Friday, 31 January 2020

JANUARY PHOTO SCAVENGER HUNT...2020.

Time again for our photo hunt linking up with the lovely Kate.  No the easiest this month for me, but here's what I came up with.

1.  LOST/FOUND.
This one (I think), I found the most difficult.  Not getting out much this month because of heat, fires etc., I'd not even really thought about the hunt.  Luckily I scoured both my archives and other bits'n'bobs & noticed this sitting in my library of DVDs.
A word for  "lost" and the "found" part is that I actually found something.

2.  PRINT/S.
A set of black & white prints my late mother-in-law gave me many years ago.  These are of Leeds & I framed them in certificate frames, which I felt suited them well & they have hung in our spare bedroom in each house we've lived in.

3.  LUNCH.
Lunch for a pair of King Parrots at our poor now defunct feeder, as the post rotted and fell down whilst we were away in UK last year.  We must resurrect it soon.  Their water bowl is still there & plenty of birds use it to drink.

4.  STARTS WITH M.....
OK, I couldn't make up my mind with this one, so all 3 have a place.
MOSS
The most sumptuous mossy wall.  This photo was taken on a walk in the Lakes District with my friend Jayne.
MALHAM COVE.
The gorgeous Malham Cove, somewhere I love.  I think I took this in 2014, when we said that we'd do the steps up the side next time we visited.  Sad to say, we've been back to UK twice and still not done them.
MORRIS MINOR.
Our beloved car with a rose arbour framing it.
Sorry about that lot, but this is what happens to a mad woman on a seering hot day of 40 degrees.
Ooh, it's yuk..............fires close to our son again in Canberra.... worrying times.

5.  ENDS WITH T.....
CRAFT.
And then---------------these all end with T too.  We have crochet, knit, quilt and woodcraft, which are my wool bowl & cute cat.  My 3 items are all in progress at the moment, though slowly as it's been hot & not comfortable to knit or crochet much.  The quilt has progressed from the photo last post to this and will be on the big machine before too long.

6.  MY OWN CHOICE.
OK, this was something I saw on the internet & thought about how some people have chosen a word for this year & this sort of fell into place for me.  I need a kick up the butt occasionally & I struggle feeling like I'm worthwhile, so I'm plucking up the "courage" to do something about it.  Maybe watch this space!
Enough of my waffling and I'm off to find a cooler spot  in the house, (no cooler outlet here in the study) and also prepare our evening meal of cold meat & salad.
Hope everyone has a great weekend, stay cool or warm wherever you live.
Take care & huggles from Susan.

Tuesday, 28 January 2020

TAH-DAH..................IT'S OFF!!!

Sorry to all of my loyal followers and I hope you are all well and enjoyed the Christmas/New Year break.  I think I'm getting my mojo back & although we still have the rest of this summer to endure, the support, kindness, donations and especially the time given from all the volunteer fire people has been overwhelming.  Not just here in Oz, but from all walks of life worldwide.  A huge thank you from me & I'm sure everyone else.
Now onto what the top of this post is about.
A quilt I made way back in 1999 & blogged about here  Well, it is finally quilted & waiting for binding.  This one worked up well whilst piecing, but has had me racking my brains for how to quilt and once I'd made up my mind, I procrastinated with my inability to do it justice.  At the beginning of December it hit the big machine, but all didn't go to plan. I won't go into the problems I had, but let's say, I persevered & it's DONE.......
Kaleidocrosses.
Talking about quilts, brings me to one of the other reasons I'd not blogged much lately and that is being ridiculed by, I expect, well meaning people who seem to think that there are plenty of books, magazines & the internet to make my quilts from, so why would I design my own & it makes one doubt themselves, but I've decided, I am me & that's how I come.  Oh & it's not been through blogland I've been hurt, but locally.    Enough.............here's some more of what we've been up to.
 Picking blueberries and watching my two tomatoes & a couple of rows of silver beet growing.  With our weird weather at the moment, I' surprised anything has grown well, but 16kgs of berries so far & we've had a few meals with the silver beet.  Tomatoes are definitely not ready & quite slow forming.
Both the Wonga vine & Wisteria have been having a mad growth spurt on the pergola at the top of the stairs.  We'll do a wander around the garden in another post.
My fabric cupboard has had a tidy up whilst I was working on the quilt on the design board below.
This quilt is destined for our lovely granddaughter Miss A. who has just moved into her first flat with her boyfriend, whom we've met & found so nice.  Very much a gentleman.
The star patterns are paper pieced & were from Alyce Blythe of Blossom Heart Quilts here in Melbourne.  The setting is my own as are the colours.  It is a bit further along now, and I'll show more progress in the weeks ahead.  
Hubby has been busy too.  He has had a few commissions with one before Christmas & another I'll show once it is finished.  First up will be a photo of "my" pen.  He has also been asked to make a few of these and they can be quite tricky.  I wonder who will guess what they are made of and how?
My pen.

