Autumn already

At the beginning of Autumn I finally got to plant some sweetpea. Now I know everyone says you should plant these on St. Patricks Day but hey how do the plants know they were planted a little early. So far they don't seem to have gone into shock because of this. Now I have to wait until Spring for the beautiful sprays of flowers.

Another little thing planted on the first weekend of Autumn was my new bird house. Picked this one up on our travels in January. You can get some really lovely things in Bowral. DH has put the little bird there hoping to attract others he thinks.

It was a really busy weekend I can tell you. I talked DH into spray painting the bits and pieces we had picked up at various auctions that have been sitting in our garage for quite some time. I had already undercoated everything so we set up a spray booth out the back and everything has now been painted. It is amazing how once the idea is planted he will get into it with gusto. I am one happy wife to finally get things finished.

My three Blocks of the Month are also completed.
Bunny Hill Block. Love the bunny.

Ellies Place Block finished bar the month as we are not yet in Spring and the bee is missing.

( can't find that little button... I have one somewhere )

Gai Pans Block. I think I must have been in a yellow phase.

This weekend just past my we took my parents over to North Head to go and see the new Queen's State Coach. This photo is of my parents aren't they a cute couple been married 64 years this year.

This is the Queens coach built by Jim Frecklington. It was built and is housed at the old Artilliary Base at North head. What an interesting man he is, so interesting to listed too on how he came to build this beautiful coach and that it will probably be the last one ever to be built. We had a lovely day and Mum and Dad enjoyed the day out.

February

Another month has almost past and for some it has been a very sad and emotional time. I think enough has been said with regards to the devastating bush fires in Victoria and floods in Queensland so many people affected it is sometimes hard to comprehend.
This week I have made 2 quilts to send for the bush fire relief. the first a quick raggy quilt and the second one strippy. I am sure they will be put to good use.

Also this month I made a library bag for my GD Kaitlyn. She cannot bring books home from school without a library bag so she ordered one in blues, and she loves it.

Some of my WIP's are finished as well. I had started this table runner just before Christmas and have now quilted and bound it ready for next Christmas.

This jelly roll quilt returned from the quilters early in December. I am so thrilled with the quilting Sue Blom has done, certainly made the quilt look not so bland. I finished the binding last week so another one out of the box. LOL.

2nd. BOM's completed

These beautiful Blocks of the Month are addictive. I am really enjoying doing these and am pleased at how they are looking.

The first block fromBunny Hill Designs.

This one is from Gail Pan Designs

And this one from Ellies Quiltplace.

Another Hot Week

I guess everyone is saying the same thing it has been an extremly hot week and we are not over it yet. I think we forget sometimes especially people of my age, when I was much much younger, we had heat waves that would last for weeks with temperatures well over the 40 degrees without air conditioning units and we survived.

Despite the hot weather I have been able to get a bit of sewing done and another UFO finished.
Whilst I was doing the hand sewing Bobbin the cat was interested in trying to help.

This is a project I started well before Christmas with my friend Barbara a lot of hand sewing beads and sequences. Of course I did'nt get it finished so it was on my January list. I am pleased how it turned out.

I found this pattern for these coasters on the internet quite some time ago and a friend had shown me her coasters so I thought I would give them a go. I think they are very sweet and a project easily finished

Not much happening this weekend however I did get to finish the applique on the "Fractured Fairy" that I had started at Quilt camp last year. The applique done on the machine seemed to take hours there are so many small pieces I am happy with the results though. I am glad that part is finished, now to get it ready for the borders and then the quilting.

Free Blocks of the Month

I have decided to join in on the fun of doing some free BOM's. These designers are just so generous in giving us crafters the opportunity to do some beautiful blocks and hopefully end up with a lovely wall quilt at the end of the year. So thank you to Anne Sutton "Bunny Hill" designs, Ellie at elliesquiltplace.com and Gail Pan designs. Here are my blocks finished for January.

"A Tisket a Tasket" www.bunnyhilldesigns


January block (I will add the month later as we don't have snow here in Australia in January) I will use this as one of the Winter blocks. www.elliesquiltplace.com

"A Christmas Wish" from www.gailpandesigns

January

January 2009 has come and almost gone. Straight after Christmas DH and I set out on our caravaning holiday firstly heading for Parkes then Cobar, Broken Hill, Mildura, Swan Hill, Echuka up to Goobaragandra then Bowral and finally home. We travelled over 3000 km's in 14 days and had a really great time. Temperatures changed from 16 at Broken Hill to 43 at Swan Hill. We were able to meet up with our son Joshua and meet his new girlfriend Lisa and her sweet daughter Monique. We spent 2 days with them in Echuka it was lovely to meet up with them.

