On the Eve of Christmas 2012

It can be such a crazy time and such an exciting time too!

The most enjoyable part for me is catching up with family and friends.

Last week I did lunch with two very special and most sincere friends.  Before lunch I verbalized how much I appreciated their friendship and what it means to me.  There were some moist eyes.

We had lunch at Marleen’s house and she has it decorated beautifully (as usual) with all her handmade quilts and wall hangings and handmade gifts from her many friends.

Marleen with her latest creation.  She says this will definitely be a ‘one off’.  Isn’t it cute??

We had a delicious morning tea followed by an equally delicious lunch.  We shared some stories of 2012 and had a few laughs.

No – this is not snow in Queensland!  We had a large hail storm last Tuesday and we were stuck in the car in the car park of Lilian’s kindy.  Some of the hail was as big as a marble and made quite a din.  Luckily, no damage to the car.

Over the past couple of weeks there has been much frenzied shopping over the internet by both myself and my hubby. I am dreading the arrival of the next credit card bill!

Gift to myself – Dye-na-flow fabric paints and the Cas Holmes book, “The Found Object”, which I  purchased from Book Depository.  I love that you can order a book in your pyjamas, have it delivered for free and have it delivered to your door within a week.  The fabric paints I ordered from Susan at Essential Textile Art.  Excellent,  prompt service from Susan too!

On Thrusday night we took our little grand daughter to see Santa and the Christmas lights in Queen’s Park.  The lights were amazing – organized by the Lions Clubs of Toowoomba and sponsored by various local organizations.  Well worth going and seeing, and the delight on Lilian’s face made it even more special.

To my blogging friends, I wish you all peace and joy at Christmas time.

Another Year Passing By

As another year passes quickly by, it reminds me of my goal each year to become more organised around the home.

(Pile of magazines needing culling)
Life seems to overwhelm me sometimes and the clutter around me doesn’t make me feel any better.

(Where to start?? – June 2011) – (Love the look)

(Scrap box before)
This year, I believe, I achieved a lot in the organisation department.  Thanks to my friend, Shirley, we got into the sewing room where she introduced me to the plastic box.  Not that I didn’t know about them, I just didn’t know where to start with the sorting.  She had some great ideas and I am still working on amalgamating all of the stuff into their respective categories.

(Boss Shirley)

(Some progress)
Each year I start with the idea of disposing of an item a day and this has worked very well.  It usually fizzles out, so I have kicked it off again – right now!  I have discovered this website “The Organised Housekeeper” and she has the de-cluttering 52 week challenge right HERE, which I am gong to attempt to follow.  (Hope it goes better than the TAST challenge LOL).  Of course, we have planned trips once again for 2013, so I will have to double up some weeks to achieve the goal.

During the past couple of years I have made some of these embroidered felt pin cushions which I was going to sell at our exhibition.  When I showed a friend, she bought the lot and I didn’t get around to making any more.  Shirley has gifted me some of her embroidery wool ‘double ups’ and I have made a few more since, and intend to make some more. 

This past Sunday was our precious little princess’ 4th birthday.  Where did that time go?  Of course, being a princess, she wanted a princess party.

The princess and her princess cake her Mummy made.

Princess Lilian with her new Doctor’s set – she loves playing doctors and calls her cubby house her “Goctor’s Office”

Princess Lilian in her tiara.

Gifts Given And Received

Before I go on about gifts I have been given and gifts I have been giving, I have a special photo to share.

Shirley and I met our online friend, Linda from Billabongs 2 Bling at the Bush Christmas a week or so ago.
It was lovely to catch up with Linda and finally get to meet her.  Bush Christmas is when the bush crafters come to town and sell their wares.  It was really beautiful with lots of delicious things to look at.

I don’t think I have ever shown this piece of loveliness before.  It was a special gift from Shirley some years ago, and it hangs from the knob of my little sewing table in the lounge room for all to admire.

I made this sewing dilly bag for a friend who has left Toowoomba to go and live on Flinders Island, Tasmania.
She has always admired my dilly bag like this, so now she has her very own.  I think it is a pattern from ‘Country Pieces’.  It is a pattern I have had for many, many years.
There are some other things I have been making which can’t be shown here just yet.  I have very much enjoyed working on some collage cards which I will show in the next week or so.

Leaving you with this photo of the beautiful landscape of Middle Lagoon on the Western Australia Dampier Peninsular.  Middle Lagoon has many different aspects to it – such an amazing place to visit.

Is it a Flame Tree & Finally some TAST

 

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

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

The buds (aren’t they beautiful?)

This is the bouganvillea growing along side of it. 

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

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

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

The background is coloured with watercolour pencils and textile medium.

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

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

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

 

Del Prado

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

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

Marilyn Monroe AKA the lovely Loretta.  Ooo la la.

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

Retreat & Quilt Show

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

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

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

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

Still Here!

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

The magnificent Indian Ocean in Broome

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

                                                             My sister looking out from our Brisbane hotel room

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