Score

Another January goal achieved.

I set out to complete blocks 3 and 4 of Betsy's Closet this month and I did but imagine my surprise when I realised I was actually completing block FIVE so I guess I did more than I "should have".

Here it is.....block 5 of Betsy's Closet.  I imagined it quite differently before it was stitched and honestly thought that the one colour would be quite boring.......guess I was wrong because I love it!

and a close-up of the chain stitch fill in stitch and the french knots.

I brought home a new piece of furniture last week from Ikea and now my fabric will have somewhere to live (once it is properly wound onto "bolts")

 

there are quite a few fabrics still on the old shelves. I will get them moved over eventually.



 

Aussie, Aussie, Aussie

Today is Australia Day and despite the weather (rain, rain and more rain), I do hope everyone has a good time.

I am spending the day in the creation station doing more of what I did yesterday but on a different quilt.

Only a few days left to finish piecing this together as I set out to do for this months goals. While I am at it, I will watch a few more episodes of SGU.  The rain is not worrying me at all, infact I am really enjoying the cooler weather.

It and a Bit!

One of my goals for January was to finish building the rows for Rusty's quilt and I am here to report that I have achieved it and a bit!

 It helps that I have had the week off work and that I have rearranged the creation station giving me alot more space to lay this one out and add sashings and borders.

The more my quilt started to grow, the more I wanted to see the flimsy finished, so I couldn't stop . All the rows together with the sashing and then added the borders. 

The flimsy for Rusty's quilt is done.  I didn't stop there however, and prepared the binding for when it is finished being quilted.

As I sewed, I also finished watching season 3 of Fringe and started watching season 2 of Stargate Universe.

 

Chit Chat

Hello everyone, I haven't blogged for a few days but I have been busy. I am having a week off work and trying to get as much done as possible around here. Mainly sorting and organising different areas of the house.

 Still, gotta make time for a chat! so make yourselves comfortable, enjoy a cuppa and lets chat.

This week's questions from Patrice.

Do you eat eggs? What is your favorite way to serve them?
Eggs are one of my favourite foods, they are so versatile and I love them everywhich way.

Do you have a favorite item that you really like having around? (a pillow, a chair, a sweater, a teddy bear, etc.)
you might as well ask me which is my favourite child.  I love everything in my home and most of the items have a story.  I love my home and everything in it. 

Is most of the furniture in your home dark wood, light wood, painted, lacquered, or distressed?
The living areas are mostly dark wood, my bedroom has light wood furniture and my sewing room and spare room is white lacquered furniture which makes it all look lovely and fresh.

the dresser in the spare room

 Please fill in the rest of this sentence. "I could write a book about____________."
old Churches........I most likely "couldn't" write a book. My son is the writer.....his first book is being published as an e-book and available by end of February.  I have always had this facination with old churches and wondered if there is a market for a coffee table book of old churches.

Hadleigh Church, Essex, UK

 If money and calendar/family obligations weren't an issue, would you prefer to spend next weekend at a Bed and Breakfast, a posh hotel, a cabin in the woods, or on a sailboat on a calm body of water?

I would pick the Bed and Breakfast option.  There are some gorgeous ones north of here in the Glasshouse mountains.  Given more time (and more money) I would opt out of all of the above options and choose a cruise around the Med.

 

Thank you for stopping by for a chat and feel free to leave a comment, I would love to hear your opinions.

 

Blooming Beauty

Here we are at Sunday again. I am glad to report that we did have some rain last night after a 35* day. Enough to notice that the pool is a teensy weensy bit fuller. I hope that wherever you are, the weather is bearable. I am staying in the AC again today making my Creation Station a more inviting space (I hope) but more on that later.

I haven't been out much due to this oppressive heat so here, once again, are some photos I took on an earlier  occasion.

I took these photos at the Melbourne Flower Festival a few years ago.  Oh Boy, what a feast of flowers for the photographer eye.  It was better than being in a candy shop! Well I felt like a kid in a candy shop!  snap! snap! snap! and I was thrilled with what I got.

a sea of irises

see why i just love all this blooming beauty

Some of the prints were so gorgeous, I framed them and they hang in our spare room.

See the beauty in your day!
 
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Sew Many Ways

Sewing with Friends

This Wednesday was the first day since before Christmas that I have sewn with friends.  I belong to two groups but I really love THIS group.  There are four of us and we met at our 'Local' when we signed up to do a Millamac quilting class. We have since done several Millamac projects together.

We meet once a month at Marilyn's house as she has the best space and lots of lovely light. We get there around 9.30, everyone brings something to share for lunch and we leave sometime in the early afternoon.

Lots of sewing and chatting.....love it!

the detail at the bottom of the hem.  looks better here than it does in real life!

I finished Block 3 of Betsy's Closet and did some stitching on Block 3 of Bric-a-Brac.......very productive indeed. even if I do say so myself.


I just have to show you Zita's quilt that she has been working on since before I met her 2 years ago. It is so stunning, I am definitely adding this to my to-do list even though she constantly rue's the day she started this one.

Each hexi is 1inch ..... oooh, I know.....tiny, right? Could be a great way to use up bits and pieces in your scrap basket

This is the border........i am in love with this quilt.   I am totally, totally convinced that I have to make one too.

 

Lets Chat

It that time of the week. Time to put the kettle on, have a cuppa and sit on the porch with Patrice at Everyday Ruralty to have a chat.  If you want to join in head on over.

 This week's topics

What was your favorite game as a child?
I loved Rounders (a version of baseball) and it was the only game I ever liked playing, even in Highschool. I was not very athletic and was never picked first for teams but Rounders was fun. I don't know why.
 
