Last WOW for 2010

A well-loved childrens' story....we used to listen to it on radio, the voices were very funny. Wombat is described as being "a square animal with thick hair like a door-mat, stumpy legs and no tail to speak of, brown eyes and a comfortable leathery flat nose like a koala". His friend Mouse is a fat-tailed pouched Bush Mouse, another little Aussie animal, and his other friend is Tabby whose favourite fruit is sardines. The stories were written by Ruth Park, who died recently.

We had a lovely Christmas, our older son and his girlfriend visited for a few days, and we talked to our younger son in Canada via Skype - oh, the wonders of the interwebz! We received some lovely gifts, mine were of the pretty fabric, yummy food and beautifully smelly variety, and I have a gift certificate for a local quilt shop too. We ate, drank and were merry, and had a great time. And now it's only 361 days until we do it all again.
The challenge quilt I finished a while ago when we were having computer issues, so no pics have been posted until now. I made it for Kevin and gave it to him for Christmas, his maternal grandfather was born in 1849 - that's right, 1849 and only two generations back - and was a sailor in the days of sailing ships.
The challenge was to use a 12in block, a 6in by 12in block, a 12in by 6in block, and a 6in block, with the rest of the quilt top made of nine patches. I had a fat quarter of this lighthouse and beach scene so it was the 12in feature block. The yellow fabrics picked up the colour of the sand, seagulls fly in a bright blue sky (how poetical!) and ships sail through the water.
The backing is the rest of the nautical prints I had collected over several years.....I always had it in mind to make Kevin his own quilt, and it had to have ships.
Not sure if you can see, but the quilting in the border is whales and waves. Or waves and whales, if you prefer. The only fabric specially bought was the blue wavy stripe, everything else came from my stash. And has left scarcely a dent.......

At present we seem to have a plague of biting insects, they seem to be leaving Kevin alone but love me.....I am so uncomfortable......bought some cream this morning that the woman at the chemist assured me would take away the itch, but so far it's not doing a great job.......I am trying hard not to scratch because then I will have scabby arms and legs and will look as though I have some sort of dreadful plague. I am also taking anti-histamines but they seem to be swimming uphill against the tide of itchiness. The little buggers attacked me while I was sleeping in my bed of rest, and if one is not safe in one's bed - then where can one be safe?

Oh well, hopefully they will all be gone by winter..........apparently we are having a bad bug season because we have had so much rain, everywhere is very moist, just right for insects like sandflies and mozzies to breed. And bite. Roll on June. At least we are not flooded, unlike those poor folk in Queensland who are suffering the worst flood for a century.

I even found a blog background with frogs, to honour our garden frogs....makes the blog look a bit busy, I'll see how long I can live with it.

Recently Kevin found a gold ring while he was digging in the garden! It is somewhat mangled by mower blades and has no stone. I took it to a local jeweller who (rather disdainfully, I thought) told me the stone would have been synthetic and would have shattered to the four winds when hit by the mower, and the 9 ct gold was worth nothing. Bummer. And here we thought we had found buried treasure.

The current sewing project is new pyjamas for me in a plain gold knit and a deep blue and white print knit, just tee shirts with shorts, but cool and comfy. The tops (I am making two pair at once) have a vee neck, and I followed the pattern instruction for sewing the neckband although I had misgivings about it. Should have listened to my instinct and used another method, the outside looks good but the inside of the neckline looks like a dog's breakfast. Ah well, it is the inside, and the world won't see it. It's a Kwik-Sew pattern and I have usually found their instructions to be good, but there are better ways of sewing a vee neck than theirs.

"Dress at wedding receptions.

At wedding receptions in the evening, guests should wear full evening dress. No one should attend in black or mourning dress, which should give place to grey or lavender. At a morning reception of the wedded couple, guests should wear the richest street costume with white gloves."

Probably shouldn't wear my new pyjamas, when they are finished. Even though they could be termed evening wear.

Enjoy your days!

Christmas greetings!

To all my friends out there in blogland, best wishes for a joyful Christmas. I hope the fat bloke in the red suit is good to you, and that you stop eating before you burst. Many of us will be busy with family and friends for the next few days, so until we meet again....

Merry Christmas!

Wowsers - I have won a prize!

Just heard from Michelle who runs Quilting Gallery, that I won a prize of three quilting mystery books in the birthday give-away - how lucky is that! I can't even win an argument, let alone a prize of books!

That has made my day.

Wombats and friend

The wombats are back and are getting ready for Christmas, as you can see! My friend Nola gave me the little feller on the right, and the other two were souvenirs of a trip to a country town at the end of last year. Their friend at the back was a momento of our trip to Canada in October 2009.....what could be more Canadian than a beaver playing hockey? It was bought at one of those wondrous places that had several Christmas trees each decorated in different themes, one was entirely beavers playing winter sports, skating, skiing, sledding, hockey. It was such fun, and something that isn't done so much in Australia - we recycle the same decorations year in and year out, we don't go in much for theme trees. If you were the theme type you wouldn't want to use the same decorations for two years in a row, would you, because people would remember. Oh, they would say, she used those decorations last year. Or the year before. And we can't have that, can we?

Much too much stress for my brain.

Some of the Christmas shopping is done, tomorrow we must brave the supermarket for the final food shop. Australians seem to have a siege mentality when it comes to public holidays, and as shops will be closed for three or four days panic mode sets in, the average family stocks up with enough food to serve an army for a month, let alone just themselves for a few days. We will be feeding four people, I wonder if we will have enough food?

We have even bought the cats a present, a new scratching post. Bianca is investigating it but so far it hasn't seen a kitty claw. No doubt they will get the idea soon, their old one is almost past its use-by date.

