A Few Things.....

Life is a blur sometimes :) I think what adds to it is the endless washing and other repetitive chores that you do as a mother :) each day seems the same. We are already half way through the last term of school, that has definitely gone so fast!!.

So instead I enjoy moments like this.... gorgeous isn't it.

So now to enjoy every moment I can get before I blink and I am 80 :) Halloween was fun here. I put on a Halloween night at our church and it was great fun. Games and trick and treating car to car and boot decorating all added to a great night. The kids love dressing up.

I think my friend really looks like a witch :)

And this is what I have been working on

 So these are the bags that I have made with the gorgeous beading and trimming. I managed to find all the organza and fabric in my cupboard :) And yet it still hurt to cut up the fabric too :)

This is a small wholecloth quilt I am experimenting with, I have traced the design on with a template and then will colour in later with my inktense pencils and I bought some more gorgeous colours - a pink and another gorgeous green so I am excited to try them out, oh and some metallic colours but I am not sure they will work with the fabric medium, experimenting is fun though.
Love doing all the filler work.. oh and this is on gorgeous raw silk, it so beautiful.

Inner circle

Some lattice around the swirl

 This is the finished swirly inktense piece, love love love it. I am enjoying it for a while before I put it on Etsy. This is on raw silk as well. Better photo to come :)

Just love how vibrant the colours are, they really pop!!

I have just finished another really lovely book called The Wedding Bees by Sarah Kate-Lynch and it was really lovely. The book I am reading right now is called The Monuments Men and it is a non fiction book about ten men who repatriated stolen art from the Nazi's. It is brilliant and I love it. 

Thank goodness for the weekend and sleep ins and no exercise. Here's for a relaxing one.

Jane

Pretty Things

Well I went to the craft fair and had a great time. Didn't buy too much, just some really pretty things

With these so very pretty beady ribbon combination, I will be making my own lavender bags as you can see below.... gorgeous I think

And these two very pretty lace pieces will be also going on lavender bags, just for something different

So cute don't you think??

I also have nearly finished my latest commission baby quilt....

Just need to bind it and iron and wash and snip threads..... yeah nearly finished :) 

This was a couple of days ago, just thought it was so gorgeous, the sun setting through the clouds, what little clouds there are, we haven't had rain for soooo long. 60% of our state is drought declared and the grass is so dry it hurts to walk on it :) because that compares to being a drought declared farmer :)

So tired tonight!! Just dealing with the two youngest. They get soooo silly, not naughty just nuts!! and I swear it seems that they have not got their brain switched on sometimes, or most of the time :) so tiring dealing with them and keeping calm and saying the same thing over and over and over and over..... ughhh anyway they are in bed and suitable chastened and hopefully (ha!) thinking about how they can stop being so silly.
On something more fun :) I watched the first episode of Sleepy Hollow today, very cool and fun. Another show to add to my watch list. And I am also reading a fantastic book called Lady of Ashes by Christine Trent and it is set in Victorian London and she is an undertaker and all the intricacies with dealing with all that and her husband goes missing.... I am absolutely enjoying it.

And another milestone in my exercising today, I nearly fainted!! Wohooo really pushing myself :) man it hurt again!! Will get up tomorrow and do it all again :) just without the fainting feeling :)

Off to finish the quilt and watch another episode of Sleepy Hollow
Jane

Babies!!

Another good friend having a baby and she has moved here from another country and I think that a gorgeous quilt will help make up for no family around a little :) I put this one together nice and quick and just still love doing it. I got all of the fabric out of my cupboard. It's true I really do have a magic cupboard :) it has been years since I bought any patterned fabric so that makes the cupboard even more magic.

Loving the colours of this one....

It's so hot here!! 34C in October!!! I am scared to think of how hot it is going to be in Summer. Our electricity bill is going to be enormous. Going to be doing lots of swimming with the kids I think :)

I went and saw Pirates of Penzance with my mum in law and it was great, they are an ametuer group but really there is nothing ametuerish about them. They are so professional!!. I loved Phantom better but it is a different kind of play :). I am going to sign up for the newsletter with my local theatre company as I am really enjoying getting out to these events.

Started my vege patch again, possums I am guessing ate my lettuse and zucchini!! How annoying. I have some netting that I will put over the garden. I think that I planted enough corn to feed my whole street :) but it is so yum it really isn't a problem. I planted a whole packet of tomato seeds but only one took!! Not sure what happened there, but it could be the unseasonably hot weather we are having, so I will buy seedlings and see how that goes. 

Have a good one :)

Jane

Away

I got a chance to go away for a few days, so I took it and went up to the mountains. It was so relaxing and I went with a great friend so that was even better :) We did a big bush walk on the first day and finally reached the top to take in this view.......


In the distance is Baroon Dam, we climbed wayyyy high.

We came across this amazing house, just for perspective, the 'garage' you see in the middle end left is the size of a normal house. This was incredible and what a view.

Just loved the sun streaming through the trees, gorgeous

Such tall trees and I can't work out how to do a simple thing like rotate!!!

