"Tis done!

Just a quick post this morning to update you on yesterday. I started painting the ceiling and when I was 3/4 way through, I realised that I was going to run out of paint. So a trip to the store when it opened at 9 saw the purchase of another tin. I forgot that ceiling paint was much thicker, and had also used this 4 litre tin in the bathroom. I should have purchased a 10 litre tin in the first place. I had finished the ceiling by mid morning, and then took some time out when friends called in the see the progress.
Then it was time for an early lunch before I opened the wall paint, which is called Seafog. This colour is not a lot different than what was already on the walls, so only needed one good coat to cover. By 4pm I had finished the walls. I should have counted how many times I stepped up onto the ladder.  I am thankful that my ceilings are not high in this house, as I am not that confident going up any higher than 2 steps. Then it was time to wash the roller, brush and tray, and take off my "painting" clothes and wash the paint from my face and hair. That felt much better. I will say I was in bed by 7pm last night for a good sleep.
There are no photos, as the mess is all still there, and I need to take the tape off the doors etc yet.
That will wait for another day, as today I am having a day off!!
Tomorrow will see the bathroom guys back again, and our local patchwork group commences again for the new year. And some quilting to happen this week too. There will be more renovations as a last minute decision has been made to update the "little room" too, while the guys are at it.
I still have more painting in my future, but maybe a week or two yet.

Because it seems strange to write a post without any photos, I shall include some I took in my garden recently. First is a plant that I purchased because I thought the flowers on the label looked pretty, so I was rather happy to see it when it did flower. Maybe next year I will get more flowers.

And this is one of my roses that has been very happy to to grow now that they have the fence to shelter them from the north winds.

Enjoy your Sunday, whatever you are doing. Will be back soon.

Blessings, From Jude

Quilting is still happening

I know that I haven't posted much in the way of quilt photos recently, as there is so much other "stuff" going on. But in the background I have been getting some quilts finished for customers. So this morning before I launch into my day, and before you all think I have been slacking on the quilting front, I thought I would share some photos. 

First is a quilt made by Beth for her grand daughter, and quilted all over with butterflies and swirls. 

I took the photo a bit late in the day, and the sun was coming through the window. I like to take them in the morning, when the light is just right.

This was made by Val, and uses up lots of blue/purple fabrics. Also quilted all over with the pattern that you can see in the second photo.

The next quilt is a sampler made by Taygan, and is her first quilt, and would you believe it is all HAND PIECED! This is an amazing effort for a first quilt, and from this NON hand anything girl, I am doubly amazed!! This was simply quilted with an allover meander.

This is an interesting quilt, made by Betty, with Australian prints, and appliqued circles on the background. The colours were more vibrant than this photo shows, and it was quilted allover with a pattern called Inside Out, which I thought was appropriate for the fabrics.

This is just a little update of quilting, and there are still more in the files. Have been working on a few custom recently, which I will show another day. It is 5.30am and I have had the first coffee for the day, and will now get dressed and head to the lounge for a day of painting. I painted the bathroom on Thursday evening, before they put the bath in yesterday.

 The cornice in the lounge was repaired in the last couple of days, and I had intended to paint the ceiling last night. But, I needed to undercoat the new bits first, so off to the shop yesterday to get a little tin of undercoat. That was applied late yesterday and my intention was to keep painting last night. But you know that all good intentions can change don't you. It started raining late afternoon, and I decided that maybe the rest of the painting could wait until this morning, so that the undercoat could dry, as the air was quite moist. I also did not fancy going into the back, back yard and washing out the paint stuff in the rain. As it happened, it took me an hour or two to put painters tape on all the door frames etc and then I was tired enough to call it a day. Did I mention that in my lounge there are 5 doorways, and a sliding door ,(leading out to the pergola), and the doors to some wall cupboards, which all needed taping. There is also an archway into the kitchen, which thankfully needed no tape!
Have added a couple of photos of my mess in progress. I will be so relieved when it is all finished. Seems like it is a game of musical furniture, moving stuff around so that I can work in each room.

The view from the dining room, where my lounge is currently moved to.

The view from the sliding door, where you can see all the doors and cupboards.

If you are thinking the flue on the wood heater is a bit skewed you are right. I was wondering how I was going to be able to paint in the narrow corner behind the heater, as I could not get the ladder in there, but thanks to the brilliance of the tradesmen here yesterday, it was suggested to move the heater! I thought it was well and truly fixed to the slate on the floor, but no, it was just sitting there, and after he moved the flue out, the heater was pushed forward, and hey presto, I could get into the corner with the ladder!!

