VERY LATE CRAFTY CATCHUP.

Catching up after quite a long break, due to a very hectic time of late & not feeling like I've achieved anything much.  DD is leaving to go back to Sydney for her hubby's work, which I'm finding hard to deal with, little brother's needs are always being seen to with this scheme the government brought in some years ago & seems like lots of signing of papers is never ending & lots of phone calls too. 

Garden is getting out of hand with both my back problems & weather, plus the never ending blueberry picking at this time of year.  I do enjoy giving them away though.  Oh the weather..........it's been strange.

Also, we have internet problems plus my old laptop doesn't do what it used to.  Blogger seems just a bit different too and I have  a hard time leaving comments at times.   OK.......enough of my complaining.

Le'ts play catchup..................firstly an amazing sunset one night & I've not done anything to this photo.

And this next photo is one mornings pick of blueberries.  One of these tubs went to a friend for making jam & another day I gave one of our neighbours a similar tub for her jam making too.

Now for a few bits'n'bobs of craft.............

I've been crocheting these blocks from all my leftover Attic 24 bundles I've done over the years.

They are granny squares with the idea coming from a book by Jemima Flendt called Quilt It, Crochet It.

So far it's been fun, but now the sewing together must start...........soon I hope.

A few tops I've done and possibly not shown.

1.   

This one I've call SCRAPS APLENTY  and is one of my own designs.

2.     

Another one of my designs which I have named "S" is for...............

3.                    

I made this one last year from one of Sandra's patterns from mmmquilts., but alas it is also waiting to be quilted.

4.    I have joined in with a couple of quiltalongs with Cheryl Brickey from Meadow Mist Designs.

The first one is the Malted Mystery and we have now made the centre for this medallion type quilt.

Mine so far....................

The other one I have started is from her newest book Just Two Charm Pack Quilts and we can make any one and have a sort of time line.  I'm being naughty old me and having fun with this, but not telling which one I'm doing.

The fabrics I'm using from a layer cake I've shared with a friend who is doing this challenge too.

A little peak at some HST's I've done so far.

Another thing I'm "TRYING" to do is the Chookshed Challenge which I have made the list for here.

Whoops................can't seem to download this one, so we'll leave that till I can work out how to upload the document I did.😞

Now lastly for this post, I have a fun photo of the beautiful container DH made recently sitting on my chest of drawers in the sewing room.  Isn't it just amazing!!!

All for now, but I do hope to do some more catching up with some recent places we've been which may interest a few of my blogpals.  Hopefully after this hiatus I still have a few followers.

I do read all my sidebar blogs, but can only leave comments occasionally.  

Another little problem has been my eyes and hopefully at some stage this year they will do the cataract removal, which I need when they deem necessary.

Thanks to anyone who reads this.  Take care all and hugs from Susan.

 

BEGINNING WITH......................F

First, it's about time I try and blog more regularly, but with weather, price hikes and a feeling of melancholy about world wide problems, I've not had the impetus to put words on paper or use the camera much.  Yesterday, although very overcast and cold, we took ourselves off to do some firewood collecting out at our friends farm.  I took some photos too and realised they all started with "F" & thought it would be a funny, funky post.  Notice all those f's.

                                                                      FIREWOOD.

                                                                  The trailer being loaded.

                                                                               FARMS,

Views of distant farms from the paddock where we were collecting the fallen timber.  Notice the mist on the lower slopes and the ranges in the far distance.  Typical weather at the moment.

                                                                         FUNGI.

                                                I noticed this lot as I was walking about.

                                                                      FASCINATING.

                                   Our eucalyptus (gum trees) have the most wonderful shapes.

                                                 FURRY FRIENDS.  (Tups or rams, depending on where you live.)

What are you looking at?

Maybe I should join the others.

Are you back again with that black thing?

                                                                    FINISHED.

Hubby had been busy before the frightful weather hit and was making me a plant stand out of pallet timber.  Hasn't it turned out nicely.  I will get to with pots of herbs and maybe a few cut and come again veg. soon.  Too cold at the moment, but will hopefully get some sunshine in amongst the cooler days.

