Falling out of fall.........

....and into winter.Winter has arrived, frosty mornings, fog and cold nights.  Warm clothing, and cats spending their time by the fire.

Although these pics were taken on our visit to North Bay, Canada, last fall they could have been taken here today......even the Queensland Blue pumpkins, which are available here now!

 I love the idea of decorating for different seasons, Australians don't do much of that except for Christmas.  I haven't seen these interesting shapes and colours of squash here either.

 It was a very tempting pile of orange goodies!  But you will be pleased to know that we obeyed the signs and did not grimpez sur les citrouilles.

The walking continues.  There are several dogs hereabouts who also trot round on their morning walk, one little terrier drags his hapless owner along as though he has the world to organise and needs to get home quickly to do it.  One nods one's head and mumbles "morning" to other walkers, who smile and cheerily reply.  One does not wave and smile a cheery smile back at them.  They should consider themselves lucky to get a mumble, really.  I am not doing it to improve my social life.

Those autumn leaf blocks were won by someone else, which was a shame as I quite liked them.  But as the fiddle factor involved in making them is more than I can be bothered with, it's probably just as well; I shall stick to my Bear's Paw blocks made using my gorgeous autumn leaf prints, which are a leisurely leader and ender project.  No hurry to get them done and made into a quilt, because I still haven't decided on a setting for them.......although ideas are percolating in my little brain.  Ideas involving lots of small squares.......

There will be no blog post next week as I will be visiting the Big Smoke, staying with my friend Nola and attending a quilt and craft show.  One of the few things about living here in the Small Smoke is the lack of local quilt shows, although there will be one in a month in a small town an hour north of here.  Most of big city life I don't miss at all.  Certainly don't miss the traffic, which by the time we moved out was horrendous.  Here, if there is a line of six or eight cars during what passes for peak hour.......that is considered really bad by the locals.  We laugh.  Ha ha, we say.  These people do not know heavy traffic.

Meanwhile the road construction between here and town continues, and sometimes can be rather exciting.   We had some good rain last weekend and the potholes which it opened up in the little strip of road we have to drive on made for interesting driving, especially with a large truck or semi coming the other way.  Did I mention that little strip of road is quite narrow in parts and carries two lanes of traffic, one each way?  During the day the lanes can also swap and change, which makes for even more excitement when the lane we drove on going into town has changed completely by the time we come home an hour later.  If only the road could be closed completely it would probably have been finished some time ago, but as it is the main (almost the only) way into town for many locals, and is also a minor highway leading north, it has to be kept open.

Life is never dull here, folks.

"Never turn a corner at full speed or you may find yourself knocked down, or may knock down another, by the violent contact.  Always look in the way you are going or you may chance to meet some awkward collision.  People are very rude and vulgar who do not look the way they are going; it annoys others.

Although this advice was meant for pedestrians it can also apply to some of the drivers with whom we are sharing our de-constructed road.

Enjoy your days!

Just so you can see.....

.......how far we can see from our front verandah, on a clear day.  Judging by the weather radar when it's raining and how far away the showers are, we estimate that those hills in the far distance would be somewhere between 20 and 30 kilometres away.  That's approximately 12 to 18 miles, but it could be further.  Last week's rainy day pic is what we can see during heavy rain........not much really, except a white mist over the top of Rose-the-neighbour's house with its green striped blinds.

My parents' house here had a lovely view across the town to the hills in the south-east, and when we were looking for a house to buy the requirement at the top of my list was "a view of hills"......and I have it, even though this is looking south-west-ish rather than south-east.  And as we live part-way up a hill there is more hill behind us, so lots of hills here.  That makes me happy, because I need hills in my life.

Did you all have a lovely Valentine's Day?  We took ourselves out to dinner and had a fabulous meal because 14th February is my husband's birthday - yes, he's a Valentine's Day baby.  But his name is not Valentine, it's Kevin.  There was once a Saint Kevin, it seems, and his feast day is 3rd June.  Perhaps we should celebrate then, too.  I always enjoy a meal I haven't had to cook.  Don't get me wrong, I don't mind cooking.......but after more than 40 years of being a domestic goddess in one form or another, the novelty has worn off.

You should all be proud of me, because this week I put up my hand to be newsletter editor for the craft group at our local craft centre.    It will be a bit of a learning curve, but after having a blog for a few years hopefully it won't be too difficult.  As I said at the meeting, I can do a good line in bull dust.  Except I didn't say dust.  I said the other word that starts with sh and ends with it.

