A QUILTY CATCHUP............Hoping this all works.

 Over most of this year I've been struggling with technical issues in all areas, including this PC, my laptop, our home phone and my very old mobile which I've replaced too.  Oh...... and my long-arm machine has also thrown a few hissy fits, probably because I've been so stressed and lost a lot of mojo for everything.  Along with all that my younger brother has had health issues.

Putting all that on my blog, may help me get started with this blog again.  Loading photos has been an issue, so if I've already shown some of these I apologise.  Most of these were made in 2023/4, and not all are quilted yet, so here goes.

MALTED MYSTERY.

This first photo is a QAL I was participating in with Cheryl Brickey from Meadow Mist Quilting blog & although this photo hasn't got the outer borders, it is now awaiting quilting.

TINKER TOYS.

I saw that my friend Sandra from MMM quilts had a lovely pattern in a recent magazine, so purchased the said magazine & used some lovely little sweet pea panels for the centre of the blocks.  This photo doesn't show the colours all that well & I'm still getting to grips with how the photo app works.  This is also waiting in the to-be quilted tub.  I may rename this, but this is Sandra's name for it.

MEMORIES.

One of my own designs to showcase an embroidery I did last year.  I got the beautiful embroidery from the internet, so not one I could even hope to draw myself.  I'm pleased with how it turned out so far.  To be quilted too and named properly.

ALL TOGETHER.

This was another QAL with Cheryl using her latest book Just Two Charm Pack Quilts.  I chose to use 3 different blocks from the book & work out how to fit them together.  I'm so pleased with the result & it is quilted.  We had a fun photo shoot day down on the coast overlooking Bass Strait.

CUDDLES.

Now this little baby quilt is one of my own design to use some "baby" fabric I had in my stash, ready for a little one coming & not knowing whether it was a boy or girl.  HE is here now & the quilt winged its way across the sky & ended up in beautiful Yorkshire.

MEADOW FLOWERS.

Now this is a fun photo of a very, very old quilt I made and never taken a photo or labelled it.  Out one day and seeing this great little Morris not far from home, made me think I could do a silly photo shoot.  It was hard to get a good shot with both bright sunlight & wind.  Anyway, I did the best I could.

WHITE ROSE OF YORKSHIRE QUILT.

Another not so good photo, but I may try again at some stage.  The centre of this quilt happens to be the White Rose of Yorkshire, which I did way back at the beginning of my blog in 2013/4 and last year I turned it into this and did straight line quilting on my ordinary machine.  I'm so pleased with the result.

TONKA TOYS.

Lost the plot here a bit with where I want to type, but I'll do this one differently.  

One of my own designs which reminded of the toys our sons used to play with when little boys.

I've only just done this so not quilted as yet, but did want to include it here.

HAPPPY SCRAPPY

Last, but not least and this was a fun day out for a quilt photo shoot.  Taken up at the very small rail museum at Noojee in the foothills north of us on the way to Mt. Baw Baw.  I designed this for using up some of my mountains of scraps.  It is quilted & awaiting its label.

OK enough for today & hope I can get this posted and will try and do a few posts over the coming weeks of a couple of great times away, though not a lot of good photos, due to not knowing how to download the photos from my camera to this Windows 11 setup.  Is there anyone out there with similar problems.  Just call me old-fashioned or maybe ancient.

Thanks for reading this if you come along & find me again,

Take care and hugs from Susan.

STILL HERE............COMPUTER PROBLEMS.

 I could have titled this rudely, but a quick post to say I am around.

Not long after I did my last post in February, we had horrific storms in our area and my computer died😕, so it has been fixed somewhat, though I am struggling finding my way around Windows 11.  It is so different, that I couldn't download my photos from my camera & although someone helped me, I'm still struggling with all of this.  Hopefully over the coming months I can get back on track.

We've had frightful weather of late too, with so little sunshine (I suffer from SAD) & bitter cold rain & wind, that I'm just feeling rather dejected.  We had a few quick times away in van, one being our older son's wedding & more signing of papers for my younger brother.  Soon I may be able to pop on some photos etc.  Crafting has been on the slow side, but it is still a big part of our lives.

I have been reading all my blogs, though some I can't get into anymore and as for commenting.......what on earth has blogger done?  I'll try and use this PC with its updated version more often and see if the comments actually appear.  Sorry for my absence, both from my own blogging and commenting on others.

All from me till next week.  Take care all and huge hugs from the "land down under".

Susan.

FEBRUARY ALREADY...............TIME IS FLYING.

 OK, I've so much catching up to do, but we'll start with what Hubby & I saw whilst away doing more signing of documents for little brother with the bonus of seeing DD & family in their new home in Sydney.  My little brother turned 70 on Feb. 1st & we had a nice luncheon at the Life after Work premises, cooked by the staff & a few of the participants who are intellectually disabled & this is where they come after finishing their working life in a Sheltered Workshop.

The adventure started with our usual drive with caravan up the Prince's Highway along the east coast of Victoria and New South Wales.  Along the way we see lots, but due to having the caravan in tow, we can't always stop or travel down little dirt tracks.

We stop at Orbost fur lunch usually on banks of the Snowy River & this time we saw this little fellow.

A water dragon.............you may have to right click to enlarge.