A log truck made for a friend's son's cousin.  This little boy already had one and wouldn't let his cousin anywhere near it, so his Mum commissioned one for the other lad for Christmas.
 The same Mum thought her daughter would love a quilt, so I took two to show her.  Her Mum happened to arrive whilst I was there & took the other for her own Mum (Bec's grandmother), so I sold both.  Wow!  I've plenty of quilts to gift or sell for a little pocket money, which I made & never used.   Luckily I took some photos before I took them for viewing with a couple of others.  Many of the ones I made before blogging have not been on the blog or even photographed so I am slowly remedying this.
A simple "Hunter's Star" made from a magazine.

Evening in Ireland by Trudie Hughes from her book
Even More.

The back of the above quilt.
Two more quilts were photographed that day whilst we were out and about.
A stack & whack quilt made in a group workshop.  The fabric I had in mind didn't work, so a quick trip home saw me bring back some shell fabric, which was much better.
I've two shots of my quilt called Rainbow Stars, which I made after practicing the no waste way of making flying geese blocks.  Only two fabrics were used in this quilt, which were the black & the multi coloured fabric.  Once the geese were made I played with setting them & this is what I ended up with.  
Rainbow Stars.

A lovely dog photo bombing.  He was way more interested in my quilt rather than the dog treat DH had been given to make him turn around for me.
OK, so that has been a small catchup of a few moments from recent months.  One last photo to finish and more than likely I'll be here on Friday for the Photo Hunt.
Picked from the garden yesterday & placed on our side table between the two armchairs.  Bit messy, but I am crocheting of a night with my Christmas present from DD, which was the wool for Attic 24's dahlia rug.  Not far with that yet, so it will be shown in progress soon.
Best go as I'm starting to feel weary.  Take care all & huggles from down under.

Saturday, 4 January 2020

BLOG ON HOLD!!

Due to the unbelievable fires here in Oz, which are breaking my heart with the devastation, loss of life & homes, businesses and the manpower needed to tackle the situation, I feel not in the least interested in doing any blog posts.  SORRY, SORRY. 
My friend Joy and I hope to get a few things together in the only way we know how to help with our quilting, which doesn't sound much, but better people keeping out of the fire zones if they don't know what they are doing and lending a hand in some other way.  Hopefully I'll keep you posted in the coming weeks, to at least keep my hand in on the blogfront.  I'll also be around for our Photo Hunts.  I'm finding it hard to comment on your posts, but do a little occasional catch up. Again an apology to all of you that I follow.
Just one photo of where we ate our picnic lunch on Christmas Day with the smoke from New South Wales and East Gippsland here in Victoria spoiling the beautiful view.
The "view" from Jindivik Cricket Ground.
Yesterday was appalling with the smoke hanging around, but doesn't seem quite as bad today with a strong breeze blowing, which doesn't bode well with the spread of embers which start more fires in the tinder dry conditions.  Please, please, we need rain................
Happy New Year to all my (hoepfully still), blog followers and today is also our youngest son's 42nd birthday.  Happy birthday J.
Take care all and the biggest huggles from Susan.