Dinky Di Quilting & Craft

Little Feather Trees and Buttonhole Scene Finished

2012-01-23T10:32:00.001+10:00

My aim with the TAST stitches is to produce a small piece consisting only of the featured stitch. It is taking a lot of self control not to embellish with something else!! Maybe down the track I might add bits and pieces to them but for the duration of the challenge I will try to continue the way I am going.

It has been fun creating my feather trees and Shirley helped me with colours and threads when I was feeling it was all just a bit blah. Thank you my friend.

The border is closed feather stitch and the trunk of the willow tree is single feather stitch worked closely. I used a strip of sari silk folded thinly and couched with feather stitch for the trunk of the central tree. We saw this idea in a book and I had to give it a go.

Also, while watching the Australian Open tennis, I finished off my tropical scene in buttonhole stitch. Added a bit more strength of colour to the leaves and completing the border in closed button hole. Well, fairly closed.

I am now loving variegated threads and particularly perle cottons which I have a very, very small supply of. Will have to do some stash building there!!

All in all a very productive Sunday.

If you would like to see more of what people have done with the feather stitch, go across to Sharon’s Pintangle blog HERE - go to the comments and follow the various links to their blogs. Some real eye candy there!!

Inspirations - TAST Week 2

2012-01-15T15:28:00.000+10:00

Views of Rainbow Beach
We went a little further north last week and re-visited our old home town, Rainbow Beach.
This was a very windy day, misty day so the coloured sand cliffs are not visible. :-((

Top left to right: Views across to Fraser Island through the casurina trees.
Surf Lifesaving tower
View to Fraser Island through the pandanus
Mr Virgo on Rainbow Beach (coloured cliffs in background
Rutile Sands
Our friend's cruiser

Inspiration for my TAST piece this week. The palm trees at the back of our holiday unit.

My piece is still a work in progress. It will have a wavy border all done in buttonhole stitch and I will add a little more colour into the palm leaves. I have only brought a very limited amount of threads to the beach with me and the leaf colour was not really what I was after.

The waves were done with lovely variegated sashiko thread which was gifted to me by Judy. Thanks Judy - I just love the texture this gave me.

My journal notes for the buttonhole stitch.
There is much more inspiration for the buttonhole stitch on Sharon B's Pintangle page HERE and also on Stitchin' Fingers. Amazing how much can be done with the humble buttonhole stitch (blanket stitch)

This beach bum life is pretty darn good - coming to an end on Thursday. :-(( sad, sad, face.

TAST - ing Fly Stitch

2012-01-09T15:18:00.000+10:00

If you haven't seen already all over the blogosphere, the 1st week of Sharon at Pintangle's TAST challenge was the fly stitch. The link to week 1 is here and it is amazing just how many different and innovative ways people have used this stitch. Have a look at the comments and then follow the links to the various sites for some real eye candy.

Here is my poor ol' version. Snowflake - fireworks thingys.
Snowflakes for January as in some places of the world it is snowing right now, and fireworks for New Years.
It is only a small piece and I intend doing just small pieces for the whole challenge on fabric I already have, and perhaps at the end making it into some kind of wall hanging. Who knows? Just seeing where it takes me at the moment. I enjoyed experimenting and making my mind think of some way different to use this stitch which I have used many times in the past.

Using my beautiful journal Shirley gave me to record my TAST experiments.

As you can see I used my first idea and I have notated the threads used.

The border was going to be a neat little affair but random flys won out!!

Looking forward to tomorrow morning to see what stitch is offered for Week 2.

Late Christmas Report

2012-01-06T18:19:00.000+10:00

Lilian - the cutest ever Santa's helper at my sister's house before we went to the beach

My sister, Lyndelle (enjoying a cold ale) with cutie pie.

(Maroochydore Beach)

Then we went to the beach for a few weeks.

The weather has been very mild and not as humid as usual. Just devine!!

Our Christmas lunch was delicious. A very quiet affair. There was only a few of us but we had enough food for about 15 people.

Entree - made by our daughter.

Prawn and Mango salad with a lime dressing. It was really yummy.

Main Course - Leg Ham, Roast Pork, Asian noodle salad, Stuffed eggs, Potato Salad, Green salad with fetta. Delicious.

Dessert (no photo) - was fresh fruit salad, plum pudding, custard, cream and ice cream.

Eat today - for tomorrow we may diet....

A Special Gift & Christmas Scenes

2011-12-21T12:51:00.001+10:00

It was nice to catch up with my friend Shirley yesterday before we head off to the beach for a summer holiday.

Imagine how thrilled I was when I received a piece of Shirley’s exquisite embroidery for Christmas. I have been totally rapt in this piece since she first began designing and stitching it as part of Sharon Boggon’s ‘Sumptuous Stitches’ course. Sooooo, to actually own it is a real thrill indeed.

Shirley has crafted the embroidery into a book cover. (A sketchbook which will be handy for my upcoming TAST designs!!) Not only has she done this amazing embroidery but the fabric is hand dyed by her, the cord is hand dyed by her and some of the beads she has also made. She is one creative lady.

BEAUTIFUL !

Now I am going to show you some of Shirley’s handmade Christmas decorations.

Could these please be bequeathed to me Shirley??? Aren’t they beautiful too?

When we were in Brisbane on the weekend our daughter took us to see this house in her suburb which has a Christmas Light show in the evenings. It was spectacular. I only have a small camera, so the photos are pretty ordinary. The light show included music – magical.

It had an Australian theme, There is a cockatoo, koala, kangaroo and emu. Can you spot them? Santa made an appearance in the front window but I couldn’t capture him on camera.

As promised, I am showing some pictures of Robyn’s Christmas trimmings from our get together last Thursday.

We had really funky serviettes from Kaffe Fassett fabric and they even had a buttonhole in them. Thanks to Frances for these.

Yvonne, Robyn H and Carmel (with KF serviette attached!)

Beautiful Table setting

Table Centre – Glass tree with mini ornaments.

Monsieur Robynne with her Secret Santa gift – perfect – a silver glass Christmas Tree.

Nativity Scenes

It gives Robyn and her husband, Alan, much pleasure decorating their home for Christmas and it gives everyone who visits (especially the Grandchildren) much pleasure too.

Thank you to all my wonderful blogging friends who visit this blog and I wish you all a very happy and peaceful Christmas, all the best for the New Year and happy holidays.

xxx

Di.

Gifts from Friends

2011-12-15T20:26:00.001+10:00

In the past couple of weeks I have been blessed with many gifts from my friends.

Marleen gave me this very cute fabric basket with some goodies in it. Yum.

Joan gave me this gorgeous Royal Albert ornament. Very nice.

Yvonne surprised me with this zentangle needlecase. We had done some tangling together at the retreat and she has taken to it like a duck to water. The fabric is very appropriate. Love it!

After quite a wait, a wonderful parcel arrived from my dear friend Judy (Michigan USA). Judy has a lovely blog at CJ Stitching and Blooms.

It arrived in this very bright package – Australia Post can you please do some of these?

Thank you for the goodies you sent me Judy, very thoughtful. Can’t wait to try out these Pilot erasable gel pens she has sent me – I have never seen them before!

Today, Joan gave me this sweet wall hanging and I hung it from the only place I could find, the Air Conditioning controls. We haven’t put many hooks back into the wall since we painted and renovated waaaaay back.

Love the sentiment expressed in this!

Then.. today at my quilt cottage group Christmas break up I received this Royal Albert Santa. (I feel a collection coming on). Too cute eh?

The cottage group gathered in Robyn’s home.

L – R (Back) Yvonne, Dawn, Joan, Pam, Me, Robyn H, Robyn Ginn, (Front) Sue, Kerrie, Carmel and Frances.

Robyn’s house was beautifully decorated which I will show in the next post.

Thank you my dear friends.

Gifts

2011-12-11T07:12:00.001+10:00

One of the gifts I cherish the most is the wonderful friends I have in my life, most of whom I have met through patchwork and quilting.

For my three amigos this year I made them each a Christmas Recipe folder which is a pattern from Fiona at “Designs by Fee”. Thank you for sharing this pattern with us, Fiona.

Here they are all wrapped up. I made the tags from some collaged fabric pieces and painted the luggage tags in watercolours. I have now given all the girls their recipe folders and they loved them.

This is my dear friend, Marleen. She dresses her house up for Christmas with all her Christmas quilts and nick nacks. It looks a treat.

It inspired me to come home and decorate a little more. I ended up putting every single decoration I own (which isn’t many really) on our tree and around the house.

Our Tree.

Next time….. gifts received!!

3 Years Old already

2011-12-09T17:58:00.001+10:00

Our little cherub, granddaughter , Lilian, turned 3 today.

She is a delight and probably one of the best things that has ever happened to us!

Mummy gave her this doll’s house which she played with almost all day and Nana and Grandad (us) gave her the tea set. We had to have many ‘cups of tea’.

She really enjoyed her rainbow cake which her Mummy made for her. It was nearly as big as her!! She loves rainbows!! ( and birds and monkeys)

She had a lovely day.

TAST–Take a Stitch Tuesday

2011-12-01T18:13:00.001+10:00

I have bitten the bullet and decided to participate in Sharon Boggon’s TAST 2012.
Sharon’s blog is Pintangle and you can read all about TAST 2012 at
http://www.pintangle.com/community-challenges/2011/12/1/take-a-stitch-tuesday-2012-challenge-information-page.html?lastPage=true&postSubmitted=true
At least I have my friend, Shirley, to help motivate me. It should be a lot of fun and last year I was amazed at how the participants came up with different ideas for the stitches Sharon gave them each Tuesday.
I embroidery.

Learning Blackwork

2011-11-18T20:00:00.001+10:00

This is my first foray into ~~blackwork~~ blue work??

Well the technique is blackwork, and thank you to my ever patient tutor, Shirley from “Stitches and Life”. I have just started on a sampler piece and trying different variations. Decided to do it in blue as some years ago Shirley started me on drawn thread work and the edging on this piece of lugano is all I ended up doing!! Typical! The Blackwork is very addictive and very fun. Thank you for starting me off, Shirley (and feeding and coffeeing me).

Miniature pink rose on my dressing table                                            Peach rose in hand made pottery by my
                                                                                                       Aunty – Heather Russell
.If only you could smell these roses – deeevine.

Almost Summer

2011-11-17T09:12:00.001+10:00

This is a lovely time of year in the garden here.

Our scraggy old cactus didn’t disappoint and there were a couple of flowers left when we got home. They only last 24 hours. Typical of most cacti the flower is stunning.

