Seriously Bad Blogger

I am really slack at this blogging. I take my camera with me most times and forget to take photos. Have not done too much over the last month and can someone please tell me where that month went. Seems like only yesterday it was June and I have even had a birthday in that time.


This is a photo of Kaitlyn all dressed for a fancy dress disco, she went as a ladybird and looked ever so cute. She really does love dressing up.

Ryan is ever so proud of his new shirt. His Uncle Josh has one just the same.

My 2 adorable Grandchildren.

Now you see me.........

Now you don't........

Bobbin's favourite past time is hiding under quilts. I am sure she feels secure in that no one can see her even if it is only her head that is hidden.

For Mothers Day my kids gave me a Jelly Roll and I have recently ordered the matching fabric to make the quilt on the cover of the book. Oh no another ongoing project.

And another quilting project I have recently started. This is a 'quilt as you go' method so I am sure to get this one finished.

I am doing the workshop with Amanda Daley at "Country Pickens" at the Corner at Dural and am really enjoying the workshop. I have already quilted 6 blocks only 10 more to do. Yikes!!

A few weeks ago Greg my DH and I went to an Auction up at Mudgee and I purchased these 2 cute little deer for $5. No one else bid on them and I just knew I could not leave them behind so now one is happy with me and the other is comfy at my sister Caroles' home. Too cute!

My latest creation and actually finished. My dear 85 year old friend Alice gave me this pattern so I had to make it up and show her how it was made . Rather a nice bag I think.

Another Week

I have been getting into trouble from my daughter Danielle for not updating my blog so here is this weeks edition.
Another UFO on the sewing machine being quilted. I am slowly getting all the UFO's completed. This quilt has been waiting about 6 years and arn't we glad that they don't become too outdated. I did this quilt as a challenge with the quilting group I belong to and I think I am the last to get it finished what a nice surprise it will be for them LOL.

Today I have finished this little Bow Bag. (This was not a UFO) we do have to deviate sometimes don't we!!!! I will give it to Danielle if she likes it I think it is a little Shabby Chic her favourite at present.

Early last week I made this Raggedy Jeans quilt for my son Joshua. It took two days to complete. Whilst putting away boxes in storage awhile back I found all his patches he had collected from being in the Scouts and what better way to save them but to attach them to denim patches and sew them into a quilt. I hope he likes it I am sure he will need it being in Melbourne this time of the year very cold.

My Grand Daughter Kaitlyn has a new desk in her room so I have made her a blackboard desk mat. Something to draw on and pockets to keep her pencil, ruler and rubber safe as she is always misplacing them. Typical 7 year old.

This beautiful bush has been on our front verhanda now for about 4 years and has never bloomed. I just had to take a photo as it may never bloom again. It is a variagated Boganvillia

A Great Week

Wow what a great week .......
Firstly I finished the Santa quilt. My quilting went so smoothly especially when I am not too confident with free motion quilting but I am very happy with it no problems at all so another UFO out of the box ready for Christmas 2008.

I also got to make the placemats for Danielle that she ordered for Christmas last year. I hope she likes them.


Over the weekend I attended a Quilt show on the Central Coast that I had entered 2 of my quilts

The first was "Mickey on Parade".

And my second entry "Flowers Blooming" took out first prize in the machine quilting section. What a surprise it was but very exciting. I have never won anything so special before.

My prize for this was a new Husqvarna Viking sewing machine

These are the ribbons attatched to the winning entry

ANZAC Day

A few photos taken on Anzac Day of Kaitlyn, my Mum and Kaitlyn and the last photo is of my DH and my dear Dad all taken at the march in Parramatta.

Ready for Quilting.

Well the Santa blocks are all put together with borders and are pinned ready to quilt.

I am going to quilt this myself not sure how it will go though I have not quilted for a long time. Another UFO almost finished so I am very pleased with myself.

