Hot, hot, hot!

...is what it has been here in South Australia for the past few weeks :) Not that I am complaining about the heat, its the humidity that we have been having that I don't like at all :(  

Now then, whats been happening since the last post?  Well...I can now show you what I got for Valentines ! :) A new car!!!! Woohooo - its a Hyundai Accent (and despite the colouring on this pic, taken as the sun is going down, it is white) Tis a bit smaller than my last car and will be more eco friendly with the amount of fuel used = more money to spend on fabric and quilt trips!!! Yeh!!!!!!!!

And what else? Well, my dad is slowly getting better but needs to get some weight on his skeleton so have been trying to feed him up a bit.  Catching up with my quilting and keeping the house tidy.  You know, the usual mundane things that crop up in life that keep you from doing what you really love to do???  

We had our usual get together with the quilting girls.  We have morphed yet again and are now the 'Friday Fabriholics' - what do you think?  Describes us all to a T I think!

Lynne has been busy for a while making these lovely little cat face blocks - think she is nearly there with them

Lorraine went overseas at the end of last year and brought back some FABULOUS fabrics in delicious colours - and being her (middle name is Val by the way) has been very busy putting this scrummy looking disappearing nine patch together.  The pic does the top no justice as the fabrics are a blend of silkies and other textures with goldie bits on them.  Looks good enough to eat though.

Saturday was then the Farmers Wife get together - not than any of us are doing the Farmers Wife when we get together mind you! 
Claire has put this lovely little quilt together for a friends baby shower - it has minky on the back and feels divine.

 Kay made this colourful one for a friends son interstate - certainly should brighten the little boy up :)

Granny Loz had also been overseas at the end of last year and was able to bring a gift back for Shay from a friend of hers in the USA.  So here is me taking a pic of Shay taking a pic of her gift! LOL

And guess what part of the gift was??? A type of Oreo we don't get here in Oz!  Was she happy do you think???

And then there was this cute little wooden spool.....

 ...that had this lovely message on the inside of the fabric that was wrapped around it!

Unfortunately my camera died at this point....sobs loudly!  Loz had brought her antique quilts along for show and tell - you will have to go to her web or Quilty Gals for a look at what happened next!  Tara also brought some show and tell, her Mrs Billings top, she is nearly finished! woohoo for her.  Apparently she started in January on 2012, so that's not bad cos she has been busy doing other things in the middle of that too. 

So because I don't have any more pics to share with you all, I will sign off for now!  Stay cool or warm, wherever you are in the world, and stay safe!

Nearly Valentines!

...not that it matters much in our house! LOL Not usually anyway...but this year I am getting a treat :) Cant tell you yet tell after though :))

So..anyway...since the last blog a lot and not a lot of things have happened, if that makes sense?  My dad spent nearly 3 weeks in hospital and then I spent a week at his house when he came home.  He is on the mend but its slow.

I still managed to squeeze an afternoon or so of Snobs & Slobs in though! Good therapy those girls...many thanks!!!  Lorraine managed to finish a quilt she started not long ago (sorry the pics not at a great angle)  Tis different and looks and feels lovely.

I was digging around my cupboard to see what I had and found two tubs of these tapestry wools that one of the Slobs & Snobs had given me ages ago. 

Went on the web and had a search around to see what I could make with them.....

Lynne loved what I had done, so she got her wools back all made up!

Mid January was the bi-annual Encore Lovers Reunion Dinner.  We now have some of the male partners coming along to bring their spouses (otherwise they might miss out), so here is our group this time round.

In a couple of months there is going to be a rose released just for us "Encore" is its name and will be on sale to the public.  I will keep you informed on the costing etc, cos we would love to sell loads as all the profit goes back to funding more women doing the program!

At the end of January we (Snobs & Slobs) went on an outing to one of the local quilt shop openings.  Of course we had to stop somewhere for a refreshing drink and feed some worms....we had a ring-in come along who happens to be rather cute so we didn't mind at all.  He has good taste in fabric and might turn out to be the next quiltaholic in his family!  (In case you don't know this is Claire aka Quilty Gals grandson, Seth, from Wales)

Yesterday the family took a trip to see the nephews new house that is being built in the country and then out for tea.  For the locals, we went to the Tanunda Clubhouse...VERY nice food indeed.  Good job we don't live close cos I would be like the back end of a large charter bus if I did -- would be eating there all the time if the money allowed it!  On the way home, we diverted in to my young brothers place to see his latest pets...Mulcher-mulcher and Ratbag...two bearded dragons. Sooooo cute...and no...I am not allowed one! (They are only about 3 inches long at the moment!)

 Well, till next time, stay safe and happy! x

Happy New Year!

Here I sit, listening to the possum aka the elephant with clogs! skimming across our roof!! Sorry, I digress already!! One of my aims for 2013 is to be more up to date with the blog :) Second is to spend more time on myself/family!!!
Since my last post, we have had one of our 'trees' flower and fruit! This is it...anyone have a guess?? Its a banana tree and we have fruit!!!! The garden centre said it would never do that here in South Australia, but there it is...just waiting for the little fingers to ripen now.

 

Had done a bit of sewing towards the end of November - made this Santa 'sack' for a friend interstate.  Sack being the operative word, ended up being bigger than the child it was made for, certainly will last a life time I think!  

Early December and we went off to a volunteer BBQ - don't win many things in my life - but had a lucky guess...and won 1306 M&M's!!!!!!!

Then we had a lazy day...so did the cats!

