Slow blogging...

Somehow I make mountains out of molehills when it comes to blogging. Like other areas in my life I think too much about the preparation and end up getting nothing done at all. So this is a quick post to get the ball rolling again, and a resolve not to think too much - and just get on with it. Here's the first three blocks of Tis the Season by Natalie Bird, which I am doing with the others on the Stitch-a-long blog.

And here is this morning's visitor to my garden - a Pheasant Coucal. This one looks a bit scruffier than the one who usually comes - I am wondering if maybe it is a young one.

Girl's Day out in the Country Nundle 2011

I'm back from Nundle! Kayly and I travelled down again this year - Lots of kilometres travelled, going interstate and even a time change for us. Still it is always worth it.

It was lots of fun as usual. This is my third year attending and it is always lots of fun meeting up with old friends and making new ones. There are a few posts popping up already about this event, but probably the best one for photos is Chookyblue's as she seemed to have the camera working most of the time - we were all too busy talking and laughing to keep taking shots.

Our day is spent in the the Nundle Hall. Here we are all hard at work and you can see the Gardener's Journal quilts hanging in the background. They were stitched through the Stitch Along Blog and brought to show off to each other and of course our guest tutor for the day Anni Downs ( the designer of the quilt).

Here's all the girls from our table - you can see we were having fun!

And I even got some stitching done!

Thanks Kerry and Anni for a great day out.

(more posts about the projects we were making soon)

February...

It seems that I am have been in a bit of a slump lately - just life in general was getting me down. Crafting was suffering and so was life in a few other areas. Hopefully now things will start picking up now that the weather has cooled a bit. Ah well, my intentions are good.

February also saw another birthday pass me by. It got a bit lost this year as we celebrated my father-in -laws 80th birthday just before. I'm not worried about it - I have lots of nice things coming up in the future month or so. I share my birthday with Valentine's Day - sometimes that can be a problem too - just because everybody seems to be thinking about that.
But I did join the Cookies and Cream Craft Valentine swap and Kerry was my partner. Here's the box which arrived for me


I had a little helper - he wanted to open the parcel because he says no one ever sends him mail. That was okay as I knew that what was inside was for me :).
And this is what was inside that prettily wrapped box - a gorgeous big pincusion with a Valentine's theme and birthday wishes as well. Isn't it fabulous? Thanks Kerry. You should go and see some of the other lovely pincushions she has been making.




Sadly though the postal system seems to have held up the parcel I sent to Kerry so I won't be able to show a picture of that until Kerry receives it.

Thanks again Kerry!

The amazing story of the birds.....

One of the concerns in these times is for the animals. When my inlaws left their house they could do nothing about the birds ( cockateils) in the aviary outside. My soft hearted daughter worried the whole time about them, as we didn't know what we would find. Then we received a phone call to say bring some bird seed when you come, all the birds have survived. I can tell you there were eight very happy birds ready for that seed. The cage had nearly gone under,which means that the birds must have clung to the top for ages as the water rushed through. It must have been scary for them - I imagine that the current was very strong. The cage was still standing! The wheelie bins from nearby have disappeared, probably never to be found so it is amazing that neither the current or the surrounding debris knocked them about.
The water line is about 8 cm from the top. The red arrows show where it came up to.

So this is just a little flood story with a happy ending.

Cleaning up the mud after the Brisbane floods...

All over Queensland there are scenes like this. This is about one little house which has been our focus in the past few days but there are so many more all over the state. Thank you to everyone for their help everywhere.

We have started cleaning up the mud at my parents-in-law's house. It has been heartbreaking but everyone is safe.

This is looking across the Brisbane River. The submerged building is a boat club. You can see a yellow boat on the right way up high.

The water here is still way above the banks.

The mud left behind....

This was the lounge room...

And here's my husband and daughter working in one of the bedrooms.

Looking down the street - This was late after everyone had gone home. During the day the street had been full of cars, trucks and people. The next day saw the street even fuller as people cleaned their houses.

