Australia Day 2011

 G'day,
We joined our neighbours for a good ol' Aussie barby today and celebrated living in this great country of ours.  For all that our country dishes up to us we love her anyway.  As Dorothea Mackellar says in her famous poem, "My Country", First Line, second verse - I love a sunburnt country - Last line - Her beauty and her terror - The wide brown land for me!!!


Our back neighbour is a local businessman and he held the barbeque to fund raise for victims of the 'inland tsunami' in our region. Good on ya Jim!! You can see what Jim does here on his website. An unusual business for a somewhat parochial city, but all our friends from South Africa who have come and settled in our fair city love it, and so do a lot of the passing truckies.

 On another slant,  I am working on a simple nine patch scrap quilt for our quilt club fundraiser, so I spent the afternoon in the sewing room. It is going to be very colourful.  I am using 4" squares that someone donated to the club.  Should have been easy, but of course some were a bit shy of 4" and some a bit larger.  Grrr.

It has been a while since I have had a block of time to just sit and sew. Lovely way to finish the Australia day holiday.

Rachael's Birthday - a washout

It was our neice Rachael's birthday on 13 January. Oh boy what a 30th birthday - one she will never forget. There is Rachael in her funny Ikea hat trying to put on a brave face. The hat was a joke which was going to be presented to her on the night of her birthday party to be held in the family home.
There is the family home now on the right after a metre and a half of putrid Brisbane river went through it. It is a heartbreaking sight, but the family is rallying and it is just a waiting game now before they start to rebuild their life. They have to wait until all the wood dries out thoroughly. Fortunately, knowing what happened in the the floods of 1974, they had moved most of their furniture and valuables to higher ground before the inundation.

Now - what is this mess? It is something new I tried. It is vleisofix painted with watered down acrylic paints. After it fully dried I then ironed it onto some fabric. You will not be seeing the result as I was not happy with it and I didn't get the look I was after. Learnt a lot though. The actual technique was fine, so maybe I can use the resulting fabric in some other project - just not my latest art journal quilt!!

Not much else in the crafting/quilting scene has been going on around here lately, sadly.

A City Shattered

It has been a dark day for our beautiful city today.  
Most of Queensland has been suffering terrible devastating floods and we thought we may be immune. Not to be.  We had torrential rain today on top of previous days of rain.
 Our city centre was hit with a flash flood today.  Cars were thrown around like match sticks, people were swept away, lives lost.  This is right in the middle of our city centre. 
Goods from stores were flushed out of the shops and swept away by the fast flowing water.  Low life looters were quickly to work after the waters receded. 
Our hearts go out to those families who are mourning their lost loved ones today.  
There is further flooding expected from swollen creeks and rivers in our district.  
The only good news coming from this is that our dams which feed our city water supply are now full and we probably have enough water for 10 years without huge rainfalls.
I will give an update on Shirley B tomorrow.  She is fine, but marooned.  

Lychees

Have you ever had the pleasure of eating a fresh Lychee?


If you have eaten canned ones and decided they were yuk, well try a fresh one!  Deeeeevine.  

I love them cold -  as is - but they are even more scrumptious dipped into your favourite dark chocolate and refrigerated til set.  Mmm Mmm.


They are very seasonal, and my cousin, who grows them, told me this trick.  When they are in season just throw them (okay place them to prevent bruising) into a freezer bag holus bolus and they will last quite a few months.  When you are ready to eat them simply defrost.  They will still be as delectable as the day you bought/picked them.

Art Journal Quilts - October

 
These are the first art journal quilts made by the TQ Art Group for the month of October.  
The rude lady you see in there is actually a brooch (pin) which our member, Kay, picked up at a craft stall in Gatton. (Top Right) This quilt is not completed and she is calling it "My Autumn Years".  
The very beautiful one at the bottom is by Linda Wrench.  She does fabulous felting work.  Linda loves to fossick for gems and is writing a story about her fossicking adventures with each art quilt.  This one is "Garnet"
Kathy Adams is doing her monthly journal quilts on songs she loves from the 70's. (Middle Left)  This one is printed on silk and is called "3 Roses were Bought with You in Mind". 
I don't know the names of all the other quilts, but mine is in the middle "Dream Weavers", Ann J "Boots 'n All" (Top Left)
Glenda T did the one on the bottom right and has used the 'confetti method'.
I think I was the only one to finish the November quilt and that was my "Viva Valentino" piece (here)
We only started with 7 members and now we have interest from about 12 people.  I will post more about my art journal quilting in 2011 when I hope to try different techniques and experiment a little.

Resolutions.........and breaking them

This New Year I have resolved not to make any resolutions for fear of breaking them - again!  Instead, I am calling them 'serious attempts'.
Firstly, I am going to make a serious attempt to spend a little time in the garden each day.  It is out of control since the recent heavy rain.

 
Agapanthus growing amongst weeds
I am going to make a serious attempt to finish some UFO's  and to finish projects I start in 2011.

I am going to make a serious attempt to blog more regularly and spruce up my blog.  (Will get Shirley B to help me with this one).

I am going to make a serious attempt to go down to Brisbane more often this year to visit our daughter who works 6 days a week and finds it hard to get away to visit us.  I feel like I want to go down there and spoil her. 

And last, but most importantly, I am going to make a serious attempt to not spread myself too thinly and over commit.

 Bella with her summer 'do'.
Last year I made a resolution to throw out one thing every day and get organized.  Well, I managed very well with throwing something out each day well into the year.  We won't go into the getting organized bit.  Still haven't got the house back together since the reno!!!!  We have ordered a new leather lounge suite though, which I am very excited about.  We have had our current fabric lounge for 28 years now - it is still in good nick.
We also purchased THE most divine persian rug for the lounge room.  Should look super duper with the new lounge (fingers crossed).  
 
We gave the man of the house this new video camera for Christmas. He had this JVC video camera (Left) when the children were little and he took some wonderful movies of them.  Now that we have our little granddaughter and will probably be blessed with more grandies, we have given him this new JVC(Right) to record memorable events.  
WOW, how video cameras have changed since the 1980's hey!!!??

Dang - it is raining again, so can't go out into the garden today.