December

 I am finding it hard to believe it is December already! We have celebrated David's birthday with lunch at the Queenscliff pub with his sister and bro in law, we all enjoyed our ourselves.

The garden has been going well, we had a lot of rain in Spring which helped

Some poppies have come up and flowered which was very exciting, I spread a lot of seed last year but only got a few plants. Still better than nothing.

The cactus plant I put into the gumboot a while back has finally flowered, the flowers have opened more since I took the photo.

I have quilted another quilt sewn by Christine from a box of two and a half inch squares I had, this in #3, since taking the photo Christine has bound it, I have labelled it and it has gone to the Bellarine Quilters, to be delivered to the Geelong Hospital Wellness Centre next year.

I have been spending some time with young Finn, one afternoon we made yoghurt, banana and blueberry ice blocks, he was not impressed that he had to wait over night to eat one! He loved them and wanted MORE NOW!! Sadly it was too close to dinner time 😀

Early December I met up with the lovely Robyn and her hubby in Geelong, we had lunch together before they went off to do a little exploring before catching the ferry to Tasmania. I met Robyn and her hubby and boys many years ago on a trip to Brisbane top present Michelle with her replacement Christmas quilt. Robyn and her family put up both Raewyn and myself for a few days and drove me to and from the airport. They were very generous with their time to two strangers.

I have been having a few walks along the beach and found many of these recently

I do not want to meet one of these when out in the water, not that I have started swimming yet but it is forecast to be 30 deg tomorrow and then 34 the next day so I might be tempted! I always thought if you got stung you poured vinegar over the sting but after looking up Mt Google apparently not, you need to wash off with sea water and then immerse in hot water. You learn something new every day!

Local ladies who knit and crochet have been busy decorating the trees down the main street for Christmas

these are just two of many, they are great to see.

Looking down to the Bay today.

We have had a few challenges from the Guild for this month, one is for an extravagant Xmas hat, the other is and 8 inch square using only aqua and purple, with the assist of Circles, we are going to be challenged once a month to make different blocks, no idea what happens to them but I guess I will find out.

Another challenge was to make something to be used at Christmas at home we were given a piece of fabric - I cut mine in strips and glued it onto a metal circle I found at an op shop

Jo from Bellarine Quilters kindly got her hubby to cut me the wooden base, I covered the wire circle and stuck on the decorations and the tree and wove the little lights around everything. It looks lovely at night time and will live on the dining table for a while. Fabric is now unrecognisable. I need to get a photo of the left over bit...

that is the fabric 😀

Early December Carleen and I went to Tracee's place for a Christmas gathering, we caught up with Tracee and Marg and some of the City Girls, we had a great lunch and then Tracee had us playing games 😳

Maxine concentrating on her bumble bee gathering a ball

more bumble bee gatherers, we couldn't see what we were doing but had a good laugh! Sorry about the finger in the photo!

Ann and Gail, bouncing ping pong balls into an egg container

Carleen and Julie

Maxine and Marina

Tracee and Elyte, we had a great day and lots of laughs.

This quilt and the one below have been finished and donated.

They were in show and tell and the Bellarine Quilters.

I have been trying to be good and go for a walk each day, this day I rode the bike to Indented Head, St Leonard's pier

Indented Head beach.

I think that is enough for me at present, I have been chipping away at the Temperature tree, and in November so not too far behind. I hope to get some tops into quilts over the holiday time.

Happy stitching.

Grand Day Out Part One

 On our last full day in Brisbane Michelle came and picked me up and we went for a visit to Mount Cootha and the Botanic Gardens. We ventured across the city, Michelle had directions from her son and we didn't get lost!!  I have taken many many photos so this might have to be part one and two!!

Michelle told me there would be water dragons around the gardens, the first thing going in Michelle said to me was "Watch your step" and yep there was a dragon on the path, luckily it hurried off into the garden bed.

Our first stop was the dome

and what an amazing place that was, so many beautiful plants and flowers, one of the workers there told us about the fish on the pond and some of the plants.

He also kindly took a photo for us.

The fern house had the most amazing ferns of all kinds

There were sculptures all through out the gardens

Beautiful colour in the Japanese gardens

Musicians up in the tree 😁

More beautiful sculptures in the water.

Lovely views over the creek

and through the trees

the clivias were stunning, there were both orange and yellow

I made a dragon friend

and saw a wee frog

the hippeastrum was stunning 

I really liked this sculpture I had to find a description as I couldn't remember it properly

The current artwork displays were created by Jamie North in Sydney, named “Remainder No. 20 and 21”. These eroded spheres demonstrate the highly altered environments we live in today and fit seamlessly with the surrounding landscape.

These sculptures were highly polished brass when first installed.

This is Michelle's favourite sculpture, I was looking for the butterflies they were trying to catch. 😃

Lovely pelican down by the lagoon.

This area had lots of muck growing on the water but you could see the water lilies starting to come through.

Love these beautiful flowers hanging from an archway.

More out in the garden. It is time for a cuppa and lunch!

I think I will stop here and continue tomorrow.

Catching up again

Here we are into another week, the weekend sped by. Saturday I had Guild which was a great day, our speaker was Margaret Rowe Keys, a local lady who writes quilting themed novels set in Australia. They look great and Margaret offered them to us at a very good price, so I have a set waiting to be read. We didn't have very much show and tell this month but I can share one beautiful art quilt a lady made

Isn't that special.

This was the table for the book selling, my books have the blue ribbon and are now all signed by the author.

I joined together four rows of the International Sisters yesterday...that was pretty exciting!! (Mmmmm, what does that say about my life!!)

Today I was the last one at sewing, I was staying until I finished this International Sister block, the fabric came from the lovely Julie, love the retro look of the fabric with the NZ birds.

And I finished this block, made with buzzy bee fabric, an iconic NZ toy. I had one with a string attached and I pulled it everywhere I am told, the wings clicked as they turned and drove my mother mad!! I loved my buzzy bee.I have just realised looking at the photos that the Sisters are undecided whether to have their hands palm up or down...yep I put the arms around the wrong way!! Ah well they will just be a little different to the other Sisters.

I also managed to sew 23 One Block Wednesday blocks part way, hopefully tomorrow will see the corner pieces sewn on.

I received some happy mail today, these beautiful pieces of fabric from  the lovely Michelle, the black and white fabric is from Alice Springs and the red fabric from Darwin. Thank you Michelle, these will make beautiful Sisters blocks.

This was the view from my chair at sewing today.....I stayed on as I wanted to get the Sisters blocks done, everyone else was gone, actually it was quite good as there was no one to talk to so no distractions!

I forgot to share this, happy mail from last week. I lashed out and bought this kit from the Fat Quarter shop, and No I do not need another project, but just fell for the bees and the hive.

I had better be off and sort my bags from sewing today.

Happy stitching.