Tuesday, June 28, 2011

What are we going to do now

Well I have just about finished the center of Mary's quilt. I need to talk to Mary to find out what we are going to do now. 


 
The quilt pattern is called Roses, Roses, Roses. There are a couple of traditional blocks and new designs of mine in this quilt. I have been teaching the pattern for a few years now, using needleturn applique. It is not the easiest technique so Mary opted for machine applique. Overall not a bad attempt. So now we have to add borders to make  it 80" x 80"sq. I'm thinking checkerboard in 2"sq's using the remaining fabrics or ????????  Will have to think about it.

Cathy

Sunday, June 26, 2011

Time flys

Time fly's, its seems so long since I have posted anything, but so much has been happening. I was in the Studio the other day feeling as though I am back to before we went on holiday. I have a huge list of  UFO's listed on the whiteboard. Which is embarrassing! The list seemed endless it was blocking my creative energy and I felt drained and depressed. So I cleaned the whiteboard! I know I have to make 4 baby quilts, one baby already born and two due in the next fortnight/month, and one early next year. So I"m tackling the important jobs first. Top of my unwritten list is a quilt that I 'm doing for a student Mary. Mary has knitted a Cardie/ Sweater and vest for me, just in time for our very cold winter this year. (So far we have had overnight lows of 3 to highs of 22 during the day). My next a project is for teaching and I hope to have another quit finished for the Caloundra Quilt Show in July.

We are having to remodel our vegie gardens a little so that has been taking up a lot of time on Saturdays. Now that we are back from our holiday in the USA. We have to fix up a few problems that were caused by all the rain earlier this year. Mr J is building a retaining wall around the raised garden beds as so much of the base has washed away. I also ordered more garden beds to go around our citrus trees, hopefully this will stop the weeds growing around their base. Then I can plant some flower and herb seedlings to help control the bugs. I went to a Pest Management talk  by Sonya Wallace on Monday, to learn more about Permaculture for the backyard.  The talk was sponsored by Sunshine Coast Council and held at the Maleny Neighbourhood Centre. After the talk I walked up Maple St to the local IGA Supermarket and to window shop. This town is so unique sitting outside the local newsagent was Nina and her guide/owner, isn't she beautiful. Her coat is just so soft and I could not resist patting her.
Nina and owner


I hope to catch up with my friend Sandra tomorrow, it was her birthday on the 12 June and I have not seen her since we got back from holidays, as she has had the flu and was house bound for a week. I have been eating heaps of garlic in most of my meals. I am lucky enough to be able to pick fresh citrus every morning for breakfast. And so far touch wood, I have been lucky not to get a cold or the flu.

I had a P'n'Q class last Saturday afternoon. The girls have also been busy  finishing UFO's projects, Lorraine's Lily quilt looks great and Heather has made 75 Hexagon flowers for her quilt. Janet has been too busy painting her new house to get any quilting done. Margret is hand piecing a rose for her placemat challenge for the Caloundra Quilt Show. Lyn was quilting/tying a quilt with buttons not sure who that quilt was for but was talking about making lap quilts for the elderly at the retirement village in Maleny. 

I met up with some of the girls from the class at Kimz today and we went to the movies to see Bridesmaid. What a funny movie, it's not a movie for everyone but we did enjoy it. The last movie we all went to together was Black Swan and we all decided on comedy films only after that. It was a good movie but very dark.

I want to say a hello to Lucine and Joanne, who live in the east of  USA were on the Insight Tour of the Grand Canyon with us . I hope they are well and happy and following my blog. Also a hello to Tina whom Mr J was talking to at the Trading Post, somewhere in Arizona where we had lunch one day. The tour we were on was great, but it's hard to have lunch, shop and chat to people in 1 hour. I would have loved to stay all day and talked to Tina about patchwork and quilting. I could go back there again tomorrow. There is still so much to see and do.

Well, I have babbled on enough, until next time.

Cathy

Wednesday, June 15, 2011

I'm back home


We arrived back last Sunday got home about 1am, I was just so tired for two days afterwards. I suffer from jet-lag really badly,  Mr J can't understand why he never has any trouble. If you saw any of our travel blog you will see we had a fantastic holiday. It's great to be home to see family and catch up with friends. So Monday and Tuesday was the washing and ironing. I had a call from Spotlight to work stocktake in furnishings on Wednesday and then a class on Thursday at Kimz. So busy.......  The house is a mess and my Studio looks like a bomb has gone off in there. I did a workshop in Brisbane with Hollis Chatelain before going away and unpacked everything but nothing got put away. After the disappointment of my quilt Featherwood Forest at the Maleny Quota Quit show  I just looked at the mess and didn't know where to start, so I have been cooking instead. The house work and Studio can wait
until next week. I baked Sour Cherry tarts with home made short pastry, Yum!!! and also made a Moroccan  Vegetable soup. I also made a Korma curry for dinner tonight. I'm heading down to Brisbane today to the Textile Show with my friend Helen K, and I'm driving so that's going to be fun.  Thank you to all for your cards and messages regarding my sister Christine.  We had a phone call on Wednesday night from Christine's son Michael to say that his wife Nicole has just found out that they are having a baby, it will great to have a new baby in the family again I know Christine would be very happy too. Life goes on. 

That's about all my news this week.


Delicious Sour Cherry Tarts