LAGGING BEHIND..................A BIT OF THIS & THAT!

 We'll start with apologies for not blogging lately and that is just due to my mood, weather and so many changes going on in our world.  Now let's see what we've been up to during winter so far, though it will be mostly quilt stuff, as I need to link with Meadow Mist Designs.

A couple of finishes and photo shoots have finally happened in July.

Two photos  taken outside in a local town park of THE VILLAGE quilt I did as QAL with Sandra from mmmquilts and now it has taken up residence at our towns Special School.  More about that later.

Deco Delight
Now quilted and bound & photographed sideways on a friend's stationary tram.
It's been hard to take photos outside due to the weather.  One of my own designs.

WHIMSEY NO.2
This is another of my own designs, made after my first Whimsey, which was made to replicate colours in a crocheted rug by the lovely Lucy at Attic24 blog.
Photo taken yesterday inside due weather constraints again.

So good to have these out of the tub of shame & finished.

I'm also participating in a book blog hop with Cheryl, again from Meadow Mist Designs and am showing my progress on Snapdragon Cove from her latest quilt book, called Just 2 Charm Packs.

It's not working out as well as I'd hoped and that is my own fault with the Layer Cake I chose to use up.

It has been hanging around on the shelf for a long time and if I remember rightly was a thank you gift from someone from long ago.  I'll persevere and hope to finish the flimsy soon, get it quilted and bound. I'm thinking of gifting it to Windgap Foundation for the Christmas Raffle they run at the end of the year.

What has happened so far.

HSTs done & sorted.  Quite a lot.

Starting the placement of a few, then sewing together.

This is how far I've progressed up till yesterday.

Now for a quick update on the Great Southern Rail Trail.

We started off at Meeniyan & walked back to where we finished our walk last time, then of course had to walk back to Meeniyan and think in all we did between 8-9 kilometres.

Just as we left that signage above we discovered a gorgeous community garden, which I'll do a catch up post later this week.  Below is one of the quirky sculptures in the garden, which I love.

Next a photo of the bridge we crossed with the old rail bridge beside, as you can see, has deteriorated over the years.

OK, I'm finishing up this post for today and will hopefully be back with more this week and must keep my blog up to date, for my own pleasure/sanity and hopefully others who enjoy seeing wacky bits of our life.  

Take care all and big hugs from a cool, but sunny day from down under.

Susan.

STILL AROUND...............CATCHING UP A LITTLE.

 OK, this post will just be a quick summary of a few things.  We've been busy in a weird way, with weather interfering for the plans we'd made for June.  So much for organising our life to get different things done in the garden, a little work on the caravan & getting out in nature for our rail trail walks. 

We'll start with some quilting, then a day out.

My Village quilt which I've been doing as a QAL with Sandra at mmmquilts and isn't going to be quilted before the deadline of 30th June.  It is ready to go, but I just can't get the mojo going.

Two squirrels happened this month, so may link this with Sandra's DrEaMi post.

Let Your Star Shine.
This is a pattern by Sandra, that I've had for a while and thought I could do it with fabric from my stash for a raffle quilt.  It will go to Windgap Foundation who are carers for my young brother.

Square Up.
Just a piece of nonsense to use stash fabric from the baskets of bundles I've put together.
One of my own designs.

The photos aren't the best due to our dreary weather and having to have the lights on all the time.  Natural light is so much better.

A DAY OUT.

We took ourselves out one morning to take some photos of a few quilts in the open air, as the weather was fine & reasonable sunny.  But not long into the journey, clouds came in, then wind and then......rain!  No quilt photos, but I did snap these two things.

We'd gone to Fish Creek, where there is a beautiful art deco hotel, to take photos of my Deco Delight quilt now that it is finished, but that didn't happen.

Whilst there we noticed a new to us mural (above) & snapped it through my open window.

On our way home we noticed this road sign.  Notice anything odd?  I'll see if anyone can guess.

This was taken through a very wet windscreen.

What else has been happening?  Well not a lot except the usual housework, cutting firewood to keep warm & dry the washing and keeping up with mundane bits of life.  I did make a bit of time to gather some thoughts on using up my stash and scraps to start a few charity quilts and try and start writing some patterns.  Will the pattern writing happen?.................maybe.

A few of my own designs laid out and one actually done.
Below are the containers filled with fabric bundles that may become quilts one day.
Excuse the messiness of my sewing room, which has actually gone through a change to accommodate a new set up with my machine table.

Lastly, 2 new books have come my way.  I may even think about going in a BlogHop with the Charm Pack book, although I've never participated in one before.  Should I or shouldn't I?  That is the dilemma.

Well, that has been a strange post for me, but until I get myself together properly, it will have to do.

Just a thought..................I was talking to a few friends at our Car Club the other weekend and some of us have to come to the conclusion, that we are suffering from "Pandemic Hangover" as the world has changed so much.  With most of us being on the older side, it's been hard to deal with so much change.

OK, enough babble from me.  If you take the time to read this, Thank You.

Take care all and hugs from another dreary wet morning here down under.

Susan.

MY QUILT VILLAGE...............SO FAR.

 

I'm linking today with Sandra from mmmquilts in Canada with what I have achieved so far with my take on her Rainbow Neighbourhood QAL.  Mine is to be a quaint village, reminiscent of English villages and will be going to the Special School to hang on the wall.  

I'll start with an overall photo on the design wall and then each individual building.  Two still need to have embroidered letters for School & Library.  Wonder if you might guess which 2 they are?  Here goes..........

I've completed 8 of the 9 so far.

