SPRING, SWAPS AND PURCHASES

 

I was away for 3 days - and what a difference that 3 days of warm spring weather made to the garden!! Well what has survived through months of neglect that is.

 

 

First iris blooming

 

More blooms on the Stock

 

Wisteria getting ready to burst into flower and my Lilacs are budding up nicely!

 

 

A gift for us all from Annie's HOME PATCH  and we also had the pleasure of the beautiful Annie's company over the 3 days!!

 

My two surprises from the lucky ticket 'Foils' - A beautiful diary and a sweet pattern!!

And now for my purchases - first up the results from my HOME PATCH VISIT

 

Felt and wool patterns - Christmas bauble and wool sewing accessories

 

pincushions - as if I need anymore of those!! Just cannot help myself!!

 

 

A sweet purse and bag pattern (I double dipped here - Annie was coming to spend the afternoon with us so we rang through a few orders for her to bring out to us!!) and some hand dyed will!!

 

And my collection of wool felt pieces grew dramatically - I think there are about 30 pieces in this picture that I bought on the weekend!! All set to use some of the many patterns I have had sitting here for a few years!!

 

 

And from the lovely Sonia at FOREVER ALWAYS ONLINE this beautiful selection of Riley Blake fabrics - very 'Spring'!!

And here is my surprise from the Make, Bake, Fake Swap- from my new friend 'Dale'.

An 'ADULT' colouring book, pencils and a pencil case!! Thank you so much Dale for your gift!

 

I am not a colouring in person more of a doodler BUT my grand daughter Karah (who is 11 - nearly adult in years but certainly adult in maturity!)   thinks she is pretty special at the moment because she has a new colouring book and bonus for me there are some lovely designs I have traced out to use for applique!!! And the pencil case is MINE of course!!

Sooooo..... that is it for the second instalment of my Bathurst Blog Meet wrap up!!!

I will be back with more in a couple of days!!

 

 



BATHURST BLOGGERS MEET

 

I spent the past weekend in with some of the most creative, funny and beautiful people I have had the pleasure of meeting. It was the the weekend of the Bathurst Bloggers Meet and Aussie Bloggers came from all over NSW and even one from Brisbane!!

 

 

 

I left home on Friday morning at 9am this was my view for the next 5 hours!

 

 

If I looked sideways this was my view  - bright yellow Canola crops everywhere.(interspersed with wheat/barley/oats crops). The wet winter is showing in the quality of the crops.

 

 

Make, Bake or Fake Swap presents at the top. And look at all the 'foils'!! Little lucky ticket gifts brought along by those attending!

And onto one of the highlights of the weekend - the Make, Bake or fake Swap!!

Lots of oohing and aahing over during the opening of the swap gifts!

 

 

Here is Suze with her Sewing Folder!

 

Sonia & Janice after opening their awesome presents!

 

Simone & Dory with their surprises.

 

 

Cheryl & Peg with a cute pattern and lovely fabric

 

Dale (had to take a photo of the coat hanger by itself because it was all blury in the first photo!!)

 

Fiona - ecstatic with her hand knitted socks!

 

Sweet Georgina with her surprise!

 

Googy with a her beautiful coat hanger & Jan with a lovely cushion and bag - you will have to excuse the photo bomber (being Kate the self appointed 'official photographer!!)

 

Self appointed official photographer opening her swap present - being a photo bomber earned her the privilege of a screwed up face on my post!! lol

 

Kylie with her sweet bunny pin cushhion

 

Lea with a beautiful heat pack and Julie with fabric and cards!

 

And after all of these photos I realised I haven't taken a photo of my swap present - a job for tomorrow and I will include with the next lot of photos!!!

 

The weekend went way too fast - although I probably couldn't have eaten anymore food or drank anymore coffee, tea or wine - but I could have had a few more days of the wonderful company and belly laughs that filled the weekend.

 

I will be back tomorrow with more photos of a fantastic weekend!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



Pincushions, Pincushions and More Pincushions!!!

 

Pincushions Galore!! I am linking up with IDA'S 'PERFECTLY PLEASING PINCUSHION PARADE' - to show off my pincushion collection!

 

 

I made this pincushion for myself about 10 years ago - it was a workshop that the craft group I belonged to ran.

 

This one is one of my favourites - my closest friend of 39 years made it for me about 12 months ago. It is weighted and holds 'oh so many pins' - great beside the sewing machine - can poke the pins in without looking!!

 

This little one took my fancy at a school fete a couple of years ago.

 

I have had this one for nearly 20 years now - it is nice and stable and goes well in the lounge room with the other wood furniture!!

 

One of my little pincushions that lives in one of my sewing baskets and does a bit of travelling.

 

Another special one - a felted ball with butterflies and flower felted in. Another gift from my closest friend - she brought it back from one of her trips to America!

 

This is my own creation and it lives in another sewing basket! I made the felt by hand and then embroidered it.

 

This little handbag I bought for myself - it just took my fancy when in Canberra one visit - plenty of room for lots of pins!!

