SKEWIFF - A DreAMi Post.

Linking with my good friend Sandra from mmm.quilts for our "drop everything and make it" linkup.

I quite often find I want to make one of the quilts I design on my Quilt Wizard program & other things can get in the way, but sometimes the squirrel take over.  The quilt below was one that wasn't getting away.

I'm afraid the photo isn't too good as it's been so inclement here of late and with very poor light in this house I've done the best I can.  The little green clown car is one of DH's squirrels & the bonnet & boot go up and down in time with the little clown behind the windshield.  I'll try and get better ones of it later outside, when we have a dry and sunny day.  All made from my stash and quilted & bound this month.

Another squirrel is appearing, but this one is being made because I found some leftover triangles lurking in a basket I was cleaning up & thought were too good to throw away.

I sewed them into pinwheels & stuck them on the design board seeing which way they might look best - on point or straight, then voila....................an idea struck and today I'm up to this.......

It will be a baby quilt to give away when finished.  I really did this by the seat of my pants as they say, with no drawings, diagrams or anything else.  Border idea is shown at the bottom.

Talking of my projects on the go, I have 2 quiltalongs I'm participating in, one being Sandra's "Follow Your Own Path"  with our reveal on June 15th and a drawn out one by my friend Joy from

 Days Filled with Joy which has embroidery and piecing.  Below is how far along I am with Joy's QAL, Lets Stay Home".

Best go and get some more of my binding sewn down tonight on the second of my FYOP's while watching some mindless TV and trying to calm the anxiety which has come again with our new strict lockdown because of this damn pandemic crisis.  And yes, I am stressed and so glad I have my quilting and garden to keep me busy and we went for a good walk this afternoon as the sun had come out although it is very cold with another frosty morning tomorrow.  We aren't allowed to go anywhere, except for food, medical appointments, work or caring for someone., so for us it is stay at home and hope it won't last long.

Please take care all, stay safe & huge hugs from down under.

Susan.

FRIDAY PHOTO SCAVENGER HUNT - MUSIC

 Today, the last of Mays' photo hunt words' is MUSIC, so joining in and linking up with Astrid.

Photos are varied aspects from my own enjoyment of music, which I inherited from my Dad.  Growing up in the 50s meant we didn't have TV till I was around 11 years old, so our radio & record player were big parts of my childhood.

The music notes Keith fashioned for me some years ago & I finally framed & now have hanging on the wall.

My beloved Cottage piano which I bought in the late 80's whilst living in Tasmania.

I can tinkle away on the piano, but not well as DH will attest to, so it doesn't get much use now that he is retired and it doesn't live in this position anymore since we had the woodburner installed on this wall.  I learnt to play when I was 5 for about 9 months till we found out the 2nd hand piano we had needed a large amount of work on it, which my parents couldn't afford. Luckily I was able to read music & our public schools always had singing & bands as part of our education. In my teen years I bought one cheap from a Scout Hall, only to find it also need fixing, then we moved & I had to get rid of it as it wouldn't fit in the new house my parents purchased.  Fast forward to a few years in Batlow, & I was given an old one, which definitely had seen better days, so that was left at our rented house we were living in while we built our new house.  The move to Tassie, then saw me purchase a "brand new" one, shown above.

My little table harp, which I actually purchased at Saltaire Mill Music shop in UK.
About all I really know how to play on it is Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, but I do love it.

Music fabrics, above and below.
I've collected them over the years and do have an idea, but just haven't got around to it yet.

And for the last is this.................................

Andre Rieu in concert at Rod Laver Arena in Melbourne in 2009.
I actually took this photo myself so probably not the best.

This wasn't the first of his concert's we'd been to in Melbourne, having attended the one on his first tour of Australia a few years earlier.  The first one was absolutely huge and amazing and the night we were there was the one they recorded for his Australian DVD.

During my teen years I went to very few concerts and then a wonderful experience whilst living in Tassie was seeing Cliff Richard at the Entertainment Centre in Hobart.  One of my pop idols.  Keith and I've also been to some great musicals, so treasure those times very much in these difficult times.

OK, enough twaddle from me about my love of MUSIC & will link this up now.

