I'M BACK WITH A 2 PART POST.

 OK.......where did February go?

Been a busy month of appointments, hot weather and trying to keep on top of blueberry picking & car club stuff.  Not done a lot of crafting, but did have a few days fussing & stressing over something I'd wanted to do for a while with a gifted pattern and using my stash.  This will be the "Part 1".

We also took some time out for a short trip which will be shown slowly over the next month or so as I took many photos.  This will be "Part 2".

PART ONE.

Linking with Sandra from mmm.quilts for her DrEaMi post.

Mine is quite paltry, as it isn't quilted yet, but did take many days of stressing over the fact that I'd read the fabric requirement wrong and only wanted to use from my stash.  So instead of using one background fabric I've used 2.  This is how it turned out................

The Cascade pattern from Joanne at Canuck Quilter which I was gifted after participating in a QAL.

PART TWO.

SILO TRAIL TRIP (Part One).  

This will have to be done in stages and hope everyone enjoys seeing some of our wonderful creatives and scenery here in Oz.

We started out on Sunday & headed towards Ballarat to visit my friend Joy, then off towards Stawell, staying at Lake Fyans Caravan Park.

Monday morning saw us head out to our first silos in Horsham, where we also picked up a new brochure than the one we had & also found the most amazing Newsagent that had a plethora of magazines & books, a gift shop and cafe.

Our first silos of our adventure.

Now a photo, completely opposite of the ones above, being some grain storage in a paddock.

Covered storage after harvesting.

Next we arrived in Natimuk.

Some children's art on display.

Interesting in the window of this shop that wasn't open.

OOH...............a one eyed monster made from some very interesting castoffs.

A dry creek bed beside the car park.

Passing by Mt. Arapiles with the little side lump of rock to the right of first photo and in the second a great gaping hole in the middle which looks like an open mouth.  You many need to click on it to enlarge.

Next stop was Goroke and its silos.

And here we have 2 of my favourite birds..............a kookaburra and a magpie.

As we left town heading for Kaniva we passed this little display in a farmers front paddock.

Isn't it gotgeous.

In this part of Western Victoria, much of the landscape is broad-acre farming with the emphasis on a variety of grains, which of course go to the wonderful painted silos along the train line.  

Last photo for today of the wide open countryside.

That's it for today and hope I've not bored anyone too much and I will be back with a few more posts of our adventures, plus, more crafty fun when it happens.

Thanks everyone who follows, take care and hugs.

Susan.

THANK YOU.

 I've really been slack of late due to both being busyish and unmotivated, but I need to thank everyone who commented on my last post of the year.  Much appreciated.

The busy bit has been a few appointments with doctor/dentist,  and a quick trip to DS1's place to say bon voyage to our eldest grandchild and her partner before she left for England to work for 2 years.  She has already started work & he is still going through a long list of applications.    We also have had our car club picnic for Australia Day and trying to get the garden in shape, though that is tough at the moment with our "very" hot weather and so many blueberries being picked too.  Up to about 20kgs so far with many being frozen, and others for neighbours and friends.

Lack of motivation has been another issue with my crafting, but I'm slowly get myself back into it, I hope. DH also had a very, very large jigsaw on the go that he got for Xmas from DD which ate up table space for me and my old laptop which is not quite as efficient as it used to be, so hence my lack of commenting on other blogs.  I'm in the study doing this on the PC, which is what I should do more often.

A few quick snaps and hopefully I'll catch up with some more very soon.  I took a good handful while away, but not much else has happened this month, so I'll do one of our quick trip next week.

BLUEBERRRIES.

Not something I'd normally show, but I've had a fridge full of blueberries at times and then some packed and ready to go to the clubrooms for the "old" guys.😊

THE JIGSAW.

DS1 & J's new babies.

Two miniature goats.

AN AFTERNOON DRIVE.

