Another blog post that tickled my sense of humour

I have a pretty warped sense of humour at the best of times, but it's great when I find other people who too share the same streak, whether it be full strength, or just a mild case of it.  This blog post caught my eye a couple of days ago, and I just had to share it with you.  More so where it refers to reality shows about quilters though....those who know me and my wonderful filing system for my fabric can vouch for me here....Fabric Hoarders would have nightmares for years if they came in here to do their 'thang' lol  And just so you too can share it what would be their horror, here's a pic of just one tiny section of my 'filing system'

Just under the top lot, is supposed to be my ironing board, check out the crazy filing system going on underneath it....newer fabric acquisitions have been making that their new home it seems....the shelf unit that is actually behind where the ironing board lives is normally full, but I kind of upset that system a few days ago, trying to find a few more fabrics for the Jelly Roll Race quilt trials, or should I say, the warm up laps? lol

The really sad, sad part of this, is that whilst I'm slightly ashamed to share a pics of my slothenly (such a word??) tidiness, I'm not ashamed enough to do anything about it....maybe I'll just use it all and make room for more bahahahaha

On that note, now that all your retinas' have been scarred mentally, I'll say ciao for now

FNSI = Friday Night Sew In/Jelly Roll Race Quilt top

This month, I didn't think I was going to be able to participate in FNSI, but due to a change in my plans, I signed up late....although I've just checked over at Handmade by Heidi's blog, and several people signed up for it AFTER me, so I wasn't as late to the party as I thought I was lol

So here's the thing, I must be honest with you, I actually started sewing and then it dawned on me, "hey fool, it's FNSI and you haven't signed up yet"....at this point, I pressed pause (metaphorically speaking that is!) on the sewing machine and had a wee break from sewing, to come to the pc and sign up for FNSI.

Want to know what I managed to get sewn????  Well you're just going to have to wait as I want to explain a bit about it first....just in case any of you wonderful readers (I'm sure I have some still as I get the occasional comment from some of you!) have any other solutions to the Jelly Roll Race size dilemma???

I stumbled across a formula for calculating how many strips you'll need to make whatever size Jelly Roll Race quilt you want (I think it was on The Quilting Board) anyhoo, I calculated it out.....or at least I thought I had....the best made plans for me, are usually wrong and in the end, this was no different!

One of the FQ's I stripped up, was a small fq and was only 18" square (who sells fq's that size??? lol) so I just did 18" strips and sewed them together, and to make up the shortfall in those, I added a black 2.5" square between each of my main strips....without giving it much thought, I forgot about adding those into the calculation....ooops, my bad!

The first 'pass' of sewing the strip together seemed like it was a Toy Story side.....you know, to infinity and beyond!  Have you ever made one of these quilts?  I know several of you have, as I've seen pics on your blogs, and now I've tried it too....maybe I should've just made the original 1600 JRR top first, and used that to help with the calculations for the right size for Aussie Hero Quilts.

I got carried away, and sewed it one too many times, so then I had to reverse stitch and now I have this really obvious SEAM down the middle, but it'll still work out...I hope lol

Now, I can unveil my FNSI JRR for AHQ (don't ya just love all the acronyms...in English for those not familiar with them, that all stood for - Friday Night Sew In Jelly Roll Race for Aussie Hero Quilts)

Today I have a swap present or two to make and get ready to send, so I can't share them with you, but if I have time, I'll have another attempt at the JRR quilt, but with the amount of strips I think I'm supposed to use to get the right size.....I want it so that it just needs trimming up when you're done with the race part....not cut some off and attach it to the top of the quilt to make the right length....fussy much?  Yep, you betcha!

Here's the two formulas I've used now, and as I said, one is definately from The Quilting Board, and I can't remember where the other was from sorry, as I looked at so many in my research phase of my first ever JRR quilt.  If you can think of any other formulas I can try, please let me know!

METHOD 1:

Width of the quilt required (42") x 36 (number of rows needed to achieve the length of 72") divided by 41 (which is the length the jelly roll strips end up after being sewn) = 36.87 or 37 strips if you round it up.

METHOD 2:

Length of the quilt (72") divided by 2 = 36 Rows
Width of the quilt (42") x 36 = 1512" of strips divided by 41" (finished length of the Jelly roll strips) = 36.87 or 37 with rounding up

So, as you can see, either method gets the same result....now to trial it with just 42" x 2.5" strips and see what size top it ends up being.  Wish me luck.  The thing I think confuses me at the moment, is if you have 42" strips, and you join them together using the bias method, wouldn't that make them shorter than 41" finished???  Or am I over thinking the method?

