BEST OF 2017 LINKY PARTY

I'm linking with Cheryl for the above party and just hope all goes right. I've never done this before, so here goes.  The rules state that we link back to five of our posts which are either our favourites, have the most comments or best tutorials, etc, so I chose to make them my best quilty posts I could find for this year.
Just a little bit about how I've worked this post.  If you click on the purple titles below, it should take you to the related post.
Some posts are quite long & not entirely related to quilting, as I have many and varied interests, which include creating/ crafting, (especially quilts), photography, nature, gardening, flower arranging, days out/travelling, & also hubby's interests too, which include cars & woodworking.
Sorry if this is not quite to everybody's liking, but I am just ME.
1. Way Back in January.

Olympic Stars.

I finally quilted this, which was made during the Sydney Olympic Games in 2000 & worked on in subsequent years till it was done.

2. February finishes.

What to do with seven embroideries?  This what I ended up with and I've not even given it a name.

3.  Time Marches on.

Finding a number of Jelly Rolls I'd squirreled away, I decided to design a few quilts to use them & came up with 2 quilts from one jelly roll for at least two of them & these are the first ones.

4.  Moving along.

Another Jelly Roll double, one quilted, the other waiting.

5.  Playing.

I had fun with the Magnolia Mystery blocks on my design wall, then put them away.  They will come out again early January so I can finish it for the reveal in March.

I've don the best I can and actually enjoyed looking back over what I achieved (or not) during this year.  Next is in the planning with lots more designing and stash busting.
HAPPY NEW YEAR all, take care and huggles.
Susan.

A LITTLE BIT OF THIS & THAT!

It's been busy here, so this will be a quick picturey post.
FIRST....................... 45 years ago today I had ............

this little one, my first.  She is now all grown up, married, with children of her own, a good career & is a  loving daughter.  HAPPY BIRTHDAY DD.
SECOND.......................and tomorrow would have been this one's birthday.  My Dad, who if still with us would have been 94, but here he is aged 2 1/2.

NOW FOR A FEW DAYS OUT.

We've been out and about with our visitors, who wanted to do some touristy bits.

PHILLIP ISLAND.

To see the Penguin Parade, Pelican feeding & some stingrays too.

2 Sculptures on the waterfront.  The bottom photo is made from all manner of things including, knives, forks and spoons.

Scenery around the coast of the island, which is about all the photos I took.  Taking photos of the penguins is not allowed and although I see people using their phone (still a no, no), I adhere to the rules.  We did this on Friday and had a very late night due to the penguins gathering from the sea at dusk and as it was the day after Summer Solstice, it was 9pm before they even started appearing.
Saturday was a rest day, with a nice walk close by.
Sunday D & R caught the train into Melbourne for some Christmas shopping and a mooch around our state's capital with friends who they travelled over with.
CHRISTMAS DAY.
As our own children were all doing their own thing this year, we took our visitors on an Australian picnic Christmas lunch, which was very different for them, coming from the Northern Hemisphere.

The view from Jindivick Cricket ground where we had lunch, undercover in the shelter shed, where there are tables, benches & barbecues.

Roadside views.  A must  photostop for said visitors.

We then took them to the Noojee Trestle bridge, which they loved.  We walked across this, then along the rail trail where, Hubby met us at the junction with the main road and we all had afternoon tea at the Noojee Pub.

A very different sort of Christmas.
BOXING DAY.
Tuesday had already been planned ahead and booked.  The friends who came with them and another couple who live here in Oz, decided to visit "Puffing Billy", a narrow gauge railway in the Dandenong Ranges.  We were invited along too and can you believe, it is something we'd not done.
A few photos follow.

One of the small trains pulling into the station on the opposite side to ours.

Views of hills, a reservoir in the distance and close up native forest with our tree ferns which they all admired.

Yes, you are seeing lots of people sitting with legs hanging over the side which is allowed.  Hubby and I didn't try it, as we don't bend as well as we once did, but the kids love it.  There are bars so no-one falls out.
The best I could do to try and capture the moment on the only trestle bridge (again) on this section of line.

