My Saturday

A couple of people have commented that they hope I’m not too lonely while Mick is away and that I’m all right out here on my own. I assure them that I’m fine while I have a secret little chuckle to myself.

Apart from the fact I’ve been at work most of the time, I’m really hoping for a nice quiet day at home tomorrow.

I was in town all day today and what a lovely day it was.

My favourite church fete was on. Mick missed out, but I still was able to enjoy it, and Mick wasn’t there to tell me that I didn’t need all the bits and bobs that came home with me. I’ll show you my purchases tomorrow. Needless to say, they did all right out of me again!! Now, once again, I will have to find homes for the new bits and pieces. You can see what I brought home last time here and here. I didn't bring home as much this time (which is probably a good thing).

Then there was time to kill in town, so I had a leisurely stroll around the shops. It was lovely not to be rushing around in my lunch hour.

Next it was my patchwork group afternoon. (I think I should really call it a “Craft Group”, as none of us ever do any patchwork on the afternoon, it is embroidery, knitting, crochet - whatever takes our fancy).

Anyway, on my way there I noticed, over where the miniature trains run occasionally, there were some old organs. It didn’t matter if I was late for sewing, so I went to have a look. It is the 16th Annual National Mechanical Organ Rally this weekend and this is the first time it has been held in Bathurst.

There were about 25 organs ranging from small “barrel grinder” organs (all with requisite monkey).........

.........To the grand fairground variety.

They have a beautiful sound. This one is German made and about 60 years old. You’d get a tired arm if you played it too much.

Some were fairly new (one even looked like a robot), but this one is about 150 years old and all the little figures move when it is being played. I think it was my favourite.

It was an unexpected treat to see all these together. I’ve only ever seen a couple of big ones at the Bathurst and Royal Easter shows before.

I had a nice chat with this lady from Victoria doing her bobbin lace work. She also had an organ there.

Her work was so beautiful and fine, and the colours we lovely and soft. I admire the patience and detail involved in bobbin lace. Aren't the bobbins a work of art in themselves.

I’d hoped to be able to show you another completed Verandah Views block, but I didn’t have one of the coloured threads with me, so I started the next block. Hopefully another block will be finished very soon.

Today is Mum’s 80th birthday but it was a very low key affair. She was busy selling raffle tickets at the fete for most of the day, so received well wishes from lots of friends there. We just had Chinese for tea and I gave her the Blue Wren wall hanging to add to her collection. The big do will be next Saturday. I’m looking forward to it.

Batching

Mick has headed off this morning for Phillip Island for the Moto GP on Sunday. The weather isn't expected to be the best, so he took the sidecar (the newer one). He had planned on taking a solo bike for a change, but gee, a sidecar is handy for carrying extra coats and tarps and other "stuff". I'm happy that he is staying in a house this year and not camping. Despite the weather, I'm still disappointed that I can't go. (I just never seem to have enough holidays accrued at work to do all we want - such is life.)

However, that means I have 5 days to myself (sort of).

I have just signed up for Clare and Robyn's Handmade Christmas Ornament Swap. If you want to play too, you have until the end of the month to sign up - just go to Robyn's blog. Robyn also has a list of links to find patterns, which I have been trawling through for ideas.

I now have four decorations to make. I like to make one for each of my nieces each year and our sewing group are having a Christmas lunch and we are to take a decoration for a gift.

Hopefully I'll get some sewing done while Mick is away.

Race Weekend

Our visitors arrived yesterday and brought this little gizmo with them. (I know this is more the stuff for a"Boy's Blog", but I found it fascinating.)

It is a little radio controlled helicopter with a digital camera attached to the bottom. It looks quite simple, but, it is all carbon fibre and Kevlar and weighs less than 200 grams and is worth about $80,000!!!

It is used primarily for taking aerial shots of water front and prestige real estate for brochures. There are only a few in Australia. One of the electricity suppliers uses one for inspecting power poles. We were quite intrigued.

The plan was to take some aerial photos of our place (no, we do not have a prestige property, our guests were just playing) but the conditions were too windy to get a steady shot. They will try again next time they visit. It would be interesting to have an aerial photo of our place.