A few days ago we had a visitor, a green frog came inside.....erk.....I quite like fur, and I am happy enough with feathers and fins, but nothing else. It must have been sitting on the door frame and sidled in when Kevin went outside for a few minutes, fortunately it was easily persuaded to leave. We have at least two in the garden, they sing back and forth in chorus.

Our very nice neighbours have sold their house and will be moving to a small farm outside town, wonder what the new neighbours will be like? So far they have all been much nicer folk than we had in Sydney.

We are hearing about the snow storms and bad weather which is affecting plane travel in Europe. While I feel sorry for those who have had their Christmas plans disrupted, and who have had to spend a day or two or three waiting in an airport, there's nothing we can do about weather. It is disappointing if one has been looking forward to visiting friends or family, or visiting another country for a different Christmas experience, but if the planes cannot fly then they cannot fly, and all the moaning in the world will not get them airborne.

"Naming the child.

It becomes an all-important matter to the parents, what name they shall give to the newly-born child, and as this is a matter which may also concern the latter at some future day, it becomes an object of solicitude, until a suitable name is settled upon."

Now I shall endeavour to use my time constructively, and sew for a little while.

Enjoy your days!

The table runner is done!

Here it is in all its glory.....this is Christmas fabric from about 12 years ago, when The Fabric Designers decided that Christmas would be soft and muted rather than primary and bright. The cream setting fabric and pink binding are new.
Here is a close up of the quilting, the centre is quilted with a continuous curve design....very easy with the walking foot and just eyeballed, not marked on the fabric. But I want you all to take a close look at and be gobsmacked by the amazingly outstanding quilted- not embroidered, but quilted - holly leaves. This is done by someone who avoids free motion quilting because she doesn't do it very well. The cream setting triangles looked a bit stark when the runner was together and the centre quilted, so I found a suitable sized holly leaf picture on the interwebz, traced it onto lunch wrap, pinned it on and quilted through it - then decided the cream borders on the ends looked bare, so they were given similar treatment. Then I stood back, looked at what I had done, and gasped in amazement.
Here it is again all dressed up for Christmas, with the little silver tree matching the silver metallic on the pink and green prints. That's my sewing room through the door on the left, wherein this masterpiece was created.

Those of you out there in blogland who can quilt a king-sized quilt on their DSM in an afternoon and still whip up a dinner party for 20 people that evening wouldn't understand why I am so excited, but for me it's an amazing achievement. Might even spur me into trying again. Table runners are a good size to try a new technique, aren't they?

Last weekend the rivers and creeks rose again, we had a flood which was deeper than the one in late July. According to the long-range forecast we are in for a wet summer so we may yet have more floods. My Canadian and American friends and family are freezing in their winter, while we are having a soggy summer.

This morning the new reading glasses were ready and I am wearing them as we speak.......OK, type.........while not yet quite as comfy as the last pair, I'm sure they won't take long to get used to. They do not have skinny rectangular lenses. I am not that trendy.

And the computer seems to be working, the problem of the missing doo-dad was solved by plugging things into different holes. And other technical stuff like that. So I have my EQ7 back again, woo hoo! And the wombats can come back, yay!

We are being entertained or assailed, depending on one's point of view, by Christmas music in shops now, have you noticed? Aren't some of the versions dreadful? I do wish some of the singers would remember that it's not a pop song they are singing.

"The Christening.

The christening and baptism usually occur at the same time, and are regulated according to the practices of the special church where the parents attend worship. As these are quite varied, it will be sufficient only to indicate the forms and customs which society imposes at such times."

So far this month I have attended several Christmas parties, but no christenings.

Enjoy your days!

Water, water everywhere.........

Earlier this year much of New South Wales was in drought, now it's flooded.......that peaceful river in the picture above is the mighty Murrumbidgee River at Wagga Wagga, now it looks like an inland sea. My blog header is a picture of the Macdonald River about 30 minutes from here, it flooded last week and certainly didn't look like that placid stream in the picture. Dorothea Mackellar's poem "My Country" says it well:

"I love a sunburnt country, a land of sweeping plains,

Of ragged mountain ranges, of droughts and flooding rains".

Dorothea's family owned a large amount of land just an hour or so west of here, amid sweeping plains.

And today is the anniversary of the day that John Lennon died, I can still remember the shock that echoed round the world....we were all in disbelief, John was such a peace-loving person which made it so sad that he died the way he did.

On a slightly happier note, my signature has made its appearance again and seems to be staying. However Kiera-Oona has made me a selection in different colours so I can have a choice! I just need to get around to loading it on the computer. Speaking of which, we have our new computer back but there is a little doo-dad that joins the keyboard to the computer because the connections are different and it seems to be absent....probably still at the computer shop.......so I am still on the old computer, but hopefully only until tomorrow. Then my new signatures can be loaded.

Today was very fraught. I had my eye check-up, it's been nigh on two and a half years since the last one and I am getting new reading glasses.......erk, I hate having to choose glasses and try on different styles and look into the mirror and no matter which style I choose I still look awful.......was there for ages trying to decide......many of the styles available these days are narrow rectangular frames which I don't like and which look silly on me. The sales assistant helping me didn't think so. But I do. Absolutely ridiculous on my round square fat face. So then I came home and had some chocolate, which made me feel better. Thank goodness that's over for a few more years. Getting new reading glasses and buying new bras are at the top of my "really hate having to do" list.

Decided last week that we need a new table runner to deck the table for Christmas, so went looking in the Christmas stash for some fabric that a friend gave me many years ago.....must be at least ten years.......have made the top and will layer it tomorrow. The fabrics are different Christmas colours, instead of bright red and bright green these are dusty pink and soft blue-grey green with Christmas roses, poinsettias and mistletoe - they go very nicely with this house. Pics will follow soon, when the new computer is on line again.

The new dishwasher is wonderful.

Last Sunday night one of the choirs had its annual carols concert, the usual carols that everyone knows plus some very very old songs that I had never sung before. It went very well and the choir received many compliments, one person even said she has never heard it sound so good before. Must be because I am now a member.......

