Oh My! Santa Came Early!

Where to start?

A couple of months ago Mick suggested something that could be a final special gift from Mum.  It wasn’t something I had thought of, but having had a little think, why not?

A bit of work was required before anything could happen.

This has been the usual state of my sewing room for the best part of twelve months.  Not good and not conducive to any actual sewing or quilting taking place.  ie. Not one single quilt has been quilted in 2025.

I’ve already shared some photos of the start of my clean up here.

Then there was more cleaning out.  It’s a very long time since it has looked like this.

But there’s more:

Or, rather less.

Yes, it was time to farewell Monique.  I haven’t been using her and I suppose I am too much of a perfectionist and wasn’t all that happy with what I was doing and didn’t have the confidence to do any free motion quilting.  Having said that, she was the perfect entry level machine to give me the basics of long arm quilting and served me well in that respect.

So, what was to fill that space?

Meet “Elly May”.  Her name was inspired by her model name of Elite and a very slight nod to Mum’s name.

She is another Grace Q’Nique.  This time with a 21 inch throat, a new frame and is computer driven.  She has so much potential.

The automated quilting is a very steep learning curve and I have been watching lots of YouTube tutorials, which have been invaluable.

I feel so very blessed to be able to be the owner of such a beauty and look forward to having lots of fun with her.

Hopefully, that pile of unquilted flimsies will all be completed quilts by the end of 2026, if not before.  That would be so good.

Here is my very first bit of quilting on her.  I have done a bit more since then and will share that separately.

Wensleydale Blocks All Done and Cleaning Up

I did it!!!  I managed to get all the 60 blocks (plus one extra) completed by my self imposed deadline of 30  November.

Here are the last 21 blocks.

And a quick collage of the completed blocks. This is not the final layout.  

My next job is to remove all the foundation papers and then I will play with the layout on my “design curtain”.  

I’m really enjoying making this quilt.  I hope to have the top finished by the end of the year, if not earlier.

Of course, after such a sewing marathon, there is the mess to clean up.  I have already put all the main fabrics away and also tidied them up, which was needed.  All the scraps are colour sorted in bags, but need to be put somewhere.  A job for another day.

Today it was clean the sewing space.  Firstly, my machine. I had cleaned it before I started, but thought it would be a fluffy mess after this. However, I was pleasantly surprised.  As you can see, it still needed a clean, but not nearly as much as I had feared.

My sewing table was a different story.  It hadn’t been cleaned for some time and was a real mess.  As in get the vacuum cleaner to dust it.  It looks so much better now after a good deep clean and polish.

Next, for the cutting table.  The right hand side was piled with “Stuff”.  It has now been removed and the table and shelf above given a good clean.  It looks so very much better and makes me want to start doing something new.  I’ve hardly done any machine stitching this year and now have a renewed enthusiasm.  (The “Stuff” is all in a bag to be dealt with later.  Not sure what to do with some of it.)

Last week I gave the top of my cupboard a good dust.  Now, that was like an archaeologist dig through the dust.  Definitely another vacuum job.  I know it is cluttered, but I do like all my little bits and bobs.

The dresser top also got a good dust.

It feels so much better to have them clean.  There is much more to do to get my happy place back to being “happy”.  It will happen over the next few days.

By the way, after a few months I have my empty bobbins to add to the yearly total.  Not a lot, but there was quite a bit of thread on those cardboard spools.  I’ll share my dismal yearly total at the end of next month.

Now, to get back to playing.

Random Stuff

It is time for a post of rather random bits and bobs that we have been up to over the last little while.

I’ll start with the weather.  I mentioned recently that we were experiencing a little bit of autumnal weather and were waiting to see how much rain we would receive from Cyclone Alfred.  Well, that cooler weather only lasted for a couple of days, before getting back into summer mode with several day in the mid 30s C.  Oh, and the predicted rain…….we didn’t get a drop.  That was particularly disappointing for the farmers who had planted crops in anticipation of getting them off to a good start.  A system came through on Friday and gave us 12mm of nice gentle rain, which was very much appreciated.  It’s amazing how quickly things dry out. Now that we have passed the autumn equinox, hopefully we have seen the last of the intense heat for this season.

I decided that I would make a Steak and Guinness pie for St Patrick’s Day on Monday. A nice and easy recipe, but one I haven’t made before.  The plan was to make them in the little individual pie pots that I have had for years, like the ones you get in English pubs.  Well, the pots are larger than I realised, which made me also realise how large the meals are that you receive in the pubs.  Anyway, the amount of the meat mix that I wanted to serve up to us only half filled the pie pots, so rather than a pastry top, we had a rather rustic mashed potato top.  Either way, they were delicious.

Last weekend was church fete.  Mick and I have been helping with this for many years and this was another successful event.  Mick worked on “Bargains for Blokes” and me on the “White Elephant” stall.

