Beware - Scary post

I found these under our bed while doing a real "fly lady" thing, cleaning and tidying up. The theory was, I would chuck out or give away one item a day for the month of February. I have nearly achieved that, and think I will continue into the month of March. There is way too much junk in this house!!!

It scares me to think I once wore these glasses.
Luckily, by the time I reached my mid teens the contact lens had been invented and I wore those successfully for about 15 years until the birth of my first child. It is a fascinating fact that after childbirth many people wearing hard contact lenses are unable to continue with them. Anyway, it was back to glasses and, of course, the 80's was the decade of the BIG frames. Bigger frames meant bigger lenses, and truly, I was all glass (plastic) there at one stage. Fortunately, plastic lenses had replaced glass so they were'nt as heavy. These days they have really perfected thinner plastic lenses for all sorts of weird prescriptions of which mine is one!!!

The "cat's eye" type ones are from the 60's. Black must have been "in" and the chunkier the better by the look of it. Guess it had to hold a lot of glass. The top right ones are my first tinted glasses and they are "Christian Dior". Our younger daughter has actually claimed these for the frame - can't believe it - the BIG ones are back.
Love those hexagonal ones from the late 60's - 'flowers in your hair', 'free love' and all that.
Ewwww.

I leave you with this beautiful bouquet I received from my sister last week for my half-significant birthday. Lillys are my new favourite now that our little granddaughter is called "lili".

Hello to my phantom readers, I promise next post to have something quilty for you after tackling a couple of UFO'S at our quilt group's UFO day on Saturday. They are still UFO's but just that smidge closer to being finished.

Santa Claus is Coming...next Christmas

This wall hanging was going to be hanging this Christmas, but grandparenthood took over and, well, maybe next Christmas.

The pattern, designed by Jacky Hens, is from an Australian Patchwork and Quilting magazine.

I must thank my friend Marleen who showed me a much quicker technique for putting Santa together and helping me mark, trace and cut out all the intricate pieces. She also gave me some suitable fabric from her stash.
You always think you have a large stash until you are looking for a specific fabric!!

Another reason this piece did not get finished on time was that I did a major stuff up. I had completely done all the "leadlighting" (which is basically the quilting). That means the top, wadding and back were all put together. I was just about to bind it when I thought it seemed to be missing something. Yes, it was the borders. I had especially bought the border fabric at our stitches and craft show in Brisbane in October.
After the initial flap around and cursing and swearing, I was wavering on not putting the border on, but decided it would look good (don't be lazy girl!!)
After a lot of fiddling around (all on the back thank goodness) I managed to add the borders and put backing and wadding on by hand.
Now all thats left is a bit more hand work on those pieces on the back and the binding.
Should get that done before next Christmas?????

Sewing Room Chaos

Only 2 lousy posts for January. It has been a very busy time as we helped shift our daughter, son-in-law, and baby back to Toowoomba. They are very happy in their new home and baby is settling in well - won't mention Wilbur (aka Houdini) who is trying to flee at every opportunity. (No Wilbur is not playing play station!)
There has been very little sewing done in this household and I keep getting distracted by the gorgeous Lilian. I have seen her nearly every day since they hit town - can't get enough of her. I think 2-3months is a beautiful time with a baby. They are just starting to recognize you and smile - goo goo gah gah. - enough of that.
Here is my sewing room at present - or is that a nursery?
I have to make room in the spare bedroom for the cot me thinks. That will be a challenge as spare bedroom is another name for junk room.

The only sewing I envisage seeing myself doing this week is 2 small blocks for Toowoomba Quilters Club 2009 raffle quilt. Many of us have taken blocks, and I will be letting the team down if I don't get a wiggle on.

Rainbow Beach

From start of 1991 til end of 1998 we lived in this most beautiful part of the world, Rainbow Beach, Queensland, Australia.
It was a lovely place to bring up the children, but as they got older we found we had to move closer to schools and civilization. Our parents were also needing us closer as they battled with various illnesses.
We went back after ten years away, and explored our favourite haunts again. We stayed with friends who had the wonderful boat you can see in the pictures, and they own a unit with views to the beach. It was good to go back and see how much the place had grown. We were a little nostalgic, but in the long term, we agree we made the right choice to leave at the time we did.

Top Left: Double Island Point
Bottom Left: Driving across the point
Top Middle: View of Carlo Sand Blow ( an unusual phenomenon where a huge sand formation sits atop the mountain - Captain Cook was the first to sight this)
Second Middle: View of the "coloured sand" cliffs from which Rainbow Beach got it's name
Third Middle: Driving along the beach from Noosa (Noosa North Shore)
Fourth Middle: Boat anchored in the Great Sandy Straits - between the mainland and Fraser Island
Top Right: Our picnic spot on Fraser Island (calm side)
Second Right: Freshwater track from the beach to Rainbow Beach township (Beach from Dble Island point closed to traffic due to high tides etc)
Third Right: Leisha Track across Double Island Point
Fourth Right: Our swimming spot on Fraser Island

If you ever come to Queensland make sure you include Rainbow Beach and Fraser Island in your itenerary, you won't be disappointed! Fraser Island is the largest sand island in the world and has some spectacular rainforests and the purest blue lakes......

Oh happy days!

Back on track - nearly

After a short blogging hiatus, I am back into it.
I never stopped reading all the wonderful crafty/quilty blogs that I have ear-marked over the past twelve months though. There is just so much useful information out there provided by some very generous bloggers. It is very inspiring when you have lost your quilting/crafting mojo to read what others are doing. Hopefully I will be back on track with my stitching soon.

Our vege garden is supplying us (and our neighbour) with these beautiful tomatoes lately. Amazingly, the bugs have decided to let us have them all to ourselves this year.

We are having a crock pot stew tonight ( using Y-bone steaks), with lots and lots of ripe tomatoes.





Here is our grandaughter, the beautiful Lili, and her Mum going to visit Santa for the first time.

Yes, Lili is going to be a stunning auburn-haired lass, we think.

Introducing....

Here she is, our cute little granddaughter.

We are going to enjoy our first Christmas with her. She is adorable, cute, beautiful, sugar and spice and all that. We are smitten!

Naughty - but nice

This is "My Leaf Quilt" from 2001 - well used and well loved....

I did something naughty (but nice) a couple of weeks ago when no-one was looking!
I started a new project.........like I need one.
Anyways, it is going to be another leaf quilt for our queen size bed. Now, last time I made "My Leaf Quilt", I vowed and declared I would not do another queen size quilt.
How the memories fade, a bit like having a baby, we go back a second time.

This leaf quilt is going to be my own design and has been in the back of my mind for a couple of years now. In fact, I already have about 300 leaves cut out, tacked, and ready to applique. No two will be the same. On Wednesday I cut about 60 miles of bias (well, maybe not quite that much but it felt like it) for the vine. I am going to put it through a 1/4" bias maker and at the same time attach some paper back adhesive.
It will be a hand project that I can take here there and everywhere in the next few months. Can't wait to get started on the stitching now.