Ta Da

Finished the Nick of Time quilt top. If only I had the backing fabric the quilt could be finished.

Note to self make sure you square up all the blocks before putting connector corners on instead of just half the blocks.

Nick of Time

The big sew a long is about to start in the US with Pat Sloan's group. I didn't see me staying up to burn the midnight oil on this one so I started early. All the Starlet 1 blocks are complete and Starlet 2 blocks are all done minus the connect a corners but I did finish a couple so I could put the first group of 4 blocks together. Mine will be 4 X 4 not the full 20 as suggested in the pattern.

To all the Sloanies hope you have a fun weekend sewing.

Shopping Trip

Yesterday I headed down to Hetties Patch because on a previous visit I had seen some fabric I just had to have to do Gail Pan's BOM Seasons. Gail's original quilt uses lots of repro and burgandy and greens but they really aren't my colours so I decided on these for a nice fresh crisp look.

As I was about to leave the store I spied some pinnies all made up and decided that I just had to have the pattern.

I started it last night and finished the final touch this afternoon. Unlike the pattern I decided to make mine reverseable with a slightly different pocket configuration on each side. I used Robyn Pandolph's Chateau Roccoco which I have sitting in a basket for quite a while and didn't know what to do with it.

In the Nick of Time

I finally have some sewing I can show you. This is a pattern I worked on this afternoon. The pattern is Nick of Time by Pat Sloan and the fabric is from the new colours of her 2007 range Sweetbriar. The quilt is supposed to be very quick and it is. Took me less than 15 min to cut the strips and a couple of hours this afternoon when I should have been doing housework, I sewed and got half the blocks done minus connect a corners which I will do when the rest of blocks are done.

Pat is having a sew-a-long this weekend to complete this quilt I think on her blog but I couldn't wait and needed a bit of a creative surge which has been sadly lacking recently.

Bicentennial Conservatory

Been a bit under the weather this last week but came good in time for a couple of things with the kids. On Thursday my daughter had her kindy sports large gold star medal at the end.

On Friday I headed into the city with my son's class to visit the Bicentennial Conservatory to watch a talk on mini beasts (invertebrates for everyone else). Here is a picture of the outside of this magnificent building.

Inside there is a path that takes you through the middle then up through the canopy. The next picture is of a Jade Flower which is an unusual shade of blue. On the forest floor there were piles of the spent flowers. This picture was taken from the upper path , so I was probably 3-4 metres up in the air.

The Noisy Pitta Pitta (birds introduced to help keep down the insect population) were quite tame and weren't afraid of the children making lots of noise through the forest and we were able to get close up.

The mini beast talk kept all the 6&7 year olds enthralled and they got to hold a rainforest cockroach which was as big as their hands.

We rounded out the day with a treasure hunt through the botanical gardens with 10 questions for the kids to answer as they made their way back to the main entrance. As you can see from the photo's it was a beautiful day in the low 20's and I slept very well on Friday night.

Girls Night In

Girls Night In is another initiative of the Cancer Council. The idea is that you have a Girls Night In in October and donate money that you would have spent on a girls night out. So the hubby is away for the night and my mother-in-law will have the kids and I am going to throw a Girls Night In. The Theme is Craftin and Bitchin. I decided on the craft theme because I am looking after a craft stall to raise money for the playgroup that my daughter attends and thought it was a good way to get lots of the mums to join in and help make some things to sell instead of just a couple which is what happened last year.

The idea is that they bring any craft (embroidery, scrap booking, beading whatever) that they want to do and I’ll set up a couple of tables OR they can just bring themselves and enjoy a yummy supper and good company.

I will dangle a couple of my best recipes and enticements like my Lime and Passionfruit Syrup Cake and my Lemon Butter butterfly cakes and maybe a few more from my book of tricks. Hopefully it will be a fun night and we will raise some money for the Cancer Council.

There's a frog in my pond oops sorry pool

We had a visitor on Friday afternoon in our pool. We are about 3 blocks away from the local creek but on occasion we have visitors like this one. Luckily there wouldn't been much chlorine in the pool as we really haven't got it going for summer yet. As you can see we took him down to the creek and set him free. The frogs are very vocal at the moment, it must be spring hopefully we will get more rain before summer so that the creek doesn't dry up like it did last year.

I haven't posted much of what I have been doing lately but I have been working on a few things. I am involved in a advent swap with the Passion for Primitive forum that I am a member of. Unfortunately my swap partner has been known to look at my blog so I can't post any photo's to spoil the surprise. As there is only a few more weeks till we have to post them off (first week in November I think) I need to do a few more items before I can rest easy. I will take a photo of all the items and post them after Christmas.

Lydie the Ladybird

Had to share my latest acquisition "Lydie the Ladybird" as soon as I saw her I had to have her. Lydie is my daughter's nickname so of course she had to come and live here with her namesake. I got her on the Choccy Crow website and it was made by the very talented Marion from the Rustic Tarts. I think I might end up hanging her in my daughter's room because at the moment she is a bit low down and Lydia would like to play with her.

The Adelaide members of the Choccy Crow trader will be having a Gathering of Friends in October if you are in Adelaide on that weekend you have to go. Entry is FREE and there is always lots of unique beautifully made goodies, I even won a door prize last time which was fabulous.

Great Father's Day

Why do my kids manage to always sleep in during the week and then get up at the crack of dawn on the weekend. That is what happened on father's day, so tripped down to the local cafe which is on the beach at Grange and had a lovely breakfast as it was a beautiful day here and then a walk along the beach was in order. We had had some rough weather during the week and there was lots of stuff washed up on the shore which my son was intent on bringing back home with him, we talked him out of it.

Had a great day at work yesterday, they finally got a new computer after 7 years and just in the nick of time. The hard disk had been failing for weeks and when the tech transferred the data he had trouble, then I wanted to fire it up to check something and we couldn't get it going at all. So two years of nagging finally paid off. I spent all day loading software and getting internet and email working, got told off for using the phone line for too long I think the next nagging will be they should have broadband. But I love playing with a new computer!