Back to my poor neglected blog

We have been back to our little farm for the last ten days where unfortunately there is no longer an internet connection! Ten blissful & busy days of catching up with lots of friends, pruning LOTS of roses, checking on the wheat crop, playing some tennis & generally getting some jobs done that didn't get done when we moved from the farm six months ago.

I realise it is unusual to be living between two properties, and we feel very blessed to be able to do so. Being back at the farm means being back in our 'big' garden. And like an old friend, it welcomed us with open arms! I walked through the entry arch to be greeted by sweet smelling jonquils, blooming away gloriously. Despite months of neglect, they faithfully pop up their heads & declare 'welcome home'!

And there were cheerful pink daisies ... ... orange Chinese Lanterns brighten a spot beneath a bare pear tree ... ... the very last of the roses bloom ...

... before their winter prune ...

... and elegant arum lilies,

flowering unseasonally in mid winter - a gorgeous surprise.I love my garden & can't imagine life without one!

It must be school holidays

Pancake stacks for breakfast!

Oh my! Fabric by the bolt?!

Precious little to report as my 'no time for sewing' phase continues, exacerbated by end of financial year tasks, the start of school holidays & the sudden (and wonderful!) company of three busy children.One solitary little Dear Baby Jane block to show. This is K11 Columbine. I am many blocks behind the progress of the group, but remain determined to catch up again soon!After all, I can't throw in the towel on Dear Baby Jane now - an ENTIRE BOLT (!!!) of Kona Snow arrived during the week for the background. I'd say I'm well & truly committed now! In an attempt to calm the 'sewing withdrawal' jitters, I am leaving bundles of loveliness all about the house so that I can stroke them lovingly as I hustle past on my way to the next should-have-been-done-yesterday task. Desperate times!

Children, thou shalt appreciate the beauty of a flower!

We are a month into winter in Australia, yet even amidst the bleakness, there are tiny flickers of beauty in the local Botanic Gardens:

The tiny bells of correa, or Australian Native Fuchsia.

Beautiful hellebores, spring up from nowhere & nod elegantly in the late afternoon sun.

A truly amazing Garrya elliptica, or silk tassel bush drapes it's hanging flowers spectacularly.

And, as usually happens when we visit the Botanic Gardens, our walk ends here! A reasonable reward for the kids I suppose, considering their mother has forced botany lessons upon them all in the gardens! The things they have to put up with!

Angels-a-plenty

I am going through another 'too busy for sewing' phase & am suitably out of sorts! So I will have to dig something up out of the archives to show you today.I made this little cot quilt about twelve months ago as a 'welcome to the world gift' for a newborn niece. Sorry, the photos are not great - if you click on them, hopefully you'll see more detail. It is Sweet Dreams Angel Quilt by Bareroots.It was fun to make as each panel has a different stitchery on it, with each second one being an angel of some sort. Very sweet for a little girl. The blocks were supposed to be needle turn applique, but I resorted to machine blanket stitch for a more speedy result. I needed to get it to my niece before her 21st birthday! The stitchery background is a soft beige checked sandcastle - wonderfully soft to stitch, but tricky to transfer the design as the fabric is so thick. And my favourite block? The cow jumping over the moon:

The passing of Jane McGrath

My condolences, & those of millions of others, go to the family of Australian cricketer Glenn McGrath today on the loss of his wife Jane to breast cancer. Jane McGrath has died at a 'too young' 42, the mother of two small children - we all feel the sad loss of this gracious & brave woman. As an almost 42 year old mother of young children, and with another friend recently diagnosed, the news of Jane's death is heavy on my heart today. It will be very special to see the Australian cricket team wear pink ribbons & use pink bat grips to honour Jane in their One Day International match against the West Indies on Tuesday. And I am sure the flags will be at half-mast today in Narromine, Glenn McGrath's home town.

Friday night at last!

Friday night is champagne night for me in our house - to celebrate surviving another week! It has become a tradition for our family to collapse in front of the tele, eat lots of antipasto & fruit & enjoy some bubbly - that's me enjoying the bubbly, not the kids! I am wondering whether Ric Rac might have imbibed a little of the fizzy stuff last Friday night when she wrote this post - very funny, & surely destined to be the official anthem of every Friday night, stay-at-home stitcher! In case you are wondering what the foreign object is in my glass, my lovely friend Wendy (& fellow champagne drinker!) sent me some wild hibiscus flowers. These are gorgeous real flower buds preserved in a luscious syrup which open amongst the bubbles in your glass - very special! Do try them if you ever have the chance. So not much sewing for me tonight - although perhaps it's just the time to give my stippling a go! Hmmm, probably safer just to settle in to watch Silent Witness & Spooks! Watching Rupert Penry-Jones save us all from terrorists is a whole lot more appealing than the bloody prospect of stippling my finger! Have a great weekend everyone.

Get-ty up there!

I have joined the lovely Peg at Happy in Quilting's challenge to finally complete all those quilt tops that are floating about the place. She is promising to finish at least five - I need to be realistic about my prospects, & would love to finish these two. You can see a little more of the slow progress of these quilts here, here and here. But then if I were to be a little more unrealistic, I could add this one to the stack: All of these quilts are ready to have borders added & then the dreaded quilting task looms. It is the quilting that always brings me to a standstill. Hopefully Peg's challenge (& public blog exposure!) will be enough motivation to get me over the hurdle!

Teacups, and a freebie!

I have made a start on the sweet little teacup stitchery design that I won on Catherine's blog, Willow Valley Store. She posted recently that she has been stitching one of her designs with a variegated thread. So that got me thinking! I found some very nice DMC variegated thread colours that I've not seen before. I am stitching with a blue DMC 4235. But the story continues! One of my local 'dens of iniquity & temptation' aka quilting stores had a 3 day sale during the week, and I scored myself some very gorgeous linen DMC threads for not very much! So now suddenly Catherine's design is just screaming at me to be stitched ON linen WITH linen. Ooooh, should be nice I think.I can highly recommend Catherine's iron-on transfers. They are so quick, a cinch to use & give a lovely fine & clear image to stitch. If talk of teacups has you boiling the kettle, be sure to visit Rachael Rabbit who is hosting a cupcake & tea party anniversary celebration. In lieu of a real-life tea party with her, she has arranged a 'Cupcakes & Tea' swap. So for all you organised creative girls out there not afraid of a deadline, join up before June 20th. The linen threads that I bought came in a pack with 10 bonus cross stitch charts. It is all but guaranteed that I will never get around to using these. I did cross stitch once upon a time, but these days I need quicker means of stitching. I am happy to post these charts to the first reader to leave a comment or email me that you would like them. If you click on the photo, you will see the designs in more detail. They are a series of heart designs. Just be aware I would only be sending the design charts - call me selfish, but I am keeping the threads for myself!

Cardmaking revisited

I've not made cards for months and months, & have used up my card stash that I keep on hand. So there was nothing for it but to break out the supplies.

I didn't get far, but it's a start!A long overdue birthday card for a friend.