Today was the big Bathurst 1000 V8 Supercar Race. The weather has been horrid all week. This is the sky we woke up to this morning – quite stunning – but didn’t bode too well for the races. Fortunately, despite a few showers passing over, it wasn’t too bad today, although still quite cool and breezy. The racing was good and close at the finish, which was good.

We don’t have a TV, so we had the radio on, broadcasting the race in the background, and while listening I finally finished Block 4 of Verandah Views and completed Block 5.

I now have to trace the remainder of the blocks ready to complete. I’m getting there, slowly but surely.

Wash Cloth Swap Received and Letter in Homespun

I was very happy to hear that Liz received her wash cloth swap package on Thursday. This is what I sent to her. I enjoyed knitting the butterfly pattern from here. The variegated cloth has a great texture, simply by doing double crochet into the back of the stitch below, rather than through the complete stitch, if that makes sense. Anyway, I love the effect with the colourful yarn.

Thanks Jodie for arranging such a great swap.

Australian Homespun magazine arrived in the letterbox yesterday. I was flicking through it last night and was delighted to see my softie I made earlier in the year. I’d forgotten that I’d sent photos in to the magazine, after Megan the Technical Editor saw it on my blog. Very exciting, I must say!

The big car race is happening in town tomorrow, so there are lots of people around and we have some friends arriving soon to stay, which will be nice. Mum and I went down the street this morning and it was surprisingly quiet, as all the visitors to town were up at the Mount watching the final qualifying and practice. We found a new dress for her to wear to her party in a fortnight’s time.

I’m now going to try and do a little bit of stitching before our guests arrive.

The Week That Was

I seem to have fallen into a routine of only posting once a week, but that will just have to do.

It has been a long weekend here, and on cue, the weather turned cold and bleak. Wet enough to be a nuisance, but not enough rain to be of any real use.

Mick worked on Saturday, so I went to my sewing group in the afternoon. It was nice to catch up with everyone after missing the last couple. I worked on Block 4 of Verandah Views BOM. I did some more at home that night, so should have it finished soon (but I don’t think I’ll get the chance this week). It is so nice to just sit and stitch.

We had grand plans of taking the old BMW and sidecar out yesterday, but due to the unreliable weather we had a day out in the car. By the way, the old BMW outfit has been named “Olga” - a good German name, which also can be linked to “Old Girl”.

Our day out yesterday took us to Millthorpe for their annual open gardens weekend. We visited ten gardens during the day – five in town and five country gardens. I loved the mossy trees.

Wasn’t this a creative way to use worn out work boots.

Tulips featured in many of the gardens. These were really beautiful.

After looking at gardens we visited Mick’s Dad to watch the footy grand final. We would have liked Parramatta to win (even if my brother supports them), but it was not to be.

Then, it was a mad dash to our neighbour’s house for a farewell dinner for one of our other neighbours. We have been blessed here. We are in a tiny hamlet of 5 houses close together in the middle of paddocks. We are all the families who bought a paddock and built our homes. This is the first of the families to leave, which is sad. We hope our new neighbours are just as lovely.

Today we actually stayed home. Mick worked in the garden. It was very overgrown. I cleaned out some kitchen cupboards and have bags and boxes of stuff for the white elephant stall – yes – that special church fete is coming up in a couple of weeks and I am clearing some stuff out in anticipation of some good finds. (Well, not really, I was just amazed at the stuff I never use and had forgotten we have.)

There was also some planting of flowers and a gooseberry in the garden.

What about the rest of the week. Not much really, no crafting to mention. But I did read a book. We had some book vouchers from Christmas that we finally got around to redeeming and I chose “The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society”. I had heard it was good, and it lived up to expectations. Very enjoyable.

The other book I chose was “Made in France”. Beautiful, simple patterns in cross stitch and stem stitch. I have a little band of natural linen with a red edge that I bought in Paris when we were there two years ago, (the bags were very full at that stage) and have not been able to find a suitable pattern to stitch. Now I have inspiration.

The Blackwork Embroidery book was being given away by one of Mum's friends who is leaving town, so she thought of me. She's a good Mum isn't she.

