LEFTOVERS OR BUBBLE & SQUEAK!!!!!

Just a very quick post today. as we have to be at the airport around 5.30pm to pick up our visitors from the UK.  Have already been quite busy today.
Remember the leftovers I showed in a past post, when I had them on the design board, well that is now a flimsy awaiting some quilting.  I really used an assortment of fabric from past projects and am so pleased that I've made the weeniest dent in my scrap pile.  The strange triangle shapes on the block sides were actually the leftover pieces from GD E's quilt made in 2007, and the centres from a commissioned baby quilt, so we can really save and then eventually use it.

Macy's baby quilt.

On Sunday, our daughter and family came for the day and she brought my Mother's Day present and this is what I received.

2 lovely books.

A pretty bag with some crocheted hearts I need to string up and put along my mantel.  It should look lovely.  Of course, my very clever daughter made these.

We had a lovely day, going out to the Ballarat Market where I wasn't going to buy a thing, but came home with 2 small plants, ($2 each), a bag of bread rolls, ($2), and a pair of fingerless gloves for both hubby and I at $5 for the two.  We at chip butties in the park, then out to Learmonth and wandered around the Antique shop and had afternoon tea at the local cafe, then home for a barbecue tea.

Lastly, here is a photo of my new ironing board cover.  Isn't it cute.  Please excuse the messy look in the background, but being a quilter, it is usually set up in my sewing room.

Said cover.

I may be a little quiet over the next 4 days due to our visitors, but will be back later in the weekend with an update.  I was hoping to get the binding on Little E;s quilt and also have the baby quilt on the machine, but that will probably happen next week, along with a little more gardening, I hope.  Bulbs that I planted some weeks ago are finally peeking through, so may have some photos soon.  As we didn't have much except hedgy stuff in the garden, I've not really taken any photos.
Enjoy the rest of the week and take care.
Susan.

TEN RANDOM THINGS

I've seen a couple of these posts, so thought I would try one too.  You've no idea how long it has taken me to think about it, but here goes.

1.  I wanted to be an architect.

2.  I was taught to knit at age four, learn to play piano at five, but only for 6 months, sew on an electric sewing machine at seven and shown how to crochet by my great grandmother age eight.

3.  As a child I drew stone houses, loved the stone walls of the south coast of New South Wales and when I visited the UK in 1999, Hubby took me to the Penines and I announced that I felt like I had come home. A couple of years later, my cousin on Dad's side did some of our family tree and found that my forebears had come from the Penines and were stonemasons.  How's that for heredity.

4.  I'd love a pink kitchen with an island.

5.  I dislike impatient people.

6.  I have way too many books, magazines, fabric and wool.

7.. I don't drink, but do use alcohol in my cooking occasionally, and make a great Chocolate Sherry slice.

8.  I actually enjoy ironing.

9.  I love stationery shops and have oodles of notebooks etc.

10. My initials are S.S.S.

OK, now you all probably know too much.

Yesterday, Hubby and I went for a walk and I actually took my small camera with me and this is what we saw.

These cattle were running across the paddock to greet us at the fence.

A huge toadstool.  (that's hubby's foot.)

A cluster of toadstools.

An old tree.

The Avenue of Honour with it's trail beside it where we were walking.  It goes for many miles from the Victory Arch on the outskirts of Ballarat.

A sunshine gate (brand name).

That's all for now folks.  Take care and have a lovely weekend.
I'll be back soon with more about quilts and crafts.
Susan.
  .

BUSY WEEK.........

This last week has been a whirlwind.
Firstly, I would love to thank all who left comments and am sorry I didn't get time to reply.  Hopefully this week won't be quite as hectic.

I think I mentioned some time ago that I was crocheting another ripple rug, this time for Hubby.  It's been a bit slow going, but this is how far I've got.

Last Sunday saw us going to the Lake Goldsmith Steam Rally.  The day was very cold and somewhat showery, but what we saw was worth it.  Just a few photos, as hubby took lots.

Very large.

Very small.

Many moons ago, we owned a truck like this.

 Now for a few other happenings this week.
I had to go to the Doctor a couple of times as all my files had finally arrived from my last doctor and two blood tests were part of that.  All is OK.

Wednesday saw me at Joy's for a sewing morning and whilst there she finally got Emmi G up and going.
Yippee.  I even achieved sewing 2 blocks.

Joy's Gammill Classic.

Thursday saw us head back to Warragul to the solicitor to finalise the update on our wills.  Whilst there I went to see my friend Janette and to see her new toy.  This is what she now has in her sewing room and she is already getting the hang of it.

Janette's HQ Sixteen.