This is the view from a bedroom door, looking back to the dining area and then into the front sewing room. Even have very heavy piano which needed to be moved. Thankfully it is on wheels, and some muscle men rolled it forward for me.

Think it's time to press the publish button and head for the shower, and a second coffee, before I stir the paint and get busy. Ceiling first, and then the walls. It is my intention to finish this room today, so here's hoping. The rain sounds like it has stopped, and the weather is much cooler for a couple of days, before it heats back up again next week.

Blessings, From Jude

6 months old

I "found" this photo on facebook this morning. No more words are necessary.

Have a good day, whatever you are doing.

Blessings, From Jude

Going, going..... gone!

These photos are progress shots from today. It was demolition day in the bathroom. Time to take out the dated brown from the 80's and replace it all. Maybe brown will be the new colour next year!! The shower glass was cracked, and the vanity cupboard louvre doors have seen better days. 

 Renovations always have some surprises, and this one had a bath that was bricked in and wasn't going anywhere!! The new bath is deeper, so the taps need to be raised for it to fit. The good part was that the tiles came off  without any damage to the walls.

Tomorrow will see the next stage coming together, and I will need to get out the paint tin again. Glad the weather will be a bit cooler.

The new bathroom will be very plain, in neutral colours of white and beige. 

There will also be another tradesman here tomorrow to fix up some cornices in the lounge, and of course that will need to be painted as well! I have been to the paint shop today, so am ready to go.

I finished a large custom quilt today, and have another ready to load in the morning, so will not be sitting around twiddling my thumbs anytime soon!

Bye for now,

Blessings, From Jude

More family time

It has been another busy weekend with family guests arriving on Saturday. My mum and dad, my sister and my niece came for a short, but lovely visit. My niece has been keen to learn sewing, and I promised her some time in the holidays and we made good progress in a couple of days.

 It is always hard to know how to start them off, and I would have loved to get her into quilting, but that is not really a quick process, as I have discovered when teaching my granddaughters. I gave her a choice of projects and she chose to make a bean bag, and we were fortunate to have enough fabric and a pattern left over from when GD2 made one last year. She was a quick learner, and progress was achieved before bedtime that evening. Unfortunately we did not have any "beans" to fill it with, but used a few odds and ends of wadding, and her mum will fill it with beans when they get home.

 The smile says it all I think.

The next project was a diary cover, and she soon learnt how to rethread the machine with all the different coloured threads that she used on the hand dyed fabric. It was a good chance to try out the different stitches on my machine. She even did some couching.

Here she is showing Grandpa her finished project. It even has her name on the front, which I stitched using the alphabet on my machine.

And with a couple of hours spare until it was time to leave for home, she did another one the same, which will be a gift for someone soon.

All too soon it was time for home, and I was fortunate to offload a few of my surplus goods, which I am still sorting out after the move from The Sanctuary. And of course they had to fit the bean bag in too!

And if you have not got anyone to take a group photo, then you do a "selfie" photo, which gives the one with the camera, an "arms stretched out" look!

It has been many years since my sister and I have stayed at each other's homes, so it was a very precious time. We had lots of laughs, and reminiscing with mum and dad. My sister was born when I was nearly 17, and I had left school and was out working, and not living at home. I was the eldest child, then 3 brothers, and quite a few years later along came the sister I always wanted. When I married we moved about 3 hours away, and she was not quite 3 years old. Consequently we have not spent a lot of time together, and now that we are older, things are changing.

My niece is very pleased with her projects, and is talking about coming back soon, and I know my sister enjoyed her "time out" to chat and do some reading.

The weather is lovely again for a few days, after last week's heat, which culminated in a big storm in the early hours of Friday morning. We received about 20mls of rain, which was very welcome on the garden and in the tanks, even though it came with very high humidity. I took the opportunity to work in the garden and planted a few things.

This week I need to get back to some quilting again, and I hope to have some renovation progress to report on by the end of the week. And then there will be some more painting to do, and the shifting of furniture etc that goes with that. I can't wait until it is all finished. My sewing projects (including that wedding quilt!) are waiting patiently.

Have a good week,

Blessings, From Jude

Family time

This week I have been fortunate to have had nearly all of my grandchildren here to stay.

Last Friday 3 of them came to stay until Sunday while  DD1 had some time out. It is always lovely to have them stay on my home patch.

Mr nearly 6 year old spoilt the cat,....

 and we played a few games of Sesame Street Snap.

and we made some red jelly.

Miss nearly 15 years old made some custard slice, and ate the leftovers in the saucepan..

Miss 11 year old loves to read, and I encouraged her to finish her book as I understand what it is like to be reading a good book and having to put it down. Must be time I took some time out to read a good book. Maybe after the renovations are finished??

