Back again (photo heavy)

 Life has been a little busy of late, hubby had an overnight in hospital having an ulcer removed from his leg, caused by a mosquito bite. He then had a week at home keeping his leg up with a pressure dressing on it, with a pump attached. We were visited daily by the hospital in the home nurses, who were wonderful. A visit to the hospital a week later, saw the pump removed, dressing changed and one happier hubby. He has had the best attention at the public hospital in Geelong, but boy the wait for each appt is so long and the time of your appt means nothing! I did manage to get quite a bit of reading done. Hubby now gets visits every third day fro the community nurse to have the dressing changed, healing is going well.

A little sewing has been happening here, some are secret sewing, some are me finally getting binding onto quilts.

The horse quilt is finished and has gone to Belinda to be taken to the new owners

I loved the horseshoe quilting, done by On Point quilting in Clifton Springs

The Schoolgirl Sampler finally has binding and is finished.

I finished the wasgij, this was a bit challenging but good to do.

The heart quilt is bound. labelled and finished

as is this quilt made by Lisa of the Geelong Guild, I quilted and bound it and it has now gone with the heart quilt to SJOG to the Oncology ward. I am sure it will make someone very happy. When I took the horse quilt to Belinda, one of the patients waiting for her treatment told me she had been given a quilt and she loved it and really appreciated the sentiment behind it. Very nice to hear.

I have been plugging away at the blocks for the Wendy Williams pattern Thought Bubbles

A few more flowers needed here

The colonial knots I found really hard, some were beautiful and others a mess!!

I have another three to make and then they can be joined together, the I need to make lots and lots of fabric circles. 

The garden is still looking good, although we have had very windy days lately, the rain we have had has kept everything green.

The poppies have flourished. I was given this seed, the seed I bought and scattered has not taken at all.

These were all supposed to be the same but some have different colours. They range from the red in the front to the purple at the back.

A line of mushrooms has sprung up, I have no idea if you can eat them or not, nor am I game to try!!

From near the back of the garden looking towards the house. The fig tree in the centre has done so well, no hot north winds to tear its leaves off so far.

We had some wonderful news last weekend

Adam and Beth got engaged! We managed to surprise Beth by meeting them at the pub for lunch after Adam asked the all important question.

The ring is made with a ruby from a ring belonging to Davids mother and the diamonds are from my maternal grandmothers engagement ring. Beth was super happy with the family connection.

Here we are Palmers to the left and McConnell's on the right. We are all very happy for them. 

Last Tuesday we went over to Sorrento to meet David's sister and brother in law for lunch, to celebrate David's birthday. The Spirit of Tasmania passed us on the way.

We went over on the small ferry, had to sit outside, it was cold and windy and not a pleasant trip

Cold and windy was the weather for the day, but we enjoyed ourselves anyway.

Well that is enough from me for now.

Happy stitching.

School Girl Sampler

 is finished! Yay! I made myself stay on project and not be distracted by the squirrel that was chatting in my ear, I eventually drowned it out with an audio book 

I just hope the last border sits flat when it is quilted as I had problems sewing it on.

Hubby gave me a shout last night to come and look at the moon

The photos do not do it justice, the colour was beautiful and it looked huge. Was so good to see it before it disappeared into the cloud.

Last night while the football was on, I went to the sewing room and pulled out the much neglected foundation paper pieced hearts and made another five. Slowly getting there with this project!

It is a cold a overcast day today, I think some rain might be coming. Perfect afternoon to be in the sewing room.

Happy stitching.

 

Still at home

 We have had the lockdown extended for another 7 days....hopefully that is enough to stop this variant of the virus from spreading.

I have been doing some sewing and a lot of reading, I finished three Harry Bosch novels this week, once I get my nose into them, that is me gone for the day.

But some sewing has happened

Schoolgirl Sampler has had her problems fixed and two borders added, two more to go

The Drunkards Path quilt I made at Baradine has had two borders added and now is in the to be quilted pile

The Guild Mystery quilt has had it's last border added and is also in the to be quilted pile.

A little more progress on Tea and Cake

This weeks Anthology blocks are done

Out in the garden the other day I noticed the jasmine flowering, a bit early I thought, but I have some in the sewing room and it smells wonderful every time I walk in.

Margaret Mew had a destash sale on Instagram and I was able to buy a quilt top, on the right, with beautiful Japanese fabrics and linen and on the left a large backing piece, so for very little outlay I have a quilt ready to be added to the quilting pile. 

I am off now to sew together 4 x 23 half square triangles together for the next Schoolgirl Sampler border. Might put an audio book on at the same time.

Stay safe.

Happy stitching.

Last day and home

What did I get done? Well I finished all the Schoolgirl Sampler blocks, joined them together and tried to sew them onto the quilt top and they didn't fit, they just didn't want to play nice, so they are in a corner until I want to face them again. 

On the way home I had a visit to the specialist and was told my iron levels and blood count are low, so I was sent over the road for an iron infusion, hopefully in the next few days I will be bursting with energy and not tired all the time.

I am off to do some hand stitching

Happy stitching.

Retreat day 3

 Today was spent sewing and unsewing once again,  the Old Time Kaleidescope is finished, I had managed to flare out the side borders and somhad to do some unpicking to get it straight, I was very lucky Maria was here and helped me get it sorted.

It is so nice to see it done.

Late  tonight I made more Schoolgirl Sampler blocks

And another two, I have 2 more to make and then the bottom row is finished.

Maxine and I had a wonderful lunch out and visit today with Margaret and Tracee, was a great day.

Off to get some sleep now.

Happy stitching.

Here I am

 once again catching up. I don't know where the days go, now we are free from covid restrictions groups have started up again and days just seem to be busy and go by super quickly.

Some things I have been doing

Last weeks Anthology block

I decided to make a poppy mini quilt, I don't know why, maybe because it was ANZAC day coming up, although poppies are more for Remembrance Day I think. I just had the urge! I am happy with how it turned out. I have a lot of poppy fabric bought over time for Aussie Hero quilts, one day I will get to use it.

Four Schoolgirl Sampler blocks were made last week, I am still way behind but will get there in the fullness of time!

Two Saturday's ago I went over to the Leopold Library to but the book Dear Mum and meet Samuel Johnson, at one stage he rode his pink unicycle around the car park, he is still fundraising for breast cancer which took the life of his younger sister Connie.

He is such a friendly person and has a chat to you in a very quiet voice up close, he said he was a bit of a goose in his younger days and now makes much better use of his life.  The whole atmosphere is one of happiness around him, his sister and partner and anyone working with him, when I said that to him, he replied well no one wants to come and see a miserable person!

We had a laugh and then he moved on to the next people in the queue. I was impressed how Samuel gave everyone what felt like their own private conversation.

I was speaking to one of the library staff who was in front of me in the queue, it turns out she went to Gisborne Secondary College where I used to work, although I don't' think we were there at the same time and she didn't often use the library. Another staff member came out to have a chat and she used to manage the Gisborne Library for the Macedon Ranges Library Corp and knows the woman I used to job share with, it is a very small world!

This week I put together a pink pixilated heart quilt top

Put a border on Bettys Medallion

Finished another row on Sylvia's Bridal Sampler

Yesterday I cut and laid out a pixilated heart blue top

and by last night it was sewn together. Today I need to cut backing and wadding and do some sandwiching, but first the washing need to to be hung out, it is sunny here today and windy so drying should be no problem.

Happy stitching.