A great day out.

Sometimes it is nice to have a day out to get away from all the stuff going on in real life. I had been looking forward to going to the Brisbane Craft and Quilt Fair. And I knew a few other crafty people who were going to be there too so I was looking forward to catching up with them as well. I know that there have been a few photos like this one on people's blogs. This one was the one taken on my phone and I can see that two people escaped getting into it. Sorry Susan and Michelle.

L to R. Val, Teresa, Tatyana, Sandi, Marilyn,and Noela. Behind L to R. Me, Fiona . Jane took the photo so that she wouldn't be in it....sneaky.

I am sure that we all would have loved to stay chatting for much longer but of course there is always shopping to do. Four of us then walked around looking at all the wonderful quilts. Sometimes it can be so overwhelming and I am sure I missed at least one row, as when I looked at some of the photos others took I don't remember seeing them.

And did I buy anything?...well of course I did. I think that this might be the first year I managed to buy everything I wanted. Of course there are always the things to find which you know you need as soon as you see them.

The stitchery things on the right were on my list. I had been stitching the day before and ran out of the thread so I was very happy to find some more. I want to use the same thread for a cross stitch project I am doing for a swap, and I bought the linen for that as well. I also wanted to get the Squedge 18 ruler. I have the other two ( 15 and 22.5) but wanted this one as well. There were some things I really 'needed' - I was very excited to get a new book by Natalie Bird of The Birdhouse. She had only received stock the night before the show so it was very hot off the press. I always love little Japanese kits and I also bought the fabric in the background. I bought it because I liked the clean look of the flowers but when I opened the roll up I found it had bunnies as well. Did I ever mention that I love bunnies?

I resisted going again the next day. I know I could have found more to look at and of course more to buy.

There's always next year. Who's going to meet me there?

 

Stitcher's Dream Day Out in Toowoomba.

There have been some tricky times over the last few months with family issues, health issues and even computer issues. There has been very little 'me' time so I decided that I needed a day out and what better place than in Toowoomba at the Stitcher's Dream Day Out. This is run by The Quilter's Angel and is well worth the trip. It is about a 2 hour drive from where I live but as most crafty people know, we never let things like that stop us, and I had my trusty travelling companion Cheryl with me.
This was the table which was waiting for us. The theme this year was Love so everything was decorated beautifully in reds and pinks.

There were six projects presented, we got the patterns for all six and a kit to make one. The designers this year were Rosalie Quinlan, Debbie Magee and Ella of Ella and Skysie. It is an informal day with the designers moving around the tables sharing with the participants. Here's Rosalie showing us how she does chain stitch and satin stitch.

Debbie Magee came around to show us her cute birds on spools. And as I love pincushions, I know I will be making one of these soon (yes I did buy spool or two).

There were lots of show and tell from the designers but my favourite was being able to see Rosalie's complete Best Friends Forever quilt ( which might just be on my to do list. )

You can see more pictures of the event here and some of our day here on Kris's blog and also on Fiona's blog. She managed to get a photo of the three of us (Cheryl, Fiona and myself) which I didn't but you can see us over there.
And I have to say that Fiona did a wonderful job of tying all the bows. It looked so pretty with all the shades of pink.
It was a lovely day and just what I needed.

Christmas in July.

My Christmas in July partner was Vickie in the Northern Territory. She sent some mysterious brown paper  packages which I managed to keep until today before I was able to open them. (Well maybe there was one or two squishy pokes.) 

I held out for as long as I could and around lunch time I opened one to find a reindeer which jumped out gasping for air, looking very pleased to be released into the wilds of a new home. He is so cute - and one of those patterns I keep saying I must make. What a great choice for me Vickie.

The other two parcels had the words holly and tree written on them and inside there was a Twister table topper ( another pattern I have been meaning to try) and a tree shaped pot holder. I took the photo with the top of the potholder ( where the hand goes in) but if you look in the back of the reindeer photo you might be able to make out the other side with the gorgeous fabric picturing the Twelve Days of Christmas. I love it!

Thank you so much Vickie, and thanks too to Cheryll for hosting the swap.

