Wednesday 29 September 2021

Q is for......................

QUIET..............
Yes I've been quiet!  Not a lot happening here what with more lockdowns/restrictions & the weather being very tardy, but here is a "quick" catch up.
Also "sorry" I've not done any commenting lately, but have caught up on reading blogs and can only  say that I've been down & just want to get back to at least some sort of normality in the future.

QUEUING.
As things were improving here a little, DH & I went shopping on Friday morning to our local Bunnings store (a large hardware chain) to purchase a few bits & bobs for a couple of projects and some veg plants to start getting ready for summer gardening & lo & behold there was someone in the store with Covid at the same time as we were there, so off to get tested yesterday.  We'd only had 5 cases here in our shire since it all began last year, so why now?  We sat in the car for 4.5 hours. Luckily the testing station was out of town at a large facility that caters for country shows for farming, cars, music festivals and also cattle sales.  Lots of cars, but at least we weren't queued on the road.  Just awaiting our results now & hopefully we are negative and can get out to buy milk, bread & some fresh fruit and veg.............soon.
Now, not sure whether I'm allowed to do this, but I've found an aerial photo via the i'net of the above venue.
Not too bad an area for our wait in the queue and we did take coffee, biscuits, my sewing and a book for DH.  We also heard plenty of birdsong/twittering from lorikeets, rosellas, corellas, butcher birds, magpies & wattle birds.


QUAKES.
 Last Wednesday around 9.15am, I was busily putting some washing on the clotheshorse (it was drizzling) and SUDDENLY..................there was a strange rumbling noise & then the house started shaking & although it was quick, it was quite scary.  We'd had a 5.8 earthquake some 100kms north of us, but it was felt far & wide throughout eastern Australia.  I even rang DD to tell her & she answered the phone, saying "yes Mum, we're having an earthquake" and they live on the other side of Melbourne. 
A rather strange month this September!!!!!!!!!!!!

QUILTING.
As we've been in so much lockdown and aren't allowed to visit or have visitors, I've been doing a fair bit of quilting, so a few photos follow of a couple of finishes for this month. One you have seen before the binding was all hand sewn.
Flower Power, the QAL I did with Jo Avery in Scotland & was in a previous post.

Chateau Garden.
One of my own designs which was a simple pattern to fill in between the QAL above.
Below a photo of the pieced backing as I can't get out to buy large pieces and as I've plenty of leftover bits, I'm making good use of them.


Rosetta.
Another of my own designs based on the traditional Buckeye Beauty block.
Again I'd had the curated bundle of fabric in my stash for a long time and am finally utilising it in these tough times.
Below the pieced backing.

On the design wall............
which will hopefully become this......



QUILT ACCESSORIES.
DH has been busy too and indulged my whim for a "HUG-A-RUG" for the hallway to display my wall quilts and now I can change them easily on a regular basis.
DH's clever rendition of the Hug-a-rug.

QUESTIONABLE.
Now for a few photos from the rather wayward garden at the moment.  As the weather has not been playing nicely, I'm not getting a lot done outside.
Azalea

Wallflower & Gazania

Only 2 bluebells have flowered this year.

The Snowball bush.

My Banksia rose starting to blossom.

If you click to enlarge, you'll be able to see one of our resident Skinks on the far edge of the pond.


OK, that's it from me and maybe someone out there will have a peek at a long overdue post.  I've had plenty of ideas swimming around in my head, but the words won't come and as for taking the camera anywhere with me, it isn't happening, so I need a good push to kick start my blogging mojo.  Maybe this will be a fresh start. 
Take care all, stay safe & huge virtual hugs.
Susan. xxxx

20 comments:

  1. I do hope you both get negative Covid test results, what a worry for you. Did you get pinged on your phone is that how you know you were in the same place as someone with Covid? Such a long wait to have your tests too. Scary stuff those earthquakes, I experienced one once a long time ago and when I put my hand on the wall to steady myself it moved. Your quilts and garden are lovey. Great photos for the Q photo challenge. Take care.

