Completing all 52 quilt blocks from A Year of Quilting by Debbie Shore and Melissa Naylor felt like a huge achievement. Each block represented a new skill, a small win, and occasionally a quiet mutter of “why did I think this was a good idea?” But once the quilt top was finally finished and pressed, I quickly realised that making the blocks was only part of the journey.

The next challenge was quilting the quilt top itself. Unlike the cover image in the book, which shows the quilt as a wall hanging, my intention was to use this quilt on a bed.

This post documents my experience of that stage — the confusion, the frustration, the steep learning curve, and the small moments of progress — while also serving as a record of what I’ve learned, so I can refer back to it when I need a reminder of how or why I did something. If you’re a beginner staring at a finished quilt top and wondering what on earth “quilt as desired” actually means, you’re not alone.

This post focuses on the quilted quilt top I made while working through A Year of Quilting by Debbie Shore and Melissa Naylor. To follow the earlier part of my journey — learning to piece the blocks — see my previous post: Learning to Quilt: A Year of Quilting in Progress – Part 1: Learning to Piece Quilt Blocks.

When the Instructions Run Out

One thing I’ve discovered in my quilting journey is that most quilting books and magazines do a great job explaining how to piece the quilt top — and then, once the top is complete, the clear instructions largely disappear. You are often met with just three deceptively simple words:

“Quilt as desired.”

The beautifully quilted quilt tops shown in books and magazines — often quilted on a longarm machine — are certainly inspiring, but they aren’t necessarily helpful for a beginner working on a domestic sewing machine.

“Quilt as desired” is meant to give creative freedom, but for a beginner like me, it mostly leads to confusion. At this point in my quilting journey, I don’t yet know what I like or what “looks good” on a quilt top. Instead, I find myself wrestling with questions like:

• Should each block be quilted individually, or should I use an all-over design that flows across the entire quilt top?
• Should I try walking foot quilting, free-motion quilting, or pay a longarm quilter to do it for me?
• How difficult will it be, as a beginner, to quilt a 72 x 60-inch quilt on my domestic sewing machine? Or would it be more manageable to break the quilt top into sections and use a quilt-as-you-go method?
• How dense should the quilting be before it feels “finished” and not too stiff?
• What colour thread will look best — should it blend in, stand out, or sit somewhere in between?
• And perhaps the most unsettling question of all: will I ruin all that work if I quilt it “wrongly”?

These are questions that books and videos can’t necessarily answer, because the answers come from experience. The most important thing for me to remember is that this quilt is not meant to be perfect — it is part of my learning journey.

Building Quilting Skills from Scratch

I decided early on that I wanted to quilt this quilt myself on my domestic sewing machine rather than pay a longarm quilter. I wanted to experience the entire process from start to finish, even if that meant a steeper learning curve.

My starting point was to learn about both walking foot quilting and free-motion quilting so I could decide which approach might suit me best, which would then help me decide on the quilting design. This was where the “had I but known” moment came into play.

Once I started actively looking for advice on learning how to quilt, a consistent message appeared: for beginners, the best projects to learn on are usually baby quilts, lap quilts, or small items such as tablecloths or table runners. These smaller projects are far easier to manage on a domestic sewing machine and allow you to focus on learning the skills and building confidence without feeling overwhelmed.

By contrast, my finished quilt top — at 72 × 60 inches — was not exactly a gentle introduction to quilting on a domestic machine.

Learning the Skills: Books and Resources That Helped

Once I accepted that I needed to start by learning walking foot and free-motion quilting, the next step was finding resources that could actually teach me how to do it.

The following are resources I’ve found helpful:

Walking Foot Quilting Resources

Jaquie Gering’s work is the key resource I used to learn walking foot quilting.

Jacquie Gering is widely recognised for making walking foot quilting accessible to beginners. Her two books, WALK: Master Machine Quilting with your Walking Foot and Walk 2.0:More Machine Quilting with Your Walking Foot, combined with her Craftsy’s classes Creative Quilting with your walking foot and Next Steps with your walking foot classes, were an essential part of my learning,

WALK: Master Machine Quilting with your Walking Foot guided me step by step from the basics to advanced and creative uses of the walking foot. Walk 2.0: More Machine Quilting with Your Walking Foot builds on these techniques and includes a detailed section on “How to quilt it” and “quilt as desired”, offering practical advice, planning tips, and extensive examples, along with a gallery for inspiration. Working through her online Craftsy classes helped reinforce the lessons and gave me the confidence to try these techniques.

Free-Motion Quilting Resources

I’ve found Leah Day and Angela Walters’ work to be great resources for learning free-motion quilting. Both have played a significant role in making free-motion quilting accessible to beginners using domestic sewing machines.

Leah Day focuses on breaking complex designs down into simple shapes and repeatable motions, helping beginners understand that free-motion quilting is a skill that can be learned through practice rather than artistic talent.

Angela Walters, by contrast, has a strong focus on design and texture. She encourages quilters to experiment, mix motifs, and think about quilting as a way to enhance a quilt rather than simply finish it.

Below are links to some of their free-motion playlists on YouTube:

I’ve also built up a small collection of free-motion quilting books over time — borrowed from libraries or found in charity shops — which have been useful reference resources.

My current book list includes:

• Angela Walter – Free-Motion Meandering – A Beginner’s Guide to Machine Quilting
• Wendy Sheppard – Stitching Pathways
• Catherine Redford – Modern Machine Quilting (here is a link to the second edition of this book).

Each of these books approaches free-motion quilting from a slightly different angle and, as a result, offers different tips and insights.

While it isn’t a book on learning free-motion quilting techniques, I enjoyed reading Quilting is My Therapy – Behind the Stitches with Angela Walters. This book is a personal and enjoyable read about Angela Walters’ journey into quilting. I found it inspiring to read about her experiences, challenges, and growth as a quilter, and it offered a reminder that every quilting journey is different and evolves over time.

Fast and Easy Quilting Designs

Karen Brown has a helpful 10 Fast and Easy Quilting designs, which is helpful for quickly finishing off quilts.

Practice, Practice, Practice

Most agree that the only real way to improve at machine quilting is through practice. Books and videos can explain techniques and offer guidance, but confidence and skill come from spending time at the machine, making stitches, and learning from what works — and what doesn’t.

The most common suggestion is to practice using small sample quilt sandwiches. I use 12 x 18 inch quilt sandwiches for my practice and make them by following the spray basting instructions in Quilt Sandwich tutorial – how to make a quilt sanwich. I don’t bother pin basting after spray basting.

Walking foot practice

Below are photos of some of my initial practice learning to use the walking foot on the Janome 419s I had borrowed from my niece. I ended up buying a Janome Skyline S7 after accidentally snapping the presser foot lifter on the Janome 419s. My Skyline S7 includes an acufeed foot, extension table and a range of other features, which make it better suited for quilting.

Free-motion Practice

I haven’t invested as much time learning free-motion quilting because I decided early on that I would use a walking foot for my large quilting project, as I had already identified that free-motion quilting has a steeper learning curve because:

• You are responsible for both stitch length and movement.
• Coordinating hand speed with machine speed takes time to develop.
• Muscle memory needs to be built through regular practice.
• Early stitches can feel messy or inconsistent, which can be discouraging.
• Many recommend drawing the designs first on paper, a whiteboard, or printed practice sheets to help connect hand movement with stitching.
• It involves more practice to learn.

My initial attempts at free-motion quilting on the Janome 419s highlight my challenge learning it compared to walking foot quilting.

Part of my challenge with free-motion quilting is that I don’t particularly enjoy practising in isolation. I’m far more motivated when I’m sewing something that will be used, rather than working on small practice quilt sandwiches that is disconnected from a finished project.

I also have poor fine motor skills, to the point where I can even struggle to read my own handwriting at times. This makes the coordination required for free-motion quilting more difficult and means progress is slower and more frustrating.

However, I did revisit free-motion quilting after reading Modern Machine Quilting by Catherine Redford. Her book includes small, usable projects that make practising free-motion quilting feel purposeful rather than abstract. The clear instructions and detailed examples helped me identify more enjoyable ways to learn free-motion quilting — without relying on sample quilt sandwiches.

Below are pages 110 and 111 from Modern Machine Quilting by Catherine Redford, which show examples of making simple placements to practice different types of free-motion quilting.

Below is my attempt at free-motion quilting Christmas placemats using my Skyline S7. I found free-motion quilting considerably easier on the Skyline S7, which made the process feel more manageable. However, I also learned an important lesson about fabric choice. The solid fabrics used in Catherine Redford’s examples are far better suited to free-motion quilting than the printed fabric I chose. On my placemats, much of the quilting was visually lost in the busy print, making the stitching far less noticeable than I had expected. This was ultimately why I never completed the placemats.

Even so, the experience was encouraging — it showed me that I could learn free-motion quilting if I chose to focus on it.

Breaking the Quilt into Manageable Sections

I reached a point where I realised that practising only takes me so far. Sample pieces are useful for learning individual skills, but they don’t prepare me for the reality of quilting a large quilt top. To really understand how a quilt behaves under the machine, I needed to dive in and quilt an actual project.

At the same time, I needed to listen to the advice of experienced quilters, who often recommend starting with smaller projects, such as a baby or lap quilt (around 40 × 40 inches), as these are much easier to manage on a domestic sewing machine.

To make my 72 × 60 inch quilt manageable, I decided to use a quilt-as-you-go approach. Instead of quilting the entire quilt top at once, I sewed the blocks into nine panels. This allowed me to quilt each smaller panel separately before joining the panels together to create the finished quilt.

I originally intended to use the quilt-as-you-go method that incorporates sashing between the panels. This method is demonstrated in Pattern Poole’s video Quilt as you go with sashing. If you look closely at my quilt block panels photo above, you will see where I’ve added some cream and green fabric to see how sashing might look.

I quickly changed my mind to using a quilt-as-you-go approach without sashing so I could preserve the original quilt design.

Preparing the Quilt Sandwiches

Once I had sewn my blocks together to create the nine panels, I assembled the quilt sandwiches by following the spray-basting instructions in the Quilt Sandwich Tutorial – How to Make a Quilt Sandwich. I rely solely on spray basting and don’t pin baste afterwards, as I’ve found it holds the layers securely enough for quilting the panels on my domestic machine.

I had originally planned to use my leftover scraps to create an after-quilt for the backing, but I later changed my mind and chose to buy a patterned backing fabric instead. It was a simpler approach, and a heavily patterned backing works particularly well with a quilt-as-you-go method, as it helps disguise the joins and keeps the focus on the quilting rather than the construction. I used a medium-loft polyester cotton blend batting.

Choosing a Quilting Design and Getting Started

Choosing how to quilt the quilt was far more challenging than I expected. My first instinct was to quilt each block with its own design, so I began by quilting radiating straight lines in the log cabin blocks. While this worked well on a small sample quilt sandwich, it was far too dense and visually overpowering on the actual quilt. I had quilted it just as densely as my practice piece, without realising that the larger scale didn’t need that level of quilting. In the end, I had to unpick it.

For my second attempt, I reduced the quilting density and approached the quilting on a per-panel basis. While each panel looked fine on its own, once I laid the panels together, it became clear that the quilting competed with the overall quilt design, even at a lighter density (it isn’t as obvious in the photo as it was in person). The quilt felt busy rather than cohesive, and once again, I made the difficult decision to unpick the quilting.

The centre panel was quilted with gentle waves, while the other panels were line-quilted.

It was at this point that I realised an all-over quilting design across the entire quilt would better support the pieced design. I eventually settled on gentle waves, which added texture without overpowering the blocks. By this stage, I had already joined the top and bottom panel blocks, which meant unpicking the quilting across seven panel sections before quilting them again with the new design.

In hindsight, if I had realised from the beginning that an all-over design of gentle waves was the best approach, I could have simplified the process by quilting the quilt in two or three larger panels instead of breaking it into nine. It was one of those lessons that only becomes obvious once you’ve worked through the problem the long way.

One of the most valuable lessons I learned from Jacquie Gering is that it’s perfectly okay to unpick your quilting and start again. She shared how she originally quilted her Running Man quilt with vertical matchstick quilting, but a third of the way through, realised it wasn’t working. She unpicked the quilting and switched to sectional curve quilting, using the piecing to guide the placement of the curves and create a sense of movement in the runner. Seeing a professional quilter go through the same process reassured me that redoing quilting isn’t a failure — it’s part of the learning process and sometimes necessary to get the best result.

While it was time-consuming and occasionally frustrating, this process taught me a valuable lesson: quilting choices can only really be evaluated at full scale, and sometimes the best decision is to stop, unpick, and try again.

Using Quilt-As-You-Go To Join The Quilt Sections

Once I had finished quilting the panels, it was time to join them together using a quilt-as-you-go method without sashing. There are variations of this technique, and I found Sugaridoo’s Quilt as You Go – How to Join Quilt Sections Without Bulky Seams helpful.

My approach is an adaptation of Sugaridoo’s quilt-as-you-go method and other QAYG techniques without sashing. I found that trimming the backing fabric 1 inch from the quilt top edge, rather than the ½ inch used in Sugaridoo’s video, made the panels easier to join neatly on my domestic machine.

