10 DAY HEATWAVE NEARING END

 Tomorrow will hopefully bring a much needed cool change, although no rain is expected.  About a week of somewhat cooler temperatures before we start to climb back into the thirties next Wednesday.  I am writing this at 8.30pm and it is still over 28 deg.

COUNTRY CHARMER.

The photo below is the mock-up of my country charmer block, a pattern from Lynn at Sew'n Wild Oaks.
This one will be a table runner consisting of 3 blocks.  I'm sure a lot of eye-brows will be raised by choice of colours.

One Block.

 MAGNOLIA.

This is our magnolia, flowering very much out of season.  The photo was taken last night at dusk.  Tonight two more flowers are just opening.

Buds

Open flower.

GD "M"'s XMAS PRESENT

Hubby made this cradle for one of our 5 year old granddaughters.  She loves it and always has dolls in it.

Doll cradle.

LOTS OF BITS.

This week has brought a little bit of a bounty.  Hubby found the latest Chelsea flower show DVD for me.

My CC pattern arrived, and a few days later the postie delivered my March Yorkshire Life and a local bulb catalogue.  The bulb catalogue has quite a few things I would like.

Lovely things.

SIMPLE CHEESECAKE.

This simple cheesecake is dessert tonight along with a little rhubarb and cream.  The rhubarb is one thing that is really doing well in the garden.

Tonight's dessert.

Well that has been the last couple of days with not doing too much in this heat.  Just the necessary stuff.

THE GOOD, THE BAD & THE UGLY

                          THE GOOD.

The good that has happened this week so far:-

1.  My "Country Charmer" pattern finally arrived from the USA on Tuesday.  (Val's did too).

2.  The RHS magazine  "The Garden" arrived in the post on Wednesday.

3.  Today, I found another magazine at our local newsagent that they have not had before.  It was       "Countryfile", which is a show I have watched while visiting family in the UK.  I bought it although I am trying hard not to buy magazines.

4.  Photo below was a surprise that appeared in the garden.  A lovely white belladonna lily, which I had forgotten I planted a couple of years ago.  I have one more white one and a pink one, neither of them have come through, I expect due to lack of rain.  My sedum has also flowered.

White  belladonna lily.

Sedum.

                        THE BAD

Now for the bad, for me anyway.  We have just experienced from the 3rd of this month 4 consecutive days above 30 deg with another 6 days forecast including today, which is now already 34 deg.  One of my quirks, is that once it reaches about 25 deg, I start to melt.  I know a lot of people who love this weather, but I don't.  It is supposed to be autumn, but, a lot of our trees have already lost their leaves and we will have to wait and see how much has died in the garden.  Sometimes when we get some good rain, it springs back and is quite amazing.  We have not had any rain this month as yet and none in sight.

                       THE UGLY.

You may already guess this one.  My garden really doesn't look good.  The violets have mostly died and I've lost a couple of azaleas.  The alstroemarias look awful and our lawn is very patchy.  The vegetable garden has ceased to be, except for my rhubarb.  Did make a lovely rhubarb and strawberry crumble the other night. (Bought strawberries as the birds, ants and skinks are eating mine.)  You can still be happy about all this in a way, as I know it will rain again and winter will be here eventually.

Wallabies and guess who?

I wasn't going to put a picture of me on this blog, but this is a little bit of fun after my whinging.  Disregard the date.  The feed is actually in an ice-cream wafer cone and they love that also, so grab them when you have finished the pellets.

Not done any sewing as my studio is so hot.  The not so flat quilt is done and back with the customer.  I did have an awful lot of trouble with it and the next one is awaiting it's turn, hopefully when the weather is a tad cooler.  All for now and have a lovely weekend my blogger friends.

OUR LOCAL SHOW

Friday the 1st of March saw me delivering my entries to the show pavilion by 11am.
Around 9pm we watched from our front verandah as the fireworks lit up the sky for the carnival night of the show.

Fireworks

Saturday arrived and we walked down to the showground to check out my entries and wander around to see the animals and other events.