The star jasmine was in full bloom too.
For me, it is wise to get out in the garden early in the morning or after sun down in the evening. Usually, at this time of the evening is when I am preparing dinner, so I have pledged to get out there for an hour early in the morning each day – well those days when I am not going out socializing.
This morning I was a little late getting into it due to the fact that our beloved Bella had to have her annual haircut. Poor Bella is about 12 years old now and her back legs are a bit dicky with arthritis. A bit of a handful to get in and out of the car. She wasn’t too keen on going in for her salon treatment either. Kept heading for the front door of the place!

Bella ‘before’                                                                    Bella ‘after’ – with little green ribbons in her hair.
My friend, Shirley, is back from her little sojourn ‘down at the farm’ and she brought me back some floral gifts. Thank you Shirley – she knows how much I love flowers. She also gave me some cuttings to put in our garden.

Agapanthus & November Lily                              Yellow roses and daisies – apricot ones are from my garden.

Back from Outback

2011-11-09T16:06:00.001+10:00

We went back o’ Bourke - and beyond - where the crows fly backwards!! The weather treated us very kindly and there was only one day where it reached about 40 deg. and that was in the Strzelecki Desert – so to be expected!

(Mr Virgo in the Strzelecki Desert – very, very hot day)

Lake Eyre was an amazing, awesome sight. We did a short plane flight over, and the lake showed us all of it’s different faces. It has about 30% water in it right now and that is fast evaporating. It will, without rain in the catchment areas, become once again a salt pan.

(Different views of Lake Eyre – taken from the aeroplane window – and, yes, the water is really pink/purple in places.)

(This is the very small aircraft we went over the lake in – Yikes!)

We camped in our tent for 12 nights, and I can tell you it was sheer bliss to get back into our own bed on Monday night having had a long hot shower. Even so, it was so much fun being out there and experiencing nature close up. Too close up one night when our campsite became an attraction to hoards of desert mice. EEK, I have a phobia of mice and rats, so you can imagine what sort of night I had in the tent. Poor Mr Virgo was awakened every so often and at every slight noise to check the tent for mice. We had curry and rice for dinner and some of the rice had spilt onto the ground. This is what attracted them. Funny now looking back, and I am wondering what other campers (in caravans) were thinking when I was shrieking.

(Me – feet up on chair – terrified look on face – and oblivious to the mouse right under me, thankfully)

(Flowers in the desert and outback – if you recognize any as weeds – sorry, weeds can have nice flowers too!)

Inspiration from nature was abounding. The desert has come to life with all sorts of plant life, especially after rains earlier in the year. The lake’s unique landscape and colours was also a great source of inspiration. I just want to find some time now to do an art quilt or two!!

Hitting the Road again -

2011-10-21T14:42:00.001+10:00

We are hitting the road and heading outback again. This time we are going far, far west to look at Lake Eyre while it has water in it. Referred to as our great inland sea you can read more about Lake Eyre – HERE.
It is sure to be an amazing sight. We are doing a small flight over the lake to view it from the air and see where all the rivers flow into it. I am very excited !!!! Of course half the fun of it will be the journey to and from. There will be a bit of bush camping to be done too. This time I am okay with it.

This shows you how far we are travelling, but we are not going this way – we are going more direct west. I just couldn’t get google maps to change for me. We are travelling the Strzelecki track from Innamincka. The track is through desert country and quite isolated, so one has to inform the police or locals at Innamincka before embarking, and contact them once you have arrived at your destination. It is going to be quite an adventure.

At home, the blooms are slowly starting to appear. Our star jasmine is resisting flowering – must be due to the coolish weather we have had this spring. Usually it is in full glorious bloom by now.
However here is what is around the garden.

Bouganvillea – colour chosen by my hubby – good choice.

Our mandarine tree has been loaded with fruit this year – very sweet

Yellow rose in full bloom.

Grevilleas have loved the rain and the cooler weather. Colours are deep and beautiful.

This ugly cactus has the most beautiful flower. Hope it is flowering when we get home.
There may be a little internet connection here and there on the trip, but for the most part we will be technology free.
Back soon…………………..

The Humble Cooked Chook

2011-10-19T09:22:00.001+10:00

I don’t know about other bloggers, but I am sick of the cooked chooks we buy from the supermarket and the take away chicken stores.

They are overloaded with salt (no good for my hubby with his high BP) and sometimes the flesh is so dry, and other times it is just mushy.

So…..I have decided to cook my own whenever I can.

I bought a lovely big plump chicken - fresh from the supermarket - and did my own stuffing - and, the result was a scrumptious moist chicken with a lovely flavour.

Here are the steps I used.

Some left over crusts I had in the freezer. Processed until fine breadcrumbs. (Stale white bread without the crusts is better)

Some left over bits of onion and some dried mixed herbs. Fresh herbs would be better, but alas my herb garden is non-existent at present. Process the onions with the breadcrumbs.

Add a little salt, a grinding of black pepper and about 1/4 teasp white pepper.

The processed crumbs and onion with herbs and seasonings added.

Add some hot water til the bread mix is firm and form into a log.

Stuff into poor old girl. (you know where**) Mine had a split at the top of the leg. Perfect for putting a dab of butter into.

‘Sew’ opening up with a metal skewer. Pat the chicken dry with a paper towel.

I decided to truss this ol girls legs together as she was looking most uncomely.

I cooked mine in my Mum’s old electric frypan circa 1979. It is much nicer in the oven, but I was in a hurry and with the lid on this one, it kind of steams it through. You may like to use an oven bag if using the oven. The potatoes and pumpkin done in this old frypan with the chicken were just really yummo.

Forgot to take a picture of the meal before we gobbled it up. The meat was so tender and moist and the stuffing was to die for. Will definitely be cooking my own as much as possible.

Embellishing - A Desert Landscape

2011-10-14T11:09:00.001+10:00

Last weekend was our quilt retreat. It was so much fun and their was a lot of laughter as friends got together and got the endorphins pumping.

Some of our ladies enjoying the retreat.

Of course, some sewing was done. One of the highlights of the retreat is the homemade goodies table. It was groaning this year and there were some lovely delights to be savoured. Some I tried – (and everything was home made) . Rocky road, French biscuits called madelines, (thank you Nelly), apple cinnamon cake, lemon coconut slice, shortbread creams, cherry and ginger slice (by me) and lots more. My hips have spread as a result!!

When I went to the textile fair in Brisbane a few months ago, I entered a competition to win an embellisher. Alas, I was not the winner, but instead a friend of mine, Linda, won it. She already had an embellisher and knowing that I wanted one, she offered hers up for sale to me. Of course I snapped it up.

(My new embellisher – note map underneath which hubby has spread out to plan our next trip)

Four ladies brought along their embellishers to retreat and Linda kindly showed us some ways to use it. She did us all up a little pack of fibres to use. Some of them she has dyed or painted herself. A very talented lady. Thank you Linda.

Linda

This is what I did as my landscape project. It is inspired by the country we saw on the edge of the Simpson Desert when we went on our road trip in July.

Linda said we could now go ahead and embellish our piece with beads, stitch etc.

The embellisher is so much fun and I can see I will be doing a lot more in the future.

Friends

2011-10-06T16:36:00.001+10:00

Sometimes special friends come into our lives and I truly believe they are sent to us to learn lessons and humility. So with this in mind, I have added this cute badge about friends to my sidebar which I picked up over on Paisley Cat. They have some really beaut pages, badges etc. so do pay them a visit.
My friend, Shirley, came into my life around 20 years ago and we have learnt much from each other, but she has truly taught me a lot about life (and embroidery VBG). It was her birthday on Monday, so yesterday I took her shopping and to lunch. We had a lovely day out together with no stress, nothing to rush home for, so we could just enjoy the day.
We were excited to find Murray’s art supply and framing shop had moved into lovely new premises in the main street, so we simply had to check it out.
We made a few small purchases and of course Shirley being Shirley had to try her new goodies out straight away.

She thought she needed brushes………ahem

This her current supply, but never mind, the new ones will not go astray!!
Have a great year ahead, Shirley. Looking forward to seeing what she creates with her new art supplies.

A Little Break

2011-10-03T13:00:00.001+10:00

After the quilt show and all the excitement of the Carnival of Flowers, we decided we needed a little break away and took my darling sister up on the offer of joining them on the Sunshine Coast for a few days.
Sunshine, there was not, but it didn’t bother us. We still had some lovely walks along the beach and some good old chin wags (new saying just for you Judy) over drinks and nibblies on the balcony of the apartment.
(you can just get a glimpse of the beach through the pine trees LOL)
The apartment was right across the road (through the car park) from Dicky Beach. Beautiful white sand and delightful views of our wonderful coastline.
Here is my sister and her husband relaxing by the pool. Even though it was cloudy, it was still much warmer than Toowoomba. Yesterday here was back to winter again. Grrrr.

On the sewing front I am working busily on some Christmas gifts. Can’t show here as that would spoil the surprise!
I managed to make a few small things to sell at the quilt show. These pincushions were sold quickly and I thank Shirley for assisting in their production and also for eating the right camembert cheese. ??** VBG Thanks Shirley.

I will make some more for next year, so keep eating that camembert Shirley.
Currently in the evenings, I am working on squaring up all my crazy quilt blocks I did several years ago in preparation for finally putting them altogether into a quilt. Can’t rush these things!

Quilt Show and a Surprise

2011-09-26T21:12:00.001+10:00

It has been a busy week. The housework was neglected as I headed out each morning early to open up the venue for Toowoomba Quilters 2011 exhibition. It took me back to the days that I was working full time – how the heck did I do that?
There were some really splendid quilts.
This is my utmost favourite by Robyn Ginn. Robyn is a hand appliquer (appliqueist?? or whatever) and hand quilter and designs all her own quilts. This particular quilt is a variation on an antique quilt she saw in a book.

The hand quilting on this quilt is extensive and is just so beautiful.

Kookaburra amongst the hexagon leaves.

The central medallion. The tree’s leaves are made of little hexagons.
Robyn calls this Quilt “Irish Cream Hexagon Tree” and it is a HUGE quilt. She seems to ‘whip them up’.

Another friend of mine Pam made this fabulous quilt using Kaffe Fassett fabrics, and we all know how I love KF. It is also hand quilted.

This hexagon quilt was also a favourite. It was beautifully and tastefully machine quilted. Made by a TQ member, Joye.

