Evolution of "The Brown Thang"

Remember "The Brown Thang"? It is now a quilt top and is going to be an 80th birthday present for my Dad. I am going to call it "Target 80 and Beyond" because the circles look like bull's eye targets.

I think my Dad will like it, although he finds it difficult to understand the whole concept of quilting. "Why do you piddle around with this stuff?" is just one comment he has made in the past. The fact that it has been made especially for him and made with love, I think, will appeal to him.

Instead of quilting it, I am going to tie it in brown (what else) crochet or perle cotton.

Dad, always the ultra conservative dresser, has always been fond of brown actually.

The Power of the Written Word

Since the advent of the telephone, the written word has taken a bit of a back seat and letter writing somewhat diminished. In recent years it has made a huge re-appearance with the use of emails, blogs, groups on line etc etc.

One may forget how powerful the written word can be. So, without becoming too philosophical, this is a warning to read, review and edit carefully and re read again before clicking on the "send", "publish", "comment" etc. etc. buttons. I have learnt the lesson the hard way and the outcome saddens me.

Another blogger whose blog I read frequently, recently stated that she would not be blogging anymore due to some rude, inappropriate and hurtful comments left on her blog. On places like facebook, people are using the written word to bully or belittle people they take a dislike to. Some of these comments are probably sent rashly and whilst the writer is emotionally charged, without thinking of the consequences of how their words may be construed by the recipient.


At least with a letter, you can physically destroy it and have time to mull over it before you post or deliver it. But with cyberspace, once you hit that send button there is no retrieving it.

So, keep it positive and think twice or three times before you send. Lesson learnt.

Glimpses of Sydney

We had a busy time in Sydney but here are just a few glimpses. Most of these were taken from the ferries - love those ferries in Sydney. They were punctual and so easy to get on and off. We still managed to miss a couple of them though - too busy chit chatting.


The Sydney quilt show was good. There were some outstanding quilts and the sales stalls were very tempting. I didn't spend too much - very controlled really. The stand out at the show was the Japanese textile display. The silk thread on silk fabric embroidery was out of this world and the wearable textiles were very interesting. No photography was allowed and any description I could give you of the work would not be able to describe just how beautiful it all was.

The Victoria Building - inner city

Ruby the wonder dog. Ruby lives at Avalon in Sydney and she is a very intelligent lovable red cattle dog who thinks she is human. Ruby rules the roost.

Baby Hex

This is my little "Baby Hex" quilt I made a couple of years ago in case either of our children decided to bless us with a baby one day.

Well GUESS WHAT?? Our older daughter and her husband are expecting their first child (our first grandchild) and we are all very excited.

"Baby Hex" is made up of 1,253 - 1/2inch hexagons. It is all hand sewn and hand quilted. It took some 18mths to complete. Of course, it was going to be a much larger quilt, but common sense prevailed. It accidentally turned out to be a bit of a colourwash quilt. Originally, I was using up all my little scraps of pastels in light to medium tones, then a friend gave me a whole bunch of 1/2" hexagons because she grew tired of doing them. The ones my friend gave me were of a much darker breed, so I decided to start in the middle with the light ones and then graduate out to the dark.

Serendipity!

Tommorrow I am off to Sydney with a girlfriend to here. We will have to be up at 4.00am and on the road by 5.00am to get to the Brisbane airport. Exciting stuff. Looking very forward to seeing the quilt show winners and checking out the Japanese Textile Art. I will blog all our travels when we return.

Greek Rice Pudding

My friend, "The Greek Goddess of Cookery" gave me this recipe for traditional Greek Rice Pudding - "Rizogalo".

Sorry, I cannot share the recipe without her permission, but I can tell you it is magnificent, delicious and downright altogether YUMMY.

I want to tell her "thank you" and "magnificent" in Greek, but could not find the words on any free dictionaries on line, darn it!

Eyes hanging out

The eyes are hanging out of the head this morning, blog friends! I spent a very romantic and enjoyable evening with "Mr Dreamboat" - Michael Buble. Mmmmmmmmmm. He was entertaining, sexy, adorable, witty and funny, and an all round wonderful performer.