TAKING A TUMBLE.

 The reason I've been quiet.  I had a stupid fall on the 1st of October on the footpath in front of next door, hurting my chest/rib area and taking a chunk out of the heel of my hand.  Lucky I didn't smack my face into the path.  Turns out I had 3 cracked ribs & severe bruising too.  I'm OK now & although we still got to do a few things during late October, the weather has been utterly vile.  It's rained all day here today with quite a gusty wind.  Although we've not had the amount that has hit some parts of N.S.W., it's still nothing like a normal late Spring.  When it has warmed a little, the humidity has been extreme.  Enough of my moaning and let's see some photos I've snapped when we did manage to get outside.

The Garden.

The azaleas flowered well, but then smashed by the rain.

The wisteria and wonga vine both looked lovely but left a frightful mess on the steps.

My snowball bush was gorgeous with some of the biggest balls, but with the heavy rain, the weight of the sodden flowers nearly broke a couple of branches.  They survived intact luckily.

Dutch iris were lovely.

Walking.

We have decided to tackle The Great Southern Rail Trail & have done 2 small legs so far.  I'll just post what we did for the first part.

One of the signs with some information.
We started from Leongatha and headed towards Koonwarra, but only went as far as Gwyther Siding.

At the start of the trail, we passed a Tyre Service with the hugest pile of tyres I've ever seen.

Further along we passed this row of columns, but no information was available to say what it had been.

Farming countryside.

We didn't have to give way to any stock, though we saw plenty of cattle.

As far as we went on the first day.  We think after we turned and went back, we'd done about 8kms.

WATER.......

A small court near to ours, where a creek runs under the road and as you can see, it had other ideas one day and this is what it looked like. It's definitely been "wet" of late.

Quilting.

I have kept busy, although it's been slow going.  I managed to do a small wall hanging for  a bit of a challenge for myself & something someone mentioned I might like to join in with, though everyone else had started long before me, so I did simple, small & fun.

The challenge was a Churn Dash quilt, but I played with a block I'd seen "somewhere" & done a quick sketch and ended up with my Churn Dash Twist.
This photo was taken at the community garden in Braeside Park.

I had one on the machine when I took the tumble and finally managed to finish it a few weeks later.  I have shown it unquilted.

I've still not really named this, but had called the pattern when I designed it 
Gee Whiz.  (silly)

Lastly I popped this one below on the machine yesterday & had it off by lunch today.  The blocks were made many years ago from a Judy Martin pattern, but I just couldn't get it quite right, so only made a few, then cobbled them together and came up with this.  No binding as yet.

Empire Stars.

OK, that's enough from me today as it coming onto near teatime and I've other things I need to do.

Hope somebody may read this, as I'm wondering how many people still want to follow along after my absence.  I hope to pop back on with some more rail trail walking soon, especially if weather clears up a bit. 

Until next time, take care all and hugs to all.

Susan.

QUILTY CATCHUP.

 A very quick post for a couple of link ups I usually participate in.

The first being Sandra at mmm.quilts with her DrEaMi link with the squirrels lurking in our sewing rooms.

I bought some lovely magnolia fabric, then saw some more a year later and decided I needed to do something with it and along came another of my Easy Peasy quilts which I quite often do for a much needed baby quilt when the occasion arises.  The flowery squares weren't very "square" so a bit of cursing ensued and I finally ended up with this.  I really wanted it finished so I could take photos with my own magnolia, but mine has few flowers left, so I asked my elderly neighbour if we could use his for my photo.  DH obliged by holding it beside his tree.  It is not quilted yet.

My favourite and only finish this month for the linkup with Cheryl from Meadow Mist Design is actually a pattern I made from her last book (she has another in the works) and I'm very pleased with it after procrastinating on the background fabric.  It was made using a charm square pack and called Medallion in the book.

Poor hubby once again holding this one too, this morning beside our flowering Wonga vine.

Whilst debating how to do some photography earlier with rain pending, I snapped the photo below with Septembers few quilts I've worked on.

On the left is the Charm Medallion, middle, one of my own designs now waiting to be bound and on the right, the Easy Peasy Magnolia, still to be quilted.  Noticing I have a pink theme going on.........uh!

All from me for now & off to link up hopefully.  I still have other things to catch up on, so must find time to post about that stuff too.

Take care all and hugs.

Susan.

Looooong overdue post.

Still not feeling much like posting or even being myself, but we have kept sort of busy, with mainly bits/n/bobs of all sorts.  I'll break back in slowly and hopefully get September sorted over the rest of the month.  Here goes................

A DAY OUT & A BIT OF CRAFT.

This particular day saw me take a few quilts, camera, our picnic lunch & lots of enthusiasm for a day of sunshine after so much dreariness, which is now back with us I'm afraid.  

LANCY LOOKOUT.

I've shown Lancy lookout before as I do enjoy taking quilt photos there, then we had a meander through the hills & on down to Leongatha. 

Some interesting clouds in this photo.

A huge gum tree, some of which is breaking away slowly.  They are notorious for dropping limbs when they feel like it.

Next we took some quilt snaps whilst there and at the next unnamed lookout where we ate our lunch.

These are three old pieced tops from my tub of shame that I made from magazines or books way back in the very late 90s and early 2000s.  I finally quilted & bound them this winter & will possibly donate or sell, as my poor cupboard is getting very full.  I'd also taken a few snaps inside too, so will put them below.                                                                                                              

                                                                                           

And a close up of the quirky quilting on the purple one.

