....and a happy New Year!!

Well, another year over and a new one to look forward to. What a wonderful Christmas we had. Lots of family gatherings.

Christmas breakfast out on the front verandah. On Christmas Eve, we went to the six o'clock mass at the kids' school then came home and had cold chicken, prawns, ham and all the salads. It was such a lovely lead-in to the main day.

Christmas lunch, a beautiful roast meal with all the trimmings. About half the presents had been opened by this time so we needed to boost our energy levels to be able to get back into it!

Mum loved her quilt, even though I had to do the yank-back because the binding and label wasn't done. I'll pick it up today and finish it for her. I'm really pleased with the way it turned out.

Four generations.

I was absolutely delighted to unwrap this excellent ruler holder. Darling son made it for me and it is just perfect. I've loaded up all my rulers, ready to go! I had floated it as a suggestion earlier this year, but didn't get much of a response so presumed it was a non-starter. I don't know why. Every time I ask him to build me something, he always does and does a marvellous job.

Ready for action! These things shoot foam bullets and for a tiny while, it was decided that a lot of fun could be had, firing at me.  I told the four of them that I would beat them all around the ears till they bled I gently discouraged that plan and they took themselves off down to the pool area.

The day after Boxing Day, still recovering!

Then my brother, his wife and two little daughters came over for yet more food for a BBQ on Friday night. They had come down from Townsville to see us all for Christmas. We have had the most wonderful family time over the past few days. Now time to clean up the mess, put everything away and start the new year.

SBS is under way! I finished Cross and Crown this morning. I wish I had used a different fabric for the small points though. They're not showing up very well and the ones in the top don't have any of the pink in them but it was all too much mucking around, so this block is also as done as it's going to be!

What a beautiful day!

Days like today make me so happy! The perfect Spring day, with a cool breeze and lovely sunshine! Birds singing, branches waving gently in the breeze and ditto a ute load of clean washing. All is right with the world.

The light of my life turned 5 yesterday! It just does not seem that long ago that I watched him being born. What a truly remarkable and special experience that was for me. I went over to his house for a lovely birthday breakfast yesterday morning and to watch him open his presents from me and Grandad.

Now that he's a big boy, I thought I should introduce him to the 'socks and jocks' gift pack! Check the smile on his face. He doesn't know, at this stage, that this will be something he's likely to be unwrapping many times in his life! He is the most joyous little critter.

 

Slow progress on a quilt for DIL. This block needs something. Am thinking of doing some ribbon embroidery flowers on it. Not sure.

This is the church block from Bronwyn Hayes' 'We are Family' that started in Homespun No. 104. I made it blue because my son and DIL were married in the little blue church on Mt. Tamborine. I've traced out all the blocks in the first part and started the embroidery on them but not a lot to show there yet! Need to get my skates on.

 

Aren't fresh flowers a delight to have in the house? This beautiful bunch came from SIL's garden. Hannes told me the buds will hatch in a few days, so here's hoping! Off to do another SBS block and have a crack at doing a block that needs templates - not my strong suit! Wish me luck!

Onya, Barbie!

Well, what a thoroughly frustrating and infuriating wonderfully productive weekend! Weather has been just beautiful and I have been beavering away in totally inadequate carport situation lovely sewing room for most of the weekend. Really motoring along with Sylvia's Bridal Sampler.

Cross and Crown - foundation pieced

Big T - also foundation pieced

Shoo Fly

Sarah's Choice

Ohio Star

The last three were traditionally pieced. Need to whack up the design sheet on the dining room wall again when Bill the Builder isn't home, to see whether I'm going too blue. I don't think so though, from memory. Lynda is going to be so proud of my progress!

Made the best pizza on Friday night. I read a tip in a forum here about having fresh herbs all year round. You just gather up whatever herbs or greens you have, add an onion,  a bucket load some garlic and enough olive oil to make a paste and then just whizz the living suitcase out of it it up to make a sort of pesto number. I used parsley, rosemary, basil, brown onion, dried thyme and dried dill and a bucket load some garlic and slathered spread it over my homemade pizza dough and let me tell you...it is the freakin' goods! really nice.

Made a carnivore meat lover's for Bill the Builder and a chicken and pineapple one for moi. Needed to get the fruit element in.

Hot pizza and cold wine (Friday night's dinner) and cold pizza and hot coffee (Saturday breakfast). Yum! And all the food groups covered in one fell swoop. Could I write a nutrition book, or what??

Spitting, cussing and snorting Mildly disappointed to discover that the perfect border for this quilt has a distinct repeat and I can't use it. Actually, I've added another two borders since the photo below.

Disregard silky smalls waving in the breeze alongside.

Perfect border in Patisserie, which I love but you can see the obvious repeat in the fabric so auditioned this one (also Patisserie) which I freakin' knew in my water wouldn't work at all suspected might not be quite right.

Totally cheesed off to the max Quite disappointed. Would have liked to have done that this weekend. Believe me, that border doesn't look as good as it does in the photo. It really is a non-starter.

So that was my very productive weekend. I was also going to iron but realized I've already done that twice this year. Didn't want to appear obessive so gave it a swerve.

Further proof......

that I have not just been goofing off for the last year. Well....maybe a little, but had productive spurts too.

I learned to make my own laundry liquid. It works really well and saves me a ute load of cash. Gotta love that!

And my own bath soap after a totally diabolical first attempt which involved a can of Draino. Whoda thunk it?

Had a double birthday celebration for two grandbabies before they set off on a wonderful holiday to America.

Taught myself how to crochet around a handkerchief.  Probably would have worked better with the right colour cotton but you know how I hate to wait around for things ie next day to buy right colour cotton.

