JUNE SCAVENGER PHOTO HUNT (2018)

Linking up with the lovely Kate from I live, I love, I craft, I am me to join in with our photo hunt.

This month's words were a little easier for me and I'm afraid I just dipped into the archives, as the weather here has been cold, wet & quite miserable, especially for photography.
Here we go.......................

1.  YELLOW.

WATTLE.

I was hoping to actually get a photo for this, but most of the wattle is still in bud, so found one taken last year. (I think).

2.  It starts with..............T

I cheated here and chose two.

 The one above was photographed in an Antique & Bric a Brac shop some years ago in Rosedale.
I thought it very clever and cute made from an old sewing machine.

 The one above was from last year's Vintage Commercial Vehicle Show held at a racecourse near Melbourne. 

3.  LILAC.

Two again I'm afraid, as was it the colour lilac or...........A Lilac?

Our wisteria in full flower over the pergola.
It also smelled wonderful.

These two photos (above & below), were taken at our old house here, which I often refer to as No. 4.

Can you see my lilac on the far side of the steps near a verandah post?  It was really pretty & of course this is the garden I still think of as my favourite, but alas, it is no longer mine.

4.  It starts with............G

A GOANNA!!!!!

I took this photo as we were driving through the forests in East Gippsland, when we were away a few years ago.  I couldn't believe my luck, when we saw it and were able to pull to the side of the little used road and take a few snaps, before he scooted up the tree.  If you click on the photo, you'll probably see him better.

5.  SILVER.

This fellow sits at the side of an off ramp on the Nepean Freeway, on the Mornington Peninsular.  I took the photo earlier this year, just in case we needed the colour "SILVER", for a photo hunt.😃  It was quite awkward to get a good photo, but I think you can gauge just how silvery he is.

6.  My own choice.
Oh dear, this may offend or make you laugh hilariously..........................
                     but  I just had to 'hopefully', make everyone smile.

This I snapped in May, on a day out (I do need to catch up on some overdue posts), to Arthur's Seat, again on the Mornington Peninsular.  This particular day, we chanced upon a Motor Museum & in we went (of course), with my motor mad hubby, & my camera in hand.  Among all the lovely vintage cars, bikes & motoring memorabilia, I spied a section given over to vintage homewares & toys, etc.  What did I find, but this condiment set, possibly from the 50/60s?  Can you really imagine putting oil and vinegar in these, on the table,  then using them? 


OK, that is my lot for this month.  And yes I'm  a little early as I'm off to a "quilt retreat" at my friend Judy's in Bordertown for the weekend.  I'll have a little look possibly in the evening & also link with Kate when she has the Mr. Linky up.
Take care all and huggles.
Susan.

CAUTION.........CRAFTY CAPERS AHEAD.

This is finally my catchup on a few things we've been busy with, other than the quick, unexpected visit to Sydney.
Friends from our car club were making a trip to UK to visit son & family who now have 3 children, a daughter, 3 and the newbies, twins (boy & girl) whom they'd not seen.  Cutting a long story short, V was trying to hand make some small items to take with her, but still works full time, so was getting very frustrated.  I offered for her to come and look at a few small quilts I'd put aside for either charity or sale.  She picked two for the twins, then she was going to ask me a big favour, but I got in first & said..... "tadah!"  Yes, I'd thought of the 3 year old too.  So off they went with, no, not 3 quilts, but 5.
She offered to post while they were there, the two that I'd made for our newest great nephews, which saved me a huge amount of money, as postage is over the top here.  Below are pics of the three of hers, but I'm afraid I'd not taken any of them completely finished.  Silly me!

 This one was started in a workshop with Mary Ellen Hopkins, way back in 2000 & remained a UFO, for many years, then a flimsy for a long time before it was quilted & bound last year.

The one on the right in this photo was made from a traditional block to use up some fat quarters, then again remained waiting to be quilted, which is the other twin quilt.