A SURPRISE 

One morning early this month we heard a steam train whistle & wondered what on earth that was all about, rang a friend & found out they were running a steam service between a couple of stations on our line & people could pay to have a ride.  Lots of children these days aren't familiar with these big beasts.  We opted to get to one of the crossings and take some photos.  As there is quite a steep part of the line, it was both a steam engine on the front and an old diesel at the back, so they could do a push/pull as there is no turning around point on the Gippsland line near here.

The steam is seen in the distance between the trees.

Nearing the crossing with a puff of black smoke.

The diesel bringing up the rear and lots of onlookers.

 This brought back so many memories of  my childhood, as steam trains still ran outside of big cities when I was growing up.

FROM THE GARDEN.

Although the garden is looking partially reasonable, it has been such a long, hard winter and I've done very little outside, but the bulbs have come out beautifully and other things have flowered fleetingly, before being battered by wind and rain.

The poor Magnolia is hanging in there.... just.  Notice the 2 white flowers on the left at the top.
What is that all about?

The little round garden out the front is full of Earlicheer daffs, friesias, a few crocus and muscari.

I also picked a few bits'n'bobs to put inside.

Excuse my messy side table.  I do use the coaster for my mug and there is always sewing paraphernalia lurking near my chair for working on things after tea.

☔☔RAIN..................and more rain!!!!!!☔

We've had more than our share this winter and there is so much laying in places we've never seen it in before.

We took an afternoon drive last Monday and went up to Blue Rock Dam to see the water flowing down the spillway and to our surprise, just before we headed for the dam wall, we spied these kangaroos in a paddock.  Once we stopped they decided to bounce away.

Can you spot all five.  At this point they were watching us and I snapped this one from the car window.

But, then they thought better of us staying there and hopped away.  That one you can see above had just jumped over those fences in the background.  

The road over the dam wall and spillway.

Just loved the patterns the flowing water made.

OK, I'll leave it at that for today, as we did have another couple of odd outings if it was fine, into the countryside.                                                                                                                                                    Have a great week all, take care and hugs from Susan.

AUGUST DrEaMi

 Linking with Sandra at mmm.quilts for her "drop everything and make it" for the month of August.

I've struggled through this month, but did think I'd join in a QAL with churn dash blocks and though I had good intentions couldn't  muster enough OOMPH to do a whole quilt.

Somewhere at some time I'd done a quick sketch of a churn dash type block and so I got out my graph book and after five tries, came up with some OK measurements and here is what I made.  

It isn't quilted as yet, but Sandra said I could show it.  I've called it Churn Dash Twist and the 2 centres have fabric  I bought in Whitby some years back while on holiday in UK.

I'm keeping this short and sweet, but hope to be back tomorrow with a catchup post of all sorts of things.

Being a bit down is not good, but we've actually had some sunshine yesterday & today, so that is helping somewhat.

Hope you've all had a good weekend & next week goes well.

Take care all and huge hugs from down under.

Susan.

A DAY OF MANY THINGS.

 1.   Happy Yorkshire Day.

A very old applique that is still awaiting placement somewhere.

This is a greeting to all my family and friends who reside there.

2.  Horse's Birthday.

OK, they are 2 ponies & I took these photos on Saturday where we spent a lovely afternoon with a friend and her foster grandchildren.  More later in the post.

3.  Wattle or Arbour Day, depending on where you are.

Wattle in bloom.

4.  A 50th birthday greeting for my cousin's daughter, who was the first great grandchild of my maternal grandfather, then along came my daughter to make 2 for him in the one year.

Now for some quirky bits'n'pieces from the end of July.

Two photos I snapped while we were cutting firewood at our friend's farm.

A conical sort of toadstool.

A wee frog, some of which end up coming home with us in the wood.  I rescue them and put them in the garden near our pond.

A few from our garden.

My Garrya which is looking gorgeous with its catkins.

It has been cool, but this is the first ice we've had on the pond on Saturday.

Saturday afternoon saw us call at a friend's place and as I mentioned above her 2 grandies were there, so as it was one of our first sunny days in a while, we took the ponies from their paddock, gave them a brush, then out came the cart and she took each of them for a ride up and down the lane they live on.  I'm being very good and will just show my friend making sure everything was right.

J, pony and trap.

And I was being hassled by my favourite little girl.  I've known her since she was a pup & I think I showed the 2 little dog coats I knitted a while ago and she was one of the recipients.

Gum blossom in J's garden, just coming into flower.

Now for a little jaunt we took yesterday for some much promised photos of the daffodil fields that are just south of town.  Each year the leased paddocks seem to change & it ends up a game of trying to spot where they are.

Looking toward the hills.

You can see cattle being fed out on the hill in the distance and the odd white jonquil in among the yellow.

Looking another way and you can see more up and ready to open.

On the other side of the road and going up a hill with a couple of rows of white ones.

I love seeing all these coming into bloom from mid July and expect the markets in Melbourne are now well stocked.

Further on we decided to do a round trip and a few photos follow of a view and the steepness of the countryside once in South Gippsland.  There is a "very" bad photo to end this lot today and I'll explain in the caption.

Can you see just how steep this hill is in the foreground and there is a tractor to the left in the far background.

Now for an explanation. 
Here we have a wombat nibbling on grass, but I was standing on a very precarious piece of ground, it was windy and I was cold and shivering by this time and just didn't manage to get a worthwhile photo, but here it is anyway.  They are just so cute and I do love our native wildlife.

OK, enough of my twaddle today and I had intentions of posting some quilt and crafty photos, but although I could share something, with having 2 partial days out and being somewhat cloudy today, I've not fancied trying to take the photos of 2 flimsies, so later this week, we'll do an update.

Have a great week all, take care and huggles from down under.

Susan.