My friend, Marleen, has finished her sashiko quilt. Shame on me, I have only done the central part in the same time.
She has put this together like a jigsaw puzzle and called it “The Sashiko Puzzle” It is stunning in ‘real life’. This photo doesn’t do it justice.
I got a nice surprise when my blogging buddy Teresa from “All Things Vintage” called into the show briefly one day. It was so lovely of her to do so, as her time in Toowoomba was limited.
She is just as gorgeous in real person as in her blog. It was great to meet her and hope we can meet again one day.

Looking forward to next year now where, hopefully ,I will be able to show more than one quilt!!!

Amongst the Flowers

2011-09-21T07:13:00.001+10:00

Shirley and I went to see some of the displays and gardens during the Carnival of Flowers here in Toowoomba yesterday

We visited one of the lovely parks here called Laurel Bank Park and the following photos are taken on my not so good little camera. These flowers are real !!! We could not believe the colour and the splendour of the gardens. They have planted the flowers in some of the gardens to look like cartoon characters. Soooo well done.

We also went to a wonderful display of teapots. I loved all the character and novelty ones.

We also visited the local Spinners & Weavers display. They had lovely work for sale like felted and knitted berets and hats, flower pins, scarves, felted tote bags etc.etc. Shirley bought a beret and I was searching for a flower pin just the right colour without success.
Tomorrow we are off to see some embroidery, a textile art exhibition and Queens Park.
Whew there is so much to fit in.

Some Iris Love

2011-09-14T19:34:00.001+10:00

My dear friend, Shirley is home at last. I have missed her.
She brought me home this great big bunch of mauve iris and a cutting of it to plant up into my garden. So thoughtful. Thank you Shirley.

Some time back she also gifted me with a bulb of the white iris and it has flowered at last. Beautiful!

I am not in love with the weeds surrounding this beautiful plant. Could the good fairy please weed and mulch my flower garden??

My purple Iris.

Our city’s Carnival of Flowers starts this weekend so we are looking forward to having a look around the champion gardens and popping into the flower, food and wine festival in Queens Park.
Also my quilt group’s annual exhibition of quilts starting on Saturday and gong through til Friday 23rd. It is always a visual treat and loads of fun hanging out with our quilting buddies. Should be a great week.

TAKE 2

2011-09-12T13:05:00.002+10:00

The quilt was finished the label was on and it was ready to enter into the quilt show.
Wait…..
She lays it out on the floor to show off to daughter and arghhhhh wavy edges!!!!
Takes it to quilting friends to look for a no fuss cure, but alas, the news was dim. Binding must come off, edges must be eased in a little etc. etc. etc.
So, binding is back on apart from about 6 inches right at the end when finicky Pfaff starts to loop again on the back, for no particular reason. Grrrrrr. Right! Turn finicky Pfaff off, oil it up, and take a break from said machine before serious damage is done to said machine.
Later……….
All done, no more waves and a very happy quilter.

No fabric was purchased for this quilt. Every leaf is different.

All hand quilted.

Lilian helping Grandad dig the vege garden ready for some summer lettuce.

Busy Quilting

2011-08-20T19:59:00.001+10:00

My poor old blog has been neglected since we got home from the outback.
We had a wonderful time, and seeing the outback after the rain was truly amazing. Inspirational landscapes. We experienced a bit of everything, rainforest, stony desert, beach and bush. Animal life was in abundance, and because of all the floods earlier in the year the birdlife was prolific around the creeks, rivers and water ways.
Since coming home our feet have hit the ground running. Work stuff to catch up on, family and friends to catch up with and quilting to finish. That last one is the challenge. Our quilt group exhibition starts on 17 September and I have one only quilt to show and it is not quite completed. Just one side of the border to hand quilt, then the binding and label and I’m done. I do have my small A4 art journal quilts to exhibit too and a couple of them to finish off also. Yikes!!
I will leave you with pictures of some animals we saw on our travels. We saw lots lots more but unable to capture them on film. We saw wild boars, emu chicks with father crossing the road in front of us, large kangaroos, dingoes, flocks of corellas and heaps of other birds.

‘

Large crocodile – Norman River Brolga

On the Road

2011-07-26T14:37:00.000+10:00

We have been on the road now for a week and a half and internet connection has been in and out.
We have seen some awesome sights and been having some wonderful experiences of the Australian bush.
Currently, we are staying in the Gulf country with DH's niece whose husband works here in the Department of Primary Industries. He is a stock inspector and travels the roads we have travelled on a regular basis. They are long, sometimes dusty and one has to always be on the look out for unfenced cattle and of course the wallabies and kangaroos.
So far we have seen all of the above, plus a very large black snake, a tiger snake, a family of emus and various birds including the beautiful wedge tailed eagle.

Cattle on the track..

Flowering wattle trees beside Gregory Development Road.

Huge white quartz outcrop called "The White Blow" just outside the township of Ravenswood.

Dirt track to Einasleigh River and the Copperfield River Gorge.

Copperfield River Gorge on the Einasleigh River. Rock is basalt layed down from a lava flow hundreds of thousands of years ago.

The outback loos are an experience all of their own! I have even had a couple of "bush bathroom" experiences. Case of 'have to'.

Sunset at the Gulf town of Karumba.

This old outback 'dunny' was put out of service a long time ago thankfully. It has even survived a cyclone!

A Big Adventure

2011-07-12T20:11:00.001+10:00

We are heading off on a big adventure.

(courtesy of google maps)
All the way to the Gulf of Carpentaria and the town of Karumba. My mouth is already watering with the promise of fresh prawns and seafood. Hope I am not disappointed!! It may not be the season for prawns and crabs
Along the way we will be stopping and enjoying some of Queensland’s National Parks and we will be visiting my husband’s niece who lives in Normanton, right up there in the Gulf country. We are equipped to do a bit of camping. I normally don’t do camping – but hubby is all organized (Virgo) and has convinced me it will be fun!! We are definitely not camping until we reach the warmer weather of the North.
We have a pre paid broadband, so if I am able to get a connection in the bush, I will post a blog or two.
Be back in about 3 weeks!!
Cheerio
Di.
Oh ….BTW…..I have packed a little stitching to do along the way. All packed in a plastic box to protect against No 1 enemy DUST.

Sun, Earth, Moon

2011-07-04T20:35:00.001+10:00

My June art journal quilt is finished! (May’s journal quilt is a WIP)

The quilt was inspired by a new art group I have come into contact with called WOTE (Women on the Edge) – Great name!
They are doing small art quilts with the theme ‘Nature’s Influence’.
I have looked at it from the angle of what influences nature the most, and came up with the Sun, Earth and Moon for the subject matter. Truth be told: I thought the theme was ‘Nature’s Inspiration’ so had to make changes half way through to suit   LOL
The technique I have used is from Teesha Moore and she demonstrates it here and I saw it on Judy’s blog. I have put my own twist on it. They are little quilted ‘pillows’ and I really loved doing them. Would love to do some more some time. For the sun, earth and moon I have used found objects. I love collecting bits and bobs and have a big container of them. Call me a bower bird !!   All the fabrics are straight out of the scrap bin and the tree trunk is silk threads couched down with zig zag. The hand quilting and embellishments are done in perle cotton.
Last night I kicked something under the coffee table and lo and behold it was the paper bag with my missing braids in it. Don’t know how it found it’s way under there!!
Black and Cream which I intend jazzing up a black l/sleeve T-Shirt with
Bullion roses on velvet. They look like they have been hand done. Surely not??   I bought a small piece which has 6 repeats. For what? - Don’t know, just thought it might look nice on something ‘felty’
A piece of blingy stuff. Looks much snazzier in real life. Can cut up and use to glam something up?
It is a real treasure trove that shop - and for Toowoomba people it is at Highfields in the shops opposite The Village Green.
Lilian is growing into a real little girl now and losing a lot of her babyness. Here she is with her Mummy. They are all rugged up for a winter’s day.

April Art Journal Quilt–Finished, June Art Journal Quilt–Started

2011-06-26T07:15:00.000+10:00

Yep, I’ve skipped a month.

Only because an idea came to me quickly for the little June quilt and I was impatient and had to start it straight away.

“Ankh – Life”, my art journal quilt for April is in memory of our trip to Melbourne and a visit to the Melbourne Museum to see relics of King Tutankhamen's tomb.

The background of the quilt is painted lutradur (using acrylics) and the gold highlights were made with lumiere paint. When completely dry it was run through the ink jet printer to print out the hieroglyphics. The ankh sympbol was appliqued on and highlighted with prismacolour pencils. It was so much fun to try some new to me techniques and I am loving the whole monthly art journal quilt journey.

Recently, a group of friends and I went for coffee and lunch at Highfields. We were joined by the lady who recently showed us her tangles, Chris. (Thanks Chris).

Could this be a zentangle coffee in her honour?

We also discovered a braid shop in the same complex, and I made a couple of purchases- couldn’t resist. I was going to put a photo up but I have … um…….misplaced them for the moment. Next time…..

Japanese Blocks

2011-06-25T14:29:00.001+10:00

I have done these Japanese flavoured blocks to go into the centre of my Sashiko medallion quilt I am working on.

We are meant to be putting it together next Tuesday week and I am very much behind with my ‘homework’.
It will all come together eventually, I am sure. Just when, I am not so sure.
I am very happy with how these blocks came out. They are from this gorgeous book by Susan Briscoe which I have shown before. If you have this book, note, there is a printing error on Page 51 in the cutting. Luckily I had plenty of the fabric left to cut another piece.

There are also some very nice applique patterns in this book. May have a crack at some of those too.

Chocolate Slice–Quick and Easy

2011-06-16T15:38:00.003+10:00

We have a function coming up at quilting group on Saturday and I am making an old favourite of mine “Chocolate Slice” to share at morning tea.
This recipe was given to me by a neighbour some 25 years ago and my family and I still enjoy it. It is so quick and easy and no-fail and you can use up any cereal you have in the cupboard. Today I didn’t have a whole cup of cornflakes so I added some crushed weet- bix and some puffed millet.
Give a try – it won’t disappoint.
Quick and Easy Chocolate Slice
1 cup cornflakes (or you could use weet-bix slightly crushed or rice bubbles)
1 cup dessicated coconut
3/4 cup brown sugar
1 cup self raising flour
1/4 teasp salt
1 tablespoon baking cocoa
Place above ingredients into a bowl. Add 5 oz melted butter and 1/2 teasp vanilla. Press into a lamington tin. Cook in slow oven (165 deg) for approx 25 minutes.
Ice while warm with 3/4 cup icing sugar, 1 1/2 tablespoon baking cocoa. Add 1 teasp butter melted and 2 tablespoons boiling water and a few drops of vanilla.
Sprinkle with coconut or crushed nuts or whatever you fancy. (I used coconut flakes today)
That’s it !!!

