Happy Birthday to my baby!

Today it is 31 years since I had my 4th child, a brother for 3 sisters and a 6 year gap. I think he has sometimes felt like he had 4 mothers, instead of a mother and 3 sisters! 

Once again I have delved back into the past looking at the albums to find a photo for the blog, and here is the one I chose.

And this one was taken today, and "borrowed" from facebook messenger.  They are having a family night away in the city, and here he is the proud dad of 2 children now. 

For some reason, I call him Sunshine, and I can't say why, but it has stuck. Today there is no sunshine and the temperature has dropped to be very cold, instead of the lovely sunshine we had a few days ago. So hope you have a great day with your family, Love Mum.

Blessings, From Jude

Country Forum 2019

Every 2 years, the Quilters Guild of SA hold a day in the city for Country Groups to attend, with guest speakers, shops, information tables, and of course food. It is always a great day out to catch up with old friends, and meet new ones, who all have the common interest of quilting.

There were 4 Gum Tree Quilters who attended this year, and we enjoyed our day. Three of us travelled together and one member went with her daughter. It had been on the agenda for us do an extra day and attend the Quilt and Craft Fair which was on in the city from Thursday to Sunday. But with all my time away recently, I made the decision that I could not do it all.

We did travel down the afternoon before so that we did not have such an early start on Saturday morning, and here we are at our accommodation on Friday evening, with our feet up! We ordered Chinese takeaway and spent a relaxing evening, either reading a book, watching TV, or stitching a binding.

 I did take a few photos, but there are lots more on the Quilters Guild of SA facebook page. It was a very interesting day, with the theme of "Preserving the Past". There were many speakers, who spoke on subjects such as Textile Preservation and Conservation, Antique quilts, Quilting Vintage Linens, Provenance and Labelling quilts.

The stage was lined with a great collection of Traditional quilts and Anne Marie is introducing speakers,

....... there were about 200 ladies in attendance...........

Chris O'Brien spoke on Quilting Vintage Linens, and showed some of her amazing work in the photo below. Now this is something that is on my "bucket" list that I want to do one day! It is a fantastic way to preserve old linens in a new way.

Heather Ford spoke on Provenance, and the importance of labelling your quilt. (This is one task I am not real good at, unless the quilt is being shown in an exhibition.) Note to self - do better!

This is Joan and her daughter at morning tea...................

..........and Pat and Marie waiting for the afternoon session to start.

 ....and it was lovely to catch up again with Deidre, from the mid north of the state, who I met a couple of years ago, and who told me that she checks my blog every morning for another post! The wonder of blogging, where you "know" someone, who you might never have met in person!!
Thankyou Deidre, for reading and great to meet you again.

After a short stop in Murray Bridge to see Dad, we arrived home about 9pm. I was really tired, but do confess to picking up the book I had been reading the night before and finishing the story, so it was rather late when the light went out, and thus very late when I woke up this morning. And although I love to read, it is the reason that I don't often pick up a book, because I need to read to the end to see what happens in the story!!

Today I have pottered around, and done some gardening, pruning and watering, and spent a lot of time on the computer sorting photos from years ago. Last week I sorted the slides from 1974 to 1980 and took them to a place in Adelaide on Friday to be scanned to a disk. I also need to do some backups of the photos. I might sit down now and read some more of that book, before bedtime. And tomorrow is is back to Max for some of the day, and a couple of errands down the street. Next weekend I even have time at home (!!) and then the retreats start again.

Bye for now,
Blessings, From Jude

The Hard decisions of Life!

The weather this week has given us lovely sunny days, temperatures in the low 30's and a gentle breeze. The sort of days that makes you feel good, and think that all is right with the world. And there are lots of things that are "right" in this world, but sometimes outside appearances are not a good indicator of things that are occurring below the surface.

There are lots of things occurring this week that are weighing on my mind. I guess the massacre in New Zealand has to be "up there" as not right in a worldly sense. And for my country, the drought in parts of Australia is affecting people I know, and there seems to be no end in sight. 

