Spring is here

 

We have had a beautiful day today here in Sydney. Spring is well and truly here and the flowers are all out and the scent of freesias  in our garden is a constant reminder that the warmer weather is here.

 

 

My birthday was ages ago, and I received this gorgeous gift for my birthday from a blogging friend, Margaret, who lives in Spain. The sewing is exquisite and I just love them.  I meant to blog about it, but having been away from blogging for awhile, it slipped my mind. However, it is better late than never, and here is a big Thank You to Margaret ( www.asamplerofstitches.blogspot.com.es) for these lovely gifts which I am using  and will treasure always.

 

 

Gifts from Margaret

 

 

The lawn in the garden has the spring grasses growing and the rosellas love them. The rosellas are timid birds so they are not often seen close up in the garden like this.

 

A crimson rosella in the garden

 

 

We do hope that the lovely weather continues as my daughter is getting married next weekend and the wedding ceremony will be held outdoors.

 

 

Until next time,

Cheers,

Yvonne







The Winners

The winners are:

For the Blue Heart Cushion:         Koala

For the Blue Heart Wall hanging:         Shez.

The patterns will be in the snail mail to you both shortly.

Thanks to all for visiting my blog and an extra Thanks for the ones who have taken the time to leave a comment. It is extra special when someone does take the time to do so.

Have a lovely weekend. It is promising to be glorious sunny day here in Sydney.

Cheers,
Yvonne

Pattern give away and an exciting order.

I am still in the "go slow" mood in relation to my craftwork. I keep telling myself that I have to get a move on-- but it is easier said than done.

I had made up 2 designs earlier this year and Marilyn, from The Patchwork Teahouse, had them in her stall at the APQ Show in Melbourne in April. I realised that I have not had a pattern give away for these 2 designs. So, if you would like to win one of the patterns, please leave a comment for a chance to win.

 

 

Blue Heart Cushion

 

 



Small Blue Heart Wallhanging

 

 

 

 

A few weeks ago, I decided that I needed some new fabric therapy. I love Lynette Anderson's fabric designs( www.lynetteanderson.typepad.com)  and decided I would visit her online shop and buy some fabric. I bought  The Candy Cane Angel angel delight bundle, a bundle of Yoko Saito's style of fabrics, the Applique rod and some wildflower ribbons. When Lynette saw my name with the order, it jolted her memory that she used to have my brooches in her original patchwork store many years ago. I must say that Lynette kept me very busy painting all those years ago, because her original patchwork store sold many of my brooches and some of my buttons too. When I checked my emails, there was an email from Lynette requesting more brooches for her new store. I was delighted to have my brooches in her gorgeous new shop and  madly  started painting again. So I managed to get a few different brooches together and I sent off a parcel last week for Lynette's new shop, Little Quilt Store (www.littlequiltstore.com) .

 

Some of the brooches that went off to the Little Quilt Store

 

 

 

It has been a glorious day today and a walk along the esplanade was much needed. The day did not start off well as I had to have an urgent visit to the dentist. A tooth had broken off whilst I was having breakfast on the weekend! I was glad when that visit was over.

 

 

Cheers. Until next time,

Yvonne

A return to Blogging

I don't know what has happened to me lately--must have lost my craft  drive somewhere along the way. I have not been visiting many blogs , nor leaving comments-- like I usually do. Yesterday,  I received an email from a blogging  friend wondering what has happened-- so it has jolted me into doing a post today and will look up the different blogs that I normally visit to see what is happening with everyone out there. Thank you, Margaret, ( Solstitches), for getting me started again.

I did have something exciting happen-- a , lapquilt, made with EPP and embroidery, has gone off to a magazine, to be published at the end of the year. That went in June and it has been difficult getting started on something else. I have started a blue and white quilt for a bed in my daughter's old room-- using EPP-- so rather slow in getting going, I am losing interest in it already!  I need something to get my teeth into--might have to start something else instead. Mind you, I do have so many UFOs-- I should not be starting another project.