Textile Fair Purchases and Weird Weather

2011-06-13T19:56:00.002+10:00

We had a weird thunder storm this afternoon and the hail rained down on us. It looked like snow in the midst of the storm!!

Our tank is overflowing after the downpour. (Photos taken through the fly screen )
Last week I received a lovely card in the mail. It was so nice to get something in the letterbox other than a bill.

(Close up)
This is the amazing card I received from Suz from “Suztats”. Thanks Suz. The technique Suz used was really interesting and she is still experimenting with others. You can check it all out on her blog. Of course, she also does amazing tatting too.

Now the purchases from the textile fair Shirley and I went to in Brisbane on Saturday. Shirley was very good in keeping me under control and stopping me from spending too much
I bought the beautiful piece of hand dyed cotton sateen from Lisa Walton at Dyed and Gone to Heaven. Also, some hand dyed scrim/gauze, a bundle of recycled silk yarn, a jar of lumiere gold just because, and Prudence Mapstone’s freeforming with yarn booklet and the latest Downunder Textile mag.
Shirley and I both bought some of the glorious wool for some serious and easy wool felting which we saw Jacinta of The Thread Studio demonstrating. Check out Shirley’s blog and the colours she bought. We are sharing these and hope to have a wet felting day real soon. We are itching to do it!!

March Journal Quilt–finished

2011-06-08T14:33:00.002+10:00

Only 2 months behind now!!

A COCKROACH CHANGED MY LIFE”
IDEA / INSPIRATION:
We were visiting my husband’s sister at the Gold Coast in March when she came out with this random statement.
We were commenting at the dinner table on how lucky they were to get their beautiful home on the Gold Coast and buying at the right time.
Well, she said “A cockroach changed my life”!!
She and her partner were living on a yacht and she was sick of the confined space and the whole atmosphere of marina life.
One morning she made her morning coffee and she was just about to take a sip when she saw the cockroach floating on top.
This was the final straw, and she went that day and began to look for a rental home unit. She found a small one bedroom unit and rented for a while until a unit in a nearby block came up for sale. She bought that, sold it for treble and the rest is history.
TITLE CONCEPT:
Sometimes we don’t know what or who is going to change the course of our life. It was amazing how one small cockroach changed the path of Catherine’s life.
TECHNIQUES:
Fusing, machine appliqué, fabric painting, embroidery.
For impact, I used the juxtaposition of pretty and delicate with creepy crawly ugly.
Finished 5 June 2011
(Size – Approx A4)

Autumn / Winter

2011-06-07T16:51:00.001+10:00

So far we have had a bit of winter weather in autumn and a bit of autumn weather in winter. It is all a bit topsy turvey around here and one never knows what to dress in for the day.

Grandad raked the leaves and Lilian had fun helping him.

This type of weather makes us think about food all the time. Well, it does me anyway. What better for dinner than a hot steaming beef casserole. Oooh it was yummy.

The other pastime I am really enjoying most evenings is hand quilting. My ‘Leaf Flowers’ quilt is coming along nicely and all being well I should have it completed for the Toowoomba Quilter’s exhibition in September.

Organised? Who, Me??

2011-06-03T19:54:00.002+10:00

As I have mentioned before on this blog I am challenged when it comes to being organized.
It just never seems to happen. Especially in the sewing/crafting space. My excuse has always been I need MESS to create. Lately I have been looking at the blog called “Blissfully Organized” and dreaming of being just that.
The mess and confusion was actually starting to get to me, so when my dear, organized friend Shirley had listened long enough to my moaning she decided I needed help.
THE BEFORE PHOTOS
                  (Overflowing box of selvedges!!!)
THE AFTER SHIRLEY PHOTOS

There is still more to do but she has put me on the right track now and all I have to do is be a good little girl and put everything back in it’s place (hard part).
Thank you Shirley and I think you have missed your vocation. You should be a professional organizer.   Mwah to you, Shirley

Frustration Mounts

2011-05-25T16:19:00.002+10:00

My frustration with my sewing machine is mounting to the point where I am on the verge of purchasing a new machine.
This is my machine and is about 20 years old. Up until the last couple of years it has been brilliant.

Then, every now and again this started happening. Looping on the back!! Grrrrrr!@@##$$!!!

Last time the repair man looked at it, of course, it worked brilliantly for him and he suggested I was threading it incorrectly. What was I doing any differently?
It usually happens after doing quite a bit of sewing. Sometimes an oiling and a ‘little rest’ helps it and it will just start up sewing properly again.
Then today……after re-threading the bobbin a couple of times, it decided to sew again. Go figure. It must be the way I am holding my tongue or is it that there is some fine tuning to be done on my bobbin threading on this machine?? Will have to ask the mechanic about it next time I get it serviced.
Does anyone else have this problem with a Pfaff??
After I got the machine revved up I was determined to repeat the japanese block using a cream homespun fabric.
As I am definitely not a ‘piecer’, imagine my delight when it nearly came out at the correct size of 9”!! Happy Dance

No – it is not perfect, but it is mine. At least the cream fabric didn’t warp and stretch but it is annoying me with it’s fraying. Maybe I won’t be doing too many pieced blocks for my Japanese quilt after all.

On another note – our SIL bought some sand crabs on the way home from Brisbane and we enjoyed crab sandwiches (on fresh bread) for dinner on Sunday night. Yummo!!
It is a wicked day here today – and I don’t mean the new speak wicked – I mean wicked as in awful.
South westerly winds bringing the chill factor down low and overcast periods. Maybe sleet? I don’t know because I am not going outside for love nor money to find out. My poor hubby is working out in it, so will ask him when he gets home. In the meantime, I am going back to the sewing room to hibernate!!

Zentangle is fun!

2011-05-22T17:11:00.002+10:00

We have an Art Quilt group attached to our Quilt Guild. It is only a small group but we have some very talented ladies amongst us.
Chris showed us zentangle on Saturday, and it was so much fun. Easier than I thought.
Here are some of the things Chris had to show us. Love those shoes!!

Chris with a zentangle quilt piece she has started.
I got a 3 inch square done and started on a book mark.

You start with a pencil line ‘string’ and then just start doodling.
(My first piece)
Oh dear, looks like another thing to get hooked on!!!
There will be more zentangles done around here for sure.

Doing my Block

2011-05-15T18:23:00.000+10:00

After the family left today I dashed into the sewing room to do a Japanese block for my up-coming sashiko quilt.

It was a struggle due to the @@##$$! cream fabric which was a monstrosity. A very open weave fabric which, of course, had a propensity to fray badly and stretch out of shape. I bought this fabric because the osnaburg fabric I was originally going to use was too open weave. I should have saved my money!! Next time I will back the fabric with some special interfacing I bought recently so I could use the osnaburg. I sure was doing my block!! Don’t think I will use this block in the quilt.

The block called Yamato kasuri igeta comes from this fabulous book which I love – author, Susan Briscoe. I plan to do many more blocks and sashiko pieces from this book.

Family snaps from today. Our daughter, Bonnie, visited for the weekend from Brisbane.
(Left) Bonnie with Dad who is out of hospital now and feeling much, much better.
(Middle) Gorgeous Bonnie in the squatters chair.
(Right) Bonnie and Lilian on the swing Grandad made for her.
A beautiful Autumn day here today with warm sunshine and just a hint of crispness in the air.

Mother’s Day

2011-05-08T19:19:00.002+10:00

I miss my Mum.

This is my gorgeous niece Gabrielle. She is 18 and is studying to be a nurse. She is going to be a beautiful, caring nurse.

There is 80 years between them. Dad 82, Lilian 2.
Dad is currently in hospital but should be home tomorrow. It made his day when Lilian came to visit.
We are blessed to have such a beautiful family.

February–Going around in Circles

2011-05-07T21:04:00.002+10:00

February saw me going around in circles and trying to fulfil duties in all 4 major areas of my life.
Here it is- “Going around in Circles”. The four areas divided up by selvedges are Home, Office, Play and Family. The motifs have been printed onto fabric on the ink jet printer using freezer paper behind the fabric.
It is only about 8” x 10” and looking a bit wonky here in the photo, but I don’t think it looks that wonky in real life. And, just like me in the month of February, it is a little frayed around the edges!!

Starts and Finishes

2011-04-26T15:01:00.002+10:00

Just as one thing finishes in the sewing room, she goes off on a tangent and starts something else. That is just the way it is around here.
This one is finished and was only started about a week ago. Finished in record time!!

This is the quilt block keeper which Teresa has done a wonderful tutorial on over at her blog “All Things Vintage”. Thank you Teresa, your instructions were so easy to follow and I got it made up with no probs at all. You can find the tutorial here. At each end of the tube, I used yo-yos and glued a nice gold button on to them.

What beautiful fabric you are thinking? Right? Well, the fabric came for my birthday from Judy across the seas at Michigan. Judy has a really delightful blog and she is one kind and generous lady. Go visit her at CJ’s Stitching and Blooms. I just love how the fabrics made up, and the quilting feels gorgeous and soft on the inside piece. Hope you like what I have done with your beautiful gift Judy.

Now my Sashiko blocks (one of my starts) won’t be all crushed up like this because I now have somewhere to store them. I started another large piece of sashiko last night. Something to do in front of the tele.

Another start has been February’s art journal quilt (yep, I am a bit behind with these….. ahem).
Another finish is Bonnie’s Quilt. Even got the label on! I have tied this quilt with the same thread I did the herringbone in – Perle No 7, I think. Just wish I had doubled the thread to tie it now, but it is too late now. She will love it anyway, and I hope she doesn’t read this, as it is going to be a surprise for her 27th birthday in July. So, this time I am actually ahead with a project. Good Stuff.

And apart from the starts and finishes there are a lot of works in progress. Oh well, can’t sit idle can we?

Easter

2011-04-25T19:22:00.002+10:00

We had a lovely Easter Sunday with family and enjoyed a roast beef meal followed by creamed rice for dessert. Sorry I didn’t take a picture of our meal – it was true home goodness. Shirley was our invited guest, and she made the bestest horseradish gravy. Thanks Shirley.

Here is our little bunnykins,our grand daughter, Lilian. She had a lovely day and really got the taste for chocolate.