 

3 Little Cupcakes. Karah my grand daughter made the two on the outside and I made the one in the middle - I will NOT be making anymore - too damn fiddly and time consuming!! Karah had fun making them with her best friend!!

 

Another of my favourites is this one that was a swap gift. A 'Skinny Pinny' - made from flannel and beautifully embroidered - it lives in my big sewing basket and also does a bit of travelling!!

 

And this one was another whimsical buy - a teapot that the lid lifts up and there is room to store your needle thread and little scissors!!

I think that will do for this linky party!!! I have made a lot more pincushions that I have given away and I know there are several more that I use - can't think where they are - probably nesting with one of the many UFO's I have!!!

NOW......... off you go over to My Sister Made Me Do It - Ida's blog and check out the links to some lovely pincushion parades!!



PIN CUSHION ANYONE??

 

I have decided to join a linky party - something a little different and a lot of fun!!

 

I am joining Ida at My Sister Made me Do It for

 

IDA'S 'PERFECTLY PLEASING PINCUSHION PAREDE LINK UP'!!

 

 

Interested?? Should be lots of fun with heaps of gorgeous pincushion to feast our eyes on. Pop on over to IDA'S BLOG and check it all out - bet you join in the fun!!



A QUIET MONTH

 

This past month has been very quiet on all fronts. I am still down with the flu - although I am feeling much better than I was 3 weeks ago - hopefully on the mend and full of energy again very shortly.

 

 

Vegie garden is still producing even without being attended to.

 

Karah and her friend Lily had a cooking day over the weekend. It is good to sit back and let them go now that they are at an age that they know what they are doing!

 

This little munchkin turned 2 on Saturday - where has that time gone.

 

Ollie loves spending time here at the farm - follows Pa-pa around helping feed the animals and gets up close and personal!

 

Not much sewing being done - this has been sitting on the dining room table like this for 3 weeks now - all plans of having the little rectangles sewn on and the final borders attached went out the window when I went down with this stupid virus thing. Hopefully I can get back into it this week.

 

I have managed to do one secret sewing project - all hand sewing whilst sitting beside the fire. That's is the sum total of my doing anything more than the usual day to day things for the month of august!! Hopefully have much to show over the next month!!



SOME COLOUR IN A DREARY FLU WORLD!!

 The flu has finally took hold of me yesterday after several weeks of off and on. Aching in every joint in my body, shivers and sweats. So nothing much has been going on here for a while, so I took myself outside for a walk in the beautiful, warm 16deg sun this afternoon and found a little bit of colour!!

 

Marguerite Daisy and African daisy - always a bit of cheery colour in the garden!

 

 

Cherry tree in flower - and bees busy at work - yes we do have some bees here!!

 

Emu bush that I was sure was dying earlier this year has had a lease of life!! And good old succulents - they can always be counted on for a bit of colour!!

 

One lonely rose flowering - I did save the bud when I was pruning all the roses a week ago!! And faithful geraniums - always flowering somewhere in the yard!

 

Spring fever hit this girl this afternoon - got herself up there and then couldn't get down!! A lesson in the world of hard knock café - 'you got yourself up there, now get yourself down!!' I believe pa-pa came to the rescue - although there were fear tears when she had to make the final leap!!

 

Mandarins and lemons and

oranges!!

 

fluffy wattle - only another week of these beautiful blooms and they will start to shrivel up - glorious while it is full glow though!

 

 

Bagging up buttons for a new little venture a couple of friends and I are starting at the end of the year - no concentration needed for this job and can sit down!!!

That's about it for me and my exciting life at the moment - time to go and take another lot of drugs - the aches and coughing are returning!!

Hope you all have a great week!!!

 



JULY IS GONE....

 

July is gone and August on it's way... this year is just slipping away!

The Nature's Journey SAL that I participating in is finally starting to come together. There was some umming and arhhhing over the colour I was going to use for the borders. In the end I followed my heart and used the orange (purple was a close contender).

 

 

Here is the centre block before I sewed all the extras on.

 

 

Here it is with the borders sewn on. The diamonds are just sat there to see what it looked like, and as I am happy with how it looks I now have to fold them under and sew on.

 

 

Yes indeed I am very happy with it now. I think I am going to like this quilt when it is finished!! And speaking of finished I have finished the cream crocheted blanket I showed the beginning of in the last post. I now have 3 items for OPAM JULY!!!

 

 

Very happy with how this came up - now to post it off to my newest great nephew who is just 1 month old and will get plenty of use with it as he lives in Canberra!!

And my other 2 OPAM JULY finishes are the Ripple blanket and the Rainbow Granny Squares blanket (yes I know I have shown you these in the last post also.... I am very happy with my crochet efforts this year so am doing a little bragging!!).

 

We had more rain during the night - that makes a total of 525mm in 6 weeks - plenty for now - a couple of weeks without rain would be nice - I think I have said that before also. This is the coldest and wettest winter we have had for many years - thus nothing is happening outside and why I have completed 3 blankets during July!!