Sweet 16

Just a quick post to wish GD1 a very happy birthday for today. I can't believe how fast time has gone since I first became a grandma. (She calls me granny though, because I have a knick name for her!)

Today she passed her test for a Learners (L) driving licence and has recently taken possession of a "new to her" car. It makes me feel a bit old, but that's what happens isn't it? Time marches on.

I have sort of got out of the habit of posting photos of the family birthdays, so better try to improve this year. There is another special girl turning 16 soon also.

And while we are talking family stuff, we are all looking forward to another special occasion in a few weeks, with the wedding of DS and his fiance. Miss Bridie will make a lovely flower girl! We have been collecting rose petals from local gardens and drying them, ready for the big day. This is my collection.

Blessings,
From Jude

Googling for information

I am half way through that cream quilt, so have been doing a bit of desk work tonight before bed. I am still sorting and filing and moving things around, in my office corner of the room now. I have a new printer coming soon, and need to make a different space for it. It's all fun.

So then I started thinking about how close the Aussie retreat is, and I have not thought much about food yet. Trying to keep things authentic, I decided that I should investigate what was genuine Australian food. And then I would use that information to plan a menu!

Well, top of the list that I came upon was this photo below! Witchity grubs!! They are geniune Australian! Now how could I incorporate these into the menu?? LOL!

As a matter of interest I will list the things that were mentioned.....

Witchity Grubs, Anzac biscuits, Macadamia nuts, Emu, Damper, Pea Ham soup, Weetbix, Lamingtons, Salt Pepper Calamari, Lamb Leg Roast, Fish and Chips at the beach, John Dory Fillets, Iced VoVos, BBQ Snags, Balmain Bugs, Pavlova, Prawn Cocktail, Tim Tams, Dagwood Dog, Sausage Rolls, Sao Biscuits, Cherry Ripes, Chicken Parmy, Pigs in Blankets, Chiko Rolls, Meat Pies, Fairy Bread, Seafood Pizza, Crocodile, Vegemite on Toast, Australian Tuna Pasta Bake, Vanilla Slice, Cheese Bacon Roll, Grilled Kangaroo, Golden Gaytime, Barramundi, Crab Sticks, Fantales, Chicken Corn Soup, Curry Pie, Hamburger with Beetroot and Dim Sims.

I shall use this info to plan the menu. Now what do you think I shall choose? How about a nice piece of crocodile with Witchity Grubs on the side?? Wonder if I will have any cancellations before then?
I doubt if I could source those things locally, so I think my guests will be safe. I think my gag reflex would well and truly kick in before I could swallow this.

Time for bed,

Blessings, From Jude

I'm still here....

Tis a few days since my last post, so just checking in briefly to say I survived yesterdays almost 42deg heat. I know I should not complain, it was only 1 day, and lots have had far worse for longer. Today has been much nicer. 

Max has been busy in the last couple of weeks, and I will post some photos in due course. But this is what I loaded today, and will keep me occupied for some time. That gathered sashing looks fantastic on these quilts, but it is a tad tricky to stitch in the ditch, as sometimes the ditch wants to go the other way. Mainly because the blocks are ironed to pellon to make the stitches more stable, and this makes it hard to press nicely, as it sticks to the iron. Usually I can "turn" the ditch with a pin from the top side as I sew along. But not always.

Looking forward to this time next week, when the house will fill with friends for a few days of sewing, chatting, and celebrating being Australian. Getting the flags out ready.

That's all folks, be back soon.

Blessings, From Jude

Crossing items off the list....

It is way past my bedtime, but I need to quickly post before I head to bed. I have had a productive weekend, and made the most of cooler weather. This photo shows what I did yesterday, although I still need to put down some mulch, but that might wait. I am crossing this item off my list, which was there in 2016, and now 2017, I am calling it done. I will need to keep it watered in the next few days, as the temperature is rising, after a lovely few days. Hopefully I don't have too many failures in this lot, as they are supposed to be hardy. I know it's a risk planting in January, but I had to shift them for the air con to go in, so it seemed silly to make 2 moves. Wish me luck.

