New Years Eve

Well, it's New Years Eve here in Aus and it's a sorry state.
I'm at home, alone, with the cats, spinning.
I can't be with my love - again, my sister and BIL have taken their children into Newcastle to see the fireworks, my children are with their father and I'm here with the cats.
Does that officially make me a crazy cat lady yet?

I'm spinning some lovely silk/merino blend, waiting for some pea and ham soup to cook (yes, I used the ham bone from the Christmas ham) and contemplating a glass of champagne while juggling my helper at the wheel :-\

Spinning

So I've been doing quite a bit of spinning. Heaps really, hence my lack of updates.
Below is one of my latest spinning exploits;

This is some beautifully soft and decadent handdyed mohair from Inverleigh Fibre Farm. It was beautiful to spin and the colours look fantastic together. It has blues, greens, mauve and apricot.

Giveaway

Gladys and Maude is having a giveaway.

 

To go into the draw, please head on over to Facebook, like the image HERE and leave a comment and then like our page HERE as well.

 

As soon as we reach 400 Likes, we will draw a winner.

 

You will receive

1 x Handmade Gladys and Maude Project Bag

1 x Skein of Gladys and Maude Handspun Yarn 100% Merino

1 x Pair Bamboo Knitting Needles

1 x Crochet Hook

and

Pk 2 Stitch Holders

My Head Is Spinning

Well, who said it was easy keeping an FB Page, Blogger, Instagram and Twitter up to date was easy, I laugh in their face. Sure, it's easy keeping one or two updated but put them all together and inevitably, one is forgotten about. I bet you'll never guess which has been forgotten about?
Poor Blogger :-(

So much has been happening here behind the scenes at Gladys and Maude. I'm sure by now you would have noticed the shift from handmade, hand sewn items to hand spun and hand dyed fibres. There are several reasons for this. The main one being that sewing was jus becoming too taxing on my body and I could no longer bear the constant pain. Spinning on the other hand, I seem to find quite relaxing and it still affords me the creativity and challenges that I need.

Of course I have been incredibly busy with spinning and dyeing, not to mention my duties as a mother, daughter, girlfriend and volunteer.

One of the things I currently do in my spare time (because I have so much) is repairing clothing at the Aged Care Facility near where my son does work experience. So one day a week, while he is at the aircraft mechanics, I go to the home.

 

I am always presented with some interesting challenges. These pyjama pants were almost torn completely in two. Would I be able to save them?

 

All sewn up, repaired and in excellent working order!

Ooops, almost missed the tear down the bottom near the cuff. It's fixed now. This resident should be nice and warm now :-)

Here's another, only this time the tear is at the front of the pants, just below the fly.

 

All fixed, you can see the button up fly just above the patch. My only worry is that it looks a little like a smiley face.

I can never match the fabric but no one seems to mind.

 And that my friends, is what keeps me busy on Wednesdays :-)

 

MIA

Hi there all,

You have all been so incredibly patient with me and I thank you so much for that.
I am going to get back here to Gladys and Maude very, very soon, that's a promise.
I have so much in the works to surprise you all with including a new little venture that will take me away from quilting a little. Quilting will still be a part og Gladys and Maude but there will be some new and exciting things happening as well.
I will give you a little hint....

 

 

I am working hard on getting these done and packaged but currently have a lot of family thing happening as well, including the loss of my grandfather last week.

 

 

This is my Pop.

Wasn't he a handsome fellow?

 

 

I know I keep saying that I will be back, I will, truely. Just have so much going on and not having access to a computer at home tends to slow me down a bit as well but I will be back and I thank you once again for your patience with me.

 

Have a fabulous day and Happy Mothers Day...

 





Happy Easter

Wishing you all a very Happy Easter with your loved ones.

There is much happening behind the scenes of Gladys and Maude at the moment, including new stock, new creations and new love.
So much to do, so much to tell, so much happening.

Until I can reveal more, Happy, healthy, safe Easter.

BUSY!

I know, I have been such a bad blogger.

It has been way too long since I have blogged and it's been too long since I've worked on any PhDs either.
Things have become insanely busy here of late and it's just fabulous. Unfortunately, it hasn't left much time for creativity.

My son has started work experience at an aircraft repairs shop in Pokolbin. It is such an incredible opportunity and honour for him to be there. He has wanted to work with aircraft since he was three years old. Although it is almost an hours drive away, we still manage to get there each week.
His work experience is not at all like the work experience we did when I was at school. In my day, we did two weeks placement, every working day of those two weeks and that was that! it's main purpose was for us to get a taste of what the profession is really like that we wanted to work in. Connor's work experience is one day a week for 12 - 24 months. Of course it has several variables including whether he actually enjoys it, whether the owner/manager enjoys having him around, whether Connor has work to do, whether it turns out to be what he expected etc, etc.
We are now entering week 4 and he is as happy as ever to be attending.
We leave home on the Tuesday night, drive to Bellbird where we stay then Wednesday, Connor goes off to work at 7am, chauffeur driven by his Uncle and is then delivered back to me around 5.30pm.

