Craft and quilting fair

First off – argghhhhhhhhhhhh writing has taken a huge downturn. Just not happening. The only thing I seem to be writing is ideas, lots of ideas, but very little in the way of actual story words. I shall, however, keep persevering.

Today though I went to the Adelaide craft and quilt fair with my older sister. It was just great. Heaven. The quilt show was fabulous, with some truly great quilts. It was interesting to see who won, and who were runners up. It made me realise how much it really must come down to personal choice, because there were a few that I would personally not have chosen to win. But wow, did it give me some inspiration or what.

We made our way around the all the stalls and there were some good fabric stalls, some really crap ones, with horrible fabric, that looked cheap and tacky. But, on the plus side, I managed to grab some great fabric, at pretty good prices. Sadly, no one had any Riley Blake fabric, which I was really keen on getting, so I’m guessing it will have to be an online order after all.

Selection of fabric

So the fabric I did get is just gorgeous, not at all what I was looking for but I just couldn’t resist it. I have absolutely NO idea what I’m going to do with it, because it’s not what I was looking for to make the quilt that I am designing out of. So I’m looking through my stash of Elizabeth Hartman patterns that I have bought/downloaded and am thinking one of those could be just the thing. But I’m also hanging out to get her book, so I might hang on to the fabric till I have my hot little hands on her book and make one of the patterns from there. It’s a conundrum.

Oh, finally got around to taking a photo of my mug rug. Pretty crap photo, but it gives you the general idea. I loved it when I first made it, but now I’m not so sure. Not a huge fan of it anymore. Gift it to someone maybe?

First mug rug

So excuse me now, I should probably go and write some more words. Try and get myself up to at least 5,000 words.

No quilting, but writing is happening.

So with November only having just started I can feel myself getting stressed already. My quilting projects have definitely taken a back seat to all the writing that I need want need to be doing, and the writing is happening, but only very very slowly. I seem to be having more luck writing my ideas down at the moment, rather than actually writing any of my story down. The only quilting that I seem to have gotten done is my little mug rug (which I have to still take photos of, but did turn out quite nice).

The lack of quilting is partly due to the fact that my wrist has been giving me problems again lately and using the rotary cutter is actually quite painful. However, tomorrow I am heading off to the Adelaide craft and quilt fair with my sister, and plan on buying up on some lovely fabrics, so pain in my wrist or not, there will be cutting out done shortly followed by some serious quilting.

In fact, I’m thinking of buying myself a little voice recorder, so that as I am cutting and sewing I can tell my story out loud and then type it up later. I think I can talk as quick as I think, I’m a fairly quick typist, but I still can’t seem to type as quickly as I can think, so maybe this is a way for me to be able to do all the projects that I would like to get done over November without pulling out my hair due to stresssssssss!!

So with that in mind, I thought I would leave you all with the first few paragraphs of my story, which is titled “The adventures of Snotface, Boogerbum and Soggy Scab.” There will be an explanation about the names in the next few days. I hope you enjoy this excerpt:

Snotface and Soggy Scab had always led a very quiet and peaceful life, where they had their set routine, and not a lot changed. They would wake up in the morning, have a leisurely breakfast of toast with jam and cream and Soggy Scab would read his paper while sipping his first cup of tea for the day, while Snotface would sit down and write in her diary about all the extraordinary things that had happened to her on the previous day. Her father would sit across from her and wonder what she was writing about, because as far as he knew, nothing exciting ever happened in the village.

The little village they lived in was called Willow Grove, and it was the most beautiful village you would ever come across. There were green fields, with wildflowers waving in the wind, and dandelions aplenty for the children to pick and make wishes upon. There were lakes, and streams filled with fish, to swim with, or if you were of the mind, to catch. On the edges of the village was a forest, so big and green and dark. No one ever ventured into the forest, the children were too scared to and the adults had no need to – what point was there? Everything they needed was right there within the village itself. No one ever left Willow Grove, and no one ever came, except of course for that one time, when someone did come, and then left again shortly after. It was as if time had stood still. There was farmer Murdoch who grew peas and corn for the village to eat, farmer Riley who made sure everyone had potatoes and tomatoes on their plate and then there was farmer Shane – he kept the pigs and cows, but the less said about that, the better.

