QUICK TRIP TO CANBERRA

I've been a bit quiet lately, but we have a lot happening.  Our house is on the market now and last Friday we made a quick trip to see our son and family in Canberra.  Actually we were delivering a small motor bike to him.  Hubby recently bought a BMW and knew he had to sell the smaller Honda CB250 and J decided to take it off his hands.  It is now time for us to downsize a little, (we are nearing retirement),  and try and clean up about 40 years of accumulated "stuff".  We also need a flatter block of land, but I still want to be able to garden, as it is something I love.  I will miss a lot of what I have in this garden, but know I can replant the things I love.  Over the coming weeks, I will probably post quite a few photos of what is flowering as it is nearly Spring here in Oz.

But, today I am showing some pics of the countryside between here and Canberra.

Vineyards in the Yarra Valley.

Three large trucks in front of us with rolls of conveyer belts, possibly for the mines in Queensland.

Tree ferns beside the road in the Dandenong Ranges.

Wattle in flower (mimosa to those in the UK)

The photo above and below  is the scenery beside where we stopped for lunch.  It was just a Rest Area, which we have here in Oz beside the road.

These large poles are resting places for sugar gliders (possums) so they can get across the freeway without landing on the road.  We also have possum crossings with rope between the poles.

A rocky outcrop on the top of a hill.

The road towards Cooma, the gateway to the Snowy Mountains. 

A corrugated iron shearing shed, which is quite typical here.

As we drove closer to the Victorian border, the scenery changes quite dramatically to tree covered mountains.

A mural painted on the side of a coffee shop in Cann River.  Note the sign on the gate.

The beautiful church in Cann River, with it's Lych gate.

An old trestle rail bridge over the Snowy River flood plain.

It disappears into the trees.  I'd love to follow it, but it's on private land.

Some of these photos aren't the best, as they were taken through the windows whilst travelling.  We can't always find a good place to stop to take our pics, but I thought they may be interesting for people who don't know Australia.

Now for  some news I got tonight from our daughter.  She rang to say she has just landed herself  a job which she applied for last week.  She hasn't worked for eight years whilst her children were small, and wasn't sure how she'd go, but we are so proud that she will be working 2 days per week as an integration aide at the school our grandchildren attend.

I will be AWOL again this weekend.  We are going to try out our new car with our caravan.  I am going to attend a "Statler" retreat with some like minded ladies who have long arm quilting machines with computers attached.  If you have been following my blog, you will have seen the large machine in my studio pics.  Hopefully I will pick up some tips and techniques and new ideas.  I will post next week about it.  We will be going to the retreat in  Bordertown, which is just over the Victorian border in South Australia, but staying in Keith, (my hubby's name).  We leave on Thursday morning and will be back on Sunday night.  Hopefully it will be a little warmer than it has been for the last couple of days.  The temperature got up to all of 8 deg here today and has been wet and windy.

Had two viewings on the house at this stage and another open day on Saturday.

All for now and everyone, have a lovely weekend.
Susan.

CHRISTMAS QAL

This is just a quick post.
I've done some work on my QAL blocks during the last 2 weeks and have only done the bows on 5 out of the 9 so far.
Joanna asked if the design was my own, but I'm afraid it is not this time.  The pattern was from a QNM free sheet which I used to get each Xmas as I had an overseas subscription.  It is called ROWS OF BOWS and is the Christmas Memory 1988 designed by Allison Gray.
Below is a photo of 3 while I was trying out sashing and cornerstone ideas.

That's all for now and I want to thank everyone for commenting on my last post.  We've been ever so busy with different things that I keep running out of time.  Have a lovely Sunday.

QUILTING ---- HELP NEEDED!!!!!!

Below is a photo of a quilt I made from a Block of the Month, some years ago, (only kit I've ever bought).  I really need to get on with quilting it for our local Lioness Biennial Quilt show in September.  My initial thoughts were to custom quilt it, but I've done one before where I wasn't able to quilt over the stitcheries and it really flopped out badly.  I think I will do an allover on mine in a Roses and Ribbons pattern.  I am now asking if other quilters think this will be OK?

This was the kit called Sahara's Quilt.  I enjoyed doing the stitcheries and although I didn't pick the colours I do love it.

As I've not been feeling the best on this new blood pressure medication, I've not got a lot done except the necessities of ordinary everyday life.  Yesterday I made the decision to finally quilt the third table runner sitting waiting on the machine, for now nearly three weeks. I made it simple, but am quite pleased with it.

Table runner

Closeup of centre quilting.

I've also done some work on the Xmas Quiltalong ready for this coming weekend. Being so extremely tired, nothing much is being attempted of an evening, though I am trying.  Just want to have as much energy and enthusiasm as I did 18 months ago.  Everyone can give me a bit of a push occasionally.
I'll tell more about what I am putting in the quilt show over the coming weeks.
Have a lovely weekend all my fellow bloggers, even though it is Friday tomorrow, my hubby has that and Saturday off this week, so my weekend starts then.
Susan.

OLD CAR, NEW CAR

Well, this weekend saw our old car traded for a newer car.  We've made the decision as we are coming up to retirement to replace our larger car with a newer model.  We use this most of the time and also pull our caravan with it.  We will let my little one go as soon as I am comfortable driving this new one.  Registrations for three cars in retirement is just too much.  One car should be fine once we feel comfortable with all the changes.

Old car

New car

Once we had picked up the car on Saturday, we went to our daughter's for the day.  It was quite cold so we spent most of our time indoors, catching up on news and playing with our two grandchildren.  Later we finished those little birds I showed  in an earlier post.  Daughter also supplied  hooks and handiwork for some earrings I purchased at the show last week.  The Eiffel Towers are for a friend for Xmas and the owls for me.  She also finished some pink ones for herself.

Pink bird is daughters and blue bird mine along with our earrings.

I wasn't going to buy anything at the Craft and Quilt Show last week, but below is what I came home with.

Today I popped into the garden for a while and picked a small bunch of flowers.  I put these into a little vase and placed them on the shelves in the lounge room.  I also found that I have flowers on some iris below the weeping cherry.  We have lived in this house for nine years and the iris have come up every year, but never flowered, but to my surprise we have 4 buds.  I think they are going be a pale mauve.

Iris and some daffs.

2 different azaleas, rhodendron and a hellebore.

Not a lot done this weekend really, but very enjoyable.  Hope everyone has a lovely week.
Susan.

HAPPY YORKSHIRE DAY.

Hope the weather was lovely  in Yorkshire to celebrate your special day.  I meant to post this last night so it was ready for the morning of 1st of  August, but I was so tired I didn't get to the computer.

A couple of photos from our previous trips to God's Own County.

Whitby Abbey.

Saltaire

Bingley Five Rise

Looking out from the Cow and Calf.

That was just a quick post for my Yorkshire blogging buddies.
Susan.