I needed to make another baby quilt, this time for a young lady who worked for many years at the Warragul Newsagency.  I thought she was having a girl, but everyone else thought it a boy, so I waited till it came, before I made the quilt.  Being on a tight budget, I found some scraps, like this.

Large scrap piece and a bag of odd shaped leftovers.

They have now become these, with another three to be made.

I t is amazing what you can achieve from leftovers.  I will add sashing and borders and voila, a quilt for a little girl called Macy.

This morning I quilted my granddaughter's quilt, which actually didn't take long at all.

Little E's quilt in progress and now off the machine and awaiting its binding.

All in all, a very busy week, with so much done.  Hopefully I will reply to comments this week and maybe do another post, instead of a whole week going by.  Now I am off to prepare our tea. (salmon tonight).
Hope everyone has an enjoyable weekend and take care.
Susan.

LOVELY SATURDAY

I had a lovely Saturday afternoon with a group of very crafty ladies.. Joy from the blog Days filled with Joy, took me along and I thoroughly enjoyed it, so will look forward to going again next month.

Last Wednesday saw Hubby and I set out for Ballan, and what may you ask took us there?

This Shop.

Why did I need to go?  I've just taken a quilt off my long-arm machine I made as a Block of the Month quilt some years ago and found that I didn't actually get the binding for it.  As the colours are not available anymore and I couldn't find anything suitable in my stash, I decided to go looking for something.  I finally found this, which picks up the colour of the roses in the outer border.

Peachy coloured fabric for this, below.

The said quilt.

To go with these I also bought this, below.  I made these blocks so long ago, I can't remember the year, but am trying to finish things I found that are definitely UFO's.

Pink and blue fabric.


Now for a couple of photos taken in the huge glasshouse in Ballarat Botanic Gardens.  The begonias have been  cleared to make way for chrysanthemums.  They are beautiful and some so different.

Aren't they all beautiful.

 That is all for now and hopefully the weather will be kind tomorrow for us, as we are off to the Lake Goldsmith Steam Festival.

Have a lovely weekend all.  Take care.

Susan.

WOOPS! I FORGOT---------

Oh, dear I forgot to mention the name of the book I made my Little E's quilt from (the one with the ice skaters on it).

The book above, and I used a pattern from it called Stax.  Hopefully I'll soon find some backing and get it quilted and bound.
I have just sewn the binding on red/black/white quilt I made as a test pattern, so should start hand sewing that soon.

DESIGN IDEAS?
Now where do I start.  When someone comes up with a design, should we call it original or not.  I've made many quilts over the years and sometimes I use a pattern from a magazine or book, (always try to mention who and where), but then sometimes I plan for myself on graph paper and now also use a program called "Quilt Wizard" which was the precursor of Electric Quilt, which is a lot more complicated for the likes of me.
I've come to the conclusion that I will in future call something I feel I've thought of myself as a-
1.  Design idea.
2.  Design concept.
3.  Design variation and mention where I found the original and how I changed it.
How this all came about was a couple of things I've both read, and seen on the internet.  I'm sure there are times when lots of people come up with similar ideas all over the world, having never seen  them elsewhere and then there are also problems with names of quilt blocks, so give credit where it is due.  Enough of my ramblings.

Now below is a rather hazy photo of a design in my graph book, on which I based a quilt.  Many years ago I bought a panel of 8 Baltimore Blocks.  Not long after I went to a large Quilt Show in Melbourne and saw those blocks made up at so many of the shop exhibitors and couldn't believe that each one was just sashed with cornerstones and a simple border.  I decided I wanted mine different.

Graph paper design.  It is dated 2006/2007 (made) and quilted in 2008.

How it ended up and I called it "I Don't Do Baltimore"  (lol)

Does anyone else out there in blogland/quiltworld like using wacky backs on their quilts?

I made a small quilt with a block known as Lady of the Lake, eventually quilted it, but looked what I used on the back.

Do you think I should call it Lobsters in the Lake?

Well that is a funny old post, but I was a little miffed with myself for not mentioning the book at the top, which then got me thinking.  Sorry about the quality of the photos, but it has been a very dark, rainy day in this part of the world.  Hoping everyone has a great week and take care.
Susan.

A LATE HAPPY EASTER TO ALL.

Well it's been a funny few weeks here in our part of the world.  I'm a little slow on the posting side as hubby has been backwards and forwards to the Doctor to have a dressing renewed where he had a nasty mole removed from his lower leg.  It was nothing ghastly, but did leave quite a hole and hasn't healed as quick as they hoped.  It just meant our days had to work around his appointments, but it is now on the mend.  Wednesday was a whole day out, back to Warragul, to change our wills, as of course we moved house.  It was an enjoyable day.

Now where to start with some photos?