Step 1: Leave a Quilting Margin

Before quilting, I made sure I didn’t quilt closer than 1 inch from the edges of the panels that needed to be joined. I marked this boundary using an erasable fabric marker as a visual guide.

Step 2: Prepare the Left Panel

Take the left panel to be joined.
Pin the backing fabric away from the right-hand edge, keeping it clear of the quilt top and batting.

Step 3: Trim the Batting (Left Panel)

Trim the batting on the right-hand side so it is flush with the edge of the quilt top.

Step 4: Trim the Backing (Left Panel)

Unpin and fold the backing fabric back out.
Trim the backing so it extends 1 inch beyond the edge of the quilt top and batting.

Step 5: Prepare the Right Panel

Take the right panel and pin the backing fabric away from the left-hand edge, keeping it clear of the quilt top and batting.

Step 6: Trim the Batting (Right Panel)

Trim the batting on the left-hand side so it is flush with the quilt top edge.

Step 7: Create a Batting Recess (Right Panel)

Pin the quilt top away from the batting, then trim the batting so it sits ½ inch inside the edge of the quilt top.

Step 8: Trim the Backing (Right Panel)

Unpin the backing and trim it so it extends 1 inch beyond the quilt top edge.
At this point:

• The batting sits ½ inch inside the quilt top edge
• The backing extends 1 inch past the quilt top

Step 9: Join the Quilt Tops

Place the right sides of the quilt tops together, pinning only the quilt tops.
Ensure the batting and backing are pinned well out of the way.
Sew using a ¼ inch seam allowance.

Step 10: Close the Batting

Press the seam gently.
Fold the batting edges together and hand stitch the batting closed.

Step 11: Close the Backing

Turn the backing edges under neatly:

• Press one backing edge under by about ¼ inch
• Lay the second backing edge over it
• Hand-sew the backing closed over the seam.

Step 12: Secure the Join

Quilt a gentle wave along the joined seam to secure the panels and visually blend the join into the rest of the quilting.

Finishing the Quilt: Binding and Quilt Label

Once all the quilted panels were joined together, the quilt finally felt whole. I trimmed it to size, squared it up, and reached the final stage: binding.

By this point, I wanted a finish that felt relaxed and forgiving rather than another opportunity to overthink decisions. I decided to use a scrappy binding, made from the leftover fabrics from the quilt itself. It felt like a fitting way to bring everything together and use what I already had.

I followed Turn your scraps into binding – How to bind your quilt part 4 by Karen Brown to learn how to make scrappy binding, which helped demystify the process and showed how piecing binding strips can be both practical and visually interesting.

I followed How to bind a quilt – binding hack you need to have by Karen Brown to machine bind the quilt.

After binding my quilt was almost finished – I just needed to add a quilt label.

Ta Da! My completed quilt and the final inspection are complete. Quilt approved by Nova.

Applying the Lessons: Quilting the Next Bed Quilt

After completing this quilt, I moved straight on to another bed quilt of the same size (72 × 60 inches), this time using a quilt kit I had been gifted. The fabric colours and patterns weren’t ones I would normally choose, but I decided that working with a different aesthetic was part of the learning process. Being challenged by fabrics outside my comfort zone turned out to be a useful experience in itself, and my husband loves the colours of this one.

This quilt felt noticeably easier to quilt because the instructions clearly specified the quilting design. The diagonal piecing was quilted using stitch-in-the-ditch, and the larger diagonal fabric sections were quilted with cross-hatching. To increase the quilt to bed size, I added extra fabric to the sides and ends, and those sections were quilted with simple straight lines.

Because the overall design was simpler and the quilting plan had already been decided, I chose to quilt this quilt in one piece rather than using a quilt-as-you-go approach. I wanted to understand what it felt like to manage a full-size quilt on my domestic machine, and I was surprised by how manageable it was.

I spray-basted the quilt sandwich by placing my dining table outside against my outdoor table, which allowed me to lay the entire quilt across both tables easily. I ironed between each spray-basting step, using my iron directly on the table to keep the layers smooth and aligned.

This project also gave me a new appreciation for why many experienced quilters dislike stitch-in-the-ditch. I found it far more challenging than expected, requiring constant concentration to stay accurately in the seams. However, having the quilting design chosen in advance made the process far less mentally tiring. Instead of second-guessing every decision, I could focus on execution and flow — a valuable contrast to my first experience of “quilt as desired.”

Final Thoughts

Looking back over this past year of quilting, the biggest thing I’ve gained isn’t the finished quilts — it’s experience. I’ve now worked through every stage of the quilting process: piecing blocks, planning layouts, choosing fabrics, quilting on a domestic machine, using quilt-as-you-go methods, unpicking and starting again when needed, and finishing a quilt with binding. Each step has added to my understanding in ways that books and tutorials alone never could.

More importantly, as a beginner learning new skills, I have a constant internal battle with perfectionism. Learning to quilt has repeatedly forced me to shift my focus — away from the desire for perfect decisions and perfect outcomes, and towards progress, growing confidence, and learning one step at a time. Wanting every choice to be “right” can stall progress, whereas in reality, skills are built through trial, mistakes, and doing the work imperfectly.

As for what’s next, I’ve started working on Alice’s Wonderland Sampler Quilt: 100 Quilt Blocks to Improve Your Sewing Skills, as I’ve discovered that I enjoy the challenge of learning new quilt blocks and following a structured, guided journey that builds skills through piecing far more than the quilting stage itself.

I recently decided to take on a new challenge: learning how to quilt. As part of my commitment to lifelong learning and healthy living, quilting has been a surprisingly powerful tool—it combines creativity, fine motor skills, problem-solving, and patience, all of which are great for brain health and personal growth.

I’m using A Year of Quilting by Debbie Shore and Melissa Naylor to guide me through 52 different quilt blocks, one week at a time. In this post, I’m documenting what I’ve learned so far—from techniques and challenges to tips and tutorials—to celebrate progress, reflect on the process, and share helpful resources with others on a similar path.

Note: I updated this post as I completed blocks, and as of September 25, 2025, all 52 blocks are finished. I will no longer be updating this post. To continue following my quilting journey, see my follow-up post: Learning to Quilt: Quilting the Quilt Top – Part 2: A Beginner’s Struggle with “Quilt as Desired.”

Why Quilting?

I first gave quilting a try about 20 years ago, when I hand-stitched a mini quilt.

Now, with more time available, it feels like the right moment to reassess whether quilting is something I truly want to take up.

Without a sewing machine of my own, I began by borrowing my niece’s—one that my mum had given her about 20 years ago and then spent several months sewing a variety of items for the house. After gaining confidence with those projects, I decided I was ready to start learning to quilt.

My Quilting Project

I chose Debbie Shore and Melissa Naylor’s A Year of Quilting for my quilting project because:

• The idea of creating a new block each week felt manageable, and the book is designed with beginners in mind. I found her other sewing books well-written for beginners.
• It includes a variety of quilting techniques—ranging from simple machine piecing and appliqué to English paper piecing and foundation paper piecing—so that each block will introduce me to different patchwork or quilting method.
• I liked the look of the quilt design.

Important Note on Pattern Corrections

Please note that there are some mistakes in the measurements in Debbie Shore and Melissa Naylor’s A Year of Quilting. Fortunately, the authors have provided a list of corrections, which you can download here . I highly recommend checking the updated measurements before cutting into your good fabric—especially if you’re a beginner like me and relying on the book’s instructions closely.

I also found the following correction needed that isn’t in the updated measurement list:

Important Note on Pattern Corrections

Please note that there are some mistakes in the measurements in Debbie Shore and Melissa Naylor’s A Year of Quilting. Fortunately, the authors have provided a list of corrections, which you can download here . I highly recommend checking the updated measurements before cutting into your good fabric—especially if you’re a beginner like me and relying on the book’s instructions closely.

I also found the following corrections needed that aren’t in the correction list:

Week 4: Small Flower 1 (page 58)

• The white background square (WW) should be cut at 5½ inches, not 5¾ inches.
• The longer leaf fabric (Fabric B) should be cut at 4¾ x 1½ inches (not 4½ x 1½ inches).

Week 39 Tall Flower 3 (page 116)

• The instructions say to cut twelve 2¾” × 1⅜” strips in WW and sew these to the top and bottom of the 2½” × 1¾” Fabric B strips.
• Fabric B should be six 2¾” × 1¾”, not six 2½” × 1¾”

Week 41 Dresden 2 (page 120)

• The octagon shape made from the template on page 175 was too small and didn’t cover the center of the Dresden. Recommend placing the octagon template over the center of the Dresden to confirm it is large enough before preparing it. It might have been an issue with my Dresden and to fix it, I enlarged the octagon template by photocopying it at 125%, which increased the size to 3¾”.

Week 46 Flying Geese 4 (page 130)

• Unfinished size should be 18½” by 6½”, not 18½” by 12½”

Week 50 Basket 4 (page 141 and page 142).

• Step 3 (page 141). At the end of step 3 it should add stich the 10½ by 2 inch Fab A strip to the bottom of the narrow pieced section.

• Step 6 (page 142). After making the half square triangles using the two-in-one half square triangle technique it should say trim all units to 2 inches square if necessary (not trim all units to 1½ inch square if necessary).

Week 51 Curved Piecing (page 143).

• Template 1 should be written as Template A, and Template 2 should be written as Template B to match the naming convention used on template page 171.

Leveraging My Instructional‑Design Background

Much of my professional life has been in instructional design—teaching new skills across various fields—so I’m accustomed to deconstructing skills into teachable steps. Quilting involves many techniques, and I knew from experience that no single book, however well written, could cover every skill in depth.

Next Step: Curated YouTube Tutorials

After purchasing the book, I turned to YouTube to supplement my learning by finding videos that demonstrated the key skills I’d needed to get started, such as:

• How To Cut Straight
• How To Sew Straight
• How To Iron For Quilting
• Mastering the Quarter Inch Seam

I also watched Just Get It Done Quilts’ videos on color theory, but decided it was safer to ask staff at a quilt store to help me choose fabrics for this project— their eye for color felt more reliable.

What I Bought To Get Started: The Fun (and Overwhelming) Part

Before starting my first block, I needed to pick up some essential tools. While it was tempting to buy everything, I tried to strike a balance between getting what I truly needed and avoiding the trap of over-buying supplies I might not use right away. Some items I already had from previous sewing projects; others were specific to quilting.

Here’s what I bought to get started:

• Fiskars 45 mm Rotary Cutter – not 100 % happy with it. Switched to an Olfa 45 mm Rotary Cutter and much happier.
• 18 x 24 inch self healing cutting mat
• 14 x 14 inch Rotating self healing cutting mat – not essential but handy to have for trimming blocks next to sewing machine.
• Quilting rulers
  • 6 x 24 inch ruler – length makes it perfect for cutting full width fabric strips as it fits the standard quilting fabric when folded.
  • 4.5 x 14 inch ruler – not essential but easier for working with smaller fabric pieces.
  • 6.5 inch square ruler and a 12.5 inch square ruler – Debbie Shore and Melissa Naylor’s A Year of Quilting recommended getting one large square ruler like a 12.5 or 16 inch. Their blocks are mainly 6.5 inch square or 12.5 inch square. I decided to buy both rulers as quilters have differing opinions on which size to use. I’ve found both sizes have been helpful. The smaller 6.5 inch square ruler is easier for trimming half square triangles.
  • 1/4 plus ruler – not essential but very handy for marking sewing lines and checking 1/4 inch.
• Sewline Marker pencil – for marking sewing lines.
• Seam ripper – Essential for fixing inevitable mistakes.
• Sewing machine needles – Size 80/12 suitable for piecing.
• That Purple Thang Sewing Tool – helpful for guiding fabric when machine sewing.
• Sewline Fabric Glue pen – for Foundation paper piecing and English Paper Piecing.
• Mary Ellen’s Best Press – when instructions recommend starch is needed like with English Paper Piecing.
• Fabric Adhesive Sheets – for applique.
• Freezer paper – for certain types of applique.
• Threads
• Fabrics – purchased the nine fabrics required for the blocks.

Block by Block: My First Steps into Quilting

I’ve now completed all 52 blocks from Debbie Shore and Melissa Naylor’sA Year of Quilting which has take approximately 6 months. To build my skills and gain confidence with each new technique, I initially tested every block pattern by first creating a practice block using spare fabric. Once I’m happy with the result, I then make the final version using my chosen good fabric. This approach helps me avoid mistakes and lets me experiment without the pressure of getting it perfect on the first try. As my skills increased, there was less need to create a practice block, and I was able to create the final version.

Flying Geese Blocks

I completed four blocks that included the standard Flying Geese technique — Flying Geese 1 Block (Week 1) , Bird 1 block (Week 6), Small Flower 4 Block (Week 26), and Heart 6 (Week 28).

Starting my quilting journey with a Flying Geese block for week 1’s task was a bit of a challenge—I’m not sure it’s the easiest block for a beginner! Thankfully, I managed okay in the end. Instead of using the traditional method, I followed the technique from Just Get It Done Quilts video, “Flying Geese: Beginner to Advanced“, as I thought it might help improve my precision.

After completing my practice block, I quickly learned the importance of checking the measurements of each individual flying geese unit before sewing them together into the final block. Erica Arndt video, “How to Make a Flying Geese Block” was also really helpful, especially for understanding how to check and trim the block to the right size.