This was the lookout again, the dam is behind us and I just loved the mowed portion, dreaming of living on that spot :)

This is Obi Obi creek, just divine and so secluded and quiet, we were waiting to see a platypus :) what a treat that would have been....

Part of Kondalilla Falls, gorgeous again

Kondalilla Falls, spectacular

The whole falls

Came round a corner and saw this!!! Oh my it was big!! It doesn't look too big but it was!! and it's claws!! Wow really scared me :) they were so long!

Working on this right now......


This is done with the inktense pens, blending and then adding fabric medium over the pencils again to make them colour really pop. It is soooooo much fun and I think the colour is amazing!!

I am in the process of doing all the free motion work on it, but have put it aside for the moment to work on a baby quilt for a friend. WIll be using these pens a lot more in the future and I found a website where you can buy the pencils individually and quite cheap so I have ordered some more colours.
Just watched chronicles of Riddick and quite enjoyed it :) now will watch Riddick and I am sure will enjoy that too.
Jane

Sore

Wow!!! Did a workout this morning, and it hurt!! And it hurts every time I get up :) I know I am losing weight when that happens. I have even done this workout before but that didn't help :) My butt better look great that's all I think of when that pain kicks in:)

On other news, I went to sign up to be a member of QLD quilters again, only so I can enter the show, you need to be a member, and went on the website and found that the entries had closed to the show this year and I had missed the deadline by 5 days! :) So on the bright side I saved myself $100 in joining and quilt entry fees. So now I am uploading those quilts onto etsy  so I can sell them and feel even better than if I had won a prize, and that is a big IF :).

So now I need to work on taking a better photo than this.........

Hehehhehe straight would be good :) And some cooking classes too would be good, I have lost the ability to make a decent meal!! Last night I made a really yummy chicken casserole in the slow cooker and I used a chicken curry recipe base and it didn't seem that hot. But then we sat down for dinner and wow, it must have fermented while in the slow cooker hehehe it was spicy! Yum But spicy. but too spicy to eat with enjoyment. I just don't cook like I used to. I totally think it is because I have cooked every night for the last.... well 30 years as I cooked most meals when I was at home, even as a kid. So the consensus is - I am over it. :) Wish it was that easy hey.

Anyway, for a break I am going away with a friend for a few days soon so I am really looking forward to that, No cooking there!! no way!!:)

That cool author I mentioned last post, Dorothea Benton Frank, well I read another book and loved loved loved it. Now I am about to try a Jim Butcher novel, it sounds great.

Oh and I made some deeeeeelicious choc chips biscuits, quick come over and get some before we eat them all and then I get up too early in the morning and work them off :) all that pain for a choc chip biscuit mmmmmmmmmm
Jane

Stuff!!

This week has been a bit full on. A few things happened this week...... I have worked out why I am so tired, found out that my daughters eyesight is rapidly deteriorating and that my son got bullied so bad at school.

So.... tiredness. My eyes have been streaming lately, at first it just started with them watering but this last week they were just watering constantly. So we were booked in to see the optometrist for my daughter and that is where we found out her eyesight is deteriorating too quickly, but thankfully there is a great solution of wearing contacts at night and then you don't need glasses during the day. A bit expensive but so worth it to saver her eyes. I would love to do it too. Hopefully this will work in slowing down the myopia. So I asked the optometrist quickly if she could have a look at my eyes and she said I had a virus and from that a severe allergic reaction. Gave me two names of drops to put in my eyes and they are getting so much better and that sheer exhaustion is gone :) wohoo. So good news there.

My son is tiny, much smaller than other children, my genetic fault sad to say :) and this week he got tackled by some kid and then it got worse the next day, he strangled him and hurt his neck a lot. The school was fantastic and dealt with it straight away and I was satisfied with the outcome. So he is much better and isn't bothered by it at all. Good. :)

So a full on week but with a great outcome, very happy with that.

I have finished this........

Bound it in a gorgeous gold fabric that I have run out of and have decided that it is gorgeous for bindings so will have to go find some more. I am really happy with this and now just have to find some wall space to hang it :)

So the next quilt will be a whole cloth quilt on raw silk mmmmm gorgeous  and a swirl pattern with all sorts of designs all over it. You'll love it and want to buy it from my etsy store :).

Read a great book by Dorothea Benton Frank and will be getting some more of hers, just a great read.

Jane

Feathers Again :)

I finished the actual flower and I am real happy with it. I love how the red blends in with the oranges.

 This might actually qualify for an okay shot!!! :)

Gorgeous feathers

Blending.... love it

Progress so far

Went to our version of a state fair, and the kids were in heaven holding chicks :)

Then we had chicken for lunch :) hehehehhe

Hopefully I can get this quilt to be good enough for the quilt show and that will be four I can enter, odds are getting more in my favour :) I just love doing this and that will be enough if I don't win. Maybe :)
Busy weekend ahead but it's full of family so that is nice, tired thinking about it though so will have to have chocolate on hand. And talking about being healthy, I did an awesome workout this morning and I felt soooo good after doing this. Need to get rid of that belly!!!
Have a great one
Jane