Closer to home, there are people I know dealing with treatment for recently diagnosed cancers, or facing a life ahead alone, after the death of their partner. 

And personally, my family has been coming to the hard decision that my Dad needs nursing home care. My parents have been married for 65 1/2 years and together for 70 years, so this is a big change. My mum has managed for longer than she should have, before admitting that she could not do it anymore. We all sort of knew that it was difficult, but unless you are there 24 hours a day, you could not know just how difficult the nights were.

There are 5 of us children, and 2 of us who live "away" from the town now. So the 3 locals have had to take the reins, and my sister has had the privilege (?) of filling out copious forms and dealing with the Aged Care Assessment system. (And what a runaround that is!) Things came to a crisis point a couple of weeks ago, and Dad was admitted to a local nursing home for Respite care for 2 weeks. Mum needed a break and was advised not to visit Dad for the 2 weeks. 

He was very unsettled, and not happy about the move, and it was heart breaking that he asked everyone who visited to take him home. 

And where did Mum go? She came to Bordertown!   I have found that usually in the tough times, that there is always a positive. And this one was that I got to spend a whole week with my mother, and share some special mother/daughter time. (It has been almost 50 years since I left the family home, which means it's that long since we have had one on one time together. So that means that I have had 2 special times recently, this one with my mum and the wedding trip with my sister). There was lots of talking, and reminiscing, some tears, and some laughter. While there are a few differences, I found we have lots of things we have in common.

 As it was the weekend I was going to Melbourne for Miss Billie's 1st birthday, mum came too. And she said it was the first time she had been to Melbourne!! Mum and Dad have travelled all over Australia, but not to Victoria, as they were leaving that till after they had done the further away trips.)

Here we are doing a selfie, on our way.

And of course, nearly all  my  family was in Melbourne for the party, and Mum got to see them all at the same time.

The family photo that was taken in Melbourne.

My sister sent me updates on Dad while we were away, so that Mum knew what was happening, and one of them had this photo.

I took Mum home last weekend, after we had been to the 18th birthday party, and the next day she visited Dad, and he was very happy to see her.

Today Dad has moved to a permanent room and will be looked after well.  I am sure he will have lots of visitors as there are 5 children, 15 grandchildren, and 14 great grandchildren to pop in and out. And I am sure Mum will adjust to living on her own, and visiting Dad some days.

I am thankful that we are able to get care for Dad, and that they have had a good life together. And I do know that there are lots of people for which the outcome is not so good.

It is easy to feel down with all this and the other things that are happening in the world, but as my Mum said this week, just take a day at a time. I know that God is in control and can bring good out of any situation, and just need to remember to trust in that. My mum is a great example of faith in action.

Time to finish this newsfromjude blog post and get ready for a meeting. I have another trip up the highway this weekend, and then not so many for awhile. I have managed to finish all the quilts that have been here since last year, and now need to get busy with some big custom show quilts.

Back soon,
Blessings, From Jude

The Party

Last Saturday we celebrated GD2's 18th birthday in Adelaide, and I didn't take many photos, and some were a bit blurry.

Miss Billie was very intrigued with Mr Tate.

Miss Bridie had a nice smile at this stage.

                                                           My niece and Miss Billie

                                                        My sister and my mother.

 Sorry for the blurry photo, but I was trying to hurry before Miss Bridie took off, as she wasn't going to cooperate for a group picture, and soon after this Mr Tate was crying. It is a bit tricky getting 9 of them to line up, but it was good to have all 9 grandchildren together at the same time.

After my day trip to the city on Saturday, I had a quieter day yesterday, and even had a nanna nap after I got home from church. Some time was spent in the garden also, as I had a "little" shop up in Bunnings on the way home. It is time to plant my winter vegetables and tidy up the flower beds after a hard summer. I can only hope that the worst of the HEAT has finished. A little time in the early mornings is on the agenda this week.

Today I have spent time with Max, and stitched some more elephants and other detail on an African quilt that has been in the queue for too long, and needs to be finished. Hopefully by tomorrow, it will have finished talking to me!

