AHHHH! FINISHED.

The two baby quilts are done and ready to be picked up on Monday, so now I can concentrate on my Xmasy bits.

The two baby quilts.

DVD on whilst I worked, although I don't really watch it, I can hear what is being narrated and look up occasionally.

I do tend to worry whilst working on other people's quilts, which is why I don't do many.

SECRETS THINGS.

I so wish I could show a couple of other things I've been working on, but, alas it's top secret till the festive season.

GARDEN BUSINESS.

Not much has been happening on the garden front, but these few bits have flowered and the veg seemed to have had a growth spurt (as well as the lawn).

My only stem of flowers on the blue ixia.

The water lily is flowering and is actually pale lemon.  Seeing they are only fully out when very sunny, it's hard to get a good photo.

BARGAIN.

Whilst in one of our local supermarkets on Tuesday, I spied these being marked down "for quick sale".  $3 for this small bunch and a couple of heads had fallen off, but lisianthus are so pretty.  I popped them into the vase along with some pittosporum picked from the hedge along our back fence and put them on the hall table.

Purple lisianthus.


AND WHAT ELSE?

One of the baby magpies that seems to have adopted us.  I've called "it" Buddy and most days he visits and hopes I have a little snack waiting.  Not brave enough yet to take it from my hand, but does come quite close.  We had a barbecue one night and he followed hubby about the verandah for  a time.  Best picture I could get as he kept moving.

LAST.
On Sunday we had a lovely drive down to the coast.  Sandy Point looks out over Wilsons Promontory and you can drive along the beach., so we parked the car and ate our lunch, then went for a walk.  The photos aren't great for two reasons.
1.  It was a very hazy day.
2.  I have a dirty mark on my lens.
Hubby checking out the view  and a photo of Wilsons Prom on the horizon.  This is a rather spectacular spit of land which once joined the mainland of Australia with  Tasmania which is now separated by Bass Strait.  Sorry to the lady who walked into the pic as I took it.
I'm having trouble with the photos jumping today and the narrative not going where I want, so will wind this up with a big gap between this and the photos.

Hope you are all having a good week and take care.
Susan.

POOTLING ALONG

A busy week, but not much in the way of photos taken, as it seemed to be made up mostly of appointments and such.
Monday, the doctor, Tuesday, dentist, Wednesday, optometrist and Thursday, a massage.  Friday saw us head towards Melbourne to shop for a couple of things not available here in our area.  On the way home, I stopped off at friend V's and found she'd been hospital to have here gall bladder removed.  As she has a long-arm machine too and not able to use it at the moment, she passed over two baby quilts to be quilted by the end of October.  That's OK as I've nothing on the machine at the moment.

On Saturday we went to the weekly meeting of the WGVRC (West Gippsland Vehicle Restorer's Club) which we recently joined.  On the third Saturday of the month, some of them go on a short run to have a barbecue/picnic, which makes a lovely outing.  This time it was out to Blue Rock Dam, where we sat and ate and chatted.  The others all left around 2pm, but hubby and I stayed and had a walk along part of the Lake and back again.  It was a nice day and not too hot.  I only took one photo.

This was the first part of the walk, then we headed toward the edge of the village and back along a path beside the road, which was shaded by lots of trees.

A LITTLE CRAFTING.
Not a lot has been done this week, but I have managed to get 'this' to a stage where it now only needs the borders.

I think it was back in May 2013, I showed these stitcheries I'd done and not sure how to set them.  A lot of graph paper and browsing through books etc., I came up with a couple of ideas how to set seven individual blocks.  Not all went smoothly, with lots of unpicking, running out of blue fabric and changing a couple of bits around.  Hopefully, once the baby quilts are done, I'll finish this.

I have managed to fit some crocheting in of a night, along with working on a few little things for my Xmas swap partner.

It's growing.

I'm probably not as far along as some, but still enjoying.

Other Stuff.
The Morris Minor is coming along slowly, with the tray sides still to be done.  It has had it's first coat of paint and we actually took it down to town today to pick up some milk.  It's not been out for about 3 months, I'll post a pic soon.
The garden is sort of plodding along and our two baby magpies have taken flight, we think, as the nest is sometimes empty.  It's been fun to watch all the comings and goings from the olive tree.