Have you ever had your own business? (home business, a shop, Etsy, lemon-aid stand, etc)
Personally, I have never owned a business, not even selling Lemoneade. But my husband had his own business and I used to run the office for him. I really liked that as it meant I could do it on my own time and still sew!
  
How's your spelling?
I have never had a problem with my spelling which is something I am grateful for because I am terrible at math.....got to be good at something, right?
 
How are you about going to the dentist?
Hate it,  I have not been to the dentist for 6 years (oops!) which is why it is on my goal list for January.  I remember going to the dentist when I was about 5 and he was a heavy smoker.  In those days they did not wear latex gloves and I could taste the smoke on his fingers.....Yuck! 
 
Do you enjoy board games?
Yes, except when my hubby is involved.  He is the MOST competitive person I know which is ok except that he blatantly rubs it in all the time when he is winning.  I refuse to play with him now but I have moved on and play Words with Friends and backgammon on line.

Thanks for stopping by for the chat. 
 

A visit to the machine doctor and some sewing

Just over a week ago when I started up my sewing machine, I kept getting an error which I couldn't resolve. I read through the troubleshooting table in the manual and did all that was suggested but still no luck. Today, I decided it was cool enough outside to venture out so packed up the beast of a machine and took it to my local machine doctor.

I have been visiting this machine doctor for a while now and he has the tiniest little shop which is cramped with sewing machines in for a service and sewing machines in boxes for sale.

He and his assistant, immediately looked at my problem and decided on a couple of treatments, then the assistant noticed that the needle would not go down through the needleplate and the diagnosis was found, a buckled needle plate.  No idea how that happened but they took the part out back for some surgery and before long, all was fixed.  They packed it all back up for me and insisted on carrying it back out to the car (she is a heavy beast) and after all this insisted that I didn't owe them a thing.

So I'm back home sewing Rusty's quilt as I said I would get the rows built this month as part of my goals for January.

 

Fabric Stash Rethink

Some of you may recall that last year I got stuck into my fabric stash and made an effort to organise it a bit better than stuffing it in wire baskets. Have a look here if you missed it. I had great fun doing it but couldn't find anything that would make a stiff enough "bolt" base and all my fabrics started to look a little droopy.  This makes it very difficult when I want to remove some "bolts" for auditions or to use in projects.

The brainstorming began but no matter what idea I came up with, I just couldn't find anything that was cheap enough and stiff enough to do the job. Then, one day at work, I was filling up the big photocopier with paper (it loads a whole box) and was going to flatten the box and throw it out when it occurred to me that it was just the right thickness to do another job.   Just shows that ideas come at the most unexpected time.  Ok the cardboard was  the right thickness and they are white boxes which means consistency but the boxes have come from a warehouse and were marked here and there and some were dusty.  Ahhhh, I will wrap them in sticky contact to protect my fabric.

flattened boxes

contact wrap

finished bolt holder

 Takes a little prep time but not excessive and I actually find it fun... and they hold the bolts up nice and straight.  I cut each cardboard box into 6.5" strips (the width of my long ruler) and 12" high (which is a good height for my bookcase) to keep it all uniform and wrapped them in a piece of contact, sealing all sides.  The best thing is that the boxes are free and the supply unlimited and the contact cost me A$1.29 per roll.

See those first three bolts on the right, they are my new bolts.....standing straight and tall. LOVE IT! Only another 300 to make now! Oh dear, thats a lot.

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Blooming Beauty

No recent photo's here again this week.  Only mad dogs and Englishmen would go out in this heat for a long walk.......oh wait, I did yesterday for a short while when the sun was fading......and it was still extremely humid, but the doggies need a change of scenery.

I took some photos in the garden a few weeks ago when everything was still looking lush and healthy.

These leaves make an appearance every spring and summer and then we don't even see the plant until the next year. No idea what it is but they are very colourful leaves

lovely, aren't they?

And this is my white agapanthus as it was bursting into bloom.  It has since died off :( as has everything else!

Stay cool and seel the beauty around you!





 

What a Hoot

Well it feels hotter than ever today and we are all shut away in the air conditioning as the best way to escape the heat. Miss M and Ted turned up today to take advantage of the cooler conditions.

I really felt like I had to do something today so I searched through my books and patterns and remembered this one that I got at the last Quilt Show here in Brisbane.

It only took me a couple of hours to make and though it was intended as a hand sewn project, I cheated, and sewed it together on the sewing machine.

Normally I hate reading instructions and usually fuddle along but this pattern had step by step photographic instructions on-line which made the whole process much easier to put together

Without further ado, here is my little OWL PURSE:

I will be putting this little guy into my gift box for the time being and I am going to look for some more of the hardware so I can make some more.  I think it is just so cute!

And it will hold quite a few pennies

Go here if you want to see some more of these designs

How about this photo that appeared on the news last night.  Taken off Western Australia where there is a cyclone off the coast.

PHOTO REMOVED

That orange is a dustcloud blown from across the Pilbara.

  
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It's Heating Up Alright

This is so scary....look at that purple patch....temps of 54deg C!!! When I saw this weather map flash up on 'The Project' last night, I was mystified as I thought that was a cold patch until I saw this pic. Now apparantly it didn't actually get to that high temp but the thought of it is just unbearable.  Look at little Tassie......I can't wait for us to become friends.

For the last week or so, all anyone has talked about has been the weather, the heat and the fires. It's on the tv, the radio, when you go to the shops, at work and even when you bump into the neighbours. Miss M and I have spent the last 3 days indoors with the AC. Clover is here today as well to visit with Callie and Lila so we are going to go out and keep wetting their bellies.  This works better than dousing them all over with water as their wet fur traps the heat in.  Ahhhh, that livened them up, now they are having a little play!

Callie

Lila