OK, that's a small wrap up of why I've been quiet.  It's also been extremely hot over the last few days, which is doing me in.  If anyone is watching the cricket, they'll know about the weather.
Best get this posted, have some tea and relax a little before our visitors arrive back next week after a short spell in Sydney.  This post is probably wacky, but that's me.
Take care all and huggles from Susan/

ADVENT CALENDAR.........DAYS 15 & 16.

Linking with Julie once again for a quick update of the calendar.  I may even be AWOL over the next few days.  I'm very, very tired, some of which is due to the heat & mugginess today.  I'd love to send some of it to my UK friends as it is depleting my energy levels.  36° & now a strong south westerly has just blown in, which should cool it down a little, but I think we are in for a wild evening.
Anyhow, let's get this post started.............
DAY 15.......TREE UNDRESSED.

I'M NAKED,  ooooh!

DAY 16............TREE DRESSED.

Aaaaah,  that's better.

Not what I was going to do originally, but time has got away, so out came the old trusty "pretend" tree, which very nicely dropped needles (how can it do that, you're not real), all over the new carpet.
Out came the vacuum cleaner & cleared it all away, then not as many decorations as usual, so I wouldn't make another mess, but it looks OK, I think.
Tomorrow is the big day, when we pick up our visitors, so although I've a few photos ready, I'll post when I can.
Thank you to all my lovely comments & so sorry not to have replied.
Must go as now a thunderstorm is brewing in the distance & I shouldn't be sitting doing  this when one is around.
Take care all, lots of huggles & I'll post when I can.
Susan.

ADVENT CALENDAR..............DAYS 13 & 14.

Due to being busy, lack of sleep, picking hundreds of blueberries this evening & not even looking like I'd really picked any, I'm now worn out, so this may be a sloppy post. 😩

DAY 13........FIRST CHRISTMAS RECEIVED.

These two, arrived on the same day, both from 2 of my sisters-in-law in the UK.  One in Yorkshire, the other in Kent.  I was worried I'd have none for this post.  I'll admit here on social media, that although I've purchased stamps & have cards, I've not done any. (naughty, naughty!)  I will get there, but awfully late.

DAY 14..........CHRISTMAS CRACKERS.

I don't have a photo of the above for this one, but something which I hope will make you crack a smile.
On Wednesday, whilst travelling across Melbourne to DD's, we stopped for a break in Williamstown, a bayside suburb, parked under a tree & strolled into a park to sit under a shady tree for half an hour.
Back to the car & this what the temperature was reading:

Yes, you read correctly................41 degrees Celsius.   VERY HOT.

Now remember, we had a day for SNOWMAN..............from hubby's facebook page comes this....

Thought everyone may agree that a snowman here in Oz may look like this.  I certainly laughed.

OK, all from me tonight, as I'm off to veg out for a while, before retiring.
Good night all & take care.
Susan.

ADVENT CALENDAR......... DAY 12.

A  quick post today linking with Julie for the calendar.

DAY 12.......ANGEL.

Another from the archives.  This was made for me by my Aunt (mother's sister-in-law), and I just think she is so cute.  It's graced our trees for many a year & this Aunt is so clever in many ways.

A LITTLE CATCHUP TOO!!!!!!
Picked from the garden this morning.

Some silver beet, one zucchini, a good handful of butter beans and a colander full of blueberries, though it is depleted as I've already frozen a tray-full.  We will be eating the beans tonight with some leftover casserole from the freezer.  It's been a long day with moving most of the furniture back after the carpet layer left.
On the design wall...........

I've been working on this off & on for the last (probably) 3 weeks in amongst all the other bits of life.
It's a traditional block called Jacobs Ladder in my own layout setting.
Best get a wriggle on, as tomorrow it is off to child mindig & I've just been told the temperature for tomorrow around Melbourne is 36/37 degrees, so another sweltering one after our lovely run of more moderate weather.
Take care all & be back Friday.
Huggles, Susan.

