Autumn Leaves

By now you will know that I LOVE autumn. I love the cool weather and cold nights. In particular however, I love the autumn leaves. Yesterday, when taking Clancy the wonder dog for his walk (on a different route than usual) I noticed the most fabulous tree in a nearby home. Of course I had to race home to get the small camera to photograph it. As the weather was overcast so you don't get the full impact but it is the most lovely tree. Sadly, the Persimmon thief struck again the day before yesterday and now, with the exception of about 4 fruits my Persimmon tree is bare - of course it still looks fantastic because it has gnarly branches, I like the sort of tortured look it has but I am sad to have lost the fruit.

Another photo

Another view

Another photo of where I am up to.

It seems very unfinished when you look at these doesn't it!

Slow progress

The progress on my 'Georgetown in Baltimore'has been painfully slow. This is partly due to my lack of organisation and partly due to the wonderful distractions that come my way every day. I wish I could say that it is due to my being at the gym every day - but alas - it is not so. This is where I am up to. The 2 other corner blocks are close to being finished, the outside border corner blocks are done so all that has to happen after this is the vine on the outside. One week to finish before it is off to Desley!

Half way there - one quilt on the bed!

Here is a picture of one of the quilts I have finished on one of the beds in the country. It looks odd I know but at least I feel like I am making some progress! I will probably have to change the valances.................

Lavandula

Just look at these lovely pumpkins!

Castlemaine & Shepherd's Flat

This weekend has been fun. I went to the Castlemaine Applique Society meeting at Castlemaine yesterday. The speaker had some wondeful Welsh quilts that had been in her family for a long time. Today we drove up that way again and had lunch at Lavandula. We stopped in the bush and saw lots of different types of fungi. We saw a group of kangaroos in a paddock at about 3pm, usually you don't see them until dusk or very early in the morning. Here are is a glimps of some of the lovely gardens at Lavandula.

Persimmons in the daylight!

Here it is in the daylight!

Persimmons progress

Now the Persimmon has almost reached the stage where it the tree only has the fruit hanging on it. This is the reason I bought the tree in he first place (25 years ago)! It has only ever really fruited 3 times the first time was a very poor effort the second time a few years ago, after diligent watering it did fruit but some one stole the fruit off the tree before we got to this stage. Here it is at night time:

Still working on the bindings

Here is one of the quilts that I have sewn the bindings to but have not yet completed the handsewing. The handsewing is my favourite part but I just don't know what I do with my time because it always feels like I have no time and more than too much to do!!!

Happy Mother's Day

Happy Mother's Day to everyone. Here are the lovely flowers that my husband's nephew's wife bought for me - it was a very nice surprise!

Georgetown in Baltimore

I am determined to finish this quilt to take to Desley for quilting by the end of the month. It has been a long ardous journey with this quilt, mainly to do with my attitude! Anyway, when I got it out again after a year or two I realised that it was all a bit of a storm in a teacup and that it wasn't anywhere as complex as I remembered. Even better, there wasn't actually too much work to do to finsh it. This is the progress to date. As today is pretty cold and we have already been out to watch our son play hockey I figure I can justify some time spent moving towards my goal of completing it........................

Prince William finally ready

It took me a whole week to get Prince William ready to give to my sister in law. I ran out of wool for his hair but my sister in law sagely remarked that he has a bald spot anyway so we left him with a section of his head looking very bald!! I am glad that Princess Catherine now has her husband to keep her company. The best part was making the cap. I couldn't really see how it could be done. I am one of those people who likes to read the pattern first and understand how it will all work. Whilst I understood what I had to do I was sceptical about the outcome but it went together beautifully. I am still planning to make a corgi but this is for another member of the family who just didn't get why any one would do this.

Baby Quilt finished!

This is the finished quilt with a lovely chenille backing. I am hoping that this will be a nice surprise for the new mother.