Trying so hard to put 2 photos on side by side so they don't take up much space, but cannot work it out.

These 4 above are my houses.

Next we have..................

The garden Pot Shop or maybe even an actual pottery.

Next comes.................

The Post Office.

I will see if anyone can guess what the next 2 might be.

I mirror reversed this one which will be in the centre of the 9.

Last of the eight I've done.

If you look closely or click to make the image larger, there is a giveaway hint in the windowpane.

The last building to come is something I think my friend Jo will probably guess before anyone else.

After nearly spitting the dummy, this will have to do for the layout of this post.  Maybe one day I'll learn the easy way of popping 2 photos side by side.

One last note of a funny day out on Sunday.  I was talking to someone at the Car Club on Saturday who just happened to mention his wife (not met her yet), was at a small local Quilt Show that was on the weekend, so off we headed on Sunday, only to find it was on Saturday ONLY.  So what did we do?

Went for a drive and ate some lunch looking out over Bass Strait & came home on some back roads.  A few photos follow.  I might add that the day was strange weather wise, with strong winds, cloud, a bit of rain occasionally followed by snippets of sun.

Taken from the car as it was so windy.
Kilcunda.

Driving through Mirboo North on a street we generally don't go down I noticed this gorgeous mural.

                                Not really the best photos as it was just starting to rain again.

OK, that's my lot for today and I'm posting this as is and must sort out a few more posts of catching up with our meanderings of late, The Silo Trail and other trivial bits.  The weather is absolutely foul again today, cold and wet and we have the woodburner lit.  Trying to dry washing too & have to do the grocery shopping this afternoon.  

Take care all and big warm hugs from down under.

Susan.

   

               

LINKING UP WITH TWO CHALLENGES.

 Today I've linked with 2 other quilty bloggers.

The first is with Cheryl from Meadow Mist Designs for the Favourite Finish.

Magic Triangles ( my own design).

These blocks were made many moons ago & sat waiting for inspiration to eventuate.  I finally decided on a setting, made it up, then it sat waiting in the tub of shame till last month.  I did a  very simple custom pattern on it.  

The second is with Patty from Elm Street Quilts & is a monthly goal plan to at least work on "something" you need to get done.

Deco Delight (my own design too).

I have shown this at the end of last year when I was slowly working on it after my silly fall.  Now I've decided it is time to get it quilted and bound, ready for the May Favourite Finish.😉  Wish me luck.

Other than the above, things have been quiet and strange, though we did have a nice walk on Tuesday along the Great Southern Rail Trail, so one more section done.  It was one of our only nice days for the last 3 weeks or so and has been cold, grey and raining for a good part of today.  At least this morning was dry so we could start cutting more wood for the coming winter months.  Below is the view from where we were working.

Not often I show what I've been cooking so here is what was made late last week.

Some buttery Yo Yo biscuits in both a flowery shape & ordinary round ones.
Our eldest granddaughter used to love these.

A lemon drizzle cake too.

Well that is a short post today and I really must finish off the Silo Trail this month.

My lovely friend Sandra at mmmquilts is hosting a QAL which is keeping me some what engrossed with rummaging through my scraps and...............mine is going to be a village.  More to tell as we progress on this.  Motivation has been hard lately.  The garden is looking sorry for itself too.

OK, enough from me now.

Take care all and hugs from a cool, damp down under.

Susan.

A BIT OF THIS........A BIT OF THAT.

 Oh dear, here I am on catch-up once again.  Let's just say it's been a stupidly hectic month so far with all sorts & Easter holidays thrown in as well, which seems to throw us into disarray for some reason.

I'll start with a bit of craft I've been doing.

This is what I've done so far for a QAL with Sandra from mmm.quilts in Canada.
It is Rainbow Neighbourhood Houses quilt, which I'm putting a little twist on.
More of that later.

My Dune crochet rug from an Attic 24 pattern.
DD gave me the pack for combined birthday/mothers day gift last year.
Enjoy doing this of an evening, along with below.

I do enjoy embroidery too and these kitty kats were in a very old QNM magazine which I kept, because DD loved them.  They have been keeping me amused lately & I have an idea of my own for the final quilt.

The Silo Trail continues..............

                                                                   COLBINNABIN

These were amazing and I took quite a few individual photos too, but we were surprised when this pulled up in the car park...............

We'd seen this before, when a gentleman gave a talk at our Car Club one morning and it always amazes me when you run into someone from near to your own town, when you are on the other side of the state.

Both the photos below were still in Colbinnabin.

A beautiful carved platypus on the log.

I love some of our older churches in country towns too.

                                                                            ROCHESTER.

I captured the art on these silos with I'm afraid a lot of background.

A possum and a kingfisher.

This time we have a painted platypus.

We've been hoping to get into the garden & do some tidying plus get in some good walking around & about, but the weather just hasn't been playing along.  I was hoping for lots of photos of quilts etc., in the wild and just get out in the fresh air.  There will be a few more posts containing the rest of the Silo Trail and hopefully lots more craft/garden etc..  One more pic for today is this......

Corellas sitting all over the roof of one of the houses behind us.  They come in huge flocks, flying around & squawking.  One of the little girls in the house directly behind us was amazed & we heard her say OMG & giggling.

Just remembered something I said I'd show once finished.

The framed jigsaw I wrote about last month.  To have it framed professionally, would probably have set us back around $200, but a very nice second hand frame purchased from a vintage shop cost all of $50 and looks great.  We are ever so pleased.

OK, I'll finish up here for today.  The sun tried valiantly to shine a few minutes ago, but is dreary again now.  

Take care all & hugs.

Susan.