ADVENT CALENDAR...........DAYS,9, 10, 11

Joining in once again with Julie for the Advent Calendar words & photos.

DAY 9........BAUBLE.

Theses 2 baubles (above), I made last year, but don't think I finished till after Christmas, but will pop onto the tree this year.  I was just playing around with odd bits 'n' pieces.
The 5 (below), are I suppose more Christmas Ornaments.  The 3 on the left were bought in both Skipton, UK, and Germany, (not sure which ones),  the other 2 were handmade at a woodcraft workshop in Tasmania.  Hubby was driving Tour Coaches at the time & brought them home for me, so must be at least 25+ years old.

DAY 10.........HOLLY & IVY.

I found this one very hard, as although both holly & ivy grow here in Australia, unless you have very, very cold winters, it does not fruit.  What would it be without the red berries?  So, I came up with this idea a few weeks ago.  Found my old book, which was issued to all school children back, as you can see from the date, a long time ago.  I've only 2 of these now & still get a thrill to open them, as we did when they were passed out to us then.  The stories, pictures, music & other interesting titbits, probably wouldn't pass muster to children these days. 

DAY 11..............SNOWMAN.

Another one I found really hard, though I thought I had an old photo of the boys with a snowman they made in the mid 80's, but alas, couldn't be found.
Idea!!!!!!!!!!!!!    Ask my 2 younger granddaughters to draw a snowman & send it to me.
Well, Missy Moo obliged with the 2 above.  Aren't they cute.  Little E. may send one & if she does, I'll pop it on later.  Thanks to MM.
Well, I'm still hanging in there, with our loungeroom now completely devoid of all furniture, carpet up & ready for the carpet layers early tomorrow morning.  I may post tomorrow, but as we have childminding on Thursday, it will probably be Friday before I get time to play catchup.  I've definitely some photos ready to go & hopefully I'll also have our tree up in time for those posts too. 
Take care all, enjoy your week & lots of huggles.
Susan.

ADVENT CALENDAR..........DAYS 6, 7, 8

First...... Thank you all so much for my lovely comments.  They have been greatly appreciated with so much happening at the moment.
Another few days offering for Julie's seasonal words.

DAY 6........ROBIN.

This little one was taken at a cafe near Bolton Abbey last year.  He flitted to and fro around our feet for a long time, I expect picking up crumbs etc.  That is my hubby's hand.

DAY 7...... BELL(S).

A new wreath made last year for our front door, displaying some cute red and white bells.  This year I need to fix that hook as it fell off when I tried to put it up.  Think our extreme heat last week has made it "unsticky".

DAY 8......... SLEIGH.

My little sleigh filled with fripperies I've picked up over the years & yes, I've shown it in previous Christmas posts, but haven't had time to go looking for something else.

Short of time today and need to get back to reading legal jargon for my brother's NDIS plan, sign & scan it back to his provider.  This seems to be taking a lot of my time lately with phone calls back & forth.   Also been "unfurnishing" the loungeroom, ready for carpet laying on Tuesday, which entails the whole room being emptied & old carpet ripped up before they arrive at 7.30am.  Ugh!
Have a great weekend all, take care & huggles.
Susan.
BTW, enjoying everyone's take on our words, so thanks all & Julie for hosting.

ADVENT CALENDAR..............DAYS 4 & 5.

Another 2 days of Julie's Advent Calendar with words and photos.

DAY 4............ CHRISTMAS BOOKS.

This collection of books I bought over a few years when we still had young grandchildren, but the 2 youngest are now 10 & we don't see them at Christmas very often now, due to living a lo..........ng distance from most of them.  They are all beautifully illustrated so I'm finding it hard to let them go.

DAY 5.........STAINED GLASS WINDOW.

