Is it a Flame Tree & Finally some TAST

 

We think we have a flame tree in our back garden.  The reason we are unsure is that this particular tree hasn’t flowered to our knowledge.  The colour is brilliant and I see other flame trees around town in full flower whereas this one is only just starting. Also, our Jacaranda trees aren’t flowering yet!!  We must be doing ‘slow gardening’.

This is the tree just starting to bloom                            Beautiful orange/red blossoms

The buds (aren’t they beautiful?)

This is the bouganvillea growing along side of it. 

Shirley and I have motivated each other and worked on our TAST pieces.

This is the stitch for Week 43,  Buttonhole cups. (Don’t ask about all the missing weeks of TAST stitches!!)

It was quite enjoyable to do and is a lovely textural stitch. My version is a new flower on the scene called bluecups.  VBG .  I am looking out of the window at a field of them.

The background is coloured with watercolour pencils and textile medium.

You can see more about the TAST challenge and view comments at Pintangle – here – and see what other people have done with this stitch on Stitchin’ Fingers – here.

There was smoke all around the city last week as bush and grass fires continued to burn in our region.  It made a trip down town feel really spooky.  Fortunately, due to the diligence of our fire crews, houses and lives have been saved from these ravaging fires.

In the pipeline I am working on a new blog – same stuff different format.

 

Del Prado

Alison & me.
Well, we weren’t really at  Del Prado, Spain, we were visiting the “Masterpieces from the Prado”  exhibition in Brisbane!!

It was last Sunday,  and we enjoyed a full day out at the Art Gallery.  The exhibition was mind blowing.  The detail in most of the portraits was very realistic as were the still life paintings.  The paintings of the costumes on people depicting lace, velvet, brocades etc were extraordinary.  You could almost feel the fabric.  (No photography allowed)

Marilyn Monroe AKA the lovely Loretta.  Ooo la la.

Of course, we also enjoyed a couple of these along the way.

Retreat & Quilt Show

After a bit of a hiccup I made it to our annual retreat for Toowoomba Quilters Club. 

Me, Vicky and Marleen.
It starts on the Friday afternoon around 4.30 but yours truly was in bed all day Friday after just recovering from a vomiting bug during Thursday night, quickly followed up by a migraine.  Yukko.
Not to be beaten, I thought I would get up really early Saturday morning and head out to the retreat.  it was not to be.  Still had the migraine at 5.00am so went back to bed and nursed it til around 9.00.  Then I was well enough to go – can’t keep a determined quilter down!!
Alas, the sewing planned did not get done, but I did do a little bit of wool embroidery and a little bit of zentangle to keep my mind off the fact that I was still nauseous and unwell.
At retreat we had a Christmas swap at Saturday lunch and I was lucky enough to win these very cute owls made by Vicki W.  They kept going missing over the next 24 hours and I would find them scattered randomly about the room. 

Aren’t they just sooooo cute.  Mamma and her three babies.
On Wednesday our quilt group took a bus down to Brisbane to Quilt and Craft Show.  It was a hoot (sorry for the pun).
It was one of the best organized trips I have ever been on with our quilt club.  Organized by the beautiful Ineke, we had a pit stop at Goodna where we had a lovely cup of tea/coffee and cake and bikkies and then on to the show.  Our tickets and other information was already attended to and we walked straight in and spent a wonderful day exploring the show.Here are just some of the goodies I bought.

Some arty farty stuff – coloured lutradur, batik fabric I had to have, colourful sari silk stirps and a rubbing plate.  Some washi tape which I don’t know what for, some daisy braid, angelina fibres (also bought a copper shade) and a micron pen for zentangle.
There was a bit more too, and I spent waaaaay too much but had a lovely day.  It was good to catch up with some friends at the show who aren’t in the group, and I even caught up with Mary, a crafting friend, from Rainbow Beach.
The winning quilts at the Queensland Quilt show can be seen here.
Blogger –  The verification on blogger these days is a pest.  It is hard for people to read and deters people from commenting, so I turned it off.  Alas, now I am being bombarded with spam and silly anonymous emails so I will have to  put it back on, sorry.  Just wish blogger would make the verification process easier.

Still Here!

My life has been in a bit of a whirlwind since arriving home from our trip to the west.
We went a lot further West than I had anticipated we would, and all in all we travelled some 10,000 kilometres.
Seeing the Indian Ocean for the first time was awesome ,and I must say I am a little bit in love with the State of Western Australia and can’t wait to go back for another visit.  There were many, many photos taken and I will attempt to show little bits here and there as time permits.  Many contrasts of landscapes.

The magnificent Indian Ocean in Broome

Red sand hills in the Simpson Desert.
Since coming home I have had the Toowoomba Quilters Club Quilt Show to attend, a trip to the delightful town of Childers to catch up with a cousin, and a quick fling to Brisbane with my adorable sister to see “Jersey Boys”.

                                                             My sister looking out from our Brisbane hotel room

Sights of Brisbane (The jacarandas are out in bloom and looking bloomin’ wonderful).
P.S. I had a terrible cough and flu for the trip to Childers and Brisbane and only just recovering after almost 2 weeks!!!
The quilt show was brilliant this year. It just seems to get better and better and the new venue is working out very well.  It is such a fun week being able to just hang with my quilting mates and catch up on all the new and exciting things they have been doing.  Also good to finally catch up with my dear friend Shirley again (who by all accounts missed me a bit). 
Not much sewing done but this weekend is our annual quilt retreat so I am hoping to get a bit done there.
BLOGSPOT – I notice Australian blogspot blogs have had the au added onto the end of their addresses.
I haven’t seen any notification from Blogger about this.  ????