As we travel near Cobargo, we see the ruins of an old house through the trees, which is down one of the said side dirt tracks.  This time as we neared it, there were roadworks in progress where we had to stop for about 5-10 minutes and a few trees had been removed on the verge, so out came the camera & I captured a few photos, although not the best, so a couple are below.

I cropped this so you can see more of it.

As we usually view it through the trees.

The surrounding countryside of so much of our trip along the highway.

We finally reached our destination of Shoalhaven Heads where we stay for the main part of our trips up north. and what did we have for company for our stay..............more water dragons.😉

Not the best photo as I couldn't get too near as they run off before I capture them.

We also had a free day so took advantage of  it having a drive on the Nerriga road south west of Nowra.

It proved very interesting, although I have been on it before, but not for many years.

First stop was down a dirt track to a spectacular lookout.

The views were great, although there was a very misty haze across the ranges.

Down between the rocks that the lookout is set on, there was an old rusty car body.
Such a strange place to see something like this.

The rocky plateau the lookout is set on.

Further along the road another lookout, this time with a beautiful waterfall and a far reaching valley.

The waterfall

The valley with so many trees.  It is all very breathtaking around this area.

Next stop was Nerriga where there is a small township and a lovely old pub.

The town name sign across from the pub.

Said Pub.

K having a rest on a rustic bench...........beer kegs topped by scaffold boards.

The plasma-cut commemoration silhouette beside the pub for the 2019/20 bushfires which ravaged the area.

The signage which is hard to read as the sun was shining on it.

We had a lovely cup of tea inside the Pub, then started our journey back to Nowra & along the way I'd spotted more ruins.  Not sure whether they were due to these particular fires or just age that had got to them.

The amazing rock formations on the ascent from the Endrick River.

A lone chimney sitting in a paddock with any ruins.

Further along a beautiful tree with another chimney peeking out from behind.

This is another view with more of the paddock & ruins.

Next day was the start of our trip home and I knew there were more photos to happen if I could remember exactly where we needed to stop as the caravan was with us again.  Again they are ruins with 4 chimneys.

4 lonely chimneys amongst the ruins which we can't see in this photo.

There are also some very pretty trees in flower on the property, but I wan't close enough to make out what they were.

Finally we arrived home on the Sunday, travelling in 38°C heat, which is close to what is today again.

Too hot.

I'm trying to catch up with some gardening & sewing after our mammoth washing marathon the first few days after we get back.

A sneak peek at what I'm trying to do.

First................I shared a layer cake pack with friend Janice (Janimary blog) to do our 2 Charm Pack challenge quilts.

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

I'm being wayward again.  Watch this space.
This something I'm doing from Meadow Mist blog.

I'm also trying (the operative word) to join in with the Chookshed Challenge.

And of course I missed the first one which was No. 6, but will try and do No. 2 which is for February.

Best go and post this as it is nearly teatime here in Oz (6pm) and I am so HOT.

Take care all & hugs from Susan.

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.

 

ADELAIDE TRIP - Part Three.

 Sorry about the lateness of these posts, but we have a lot happening and been so busy of late.                        I'll try and catch up over the next few days.

Leaving Mt. Gambier, we headed for Warrnambool for one last night before wending our way home.

On the way we noticed a few things and also stopped in at Dartmoor, which I have shown before, but a few photos were beckoning.

The sign for the beautiful carved trees.

We'd stopped for a cuppa near these ones, though pity it was garbage day.

A little further along the road I spied this beauty.

Such a sweet tractor, which makes you smile.

Then we saw this,  what was evidently a museum of sorts, which is now up for sale.

Outside there were placed some lovely old machinery bits and I think what must have been a shop.  Couldn't find much information about it anywhere.

Part of what must have been the complex.

Lovely old machinery and the old store.

More rusting relics.

Along a side road, the sign pointed to a beach, so a quick trip to see this out of the way spot.

If you click on this photo, you will spy hundreds of little birds, which I expect were baby seagulls, although there was a sign warning of pesky plovers too.

Arriving in Warrnambool, we parked up the van and went for a little drive back out to a lookout we pass along the highway, but haven't stopped before.  A few photos follow of what is at Tower Hill Lookout.

The view from the roadside of the lookout, over the water which is looking south.

From the other side we this rock formation and the view further along is more water (below), either the Hopkins River or part of what was the last active volcano in Victoria.  I should have found out more.

Off down that road you see, which takes you down into the reserve and what did I spy along the way, but an emu or two, one of which is shown below.

We made our way back to the caravan, stopping at one of the whale viewing areas, but alas no whales were sighted.

The beach with waves rolling in & a few people wandering along.

The timber viewing area with great views if only there hadn't been a sea mist covering the cliffs further along.

That's it for today and hope you enjoy seeing the last of our trip and I will try and get back with another quick trip away, some garden photos and crafty bits soon.

As I explained, we've had a lot on our plates and to top it all of, DD and family are moving back to Sydney for her hubbies work.  I so miss our kids and grandkids these days.

Another thing is this Blogging Dilemma we seem to be experiencing with commenting and replies...............will we see some sort of fixing or is it another thing which is changing.  I'm tired of keeping up with so much change, chaos and worldwide unrest.

Thanks for hopefully some friends still following.

Take care all and hugs from Susan.