Wallaroo.......With edit

Edit..... Just reading Loz's account of the weekend and I realised I forgot to mention Sharon's Mum, Mavis, who helped looked after us all. Sorry Mavis. You are a star! We all fell in love with you (Well, some of us just fell in love with your cooking!). No wonder Sharon is so cool - it's genetic! (Bodes well for you Shontelle!) On with the retreat commentary.........


I'm sure you are going to be seeing quite a bit about this retreat in the blogs. There were a few bloggers there. Like Vicky (seen in the left of the photo, sitting next to Jean), Loz, Jan, me, and of course Sharon and Shontelle who organised the retreat. Vicki and Jan are both fairly new to blogging so go check them all out! (If you are a blogger and were there email me and I will include you here) There were great projects available to do at the retreat, but I chose to finish a project I had already started. The light was a bit dull when I got home from Wallaroo, but here are the photos Miss 17, Mr 15 and 9 and my Bradley managed to take for me.

Lecien flower rectangles, pink and green spotty sashings and cornerstones, and pink ric rac edging. Who could this quilt possibly be for? Yes! This is granddaughter's new quilt. Hope she likes it. It is my first "quilting the Kellie Wulfsohn way" project I have finished. I have made some mistakes on it, but overall I am pretty happy with it. I think also that I have improved as I have practised on this quilt, so will have to get another started!!!

These are the men I currently live with. (Mr 15, Mr 9 and my Bradley.) They are crazy, which is pretty lucky for me because I have been told I am pretty crazy too. Miss 17 is holding the camera.

And a close up of my quilting (don't look too hard!) and the ric rac. I'm off now to get some rest. (It has been a BIG weekend. Wallaroo, back to Adelaide for the arrival of granddaughter, Wallaroo, and finally back to Adelaide to rest!) What are my plans for next week? Well....... I think I'd like to sew!

Breaking news! She's here!!!

Mrs 25, her bloke, grandson and the very, very new granddaughter. She was born in the wee small hours of this morning. (Like all good babies!) She is infinitely more beautiful than these tawdry representations. So tiny! And she has that newborn smell! We are all madly in love with her already and we only met her for a moment or two. I am busy cooking food for this little family to eat over the next few days so all they have to do is eat and sleep. Then it's back to the retreat at Wallaroo! I have a quilt for a certain young lady to finish off!

Some people are so random! (and we love it)

One day this week I received an envelope with these beautiful ribbons in it. I was really surprised, because I wasn't expecting anyone to send me anything! I was also really surprised because Sarah doesn't even have my address. Sarah is smart. (She found it out) Sarah is also kind and generous. And random. She made my day! Thank you Sarah!

Laptop bag finished!

It has been a busy week. It always is. I am happy though to have this finish to show you. (So nice to finish something!) I am very happy with it and Miss 17 (whose computer this was designed for) likes it too. It has already made it's first appearance out in the big wide world when it travelled to Uni earlier this week. Just been too busy to blog about it. For those who are interested, we are still waiting for Mrs 25's baby to arrive. As soon as she does you can be sure I will be telling the world about my new granddaughter! I am away on a quilting retreat this weekend. Much R&R. Looking forward to it! Of course, I will have my portable internet with me so I can blog about all the excitement. Roll on weekend!

It's a bird, it's a plane.......

The last time I was on a plane was in 1991. That's quite some time ago. Even so, planes feature in my life. In 2000 we moved to a house that was under the flight path. During the middle of the day the house would suddenly be dark for a split second and then not. That's the moment the plane would be between us and the sun. In summer when we floated in the pool at the end of a hot day we would watch plane after plane travel to the airport. Now we live very close to the airport. So close in fact that I no longer have to drop my Bradley off there when he travels for work. Now he walks. We no longer have the pool to float in and watch planes at the end of the day, but we see them when we float in the sea at the beach. Just like this plane. (No, I haven't been swimming with any expensive electronic equipment this week. That was last week.) I watch planes. Just saying.