Latest Aussie Hero Quilt & Laundry Bag

Isn't it funny how things trigger your brain to singing certain songs?  Well ok, isn't it funny how my brain is triggered into singing certain songs?  The laundry bag and quilt below are heading off to a very deserving Navy crew member aboard HMAS Anzac as part of Operation Slipper....what song do you think I was singing as I packaged it all up in it's postpak box today?  Yep, "In the Navy" by The Village People lol

Hopefully the new owner of the quilt will love it as much as I did, when I was doing the binding last night, I so didn't want to part with it lol  A little story about the quilt...the batting and backing fabric was donated to Aussie Heroes by Berri Uniting Church (Thanks Helen), the front (or flimsy if you know a bit about quilting) was donated by a Malaysian friend for using for Aussie Heroes....and one I had the quilt top trimmed to the right size and was in the process of quilting it (which I just did staggered zig zag stitch horizontally over the stripes.  Just in case you're wondering, it's one of the Jelly Roll Race quilts) As I did so, I was trying to decide on what I thought would be the best colour to use for the binding.....in the meantime, I'd had a parcel delivered yesterday, all the way from USA (Thanks heaps Susan A) who sent over a stack of 'horsey' fabric rectangles and two rolls of homemade jelly roll strips....all in yummy bright colours.....kaching.....picked out 6 of them, and tah-dah quilt binding sorted!  So this really is a worldly quilt hey?

The laundry bag is from some cute animal camo print I picked up in Spotlight on my last trip to Adelaide.....I ended up getting 3 laundry bags out of it, so I'll have to get Jan-Maree to pair the other two up with one of the troopettes (female troops lol) in Egypt and one in Afghanistan.....got some yummy grey camo for the guys, but only had enough for 2 laundry bags from that.....but yay, at least I have a couple in my laundry bag bank now.

F-R-I-E-N-D-S Swap 2012 gifts & another pressie

I finally got to open my F-R-I-E-N-D-S swap gifts from Cheryll today....I'd held off opening them, until she got back from her road trip and opened hers too......as you can see above, I got quite a little pile of goodies to un-wrap, so thanks heaps Chez, I love it all to bits......wait till you all see what I got to open them up and reveal.

They sort of go top row left to right and then bottom row left to right....and here's a heads up for what each were:
F Festive hearts from felt
R Receptacle for Rubbish Bags
I Interesting fabric (hoot hoot!) and Insert your pins (hidden inside the fabric)
E Essentials for craft = tweezers/tape measure/knitting gadgets/scissor fob with an owl on it/flowers
N Novelty items = owl cards/gift wrap/ notepaper and envelopes (purple of course!)/notepad cover  and
         and owl magnet
D Delicious chocolate to eat (and oh boy, are they ever YUM) and Drinking chocolate to enjoy
S Star hangers and sockettes

There was also a keyring (in the pic just to the right of the choccies) with NV (my initials lol) loves to and a pic of a sewing machine on it, how cool is that hey????

Cheryll and I are also in a forum together, and they had a Christmas in July swap, which we both signed up for, but because Cheryll hadn't made the minimum amount of posts by the sign up date, she was ineligible....and not wanting her to miss out, I contacted her to see if she wanted to do a one on one swap with me....mind you, at this stage, neither of us knew exactly who we were lol  Once we twigged though, it made it even more fun...and we decided to delay our Xmas in July swap to combine it with our F-R-I-E-N-D-S swap to save on postage. 

If you'd like to see what she sent me, just click HERE....as for what I sent her, I will have to wait for her to put posts up, as I forgot to take pics!  How cool was my pressie though....a table runner that is perfect for my kitchen table....it's a goldilocks one, not too long, not too small, it's just right in other words....thanks heaps hun, I love it.....and it's purple, who wouldn't like it? lol

As for what I sent her for her Friends goodies, I'll just go have a look to see if I can find the pics!  Talk amongst yourselves while I'm gone!  Well that was a waste of time, I have pics of the individual pressies, but not of them as a whole, so maybe you'll just have to stalk her blog for her pics of it lol  I did however find the Christmas in July pressies I sent her, which was a Candle Mat (that fits her coffee table perfectly), an owl thimble and a notebook folder thingy!

No, she didn't get all the background 'junk' lol

Lastly, my next door neighbours, Wayne and Sharina went to Murray Bridge yesterday and happened to bring me back a pressie....check it out.....isn't it just gorgeous?  See no evil, hear no evil and speak no evil owls.....see, Sharina refers to me as "The Evil One" so it's quite a fitting present for me hey?

Just look at the speak no evil one....and how it's winking at me!

Edited today, to add the links to Cherylls post about the FRIENDS gifts I sent her.