I patted a beautiful shire horse, but the one beside it was so large I was in awe.  Being only 149cm tall I was quite intimidated.  Most of the others were not nearly as large.  They are such lovely animals.
We also saw budgies, poultry, cattle, alpacas and goats.  We live in a dairy farming area so there are always plenty of cows.  As we once had a goat, I had to go and say hello to them.


Now to those entries for the show.  I haven't photographed the my slices or scones, but I did get First Place in both.

Foliage, sedum & berries.

As seen from the photo above, I placed first here, which surprised me as there was so little to pick from the garden due to both hot weather and no rain.  We have only had 41.5mm so far this year and things aren't good.  There were only 4 entries in this category.

Framed cross stitch and embroidered cushion.

Autumn in the Dales quilt (medium)

Starlight, Starbright. (small)

Now onto the Craft Section.  I entered an Embroidered Cushion, a Framed Cross Stitch (small) and 2 quilts.These were a medium/large one and a smaller one that were pieced/quilted by the exhibitor.
I was completely surprised that I got a second for my cross stitch as the other entries were truly beautiful.
My cushion, I'm afraid was the only entry in this category and sometimes they won't award a prize if the standard isn't high enough so I think maybe luck was on my side with the first.

My medium quilt was sitting along side about 8 others and I was thrilled that I got a first and also best in show.  My smaller one also took out a first prize.  I walked out feeling as though I was on Cloud Nine.

The smaller quilt I made many years ago, but it lay unquilted till I got my new machine,so being asked to put in a couple of quilts I chose this one.  The pattern came from a book called Quilts and Borders by Trudie Hughes and was called California Star.
The medium quilt is my own design (although I have seen many similar) made to use a jelly roll I purchased.  I'll admit that I do love this quilt.

Concert Street Organ.

I just loved this.  It is the largest outdoor automatic pipe organ to reach Australia from Belgium.
Well that is about it from me today and will post next week on other matters.

Have a lovely week bloggers.

BUSY TIMES

With no rain, many days over 30deg and bad winds, I seem to be spending most mornings trying to keep the garden alive, so then get behind on the rest of the housework and not much more time to do anything else.

The cushion is still on hold for the show and my customer's quilt has come to a standstill because I've had computer problems.  Enough of all of this!  What else have I been up to.

Today - Thursday was grocery shopping and trying to sort out my Statler Stitcher for my machine.  Will have to contact my mentor.  I'm sure it's just me being silly and it will be some simple mix up.

Wednesday -  Usual type of morning, then a friend came for a quilting lesson.  She's hard work as I seem to explain everything at least three times.  We are getting there though.

This is my baby.

Tuesday  -  Back at Vision Australia where I volunteer in the basket room and on radio.  We only have one client in the morning at the moment.  A young man who is blind and intellectually disabled as well.  We do OK and chat quite a bit.  In the afternoon I go to our little radio station where we read from the local papers for an hour.  I don't read as I'm the technical operator. (photo above)

Monday  -  Busy morning, then Doctor appointment, my monthly massage and an evening yoga class.

2 stingrays.

Sunday  -  Decided around 10.30am to try and escape the heat by going to the coast.  It was slightly cooler and we had lunch at a little bakery, then went for a walk down to the jetty where the resident stingrays were waiting to be either fed or patted.  As soon as people approach the water, they come to them.  They are a wonderful sight.  We then went for a walk  along the beach and I got very sun burnt on my shoulders.  Luckily I wear a hat out in the sun.  It was a lovely day.

"Autumn in the Dales"

Well that is about it except for a photo of one of the quilts I'm entering in the local show on 1st of March.  It has been quilted now.I am also entering Pumpkin Scones, 4 pieces of my "famous" Caramel Slice, according to my family, a flower arrangement (if we can find any flowers) and a card using stamps.  I think I may need a lot of luck, but it is so much fun.