Okay, Shirley made me show this – my new glasses. I have got away from red and purple and gone chunkier, black and grey/silver. It took 3 visits back to the optometrist for adjustments to get them just right. It is a weird prescription! Of course I have to have a pimple right in between my eyebrows – guess it is from the recent consumption of a heap of chocolate

We gave Lilian this little doll crib which hubby painted up for her. It was her mothers and was just a stained wood. I made a mattress and pillow for it. (forgot to take before and after pictures ) Because Lilian’s birthday is right before Christmas, we give her a little something at Easter.
It was a big surprise for all of us when hubby made her a swing which he has attached to our big shady tree. She loves it!!
Today being 25 April is the day we remember the ANZACS.
“Lest we forget”

Happy Easter to All

2011-04-24T07:32:00.002+10:00

Wishing everyone who pops by my little blog a very Happy Easter.
For us, Easter is a time for relaxation and reflection, and a time spent with family and/or friends
This year we are staying home and relaxing – doing small chores around the house and having family to our house for a huge Sunday roast dinner. Of course, there will be chocolate too
Best wishes, Dianne.
(Thanks to Karen at Graphic’s Fairy for the Image – www.graphicsfairy.blogspot.com)

A Sensational Saturday in Melbourne–16 April

2011-04-24T07:22:00.002+10:00

Saturday saw us re-visiting the quilt show. Just in case we had missed something – wink, wink.
We managed to find some items we think we needed and Joan got some lovely Civil War fabric to add to her collection. We caught up with our good friends from Toowoomba, Pam and Robyn.
Robyn’s quilt won “Best of Show” at the Queensland Quilters show and it was then entered into the “Best of the Best” in Melbourne competing with the “best of” from other states.

Here we are, L-R, Joan, Me, Robyn and Pam.

Robyn’s Quilt, “Silk Purses, Crazy Bags” – It is a crazy patchwork quilt with the most amazing array of stitches and buttons you will ever see. You can see a better picture of it here on the Queensland Quilters Site.
After we left the quilt show we hopped a tram to Toorak where we were going to meet the other two at 2.30pm after Robyn’s commitments at the quilt show. We strolled around and looked at the fashion and sights and had a leisurely lunch.
Joan entering shop in Toorak Rd. (It’s a bit up-market in Toorak!!)
Once the other gals arrived, we headed down Chapel Street on another tram and stopped off at the Pahran market. It wasn’t quite the market we were hunting, but we did buy the most delicious ice creams. I had a liquorice ice cream which I am still dreaming about. It was soooooooo yummy.We strolled down another couple of blocks and there it was – the Chapel St Bazaar. You have to see the antiques and vintage in this place to believe it. There were some interesting stalls in there and Joan and Robyn got some nice glass buttons and I bought a few glass and vintage ones.

Vintage and glass buttons purchased at Chapel St Bazaar and top left Elephant stamp and old pack of cards. (Don’t ask).
On Saturday night we were both hankering a good ol’ steak, so we ended up in the pub on the corner of Flinders and Swanston Street and enjoyed a big juicy rump with salad and fried kipfler potatoes. Washed it down with a couple of glasses of cold delicious Australian Sauvignon Blanc.
Perfect end to a perfect stay in old Melbourne town.

Friday Frolics in Melbourne–15 April

2011-04-22T17:47:00.002+10:00

We woke up a little sluggish on the Friday morning but hauled ourselves out of bed for another excursion around Melbourne. The architecture is so grand in Melbourne. Our first stop was to 37 Swanston St to the Nicholas building. Some shops didn’t open til 10.00 am so we popped around the corner for a coffee. Melbourne must truly be the home of the baristas. Yummy coffee everywhere we went.(Joan’s Koala Coffee)

The Nicholas Building is such an antiquated building complete with old fashioned lift in which a man was stationed to open and close the doors and press the buttons for us. Quaint. Well……….. inside this labyrinth was a treasure trove indeed.

The wonderful L’ucello shop – a feast for the eyes and temptation abounding. (Hop onto their beautiful blog and check it out). Kim was very accommodating and chatted with us and told us all about her stock and a little on where she had sourced some of it. Very interesting. This shop is a ‘must visit’ if ever you are in Melbourne. Thank you to Teresa over at All Things Vintage for telling us about this beautiful shop.

Some purchases from L’ucello – barrette for Rebecca, Cards, trims and felt (gorgeous colours), Old spools and these ultra cool stamps from India. You can see I have already put one to use. Close up of wonderful velvet trims and l’ucello’s cute packaging.
Also in the same building was Buttonmania which is the place you go if you are seeking that special button or buttons. We also discovered next door, Kimono House where some damage to the wallet was done. Beautiful fabrics, patterns, notions etc.

Buttons from Buttonmania,     Fabric and gift from Kimono House
Down to Flinders lane for lunch at a French creperie with real French men serving us - and enchanting us.
After lunch, we took a tram to Fitzroy and visited some lovely crafty shops.
We stopped first at Calico House looking for some muslin for Joan, but alas they didn’t have what she wanted. We ventured upstairs to Precious Purl. It was an Aladdin's cave with all sorts of textile stuff for sale. I was very controlled.

Silk fibres and ric rac purchased from Precious Purl.
A short walk away was Jimmy Buttons – what can I say. Holy Cow! Don’t think Jimmy knows just what he has in the shop. There was so much to see it all became a bit overwhelming. Buttons, buttons everywhere. Joan found some lovely big ones for her bags and I came away with a few little ones and some trims. Talk about trims! They were on rolls which were on rods and they went floor to ceiling. An amazing shop, wish it was closer! We forgot to take a photo.
Trim and buttons from Jimmy’s.

After our excursion it was back to the hotel to rest up for our big night out at Her Majesty's Theatre to see Anthony Warlow in “Dr. Zhivago”- the musical. The cast was incredible and the music just magical.
Whew!
P>S>      Pre show meal at ‘”Stalactites”, (Lonsdale St) THE BEST Greek Restaurant in Melbourne. IMHO.

Four Fab Days in Melbourne

2011-04-20T19:56:00.001+10:00

Thursday:

Melbourne was sooooo good. We had so much fun and everything went to plan. We even learned how to use the trams and found the whole system easy and convenient.

(Collins St –Autumn trees – Trams)

Our hotel, The Hotel Enterprize, on Spencer Street was very good value and the room was clean and they looked after us well.

We were up bright and early Thursday morning to start exploring. What better place to start than at a chocolate shop. This Haighs chocolate shop is in the beautiful Block Arcade with it’s wondrous floor mosaics and lead lighting etc. The shops are all exquisite in this arcade.

Thursday was spent at the AQC quilt show which was in the glorious Royal Exhibition building. The building is so beautiful and outside the autumn leaves carpeted the lawns. A very pretty sight. There were some stunning quilts in the exhibition and of course my friend, Joan, and I, did a little shopping and enjoyed browsing the many stalls.

We stayed at the quilt show until about 4.00pm and then walked just across the square to the Melbourne Museum and saw the amazing Tutankhamun and the Golden Age of the Pharaohs exhibition.

(Advertising statue Southern Cross Station)

We actually walked back to our hotel that night which was a long, long way, and we fell into bed (after a Chinese meal next door).

More about our Friday excursion later.

Doing my ABC’s

2011-04-09T18:07:00.006+10:00

I visit Teresa at “All things Vintage” regularly and she has just done her ABC’s and revealed a little more about herself. I thought it looked like a lot of fun, so here is more about me – some trivia.

Tiff started this at “Folded Gingham” ( a gorgeous blog), so pop over and see her and maybe tell us a bit more about you!

Age: ahem…57 Bed Size:Queen Size Chore You Hate: Vacuuming (& cleaning showers). Dogs: Border Collie Cross called Bella Essential Start of Your Day: A strong cup of tea Favorite Color: Red - at the moment Gold or Silver: Gold Height: 5'4" Instruments You Play: Saxaphone not very well Job Title: Wife, Mother and sometime office worker Kids: 2 Grown up Live: Darling Downs, Queensland Aust. Mom's Name: Lilian Jane Nicknames: Didee, Dos Overnight Hospital Stays: Tonsils out at 8 years of age, 2 deliveries Pet Peeve: Politicians of all persuasions who lie to us Quote From a Movie: " Life is like a box of chocolates - you never know what you're gonna get"
Right- or Left-Handed: Right Siblings: 1 darling sister Time You Wake Up: Around 6.30 - earlier in summer Underwear: According to my children 'old lady pants' but hey it has to be comfortable Veggie You Dislike: Love them all but have never tried artichokeWhat Makes You Run Late: Computer and emails. X-Rays You Have Had: Back quite a few times, dental, wrist which turned out to be RSI from quilting LOL Yummy Food You Make: My family loves my roast dinners Zoo Animal You Like Best: Monkeys, I love watching their antics.

This makes you think about things you normally wouldn't think about, and it was a bit of fun.

Gifts to Treasure

2011-04-08T19:28:00.001+10:00

Does everyone love ‘Willow Tree” as much as I do?
Shirley, being the sweet and thoughtful friend she is, gave my husband and I these two beautiful figurines as a gift for helping her through her recent illness. Thank you Shirley. We really treasure them.

Grandma with baby Grandpa with baby

(She knows how much we love our little grand daughter, Lilian.)

Then, Shirley spotted this one she thought I might like, so I purchased it as well to add to the collection.

Grandma with baby and quilt.
Well, I am off to Melbourne on Wednesday to go to the Australian Quilt Convention. Finally today I found some shoes I will be able to walk and stand in all day (I hope). It is so difficult finding shoes for small, wide feet. It is a family ‘thing’ and the bane of my life. Shoes are never comfortable!!
While in Melbourne we are going to the museum to see the Tutankhamen exhibition and we are also taking in a show, “Dr Zhivago”.at Her Majesty’s Theatre. No doubt there will be shopping too. It is going to be so much fun.

Art Journal Quilt Dec/Jan

2011-04-06T19:19:00.002+10:00

INLAND TSUNAMI

This little journal quilt began life as “Night Storm”. We were having a lot of late evening and night storms in November and December and I had decided at the start of my art quilt journey to make my little quilts about events happening around me. I started it in December before Christmas with just the night sky and the brown earth.
Then…..along came 10 January when the heavens opened up and our region was inundated. The water raged down the mountains, forging its own course. Creeks overflowed and all the water raced towards the townships in the Valley like an inland tsunami. The brown murky water took all in it’s path. Some people lost their lives, and many people lost their home and all their possessions. We will never forget 10 January 2011 and the victims of this freak event.
My quilt morphed into a remembrance of this event with it’s dark stormy sky, muddy waters and “debris” (found items). Thank you to my friend Shirley for some of the found items used here and for helping me with ideas on putting it together.
Now, I am very behind and must start my February quilt. I have ideas for both February and March and it is April already- Yikes!!!

