MYSTERY QUILT DAY

Another day, another quilt. The quilters were asked to sew squares together, and many were thinking - is that it? By 4 oclock the first was ready to start marking their work. There was fear, there was "but I quite like it like this", there were complaints, but like troopers they followed the instructions. Armed with scissors, first cuts were made, first and second rows were sewn with threats of death or expulsion if any one of them went near the iron, and suddenly there was calm and oohs and aahs. First two rows of the big reveal. Nobody got the centre finished, but everybody could see where their fabric and design were going to take them. I hope to see centres finished by next quilt day ladies!! Here is one I prepared earlier.

Good news is, they all seemed to like the results and were spurred on to get cutting and stitching. This is the worst part of working the details of a Mystery Quilt, will everybody be happy with my plan? Will the reveal result in participants packing up there and then and going home!

Busy at work, making row after row....

Liz from Teddlywinks with her coffee confection...

Vicki did this....



Friday was a family birthday, so of course there was cake...

and kitchen carnage.....

And Norman giving his best "what" look.

I was just amazed he was in the same room as all of us.

My computer keeps telling me that my "c" drive is just about full, so I guess this week there will be some cleaning of the computer to be done, better go and see if I can find my external hard drive and get backing up!!

Bye for now.

Sue

MAY - HOW FAST YOU GO

Well, it's already Wednesday again, the rest of the week will now zip on by at a great rate. Baking has been done, cupcakes for Mother's day, sponge roll for Running Away from Painting group, chocolate cake for the elf.

We have had the builder in again, this time to repair a leaking window. The window area has been doubled, I have a window seat (which is stuffed to the max at the moment as I paint the bookshelves), we now have insulation and most importantly the exposed beams that allow spiders to build ropes that Tarzan could swing on have been plastered away....... remember this started with a leaking window! The painters came in and did the ceilings, but try as we could we couldn't get them to do the walls (very busy apparently) I think the "busy" word came into play when I said I wanted suede finish on the walls. So out came the paint brushes again, and my other half and I got to work. You gotta admire a bloke with a sense of humour. I am reasonably fearless when it comes to wall colours and finishes. I have sueded or river rocked a lot of walls in this house. It hides a multitude of sins when it comes to hiding bad plaster work. I poured over the colour charts, bought sample pots, had bits of plaster with paint strips on them hanging around the room and so off we went to Bunnings (hardware store) to purchase the selected paint. My friend Sue and I often laugh about paint colours (we are both a little fearless in the colour selection department - or we have no taste - whatever) but when folks get all excited about new paintwork and are asked what colours are they selecting and the reply comes back Chalk USA we giggle. I wonder why paint companies go to so much trouble naming all those lovely colours when they get left on the shelf, however I digress. Whilst I am standing at the counter with colour card in hand, the lady in front of me is busy selecting a 1/4 strength beige (truly why bother) and I look at all the other shade cards at the 5 or so folks hanging around the paint counter - all shades of beige or brown. Having lived through the 70's as a child with orange and mission brown - you can call it latte, mocha, cappuccino, - it's brown. So up I rock and order my Corsage Suede. The lady behind the counter offers advice - "now you know these don't come out quite like the colour in the can" - yes, yes, yes, I am a suede aficionado - so off she goes and mixes the colours. The audible gasp from the crowd at the paint counter was hysterical. That's all I'm saying.

My bedroom now looks like the poster child for Cadbury Dairy Milk - this is not a bad thing in my world.

We have a lot of cypress pine walls in our room and the suede is just magnificent against it. I am working on the furniture at the moment and will post further pictures of the room when it is finished. I wanted girlie, and girlie it is gonna be.

The next challenge has been the furniture. I wanted to steer away from timber furniture I got all excited about a bed I found and then was told that it wouldn't be available until the end of July, so I did what any self respecting bargain hunter does and went on to Ebay. I got a fantastic piece. After a bit of sanding it looked like this -

After 5 coats of paint, it now looks like this -








I have distressed it, and beeswaxed it and it looks great. I now need my faithful assistant to cut 10cm off the legs so it doesn't smack into the new ceiling and attach it to the bed (I might add at this point that this is the same faithful assistant who apparently hit the new ceiling with the ladder and I now have more touch ups to do).

Whilst in the painting zone, I have recycled another chest of drawers and purchased the most gorgeous knobs for the drawers (these are worth more than the pine chest they are on I fear) and I made myself a notice board from a picture frame that I got at the op shop for $2.







So before the carpet repairer/cleaner comes next week, I have to find two chests of drawers for the bedside tables and get them painted. This is proving to be a challenge because those new whizz bang mattresses are so high and I like my tables higher than the bed so I don't send my half drunk coffee whizzing across the floor in my sleep. And remember - THIS ALL STARTED WITH A LEAKING WINDOW!!

