JUST BITS!

March seems to be galloping on by at a very quick pace.  Before we know, it will be April and really into Autumn as our clocks go back on Sunday.

A bit of catching up in this post on the garden, craft, oh and a little shopping. (needed!!).

GARDEN.

Julia's Rose with lots of buds & a few flowers on Saturday afternoon.

Next day after it being so hot, so many out & some nearly gone over very quickly.

A closeuip of flower & bud.
She is an unusual colour & more so in autumn & I've grown her in most of my gardens.

A closeup of Fiona's Wish which smells heavenly & very sweet.
I only have 3 roses in this garden, which we've planted, but the soil is so hard & poor I wonder how they survive.

The steps awaiting some concreting and so much wider than they were.  Now the weather is cooling (a little), we should be able to make a start on them.  One step at a time.

OK, roundup of garden done.  I must put on some photos of above steps, as they were when we moved here.  Slowly, slowly we go.

I forgot about this photo of a small stick sort of beastie we found under the blueberry netting.
He hopped on my hand & I took him for a walk over to the garden, where he hopped off onto our mesh on the verandah.

CRAFT.

I've done two more blocks for the little quilt I've named after Miss AL.

Four of these.

Four of these also.

I know!
I am keeping you guessing.

SHOPPING.

Off to Spotlight we headed yesterday to purchase either a flannelette sheet or fabric for my large design wall, which I made ages ago & has been a complete disaster.  In the end I bought 2.2 metre, & should be able to cover the 2 pieces of thin board & this time know that the blocks will actually cling to it.  I have a small board with a lightweight batting that is very old & great, but doesn't fit a larger quilt, when I'm working on it.  The lightweight batting I purchased for the big one has never worked, so , hopefully this one is a success.

But what else hopped into the bag?  A ruler I'd never seen before, which is to use on jelly roll strips,
a large stitch counter to go on thicker needles when I'm knitting and a magazine.  I'm not sure whether they were having a sale or what, as I'd noted the prices of each thing & when she rang them up, the ruler was was cheaper, as was the fabric & the magazine is marked as $9.99, but scanned as $7. so I definitely came away with a few bargains.

This lot came from IKEA.  It is not too far from where we were and I love wandering around & looking at all their little room settings and gathering up ideas.  Hubby hates it, but indulges me every so often.  I could have bought lots more, but I'd been looking for candles when the Photo Hunt words came up & couldn't find any, so when I found these pink ones, I couldn't resist.
The clock was all of $2.49 (only plastic), which I intend to pretty up & hang in the sewing room, so hubby can have his old one back in the woodworking shed.
The little pot is just pretty & once again I couldn't resist.

That was just a quick catchup and I'll be back with more at the end of the week,as I'm joining in with Joy from Days filled with Joy and her monthly FINISHING STITCHES.  Trying to beat the UFO pile down and for me, stash busting as well.
Take care all & enjoy the rest of the week.
Huggles Susan.

SCAVENGER PHOTO- HUNT FOR MARCH.

Linking up with the lovely Kate for the second hunt of 2017.

1.   FLOWERS.

Single blooms in the Rose Section at the Jindivik Flower & Craft Show.
This, we attended in February 2017.

2.   BAKING or COOKING.

OK, no baking as such, but I've been "THINKING" about making these.

3.   READING.

I've had this little lady, a lo.....ng time and she used to sit atop the piano, but she is very heavy & I thought
she may be damaging it, so she now sits on the floor beside a bookcase.

4.   COMFORTABLE.

Hubby last Wednesday (his birthday outing) trying out a very different seat on the waterfront at Paynesville.
Was he comfortable?  He said it was OK, although I didn't find them so.

5.   FAVOURITE COLOUR.

PINK!!!!  This is my favourite colour. & I've lots of bits & bobs around the house in pink, even though it doesn't lend itself to what I have, as all the walls are a sort of (in my eyes), a dirty apricot.

6.  CANDLE/S

Mainly candle "holders" & this is where they normally reside.
I was going to try & get some candles to fit a couple, but didn't have much luck,
then the light was so poor today, that this is the best I came up with.
Nothing in the archives either.  

7.  HAT.

The pincushion hat I use all the time & which I blogged about the making of it in 2013.

8.  WALK.

This is what you call a WALK.  Across the fields with beautiful views,
then along a canal.  Aah!
From last years archives whilst in England.
A walk at Gargrave, which I enjoyed so much.