Went to the opening of a new bra shop (yes you may laugh those that know me personally at this one!)  Michelle is the owner and is called "The Bra Lady", 99c Prospect Rd, Prospect.  So if you are in the area go and see Michelle (professional fitter of over 25 years.)  There is a lovely cafe next door, so makes for a good visit in the area.

As December approached, I thought I had better get some bits and pieces ready for my Christmas gifts - so here is a little forest ready to be placed in the gifts.

 

A lovely little person (along with his parents) arrived from Wales to spend some time in the Land of Oz.  This is Seth - some of you would of seen him on Quilty Gals blog - he is her cute little grandson!

 

Of course he made his debut at the Thursday Crafties! Here we all are with our finished crazy patch waistcoats that we did as a project last year.

Finally!!!! my big San Fran House is finished and wired and lit!!!  Here are some pics - outside the house and viewing through the windows.

The upstairs balcony.

 

The bathroom.

 

   

The study.

Bedroom One.

 

Kitchen. (Maid is peeling prawns for the party!)

The front entrance.

Dining room with the tables laden with food (lighting is pink cos the shades are pink)

 

And of course it Christmas so there has to be a tree and nativity scene! 

There are another couple of rooms, so will post them later when I take a better pic of them :)  Some of them need a couple of bits and pieces in them. 

Then it was on to Christmas Day.... 

as you can see, one of our guests was thoroughly tuckered out after his meal! ( Had nothing to do with the fact he works night shifts and was exhausted...lol) 

 

So this brings me to 2013, and I would like to wish all of you the best for the coming year.  Hope it is a happy, healthy and fulfilled year for you all. xx

Hmmm....over 2 months....

...since my last post! How terrible :(  Well, here I am again!  Today was the beginning of the Christmas Pageants in South Australia, and for those of you that don't know, we hold the biggest one in the world!  Speaking of Christmas, one of the ladies that goes to Thursday craft, entered her Christmas waistcoat into the local show and won a prize! Well done, Mary :)

It has been quite a busy few months, that's my excuse and I am sticking to it!!!!  YWCA Encore Adelaide were successful in securing a decent grant for 2012-13, which has enabled us to be able to run several programs, so that's part of what I have been up to :)  Below is two lovely ladies, Marilyn on the left is a volunteer ambassador in SA for The Otis Foundation ( they provide retreats free of charge for people who have had breast cancer to go and have a holiday with family, friends or supporters) and Ruth, my colleague on the right :)  We were at the St Andrews Breast Cancer Luncheon which is held every year.  People (and I say people, because breast cancer is applicable to both men and women) who have had BC surgery at St Andrews get to come along for two years after their treatment and can invite a friend to come along.   There are guest speakers and a lovely lunch too!

Please ignore the dates on the pics - camera was not set right!  So...then it was a bit of quilt therapy for me...I booked in to see Ricky Tims at the AMQ Festival :) :)  What a fab day we all had (well, I think we all did!) Exhausting, lots of woo hooing and light bulbs going on during the course of the day.  The venue was at the Adelaide Convention Centre and I have to say I was impressed - staff were great, food (gluten free!!!) was provided and it was EDIBLE!!!! and delicious :)

This is one of Ricky's quilts, unfortunately the picture does it no justice at all.  It is called Bohemian Rhapsody.

Here is one of my friends, Marilyn, with Ricky.  He was sooo nice, he signed every ones book and had a picture taken with all that wanted one! You don't get that very often.

 And just have to show you all again! This is my 1/12th Quilting studio...

More R&R, this time up to the Lyndoch Lavender Farm with SW and the Fossils for a lovely morning tea.  We then headed up to Tanunda for lunch (ice cream really), had a mooch around and then headed back home.  Believe it or not that took the whole day up!  Was my birthday so it was nice to do nothing much.

October was our middle great nieces 5th birthday, sadly I did not get a pic of her :( But this is one of the 8 new puppies in their household.  Soooo cute, but no! I am not getting one :)

There is always a fugly pic somewhere, and this is mine for this post.  If anyone would like to purchase it (the light fitting that is) it is up for sale.  And NO, it does not belong to me, but to one of the Snobs & Slobs, it came with the house she bought.

Last week, we had some lovely weather, so I was able to leave my studio door open while working and in flew this little butterfly!  It made a bee-line for the fake flowers and it took me a while to get it to go back out the door. 

Other people have been busy too...this is Quilty Gal holding a baby - two reasons for the pic....1) She doesn't often like to hold babies 2) The baby is only 3 weeks old, but look at that hair!!!!!!!!!!!

 

Moving right along, we are now in November so that meant it was Father-in-law Fossils 85th Birthday, so I thought I better make him a quilt :) Very easy one to do and I love the way they all turn out differently - "Disappearing Nine Patch".  He put it straight on the bed, so I guess he likes it.

 This is Tom with the great grand kids and grand nephews and nieces.

These are some of the lovely friends I have made through doing Encore.  We get together for dinner every 5-6 weeks and its always a laugh.

The Adelaide Quilt and Craft was on this weekend.  I had not been for a couple of years so was eager to go and see what was out there.  The Eggers had a lovely display - so here is a few of what they did this year.

The quilt display was good, but this one caught our eyes (mine and Quilty Gals) cos its different.  It is a Dragons back with a tattoo of a lady who has a tattoo of a dragon :)  Congrats too to Tara and Lizzy for winning a prize with the Farmers Granddaughter quilt - just beautiful!

Well....that's about it for now folks, probably bored you enough at one time!  Till later, I better go and do some more work!