"Remain until the performance closes.

At a theatrical or operatic performance, you should remain seated until the performance is concluded and the curtain falls. It is exceedingly rude and ill-bred to rise and leave the hall while the play is drawing to a close, yet this severely exasperating practice has of late been followed by many well-meaning people, who, if they were aware of the extent to which they outraged the feelings of many of the audience, and unwittingly offered an insult to the actors on the stage, would shrink from repeating such flagrantly rude conduct."

No one left our concert early. This is probably because they knew there was an excellent choice of yummy treats awaiting them, and also because it was raining and they would have been very wet.

Enjoy your days!

My signature has gone missing!

Perhaps one of these alpacas ate it? You notice they are not even looking at me - perhaps they are afraid I will see guilty looks on their fleecy little faces. When I took this picture it was a sunny day and I wasn't wearing my glasses, so I just aimed the camera at the white tree and hoped for the best. At least there is one alpaca looking at us.

I can't connect to the signature site either, perhaps they are having Problems. Web sites sometimes have Problems. Jolly inconsiderate of them, I say. If it keeps up I shall look for another signature site.

Have made a dozen heart blocks for New Zealand and hope to post them tomorrow, or if that's just impossible it will be on Friday. Mail doesn't usually take long to go across the ditch.

Speaking of mail, last week the postal service slapped on a surcharge of $9 to post parcels to the US. How rude! Makes the postage charge go from reasonable to quite expensive. If it weighs under a certain amount - almost nothing - you don't have to pay, and one has some sort of business account then one doesn't have to pay either, but for many people who only send the occasional parcel it really raises the postage cost. The reason is supposed to be because of extra scanning. And we have to pay $9 for that? I am in an international Secret Santa swap run on a music list and have participated for some years, it's always been fun - but I may have to think again about joining in after this year, which would be a shame. However I posted my parcel to New Hampshire, picked myself up from the floor after collapsing from the shock of the cost, and went home to recover.

We now have a gardenia flowering in the garden by the front steps, which is lovely - it smells heavenly. I was wondering what the plant with the little skinny green leaves would be, it wasn't until recently when we saw the buds that we realised. It is a different gardenia to the lovely potted one that the folk club gave me when I left Sydney which has larger leaves and at present has lots of buds, so we can look forward to gardenias in the beer garden as well as the front garden.

Speaking of the beer garden, it has a new resident. A frog. It croaks occasionally especially when it's raining (as it is now) and we think it lives in the downpipe from the roof because the croak is sometimes very echo-ey. The other night we saw a large green frog in the beer garden but a few weeks ago Kevin had also seen a smaller brown one on the front verandah, so we don't know which one is the croaker. Perhaps it's neither, perhaps there are more than two.

We have a couple of new plants to go in the garden too. There is a narrow garden along the length of our back fence with a few shrubs in it, two of which kept getting in the way of the clothesline. One was recently decimated by caterpillars so we have now chopped it down and will dig out the roots - the other won't be far behind. It will be a good spot for a small herb garden as it's nice and sunny, and not far from the kitchen. We planted a rosemary bush and some catmint a few months ago, both of which are doing very well - wonder what else would be good? Some parsley, perhaps some mint (planted in a pot so it doesn't take over the garden), perhaps something like thyme and oregano. Sage too.......we had better come to a decision, it's not a very big garden........

"To reduce the flesh.

A strong decoction of sassafras, drank frequently, will reduce the flesh as rapidly as any remedy known. A strong infusion is made at the rate of an ounce of sassafras to a quart of water. Boil it half an hour very slowly, and let it stand till cold, heating again if desired. Keep it from the air."

I don't think we have sassafras in Australia, but I could probably do with a bit of flesh reduction just the same.

Now I am going to look at my curtain fabric and wonder if sewing polyester fabric with cotton thread is a good idea, because for some reason I have no white poly thread. Perhaps it can wait until I get some tomorrow.

And my signature has come back! Enjoy your days!

Slowly catching up with myself

Life gets busy sometimes, doesn't it?

Here is a flower for you because it wouldn't be a proper blog post without a pretty pic, Eucalyptus macrocarpa, taken last year. I had only seen pictures of it before and to see one in the flesh was amazing. It is much bigger than it looks, a few inches across, and is bright red-orange with grey-green leaves - as you can see, more grey than green. The plant itself is fairly uninteresting but the flower is stunning.

The challenge has been and gone and finished! The quilts were revealed yesterday with the exception of a couple that have already been sent to their new owners, and what a lovely lot there were. Several used floral fabrics and they were all so different. I think mine held its own OK. When the computer comes home again I will put up pics, there's not much point loading new pics on this one any more.

Next year's challenge has now been handed out, an interesting pieced block called Lotus Blossom. I couldn't find it on the web in a quick search to show a link but it might be there somewhere. My brain is going to have a rest though before I start even thinking about it.

But I have started making some heart blocks to send to New Zealand where Shirley Goodwin is co-ordinating the making of quilts for the families of the men who lost their lives in the mine disaster last week. The new curtains can wait, this is more important. Australia and New Zealand are rivals in various sports but there is affection between our two countries, and many Aussies - myself included - have family ties to New Zealand. My maternal grandmother was born in Aratapu, a little dot on the map near Dargaville on the North Island, her maternal grandparents (my great-great-grandparents) were original Fencible settlers in Howick in 1847. The Fencible settlements were an immigration scheme which brought out migrants from England and Ireland.

We are getting ready for our first Christmas in our country home and so far I have been a bit lazy.......I admire those who tizzy up their homes for Christmas but I'm not one of them.......in many households (this one included) 'she' gets to put out the decorations and then pack them away again, and if 'she' doesn't do that then it doesn't get done at all......which just shows you how much store the rest of the household puts on such things, doesn't it? But as our older son and his girlfriend will be visiting for a few days at Christmas I shall make a small effort to decorate. Very small. Just enough so that I can say I did something.

