Pink Bag

I made this bag about 8? years ago...

it's stuffed full of towels so it will stand up nice for the photo.

We are having a New Year's Eve BBQ with a few friends so will have to sort out my house today.

It is forcast to be 37C (100F).

We have evaporative cooling which works well in the hot, dry heat.

No, I won't actually be staying awake until Midnight...

at least not intentionally...

Hope you all have fun and I will see you all next year...

Cheers

Shari

Goodbye Christmas 2008

The decorations are off the tree and I will dismantle all the little colour-coded branches today and pack it away (sigh). This is Mr Fixit making an easy task look hard.

Goodbye to my Angels once again.

Goodbye...

Goodbye...

Goodbye...

And the little-ist one of all...

(The Aussie 5 cent is the same size as a dime.)

Happy Quilting to All in 2009!!!

Shari

Caravan

This is the caravan we've borrowed off friends to take to Albany. My Mr Fixit is fixing all the bits and pieces that need fixing while it is my task to clean out the cupboards and then re-pack with our own things. We usually take a tent but I'm not up to that much heavy lifting this year, and our friends went to Tasmania (they usually camp with us at this time of year). There is another couple coming and as it happens numerous friends will be in the area as well so we will be visiting other campsites etc. Hopefully I'll actually get some lazy time as well as it sounds like my darling husband has a busy social schedule lined up for us. We are going from Sat 3rd to Sat 10th. Not sure if we will have internet access so may be off-line for a while. It will probably help to wean me off as I go back to work on the 14th (already!) and will have to stick to a schedule for computer time.

I've been sewing my 6 inch squares so will show you later or tomorrow how it's turned out.

Today is hot.

Cheers

Shari

It's Gonna' Be a Hot Summer!

Well Christmas is over and life has settled down. The tree will be put away in the next couple of days and preparations are underway for a week of 'camping' in Albany. We had a lovely cool Christmas but the days are heating up with hot hot weather by New Year's Day.

The hot weather brings bush fires and our firefighters work very hard over summer. Occasionally they travel over East to help out if needed. We import from the US a giant water tank helicopter for the summer season to supplement the smaller "heli-tacs" we have locally. When there are fires in our area (we are not far from the national park and there is a lot of bush around the area anyway) the heli-tacs will refill from our nearby lake. These photos were taken a couple of years ago.

If natural groundwater is not available, these collar tanks are set up and filled from a hydrant.

I hope to get back in to my sewing room today.

Cheers

Shari

Bird Quilt

No sewing yesterday as my darling daughter has bad tonsillitis and it involved a locum in the middle of the night, trips to the chemist, phone calls to Health Direct and eventually a trip to the hospital for IV fluids and medication. 5pm Monday to 5pm Tuesday was not a happy time. Her symptoms are now under control but it will be a few days before the antibiotics kick in so she's got anaesthic lozenges and sprays and strong pain relief so she can swallow. She's managed to eat a little but just needs to push fluids. I'll ring Health Direct today to see how contagious she is going to be because tomorrow is Christmas and there are lots of oldies and babies etc. She says she wouldn't mind staying home but that's way not acceptable to me. Oh, and the chain on the garage door snapped last night so Max (I refuse to call him Mr Mumsyblossom - totally doesn't fit! He's definitely a Mr Fixit) did a 10pm repair, and as it often works out, he happened to have the part needed to fix it. So there's my chaotic start to Christmas week. Hope your families are having a better time of it!

So I will show you one of my old quilts. This 'bird' quilt has a variety of embroidered birds offset with plain blue blocks. It is of the type that newspapers used to publish in the first half of the 20th century. This quilt was passed on to me from my mother's estate and the provenance is unknown. It is registered with the National Quilt Register.

I have pulled the quilt out for a few detailed shots.

owl

.

.

penguin

woodpecker

quilting

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

Hope you all have a really wonderful Christmas filled with fun and laughter and joy. If your family is not quite that smooth, then at least Christmas is only once a year! What can you do, they're family...

*Hugs*

Shari

What is She Up to Now?

6 inch squares

Perth River Cruise

No sewing yesterday. Had church in the morning. Shopping in the afternoon and then at night we went on a lovely river cruise on Perth's beautiful Swan River. It was for my husband's work Christmas Party. We started at 6pm and the river was smooth and calm. We had a simple two-course meal over a couple of hours as we cruised up-river. We were shadowed by a couple of dolphins - it looked like a mother and an older baby. We headed back toward the city as dusk fell and the city was a blaze of lights.