This old 4 patch strippy, I think I posted about, being quilted was the one I offered for the little 3 year old.  They are all recently finished & although darkish, should be practical for playing on & covering little legs in the car.
I showed the two for my great nephews a few posts ago here.

Talking of baby quilts.................another made much more recently & awaiting the birth of my Doctor's first baby.  I just couldn't help myself & raided the stash cupboard & pulled fabric for this.

The pattern was from a magazine by Cheryl Malkowski, which was sort of easy, though I changed some of the background piecing to suit.  Hopefully it will be OK for either a boy or girl and my Doctor loved it.

Just at the moment, I have a very large, very, very old top on the machine, (made around 1995/6 in a class at a local shop in Nowra),which I am donating to Windgap Foundation for their Christmas raffle.  This is the Sheltered Workshop, which my brother attends and are my support for him & his NDIS services.  I can't do a lot for them, being so far away, but hope this is one way I can help.  The photo below is not good, as where I quilt is quite dark, & being winter here, some days have been gloomy.

I'll show more when I am further along & once finished.

And what else..................

 Still plodding away on my Jane Crow crochetalong, Sunshine & Shadows, of a night, while watching mindless TV.

Hubby has also been busy.  Isn't this paddle steamer just gorgeous.  After a lot of car maintenance, he is now making some props for me, so I can take some better photos of my quilts for my galleries. 😊

Now for a little rest from craft, I have these few photos from my poor neglected garden.

                                                     My first hellebore buds appearing.

                                                      Fungi, appearing in the garden.
                                  We went for a walk this afternoon & we saw it everywhere.

I planted up this very large pot (left by previous owners) with a medley of plants of which this is the sole survivor, but it still looks very pretty in our now cold winter months.

I'm sure you've all had enough of my waffling on.  Thanks for visiting and I absolutely must catch up with a few of our recent days out.  Actually, when I think about it, they aren't so recent, but should be interesting. 
Take care all & huggles from Susan.

FINDING MY MOJO!!!!!!

After a few hectic months, we are hopefully getting some normality back into our life.  I'm not going into our trip to Sydney, but will in the coming month post some snaps I took whilst away. 
For now, this is about today and yesterday. with maybe a quilty/crafty post later this week.

MONDAY MORNING.
Started up the vacuum, did a little, then had to unplug to move to another room and what could I hear?
A great commotion out at the bird feeder, which I filled earlier.  Our usual sparrows & doves had been munching away, but I knew that something else must have been there now.

Oh my, what do we have here?  King Parrots. There were actually five to start with, but they all flew in and out several times, with 2 staying in the feeder.  I'd rushed to get the camera, only to find I'd left it in the car & had to tip toe out to the garage without frightening them through the open roller door of said garage.  I made it and had a wonderful time snapping whilst making a coffee & sitting on a stool at the kitchen counter in front of the window.  I popped out to the garage as well to take a few photos.
Just made coffee, then they flew off and as I turned back, these two appeared................

Two lovely pink and grey galahs.

They didn't stay too long, so I zapped my cold coffee and went to sit on the verandah, only to laugh my head off at the antics of the poor doves and sparrows who were then on a feeding frenzy, in case any more "big" birds came back. 

A SIMPLE SUNDAY OUTING, YESTERDAY.
Needing a nice walk to clear some cobwebs (walking here is not what it used to be, with all the new estates popping up & being more a commuter suburb of Melbourne, than a country town), so we headed toward Western Port Bay for a walk along Jam Jerrup Beach, where we'd not visited before.
Now I know this is supposed to be a quilting blog, but I love my nature too much, to let it pass.

Looking out across the bay with a lone mangrove as the tide comes in.

More mangroves with a rather wonky looking one in the foreground.

An interloper stealing the scene.

Hubby told me this looked like a back axle off an old vehicle.  Wonder why it ended up there?

There were many footprints in the sand & also these bird tracks,  but, can you guess what the ones below are?

Maybe I could make this into a guessing competition for the first right answer.   Hmmm!  Have I got something small to gift?
I'll leave it open ended for now to think on it over night.