"Parents who indulge in gossip, scandal, slander and tale-telling will rear children possessing the same tastes and deteriorating habits. A parent's example outlines the child's character. It sinks down deep in his heart, and influences his whole life for good or for evil."

Our neighbour's house is for sale and they are a lovely family with delightful children, so we hope whoever buys it will be just as good to live near.

Now my coffee is finished so I am going back to the sewing room to resume making heart blocks. Enjoy your days!

To my American friends........

Best wishes for Thanksgiving!

Ever seen a hippogriff?

We saw one last year at Mount Tomah Botanic Garden and were very intrigued. It was one of several fantastical creatures in the gardens. But they didn't have any wombats.

Well, the challenge quilt is now being bound, isn't that a relief? It may be ready by Saturday after all. I am sewing down the front side by machine and I will sew the back by hand. Some folk swear by machine sewing both sides but with my luck the stitches on the right side - which of course is the second side to be sewn down - would be less than wonderful and perhaps not cover the line of stitching already there. Besides.......I like the fact that the quilt is nearly finished, and I can enjoy it while sewing down the binding by hand. But coffee is calling, so I have taken a short break.

Next project.....nothing like thinking ahead, is there.......will be curtains for the laundry room and my sewing room. While the house came with all curtains the sewing room curtain did have a small tear in the lace, and while closing or opening the blind I have managed to enlarge it a little. I can plead innocence on the laundry curtain, Binky did that. We don't know how old they are, but obviously they're due for replacement. The new fabric has been sitting on the bottom shelf of a cupboard in my sewing room for some months now so it's time it was done, yes? Compared to free-motion machine quilting, making curtains is a walk in the park.

After that I haven't decided.

This morning we went shopping for a new dishwasher - I have never had a dishwasher before in my life! (unless you count the one in the staff kitchen at my last job) There was one already in the kitchen when we moved here but we suspect that like the lace curtains it's getting on in years, the little door to the detergent thingy doesn't latch, it even has an exposed heating element on the bottom which is probably a bit unsafe. The alternatives were to ignore it which we have been doing, repair it and use it, remove it and do something wondrous with the hole that would be left, or replace it. So now there is a beautiful white shining gleaming new dishwasher sitting still in its delivery box waiting for Kevin to help unwrap it and install it. We will be tres flash.

Lately we are being inundated with stories about the scanning/pat downs for people flying in the US. Now I love my American friends dearly, but while such measures are in I don't want to fly there. If anyone can show me it makes flying safer I may reconsider, but I don't think it does. One bloke puts a bomb in his shoe, so make everyone remove their shoes - shutting the stable door after the horse has bolted, seems to me. Another bloke puts explosives in his undies so let's make people have their body scanned or suffer intrusive groping. Shutting the stable door a bit more firmly. Last year when we flew home from Canada we had to change planes at Los Angeles, and because I had asked for assistance I was in wheelchair. The able-bodied who could walk under their own steam were passed through security very quickly, but those of us who were 'infirm" were told to get out of our wheelchairs - and it was obvious that some of the other people really needed theirs - and made to pass through the scanner or be patted down. No choice. I had already had some x-rays while in Canada and faced the prospect of more when I came home, and besides I think scanning is over the top as far as privacy goes, so I chose to be patted down. The woman doing it was respectful (which is not always, I believe, the case now) but firm, she asked me to remove my plaster cast and bandages - "I can't, it's broken" I replied. She then passed drug detecting tape around the edges of the plaster and of course it came up clear when passed through the detection machine. I had my medical reports with me in case I needed them but it wasn't necessary. I had to remove my shoes and jacket unaided (not an easy thing with one arm in plaster and bandages and the other wrist bandaged) but fortunately Kevin was through security before I was, so he was able to help me get back into them again. Let's hope common sense and decency prevail on this one.

News has just come through from New Zealand that the miners trapped in an underground mine explosion would not have survived the blast. My thoughts are with their families, that is so sad. They were probably hoping against hope that some men could have survived, especially following the survival of so many miners recently in Chile and China, but it seems that is not to be.

"Intrusive Inquiries.

If you meet or join or are visited by a person who has any article whatever, under his arm or in his hand, and he does not offer to show it to you, you should not, even if it be your most intimate friend, take it from him and look at it. That intrusive curiosity is very inconsistent with the delicacy of a well-bred man, and always offends in some degree."

Perhaps I should send that little gem of 1885 etiquette to the people who are responsible for airport security?

Now I am going to sew some more binding onto the quilt. Enjoy your days!

Join me in a coffee break

Just one of the pics we took last year in Canada, taken at Bluffers Park in Toronto. We are heading into the heat of summer here (although today is pleasantly mild) so those fall colours are several months away yet, but I can still dream.

The centre of the challenge quilt is all quilted and it's not too bad, it passes the ten foot rule......if you can stand ten feet away and the mistakes don't jump out at you, then it's not too bad......the jigsaw stippling went OK although some of the loops have points instead of curves, and lines occasionally cross each other which I believe is not allowed, but considering it was my first attempt it passes inspection. At present I am tracing the last of the border design onto lunch wrap to quilt through, both short ends are traced and pinned on ready for quilting, just need to fill in the last of the design along both sides and I can quilt it. The quilting design is whales and rolling surf, and it's meant for a four inch border while mine is six inches, if I had been organised I could have enlarged it on a copier somewhere, but I wasn't, so I didn't. Never mind, I reckon if I quilt a wavy line under the aforementioned whales and rolling surf it will fill out the design and hopefully won't look too bad. That, anyway, is my cunning plan. Less than a week to go to get it finished, the Big Reveal is next Saturday. At this rate it's not looking good.