On the home front there have been a few health issues and also my laptop is very sick. I am trying it keep up with things using the iPad but there are a few things I haven't worked out yet. Still, I suppose it is a start. I still haven't worked out how to put links in - I might have to come back and try to do that later. 

Waving to everyone out there and hoping to catch up will you all again soon.

Friday Night with Friends ( FNWF)

This was my first Friday night with friends. The boys were off to the football ( and one very sad face arrived home later on - our team didn't do very well.) My daughter was off somewhere in the house doing what teenage daughters do. So with some television watching to catch up on I got stuck in getting the preparation work done for this month's stitch-a-long project. It's an Annie Downs bag and her stitcheries are always fun.

And after all the getting ready I even got to stitch a little bit...... And it is no surprise that I started with the cup of tea!

Warm wishes to you.

Wishing everyone a peaceful holiday.


I've been away to Girls Day in the Country in Nundle and I am a bit slow in posting but I will in the next day or so. This is sort of a Nundle post as the little cutie in the picture came from there. There is a shop there which is chockablock with china, old 78 records, tools and the like. Often when I go past it isn't open but I was lucky this time and I found this little Easter wagon which is like the ones I used to get when I was little. I actually find the shop quite expensive but this was very reasonably priced and it had to come home with me, just in time for Easter decorating. It makes me smile.

Peg and Dale go on a Cruise. ( November 2012)

 

I was going through my photos and found some of Peg and Dale which I hadn't posted. They have a very exciting event coming up so I thought I should get them on my blog before then.

When they first came to Queensland they were a bit put off by the locals, at our Friday Craft Group.

 

 

 

 Gee Dale, I know they said Queenslanders were a bit different but I didn't realise how much.

 Airlie Beach with Cruise ship in the background.

Peg, why did that horrible boy put us on the barbeque?

 

 

 A buffet lunch with the Cairns cousins -Blacky and Creamy.

 

 

 Of course we came for the total solar  eclipse. Keep your glasses on!

 

 

 Was it all worth it? You bet!

 

 

 I think this is one time we are going to do as we are told, Dale.

 

 

 What's the big idea,Peg? They bring us the cocktail menu and then we get a cup of tea.

 

 

 

That was fun! Can we do it again sometime?

Babysitting

 

You would think I would know by now not to leave things out when a grandchild comes to visit but in fact this time I am not quite guilty. I had actually put this up and hidden the yellow felt pen from a certain two year old's view. I think they are making two year olds much more clever than they used to.

 

 

Thankfully it isn't as bad as it could have been - she worked on the back and because I had the backing on for stitching it protected the front from most of it. There is only one blob which came through to the front and it isn't on the stitched part. I am relieved that I don't have to start again.

 

It looks like we will have her visit regualrly on Wednesdays from now on so I guess I have to adjust. It is amazing how quickly you forget. It is only 8 years since I had my own 2 year old but I am not used to it now.

 

I have only two days to finish this one for the Stitch a long, I'm still planning on getting there although we are going out tonight to a concert with Neil Finn and Paul Kelly. I wonder what they would think if I sat stitching during that.



Another day

Thank you to everyone for sending me birthday wishes. I had a lovely day and had lunch with my husband, which is nice because we don't always have time with just the two of us. That might sound strange but we do a lot of things as a family,which is great, but don't always take the time for just ourselves.

Then on the Friday night we went out for dinner with the whole family - all 6 of us- my two big boys actually managed to find the time to come as well which was great. Usually if I suggest something they always have something else on. (typical males).

 

This is the gift I received from the Initial Heat Swap run by Cheryll. It was from Simone and was a beautiful heart shaped mug rug. I realise now that you can't quite see the shape because of the mug. My initial was on a little heart appliqued onto the mug rug. So of course I had to have a cup of tea to go with it. It is now is use beside the lounge chair. Thank you so much Simone.

 

And here's what I sent Anthea - a needle book and a pincushion. I had bought this pattern last year and so when the heart swap was mentioned I knew that I wanted to use it. I can see me using this one again. This was a lovely swap to take part in. Thank you again Cheryll.