Mick bought me a surprise from the stall he was on.  A retractable projector screen.  He figured I could use it to hold a quilt for a photo.  Good thinking.  I reckon we could also have a slide night with the family slides that are stashed in the garage. In the meantime, it fits nicely behind the sewing room door for storage.

At our Wednesday patchwork group we have been making a group quilt.  It has now been made into a top and quilted.  One of the ladies is going to hand stitch the binding down. My three blocks are the hexy flower, the one in the second top row on the extreme left (green, aqua and coral) and second bottom row on the extreme right (white squares on pinwheel). The quilt turned out so very well.

It’s also been a rather social time, with me having lunch with Susan last week and Mick and I having lunch with Jennifer on Friday, as they have been passing through town.

Yesterday saw another event for the bicentenary celebrations of Holy Trinity.  This time it was an open day at the old church hall, which was built in 1842 and sold in the mid 1990s to help fund the current parish community centre.  The parish had outgrown it, much maintenance was required and it was flood prone prior to the levee banks being built.  It is now a private home and we are very appreciative of the opportunity for the public to revisit the building.

There are lots of memories for many of us from that buildings. This is how I remember the building up until it was sold.

Initially, this was the local church school, before the Department of Education was established and the new Kelso Public School was opened in 1871.  After then, it was solely the church hall, used for so many events over the years, from fetes, Sunday School, JAs (Junior Anglicans), meetings, and so many more.  

I went through our photo albums and will share just a couple I have found.  The AWA (Anglican Women of Australia) was the main women’s group and each year they held a couple of events.  In 1984 my Mum arranged an exhibition “Aprons Through the Ages”, giving a talk about them, complete with modelled items, as well as a display of so many different versions around the hall walls.  Yes, that is Mum and me.  I am wearing the apron my Grandma wore at Dairy School in the Lakes District of England in 1912.

They had some rather creative events.  In this one from 1987, they are apparently dancing the can can.  Notice that the stage has been carpeted with some beeeeautiful carpet.

One of their more humorous was the “Miss World Pageant”.  They did have fun with this one.

This end of the hall looks quite different now, with the stage remove and having been turned into a comfy lounge area.  The way the hall has been furnished really suits it.

The kitchen was originally very basic, so funds were raised to purchase and install the one that is there now.  One of the main fund raisers were my parents and another couple going to the local racecourse and collecting all the cans and bottles after each race meet.  The cans were then crushed and the glass sorted by colour and smashed into 44 gallon drums to be taken to the recyclers.  They used to absolutely stink when they got home.  The things you do.

I can’t put my finger on the photo at the moment, but Mum and Dad and the same other couple relaid this section of  flooring, as the old one was rotting.

There was a nice steady stream of people visiting throughout the afternoon, rekindling so many memories.

Meanwhile, Mick has been busy down at the bowling club, helping with the greens and grounds as well as playing twice a week at club level and this year now taking part in the Pennants competition between surrounding clubs.  He is really enjoying it.

And that about has me caught up.  As you can see, it has been rather a busy time, but lots of fun.

A Busy But Fun Sunday

Our Sunday got off to an early start as we headed out to have a look around the Newbridge Swap Meet.  Our intention was to have a wander around, chat with people we know who are also wandering around and buy an egg and bacon roll and coffee for breakfast, and nothing else.  You can imagine how that went……

Of course we did buy and egg and bacon roll and coffee and chat to lots of people we knew, but there was a bit of other shopping as well.  

This is my little haul.  I know my sewing room walls are full, but I can always do a juggle to fit in another lovely old poker work doiley press.  I have Mum’s Dorcas pin tin, but it is scratched from use, so it was nice to find this one in great condition for next to nothing and how could I resist that safety pin.  No, it isn’t a nappy pin, although it looks like one.  It would have to be for a baby giant.  It was also suggested it is for a kilt, but would leave a huge hole in it, and I’m also sure it wouldn’t be a knitting stitch holder, as it isn’t long enough and it takes quite a bit of strength to open it.  

Mick bought an old oil can and a thingummy for a tow bar, which he was very happy about.

A few books also came home with us and this one was bought solely for the title.  I started to read it, then skimmed part of it and then read about the last third.  It was OK, but not really the sort of story I normally read, although it does get good reviews.  I have to stop buying books solely because they have a textile related title.  However, I will count this as having read a book this month.

That was the first part of the day.  After lunch we hopped in Rosie the Suzuki Sierra and went out to our mate’s place again to get more blackberries.  They were much more plentiful this time around.  Most of these have been frozen.

However, we did have some for breakfast this morning. Yummo!

Then, in the late afternoon and evening I went up to the church to assist with the Twilight Pioneer Cemetery Wander, as part of the Bicentenary celebrations.  This was to take place on both Saturday and Sunday evenings, but Saturday got washed out.  

We had a little rain at the start, but all went ahead last night. I think everyone found the stories of some of the area’s first settlers who are buried here to be really interesting.

The sunset we ended up experiencing, looking over town, was beautiful.

As we enjoyed supper in front of the church.

A lovely way to end the day.