The stained glass window in Notre Dame  I took this photo back in 2009, when we did a short European Coach Tour, as a side trip whilst visiting UK for my niece's wedding.  It was amazing & my old camera didn't do it justice.

I'm enjoying this and seeing all the participating bloggers takes on these words.  I've still a few to find, so see you all next time.
Huggles Susan.

ADVENT CALENDAR.............DAYS 1, 2, 3.

Joining in with Julie for an Advent Calendar for 2017 in words & photos, similar to Kate's Scavenger Photo Hunt.
I'll be posting several days at a time due to a busy December, so will pop up at odd times.  Hope you enjoy.  The full list of words are posted on the above blog.

DAY 1------LETTERBOX.

This photo was taken at Chiddingstone Castle in Kent, last year whilst visiting UK.  A chance find in my archives when looking for the November photos.

DAY 2------SOMETHING HANDCRAFTED FOR CHRISTMAS.

Here we have the quilt I made in a Christmas Quiltalong back in 2012, which was the start of my blogging journey.  It was started when I contacted Sue from Quilt Times who suggested I join in.  I was sending progress photos via email & "someone" suggested I start my own blog & although it took many months to get my head around the whole concept, I had it up & running in January 2013, so I've my fifth anniversary coming soon.  The little tree on the piano top was made by hubby & the wreath many moons ago by me for our front door at No. 4.

DAY 3------FAVOURITE CHRISTMAS RECIPE.

Here in Australia, we can have very hot weather for Christmas, which isn't favourable for the heavy type food enjoyed in the cooler climes of the Northern Hemisphere during December.  Many people opt for a barbecue or lighter lunch of cold meats (still traditional ham or turkey), and a salad.  Sometimes I do a potato bake as well.  Desserts are often fruit salads & ice cream, pavlova or trifle.
Still favouring a traditional Christmas pudding, I make this much lighter version a few days before the big day & reheat for lunch or dinner & serve with custard or cream. 

Hope you've enjoyed my first few days & I've been having fun finding photos to fit the words, although I've a few on the harder to find scale, but we'll get there in the end. 
Be here again in a few days.  Take care all.
Susan.

NOVEMBER SCAVENGER PHOTO HUNT.

Linking up with Kate for the final hunt of the year.  Once again, I wondered with our words, then found way more than I needed.  The hardest this time was My Own Choice, as I just didn't know where to start looking.  Here we go.......

1.   BLUE.

The Neerim Bower at the entrance to Neerim South, a small town here in West Gippsland.  It represents the male Satin Bowerbirds' chamber/passage he builds from twigs & grass, to attract females & is usually adorned with many "blue" objects, including feathers, berries, glass & plastic.  They are a native bird of Australia & when we lived in Cambewarra, NSW, we actually had one built in our backyard for a season.  It was fascinating, watching him pinch my blue pegs & also bring lots of blue drinking straws from goodness knows where.

2.   ME.

Not much to say on this one.  I took it accidentally one day at the beach.

3.   STARTS WITH W..........

Weeping Willows in the park, where our Car Club rooms are located, this Spring, which I'm sure we haven't had with very cool temperatures into early November & now sweltering in 30+ degree heat for 14 days straight.  Definitely not normal.  Just realised that was 2 Ws.

4.   RAINBOW.

A Rainbow Lorikeet sipping nectar from Banksia flowers.  I know I've shown this before, but some will not have seen it & I'm trying to think outside the box.

5.   ARCH.

A rather lonesome ARCH, in the churchyard at Whitehaven, Cumbria, somewhere we stay when visiting my friend Jayne in the Lakes District.

6.   TOY.

The rocking horses, hubby made our 2 youngest granddaughters' many years ago.  Missy Moo & Little E turned 10 this October & are probably way to old now to use them.  We are very proud of his woodworking skills.

7.   SWIRL.

SWIRLS on the old fencing & lawn roller.  Taken last year at Chiddingstone Castle in Kent, which we didn't get to go into, as we were to early, but the gardens were open & lovely to stroll around.  Oh, & take lots of photos.