The weather has been beautiful these last few days. It is chilly, but the sky is blue and the sun is shining. The sunsets have been gorgeous. I went for a walk along the esplanade and this was a reflection in the eastern sky as the sun was setting in the west. I had my phone with me and was able to get this photo.

 

 

Sunset in the eastern sky

 

 

 



We have had some very inquisitive rainbow lorikeets come to visit us lately. My son and I were in the garden and these lorikeets just flew very close to us. My son brought out an apple to feed them. He bit a piece of apple for the birds, and went on munching on the rest of the apple himself. These 2 cheeky things decided that they wanted the apple that my son was eating-- just landed on his arm and started chewing at his piece!

 

2 cheeky rainbow lorikeets munching on some apple

 

These were not game to come any closer, but were watching the other 2.

 

 

Bye for now.

Cheers,

Yvonne 

 



A few days in South Australia

We spent 3 days in the Fleurieu Peninsula and stayed in a B+B which was 8 km away from Yankalilla in the Inman Valley. Here are some of the views form our B+B(called Rattleys Cottage at Pear Tree Hollow).

View from B+B

 

Beautiful early morning sky

 

Quilt hanging on the wall of the hosts'cottage

 

Each day we drove around to different places, doing short walks along the beach and in the National parks.

 

Yaccas and stringybark trees in Deep Creek Conservation park

 

These are there to clean our shoes before going into and after leaving the conservation park ( to stop spread of a fungus)

 

 

The start of the Heysen Trail ( the trail goes for 1200km) at Cape Jervis

 

We walked a short distance along the Heysen trail

 

Ferry going to Kangaroo Island (seen in the background) at Cape Jervis

 

Horse drawn tram along the causeway between Victor Harbor and Granite Island

 

An old stone cottage in the Inman Valley

 

Maslin Beach

 

Jetty at Normanville

 

We left the Fleurieu Peninsula and made our way north through the Adelaide Hills to the Barossa.

 

Church at Strathalbyn

 

An old watering can outside The Cedars--- Hans Heysen's home near Hahndorf

 

 

Flowers outside a shop in Woodend in the Adelaide Hills

 

 

A Penny farthing outside a pub at Mt. Pleasant

 

 

Our B+B at Greenock in the Barossa. It was the Old Telegraph Station.

 

 

A plaque on a Lutheran church on the Kidman trail in the Barossa. It is in German as many Germans settled in this area years ago.

 

 

 We were going to the Barossa Farmers Markets on the Saturday and nearby was the Barossa Quilt Shop which was also on the agenda. However, it was not to be as we had to head home earlier than planned. We were going to stay on a sheep property in the Clare Valley--- there is always a next time.

 

The weather was very pleasant and both B+Bs had a slow combustion heater which we lit at night, and it kept us snug and warm in the old stone cottages.

 

Take care.



 

 

 

 



 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



 

 

 

A Shortened Holiday

Each year, my husband and I have a 2 week holiday at this time of year. We have been looking forward to our holiday and planned a lovely trip to South Australia.
Last Monday, we flew to Adelaide and hired a car and went to our first B+B in the Fleurieu Peninsula. It is called Rattley's at Pear Tree Hollow and it was just gorgeous. It is in the countryside amongst farmland where you can hear the cattle bellowing and the birds chirping non stop and the most glorious view. I love little birds and this place is a haven for little birds.

Our B+B

 

View of the Inman Valley from our cottage

 

A family of birds enjoying a bath

 

 

We stayed for 3 nights and travelled around the peninsula during the 2 days there.We went on bush walks and walked along the beach etc. An idyllic place to be.