Thanks to other Hunt bloggers who were way ahead of me.  Take care all, stay safe & hugs from down under.

Susan. 

FRIDAY PHOTO SCAVENGER HUNT - MIRROR

 Friday again already...........where is the month going.  Today we will link with Astrid for the word........ ..MIRROR.

I've found a few odd things along with the rather obvious mirrors.

My dressing table which I have posted before.  
I purchased this in Tasmania in the mid 80's and it is made from Tasmanian Blackwood and is around circa 1910, we think.

The window frame, again which I've used recently.  DH made it and we placed mirror tiles behind to reflect the light.

A beautiful curved window mirror which I photographed in the sales section of the Visitor Information Centre at Fountains Abbey, back in 2014 when on holiday in UK.

Thinking of other options, I remembered the mirror like reflections in the dam at Gulf Station, a National Trust property in the Dandenong Ranges, here in Victoria.

Lastly, I snapped this about 10 minutes ago, when a silly idea popped into my head as I was about to do this post.

I have used this little mirror several times over the years to see how a section of fabric might look by fussy cutting in different shapes to form a hidden image.  Not as complicated as I've put it, but very hard to explain here.  

Well that's my lot for this week and now I'm off to link up and later see what the other hunters have come up with.

Freezing here today with cloud, wind, rain and the possibility of snow down to very low levels, though we very, very rarely get actual snow, but a little bit of sleet for a few minutes when it's cold enough.

Have a great weekend all, take care, stay safe & hugs from down under.

Susan.

WAITING GAME..............

 Not a lot to tell, but we are still waiting for our car to be fixed and just don't know when that will be.          A quick catch up on my lovely Sunday at DD's with a tasty BBQ lunch & a few presents.  Lucky me.   We went across in the Morris & Master L who is now 15, had actually never been for a ride in it and was so chuffed when we all went to Bunnings & Pop took him in it.  The smiles said it all.

A few photos follow of  bits'n'bobs I captured yesterday.

My visitor first thing Monday morning and he sat for quite a while.  The photo was taken through the kitchen window as I didn't want to disturb him in case he flew off before I could take the snap.

My camellia called Volunteer has it's first open bloom.
Isn't she beautiful.

Freesia foliage appearing in the front garden bed.
It was a very murky day yesterday, so not the best photos. 

    

Part of my Mothers' Day present were the 2 small plants on the right & the two on the left were my own splurge while at  Bunnings Garden Centre.  I made the mosaic pot many years ago when I was a volunteer at our Vision Australia day program.  This photo & the 2 that follow were taken on the verandah potting bench with our weather screen stuff  behind which seems to make the background very blurry.

A few bits I've been playing with lately. The small white urn was purchased at Rusted Garden Art which I blogged about last month.

My old macrame hanger which I made in the 80's while living in Batlow and not used for many a year, now sports an old container & a few plants I hope will soon fill out.

The corner isn't quite as colourful, but still looks OK with a few things waiting to be either potted or go in the garden.  We aren't quite on top the garden with ideas coming to halt until we have the car fixed and see how it hit the finances.😔

The long terracotta pot (above) and the gorgeous carved timber container (below) were both picked up from a nearby reclamation centre for next to nothing and silly me just couldn't leave them.
I'd forgotten to take any photos when we acquired them and I'm about to plant up the long one with a few wayward forget-me-not plants growing near the blueberries.

This post came about because of these two presents & also why I got the Bottle Baby plants.  My granddaughter bought me the bunch of tulips and DD gave me the book so I can have a go at terrariums.  I did try once and not very successful, so watch this space.

One last photo, in case some of my followers haven't seen the Morris which I've been talking of a bit lately.

And.......with it's own quilt I made way back in the very late 80s for our black Morris sedan we used when the kids were young. Sadly we no longer have that one and
five of us definitely wouldn't have fitted in the ute(lol), which was our later project.

OK, enough of my babble today and I will be back on Friday for the photo hunt.

Thanks for reading, take care, stay safe and huggles.

Susan.

FRIDAY PHOTO SCAVENGER HUNT - SPACE

 Linking today with Astrid for our photo hunt.  I found this one, actually unusual/different & really had to put my thinking hat on.  

