About Me

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Australia
Wife, mother, daughter, sister, aunt, great-aunt and friend....and fur-kid mum I love Quilting, stitching, photography, cooking, baking, gardening, blogging and making new friends...stop by and say hi!

Sunday 30 December 2012

Blooming Beauty

In the past this has been called Sunday blessings but I realise that more often than not, it is photos of flowers that make an appearance so I will be changing the title to Blooming Beauty.

Nothing appeals to my senses more than flowers. Receiving a big bunch of flowers will reduce me to tears (and not much else does)

These are some hibuscus blooms from our front yard....bright and beautiful, you could be excused for thinking I live in Hawaii!



I hope you see the beauty in your day and enjoy the last weekend of 2012.
 

Saturday 29 December 2012

Let's Review 2012

I was over at Charlotte's Web  and Wendy had posted a collage of pictures from what she had achieved in 2012.  I hope she doesn't mind that I picked up her idea and so here is my year in review.

First a collage of all I achieved. I wanted to make it 12 finishes in 2012.  I was one short although I did create some other items like my needle nanny and the spring wreathe.

I have done quite a bit of work this year on my BOM's & WIP's.
BOMs
Teddy Bear Tea Party -All 12 blocks are complete and ready to join into a quilt
My Garden by Lynette Anderson - All 9 blocks are complete and the quilt is almost pieced
Farmyard Frolics by Millamac - I am on Block 7 of 8 (but I need to go back and finish some blocks off)
Merry Merry Snowmen by Bunny Hill Designs - I am on Block 1 of 9?
The Edwardian House by Robyn Allen Waters - I am on Block 8a/b of 12
Betsy's Closet - Block 4 of 9
Bric-a-Brac by Robyn Allen Waters - Block 3
Tail Feather - Starting block 2
Long Time ago in Bethlehem by Homespun - Block 1 ready to stitch

WIPs
Rusty's Quilt - Queen size quilt - in process of building rows.
…’twas the night before Christmas and Santa’s downunder…. - wallhanging - still appliqueing design.



 Bring on 2013!

Wednesday 26 December 2012

Merry Christmas to one and all.

Oh how I have neglected this poor little blog in the last few weeks. It has been a very busy time for us all but I feel so very guilty that I haven't made the effort to even read many of your blogs. I feel like I have been ignoring all my best friends so here is a little peek into our Christmas Day.

It was an incredibly hot, hot day here and we decided to take all the dogs (our two and Red's Clover) to the beach for a play in the waves.  In the rush to get going and get all the puppies settled into the back of the car, I forgot to pick up my camera which was a bit of a shame cos they had a ball.

We came home to a Christmas breakfast outside on the patio. This has never been our tradition before but miss M decided she would like to have breakfast with everyone before we opened our presents.  I think this may be a new tradition.

After breakfast, we headed inside into the Air=conditioning to open some presents. Miss M put together a photo montage of her trip to Europe earlier this year and we listened to stories about her travels.
And then one of my favourite traditions which gave us alot of laughter......presenting gifts to our furbabies. Callie loves this.  We fill paper bags with dog treats, a big chewy bone and a toy. Callie couldn't get her bone out of the bag quick enough and got herself all tangled up in the handles trying to get the bag out of the way. 
Clover took one look at the chew bone and took off with it as far as she could get.  Red had to take the rest of the treats to her around the other side of the house.
My little princess Lila who celebrated her first full year living with us, dived straight into the bag to fish out the treats before she even saw the chew bone. 


Interestingly enough, non of them were terribly interested in their new bouncy balls!!

With them all happily chewing on their treats, we headed inside again for our seafood feast.  Because it is so hot in Queensland, this has become our Xmas feast of choice and enjoyed by all of us. Accompanied by ice cold glasses of Champagne.


All in all, I really loved our "Red & White" themed Christmas


 I hope you all had a Merry Christmas!

 

Wednesday 12 December 2012

This and That

I know I have been notably absent for some weeks what with one thing or another. Life just does that sometimes. So.......what have I been doing for the last few weeks?