According to this morning's local paper we are having the coolest mildest summer since records began, over 100 years ago.  Today is warmer than it has been for a couple of weeks, but it's still not as hot as last summer was.  There is a large deciduous tree which we drive past on our way into town - and during the week I noticed that it's changing into its autumn clothes!  So is the it's-either-Virgina-creeper-or-ornamental-grape growing on the wire fence of the local football ground, and so is the we-think-it's-an-apricot-tree in our backyard.  Perhaps it's because we are in for an early autumn - it's certainly not for lack of rain.  Considering we should still have at least 6-8 weeks of summer left, those leaves are changing quite early.

Today is a day for cutting out fabric, there are a couple of monthly block obligations to be done and there are more Bears Paw blocks being cut out.  There's no scheme in mind for them so far, it's just the fun of playing with lovely leafy prints and my favourite autumn colours.  When that's done, the skirt from the fabric shown in the last post will be cut out.  I don't know about the rest of you but I find cutting out very tedious, wonder why that is?  I start with good intentions then drift off into doing something else.......meanwhile the fabric is still sitting partly cut.......my neck, shoulders and upper back give me problems sometimes, standing with bent head for long periods of time does them no favours so I keep having breaks.  Like this present blogging and coffee break.  Then I don't always get back to cutting.  But I have promised myself that I will, because I want to make that skirt.

"Trifling with a lady.
A man should never make a declaration in a jesting manner.  It is most unfair to a lady.  He has no right to trifle with her feelings for mere sport, nor has he a right to hide his own meaning under the guise of a jest."

Something to ponder on for Valentine's Day next year while accompanied by beautiful red roses such as those in my blog header, cut in our garden one day last summer when their flowers were bowed down by rain.

Enjoy your days!

Occasionally something gets finished..........

.......even if it's not very big. When we visited Toronto, Canada, in October 2009 Rose Marie and I attended the Creativ Festival and a few things caught my eye - this was one. I'm ashamed to say I can't remember which store I bought it from! The pattern is by Quilter's Line, Markdale, Ontario, but when I googled it to add the link here I had no luck so I don't know if it is still in existence. The scene is Old Baldy in Beaver Valley, Ontario. It's nearly all finished, just sewing the hanging sleeve down on the back now and then it will have a label added. Size is 15in square.

Love those autumn colours, as you can see! I am using these Bear's Paw blocks as 'leaders and enders' a la Bonnie of Quiltville. There are 16 pairs of half-square triangles in each block, so joining them in between other sewing is not too tedious. Another five blocks are cut ready to be sewn too. Every now and then I have a play in EQ7 with this block but haven't yet decided on a final layout. The backgrounds are mostly tan/beige/light gold and the other fabrics are all leaf prints. I was going to call it Barely Autumn....Bear's Paw blocks in autumn prints, get it?......but have decided I like Maple Leaf Rag instead. So Maple Leaf Rag it is. Many of my quilts have musical names.
Haven't shown this for a while. These baskets are all hand-pieced and have been my portable project for nigh on five years now. Yesterday block number 148 was finished, and there will be 225 altogether set 15 rows across by 15 down; blocks are 6in finished, different floral prints with white on white prints.
There is no hurry to finish this as I am enjoying the journey, I'm not in a hurry to get to the destination. Hand-piecing is very relaxing. Besides, I haven't decided on a name.

The other day I decided to print out templates from EQ7 for the unusual shapes on the current challenge quilt, the Grand Plan is to tape them on a ruler to cut out. When they printed I said to myself, I said "Self, these shapes look a bit small to me" I said, and sure enough when I checked the block dimensions, they were for a 9in block and I need to make my blocks 12in. Bummer. When I drew the block I made it 12in, then when I set it into the quilt it must have defaulted to 9in and I didn't notice......so it wasn't changed........so when I printed out fabric quantities they were wrong, and there wouldn't have been enough of the spotted background fabric. Bummer again. So off I go again to the Big Fabric And Housewares Store where it was recently purchased and nearly had conniptions when I couldn't find it on the shelf, but fortunately it had hopped over to another shelf to visit with its fabric friends so I bought another half metre. So you can all breathe a sigh of relief because everything is good again. I have shopped from my stash for the bright fabrics for the windmills and pinwheels, hopefully it will look good. Its title - "Windmills of Your Mind"....."Like a circle in a spiral, like a wheel within a wheel"......that's how I felt when I realised that I had been working on the wrong size.