Sometimes things just keep you away from blogging

 

Welcome to my poor neglected blog.

 

Sadly life has kept me busy lately and I thought I would just explain a little. For the last year my sister in law has been living with terminal cancer. Then last September my brother in law, her partner (my husband's brother) was diagnosed with leukemia. Neither of them drive and live about 45 minutes away so we were doing what we could to help them achieve what they needed.

Just before Christmas she was told that there was nothing more that could be done.

 

Yesterday she passed away peacefully.

 

 

 

There were other family issues going on also and with the school holidays in January, I am afraid that I found it hard to have a few moments to myself.

 

I am hoping now that things will become more stable and more crafty things will be happening and as this blog was a way of recording that - I am hoping that there will be posts a lot more often.

 

I want to say a big thank you to all the lovely people who have sent things to me during the time since Christmas. I will try to catch up with everybody that I can soon.

Many thanks for all the wonderful parcels and gifts. I love them all.

 

Hugs.

SSCS and Happy New Year!

This is  SSCS Parcel I received from Terry this Christmas - very nicely wrapped in useful fabric. My ornament was a Danish style heart and Terry has directions on the sidebar of her blog. Cute isn't it?

 

 

And what was inside? A cute table topper I can use all year round.( The decorations were ones I had on the table - I just thought they made it look a bit Christmassy for now.)Thank you so much Terry! I love it!

 

I have some other swap photos to post but I will have to do that in the New Year. We are going camping in the morning - to Christmas Creek where we camped last year.
Thank you to all my swap partners for their beautiful gifts. Posts will be coming soon.

Merry Christmas to All !

 

 

 

 

The end of the year has caught up with me. I am grabbing a moment to wish you all a wonderful time tomorrow where ever you are.

Best wishes also for the New Year.

 From Lynda (bettsylyn).

 

Merry Christmas from Basil (our grand nephew puppy) too.



A message from Dale and Peg.

We will be heading out to sea soon and will have no Internet. So when we arrive back next weekend we will sort out our photos.
The sun did disappear but a photo will have to wait. In the meantime here's a photo from yesterday when we were in Cairns.
Hugs.
P.S. bettsylyn is looking after us well even if Mr. Heavens is saying that she is weird.

The adventures of Peg and Dale...part 2

Here we are waiting for a very important event. They say the sun is going to disappear in twenty minutes. Remember when Henny Penny thought the sky was falling, well, we think we can top that. Stay posted to see if it really happens.

The adventures of Peg and Dale.

Can you guess where we are? We are living the high life, and getting excited about a unique event tomorrow. More news soon if we can manage to find a spare minute. Love, Peg and Dale.

The top is done....

 I joined the Stitch-a-long blog back in 2010 when we were all making Anni Down's Gardener's Journal. I got quite a few stitcheries done but got a bit bogged down in the piecing. I managed to also do the next stitch-a-long quilt which was Tis the Season by Natalie Bird.

Fast forward to this October when our wonderful organizer Chookyblue challenged us to be finished by October 31.

 

 

 

Here's my finished top - all done with 12 hours to spare. I am not sure how I will be quilting it yet.

Even though it isn't a quilt yet I certainly have a great sense of satisfaction is getting it to this stage. It will be great when it is completely finished.

 



 

The design is an Anni Downs design and the fabric is Garden Party by Blackbird Designs.

F.R.I.E.N.D.S swap

A wonderful parcel was delivered at my house. It was my parcel from the F.R.I.E.N.D.S swap run by the very organised Khris. My partner was Katrien in Belgium so my gifts had a lovely European flavour.

 Everything was all wrapped up in yellow - very bright and happy.

F was for fabric....

 

 R was for ribbons. You can't see it but there is a very cute teddy ribbon in there which I love.

 I is for items from Belguim - lace and chocolate. And no one will be able to steal my bookmark because I am the only one in the house whose name starts with L.

 E is for Etui with some Extras. I just love this zippered bag.

 N is for Needlecase, needles and notebook. You can never have too many needles and needlecases.

 Doosje ( which means a box) with DMC threads and a thimble. ( Katrien collects thimbles so it is lovely that she shared one with me)

 S is for scissors - with a cute scissor case which is cleverly made from a circle.

