Monday 26 November 2018

Home again


 I returned home this afternoon after a few days in Melbourne. The weather was very cold, wet and wintry when I left home on Friday morning, but nice and sunny for the drive home today. This is my 2nd drive on my own to Melbourne, and I am very thankful for Google Maps on my phone, that tells me where to go, and what lane to get in for the next part of the freeway. The traffic is very heavy going through the centre of the city, and was down to a slow crawl some of the time. The following 2 photos show you how I had my phone set up so I could see it, the first time I went, which was a home made, temporary fix, that came unstuck on the journey home. The second photo shows how much better it is with a purchased item that was made for the phone.


Of course I had to take lots of photos of Miss Billie, but will only share a select few. This smile is just like that of her mother when she was this age.



Swimming lessons are every Saturday morning and a great father/daughter time together. She loves the water.




This is a very rare picture as there is no smile happening here. Hopefully she will laugh at this in years to come.


I posted a quick phone blog on Saturday after I had been to Australian Quilt Market, which is the Quilting and Patchwork Industry Trade Show, that is held in Melbourne each year. Always good to see the new fabrics, and perhaps find a bargain or two. I brought a little bag home with me, and have some more that will be delivered in due course! My mind is working on designs for more mystery cases already.

I mentioned visitors that I had last week, and here are a couple of photos of them. GD2 came with her friend and we "reconstructed" another school uniform, went out to lunch and a drive around town, and played cards at night. It was a lovely few days, and I loved having you visit. School is finished now, and it's all set for the next part of life.




I think that's enough for tonight, and my bed is waiting for me. Tomorrow it has to be action stations at the machine with Max, in the hope of finishing quite a few that are in the queue to be finished before the end of the year.

Blessings, From Jude



Saturday 24 November 2018

AQM

Just a couple pics of where I am while waiting for my taxi. I tried not to spend too much .
be back later
Blessings from Jude


Friday 23 November 2018

Wednesday 21 November 2018

Time for a quilt show again.....................

Just going back through the last few posts and I see it is a month since I posted quilt photos. Where are the months going to? I obviously have enough "other" stuff to blog about that the quilt shows get a bit neglected.

The first 2 were made by Val, for young family members, and quilted with allover patterns.


This I Spy quilt was quilted with an ABC edge to edge, which Val throught quite appropriate for the child of teachers.



This pretty quilt was the result of chopping up leftover blocks and stitching back together again, and using up every last scrap. Even the binding was made from leftover pieces!



This quilted with a pattern called Flowing Ribbons.


Helen made this quilt for a friend's birthday. A lot of the fabrics were not plain cottons, although it is hard to see this in the photo.


Helen wanted an allover pattern with leaves and berries.


Sherrel made this Almost Amish quilt with lovely bright fabrics against a black background. The only instructions I received for the quilting, was to do feathers in the black. The photos were taken on a gloomy day, which makes it hard to see very well.






Jean made this candlewicked quilt, and sorry, but again the photos were taken on a gloomy day.






This quilt was made by Sharon, and features 3 panels surrounded by pieced blocks, and was quilted allover with a Swirls design in gold thread.



Gustav Klimt is a famous artist and this quilt features his paintings in fabrics. Sharon made this quilt for friends who love his work. The panels are the tree of life, the kiss and the woman in gold.




 Chris made the next quilt in a Pick a case Mystery retreat, and it's called Sweet as Honey, as the border fabric has bees in it. It was quilted allover with Bees and Loops.




There are still photos in the files, but I think that might suffice for today. It's time to go and load another quilt.

My visitors have departed after a lovely 2 days here, which I will report on later.

Blessings, From Jude

Tuesday 20 November 2018

Happy Birthday

 Today GS 1 turned 10 years old. Double figures, and growing up so fast. Which means it must be 10 years this week since I finished my radiotherapy, as I remember waiting for the birth before I went home. How the years have flown. Hope your day has been a good one, and it was good to see you last weekend.


A lovely photo of my 4th grandchild, and my 8th grandchild.


Time to switch off for the evening, and take the quiche out of the oven. Spending time with my 2nd grandchild, and her friend for a couple of days, and there could be rematch of last night's card game, to see if I might lose this time?? And there has been another school uniform "redo", which I shall show you in another post.

Blessings, From Jude

Sunday 18 November 2018

Catching up, Looking back and reminiscing..............

Time for more newsfromjude, so better get busy as I feel an early night is in order tonight.
Once again it has been a busy week. I got busy after last weekend's "F" retreat, and Max and I worked our way through a few quilts.


Most were allover's but there is a custom loaded now, that should have been finished by Friday afternoon, but wasn't. They say the best laid plans are meant to go astray, (or words something like that!?), and I was cruising along Friday morning, and had some customers call in to pick up quilts, and chat, after which I stopped for a late lunch. The weather looked glorious outside my window, so I decided to sit in the pergola, and eat my lunch while reading the paper. (Note to self, do this more often). It was not long before I heard my almost 90 year old neighbour walking down the street with his dog. I said hello to him, and he stopped and sat in the pergola with me for a chat. He keeps asking me if I have picked any tomatoes yet, in my new garden, and he has put in an order for some. I think it might be awhile yet before I will be picking any of the produce. See photo below.....although this was taken a couple of weeks ago now, and things are moving along with this warmer weather.


While we chatting, I heard the side gate being opened, and who should it be, but Miss Bridie and her mum. That was a nice surprise. I forgot to take any photos, but her mum kindly sent me this one taken recently. My lunch "hour" was turning into a very relaxing afternoon, as the toys and books came out. The quilt could wait, although I did work that evening until after 9pm and hope to finish it Monday morning.