Ripples in the sand.

There were many of these jelly fish, stranded on the sand, but they were sort of moving, so think they must perk up again when the tide comes in.  I found them fascinating.

 Would this be the start of driftwood, I wonder?

Very orange fungi, forming on more fallen timber.

Looking across a smaller bay in the bay from the point, which was where we decided to turn around & walk back along the beach, as the tide was definitely making its way in.
A  wonderful walk, even though it was cool and overcast, with the sun occasionally peeking through to glisten on the water.

Well that was at least something from me and yes, I'll be back with more catch ups this month, including the photo hunt, as I've already found most of my photos, so well ahead with that.
It's very, very cool here at the moment and I've lots to do to get myself back on track, so I'll post this now & wait to see if anyone has an answer for my question? 
Take care all, have a great week & lots of huggles from 'down under".

MAY SCAVENGER PHOTO HUNT.

Here we are once again hunting for photos with Kate.

This month's list I found tricky due to life getting in the way and not having posted since the last one in April, has proved a sore point for me, but hopefully things will settle into a routine once more & I can craft, garden and just generally do the "stuff" that seems normal.
                                                                   THE LIST.

1.  COOL.

                                       One very frosty morning last winter in our front yard.

2.  DISASTER.

A limb from a very large gum tree in the yard behind us came crashing down on our fence, just as hubby had walked up from that corner over at No.4.  It gave him one mighty fright.  The date on  the photo is not when it happened & I think it was some time around 2006/7.  My old camera went back to it's original date each time the battery went flat.  That is so annoying!!

3.  MOVEMENT.

On a quick unexpected trip to Sydney last week to sort out issues with little brother, we stayed in Kiama on the south coast of NSW & went for a walk one morning to check out the "BLOWHOLE" & it was living up to it's name beautifully.  The sea was just swelling enough to bring the water into the hole in the rocks & then "whoosh", up she came.  This always fascinated me as a child 60+ years ago and still does.

4.  FENCE/FENCING.

I really struggled with this one, but trawling through the archives last night, voila, just what I needed.
Taken in 2016 whilst out walking with my good friend Jayne from The View from Bag End, in the Lakes District,  this fence surrounds a lovely church & has the added bonus of a stone wall & the beautiful mountains behind it.  Ah, just making me want to go back!!!!!

5.  SPIKY/PRICKLY.

Again, one from the archives.  Taken at Mallacoota on the east coast of Victoria, way back in 2012 whilst coming back from Canberra, after seeing our youngest son & family.  Not too sure what it is exactly, but it was definitely dangerous with those spiky thorn-like bits.

6.  MY OWN CHOICE.

Now this is my "silly" moment.  I've no pets anymore & most of the other hunters, tend to show off their gorgeous dogs for their own choice, so to keep in the swing of things, here is one I took yesterday.  This doggie sits at the entrance to an Agricultural Contractors yard on the edge of town & he is sort of cute.

OK, my lot done for this month & hopefully I'll be posting a tad more over the next half of this year, as I do have some days out and crafty bits to blog about.  Over the weekend I'll catch up with the other hunters & add my name to the link.
Enjoy the weekend everyone, take care and sending lots of huggles to all.
Susan.

APRIL SCAVENGER PHOTO HUNT (2018)

A set of words to find photos for, hosted by Kate.

1.  SWIRL.

A chance photo I took last Thursday, whilst out at a National Trust property, Gulf Station in the Yarra Valley.  These wee little cyclamen were under a huge tree amongst much leaf litter & once uploaded to my computer I could see the cute swirly stems.  A great find as I didn't have one for this word.  (you may have to click on the photo to enlarge,)

2.  ROCK.

One from the archives, taken many years ago whilst on holiday in New South Wales.  Sawn Rocks in the Warrumbungle Ranges National Park are fascinating as to how and where pieces of rock have fallen from the cliff face of the mountains here.  One lot of these look like steps.