Sit and Sew at the Patchwork Apple

I am making a laptop bag for Miss 17. Amy Butler's Daisy Chain. Isn't it just beautiful fabric? I finally took my little machine to a sewing group! It worked wonderfully. And it's light. As a feather. A very good day all round.

The thing with patchwork and quilting

Can you believe it? I finally got some pies together!!! I am strangely excited by this turn of events and have done a little dance in the hallway even. It is starting to look like a quilt and even starting to feel like a quilt. I am really crazy for fabric, I just love the stuff. (Yeah, I know this isn't news to anyone, but go with it.) Fabric shops are my best thing. I love to touch fabric, drape fabric.......are you getting this? Fabric is good. Really good. But then you add patchwork to the equation. You get some really good fabric and you cut it into little pieces. Common sense here tells me that if I start with something good, then cut it into little pieces I'm on the wrong track. It's not good. But with patchwork it is good. You take your little pieces and arrange them, then rearrange them and finally you start to sew them together. Sometimes by hand. Sometimes with a machine. You work on those little pieces until they are one piece of fabric again. One piece of fabric. Like it was before. And not like it was before. Patchworked fabric is better. It feels better. Drapes better. Looks better. It's almost as if patchwork is a magnifier.

• fabric + patchwork = much more than you started out with

Can you tell I have been helping Miss 13 with her maths and science homework? Then you take your patchworked fabric and get the quilting process going. Same thing. Quilting is another of those magical magnifiers. So you end up with a quilt that looks and feels more than two times better than the sum of it's parts. And that, Ladies and Gentlemen, is why I quilt. Cause everyone needs a little magic in their life! This is one fifth of the pies together. I actually put the first tart together today and plan to get them attatched to my better than fabric fabric over the next few days. C'mon magic!!!

"Give me a home among the gum trees......."

These leaves were part of my view through Cheryl and Ian's window whilst away. (They are friends of Loz and I loved being able to stay in their pretty cottage while we stitched! Thanks guys!) I sat and stitched and loved the gum trees outside the window while I stitched. So very Aussie to me, but I think Cheryl and Ian's neighbours have made their gum trees look even better with their paint job! The green and blue just looked so wonderful together!

Whilst we were there it rained. Not much. But when you live in South Australia, you enjoy every drop of rain that comes your way. We listened to the rain on the roof and ventured outside to smell and feel the rain too! I'm off to sew!

Last week, in which I sewed, swam, and for a little light relief, killed an iphone.

Loz and I spent the last few days on holiday. (Read all about it here!) It was very fun! Our main reason for going was to SEW, SEW, SEW, which we did. (And here are the photos to prove it) First up for me were some overalls for grandson. Finished relatively quickly actually! Then I started stitching the pies.

I stitched, and stitched, and stitched. Spent hours stitching in fact! Not sure if I am doing these pies correctly cause they seem to take me forever to stitch them! I am happy with what I got done however cause now I am almost finished month two. (Did I mention I am slow?)

This was our first sunset. Isn't it pretty? I was so overcome I decided to take a dip, which is how the iphone was killed. Dead. *sigh* Oh well. It is now part of Rosemary Hill's folklore. (Translation - all the kids laugh whenever the story is told.) Hmm, a new week lies in front of me, here's hoping it will be full of sewing and relatively few technologically murderous situations.

Look at this!

So, you should all rush right out and buy "Homespun" so you can make one of Mrs 25's dragons. Yes, my talented designer daughter is featured in this month's Homespun magazine and her dragon is on the front cover. If you want to see a better picture of the said dragon visit her blog at picklesticks. Grandson just loves these dragons. He calls them "rrraahhhhhhhhhhh!!!". Okay, not so much a name as a sound effect, but you get the picture! Even when his Mum showed him the magazine he still said, "rrraahhhhhhhhhhh!!!". She is pretty excited to see her dragon in print. She is also pretty excited about her baby countdown. Just two more weeks till her baby is due. Congratulations Jess!

I live with crazy people!

