Where did January go?

 It hardly seems any time at all since we were heading to November and the border opening, then it was Christmas and New Year, and now I see that the calendar turns over to February tomorrow!! I have posted some newsfromjude in January so there is not a lot to update you with. This is mostly a summary.

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I ordered my July - December 2021 blog book in January and once again it arrived here about 2 weeks after I submitted my order!! Very good service to be printed and get here from the US in that timeframe.

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I have had a little time at the sewing machine. There was a plastic bag of squares in the drawer that were not quite the right size, so I have started joining them into a 16 patch block. I think that with a small frame around them they should come up to the same size as a 16 patch block made from the 2 1/2" squares and there are plenty of those!! Some of them may find their way into scrap packs again soon. Since this attempt there has been no more machine sewing happening. I have done another binding though!

 

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We have watched some of the Australian Open tennis matches, and were pleased to see Ash Barty win the title and Nadal's match was certainly amazing coming back from where he was.

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There have been a few bloggers zoom catchups, which are always fun.

Scanning documents and writing some more of my book occupied some time, but it has been put on hold while I have had a visitor here.

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There has been very little customer quilting happening, although I did manage to get this Caswell quilt done for Cheryl.  I thought that it was a Ta Daa moment, and had finished and laid it out for a photo and this is what I found!!!! So back onto the machine it went!

Since then I have taken time to do other things and only today have loaded another quilt. I hope to get a few done this week.

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There have been a few morning cuppas in the pergola before the day turned too hot. Last week's weather was rather hot most days, but it was the humidity that was hard to handle. Sitting in the pergola amongst those plants one of the girls thought they may have been in Queensland!! While most of our state, especially further north have had big rains and floods, only 12 ml managed to get in the rain gauge this far south. I was very thankful to get some on my garden and the lawns grew overnight!

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The donation quilts are all bound and ready to go 'somewhere', although that is still to be organised yet as I am not heading to the city any time soon.

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My fairy has been in residence for a week and a lot has been achieved in an effort to deal with my SABLE!! (In case you missed my other post...... Stash Accumulation Beyond Life Expectancy!!)

Fabric on the shelves has been sorted and put into bundles for future kits. Some has been put on another shelf for future donation scrappy quilts. Some has been packed into bundles and a lot has been cut up and packed into Ready, Set & Sew kits. I am very thankful and blessed to have a fantastic pattern checker, counter and packer to help with this task.

One weeks work.............

Most of these drawers have fabrics in them that are destined for kits, so there might be a lot of work ahead as I progressively scan them and add to EQ for designs!!

This pile might tell you that we have 'moved' a lot of fabric. (Sometimes there was not a lot left on the card, so it was added to the shelf).

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There was time in amongst the busyness for the fairy (who is also a whip cracker) to sit outside with a cuppa, read the paper, smell the roses and watch the world go by!

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Yesterday was the final service for our Pastor, who has finished her term, is retiring and leaving our town. Following the service church members enjoyed lunch together. Ruth will be missed by many.

 Her sermon was titled "Endings Mark New Beginnings". .....When something comes to an end it's also time for something new to start.....This message spoke very personally to me as I have struggled with the changes happening in my life. I have posted on this subject before, and stated that I don't "do" change very well.  As I head into partial retirement, and a future that is unknown and not clear, I need to focus on God, have faith, pray and trust that He will continue to lead me and walk with me wherever that may be.

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Blessings, From Jude

Australia Day - back through the years........................

 Today was a day to celebrate being Australian. I am very thankful to live in this great country. We have much to be thankful for. 

Life is certainly different in the times we live in, with restrictions on gatherings and the prevalence of covid. The days of a full house here at Number 8 seem a distant memory, and so I have been back into the photo files to reminisce and remember what it was really like. Retreats were always a lot of fun and laughter. As well as the stayers there was always locals that called in for a chat and to meet up with those who they had got to know as friends.

There were Australia Day sewing times going back to The Sanctuary days starting with the first one in 2013. Due to time restraints I have only got pics from 2018.

                                                                        2018

2019

2020

2021

2022

I have one visitor staying in the house, and due to current restrictions and the fact that this virus is established in this district at the moment, we have been "laying low" and not going out except for essential reasons. We have had a few callers during the week but socialising has been few and far between. Thus Australia Day celebrations here were not planned for.

I had some quilt kits to be checked and Pat is the maths guru who checks all my patterns and my calculations, proof reads my instructions and counts all the cut pieces. My fairy is the packing queen, and has been busy since Pat finished her job. A zoom meeting with Chooky was scheduled for some of the day, and a roast lamb lunch was on the menu.

 After not having seen Val for a few weeks, it was lovely when she came calling. We did manage to find the Aussie paraphernalia that had been stored in the shed for a couple of years and wore them for the Zoom meeting. These flags were flying on the letter box out the front of the house.

I hope your day has been great whatever you have done to acknowledge this day. There has been no sewing happening here, but a lot of fabric has been put into the kits for sale another day.

Blessings, From Jude

A bit of this and a bit of that......Which rabbit hole do I go down first?......................