LAST SATURDAY.
We decided over morning tea (the day was very dreary) to go on an outing to visit a quilt shop in Cooriemungle, that I have been to once before and thought was lovely.  Off we went, sandwiches and a thermos on board and eaten in Camperdown, and arrived at the shop, only to find it closed for weekend, as she was exhibiting at the quilt show in Melbourne.  This little shop is an old corrugated iron church, painted blue and moved to the corner of a farm.  Cooriemungle is just a locality on the map, so we set off for Colac, where we could take a stroll in the gardens and by the lake and then have a cuppa for afternoon tea.  I forgot to take any photos of the "shop"!!!!

Fountain in the gardens.

The lake through the trees.

Birdlife on the lake.  (wish I had a better zoom lens.)

We made our way back home via Cressy, and found a couple of interesting things to stop for.  Below are what I snapped.

A cow in the front garden?  No, it's a garden ornament.

Beautiful carved bird from an old tree stump.

Derelict store.

These three photos were all taken within close proximity to each other and thought well worth the stop.

SUNDAY.

We decided to go for a stroll in the Botanic Gardens, (hubby was supposed to be keeping off his leg) and thought that slowly was the best.  Whilst there, the plant stand was again outside the glasshouse with reasonably priced plants and a lady walking past said that the nursery was also open with more pots inside.
As I'm finding that plants seem to be rather expensive these days, we went to take a look.  Whilst there, I also joined the Friends of the Gardens for small fee and can also do some volunteer work if I want, which sounds really good.  I spent $30 on five plants and one of these (which I'd seen elsewhere) would have cost about $25 in an ordinary nursery, so am pleased to have found this facility.

My purchases.

These plants are now in, along with some bulbs and a pieris I bought a couple of weeks ago.  Not showing the garden as yet, as after removing a lot of the short pittosporum hedging it all looks slightly bare and uninteresting.  Hopefully, I'll slowly build it up with lots of lovely things.  It's much smaller than my last garden.

WEEK JUST GONE.

I've done some sewing, quilting, gardening (as above) and baking.

An eclipse of the moon, which we could see for a short while before the clouds came across.  Taken from my front path.

Wombling On being quilted.  It is now off the machine and awaiting binding.  I quilted a design called Passionfruit from Lorien Quilitng in a Signature thread, the colour Dolphin (grey).  The other test quilt has binding on and I'm hand sewing that of an evening along with hubby"s ripple.  I'll show that once I've done a bit more.

Those blocks from the design wall are now a flimsy.  And yes, before you ask, those skates are mine, but don't fit my poor old  feet anymore.  I skated from about 11 years old till I got married at 20 and was in 2 small ice shows at our local rink.  I still love watching the skating in the Winter Olympics.

Closeup of feature fabric.  I didn't have much of this and am trying to use out of my stash at the moment.

Lemon slice and biscuits I made yesterday.

And lastly, our tea in the slow cooker for tonight.  Lemon chicken.

That was the week that was and I hope everyone out there in blogland are enjoying the Easter Break.
Here in Ballarat, it's been quite cool and cloudy with just a little rain.  This afternoon, hubby and I will go for a walk and I'll start working on a list of things that I really need to do and just don't know where to make a start.
Take care all.
Susan.

DO YOU REMEMBER?

Last year I participated in Sue from Quilt Times, Christmas Quiltalong, which was hosted by Hazel and Joanna.  We were given specific instructions on what to do, but although I stuck to most of them, I goofed on the overall measurement and just showed three blocks I'd made on the finishing date.  Well, now I can show a photo of the wall hanging which is just a tad larger than it was supposed to be.  It isn't quilted yet, but at least it's a flimsy.

Parcels with bright bows.

Another item I started last year was my Ripple Rug, and although I've been crocheting since a child had not worked in wool for many years.  In fact, I'd not done much at all except around a few doilies, so having a go at a ripple, was high on my list.  I couldn't fathom how to do it, even after looking on the web, but a friend showed me this way and I think I've become a bit "hooked". (lol).  Mine is finished and hubby wants one too, so I've started on his.  The width is OK for both of us, but his definitely needs to be longer.  At 6'3", he is just a BIT taller than me at 4'11".

My ripple.

Clever roadside junk.

The photo above was one I'd forgotten I'd taken on a day out, a week or so ago.  This is in a small town just west of Ballarat and makes you stop and have a bit of a giggle.

Just another photo, of what I have been working on this week.  It is still in the early stages, but on my little design wall partly sewn.  The pattern is from a book and hopefully all will be revealed by next week some time.

Ready for more sewing action.

Just a small post that had decided to make me work hard as the photos just wouldn't stay where they were supposed to, so looks a little jumbled.  Not sure what gets into the system at times or whether it is just me.
Take care all and have a good weekend.