An Apple a Day

A little while ago I read that Nic from Craftapalooza was doing another stitch along, this time being her Apple Pincushion.  I thought “Why not?”.  It would be a simple project and a nice one to do with my friend while we were visiting.

It’s amazing how much stuff I had to put together to make up a little kit for each of us to make the project.  There was the fabric, interfacing, buttons, thong for stalk, felt for leaves, sewing thread, strong thread, long needles (which I found in the deep dark depths of Mum’s sewing drawer) and stuffing, as well as making a couple of templates to make things easy.

Anyway, it all worked well.  The hardest part, as usual was deciding on the fabric to use.  I went with ones that would work well with the Blossie Basket I made previously.

We spent a fun afternoon and ended up with two lovely apples.

Isn’t my friend’s hand crank Singer a beautiful backdrop.

They were very different looking, according to the fabrics we used.

A lovely way to spend time with a good friend.

The Start of April

The start of this month has been rather uneventful, with Mick doing all his favourite things at the bowling club and in his shed and me playing in the sewing room, as per my previous post.  This post is just the little extras.

We had a lovely day on Easter Sunday, visiting special friends for lunch.

The day started with an Easter egg hunt in an area on their property, not far from their house, that they have named “The Enchanted Forest”.  

Everyone had to join in the fun, including us, although we left the majority of the eggs for the littlies present.

I was amazed at this ancient old cypress tree.  How old must it be with the thickness of the base of the trunk?  And look how it had fallen over and then continued to grow further upright trunks.

Inside there was a gorgeous centrepiece on the table, which had apparently been well picked over even before we arrived.

Back home, I gave Mick an Easter Bilby.  Having visited the Save the Bilby Centre at Charleville last year, I had to buy one of these.  Now to see how long until he gets around to eating it.  Let’s hope it is before it starts to get too stale.

Now that Easter has passed, it was time to yet again change up my little kitchen shelf for autumn.  I can’t believe we are already over a month into the season.  Where is this year going?

I have picked some of our dahlias to add a pop of colour to the house.  With temperatures getting down to close to freezing forecast for early next week, we are making the most of them before they are finished.

Speaking of weather, our street tree has really coloured up and some of the trees down the road have already started to lose their leaves.

It is only less than a week until we head off with the caravan to Baradine, so much of this week will be getting things packed and trying to remember all the bits and bobs and show and tell that I need to take.  Just as well we have a truck.

A Play Date

A good friend came over today for a play date of crafting.

Not a lot of crafting took place, but a lot of talking, oh and quite a bit of eating.  You know how it is.

What I did achieve was some garment embellishment for my friend.  She had bought some cute overalls to wear while tending her farmers market stalls, but they were too short and just looked a silly length.  Would we be able to do something?

I’m sure we could.  Let’s see what is in the stash that would be suitable.

Ta da!  The sunflower fabric was one of the first patchwork fabrics I bought, well over twenty years ago.  I had used some back then, but still had plenty and it isn’t something that I naturally gravitate towards.  It was, however, perfect for this project.  They will look rather fun when she has her stalls.

While I was playing with sunflowers, my friend did achieve a small amount of her crochet rug.

After the garment tweaking, I did a little of my slow stitching, and I had also done a little at my stitching morning on Friday.  This is where I am up to.  I said it would be slow progress, and it is. I am having a bit of fun with it.  No stress or perfectionism involved.

The overall piece.

Some details of the texture.  There will be some more stitching in the hexy, I just have to decide what it will be.  The little leaves are just tracing the fabric design.

The doiley section will be stitched down later.  As you can see, there is quite a bit more to do, but I think I am at the stage where I can pin on more fabric, as I have freed up quite a few of my appliqué pins.

By the way, Mick’s rug got its christening on the weekend while watching the footy.  The weather was absolutely freezing, so he was happy to have it.

Meanwhile, no start has been made on the Sew Together Bag for this month’s Chookshed Challenge.  I met a bit of a road block, but that has now been navigated, so a start should be made soon.

After Baradine

After Scrub Stitchin’, we still had a few days with Lou and Tony before they headed back home to New Zealand.

Firstly, just a couple of photos from our drive back from Baradine.

We love the windmills at Gilgandra.  I don’t think I’ve had a windmill photo for a while.

It was a nice Frank and Caravan photo op.

What we did notice was how much drier it was at home compared to further north of us.  But apparently, we are still way better than more southerly parts of the country.

However, the poplars were lovely, as they started to turn golden.

Lou came with me to my patchwork group one day and while we were away the boys played.

They took Rosie for a bit of 4WD playing at our mate’s place.

Mick also had Tony working at the bowling club one day.  No rest for the wicked.

Of course, there was a ride in Olga the old sidecar.  I believe Tony even had his first go at riding a sidecar.

I will post about our day at Cowra separately.

Before we knew it, it was Good Friday and time to bid our visitors farewell.  It was a pleasure to have them stay.

Other April Happenings

April was one heck of a busy month for us.  

Firstly, there was the fun of Lou and Tony visiting and travelling to Scrub Stitchin’, which I have already convered extensively.

Once we returned home, the four of us had a fun day out at Cowra.  I still haven’t blogged about that and it deserves its own post.

Lou and Tony headed home on Good Friday and Mick and I then actually had a few quiet days at home….. then things ramped up again.