About all for now.  Have a good week and take care.
Susan.

BITS 'N' BOBS!

I can't believe another week has gone so quickly, since I  last posted.

We've had some atrocious weather with 2 days in the mid 30's, loads of dust and smoke on Tuesday, due to windy conditions.  The fire season has started very early as well as the extreme temperatures.  Not our usual pleasant Octobers.

During the week we did some of this:

A DAY OUT.
During the week we headed for a patchwork shop (Palm Beach Quilting) at Carrum to see if I could get some brown fabric to match the outer corners of that big star quilt.  They had a wideback of the same pattern and nearly the same colour, (probably a different dyelot), so I purchased enough for the borders.  We then mosied along to Mornington and another shop (Mornington Wool & Patchwork Centre), where I purchased just two balls of wool, which cost an arm and a leg (ugh!).  It is made in Peru and one is just baby alpaca and the other alpaca and silk.  It's "beautiful", and I intend making a small cowl.  I just need to download the free pattern, as they were out of printed copies.  We had our lunch then strolled down to the bay.

Boats bobbing on Port Phillip Bay.

The waves were actually breaking over the pier wall occasionally.

 Then we strolled along the beach toward the headland.

Beach huts tucked to one side.  There were a few more, but too many people sunbathing to take decent photos.

The said headland.

ON THE CRAFTING FRONT.
Remember last week, I showed the backing and batting awaiting a quilt.  Well, I got my butt into gear, and here is the result.  A small quilt I made many moons ago from a pattern by Gayle Bong called Thirty Something which was in a magazine.

Back of quilt.

Front.

The crochet along is growing, but I really need to get a few little things done for my Xmas Swap, so this may take a little longer than intended, but, boy, am I loving doing this.

GARDEN PHOTOS.

A  pink boronia out front.

Dutch iris.

Where our caravan is parked.

Overall view of the front garden.

Azalea out the back, now in full flower.

OK, that's it for now, as the photos today seem to have a mind of their own and keep moving around.
I hope all my blogpals have a great weekend and wish us some  rain please.
Take care all,  Susan.

I AM STILL HERE!!!!!!

OK, I know I've been quiet lately, but I've not been well (again!).  Seems like I have a bad case of sinus, which has sent me downhill, with lots of yukky stuff about it, especially not being able to wear my glasses all the time, which makes using the computer a tad difficult.  I'll leave it at that, as I'm sure no-one needs the details.

Now, although I've no mojo or energy, I've been trying to get along with at least a few bits'n'pieces.

READING.
I'll admit to not doing much of this so far this year, but am just finishing one of these.

I read Walking Home first and thoroughly enjoyed it, so borrowed the other and have nearly finished it now.  I have laughed and cried my way through this one so far, and am finding it difficult to put down.  I actually don't want it to finish.

GARDENING.
I have only done a little pottering, but have achieved something, I think.  Tomatoes in pots for now, lettuce in an old tin bath tub, silver beet in a self watering trough and beans and marigolds in the back veg bed that we want to make into raised beds at some time which will be easier on back and ribs. (sigh)!  Some bulbs in pots have flowered too, though are finished now.

CRAFTING - Crochet.
A finish on the crochet front and a new start.

This is now finished and I can't find the photo????

This is the Spice of Life rug that is shown on Jo's blog Through the Keyhole, that is running as a crochetalong.

Quilting.
Back in August, I actually quilted 2 old tops and will probably take them to the children's hospital as a donation.  They were both made a looooong time ago to try out something new or because I liked an element of a particular quilt.  I have the bindings to handsew on both, and this is being done of a night along with the crocheting.

And this has been sitting on the machine ready for a quilt for nearly 3 weeks, as I just can't get my act together.

Well, not a brilliant post for the first time in a month.  We did a lovely walk a couple of weekends ago, so I'll try and post about that over the weekend along with anything else I may have done last month that I've forgotten.
Tomorrow, and I still can't believe this, here in Victoria we are having a 'public' holiday, all because of a football match.  Yikes!!!!
Take care all.
Susan.