What a rocking week

About an hour after the last post, an earthquake rocked our world here in the Goldfields. I was sitting on my couch when an almighty blasting type noise and massive earthshaking boom came out of nowhere. I admit that I did not cope to well. I screamed, cried and had a major panicked reaction. I just had no idea what was happening, and really thought my world was ending. When the dust settled we found that an earthquake of 5.2 magnitude had struck out desert home. This was such a shock for all of us, although there are many reports of those who did not feel a thing either because they were still asleep or were in a vehicle travelling. The town of Boulder, especially Burt street was hit the worst and many heritage buildings were severely damaged and are at risk of being lost forever. As the dust clears on a stunned city it is clear that most of us unprepared for such abnormal events of this extent. I am relearning the actions to take int he event of another earthquake, you just never know when it might happen again.

On another note the quilt is finished, albeit for the binding. I was so pleased to quilt it finally and used for the first time I used clear mono filament thread to do it. I was nervous about using it, but after being assured it is used with good results I was of and quilting. It can only be used as the top thread with normal quilting cotton in the bobbin. I love the way the thread takes on the colour of the fabric it is sewing. Does anyone else use this, how do you find it? I was intending to hand quilt this quilt, I was in no hurry, but after a few lame attempts at it, I decided to machine quilt it as I can not for the life of me hand quilt. I will keep trying though...
I need to find the perfect fabric for the binding now. I wanted to use some polka dots, but it did not work at all. So, I need to order some in to match the inner borders, then it will be complete.







I have made a start on the quilt for my eldest Amy. I used a bit of what I liked and it will be a real hotchpotch of colours-ços I can.

So all in all the past week was eventful and I am hoping this week will be more...calm and pleasant.

Here are some pics of a quilt I made early in my forays into the craft. It is yet another example of my reluctance to slice into fabric that I find to be pretty. These fat quarters are from designer Tanya Whelan. I also made a black and white quilt in the same pattern and that also looks great, but I don't have a picture of that one and it isn't with me anymore as my daughter Kate claimed it.





This is what early morning looks like at our place, the sun arising from its cold night time bed. I do like the look of early mornings. Do you?





Yes so two blog posts in two days, things are picking up. But I really don't intend to keep this up. I have days when I can not even string two sentences together, let alone write. I have days when it is all I can do to sit up and breath- really!
But today after my princess goes back to school I will be returning to my bed, my eyes are drooping and I will go with it and get some extra beauty sleep-believe me I need it :)

Back again

Finally I've made it back to blog land. It's not for the want of trying either. I have 4 drafts saved in blogger and this effort today is to show that I really can write a few words and put a few pictures up. Boy the technology and my capabilities are at loggerheads I tell ya.
Still after today I hope to have more stuff to show you and some sage words and all.:)
Still working on the Annie's garden quilt, but I don't want to talk about it :/
Oh alright then. I was piecing it together today hooray for me, and using a cute little stitch just to make sure it all held together. I lifted it from the machine and much to my dismay I had managed to sew the panels in the wrong order! No there was no way I could pass it of as It's meant to be like that". This needed unpicking! Oh why hadn't I just used the normal size stitch, why oh why? So, this is gonna take me a while folks so in the mean time I will throw some pics up, nothing to do with anything here but pretty.

Look I tried to Post some pics but it's just not working. I will get back to you as soon as I can. Meantime cue the test pattern music....
Okay until I can get blogger to cooperate with me here are some random pics-enjoy :0

This is a king size quilt I made for our bed last year. It was a huge project and thanks to the bloke and my daughter P who helped me with it. The young lady in question reclines upon the said quilt.


This is a piece of fabric I have had in my stash for some time. I want to use it but hate the thought of slicing into it. What would others use it for?


This is a picture of the Mundaring Weir and for all you non W.A people it is where we country folk in the Goldfields get out water supply from. The pipeline that brings it up is very, very long. We were in Perth in March and went sightseeing and the bloke wanted to try the new camera out so there you go. I just got scared at the volume of water and the fact that it was about 40 degrees in the shade!

Friday Finale

Hi and welcome to the next installment of my quilt project saga.
In the last post you may remember I was wondering; lost amidst a pinwheel failure. (We won't mention the blog bloopers at this time).
Anyway, after the last post I went back to the drawing board and decided that the success of the pinwheels would not allude me. So I called in my brain's trust-The Bloke! And he came through for me yet again. I had the idea to try the new and larger blocks out on paper first. He duly cut them out and was sooner pinwheeling the papers together to make a perfect pinwheel block. So determined to make amends for my earlier indiscretion with the said rather small triangle pieces I set to cutting the correct amount of fabrics and then slicing and dicing and splicing until I had some blocks that were worthy of a photo shoot.