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    1. Tests negative & no pinging on phone, but on our local radio news, one of the perks living in a country town. I've experienced many earth tremors over my lifetime, but this was definitely the biggest.

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  2. Here's giving you a little virtul nudge into blogging again,it's good to see you back, I hope the tests are negative and that you will be able to go out and about again to get milk and also to take your camera. Earthquake sounds scary. Say safe:)

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    1. Thanks Rosie. Tests negative thankfully & although I've felt many tremors this was definitely a "quake".

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  3. You've been very productive whilst you've been at home, I love the Flower Power quilt, so pretty, and the hanging device is so clever. I like the fact that you'll be able to display different quilts in it. We had an earth tremor whilst in St Lucia on our honeymoon, such a weird feeling, it felt like the floor was moving underneath us. I hope the tests come back negative.

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    1. Thanks Jo. I've wanted a new hanger for years and now was the time as the other one kept coming off the wall when I touched it. I was watching the stuff on my dresser during the quake, but none fell off luckily and only a few pictures on the walls had gone skewiff. Tests negative.

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  4. Hi Susan. I've missed you but can see how busy you've been. Those quilts are gorgeous but the Flower Power one is my favourite. Not sure what a skink is and can't for the life of me see anything unusual in the pond. Off to google skink now. Stay safe my friend. x

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    1. Thanks Cherie. It wasn't being busy stopping me blogging, but just getting my head around all that is going on here in Oz.. The skink is the little lizard sitting near the flowers on the far ledge around the pond. (middle ground).

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  5. Great to hear from you. Sorry to hear your mojo is still being a bit elusive. I hope you are starting to feel a bit more like ‘you’. This last year certainly has been challenging for everyone but you must feel like you’ve been in lockdown for ever. Quilts are stunning as always. Take care 💜

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    1. Thanks Carol. Yes, it seems to be never ending & I'm missing family so much now.

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  6. I can see from the comments above that your tests were negative, that is good news.

    I think the quilts look lovely.

    Take care, my good wishes.

    All the best Jan

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    1. Thanks Jan. My quilting is my saviour at the moment.

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  7. Loving your beautiful Quilts. They are always amazing! Glad to hear your results were negative too. I always think how strict your country is when reading your posts. We have far far more cases but have plenty more freedom luckily. X

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    1. Thank you Sharon. Yes our restrictions are pretty severe and today's numbers were astounding for our state. Can't wait till we get back to some sort of normality.

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  8. Hi Susan,
    Gosh that quake must have really been scary but thankfully nobody was hurt. The planet is giving everyone a bit of a run for their money at the minute.
    Your quilts as ever are beautiful - I love the flower one and your garden looks great. I'm the same at the minute about not taking the camera anywhere - just can't be bothered. 19 months of lockdown has been overtaken by apathy. But now all of sudden we're back in gear again and that's a shock to the system. Hold on and it'll soon be over. I"m glad the test turned out ok.

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    1. Thanks Fil. Yes, scary but we are all OK with that & our test. I should ring P&T to see how they are for you as we've not been able to meet up yet. Glad to hear you've got some oomph back & hopefully things will slowly pick up.

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  9. I read that all of the earthquakes may be caused by China doing their underground stuff. As though natures doesn't throw enough at us we have to endure this covid as well. Oh well, as I always say 'Everything passes' let's hope it's soon.
    Love post.
    Briony
    x

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  10. You're quilts are lovely! Can't wait to see them in person... at least we can still chat on the phone.. xx

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  11. Good job finishing quilts, glad tests were ok, and there was a quake here last week

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  12. Just catching up with you as I've been concentrating on editing photos and writing blog posts sine I got back from a camping holiday three weeks ago. I'm glad your test results were negative and the tremors which shook the house were nothing serious. The narrow semi-rural streets on my small estate weren't made for heavy traffic and the house shakes even when the bin wagon goes past so if we ever did have anything more serious I would probably ignore it!

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