POST 2 SUNDAY -- FATHER'S DAY IN OZ

This is a quick post on Sunday night, more for my benefit of recording my garden, as I may soon be starting again when we sell.  It is spring here in Oz and after such a long hot and dry summer, I'm surprised at what is flowering, though we did have a wet winter. 

 I've also taken a couple of photos yesterday of the countryside south of where we live.  We went to Inverloch for afternoon  tea.  Immediately below are these photos.

 

                                                                     Garden Photos.

Our magnolia flowering for the second time this year.

Hellebore and azalea.  The strappy plants are miniature agapanthus.

Hellebore, Ivory Prince which I planted a couple of years ago.

Iris under the weeping cherry which have been there since we moved here 9 years ago and have never flowered before.

My antique wheelbarrow with just one plant at the moment.

Flowering currant.

Tulip in bud.

Part of the Fairy Ring.

My pretty pink daffodils.  I'll definitely pot some of these up to take with me.

This camellia was nearly dead when we moved in, but look at it now.

Some freesias I replanted from out of the lawn.  They don't have  perfume like the old fashioned ones, but smell quite peppery.

FATHER'S DAY.

Hubby eating his lunch outside in the lovely sunshine today.  It got to 25deg and it's only the first day of spring!!!  He had to go to work not long after this photo was taken.



Being the first day of the month, I actually got around to changing the wall hanging in the hall.  Last month I didn't do it.  I also weeded the lawn, did some work on my Christmas QAL and caught up with my blog.

This was made many years ago to teach myself how to do flying geese the easy way with 1 large square and four smaller ones.  I've never named it.

Well, that is a lot of pictures, which I don't usually do, but I feel caught up now and will hopefully post a little more often.  Hope everyone had a lovely weekend as we did.
Susan.

POST 1 SUNDAY ---QUILT RETREAT

It seem ages ago now that we went to Bordertown for my Statler Quilt Retreat, but it was only last weekend.  It has been such a busy week, with viewings of our house and an Open Day yesterday.  I also fitted in an appointment on Monday, Doctor and a massage on Wednesday.  Hubby had both Wednesday and Thursday off, and as the 29th was a special day, I was taken out to lunch at Sky High Restaurant on Mount Dandenong for lunch.  I forgot to take my camera with me that day, so no pics I'm afraid.
Below are a few of the photos I took on my way to Bordertown, which I hope you'll enjoy.

The Pyrenees on the north side of the road as we are travelling west towards South Australia.

 Hubby did some touring on the Friday and took these lovely photos.  As I wasn't with him, I can only give short descriptions.

Buckingham Church.

A gravel road bordered by gum trees suffering dieback.

Wirrega Council Chambers,which were built in 1886 and used till 1904.  It has also been a private residence and Mundulla Tennis Club.

Rusty tin sculpture.

 He visited Clayton Farm Heritage Museum, run by local people and said he had a very interesting afternoon.
Below are just some of the photos he took.  The buildings were erected between 1876 until the 1930's.

Old utility  and other vehicles awaiting restoration.

Hollowed out log trough.

Old farm machinery (lots).

Old table in the shearing shed.

Wool shed built in 1901 from white gum tree trunks with a thatched rood.

Half an emu egg.

The Homestead.

 The photos below are all taken around Bordertown.

White kangaroos in a small reserve in Bordertown.  They aren't albinos and have been bred over the years from a white one discovered in earlier years.

Anne, this photo is for you.  Would you like one of these?  Only reason I'm in the photo is to show the size of some of these  farm machines.

A field of golden canola.  Rapeseed to those in the UK.

 The Retreat which was held at The Sanctuary ( a lovely house for the use of classes and getaways for crafty people) run by Judy.  Below is a photo taken by hubby of the six that were attending.

The girls at the Statler retreat.

Our rather messy table, but then we were all working, also chatting and watching educational DVD's.  Did some eating too.

The wonderful old fabric shop in Historic Mundulla. (near Bordertown)  The floor sloped every which way, because it probably needs re-stumping.  It made you feel quite seasick.  The lady who runs store is 75 and an absolute sweetie, so we had a lovely afternoon out on the Friday.

 Now on the journey home.

The Grampians which are to the south on our way home .

The skyline of Melbourne approaching from the west.  

Well, that is finally the post that I was going to try and do through the week.  I'll try and play catch up again during the week.  The weekend was great and I certainly learnt plenty just by listening to the others talking.
They are all very good long-arm quilters and very professional.  I am mainly a hobby quilter and only do small amounts for other people.  I stress way too much with someone else's quilt in my care.
Hope you have all had a lovely weekend.  Our weather has been superb and today is the 1st of Spring.
Take care, Susan.

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.