Blessings, From Jude

Quilt Time again.........

It seems like it's time again for a quilt show, as it is 3 weeks since I posted any. Newsfromjude seems to be less about quilting lately, and more about my road tripping. I think I need to stay home more often. I am feeling a tad "jetlagged", and am off up the highway again tomorrow, and then again next weekend!! My plans are to stay put for awhile after that, but with some things that are "brewing" in the background, this could change at any moment.

 So without further ado..................

The first quilt up was made by Kathleen, called Garden Maze. This was quilted ages ago, and almost missed the show! Kathleen said for less quilting, than more, so you can see what I did in the following photos.

The sashings were quilted with freehand leaves, but as it's a busy fabric, it is hard to see.

Suzie made this BOM quilt and had the most detailed needleturn applique in the blocks. This was quilted allover with Baptist Fan.

Cheryl made this quilt, and also does amazing needleturn, and stitcheries. This is a very striking 2 colour quilt. There was lots of SID, continuous curves, and outlining to do on this quilt.

Helen's quilts are a contrast, and a great use of scrappy fabrics. She made lots of scrappy stars, and stitched them together and it was quilted allover with Stars and Loops.

She miscounted, and found an extra star after making the top quilt, so used it in the center of another scrappy quilt, and when I asked what pattern she wanted, told me to choose 'whatever', and lo and behold I do have an allover pattern called Whatever, so that's what we used! Surely her stash of scrap fabrics is seriously depleted now??

That's all for tonight. I probably should go for some "beauty" sleep as I have an early start in the morning. There is a celebration lunch tomorrow for GD2's 18th birthday, (which was 11 days ago). We sure have had lots of family time together lately.

 The angels were here yesterday for a sewing day, and were very productive, making string blocks to go to the Victorian bushfire relief. There has been lots of scrappy quilting here lately, but the stash does not seem to be shrinking.

I have been working on some custom quilts this week, and today there are lots of elephants walking around in my studio!!

That's all for tonight,

Blessings, From Jude

Another road trip!

It seems like that's all I do lately, pack up the car and drive to another place.

This time it was a road trip to Melbourne to attend the first birthday celebrations of Miss Billie.
It hardly seems any time at all since I was in Melbourne for her birth, but a lot of water has "gone under the bridge" in that year. There was the usual machine quilting to do, a trip to America, a bout or two of shingles, the usual weekend retreats, Christmas, the birth of another grandchild, and the wedding of my nephew. I think the world must be speeding up as I get older??

It was a lovely party attended by family and friends and there were lots of small children. DD3 hired a face painter which was a hit with the young ones, and she was kept busy. I did take a few photos of the painter at work, with a queue of children, but I had used my camera, which is still in Melbourne! I used my phone for some photos as shown below.

There were lots of balloons to put up, and thankfully they had been blown up before I arrived, because I can never get enough air into them to make them larger than a small ball!!

The balloons were all attached to some tape in a long trail........

........and attached to the stairs, which looked very effective. Miss Billie loved looking at the balloons hanging, when she woke up next morning, and kept pointing to them.

She was not too sure about the candle, and the singing by everyone!

.........................The cake was beautiful and very tasty.

Even the ice blocks looked very pretty with the flowers in them.

These little cakes were very popular too.

The only one missing from the grandchildren photo, was Mr Tate, who has been a bit unsettled and it was deemed not a good idea to take him on a 10 hour drive, so he and his mum stayed home.

This little man was excited to see his painted tiger face in the glass of the oven door!

                            Here are a couple of happy children with the faces painted...................

                     The face painting lady also made some clever balloons for the children................

Here is Miss Billie sitting in my car just before I left on Monday morning, pretending she was coming home with me. I do think that her parents would have not let me go too far before taking her back though.

After a lovely weekend and catching up with most of my family, it is time to get back with Max and get some more quilts done this week. We have another family gathering in Adelaide this weekend, with the 18th birthday celebrations of GD2, so I will be "on the road" again!

I will be back in a couple of days with some more newsfromjude,

Blessings, From Jude