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!

Oh my!...

Its over a month since my last post! How slack is that?? And how slack is it that I don't have many pics to share with you all??!! So...what have I been up to then?!? Well, I went to a workshop to learn how to make miniature flowers! This is the first workshop in miniatures that I have attended - great fun and great company and the finished product wasn't too bad either I thought. Started off with these...which turned to these...which eventually became these! Lovely spring daffodils.I then decided to have a go with what the other side of the table were working on...which eventually became these! Very creative Iris's.So how cute do you think they are?!

Of course not as good as a friend of mine....she entered the Interflora competition for South Australia and won in the bridal section!!!! Well done Lynette! So if anyone is looking for a good florist, just pop along and see her!

Here is some of Lynnette's beautiful work...and the winning entry - the bridal piece...Of course we have been very busy at our Thursday craft group too! The project has been (and still is!) a Grandmothers Flower Garden Friendship Quilt. It started off with only a tad of enthusiasm, and only a few of the group doing the hexagons. Then I explained how a friendship quilt works and how I would like one....the numbers swelled to 25! Looking forward to getting the blocks shared among us now, but we are being diligent and waiting till all are finished! So hard though when you are eager and want to make up the quilt! Here we have some of the rather eager members working away!Anyway, the ladies have been doing other projects in between the hexagons. Teena has made two of these lovely quilts for her family. Her husband and herself belong to a hot rod club and designed the quilt herself which is terrific because she has only been quilting a couple of years!
SW's brother and wife have been busy on an overseas trip. When they returned we were treated with one of SW's favourite lollies 'English Maltesers' YUM. Needless to say they did not last long in his hot hands! Their trip consisted of visits to places like London - Maltesers, keyring, Amsterdam - clogs, Austria - cow bell and Germany - steins and keg (fit beautifully into my mini bar room!)Well, I guess that's about all for now...listening to the rain splat down on the roof at the moment - at least it has kept the freezing temperature away for the day! Certainly looking forward to the warmer weather.

And a short note for some of my friends who are not well out there, I am thinking of you all and wish you wellness quickly xx

Gosh....

.....I cant believe that it is February already! So far this year has just flown by and I have done very little in the way of any personal quilting or stitching! Better pull the proverbial finger out I think!!! So having said that, there is not much to show on here today. But taking a step back a month or two, to the Christmas break - Dad, Dad-in-law and myself went to visit some family for an hour or two. There is nothing like little children to make you smile - and we certainly did that in their company. We came out of there with aching faces due to the antics and things they said. Thank you girls for a lovely afternoon!! xx
One of our friends recently turned 50 - much to her disgust I believe - so I made her a quilt. Do you think she liked it?! LOL The pattern is called Trade Winds and was a freebie on the web, easy to do and went together very well.
Last Friday night was spent at a trivia quiz for one of the local Zonta groups. We came equal last (seems to be a trend for us at these nights) but we had a great laugh. Our friend 'Nev the Echidna" is playing Heads and Tails - we didn't win at that either. However I did win a bag (unfortunately I already had three of these in the cupboard at home) and fortunately one of the friends on the table has always wanted one so it got passed down the table to her - so all was happy.
Saturday was spent catching up for lunch with some quilters that Quilty Gal and I have known for a number of years. Great catch up and chat.
Then we toddled off to one of the local beaches for a mooch around a community market. The weather was absolutely beautiful on the beach front. The goods and chattels that were for sale were nice to view too. We managed to find some wonderful tea "Chocolate Marmalade" - no preservatives etc and made by a local company in the Barossa Valley which is great!! Very nice flavour to the tea too!!! Amongst the stall holders there was Leanne and Amanda who had some beautiful bits and bobs for sale. Then we met up with Granny Loz and her friend for a coffee and chat, which was delightful. Always nice to catch up with friends and have a relaxed chat.

So now its back to the grindstone for a few days or so till the weekend rolls around again!!

I can now show you....