The beautiful vase full of red roses is now finished, what a shame.....they were so beautiful. We have a few pink ones in a smaller vase instead.

No news on the unwell computer yet. I promise not to crack any jokes about its health problem being terminal because they are very corny.

Diane reminded me that it was The Carpenters who sang "Rainy Days and Mondays", The Mamas and The Papas sang "Monday Monday"......in my mind I could hear Mama Cass singing about Mondays, hence the confusion. Mama Cass was great. "Stars shining bright above you, night breezes seem to whisper I love you"........etc.......talk about reliving one's youth, when one was young and slender........

"If a lady asks any favor of a gentleman, such as to send a servant to her with a glass of water, to take her into the ball-room when she is without an escort, to inquire whether her carriage is in waiting, or any of the numerous services which ladies often require, no gentleman will, under any circumstances, refuse her request."

Of course he would not. He would not be a true gentleman if he did so. And we like our gentlemen to be true.

Now my coffee is all drunk, so it's back to tracing whales and rolling surf. Enjoy your days!

Our new computer is ill

Isn't that a bummer? Only two months old, and the motherboard has to be sent back (to the mothership?) to be checked out, at least it is still under warranty. Fortunately after a computer-less few days I remembered we still had the old one packed away, so we are still connected to the world. Sadly that meant no keeping up with blogs and emails, so I apologise if any of you have been feeling bereft without my witty blog comments. Doesn't mean I don't still love you all.

That means no wombat posts for a wee while either, because I would rather load my pics onto the new computer when it comes home than onto this one. Hopefully these native flowers will help to make up for that, the red flowers are Kangaroo Paws; I took it last year when we visited a native botanic garden just outside Sydney.

We have had so much rain lately that we just about float instead of walk. The area was in drought for quite a while, but the rain started soon after we moved here and we have had a lot more since then - local gardens are beautiful at present. Last Thursday we had 89 mls (3-1/2 inches) of rain in less than 24 hours, and we have had more since then. Tomorrow, Thursday, is forecast to be another rainy day. What is it about Thursdays? Once upon a time didn't The Mammas And The Pappas sing a song called "Rainy Days and Mondays" - what about rainy days and Thursdays? We had floods a few months ago and apparently are very close to another, the ground is so waterlogged it can't hold much more moisture so of course it will all flow into rivers and creeks, which will flood. Again.

On soggy Thursday one of our rose bushes was bowing down under the weight of its flowers so I cut those branches and brought them inside. Imagine a large glass vase full of deep red roses, eight or nine stems with at least eight roses on each stem, on my kitchen bench - it's glorious. Bianca The Beautiful (but slightly brainless) has discovered that rose petals and leaves make for tasty chomping, then of course she heads over to the cream carpet to heave them up again.......she could stop on the tiles on the way but no, she keeps walking to the carpet.......those of you who have cats in your lives know just I mean.

Several years ago I tried rose petal jam, it was delicious - perhaps I could try making some now that we have our own roses? It seems a shame to throw out all those pretty petals.

Right now I am quilting the challenge quilt, I took a coffee and blogging break when the bobbin needed refilling. The great reveal is due in just ten days so I had better get a move on; quite a bit of the top is still to be quilted, then the border has to be quilted, then it needs to be bound - that's not difficult - but the days are rushing by so it's time to speed up a bit. I am up to quilting the 'sky' section and am just using a jigsaw stipple. I don't really like jigsaw stipple quilting but the centre 'sand' and bottom 'water' sections are quilted in horizontal lines, so I wanted some flowing lines for the top section. Over the years I have seen some lovely quilts which could have been amazing with imaginative quilting on them but which were just jigsaw stippled all over, it looked as though the quilter just wanted to finish it off so chose an easy option. Now I don't want to hurt anyone's feelings, if that's your preferred quilting style then good for you, but to me it's just one way to quilt - it's not the only way.

Wouldn't the world be a dull place if we all liked the same things, be it quilting styles, music, books or indeed anything?

"Dress of Hostess at a Dinner Party.

The dress of a hostess at a dinner party should be rich in material, but subdued in tone, so as not to eclipse any of her guests. A young hostess should wear a dress of rich silk, black or dark in colour, with collar and cuffs of fine lace, and if the dinner be by daylight, plain jewellery, but by gaslight, diamonds."

So now you know. It is permissible to wear your diamonds if you are hosting a dinner party but only if you are dining by gaslight, not by those energy-saving (and rather dim) globes that we are all supposed to be using these days.

Enjoy your days!

Historic WOW

In the 1830s John Gould visited Australia to study some of its curious (as they were thought of by the rest of the world) animals and birds. This is a study of a wombat published in his three-volume work "The Mammals of Australia" in 1845-1863. Some of our Aussie animals must have been a bit of a shock to people used to farm animals and field mice. I bought this postcard on a visit to a Sydney historic site - it's one of my collection of cards, both photographs and drawings, of wombats.

In the late 1850s Val Prinsep, a friend of the artist Dante Gabriel Rosetti, said "Rosetti was the planet around which we revolved, we copied his way of speaking. All beautiful women were "stunners" with us. Wombats were the most beautiful of God's creatures."

Seems that Rosetti loved wombats too.

Just so you know there really is a challenge quilt........some of it is quilted and some still needs to be done, as you can see. I think its name will be "Anchors Aweigh". Or should it be "Away"?
This is my new Sew-Ezi table with My Lovely New Bernina all set up ready to go. You can see how the machines sits in the table, which makes moving the quilt around easier than when it is up on the desk.

The wonderful local news is that we now have a local Bernina dealership again! The previous dealer shut up shop a few months ago, which was a real bummer for anyone - me, for instance - who has Bernina machines. Note the plural. My main machine and my overlocker, serger to some of you, are both Berninas.

