in the right place, tips over and spills pins everwhere, gets lost under fabric, the lid gets lost etc. etc. There are so many lovely little pincushions around that I've been considering one even though I don't actually have a permanent sewing spot for it to live. I did the one out of Last Minute Patchwork+Quilted Gifts and it took way less than the 2 hours implied.


Picking out the fabrics probably took the longest time, and it really showed me where the gaps lie in my stash - no oranges or yellows or reds really, just pink, green and a couple blues.


The pattern itself is ok, although it may simply be a case of practice makes perfect. I couldn't get the threads pulled as tightly as the picture in the book because it made the fabrics pucker, so perhaps I need to stuff more firmly?

After I took the photos of the pincushion I piled it on top of a bunch of other stuff (tidy? me?) and then thought "hey, that looks pretty!" so I took a photo. If only all my messes were as photogenic. :)



Thanks to all the SMS fat quarter swappers who have sent me the neatest stuff - I know I said I'd photograph and post and haven't, but hopefully I've emailed all of you who included contact info to say thanks and will get everything into the same place to take pictures in the next day or so. I've really really enjoyed it and am looking forward to doing another!