Daybreak is done!

No, that's not an error of grammar! I have finished, sewn the binding and hanging sleeve on, and labelled my "Daybreak" hanging. I took a couple of pics today but when I uploaded them on the computer they looked a bit fuzzy, so I will try for sharper ones.

There's a lovely smell wafting through the house as we speak....pecan brownies are cooking in the oven......we are invited to older son's place for dinner tonight so I am making some nice munchies. His girl is a wonderful cook and always makes nice yummies, so it's my turn tonight.

Today I am feeling more cheerful, I have been feeling down for the past week because I am a year older. Every birthday now makes me wonder how much longer I will be alive. I am not being morbid, just curious; my mother died at 75, my father at 70. I am on the shady side of 60 and rapidly stepping further into the shade. However all my grandparents were in their 80s when they passed away, in fact I think my father's mother may have been over 90 when she went. So there is hope for me yet. So much to do, so little time.......I was put on this earth to accomplish a certain amount and right now I am so far behind, I can never die!

And of course if I didn't spend time on the computer I could do wonderful things.

Jennifer

I am becoming a hermit

Today is my quilt guild meeting. Instead of going I am having a lovely peaceful time here at home, making a label for my hanging. Kevin is bowling in a competition, we discussed juggling the car so we could both go to our chosen venues.....and it all became too hard for me, so I opted to stay home.

Does this mean I am becoming a hermit?

Even as a child I have always treasured my 'alone' time and it is much less now, so it has become more precious to me.

Next Wednesday I am heading off to the spa to spend my birthday gift voucher. But it doesn't matter how long I spend in there, I will still come out the same person. I won't be any younger or more glamorous. And I have warned son's girl that no one, but no one, is going near my fingernails. Very short nails on my left hand, longer and shaped on my right.....that's for a purpose......I play guitar. Lovely girl that she is, she agreed. I was given a gift manicure a few years ago and the young chickybabe doing my nails was mollified when I let her paint them with clear polish, although she was obviously aching to cut them all the same length. But they're my nails, and I wear them how I like.

Today is blowing a howling gale, the wind is making us feel several degrees colder than the temperature says it is. Although my sewing room has lost a lot of light since the edifice was built next door it's still bright, and being out of the wind is very nice. The cats have curled up in their favourite spots and are very content out of the weather.

Now my coffee cup is empty, so I shall continue making my label. Enjoy the rest of the weekend.

Jennifer

Rainy day WOW

These are very little pewter wombats, the one on the left is a bit over an inch long. I like the one on the right rolling on his back - that's what young wombats do.
Another pic of the pretty purple bush I posted the other day. When these are in flower the neighbourhood is very cheerful as they are a popular plant hereabouts, although someone (who didn't live near here) once told me she didn't like them, as she considered them too gaudy. Our neighbourhood needs all the colour it can get, it's a bit dull and boring otherwise.

Had a very nice dinner out on my birthday, but it was nearly spoilt for us, and for others too, by a large group of uncontrolled small children. There seemed to be two young families with about seven children in total; it was a bit hard to count them as they seemed to be everywhere all the time. They were rowdy, and stood on their chairs (we should be thankful, I suppose, they didn't stand on the tables too) and continually bumped and banged the chairs of other diners as they kept pushing past yelling and screaming. Perhaps their parents were not given a copy of the puppy training manual when they first gave birth......the one that teaches how to make a puppy sit, stay and heel. We asked to be moved, and we weren't the only ones who did so. There was another family group with three young children who were beautifully behaved, which made the large group look worse by comparison. The food was very good but we will think twice about returning.

At my birthday dinner Kevin gave me a voucher for a spa treatment of my choice, older son's girl manages a spa and has assured me I will get the royal treatment when I go there. Does this mean he thinks I need improving? That's a bit of a backhander on one's birthday. I know it's all downhill after 25, but let's not rub it in. And older son gave me a gorgeous Aussie native plant for Mother's Day.

Yesterday I unpicked the terrible quilting on my hanging and did it again using cotton thread, bugger the monofilament stuff. I even managed to j-u-s-t about quilt over the same lines so the holes in the batik fabric aren't too obvious. The quilting is not great but it's done, the hanging sleeve is sewn in place (nearly forgot about that) and I am part way machining the binding on.

Enjoy your week.

Jennifer

Aaarghhh......

.....I hate monofil thread. After having it break a few times while free-motion quilting I am unpicking it and I will never ever use monofil again. And of course the fabric is batik, so unpicking is leaving holes in it. I suck at free-motion quilting anyway. Perhaps I should just throw the hanging out and be done with it.