What to Blog About?

2011-03-28T20:40:00.003+10:00

Because it has been a while, there is just too much catching up to do. So, where to start and what to blog about today?

Maybe the studio journal happenings. Right. Shirley and I have had a few sessions together and got a bit done on our studio journals in between her hospital visits.

In the first lesson we were asked “why” and I made this my front page. Used watercolour pencils here.

Cut out done on freezer paper and then stencilled on fabric. As seen in Quilters Arts Gift Magazine.

Draw as I stitch.

Colour my day.

On the right, a photocopy of a shell painted in watercolours and chopped up and on the left, designs from the shell exercise. I am very proud of the sashiko design I worked inspired from the shell exercise. That is what the studio journal as a workhorse is meant to be all about – helping us to design our own work. I chose some thread colours from the watercolours to perhaps do some of the other designs here.

I love this prism design I made up from the picture out of a mag on the right. Think I will work it as a flower.
This studio journal workshop has been a lot of fun. The final lesson was sent last Tuesday, but I haven’t dipped my toes in the water on that one yet.
More to come…………..

A Glimpse of Royalty

2011-03-21T18:57:00.002+10:00

It was but a glimpse, a flashing smile and he was gone.
Prince William visited Toowoomba yesterday and we were able to just go down the road to see him passing by.

The Royal Watchers

“Now, where is that dashing Prince William?”

Here he comes!!

He’s in the white car behind the blue one.

And he’s gone……
My sister is clutching her Diana tartan scarf and watching wistfully as the car disappears out of sight.
Call us tragic, but it was such a thrill - and we swear he looked straight at us and gave us one of his radiant smiles.

Basket Cases

2011-03-08T17:20:00.001+10:00

A couple of weeks ago, a group of us went to Joan’s little cottage in a village called Cabarlah and had a day making some fabric baskets. That is Joan’s husband Barry on the left who was tending to their huge garden and avocado orchard. You are able to get a peep of Joan standing there on their front verandah (rt) The house dates to the 1870’s and Barry and Joan have painted the walls as close as they could get to the original wall colours. The house was moved to it’s current site from somewhere else quite some years ago.

(Joan in front of the wood pile.)
They still have a wood stove which heats the hot water,warms the house in winter and on which Joan cooks the meals.

Here are the ladies busy sewing their fabric baskets, and the tubes of fabric they have created.

This is what we hoped to achieve or something similar. ahem….. But, being in the true spirit of ‘handmade’ none of them have turned out quite like this. I will post photos when I am able to get all the girls’ bags together.
Mine is ummmm very different. Only a mother could love it!

Just have to make some handles for it now and it is going to sit on my work table and hold bits and pieces. At least it will be a talking point.

Showing more birthday gifts

2011-03-04T16:36:00.001+10:00

My sweet friends from quilting invited me to morning tea and presented me with gifts on my birthday. I am so blessed to have such lovely friends.

Marleen gave me this gorgeous bag. Think I will take it to quilting club tomorrow! She has put pockets inside and included a little note book for me. (She knows how forgetful I am :-) She also had a retractable tape measure tucked into one of the pockets. Very handy.

Joan really spoiled me and gave me all these treasures. The tatting is some of her Mums and some of the antique laces and cottons are from her Grandmother. I feel privileged that she should give them to me. She included a lovely cake of soap as well. Thank you my dear friend.

Yvonne has been making these gnome pj bottoms for all her friends and I had my fingers crossed she would make me a pair for my birthday. She did not disappoint me. These are so fun, and tonight it is cool enough for me to give them their first outing.

I am a little behind with my posting but next post I hope to tell you about a fabulous day we had sewing up some fabric baskets. Mine is still a work in progress as I decided to unpick some of it. My husband said it was looking more like a huge Rastafarian beret !!!

Another Birthday and Sweet Friends and a Rant

2011-03-02T20:46:00.000+10:00

Does anyone else use Picasa to upload photos directly from the "blog this" button? Well for the past couple of weeks IT WILL NOT WORK!! It is so frustrating. Is there someone out there more bloggy technical able to instruct me on how to upload photos without first having to compress them? Picasa does this automatically, but it seems a lot of people are having issues with it right now and Google hasn't fixed it!!@@@???!!!

My birthday was about 2 weeks ago, but I am just getting around to blogging it. Life seems to be getting busier and busier instead of the expected slow down.
One of the sweetest ladies in Blogland, Judy, from cjstitching and blooms sent me some wonderful gifts for my birthday. All the way from Michigan. Thank you so much, Judy. Big hugs to you.

Some beautiful fabric, a special pin which she made herself, and a laying tool which her husband made and it is painted in my fave colour:-) That is the really neat card on the right of the picture. A town being covered in a whirlwind of quilts. The card is from Sisters, Oregan. Looks like a great place to visit - well one can dream!

My younger daughter sent me these lovely flowers and the older one gave me this gorgeous vase from House and Garden (oooh love that shop).

P.S.
Shirley is still in hospital and we hope she is going to be discharged tomorrow. We will have to just see how her blood test comes back in the morning. She is feeling much much better and itching to get home and start reading all her emails and messages.

Making a Start - Studio Journal

2011-02-22T21:25:00.000+10:00

A friend and I enrolled in Sharon B's "Studio Journal - A Designer's Workhorse" online class. We got our first lessons (exercises) last Tuesday. I have made a start and here are the rubbings - or frottage - which I have done to reveal different textures.

I used to do this type of thing when I was a kid - with a penny, and in the 70's it was a very popular pastime to visit old churches and cathedrals in England and do brass rubbings. Never did do that!
It would be great to actually now interpret one or more of them in stitching. I particularly love this geranium leaf and think I would like to explore more leaves, bark etc. from nature.

The geranium leaf is done on baking paper.
It was really funny running around the house with paper and pencil looking for things to rub.
Then I thought of this side panel of the singer treadle machine. I love this one and see possibilities here!

Close up.

This exercise was a lot of fun, now I am working on the Van Gogh exercise - stay tuned.
Having said that the 2nd week of lessons is out. Sharon says to work at our own pace, so that is what we will be doing.

Shirley

2011-02-17T21:38:00.000+10:00

For those of you who read my blog and are also friends with Shirley from Shirley's Twisted Threads it is time to give you a heads up on her whereabouts.

(SHIRLEY RELAXING IN HER NEW ABODE)

Shirley is currently in an Intensive Care Unit in hospital. We managed to get her settled into her new home, did a bit of fun shopping as she showed on her blog and then - Whammy! - last Friday she suffered a heart attack (atrial fibrillation). Fortunately, her new unit is just a short distance to the hospital and she received emergency life saving treatment and was discharged on the following Monday. Alas her 'freedom' was short lived, and she was back into hospital with an infection early hours of Tuesday morning, treated with antibiotic and released once more. Then.....it doesn't stop there......she was called up by the hospital next day to come back for further tests as she had 'bacteria in her blood'. So, she has today been transferred to a private hospital and will be there for approx 2 weeks to clear this very bad infection. Bad luck seems to be following Shirley at the moment, but her spirits are high and she still has her wonderful sense of humour! Pray she will be well soon and back doing her wonderful stitching.

(SHIRLEY IN HER GARAGE WITH OUR LITTLE LILIAN)

This is the scrap quilt I made for the Flood Relief community quilting at Toowoomba Quilters Club. There was a whole bunch of 4" squares which had been donated to our fabric cupboard so I just joined them up in a nine patch in various colourways. The scrap quilts the ladies are making are just amazing. Pop over to their blog and have a goosey gander. www.toowoombaquiltersclub.blogspot.com

Mother Nature - Give us a Break!!!

2011-02-02T18:42:00.000+10:00

Our fellow Queenslanders in the Far North of the state are about to experience the worst cyclone in Australia's history. It is expected the eye of the cyclone will pass over them at 11.00pm.
Who would have believed after all the flooding and the devastating inland tsunami that now our people are facing this next huge disaster. The cyclone is named 'Yasi' and it is a Category 5 and a very huge system stretching hundreds of kilometres. The eye of the cyclone alone is approx 70 kilometres.
Pray no lives will be lost. There is no doubt that it will cause huge destruction of property and habitat.
You can get some statistics on this web site here. Very, Very scary.

If you are interested you can read all about 'Yasi' here

We are in the South East of the state, so will not experience it's force, but there may be ongoing rain with it - and that is something we don't need big heaps of right now!!

She has Finally Arrived

2011-02-01T16:14:00.001+10:00

'She' is Shirley B!!! She has finally arrived in our fair city to make it her home.
Welcome Shirley. Poor Shirley has been trying to move now since the 7th January before all the flooding rains. The truck couldn't negotiate her driveway and then the removal company had their own issues with flooding, cleaning up and catching up with all their removals. It has been a bit of a marathon, but she got here at last on Sunday. Now begins the arduous task of unpacking!
Our granddaughter Lilian is named after my Mum who passed away in 1997. Mum was a wonderful pianist who taught herself, didn't read music but played only by ear. She played in bands, at functions, as accompaniment etc. etc. It was one of her greatest joys. So it brought tears to my eyes when Lilian the 2nd (who is just 2years old) discovered the piano. She would hit at a few keys and then look up and laugh and smile at us. Very reminiscent of how her great grandma used to play. Lilian is shown here playing Mum's piano which my Dad gave her for her 21st birthday.

I miss my Mum every day and I know she would have loved this little 'performance'.

Alas, due to a week of headaches and migraines I have not done much in the sewing room. Still working on Dec/Jan journal quilt and I want to get it done by Art Quilt group meeting on Feb 9. YIKES!!

Australia Day 2011

2011-01-26T19:23:00.000+10:00

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

2011-01-23T20:42:00.000+10:00

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

2011-01-10T20:32:00.000+10:00

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

2011-01-04T17:57:00.000+10:00

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

2011-01-03T04:11:00.000+10:00

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

2011-01-01T17:08:00.000+10:00

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.

New Projects for a New Year.

2010-12-30T18:10:00.000+10:00

Before I get into my exciting new projects - a bit about the unusual weather we have been having. Yesterday I was finally able to hang my clothes out into the sunshine after about 5 days of constant rain and drizzle. The flooding in some districts in Queensland, particularly to the North and West of us has been devastating. Towns are being evacuated as water levels continue to rise. We are noticing heavier than usual light aircraft and helicopters passing overhead. They are probably heading out to survey and report on flooded regions to our West.
Our thoughts and prayers are with those out on the land who are doing it extra tough. After years of drought and poor crops came some earlier much needed rain and this promised bumper crops for this year. All of that hope has been shattered as some of the best crops in years now lay under water. It is at these times we really appreciate what our farmers have to go through to supply us with the food we sometimes take for granted.

