Not happy with the background..........

First up I sewed this back ground on - see:

Too stark,,,,,,,,,,,,,,crisis


Now I have sewed this back ground on better but not 100% happy - it will have to do though:

Hopefully once Desley has woven her magic it will look better.................

Giant Dahlia

 This is the first Giant Dahlia I made using Michelle Yeo's pattern. I made it as a gift and was thrilled with how quickly it went together. The fussy cutting makes it so much fun.

I have another friend who is having a big O birthday and thought that a Giant Dahlia might be a good one to do. Here it is as it is being assembled. I need to get a wriggle on as it has to go to Desley very, very soon for quilting!!

New Quilt

I promised myself 'No more new projects' until I had finished some of my multitude of UFO's BUT of course I couldn't wait to start Corliss Searcey's new quilt. This is the first block - so much fun!!!!!!

Up, Up and Away

This is the jet stream which appeared in the sky yesterday. I love to wonder where are all those people off to?

We have just had 2 visitors from the United States to stay for a week and it has been great. It has been nice to see our country through the eyes of strangers to our home. Fortunately, they enjoyed themselves immensely and we had a great time too. We went to the football at the MCG.....................

We visited wildlife parks, wineries, chocolate factories and even braved the cold of Phillip Island to see some penguins.

Where does the time go?

I haven't done any blogging for ages. I don't really know what else I have been doing other than working but I did want to add a picture of a little quilt I made for some friend's grand child who is due in the next month - very exciting. It is very bright,was quick to make and the outcome is lots of fun:

A couple of weekends ago I did a Broderie Perse Class at Threadbear in Castlemaine with Di Ford-Hall. It was a lovely class and we came away with lots of new knowledge and skills. My effort is here:

Happy Birthday Elly

My friend had her 50th birthday recently and we got her friends and family to make a block that represented what Elly meant to them. This is the nearly finished result, it was worth the effort to see her face on the night when we gave it to her. She was completely speechless!

Gorgeous Autumn

Yes, it is Autumn again, my favourite time of the year! Lovely sunny days (but not too sunny) and crisp mornings with lovely cool nights. I just love it.

Here is Clancy enjoying the view across the front of the place in the country. We have to keep him in a fenced enclosure because he likes to run after any passing car/bicycle or animal!!

 We also spotted this Scarlet Robin near the house. I thought Robins were an exclusively Northern Hemisphere bird - but as usual, I was wrong..............

School holidays are here too, this means that our son will remain glued to the couch playing computer games for 2 weeks when he should be preparing for his year 11 studies........I am sick of nagging him to get stuck into it. It seems to have the opposite effect anyway, so I am resigned to seeing him but not getting any interaction with him for the next few weeks.

Did you know dogs played Bocci?

Here is our cute Cavalier playing Bocci with my husband at Lavandula......

How gorgeous is the country in Autumn?

We had a lovely time up in the country this weekend.

 I did try to take a photo of the full moon but I failed dismally, back to the drawing board!

This is a lovely old garden bench at Lavandula near Shepherd's Flat

Civil War Quilt for my Gettysburg Bear

My younger brother's partner gave me thislovely bear. She is a reproduction of the kind of clothing worn by Confederate ladies of the day. I just love her head gear!

One of my friends suggested that she really needed a quilt, so I visited Corliss at Threadbear over the weekend and purchased some lovely blues and browns. Thanks Corliss! This is the outcome. Of course the blocks are a bit wobbly because I am not great with tiny pieces but I am very happy with the overall effect.



Photography Course

Yesterday I went to a photography course with my brother. Our cameras are similar but his is much more up to date and has a few additional features mine doesn't. We had a lot of fun. here are some of the pictures:

A new beanie

My son was wanting to learn how to make a hat. So, yesterday we read the instructions together and this morning he cut out the fabric and he has just finished his first Polar Fleece beanie! He has grand plans for future beanies with exotic embellishments but it remains to be seen.

Visiting the family

I had a nice day today visiting my lovely brother and sister in law. We talked about photography and blogs. My brother and I are going to a camera workshop in late January so we were comparing notes about our cameras. They are both the same brand but his is much newer than mine.

The border is on

Yesterday I took my time and added the border to Barbara Brackman's Civil War Quilt. I was careful to get it right as I did enough unpicking yesterday and last week. Anyway, I am very pleased with the result. Unfortunately the picture doesn't show the border, it is a pretty big quilt. If I can get the backing sewn up today I will be very pleased. I want to finish off the quilt with the lavendar coloured roses embroidered on it but I can only do so much of it at one time becasue the perle thread is thick and my fingers really hurt after 4 or five roses...........at this rate it could take me another year to finish. I really want to start the English Baskets c1800 quilt from Threadbear BUT I have to finish several others first. Maybe I will try to focus on the Pine Burr Quilt. It is going to be another scorcher today so best to stay indoors and sew. I have to go to an appointment for 2.20pm but I won't be venturing out at any other time today.

By the way, the day started well with the sighting of 4 lovely hot air balloons in the north eastern sky over Melbourne - they looked so serene.

Flame Trees

I have always wondered what a Flame Tree looks like after hearing the Cold Chisel song 'Flame Trees'. Anyway, I saw this absolutely beautiful tree in the gardens and checked out the label - yes it is a Flame Tree - isn't it sensational?

How creative is nature?

Look at this lovely spider's web. I took this photo this morning after watering the small raised garden bed in the country. This little spider has been very industrious, this is the third web he has created in the last week. He waits patiently by the side of the web and if the web moves significantly for more than one second he scuttles out into the web to see what he has caught. Sadly for him today it was only droplets of water.