Wednesday night mash up.

First off Happy Halloween to all you ghouls out there and any one else who celebrates this spooky night.

Tonight was my regular sew in night with the lovely ladies from Gisborne Quilters.

We had a witchy pooh Donna arrive with hat and treats, shortly followed by Batty Sue with more goodies to eat.

We had a bit of a show and tell of our strip quilts.

This is Sue's beautiful strip quilt pieced with batiks.

Annette's fabulous pastel floral strip quilt. This looks so very feminine, it has that real pretty girly look. 

and this is Donna's she has used a stone henge range which makes it all the more stunning.

Well tonight is also the last day of Blogtoberfest. Yep 31 days of blogging done and dusted. For me this has been a real challenge considering  that I would normally be lucky to blog twice a month.

I must admit that I have enjoyed every moment and it has been a real pleasure meeting lots of new people and catching up on the daily goings on of Blog Land.

Sooo Thank You Thank You Thank You for all of your support.

Even though this challenge has ended and I have achieved (yay I rock)

I am going to try & treat every month like a Blogtobertfest from here on in.

(who knows this could also become a UFO) Think positive!

Goodnight all & big healing hugs to all who are suffering from Hurricane Sandy.

Thoughts

My hopes & thoughts are with those

 who are experiencing the devastation 

of Hurricane Sandy.

May each and every one of you stay safe and well.

Black Birds

Day 29 of Blogtoberfest, so proud of my self in making it this far. Who would of guessed that I could Blog for 29 days straight. I can definitely tell you that I'm surprised that I have managed to submit something each day.

Just two days to go and then I have made it.

So once again I have a pic of the strip quilt. 

I have decided to add some silhouette birds to help with the look and to aid in breaking up some of those solid strip blocks.

I feel that this has made a huge difference to the over all appearance.

Little Update

Unpicked the error, re sewed the wing and completed a little bit more.

Golly Magnet

Just recently mum gave me a little kit that she had made up to test out.

Lots of bits and pieces to stitch & glue together.

 A nice easy project to do with out much thinking.

and the end result is quite sweet too...

you end up with a little golly magnet to hang on your fridge,

should I make just 1 or maybe two.

Strip Quilt

Here is my strip quilt all pieced together, I'm a little disappointed in the way that the colours blocked up I was hoping that they would of been a bit more random.

I really wanted to do this in batiks and this was the only roll that I could find locally a 20 strip x 51/2 inches jelly roll.

I had seen many strip quilts made and I always liked the ones that were done in batiks they just seemed to flow a lot better.

So I figured that was fine I would just cut my roll in half and then I would have my forty strips.

Now instead of 2 strips of each colour I ended up with 4.

So little Miss organizer me thought not a problem I would separate them all going from dark to light with 4 different groups.

As you can see not such a great idea because now my colours have blocked up.

Oh well all a learning curve next time I will just piece them all as they are.

So my thinking cap is on to see how I can improve the look of this quilt.

Maybe some form of silhouettes.

Relaxing with The Jackman

With a busy day at work and a lot of running around with the kids, not to mention the grocery shop....

Tonight I have my feet up, sipping coffee with my favourite man, my husband and a little bit of Hugh on the side.

I hope that you have all had a great night.

Strip Quilting

Tonight was the night that most of us at Gisborne Quilters got together to make a strip quilt.

It was a great night over all. We all brought a plate of food to share which is always some thing to look forward to. Especially the deserts. Yum

 

This is a picture of every one either working away busily or out of their seats having a good stretch.

 

The backs sure do get tired when you are not moving and are at the machines constantly sewing.

Stay tuned....

Next week I will get some pics of the completed quilts.

If you want to see a great video on how to Strip Quilt have a look here...Strip Quilt made with a Jelly Roll

Tuesday Treasures

I've joined up with Melody for Tuesday Treasures.

My Tuesday Treasure for today would have to be my button collection.

I don't know what it is about buttons that I like but I can't seem to resist them.

Big, small, old, new, fat ones skinny ones any old button will do.

This is my 3 jars, full to the brim of all different buttons....

Don't tell anyone! but I have several tins full too.

Source

There is so much that you can do with a button.

Source

Free Button Project

Felt Button Ball

Cross Cross Stitching

Just a bit of stitching tonight...I thought that I would work on the wings and I was travelling along beautifully, until I realized that I am 1 stitch out on the left wing.

So now I have some unpicking to do tomorrow

Off to bed with me now..I'm pooped.

Sorting the Block of the month.

 I thought that for today I would pull out a block of the month that I had started some time ago and re figure as to where I was up to. Mmmm not too far as you can see.

I only have four out of 12 blocks done.

 Many many more to go!

This is the one that I will be doing next.

5 Golden rings

We are in the middle of finishing off a wall in our lounge area.

This is me sanding the window frame

I will paint this some time next week. I must admit I'm loving my Birthday sander, she works like a charm.

One day I will also get around to lead-lighting that window.

and whilst I had the sander in hand, I decided to strip down the old coffee table all ready for a make over.

Mmmmm

Sorry not a lot going on here tonight.....