My visits to Mum and Dad have been occasional and quick this year, usually as I am driving through their town on my way up or down the highway. As Saturday was the first "free" time in a long while, without a retreat, or being somewhere else, or busy cutting cases of fabrics, I decided to go for a visit and take them for a drive somewhere. To actually take the time to spend some time.

It was a lovely surprise when I arrived to find DD2 and her boys were visiting too, so that was a bonus to my visit. And it was not long before 2 of my nieces arrived for a visit too.


I had talked to mum about my trip and wondered if they would show me the house that Dad's mother grew up in, that I had read about in the recent family history book they had given me. I had grown up in this area, but never actually travelled to that side of the highway. So after lunch we drive about 15 minutes out of town, to find the house. We think this is the one, although it's a bit hard to see much with all the trees. My grandparents moved away from this house in 1946. The house is still lived in.


I wonder if my great grandmother planted this cacti, it looks like it's been there for many years??


This is the cemetery that 4 of grandma's siblings are buried in......


.....but I do find it sad, that they are buried in unmarked graves. I guess it was a tough life with 12 children to bring up.


After we had looked around in Monarto, I thought it would be nice to go back and visit where I grew up, as it was only about 10 minutes away. On the road to the farm, I stopped at this house, which is where I lived for the first 6 years of my life. I remember climbing through the fence where the geraniums are and catching the school bus. Mum says they are the same geraniums.


The house is still in reasonable state, and is used for farm storage by the owners of the farm. The wooden door you can see on the left is the laundry door, which also was the "bathroom". I can still remember the Saturday night ritual of bath night, with the whole family using the tub, and Dad being the last in!! Can't imagine going a whole week these days. How things have changed. Of course hot water was not "on tap" either and had to be heated. And behind that tank is a window, of a bedroom, where 3 of us slept. I remember one night we had visitors, and I was made to go to bed, so was leaning up to the window, trying to listen to the conversation, and the screen came off, and I fell outside, right into the wood box outside!! 


After stopping to these photos, I got back into the car, which had been over taken with flies!! I had forgotten about the flies in the country, and can't say I miss them now that I live in the town.

A bit further up the road and we came to this gate. This is the entrance gate to the family farm, which was settled by our family in 1910. My brother still lives and works on the farm. We used to wait at this gate for the school bus each morning.


The view from the gate towards the houses and sheds over the hill. We used to ride our bikes to the bus stop, and it was 3/4 of a mile each way.


This picture was taken from the farm houses, and looking back, and shows the hill we rode up, and as we came to the top, we would hope that we could not see the bus waiting for us, as that meant a bit more fast, hard pedalling!


This is the house that I lived in from the age of 6 until I left to be married. The window on the left at the front was my bedroom. The house has been reclad in recent years, and was once corrugated iron.


This stone wall at the right, has been there for longer than my lifetime, and still standing.


The outside loo is still standing, although there was an outside laundry building to the front of this once upon a time.


This is the original farm house from when the farm was first settled, and is now the shearing shed.


While at the farm we caught up with another niece and her husband and 2 children, who also live on the property. There 2 little girls are growing up fast, and I don't see them very often.

Another reason to visit the farm was to present my brother and his wife with a quilt. Awhile back Leanne said she would love one of my quilts, and I have been gradually giving them to someone who I know will love and appreciate them. Her choice was my Garden Delight, and it has finished being shown and is now in her care. I should have taken a photo of her with it, but forgot.


Leanne's special skill is mosaics, and I photographed a few of the items in her garden. Now that she is retired, there is bit more time for her hobby.



 If you are looking for a lovely gift I would love to pass on your details to Leanne, as she is working on getting enough products to sell at markets.



She loves to collect old plates, for her work, and if you break something precious, she would love to hear from you. I asked her how she could bear to smash up a perfectly good cup or plate, and she laughed. I guess it is no different to a quilter cutting up a perfectly good piece of fabric and sewing it back together again. Some of the op shop workers spend time to specially wrap her purchases, and are dismayed when she says, don't worry about that, she will be breaking it into little pieces!!



This is the bird house that I received last Christmas, and is hanging in my garden.


When we arrived back from the farm, it was time for a cuppa, and the next visitors were my sister and her son. Another good catch up time. Sorry a bit remiss with the photos, too busy chatting.
I left for home about 6.30pm and it was a 2 hour drive back home, which was followed by a good night's sleep.

It was a lovely day out, very relaxing, lots of reminiscing, and storytelling, and it felt good to sit and not worry about the time and rush in and out.

This morning I went to church, after having missed a few weeks. Another lovely service and chatting to friends afterwards. I have some special friends who were neighbours when we lived on the farm here at Bordertown, and our catch ups have been few and far between lately. Since August we have been talking about getting together for a meal, and today was the day! I cooked a roast which we enjoyed for lunch after church. Again, there was lots of reminiscing and looking back, and much  discussion about the world today and where it's going, or perhaps I should say Not going!? While we were still sitting and chatting I received another visitor and Chris called in to deliver a parcel. We put the kettle on and continued chatting, finding out that it's a small world, and someone always knows someone that you do!! Not long after there was another knock on the door, and Pauline arrived. Luckily the kettle was still hot, and probably another hour of chatting continued.


After their departure, it was time to water the garden, as Nic is waiting for his tomatoes!! And there endeth another day, and almost 3 days of catching up, looking back and reminiscing! And spending time with friends, which has been very neglected in a busy year.

And it's not all over yet, as tomorrow I am getting another visitor. This time it will be GD2 who has finished exams and taking some time off.

Blessings, From Jude