It's hot again but after all it is summer.....and it is Australia......and Australian summers are hot. Fact of life. Before we know it autumn will be on us, won't that be lovely? Then I won't be whingeing about the heat.

I'll whinge about people instead.

As it is summer many blokes and girls too are getting around with their bare arms and chests hanging out, so we can't help noticing that tattoos are popular. Now folks, I know your body is your body and you can do what you want with it (up to a point), but honestly....who ever told you that a whole arm tattoo looked good? Or both arms, most of your chest and a leg or two covered with tattoos? And while we are on the subject, why do some blokes have that little tuft of hair on their chin? Can't they grow a proper beard? Looks like they were eating gravy and dribbled some down their face. I don't mind a bloke being clean-shaven, I don't mind a bloke with a beard, but what's with 'designer stubble'? All I can think of is beard rash and we know how uncomfortable that can be, don't we, girls? Blokes who shave their heads don't do it for me either; yes, we know that some blokes lose their hair and some don't. It's a fact of nature. Don't shave your head and pretend that your hairline is not receding, you're not fooling anyone. To say nothing of the risk of skin cancer.

End of whinge, thank you for listening. Feel free to add your own.

"Satire and ridicule.

Young persons appear ridiculous when satirizing or ridiculing books, people or things. Opinions to be worth the consideration of others should have the advantage of coming from mature persons. Cultivated people are not in the habit of resorting to such weapons as satire and ridicule. They find too much to correct in themselves to indulge in coarse censure of the conduct of others, who may not have had advantages equal to their own."

Satire and ridicule? A cultivated person like myself? Perish the thought.

Enjoy your days!

Climbing wombat

This is a little wombat pencil topper - the pencil will give you an idea of the size. The only way I could take its photo was to prop it up in a little vase, as the pencil kept swinging around.

The contract to sell our house was signed on Friday, and as we have a ten week settlement that means we move out on Friday 7th May. Day after tomorrow we are flying to Tamworth to look at houses, we have made appointments with agents. Our first choice house was sold - the contract for it was also signed on Friday! - so obviously we weren't meant to have it. But second choice is still available, and third and fourth, and a few others. It will be a busy couple of days but could be very interesting.

The sewing room has been a hive of cutting recently. I have cut pieces to make two table runners, and one bag, and a couple more Bears Paw blocks, because even in the middle of frenetic moving I may be inspired to sit at the machine and mindlessly sew pieces of fabric together. And I am making a bag for my musical friend Liz, who doesn't have a blog but reads mine, because she admired the flower bag I recently made........but this one will be a little different. (insert diabolical laughter here) Could be a clue in the wombat picture, Liz.........

The Olympic Games are over, and we enjoyed the bits we saw. Because of the time difference we didn't get as good coverage as some countries, but it wasn't too bad I suppose. We saw Canada's win in both men's and women's hockey and just loved the crowd reaction. And following my last post, another thought on the costumes: who in their right mind decided to put male athletes in skin tight white stretch pants, for goodness' sake? Every little bulge is outlined.....every little nook and cranny......brighter colours are bad enough, but white should be completely banned. Taken off the list of permitted colours. Verboten.

Same goes for cyclists.

Continuing on from the etiquette quote in the previous blog post:

"A person who pays a visit upon a general invitation need not be surprised if he finds himself as unwelcome as he is unexpected. His friends may be absent from home, or their house may be already full, or they may not have made arrangements for visitors. From these and other causes they may be greatly inconvenienced by an expected arrival."

Enjoy your week.....we certainly shall!

Jennifer

Little WOWs

A notebook with a wombat cover - a gift from a friend - and a wombat car window hanger and sticker, gifts from another friend. I have never decided what to stick the sticker on, so it is still unstuck. The picture on the sticker is similar to highway warning signs in areas where wombats live, although the highway signs are of course much larger.
This is my Pay It Forward gift from Debbie, a very useful basket and pincushion kit which I will have fun sewing. I love the plaids, they look toasty-warm!
And this is my Maple Greetings bag, the fabric is "Greetings From Canada" released about 18 months ago by Thimbleberries, and the pattern is from Hopscotch Quilt Shop, Alberta. When the fabric was released several shops designed patterns to use the range, I bought the pattern and fabric from the Creativ Festival and finished it a few days ago. It is lined with the same blue print as the centre stripe which is printed with maple leaves and all the Canadian provincial flowers. It's a very useful souvenir of our trip to Toronto, a much nicer momento than my damaged arm and shoulder, don't you think? I also have extra of the blue flower print and also of the deep red and gold wheat print next to it, a friend in Victoria B.C. sent it to me - thank you, Lois! The red print Lois gave me has already been used to make a Bear's Paw block for my Bearly Autumn quilt of the future, and I think the flower print might make another.

