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!