Last night I started on the task of finding photos of all the quilts I have made since I started back in 1996, and posted some to the blog. After I came home from church today, I was motivated to keep working on that, and I have spent all afternoon at the computer, except for a small time out watering and setting up the sprinkler on the garden above.

I mentioned that I had digital photos from 2004, and printed ones before that. I did keep an album of sorts in those years, and have now scanned all those photos, and blogged them all in the Quilt Gallery page. I did not post photos of about 40 cot quilts that I have made. But there are about 100 quilts, and a few assorted small items on that page for you to look at now. Some I can work out a date for, but others its a guess. It certainly has been a time consuming task, as while I was going back, I found lots of interesting photos, and sent SMS messages to a few people with these photos!! So imagine me doing the texting on the mobile, adding photos and information on the computer, and scanning photos, all at the same time!!  A real trip down memory lane it was! (Seem to be doing that a bit lately, but it goes with the territory of sorting your life, doesn't it?) I can remember about 6 quilts that I made, including my first ever quilt, that I don't seem to have a photo for, so will chase them up soon and add them later. So I guess that brings my tally of quilts made, including cot quilts not posted, to about 150 or thereabouts. All since 1996, and not a lot recently. I do have quite a few PHD's to finish, so might make a list of these soon. And I am almost ready to cross the "sort my quilt photos" item off my list, so I feel pretty good about that.

Back to the machine tomorrow, and another week starts.

Goodnight,
Blessings, From Jude

Blog housekeeping

I have spent some time recently updating pages of this blog. If you want to check out the Quilt Gallery page, I have loaded photos of about 23 of my quilts. This will be a work in progress, as I dig into my photo files for pics of my quilts. I am trying to compile a list of quilts that I have made over the years. I have a lot of photos, taken before I had a digital camera, and these will need to be scanned one day. These will be from 1996 to 2004. I went back to 2007 on my computer last night, and found the ones I have posted today. There are still more to come yet from these dates. I still need to go back further to 2004 for more. I did find that since 2010, I have not made many quilts, or perhaps I should say, not finished many quilts!!? One of my "to do" things on my list!

I have also updated the scheduled retreats page.

And I have changed the reading list of blogs on my sidebar. There were a lot from people that had not blogged for a long time, so they have been deleted, and I have added the ones I have been reading that were not there. You wonder why they are not blogging, whether life has changed, or something more serious.

That's all for now. Enjoy your Sunday.

Blessings, From Jude

Today's project

Because the weather is so cool and motivating today, I decided to get out into the garden and plant the area I posted last night. And because the airconditioner unit will be going in soon, and I would have had to move all these pots because they were along that wall, it seemed like it was a job that needed to be done. The days are going to heat up again this week, so action was needed. I love these cooler days. I think I have said that before, haven't I?

This was my starting point. The old wheelbarrow frame was one that my 87 year old neighbour had given me to put in the garden at The Sanctuary. I moved it into my back yard in September 2015, and it has sat there ever since. Now it's back in the garden again. I shifted the rocks that were lined up in the photo yesterday. I would have loved to have quite a few more of these, but made do with what I had.

 Now this is my collection, and decisions needed to be made where to plant them. I am not sure what size each plant will grow to, so it is tricky. It will be interesting to see how it all works out "in the wash". .... Where did that saying come from anyway?.... 

And this is at the end and all the empty pots. I think a lot of those plants will be so happy to get out of the containers, as they were quite root bound, so hope they grow.  More photos will come later, as still a bit of finishing off to do yet, with some edging plants. And I will lay some newspaper, and straw down to mulch.

Well I am quite happy with my days work, and it's another job I can cross of the "to do" list.
Now to work out which job on the list I shall tackle next. Sorry if you came to the blog for quilting "stuff", as it has been lots of house renos lately. But as this is a story of my life that I am getting printed, I need to record all this too.

