Where have I been???????

....goodness knows!!!!  Seriously, I cant believe we are in the middle of the year already! It will be Christmas once again before we turn around.

So, talking of Christmas, some of the Thursday crafties decided to do things in time for Christmas this year :)  Armed with gallons of glue, they set to it :)  The result...some lovely little bon-bons!

As some of you may know, my BFF family came for a visit from Wales for a few months.  We had the pleasure of entertaining them for an afternoon.  This is cute Seth (the one on the left by the way!)

Seth had a bit of an early birthday while he was here (with his Nana below and Jack) and his new friend the Koala backpack :)

 

Unfortunately, the family had to go back home to Wales :(  We had a lovely BBQ at Claire's place before they headed to the grey, grey yonder!

In between the last post and this one, I went off to Melbourne for a two night stint and a YWCA Encore refresher training session. We had to spend some time in the pool, which was a little walk from our hotel.  What a lovely facade the Melbourne Baths have!!! Inside it is quite newish and modern.

Ruth, waiting for the tram to take us round the city of Melbourne's CBD.  Was a stinking hot day and very humid - not common for this part of the world.  Tram ride was great except we had to sit for 7 minutes at the stop/start part of the line to wait till the next circuit was due to go!  NO Airconditioning!!!!!!!

Once again Christmas rears its head....there is a lovely shop located near the hotel we stayed in (which is also just round the corner from the Queen Victoria Markets) that sells Christmas bits all year round.  Of course I had to take a trip inside :) :)

Mothers Day....we (YWCA Encore) attended the Mothers Day Classic Event which took place in the Adelaide park lands this year.  By taking part, I mean we had a tent there!  No excessive exercise for me!!! LOL  Here are the team - June, Chris, Judy and myself - was a good morning!  We were fortunate to be next to the fruit stand, free fresh fruit all day for all concerned :) We even got to take nearly a box of bananas home because they had so much left at the end of the event!!!!  All money raised goes to breast cancer research.

 

Chris's husband Marty ran the event (I understand he did very well with his timing ) Well done Marty!

On a completely different note now....I finally got my new quilt rack in-situ!!! (Well, kind of!) Its in the spare room for the time being, as my male cat can get a bit nervy about new things about the house and has been known on a couple occasions to leave his mark on things :(  Eventually it will come out into the bigger room :)

We have also had many Not the Snobs & Slobs get togethers.....

Glenice made a lovely flower embroidered quilt.

 

Claire made a cute quilt for one of her friends newborn baby.

Lorraine completed this beautiful stitchery and applique quilt.

Lynne's Cat Quilt coming off the long-arm :)

Claire yet again with another finished project - her Snowball Quilt.

 We also had a couple of Not The Farmers Wife quilting group too...unfortunately I have not taken many shots of these events :( Other than this one with once again ....Claire with her nearly finished one of her Kim Diehl wall quilts (has since been completed)

 Friday just gone was the latest get together....here is Lorraine with her template....

 ...and showing us how to use it!!!! LOL

 And just to finish off, I must share this cute (well I think it is) pic of Tiger and Rose having dinner together :)

 Hopefully, the next blog will not be as long away as the last one.....

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