Tomorrow I have an appointment with a doctor, not the man I saw last visit, so I am hoping this time things go better. Nothing major, just a prescription that needs renewing and a sore foot which is swollen. I have hopes that this bloke and I will be able to at least understand each other, unlike the last disastrous waste of time.

The sky is getting a little darker so I am keeping a close eye on the clouds, as it's thunderstorm season here in spring. We have had a few storms lately usually in the late afternoon, and it's just 4pm now. There is washing hanging outside so I may need to make a quick sprint (or slow amble depending on the swollen foot) to fetch it inside.

The last rose has flowered and it is pink, a very pretty delicate shell pink. I quite like it, and I am not a pink person. Shall take its picture soon so the world can enjoy it too. Our plan to do nothing much in the garden for a year may have to be changed, we have had so much rain in the last six months and so much sunshine that it is rapidly becoming a jungle. I have earmarked (leafmarked? plants don't have ears) a few for removal before they grow much bigger.

"Squint-Eyes and Cross-Eye.

Parents should also be careful that their children do not become squint or cross-eyed through any carelessness, A child's hair hanging down loosely over its eyes, or a bonnet projecting too far over them, or a loose ribbon or tape fluttering over the forehead, is sometimes sufficient to direct the sight irregularly until it becomes permanently crossed."

Now it's time to gently stroll outside to being in the washing, then perhaps a little quilting on my challenge quilt. But I shall be careful, while so doing, not to let my bonnet strings hang down over my eyes. Don't want crossed eyes, do we?

Enjoy your days!

Six months ago today........

..........we moved here. Doesn't seem like half a year, does it? But it must be, because the calendar says so. That's the neighbour's house in the top pic, ours in the bottom pic, but the garden is ours.

It seems that every time we turn around there are more discoveries to be made in the garden. An uninspiring shrub (of which there are six, in different parts of the garden) turned out to be Brunfelsia - you can see one just coming into bloom. We might let them stay because the flowers are so pretty, even though they are very blah when not in flower. The previous owner seems to have gone in for multiples of things she liked, perhaps plants which were easy to grow? The bright green plant is nandina, one of which we have removed already but there are six or so still to go. Don't like them.

Today I delved into my dressmaking fabric stash and found a piece of mustard gold solid knit I had forgotten was there, then went shopping for a contrasting fabric to make some new pyjamas. Found an interesting small print knit in navy and white which, as luck would have it, was on special so I will have me some tres stylish jim-jams for not much moolah. Most ready-made pjs are pink and I don't wear pink...if you saw me wearing pink you would understand why, it's not a pretty sight. Kevin, bless him, has been known to occasionally look askance at the amount of fabrics I have, but I told him it was for my retirement. Now I'm retired and I am using my stash even if occasionally I need extra fabric. It's a good feeling. And he is happy.

That fabric, plus some other I want to use, is pre-washing as we speak. When I was young and slender - a thousand years ago - had only been sewing for a couple of years, I bought a pretty piece of yellow printed cotton and made a dress, there was only just enough fabric, I had to use lawn for the facings and turn up the teeniest hem - wore it, it was so pretty - washed it - and it shrank. I could still wear it but it was a snug fit. While I think fabrics have improved since then and shrinkage isn't the problem it used to be, I don't take any chances. Everything I buy is pre-washed before I cut into it. Lesson learnt.

No doubt about it, my new Sew-Ezi table takes some of the pain out of machine quilting. The challenge quilt is partly done, the yellow (sand) middle section is done, the blue (water) bottom section is done - not very perfectly as the fabrics seem to have stretched as it was going through the machine and there are puckers, but it is done - now to do the top blue (sky) section. Then the borders. Then the binding. Mustn't forget the label too. All to be done in three weeks.........I think I can, I think I can.......queen of procrastination speaking here.......

Yesterday we went to a quilt and collectibles exhibition put on by a local organisation which raises funds to help people living with cancer, in memory of a local woman who passed away from cancer some years ago. What gorgeous quilts there were! I didn't take pics because the hall was a less than ideal photograph-taking place and it was difficult to get far enough away. Even a few of my modest efforts were on display.

"Flattery.

Do not be guilty of flattery. The flattery of those richer than ourselves or better born is vulgar, and born of rudeness, and is sure to be received as emanating from unworthy motives. Testify your respect, your admiration, and your gratitude by deeds more than words. Words are easy but deeds are difficult. Few will believe the former, but the latter will carry confirmation with them."

Now it's time to perhaps have a go at more quilting, or I might cut out some fabrics for a change.

Enjoy your days!

We're baaaaaack........

We went to the rainforest, and it rained.......

Had a lovely weekend at the music festival catching up with friends and hearing great music, even the rain didn't stop our enjoyment. We arrived on Thursday afternoon and set up camp. On Friday morning we explored the town, checked out the quilt shop (excellent), got back to our caravan just before the rain started.

It poured, there was thunder and lightning, the rain came down in buckets.

On Saturday morning it was nice and sunny, we listened to more music, I had a go at singing with the festival choir although it wasn't 'me' (I'm not one of those happy clappy types who prances and jigs around when they sing, getting into the moment).....but never mind, we caught some more concerts before it rained again. I joined in a ukulele workshop which was fun even if we didn't learn much. Later on it poured and the rain came down in buckets.

However I did have a go at singing with a band later, much fun was had by all - several of us got up and did our 'party piece'.

More of the same on Sunday, except the rain started earlier in the day. More buckets full. And there was more thunder and lightning too.

On Monday we visited the local rainforest centre and walked through the forest in the rain.....it wasn't heavy, just lightly drizzling, which made the experience magical as you can see in the pic above. There is a walkway over the treetops but all we could see was white mist. The whole area is beautifully green and lush. No wonder, with all the rain they get.