9.  FAVOURITE MUG or CUP.

OK, I know, that is 2 mugs.  These live in our picnic basket, so it means we are out & about on a picnic.
You would call them favourites for that reason.

10. MY OWN CHOICE.

I absolutely lovely old bits and pieces & I found the bevy of unusual items at Chiddingstone Castle in Kent.
We were too early to view the castle, but could wander the gardens at our leisure.
I also love that beautiful wall.

That's my lot for this month.
I found them really hard for some reason, but I suppose Kate wants us to think outside the box, with our own interpretations and I think this month I might have gone too far on some.
Looking forward to seeing how the others went.
Thanks for visiting & take care all.
Susan.

LATE BIRTHDAY POST & OTHER BITS.

FIRST BIT.

Wednesday dawned fine, but very hot, but we pootled our way over to Bairnsdale to buy hubby this.

The box says it all, plus the adaptor.

Then it was nearly time for lunch, so we drove out to Paynesville to sit by the water.  It looks out over Lake Victoria, part of the Gippsland Lakes system & a car ferry runs to Raymond Island.   I blogged about in January 2013, which was my "second" ever post.

                                    The above are 2 views from near where we sat for lunch.

                                     This oversize fish sits at the back of the public amenities.

The car ferry I mentioned above, coming back from Raymond Island and probably takes all of 5 minutes.  This load has a cement mix truck aboard I noticed.  Must be building something over there.

GARDEN.

Not much happening on this front as it has been hot & dry for March so far.  Rain predicted for tomorrow, so we'll see what happens.

One last flower on my hydrangea has managed to survive the heat. The few roses I have are doing OK, but tend to be going over very quickly.

I also had this cheery chappy again on Friday morning, but there was no seed left in the feeder.
He only visits occasionally.  This was taken through the kitchen window, so not the best pic as we also have flyscreens on all our windows.  As you do here in Australia.

CRAFT.

It's been a bit hit and miss on this front lately, as I've talked about quite a few outings, not feeling the best (new physio is going to put ongoing pain to rights 😩).  Yeah!  But, I do have a few things to show and talk about.
The cupcake rug has just one more round to do on the border, then the big TAHDAH!
The black quilt I showed partly done on the machine and the table runner have both come off now, and got their bindings today.

This one named for Little E photographed on the clothesline this afternoon.  Remember I made this one to use more of a jellyroll from making Missy Moo's quilt.

The table runner I designed from some floor tiles in a fish & chip shop, whilst on holiday in Sydney.  It must have been before 2010.  I drew it up on a paper napkin, then used my handy graph paper pad to work out the sizes.
I have custom quilted it (to get back in the swing of things), as I've not done much on the Bubs lately.
I have a little plan for this.........

I also have a design from my Quilt Wizard program, that I've just started.  This is the final in my trio of quilts named for my grand daughters.  Miss A's is being made from my stash and has had the fabrics reworked a couple of times already, as some of the bits pulled from the cupboard haven't been enough.  Would you like to see it as I do the blocks?  The the full reveal will come later.

I only needed to make one of this.
The fabric in the centre was the feature fabric I chose.  I then picked colours from this, for the rest of the blocks.

I've made 8 of this simple block.

Just to keeping you guessing what it will be like.
Doing this may get me posting a little more often, though we do have the Photo Scavenger Hunt, this coming Friday and I'm finding this one really hard.  Still need a few photos.

That's about it from me today.  Hope everyone had a wonderful weekend & at least a bit cooler than we had (36deg on our outdoor weather station just now at 4.30pm).
Take care all.
Susan.

AN INTERESTING SUNDAY

Sunday dawned overcast & a "little" drizzly.  We only got just below 1mm in our rain gauge.
It was the day of our Car Club run to Blue Lotus Water Garden in the Yarra Valley.  We were to leave the club rooms at 9.30am & wend our way up there via a scenic route (not the freeway).  And how many ended up going?  Oh, this many cars.😖

THREE!

OK, that is not much of a turnout for us, but we did have a great & rather amusing day,  On our way through the forest with lots of twists and turns, poor M driving that middle car spun out on a corner, for no apparent reason, which frightened the rest of us, especially us, as we were travelling behind.  None of us going fast or doing anything stupid (bit old for that caper anyway), and can only put it down to the slightly damp conditions.  All was well, nothing had been coming the other way & we continued on to Powelltown for a welcome coffee break.
Back in the cars & driving on, suddenly our leader I, stopped.  There was something on the road.......

