Gisborne retreat day 1

Scrappy strips made by me, more to be made tomorrow, they will have different centres as I have run out of the orangey/red

Maxine is working on her zig zag quilt top, a little unsewing has happened as some of the blocks jump around the wrong way 😉

Christine is putting these blocks together, loving the colours.

Maxine has been also working on this wall hanging.

Off to bed now to get up the strength to sew up a storm tomorrow. 

Happy stitching.

Progress and catching up

 I am having trouble believing it is February already - January vanished so quickly!

I have been having a few walks, I try to go out most days

Indented Heads today

St Leonard's a few weeks ago when the bush fires were happening down the Otway's and Great Ocean Road

Back at St Leonard's

The flowering gums are doing their thing at the moment, the bees are very happy and out in large numbers. Sorry about the finger in the photo 😊

The shirt quilt is finished, I used trimmed off backing to bind.

and the Peas In a Pod is also finished, I used left over fabric for the binding.

In the bag of shirt pieces I found a nearly complete shirt, it had part of the fronts cut off so I decided to try and rescue is and make it mine

I added some fabric to the back just under the collar

and two pieces either side of the fronts, they were not cut off evenly and I didn't even them up just added the fabric I wanted. I am going to add more but have not decided what else to do yet.

I finally got my act together and hot glued thread to the back of the shapes to be added to Glad Tidings Christmas wall hanging, now I need to add buttons. This is going to a new home in April so I will get moving.

I have been spending some time with this little man

he enjoyed painting (with water) the screen door one hot day, until he had had enough and threw brush and container over the edge of the deck! Game over!!

He loves the camera and spent ages taking selfies with my phone until the battery went flat! You can't get your phone out as he wants to use it straight away. We deflect with kicking the soccer ball and playing cricket. Usually indoors which is getting dangerous for the house!!

I have been stitching away on the Under the Sea quilt, I am slow and it is taking a while. This was started in a class with Kathy Doughty last year, the challenge was to go big...think I failed, but I am happy with it.

This is a cushion that goes on a couch Beth bought for the office of her new business. Adam and Beth's Dad went to get it and part way home it blew off the trailer. Luckily someone stopped by them at the traffic lights and let them know, so back they went and there it was in the middle of the lanes of traffic, luckily it had not been run over by a truck! The end was ripped and not much fabric was missing thank goodness so I was able to sew it back together. I sits towards the back of the couch so will not be too obvious. 

Life has been a bit busy of late, we have finally managed to get David in to a Parkinson's support programme at a hospital in Geelong, he has had two interviews so far, the third one is in a week and a bit. today was the "Speechie" and OT, next time is the physio and maybe another session with the OT.  We came away pleased with todays sessions, I think it will be really good for David in the future.

Ok enough from me and it is time I was cooking dinner.

Some progress

 I have been stitching away n the evenings and have finished two unplanned projects, I think Lou sent her squirrels over here!

I bought this bag one day poking around on Temu, It cost about $4, thought it would be good for going down to the beach and then one day looking in my scrap bag I decided to try and cover the bag with fabric and this is the result

one side

the other side

all sewn by hand except for the top edging which I did on the machine and then hand sewed the inside bits that missed  😀

Then while I was in the scrap bag I decided to do this

machine sewn, oops this is the fabric layout

and finished. machine sewn to hold all the fabric pieces in place and the end pieces hand sewn in to create the pockets for the book cover to slot into.

I found PixxiBook on line and printed up last years blog, the covers are hard covers and the pages really good heavy paper, they have made lovely books, more expensive that I am used to getting but I am very happy with them.

I have books for 2024 coming in the mail, they have been done with IntoRealPages, slightly less expensive, soft covers, I did have a lot of trouble getting their page to work for me with with a lot of help from Jo, we finally got there. My main problem was that my book was showing from Dec 22nd on the first page to Jan 1st on the last page.....we could not work it out. I emailed the company, they said it can happen when there is a break in the transmission and the data gets muddled. They fixed it all up at their end and I checked to see all the posts were there, it is in the mail and due to arrive later this week.