Next day we headed off to the coast and spent a few days by the water, being bitten by sandflies. It rained there too. But not as much as up on the plateau in the rainforest.
We treated ourselves to a boat cruise on Wallis Lake - yes, it really is this colour. It's a tidal estuarine environment, the captain told us. It was a very peaceful couple of hours.
The area is famous for its oysters, you can see some of the oyster leases on the other side of the little island. The previous day we had a wonderful lunch of fish and chips but avoided the oysters, as oysters and I are not good friends (they make me really ill) and Kevin doesn't really care for them anyway.

More pics will no doubt follow in due course.

We also caught up with some Sydney friends for lunch while we were away, which was great. Visited three quilt shops and helped along the local economy a little in each - we are always being told 'holiday at home and save local jobs' so I did my bit - I am now the proud owner of a Sew-Ezi table from one of the shops. My Lovely New Bernina is all set up in it ready to go. I'm happy to sew on a desk for most things but quilting a whole quilt on the desk is difficult, so hopefully this will make it much easier. The challenge quilt is calling.........just wish I wasn't such a wuss about machine quilting.......

Waiting for me when we arrived home was a parcel from Dianne who sent me some pumpkin seeds, among other goodies! So hopefully I will be able to make my pumpkin spice muffins taste more like the ones we had in Canada last year. Thanks so much Dianne, you are a gem - a veritable pearl. I also have my very own made-by-Dianne apron too. It's green.......and coffee brown. Yum.

Have to say, the folks I have met through blogging, both on-line and in real life, have all been lovely folks and I feel my life is richer for knowing them. So thank youse all for being there.

The kitties were very pleased to be home again, Binky talked to us all the way home in the car......and all that night while we were trying to sleep......she talked so much she lost her voice........just imagine a talkative kittie who can barely raise a croak, and that's Binkie.

"Parties in the country.

Morning and afternoon parties in the country, or at watering-places, are of a less formal character than in cities. The hostess introduces such of her guests as she thinks most likely to be mutually agreeable. Music or some amusement is essential to the success of such parties."

Believe me, watching while I machine quilt would be amusement enough.

Enjoy your days!

My facebook account is now deactivated

I only wanted to add one friend, and facebook was trying to add 84........so I have given up on the whole idea. In the three plus years I had the account I barely looked at it, so I don't think I will miss it.

See you in a couple of weeks........

.....because we are going away to a folk festival about 2-1/2 hours from here. We're coming home at the end of this month. Looking forward to it, as some of the performers are friends who we haven't seen since Easter.

Last Sunday, after the weather improved from Saturday's blast of winter, we visited two of the open gardens. We have taken some beautiful photos.....that is to say, Kevin took them because my camera battery was flat and needed to be charged. But he takes lovely pics which, blogger being amenable, you will see in due course. At present image uploads are disabled for a couple of hours due to maintenance, so the little message is telling me. One of the gardens was on top of a hill and was really superb, it's cooler than here so had plants that we can't grow. I'm so glad we went as the garden has changed hands within the family and it won't be opened again. The other was on a north-facing hill - our sunny side - only three years old. I would love to see it again in about five years as it has a great deal of promise. We were talking to the owners who said they wouldn't open next year, I said how about in five years time.......what a good idea, they said.

Our roses are blooming away, the glorious yellow one has two more blooms, and the little miniature with different coloured flowers will be abloom in two or three days. And we won't be here to enjoy it......three of the larger rose bushes are red, one is the deep dark rich burgundy while it looks as though the others are brighter.

Goodness, I am being swamped by facebook! This afternoon I went looking for one person to add as my friend - don't want to be poor little Susie No-Friends, do we? - and messages have been sent to just about everyone to whom I have ever sent an email, or who has ever sent me one. I was not expecting that. So if any of you receive the message and don't want to take it further I won't be offended, and I apologise profusely. I have been on facebook for a few years and don't check it very often.......I forget to. If anyone is hoping to have a rich online experience with me they will sadly disappointed.

This afternoon we packed up the cats and took them to their holiday resort. They are staying in a lovely cattery way out in the country with their own covered verandah, and rural smells, and birds to watch. They weren't thrilled about the 25 kilometre drive (consequently neither were we) but I'm sure will settle in quickly. They were there when we first moved from Sydney so it will be somewhere familiar for them. We were pleased to get Binky out of the car because she gets very nervous, and does what nervous cats do......fortunately the smell soon cleared.

"The hand.

The beautiful hand is long and slender, with tapering fingers and pink, filbert-shaped nails. The hand to be in proper proportion to the rest of the body should be as long as from the point of the chin to the edge of the hair on the forehead."

Yep...my hand is in proportion to my face. But is my face in proportion to my hand?

Enjoy your days!

Winter has come back

A close-up of the quilting on my scrap Road to St Louis quilt which is entered in Quilting Gallery's weekly contest - not prize-winning by any stretch of the imagination, but not bad for a mug like me. All done on My Lovely New Bernina. I traced the pattern onto lunch wrap paper (not waxed paper) and quilted through it, then one good movie on TV......a rare occurrence, I must say.......was enough to provide entertainment while I tore away the paper.

Deb has a giveaway but you can't enter, because I want to win the lovely fabric and book she is so generously giving to one lucky person! While you are there you must admire her gorgeous chocolate brown quilt, do you think if I asked very nicely do you think she would give it to me?

Winter has returned here today with a vengeance, we are having very cold winds and rain. Instead of the usual 23 deg C (that's 79 deg F) it was only 4 deg C (39 deg F) at 11.30 this morning. That is very cold, so we have our woodburning stove keeping us (and the kitties, it's all for them you know) from feeling too chilly. This weekend some local gardens are open to the public, we had hoped to go to one in particular but it's so cold and windy and nasty that we have stayed in. We'll see what tomorrow brings. I feel sorry for the gardens' owners as they have worked hard to make their gardens beautiful, then the weather comes along and mucks things up.