Bobbin has always found herself a quilt to snuggle up to she now has her own. I had made this quilt for our first cat "Scumbag" who unfortunatly died about 3 years ago so now the quilt belongs to Bobbin.

A good week

Another project finished. This is the little table I posted about a few weeks back it is now beautifully restored to its former beauty with the original marble top all polished and looking fabulous in my Grand Daughter Kaitlyns bedroom to be used as her work table. Just have to retrieve the little chair I gave away to Danielle it will fit with it just right. Sorry Danielle.

Almost 2 years ago (yes 2 years) I sent this quilt pictured here to the quilters. I thought I would never see it again so you can imagine how thrilled I was to get the call to say it was ready and I am so delighted with how it looks. So much quilting maybe she felt a bit guilty and has done an exceptional amount of quilting. Never the less I am happy to have it home and am now anxious to get the binding done.

A close up of the beautiful quilting on one of the blocks

A quick post tonight

The 2 wicker chairs I salvaged from my daughter Danielle's garage destined for the dump now are finished being painted. A few repairs were done to the cane but they now look brand new I am really happy with my effort and am glad that I rescued them.

At least someone enjoys the cosiness of my quilts. Bobbin loves to hide under anything she can find and snuggles in for ages usually we don't know she is there until she moves

Easter Weekend

On the Easter weekend we took my parents down to Victoria to catch up with some family and to visit with our son Joshua who lives at Cribb Point near the Navy base HMAS Cerberus.

It was a lovely trip down firstly stopping at Gunning for morning tea. Lunch at Holbrook then travelling onto Albury for our first overnight stop.

Next Morning we left early and called into Glenrowan where this BIG Ned Kelly was to be found and of course there just has to be the obligitory photo of the family with Ned.

We arrived at our destination Hastings late Friday afternoon. Went to visit Joshua at his unit. On Sunday it was Greg's birthday and Josh had planned a barbeque and had even baked him a cake. He forgot to get candles so Greg had to blow out a lighter. Took a lot of blowing. the lunch was great and the cake was tasty as well.

On the Saturday we went to visit my Dad's sister in law and my cousins that I have not seen in almost 40 years. They have always been great travellers and have lived in lots of different places but have been in Glenn Waverley for the past 20 or so years. It was lovely to visit with them and reminisce about our younger days. My Aunty Connie is almost 91, my Dad is almost 85, my Mum is 83.

This is a family shot from the left; Joshua, Carl, my Mum, Greg, Christine, me, Lynette (Carl's wife) ,my Dad and Aunty Connie.

Before we left on our journey home we went for a drive to Westhead on the Morning Peninsular. It is a beautiful coastline very rugged. We had a great time on our trip to Victoria. Mum and Dad were happy to see Joshua and to visit the Navy base where he is stationed but after such a long trip we were all glad to be home and be able to sleep in our own beds

Works in progress this week

My aim for the next few weeks is to get as many of my WIP's (works in progress) completed.
We have had this little side desk in the garage for a few years now and my Grand daughter Kaitlyn wants it for a desk in her room so my DH filled all the holes and it is now ready to be rubbed back and painted which I hope to get to this weekend.

These two wicker chairs I rescued from my daughter Danielle's garage they were going to be dumped. I have already rubbed them back and they have their first coating of paint. They will look great on my front verhanda. The kids gave their Dad a compressor for his birthday so I think it will come in very handy to spray paint the chairs with the final coat of paint.

I have been working on these Santa blocks for about 3 years now. I have 4 more corner blocks to complete before I can put it together. When I started these blocks I was very keen to get it finished but of course something else just had to be done so these went into the UFO box.

This is the almost finished Mystery quilt I made about a year ago with my Quiting group. Last week I sent it of to have it professionally quilted so that I know it will be completed. I still have many more in the UFO box that have not seen the light of day for quite some time. But I WILL get them all finished one day.