In my last post I mentioned that I was having issues with a camera lens I had purchased. Well that wasn't the end of it - how could it be. Whilst trying to shoot (in the nicest possible way) my niece's pet rabbit (hereinafter known as psycho bunny), the camera again stopped working. So back to the camera shop I went - tales of - "you're not going to believe this" as I return lens number 2 countered with "we have sold so many of these and never had a problem" (well now you have) - I might have looked like this:-




I couldn't fault the camera shop, after looking at different options, we tried the Nikon lens and so far it hasn't stopped. The camera guy thinks it may have been the way the Tamron lens has the smallest of movement when connected to the Nikon and looses contact every now and then. We will see - I swear they thought I was bonkers, but we will see. If there are problems with this lens then it is obviously a camera issue.




You wouldn't think butter would melt in its mouth would you? This thing growls and even chases, going into the attack stance - balanced on it's back feet like a kangaroo. And yet when my niece goes near it - calm as calm.
There has been some sewing and embroidering going on here, I finally started a small piece that will be some kind of pond, and have been preparing for a Mystery Quilt class that I am hosting on Saturday. The last one we held was a fantastic day - food, lollies, chocolate, coffee, wine and great company so I am looking forward to a good day although I think I will be resting well on Sunday. 10 til 10 is a loooong day.

I might add that my faithful assistant has paid attention this time and is aware that I will be missing for the day - last time I got a phone call at about 5.30 asking where I was and what time I would be home. The elf had said I would be out til 10 (at least somebody listens) but apparently my assistant missed the memo!!

I have to finish off with action shots of "the boys".

This is always a worry. Harv is the cat most likely to fall off or knock stuff over - he is known as "the brain's trust" and that is said with as much sarcasm as you can muster. He was out on the beam watching the ceiling fan spin.

Norman on the other hand "the thinking" cat has decided that my camera bag is ideal for a nap. Doesn't matter that he doesn't fit and oozes out of it.

I think we are boring him!

Bye for now.

Sue

MERIMBULA

Don't know where that is? It is part of the Sapphire Coast - south east coast of New South Wales - http://www.sapphirecoast.com.au/ - we always stay here - http://www.peninsularmerimbula.com.au/. Breakfast is eaten at The Waterfront Cafe, they do the best coffee and how is this for a breakfast of champions - eggs florentine - served on a home made potato rosti, with spinach, smoked salmon and hollandaise sauce washed down with freshly squeezed orange juice - not out of a bottle, and coffee. I have only been back three days, and I am missing the breakfast already!

How many days in a row can you eat this you may ask - quite a lot actually (I am sure by the end of the holiday my arteries are screaming for mercy!). I did have a change occasionally and tried the pancakes with strawberries and rhubarb, pancakes with fresh fruit and a croissant with jam. Some days I did manage over 10,000 steps (you thought I was going to say calories didn't you!) in fact one day I did over 17,000 - I was in bed early that night!

This is the view from the Waterfront - how good is that?

Then there are the things you can see on the way to the beach.

The sunsets were spectacular for the first couple of evenings because of backburning in the surrounding forests.
One of the things the elf and I like to do is stand under the planes as they come in on a night - picture - Pushing Tin - without the 747's. It is loud, but fun. (I am easily amused). They are a challenge to photograph though.

This was the second full moon for March (blue moon) - well this is night two, the first night of the full moon was very windy on the beach, so I had multiple exposures of the moon because the lens was shaking in the breeze so much. This turned out well, I had it printed at 8 x 10 at the camera shop and the detail is quite good.

I have a fabulous moon type chair to sit on at the beach. I can keep out of the breeze and drape a towel over my head (very stylish) to keep the sun at bay - I am not suited to the sun - Morticia Adamms is my style. On this particular day, the elf happened to notice this, which resulted in much squealing of get it off, get it off. Needless to say I could not sit comfortably in it for the rest of the morning. (Redback spiders are poisonous - enough said).

So whilst I reclined like a queen in my chair, the lads did this kind of stuff.

and I took pictures - from my chair.

A visit to Magic Mountain was up this year. We have been avoiding it for years, but with other families from the apartment block we had a great day. There is a toboggan, a small roller coaster and of course, a couple of water slides. Although I had been thinking there was something a little hinky with my brand new camera lens it was becoming clearer that the issues I was having were NOT ME!! I stood dutifully at the bottom of the water slides, waiting for everyone to come out at the end and then I would capture their decent. Ha!! The camera would just stop shooting. So my darling husband and the elf would come out of the slides like a shot out of a cannon, and the button wouldn't work. Their first words were "did you get that" to be greeted with "no - sorry, you will have to go again" I didn't have a problem with this, as I wasn't in the water, but by the time they had all made it on to the water slides, the clouds were coming over and the water was only about 20degrees celcius and everybody was cold (except me, cause I was well dressed). The elf was shivering (hey if you have no body fat, you're gonna get cold), so I got lots of pictures like this:

This pelican had us all ducking for cover down at the Eden wharf. His take off was less than elegant.

I did get up early to try for a sunrise, but apparently from those in the know, I need to be on the other side of that point.

Camera issues caused a lot of pictures like this...

but I am pleased to say that the lens has been replaced and I hope that the replacement doesn't let me down.

Norman was very glad to be home. A comfy chair, the heater on, life is good.

Have a great week. I look forward to getting back into sewing - soon!!

Sue xxx