One Sunday we headed to Leongatha to see an embroidery/quilt show, which was very small, but with some beautiful work and only 4 quilts.  As we headed home we stopped at Inverloch to go for a quick walk and noticed the sail boats out on the water beyond the stretch of sand.  You may need to click on the photo to see the boats.

 TO BE FINISHED.

Needing "MOTIVATION"  to get this lot quilted............push me!

Poor Bubs hasn't been up and running since early December & I've so many ideas running around my head, but I must get stuck into some of these first.

OK that is my lot and hopefully I'll blog more from here on in.  Sorry if this post is a bit disjointed, but I wasn't sure how to get started again.  Thanks again to all my loyal friends.

Take care and hugs from down under.

Susan.

WRAPPING UP 2022 in quilts mainly for now.

 This is a post for myself really with what I've done on the quilting front, where some have gone & thinking about 2023.

What I quilted this year from the beginning of the year, some recent & a few very old.

Celtic Garden of Hope.
One of my own designs.

Easy Peasy Baby quilt for our Podiatrist who had a little girl this year.
My design which is great quick one.

Macaron Mystery quilt, from a QAL by Cheryl Brickey of Meadow Mist Designs blog.
This quilt was sent to UK as a wedding gift for a very good friend's daughter.

Wacky One, another of my own designs.

Baby Pop Star, another QAL (and the one below).  This was run by Sandra Walker from mmmquilts & I gave the one above to car club friends who had a baby boy earlier this year.
The one below is still with me.

Empire Stars is made with a block pattern by Judy Martin.
These 4 blocks sat for a long time waiting to be made into something, as I'd had a few problems getting them to all be the same size.  I ended up with this after I changed the layout & border setting & am quite pleased with it.

The three quilts shown below were on a recent post and were from the naughty pile, waiting for years to be quilted & bound.  All finally done, though the tub of shame has filled a little again.

Starlet, from an old magazine pattern.

Star Struck, another from an old magazine & I custom quilted this one.

Bow Tie Magic, from some blocks in a Mary Ellen Hopkins book, the turned into a strippy at a retreat with Kay England way back around 2000.
This has been gifted to a little boy along with one from last year for his baby brother.

Charm Medallion, a lovely pattern by Cheryl Brickey from her book Just One Charm Pack.
Had fun making this.

A quilt finished very recently both in piecing & quilting which needs a better name than,
JUST BECAUSE.
Any suggestion?

 

Churn Dash Twist.
A squirrel that happened when I saw a sewalong on another blog, which I didn't participate in but had to give a try. 

That's my round up on the quilty front & as it is again a hot muggy day around 33 deg, I'm skiving off earlier than I was going to to get tea ready, watch some Yorkshire Vet tonight, then the fireworks displays from either Sydney or Melbourne.

I'll post this and link up with Cheryl from Meadow Mist Designs even though I'm not a designer, pattern writer or such with very few quilt followers.

I'll be back hopefully with a few more catchups of days out etc. in the new year.

HAPPY NEW YEAR to all, take care and hugs from Susan.

T'is BOXING DAY

 WHOOPS............where did December go?

My very cute Xmas tree made from old pallets, popped into the front garden & lit with a string of fairy lights.  Very simple decorations this year with only my door wreath (you've seen before), as well as my little filled sleigh on a patchwork Christmas runner on the table.

The lights on the tree, in the dark     -  below.

I have been quiet, I know, as late November, we had a quick trip to Canberra, Sydney, Gosford & Orange to see our two boys and grandchildren, my young brother and my oldest friend.  

Coming home seemed to be filled with never ending washing, cleaning the caravan, tidying the yard & planning for Christmas and now that is all over.................aaaaaaaaaaaaH!

After my fall in October I still did a little sewing on one of my own designed quilts and although the big  machine hasn't done much hopefully it will all be go in the New Year apart from another quick trip to N.S.W. to have a "bon voyage" get together for my beautiful eldest grandchild, Miss A.  who is off to live in UK for a couple of years with her partner Mr. M.  She already has a job lined up and he is working his way through a long list, I believe.

