Stitching around the Block and Secret Sewing.

Helen over at Hugs from Helen has organised a fun little project for groups of 4 people. I'm joining in with 3 friends from my Wednesday sewing group, Liz, Rosalie and Karin. I finished my centre last week and handed it on to Liz. I will recieve Rosalie's centre at next week's meeting. We have decided not to send our blocks with fabric so the finished little quilt will be a complete surprise.

This block is my first swap in Quilting Blocks Swap Australia. I made it for Cathy in SA. She asked for autumnal colours, and this block was fun to make. My next swap partner is Sue but I'll have to keep what I'm making for her a secret until she receives it, as I know she reads my blog.

For the last three days, I've been doing another piece of secret sewing. I've been making my Kris Kringle for my sewing group's Christmas Party. Again the recipient may read my blog so I'll have to keep it secret until December 1st when we have our swap.

Apologies to all the lovely people who have left me a comment in the last few days. I love hearing from you and will reply soon but at the moment I'm trying not to play on the computer. Instead I'm concentrating on my Kris Kringle, so that maybe this year I won't be finishing it the night before the party.

Spooky Colourful Friday

This week Robyn asked us to show our Halloween colours. This really was tricky and I don't have any craft projects to show. Again, my train loving son Sam, supplied the engine with its secret train surfer and the bat, raven and skull came from the Graphics Fairy

If you would like to see what others have to share visit Robyn at Daisy Quilts for Colourful Friday

Thank You Marina

Today I unwrapped a parcel from lovely Marina at Maisie and The Boys. . I won this flimsy in a giveaway on her blog and I absolutely love it. Thank you so much.

One Flower Wednesday

One little flower to add to my pile for my Garden Hexie Quilt. It's the one with the three little snails. I am participating in Helen's Stitching Around the Block project and the dear little snails are from the stitchery in the centre of the quilt.  You can check out Helen's fun project HERE

Many thanks to Karen from Journey of a Quilter who kindly organises One Flower Wednesday each week.  Visit her blog to see who else is playing.

Tuesday Treasure

This is Errol, another of my garden dragons. He is a raku fired dragon I bought many years ago at Eltham Market.
He used to live on my front deck on a table with Chubby . He slept lazily around a little pond which I kept filled with water. However the extremely naughty cockatoos that visit every day were squabbling and pushing each other to get to their bird seed and they knocked poor Errol to the ground, detaching him from his pond and breaking his pond into bits.
Luckily my DH was able to find most of the bits and he glued it all back together again, but alas, his pond no longer holds water. Errol moved to the back garden and now lives in one of my herb barrels under a bay tree and surrounded by sweet smelling herbs, away from the hustle and bustle of the deck.

Lots of other people are sharing their treasures today.  Catch up with them at Clare's blog Clare's Craftroom where she very kindly organises Tuesday Treasures each week.  Thanks Clare.

At my House......

...........there are lots of unfinished projects.

Some are in boxes and some are in tins.

Some are just started and some have been around for a very long time.

Some are unfinished BOMs and others haven't been started.

Some just need borders, some just need binding and some need time in the sewing box.

 And the scary thing is, this isn't even all of them.

Check out whats happening at lots of other homes with Lou at Buttons by Lou Lou

Colourful Friday

Today's colour is ORANGE. I thought this one would be really hard. In fact, I would have sworn there was no orange in my house. But sure enough, I found some. Admittedly the engine photo came from my train loving son, Sam and dear little Smudge, the cockatiel, belongs to my friend Jacquie but the bookcases were full of orange, indeed I could have filled the entire screen just with books.

Thank you again, dear Robyn, for making me take a closer, more observant look around me. See what Robyn and everyone else has found for Colourful Fridays at Daisy Quilts.

I just looked in the letter box...

...and this is what I found. A gorgeous pressie from lovely Toni at The Red Boot Quilt Company. It was her birthday a couple of weeks ago and she had a secret birthday giveaway that we didn't know about until after it was over.  I got a prize... hooray! hooray!.... and here it is.  I love the way the pattern is a special birthday edition.  It came with a birthday goody bag too.

