Blooming Beauty

I hope you like my Blooming Beauty this week.

One day last week while miss M and I were walking the dogs, we were caught in a sudden rain shower and decided to take a short cut home. I saw the most beautiful bunch of gum blossom but didn't have my camera with me, in and case, we were rushing to get home before we got soaked.

Today I suggested to hubby that we walk the dogs past the same spot where I saw the blossom and I was able to get a photo on my phone camera.  I have to say, it didn't turn out bad at all.

 I have never seen such a lot of gum blossoms together on a tree like this before.....spectacular!
 

High highs and Low lows

It has been a busy week of decisions, appointments highs and lows which is why I have done very minimal blogging.

Apart from my work days, TUESDAY saw me fit in a desperately needed hair appointment and left me feeling quite refreshed and then I spent the rest of the day finishing off all block A's of Spaghetti Junction.  I still had to wait till Wednesday to see if I could get more of the spotty fabric and so had to leave block B. Decisions, decisions........If I can't get the spotty, will I just use the rest of the layer cake to make block B and end up with a small quilt OR  If I can get the spotty, I will use the lovely red fabric to make block B.

WEDNESDAY I went to quilt group  (only to find no black spotty). I then had my long overdue dentist appointment.  This was good news for me as it was just a clean and polish.....no other issues that needed attention. After doing my weekly shopping I raced off to weight loss appointment to find I had lost 1.4kg this week. YAY! Dashed back home to get ready for a dinner date with some friends from work.

THURSDAY was an awful, awful day.  One of my dear facebook friends, who is actually a friend of my eldest son, lost two of her 3 dogs in one day.  Someone tried to get into their house and left an escape route for the 2 younger dogs, Charlie and Willow, who were then hit by the same car out on the road.  A neighbour phoned her to say she had found them. (oh, I feel so sick writing this) She came home to find them still alive and raced them to the vet.  They had such horrific injuries that the decision was made to put them both to sleep.  Samantha is the most amazing photographer and she documents the lives of her beautiful furbabies all the time on facebook.  You can pop over to her page Paper Heart Photography to see how much she truly loves her furbabies and helps other animals that desperately need "forever homes". The most poignant photo for me is the two empty collars. *lump in my throat*

A photo Samantha took of Charlie and Callie (before Willow, before Lila, before Fred)

And that is mainly why I have not blogged very much this week......I am TOO SAD.

 

Chat Time

Hope you have time to join me for a chat!

Here are the questions posted by Patrice at Everyday Ruralty .......and my answers:

What is your favorite time of day to read? If you don't enjoy reading, then what is your favorite time to watch TV/movies?
 I really love to read at night in bed but is difficult lately as my hubby goes to bed much earlier than I do and I don't like to risk waking him up by turning the light on.  If it is a nice breezy afternoon, I like to lie on my banana bed next to the pool and read.
   

Did you watch the Super Bowl? If so, what was your favorite commercial? If you didn't watch it, what did you do Sunday night?
Afraid not!! In fact, until Sunday night I didn't even realise the superbowl was grid iron.  I always thought is was baseball!! All the Super Bowl food on Pinterest looks good though!

Have you been watching Downton Abbey?Who's your favorite character? If not, have you seen any interesting TV or movies series lately?
Downton Abbey is one of my very favourite shows and can't wait till Sunday when series 3 starts here in Australia.  I guess Sybil is my favourite. She is a strong, caring woman who is not afraid to follow her heart. She also reminds me of a young girl that I work with.  I heard a rumour there is tragedy surrounding Sybil.  Oh No!

Do you enjoy home parties for selling items? (like Pampered Chef, Southern Living, Mary Kay)
They can be sometimes be fun but I always feel pressured to buy something I don't need so on the whole, no, not really.

Please finish this sentence. If I work very hard, I can__________________.
.......finish more quilt tops this year and learn to quilt them myself. Getting my Sweet Sixteen quilt machine SOON!
 

 

Blooming Beauty......NOT!

It's been a week or two since I posted a Blooming Beauty. Are you ready?

It is not a blooming beauty but a beauty all the same....... a beauty of a spider, that is!

 This gal was attached to my washing line when I went to hang the towels out today. These are commonly known as St. John's Cross Spiders and I am so sorry about the bad picture which is horribly out of focus.  See how the two sets of front legs stick together and they normally have the back legs stuck together as well so it stretches out to look like an X or a "cross".

I had hubby carefully detach her web from the washing line but it was still pretty much intact and she was still there this afternoon.  I know she is female because the males are very much smaller.

Hope I can find some blooming beauty again soon.

Mmmmm....Spaghetti!

Well it is  really "Spaghetti Junction" that I am working on today but this gorgeous fabric reminded me of a rich, red tomato sauce just right for topping off a bowl of spagetti....Mmmmmm!

I love days like today. It is fairly warm at 31*C but there is a fresh breeze cooling it down and I opened all the windows in my creation station and set to creating.  A good day to start cutting out my blocks for Spaghetti Junction (a February Goal).

Fabrics ready......

Pattern ready.......lets go!