Crazy people I tell you! Whilst at the beach last night Mr 15 found a "beach tree dude". He had a wonderful time walking the dude on the grass and introducing him to everyone. I have to mention here that the dude had a very strange voice! Earlier this evening I made good a promise to Mr 15 that I would play our new game Saboteur with the kids today. It is a fantastic card game. We were all dwarves digging for gold. (Except for the saboteur!) We were actually great dwarves and we even found gold (three times in fact). A terribly fun game that caused everyone to lose their marbles. Much loud laughter and squealing. I had to go lay down in a quiet room for half an hour afterwards! Hamburgers cooked on the barbie were dinner tonight. Today was a hot day and I definitely didn't want any heat from cooking fighting with the air conditioner. A busy week coming up. Busy, and then not. Can't wait!

Sunset

Family activity tonight - sunset watching at the beach. Whilst watching the sunset we had many and varied conversations. Some of the questions we pondered included:

• Why do we say we go swimming at the beach, when quite clearly what most of us do is just standing?
• Why is it that dog owners mostly suffer from illiteracy?
• Why is that boat travelling south, then north, then south, then north, then south, then north, then south, then north........
  
• Why are we watching a sunset because the sun is very shiny? (Really. This was hotly discussed.)
• What should we have for the dessert that was inevitable after the sunset watching.

We just love the beach. Even more if our feet don't get sandy or wet, so Glenelg is one of our favourite spots. Bike path, strolling path, park benches and grass to picnic on. One day when we grow up we're going to live there. (I really hope we get grown up one day)

Op Shopping!

We visited secondhand shops in Port Elliot on the weekend and I found this wonderful book. I love it. It is full of things crafted, made, fashioned and created by Australian women. I can't tell you just how close to my heart that is. Maybe it's because my mother could and did make so many things that made my life better. When I was young I wore clothing she sewed for me and wore jumpers she had knitted. She sewed and knitted for all of us. She painted and decorated our homes. She hung wallpaper and sewed blinds and curtains. If I needed a desk she built one for me. Her art work hung on our walls and she not only painted her own art work she also framed it herself. She hooked rugs and wove baskets. She made leather handbags and belts for us. And I spent hours watching her do all that! Nowadays quilts adorn her walls and cover her beds. I learnt many things from my mother. From sewing to knitting and beyond, but the thing I learnt best from her was "Only boring people are bored." She was always busy and always had things to do. I don't understand it when people tell me they have nothing to do. I don't have time to do all the things I "should" do let alone all the "want to dos" I have. I have included some of the photos from this fantastic book.



These baby clothes are inspiring me! I am working on some like these for the new grandchild due in two and a half weeks! We are all getting excited. Mrs 25 is getting sick and tired of being pregnant. You know how it goes. If pregnant women didn't get sick of being pregnant, pushing out babies wouldn't be an appealing option at all.


So I am flicking through this book and being inspired, enthralled and totally impressed by what women have done before me. I am wanting to take their lead and have more handmade things adorning my home. Maybe that's what this year is about?

It's February!

February already! I had a lesson last week about gulls. My Bradley and I went to the beach (as we do) and sat on the jetty. A large gull also sat on the jetty and I had no idea what kind of gull it was so when I got home I googled it. Here in Adelaide we see gulls like the one in the photo above all the time. We call them "seagulls". And we see them all over, not just at the beach. I was surprised to learn that these gulls are actually "Silver Gulls". And the gull who shared a moment with us on the jetty was a Juvenile Pacific Gull. Mr 9 was with me at the computer as I did my research and was drinking it all in. When we went to the beach on the weekend and came across a seagull he marvelled at the silver gull. How easy is it to find out about anything with the internet? It's pretty amazing to have such a resource at my fingertips. If I ever "wonder" about anything - I can find out so easily. This week I am hoping to do some sewing. Tonight I started alterations on Miss 13's new school uniform. It doesn't fit nicely and it's something she will wear a lot so I'm altering the sides, pocket and hem. I have been sewing pies over the weekend and will share some photos soon!