Joshua, Lisa and Monique.

Son Joshua and DH Greg.


After leaving Joshua we headed to Goobaragandra 28 k's out of Tumut we have friends there, they own the "Elm Grove Mountain Retreat" what a beautiful place so lush and green compared to what we had seen out on the country roads very dry and dusty.we stayed for 2 days and enjoyed the company of Rhonda and Blair.

We enjoyed a hearty barbeque
The creek runs through the retreat and we were able to park our van right at the waters edge. It certainly is heaven on earth at this beautiful place.

These last few photos are just the opposite to those above showing the dryness of our vast country not much life around only a few cows here and there.
Many of the roads we travelled were long straight roads not much vegetation or life.

I recieved some wonderful Christmas gifts from family and friends but the pin cushion pictured was my favourite. My Daughter Sheree bid for it on e-bay on "Charming Designs" etsy way back in July or August she told me she did not get it. I was disappointed at the time so you can imagine my surprise when I received it for Christmas. Isn't it just so cute. I love it.

This is a table runner I started before Christmas I hope to get it finished for this year only the binding to do so I think I will achieve this.

I am still around

Christmas has arrived at the Power's House.

Although I have not blogged for a really long time I have not been idle.

I have been quite busy with lots of gifts to make and purchase for special friends. As a non driver I like to give a gift as a thank you to my many friends who so generously drive me each week to our various group meetings, without these wonderful people around me I would not be able to belong to the groups I belong to. They are all great friends.

Thread catchers and pin cushions to match.

Covered coat hangers and door cushions.

In November our new dining room setting arrived and I just love it. There is a large mirror to go up behind the dresser once the mirror frame has been painted.

I usually try to make a Christmas decoration or wall hanging each year for our home. This year I have made this cute Santa hanger from a pattern by Nancy Halvorsen. It was a mantle runner but we don't have a fire place mantle so I chose to do a elongated version to hang right here in the kitchen.

Recently I helped my Grand daughter Kaitlyn make this really cute cushion for her Mum. Her foot and handprints form the reindeer and I stitched it into a comfy cushion for her Mum's computer chair.

A busy crafting time

A bit of beauty in my garden.

I don't have a green thumb and gardening is not something I like to do but I do love it when I get a blossom occassionally and this Spring has been wonderful even for the few flowering plants that are in our garden.

These 2 roses are from the same rose bush they are so beautiful and really large.

Don't you just love this Iris my one and only after the trampoline crashed down on my one and only plant I had been nurturing for a few years always thought it was a purple one the poor plant must have gone into shock LOL.

Not such a beauty except for Kaitlyn of course. My DH had put mushroom compost around the garden and this is what Kaitlyn found growing beneath the lemon tree.

These past few weeks have been ever so busy. I have had a great time in my sewing room not much housework done but non the less a lot of crafty items I have been able to do. It is great when DH goes away for a week on the Camp Quality Bash I have lots of free time.

My first project was to make a blackboard and activity folder and a pencil roll for my grandson Ryan to keep him occupied in the car on long travels.

Next was to make a few gifts for some wonderful friends. As I am a non driver I have great friends who offer to drive me to patchwork group and recently 5 of us went to a quilt camp at Stanwell Tops for three days. These are a thank you gift. I got this great pattern from a tutorial on the http://www.pinkpenguin/ site. What a great easy gift to make.

At the quilt camp I made this 6 block quilt as you go quilt for my daughter Sheree's car.

Sheree chose the colours as her car is black and has leather seats they get very hot to sit on in the summer so she needed a little quilt for Kaitlyn to keep her butt from sticking to the leather.

My next little project was to create something for the grandkids to have for Halloween. So from this..To this.... Arn't they just so cute. We don't usually do Halloween but my littlies just wanted to do Trick or Treat at least once so what better way to collect their goodies.

During the month of October we also celebrated my grand daughter Kaitlyn's 8th. birthday.

I saw a great tutorial on the internet at http://www.polkadotpineapple/ where she had made these cute little flowers so I turned them into pencil toppers for the children that attended Kaitlyns birthday they were thrilled with their little gift and I enjoyed making them.

These are the ice cream cup cakes cooking in the oven that Kaitlyn and I made for her to take to school for all her class mates to celbrate her birthday.

I have also made postcards for the Artsnthemail postcard swap. The theme for these was "Bling"

All in all a busy crafting month.