Of course, I have to change things a little if I wanted to make a really big quilt. I was using a layer cake for this projects, which required 81 10" squares  (Damn, I only have 42).  How about I use the layer cake to construct block A and the rich tomatoey fabric to construct block B. So you can see where this is heading, instead of just cutting out the fabric to sew at a later date......I just have to see how it is going to look.....

It is just as well I did this because when it came to joining these two blocks, I realised they did not match up size wise! Measured another layer cake piece and discovered that instead of them being 10"x10", as it says on the packaging, they were 10"x9 3/4".  WHY??? Now I have to adjust the whole pattern.

Here are the two joined together......and then another set back.  I realise I don't have enough of the black spaghetti fabric to make the really big quilt.  I will have to see if it is still available at the shop where I bought it before I can continue.  For now I am planning on making the lap size quilt.

So my lovely Saturday has been spent (between visits from the family and plays/walks with the furbabies)  constructing phase 1 of all block A's.

 

January Wrap Up and February Goal

JANUARY WRAP UP

Quilty

1.  Get "Blue Hydrangea" flimsy sent off for quilting
      I didn't achieve this goal because when I got everything out to sandwich, the backing wasn't
      right so I had to go and look for some more backing which I found on Wednesday.

  2   Finish building rows for "Rusty's Quilt"
     TICK.  Did so well here that building rows ended up finishing up to flimsy stage.

 3.  Finish piecing "My Garden"
     I did finish this but have decided to do some reverse sewing on this one as I am not happy
     with the  set out of the blocks.

  
4.  Complete block 3 and 4 of "Betsy's Closet"
      TICK.  I had a suprise with this one because I thought I had to do block 3 and 4 but it turns out I
      completed block 4 and 5. Three was already done.

Non Quilty
1.  Lose 2kg this month 
     I thought I was doing well by losing 1.9kg by last week then got on the scales this week and had
     gained 900grams.   Grrrr!     
 2.  Finish reading Voyager by Diana Gabaldon
      TICK    
3.  Go and visit the dentist
      TICK.....made the appointment which is on Wednesday next week.
4.  Complete my Pantry makeover
      Only got one step ahead on this one by printing and laminating all the labels.

FEBRUARY GOALS

Quilty
1,  cut out Spaghetti Junction quilt
2.  stitch 8a & 8b of Edwardian House
3.  piece together Teddlywinks Tea Party
4,  make a small gift for the gift drawer.

non Quilty
1.  read at least 4 chapters every week this month of new book
2.  lose 2kg this month  
3.  choose a paint for the spare room
4.  see a movie with miss M.   
 
Do you have any goals to achieve this month?
 

A January Winner

It's here, the first give-away in my "Giveaway that lasts a year". I drew the winner in two parts. Firstly I popped all the post dates for January in a bowl and got hubby to pick out a date. The date picked out was 26/1/2013 and the post was Aussie, Aussie, Aussie.....did you comment on this date?

Then I counted how many comments there were and entered the number into a random number generator. 

 And finally check to see who is number 6 and whether they are a follower!

So, the winner this month is......

SHEILA - Happy Australia Day , a wet one but sounds like you really had a fun one and great productivity !! Lovely quilt:-) on Aussie, Aussie, Aussie

Well done Sheila.....will post your surprise off to you this coming week.

Thank you to everyone who commented, (I loved reading all your comments) and welcome to all my new followers (the numbers have swelled to 102!) There is still a chance to win....just comment on posts for February and you could be a winner too.
 

Score

Another January goal achieved.

I set out to complete blocks 3 and 4 of Betsy's Closet this month and I did but imagine my surprise when I realised I was actually completing block FIVE so I guess I did more than I "should have".

Here it is.....block 5 of Betsy's Closet.  I imagined it quite differently before it was stitched and honestly thought that the one colour would be quite boring.......guess I was wrong because I love it!

and a close-up of the chain stitch fill in stitch and the french knots.

I brought home a new piece of furniture last week from Ikea and now my fabric will have somewhere to live (once it is properly wound onto "bolts")

 

there are quite a few fabrics still on the old shelves. I will get them moved over eventually.



 

Aussie, Aussie, Aussie

Today is Australia Day and despite the weather (rain, rain and more rain), I do hope everyone has a good time.

I am spending the day in the creation station doing more of what I did yesterday but on a different quilt.

Only a few days left to finish piecing this together as I set out to do for this months goals. While I am at it, I will watch a few more episodes of SGU.  The rain is not worrying me at all, infact I am really enjoying the cooler weather.

It and a Bit!

One of my goals for January was to finish building the rows for Rusty's quilt and I am here to report that I have achieved it and a bit!

 It helps that I have had the week off work and that I have rearranged the creation station giving me alot more space to lay this one out and add sashings and borders.

The more my quilt started to grow, the more I wanted to see the flimsy finished, so I couldn't stop . All the rows together with the sashing and then added the borders. 

The flimsy for Rusty's quilt is done.  I didn't stop there however, and prepared the binding for when it is finished being quilted.

As I sewed, I also finished watching season 3 of Fringe and started watching season 2 of Stargate Universe.