Thank you so much Toni, I am thrilled.

A trip to Hurstbridge

Today I met up with two dear friends, Jacquie and Bronwyn. As well as being heaps of fun they are both very talented artists. First I had a look around Jacqui's new studio where she conducts classes in glass bead making. You can see more of her work HERE.
Bronwyn has a professional machine quilting service and is also a very talented and well known Bear Artist.  Her website is HERE
We went to lunch at a local cafe, there was much eating, laughing and quite a bit of squealing when we exchanged spider stories.  On top of that Melbourne's weather was glorious today.   It is the simple things in life, like lunch with friends, that bring so much joy.

One Flower Wednesday

Four hexagon flowers this week.

One for my Birdies' Garden quilt,

and three for my Scrappy Grannie's Flower Garden.

A big thank you to Karen at Journey of a Quilter.
She organizes One Flower Wednesday every week.  You can take a look at lots of other hexagon flowers HERE

Tuesday Treasure

Today's Tuesday Treasure is this dear little clay bat. I've had him for many years. He is another gift from my DH.

I've always loved bats. We are very lucky to have a bunch of bats ( I don't know the collective noun for bats) live in a gum tree in our garden, and there are more in the park two doors down from where I live. They are such cheeky little creatures and remind me of a group of school children as they jostle and squabble amongst themselves, all while hanging upside down.

One of the most magical moments in my life was when I was at a Nick Cave concert, at the Myer Music Bowl, on a hot summer evening. At dusk, huge numbers of bats left the Botanic Gardens ( just adjacent to the Bowl for those of you who don't know Melbourne) to seek food for the night. They flew overhead, seemingly in time with Nick's haunting music. It was wonderful.

Thank you to Clare over at Clare's Craftroom for giving us all the chance to share our Treasures. Check out what others are sharing today HERE

At my House......

..........the garden is being gobbled. But I don't care, there's plenty for all, except maybe the aphids.

Check out what everyone else is doing with Lou at Buttons by Lou Lou

Do you like owls......

I do, even though one comes each night to try to eat Matilda......

For the last couple of years a very large owl has been visiting our garden at night.  He sits on a garden arch and surveys his surrounds.  Often my DH is in the garden, smoking his pipe (a horrid habit, thank goodness he only smokes outside) and he has noticed it is becoming increasingly fearless.  It swooped down at him the other night brushing him with its wings.  It has a wingspan of about 90cm.

Many of you are aware I have a tiny little poodle, Matilda, who weighs under 3 kilos. She looks like a little baby lamb.  Even though my dogs are inside dogs, they do enjoy a little frolic in the garden, including in the evenings.

A horrible thought occurred to me.  Could he be coming with the intention of turning Matilda into owl food?  Everyone laughed at me but being slightly neurotic I rang the Healesville Sanctuary to ask their advice.

Robyn at the Sanctuary was excited as we could have a Powerful Owl, which are an endangered species.  She said it was possible that any of my dogs could be taken as these owls can take brush tail possums, koalas and even small wallabys.

In the past we have only had Tawney Frogmouths so it is exciting to have this wild creature visit us but it has led to lots of work for my poor DH as, at my insistence, we have had to section off part of the garden for the dogs at night, complete with bistro blinds, shade sails and a garden gate. Lucky he loves me.

I've just found this fabulous site and Shivani has the most wonderful owl calendar to share.  I've already made a couple.  Check it out I'm sure you'll love it.  Click HERE

(The image at the top is not a powerful owl but it is gorgeous and comes from Karen at the Graphics Fairy.  She has wonderful free clip art.  I love her site.)

Quilts in The Barn

Today I took a trip out to Wonga Park with my friends Rosalie And Liz.  We went to Linda's place to the Quilts in the Barn Exhibition.  It was amazing.

All of the quilts are made by an extremely talented group of friends, The Secret Sewing Sisterhood, with a lot of the quilts in reproduction fabrics.  It was really inspiring.