So intent was I on achieving this challenge the other day that I did not even open my new parcel of fabric that had arrived from Hawthorne Threads. I tell ya, this is a rarity, as usually the minute a parcel arrives its all paper and plastic in 30 seconds. Still I also like to delay a special moment. It's like when your eating a bag of lollies and you save the best ones till last...or is that just me???

So in the next post I hope to be able to show you more progress and then you will see how clever I really am :) Have a great weekend and do something you love, I am.

Wonderful Wednesday

I have been MIA for a few days. To be truthful things have been a little dreary around here of late. Mainly due to my battle to keep myself happy despite severe mood flucuations. But today I rose early, set up my sewing area, intent on working on THE applique project. I have been steadily working away at this quilt project, and admit that I had no idea how labour intensive it would be.

The applique content of this quilt was huge; to me anyway. I am at the stage now that I have applied it to the background fabrics and I have constructed the 4 patch blocks. Then in a first for me, I embarked on the making of some pinwheel blocks. So much excitement!

Alas my brain does not compute the design and I call on my ever patient bloke to help me work it out. And he does! And is quite rightly proud of himself. I am just pleased to be creating anything other than the standard patchwork blocks. Oh and I really did a great job of putting contrast colours together.

But, and there is always a but isn't there?

I sewed the little blocks together and they don't look right.

They look way to small.

I hold my breath and grab my trusty tape measure, knowing before I even place the tape along the block that it is just to small. I am proved right again (yes I often am, just ask the kids) the blocks according to the pattern should measure 8 1/2 inches, mine are lucky to be 4 inches. :(

What have I done wrong? I don't know. I thought I followed the pattern correctly. Maybe there is a printing error? More like I just mucked it up, and now I need to take the time to fix it. Okay, is there a way to repair these poor little pinwheels blocks, I can not chuck them out they are too pretty and cute and I don't want to do it all again. Can I just add borders??

In my defence I am still on my patchwork & quilting 'P'plates, and have lots to learn. Also I am having difficulties in inserting pictures in between the paragraphs, they all run straight to the top of the page and try as I might they will not budge. Grrrr, I can get quite emotional when technology gets the better of me. But have no fear, I shall return and next time I am hoping to show you that I have conquered another mountain, until then be happy and enjoy your day. xx

Show & Tell on a Friday

Some flowers ready to apply to background fabrics

My daffodils are not yellow

Kaffe Fassett

A few more Kaffe Fassett pretties

Daisies most colourful

Good morning folks. Yes it's good friday today, and I do indeed hope it will be a good day. I intend to continue on with the applique and get organised for the dinner we are having on Sunday evening. It started with me asking my dear old mum if she wanted to come over for tea Sunday night, just roast pork. Now my other daughter and her partner have invited themselves along, and she suggested we eat the leg of ham we purchased after christmas, so that is what it's going to be. Mmmm, what a dinner to look forward to. Hope it all works out.

On another note yesterday I had two of my really good friends S & A over for a lunch and a chat. We are good at that. Our friend A is starting chemotherapy treatment next Thursday and we are all coing together to support her as she enters this new and scary trial. Good luck A we are here right beside you.

It''s Gonna be a Good Day

A few fabric pretties

Just some of the fabrics used in the applique

The above fabrics are in my new applique-Annies Garden. This quilt pattern is single bed size and somehow I will be extending it to be at least a double bed size. I am unsure how I will do that yet, but it won't be by using extra applique blocks. These ones are time consuming for me.
I tire easy. I am hoping to finish this before winter sets in so the reciever is able to cuddle under it and enjoy a bright day. The picture below has no relevance at all to the above pictures or indeed to the subject of this post, but I love that it is bright and pretty, so placed it here to cheer me and hopefully you up. A big ask really isn't it? Oh well let's see how we go.

Looks like a nice day here, the weather has a crisp coolness to it that really refreshes me, not to mention that I have a lovely cup of coffee, bought for me by my special bloke. He's a legend that man. Well today I am intending to work on my applique project. I got a fair bit of it done last night, and will take a pic soon and show you the progress. But my dafodils are not yellow! Oh no, they are very, very colourful and are sure to make an impact. I confess that I am not a methodic sewer, I am all over the place, and this is reflected in my work. I often think I would like to be able to be more neat, more consistant, but I'm not. I am learning to accept my style and love it. See you tomorrow.