September Goals Check In

As it is the last day of the month, I had better check in with the progress of my goals for the month, as little as they were.

ONE MONTHLY GOAL

My goal was to complete eight English Paper Piecing units for my Blue Quilt.  I’m happy to report that they were completed quite early in the month.  After that I cut out and glue basted the remaining units, but did not do any more stitching.  This will now become a long term project, to work on while travelling or during Zoom days.

That is the only stitching that I did all month.

The following weren’t goals for September, but continuing my usual theme, I was also happy to try a new recipe - the pizza base I shared recently.

I read one “real” book, the last of the Maeve Binchy ones. 

We listened to several audio books while driving along.  All murder mysteries, as they appeal to Mick.

Next month should be back to normal, as we will be home.

Completed Goals for July

Before the end of the month ticks over I had better show how I went with my little goals.

ONE PROJECT A MONTH

Yes, I made my little manicure set pouch, which has been working beautifully as we travel along.

RAINBOW SCRAP CHALLENGE

Yes, my purple blocks were completed before we left home.

ONE MONTHLY GOAL

Well, in the end I had this completed quite early on. The goal was six blocks, I completed seven,  Admittedly, they were the easiest to complete. 

BONUS STITCHING

The bonus was completing four of my little hexy flowers.  Now it is time to cut and glue before making another four,  The colour here is way off, with the cutting mat really mauve and the blues definitely don’t have a green tinge to them.  That’s what you get for doing this in a rush before we leave Alice Springs into unknown internet territory.

I’ll now have to decide what my goals will be for next month.

All Aboard

There were so many events taking place in our area over the June Long Weekend.  One was the Bathurst Steam Weekend.

The steam locomotive “Breyer-Garrett 6029” was in town.  We have seen this train a couple of years ago, but this time we were going to go for a ride.

This is the largest operating steam locomotive in Australia.  The engine entered service in 1954 to haul coal, travelling some 1,000,000 kilometres before being removed from service in 1972. It was restored and returned to service in 2014 by a Historical Railway Society.  In May it was purchased by the NSW Government for the State’s heritage transport collection, for use as part of Transport Heritage NSW’s regular program of events and heritage train experiences.

There were several short trips from Bathurst to Wimbledon, halfway to Blayney, and back during Saturday and Sunday. On Monday there was a trip to Orange.  We haven’t travelled to Orange on a train before, despite living here all our lives. It is just 40 minutes in the car, instead of well over an hour by train, so ordinarily why would you bother.

We very quickly purchased tickets, as soon as we saw them on sale, and were glad we did, as they sold out very fast.  Apparently, over 4000 tickets were sold for the weekend’s train rides.

We arrived down at the railway station nice and early so we could have a good look at the old girl.

Sadly, you couldn’t see the front of the engine, as it was parked beyond the start of the station platform.

Nearly all the people working on the train were volunteers.  They did a wonderful job.

Here we are, ready for our day.

The carriages were built between 1919 and 1939.  We had some nice travelling companions, which added to the fun of the day.

It took an hour and forty minutes to travel to Orange, via Blayney.

There were lots of people taking photos along the way.

We were lucky with the weather, being the warmest day we have experienced for a couple of weeks and the sun was actually shining.  What a nice change that was. Mind you, it was still chilly in Orange.

Then we had an hour to grab some lunch before boarding the train for the return journey, arriving home at about half past four.  It was a very relaxing way to spend the day.

I wonder what steam train will be the next to visit?

One Monthly Goal and a Fun Weekend

As usual, the end of month was fast approaching and I still hadn’t completed my goal for the month, so time to get stuck in and get stitching.

The perfect timing for Chooky to announce that yesterday she would be hosting another of her Zoom sewing days, this time to join her in celebrating the 10th birthday of  “The Chook Shed”, her wonderful sewing space.

I popped in and out through the day, as Mick and I had the very important job of cooking the birthday cake.  This year it was an apricot shortcake. This is a tradition that dates back pretty much for the whole time there has been Chook Shed birthday parties.  We cook the cake and get to eat it too.  Chooky only gets to see a photo. Before this photo was taken, the cake was presented to the Zoom girls, complete with sparkler.  I wasn’t able to get a photo, but it went down well.  All a bit of fun. We then had some friends visit for afternoon tea, so they helped us eat it and it was deemed to be a success.