I am happy to say I have finally finished my Temperature Tree

Is not perfect but I am very happy with it, my first attempt at Cross stitch. I have yet to decide how to finish it off. Thank you Susan for the motivation!

We had a special occasion on Saturday, Finn turned three!!

His birthday present from Nanny and Pa

His birthday present from this Grandmother ( he loves rabbits and has a large collection)

his birthday cake made by this grandmother

he was fascinated by the things on top, he also loves cricket!

Getting to eat one of the gummi bears players. We had a wonderful afternoon, Adam cooked a great roast dinner and then we headed home. 

I had better go check the sprinkler I left going on the garden and check also on the bike battery and see if it is charged, I was planning on a ride today 😁

Happy stitching.

Second week of January already

 Time once again is moving quickly, to catch up once again

Shane and Rilla came and stayed the weekend after Christmas, we had a good catch up, although more time would have been great!

We went over to Sorrento on the ferry and then drove to Harmers Haven near Wonthaggi to visit David's sister and bro in law

We had one beautiful sunset looking over the horse paddocks.

We drove to Grantville one day so David and Ellen could do a painting over looking the water - the tide went out fairly quickly, so we were looking over the mud flats

I went for a walk along this path and then onto the football field, behind the trees in the left of the photo - being very vary and looking out for snakes (I an very scared of snakes!)

I managed to get a stick caught in my sandal and it dug into my foot, I had to sit for a while and put some pressure on it as the combination of hot weather, aspirin and mild panic made for a lot of bleeding. After a while I wandered back to the others and got David (bro in law) to tend to my wound and clean me up. Luckily I had a new first aid kit in the car!

nearing the end of the clean up and wrap up mission

Bro in law explaining something to me!!

Hubby fully engrossed in painting

still painting

Not long after this the wind got up, David's easel was blown off the table three times, his sandwich container was blown off and the seagulls enjoyed his lunch!

No fun here in the howling wind so we headed home.

The next day Ellen took me to emergency to have my foot checked, the nurse was very impressed with the care I had received and the way the wound was dressed, I explained my sis in law had horses and she said say no more! 😀 She re dressed the foot, gave me a compression bandage and sent me on my way. 

We headed home two days later, we were going to call in on Ondrea but as I felt I was getting a cold we though better of the idea and how lucky was that! After being home a couple of days I tested positive to covid! My third bout. So we have been housebound as hubby now has it too.

In between feeling very average I have finished the Peas in a Pod quilt top

and finished a KOGO blanket

Sorry about the messy photo.

I found a place on line PixxiBook who print blogs, so I have ordered up my 2025 book, later on I will go back and do 2024, Looks like a nice book, we will see when it turns up. 

My foot is slowly healing, takes while for the inside the inside to heal, the bruising has gone down since this photo too.

I bought this bag before Christmas online, wasn't quite what I thought it would be, so now I have plans of sewing fabric strips onto it with big stitching, lets see if that happens!

I have been seeing lots of orangutan things on FB and Insta, this one took my fancy!

I have just remembered I have the hose running on the banana passionfruit, so had better go and turn it off!

Best wishes for a very Happy New Year, here's to lots of creating and having fun.

Happy stitching.

Christmas joy

 I have received several handmade cards, postcard and ornaments, they do bring joy when you know someone has been thinking of you! Thank you very much everyone.

Adam came over for dinner last night with the box below and wanted to learn to crochet, mmmm he is left handed and I am right so my instruction was all back to front for him. Think we need to find a book on how to crochet for left handers! 

My job for this afternoon, trying to figure this one out. Finn loves rabbits, hence getting this one.

This morning I took Adam to Queenscliff as he was off on the ferry to meet  up with Beth and Finn who have been at Beth's parents house for the last 10 days

Looking up the beach from the old jetty to the new flash ferry building.

the end of the jetty with the old life boat shed to the left

inside the old waiting room, there must have ben a passenger ferry here at some stage

This one appealed to me

It was an overcast cool morning, the wind was blowing up the Bay from the South! There is an art competition at Queenscliff, the paintings/photos/art works are displayed along the jetty (well photos of), it was interesting wandering along looking at them all.  Loved the lino print above.

And off the ferry goes.

Happy stitching.