MY SPACE.

This is the "space " I call my own.  A bedroom at the back of our house with a sort of view of part of the garden.  I have just changed it all around as my son-in-law came and put in 2 more power points so I wasn't continually stepping over extension cord, which I've been doing for 6 years now.  The original power point was in a strange position.  I'm getting to grips with the new layout and it seems to be working well.  Below I'm showing the SPACE.

View from doorway.

The wall beside the doorway to the right of this.

View from window end.

As you walk in the door we have some storage boxes.

Looking from my cutting table toward the window.

Now I can see the doorway from my sewing machine and not be frightened by hubby suddenly creeping into the room in his bare feet.😊

This room is about 11' x 10' with a wardrobe behind where I have my design wall standing, so not very large, but it's adequate, though I would like my old setup from No.4 where I had the quilting machine in my sewing area too.

Just a few photos of my old studio in the house we sold back in 2013 & moved when retirement happened.  I even miss some of the furniture I sold, but, life happens and changes and I can still create wherever I am.

My lot done for today and sure as eggs I will now think of something else I could have used as SPACE.

Off to link this and late I'll pop in to see what everyone else has conjured up.

Take care all, stay safe & huggles from down under.

Susan.

QUILTY CATCH UP.

 Whoa............so behind with  reading blogs & doing my own more regularly, so this is a short and sweet catch-up for my crafty bits.  There has been quite a few appointments that got way behind because of the Pandemic, then to top it all off, our 4wd car that is both our everyday vehicle & used for towing the caravan has a transmission problem, so we are down to the Morris for getting about till the other is fixed.  

This maybe a bit photo heavy with quilting.

Paper Chains.

This was to be my linkup quilt for Meadow Mist Designs "Favourite Finish" for April.  I did this as a mystery QAL with my friend Joy and it was meant to be finished by Christmas 2020, but didn't quite make it.

Catitude.

I wasn't going to put this one on as someone once mentioned it was like a big ugly blob, but here it is finally quilted and bound & I think looking OK.  It has a feature fabric in the middle & my Attic block border.  If you click on it to make it larger, you will see the cats having fun in a sewingroom.

Cobbles beside mural.

Cobbles in closeup.

Cobbles back.

This quilt was made in the height of the Pandemic when I was feeling pretty low and thought how dark everything had become, hence finding lots of black, black/white colours in my stash. I'd thought about posting this for my linkup with Sandra from mmmquilts for our DrEaMi each month, but I didn't get any photos till today.  I designed this oblong log cabin block a while back and now actually think it is quite a nice quilt and taking these photos against the mural on The Robin Hood Hotel, not far from where we live was quite fun. The back was once again cobbled together from many leftover backing from other projects.

OK, enough from me today and I'll be back on Friday for our word - "Space".

Take care all, stay safe & huggles from Susan.

.  

FRIDAY PHOTO SCAVENGER HUNT - BUBBLE.

 Linking with Astrid for this weeks word of "BUBBLE".

The first thing that came to mind was the "bubble" we've all been living in over the past year, but I by-passed that thought & looked for other odd bits that were either bubbles or resembled them, so here goes.........

"Bubble cars" which we saw at the Lakeland Motor Museum in 2014 when we holidayed in the UK.
Notice hubby checking them out.

Also in the UK, but 2016  when we travelled across the Dales to Timble & saw these on the way.
They certainly remind me of "bubbles", although I know some people refer to them as golf balls.
I should have an old photo of the ones no longer on the North York Moors, but couldn't find it.

Heading west on the freeway from home towards Melbourne, we can see the enormous dome of the football stadium, known as Aami Park, where they play Rugby League/Union & Soccer.
It always reminds me of a giant bubble.

Last, but not something you could see after I quilted a pattern called "Bubbles" on this quilt.  It was done before I got my new machine & alas I've not even a picture of the paper pattern I used, so will leave it to your imagination.

I really did find this one difficult & spent a fair amount of time searching the archives.  Hope it isn't too far fetched for the word.

Been so busy too with an array of "stuff" that needed doing, so short and sweet today & I'll link this up now.

Take care all, stay safe & hugs.

Susan.