So, what did I work on?

Firstly, I added the binding to the baby quilt that was my One Monthly Goal for May. It turned out that quite a few of the girls on Zoom were stitching down bindings.  However, I was the only one using the machine.  Not my favourite way, but as this is something that I expect will be washed lots, it will be more durable.  

Once again, I just used a free form wavy line across the quilt for the quilting. The backing is flannelette with a woodlands theme, which ties in nicely with the fabrics on the front.  It is a lovely, soft, drapy quilt.  

I know I have Monique, my big quilting machine sitting there, but until I get the tension sorted, it was easier to quilt this little one on my Janome.

It will be going to my next door neighbour to give to her grandson, who is due to be born in August.  Job done in plenty of time.

This means that my OMG has once again been reached.  I’m linking up with Elm Street Quilts.  The encouragement and accountability works so well for me.

Next, I pulled out the half square triangles that I had stitched at Scrub Stitchin’ as leaders and Enders and trimmed them down to size.  They can now sit patiently in their tin until I am ready to play with a layout and create a baby quilt from them.

Finally, it was time to dive into my stash of Civil War fabrics that I already had, as well as those in the “Stash Enhancement” from last month.  You see, Chooky has recently completed a churn dash quilt, which attracted lots of positive comments, and she has decided she wants to make another one.  A few girls mentioned that they wouldn’t mind making one as well, so now there is a stitch-a-long taking place, with 28 of us joining in.  It starts in June, with us making the blocks over four months and the fifth month is to put the quilt top together.  I am making my quilt a bit wider than the pattern, so need 41 blocks.  That means 10 blocks each month.  I’d better get some chain stitching happening.

I just love all the rich colours.  It will be a nice wintery quilt.  

I did buy the background fabric, as I didn’t have enough of any one fabric.  It was a wide back on special at Spotlight. I’m not really sure what I will use for the sashing and setting triangles. This is the best option at the moment, using the red for the sashing and the blue for the setting triangles, both from my stash.  Who knows, I may come up with something else.

We will be away for much of the time, so I wanted to get the blocks cut out, ready to stitch each month, even when we are away in our caravan. I will be taking my baby Elna Stella with me.  Mick has a solar panel on the ute, complete with an inverter to provide enough 240v power to charge batteries and the like.  We have worked out that it will be sufficient to run my sewing machine, so we could be set up in the middle of nowhere and I would be able to use my machine.  How good is that. However, I wouldn’t be able to use an iron, so would just have to finger press, use the generator or wait till we have proper 240v power.  I’ll make it work.

The weather is going to be rather cold this coming week, with snow forecast on the hills around Oberon, Blayney and Orange, so today seemed to be a good day to make a pot of soup from a pumpkin we bought from a roadside stall on our recent holiday.

 I’m not generally a fan of pumpkin soup, but really like this recipe.  While it was cooking I was browsing a recipe book from Eugowra that I was given for Christmas, which had a pesto bread recipe to accompany soup.  I don’t make bread, but it reminded me of a recipe for cheese buns that I haven’t made in years.  They go so well, served warm with soup.  This time I just made one big bun, pretty much like a damper.  Yum, it was a lovely lunch.

When I was seeing how much room there is in the freezer to freeze some of the soup, I noticed a tub of crumble, so suggested Mick pick some rhubarb for rhubarb crumble tonight.  He came in with a nice big bunch and said there is heaps more.  I suggested he pick a lot, as it will only go to waste over the winter.  

I kept browsing the recipe book and came across a recipe for Rhubarb Swirl Cake, so we had to give it a try.    It was supposed to be iced, but we liked the look of it without. I generally add a drop or two of red food colouring to rhubarb to make it look a bit more appetising. I may have added just a wee bit too much this time, but it looks pretty.

It was rather lovely for afternoon tea, while still a little bit warm.  We’ll mark that recipe as a keeper.