Now, to my new projects - even though there are some old ones still languishing in the cupboard. (Ahemm we will put them to the back of the mind)

The first is Sashiko. I am excited to be booked into some classes with the lovely ladies, Sue and Colleen from Indigo Niche during the months of March and April. They are going to help us construct a quilt in a Japanese style.

I am going to embroider some Japanese motifs in sashiko and surround them in a scrappy manner with various commercial Japanese cottons and indigos. That is the plan anyway. It may change a little as I go on.
Firstly though, in January, I am joining a group of friends to put together a basket using fabrics and cord. We are just having a fun day putting it together and yesterday I started preparing the fabrics (above). Still have to buy the cord yet. Looking forward to starting that one.

Bags O' Fun

2010-12-28T11:47:00.000+10:00

I have had fun the past couple of days making some of these drawstring bags. Whenever I have had a spare moment I have been in the sewing room. I find in the sewing room that some days are diamonds, some days are stone. Today while I was making hubby his drawstring bag it was a 'stone day'. Everything went wrong, but I was determined to finish it. When I have a bad date with my sewing machine I always walk away and come back another time. Otherwise, we would end up on really bad terms.

Yesterday I made our 2nd daughter a bag for her usb cables etc for her camera,

a camera bag for my new u-beaut small camera which fits nicely into my handbag

and a bag to hold the 'stuff' in.

The fabric I used here I got in the fat quarter swap at our quilt club. The rule was, we had to bring to next year's Christmas party what we have made with our traded fat quarter. So, for once in my life, I have got in and done it a full year in advance :-)

Hubby's bag for his brand spankin' new video camera and bits and bobs that came with it.

I used this easy pattern from the current Quilting Arts Gifts Magazine (Page 30). Pattern by Kathy York.

A Wet, Wet, Christmas

2010-12-27T18:23:00.003+10:00

Pool of water under the clothes line.

It's been a wet old Christmas and Boxing Day in our part of the world! We have chosen to stay inside and hibernate and watch heaps of movies. Of course, with this type of weather we turn to food, and there has been no end of left overs from Christmas Day. There have been lots of 'goodies' consumed too and lots of wine and beer. I can feel the fat going on just by typing this.'

The Christmas Spread

Israeli Cous Cous Salad

Layered Garden Salad

A Special Coleslaw (Recipe given to me by Shirley B - she calls it "The coleslaw to die for" and I can assure you it is.

\
My specialty 'Stuffed Eggs'. Do you love the vintage platter? It is special to me - given to me by my late mother in law.

My sister's specialty Salami Pasta Salad

Older daughter made the Potato Salad. She is a great cook.

Ham, Chicken and Pork

Lily 'undecorating' the tree Christmas morning.

We gave Lilian a blackboard with magnets. She loved it!

Cooking for Christmas

2010-12-24T06:14:00.002+10:00

One thing I love about Christmas is doing some Christmas cooking. For years I made a Christmas cake, but the last couple of years I have let that slip. It seemed I was the only one in the family that truly loved Christmas cake, thus, I was the only one eating it and showing it on the hips.
I am very tempted after seeing this recipe over on Down-to-Earth to do this particular cake next year. Maybe if I cooked it early in the season, I could share with visitors during the month of Nov/Dec., then I wouldn't feel the need to eat it all myself! Or, I could freeze some I guess.

I now do a Christmas pudding to share with family on Christmas Day. We serve it with premium custard with added whipped cream and ice cream. This year our daughter is making rocky road ice cream with cadbury flake, bounty, marshmallow and turkish delight. Can you tell we are foodies??

The start of the Christmas pudding. I don't drink or like Brandy, but the smell mixed with the spices in this mix was absolutely deeeevine. It is now cooked and ready to be re-boiled for a couple of hours on Christmas morning so it will be nice and hot and yummy for lunch.
Lunch will be entree of fresh king prawns and oysters, followed by delicious leg ham from the bone, chicken and roast pork served with various salads and devilled eggs, followed by the aforementioned dessert. All swallowed down with a couple of bottles of 'bubbly'. We will all then collapse in a heap and 'sleep it off'. Oh Joy.

CHERRY & GINGER SLICE: I am nutz nutz nutz, about ginger, particularly ginger pieces covered in dark chocolate, ah, but I digress. This is a very yummy slice with two of my favourite ingredients, chrystallized ginger and glace cherries. I always add more of these two ingredients than the recipe states.
I am going to share this recipe with you, so if you are a ginger lover like me, beware, it is very more - ish.

4 0z butter or margarine
1 tablespoon golden syrup
1 cup Self Raising Flour
1/2 cup coconut
1/2 cup sugar
1 cup Rice Bubbles (I did not have any rice bubbles for this batch, so used Cheerios crunched up a bit - even better)
1/4 cup finely chopped chrystallized ginger
1/4 cup glace cherries

Put all ingredients into bowl except syrup and butter. Melt syrup and butter and pour over dry ingredients. Combine. EASY..... Press into slab tin and bake in moderate oven for 20 minutes.
Ice with lemon Icing. (I use 1 cup of sifted Icing Sugar (confectioners sugar), 1 teasp butter (Melted a bit in microwave) and enough lemon juice to make a spreading consistency.

MERRY CHRISTMAS, HAPPY HOLIDAYS, AND HAPPY NEW YEAR TO ALL MY FRIENDS AND FAMILY.

A Winner

2010-12-23T02:02:00.000+10:00

I WON!!! This gorgeous pattern by Natalie Ross from the Patchwork Angel. Can't wait to make it up and perhaps give it to one of my quilting friends as a gift.

If you have never been to the Patchwork Angel shop, well as Molly Meldrum would say, "Do yourself a favour". It is a wonderful shop set in a little old church in the small village of Forest Glen on the Sunshine Coast. Call in and see Penny and the girls and check out their fabulous array of fabrics and patchwork goodies.

I won this pattern over on their blog. Thank you Penny for this opportunity. I don't enter a lot of blog competitions, so it was a real thrill.

Christmas Lunch with the Thursday 'Girls'

2010-12-22T13:10:00.037+10:00

L-R Kerrie, Pam, Joan, Robyn, Carmel, Frances, Sue, Robyn H, Di (front)

We had a fun day in Brisbane at our annual Thursday girls break up lunch. This year Frances hosted it and she did such a wonderful job.

The table was set, the food was ready, the wine was chilled. We swapped Christmas ornaments, had some nibblies, and then tucked into a lunch of superbly fresh salads and meats, followed by mini plum puddings with clotted cream. Yum.. Diet next week:-)

Even Frances' dogs got in on the action.

Frances has a collection and love of flying pigs. Flying pigs everything - even her tea towels had flying pigs on them. Where does she get this stuff?? This big flying pig hangs at the window of her sewing studio. This photo is taken from inside her studio, and this is what she sees as she sews. I would have never realized how many things came with flying pigs on them!!

Frances also has an amazing collection of Nativity scenes and she had them displayed beautifully. Got to love the Aussie ones. The ornament she received this year was the larger kangaroo shown in the kangaroo scene. Someone knew something!

Viva Valentino - Art Journal Quilt No 2

2010-12-10T09:11:00.002+10:00

The Valentino exhibition inspired me so much I just had to do my November art quilt to commemorate the visit.
Of course it had to include some of Valentino's signature red. The dress form is a stylized version of the black velvet vintage Valentino gown worn by Julia Roberts at the 2001 Oscars. I added some swarovski crystals to it as Valentino was very fond of using crystals on his gowns. To finish, I quilted the piece (it is only 8 1/2 inches by 9 1/2 inches) in the letter "V". Once quilted, it was quite serendipitous that the black gown just 'popped out' from the surface of the quilt. It is very tactile with the two different textures of fabric.
It looks much better in real life.

Last night at TQ Art quilt group we met at the studio of Kathy Adams (of Koolkat Quilting). Kathy took my photograph of a Banksia and altered it in Corel Draw. When I was happy with the look, she then printed it out onto a silk sheet for me. It has turned out very painterly and I can't wait to embellish it with some hand stitching and maybe some beads. Thank you Kathy, it was a lovely evening.

The lovely Lily is 2 today

2010-12-09T21:25:00.000+10:00

We celebrated with our little granddaughter today as she turned 2 years old. How time flies.
We ate cake, played with the new horse and baby doll (Nana and Grandad gave her this), rode in the red car shopping cart, met with friends and had an all round good time. Hip Hip Hooray!

Where is Summer?

2010-12-06T17:30:00.000+10:00

It has been Wet Wet Wet and downright cool at times. I am still wearing my winter PJ's to bed!

The jacarandas were a little later to flower this year, and I think they weren't as spectacular as in recent years. This street is lined with them, and I love how the pavements are carpeted in jacaranda blossoms. Since this photo, they have all turned to mush from the rain. No complaints though, our district really needs the rain.

I have made some Christmas tags. This time I constructed some Christmas fabric by cutting up ribbon, cord, threads etc and covering them with part of an old chiffon scarf and sewing all over with embroidery thread. The card was painted roughly in gesso and dried over a couple of days. A couple of pieces of card are dress labels (not my original idea, but, sorry, can't remember where I read that). It always gives me a thrill to recycle something. Tragic!??
I used some crayons and scribbled over to get the background colour. Cut out some triangles from my 'fabric' and glued them on. The trunks are snippets of the scarf edging. I love making cards and tags even though they are very time consuming.

Christmas Gifts

2010-12-01T19:22:00.000+10:00

Look at this gorgeous gift my lovely friend, Marleen presented me with on Tuesday. She knows I have been struggling to get the house decorated and back into order since our renovation - so thoughtful of her. The whole problem is DH has no time left after his busy days to put hooks and hangers back up on the walls. I am useless at that sort of thing so have to rely on him to do it. Patience.......This one was easy to hang on the wooden dresser.