We went to the local wildlife park and saw the white kangaroos, and the peacock with the beautiful feathers.

Then we visited Mundulla, a small town about 10 minutes away, and  played in their playground.

The weather was nice enough to have pancakes for brunch in the pergola on Sunday, when mum came to pick them up. After that the days heated up again.

Sunday afternoon DD2 and her family arrived. Miss 15 year old went to spend time with her father until Wednesday and 2 little boys and their mum stayed. While I had my "procedure" on Tuesday, they visited the Naracoorte Swimming Lake. The weather was approaching 40deg, so they had a good time in the water.

They played hide and seek, and Mr nearly 5 years old thought he had the best hidey spot under my desk, and big brother took a long time to find him there.

They also had some fun playing Sesame Street Snap. Mr 7 year old is wearing his sports glasses because his other 2 pairs are both being repaired. Lucky he has these to wear in the meantime.

Wednesday afternoon they picked up their big sister, who turned 15 years old that day, and headed for home for a birthday tea. I forgot to take a photo of Miss 15year old when she called in to see me on their way home, so I will include one taken at the wedding before Christmas of her and her mum.

  Seeing 6 out of 7 of my grandies in the last few days has been unusual, and even though I did not see Miss Bridie, I have "borrowed" a photo of her that was taken this week. 

It has been a lovely few days, (well except for the yucky medicine), and I now look forward to a visit of more family on the weekend coming up.

The weather is still very warm, and I can't wait for a few cooler days early next week. In amongst all this other activity I have finished a large custom quilt, which was picked up by it's happy owner yesterday. Stay cool.

Blessings, From Jude

Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious

This photo shows what was on the agenda earlier this week. In the glass is the "medicine" that I was supposed to drink in preparation for a procedure that I was to have done the next day. I was reminded of the movie "Mary Poppins" and a couple of the songs she sang. The first song was "A Spoonful of Sugar", and the chorus line that says.... A spoonful of sugar makes the medicine go down......

The second song was "Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious", and the line that says...... Even though the sound of it is something quite atrocious.......

Well let me tell you that this glass of "stuff" is really quite atrocious and I don't think even a spoonful of sugar would help me get this down. People tell me it is mind over matter, and just do it! I did manage to get about 1/3 of the "stuff" down, and then the gag reflex kicked in and I could do no more. I know some people have no problem doing this. You can stick needles in me, cut things out and take blood, and I have no problem with tablets, but this is a no no.

Anyhow, that is more than you probably wanted to know, and the procedure did happen, and all is well,and come back in 5 years. Well, we will see about that?

 Today I am wilting in the heat and doing nothing and hoping that tomorrow will be much cooler.

Blessings, From Jude

More quilts

I hope you had a chance to watch the video of Lessa Siegele that I posted about in the last blog. I watched it on Monday, and was very impressed. It was very entertaining and I learnt a few things in the demos. Today I had the chance to watch it again, when a friend who does not have a computer, came here to see Lessa.

Looking back in my photo files I can see that there a quite a few quilts that I have not shown on the blog. There seems to be a long gap between quilt photos lately. Must be that there has been a lot of other things happening.

Suzie made this quilt for a wedding present, and she loves the modern waves pattern, so most of her quilts are done with this. I loved the background print on this quilt, but it is hard to see in the photo.

Again made by Suzie and quilted with Modern Waves, this quilt was made for a baby and is great collection of pinks, so guessing it is a girl!

This was made by Jenny, and was a kit and pattern from Quilters Harvest at Warracknabeal. Not sure what the name of it is, and it was quilted with a point to point pattern going diagonally through the blocks, to give it a custom look.

A quilt made by Linda, and quilted all over with a berries pattern. The border which you can't see is a border print.

 This baby quilt was also made by Linda, and quilted all over with a circles pattern which looks like balloons floating across the quilt.

This quilt was hand pieced by Jo, and quilted all over with a Continuous Baptist Fan pattern.

A very modern quilt, made by Carol and quilted all over with Modern Waves.

 And this chevron quilt was made by Dianne, and the only quilting on this is stitch in the ditch, which defines the pattern nicely.

In case you think that I have been busy this week, I will tell you that these were all done last year, before the wedding, so maybe that is why I forgot to show them.

I am busy working on some custom quilt this week, and am feeling much more motivated today with a temperature drop from 40 deg yesterday, so 26 today. It is almost cold, and I love it. It is so nice to sleep with blankets on and wake up feeling refreshed.

Time to call it a day, as I have been up since 5.30am. Lots happening in the next few days.

Blessings, From Jude