...what the earlier mess in the corner of my workshop was about!!! As you all know QuiltyGals daughter got married a couple of weeks ago, well the mess was in the corner from making this little Double Wedding Ring Quilt for the happy couple!
I decided to embroider some words of "wisdom"?? on the back so if they wanted a change of scenery they just have to turn the quilt around.
Last week SW and I took a trip to one of our local shopping centres - haven't been there for a while - and since the last time a new shop (I am sure one of many) has popped up! An English, American and Australian Sweet Shop :))) We had a bit of a splurge indoors there..will have to curtail over the next few weeks now :((
This weeks craft finishings include the two following quilts. Both by ladies who are beginners.
The first is Teena's candlewick quilt - she wanted to use up some of her lace so did a really wide border and sashing which just finished the whole thing off lovely. Excellent work Teena :)
The second was Sandra - beautiful job Sandra!!!
One of our friends daughters celebrated her 18th just recently, so I thought she might need a quilt to go with the rest of her gifts.The other night SW and I were coming back home from a trip to the Adelaide Hills. The sunset was so magnificent I just had to stop and take a pic. Unfortunately the pic does not show how red the sun was while setting. Last night two very dear wonderful friends took SW and I out for dinner to a lovely restaurant in the hills - Windy Point. We had a fab meal (even have quite a lot of gluten free food there too!!) and when dessert came we just had to take a pic to share with you all what we had in front of us to eat - its a hard road but someone had to do it!!! LOL

And finally, for all you quilters out there that live in Adelaide or near (or those that would like to travel here) there is a quilt show happening. It is the "Australian Machine Quilting Festival" and is being held at Endeavour College, Mawson Lakes. Go to the link for more details :) Hope to see you all there.

Oh my goodness....

......rain, rain and yet more rain!!! I know we need it but.....enough is enough!!! Anyway, onward and upward as they say!
Since my last post I have not done a lot - due to the fact that I managed to spear tackle myself in our lounge and ended up with some fractured ribs :((( rather sore unfortunately!
A lovely lady brought me some flowers to cheer me up - really nice thing to do saying I had only met her the week before!!
However, I have managed to get to the Snobs and Slobs bi-weekly meeting (only wild horses keeps us away). This lovely quilt was completed by Lorraine - unfortunately the picture doesn't do the quilt a lot of justice - the colours are quite stunning in real life.As you all might know, we had our miniature festival last month - one of the items I bought was some little shoe boxes and shoes - I had to make them up and was quite pleased with the end product. Now just have to think where they will go!Some friends had their first baby last month - a beautiful little girl called Maya. This was the little quilt that went her way to keep her warm in this awful cold winter.The back was a bit different than the front - and quite different for me to do! (colour wise that is)
SW and I were invited to a friends 50th Birthday Party also last month (quite busy really when you look at what we did in August and here I was thinking it had not been much at all!!)
So here is Louise on the right and Debbie (the hostess on the left)
As you can see the theme was Western - cowboys etc. The cake was a wonderful effort and was a banjo.SW and the host, Neville. Looking really happy don't you think???

Speaking of cakes.....this delightful piece was done by Debbie's daughter as a trial type cake. How cute is it????Last month, Norma from the Thursday craft group, finished a little quilt she started a few months ago. Once again, a job well done Norma!!The Snobs and Slobs do a quilt for whoevers child in the group turns 21. This month it is Quilty Gals daughter, Kayla who turns the key of life. So in our group tradition, we made her a quilt! (How about that then??? LOL) I think you can tell by her face that she likes it!
Tomorrow SW and I are off to the airport to wave a short goodbye to Quilty Gal and co - as they are off to the UK. Hopefully the wind and rain will hold off for a short while till they get in the air and settled in to the flight!

Well folks, it is still blowing a gale and raining heavily....so I might go and make a hot chocolate and plant myself in front of the fire for the rest of the night!!

Birthday week!!!!

ccaYeh!!!! Another year ticked :) Got to be happy with that - unlike some who don't like having birthdays....I do...I love them :)))) Had a good day at home with friends dropping in to say hello and later the fossils came over for tea. I got a new pet called Pepe - he is a Perfect Petz and does nothing but sleep all day - all I have to do is brush him from time to time....Some beautiful flowers and a bear called Valerie!!! Received a beautiful book on friends from Quilty Gal along with a lovely piece of fabric that will go perfectly with the next William Morris quilt.......a really cute jigsaw with quilts and cats from my brother-in-law and wife along with two jelly rolls, cake and an English Mars Bar......another cuddly bear, a Christmas doll and some more flowers, some soap and hand cloth, lottery tickets!!! How lucky am I???? This week I managed to get a couple or so quilts made and completed. The first is a quilt for hubby's relies daughters christening (only a couple of months late!) Its a crazy patch done with whites and various types of fabric. I do the stitching all on the machine using the different stitch designs. The second is a pink log cabin - this is for a friend who will be doing a raffle to raise funds for herself to go to Africa. She is going with the school and will be working and helping build an orphanage - "challenge" to say the least!So now its off to the cutting table to get going with some Christmas finishing off stuff....