 

On Thursday, we said goodbye to this peaceful place and made our way through the Adelaide Hills to a place called Greenocks in the Barossa. We stopped in some lovely quaint towns along the way and took the day to get there. We explored the Barossa area on the Friday and went into a town called Angaston for lunch. I found a Patchwork shop there called Jenny's Sewing Centre. I walked in and thought that there was hardly any patchwork fabric, when the lady told me to go down the stairs, which was hidden from view, and I may never emerge again! Sure enough it was like entering Alladin's cave. After going through the bolts of fabrics there, I ended up buying some white and red fabric ( I have just started a red and white collection as I would like to make a red and white quilt--- mind you, it may be many red and white quilts the way the collection is growing!) and some blue fabric. After paying the bill I received a phone call-- and that was when our holiday ended.

 

The phone call was to say that the person covering for my husband at his work had had a fall at home that morning and broken her arm. It was an accident and no one wants an accident to happen-- it was just one of those things that is out of everyones' control. Looking at my husband's face I knew the only option was to cut short the holiday and go home-- which is what we did.

We had lots of phone calls to make-- ie bought new tickets to fly home earlier and to cancel our stay at the present place and at the next place which was in the Clare Valley etc.

On Saturday, we drove through the countryside toward Adelaide airport. We did not have printed tickets as our new booking was made over the phone. We got there in time, returned our car to the rental place and made our way to the check in counter. Another shock was waiting for us--- we had got the time of our flight wrong  by 1/2 hour and they were already boarding and they would not let us board the plane! I did not know whether to cry or scream! To cut a long story short, we managed to get tickets for another flight 5 hours later-- so we had 5 hours to kill at the airport. I was glad to finally get home.

 

My husband has gone back to work today and I still have this week off work. I did toss up about going back to work this week, but decided against it in the end. Might get some sewing done , if I can get my head around it all!

 

Of course,  the one worst affected by all this is the person with the broken arm! She has sustained a fracture which is difficult to immobilise and it would be quite uncomfortabel too to cope with-- to put it mildly! My thoughts go to her and wish her a speedy recovery.

 

Will do another post later in the week showing the lovely places we did visit.

 

Take care.

 

New project, birds and a win

I have been  non productive these last few weeks and decided that I needed something new to do to get me started. I love embroidery and also EPP. So have decided on a combination of the 2. We are going away for a few days ( with non crafty friends) and I have been busy cutting up the bits of fabric and preparing them to take away with me.

Cut pieces pinned and ready to sew

 

 

I have been very lucky to have won this from Barb ( www.barbcreations.blogspot.com). Thank you Barb-- that was my first blog win! I love the book and fabric and the threads will be used in my new project.

My blog win

 

 

A couple of weeks ago, I was sitting in the garden having a cuppa. These birds were dashing in and out of the plants having a great time. I went in and got my camera and managed to get a few photos of them. We used to have the smaller birds in our garden in the past ( silver eyes, sparrows, willy wagtail, bull bulls etc) but they seem to be a thing of the past. We now have the kookaburras, magpies, wattle birds, noisy miners and lorikeets. I do like the smaller birds, but have accepted these as well.

 

 



This is a cheeky magpie. She appears everytime for treats from the compost bins-- very tasty grubs are found in these bins.

These 2 kookaburras were comtemplating a bath.

A rainbow lorikeet in the firewheel tree. I think lorikeets have ADHD-- they cannot keep still and are constantly in a hurry . They are agile birds and often hang upside down trying to get the nectar from the flowers.

Flowers from the firewheel tree

 

I am off this morning to a sewing group. When I say "sewing", I really mean a craft group. Currently there are 6 members. About 35years ago, we all worked in the same place. Approximately 4years ago, I bumped into 1 of them in a patchwork shop. We realised that we both liked patchwork, so decided to meet up over a cuppa. We invited 2 other friends who liked craft ( and more importantly, to talk!) and our craft group was born. One does cross stitch and the other knits. Since then we have had 2 new members---one does beading and the other generally chats and occasionally mends some clothes. We take turns at hosting it. We start with morning tea,then do some craft, walk to a cafe for lunch, walk back and do more craft.Needless to say, we mainly talk. By the time we leave, we have solved the problems of the world! So I had better be off.

 

 

Enjoy the rest of the week.