A Little Sojourn

We are back from our little sojourn to the north.  We visited our favourite place in the world again this year, Town of 1770.  If you are a Queenslander and haven’t visited 1770, as ‘Molly’ would say, do yourself a favour.

The photo above was taken while I was having my morning coffee in front of our camper.  We were RIGHT on the beach front.  Walk out of the camper – take five steps and you are on the beach.  Heaven.

Along the way we stopped and visited my cousin and husband on their fish/mango /sugar cane farm.  How they fit all the work in that they do I will never know.  I am in awe of them.  We also visited my cousin Janet’s mum, Aunt Lyla, who was married to my Mum’s eldest brother.  He is now deceased – we all miss him terribly. 

 After we left Bundaberg we spend 4 days in the most idyllic place ever.  It is called Norval and the pristine beach stretches forever. As you can see, you are allowed to drive along the beach.  Windows down, wind in the hair, it was invigorating.  

The boys went crabbing and caught these beauties.  and we had…….

fresh crab sandwiches on fresh bread.  Love

While we were in 1770 I was thrilled to catch up with my long time friend (from Grade 1 actually), Maree.  We have not seen each other for many, many years.  Her father and my mother were cousins and we have always kept in touch.  To make the reunion even better, my sister and her husband were able to join us for 5 days too.  It was so much fun catching up!

We were then joined by a whole gang of friends and friends of friends from Bribie Island and the Sunshine Coast.  It was soooo much fun.  We enjoyed our get togethers every afternoon and ate and drank waaaaaay too much. 

The sun set on our little holiday and it was home and back to reality.

Until next time…………………….Dianne.

Blogger on Ipad App

I am trying my hand at using the Blogger App on my Ipad. 

All I can say so far is, it is not easy and doesn't want to play my games. We will see how this goes!!!'

Sweet Peas - one of my favourite flowers. I wish I could share the scent with you.  Thank you to Valderie for gifting them to me after our special event at Toowoomba. 

Some secret sewing has been going in these past few weeks and there is nothing I can share on that front right now. 

Lilian recently had a day with Nana and we did some painting. I painted ( or attempted to paint) a poppy card for Shirley.  The significance being, no matter what happens to us or where we end up, I will always remember Shirley and the friendship we share. I am just an old sentimentalist.

After painting we had to play Mummys and then Doctors.

Dr Lilian with baby on the 'bed'. 

" Now, what's wrong?"

Mummy giving the bottle

Now for some solid food. 

Special thanks to Shirley for donating the baby :)

Very shortly we are going back to visit one of our favourite places, 1770. Paradise!

Now it is time to find out how to publish this!!!

Until next time .............Dianne

Not Much–How about you?

Poor old blog!!  Life has been pulling me in all directions but not the way of the blog, alas.
We have had some roller coaster rides these past couple of months, but life is slowly getting back to normal (whatever that is)


We set off on a trip to the south on 1 September but were called home when my father got ill.  He is pretty good now and back home receiving in-home help.  Hopefully we will get away again soon.
In the meantime we have started a small reno project.  Our ensuite bathroom was looking very tired and had ‘issues’, so this week DH pulled it out and work begins soon on reconstructing it.  Oh joy!

There is not much to show on the sewing front as my mojo has taken a sabbatical.  Also I had to have a small procedure under general anaesthetic which knocked me about for a week or two and seemed to take the wind out of my sails.  I missed the annual quilting retreat last weekend ( sad face) but because our trip was cancelled in September,  I was fortunately able to attend and enjoy working at our Toowoomba Quilters Annual Exhibition.
Toowoomba Quilters Exhibition has a fabulous facebook page if you would like to check it out https://www.facebook.com/TQ.Exhibition
Here are some photos of some quilts I liked at the exhibition.

This one won the Viewer’s Choice prize.  Kudos to the maker, Betty Fawcett, for putting all those little pieces together and doing such an amazing job of quilting it herself.

This one is called ‘Insanity’ for obvious reasons.  Yes they are all teeny weeny hexagons there in the border (shown on right close up).  Marion made this and got second in the viewer’s choice with it.  Well done.

I loved the fresh modern look of these two quilts.  Left, made by Lyn Crump and Right, made by Lynn.

Another lovely big hexagon quilt demonstrating much patience made by Jean.

Lovely soft colours in this one made by my friend Lynn.  I love the borders especially the grey zig zag.
 
My friend, Linda Wrench has put her crazy blocks together with a stunning shade of duponi silk.  We started our blocks some 10 years ago in a class with Robyn Ginn and Linda has pipped me to the winning post and got hers together.  boo hoo.  Mine is still languishing.  Beautiful, Linda!
In the background I have been working my way through some more TAST stitches and hope to share them with you next time.
Until then,  happy quilting and crafting to you all ……………………..Dianne.

Busy Times–a holiday required

Hello All.  A long time between drinks, but life has been chucking us wobblies as well as some good times, leaving me precious little time to create. 
In between all of it I have been throwing a bit of paint around some paper and fitting in a bit of art work whenever I can.
My house is becoming a trash can as I save all sorts of recyclables and odds and ends that I think may make some kind of arty mark.  Everything is eyed off as a possible stamp, mask or stencil – LOL – nothing is sacred.  Different papers and ephemera are cluttering up the bottom of the cupboard too.  All fun!!!!
Here are some prints from the humble egg carton. 


The end of the celery makes a lovely rose print.
We have a very small vegetable garden now but we managed to grow some beautiful broccoli this winter. 

Last weekend we went out to Leyburn Historical Sprints for my DH’s birthday.  Luckily it was a sunny warm day with no wind – an interesting day out is all I will say, but DH and his brother in law enjoyed it.

DH, Brother in Law, Ian and DH’s sister, Catherine.

A much needed holiday is just around the corner, so until next time, enjoy your arting and crafting
………………Dianne.

A Finish - Old Fashioned Cookery & Handy Gadget

The Ferris Wheel Quilt is FINISHED!!!  YAY!!  Marvellous what a deadline will do.

I hope the recipient likes it and that it brings her much comfort.
It was difficult to get a good shot of it because of it’s length, but this is the best I could do.
Mathematics is not my forte so my DH had to step in and work out a nice arc to dissect the squares for the quilting pattern. I also quilting in the ditch.  In the end, I was happy with the quilting.


We were gifted some green tomatoes by our neighbour.  What to do?  My late maternal grandmother made THE best green tomato pickle, so I rummaged around and found a recipe which I thought might be close to the one she used to make. In the past I have never been able to replicate them. She never had a recipe, and when we asked how to make them, it was ‘just a handful of this, a spoonful of that etc.’

This was the end result and I was really pleased (and surprised) at how good they tasted and how very much like my Nana Mac’s pickles they turned out to be.  We made many, many bottles and we have been gifting them to family and friends who seem to be enjoying them too.  Chuffed with that!

This is one of the handiest tools I have owned.  Gifted to me by a dear friend whose darling husband made it.  Thank you my friend
I use it mainly for guiding patchwork under the foot of the machine and it is better than an awl or unpicker because it hasn’t got the extremely sharp point to accidentally poke yourself with.  It seems to grip onto the fabric too and stops the piece from slipping.  It is also very useful for poking out corners. 
Are you a pinner or non-pinner?  I used to be a ‘fly by the seat of the pants’ non pinner when I did patchwork, but now I pin obsessively and I am much more pleased with the results. 
Until next time………happy crafting……….Dianne.