Day 5 Blogtoberfest

Fairly quiet today in some ways; I didn't go out aside from the school run, and I got a reasonable amount of sewing done.

1st up I finished my trousers and they fit perfectly!   Hopefully they'll get too loose soon and I can take the side seams in.

Ignore the tummy, that's a combination of the IBS and a little extra padding.  My personal trainer says my tummy muscles are really strong though, so at least that's one good thing.   I think the IBS thing might be improving too, so have hopes the inflamation will improve too.

Once I finished the trousers I did my first ever free-motion quilting on my mystery item; here's a peek.  The photo is part of my tutorial shots so the pins are what I used to hold the layers together; not a hint as to the use it'll be put to.  

My free-motion quilting leaves a bit to be desired, my tension went AWOL on me; but after doing some reading on The Freemotion Quilting Project I've got a few new things to try, including not dropping the feed dogs, but instead placing the stitch length at 0.  I also spent the rest of my spending money at her quilting shop getting some quilting gloves and a teflon glider thing for the machine bed.  Unfortunately I can't afford the nifty wee table she uses, but this should help; and considering I have a king sized quilt that I'll be quilting once it's all pieced I'll need all the help I can get!  Even if I could afford the nifty table it's probably not worth it, much as I'd like to think my machine will last forever I have to keep in mind it's as old as I am, and if Mum wants it back I really do have to give it to her seeing as it's still hers.
One day I'll get a quilters machine with a bigger harp, and hopefully some alphabet fonts too....

Tomorrow I have to go out for a bit, I need to get a stereo to PC cable so I can shift our tower down to the section it belongs in on the computer desk.   I've also got to drop off a colouring competition entry form for George at the mall; he'd like to come, but I hate Riccarton Mall and if he's going it has to be either the weekend which is too busy or school holidays which is just as bad!   Not to mention that for either of them it would be just me with both boys as Thomas is busy each weekend till after the comp closes and working in the week.

School holidays start next week, you might have worked that out from the last comment I made.   There are some plans in place; the boys have 4 sessions with the Autism Society's holiday scheme going to places like Orana Park, swimming, ten-pin bowling, a llama park, horse riding and an adventure playground.   We also have to go out and get them both shin guards in the first week as they start soccer next term with a special needs group.  In the second week their grandmother is taking them for up to 3 days; it may be less, depends on how they behave, lol.  Ian's being a bit defiant of late, so it may not be the full 3 days; we'll see.