I want to thank everyone for their concerns and also all the quilters and bloggers who are rallying around to keep people in this crisis. My inlaws have got a lot of support and although starting over at nearly 80 years old is tough, there are so many other people in very needy circumstances. I can assure you that every bit of help is appreciated.

Brisbane Floods

We live in a high area of Brisbane and so have had no flooding. We are all safe.

But people will be seeing so many images of the damage over the next few weeks. The heartbreak is not isolated - I think that everyone will know someone who needs help. In our own family my husband's parent's house probably will have to be gutted and perhaps rebuilt. This photo was taken over 24 hours ago on Wednesday morning. By the afternoon the water was apparently covering 3/4 of the height. Now there is more water so it is most likely that it is totally covered by now. At this stage we have no idea of what we will find. Lots of stories like this will emerge.

My husband and his family experienced the 1974 floods as well and know what the clean up is like. They were in a different house then and the water missed them by three houses. But they know all about cleaning up as neighbourhoods all rally to help each other.

Who knows what the next few weeks will bring?

Camping....

We were supposed to go camping last weekend
But it rained..... and rained.....
And was cancelled at the last minute.


We went camping in the middle of December
And it rained........ and the tent leaked.......
And we came home a day early.


But we did have some curious visitors......

We won't mention how many leeches there were.

December's camping was at O'Reilly's

(although we were roughing it at the National Park campsite)

Christmas ornaments...

This cute little angel has been living happily on my tree for a little while. I participated in a swap by Quilt Fabric Delights, in a group who joined in the Christmas in July. I received her from Georgette, along with some other sweet goodies. Thank you so much Georgette. This is the ornament I sent my partner. I used to do quite a lot of counted thread work, including hardanger and I really enjoyed making this one. I might just have to do some more for next Christmas.

SSCS

Remember the one parcel under the tree? Well, it is open now and here is what was inside.

A beautiful Christmassy stitched wall hanging. And just check out the cute peppermint fabric which matches it. Just perfect.

Thank you so much Tracey - it is lovely and I have just the right place for it to hang next Christmas.

And of course, like so many other happy swappers are saying, a big thank you to Elf Chookyblue for holding this swap.

Happy New Year !!!

Wishing everyone a wonderful start to the year.....I hope 2011 brings lots of happy times.

Like a lot of Eastern Australia it is wet here. This is the view I see this afternoon - clearer than a lot we have had but still grey and moist.

We did have one or two clear days and so managed to travel to wish our beautiful Lily (grand daughter) a happy birthday yesterday - 6 years old on New Year's Eve. Her brother always asks why she gets fire works for her birthday.

Happy Birthday Lily!

You can't argue with this....

My eight year old son did this at school.
Santa and the reindeers exist.

I've heard some people say that Santa is not real. But I know he is real and if you read the following pages I will prove it to you.

When I wake up in the morning and I see Santa's footprints, surely this is evidence that he has been here and left presents.

In the night I hear my dog barking. This clearly shows that Santa is in the neighbourhood.

Santa is real because all the Christmas movies and songs like the Polar Express and songs like jingel bells,makes it s fact, and all would agree that Santa must be real.

Every year the news reporters say that Santa is on his way and we even see the footage.

Hope you learnt a lesson and instead of believing that Santa is not real and believe that he does exist.

Have we convinced you? I believe - do you?

Wishing everyone a very happy Christmas season.

Warm Wishes,

Lynda ( bettsylyn)

There's one present under the tree.....

There's only one present under the tree. It looks a bit lonely doesn't it? Can you guess what it is? Yes, it's my SSCS present from Tracey. There's a Santa pez dispenser there too - I'm surprised that the kids haven't tried to influence me to open that.

And look.... it's the Christmas decoration which came with the swap. It was nice to have something to open when the parcel arrived. Isn't it just the cutest little redwork Santa you have ever seen?

So thank you Tracey - I can't wait until Christmas Day when I can open my gift.

And of course thank you to Chookyblue for organising this wonderful swap again this year.