 Here is a pic of how my cutting table looks at the moment. There is a lot of sorting going on, scanning of fabrics and designing ready for kits and fabric packs.

                          

This lovely pile of batiks also arrived on my doorstep this week and will work well with the range of batiks I already have............

So you can see that I am really short of fabric?? Not!! But, when I found these in another cupboard that I have been going through................lots of fabric samples stuck to card in a folder that a supplier sent out to machine quilters and shops so that we could order true to colour fabrics.

Waste not, want not is what "they" say?? So I dutifully tore the fabrics from the cards.............and look at this lovely little bundle of rectangles.......... all stacked ready for a scrap quilt, "one day"! (Or someone might find them in a lucky dip instead?

I have also been attempting to sort through clothes in my wardrobe. Let me tell you that I have 2 cupboards in my room, all for me, but they are full to overflowing and it has been something on my "to do" list for a long time now. This job will take me a long time too, but I've made a start.............

I won't tell you just how many pair of trousers were in my cupboards.....................and a lot of them have still got price tags attached, so that might tell you something?? Here is the first pile that were sorted and have now gone to a new home, or at least out of my door, with a bonus pair of shoes that were never worn either.

Last night my neighbour came knocking at my door for me to put a bandage on his arm. He had slipped over in the garden!! Dear Nic was out chopping a branch from a tree, on a very hot afternoon. I might add that he is 93 years old in February!! I decided that it needed more than my attention and took him to the hospital. He is now home and recovering. (I might have been a bit stern with him about being out in the heat at his age?)

Since I finished a large intense custom quilt, (pics later), I have done a couple of allover quilts with Max. A simple cot quilt and quilted edge to edge with stars and loops that is for a new great grandson soon to be born.

I discovered that Max had been running for awhile without bobbin thread and I don't think that the layers will hold together without thread, will it?

It was finally done, and this was made by Liz for a friend, using her collections of blue Liberty prints.

My visitor arrived this morning after an absence of a couple of months. As usual she gets straight into action, and was looking for some fabrics to fold. We stopped later for a coffee, and I received a phonecall from a friend who is collecting household items to set up house for 10 people. I thought I had some towels that I no longer use, but then checked out a few more cupboards and tubs in the shed and we have found lots of "stuff". Blankets, sheets, pillow cases, towels, sleeping bags, and even cups and bowls from the kitchen too. Not too sure why I still had all of this, but it will feel really great to see this walk out of my house and be put to good use.

Here is an update on the honeysuckle hedge situation. This was how is was a couple months ago...........

................and then last week the little bit of progress I had made..................

 I made the decision to call in the experts and they had it done in no time at all!!! But look at how much was cut away. I would never have managed that.........

Thankyou guys, a job well done.

                                    

                                       ..............................  And some more "stuff" has left !!

         

I have made more progress on my story and have it sort of mapped out and notes written. The scanner has been working overtime on documents that I have kept. Once they are recorded into the book and printed I will be able to comfortably put these "out the door" as well.

It should feel a lot lighter around here soon, although it will take me a loooong time!

That's all for now, as I better head for an early night. I know someone, named Chooky, has a bloggers zoom planned for 6am (her time) in the morning. That means 5.30 my time. Hope to be able to check in for a little time before church.

Blessings, From Jude

Happy Birthday............

 It was 21 years ago today that my favourite first grandchild was born. I remember our family sitting at the kitchen table anxiously waiting for the phone to ring. And in the blink of an eye here we are 21 years later!!

The party that had been scheduled has been postponed until our state situation means that everyone can be relaxed and have a good time without worrying about it being a spreader event! A sign of the times we live in.

We had a video call this morning and since then I have been sitting at the computer and going down memory lane to choose a few. I also took the opportunity to sort out her photos into a separate folder. This is a process I am trying to do for all of the family. My millions zillions of photos are all mixed up together with quilt pics, family events, garden and house photos. 

I discovered a lot of early photos in my collection when she lived close to me. For the latest I have "borrowed" from family facebook pages. Note that cute smile that hasn't changed!

I had to include this one as a rare occasion at the machine as a result of help me Grandma, I have a school assignment to do!!

I hope your day is special and hope to see you when we can. 

Luv Granny xxx

Blessings, From Jude

Looking into 2022.............................

 I have been mulling over this post for awhile now, in fact for all of January and trying to think about how to put down my thoughts. I better post soon as January is more than half gone.

I have been reading a lot of posts in blog land and note that lots of people are setting goals for each month and some stating a word to live up to for the coming year. I tried the word thing for a few years and went back into my blog to remind myself of what I said. One year it was Balance, and another year it was Organisation. Well I failed on both of those for that year, so have decided not to do that again. I do have a few goals, or should I say plans that I hope to achieve, but not saying them out too loud either, as it is really hard in the current world in which we live to guarantee our plans. One day, or even a week at a time sounds achievable. 

I do like what I read on one blog that she had reached SABLE status in her life!! Stash Accumulation Beyond Life Expectancy.... it fits me so well. So one of my plans is to keep on with the packing of fabric packs and Quilt kits ready to do some online selling, in the future somewhere, as well as a couple of markets that are lined up. This is what my cutting table looks like tonight..... and there is lots more where this lot came from. Some will be packed into bundles and some into the kits and a lot will be sewn into donation quilts.