I decided to do something constructive while he was at work and applied to a voluntary position as in-house seamstress at The Retirement Village. I am pleased to say, my application was approved, I passed my criminal check and I am heading into week three.

Last week, Connor had an opportunity to meet one of his idols, Matt Hall. I was so excited to be taking him in to meet Matt, but I think I was more excited than Connor was. He was a very nice man, a true gentleman and spent a huge amount of time talking to Connor, encouraging him and telling him that he can achieve anything he wants.

Here's Connor (on the right) with Matt.

Then there is the driving Connor to school every day that he is not at work experience and although it should only be a 40 minute drive each way, it has developed into a 2.5 hour round trip. It's exhausting and incredibly hard on the hip pocket.

There has just been so, so much going on here. I don't now what else I have to fill you in on.

My sister is expecting her third child, a little boy and the little cherub has been in a rush to get here. She started having contractions eight weeks ago and she still has another six weeks to carry him full term. She has been placed on medication to stop the contractions but it has only slowed them. With all of this happening, I try to get over there to help her out with the other two munchkins any possible opportunity I get. Which, to be honest, doesn't seem like much.

Oh, of course, I can't forget to tell you that I have met a wonderful man. We have been seeing each other for some time now and I am just completely and totally in love with him. He is such a sweetheart and now that I have been seeing him, I understand why I didn't work out with anyone else. We have such an incredible connection, like nothing I have ever experienced before. He is just beautiful. Not only does he care for me and love me, he absolutley adores me as well and I him.
He calls me his gorgeous girl, his princess, his baby, his love.
Yep, I've completely and totally fallen for him.
He is a couple of years younger than me and works as a psychologist.

Well, that's the round up of what I'm up to of late. As you can understand, there hasn't been much creativity happening, but please stay tuned. It won't be the end. I have been stockpiling yarn and fabrics to get some stock made and posted very soon and I try to work on my PhDs when time permits.

I hope you are all as happy and feeling as fabulous as I am right now!

More PhD's Have Been Added

OK, so I've finally made the time to sit down and add to my list of Sewing PhD's. You can go HERE to read all about the PhD's.
I have fourteen on my list at the moment, of course, I have so many more but I think I will stop at this or I will never get them done :-)

This is how it now looks;

1. Friendship Tree - Natalie Bird
2. Hearts Return - Natalie Bird
3. Berry Branch Wool Tote - Natalie Bird
4. Prairie Flower Tote - Natalie Bird
5. Red Home Pincushion - Natalie Bird
6. Angel Project Tote - Natalie Bird
7. Sewing Angel Tool Store - Hatched and Patched
8. Caddy Pad Jnr. - Sister's Common Thread
9. Robots @ Play x 2 - Janelle Wind
10. Shashiko Quilt
11. Shashiko panel/bag
12. Desert Morning - Judy Wilford
13. Knitted Sampler Rug
14. Scrappy Quilt Along

If you would like to join in, please go and visit Cheryll over at GoNe STiTcHin

Australia Day

I'm pretty late with my Australia Day post. Have been a little too busy to get to the computer.
I had a great Australia Day this year, woke early and made the one hour drive to Salt Ash to Hunter Valley Arabians for their Summer Show 2013. Although my purpose was to help prepare the horses and riders, I didn't get to help out much. Most of the horses had been prepared the night before so there was just a little tidying up, brushing, plaiting, Show Sheen-ing to do and a little braiding of the riders hair too.
I went down and stood at the sidelines to watch the first tow events and my back gave out so I hobbled back up to our campsite and sat myself there for the next few hours. Unfortunately I was pretty useless this time. Connor was able to help out a bit which was good. I managed to get myself kicked by one of the new horses. He was pretty on-edge because his owner/rider was unnecessarily worked up, which of course affected him. I tried to do his mane but the kept striking out at me and as a result I have a couple of nice bruises on my thigh. Thankfully, that's all he could reach.

Here is Connor getting Izzy, the gorgeous little Welshie ready

She is such a good girl

Here is Izzy with her owner and rider, Miss Sarah. Aren't they just the cutest?

Then we left early (because I had injured my back and wasn't feeling too well) and went back to my sister and brother-in-law's house for a lovely Australian Day dinner. The star of the evening was this delicious butterflied roast leg of lamb. The most delicious lamb we had ever eaten.

We partied all night and Connor and I ended up spending the evening.

The next morning, we were up at and it beause it was our cousins' babys' christening. Of course COnnor and I were late to the church. Between being completely unorganised and feeling our way up the freeway through the torrential down pour, we managed to miss the service :-( 

But we managed to catch up with the little tyke at the after party. Not the happiest little chap, he cried and cried. I don't think he was too impressed with that fontanel water.

Cooper (Coopy, Bupa) spent the whole time glued to Connor (Nonnor) 

Awwww, "I lub you Nonnor" and many hugs and kisses ensued. So cute :-) 

I will leave you with not one, but two of my favourite songs that to me represent Australia. Not necessarily Australia Day but certainly Australia.