Might put my feet up and watch the news, and read some of my book. I am not really "into" the book I am reading, so not sure if I shall finish it or not. DD3 gave it to me for Christmas, and most of it is good, but I am finding it hard to read the violent bits. The story line is good, and it must be me, as I know that that "stuff" happens in this world, but I am happy to put my "head in the sand" and not read about it. I said this to my mum, and she agreed, and said I must have got that from her! I confess that even a movie, or TV show, when it gets to some parts, I have to get up and walk away and come back when it's over that bit. Is there anyone else out there like this?

Catch ya next time,

Blessings, From Jude

The difference a year makes!

Time for that post I promised to show the progress of my garden on the laundry side. You can see from the following 2 photos, what a jungle it was, and not really an area that you wanted  to see much. And the only time I really went out there, was to get wood for the heater. I did not have a clothesline, and used to hang my clothes on the airer, inside, or use the dryer. You can see that the honeysuckle had grown right over the path......

 and the tree right outside the laundry door, was right onto the house roof. This also caused some tree roots to occasionally block up the pipes which were all down this side of the house. These 2 photos were taken at end of 2015.

In February, 2016 a good friend, who loves to get loose with a chainsaw, came and chopped down that tree.

In the foreground you can see an almost dead rosemary bush, which really added to the "ambience"!

The mess still being cleaned up. This end corner took a long time to get to.

So when the tree came out, it really opened up the side, and of course you could see right into the neighbours carport. The fence extensions that I purchased just added to the height of the fence and the privacy of my yard. My plan was to plant creepers all along the fence. But the tree had left a lot of roots that went for "miles". A bit, lot of digging was needed to get them out, before I could plant anything. And I am pleased to report that I have not needed to call the plumber in to clear the pipes at all since the tree went.

I had a nice little pile of second hand bricks in the back yard, so decided they would make a nice edging, to keep everything contained. This is the start of my "bricklaying", and also the planting of various plants. Since this photo I have also added more fence extensions down along the fence. You can see that the honeysuckle has been pruned right back.

 The view down towards the tank.

The bricks are moving further along, and the plants are all very new. I have planted 2 creepers along the fence.

I got this far with the bricks, and it took a long time to get this last corner done.

And then in the spring my sweet peas looked like this, until a big wind came along and blew them over. They did eventually bloom in lots of colours.

You can see how far the bricks have got, and this is end of spring.

 The bricks were finally finished the week before Christmas 2016!

The next few photos were taken the day after Christmas, and still a bit of colour.

You can see that I now have a clothesline, that means no clothes hanging around inside! And a table and chairs in the corner, which makes a nice spot to sit and "smell the roses", and listen to the many birds that are in the trees nearby. While I might not be able to smell the roses, which are on the other side of the house, there was certainly plenty of perfume earlier from the sweet peas, the honeysuckle and the carnations. It is now an area that I like to spend time in, but it is not a space that is visible to anyone else coming to my house, unless we are doing a garden tour!

This bath got over filled with water, and I was thinking I should have planted rice, as these plants don't look quite so good today. I might need more drainage holes in the bath, which was taken out of the bathroom when it was renovated last January.

Tucked in behind the tank, is also another recycled item from the bathroom renovation! This creeper is flowering very prettily in it.

 This is today, and you can see my piles of rubbish waiting to go into the green bin, from my pruning and trimming efforts this week. You can just see some red cannas about to flower on the right, although most of the spring colour has gone.

And this is my next project. I have a good collection of hardy plants, (I hope), mainly succulents that are going to be planted under this tree, very soon!!? The weather is cool for a couple of days, so might be a good project. (And you know I need more projects, don't you?)

 I have finished the binding on that quilt today, so hope to be working on custom for a few days now. And soon it will be time to get myself organised for the first retreat of the year, when the girls arrive for an Aussie Retreat on January 25th. There is lots planned for 2017, and I have made some changes and additions on the scheduled retreat page of the blog. There is one place left in the house for the Aussie retreat, so would love to hear from you if you might like to join us.

Catch ya next time.

Blessings, From Jude