After the meal there was music and dancing and chatting and it was so much fun. No dancing for me yet but my husband enjoyed doing the Hucklebuck with a couple of workmates. (The Hucklebuck is a traditional Australian bush dance.) Then as we returned to the pier we were treated to a display of fireworks! We congratulated the boss on organising that (lol) but as it happened our return coincided with the City of Perth's Carols by Candlelight which was being held on the foreshore. All in all a brilliant evening... hope yours was just as nice.

Merry Christmas!

Shari

PS I didn't have my camera last night and these photos are representative of what we experienced. I pulled them off Google Images.

Cottage Number 8

This may be my last Christmas cottage for a little while. I have some other projects I want to concentrate on... I've had a lot of fun with them. Thanks Nanette!

Have fun today everyone!!!

Merry Christmas

Shari

UFO

Sorry, no cottage block today. I decided to show you a cuddle quilt I'm working on. It needs two more borders. I'm planning a bright orange and then a multi-coloured print.

Hope you all have a great day! I'm having breakfast at McDonald's with my H before I drop her at work at Subway. She is the best sandwich artist you have ever seen!

Merry Christmas!

Shari

New Online Fabric Store

I received an email about a new online fabric store. The site appears legitimate so will post the info here. Has anyone heard of them yet?

"A great new online store, WINFABRIC.COM is giving away two yards of FREE FABRIC every week beginning January 2, 2009. Simply visit the store and enter the drawing. You could be the first winner! Plus, in addition to great fabrics at the best prices - 5% of all purchases will be donated to charity."

Have only given the site a cursory once over but they do have a street address and telephone number. Will check them out later when I have more time. Hopefully they are ok as we could all use more fabric...

Cheers
Shari

Cottage Number 7

!!!!!!

Merry Christmas!

Shari

Chinese Tea Mug

Sorry, no cottage block today. Yesterday I had a dr's appointment and then had to pick up my darling Hannah from work for a dentist's appointment.

I had a few minutes waiting for H so decided to duck in to the charity shop and I found this mug that is perfect for Chinese tea. I love the colour - and it has a lid! I like to get the jasmine tea and actually get the little flower pearls when I can find them. So a little present for me...

I also thought I would show you one of my favourite magazines. I don't get it very often because it is really expensive. It's originally published in French but they also do an English version and we get it via England. At the moment it's A$18 plus.

I'm allowed to drive now and have a couple of errands today, but hopefully will build another cottage...

Merry Christmas!!

Shari

Cottage Number 6

!!!!!!

Merry Christmas!

Shari

Fruit Cake

Americans love to make jokes about fruit cake, but I have to tell you that it's not that bad!

Fruit Cake is very popular here in Australia. My mother in law makes a really good one, quite light. She soaks fruit in brandy overnight before adding it to the mix and then the cake is slow baked. While it is still warm she sprinkles more brandy. If it is to be stored for a while then brandy is sprinkled on now and then. (Sometimes people use whisky) For people who refuse to use alcohol the fruit is soaked in orange or apple juice.

Many wedding cakes are fruitcake that is covered with a smooth marzipan icing and wonderfully decorated. Fruit cake is meant to be eaten in a very small piece, like a rectangle 1" by 2" or something. MIL no longer bakes a big one. She bakes little ones in tuna tins so we end up with a mini cake about the size of a large muffin. Fruit cake is a Christmas tradition, although you can buy supermarket ones year round.

What traditional food does your family have?

I really like this plate

so thought I'd show you.

Merry Christmas!!

Shari

PS I didn't build a house yesterday,

it being Sunday and all.

Maybe today...

Christmas Spirit

Dear Stephanie over at Loft Creations has

given me a Christmas Spirit award.

I must admit I do like Christmas. I love Christmas fabrics, the colours and designs. I love putting a tree up with the lights and decorations - especially the special decorations attached to many wonderful memories over the years. I like thinking of giving gifts, and try to think of different ways to present ordinary items. One year I gave my daughter a dozen pair of socks, but we stuffed them into an old wrapping paper tube, and just put a single one in her stocking. It was hilarious. And she couldn't get the socks out of the tube without cutting it apart. One year my husband organised a treasure hunt by leaving cryptic clues which we followed from one clue to another. I can't remember the present at the end, but we had a lot of fun deciphering the clues and wondering around the house and grounds. We often have to give practical gifts and this is such a fun way to jazz it up without adding $. This is probably timely for many of us still today.