Another site I read talked about squirrels happening.......meaning a distraction that pulls you away from what you are currently working on and sends you in another direction. As we don't have squirrels in Australia, (well I don't think we do??), perhaps it might be more appropriate to talk about going down a rabbit hole?? I have so many different things I want to do now, sometimes I don't know where to go first?? (Photo from online - This pic takes me back to a whole other lifetime in our farming days).

It was always easy to plan my day, as it was mostly just to load the next customer quilt and keep up with the queue. The motivation to get them done was the momentum (and perhaps the push?) I needed. While I am still doing customer quilts, as I head into partial retirement, I have reduced the numbers I take in, and mostly they don't have a deadline. Which means the stress of keeping up is absent. Perhaps that is not such a good thing for me as I struggle to find a new routine and work out what the priority should be??? Which is why it is easy to 'go down the rabbit hole', or even let a whole day go by and wonder what I have achieved? 

Some of my plans for 2022 are, (and I am whispering these, not saying them out loud) - The Windy Hill farm quilt, but it has been put away for now and I will get back to it, sometime...... Cutting and planning for a selling table at a group quilt show, just over the border. I have been told this morning that this has been deferred until later in the year, so I now have breathing space......Learning Power Point programme so that I can go on the roster at the church......... sewing scrappy donation quilts.......finishing all the UFO's that I have in progress and not saying how many....... cleaning out old files in the filing cabinet.

Mostly I spend mornings in the garden and find there is lots to keep me occupied. I did post about that hedge and how progress was very slow. I made a decision this week and have passed the job onto my mowing man, who I decided was better qualified to do the job. Plus he has much better and bigger pruning equipment than I do and he will finish the task in no time at all. And gives me more time to work in other areas.

The computer issues are being sorted and that's another dilemma I have. I have a desktop computer, a laptop that I use when I travel and a computer on my Statler machine. They are all running Windows 7, and I know that is no longer supported by Microsoft. I've been thinking about a new laptop and even though I don't travel with it much at present, it is good to take into other areas of the house when I want to use it. The other dilemma I have is that if I update my laptop, some of the software that I use (including Quickbooks) will not be compatible on a later version of Windows. I don't know why "they" need to update things and give us a new learning curve for it!!?? - I know this is probably a minor problem when many in the world don't even have a computer, and I'm not really complaining, just stating how it is.

I made mention in a December post of a special event and party time for February. I'm not too sure just how it has come around so fast, but in February it will be 20 years since Cornerstone Creations Machine Quilting commenced!! It has been an amazing journey and I have been very blessed. There were plans for a great celebration and a party of some sort, but as I said before plans change easily in current conditions. In the hope that 'things' will ease in time, I have now thought about celebrations in April, from Easter until the end of the month. There will be more details in due course about how and what will happen. I hope to combine this with the BCNA Pink fundraiser that I did not hold last September. 

Reaching 20 years of CCMQ has sent me down another "rabbit hole" and in another unplanned direction!! This cupboard below had been packed with books and papers and stuff! There were lots of magazines that had articles about quilt show results and quilts that I had made published in them. There were newspaper clippings about my business, CCMQ. Brochures, advertising flyers and photos and lots and lots of information and history of my journey over the last 20 years. I know that 'one day' and I don't know when, I will have to make a move from here, and 'stuff' will need to be packed, or even thrown out! So sorting has begun.............

This tub now contains the information that I need from the cupboard above. My plans are to scan the documents and put them into a computer document.

In another box, back behind Max where noone can see 'stuff' was this collection of work diaries going back to 2002 when I started CCMQ!! Oh, what a collection of memories and information is in these!! I have spent most of this week going back and taking notes. 

They are now sitting in this pile, until I have finished with them. My plan now is to write a book of my Cornerstone Creations journey. I have many photos on hard drives to add to this story and I can see much time being spent at the computer. About 3 years ago I started writing my life story book and had worked my way through my first 18 years. This has remained dormant since then, but in the back of my mind, I knew I wanted to get back to this and hopefully this is one of my goals for this year. 

Some people might say I am a hoarder for having kept a lot of this information, but I did have a reason. When it's all recorded in book format it can be discarded. Not too sure if anyone will want to read it at all, hopefully some of my family might be interested, but it's something I feel led to do. 

I found this entry from 2008 and sent the photo to my DIL!! It says Carly to sew! She sent a message back, with a laughing face emoji, saying "Back when I was trying to impress my boyfriends mother!!" (She must have given up trying to impress me, as there is no sewing happening these days!)

I got this far with this post and had a phone call. During the call I received a message from Raylene. I looked at it and saw this message with the photo.

                                                   " Do you have this sky at your place?"

 By the time I went outside to look it was almost dark, but did manage to get this photo! I almost missed it!

Time to finish off and head to bed ready for another day tomorrow. The weather is supposed to be much cooler, so time in the garden will be a good start, to see if I can get some strawberries before the birds get them.

Blessings, From Jude