A Bit if This and That

Mick sent me this picture of the dust on Wednesday and suggested I “Blogerise” about it. This is the black bitumen road near our place and the tyre tracks show just how bad the dust was.

That was on Wednesday….. move forward to Saturday…….

Although we’ve been having lovely warm weather I have been a doomsayer suggesting that there is bound to be another cold snap just to remind us of where we live. Yep, it arrived this weekend.

We had planned on going camping along the Bridle Track with the Sydney Sidecar Club for the annual rally. We went last year and it was a really friendly, family oriented rally. The Bridle Track is only about an hour from home and is a rather rough dirt road alongside the Macquarie River developed to get to the Hill End gold fields in the 1850’s and has some spectacular scenery. If it has just been cold we would still have gone, but it was blowing a gale and scatty showers, so it would not have been at all pleasant.

So, we went to Oberon instead – in the car. Oberon has it’s spring garden weekend this weekend, and we thought we would rug up and have a look around……that was until it started to snow just after we arrived!! So, we found a pub with a roaring fire and had a counter lunch instead. As we had nothing else planned for the day, we just went driving along lots of back roads and finally back home in the late afternoon.

When we woke up this morning we were also getting scatty snowy, sleety showers and apparently Oberon had quite good snow overnight. (Oberon is about 1100m above sea level, we are about 750m.) Therefore, we just stayed home today. This is our back yard this morning.

Seeing as we weren't camping I've been doing other bits and pieces.

This afternoon I made pretty pink invitations for Mum's 80th birthday party next month. We are having High Tea at a coffee shop in town. It should be lovely.

There was also baking of banana bread for afternoon tea. Yummy. The recipe is from here.

I looked at blogs yesterday and Jenny from Elefantz reminded us of the September challenge is to now make a sewing machine mat to go with our cover. I must admit, I'd forgotten all about it. Jenny made hers in an hour. Well, mine took two and half hours from deciding to make it, to designing it, finding fabric, clearing a track on my sewing table to finished product. It is a bit rough and ready, but it will certainly do the job.

I just wanted to keep it relatively simple. The fabrics are the same as for the machine cover with a pink peeper to give it a bit of a lift.

My machine just fits neatly on it.

Ta Da! Now I have to make a thread bag and pincushion to match. I just have to locate the pattern in a magazine. I know the pattern......I just have to find it........

Tonight, I have also completed the mammoth task of sewing up and filling the woollen pincushion. It has silica sand for a filling, which is something different. Apparently the silica sharpens your pins.

I have also been working on wash cloths this weekend, but no sneak peeps allowed.

I Shouldn't Be Telling You About This

I don't know why I'm not keeping my big mouth shut about these giveaways, as I'd like them to wing their way to my house, but Lyn from Bluebird Quilts is giving away some lovely treats. The fabric is Rosalie Quinlan's new range.

Also, my friend Loulee from the Isle of Man is celebrating her 401st post (she missed the 400th). Now, that is a lot of blog posts. Lou had made a lovely bag and just might put one or two things in it as well.

So, go and visit both of these lovely ladies if you haven't already done so.

Swap Parcel Arrives

Look what has arrived in the post!

My secret swap partner was Jewells. She is very organised and has already sent my lovely gifts for Wash Cloth Swap #2 organised by Jodie.

Jewells gets her yarn from the US, which accounts for the nice, soft colours, and her knitting is beautiful and the sun pattern is so cheerful.

I now have to get out in the garden and plant my seeds. They will add some lovely bright colour for the summer and some spice to our stir frys.

Thanks so much Jewells, I'm very spoilt.

By the way, the sky has now returned to normal, although there is a fine layer of red over everything outside. We now need a good drenching to wash it away.

Whacky Weather

What crazy weather we’ve been having.

Yesterday when I left work it started to rain – not just any rain, but the wildest thunder storm. I drove one of the girls home from work and the streets were awash, gutters overflowing everywhere and you couldn’t see a thing.

Mick wanted me to get some fresh kerosene for our emergency blackout lighting, as we’d already had one blackout at home, so I then went to the hardware store, by which time the rain had eased.

I had decided to take an alternate route to get home as there is a causeway on the usual road I take, and it floods in a rather spectacular way when we get storms.

As soon as I was back on the road another wave of the storm came over and we were right in the middle of it. Lightning everywhere, and although it didn’t seem possible, the rain was heavier than before. There was no way I was going to try and drive home in it, so I took refuge in a shopping centre while it passed. I then had a very uneventful drive home. We had not had nearly as bad rain and we didn’t get any further blackouts, thank goodness.

This morning we woke up to this:

DUST!

It has blown all the way from South Australia, well over 1000kms. Everything is covered in dust. Mick called me on his way to work. He was the first on the road this morning and he was leaving tyre tracks on the bitumen road. He said more dust was billowing behind the ute on the bitumen than we get on our dirt road. Bizarre! You might expect this out west, but not here. I’m dreading what is going to get washed off our roof into our water tanks.

Since taking the photo it has started to rain lightly again – mud!

It has got cold again and is expected to stay that way for the day.

Yuck!

PS. While typing this Mick has come home to drain all the downpipes to try and keep some of the mud out of our tanks. Isn’t he an organised fellow!

Working with Wool

Yesterday I was lucky enough to go to another workshop in town. The Home Patch (home of Hatched and Patched) had a wool appliqué and embellishment workshop. Sue Spargo visited earlier in the year and Anni also does quite a bit in wool, so she stocks a good range of supplies.

Michelle, our teacher, had this sample pincushion and we were to just have fun trying out different effects with stitches and embellishments such as adding texture with ric rac, beads and novelty yarns. It was a lot of fun and everyone had very different work.

I finished mine off at home this afternoon. I had fun playing with embroidery stitches. Boy, did I get things in a lovely mess. The little booklet on the table is one Mum gave me when I was about 10 years old and is a great little resource. (And yes, that is Mum's quilt under all that stuff.)

This is my finished work. The bobbly green up the middle of the orange leaf and the fringe around the bottom one are the separated plys of a novelty yarn from spotlight. There is knitting wool, chenille yarn and the main embroidery is with lovely wool/acrylic threads. Anni sells them on bobbins rather than the large spools they normally come on, which is terrific when you are only dabbling. The pink flower is a felted button. Some ladies also cut felt balls in half and used them as flower centres.

I just have to sew the back on and fill it to have a nice new pincushion.

Great fun. Something a bit different to what I usually do.

What's Been Hiding in the Bush?

We've been teased for a couple of weeks now by some very clever Aussie ladies and today they revealed all.


We are going to be in for a treat as 9 Australian designers share free Christmas designs during October and November and ongoing designs next year.

They have a new blog "Among The Gum Trees" which introduces the ladies. Pop over and visit them.

Mick's Project of the Month

Today we took the old BMW and sidecar on its maiden voyage.

This was to be Mick’s project of the month back in January, but the box of bits and rat’s nest of wiring proved to be a bit more involved than initially thought. But, it was finally registered with no dramas a week ago.

This morning we took it past our letterbox for the first time (about 1km from the house) and then after about 100m of tar it started to cough and splutter. Fortunately it cleared itself, so it must have just been the old fuel.

We actually got to go on a run with the Historic Car Club. This has unfortunately eluded us for most of the year.

We had a lovely, leisurely drive ending up at an old shearing shed.

This property has remained in the one family for nearly a century.

It had a lovely rustic feel.

We had a large roll up of members and had a wonderful day.

Also, yesterday I replenished my planter box with some lovely little polyanthus as the bulbs are now well and truly finished. I’m liking having cheerful plants in the kitchen.

The other exciting thing happening is that I have decided to partake in Jellywares' 2nd Wash Cloth Swap. This time we have to make a wash cloth and give some seeds for the garden. I'm currently working out what to make. It is a big secret. Should be fun.

A Beautiful Spring Day

Now close your eyes.

Feel the warmth of the sun on your face and the gentlest breeze.

Hear the bees as they go about their business.

See the occasional petal drift towards the ground.

What a Wonderful Day

Yesterday was the best! ….. But……..I forgot my camera!!.....I’d left it beside my computer after loading my last photos. I could have kicked myself, as I would have loved to show you some photos of the day and Kim’s work.

Kim Bradley is a wonderful tutor. I had read about her in magazines, but when she brought out her show and tell I realized just how clever she is.

We were all given a pile of small quilt sandwiches. Kim’s motto is that “If you can draw it, you can quilt it”. So, Kim drew a simple design (cloverleaf) on the whiteboard and we then drew it with a pencil on paper to get the idea of the design embedded in our brains. Then she just said “Quilt it.” Oh well, let’s try……quite jerky to start with, but hey, this is our first go at this, so not too bad. Then she drew leaves and we tried that.

I’m glad I knew the very basics, like framing your work with your hands. Whenever I had tried previously there had been a design marked on the fabric and I'd had no luck with it at all. This was all freehand, so you were concentrating on your stitching, not on following a line; it seemed to work much better for me.

Next was a more detailed leaf (to a collective groan), then wonky leaves.

After lunch we experimented with lots of more designs – just doodling – good fun.

My last sample was just doodling. I am really happy with the scrolley things in one corner. My long feather border is a bit how’s your uncle, but my favourite would be the peacock feather.

Then, the main event…. Kim had gone around and drawn a feather design for everyone. This time we did follow a line – and initially I had difficulty – until I just started to use it as a guide rather than trying to stay right on the lines. It doesn’t look too crash hot on the front, but I’m quite chuffed with it when I turn it over. The stitch length is quite irregular, but we can work on that.

I just can’t believe that this was achievable after just one day.

Kim recommends having a large pile of samples prepared beside your machine and quilt for 10 minutes a day. I might just try that.

I really enjoyed the day (I think I might have already told you that) and urge anyone who has the opportunity to attend one of Kim’s classes to do so.

Springtime

We’ve had some lovely rain over the last couple of days, with the weekend predicted to be fine followed by more rain early next week. You can’t get much better than that.

Yesterday, when I went up to feed the chooks our apricot tree was looking a picture.

We seem to be feeding the entire population of birds as well at the moment, but I’d say their food supply would be at its lowest at this time of year. The crimson rosellas are so bright. We are getting about 20 each morning.

Many years ago we bought a lovely water colour entitled “Springtime” which depicts chooks feeding under a blossom tree. We seem to be doing our best to recreate it.

Today I’m off to machine quilting classes with Kim Bradley in Bathurst. It is being held at the Craft Learning Centre. Leanne did well to get such a well known teacher.

Free motion quilting is something I have absolutely no confidence in so I’m really quite excited about today.

Birthday Tim Tams

My nephew had his 7th birthday on Tuesday and on Monday his mum was despairing about having to provide birthday cake for the class at school.

I mentioned that Melissa at Day to Day showed a 5th birthday party on her blog recently and there were cool Tim Tam racing cars. My SIL was intrigued, so I showed her the sight and she went straight to the supermarket.

On Tuesday she delivered a sample to me. Didn't they turn out well. Apparently they were a great hit at school, as they weren't something that had been done up here. Many thanks for the inspiration Melissa.

Beautiful Gifts

Firstly, as promised, here is a better photo of our beautiful Green Wattle. It is really putting on a show this year. I keep hacking away lower branches and it now has a lovely shape…..and we can actually get out of the gate, which is a bonus!

We called in at Mick’s Mum’s on Saturday. She has been having a clean out and found a box of lovely green glass under a bed. She will have bought it at op shops and put it away for my birthday or Christmas or something and had promptly forgotten all about it. They were all rather cruddy looking, but after a quick cycle in the dishwasher they shone beautifully in the afternoon sun. She was sure that I would have all the pieces…but I didn’t. The castellated bowl is new to me (I do have a castellated sweet set, but definitely different), the leaf plate over the back is new, and my favourite is the elegant jug with little feet. There is also a pair of vases, which I haven’t washed up yet. I do have another pair the same, but the more the merrier.

We were also sent home with these gorgeous camellias. Mick’s Mum has a lovely garden at her unit. She has the luxury of water and everything thrives. I couldn’t grow a camellia to save myself. The green bowl was also part of my new gift. I did have one like this and use it all the time, however mine had some big chips and this one is perfect.

Aren’t we spoilt.