Mick was busy down at the Bowling Club getting everything ready for an Anzac competition.

While, from Easter Tuesday I have been helping set up the Royal Bathurst Show in the pavilion, particularly the needlework section.  You don’t realise when you wander around the exhibits just how much work is involved.  I helped for a couple of days last year, but that was just at the very beginning.

The show is on this weekend.  After everything was uncovered on Friday morning, Mick and I had the chance to have a day of looking around.

The show closes on Sunday late afternoon.  After the gates close, into the evening, and all day Monday, it is action stations again to get everything pulled down, packed up and exhibits returned to their owners.

This also deserves its own post.  It has been a very rewarding event to be involved in.

And finally, a weather report….

We very nearly had a frost right at the start of the month, but after that it wasn’t too bad.  Mind you, the heater is on in the morning and evenings.

Our street trees seem to lose their leaves fairly early, and we had some rather windy days, which speeded that up.  By the last week of the month there were no leaves left.

Elsewhere around the place there is still lots of lovely colour in the trees.  Our council has planted lots of street trees that really glow in the autumn.

By the end of May they will all be rather bare, ready for winter.

So, all in all, it was a very full month, to continue on what has been a very busy start to the year.  We are about ready for a rest.

Scrub Stitchin’ - The Adventure Begins

This year’s version of Scrub Stitchin’ had an extra element of fun as we have been joined by Lou and Tony from New Zealand once more.

We picked them up from the train in Lithgow on Saturday, enjoyed a nice lunch and a walk around the Blast Furnace ruins.  Of course, with all the catch up chatter, we forgot to take a photo.

Sunday was a nice lazy day, but started out with a glitch.  Halfway through making coffee for breakfast our power went out.  That shouldn’t happen when you have a solar battery system.  It was eventually worked out that the coffee machine had had enough.

The went shopping and came home with this.  Very similar to what we had, but in a pretty pearlescent cream colour.  Disaster averted.  Definitely a first world problem.

We did venture out to Reckless Brewery, Bathurst’s local brewery, to enjoy another delicious lunch, and most importantly, for the boys to enjoy a tasting paddle.  They enjoyed them all.

Monday had us hit the road to travel north west.  Us in Frank the little truck towing our caravan and Lou and Tony in their hire car.  We always know we are getting close when we can see the Warrumbungles. You couldn’t have had better weather, a pleasant temperature and beautiful clear sky.

Our first stop was The Crafters Cottage shop at Coonabarabran, in Deb’s new shopfront in the main street.  It’s looking good.  I had my shopping list, found everything on it and didn’t buy anything else.  Win, win.  I really have failed with my photos this trip, as no photo of her bright shop either.

From there, Mick continued on his way to Baradine to set up the van, while I joined Lou and Tony and headed west to Chooky’s.  The sunset was gorgeous last night. This is a bit hazy, as it wast taken through the fly screen.

We went for short walk early this morning.  The light was beautiful.

It is such a pleasure to see everything looking so lush and green.

Today will be a pottering day, before heading over to Baradine tomorrow for the big event.  I can’t wait to see everyone.

Cricket, Jigsaw and Left Overs

We enjoyed a lovely Christmas Day with family, friends and too much food.

Our perfect way to spend Boxing Day is for Mick to watch the Boxing Day Test Cricket, me to work on a jigsaw and to eat left overs.

Mick was quite settled in front of the tele, enjoying seeing the nineteen year old opening batter, on debut, take on the best bowler in the world.

I pulled out the jigsaw that I purchased at Vinnies in Braidwood and made a start on it……and finished it.  It seems that my binge reading style carries over to jigsaws.  I was rather relieved to see that there were no missing pieces.  

My Mum, who is not in the least bit sporty used to spend her summer watching the cricket and tennis on the tele and doing large jigsaws.  I can see the attraction.  I have all her trays that she used to lay our her jigsaw pieces and it is quite a trip down memory lane as I continue to use them for the same purpose.

Today has also been a rather quiet day at home.  Mick had planned to go fishing with his brother, but the weather was really stormy early on and has continued to be rather blustery, so not conducive to fishing.  Therefore, he is enjoying another day in front of the cricket.

Me.  Well, the other thing I was looking forward to was making up the kit for the patchwork basket that I bought last time I was at Baradine.

I have pieced the patchwork and that is as far as I will go today.  Fingers crossed there is no wind early in the morning and I will have a go at spray basting the layers together to quilt.  Not something I have ever attempted before.  Wish me luck.

Merry Christmas

It is Christmas Eve and we have just about done all the preparation that we can in readiness for tomorrow.

Our day will consist of Mum, my brother and his family here for a cooked lunch before Mick and I then visit some good friends in the evening.

I just realised I hadn’t taken any photos of our decorations this year.  They are much the same as usual with just a few changes in the entry hall.

My little collection of kitsch nativity scenes has found a new home on the china cabinet, together with my wise men and shepherd.

Our outdoor lights are up, but I haven’t taken a photo.  There seems to be quite a few less around this year, however, our street is still putting on a great show, with most houses joining in.

I have received a new decoration from Lou.

It is front and centre on my twiggy tree that features my collection of very special hand made decorations.

I can now share the one I sent to her.

I’m not sure if this one has been received as yet, so won’t mention the recipient.  They were both fun to make.

So, on that note, I will wish you all Merry Christmas.