I have had some time off and on in the sewing room this past fortnight. This is what I have made for the Secret Santa gift for our quilt club's Christmas break-up on Saturday.
It is a sewing machine mat with organizer. I have seen a few of these popping up on the blogs, so thought I would have a go as I think they are a wonderful idea. It was a bit trial and error, but I got there in the end. The quilting could have been done a little better. Think I was rushing it too much.
I simply measured the width and length of the sewing machine bed and added a couple of inches. Cut front, back and wadding allowing about a 4 inch hang over for the hanging pocket. Then quilted it. Added the front pocket and bound it (all by machine) and then made a few pockets on the front. I varied the sizes of these to hold different sized items. I am reasonably happy with how it turned out after making a few boo boos. My usual silly things. Thank God for quick unpicks!!
Lily and her mummy paid me a visit today. While Mummy was continuing to cut out her first quilt, Lily decided she would lay down with Teddy and John (her Daddy's childhood teddy) and go night- night, just pretend. She made a little bed with one of my quilts and set herself and friends up on the living room rug. She is giving Teddy a goodnight kiss here. Very cute............ Can you guess she is our one and only grandchild and we are a little besotted
with her?

The Topper

2010-11-30T05:56:00.001+10:00

We think Robyn H of our Thursday group of sewing friends wins the annual award for the 'Topper" of the group. Here is just some of the tops Robyn has completed this year. Mind you, some of them were started some time ago, but it is all about finishing.

This one is similar in style to my 'Stash Buster' quilt. Look at the work Robyn has done on her seam treatments, and I love how she has tied it and the ties have turned out all fluffy. This is the finished one of the group.

This one is called "Seven Sisters" and Robyn has used Liberty prints. She has six sisters, thus the title. It is a huge quilt and I didn't have a space large enough in my home to photograph it!

Isn't this one beautiful?? Robyn did this in a workshop at Precious Time (LQS) and they had to bring along their ugly fabrics. Talk about the ugly duckling story!

This is another huge quilt. The colours were chosen by Robyn's daughter. The border is really unusual and I missed getting a photo of it....next time.

Good work, Robyn. Looking into my chrystal ball I can see a lot of quilting in Robyn's future. She is a hand quilter too.

Flying Vist and Hints

2010-11-28T05:15:00.006+10:00

Look at these goodies!!! My dear friend Shirley (Shirleys Twisted Threads) paid me a flying visit on Thursday and this is what she gifted me. Mwahh to Shirley! Beautiful laces, threads and silky fabrics and some lovely silk velvet to use on my current art quilt. She knows how much I love 'found items', so she gave me a little plastic bag of found things also. It was like Christmas come early:-) Thank you so much Shirley.

Everybody probably knows these little tips I am about to give out, but these are a couple of things I have learned the hard way.
I now always use the back of my cutting board if I want to cut out wadding or fluffy material. You can vaguely see in the photo how the fluff sticks in the cut and makes a mess of your board. This, I discovered, is hard to fix.

If you are pinning a project always use your cutting board underneath. This is my bigger June Taylor cutting board which I have had now for over 10 years. It is wonderful for cutting larger projects. This will save your surface underneath from nasty scratches.
Another lesson I learned recently is DO NOT use your quilting mat if you are cutting with a craft (or Stanley) knife. Why do I do these silly things when my head is telling me no?? Luckily I stopped as soon as I saw the damage - not too much of a disaster, but hope it may help someone else from making the same mistake.

Learning Sewing

2010-11-26T14:22:00.000+10:00

It is making me so happy that our first born daughter is wanting to sew and quilt. We had a fun day together this past Monday making a little Christmas dress for her daughter, Lilian. She has always enjoyed sewing clothes and did sewing at school. We have bought her a sewing machine - not an expensive one - to start her on the road to ummm.....addiction. She has also started cutting out a single bed quilt for Lilian and is doing a Kaffe Fassett using his more pastel colourings.

Nana looked after the gorgeous Lilian while Mummy sewed. We did a lot of eating. She loves eating as much as Nana does.

And here she is modelling her new Christmas dress. Mummy did such a great job for her first ever little dress for Lilian.

Sue's Block

2010-11-24T16:48:00.000+10:00

Our small Thursday sewing group is making a special quilt for a special person. This special person is called Sue ( no computer - so she won't be reading this). Sue will be turning 70 early next year so we just had to do a quilt for her. We are all (9 of us) making a 20" block. The colours were chosen by us all, and we agreed we would base our patterns around hearts.
Sue appreciates hand applique and embroidery and does beautiful work in these techniques herself. (Hope she doesn't look too closely at mine!!).
This is my original design and I am very pleased with how it has come up. The empty spaces are for some hand quilting, probably hearts.

Nine hearts!

When we get all our blocks altogether I will share them here for you all to look at. This quilt is going to be awesome!!

Dream Weavers

2010-11-22T05:01:00.008+10:00

A group of ladies from my quilt group have got together and formed an art quilt group. We started with six ladies, now have 8, and have had 3 more enquiries. It is going to be so much fun as we discover new techniques and learn from each other. We meet once a month.

We decided we would start with something small and would do a little art journal quilt each month approx. 8" x 10".

This is my first little quilt. (October). I have named it "Dream Weavers", and it interprets a personal story. I have decided to do a quilt each month which pertains to what has been happening around and in my life for that month. Some of the ladies are going with a theme for the whole 12 months. We have no strictly defined rules and are keeping the format quite casual. We intend to exhibit our small quilts at our exhibition next September under the title "Discovery"

"Dream Weavers" was inspired by the work of Jude Hall. Jude recently had an article on fabric weaving in the Quilting Arts magazine and that sparked the idea to do a weaving theme.
I have incorporated a spiders web (made from recycled material - some type of acrylicy stuff which comes sometimes attached to the end of a blot of fabric) and a bead for a spider. I have done lots and lots of hand quilting and sewed on some little sheer pieces of georgette ribbon samples given to me by Shirley of Shirley's Twisted Threads.

The story behind the quilt is of two friends who are always dreaming of a place where they might pursue their creative side with sheer abandon - away from the mundane. That would be Shirley and Dianne (me) :-)

Stash Bash - top finished

2010-11-21T16:58:00.000+10:00

My 'Stash Bash' quilt top is all finished now. It is only lap size but I managed to herringbone stitch over every single seam in just 2 weeks. Mind you, there was a little bit of pain in arm and wrist from pushing myself too hard. Luckily I got away with it and I am now resting my arm for the continuation of quilting on my 'Four Leaf Flower' quilt.

Doing the herringbone is very addictive. Here is a close up section. I did the stitching in a No 8 pearl variegated thread and intend to tie the quilt with the same thread.
This one will be gifted to our second daughter who does not yet own one of my quilts.

Late Bloomer

2010-11-17T10:31:00.002+10:00

No! - not me - our Jacaranda tree. All the jacarandas in our region have already bloomed and are dropping their wonderful lavender carpet, but the jacarandas in Toowoomba are just coming into bloom. Weird!
We have a couple of jacarandas and in the next week they are going to be in splendid colour.

On a recent trip to Coffs Harbour we stopped in at the town famous for it's jacaranda festival, Grafton. The trees were in full bloom and dotted all over the township. It was a beautiful sight. Very hard to capture in just one photograph.

Views of Coffs Harbour

View from the Sawtell lookout back towards Coffs Harbour. Even the little seagull couldn't resist pausing to look at the amazing vista.

These are the roses from our garden that I gave to my sister-in-law who lives on the beautiful Gold Coast. We stopped over to visit them on our way to Coffs Harbour.

Visit to GOMA

2010-11-12T19:39:00.000+10:00

We had a lovely day out today to Brisbane GOMA to see the Valentino Garavani exhibition. There are really no superlatives to describe his couture. Many of the gowns were jaw droppingly beautiful and the work in them is totally unbelievable. Rave, rave, rave. ( Understandably, no photography was allowed).
It finishes on Sunday, so it was very very busy. This did not spoil the outing though as we four friends always have so much fun together wherever we go. The space was also fairly reasonable to get around in and was lovely and cool on rather a hot day.
The memories of this exhibition will stay with me for a long time.

Visiting Local Galleries

2010-11-03T15:02:00.000+10:00

Last Saturday a friend and I set off to a small township about 20 minutes away called, Goombungee and we visited their lovely Rosalie Gallery.
A group of textile artists who call themselves WOTE have put on a most fantastic exhibition. WOTE stands for Women on the Edge - love it!!
The exhibition is entitled 'Elements of Red' and explores the use of the primary colour RED.

It is amazing, so if you live in the Toowoomba district - do not miss it. It is on until 7 November, so not much time.

I am not sure who this work belongs to as it is not on the brochure and I didn't take a note. The participating artists are Jean Constantine, Jan Scudamore, Joan Ellard, Tessa Wright, Joan Mundy, Dorothy Cottee, Toni O'Leary, Diana Symes, Carol Oyston, Gail Grunske and Barbara Scott.

Well done ladies!!

When we got back to Toowoomba it was time for a bite to eat and a longed for cup of coffee. Then we took a short stroll from the coffee shop to the Toowoomba Regional Art Gallery.

Here we saw some more lovely textile art and a couple of local textile artists known to us were juried into this show too.

It is called "Progression" and is the 6th Juried Art Quilt Exhibition. It is also on til 7 November. Well worth a visit.

This image is part of an art quilt by a local textile artist, Jen Luck.
We are very lucky to have these two intimate galleries available to our artists in the local region, and it is good to see textile art becoming more recognized.

Scrap Bash

2010-11-02T05:09:00.002+10:00

This is my 'Scrap Bash' quilt top finished. I am quite pleased with it and looking forward now to doing the herringbone embroidery on it and completing it. The colours are great and I think it is the wonderful Kaffe Fassett scraps I have used that give it some zip. It was so much fun to make and I'm sure I would have enough to do another one.
Do scraps ever finish???? I guess not as long as we keep making quilts!!
I have decided to give this one to number 2 daughter who hasn't yet got one of my lap quilts. She lives in Brisbane where she won't need it a lot, but during winter, it will be just the right weight to keep the chills away.

The herringbone embroidery will be done on the seams in a perle cotton. A good summer project.

Sights and Smells of Summer

2010-11-01T14:06:00.016+10:00

Summer is fast approaching and some of these sights and smells are filling my senses. This beautiful peach coloured rose which usually buds about 4 to the stem. Looks and smells wonderful.

One of our magnificent star jasmine creepers. This smell always reminds me that the Melbourne Cup is just around the corner. It also evokes memories of when our children were small as we had it growing over our balcony in our very first house.

This is where it grows and my silly husband who had to get in on the photo.

This is where I depicted the star jasmine at our first home on my crazy quilt entitled "My Crazy Life - So Far".

The seasons first peaches and nectarines. They are on the kitchen bench and the aroma is filling the kitchen. Mmmmmm.

Around the garden. The recent rain has done much to improve the floral show this year. Our bottle brush bushes are absolutely full of blossoms this year and we love the way they attract the birds.

Summer - bring it on.