Fundraiser

 Here is the link to a great fundraiser over at Donna's blog. For a new room at an accommodation place where families of patients in hospital can stay. Great help to families.

https://chookyblue.blogspot.com/

If you can pop over and consider donating $20 or what ever you can.

Many thanks

Sue

This and that

 Not a lot of sewing has been happening here as my sewing room is packed up. The flooring man has been here since Tuesday and has been working like a mad man and the flooring is getting done.

sewing room before the flooring, this room caused a few blue words as apparently it is not square!!

main room with new sheeting laid and levelled,

first few vinyl planks down.

both ensuite and bathroom have been levelled again, plus we have a little ramp between ensuite and walk in robe as one floor was higher than the other.

Thursday evening, half of main floor done, kitchen and pantry done

sewing room and hallway to back door done,

and the spare bedroom done. Fingers crossed it will be completed today and then the builder can come Monday and start putting the kitchen in.

I bought this lovely wool when we were up in Gisborne, so have been knitting in the evenings. Did you know knitting can be a dangerous activity?? Last Sunday I was rushing out the door, my canvas knitting bag caught in the door jamb and knitting needles went through the bag, through my jeans and into my leg! I had to pull the needles out, one went in about an inch. There wasn't much bleeding just me in minor shock. Monday I went to the Dr had a tetanus jab and was given antibiotics, the punctures are healing well - I will be a lot more careful in future!! Lesson learned 😊

I am working my way through a pile of books from the library, this is the current read and I am enjoying it, past and present in a small Australian town that had Chinese gold miners. 

Tomorrow is the 10th birthday of Chooky's Chookshed so a zoom will be happening, I shall ready some hexies and join in with the celebrations. Might see you there?

Happy stitching.

Beautiful sunny day today

This morning I checked my emails and saw Chooky was having a zoom for an hour so quickly got my things together and joined in.

It was lovely to catch up with everyone.

 Summer has returned again today and it is quite hot. I did some gardening this morning and came in for lunch looking like tomato face!! 

I cleaned off the table on the front deck and sandwiched two quilts out there, it was a bit breezy but not too bad

I can hear many boats and jet skis out on the water.

Yesterday I went to the quilt shop in Gisborne and did a class with Irene Blanck, she is a wizz with applique. I have had a project of hers for many years so decided it was time to relearn applique and get it made.

Irene helped me with the curved seams and did the beak as a demo, there are a few more circles to add before this part is finished.

I have also finished the binding on two quilts

Such a good feeling to have them finished.

Last weekend we went to David's niece's 30th at her place in Wonthaggi. We stayed in a cabin at the campground at Kilcunda. Sometimes, well most times, this is a very windy place as the southerly wind hurls straight of the ocean, but we struck a beautiful weekend.

Friday evening I had a beach walk

Saturday morning we went for a bike ride along the rail trail

me following hubby

we stopped to look for a cache and found some kangaroos watching us

and I finally found the cache, thank goodness!

I had another ride, early afternoon before we went out, the trail went inland away from the coast, I was looking for caches but saw a snake so that changed my mind pretty quickly!

View to the ocean heading back.

The figs are ripening on the tree and I can't do much with them, but I did see a recipe for fig vodka, which was a bottle of vodka put into a large glass container, then you add three cups of washed, chopped figs, give it a swirl around and put it in a dark place. I was supposed to swirl it each day, but often didn't remember. It was in a  cupboard for 7 days, then I took it out and strained it off. I had a taste the other day and it is pretty good!

I think that is enough from me for now 😄, it is fish and chip night at Adam and Beth place, hopefully by the time I get there the footie will be nearly finished 👍.

Happy stitching and have a wonderful week.

Zooming into 2022

 Yesterday Chooky has a zoom gathering, ladies from Aus, NZ, Canada, UK, the US, Germany and Norway sat and chatted and stitched together. People came and went throughout the day depending on their commitments. I had prepared some half inch hexies and managed to get quite a few done

I have to admit I appear to have an issue counting to six.....

One short when I came to sew them together! 😊

Never mind that can be quickly fixed.

Yesterday as it was a bit cooler hubby planted some new plants into the pots at the front door, fingers crossed they like living there!

Same same but different!

Today the lovely Jill dropped off a bag of her left over bits for me to stamp and sew into the cropped diamonds

Lots to play with here.