It's quite silent here tonight, just the kitties and me, Kevin is spending the night in hospital following a minor surgical procedure. He's not a particularly noisy person but it is very quiet without him. The radio is playing on a classical station, and the TV is off. It will be good to have him home tomorrow.

On Friday I have to take my shoulder to the orthopedic specialist again. The x-ray and ultrasound last week showed an 8mm tear in my shoulder tendon. Now 8mm doesn't sound very big, it's quite a narrow seam allowance if one is sewing, but apparently it's considered a fairly large tendon tear. The words "surgical repair" have been heard, but not from my lips I assure you. The physio strapped it up on Friday and said to take the strapping off tonight, which I did carefully, but still took some skin with it. My skin does not like adhesive tape, not even sensitive skin bandaids. I have rubbed it liberally with vitamin E cream which is good for skin and will do so again at bed time....let's hope it feels more normal tomorrow.

Today I cut pieces to make a table runner using the pattern and pack of Thimbleberries charms that I won recently in Tammy's giveaway, and I used my leftover blue Canadian flower fabric as the feature fabric - the other fabrics in the charm pack complimented it well. Tomorrow I'm hoping to cut something else. Cutting is not my favourite part of making anything, I really like joining pieces at the machine, but if I have a few projects cut and made into kits with their instructions it will give me something to sew in odd moments when we move.

We have had a couple of 'lookers' through the house and another is coming tomorrow. But we missed a sale last week when a man who had said he would come cancelled at the last minute. Our house number is 24, and apparently "twenty four" sounds like "violent death" to Chinese people, so he decided the house wasn't for him. But it hasn't worried the other people who have come through.

Summer heat has come back to Sydney, yesterday and today have been most unpleasant. The quilt show on Saturday was an hour south of here in the Southern Highlands, it was lovely and cool - and not humid. I forgot to take my camera with me, but I don't usually take pics at a quilt show as the conditions are far from ideal to take good photos; the quilts are too close together. The challenge was to make an apron, and there were some gorgeous ones! Tomorrow is supposed to be a bit more reasonable here in Sydney, thank goodness. But although it's not the end of February I have seen some trees with leaves changing colour already, that's early! Perhaps it's just shock from the hot summer we have had this year. It was a bit hot today cutting quilt pieces so we hope tomorrow brings some coolth, I have had enough warmth. It's nearly 10pm and it is still horribly hot.

"Walking with a lady acquaintance.
A gentleman should not join a lady acquaintance on the street for the purpose of walking with her, unless he ascertains that his company would be perfectly agreeable to her. It might be otherwise, and she should frankly say so, if asked."

Have a wonderful week.

Jennifer

Back home again

All good things must come to an end they say, and our holiday is over - we came home early yesterday afternoon. We had a lovely relaxing (and sometimes cold!) time. We must have been lucky for the Nundle folk as we brought the rain with us; in fact, it snowed on the hill just out of town, we have photos. We were lucky enough to see lots of wildlife: wallabies in the park in the middle of Nundle in the evening as we walked up to the pub; more wallabies in bush as we were driving through; several large wedge tailed eagles circling overhead at different times, even one - which didn't move at our approach - perched on a dead kangaroo by the side of the road; and of course lots of parrots, rosellas, galahs, cockatoos and corellas.

And of course some road kill, including.....sob.......four wombats.

We visited towns that Kevin knew, they were in his territory when he was a sales rep calling on hardware shops, lovely little towns with a 180 year old history of white settlement: Stroud, Dungog, Buladelah, Clarence Town. That part of New South Wales is beautiful. A couple of places we thought a bit 'touristy' so we didn't linger. The pics (considering we were away for more than two weeks we didn't take many, shame on us) will make it onto the blog in due course.

Driving in Sydney gets more difficult each time we go away and come back. Country towns have little traffic and no one seems to be in a hurry, but here in Sydney the traffic is frightening and becoming more so each time we venture out. However next year we will be moving out of Sydney, moving to Tamworth where folk look at you and say g'day when they see you in the street, instead of ignoring you or pointedly looking the other way as they do here.