Below is a photo Miss A and her Dad, our eldest son on her graduation in early December with a diploma so she can now look after 0 to 5 years olds at a Child Care Centre as they are called here in Oz.

We will miss her badly.

The quilt below is the one I talked of in the above blurb.

DECO DELIGHT

Whilst away I took very few photos, as when we are pulling the caravan it is very hard to pullover  for a photo opportunity.  I took a few in Bathurst at the caravan park as we were departing of a few cute bits'n'pieces.

Veg beds ready to be planted above & a very Australian "loo" from days gone by.

There was also  "mini golf" for a few hours of fun.

On our way home we pulled into Cowra for a look at their well known rose gardens, then pootled on and arrived home, content to have seen so many of our family after such a LONG few years.

Hope everyone had a lovely Christmas as we did at our DD's yesterday and can look forward to a happy & prosperous New Year.

I hope to get back into a bit more blogging, sewing and fiddling with garden etc. as 2023 emerges.                 Going to find a cool spot as it has reached 36℃ now & I'm now sooooooo hot.

Take care all and hugs from Susan.

TAKING A TUMBLE.

 The reason I've been quiet.  I had a stupid fall on the 1st of October on the footpath in front of next door, hurting my chest/rib area and taking a chunk out of the heel of my hand.  Lucky I didn't smack my face into the path.  Turns out I had 3 cracked ribs & severe bruising too.  I'm OK now & although we still got to do a few things during late October, the weather has been utterly vile.  It's rained all day here today with quite a gusty wind.  Although we've not had the amount that has hit some parts of N.S.W., it's still nothing like a normal late Spring.  When it has warmed a little, the humidity has been extreme.  Enough of my moaning and let's see some photos I've snapped when we did manage to get outside.

The Garden.

The azaleas flowered well, but then smashed by the rain.

The wisteria and wonga vine both looked lovely but left a frightful mess on the steps.

My snowball bush was gorgeous with some of the biggest balls, but with the heavy rain, the weight of the sodden flowers nearly broke a couple of branches.  They survived intact luckily.

Dutch iris were lovely.

Walking.

We have decided to tackle The Great Southern Rail Trail & have done 2 small legs so far.  I'll just post what we did for the first part.

One of the signs with some information.
We started from Leongatha and headed towards Koonwarra, but only went as far as Gwyther Siding.

At the start of the trail, we passed a Tyre Service with the hugest pile of tyres I've ever seen.

Further along we passed this row of columns, but no information was available to say what it had been.

Farming countryside.

We didn't have to give way to any stock, though we saw plenty of cattle.

As far as we went on the first day.  We think after we turned and went back, we'd done about 8kms.

WATER.......

A small court near to ours, where a creek runs under the road and as you can see, it had other ideas one day and this is what it looked like. It's definitely been "wet" of late.

Quilting.

I have kept busy, although it's been slow going.  I managed to do a small wall hanging for  a bit of a challenge for myself & something someone mentioned I might like to join in with, though everyone else had started long before me, so I did simple, small & fun.

The challenge was a Churn Dash quilt, but I played with a block I'd seen "somewhere" & done a quick sketch and ended up with my Churn Dash Twist.
This photo was taken at the community garden in Braeside Park.

I had one on the machine when I took the tumble and finally managed to finish it a few weeks later.  I have shown it unquilted.

I've still not really named this, but had called the pattern when I designed it 
Gee Whiz.  (silly)

Lastly I popped this one below on the machine yesterday & had it off by lunch today.  The blocks were made many years ago from a Judy Martin pattern, but I just couldn't get it quite right, so only made a few, then cobbled them together and came up with this.  No binding as yet.

Empire Stars.

OK, that's enough from me today as it coming onto near teatime and I've other things I need to do.

Hope somebody may read this, as I'm wondering how many people still want to follow along after my absence.  I hope to pop back on with some more rail trail walking soon, especially if weather clears up a bit. 

Until next time, take care all and hugs to all.

Susan.