Just this week I have finished this little embroidered pillow for my Mum.
Unfortunatly my Mum has been diagnosed with mild Alzhiemers so a long road ahead for us especially my Dad who is at present finding it a little hard to deal with.
Mum loves pansies and her favourite colours are mauves and greens, I'm sure she will love this little gift. She is 83 and still knitting and doing embroidery herself. I hope she can continue on with her hobbies for as long as she can.

Quilt Camp

Two weeks ago I was counting down the days till Merroo Quilt Camp up at Kurrajong. Now it has come and gone where do the weeks go? Quilt camp was great. I went with 7 friends from my quilting group this was my 8th. year. We leave on Friday and have a wonderful time visiting all the patchwork shops and thrift shops on the way. This year I chose to do a class with Dianne Johnston called Shattered Glass an easy technique for stained glass work. My friend Diana and I chose to call our work "Fractured Fairy" I only managed to get my fairy to the pinned stage by the Sunday but have managed to get some of the stitching done this week. This technique is really easy and can be adapted to original stained glass patterns.

The first photo is my fairy without her wings, the second photo is Dianne Johnstons fairy and how mine will hopefully look one day soon. Beautiful isn't she? Although a bit blurry!!!

At quilt camp on the Saturday night groups are encouraged to put on some entertainment, each year there is a different theme. This year it was Sports, this being the year of the Olympics. Our group decided on the Grand Parade, we all dressed in different sports clothes carried our banner, an Aussy flag and the Olympic rings and marched to the National Anthem I think it was the best of the night we were awarded 2nd. place. It was loads of fun.

From left to right Me, Ann, Helen, Diana Kerrie, Kerry and Barbara.

More Sewing

Again I have been making padfolios for gifts, they are so much fun to make and those that have received one from me just love them they make a very useful gift. The "Shabby Chic" one I have made for my daughter Danielle as she has made me some beautiful jewellery which I just love. Certainly is a great way to use up some of my stash.


I have mentioned before that I do an Arty type class once a month with my friends Barbara and Kerry. Recently we had another trip to Bowral for a class where we were shown how to embroider on our painted paper bag which once scrunched up over and over again, feels very much like a piece of fabric. I call my piece of embroidery "Pattisons Curse at Texas" I had taken a photo on our recent trip so used this as my inspiration. The other piece is called "Passion Pods" I constructed this from a piece of fabric that I had painted, actually started out as toadstools but turned into pods. I machine and hand stitched adding beads and the leaves. This is really not something that I can really get into but have had fun with the classses.

Unfortunatly my photo has turned out a little blurry

A close up of the stitching if you look sideways with head to the left you can just make out the original toadstools.

Not my day......

Well I was going great guns with my blog when suddenly everything just closed down so not knowing too much about computers I just left it too sort things out for itself so I was happy to see that my previous post was saved.

I was at the time trying to upload my next photos so I may have pressed the wrong button !!!!!

Anyhow I will try again .

During the past 2 weeks I have also created a padfolio and a diary cover. The rust and tan padfolio is a birthday gift for my friend Margaret these are her favourite colours. The diary cover was a request from Sheree made in purples her favourite colours of course.

Artsnthemail had a February Challenge to use only a plain coloured fabric and one colour thread to create a postcard. I chose a purple for my fabric and a white thread. After doing some machine stitching I created the 3D flowers and attatched them to my cards. I am very happy with the results.

Been Busy

I have been fairly busy over the past few weeks I really envy all you bloggers who are so diligent in blogging every day. I take so long to add to my blog (not too computer literate) I foget what I am supposed to do and then don't know what to say. My 2 daughters Danielle and Sheree are always having a laugh at me as I am always asking them questions of what to do.

So this blog is for Kylie (a scrapbooking friend of Sheree) an update she asked for when I saw her at the craft show on Saturday.

Firstly I have made 3 sewing machine mats. The bear mat is for me, the floral mat is for my friend Alice who is 84 and still enjoys her sewing and the frog mat I made smaller for my newly aquired Singer Featherweight sewing machine that I have recently purshased in Uralla a small country town whilst on our recent holiday.