Have started on quilting my challenge quilt and will do a little more later when my pedal foot recovers from standing in the kitchen while making chocolate hedgehog slice. For the non-Aussies, that's broken plain sweet biscuits (cookies) mixed with melted butter, sugar, dessicated coconut, cocoa powder and beaten egg, pressed into a large pan then iced with chocolate icing. No, I don't intend to eat it all myself - although I may have to try a piece to make sure it's OK before serving it to guests on Tuesday. Don't know what I have done to my foot but by gosh it is sore. But it was worse before the chiropractor worked her magic the other day, so that's something isn't it.

"Cleaning silver.

For cleaning silver, either articles of personal wear or those pertaining to the toilet-table or dressing-case, there is nothing better than a spoonful of common whiting, carefully pounded so as to be without lumps, reduced to a paste with gin."

Or you could put up with your silver being tarnished, and drink the gin yourself. A much better use for it, I would have thought.

Enjoy your days!

Quilting Gallery Weekly Contest

This week's contest is "scrap quilts", so just for fun I entered my Road to St Louis quilt. I called it "Meet Me At The Fair" - remember the movie and its title song? Here it is in progress when I was quilting it, the contest and a full pic are here. There are some lovely scrappy quilts!

Slacko that I am, I still haven't started quilting my challenge quilt. My pedal foot and back have both been saying "wait a few days" but I want to get started. Yesterday the chiropractor did wonders so I think it's time to begin.
The reserve over the back fence is green and full of growing plants, I have no idea what they are - probably weeds. The taller flowers poking up their heads are wild poppies, pale mauve with deep purple centres.
The previous owner planted a large clump of these irises just outside the back fence, then dug some up to take with her. We don't mind as there are still lots and lots left! We have been noticing that irises are popular in gardens here and I have seen some beautifully coloured ones, these are pale creamy peach. The whole clump seems to be the same colour.

They will probably grow even more today because it is raining, very welcome rain. The yellow rose in the front garden is fully open and is scrumptiously gorgeous. Looks as though another of the roses will be red, and we don't know what the other colours will be. Next week we will be going away for ten days so with our luck they will all come into glorious bloom while we are away.

And The Only Choir In Town definitely isn't! I have joined another choir so that means singing on Monday and Thursday nights. One is more formal in its repertoire, the other is more light-hearted - each have their place, and I enjoy them both.

"The Obligation of an Introduction.

Two persons who have been properly introduced have in future certain claims upon one another's acquaintance which should be recognized, unless there are sufficient reasons for overlooking them. Even in that case good manners require the formal bow of recognition upon meeting, which, of itself, encourages no familiarity. Only a very ill-bred person will meet another with a stare."

Now that I have learnt how to put a fancy-nancy signature on my blog posts I would like to learn how to put my name on my pictures. I could always google it, couldn't I - that's how I found out how to make a signature.

Enjoy your days!

Shopping WOW

Dear me, this came out a little dark didn't it! This little wombat is decorating my shopping buggy and is the same design we used to decorate our luggage before an overseas trip. Last year when my broken arm was healing I bought a trolley to use - it's still very handy for library visits, because I don't just borrow one or two books. When we first moved here my trolley was still in Sydney so I bought this one, just a cheapy but it is very useful. So now I have two, but only one is decorated with a wombat.....shall have to fix that.We have roses! This evening I picked these beauties and there are still more on the bush. They are large, very dark and velvety, really beautiful, but unfortunately have very little fragrance. The leaves are quite large too. You can see our little back yard through the window with the reserve beyond that. And our oh-so-beautiful wash line.
I left this one on the bush to finish opening up. I love flowers, all flowers, but have to admit to having a particular soft spot for yellow roses.....never thought I would have one of my own.
This is a miniature rose in a small garden by the mail box, the first flower that greets visitors. When the buds first open up they are gold, then they turn orange, then coral pink. The bush has a lot of buds so when it is covered in different colours it will be such a pretty sight.

Because we didn't plant any of these roses we don't know what they are called. There are still some that haven't flowered, a few standard and another miniature, so we are looking forward to seeing what colours we get. I have never grown roses before, but we pruned them in winter as one is supposed to do, and it seems to have worked. The climate here is much drier and less humid than the coast, and I believe roses prefer that. They certainly seem to do well here.

Tammy, Sandy, and Fiona all have stylish new signatures! Don't know about you all, but I thought making my new signature was fun.

My challenge quilt is pinned ready to be quilted, I was going to start today but my back had other ideas. Never mind, there is always another day.

Yesterday we heard the news that Dame Joan Sutherland had died at the weekend. She was a wonderful singer who did so much for young singers, and for opera in general, in Australia. She will be very much missed. However I was saddened to find the notice of her death tucked away on a corner of a major online Aussie news site - because sport was the major story. 'Someone' at the Commonwealth Games had run faster than 'someone else' and that was considered to be the top news story of the day. Whoopee.

Another thing that makes my palm itch (because I want to smack them severely about the head) is the media commentator at the Commonwealth Games - I am not watching much of it, but Kevin is enjoying it - who talks about the opening and closing "ceremoanies". Australians don't have "ceremoanies". We have "ceremonies". While I'n not one of those people who gets hot and bothered about the so-called Americanisation of Aussie English, that particular one annoys me. Language is fluid, it is continually changing and evolving, words are wonderful things and can be very powerful - and part of what makes it interesting are the differences between nations, their cultures and and their language. Let's keep the difference. Homogenisation is for milk, not words.

"Politeness.

Politeness is kindness of manner. This is the outgrowth of kindness of heart, of nobleness, and of courage. But in some persons we find an abundance of courage, nobleness and kindness of heart, without kindness of manner, and we can only think and speak of them as not only impolite, but even rude and gruff."

Enjoy your days!