3.  WOOD.

Another from the same trip showing the inside of a gigantic woolshed in Mungo National Park near Broken Hill in the very west of New South Wales.  This is not used anymore, but can you imagine it full of sheep, shearers, wool classers & pressers, plus tarboys with their pots of tar in case a sheep got cut accidently.  It was awesome.

4.  LETTER.

Aha, the letter "S" which makes up my three initials.  We pass this frequently if we shop in a nearby town.  It is located in a laneway between the shops & I've been going to take a photo for years.  Well, I took my camera over the weekend and captured it.

5.  BALANCE.

Koalas do a "LOT" of sleeping.   Amazingly they balance on very slim branches in deep slumber and don't fall from the tree.  Taken on one of our visits to Raymond Island in East Gippsland.

6.  MY OWN CHOICE.

Another photo taken last Thursday of the farm dam at Gulf Station.  Although I could see the reflections, they came out better than I thought in the photo.

That's my lot for this hunt.  I do hope I can get some more blogging done next month, but we've much happening at the moment and I'm just a tad overwhelmed with everything.
I'm looking forward to the other photo hunter's take on the words.
Take care all & lots of huggles from down under.
Susan.

CRAFTY CHAOS.

Yep, I'm still lurking about, although I've been quiet on this little blog.  Sore backs don't bode well with my computer chair, so I've done some quick catch ups  and that is about it.
I'm not one for sitting still for long, so it's been fitting in some craft around housework & the mundane stuff, but alternating what I do, which helps with pain management.  The garden is being quite neglected though.  Just a few photos of what has been keeping me busy.

BABY QUILTS.
These 2 are going to wing there way across the skies to Yorkshire next week, hopefully, after I've made some labels.  My youngest two nieces (sisters), have both given birth recently to baby boys & it's been lovely to make these.  I've actually got a third one to do now, as my Doctor is also expecting. What do I let myself in for?

The quilt above is called "Owling Around", which I designed to use the owl fabric I had on hand.  The quilting pattern (above right) is Oscar Owl.

 

This one is from a very old pattern I adapted to paper piecing, as the templates didn't seem to fit together right.  I've called it "Up, Up & Away".  The quilting is one called Kites.

I've also had another one on the machine in the trio of quilts I named for three of my granddaughters who live here in Oz.  It just needs it's binding now, but I'll give you a sneak peek.

My own design.

This is quilted with a pattern call Ribbons & Bows from Apricot Moon.

TRYING TO BE ARTY!!!!!!!

Out came my tin of paints, which haven't seen the light of day since Xmas 2017 and then came the messy part, but fun anyway.
I'm definitely not very clever, although I've wanted to give this a go for a while.
This piece of pegboard came along with our other items from the Indian Restaurant that had closed down.  I posted about the fancy lattice panels, last year,  which we put along side the shed to hide our water tanks.  I'll be putting some beading (well, hubby will,) on the edge & hang it in the sewing room to hold a few of my tools.

Last weekend we visited 4 Makers in our "Open Studios West Gippsland" guide book and look what one of them made me. 

This particular man makes all sorts of sculptures, large & small, from "junk", which he collects from all over.  I was fascinated by his talking of plasma cutting & asked if he ever gave a demonstrations, and the answer was, "Come with me".  Out to the workshop & I was asked if I'd like a cat, bird or whatever and said a dog, please.  Well before that, when we had entered through the gate, there was a black dog sitting under a tree, and me, being me the dog lover, went over to say hello & I'm positive he smiled at me & said a pat would be appreciated.  Then he lay his head to the side and lapped up my petting.  This looks just like Barney smiling.  K made the stand for him yesterday.  Wasn't I a lucky girl & he was free. 
It turned out to be the most fascinating of days with four absolutely amazing Makers.  Pity my small camera battery was flat, which is the one I keep in the car.

OK, just a quick catch up & motivation is returning slowly. 
Take care & huggles to all.
Susan.