I'm still here!!!!............

 

In my last post I promised to be back soon with an update on another event I had attended! Well, you know what they say about good intentions, don't you? My apologies for not checking in before now, and I also have to admit that my blog reading is so far behind as well.  My only excuse, well one of them, is that I was trying to finish up a few customer quilts from the queue before my fairy, assistant, whip cracker, Raylene came back to help with market preparation! And now it's almost 2 weeks since an update of newsfromjude and I need to cross this task off my "to do" list so that cutting, sorting, and packing can continue.

GOING BACK IN TIME

On the Sunday of the weekend that Quilt show was on, I went back in time. I grew up in the district of Brinkley, which is about 10 miles from Murray Bridge. As was the case for most rural areas, the local hall was the centre and meeting place for a lot of activities. My family settled in this district early in the 1900's so there is a lot of history there. The local hall, photo below, was 100 years old in April and a Hall Centenary reunion was held. There is a little building on the other side of this hall that is much older, and both my parents went to school in that building which was the hub of district activity until the larger hall was built. This building was used for church services, dances, Christmas parties and even weddings over the years. Tennis courts were later built on the other side the hall. The tennis club is still very active today. I went to church and Sunday school here until it closed and we went to Murray Bridge. I learnt to dance in this hall, attended  the annual Christmas tree and played tennis. My parents held special wedding anniversary celebrations here and it was a real trip down memory lane. It was also a bit of a wakeup call to look around and see all these "old" people walking around, some with obvious health limitations and realise that these people were not a lot older than me. Time to seriously look at getting that balance in my life, and not just talk about it. Time to do some of the things that are on MY to do list, and not work every day of the week. 

There was a good attendance of approx 150 people on the day, and I am glad there were name tags! Some people had not changed a bit, and others I could have walked past in the street and not recognised. 

There was a centenary stone with a plaque that was unveiled on the day, and no, these ladies did not perform that duty. This is my mum on the left, and her younger sister on the right, with another cousin centre. 

The hall was filled with displays of older items and much history was recorded and displayed.

I even made Santa's Nice List in 1958!

My Dad's family and the property which is called Lakeview is still in the family, and now managed by my younger brother.

William was my great, great grandfather and purchased the property which became known as Lakeview in 1910.

My Mum's family

Of course there was the traditional country hospitality for afternoon tea.

This is a photo I took of one of the pictures on display, and I know most of the faces that are dancing the night away, back in the early 60's. We had some good times.

The cake was cut by my mum and another one of the "older" ladies of the district.

In the old school there were slideshows of old photos and many took advantage of this.

CELEBRATIONS

There have been 2 special days with Mother's Day and another birthday. It has been a great week of Family, Friends, Flowers, Fun, Fellowship (F)onecalls, and Favours!

I also received this gift for my birthday!! And you can probably guess what it is. It might be my Favourite, a Fun gift of Fertilizer, and will be just what my cleared back yard needs so that I can prepare the soil for spring plantings!   (It's more commonly known as SH.....)

ANGELS DAY

Much was achieved by the girls at a recent sewing day, with others coming and going at different times of the day. 

QUILTING

Max has been busy and quite a few have been done, but I shall leave photos of those for another post.

SOCIALISING

There has been much social activity with birthday morning teas, mothers day and birthday outings as stated above. The camera has not come out on most of those occasions, although I do seem to have one photo.

My fairy arrived Saturday morning for a 2 week stay and she must be an attraction as the revolving door has been in action since then. (I think she should move to Bordertown as she has got to know many people over time, has joined our local patchwork group, and is no longer welcomed as a visitor in church!!)  Since about 9.30 Saturday morning there has been someone here almost non stop until 8pm last night. This morning Raylene was sewing binding, and I was working on the computer and all was quiet and we commented how strange it was. But we had a great weekend  with much laughter and chatter with friends. Hopefully the week ahead will see some work, a lunch out, our group's Annual General Meeting and some stitching. ....(EDITED - It seems like I spoke too soon, as not long after I wrote this paragraph Jean came to tell me that her hubby and a mate were in the back yard fixing a gate that was hard to open, then Val turned up to spend some time here and shortly after that Pat and Alan called in for a cuppa and scones.)

MY THERAPY SESSION

Every so often I like to have some stitching time for myself and I managed to fit some of this in the last week. My fabric rep called in one day and "left" me a bundle of fabrics. These are In the Beginning Fabrics, Garden Delights III range, and my mind started to think. 

I had recently seen a quilt on a the blog of Quiltdivajulie and decided to have a go at making one for myself. I did do a bit of night time sewing, which is not my habit, but it worked because at the end of a week I had the centre of the top done. I am now thinking about the borders, if any, and have lots of opinions about this. There will be no more progress until after Market Day.

MARKET DAY

Below is the advert for Market Day in case any SA girls have not heard about it. Should be a great day out, perhaps I'll see you there?

Well, that's my lot at the computer for today as now I have updated newsfromjude and also typed up our group newsletter for this week. We have our Annual General Meeting on Thursday and planning is being made for our exhibition in October. Not too sure if I will be back with a post until after Market day or before? I do hope to catch up on blog reading, perhaps that will be a night time job as well? Hope your week is a good one.

Blessings, From Jude