 I have completed block two of Bric-a-Brac


 and block 7 of Edwardian House.

We all travelled to Melbourne for my MIL's 90th birthday party


Miss M walking ahead of me in the Fitzroy Gardens, Melbourne....a beautiful park that reminds me so much of the London parks.

Back to sewing

My Garden is slowly getting the borders added onto it but I did one block incorrectly and will have to do some dreaded reverse sewing before I can continue.

I have picked out some fabrics from my stash
and together with my new book
am going to make the quilt on the cover called "Spaghetti Junction"

I have also traced the first block of "Long Time ago in Bethlehem"

All this inbetween various Christmas parties, Christmas shopping, extended trade hours at work and Christmas decorating.

My dear friend Helen and I at our work Xmas Party.  We were part of a group of 6 dressed as Angels.


Last picture....I promise.  This is our Christmas Tree this year. Miss M decorated it for me as directed in red and white.  It looks stunning, especially with the lights on.

Sunday Beauty and I Return

Thanks to those who have tried to help me overcome the issues that I was having posting photos in my blog (for me a blog is not worth doing without pictures). Susan from Susan's Sewing Space was kind enough to direct me to Chookyblues post about emailing your photos direct to your post which was invaluable and this was my second effort which was successful.  Don't know where my first email went! So....Susan and Chookyblue.....I love you!!!


This picture is of the opened agapanthus that I wanted to share with you amongst other lovely finds in my garden this past week.

Monday 10 December 2012

Sunday Beauty

Mmmmm.....I haven't been around for awhile but here I am to post another Sunday Beauty. WAIT!

But Alas.....Blogger says I have used my quota of 1GB so cannot publish anymore photos without buying more storage room.

Has anyone else had this issue?  When I view my current account, it specifies that 0% has been used.  I am bewildered and confused.

Unless anyone has some advise for me, I will have to close my blog after only 1 year of blogging *insert very sad face here*
 

Monday 12 November 2012

Sunday Beauty - Aggies

Actually it is Monday morning here but I am guessing it is still Sunday somewhere in the world. I took this picture yesterday evening.  I love most flowers but Agapanthus are on my top five list and I found the first one of the season just popping.

 not the easiest picture to take as the plant is up on a retaining wall and the long stem of the plant meant that I had to stretch up as high as I could and take pot luck to get a picture.

Have a wonderful week everyone!
 

Sunday 11 November 2012

Love Rainy Days

It is so nice to be back in the creation station!  It has mostly been a rainy weekend here which has been good for filling up the pool and for the lawns and plants......and me! Nothing like a rainy day to plonk myself in front of the sewing machine and do some piecing.



Started to get my groove on with Lynette Anderson's "My Garden". The day has gone too quickly though and I have not finished as much as I would have liked.  I got quite distracted with fabrics at some point and whilst looking for some that I thought I had, found a whole lot of projects and so took a break to organise my "get-a-round-tuit" projects.

Block 2 of "Tail Feathers" is due to arrive this week so I finished up most of block one


Every evening over the last week, I have stitched block 7 of Edwardian Garden while watching tv. I have loved this block which the lovely little flowers growing through the fence.

Hollyhocks, primroses, foxgloves, lavender and roses......my kind of garden!

Then around 3pm, the sun came out and not a cloud to be seen.  Time to cheer these two up and take them for a walk.


They are waiting for their dinner now so till next time......Hope you had an awesome weekend!


Lest We Forget

They went with songs to the battle, they were young.
Straight of limb, true of eyes, steady and aglow.
They were staunch to the end against odds uncounted,
They fell with their faces to the foe.
They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning,
We will remember them.
 
 
 

Wednesday 7 November 2012

Here's a good idea

What's a girl to do when she is organising her project boxes and runs out of those little plastic bobbin winders for her silk threads.....improvise of course!



I bought some new threads while out a couple of days ago but didn't realise that I would need more bobbins and it turned out I was very low on supplies.

It is a twenty minute drive to Spotlight where they are usually available but I really didn't want to face the traffic, suffer the carpark and wait in a life sapping queue just to buy a few plastic cards!

