Monday's sewing....

Were I work on Mondays ......when its really quite and I have all my jobs done I can do my own sewing.....so yesterday between customers I was able to get 2 of the circles pieced together and spent the rest of the day taking out all the papers......then when I got home I pieced the 3rd circle and then hand stitched the inner circle.....I have now to make the 3" compass and hand stitch it on.......

I am really impress with my scrappy compass......there is a lot more to do.....funny how none of the fabric I have in my small stash is right for the background or the border......

News from the garden......

We have had a 3 piece metal outdoor setting for about 12 years and has been looking a little rusty and tired....so Jens took it to Tim the Powdercoat man in Kawana.......when Jens said what colour we wanted.....they said "are you sure"....Really......they have no sense of adventure....anyway I got a call to say it was ready and collected it yesterday.......

I love it.......what do you think.....

Cathy

A wonderful weekend sewing

I had a great weekend at Caloundra Quilters making a Mariners Compass with 15 other ladies and the wonderful and very talented Chris Jurd.......

I have waited for 2 years to do a workshop with Chris.....I was so excited, tried to be so organised...packed the car the night before....all I had to do in the morning was get ready. bake a slice for morning tea and drive into the coast.....I get up around 4.30 in the morning and guess what.....I was late.....I just could not believe it....even the ladies who drove from Brisbane arrived there early than me.....

Also Chris quilt with a variation in the border 

So the class got underway....and by lunch time we had started joining some of our foundation pieces together.....

There were some great fabric combinations.....with most being from our small supply of scraps  

 Here is Deb N and Lorraine chatting about Deb's colours and arrangement .....

By Sunday afternoon and couple of the ladies had pieced there circles together

This is Gillian's....so bright and colourful......this is what you can achieve in 2 days when you work until 11pm the first night...

and this is Deb R's ....

Here is Chris and Gillian discussing what fabric to use in the background for her compass......   

I can't wait to see all the quilts finished......I can image that at our next quilt show we will see some spectacular Mariners Compasses quilts......

Chris also showed us her Lots of Dots quilt......

and also her New York Beauty quilt......

so inspiring......

A big Thank You to Chris for such a great workshop......

I will post mine when I get the circles joined.......

Until then....I hope everyone has a great day......

Cathy

It certainly does not take long to get back into routine after coming back from holidays.....Jens was lucky enough to be able to take another weeks holiday and spent 3 days clean up the tree....most of the tree was loaded onto the trailer and went to the dump and we kept the cut up trunk for future BBQ's.....I was going to help but I was just too busy working....usually it's the other way around......Jens also spent time in the garage putting in some more shelving and had a big tidy up......I won"t be able to find anything in there now......maybe that was the idea.....

Anyway......I got the photos from hubby of the Croc's that the guys saw in the Prosperine river......I'm glad I never went on this outing......

The guys said that these croc's were between 4-5 m.......that's as big as the boat they were in.......just makes me shudder....

Following are photos of the road signs that are along the Marlborough section.......it is such a long and boring drive.....someone came up with a great idea to amuse the driver and family......

And of course there are the animal signs.....

and there are Trivia questions....

and then there are plenty of these signs

We haven't driven interstate for many years....so I don't know if the Trivia questions are just a Queensland thing or not.......

Until next time......have a great day.......Cathy

Our family group has getting smaller each year......so it is very important for us to get together.....and as there are 5 birthdays in September it is a good time to celebrate.....we had a great time just sitting, chatting, playing cards, great food, drinking cups of tea, the odd beer or two and some bubbles to celebrate the house warming of my niece and her partner moving into their new home........and going out for lunch 

and having fish and chips at the beach.....and going to the beachside markets.....

We went for a drive to Proserpine to the Information Center and Museum where there was a quilt display.... all the quilts were made by a local patchwork group....and have all been donated to the local hospital .......I was too busy looking at the quilts and forgot to take photos.....

Love this Camel

We also wondered around and found some very interesting shop.....a great children's clothing shop....dress shops and a awesome gift store call Colour me Crazy......OMG it's like an Aladdin's cave.....

I had to go there twice.....and bought stuff both times..... 

The next 2 photos are from the Vinnies store.....always have to visit these stores...you never know what you will see or find.......

They have a great display of Australian antique homeware's...... that are not for sale......it is nice to see that not everything that is donated is not sold off.....

Have you ever wondered what they do with all of the teddy bears that are donated........I think they have made there way here....... Bear cave.......love the framework of door way.....there must be over a 1000 bears in here....all different sizes and colours.......

We all had a great time.......unfortunately the weather was against us...it was drizzly....overcast and 30 - 40 knot winds so there was no island hopping......but the guys went to the Proserpine river on the boat and saw some huge crocodiles laying on the bank basking......not my idea of fun........hope to get some photos from hubby to show you the croc's in the next post......

so until then.........

Enjoy your week....Cathy

I don't know where the month has gone since I have last posted.......between working, sewing and gardening the days just so busy....

News from the garden we had a tree from the neighbours yard fall onto a large Stringy Paperbark in our backyard.....and it has snapped about 1m from the base but never fell over.....so we got Jamie the Tree Man to come around and cut it down for us.......

 Jamie said that the vine had undermined the tree and it could fall at any time.....

You can see the dead tree from over the fence

 Here is the first branch down...Jamie and his buddy had to be careful that the branches didn't hit the Studio or the garden beds.....

The rest of the tree....it looks really serious as it fell over the large garden area.....
 

it is amazing watching these guys at work......they did a great job......

The other reason we got Jamie to cut down the tree was because Jens and I were going  on a little road trip for 10 days and didn't want to risk the tree coming down if there were and storms while we were away......


We headed up north for a family get together......this time we drove up and collected Mum along the way....
we left at 5am only stopped for fuel and had a break for lunch and arrived at our destination at 4.30pm.....
such a long day...but so pleased to get there........

before Rockhampton

Lunch at Yaamba..... were there is a pub and service station and a park and that's the town

The Marlborough stretch

Cane trains ready to unload at the Proserpine mill

Our destination Airlie Beach......

I will post some photos tomorrow of what we got up to........Cathy