I think the rhubarb crumble will wait for another day, with the rhubarb just being frozen, now that it has been cooked up.

If you had told me first thing this morning that I would have been doing so much cooking, I would have laughed at you, but it was a nice way to spend some time, and means we have some easy meals through the week. 

Friday Fun Day - It's Show Time!

After having to cancel the 2020 event due to our friend COVID-19, it was wonderful for the Royal Bathurst Show to be held from Friday until today.  The organisers would have been so happy to have perfect weather for the event.  Just what was needed.

We went down on Friday, taking my Mum along with us.  She has always enjoyed the show. The first thing that she wanted to see was the needlework.  Mum has entered items over many years, and was often a judge, while she taught dressmaking and handicrafts at Tech.  Even now, when she lives in aged care, she had entered a couple of items.  The ladies that run the craft activities at the nursing home like to have a few of the ladies enter some of their work in the section for frail aged.  They did OK too, with three ladies winning a prize.

Mum was one of those ladies.  She spends much of her time crocheting the tops of kitchen towels and her entry came first.  She was tickled pink.  That's hers with the vegetables.

Mum always encouraged me to enter items as well, although I had let this lapse for many years.  Her reasoning is that, as a judge, it is so disappointing if there is very little there to judge.

With that reasoning, I had a look at the Show Schedule to see what I could enter, and in the end entered eight items.  I was also tickled pink when I saw how they went.

I entered Block Heads 3 and Trail Mix in the section "Machine Pieced Quilt - Commercially Quilted".  Block Heads came first and Trail Mix second.

The other prizes I won were second for a "Tote Bag" with my little Sewing Bag from one of the Nundle retreats, that I finally finished last year (in the centre of the photo above), second with my "Crochet - Shawl or Stole" (the blue ombre triangular one to the left of the photo) and first with "Any Article Not Previously Mentioned - eg a cushion or table runner".  It was for my twister table runner, to the left of photo.  I had also entered a second tote bag, a second table runner and a small wall hanging that were unsuccessful.  You can see Mum's hand towel much clearer in this photo, too.

I was rather gob smacked to see that I had received two Champion ribbons, one for a "Quilt Patchwork, Applique and Quilting" and one for "Other Article of Patchwork, Applique and Quilting".

I'm not trying to put myself down, but it would have been nice to see more entries.  Most sections only had a couple of entries.  Hopefully, there will be more in the future.  Having said that, there truly was some beautiful work on show, in particular a couple of crocheted rugs.  One lady, who won the "Most Successful Exhibitor", had entries in nearly every section.  Her work was of an excellent quality in all the different skills.

After a bit more of a look around and leisurely lunch it was time to have a look at the animal nursery.

By early afternoon Mum was getting a bit weary, so we took her home, before heading back in to have a bit more of a look around ourselves.

We always have to venture through sideshow alley after dark.  LED lights have added a whole new level of colour to everything.

We had noticed what appeared to be a new Ferris Wheel, so went to have a look.  Wow!  It is a bit more upmarket than the one we used to go on as kids.

Apparently, it is the tallest Ferris Wheel in Australia.

I can list all the different rides that, as a teenager, I went on and then promptly threw up.  They really didn't do it for me.  However, the Ferris Wheel is my all time favourite.  Of course we had to go for a ride.

The gondalas are fully enclosed and we were impressed to see that they were wheel chair friendly, as was demonstrated when a lady took advantage of that feature.  The fellows were so good with her. 

The view of the showground with its rides, ring and historic pavilions is spectacular from so high.  

Once back on the ground we continued our wander.  I don't find clowns creepy as a rule, but I didn't really like these ones.

These ones were much nicer and more like we are used to at the show.

And to finish, one more picture of the Ferris Wheel.  It was so colourful, but it doesn't really show up well in the photos.

We had seen just about all there was to see during the day, so headed home and watched the fireworks from our verandah.  No photos, but they were pretty good.

I hope that overall the show was well attended, to help make up for last year.  We certainly enjoyed ourselves and there was lots to see.  Now to wait for next year......and get stitching so that I have something to enter.