Went on a weekend ride to Tenterfield which pleased Bill the Builder no end. B the B nearly bawled had a few anxious moments when he discovered the battery on the bike was flat but he soon fixed that and off we went. A good time was had by all!

Channelling biker chick and failing dismally. Check out the grimace! Doncha love helmet hair??

Read a great tip here the other day about cutting the bottom of a bunch of wilting celery and standing it in water to revive it. Ditto lettuce. Since I had both dying a slow death in the bottom of the fridge, I decided to give it a go. And it worked!

SIL did the pop-in later on in the day and we had a lovely chat. After he left, he came back about a half hour later with a gorgeous bunch of flowers. I was so touched.

After talking to DD later that night, turns out SIL felt very sorry for me because I was trying to brighten up with place with celery and lettuce so he went out and bought me flowers! How sweet is he?

I've had this top done for a little while now. It was from Quilter's Magazine and is in Robyn Pandolph fabric which I love. Turned out to be a bit brighter than in the magazine but I still love it.

Check out these mitres!! Am I any good, or what?? Actually, all credit goes to the every patient Lynda who helped me to do it and she hardly rolled her eyes at me at all!

It is sitting on a king bed so I'm not sure whether it will fit on my quilt frame or not. I'm working up to quilting it for Mum's birthday. Need backing and batting and was working up to getting that this week, but haven't made it so far. Intended to pick it up after I dragged ferried Mum to the doctor this morning but ended up going for coffee instead.

A loooooong time between drinks!

Blimey! Didn't realize how long it had been since I've done any blogging. But have I been slack? No. In fact, I've been a very busy little vegemite. What inspired me to spring back into print is my progress on Sylvia's Bridal Sampler. I am actually up to block 50. On the strength of that, I pinned my design sheet up in the dining room and whacked all the blocks on. Bill the Builder will never notice the extra pin holes in the wall!

Not sure about that one third from the right on the top row. Might need to check and see if that's how it's supposed to look.

I have also caught the crocheted dishcloth bug. Since I am the instant gratification fairy, I love doing these! The first obvious plus is that I can do them and the other thing is, they are so fast, which we like! Mind you, some of them are a bit squiffy so they are the ones I kept. I gave some to Mother and to gorgeous daughter. They are mildly abrasive, very quick drying and it's just nice to have something pretty to do with dishes with. How sad is that??

Knitted wonky dishcloth

 Been to a wedding in Toowoomba.......

 Been to Sydney to catch up with buddies and go to............

another wedding! What a fantastic week we had too! Nearly vomitted A few anxious moments when I discovered I'd left my brand new, gorgeous little matching (naturally) handbag in the cab. A kit of new makeup, my phone, our hotel key, a credit card and $55 in cash. Thank you wonderful cabbie for finding it and taking it back to the hotel for me. but where is my $55?

A birthday for Mother who has been whining for ages asking to go to Outback Spectacular so we took her and SIL down for their combined birthdays. FYI, that is SIL and not Mother with me and gorgeous grandson in the snap.

A birthday for Bill the Builder (note to self - never buy Black Forest Cake for B the B again due to chocolate shavings being blown all over the house when candles blown out. Stick to anchored down decorations.)

Another birthday for me. FYI, that is Mother on the right looking like a deer caught in the headlights and gorgeous daughter on the left. Need to go and get out of my jammies now and forage in the freezer for something to defrost and feed Bill the Builder. Seem to recall a lump of brontysaurus in there somewhere. I'll do something creative with that. Hope he doesn't say 'surprise me'. We all know how that one ends!

Pickle School

I have a new hobby! I went to pickle and jam school a couple of weeks ago and now have a new obsession! 'Cause I need a new obsession! I had the best time and we made green pawpaw chutney, mandarin jam, tomato relish and preserved lemons. It's all been eaten except for the preserved lemons which has to sit and think about itself for another fortnight.  But I haven't been idle. I've since made........

Orange and Apricot Marmalade, and

Lemon Butter, and

Raspberry Jam, and

the best tomato sauce in the whole world (or any other big place!). But what would it all be, without.....

a nice warm loaf of homemade wholemeal bread?? The flavours of them all are so far removed from store bought stuff and all taste divine. I've got a few more recipes I want to try and I haven't quite worked out how to tell when the jam is ready. The jam and marmalade above are way overcooked and you need a crow bar to get them out of the jar. My mother says she spread the orange and apricot on pikelets. Now, there's a woman you wouldn't mess with! I was flat out spreading it on cold toast.

Other culinary delights from the kitchen today include a carrot and orange cake, curried vegetable and lentil soup and savoury glazed meatloaf (that just went ding!). I haven't made a meatloaf before and am not sure how well it will go down with Bill the Builder. He has a horror of 'strange' food and I sense meatloaf will classify. He demanded that I quit putting weird sh*t in his food after he discovered a bean in his salad, but that's another story.

I haven't been idle in the sewing room either. Weeellll.....I have a little bit but I've finished the top of Teddy Tea Party. What a slog that was but I'm really pleased with it, especially the mitred corners, thanks to Lynda's tutorials.

That little black body belongs to the gorgeous Belvedere, my sweet boy who I love dearly, but who I shall dong on the head with a heavy spanner if he swings off the end of this again. This quilt will be for Charlotte, my eldest niece. They are all coming down from Townsville for Christmas this year so I need to get it finished before then. It could happen.

I've also done my Sylvia's Bridal Sampler homework from last week. I have tried and tried to upload the photo and it just will not do it. Have no idea why because I took all these photos at the one time and have saved them all in the same place.

I'm off to cheese school next Saturday and am really looking forward to that as well. What a top weekend it has been!