Between Christmas and New Year I wanted to do some sewing on the machine, it had been for a service so I wanted to see how it was working

I sewed together these two beautiful pieces of summery sunshine fabric the lovely Michelle sent me for my birthday, I think I am making a bag. One side is quilted, the other is yet to be done. So much for my no new projects until I finish something! I have two on the go already!!

The machine is running beautifully, no more pulling to the left and the thread cutter is working again, as is the sensor that tells me when the bobbin is nearly empty!

Happy stitching.

Christmas is done and dusted

 I arrived quickly this year and disappeared as quickly!

We had Christmas dinner at Adam and Beth's place down the road, no long drive this year!

Young Tira has found a great observation post to see what is going on!

I got some special Christmas dog bikkies for Hank and Tira, Tira decided to get into the box

Making good progress

Then she moved on to some wrapping paper!

Boxing Day was here, luckily it was a cooler day as we had a roast plus ham. We all enjoyed ourselves and had a great time catching up. Of course there was the compulsory family photo, which took several attempts

Oops

Much better, only the dogs were not paying attention!

I received a new sewing chair, which the boys very kindly assembled for me.

I am hoping this will inspire me!!

David's statue aka lump of concrete is happily installed under the gum tree, it took 3 blokes to lift it and carry it down the yard! David is very happy with it.

Chooky organised a zoom day yesterday, I didn't realise until later in the morning as I hadn't checked my emails

Lots of ladies popped in and out through the day, it was lovely to catch up with everyone.

I sewed several cropped diamonds together, then sewed into rows and then sewed the two blocks together, then a few more rows were done. By then it was after 6pm and dinner had to be sorted.

Yesterdays progress

It is a lovely day today, I have been for a bike ride, I started along the walking track but it is super busy so decided to go along the back streets instead, very few people there. When I came back I watered the plants in the old aviary

checked on the runner beans, we had these in Tauranga when I was growing up, so I hope they grow well.

I think it is time for another jigsaw, Ingrid gave me this one for Christmas.

I had better head off and get some lunch, the sewing room needs a good tidy (again) but then the jigsaw is calling!!

Happy stitching.

Back home again

 Well we have been home nearly a week, the days have zipped by, we have had hot humid days and days with storms, thunder, lightening and rain. Today has been a little cooler thank goodness.

Before we went away last weekend  I briefly joined in with Chooky's zoom gathering. It was lovely to catch up with ladies from near and afar. It is always good to see what people are sewing on the day.

A few days ago I received a lovely tea towel in the mail from Maria, yours is in the mail Maria, thank you.

Last weeks Anthology blocks, prepped before we went away and handstitched by the lake in 28 deg C heat, I had my feet in the water to try and cool down!

and this weeks block, I think they are all the applique blocks, next come the ones with the teeny tiny squares I have been avoiding!!

I did do some hexie sewing while we were away but the quilt is getting bigger now and it was too hot sitting on my knees, so I did more sewing on the cropped diamonds, filled some gaps above, the wavy non ironed sections,

and started another block, I worked out ten cropped diamonds sewn end to end takes me 15 minutes to sew onto another row, so it grows quite quickly, so long as I do not get distracted, which happens easily some days!! The piece above has not been ironed and if not held down curls up.

We have an aviary in the back yard that has been used for storage since we have been here, it is now partially cleaned out and I have put in a watering system ( it needs tweaking especially as hubby helped and changed the design) and am adding plants. I went to the Mill Markets collectables/antiques centre today and found some pots ready to go, some had bromeliads so I got a few and hope to go back another day and get a few more!

Love this potted combination

and this hanging pot

This is a pot of many plants, I love how the bromeliads are all different colours too.

We had some dog sitting duties in the week

Miss Tira not wanting her photo taken, she was in trouble just before this for biting me, she forgets I have old lady skin that breaks and bleeds easily. Once we got her home I wet and rolled face washers and put them in the freezer. Once they were frozen I gave one to Tira and she loved chewing on it.....much better than my hands!

Hank and I went down the beach, he had a run and a paddle and was happy to then come home and snooze in the shade.

The Bellarine Quilters have been busy over the last few months. They committed to make quilts for the Kinship carers as Christmas gifts. Kinship Carers are the grandparents, aunts, uncles, other relations who take on the care of young children as there parents are not able to due to drug or alcohol problems. We have made for the children, but this year decided to make a gift for the adults.

The result is 55 quilts ready to be presented next Monday. Great effort I think. They looked wonderful all laid out on the table.

I think that is enough from me for now, I will go and get some stitching ready for this evening.

Happy stitching.