The Week 6 Bird 1 Flying Geese One-at-a-time block involved making two flying geese units and then adding a series of strips to the right side and bottom to bring the unfinished size to 6 ½ inches square. Once again, I used the technique from Just Get It Done Quilts video, “Flying Geese: Beginner to Advanced“, which I find helps with my precision. I was able to put this block together fairly quickly, thanks to the flying geese created in Week 1.

The Week 26 Small Flower 4 involved making flying geese using the Four-in-One Flying Geese method. I used Just Get It Done Quilts, Four-in -one method from her video “Flying Geese: Beginner to Advanced” to create the flying geese and increased my fabric sizes cut to 4¾ inch square Fabric A and 3 inch squares for WW as recommended in her video to allow extra fabric for trimming.

I didn’t have any trouble making the Four-in-one flying geese, but it took some time for me to work out how I wanted to trim the flying geese to the finished size. I ended up trimming the flying geese to a finished size of 3½ by 2 inches by marking a trimming guide on both ends of my 4.5 x 14-inch ruler.

I used crazy patchwork to create the flying geese for Week 28 Heart 6.

The book also includes three other techniques for making flying geese:

1. 3D Curved Flying Geese.
2. Foundation paper piecing.
3. Machine Piecing using the Snowball technique.

Curved Flying Geese

I created one block using curved flying geese (also known as 3D curved flying geese) – Flying Geese 2 (Week 30).

The trickiest part of the curved flying geese was wrapping my head around how they’re sewn. Thankfully, Teresa DownUnder‘s video on the two types — small and large — made it click for me. After that, they came together just as easily as the Small Flower 3 block (week 21), which uses a similar technique to create that lovely curved shape.

Half-Square Triangles (HST)

I completed nine blocks that included Half-Square Triangles (HST) — Star 1 block (Week 3), Heart 2 block (Week 5), large pieced block (week 11), Bird 2 block (week 14), Star 4 (week 16), Star 5 (week 23) and Star 6 (week 31), large pieced block 2 (week 35) and basket 4 (week 50).

The Star 1 block (week 3) featured a star design created using Half-Square Triangles (HSTs) with the four-at-a-time method. However, after watching Just Get It Done Quilts video, How to Make a Half Square Triangle – 10 Ways to Make a HST, I decided to switch to the two-at-a-time method instead.

As a beginner, I felt that the four-at-a-time method, which creates HSTs on the bias, is riskier as they are more prone to stretching and distortion during piecing. The two-at-a-time method felt much more manageable. I just needed to adjust the fabric measurements accordingly, which was a simple trade-off for more control and accuracy.

To switch from making four-at-a-time HSTs to two-at-a-time HSTs, I add ½ inch to the final trimmed size of the unit. For example:

• If I need the finished HST to be 3.5 inches square, I start by cutting 4-inch squares.
• If I need the finished HST to be 2.5 inches square, I start by cutting 3-inch squares.

My Step-by-step Instructions for making Half-Square Triangles (HSTs) using the two-at-a-time method

Step 1: Mark the sewing lines
Draw ¼-inch diagonal lines on either side of the centre diagonal line on one of your fabric squares.

Step 2: Sew along the marked lines
Sew directly on each ¼-inch line to create your stitched HST units.

Step 3: Cut along the centre diagonal
Cut along the centre diagonal line to separate the two halves into individual HSTs.

Step 4: Press the HSTs
Open the two HSTs and press the seams. Pressing towards one side or open depends on your preference or pattern instructions.

Step 5: Trim HSTs to the required size
Use a square ruler with a 45-degree line:

1. Place the 45-degree mark on the ruler along the diagonal seam.
2. Align the bottom and left edges with the desired finished size (for example, 2.5 inches).
3. Trim the excess fabric from the top and right edges.
4. Rotate the square 180° and repeat: align the 45-degree mark on the diagonal, line up the bottom and left edges, and trim the remaining excess.

The Heart 2 block (Week 5) featured a heart design made with Half-Square Triangles (HSTs) using the two-at-a-time method. While working on the practice block, I realized I needed to improve how I line up the peaks when sewing HSTs together, and how to sew rows so the blocks align accurately. Stephanie Soebbing’s Quilt Addicts Anonymous video, “Use this pinning method to join triangles perfectly,” helped me understand how to pin and nest seams more effectively for better alignment.

The large pieced block 2 (week 35) involved making HSTs using the Eight-in-one half square triangles method, which I quickly worked out from Just Get It Done Quilts video, demonstration of the Eight-in one method from How to Make a Half Square Triangle – 10 Ways to Make a HST.

Step-by-Step Instructions for Making Half-Square Triangles (HSTs) Using the Eight-at-a-Time Method

Step 1: Mark the sewing lines
Draw ¼-inch diagonal lines on either side of the centre diagonal line on your fabric squares in both directions, forming an X.

Step 2: Sew along the marked lines
Sew directly on each ¼-inch line to create your stitched HST units.

Step 3: Cut the square in half
Cut each square in half vertically and horizontally to create four smaller squares.

Step 4: Cut along the centre diagonals
Cut along the centre diagonal line of each of the four smaller squares to separate them into individual HSTs.

Step 5: Press the HSTs
Open each HST and press the seams. You can press towards one side or open, depending on your preference or pattern instructions.

Step 6: Trim HSTs to the required size
Trim the HSTs to the required finished size using the same method as for two-at-a-time HSTs: align the 45-degree mark on your ruler with the diagonal seam, line up the bottom and left edges with the desired size, and trim the top and right edges. Rotate and repeat for accuracy.

Just Get It Done Quilts video, How to Make a Half Square Triangle – 10 Ways to Make a HST, shows how to make two-at-a-time and eight-at-a-time HSTs.

Quarter Square Triangle

I created one block that includes Quarter Square Triangles (also known as hourglass blocks) – Star 5 (week 31).

The two videos I watched for tips on making the Quarter Square Triangles were:

• Mary B’s Quickest Way to make quarter square triangles.
• Leah Day’s How to piece hourglass quilt blocks (watched to see how to trim properly using a square ruler, as Mary B’s shows how to use a perfect slotted trimmer ruler).

Split Half Square Triangles

I made two blocks that included split quarter square triangles—Large Pieced Block 1 (Week 11) and Week 42 (Star 8).

I was caught out badly with the large pieced block 1 (week 11), as the book didn’t explain how to properly trim split quarter square triangles, and I ended up trimming them incorrectly. Thankfully, I found Then Came June’s tutorial, “How to sew and trim split quarter square triangles”, which clearly explained the process and helped me understand where I went wrong.

Half Rectangle Triangles

I made one block, Star 4 block (week 16), that includes Half Rectangle triangles.

The book uses the freezer paper method for trimming half rectangle triangles, but I chose to use the ruler method instead—marking reference points on a square ruler and trimming accordingly. This method is more widely demonstrated in online tutorials, which made it easier for me to follow. I suspect the authors opted for the freezer paper technique either because it’s simpler to explain in print or they felt it would be more approachable for beginners.

The biggest challenge with making half rectangle triangles is that they’re directional, so it’s important to draw the stitching line in the correct direction. Unlike half square triangles, you can’t simply rotate a half rectangle triangle to place the triangle in a different position. You need to carefully work out which fabric goes on each side and draw the line in the right direction to achieve the correct orientation in the finished unit.

Make It in the Shed’s Video shows “how to (and trim!) Half-Rectangle Triangles”.

Log Cabin

I first worked with the Log Cabin technique in Log Cabin 1 Block (Week 8), Bird 2 block (week 14) and Log cabin 2 (week 33). This traditional style is built by sewing strips of fabric around a central square, which creates a striking geometric effect and is great for showcasing color contrast.

Their task involved sewing together four blocks using a variation of the log cabin technique.

Before getting started with Log cabin 1 block (week 8), I tested my ¼-inch seam guide by sewing together four 2½-inch strips. The measurements looked correct once pressed.

However, when I began sewing the log cabin blocks for Log cabin 1 block (week 8) using 1½-inch strips, it quickly became evident that my seam allowance was slightly off. Fortunately, I was able to use a practice block to fine-tune my seam guide.

I measured the block carefully as each new strip was added, adjusting as needed. Only minor trimming was required in the end, and I achieved the correct unfinished block size of 12½ inches square for this log cabin.

Bird 2 block (week 14) involved using the log cabin technique with single half-square triangles.

The Log cabin 2 block (week 33) was made using on my new sewing machine, the Janome S7 AE, which comes with a ¼” foot and a built-in ¼” seam setting. I used this foot with the default ¼” seam setting to make the log cabin, but my block ended up slightly smaller than it should have been. To fix it, I adjusted the outer strips to 1½” and trimmed the block down to the correct unfinished size of 12½”.

Luckily, I’d watched Sew Sew Studio’s Janome S7 Introduction video and remembered their tip: when using the ¼” foot, change the stitch width setting to 8.7 or 9 to achieve a scant ¼” seam. Switching mine to 9 solved the issue, and now my future blocks are coming out the right size.

Checkerboard

I made five blocks that included checkerboard—the Large pieced block 1 (week 11), Tall Flower 1 (week 17), Small Flower 2 (Week 20), Small Flower 3 (Week 21)and heart 7 (week 34)..

The blocks are made using either Four Patch or Nine Patch checkerboards, which come together quickly. The most time-consuming part has been working with Fabric D, which has a distinct pattern—I’ve found it looks best when the pieces are fussy cut to highlight the fabric’s design.

However, it did take me some time to work out the technique for the curved shape over the checkerboard in Small Flower 3 (Week 21). I loved how this block looked once it was created.

Snowball

I made five blocks that include snowballs – heart 3 (week 10), tall flower 2 (week 24), tall flower 3 (week 39), basket 2 (week 40), and flying geese 4 (week 46).

The book lists the techniques for these blocks as machine piecing. I’m referring to them as snowballs, as this is the method being used. Snowballing a block involves taking any size square or rectangle, adding smaller squares to its corners, sewing diagonally across each corner, trimming the seam allowance to ¼”, and then flipping the fabric open to form a triangle.

After making a few snowball blocks, I started to feel discouraged—my accuracy was all over the place, and the results just weren’t what I wanted. I decided to dig a little deeper and found Mary B’s video 2 Easy Snowball Block Methods: Stitch and Flip – Cut and Stitch!. Watching it was such a relief. She explained why the stitch-and-flip method is often inconsistent (which made me feel better about my struggles, knowing that an experienced quilter like Mary B has the same challenge!), and it showed how the cut-and-stitch method makes snowballs so much more accurate. I now know that if I need to be really accurate when making snowballs, the cut-and-stitch method is the better option.

Square within a Square

I made one block that includes a square within a square – Star 8 block (week 42).

The only trouble I had making this block was working out how to accurately trim a square within a square, and My Quilting Bee’s video shows how to trim a square in square block demonstrates the method I used.

Curved Piecing

I created two blocks using curved piecing with a Drunkard Path template – Curved Piecing 1 (week 27) and Curved Piecing 2 (Week 51).

Drunkard’s Path drove me crazy for a few reasons:

• I initially used the template from the correction for page 171 of A Year of Quilting by Debbie Shore and Melissa Naylor, not realising they had changed the scale of all the templates on that page—including the Week 26 Drunkard’s Path. It wasn’t until I made my first curved piece that I realised something was wrong.

• Their Drunkard’s Path template is designed to create a 3½” finished block, but curved piecing can easily shift, stretch, or distort. My second attempt using their template resulted in a block slightly smaller than 3½”, which was frustrating.

• I decided it was better to create oversized Drunkard’s Path blocks and trim them down to 3½ inch, which is what most quilters do. Trimming makes it easier to achieve accurate sizing and clean, consistent curves. The tricky part was figuring out what size template I needed to start with, and then finding a suitable one online. I ended up using this 4″ Drunkard’s Path template from Springleaf Studio.

• I trimmed the blocks to 3½” by marking the size on my 6½” ruler using tape, including the ¼” points where each curve should land. To trim, I lined up the curve with the ¼” marks, then trimmed the top and right sides. After rotating the block, I aligned the freshly trimmed edges with the tape, checked the curve was still at the ¼” marks, and trimmed the remaining two sides.

Drunkard path continued to drive me crazy when I created the Curved Piecing 2 in Week 51 for the following reasons:

• I had to buy more white-on-white fabric because I didn’t have enough left, but I accidentally bought the wrong shade. The fabric was very close in color, and I didn’t notice the difference until I had sewn all the drunkard’s paths for the Curved Piecing 2 block together. It was only when the fabrics were placed side by side that the mismatch became obvious. As a result I had to buy more fabric and remake half of the drunkard paths.
• Accurate sewing and trimming are especially important when piecing the Curved Piecing 2 block in Week 51. I later realized that some of my drunkard’s path blocks hadn’t been trimmed to the correct 3½”, which caused problems with the final piecing. To fix it, I had to unpick the blocks and re-trim them before sewing them back together.
• I found that the lines on my 12 ½ ruler were better for trimming drunkard paths compared to my 6½” rule.

Crazy Patchwork

I used crazy patchwork in one block – Heart 6 (Week 28).