This pretty shrub flowers in autumn and spring, I think it's called Tibouchina and comes from somewhere like Mexico. It's one of the few remaining from when we first moved here nearly 22 years ago, what with my brown thumbs and The Great Hailstorm of 1990 that shredded all the gardens in the district. But this keeps flowering, so we have let it stay. The lovely wire fence is between us and the building site next door, it's been over 18 months now since the building started. On one hand it's peaceful having no neighbours on one side of us, on the other hand living next door to a building site for so long has its drawbacks. At least when the workmen go home at the end of the day it's very peaceful. There's a house near here that has been a building site for at least ten years, probably closer to 15 or 20 - I really can't remember it ever not being partly built. I feel for their neighbours.

I am being taken out tonight for dinner but really wouldn't care if I didn't go, the prospect of getting out of my comfy slippers and tracky daks (sweat pants for those not in Oz) is taking on huge proportions. I would far rather stay home and sew, and be comfortable and warm. But I suppose I have to be grateful. Still, a birthday flower or card would have been nicer than being left on my own for much of the day.

Best wishes for Mother's Day for all the mums tomorrow.

Jennifer

First WOW for May

A rather unusual wombat carved from wood, apparently this piece was made of timber from the old cattle yards at Nowendoc Station in Northern NSW and was made by Plums' Potterings, who make objects from salvaged old hardwoods; some of the timber used is a century old or more. It was bought at a street market in Tamworth a few years ago. Despite its chunky appearance it's quite light to pick up, and the timber is very weathered along the older cut edges. It's even been branded but I don't what the brand refers to, it's just a squiggle I think.

Went to another quilt show on Sunday and saw some lovely quilts. But I didn't take photos as there wasn't enough room to take good pics, and anyway I wouldn't post them here without their owners' permission. The raffle quilt was a very pretty floral hexagon quilt which I didn't win. And I didn't win the green one on Saturday either. Have to make my own, I suppose. Mumble grumble........

Tomorrow would be my grandfather's birthday, he would be 124 years old if he were still alive to blow out the candles on his cake. He was quite a dashing young bloke....here he is. He and my grandmother were married when they were well into their 30s, it was his first marriage and my grandmother's second. She was divorced, which must have been a fairly radical thing in the early 1920s, and already had two teenage daughters. They met when he was a patient in the hospital where she worked as a cook, and went on to have two children of their own, my mother and her younger brother. They have all gone now, and I am the older generation, which is a sobering thought when I remember to think it.

Growing older is compulsory, growing up is optional!

Jennifer

Coffee break

And it is needed too.....I have been quilting the hanging that had worked its way to the top of the UFO pile, there was a reason it had been languishing......my free-motion skills. Never mind, finished is better than perfect and it will pass the 10-foot rule (if you can stand 10 feet away and it doesn't look too bad, it has passed the test). 'Daybreak' is so evocative of the scenery we saw along the south east Alaskan coast - dark trees coming to the water's edge with occasionally a little cabin in a clearing. But we didn't see the bloke fishing from his jetty. I bought it at the Silver Thimble in Ketchikan, and I bought one of their big tote bags because I liked their logo of a little mouse wearing his thimble for a hat.

Went to a lovely quilt show yesterday and now am eagerly awaiting the phone call to tell me I have won their beautiful raffle quilt, the one with green star blocks.....not the blue one with Japanese fans although that was beautiful too.... but the green one, oh my. It is calling me from afar.

Enjoy what is left of the weekend.

Jennifer

Last WOW for April

Little wombats! A tiny bell that I bought in the Half-Way Roadhouse on the Windsor-Singleton Road in the bush a couple of hours out of Sydney, a wine bottle stopper our son gave me after a weekend trip to the Hunter Valley - lots of grapes and wine in the Hunter Valley - and a coaster that was part of my gift in a Secret Santa exchange. I've never seen wombats in trees though......perhaps they are koalas peering out from the branches. Koalas and wombats are related, scientists say they share a common ancestor thousands of years ago. As they evolved koalas started climbing trees and eating eucalyptus leaves, wombats started burrowing underground and eating grass.

The last couple of days have given us a taste of early winter, there is an icy chill wind blowing outside. The cats are behaving like ratbags (when they are awake, that is) - chasing each other, and their invisible friends, and elves and fairies that we can't see, through the house from one end to the other. Wind seems to affect children and animals that way, I remember when our sons were small. Even though Binky is twelve years old her inner kitten comes out in this weather. Then after a while she remembers she is Senior Cat, and settles down for a little sleep while Bianca rages on for a while longer.

Today I received a box from Canada containing this beautiful quilt top from Rose Marie, and star blocks from Kiera and one of her friends. The quilts, I know, will be gratefully received by their lucky recipients.

It's only 163 days until we arrive in Canada - woo hoo! Not that I'm wishing my life away, you understand; I'm just getting excited. As one does.

Have a lovely week.

Jennifer