All the lovely things together - thank you so much Katrien for the lovely goodies. I know I will be able to use all these beautiful things for a long time.

Our team finished! ( See previous post)

It was early in the morning when the team started. We had to go to a meeting point and then the team had to be taken by bus to the starting point for 7 am. They were all smiles when I dropped them - I don't think that it had quite sunk in that there was still 100 kilometres to go.

44 kilometres walked ( Third checkpoint and the first one the support crew could access) and it was time for cups of tea and food ( lamb and lentils and lasagne). Everyone's feet were starting to feel it. By this time it was late afternoon and there is still a full night of walking ahead.

There was another big checkpoint stop later in the night where I fed them all up on porridge, and more cups of tea. The support crew ( that's my SIL and myself) had a few hours sleep and then up again to see our team come home.

They took 23 hours and 28 minutes to complete the 100 kms and all four of them finished. They came in 44th. (out of 350 teams, although it isn't a race.)The first team were runners and actually took less than 12 hours to do the same course. Amazing !

With ages ranging from 40 to 64 we are very proud of our team. A lot of teams finished with less than four but I think that everyone who participated should hold their heads up high. One million dollars was raised for Oxfam and all the volunteers and organisers should be congratulated for a great effort in putting on this event.

P.S. No one is discussing doing this again next year........yet.

What I will be doing this Friday....

There has been a lot of posts about going to the Sydney Craft Show and having a blog meet up. I went last year and had a great time and had fully expected to be going again this year. Sometimes though, life doesn't quite always work out the way we hope.

So instead of going to Sydney and having a great time with friends I will be part of a two man support crew for a team doing the Oxfam trailwalker walk in Brisbane. It is a 100 km walk through bush and on fire trails to the west of Brisbane.

http://trailwalker.oxfam.org.au/brisbane

My husband Richard (left) and his brother (right) with two friends are doing the walk and are starting at 7 am tomorrow from Mt Glorious and anticipate finishing at Mt Coot-tha 24 hours or less later. My sister-in-law and I will be available during that time to be called on, also we will be at some of the checkpoints with changes of clothes and shoes along with food and anything else they need. We have to have them there to register between 4 and 4.30am so think of me in the dark and cold.

There will be work to be done in the middle of the night too so it could be a full on 24 hours for me too.

You can see their page here....

http://trailwalker.oxfam.org.au/brisbane/teams/team/?team_id=12117

These photos were taken on a training walk going up Mt. Maroon - they've done lots of preparation.

 and here's my husband on the top of Mt Maroon.

So while I dream of being in Sydney seeing and doing lots of crafty things and meeting up with bloggy friends,I can't be there.... Hope you all have fun.
Think of me out in the bush in the middle of the night waiting for my team to come in and pass though the checkpoints. Ah, the things we do....

Blog Meeting

It seems some people who shall remain nameless ( in other words - me) are late in posting photos from the Brisbane Blog meet we had a week ago. We had so much fun - there was show and tell with lots of discussions and oohhs and aahhs.

 There was lunch and lots of photos - check out the lower photo - this seems to be what was happening all the time.  We all seem to get on so well., whether longer time friends or new. After all with blogging and patchwork/quilting in common it is a winning combination.  Extra special thanks to Susan for organising the lunch and also to Michelle and Mary for our special gifties.

So Kayly ( my patient travelling companion),Michelle, Teresa, Helen, Marilyn, Noela, Susan, De, Mary and Fiona, can we do it again sometime please?

It's a finish even if it is small...

So far this year I have managed to finish something each month. The items aren't very big but still need to be finished, and would probably still be unfinished if I didn't have a bit of motivation from the Sew It's Finished blog.
This bag has been sitting in two pieces for probably nearly a year and it was time to finish it. It is made with two triangle shapes which when sewn together make two pockets inside as well. It was a hard one to photograph because it is quite big. I'll probably use it as a project bag rather than a shopping bag becuase it is so roomy.
The pattern is from a local quilt store - The Quilter's Corner and is called The Market Bag.