And of course it will come as no surprise to know that I found a few quilt shops while we were away, some background fabrics for my Bearly Autumn Bears Paw blocks came home with me, as did a couple of black and white prints. I was able to achieve lots of knitting, so much so that I made a scarf (twice - first time it was too wide and too short, so I made it again with less stitches on the needle) and knitted lots more of my blue cardi, it's not far from being finished now. I made a mistake and had to undo nearly four inches but it didn't take long to knit it again. That's what I told myself, anyway. It wasn't just a stitch mistake, I had one of the collar pieces round the wrong way. Bummer, double bummer and triple bummer. (that's not quite what I said when I realised what I had done but it will do for now, I don't want to burn your sensitive ears)

Keep warm, may your points be perfect and your stitches be neat.

Jennifer

Windy day WOW

This is my very distinctive key ring! The fluffy wombat came Port Macquarie on the NSW north coast, courtesy of our older son when he visited there some years ago; and the green enamel wombat is from Canberra, I bought it few years ago. The choice was blue, green or purple - no wombat-coloured wombats! And a Maple Leaf key fob made specially for me by Kiera-Oona.
What do you reckon about the Bearly Autumn Bears Paw blocks? I'm quite pleased how they turned out. The start of another quilt....as if I didn't already have enough to do......sigh. Never mind, some of these fabrics have been sitting in my stash for ages so it will be good to see them in the open. This will have its turn in the sun, but not for a wee while yet. Yesterday I cut the pieces for the Maple Leaf runner, today I had intended to make a start on sewing it, but I have come down with The Dreaded Lurgy and feel rather second-hand. Painful experience in the past has taught me not to sew when I am not well, or Dreadful Mistakes can get made. Kevin is enjoying the peace because if I talk I get a tickle in my throat, which makes me cough heavily, which makes my throat sore, which tickles it, which makes me cough......etc. Just as well that, being a public holiday today, there is no choir practice tonight. One of the sopranos croaking the frog chorus in every song is not pretty.

But I will be jumping out of my skin in a few days.

Y'all be good now, ya hear?

Jennifer

Do you know, if I had half a brain.........

.................I would be dangerous. Last weekend I finished knitting the second sleeve of my cardigan that I wrote about here and cast on stitches for one side of the collar. Knitted about 10 rows and realised it wasn't right. Pulled it all out. Cast on again. Knit one row....and realised it was wrong again, because I had been reading instructions for the wrong size......as I said, if I had half a brain I would be dangerous.......it's right now, I am reading the correct size instructions and all is going along well. You don't have to lock me away just yet.

It wouldn't be a weekend post without a picture. We spent several days in Wagga Wagga over new year staying in the caravan park by the Murrumbidgee River, this was taken late in the day when it was very peaceful.

The lovely red and white fabric for the Maple Leaf runner has been treated to stop the colours running (she says with fingers firmly crossed) and is now drying in the breezy sunshine as we speak. And I am about to leave the computer and head for My Lovely New Bernina, to sew together Bears Paw blocks from lovely autumn prints.

Enjoy your weekend.

Jennifer

First WOW for June

A garden wombat, so I thought it should be photographed outside! Bought this little feller a few years ago at the local hardware/garden shop and photographed it this morning between rain showers. None of my garden wombats live outside....yet......

Yesterday a friend asked me how many wombats I had, and to be truthful I have no idea. Since I have been selecting one each week to have its turn in the spotlight, I am beginning to realise I have many more than I thought I had. A couple of people have suggested contacted the ABC TV show "Collectors". One day perhaps, when I have a clean tidy house with my collection beautifully featured instead of jumbled everywhere.

Over the last few days I have been cutting into some of my lovely autumn prints to make "Bears Paw" blocks. Some of the prints were bought in autumn 2007 in Canada, so they are ridgy-didge fall fabrics! Much as I love autumn leaf design quilts I didn't want to be obvious and use my autumn prints for one, so I am going to make an autumn Bears Paw quilt instead. I have been playing around with EQ6 for layout ideas but haven't settled on one in particular, so it's time to make a few blocks and see where they lead.

Today is a cold, cloudy, showery grey day and would be a good night to hunker down indoors with my knitting or sewing. But it's Monday, which is choir practice night, so the hunkering will have to wait until I get come at 9.30pm.

While waiting in line at the supermarket the other day I picked up a magazine to leaf through..... makes me glad I don't spend good money on these. They are full of stories on people who are supposedly rich, famous and fabulous although quite a few pics were of the less fabulous variety, such as a well-known actrine caught in public in her daggy casual clothes. As for the outfits - let's just say, definitely proof that having money doesn't guarantee having good taste. And I have never heard of many of these "well-known" people, have you?

I bet they've never heard of me, either.

Jennifer