Stash Tidy up & FaFF

I have spent the afternoon and evening doing something that is long, long overdue. I attacked my stash chaos with a determination to get it organised. I had so much fun playing with my fabric and finding fabrics that I totally forgot I had. Like this one which is so inspirational for what I want to achieve!

 I found a couple of blogs a few months ago that showed how to make mini bolts using comic boards......I have never heard of these and not sure where to even look for them here. I tried buying them over the internet but the postage would have broken my monthly budget so I had to have a good think about what to use as a replacement.

I scoured Officeworks earlier today looking for something suitable but all I could find was  these letter files which even though a fairly sturdy plastic, they are still a little flimsy but I think I can make them work.

I will have to head back tomorrow to buy some more so I can finish the job .  Let me just show you some of my favourite fabric that I have found so far.

how about this one that looks like it has been knitted.

I have had this fabric for years but could only get just over 0.5m so want to make sure I get the perfect project.  It is one of my favourites.

 Mmmmm....just realised they are the same colours.  I also found this block but couldn't for the life of me remember making it.  I then realised it was Miss M that sewed this block.  Wonder if she remembers what she was going to make.

isn't is cute!

 After about 4 hours I went from this mess

to this.....mind you, this is only three of those drawers. The ones on the middle shelf are my fat quarters folded and grouped.

Once I have all my fabric on 'bolts', I will group them into colours, batiks, patterns etc. so come back and take a look later.

If you are linking in from Sew Many Ways - Find a Friend Friday, thank you for visiting and I would love for you to leave me a comment and say hi.

Till next time,

 

La-di-da Ladies

Today was such a lovely day. I got to spend it with friends from work to celebrate my dear friend, Helen's, birthday. She booked us in to a High Tea at the Stamford Plaza Hotel in Brisbane.

 We arrived a little early so had a drink while we waited. This is a Virgin Mojita ...... doesn't it look refreshing! No alcohol for me as I had to drive later.

Just a small selection of the beautifully made food

Thats me second from the left and next to me (3rd from left) is Helen.

Right now, I feel like I never want to eat another morsel ever again (guess I overindulged at little) but it was a lovely afternoon out.....good food, good company and lots of laughter.

Hope you all had a terrific weekend.

Day out at the Ekka

For those of you not from Brisbane, the Ekka is the colloquial name given to our Royal Queensland Agricultural Show. I haven't been to the show for near on 12 years so it was a real treat to go with my dear friend, Helen.

 Just want to share some of my favourite photos for the day.

I could have eaten more than one of these gorgeous apples! So much better than candy floss.

believe it or not.....these flowers are made out of icing sugar

My favourite iced cake

this gorgeously smocked girls dress had me swooning!

  Oh, and the quilts......better not forget to show them.

hand pieced and hand quilted.

beautiful blues

Landscape

This was my favourite.....I just loved the blue hues.

All in all we spent 6 hours at the show. Wandered around the food pavillion sampling various goodies and treating ourselves to stawberries dipped in chocolate served on a kebab stick.  Mmmmmmmm! We took every opportunity to pat the dogs, cats, sheep, cows and horses. Viewed the quilts, cakes, crafts and paintings and even came home with a showbag each.

All in all, an awesome day at the Ekka!

 

Tuesday Treasure - Paris in the Summer

Miss M is enjoying herself in Paris as we speak. It is just over a year that we were there together..just the two of us..and we thoroughly had the most amazing time together. I am not sure many 20 year olds would have wanted to travel to Paris with their mums for the first time but she is not at all like many other girls her age and we share an incredible bond of friendship.

 I got a facebook message from her the other day wondering where "the secret garden" was...could I remember? Oh yes! Out came my map of Paris and the memory gates sprang open as I relived our holiday.

Entrance to Place de Vosges

 The secret garden is actually called Place de Vosges which was mentioned on our city tour and we decided to go back and try to find it. It is a courtyard surrounded by appartments and such a serene spot to enjoy an afternoon after the hustle and bustle of Paris life. We couldn't help but envy those who got to enjoy it every day.

 I hope you enjoyed sharing my glimpse of Paris. If you have something that you treasure, head over to Melody's Tuesday Treasures and share too.

 

Best laid plans....

