The Second Week of August

Here I am, being organised and doing a second weekly post in the month.  Wonders will never cease.  LOL

On the stitching front there isn’t a great deal to show, but I have been having fun.

As I didn’t have anything ready to pick up quickly for my stitching morning last Friday, I just grabbed a heap of colourful scraps and took them along to cut hexies out.  I ended up with this nice little pile.  That should keep me out of trouble for a little while.

I took them along to my patchwork morning on Wednesday and started glue basting.  Isn’t my little tin pretty.  I have another one identical to this and a couple more similar, which are great for six inch blocks and other small projects.

I didn’t get very far, but I’ll explain why shortly.  They will be good to work on for future stitching mornings, as there is no brainwork required.  For the first time, I have tried glue basting with the Kmart glue sticks.  Surprisingly, they are acid free and at the price of $1 for four, it is somewhat more economical than $16 for four glue pen refills.  They seem to be just fine, so for prepping so many hexies, they will be my preferred method.

At home I continued to play with my little blue sampler.  Just a teaser here, but I am happy to report that I finished it today.  It will have its own post.

I have printed off the pattern for August’s fish, but have done nothing more.  Now that the sampler is completed, the batik fish and the Laundry Basket Mystery Quilt can be worked on.

Yes, I managed my 15 minutes of stitching each day.

In other happenings, I played ladies on Saturday, attending a high tea.  It was a lovely time spent with friends and the food was rather delightful.

A couple of the tables were decorated with hellebores, one of my favourite flowers.  I love the double white and purple version in the bottom photo.  I only have fairly common colours.  All of mine have come from church fetes and open garden stalls.  None are from nurseries. I am delighted to learn that I am being gifted a seedling for the yellow version in the top photo. 

The weather was actually fairly warm for this time of year on Sunday, so we got out in the garden to give out baby bay tree some TLC.  It has been in this copper for quite some years, and its leaves have started to go yellow lately. (The copper has been plastic lined.)  A lack of water at times may have contributed.  It was decided to take it out of the pot and plant it directly in the ground.  It is a miniature variety, so shouldn’t grow huge like the normal bays do.

It was quite an exercise to remove it from the pot.

Yep, it was rather root bound.

Now it is looking rather short compared to what it was.  We will give the herb garden a good tidy up once the weather warms up a bit more.

The weather was rather bleak on Tuesday, so we took the opportunity to head east over the mountains.  We do like how the mountains look all moody in the mist.  Unfortunately, I couldn’t get a photo as we were driving along, but the mist in the valleys was really picturesque.

It is always nice to see the wattle in bloom at this time of year.

First stop was the town of Windsor to have some lunch.  Then it was a bit further in to go to the bowls shop to buy Mick some shoes and other bits and pieces.  Now that he has been playing for a while and definitely enjoys it, it was time to get fully kitted out.

Coming home we had a nice sunset.

By the time we arrived home a big bank of clouds was building up, which led to rain for most of the night and next morning.

Back to why I didn’t get many hexies glue basted on Wednesday.  Our patchwork group meets in the local church hall and I had to pop over to the church.

Holy Trinity Church will be celebrating its bicentenary next year.  It was the first parish and first church west of the blue mountains, so rather significant.  The Kelso parish was established in 1825, with the church building dating back to 1835.  I am a part of the committee to arrange the celebrations next year.

The 3rd Earl of Bathurst, on behalf of the king, was the one who signed off on the appointment of the first rector.  This week the 9th Earl of Bathurst is in town, so he and the mayor came to visit.  He is pictured on the left, with Carol, the church historian, David, the current rector and Jess Jennings, the mayor.  Lord Bathurst was very personable and enjoyed an informal morning tea with some of the parishoners before he went on his way for other engagements.

And that about sums up our week.  It was rather full, which was fun.