Insert *light bulb moment* here. Only five minutes to the nearest supermarket for a possible stand in product and no traffic lights to contend with....ok, the car park can be a nightmare there aswell.....unless.........

Oh, what a stroke of luck,  I had some wooden pegs sitting around for another project to make washi tape/wooden peg fridge magnets.   

Why not wind the threads around the wooden peg! I had seen this idea somewhere on Pinterest (I think) and it had stuck in my head to be used at the very right moment.

Works a treat. Holds the end securely and is so easy to write the colour number on with a pen. Now I can get on with stitching instead of making the 40min round trip to buy the original item.

I think they will look so lovely in a bowl on the shelf too.

I've been Tagged.....once more

I’ve been TAGGED. Bianca from Quilts, Cats and Automobiles has tagged me to play along. I have been tagged once before and I quite like these games and kind of think of it as interactive blogging so thanks for tagging me Bianca.



 Here are the rules;
 - every tagged person has to tell 11 things about themselves
 - the person who tagged you asked 11 questions, answer them
 - ask 11 questions for the 11 blogs you're going to tag (the people you tag should have less than 200
   followers)
 - mention the blog that tagged you but don't tag back

 Let's get started: 11 things about me 
1. I love being beside the ocean
2. I hate housework but constantly crave a clean house
3. I dream of living in Tasmania (if I can’t be in England)
4. I have three amazing children that I love dearly
5. I see much of the world through the lens of a camera
6. I learnt to tap dance when I was in my thirties
7. I have two furbaby dogs who melt my heart
8. I am a quiltaholic and have to have everything and anything to do with quilting.
9. I am the youngest sibling by a 10 year gap
10. I am a Pisces and live up to the sterotype.
11. I have lost 7kgs since August and intend to keep going till I have lost 20

 Now here are the 11 questions I got asked:
1. What did you want to be (profession) as a child?
     I only ever wanted to be a teacher
 2. Favorite activity?
     Walking my dogs 
3. Favorite color to put on your walls in your house if you could/dared?
    For ages now, I have wanted to paint the walls in my home a “latte” colour with some feature
    walls of “chocolate”.
 4. What does your perfect saturday looks like?
      In hot weather I like to be in my sewing room quilting with the AC on, in cooler weather, I
      like to spend Saturdays with my hubby, bushwalking or sailing or just visiting the art 
      gallery, finishing with afternoon tea at Mt Cootha
5. What is your secret wish for yourself? 
     I don’t really know, most of my wishes are for others. I guess I just want to live a good,
     healthy life…..maybe rescue a few more furbabies
 6. If you were an animal, what would you be?
     A pampered cat or dog 
7. Who is your rolemodel?
     Definitely my mum 
8. What is your secret indulgence?
     Fabric 
9. If you could live anywhere, where would that be?
    A farm in the English countryside (preferably Yorkshire) 
10. One thing to bring to a deserted island?
      my camera 
11. What's your favorite movie ever?
      Inception… I loved how mind boggling it was


 Now here are the questions I want to ask the blogs I tag:
1. How many pets do you have?
2. What is your favourite city in the world?
3. What kind of books do you read?
4. Where did you last holiday?
5. What is your favourite animal?
6. What is your zodiac sign?
7. What is your favourite tv show?
8. What was the best bargain purchase you ever made?
9. What is your favourite season?
10. Do you like to garden?
11. If you could, would you make a "treechange" or a "seachange"?

The 11 blogs I tagged:
Sylvia’s Stitches
Dora Quilts
Calculating Quilter
Charlottes Web
Krafty Panda 
Farm Gate Creations 
Little House on the Hill
Cape Pincushion 
Sew a Little Love 
Sharneymcclarney
Korumburra Quilting 
Susan’s Sewing Space



 

Tuesday 6 November 2012

Drum Roll please...............

I have booted up my pc to do this blog so heres hoping I can get done before it overheats again. I got my hubby to draw the winner of my Give away. There were 23 entries all up and Tania got a second chance entry for blogging about my give-away......thanks for that Tania.

 and the winner is....drum roll please....