Crazy patchwork was a fun break from the more precise quilting techniques. There’s no strict pattern—just irregular shapes stitched together like a puzzle. It’s a no-rules approach with a simple process, much like foundation paper piecing. I created the crazy patchwork for the Heart 6 block by using scraps as leaders while piecing my main blocks.

The flying geese at the top of this heart block were originally meant to use fabric D, but I adjusted the pattern to incorporate crazy patchwork instead. I felt this approach better complemented the look and feel of the heart block and added a more playful, scrappy touch.

Foundation Paper Piecing (FPP)

I made eight blocks the include Foundation Paper Piecing (FPP) — Heart 1 block (Week 2), Star 2 block (Week 7), Star 3 block (week 13), Heart 5 (Week 18), Bird 3 (Week 25), Star 7 (week 32) and Flying Geese 3 (week 36) and Basket 3 (week 45).

My first exposure to Foundation Paper Piecing (FPP) was in Week 2 when I created the Heart 1 block. FFP was a breath of fresh air after learning how to create Flying Geese in week 1. Stitching directly on the paper template means there’s less need for perfectly precise fabric cutting.

Just Get It Done Quilts video, “Foundation Paper Piecing Tutorial“ was an excellent resource for learning the technique. It walked me through each step clearly and gave me the confidence to try more FPP projects in the future.

I was able to complete Star 2 block (Week 7) using Foundation Paper Piecing (FPP) fairly easily, using the skills I had already learned and practiced in Week 2. I rewatched Just Get It Done Quilts’ video, “Foundation Paper Piecing Tutorial,” and followed along with the tips to guide my sewing.

However, I noticed that the unfinished block ended up slightly smaller than it should have been, which suggests my ¼ inch seam might be a bit off — especially since FPP is usually quite precise. I double-checked my seam allowance in week 8 and adjusted to address the issue.

The later blocks completed using Foundation Paper piecing continued to be fast to sew. The biggest challenges were remembering to place the template pieces to be cut on the wrong size of the fabric, working out which way around to place the fabric when sewing onto the Foundation paper template and making sure the fabric was placed on the template with enough ¼ inch seam allowance on all edges.

I use scrap pieces of fabric and add a ½ inch seam allowance when cutting the fabric using the templates.

I quickly found it was best to organize the fabric pieces I cut in piecing order with their template pinned onto each piece.

My reminders for FFP are:

• Place printed template on wrong side of fabric when cutting fabric.
• Add ½ inch seam allowance when cutting fabric from template.
• Reduce stitch length to 1.5.

English Paper Piecing (EPP)

I used English Paper Piecing (EPP) in the Small Flower block (Week 4), Heart 4 (week 12), English Paper Piecing 1 (week 19) and English Paper Piecing (Week 47).

The small flower block involved making a flower using EPP, then appliquéing it to the background. I chose to use the thread I already had instead of specialty thread since there are only few EPP blocks in the book.

For the appliqué, I used invisible thread to attach the stem instead of buying a matching thread. This worked really well and saved me from making an extra purchase since I already had some invisible thread in my sewing kit.

Tip: Creating a practice block for the small flower block really paid off here. The fabric measurements in the book were incorrect.

Watching Just Get It Done Quilts video, “English Paper Piecing Basics” and Emma Jones Vintage Sewing Box video, “Tops Tips to Improve Your English Paper Piecing Technique” really helped me figure out how to create Small Flower block (Week 4) using EPP.

Of all the EPP blocks, I found the English Paper Piecing 2 block in Week 47 the most challenging. It uses an applecore template, which is sewn together a little differently from conventional EPP, and getting the curves to align neatly took some practice. Sue Daley Design’s video, Ep 7: How to Sew Applecores – Sue Daley’s Shape Up English Paper Piecing School, was a lifesaver in helping me figure out the technique. In hindsight, if I ever make these blocks again, I would definitely use pre-cut applecore templates—they would save time and likely give a more accurate shape than cutting my own.

Dresden Plate

I made two blocks using a Dresden Plate—the Dresden Plate Block (Week 15) and Dresden 2 block (week 41).

I watched several videos to learn the technique for creating the the Dresden Plate Block (Week 15) and found Jessica Dayon’s video the most helpful.

Her tips for shaping the centre plate, starting around the 25-minute mark, really helped me get a smoother, more even circle. One tip I especially appreciated was how to apply starch to the plate’s edge. I had been struggling with Best Press, as spraying it directly often soaked the fabric too much. Jessica suggested pouring a small amount into the lid and using your finger to dab it along the edge—simple but effective, and it made a big difference!

The Dresden Plate Block (Week 15) was a traditional Dresden Plate with Pointed Blades and Appliquéd Circle Center whereas Dresden 2 block (week 41) was a Modern Dresden Plate with Pieced Blades and Octagon Center. The techniques used to construct each were slightly different.

The Dresden 2 block (Week 41) came together more quickly, but I ran into an issue with the octagon center. The template provided in the book turned out too small—I’m not sure if it was a problem with the template itself, my technique, or a misread on my part. To fix it, I enlarged the octagon template by photocopying it at 125%, which increased the size to 3¾”. To get smooth edges, I used the English paper piecing technique, then machine-appliquéd the octagon to the Dresden block with a top stitch.

Raw Edge Appliqué

I used Raw Edge Appliqué in seven blocks— Centre Panel 1 block (Week 9), Tall Bird 1 (Week 22), small flower 4 (week 26), heart 7 (week 34) and bird 4 (week 37), bird 5 (week 44) and centre panel 2 (week 49).

My first exposure to raw edge appliquéing was in week 9 when I created the Centre Panel 1 block by appliquéing six heart shapes onto 3-inch squares. The instructions suggested tracing the heart shapes onto the paper side of the adhesive sheet, cutting them out, and then ironing each one onto the fabric. I used Vliesofix (bondaweb-style iron-on adhesive), but found it easier to take a different approach: I first ironed a rectangular piece of adhesive sheet—large enough to fit all six hearts—onto the back of the fabric. Then I drew the heart shapes on the paper side and cut them out. Because the heart shapes were small, they were fiddly to handle if cut from the adhesive first and then applied to the fabric. My method gave me more control and resulted in neater shapes.

I also struggled with appliquéing the hearts onto the squares, as the book recommended using machine stitching but didn’t include any guidance on stitch width or length. To figure this out, I watched several videos and experimented with different settings. In the end, I used a zigzag stitch with a stitch length of 1.0 and a stitch width of 2.0, which gave a neat finish without overwhelming the small shapes. One video I found particularly helpful was from Pattern Pool TV, which demonstrates three different machine appliqué options—great for beginners trying to decide which method to use.

I also had some trouble figuring out the machine stitches for the Tall Bird 1 block from Week 22. The book uses blanket stitch to appliqué the main parts of the bird’s body, so I had to experiment with my machine settings to get a similar effect. On my Janome 419S, I found that the F setting worked best for blanket stitch, with a stitch length of 0.5 and a width of 3. For satin stitch, I used the setting C with the stitch length close to zero and the width set to 2.0.

I treated myself to a new sewing machine – the Janome Skyline S7 – after accidentally snapping the presser foot lifter on my Janome 419s while working on a block with Broderie Perse appliqué. The Skyline S7 is designed with quilting and sewing in mind, and it comes with features that make raw-edge appliqué much easier, including a range of preset stitches to choose from. To keep my blocks consistent with those I made on the Janome 419s, I added a zigzag stitch to my Skyline S7’s favorites in the Utility section, setting the stitch length to 1.0 and the stitch width to 2.0.

Applique with interfacing

I made one block using applique with interfacing – Tall Flower 2 (Week 24).

For the Tall Flower 2 block, I used interfacing to create the appliquéd leaves. While the book recommended lightweight interfacing, I found that mine tore too easily during the turning process. Switching to a medium-weight interfacing gave me much better results—it held its shape well and was easier to work with.

One thing I initially struggled with was figuring out how long to make the lengthwise slit in the back of the interfacing for turning the shape right side out. A video by BillhillsCraft titled How to APPLIQUÉ HEARTS with INTERFACING and Machine Blanket Stitch was really helpful—it clarified how to cut the slit and turn the shape smoothly, especially for those curved leaf edges.

The book suggests using either fusible or sew-in interfacing. I only had fusible on hand, which worked fine, but I can see how sew-in interfacing might have been a better option. With fusible interfacing, I couldn’t iron the shape flat before positioning it on the block, which limited my options for shaping and pressing.

I ended up making the leaves twice as I wasn’t happy with my original leaves.

Applique with Freezer Paper

Applique with freezer paper was used for two different blocks – Small Flower 5 (Week 43) and Tall bird 2 (week 52).

I first tried using freezer paper with the tall bird in week 52. as the tall feather circles and head plumes were especially challenging because of their small size and the number required. After watching several tutorials on how to make the perfect appliqué circle, I found that using freezer paper with a technique similar to appliqué with card worked best. None of the videos demonstrated the exact technique I ended up using, and some suggested tools for making appliqué circles that I found unsuitable for my project due to the small size and large number of circles required.

Since the circles were the same size as a bobbin, I used a bobbin as a template to trace them onto freezer paper.

I then ironed the freezer paper circles onto the wrong side of the fabric and cut them out, leaving about a ¼-inch seam allowance. To shape each circle, I pinned it to the ironing board, stitched around the edge of the seam allowance, and pulled the thread to gather it in. Using a cotton bud, I gently applied starch to the edge before pressing with the iron, which produced neat, crisp circles.

I first tried sewing the petals for the Small Flower 5 block using needle-turn appliqué, but I wasn’t happy with the shape of the petals.

After using the freezer paper to make the appliqué circles for the tall bird 2 in Week 52 I decided to see if I could use the same technique for the petals for the small flower 5 in Week 52. Using the same approach I discovered that it allowed me to create nice crisp petals for the flower.

Broderie Perse

I created one block that includes broderie perse – Basket 1 (Week29).

The trickiest part of the Broderie Perse block wasn’t the appliqué—it was picking the fabric (not easy without a stash!) and getting those basket-top strips lined up just right. I kept misaligning them and I ended up unpicking them more than once.

What should have been a calm bit of appliqué quickly turned into drama when the presser foot lifter on the Janome 419s snapped mid–Broderie Perse. Off it went for repairs, leaving me machine-less. The upside? Since the Janome was only on loan from my niece, it gave me the perfect excuse to treat myself to my very own sewing machine at last.

Reverse applique

I made one block that uses reverse appliqué – Heart 8 (week 38).

Jen Wagner’s video, How to Reverse appliqué helped me work out the process for the Heart 8 block. I decided to try machine-stitching the heart shape using her technique, but when I reached the top of the heart I realized it wouldn’t work in this situation. To finish, I switched to hand stitching and used a slip stitch for the top section.

Bias and straight strips

I created six blocks that include bias or straight strips – small flower 1 week 4, tall flower 1 week 17, tall flower 2 week 24, basket 2 week 40, basket 3 week 45 and, tall flower 4 week 48,

In the book, bias and straight strips are used for elements like flower stems, leaves, and the basket handle. The strip is cut either on the straight grain (for straight shapes) or on the bias (when it needs to curve). After cutting, the strip is pressed and folded, then appliquéd onto the block.

Beyond the Sewing Table: Learning on the Go

While walking, I often listened to quilting videos that deepen my understanding of techniques, history, and the creative process. Even away from my machine, I’m continuing to learn and grow as a quilter — making the most of my walks by turning them into valuable learning time.

I’ve found the following Just Get It Done Quilts playlists particularly well-suited to listening while I walk:

• YouTube Live Q & A
• Karen’s Quilt Circle
• The Quilting Coach

What makes these especially great for walking is that they’re easy to follow without watching — the content is rich in conversation, tips, and storytelling, so you can still learn a lot just by listening.

An added bonus of listening to Karen Brown’s Just Get It Done Quilts playlists is that she often shares practical tips that go beyond quilting. Her advice on building habits—like using a timer for tasks you don’t enjoy or incorporating a bullet journal into your routine—has been especially helpful in organizing both my creative time and daily life.

Final Thoughts

As I look back on the blocks I created, I’m struck by how much I’ve learned—not just about techniques like Flying Geese, Foundation Paper Piecing, and English Paper Piecing, but about the time, precision, and creativity that go into making a quilt.

Working through each block has given me a much deeper appreciation for quilting as a craft. I now understand how much thought goes into fabric choice, seam accuracy, pressing, and even something as seemingly simple as trimming. Every quilt I see now feels more meaningful because I have a better sense of the skill and care behind it.

I’ve also enjoyed finding ways to make this project my own—like choosing methods that suit my current skills, and repurposing materials I already had on hand.

I really enjoyed making the 52 blocks and was thrilled to complete them in just six months instead of the planned twelve. It felt rewarding to see steady progress and reach the finish line so much earlier than expected. The only hiccup was running out of white-on-white fabric, but even that became part of the learning experience. A more experienced quilter might have cut the larger pieces of white-on-white fabric before starting?

If you have tips for working through this book, favorite tutorials, or ideas for using up scraps, I’m all ears! Let’s trade ideas and keep learning together.