I'll stop & have another rest & maybe let them take photos.

By the time I snapped this, there were five cars pulled up & one stopped the other way and we were trying to shoo it off the road, so it wouldn't get hurt.  One couple, said they'd actually never seen one in the wild like that.  We have a couple of times.
These two incidents certainly made for an interesting start to our day out.

THE GARDEN.

I knew what Lotus were, but had actually never seen them en masse or in flower.
"IT WAS AMAZING"!!!!!!!!!  Take a look.

Buds in a bowl.

One of the many ponds, lakes & lagoons, they have made for them.

Looking down into the flower.

The seeds forming.  I found this quite eerie, like a lot of little eyes looking at me.

They also had some other water loving plants.

Giant lily pads.

Also some beautifully coloured water lilies.

We'd taken a picnic lunch with us, so ate that, then wandered for over an hour, exploring and certainly enjoyed.

Yesterday (Monday) was a public holiday here in Victoria, but we caught up  on some housework & in the afternoon, I finished quilting this.

I've not taken it off the machine yet, as there is enough backing still to do a small table runner, that's been hanging about for ages.  I've something in mind for the table runner & will talk about that at a later date.
Tomorrow (Wednesday 15th) is hubby's birthday and we are off out for the day, travelling east away from Melbourne & all its traffic, to purchase a 'chuck' for his lathe.  I've been saving money from selling the blueberries.😊  There is also a British food shop, where I can stock up on my Nairn's oatmeal biscuits & a few other bits we like, but can't get anywhere else over here.

OK, enough from me for now, as I'll probably post again on Thursday with lots from our next adventure out.  I'll look out a map of Victoria, so I can point out where our area of Gippsland is, as I know I quite often talk about it.  I'll find something for my next post.

Take care all & huggles from Susan.

SO FAR THIS MONTH.......

The List.

1.  No rain so far this month.  Actually we've had none since the 21st of last month & the garden is very dry.

2.  We seem to have been extra busy, with car club, ie.  committee meeting, getting labels sorted (person who usually gets them for me, was away), picking newsletters up, labeling, sorting, taking to clubrooms on Saturday, then us going out Sunday & Monday, grocery shopping Tuesday and car club again yesterday, for the coffee & cake run.  Phew!!!!

3.  A bit too hectic, as we are usually quieter than this, so not much on the sewing/crafting front.  And all that, after I'd decided to really make a start on the UFO pile & stash reduction.  The garden has taken a back seat as well.  Too hot still, with 35 on our weather station this afternoon.

OK, enough of the list & onto some of what I've fitted into the start of this month.

This is what a very messy UFO pile looks like after you've upended the tub they were residing in.
Sorry, but I took the photo, then started sorting.

As I start getting some things done, I'll post about them.  First I need to work out how many I'll be doing, although I've done the cushion & finished the shawl, which I showed on last post.
The pieced tops waiting to be quilted, amount to, I think, about 22.

I have fitted in  a few things, being......

Sewing together those squares I found in the "tub" and now awaiting borders.

The Attic 24 cupcake rug has also reappeared (last night was cool for the first time in ages), and I have made a start on the border.  YAY!

This quilt (below) has been sitting for ages over the rollers on the big machine.  I've been debating!!!

Said quilt, made somewhere between 1995-9.  I know I was still working in the bank, at the time & showed to some friends, who thought it was terribly bright.

This is the pattern I was using.

OK, it doesn't look close to the original, but I had a little helper, whilst it was spread out on the floor.
One of my cats delighted in rearranging anything I put down & this was sort of her version.  Her mother always sat on everything you were trying to do.

This is one of the patterns I'm thinking of using.

I'd like to custom quilt this one as I still like it a lot and of course it will always remind me of Fluffy.

CLOUDHILL GARDENS.

Just a few pics of our day out on Sunday.

THE BORDERS.

THE KITCHEN GARDEN.

Espaliered fruit trees.

Hops.

A wigwam with black beans.  Never seen these growing before.

We did see lots more, but as it was an Open Day, there were many people about, which made it hard taking photos.

I'll leave you with one last photo of the little quilt now hanging the hall.  I took down the heart one & found something a "bit autumny" coloured.

Southern Comfort.

One I designed many moons ago, for the feature fabric I used.

Hope to soon update the Quilt Gallery with instalment 2 and make that list of UFO's.
Take care all.
Susan.