For the extended family we now do what they call a "Yankee Grab". Being the only Yank in the family I'd never heard of it, and probably was meant to be a little insulting when named. Anyway, it's really fun. Each person brings one wrapped gift not to exceed a $15 value. Each person takes a number (which is rigged so the youngest person goes last). The first person chooses a gift and opens it. The second person chooses a gift and opens it. They can then decide if they would like to swap the first person for their gift. The first person has to swap if that's what's wanted. The third person opens a gift and then decides if he wants to swap it for #1 or #2. Let's say he swaps it for #1. Then #1 can decide if he wants to swap with #2. Then the fourth person opens a gift and can swap with #1, #2, #3... and if they are swapped with then they can swap in that round as well. Once a gift is swapped in a round though it cannot be swapped again until the next round. The first year we did this we had 18 people and it lasted just over an hour. It was a lot of fun. The most hotly contested item was a set of sockets. The only person guaranteed to get their first choice of a gift is the person who goes last, as items can only be swapped once in a round. That's why we let the little ones go last. This year the dollar amount was raised to 20, and with a ban on food items and gift sets. Not sure how many are coming yet... we will be at my sister-in-law's house.

I hope you have lovely family traditions that you follow and that it all works out.

Merry Christmas!

Shari

Christmas Cottage - 5

!!!!!!!

Merry Christmas!

Shari

Cottage Number 4

!!!!!!!!!

Sue's House

Merry Christmas!!

Shari

Thanks Stephanie!

I received this lovely package in the mail today.

It contained this lovely flannel pillowslip and Christmas card from Stephanie. I won it in her recent giveaway.

Thank you to Stephanie for such a nice prize.

Cheers

Shari

Red Delicious Block of the Month

Hi everyone! Only three days to go to get the first block free in the Red Delicious BOM from Esther Aliu! On the 15th she will be posting the second block. (The first will still be available for a small fee.) Just click on the Red Delicious picture in my sidebar and it will take you directly to the pattern.

Happy Sewing!

Shari

Christmas Cottage - 3

!!!!!!!

Happy Christmas!!

Shari

Christmas Wrapping

Aren't these trees lovely?

Pity it's paper and not fabric!

I've rested well today and decided to wrap a few presents. And there is still time to build another house!

Happy Christmas!

Shari

PS For those of you who noted the time on my last post (12:01am), I was not actually up that late! I experimented with scheduling a post. As it was there in the morning when I got up - it obviously worked! Possibilities are endless...

Intangible Threads

I just signed up for a Pay It Forward exchange from Jane.

Here are the Pay It Forward Exchange “rules”.

• The first three people will be chosen to participate if they leave a comment on this post asking to join the Pay It Forward Exchange.

• They are agreeing to post a similar announcement on their blog, and Pay It Forward to three more people, who will in turn agree to Pay It Forward etc.

So what does it mean?

• Jane is going to send me and her other participants one handmade item sometime in the next 12 months.
  
• I, in turn, will send one handmade item to each of the three participants who signed up with me, within the next 12 months.

• You, in turn, will send one handmade item to each of your participants, and so on.

I signed up because I thought it would be neat to get something from Jane (it will probably be pink!). You will probably have to be more daring as there is not a lot on my blog to indicate my talent (most of my quilting record is not digital). However, to give a clue, I am experimenting with black and white fabrics (and participating in the Black and White Quilt Challenge Project) and also the Teeny Tiny Squares Quilt Swap. I like scrap quilting although I also like traditional blocks. The only applique I do is with vliesofix and button hole stitch, although I hope to learn to do needle turn. I'm also going to learn to use my curve master foot for curved piecing. And bags, I want to make some bags. Better stop there as I'm sounding a little desperate.

I think it is so interesting the way quilters send stuff to each other. My husband sometimes thinks we are a little crazy to spend so much time on something just to give it away to someone who could make their own. But...

we are swapping more than items of fabric and thread, we are swapping the intangible threads that tie us together - the unity of a common philosophy that governs our lives as women who treasure family, friends, creativity - who look at life with love and hope - who want great things for the future for our children and grandchildren.

I think it is worth the effort to strengthen those intangible threads.

Merry Christmas, Holy Christmas

Shari

Another Cottage for Me

!!! :>) !!!

Cottage Number: 2

Kreativ Blogger Award

!!! :>) !!!

Terri over at Bits and Pieces awarded me this Kreativ Blogger award.

How sweet of her! Pop over and say Hi!