The key distinctions between H.R.F. Keating’s The 100 Best Crime & Mystery Books and my previous Top 100+ Crime and Mystery Novels list are as follows:

1. Selection Process: Keating’s list reflects the personal preferences of a single individual—H.R.F. Keating, a respected crime writer and critic. In contrast, my Top 100+ Crime and Mystery Novels list combines two influential sources: The Top 100 Crime Novels of All Time (compiled by the British Crime Writers Association and published in Hatchards Crime Companion in 1990) and The Top 100 Mystery Novels of All Time (created by the Mystery Writers of America and published in The Crown Crime Companion in 1995). These lists were compiled through the input of numerous individuals, offering a broader consensus on the genre.
2. Time Periods Covered: Keating’s list, published in 1987, includes books released between 1845 and 1986. My previous list, drawing from the 1990 and 1995 publications, covers a slightly later period, with books published between 1860 and 1991.
3. Criteria for Inclusion: Keating focused specifically on books he defined as “Crime and Mystery,” excluding thrillers, espionage, horror, and pure suspense. My previous list, on the other hand, embraces a wider variety of works. Both the Crime Writers Association and the Mystery Writers of America asked participants to nominate their five favorite books in ten different categories, and the novels with the most votes, regardless of category, formed the final lists.

The table below compares the categories used by the British Crime Writers Association and the Mystery Writers of America.

H.R.F. Keating’s The 100 Best Crime & Mystery Books

H.R.F. Keating’s list is published in his book The 100 Best Crime & Mystery Books which I brought because I was eager to read his reasons for including specific books and authors. His selections are arranged chronologically, from oldest to most recent, with each accompanied by a two-page review offering his insights and analysis.

H.R.F. Keating’s reviews are significantly more detailed than those found in the Hatchards Crime Companion (1990) and The Crown Crime Companion (1995), which I referenced for my previous Top 100+ Crime and Mystery Novels list.

Below is H.R.F. Keating’s review of Josephine Tey’s Daughter of Time.

Which you can compare with the reviews of the same book shown below in Hatchards Crime Companion (1990) and The Crown Crime Companion (1995). The reviews in each companion book are brief, typically less than half a page per title.

I was also pleased that he listed his selections in chronological order, from oldest to most recent, as I found this to be the best approach my previous reading list. It offers valuable insight into how the genre evolved over time.

Here is H.R.F Keating’s “The 100 Best Crime & Mystery books” for those wanting a copy of his list.

In the introduction to his book, Keating describes it as “a sort of history of crime writing from Edgar Allan Poe to P.D. James,” which is an accurate characterization. His list introduced me to approximately 68 books I hadn’t read before, as about 32 of the titles were already included in my previous reading list. Like the books on my previous list there was titles I really enjoyed and ones I struggled to read.

Sourcing the Books I Read

I ended up accessing most of the books for free as eBooks or eAudiobooks because physical copies were hard to find. I used the following online resources through my local library:

• Libby
• Hoopla
• Borrowbox

Among these, Libby is my go-to for ebooks and eMagazines while I tend to prefer Hoopla or Borrowbox for eAudiobooks, which I enjoy listening to during my walks.

Harder to find ebooks, I turned to the Internet Archive, a nonprofit digital library offering free access to a vast collection of digitized materials, including websites, books, audio, video, software, and other digital content. By signing up for a free account, you can borrow books for one hour at a time, with the option to renew as needed until you’ve finished.

What’s Next?

I’ve already started my next reading challenge – The Time Magazine’s The 100 Best Mystery and Thriller Books of All Time. Their list features books that came out as long ago as 1860 and as recently as 2022, were originally published in 15 different countries, and are written by 100 distinct authors.

As a person who has avoided exercise for most of my life, this post is about documenting what I need to do and making myself accountable to actually do the exercise needed to improve my bone health and reduce my risks of chronic disease while hopefully sharing tips that might help others!

Getting Started

The biggest hurdle? My brain resisting exercise. Thankfully I’m not alone.

Ever wonder why that voice telling us to skip exercise seems so loud (except for the fitness enthusiasts among us)? It’s because our bodies are programmed by millions of years of evolution to prioritize rest. Back then, energy meant survival. Now, while we don’t need to constantly hunt and gather, that instinct to conserve energy remains. Our modern lives require far less movement, but our bodies still have a natural preference for relaxation. This explains why we often favor relaxation over exercise.

Prior to my leg injury, my daily 10,000 steps kept me active but it isn’t enough for bone health and reducing risks of chronic disease.

I’ve approached the development of my exercise program much like I did with improving my diet. I sought guidance from experts—in my case, Exercise Physiologists—to learn correct form, technique and suitable exercises for where I’m at. Similarly, I’ve applied the same level of dedication to researching exercise for bone health and chronic disease as I have to understanding healthy eating.

Exercise and Bone Health

Exercises that show the most benefit for bone health are when the exercise includes the following three variables done together:

1. Weight bearing – you want the effect of gravity on bone.
2. Muscle load – you want the pulling of muscles on bone.
3. Impact – increased forces on bone through impact with the ground.

Activities that include all three variables of weight bearing, muscle load and impact have more benefit than exercises that only include two variables. Exercises that only include one variable have minimal impact on bone development. For example, exercise like swimming or bike riding doesn’t benefit bone health because it isn’t weight bearing and doesn’t involve impact.

An exercise program that includes the following three types of exercise recommended for people with low bone density:

Weight bearing impact loading

Weight bearing impact loading are where you move against gravity while staying upright with the goal to jolt bones. Examples of high impact weight bearing exercises are:

• Jogging/running
• Jumping
• Skipping rope
• Stair climbing
• Bounding
• Bench stepping (step ups)
• Drop jumps

Resistance training

The goal of resistance training is to increase the loads on muscles surrounding the bones that are more prone to fracture such as hip, wrist and spine. Examples of resistance training exercises are:

• Lunges
• Squats with weights
• Deadlifts where you are picking up weights from the ground
• Overhead Press

Balance training

Balance training is where you do exercises that challenge your balance and might involve static balance where you are balancing in one spot, dynamic balance where you are challenging your balance while moving or doing something else while trying to balance. Balance training is important for improving balance and preventing falls.

Examples of balance training are:

• Standing on one leg for 30 seconds.
• Standing on one leg while catching and throwing a ball.
• Walking in a line using heel/toe.

Healthy Bones Australia has a great exercise fact sheet you can download here.

Lessons from the LIFTMORE Study

Exercise can improve bone density but it needs to be of sufficient intensity to stress our bones enough to encourage them to adapt. The two best ways are high intensity resistance training and impact loading. The LIFTMOR (Lifting Intervention For Training Muscle and Osteoporosis Rehabilitation) Trial from 2018 highlighted the importance of high intensity resistance training for improving bone density.

Improve bone density with 4 science-backed exercises by BeMobile explains the LIFTMOR study and how to adapt the exercises from the study.

Exercise to challenge our heart, lungs and circulatory system

Bone health exercises are only part of the exercises I need.

Our body requires a variety of movements and also an intensity of movements. We need to challenge the heart, lungs and circulatory system with varying exercise intensity as this helps them adapt which are shown to help with longevity and reduce the risks of chronic disease.

This is where cardio training comes in. My exercise program needs to also include both moderate and high intensity cardio as this helps improve how our body uses oxygen during exercise. Heart rate is a simple way to monitor exercise intensity if you wear a Fitness tracker or smartwatch that measures heart rate.

Moderate intensity training is where your heart rate is in zone 2/3 and high intensity training is where you achieve zone 4/5.

My training zones shown below were calculated using the calculator on Simon Hill’s Proof website.

My Fitbit watch monitors my heart rate and automatically sends an alert when I go up or down a zone if I have exercise activated on my watch. My Fitbit zones are:

• Fat Burn Zone: heart rate between 97 – 117 bpm (zone 1/2)
• Cardio Zone: heart rate between 118 – 143 bpm (zone 2/3/4)
• Peak Zone: Above 144 bpm (zone 5)

I’ve added moderate and high intensity cardio into my exercise program by adding a slow jog into my weekday walks. Other options for moderate and high intensity cardio are exercise such as cycling, rowing, elliptical, stair machine, skipping rope.

Below is an example of implementing HIIT gradually over 12 weeks from Simon Hill’s Longevity Challenge.

Weekly Exercise Plan

I’m continuing to tweak my exercise as I’m working out what works or doesn’t work for me. Here’s what it currently looks like.

Here’s a rough summary of what it involves:

Walk/Jog

My goal is to 10,000 steps per day.

My week day walk is around 10,000 steps and involves walking from my house through a local nature reserve and back. I’ve deliberately selected a walk that includes a steep hill as I hate hills but know they are good for me. I’ve now added jogging to the walk when I reach the nature reserve as a time efficient way of achieving my moderate and high intensity cardio requirements while also being beneficial for bone health.

My jogging is similar to the Cliff Young Shuffle except I can’t jog as far or as long as he did!

Fortunately very few people walk in the nature reserve so it’s rare for anyone to see me jogging (as the World’s slowest jogger). I now jog up that hill I hate! – if you can call it a jog but it does increase my heart rate nicely.

Walk/Stairs

Once a week I try to include stair climbing into my walk as it works different muscles from walking or jogging and it is good for bone health. If my social walk on the weekend doesn’t include a location with stairs I try to go to a location nearby that has an exercise area with stairs.

Skipping

High impact weight bearing exercises is really important for bone health so I’ve added using a skipping rope after I’ve returned from my walk. The recommendation is 50 jumps per session. I’m slowly working towards skipping for longer as it is also helpful as a moderate and high intensity cardio workout.

Fitness Class

I’ve been working with Exercise Physiologists—to learn correct form, technique and suitable resistance training and balance exercise for where I’m at. They’ve helped me develop a resistance training program I can follow at home and once I week I attend their mixed circuit resistance training class.

Resistance Training

I’m still feeling my way with resistance training in terms of trying to work out how to make it a sustainable habit.

Currently I’m finding Michael Mosley’s exercise snacking is helping. “Exercise snacking” is where you do short bursts of exercise throughout the day rather doing it all at once in a full workout. Studies have shown that short bursts of exercise helps burn calories, lose more weight, help improve your blood glucose and blood pressure to a greater degree. Doing exercise in short chunks instead of one long session means you are activating your metabolism multiple times, making the health benefits even more impactful.

Below is the section on exercise snacking from Just One Thing which is my favorite Michael Mosley book.

I’m exercise snacking my resistance training by adding it as short exercises of at least 10 minutes minimum over a few hours later in the afternoon/evening. I have an exercise record sheet that lists the different types of exercise I can choose from and I mark of the number of sets I do for each exercise. My goal is 3 sets with 10 reps of an exercise, and working through the list of exercises. For example, during an exercise snack I might do 4 different types of resistance training exercises with 3 sets of 10 repetitions .

My husband has also started using exercise snacking for his resistance training and he reported that he finds it helpful and means he is more likely to do the exercise.

Here’s a link to my current exercise record.

Social Walk

I walk on Saturday and Sunday morning with a walking group (walks are organized on Meetup). We normally walk for just over an hour and then stop to chat afterwards over a coffee. My aim is to socialize while also benefitting from some exercise.

Here’s a photo of some of the group waiting at the bottom of the DNA tower in Kings Park while the rest of the group climbed the stairs to the top of the DNA tower.

Final Thoughts

My exercise program is safe for me because it has been customized to meet my specific needs and medical conditions, with guidance from Exercise Physiologists. It is important for me to remind you to always consult with a healthcare professional before starting any new exercise regimen to ensure it is safe and appropriate for your individual health status and goals.

My featured image on this post is a photo of me after I broke my leg – to remind myself of the importance of exercise and working on bone health.

I dedicated this post in loving memory of Michael Mosley, whose passion and dedication to health and wellness continue to inspire me. May his legacy of knowledge and compassion live on through our commitment to bettering ourselves and supporting others on their health journeys.

• Extended periods of chronic stress, fatigue and poor sleep.
• Festive seasons.
• Holidays.
• Being sick.

I would reach a point where I would decide “this is too hard”, would give up and return to some of my former bad habits.

At the start of 2022, I realized motivation was only getting me so far and I started reading self help books to find ideas to help.

The three things that helped me are:

1. Identifying my values.
2. Building healthier habits.
3. Progress and not perfection.

In this post, I share how values, modifying habits and embracing progress has been important for helping me to achieve a healthier lifestyle.

Values and leading life by my values

Chronic stress leading to poor sleep and fatigue frequently impacted my desire to lead a healthier life so my starting point was to learn better strategies deal with.

Two of the early books I worked through were Dr Emma Hepburn’s “A Toolkit for Modern Life: 53 Ways to Look After Your Mind” and Dr Russ Harris’s “The Happiness Trap: Stop struggling, start living“.

Both books provided lots of helpful tips and strategies however the most important for helping lead a healthier life was identifying my values.

Values are our deepest desires of how we want to behave, they are guides to action, our personal qualities and how we want to live our life on an ongoing basis.

My values are: self care; self development, supportive, persistence, acceptance and open mindedness.

Identifying my values has meant that when making decisions I now think will my actions take me away from or towards my values.

For example, self care and persistence are key values and my goal is to lead a healthier life style. Each day I focus on what is the most important things I need to do today for my self care which for me are:

• Get enough sleep.
• Reduce stress.
• Eat a healthy balanced diet.
• Get enough exercise.

Building New Habits

Building and maintaining new habits is a key factor in achieving lasting change. Replacing poorer habits with new healthier habits requires planning and intention.