 SHEILA from Sheila's Quiltworld was the number drawn out. She wrote:
"I love visiting your blog Cath , always an interesting read , thanks for the chance to win :-)"

Sheila has been following my blog for awhile now and often leaves a comment for me which I really appreciate. Congrats Sheila, Please send me your snail mail and I will be sending the gift off to you asap.



As you can see, it was a very technical process.  I listed off the names, ticked the followers and gave them all numbers.   I then folded a second copy of numbers up and put two #20 in for Tania.  It was very exciting unfolding the winning number.

Thank you all for entering and welcome to the new followers, I hope I continue to interest you with my quilting journey.

 

Saturday 3 November 2012

Aargh!!!


I'm finding it a little awkward blogging at the moment as I am having trouble with my pc and it keeps overheating and switching itself off so out came the iPad but that has its issues as well as it will not let me upload a picture from my iPad gallery and of course I cannot connect my camera to it. Grrrrr! so frustrating.  So that is the reason I have been a little quiet of late.



Back to work for a week and the rest did me a world of good as I am more enthusiastic about being there.  Since I finished my "In the Pink" project, I have not done another stitch on anything else so back to the timer today.  I am happy to report that the lovely Kim (from work) that won the raffle loves her little wall hanging and I am tickled pink that she won.

I haven't drawn the winner of my give-away yet but promise I will do so tomorrow. That means that this is your very LAST chance to get an entry in..... click here

Before I go and set my timer, let me just say to all of you on the eastern coast of America and Canada, that I have you in my thoughts and hope that you are all safe and sound following hurricane Sandy's destructive force.





Tuesday 23 October 2012

In the Pink

My weeks holiday is nearly over and I haven't done any of the things that I had planned. Just working on my stitcheries, going for lots of walks with my fur babies and spending precious time with miss M.


I started a new little project after my store manager asked if I could make something to donate to the raffle we are having at work to raise money for NBCF.


I had a stitchery in mind. Part of Bronwyn Hayes BOM Songbirds but not sure how to finish it.

I remembered that I had a little hanger from a sale. It still had the price on it......$4......quite a steal. I wish I could remember where I bought it. So it just needed borders and I did very minimum quilting.

I am going to have to make another one just for me because I love how it turned out.  I hope whoever wins the raffle loves it too.
 

Thursday 18 October 2012

The BIG one......

Yep, Marilyn, Lorraine and I went to the Brisbane Quilt Show today and I have voted it the best show in the last few years. I didn't take my camera because I thought no photography was allowed......big, big mistake and I missed out on being able to show you some absolutely breathtaking quilts....oh well, next time I will know better.

The shop stalls this year were brilliant and I spent up a huge storm so I will show you some of the fabulous goodies that I just couldn't live without!

These scarf jewels were everywhere this year and Lorraine and Marilyn bought themselves some ready made ones for $15 ea but there was too much choice so I could not decide. Luckily I found these bits & pieces to make my own for a fraction of the cost.
Odds and ends I found here and there. Little pincushions, scissors and some little ornaments that I am going to make scissor fobs out of.
At last.....I have found some washi tape
A few things that are not easy to find. Get them when you see them.
I got a couple of these patterns for baby wool blankets. It was really difficult to make a decision about which ones to buy as there were monkeys, pandas, teddies and rabbits.  I eventually picked this one and I also got one called birds on a wire.  so cute!
some good christmas fabrics for my stash
I am not a huge fan of quilted bags but this one caught my eye and I bought the pattern 
I found some little decorative flowers and tiny buttons for my "Betsy's Closet Applique" project box.

As we were walking around the stalls, we came across a machine by Sizzex called Big Shots.  I thought it was a Scrapbooking die cutting machine but turns out it is also for cutting fabric very much like the Accuquilt but a bit cheaper. I succumbed and took advantage of the show special.  So now I have a die cutter that will cut me 2 1/2 inch strips, squares, rectangles and triangles (not sure what size)

There is more but let me surprise you later when I have made a start on some of my new projects.
Thanks for coming over and visiting.

Have you entered my give-away??? There is still time, click here to enter.

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