8.   BRUSH.

A pink BottleBRUSH (Callistemon) in flower a few weeks ago.

9.   NAIL.

A rusty, crooked NAIL, snapped on our walk at Lang Lang Beach, which I posted about HERE, a few weeks ago.  Hubby noticed it & quickly said "Nail", & I had to work out why he'd pointed it out, but then I remembered too & thought how lucky I was, as it was the day after Kate had posted our words.  I take my list everywhere & had been reading it in the car on our way.The photo above of BRUSH, was also taken on that walk.

10.  MY OWN CHOICE.

Anyone of my AGE group, may remember these hands used for giving signals on trucks, way back when....... No blinkers in them days!!!!!!  A few Sundays ago we visited the Historic Commercial Vehicle Show at Yarra Glen Racecourse & we were delighted with what was on display, although there were no Mercedes Benz 1418's which is what we had in the late 1970s.

My lot is done now.  I'm off to make some lunch & put the cooler on, as my fingers are starting to stick to the keys.  I'll be around again, proabably next Friday, as I will do the Xmas Hunt in weekly parts, due to a busy month coming up.
Take care all, have a great December & silly season.
Susan.

A QUICK CATCHUP!

I'm behind on everything due to an unbelievably busy few months, with more to come until the New Year. It's just been silly sort of stuff......car club bits (outings, a meal, tidy clubrooms ready for Xmas), gardening (weeding, watering due to severe heat, building structures, pruning, hedge cutting), mending cars (both), medical (due to ageing😖), but we are both OK & reasonably fit for our age.
Over the next few weeks we have child minding to do, carpet to be laid in lounge room..ugh, along with more car club things, Xmas card writing, and making ready the house for visitors from the UK.
Think I'll need a holiday come New Year.
Just a few odd photos from the last month, though I'll not say too much.  Extremely warm today & just at the moment it is 36.8° & the study hasn't an outlet from the cooler, so I'm quite hot & sticky.

The veg garden looking a bit droopy at about 2pm this afternoon and we had 3mm of rain last night.
Top pic has 3 tomatoes, a zucchini and 2 rows of bush beans.  The lower pic has a self-seeded wayward pumpkin, a row of carrots sown from seed and some silver beet, which we've already started harvesting.

I've done very little sewing recently, but have tried to grab a half hour now & then to work on a mystery quilt I decided to do.  I've caught up to the last installment & played with the 32 blocks on my design wall.  Poor Bubs hasn't been started since before we went to Canberra.  Oh dear!

 One day whilst out, we noticed the sign to Narracan Falls & decided to "finally" take a look.  We found these beautiful falls, that then went into another smaller lot.  We intend going again with a picnic, as it was lovely.

 A little walk the other side of the road, led to this, which we are sure was an old railway line, with the remains of a bridge in the foreground & a cutting in the distance.  It is on private property, so couldn't explore.

A lovely colourful sight on our travels one day, were these stacked silage bales.  Pretty!

A couple of odd photos to follow.

 Hawthorn blossom during Spring.

A cloud formation I just had to capture, so poor hubby pulled over when he could, and I snapped away.  It sort of reminded me of one those soft serve ice creams.
I'm not going to bore you much more, but we did go to 2 Motor Vehicle Shows over the last couple of weekends.  A quick peek at some of the Moggies on display at the Morris Minor Nationals held here in Melbourne, though I didn't get ours into any of my photos.  Silly me!!

This one is amazing and has featured in several magazines over the years.

Some of the sedans on display.  I found it very hard to take photos because of the positioning of the parking.  Ours was in the commercial section.  Anyway, it was a good day & being able to catch up with people from our past, especially friends we knew from our very first Morris Minor Club in Tasmania, which we joined in 1987.  Yes, we realised we've known them for 30 years.  Wow!
That's about all folks and I'll join in the Photo Scavenger Hunt next Friday after another hectic week.
Take care and hope everyone has a good weekend.
Susan.