There were also delicious afternoon teas with a fabulous range of cakes + the BBQ going for those who wanted something hot to eat.
I particularly enjoyed the four happy little dogs running around and greeting everyone with their wagging tails.

Friday Night Sew In with Heidi

I had a very productive evening at my first Friday Night Sew In with Heidi from Handmade by Heidi
I made two Scquilters Healing Hearts for Karlene's sons,

 

the front of a little cushion based on a block from Anne Sutton's A Tisket A Tasket ( I still need to embroider some vines in the top and bottom borders)  and finished my swap block for Cathy as part of Quilting Block Swaps Australia.

But green is the colour of..........

.................... Spring
And green can be cool and friendly-like
And green can be big like an ocean, or important
Like a mountain, or tall like a tree

When green is all there is to be
It could make you wonder why, but why wonder why
Wonder, I am green and it'll do fine, it's beautiful
And I think it's what I want to be

(From It Isn't Easy Being Green as sung by Kermit on the Muppet Show)

Many thanks to Robyn for this piece of fun. See who else is playing HERE

Robyn's New Website

Lovely Robyn from Daisy Quilts and Colourful Fridays has now got a new website where she is selling her fabulous patterns.  You can check it out HERE.

I wish her every success in her new venture.

One Flower Wednesday

Three flowers this week.

The two blue ones are for my Scrappy Grannie's Flower Garden and the spotty one is for my Birdie's Garden quilt. I am going to stitch a little birdie in his cage, designed by Allie  and surround him with these hexie flowers as a table runner. I didn't plan to do this, its just kind of evolved.

First I made my pink flower with Jenny's little bird in the middle, during my Bird Cage Weekend Sew In. I liked it enough to use the same fabric range and make another birdie/garden themed stitchery the next week. Next came Allie's little stitchery, and before I knew it another project began. This weeks stitchery is 3 little Lynette Anderson flowers.

I'm having fun. Many thanks to Karen at Journey of a Quilter for One Flower Wednesday, it helps to motivate me and keep making my flowers.

Friday Night Sew In

I've spent a couple of hours this afternoon getting ready for the Friday Night Sew In which is organised by Heidi over at Handmade by Heidi.  I'm really looking forward to this as I usually spend Friday night sewing by myself whilst my DH goes to the Harness Racing at Melton.  This time I wont be alone, I'll be joining in this fun event.  There are already 84 people signed up for Friday Night. Why not join Heidi and the rest of us?

Tuesday Treasures

Another dragon from my garden. This was the first garden dragon my DH bought for me. I love the way he is covered with with moss and has aged over the years. I've had him for about 30 years.
There is not really a story behind him except that my DH says he is one of the heaviest things he has carried up all those steps.
Catch up with everyone's treasures at clarescraftroom where Clare is kind enough to organise this bit of fun each week.

Look what the postie brought.

 I've been blogging for a couple of months now and one of the first people to welcome me to this wonderful world was Clare from clarescraftroom. A few weeks later I was lucky enough to win one of her give aways and today the postie bought me this lovely pattern so that I could make Toby.  Everything Clare does is clever, creative and stylish.  Even the card she sent was fabulous and came with the recipe, on the back, for Layered Chocolate Cheese Cakes. Yum.

Thank you so much, dear Clare, for the welcome, your fabulous blog, the divine Tuesday Treasures and last but not least, the lovely pressie

 

At My House ......

...... the cockatoos are in residence.

Visit Lou at Buttons by Lou Lou to see what's happening at other people's places

I've just joined Quilting Blog Swaps Australia

I've just found this site and the swaps sound like lots of fun so I've joined up. I can't wait to get my first swap partner and get started.

Kilmore Quilt in

 

 

Yesterday I went to the Kilmore Quilters Quilt In and had the best time. Everything about the day was perfect. About 50 people attended and the atmosphere was great. Everything was so well organised, from the lovely gift of a needle-case when we arrived, to the raffles (I won a pack of four beautiful fabrics - destined to become hexie flowers), to the huge array of delicious slices and cakes for morning and afternoon tea.
I loved it so much I joined the group, so you'll probably hear more about them in the future.