All from me today.    

Take care all and hugs from a wintry down under.

Susan.

WISHY-WASHY WEDNESDAY.

 Just a little catch-up with nothing much.  Been quiet here of late with a few appointments and just generally doing the usual mundane housework, cooking, gardening and a little crafting.  Even the poor camera has been under utilised.  Hoping all will settle soon and some normality come back.

A few snaps I've taken of my knitting & sewing and DH's woodwork.

Cassie's dog coat.

Tilly's dog coat.

The top photo stayed local and the pink one went to Wales.

Our podiatrist is now on maternity leave and I presented her with this little quilt for the new arrival.

I'm looking forward to finding out if she has a boy or girl.  She already has one of each.

My quick and easy colourful baby pattern with a teddy bear quilting pattern.

DH has made DD a side table to go beside her lounge and we haven't delivered it yet due to all sorts of things, but hopefully during the school holidays so we can see her 2 children.  This table was made using mostly pallet timber.  Doesn't it come up nice with a lot of hard work.

The table.

A little bit of nonsense now.  Looking out the front door  one afternoon as I walked past, I noticed "something" out of the corner of my eye move on the footpath & when I realised what it was, ran to get the camera and luckily it was just wandering past next door.

One ibis, though you usually see them in flocks, but we do have a lot around about here anyway.

All for now, but at least I've made the effort and should hopefully keep up with a few posts each month to get back into the swing of things.

Enjoy the rest of the week all, take care and huge hugs from down under.

Susan.

HOT, HOT, HOT.......A WEEK OF MUGGINESS.

 Well, I said I'd do a couple of catchups, but with such humid weather, I've felt very lethargic & not coming into the study due to it's lack of cooling vent, but let's see what has been happening on the home front.  I'm still wary about going anywhere much, but we still keep busy & out into local countryside.  The next two pics are for my friend Kate as she planted the idea.

Bulrushes jut below Middle Farm that I talk about.  We regularly walk passed these from home and someone has used the spare bit of ground to plant up some pumpkins, which they then come and collect when fully grown.

My "leftovers" crochet rug, which I'm just finishing some borders on, thrown over a stone gateway wall just out of town.  Made up the rows as I went.

Yesterday as we were driving back from a drive to the coast & a very quick walk along a beach to the south on Bass Strait, we saw this..............

an old bus parked near Loch where there is a lovely lookout with panorama out to Westernport Bay.   Not something we'd seen there before.

BUSY BOY.

DH has been busy making bird breeding boxes for our friend who breeds Budgies, Canaries & Quail.

Hope she is pleased with them.

It's taken me some time to get my sewjo back, but a design of my own that has been on my to-do list for quite some time has come to fruition and now needs the quilter to work some magic, but then that is another story.

Bubs hasn't been behaving of late, so need to get in touch with my technician once he's back from holidays and maybe a service will be needed.

We've also been flat out picking blueberries early before the heat hits.

This mornings haul of 2150 grams.

THE GARDEN.

I've not had much mojo to garden either in this heat/humidity and last year was a bit wayward too, so just a few photos I've snapped this morning.

One pathetic looking raised bed with a couple of zucchini & a few tomato plants, which luckily have produce on them, as seen below.

The netted blueberries before and during the thunderstorm this morning.  We had 10mls in the rain gauge in an hour.  And we now have another storm brewing with the clouds getting heavy & grey and thunder rolling around now.  Wonder how much rain we'll get from this one?

And the experiment that didn't work as we actually went away for a week before Christmas, though a few marigold seedlings have appeared, so as soon as this humid weather wanes, I''ll be back into the garden, as I've missed it.

Best go as it has just started to rain & the lightning and thunder are too close for me to be still attempting to work on the computer in case there is a blackout.

Hope all is well with everyone and I'll be back next one with a few catchups & crafty bits.

Take care all and hugs.  Did you all hear that...................an almighty crack of thunder.😞

Susan.  xxx

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