Funny how the best laid plans never come to fruition! I hoped for a week that it would be all smooth sailing. First we had a phone call from Red on his 8hr drive back to work to say he had an accident involving a rather large kangaroo. I think he was quite shocked by the experience and just needed to talk to someone for reassurance and to calm his nerves. He was about 2 hours away from camp and even though the car was still driveable, we waited anxiously for his call to say he was there. The car needs repairs so I am not sure how he is going to get home for his next shift break.

Then on the following day Ted came to visit me and after staying for a couple of hours, he went home to get ready for his shift at work. I had a call to say that his car had overheated on the way home and the engine had seized.  The upshot is that I became mum's taxi again!

The other thing that I forgot to factor into my plans, was Miss M.  She left for Paris on Friday night, so the whole week has been full of last minute planning and a whole bunch of nerves for me.

I did get some stitching done on the farmyard frolics - block called "What a Stud" but that was all I achieved for my one week's holiday. I still have a whole way to go tho'!

Till next time,
 

Tuesday Treasure - Old Blue Combi Van

Driving to my sewing group today I pulled up next to an old blue combi van at some traffic lights and I immediately travelled back to my childhood.

Even though I was about 6 years old, I remember the day we picked up our blue combi campervan. I was so excited, I couldn't decide where to sit and boy did I have plenty of choice. My favourite seat, though, was up front on the bench seat between mum and dad.  We did so many trips in that van, to the most amazing places throughout South Africa (where I grew up) local and far away.  My favourite times were spent at a place called Smilin' Thru' on the Vaal River when we used to go for weekend BBQ's with friends.  I thought it was  a magical time and now have memories to treasure.

I wish we had taken more photo's of these times but I found this one amongst some photo's my brother gave me.

I am  linking in to Melody's Tuesday Treasure.....Do you have a treasure to share?

 

Beauty & the Beast

I have a really busy schedule today with a group of friends from work. A light snack at the RSL club and then whizzing into the city to see "Jersey Boys". After that we have decided to walk across the river into the city to the casino for an early dinner at Cafe 21.

As you can see there will be no time for me to go on my usual Sunday walk with dogs and camera. No fear, here is one I did earlier! Haha!

I actually took my camera with me yesterday in the hope of seeing something interesting and, as always, I did.

oxsalis debilis - aka Pink Wood Sorrel

Callistemon - Red Bottlebrush

And wait for it.................here is the beast that I mentioned in the title..............

an Australian Eastern Bearded Dragon

Look at those fearsome spines on his back!

Before I dash off to get ready for the day, let me leave you with this photo of Callie, patiently waiting for the walk to get underway.

bless!

Have a wonderful Sunday everyone!

Hoorah....its Holiday!

Today marks the start of 1 week of annual leave for me although, really, I could say it started on Tuesday because I had two RDOs and then two sick leave days. Shame I felt too horrible to want to do anything. I am hoping to spend the week sorting out and organising my kitchen and posting that on Cath@Home......hopefully its all smooth sailing around here.

 I would also like to get stuck into "Rusty's Quilt" which is a quilt for Red which I started last year and hoped to have ready for Christmas '11.....well didn't make that deadline, so Christmas 2012 it is!

I have made quite a dent in it.  I found most of these batiks on my quilt shop-hop last year and in the colours that will match the decor in his bedroom.

I think there were something like 308 little squares to cut out and 77 large rectangles!

I am using a pattern I got from Koolkat Quilting in Toowoomba called Japanese Story which is based on elongated snow balls.

Ironing all those little squares in half to sew onto the corners of the rectangles. I did mention 308 of them!!

Pinning them onto the corners

and sewing them down that pressed line

That was really the hard part done.....well, except for cutting out all those squares.

and I got all the sashing cut out and sewn on to the blocks.

I laid them out on the floor to find a lay out that I liked since then I have sewn two rows together...in 6 months!

So about time I got this finished....Don't you think?

My funny, quirky girl

I wanted to share this gorgeous photo of Lila, taken this afternoon.  I washed all the dog blankets and mended their bedding a couple of days ago and every morning since, I have folded them and put them on the outdoor chair so they won't get ripped and dirty again, too soon.

I guess Lila doesn't like this arrangement as I found her perched on top of the pile of blankets and dog pillows having a snooze.

I have been off work today because I have caught the dreaded cold and up all night with a migraine and too many views of the inside of my toilet,  so her silly antics cheered me up no end.

Oh No, Busted!!

Now if there was a quilt in all that I could have linked up to this: