Vege Garden and Lack of Sewing

Usually between about 4.00pm and 5.00pm I like to hit the sewing room and do a bit.  For the last couple of days my sewing machine hasn't wanted to play.  It keeps getting loops on the back.  Not lots and lots of loops, just one every now and then.  The thing is, I am doing a chenille bath mat at the moment and I want the back to be 'perfect'.  
I have de-fluffed, oiled, changed needle, changed top tension threading and anything else I can think of.  It is driving me nuts.  Maybe it is time for a new machine!  




Mr Neat has just planted this vege garden.  He assures me he is going to be responsible for watering it.  Usually he plants these things and then has to go away for work for a week or such like and I end up having to do it.  It is also a hassle if you want to go away for a long weekend or something.  Our poor neighbour usually gets landed with the job then.  He could not be talked out of it though.  Do hope it yields better than his last efforts!
Here we have lettuce in the foreground and bok choy behind it.  Behind that capsicum and out of picture we hope to have some cherry tomatoes grown by shoving some bought ones that went a bit soft into the ground.

You call this dust?!!?

This is a view from our property last Saturday when we had a similar, but not so big, dust storm as the previous Wednesday.   There is a hill in the background, I kid you not.  It was like a heavy blanket of fog.  

Whilst I was at the quilt show someone in our household (won't mention any names) left the living room windows open.

Today is the first chance I have had to try and dust every single object in the room and surrounds.  

This is not your ordinary old household dust.  No sirreee.  This is straight from the outback desert sands type dust.  

You wipe the surface of object/furniture, you wipe it again, you wipe it again, moving it from one place to another.  It is really testing my housekeeping prowess and it is really eating into my valuable quilting/sewing time.  Grrrr.

Baby Lili - bub enjoyed the quilt show but was anxious to show us all her new crawling skills.  Very cute to watch, but this new development has had me 'baby proofing' my sewing area in the lounge room before each visit.

Strip Chevron

Everyone who knows me knows how much I love strippy quilts and I loved this quilt at our our recent exhibition.  It is so bright and cheerful and was right beside us at the sales table where we were working most days.  

Another one for me to have a crack at.  So many quilts, so little time....

Yummy Dessert

We had this yummy dessert after dinner tonight.

I just sliced up a punnet of strawberries and a few apples, added a tablespoon of sugar and finely grated orange rind.

The topping is plain flour, butter, rolled oats, brown sugar and flaked almonds.  (The recipe called for chopped macadamia nuts, but alas I had none of these).  I have made it with the macadamia nuts and it is scrumptious. Eaten warm with ice cream and cream.  mmmmmm.

Quilt display

Our quilt club exhibition is over for another year.  We battled one of the worst dust storms in our history and still managed to come through smiling.  We had lots of visitors from all over the country and the exhibition was much admired.
In the foyer, we had a display of antique quilts from one of our members and this created a lot of interest.  They are family quilts and she had some very interesting stories to go with them.



 This one is from the 1880's (American)

From the 1970"s

Springing into Action

Here are some more views of springtime in our garden.  It is a wonder anything flowers in our part of the country.  We are very short on water!

This is usually a busy time for me as our quilt group, Toowoomba Quilters Club Inc.,  gears up for it's annual quilt show - Exhibition of Quilts and other Fine Arts.
If you are visiting Toowoomba next weekend for the Carnival of Flowers, be sure to drop in and say "Hi" at the quilt show.

It is at the TAFE building, 100 Bridge Street Toowoomba from Sat 19 September through to Friday 25 Sept.  Open 9.00 til 5.00 daily. 
Admission $5.00 - (Children admission free)

On another note, 
What about Kim Clijsters?
Is she amazing or what?
I think it says a lot for believing in yourself.

Stitching Day Out

Yesterday I went with a couple of friends to an event called 'Stitchers Dream Day Out" organized by a local quilt shop, 'The Quilters Angel'. 

Love those HUGE cupcakes on the table!

Those big yellow 'cake' boxes were filled with goodies.  There were four designers who designed special projects for the day, and all the patterns of their designs were in the box.  You also received a mystery project to stitch from the designers.  There were also lots of other goodies in the box such as sweet treats which was the theme of the day.
For morning tea we had the most delicious cupcakes I have ever had.  Mine was raspberry and white chocolate.  YUM.
Lunch was yummy too.  Baguette rolls with a chicken,celery and roasted almond filling and a beef roll with caramelized onion and capsicum topped with a mustard cream.  For afternoon tea we had a mini cup cake and some vanilla fudge.  Of course tea and coffee throughout the day.
It was a very well organized event, and will be on again same time next year.

This is the design which was in my box.  I will post mine when it is finished and let you know what I make it into.  Do not hold your breath for that one. We also got the fabric in our box to finish the project.  Maybe I will do a bit more on the stitching this afternoon. (Sunday)

There is one in every crowd!  I am sure many of us have done this at some time or another.  My friend has stitched her work to the ribbon on her blouse.... the funniest part was, just as she had done this and I was taking her photo, her lucky number was called and she had to go collect her prize attached to her embroidery.  Very funny.....