This first one, has been a favourite song of mine for many, many years. My first husband had this whole album on vinyl and of course, when we divorced, he took it with him, I have been trying to find a copy of this song ever since and finally found it on CD a few weeks ago...

 and then there is this one.... Love it!

Happy Australia Day :-) 

Knitting

I have another knitted block to add to my PhD today.

The weather here yesterday was disgusting. It hit 46 degrees along with the bush fires and HOT westerly winds made for a very uncomfortable day. As a result, we sat up until 3.30 am in front of the air conditioner trying to cool down. I managed only one block in this time. It is not a hard block by any means but it seems I had to give it my full concentration. I did much more reverse knitting in this block than I did knitting ;-)

This block is called "Loop Stripes"

Cream: Vintage 8 ply pure wool from my Great Aunt Peggy

Orange: Moda Vera 8 ply pure wool

Yes, it was pretty darn hot!

Progress on PhD

I've made a little progress on my knitted sampler rug. Unfortunately, it's been a real challenge to blog about it but I'm here today and I'm sharing my progress so far.

I'm trying to set myself a goal of one block a day minimum. I foolishly believed this was achievable but of course, life happens and sometimes it just isn't so.

Since blogger will only allow me to upload images from my phone but won't let me add info about each image underneath, I will come back as soon as possible and add the info on each block.

Until then, have fun, behave and get to work on those PhD's ;-)

Before you go, how hot was it on the east coast today? We hit a top of 46 degrees here plus an outbreak of bush fires made for an awful day in NSW.
Although I'm located about an hour and a half north of Sydney, the last image below, shows just how hot it was in Sydney today.
Take care in that heat and stay safe with these fires.

This block is called "Chain Gang"

Black: Vintage 8ply pure wool from my Nan's (Gladys) Stash

Purple: Hand dyed yarn from Forest Hill Hand Dyed Yarn, purple trim from Peacock Feathers 

This block is called "Little Blocks"

Mauve: Moda Vera 8ply Pure wool

This block is called "Lace Chevrons"

Light Blue: Moda Vera 8 ply pure wool

This block is called "Offset"

Multicolour: This gorgeous yarn colour is called "Monty Python" and is from Forest Hill Hand Dyed Yarn

Mustard: Moda Vera 8 ply pure wool

And this, as you can see, is depicting just how very hot it was here on the east coast

PhD's (Projects Half Done)

Well, I have decided to join in with the PhD fun over at GoNe StiTchiN'. You can learn more about my PhD's HERE

What Now?

Well, now that I'm not working, and it's not looking like I will be re-entering the workforce anytime soon, I have been trying to work out what on earth I am going to do with myself.

I have thought of going back to TAFE, but what would I do? and then there are the fees, how on earth would I pay for those? Time to scrap that idea for now. Then I searched WEA, there are a couple of courses in there that interest me, but the cost is still there and then the outlay for the tools and materials and it's just not a viable option for me right now. Besides, the courses I am interest in only go over one day! Now that's not going to fill in much time is it?

I participated in the #scrappytripalong, which has so far kept me busy for just three evenings.

Here is my #scrappytripalong quilt so far. I used a Balipop and this is as far as I could stretch the 2 1/2" squares, as far as blocks go. I have quite a few odd squares left and I am thinking of adding a strip of three or four squares across the top and the bottom of the quilt to make it longer. I still have plenty of that purple batik that I can add another, wider border to it.

I've come to a bit of a standstill with this, trying to figure out how to make it a little larger and then trying to work out how to quilt it, can I quilt it myself? I certainly don't have the funds to have it quilted this time.

Then I stumbled upon this blog, Red Pepper Quilts where Rita has quilted her quilt herself. I am inspired and I think I may be able to do mine as well :-)

Then I stumbled upon Cheryll at GoNe StItChIn' who is doing a PhD (Projects Half Done) and I thought I might join in with this.

I don't even know where to start with this one, I have so many PhD's. I will have to start sorting through my boxes and bags and create a list.

I think that should keep me busy for a while. What do you think?

Check back soon to see my list of PhD's.

A Scrappy Trip

Well, I've finally worked out to to be able to upload images again. I had to switch over to Google Chrome. I have no idea why but it worked so I'm not complaining.

I have stumbled upon a #scrappytripalong on IG so decided that I just had to join in. I thought it would be a great way to use up one of those Balipop's I had laying around. You can find a tutorial HERE over at Quiltville

I used a Hoffman Balipop in a colourway called Rum Raisin. It looked a bit like this;

so here is a picture of my first block

then here is my second

 Here are my first four blocks together

Here are the same four in black and white to check the values. I am pretty pleased with them so I continued with another 12 blocks.

 and here is my final 16 blocks which is the most I could squeeze out of my balipop.

I have so far placed a 2 1/2" border in a purple batik all around the quilt. I have some more 2 1/2" squares left that I might piece together and add a double row of blocks to the top and bottom of the quilt. If I have enough to do a strip of four 2 1/2" blocks at the top and bottom, I will do that and then add about a 5 - 10" border of the purple batik all the way around the quilt to make it a little bigger.

Have you joined in as well or do you plan to? 

Go on, you should, it's fun!