Why no one ever ventured into the forest, I cannot tell you. I know I certainly would have gone in to have a bit of a peek, to visit with some of the animals, but it seems that the folk of Willow Grove were not very adventurous, or even really rather curious. Occassionally a deer might wander out of the forest, but it was only rarely, and it was only really to wander into Mrs Gumbles garden to eat her roses. Because the deer of the forest love Mrs Gumbles roses, they are a delicacy to deers, indeed they are.

Another weigh in day… Not so great

Okay so how many weeks have I been saying this now? I need to get my butt into gear and get back onto the 12WBT? Too many weeks now,without really doing anything about it. So today was weigh in day again (yes I still follow weekly Wednesday weigh ins) and I have put weight back on again. Yes it was only 500gm, but seriously, since the wedding and getting sick, I’ve been so slack and not doing everything I learned over the official program. So while I’m hovering around the same mark, I’m not losing weight properly. And I really only have myself to blame.

I haven’t been watching what I eat completely (that chocolate muffin today definitely isn’t on the diet list…..) and I haven’t been exercising. I’m not even making excuses not to exercise, I’m just totally blanking it from my mind – as if that is a good excuse in itself. So I’m sabotaging myself without even acknowledging that I am. So my aim for the next week is to get back on track. Get to the gym at least 4 times this week and to eat healthy from RIGHT NOW.

On other news, no quilting today. But I have done 2,180 words of my novel. I should technically be up to 6,000 by now, but meh I’ve never done this before and I will admit. I’m struggling. World famous author I am not destined to be. But I really do want to get this story finished and get it printed up for Snotface, hopefully in time for Christmas.

So for everyone else out there in NaNoWriMo land, how are you going with your novels? And for NaBloPoMo‘s, are you keeping up with your blog posts?

Hitting a wall already

Last night I sat down and started writing my grand novel for NaNoWriMo. I wrote all of 496 words (oh yeah, I’m so well on my way to 50,000 can’t you tell). I hadn’t sat down and written up a plot, I hadn’t formed my characters and had absolutely no freaking idea what the hell I was doing. Okay, so I still have no idea what I’m doing, but I’m going to persevere.

To take my mind off all the writing, I sat down and whipped up a little mug rug, which is nearly complete, just needs the binding to be put on (pictures shall follow), and I’ve decided I quite like doing some little mini projects in between all the big piecing and quilting. I’ve bought a couple more of Elizabeth Hartman’s patterns so I can decide which three quilts I’m going to start making for a very special project. The Adelaide Craft and Quilt fair is on this weekend, and I’m going and can’t wait, because it means I can get some great fabric (I hope).

So after a long (and very boring day) at work where I was sitting there obsessing over character names and plots and sub plots, I realised that I was making it way harder on myself than it had to be. I had been trying to create a story and fly by the seat of my pants (which wasn’t working for that story at all), when I had a great story in my head, one that I had been wanting to write for the last two years, since just after I met my partner. So I’ve scrapped the original story, and have started the new one, and I can feel the ideas coming thick and fast and the words are flowing. I’m feeling slightly more confident about the coming month. I’m not out to write the next bestseller, just a story that my family will love.

I have joined NaNoWriMo and NaBloPoMo!

Well today starts off what I believe will be a very busy month. Not only am I making it my aim to go to the gym at least 21 times, but I have my quilt projects to complete (and start). You would think that would be enough for me but nope, not nearly.

I have joined Nanowrimo and also now NaBloPoMo. So along with lots of sweating and sewing there will also be a lot of writing, some of which I may share with you. But considering I have only ever really written blogs, I’m not that optimistic at having anything worth sharing out of these 50,000 words.

Stay tuned for stressed out Tina.