3-2-1 swap

A little while ago I signed up for a swap with Paula at Coffee Time Stitches. The plan was to make a tote bag and add 3 things for stitching, 2 Christmas goodies, and one recipe.

My parcel arrived from Tasha but I'm afraid I can't show you what the parcel looked like as it arrived because it was too exciting and I couldn't wait to open it. I love blue and green and look at my bag - even though it is Christmas fabric it is in my favourite colours. Yay!

Inside the bag there was a pattern, some fat quarters, scissors with a cute scissor fob, and sadly I've just noticed that the cute Christmas notepad and gingerbread chap stick were cut from the photo. And did I mention the chocolate - well it had to go straight into the refrigerator, so it's not showing up. The recipe was for peanut butter cups which I know my boys love - so it was a great parcel.

The bag itself is huge and reversible - you can see more cute fabric inside which I could change to if I wish. It is one of those bags which will be perfect to carry all the presents around in when we go visiting.

And even though it is in Christmas fabric I have this earmarked as my new Yoga bag because it will be large enough to carry my mat and cushion, as well as my blanket in winter. It is absolutely perfect for that and now I can take one thing off my "things I want to make" list.

(I won't tell you how many things are left on that list though)

Thank you so much Tasha and also Paula for organising this swap.

Everything old is new again...

I don't know if everyone remembers the days of tie dyed t-shirts....I certainly do. It seems though that it is all coming back going by what I've seen in the shops this summer.

My son was invited to an 18th birthday party and the theme was....yes, you guessed it....tie dye!

So of course he had to do his own (and some for friends too).Here's his efforts - his is the orange one and he was really pleased with it.

Nice results - but I wasn't too sure about the buckets in my bath tub and the fact that I am still finding rubber bands in my laundry. I think he was thinking about going into business but hopefully I was able to talk him out of that.

Who would have thought that back in the 70's when I was tie dying T-shirts I would use those skills to instruct someone else so many years later. Sometimes I do get to be a 'cool' mother.

Hair........

Before............

After........

aww, sweet...

Well, I have to eat my words because he did cross the road (see previous post) and buy me a little present. I got three fat quarters. They are nothing like I would have chosen and he tells me he liked the reproduction quilts, which is an area I haven't even ventured into.

The fabric on the left is actually brown, I have no idea why it looks purple. I think I will keep them together and make a runner for Christmas, and I think I even have the pattern to suit. Actually I am looking forward to the challenge of making something out of this.

I guess he's a keeper.

Email.

My husband plays in a band and this weekend is interstate at the Maldon Folk Festival, leaving me to hold the fort here with the kids until Monday night. I could say he is having a great time but apparently it is raining heavily so I am not sure about that.

Anyway on the trip to the festival from Melbourne he sent me an email from his phone :-

It was titled Look what we saw in Gisbourne and included this photo

Now I don't know anything about this shop and I am unlikely to either. I asked him if he went in and he replied "Of course not". Which just brings me to wonder why he even bothered to send me the photo. I am not impressed.

I also asked him today if he was going to visit the Maldon patchwork shop for me as well. He says it is raining too hard to cross the road. Hmmmm.

Disclaimer : He isn't so bad, he does let me visit all the patchwork shops I like - he just doesn't go in himself. I just might have to educate him on what to put in emails though. You know the saying if you can't say something nice then don't say anything at all, well, my new saying might be - if you weren't thinking of going in and buying me a little something then don't bother telling me about it.

(He is worth keeping, he does the cooking and the grocery shopping. I guess I'll just have to overlook this.)

A day for sewing...

Last Tuesday saw four friends get together to explore the possibilities made using x-blocks.


We met at Kayly's house and set about cutting our strips into blocks. ( sorry about the sideways shot).


Here's the plan for my first block.

And here's four different versions - taken at the end of the day. Mine is the first one with the border still being played with.

And also on the day we had a show and tell of a cute baby quilt made by D. Too cute!

Thank you Kayly for a lovely day and lunch - we need to do this more often.