The Back Yard

I took this photo of the almost full moon from the kitchen window the other night. Hence the spots on the photo.






One of the "Blue Moon" roses in our garden.








And before you all yell - no we don't have water restrictions in our part of the world. But we do pay for the water! I love watching the sunlight gleaming through the water as I sit on our swing sipping a glass of wine while husband cooks dinner on the barbie!

Dear Jane

Around the year 2000 I, like many others, embarked on a Dear Jane project. I decided to make it quilt as you go and it slowly grew to 3 rows (out of 13). I bought most of the fabric on

travels up the East Coast of Australia as I wanted to mainly use the reproduction fabrics. In October I dragged the project out of the back of the cupboard and since then have added another 5 rows! I am very pleased with myself and it has helped me keep my sanity knowing there is some hand stitching to relax with in the evenings. Sure is more productive that doing Sudoku puzzles! I should add that I mainly purchased fat quarters of fabric, not realising I only needed about a 10 inch square. The other fabric is currently being put to good use in a machine pieced quilt which I started recently. I do think I will also do a variation of Dear Hannah - not sure when I'll start with the Textile Art - see the blog below!

Christmas Gifts

My daughter discovered a new quilting shop in Toorak and bought me these lovely yummy bits. What she didn't know is that the owner of the shop is a friend of mine!








And before Christmas I ordered these gifts for myself from the USA - they arrived on Christmas Eve which was a lovely surprise as I'd forgotten what I'd ordered!

I am hoping to become more creative and make some Textile Art as opposed to quilts - I just need the time and inspiration - I have all the goodies to start with - I think.

Christmas Day

I can't believe it is 4 months since I last posted - I guess that life has been a little crazy!


Christmas - a
time for relaxing - well for me that is! This year was very quiet - we normally have a breakfast with our neighbours but that didn't happen this year - so it was just Wayne and myself.
Here is the platter that was cooked - just for two!


And the table - including my champagne - please note that we did spend the whole day outside - perfect weather.




Our son joined us for lunch (well we called it entree) and dinner - the entree was kebabs etc on the barbie for our son who doesn't eat prawns which were delicious.

Dinner was lots more meat - pork in the Weber and chicken pieces plus veg. A very indulgent day.

Evening Sky over Launceston

Yesterday evening (on the last day of Winter 2007) I was driving to our local museum for a function. I stopped the car to take this photo of the storm clouds over the city. The museum is actually in this photo behind the trees. You can just see the image of the double rainbow - it was much brighter a few minutes earlier - when I didn't have my camera!





Looking towards the mountains (behind the clouds) from the car park of the Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery.






With the Museum buildings in the foreground.







And another featuring the lights of the car park.











And looking East from the same spot.

Patchwork

At last I have found some time to do some creating - albeit in a small way.

A couple of weeks ago I went to an art exhibition of Christl Berg (who works in digital media - if you google her name you can see some of her work). One wall of the exhibition space was covered in leaves - so I made mine from fabric. I have painted and thread drawn on the leaf but the backside (which is a batik) actually looks more realistic! Need some more creativity.











Next week I am going on retreat so needed some simple projects to while away the time.
The first is using some Australian toile which I have dyed with Parissien essence to take away the stark whiteness, although it hasn't shown up in the photo. I am going to make up some 9 patches with the other fabrics for the quilt.











And I've always wanted to do a square in a square - was browsing through my book the other day and came across Judy Turner's scrap book. So I raided my stash (including some of my precious fabrics, which have remained precious for far too many years), bought a few to make up the numbers and have started to cut up the strips so I can hit the ground sewing - so to speak.

Watch this space for the finished projects.

Freycinet

Yesterday (Friday) I went to a Management Retreat at Freycinet for work. It was too nice a day to be sitting inside working but I did manage to get this snap looking across from the lodge towards Coles Bay on one of our breaks.











This morning one of the other girls and I got up early and braved the showers to walk up to the Wine Glass Bay Lookout. First we had to clear the track of a tree which had blown down overnight.








We also caught a glimpse of this rainbow through the bush.












I love the way the stripped bark has left these trees.














They had built a new track since I was there 4 years ago, and have used the local stone which comes in beautiful colours.












This rock is typical of the structure of the Hazards.











And we finally reached the lookout - the sun came out at the right moment and it was worth the climb.

Early this year friends asked if I would make them a patchwork tablecloth - the fun bit is that the table measures 3 metres by 1.5!! After much consultation I have finally finished the top - it won't fit on my clothes line but you get the idea. This is one that will definitely be sent out for quilting - the binding will be enough for me to do.

Marion's Vineyard

Yesterday we had our work's end of financial year function. We did a wine tour and our first stop was Marion's Vineyard on the Tamar River. This is a rather quirky vineyard with lots of interesting bits and pieces on the property.

This first mobile might give you some ideas to put your old cutlery to good use!










I like this view of the river through the lattice work.









The sun was setting behind this interesting piece of sculpture!












Another view of the river from further up the hill - they are planning to build a stage up here and have concerts in the Summer months.









I thought this piece of bark on one of the uprights for the proposed stage was very attractive.












And the clouds were starting to turn pink after the sunset.

The Garden in Winter

Today was the perfect day to rejig our garden. Because our house faces South the front garden doesn't get any sun in the winter and that, combined with peacocks and wallabies nibbling at the plants, makes it difficult to find suitable plants. I forgot to take a before photo but this morning we transplanted a heap of polyanthus and bought some flax and dwarf japonicas to plant out the front - then we laid some pebbles around them all. Hopefully it will be successful.

I then planted the polys in one of our back gardens and my husband covered everything with mulch which actually means that those bulbs who were poking up above the ground now have to gain some more strength to pass through the mulch!







Another of our little gardens.










And I decided to plant some polyanthus in this pot - I would love it to be pansies but so would the wallabies! All in all a very good morning's work.

Winter Day in Launceston

This morning was the first time for a few days that we've woken and there was no frost. I took the camera when I went down to get the bread for breakfast and caught these snaps of the sun poking up between the mountains and the clouds - note the reflection in the river.

Webs and Things

Since returning from overseas I seem to have continued travelling. In May we flew to Melbourne for a special dinner party. I went for an early morning walk along Southbank and captured this image of one of the bridges across the Yarra.

And last week I had to work on Flinders Island - this is taken at Whitemark looking inland with the swans enjoying the lake. Flinders has just been declared a drought area and, since then, have had some lovely rain.







And this was what I discovered whilst hanging out the washing the other day!

Scenes from Above

I love flying and it's a great way to see the world. Of course the best photos would be those just after take off and before landing but the powers that be deem that you can't use digitals during that time. The first photo was taken over Iran after we had departed from Dubai.









This was over the Swiss Alps - 2007 was not a good year for snow as you can see.










The next images were taken while flying over Indonesia - we had a great view of the volcano which was quietly smoking away!

Singapore

The last few days of our trip we spent at Singapore - such a complete contrast to Europe. This tree reminded me of one of the statues in Mainz.









And yes another place of worship - how different to the cathedrals of Europe.










We briefly visited the Botanical Gardens.











And spent time at the Changi War Museum - this was particularly moving as my Great Uncle (who was more like a grandfather) was a POW on the Burma Railway.