Over the last week or so

 

I have sandwiched the two little quilts for the Guild - you know how you get those days and you are just in the mood to get something done??

The two quilts are now both quilted and have their binding sewn on one side, the hand sewing will be done by another Guild member. I was lucky as there was just enough backing left to make the binding.

This wasgij has been sitting in the cupboard for a long time , so  it came out to play and after about 10 days

I had a finish. The puzzle was a mystery and you had to decide what happened next, I really enjoyed this one.

I have also been sewing and crocheting away of an evening and have two blankets finished for KOGO, have one more to do.

this one had all the ends on the squares finished off, so it got the purple wool treatment 😀

This one had lots of endy bits to play with.

I got talked into doing this

Susan is a very good enabler - although I must admit she didn't have to enable much!! I didn't realise this was a cross stitch ( I obviously was not paying attention) so I have a big learning curve as I have not attempted cross stitch before. Luckily this pattern has clear instructions on the back. Susan started a Insta group and some of the ladies have finished their trees - I need to get started. 😳

I have also started an applique project, one of my challenges for this year, but no photos as yet.

I had better head off and finish the vacuuming, hubby has had his nap so I can make noise again!!

Happy stitching.

End of another week

Thus month us zooming by quickly, I am sewing scraps, I just found another bag 🤔, so they have been packed. I am off to retreat in Gisborne tomorrow, so have my usual pack more than I will probably do, but I have lots of choice.

Two weekends ago I wandered down the M1 and went to Colac to see an exhibition

I didn't take many photos but have a few

These two beauties were silk, wool and lots of free motion quilting and hand stitching. 

I will have to go on the lap top and fix up these photos later

This had an eco dyed background, light timber front with paint and scrunched fabric on it, and lots of birds with interesting faces

It was called I am not a gossip so I will only tell you Once. In the background was a tape of whispering voices - so clever.

This was interesting, the shadows created a while new art work

This was more red on the top and had black white and red fabric sewn into a kind of honeycomb.

These birds were made by local school children, you write a wish inside and sew the pieces together and hang, apparently it is a Japanese tradition.

I have spent time with this little treasure who is now 18 months old! We had a great time making cups of tea.

Finn, Tira and I had a walk together in the week, first time we have taken Tira with us, she was good, a bit scared of the pusher but she went well. I was tired when we got back, the others weren't!!

We had a happy game of goal, not sure Finn understands the concept, I think his Dad says it during the football and Finn proudly repeats!

I was given a puzzle last week

One of these where you don't know the picture you are making, it is what the judge can see.

Makes you think!

I had better away and get more packing done

Happy stitching.

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.

Time to catch up again

 Since my last post I went to Gisborne on retreat, on the way Carleen and I stopped to find some geocaches

I had found this one before so had an idea of where it was

Carleen spotted it

The cache, the log was in the plastic container in the plane cockpit. This cache is on the road into the Bacchus Marsh airport. Very appropriate we thought.

I think this block was made before going on the retreat. One more for the Anthology collection.

At the end of the last retreat we were each given a bag of green strips from Kates collection of fabric and asked to make some blocks to go into a scrappy quilt, here is progress so far.

I did some green blocks and some joining and the worked on a horse quilt for Belinda

The star blocks have boots and cowboys in the centres.

We went down to the Botanic Gardens in Gisborne for a walk one morning and to find an Adventure Lab

I used to walk the dog here all the time when we lived in Gisborne, and really like these gardens as the plants are all from New Zealand

In the front you can see NZ flax and right up the back is a kowhai tree in flower. In NZ they attract the tui bird for the nectar in the flowers.

There are tadpoles happily living in the puddles here, goes to show how much rain we have had when the tadpoles are thriving!!

We came  home from the retreat Thursday afternoon, Friday I was on duty at the Geelong Show, the Bellarine Quilters had a table there

Despite my gloomy face I was happy to be there, was tired though. The quilt with the red border was the group raffle quilt that was raffled at the quilt show the following weekend.

We had ladies making clothing to go overseas opposite us

a repurposed jacket 

This section always gives me a giggle, the decorated bras

and this cake was stunning.

Saturday was an eventful day although I do not remember any of it, David called an ambulance in the afternoon as he couldn't get any sense out of me, they took me to Geelong Hospital and then I was taken to the Royal Melbourne, where I was operated on for a brain aneurysm and kept in hospital for a week. I had a Level 1 bleed, lowest on the scale and fixable thank goodness. The week I came home David was going to Adelaide for a wargaming gathering so I stayed with Adam and Beth, they were wonderful and waited on me hand and foot - I had lots of company

Beth is keeping well and the baby is growing

Tira was keeping an eye on everything

Hank found his favourite squeaky toy, this one has lasted for ever! Usually he bites the squeaker out but for some reason, not this one.

After a week I went back home.

I have had a few walks up the back yard since coming home - I am one more week to go before I am allowed to ride my bike and go walking, we have had so much rain the garden is growing like mad and everything looks so good.

I was given some poppy seeds and scattered them around the garden - I was told this one is the heroin poppy and to pull it out before it seeds...I thought I was doing well getting it to grow! I had another one here but it got damaged in the last bout of bad weather

the flowers are inside and are slowly opening,  it is a beautiful flower.

Sorry for the bad photo, I started another wasgij

and today I have finally put borders on a panel Jenny gave me about 4 years ago now to get it quilted.

and Jill very kindly put the border on the horse quilt for me, I think I used up all my brownie points there. It is always hard to take over someone else's project especially when there is no pattern and just and idea of using up pieces cut and not used in the quilt. Jill did an amazing job and I am very grateful. This also is ready to go to the quilters.

ok that is me up to date.

I think I need a snooze now!

Happy stitching.