5th Wedding anniversary crazy/ memory quilt

  Finally completed the 5th wedding anniversary quilt for Mahul and Geet. It took me the best part of a year to finish it - although there was a fair bit of unpicking. I finally handed it over to a colleague to take to Kenya. Mahul and Geet should get the quilt this coming Friday. I actually felt quite bereft, 
once I handed it over - I guess that's what comes of spending so long on one project.

This is the back of the quilt with symbols from their life

quilt face - remade it several times.......

Richie said I never made anything for him, I made a beach bag from some of the material in my stash today. Nice afternoon project. I really have to do something about the stash...

Oh I also covered the bedroom sofa and the two old wing chairs - I'm rather pleased with the results. I think I will recover the lounges now - I just have to steel myself to spend soooo much money on about 30 metres of material! 

My quilts


I'm too lazy, busy to keep a blog of my sewing endeavours, so I'll just use this as a space to keep pictures of my quilts. I've made 4 quilts now - the original Africa quilt for Mahul and Geets' wedding, the log cabin quilt, the 9 square quilt for Michelle, and the Bargello - we currently have on our bed. 

Back of Michelles quilt

I'm nearly finished the fifth quilt - which is a 5th wedding anniversary quilt for Mahul and Geet - this one is a memory quilt. I think my next quilt will be a postage stamp quilt, however I think I will make a cover for the old sofa in our bedroom first - and some nice cushions!

9 square quilt for Michelle, pattern went a bit askew!

New way to wile away the hours.......

This post was written in 2013. Had a few adventures since then. Started a 7 month contract at Curtin at the of 2013, mid 2014 started working part time externally for Curtin and spent four fabulous months travelling South and North Asia (see associated blog). I'm now the Associate Director for India and Sub Continent at Curtin Uni. So I have a great mix of work and leisure and a couple of trips to India every year. Of my big list of plans  - the cooking adventures stuck ( in fact just made some killer Filipino home cured bacon ), sewing and refashioning like a woman possessed, cleaning up at the second hand shops ( just a tiny bit addictive) and I've completely turned into Willy, hunting the cut price food bargains (Thursday at Coles - I just have to get in before those pesky pensioners!). 


Well just back from our fab two month holiday in Sri Lanka. I learnt some great new cooking skills, fell in love with Chilli and dragged home some Sri Lankan clay cooking pots.

I spent a LOT of time surfing the web and decided to improve some of my weaker cooking areas by trying and trying again 'til I master them. I've already seen a big improvement in my Parathas - going to master coconut roti next and I'm going to cook a brilliant biriyani if it's the last thing I do!

I also discovered refashioning. It's huge and everyone is doing it ...... Well it seems like everyone is doing it. The idea is to not buy new clothes but buy clothes from the opshop and remake, update , refashion them. I'm going to start with some of my 80's and 90's clothes I haven't been able to part with. I'm not sure about the opshop clothes - they are all about $10 these days. I might try the Swapmeet if I can drag my lazy arse out of bed on a Sunday morning. 

So here I am nearly two years later...umm lets have a tally up shall we?

learning to play the guitar and read music - NO!

up grading my cooking skills - particularly Indian and Italian foods - oh and not to forget making pickles....YES! definitely got into the old cooking. Even made the pickles - they were inedible, but still.

starting my own vegetable garden and not letting it die! YES sort of - I started it, then nicked off to Melbourne for 4 months, so it died. Then I started it again this year but it didn't do very well, only the herbs seem to survive. 

spending more time with my friends and family - YES! definitely spent more time with family, if not friends.

picking up my old sewing habits YES! - made a few more quilts that Richard can't stand. Half way through another one at the moment. 

That's not too bad 3/4. However my retired friends were right. The time has disappeared but at least I know how. I have slowed down, really slowed down but in the best possible way. I now take my time doing things and enjoy each day to the max. 

After leaving my fabulous job where I spent 13 years travelling out of the country once an month and now returning from six months delightful holiday around the globe  - I finally intend to spend some well earned time at home. 

I'm going to try being a domestic goddess for a change. On my travels and during my ample free time I have drawn up a long list of TO DO'S - including:

learning to play the guitar and read music
up grading my cooking skills - particularly Indian and Italian foods - oh and not to forget making pickles....
starting my own vegetable garden and not letting it die!
spending more time with my friends and family
picking up my old sewing habits

I have heard from friends who have 'retired' that time seems to disappear - so this blog is my attempt to keep a record of my efforts and more importantly my results - or is trying enough? 

So lets see how I get on.