An important part of eating a healthier diet and achieving a healthier weight after years of fluctuating weight was recognizing the impact of habits.

The two books about habits that helped are:

1. James Clear’s “Atomic Habits“.
2. BJ Fogg’s “Tiny Habits“.

Both books are excellent; their concepts and tips are similar. I read “Atomic Habits” first but probably learnt the most from “Tiny Habits“.

The same rules apply to both good and bad habits. The easier a behavior is the more likely it is to become a habit. When we fail to change a habit we blame ourselves when the issue is it is a design flaw and not a behavioral flaw. Bad habits repeat themselves not because we don’t want to change but because we have wrong systems to change.

There is only so many times we will ignore a prompt that triggers us for a bad behaviour as it relies on will power and you can only say no to a prompt so many times and will eventually give in. For example, I avoid having cakes, biscuits, ice-cream or chocolates in my house because if I have them near I will eventually eat them! Motivation only takes us so far! As a result I now use setbacks as a learning opportunity and no longer see them as a mistake or a reason to give up.

I use Fogg Behavior Model as a guide which is that only three variables drive behavior: motivation, ability and prompt.

The key steps for designing behavioral change are:

The best way to implement change is to always start with the prompt. No behavior happens without a prompt. You can stop a behavior by removing the prompt or start a new behavior by adding a prompt.

The masterplan for disrupting unwanted habits is:

• Create positive habits first.
• Design to stop habits second.
• Check to see if motivated to do behaviour.

Key steps for behavioral design:

• Step 1: Check to see if there is a prompt for the behavior.
• Step 2: Check to see if the ability for the behaviour
• Step 3: Check to see if motivated to do behaviour.

Implementing Healthier Habits

Below is a summary of how I used the tips I gained from “Atomic Habits” and “Tiny Habits” to achieve a sustained healthier lifestyle.

My goal is not to lose weight, it is eat healthier and live a healthier life. Achieving a healthier weight is part of the process.

To eat healthier and live a healthier life I needed to work out things such as:

1. How can I make it obvious? How can I make it easy? How could I break it down into smaller habits to make it easier?
2. What skills did I need to increase? What tools and resources did I need?
3. How can I make it attractive? How can I make it satisfying?
4. How could I fill the environment with the right cues (prompts). Make cues for good habits obvious and cues for bad habits invisible.
5. How could I make the bad habits harder?
6. What current habits do I have that I could link to new habits to achieve habit stacking.

Obvious and Easy?

Reviewing my habits I quickly realized that times when I was more likely to eat less healthier food were when I was tired or not at home. Solution to making it obvious and easy was most days of the week I make sure that our lunches and dinners are prepared in the morning after breakfast so that later in the day when I’m more likely to be tired we can just grab what we want to eat, or quickly cook it, for our lunch or dinner.

For example, I aim to include salads with at least one meal a day and cooked vegetables with the other meal.

To achieve this I have a selection of prepared salads in the fridge ready to choose from for lunches and the cut vegetables prepared ready for cooking later in the day.

And lunch meal choices prepared for a few days so we can just quickly heat the meal then add the salad(s).

Eating out is more challenging. I have a list of healthier food options to choose from like Soul Origin and Subway but accept that it’s okay to choose less healthier choices when I’m out if I want to since I eat healthy 90 % of the time and being too restrictive can be detrimental.

Skills, Resources and Tools

Key skills has been increasing my cooking skills to make our meals healthier and ideally taste better so I would be less tempted to buy meals when we are out.

We now follow a plant diversity diet focused on gut health which you can read about in my Healthy Living – Food and Nutrition post. As we’ve transitioned to this diet I’ve had to learn lots of new cooking skills since tofu and legumes aren’t foods I’ve previously eaten much and had never cooked until recent years.

Fortunately I love cooking and enjoy reading so have increased my skills, knowledge and gain helpful tips from all the books I source from charity shops and libraries.

Below is a selection of recent cook books I’ve purchased from charity shops combined with a few of my favorite books. My favorite shop has a huge selection of great books to select from as it sells second hand books discarded by our State Reference library.

I also need to increase my exercise to help with my low bone density so have started buying some books to help. Below are the books I’ve brought from the same second hand charity shop.

Having tools that also make it easy helps. The ones I’ve found helpful include:

• Standup mandoline slicer – safer to use than a standard mandoline and makes it quick to prepare vegetables for stir fries.
• Tofu Press – Easy option for pressing tofu if you want to quickly remove water from the tofu before cooking.
• Multi Food Processor – I have a combined food processor and blender which allows me to keep it on my kitchen bender. It isn’t as powerful as a separate blender or food processor but is more convenient.
• Insta Pot – I use my Instant Pot for batch cooking different whole grains which I freeze in meal size portions in resealable bags so I can quickly grab from the freezer as needed. Alternative option would have been a rice cooker.

Attractive and Satisfying

Batch cooking and batch preparing also helps make it easier as well as ensuring healthier food is handy and visible in the fridge or freezer for when ready to eat.

It is a nice feeling to open up the fridge and see food already prepared ready to eat when I’m feeling tired.

Most food I prepare tastes better than the food I might buy when eating out so I generally prefer the food I prepare.

I continue to experiment with growing my own herbs, and some veggies, which is work in progress but is important since it is better to add herbs and spices to cooking and not add salt. Mints doing well, sweet basil is coming along nicely and hopefully my new dill and coriander survive my gardening skills.

Filling Environment With the Right Cues (Prompts)

Besides having food prepared in the fridge I only keep healthier snacks in the cupboard and freezer. This ensures that it’s easy to grab the healthier choices while making less healthier choices harder to access and ensuring there is less prompts to grab less healthier options.

These are my two favorite snacks for in the cupboard which I purchase as 5 pack snack bags.

Nuts are challenging for us both! Nuts are good, a healthy choice, are part of a plant diversity diet and are fine provided they are eaten in moderation. Trouble is storing the different nuts in the fridge door has increased our prompt to eat the nuts which can result in eating too many nuts.

Bad Habits Harder

Eating out and takeaway are where I’m more likely to make less healthier choices. To make it harder I won’t order food to be delivered. My rule is if I am home, and decide I really want takeaway, is I must drive and buy the food myself from the shop. This makes getting the takeaway harder as it requires more effort and can take longer helping make it less desirable. It also helped save money since we order less takeaway while also reducing the costs involved with it being delivered.

Habit Stacking

Habit stacking is where you link a new habit(s) with existing habits. This links the prompt for the new habit(s) to the existing habit.

For example, at the start of each day I think about what are the most important things I need to do today and these are:

• Get enough sleep.
• Reduce stress.
• Eat a healthy balanced diet.
• Get enough exercise.

I achieve this by going for a walk, before or after breakfast (dependent on weather), after which I make sure my meals are prepared for lunch and dinner. Walking and meal preparation are habits stacking linked to my breakfast.

Progress Not Perfection

It’s not about being perfect; it’s about appreciating what I’ve achieved and celebrating each small victory. There will be ups and there will be setbacks.

Setbacks are part of life. I now focus on setbacks as a learning opportunity and no longer see them as a mistake or a reason to give up. And when setbacks happen I remember my values: self care; self development, supportive, persistence, acceptance and open mindedness.

I also focus on slow and steady wins the race. What is the one thing or change I can make today that will help. Once that is achieved what is the next thing or change? And the the next?

Final Thoughts

I’ve struggled writing this post for the past month. The words wouldn’t flow.

It’s been timely finishing off this post today as I’ve experienced a setback of feeling unwell from a cold for the last week where I haven’t been up to cooking, exercising or felt like eating healthier food.

We are the biggest drivers of our own health and our daily habits are the single most important factor keeping us healthy. Our future doesn’t need to be poor health caused by chronic disease like heart disease and Type 2 diabetes.

Throughout this series of posts, I will be sharing my insights on how I’m now living a healthier lifestyle. One key lesson that I have learned is that it is never too late to make positive changes. By taking small steps, we can gradually achieve a healthier lifestyle.

In this post, I share how I modified my diet to reach my goal of eating a healthy, balanced diet and achieving a healthier weight.

Healthier Food, Nutrition and Weight

My journey towards a healthier lifestyle began by acknowledging that years of fluctuating weight required me to gain a better understanding of what a well-balanced diet entails and how to attain a consistently healthier weight.

I have learned from every setback, analyzing what worked and where I made mistakes. I realized that to develop a balanced food plan that aligned with my goals, I needed the help of a professional dietitian. With so much conflicting information, I needed someone to help me make sense of it all and eliminate any confusion.

I have consulted two dietitians who had different approaches. The first dietitian focused on serving sizes, measured in cups and grams, and the recommended number of daily serves per food group. On the other hand, my current dietitian uses a science-based approach, and we use the Easy Diet Diary App to guide any necessary adjustments.

I had more specific goals working with my current dietitian:

1. I want to lower my total and LDL cholesterol levels through improving my diet and attain a healthier weight – if possible.
2. I want to achieve a healthy and sustainable weight by following a balanced diet. In the past, I struggled with unhealthy weight loss methods because I didn’t fully understand what a balanced diet entails.

Reducing cholesterol

It is possible for certain individuals to lower their cholesterol levels through modifications in their lifestyle. To achieve this, I have personally made certain dietary changes which I will detail below. Additionally, it is crucial to increase physical activity, which I will discuss in a future post.

Read Food Labels

An important step for deciding if a food is a healthy choice was learning how to read the food label.

My current dietitian explained what to look for on a food label and how I needed to check the saturated fat, sugar, sodium and calcium information in the per 100g column to decide if a food was healthy.

Reduce Saturated fats

Before, I was aware that cutting down on saturated fats can lower cholesterol levels. However, I was not aware that switching to low-fat alternatives like low-fat cheeses and low-fat cream might not help as these products are still too high in saturated fats. To maintain a healthy diet, I should aim to consume less than 3 grams of saturated fats per 100 grams. Ideal is less than 1.5 grams per 100 grams.

I was also caught out by coconut and light coconut milk which are high in saturated fat.

A key lesson has been learning how to read ingredient labels – keeping the total fat and saturated fats to within the best choice or okay sometimes range per 100 grams.

Initially, I aimed to consume less than 15 grams of saturated fats daily. However, I have now lowered my target to less than 10 grams per day. Although I had been successful in losing weight, my blood test results revealed no improvement in my total cholesterol and LDL cholesterol levels.

I track my dietary goals using the Easy Diet Diary app. The app displays the daily data at the top, and by clicking on the saturated fats number, I can view the foods that contributed the most to my saturated fat intake.

The Easy Diet Diary App is an app developed in Australia, specifically designed for dietitians to use with their clients. MyFitnessPal also offers data for monitoring, but it’s important to be cautious because data entered by community members may not be accurate. This is not a concern with the Easy Diet Diary App.

Increase Fibre Intake

Consuming more soluble fibre can lower the absorption of cholesterol in the bloodstream and prolong feelings of fullness by slowing down digestion. Women should aim for a daily intake of 25-30 grams of fibre, while men should aim for 30 grams.

I used to consume only 10-15 grams of fibre per day, which is below the recommended daily intake. My initial goal was to reach 25-30 grams per day. Although I had been successful in losing weight, my blood test results revealed no improvement in my total cholesterol and LDL cholesterol levels. Research suggests that consuming 10 grams of soluble fibre per day can help lower cholesterol. To achieve this, I have increased my daily fibre intake to around 40 grams per day, with a focus on foods that are high in soluble fibre. This should help me reach my goal of 10 grams of soluble fibre per day.

The Easy Diet Diary app displays the daily data at the top, and by clicking on the fibre number, I can view the foods that contributed the most to my fibre intake.

Consume Plant Sterols

Consuming 2 to 3 grams of plant sterol-enriched foods has been shown to lower LDL cholesterol by around 10 %.

Since being diagnosed with osteopenia after breaking my leg in March, I have incorporated two glasses of 250 ml of Heartactive milk into my diet. Osteopenia refers to a lower-than-normal bone density. The addition of Heartactive milk to my diet helps me meet my calcium requirements while also providing plant sterols that assist in reducing LDL cholesterol.

Balanced Diet

In order to achieve a healthy and sustainable weight, I had to learn what a balanced diet looks like specifically for me.

Protein

Protein is essential for promoting cell growth, repairing tissues, and producing substances that protect against infections. Consuming more protein can increase feelings of fullness and decrease overall food intake.

To improve my bone density because of my osteopenia, it’s recommended that I consume 1.3 grams of protein per kilogram of body weight per day. This means I should aim to eat approximately 97.5 grams of protein daily, which is only possible with a maintenance diet. If I reduce my calorie intake below maintenance for weight loss, I won’t be able to reach my recommended protein intake. Alternatively, I can increase my exercise while consuming slightly more calories to achieve gradual weight loss.

Calcium

Throughout most of my life, I have had a low daily intake of calcium due to my infrequent consumption of milk, cheese, or yogurt. This has contributed to my osteopenia, which means my bone density is lower than normal.

I now achieve the recommended dietary Calcium intake for women over 51 of over 1,300 mg/day by consuming two glasses of 250 ml of Heartactive milk and taking a Centrum for Women 50+ multivitamin each day.