Not sure I'm that creative as I'm still learning how to use all the features of a blog. Haven't even tried to change my wallpaper yet (yes, I know it's probably easy once you know how - most things in life are like that!)

I'm fortunate at the moment because I can spend as much (guilt free) time as I like on the computer while I'm recuperating. Won't always be like that. Once I'm back at work in January I will have to set a timer and stick to it (sigh). Today I've been looking at how to make pincushions. It's always good to have a hand sewing project ready to go for social sewing (as opposed to taking a machine - at our retreats it looks like a sweat shop! - I love it!)

Anyway, I am now supposed to pass on the award... problem is a lot of the people I visit already have the award - isn't that wonderful!! We are all so creative!!

So will think on it for a little while and proceed as inspiration strikes... If I choose you I will give you a link back to this posting so that you can pass the love on to someone else!

Here are the rules:

1. The winner may put the logo on her blog. (tick)
2. Put a link to the person you got the award from in your blog. (tick)
3. Nominate 5 blogs. (pending)
4. Put links to the blogs. (pending)
5. Leave a message for your nominees. (pending)

Wow. I'm just so honoured. Thanks again Terri!

Happy Days and Merry Christmas!!

Shari

PS Does this count as tagging?

Happy 100th to Em!

!!!!!!!!!!!

Em is celebrating her 100th post with a Giveaway.

Pop over right away to enter.

She's got a great blog!

Congratulations!

Shari

A Cottage for Me

!!!!!!

One For Me...

Flowers in My Header

The flowers in my header are from an Australian native bottle brush tree. I don't know the botanical name but they are grown everywhere in the Perth area. This particular one is called King's Park Special. Other varieties have different coloured flowers, although I've only seen pink. Sadly, this tree had to come out of the front yard to make way for a driveway my husband was just so sure we had to have. Once the work is done I'm thinking of planting the pink variety.

Thank you all for your kind words and well-wishes. My recovery (from a hysterectomy) has been 'textbook' mostly with no complications. I've been spending a lot of time on the computer, watching tv, resting, playing with my fabric and maybe today a little sewing. I'm not sick of my own company just yet, as I am just enjoying the peaceful quiet of being home alone. I do miss my dear quilty friends though. They are just so much fun to be with. We have a very flexible group. When we are at the Association (guild) we are called Creative Threads. When we get together at someone's house we are Girlfriends and when we go on retreats we are Tipsy Tarts. Ahh the many faces of Eve. Lurline and Julia are the best at sharing the exploits, especially lately as I have been missing from all the fun stuff. Today they are all off knitting socks at Gwen's house (no blog). Their talent can be a bit intimidating sometimes...

Now I must find a photo as a post just isn't the same without one... this is the wind farm at Albany in Western Australia. We spent New Year's there (in Albany, not at the wind farm) this year. We are going again the first week in January before I have to go back to work (sigh). It catches the wind off the Southern Ocean and generates heaps of electricity.

Merry Christmas!!

Shari

Coffee Break

In between resting and playing on the computer I've been cutting some Christmas fabrics to make some cottage blocks. When I take my morning coffee break this is what I treat myself to. I love the Nestle sachets and I have this little whizzy thing that my beautiful Hannah gave me to stir it. (It runs on a battery)

Before...

After...

I have these lovely flowers from family and friends to speed my recuperation. I'll share them with you so your day can be brightened a little too!

Merry Christmas!

Shari

Freda's Hive Blog Anniversary and Giveaway!

Please go and visit Nanette and her girls to congratulate them on their blog anniversary. Nanette is having a big celebration this week and will be giving away some great prizes. Visit her every day and leave a comment to enter!

Cheers!

Shari

New Blogger and Giveaway

I've just visited Sheri Howard's blog (Sheri Howard's Designs). She's new to blogging and she's having a Giveaway. Pop over and visit her. She's a talented quilter and designer and a welcome addition to blogland.

Cheers!

Shari

ps and she has posted a great recipe for chocolate cake made in a mug!!

Christmas Fabrics

Wow, two posts in the same day. What's a girl to do when she's working hard at doing nothing?

Actually, as my Christmas fabrics were on the top of the stack, I decided to follow Em's example and tidy them up. I did not take a before photo, but here they all are spread out on the bed, at least I think that's all of them. I think there may be some others lurking in other boxes, but I'm not going to worry about them today. I also found some interesting nativity toile fabric I picked up about 8 years ago (sadly shakes head) and an apron panel of the same time (sigh).

Now it's time for lunch and a rest.

Merry Christmas!!!

Shari