Friday School Fete

So today I was off to Melton to help mum with her craft stall.

At the start I was a bit concerned with the weather considering we had thunder and lightning at our place.

But by the time I got to Melton the sun was starting to shine, and yes I mean shine we ended up getting to a top of 27 Degrees, which is okay, it is nice to warm the bones....it is the wind I can't stand and yes that picked up nicely which left a lot of stall holders spending most of their time saving stock.

Over all it wasn't too bad of a day mum made some money and we had a lovely day together.

Followed by an enjoyable Tea at a local Chinese Restaurant.

Thursday Night Stitching

Just a little Thursday Night Stitching going on here.

This is called Glorious Wings

It is a little Embellished Linen kit that I had picked up a little while ago

(Maybe 10 Years or More)

It comes with everything that you need to complete it.

Her name is Amber

(This is a Just Nan Pattern)

When completed the design will measure 4" x 4"

Hump Day Washing.

So not a lot going on over here except the washing.

This is a quilt that I had made for my youngest son quite a few years ago.

I love the colours in this quilt

 

Just imagine this the other way around...

Yes this is the top but since it was on the washing line I got a pic upside down.

So glad that it is Hump Day

Definition of Hump Day as in the Urban Dictionary...

Wednesday, or the hump of the week

the absolute Best day of the week, the day of maximum hope that maybe, you might make it out of this week alive.

Tuesday Treasures

My Tuesday treasure would have to be my doll.

I received her from my Mum & Dad for Christmas when I was about 6 years of age.

The out fit that she is wearing was knitted by my Grandmother.

I still cherish her to this very day.

Tuesday treasures is held over at thehouseonthesideofthehill.blogspot.com.au

by a lovely lady named Melody.

If you have a Treasure to share why don't you pop over to Melody's and join in.

Xmas Tree Skirt Update

I have my Tree skirt all pieced and the stitcheries are done, it just needs a bit of an iron some backing and binding. Then I can say its COMPLETE!

Sorry that the picture is a bit dull, but it was late and the lighting quite bad.

Beautiful Sunday

 Today was just a perfect day, the sun was shining the birds were singing....

Oh my god now I'm starting to sound like Snow White.

Any way my hubby had whipped me up a delicious poached egg for breakfast.

Very Yummy he even decorated it with herbs.

Little Harmony was being extremely lazy

My 14 year old son is into Reggae at the moment and tried his hand at some graffiti art work.

No this is not a self portrait.

And I spent all day on my hands and knees crawling all over the floor putting the finishing touches of seal to all of my branches.

Certainly makes her stand out so much better.

So now I can say that my floor in this area is 100% totally finished.

Hip Hip Hooray.

Bullengarook

Bullengarook!

This is where I live, and to be honest I couldn't imagine living any where else.

The local land were inhibited by the Wurundjeri People.

Wurundjeri people take their name from the word wurun meaning Manna Gum (Eucalyptus viminalis) which is common along Birrarung and djeri, a grub found in the tree.

Bullengarook comes under the Macedon Ranges Shire. The Europeans settled here way back in the 1850's.

The industry that was going on around this time was slate and gold mining.

Photo Source

These days there are approximately 681 people living in the area many with farms and many who just enjoy the amazing views.

We have no shops in our little town, but we do have a Fire station, Specialist School, and a reserve that is used for Pony Club, Cricket and even as a place to practice fly fishing and much much more.

The Shops are located either side of Bullengarook. Gisborne or Bacchus Marsh which takes a 15 minute drive in either direction.

Here is a couple of pictures of the Old Slate Mines

We often go here for picnics.

Friday Night Catch Up

Nothing too exciting to share for today, I did spend a lot of time in the car again, smashed a few tiles to release any frustrations, tensions etc that I might or might not be carrying. But more than likely getting tiles ready for my next mosaic project.

photo source

Tonight I was off to Woodend for some much needed meditation.

Time for me, time for just being...

Straw Necked Ibis

This was our view today.

The weather was cold wet and foggy Temperature wise we didn't get over 10 degrees

but we did manage to get 14 ml of rain. Being on tank water every drop counts.

We had a flock of Straw Necked Ibis fly in, they normally circle for a while then come in for landing in the paddocks, filling their bellies with all sorts of insects, molluscs and frogs.

I couldn't get a close up for every time I went near them they would fly off.

This is what they look like close up.

Photo Source

They certainly have beautiful plumage.

Cupboard finished

Today I actually got the Australian Toil cupboard inserts finished.

It's amazing as to how much neater this cupboard now looks.

I may have to find some decorative handles to cover up those holes and find an old key which of course would need a handmade tassel.

See there is always something to do.

I also had an appointment tonight to donate blood, I haven't given for a while due to being ill or just having recent operations.

But tonight was special my 16 year old daughter also wanted to donate so with this being her first time we booked in together.

Well needless to say she went just fine and was quite pleased with the fact that she has now saved 3 lives.

As for me I was refused, because after they did my iron test (3 Times) they decided that it was too low and they didn't want to risk it.

So off to the doctor with me.