Vitamins

I share my food data with my dietitian through the Easy Diet Diary app. According to the analysis, it isn’t possible for me to attain the recommended dietary intake of vitamins through food while following a weight loss diet. Therefore, I take a daily Centrum for Women 50+ multivitamin to supplement my nutrients.

Gut Health

The most significant adjustment I’ve made is due to my friend and dietitian’s advice on the importance of gut health. Consequently, I have adopted a plant diversity diet and limit my meat intake to primarily fish or chicken.

It has been scientifically proven that the food we consume plays a significant role in determining the diversity and composition of our gut microbes. Studies indicate that consuming a wider variety of plants helps in nourishing the beneficial bacteria in our gut. Individuals who incorporate more than 30 different types of plants in their weekly diet exhibit a higher diversity in their gut microbiome, leading to better physical and mental health.

Fibre is the backbone of a plant diversity diet. Humans can’t digest fibre and our gut microbes digest fibre for us. Fibre helps lower cholesterol, reduce blood sugar spikes and is broken down by gut microbes to produce beneficial compounds.

The principles of a plant diversity diet are:

1. Eat mostly plants.
2. Aim for 30 different plants a week by incorporating a diversity of wholegrains, fruits, vegetables, nuts and seeds, legumes (beans, lentils, chickpeas, tofu), herbs and spices.
3. Choose whole and natural where possible rather than processed food. Limit ultra-processed food including ultra-processed vegan food.
4. Embrace legumes – incorporate legumes (beans, lentils, chickpeas, tofu) into meals as much as possible. Cost effective, nutrient dense.
5. Add fermented foods.

Simple hacks for increasing plant diversity:

1. Buy pre-mixed combinations of salads. For example, I normally eat a salad daily so if I ate the following three pre-mixed salads in a week I would achieve 10 plant points (points are given to each different type of plant):
   • Woolworths Asian Style Salad Kit contains shredded wombok, cabbage, carrot, corn and mizuna leaves
   • Woolworths Crunchy Noodle Slaw has red, white cabbage, carrot, celery and spring onion
   • Woolworths Korean Crunch Salad Kit contains shredded wombok, red cabbage, spring onion, daikon, carrot, mizuna and spinach.
2. Add fruit, nuts, seeds to breakfast, salads and roasted vegetables.
3. Incorporate legumes (beans, lentils, chickpeas, tofu) into meals as much as possible. Increase diversity by using Four bean mixes or using different legumes each day (I freeze my left over canned beans).
4. Increase diversity by using different wholegrains such as rolled oats, brown rice, red rice, black rice, freekah, quinoa, oat flour, spelt flour, rice flour.

Below are the books I recommend for learning more about gut health and a plant diversity diet:

Fibre Fuelled

Fibre Fuelled is the book I recommend if you are into reading detailed scientific information like me. It provides comprehensive evidence based information on gut health science and the impact of a plant diversity diet on our gut health. It is written by gastroenterologist Dr Will Bulsiwicz to help his patients.

I don’t recommend Fibre Fuelled, or the Fibre Fuelled Cookbook, plant diversity menu program or recipes.

Eat More, Live Well

Dr. Megan Rossi is a dietitian and research scientist who holds a PhD in gut health. Her books offer practical and straightforward guidance, along with delicious recipes, for those interested in plant-based eating and adopting a diverse plant diet. These books also provide a simplified explanation of the plant diversity diet for those who may not be as interested in the in-depth scientific information presented in “Fibre Fuelled“.

As I transitioned from a Western Diet to a plant diversity diet, I had to learn new cooking skills and become accustomed to different tastes. Dr. Megan Rossi’s recipes have been a valuable resource for me, providing balanced and nutritious meals that have helped me develop my culinary abilities. Her recipes always turn out well and have inspired me to experiment with new dishes. As a passionate cook with an extensive cookbook collection, I often turn to Dr. Rossi’s recipes for inspiration.

• Eat Yourself Healthy (2019) sold as “How to Eat More Plants” in USA and Canada.
• Eat More, Live Well (2022)

Here are few of our favorite recipes from her website to try:

• Spinach and Ricotta Stuffed Pasta – I substitute low fat creamed cottage cheese for the ricotta and don’t add the feta to reduce the saturated fats and add juice from half a lemon and 1/4 teaspoon of nutmeg for flavor.
• Thai Inspired Fish cakes
• Banana, Fig and Zucchini loaf

My Progress

I have been seeing my dietitian since January 2022, and I am pleased with my progress. I have managed to lower my cholesterol and LDL cholesterol levels by making dietary changes such as reducing saturated fat, increasing fiber, and incorporating plant sterols.

Over time, I’ve managed to reach a healthier weight by gradually reducing my weight while maintaining a well-balanced diet. I don’t like to disclose how much weight I’ve shed because my main focus is on consuming nutritious and balanced meals and achieving a healthier weight.

Below is what my current dietary analysis looks like excluding the Centrum for Women 50+ multivitamin:

And here is a breakdown based on food groups:

Final Thoughts

One important lesson I have learned is the importance of tailoring a balanced and healthy diet to fit your individual needs. In my own diet, I prioritize reducing my intake of saturated fats, increasing my fiber consumption, incorporating plant sterols, and meeting my dietary calcium requirements in order to lower my cholesterol levels, decrease LDL cholesterol, and improve my bone density.

My husband is a healthier weight but has a family history of high blood pressure and type 2 diabetes. Adding iodized table salt back into my cooking increased his blood pressure – our doctor wasn’t happy. He has had to reduce his consumption of fruits and sugar because his fasting glucose levels are high. This is not a concern for me.

The books were all bundled up and given away!

This post is my celebration of persistence, determination, and achieving my goal.

You can read the background behind my reading challenge, check out the reading list with my tips and a summary of each author and their novels on my Top 100+ Crime and Mystery Novels list page, and find additional information in the following posts:

• My post introducing my reading challenge – 2018
• Progress Update – 2019
• Finding Free Ebooks – 2020
• Tips I wish I knew before I started the Challenge – 2020

My Top 100+ Crime and Mystery Novels Reading List

What started as a journey to read a greater variety of authors in a genre I enjoy reading ended up becoming an adventure in discovering how the genre evolved.

The list includes books that were published from 1860 through to 1991; and the books are categorized as classics, golden age, suspense, hard-boiled/private eye, police procedural, espionage/thriller, criminal, cozy/traditional/whodunnit, historical, humorous, romantic suspense or psychological suspense.

My list was created by combining The Top 100 Crime Novels of All Time published by the British Crime Writers Association in 1990 with The Top 100 Mystery Novels of All Time published by the Mystery Writers of America in 1995 into one list.

Initially, I started reading the books in the order of their ranking on the list which I quickly discovered wasn’t the best approach and changed to:

• Read the novels in order of their year published; from oldest to newest.
• Start with earlier novels by the author and work through their novels to the novel on the list. For example, I read John Dickson Carr’s Dr Gideon Fell series in the following order before reading The Three Coffins:
  1. Hag’s Nook – 1933
  2. The Mad Hatter Mystery – 1933
  3. The Eight of Swords – 1934
  4. The Blind Barber – 1934
  5. Death-Watch – 1935
  6. The Hollow Man – 1935 (US title: The Three Coffins)

Benefits of this approach:

• Some of the authors from the early to mid 1900’s refer to novels or characters published by some of the more famous earlier authors.
• A better understanding of how writing in each category, and writing style, evolved.
• Greater appreciation of the author’s work.

Favorites Novels, Authors, and Categories

My favorite categories were classics and the Golden Age. I prefer The Golden Age mystery stories to the hard-boiled crime pioneers of Dashiel Hammett, Raymond Chandler, and James M Cain.  However, Raymond Chandler had an incredible ability to build atmosphere, and describe places and people as highlighted in ‘The Big Sleep.’ After reading over 50 Agatha Christie novels since starting my reading challenge – it’s easy to understand why the Guinness World Records lists her as the best-selling fiction author of all time. Agatha Christie’s An Autobiography is the best autobiography I’ve read written by an author and well worth reading once you’ve read some of her novels.

My favorite novels were ‘The Woman in White‘ (1860) and ‘The Moonstone‘ (1868) by Wilkie Collins.  Originally serialized in Charles Dicken’s magazine before being published as novels.  Both novels use the “multi-narration’ method where a series of characters narrate different chapters. Another favorite novel is Rebecca (1938) by Daphne Du Maurier – an incredible best-selling novel that has never gone out of print.

Most of the novels read transcends time and feel as current today as when the novel was first published.

An exception is the espionage novels.  I feel like ones like John Buchan’s espionage novels and John Le Carre’s ‘The Spy Who Came In From The Cold’ is easier to relate to if you had a sense of the time period they were set. Would those who were born after the Cold War and the fall of the Berlin Wall relate to the story as well as myself who was born a few years after the building of the Berlin War?

Finding the Novels

Part of the challenge, and fun, was finding the novels to read.

My preference is reading physical copies of the books because my work day is spent working on a computer — reading the physical book is more relaxing for me. Here is my post on how to find and read free ebooks for those that prefer ebooks.

Here is the orders of where I source the novels from:

1. Charity book sales.  In Perth Save the Children holds several large book sales and ParaQuad’s Book Bazaar has a monthly sale (their contract with the State Library of Western Australia whereby all discarded library books are donated is why their shops have a diverse range of books).
2. Charity shops (Thrift Shops). My favorite shops in Perth are ParaQuad Industries Op Shop & Book Bazaar, Willetton, and Balcatta.  Both shops have a large section of second-hand books sorted in alphabetical order.
3. Second-hand bookshops.
4. Online second-hand booksellers like WOB.
5. Search Google using the title of the novel, and the author combined with the keywords ebook or PDF.  First I search ebook and if that doesn’t work I repeat the search using PDF.  Copyright on older novels has expired and you can download ebooks or PDFs for free from Faded Pages, Project Gutenberg, Project Gutenberg Australia, Open Library, and a range of other websites.  The source of the ebook determines which app is used for reading on an iPad:
   • Gutenberg ebooks are read by opening them in Apple Books.
   • Open Library ebooks and ebooks borrowed from libraries are read using Abode Digital Editions.
6. Harder to source books I’ve purchased as ebooks from Amazon. I’ve just subscribed to Kindle Unlimited as some of the books I wanted to read are free on Kindle Unlimited.

I still dream of getting a copy of My Story; a New Edition and Seventeen New Years by Mary Roberts Rinehart 1948 –  but it is challenging to source in Australia

What’s Next?

I’m not very good at letting go! I’m very goal orientated – goals help me focus and give me a sense of achievement. Having a goal combined with a reading challenge provides a mindful practice that helps me with sleep and managing stress when I’ve faced challenging periods in my life.

So I’ve started on my next reading challenge – H.R.F Keating’s 100 Best Crime & Mystery Books.

H.R.F. Keating was an author and reviewer of crime fiction who published a book on what he considered to be the best 100 Best Crime & Mystery Books in 1987.

My biggest issue is I have bilateral greater trochanteric pain syndrome = really sore hips and pain down both sides of my legs caused by a range of factors and in recent years I’ve realized the long hours sitting are contributing to it.

As a result, I’ve been working on improvements over the past few years and I thought I would share the ways I’ve been working on improving my office ergonomics to help others. Basically, all the things I wish I was aware of and considered when I first started working remotely.

Researching information helped me to understand the concepts but found I needed an ergonomic assessment by a physiotherapist at my house to help adjust everything correctly. The online information was helpful but any adjustments I made myself caused wrist aches or neck aches. For my situation having a professional review and assist made a huge difference!

Glasses

Skip this section if you’re lucky enough not to wear progressive glasses – also known as multifocal!

For those who wear progressive glasses – this is the first thing you need to consider fixing.

I’m very short-sighted and have worn glasses since primary school. No one warns if you work for long hours on a computer that once you need to start wearing progressive glasses you might be better off having another pair of glasses specifically designed to use with your computer.

As the reading script in the progressive glasses increases with age the area of the monitor you can actually see clearly decreases. Ideally, you want your head to remain in a neutral position and minimize the amount you need to move your neck by looking up and down.

You don’t realize wearing progressive glasses that you only have a limited area on the monitor you can see clearly and are moving your head more than necessary, leading to neck ache because once you start wearing progressive glasses your brain adjusts to the bottom section of the glasses is for reading, the middle is the intermediate script which you use for seeing your computer and the top section is your distance vision which you use for driving.

Below is a simple example of a progressive lens to show how the glasses are broken into sections. The small section highlighted in green is able to see the computer screen without blurring.

My first step in fixing my work environment was organizing glasses for my office work since monitor height is different for progressive glasses. It took trying three different scripts to get the glasses right. The first attempt was Office Glasses which are progressive glasses but was designed for computer work. Wasn’t suitable at all – couldn’t read anything on the monitor. The next attempt was old school bifocal – could only see the top half of my monitor. While I could have lowered the bottom bifocal section so that I could have seen my entire monitor I found a single vision lens that is slightly stronger than my intermediate script works for me. There is a slight blurring when I look down at my keyboard and harder to read the information on my phone or written notes. The keyboard blurring isn’t an issue and rarely refers to written notes.

They are the most important glasses I wear and I know immediately if I’ve forgotten to switch glasses as the text on the monitors is blurry if I try to read with my progressive glasses.