Magnolia buds

The last photo is our magnolia with buds, which is strange at this time of the year.  It is late summer and should be about to lose it's leaves, and be dormant until late winter when the buds usually appear.  It has some leaves still, lower down.  Spoke to my son's partner tonight (it's her birthday today)  and she said theirs has flowered during summer as well.  They live in Canberra.  Also spoke to my 5 year old granddaughter who wanted to know how many buses Poppy had driven today.  Hubby is a bus driver and we explained, only one today.  Grandchildren are definitely precious with the things they come out with.

STILL NO RAIN

It's Sunday here in Oz and there was supposed to be some rain.  Luckily I watered the veg this morning, mopped the floors and decided to get started on that not very flat quilt for a customer.  Oh no!  Worse than I thought.  Rang my mentor and she said, just do the best you can.  I will get back to it tomorrow as I am now tired and stressed.  I also have to finish my cushion for our local show which is held the first weekend in March.

Morning break.

 After the housework on Saturday morning and hubby at work, I decided to have morning tea on the patio before it got too hot.   Coffee, bikky and 2 new books.  Which one to start on first.  Of course Alan Titchmarsh one out.  What a beautiful book and garden and his writing style is easy reading.  I have only read Spring so far, as I am really too busy to do much reading.  The other one will probably be looked at a lot later.

Street scene.

Friday night about 7pm we could hear sirens.  Getting closer we thought they were off to the hospital, which is very close to where we live.  No, they were getting even closer and then I popped outside to see that were at the bottom of our street.  Took this photo of 4 fire trucks and an ambulance, all for a kitchen fire.  I live next door to this corner.  A little bit of excitement in such a quiet part of town.

A DAY OUT

Tuesday, proved to be a lovely day.  Hubby decided we'd drive to Warburton for lunch.  He thought he'd take me to the Patchwork Teahouse, but low and behold they are closed on Tuesdays.  We ate at a lovely little cafe instead and then went for a walk along the banks of the Upper Yarra River.  Along the way we saw many ducks with ducklings and I'd actually remembered to take my camera for once.  So below are a couple of photos of the day.

Mother duck and her two ducklings.

Upper Yarra River at Warburton.

Iridescent blue dragon fly.

On tuesday morning before we left I picked a small amount of produce from the veg patch.  Having had only 19mls of rain since Xmas, we've had to water the vegetables most days to keep them going and we certainly aren't getting what we got last year.  The rest of the garden is in a pretty sorry state.  We've got at least 5 days of over 30deg to get through and it's not looking good.  Total fire bans tomorrow as it is supposed to reach 38deg.

The produce for Tuesday.

The last photo is just for fun, showing the little chest I bought many years ago in a small antique shop.  Now I am wondering if it has come all the way from the UK by any chance.  Atop are some of my rulers along with more in the basket.  The tins hold some fancy threads and tapestry wool.

Small chest on the floor in my studio.

.

AM I STRESSED?

Trying to do that Feathered Star today would have been fine if I had read the instructions correctly.  I stupidly cut the strip bias squares 1 15/16ths instead of 1 9/16ths.  No wonder nothing fitted.  Glad that I did them larger, as I can at least cut them to size.  More unpicking.  Will give it a few days before I attempt it again.  Also have a large customer quilt to do that is not very flat.  Hope it will be ok.
Why am I stressed?  I have to go for a gastroscopy tomorrow.  Don't like hospital procedures.

Today my friend Val and I both purchased the pattern for the "Country Charmer" quilt.  We will try and do it together.  I have decided to do only 9 blocks.  I have a pretty good idea of my version, which will be a little different, I think.  We'll wait and see.

ALL CHANGE!

"Soft and Pretty"

This quilt has been hanging on the hall wall for the last  two months, so I am trying to change them about every 6 to 8 weeks so I have an ongoing display.   I quite often buy these picture blocks, then have fun thinking of an original setting.  The star blocks are from Stars by Magic by Nancy Johnson-Srebo.

"A Hug and a Kiss"

Now this quilt has just been quilted , although it a has been a top for quite some time.  The pattern is from 101 Nine Patch Quilts by Marti Michell.   It is 33" sqare.