The downside is being short-sighted I’m still able to see using this single vision lens, the World is just slightly more blurry and accidentally forgot to switch back to my progressive glasses. Which wasn’t fun when I went on holiday realizing 2 hours into the trip that I was wearing the wrong glasses. Thankfully I always pack a backup pair of progressive glasses as I can’t see at all without glasses.

The following video explains the different options for those who wear prescription glasses:

A single version lens is ideal for my situation because I use three monitors.

Switching between the glasses isn’t an issue and being able to clearly view all of my monitors while working has made a huge difference.

Desk

I originally had a standard fixed desk which required me to use a footrest so that my feet are flat when sitting. Frustrating that the industry standard for desks is for people who are 6 feet tall which creates issues for those that aren’t that height.

I now have a sit-stand desk which is better because its minimum height (720 mm) is lower than my original standard fixed desk (730 mm) so I can work without using a footrest.

My sit-stand desk in the sit position.

It’s worth identifying the minimum height required to work without a footrest before buying a desk as I find having my feet flat on the floor better for posture and working.

My standing desk height is set to 1006 mm. The two heights are programmed into my desk settings. And I’ve had two ergonomic assessments by a physiotherapist at my house, a year apart – the second assessment to help adjust the heights for the new sit-stand desk.

The heights are based on my forearms and wrists being parallel to the floor/slightly higher than the parallel when using the keyboard.

I originally purchased the sit-stand to alternate between sit/stand as it is the only thing I hadn’t tried to help with my hip problem. Hip pain has made me a firm believer that ‘sitting is the new smoking.’ The physiotherapist who did the assessments explained that any long periods spent in the same position aren’t good for your body.

I don’t use my sit-stand desk to switch to standing to work. This year I brought a Fitbit Sense to help track and improve my sleep. My Fitbit watch includes a reminder to move at least 250 steps per hour. The reminder is set to strong. It goes off 10 minutes before the hour – I switch my desk to standing and walk back/forth as the movement is better for my hips than standing still.

Chair

My chair is designed for office work but wasn’t adjusted properly.

The following adjustments were needed to my chair:

• The armrests on my chair were preventing me from sitting close to my desk. The armrests were removed from the chair. The correct sitting position is with my stomach touching the desk using the backrest with good posture.
• My seat height is set so that my forearms and wrists are parallel to the floor/slightly higher than the parallel, and my feet are flat on the floor.
• Seat depth was moved forward to the recommended 2-3 finger width gap between the front edge of the seat and the back of my knees to support my legs and back better.

My chair with my assistant that insisted he needed to be in the photo.

After needing to have my chair adjusted properly with both ergonomic assessments – I took photos to remind myself of the correct setting (shown in the embedded Google photo album below).

Keyboard

As I rarely use the number pad on my keyboard she recommended that I switch to a shorter keyboard.

The problem with traditional keyboards is they are wide and force the mouse to be positioned too far away from the body. Compact keyboards don’t have a numeric keypad which means the mouse is brought closer to the body. This reduces less muscle movement in the hand, forearm, and shoulder encouraging a more neutral forearm, upper arm, and neck posture.

This is my keyboard.

Monitors

I have three 27-inch monitors attached to monitor arms. My chair is located in the center of the middle monitor which is an arm’s length from me and the monitors are lowered so that my eyes are within the top third of the screens when I am looking at my screens with my head/neck in a neutral position.

Ideally, it would have been better to have the dual monitor arm on the far left monitor as this would allow me to adjust the angle of the right monitor better – which I use more than the left monitor.

Funny off-topic story! One morning I came into my office and discovered all the monitors had fallen forward. Shared the photo with my oldest son and he reported that the same thing happened at his house that morning. We are both using the same monitor arms. Gremlins?

I’ve also taken photos of the height of the bottom of the monitors from desk so that I can refer to the photos if needed.

Final thoughts

Hopefully, this information helps others make improvements to their work environment.

Windy is a small unique remote holiday settlement of about 200 beach huts located in an isolated area in the South West region of Western Australia. Accomodation is limited unless your own a hut, know someone with a hut, or stay in the small camping ground.

Windy represents everything I don’t have living in Perth – a simpler, quieter life, time to slow down.

While much has changed since the ‘60’s – Windy remains fairly unchanged. It’s still isolated. There is no electricity – you either have an old Windy hut like ours that is powered by a generator that you run in the evening or have modernised the hut with solar electricity and have continuous power. There’s no takeaway shops and the nearest shop is 30 minutes away.

Photos of my family building our hut 1968-1970

Holidays At Windy As A Child

Windy is where we spent most holidays and many weekends as a child as my parents loved ocean and my father’s ill health limited other holiday options.

My sisters’ think it’s hilarious that I now love going to Windy. I was the only member of the family that Windy didn’t hold a special place in my heart. They all loved Windy! I’ve spent most my life hating Windy.

My favourite holidays were escaping to Perth, the capital city in Western Australia, from Manjimup (called Manji to locals), an inland timber and farming town I lived in located about 3 hours from Perth. Perth to a child growing up in the 70’s had everything Manji didn’t have – more TV channels, radio stations, movie theatres and shops!

Windy represented – No TV, no shops, no electricity, no phone. Summer holidays meant six weeks at Windy which included two weeks of vacation swimming lessons in the ocean….which I hated….chance of snakes…which terrify me. The hour drive from Manji felt like forever as a child especially as the car aquaplaned on the gravel road on the last section of the road (thankfully the gravel road is gone).

Before our hut was built we stayed in a tent in the camping ground. I still remember the snake in the tent.

Windy as an Adult

My oldest son fell in love with Windy and we’ve started spending holidays at Windy since 2019. Nowadays the drive is longer – takes over 5 hours from Perth where we live – but is an adventure.

Our trips to Windy are full of funny moments, memorable incidents and adventures. Below are just some of our highlights:

Christmas Day at Windy

Most Christmas Days as a child was spent at Windy and I enjoyed the few Christmas lunches we ate with other locals. The most memorable was the Christmas Day lunch at the Northcliffe Hotel.

Our first year driving down on Christmas Day in 2019 I learnt my expectation of being able to buy food for Christmas lunch from a shop driving to Windy didn’t match the reality. Limited stores opened meant we were lucky to find any food for lunch.

This year I packed a lovely simple lunch for the Christmas Day drive and we sat at a picnic table in Donnybrook to eat.

We have adventures with animals

The native animals and local animals regularly add excitement.

The bat(s) that visits our hut at night – that no one believed – until I calmly recorded a bat flying to nest in the mattress above my husband’s head while he was sleeping.

Being surrounded by dairy cows when we weren’t sure what to do when cows are coming towards you when driving on a country road.

Me screaming when I discovered the blue-tongued lizard had joined us in the hut after my husband left the door open while working outside. At least it wasn’t a snake.

Waking up early in the morning to see the kangaroos feeding around our hut. Or spotting kangaroos and emus on my early morning daily walks.

We’ve been fixing the hut

Since we’re started visiting the hut we’ve been making improvements. I confess to having slightly envy of those who live in the modern Windy huts with their solar power, fridges, washing machines and reliable water supply.

January 2020 we spent time cleaning out old furniture, clothes, removing all the old floor coverings in preparation for fixing up the inside of the hut. We now have the original jarrah floorboards – still waiting for the gaps between floorboards to be filled – at least the gaps help cool it in summer!

Between December 2020 and February, 2021 we spent time fixing up the outside of the hut. Repainted the outside, replaced the verandah roof, the chimney, boarded up broken windows. Which meant spending hours driving to Albany (6 hour return trip), Busselton (5 hour return trip) and Manjimup (2 hour return trip) to source paint and supplies for fixing the hut.

My husband hated the color of our hut before we repainted it – but it was impressionable enough to be included in Robert Drewe’s The True Colour of the Sea book.

Did I mention reliable water supply? Our water pipes are failing from age.

June, 2020 the copper pipe to the water tap in the toilet came apart when we tried to fix a leak. Thankfully plumbers just happened to be working on a nearby hut and fixed our toilet.

December, 2020 the pipe underneath our bathroom started leaking. We were fortunate enough to find a plumber willing to travel to repair the broken section of pipe.

Initially we showered using a camping shower – which takes two people to run.

This year we’ve been game enough to run the old instanteous gas water heater.

Initially we watched TV on the phone.

Now we’ve set up a TV and chrome cast using the Internet on our phone.

Organising meals

You learn to be very organised with meals wIth no takeaway shops, no UberEats, the nearest shop being 30 minutes away and limited space for keeping food cold.

As a child our food was kept cold in our kerosene fridge – now we bring a portable camping fridge.

It’s smaller than the kerosene fridge but safer to use.

We used to cook our meals on the portable camping stove until my husband destroyed it – in a cooking accident.

We now cook using the old gas stove.

The walks

I go for an early walk most mornings and Windy is my favourite place to walk because of the amazing walking trails from the township to the lighthouse and along the cliffs to lookouts. Breathtaking views within comfortable walking distances from our hut – I frequently spot kangaroos and emus.

Things to Do

There is lots to do in and around Windy from swimming, snorkeling, fishing, bush walking, 4WDing to checking out local tourist attractions. Below are just a few examples.

Mount Chudalup, a granite block, with a 1.5 km walking trail to the summit 187 metres above sea level, provides 360-degree views of the surrounding area including Windy Harbour in the distance.

Around Walpole there are the red tingle trees, circular pool, the tree top walk.

Pemberton is surrounded by picturesque karri forests, green pastures and vineyards. It’s where you’ll find the two climbing trees, Gloucester tree and Dave Evans Bicentennial tree. I haven’t climbed either.

My big kids love the giant slide at the Manjimup Timber park.

The occasional fallen tree blocking the road is part of the adventures.

Final thoughts

It seems fitting that this post was written while holidaying at Windy. This Christmas holiday we decided to take a rest from working on the hut and have relaxed. Off course no Windy trip is without it’s challenges – this trip the toilet has a new leak, our generator is playing up and our neighbours were nice enough to let us borrow theirs to keep our battery charged.

No bats yet – but give them time!

Dewsbury Contact

Imagine my excitement some four years later when a researcher of Dewsbury’s Literary Society at the end of the 19th Century emailed me after discovering my Great Grandfather Thomas Ockerby Hurst’s information online. I had come across handwritten journals from a Dewsbury Literary Society dated from June 20, 1891 through to Sept 24, 1892 at my Cousin Mary’s house while searching for more information about my Hurst ancestors. I had wanted to share these journals but had given up – not knowing who might be interested in them.

Digitized the Journals

Spurred on – I went back to Mary’s house to borrow the journals and find any information related to the Dewsbury Literary Society. Mary lives in the house her family shared with my Great Grandparents – and pretty much everything has been kept.

As a result I’ve shared photos of every page from all of the 22 Journals with the researcher using Google Photo Albums.

I’ve embedded the Google photo album for the Journal from June 20th , 1891 for those interested in reading. Viewing this slideshow on a mobile device allows you to zoom in to read the text.

And helped identify photos from my Grandfather’s photos that were helpful for the researcher.

Dewsbury Library ~1898

Reggie Blakely and his telescope – Dewsbury Literary Society member ~1895

Found New Items

During my new search I uncovered more photos, letters, documents and other interesting historical items that I had missed in our original search. 

For example, I discovered my great grandfather developed his own photographs and found some of the glass plate negatives.

Here’s one of the glass plate negatives:

Here’s the box the negatives are stored in:

Here’s the same photo developed from a glass plate negative as a postcard photo and a photo.

One of the documents by my Aunt Sheila Green, Thomas Ockerby Hurst daughter, discusses his photography.

Sheila’s Diaries

I stumbled across Sheila’s diaries written between 1934-1939 – which Mary and I enjoyed reading.

The following embedded Google photo album is Sheila’s diary entries that explain how my Grandparent’s wedding, Charles Hurst to Clarice Hill, was postponed due to Clarice’s Aunt Millicent Day’s illness and death. Millicent Day died on Oct 13, 1936. My grandparent’s were meant to marry on Oct 14, 1936.

I knew that Millicent Day died prior to their wedding but hadn’t been aware that the wedding had been postponed.

Sheila refers to my grandfather in her entries as Boy – as this is the name his sisters used when referring to him.

The following embedded Google photo album are the diary entries where Sheila discusses their trip from Kalmunda to Bridgetown to attend my Grandparent’s wedding.

The Letters

As well as letters written between Sheila and Web during World War II when Web was in the army based at Signals on Rottnest Island off Perth as well as letters they wrote after the war.

Sheila and Web married in 1942.

The following Google Photo album is a letter from Web to Sheila which explains how it is difficult to think of things to write as they were only allowed to talk about things they did on Rottnest during their spare time.

The last page you’ll see the signature by the censor who checked the letter.

This photograph of one of the envelopes shows the censor’s stamp and signature.

As well as letters from family and friends.

Old Newspaper

Found an old newspaper from March 19, 1904 hidden in the bottom drawer of my Great Grandfather Thomas Ockerby Hurst’s desk. Realized he had kept it as it is about the death of his Grandmother.

Below’s the photo of his grandmother from his album.

What’s Next?

I’ve now got lots of new photos to digitize, sort and upload. Lots of documents to review and update on my site.

Meanwhile I’ve lead my cousin Mary astray and she’s joined me in the search to find more information about the family. It’s great to have a partner in crime!