Yes that is indeed lipstick

Okay, so when you hear the words 'more cream, more cream' and you forgot to put your handbag away out of reach, you had better be worried.


Yes that is indeed lipstick.

She looks so proud of herself, the little minx! She wasn't actually trying to put on lipstick, but face cream. I guess all those tubes look the same.

This is the third time. You would have thought that mummy would have learned her lesson by now...apparently I am a slow learner. Fortunately it was a freebie lipstick that was trashed this time.

Romily is going through a real 'I want to be like mummy' phase - she tries my shoes on all the time, tries to put my stockings on, wears my clothes, including scarves, gloves and hats, wants to wear my beads/jewellery and is always after me to put cream on her face. She's not even two yet!

No stitching this week, although I did wash and iron the fabric for the softies. I will try to get this project underway this weekend.

We have a long weekend here starting tomorrow - it's the official celebration of the Queen's birthday - yes the Queen of England is also the Queen of Australia. We all bless her majesty on the second Monday in June, for we get the day off! Her real birthday is in April, but the public holiday actually has nothing to do with that! It's to celebrate the monarch's birthday, whenever their actual birthday may fall! Trust Australians to find a holiday where there's none!

Early birthday present!

My birthday is coming up in a big rush (in a couple of weeks) and I was browsing around today in Blogland and came across Ottobre, which I've often heard of, but have never actually seen. I was so impressed with what I saw, that I subscribed!! An early b'day present from moi!

Some of the projects in the latest edition are stunning and I have such a desire to sew, sew, sew for my gorgeous Romily that I can never have enough inspiration!

Some of you asked me why I iron my quilts before I present them! I guess it's just to even out any bumps the formed in the washing machine and to make sure the binding is sitting flat and nice before I wrap them up as presents. No one ever told me to - I just thought it might look nice :)

I don't have the iron very hot and I don't 'squish' the quilt flat, just smooth out the top really.

Fabric for animal friends

I went fabric shopping on the weekend, for the little softies I'll be making over the coming weeks. I didn't buy 'proper' quilting cotton, but the next grade down, which is much cheaper (obviously). I'm pretty confident it'll be just fine for this project though - and I loved the colours and variations. I'm making five kitty/bunny/bears, so it should be fun mixing and matching the colours/patterns. Should be!


I thought I'd also post a couple of photos of my increasingly wacky daughter, who is now firmly a Vegemite lover. (For those of you who don't know what Vegemite is, it's an 'Australian delicacy' - a condiment/spread you can put on toast - it's savoury and a very little goes a long way. Not many non-Australians are fans, but most Aussies are raised on it! It's made from yeast extract, among other things, and is chock full of Vitamin B. A bit like Promite or Marmite, but not at all sweet. You can see from her cheeks that she's pretty keen!

(Gotta love those blue peepers!)

I dropped Wonky Geese around to baby Campbell on Sunday. My friends just loved it, so I'm very pleased I made it for them! Campbell promptly had a little milk spew on the quilt, which horrified his parents, but made me giggle. I told them that it was his now, and he could do what he liked with it. His mum looked very relieved when I told her the quilt is machine washable!

I got a little bit clucky (again) today, when I went to visit my friend, who's in hospital with her brand new, one-day-old gorgeous little bundle of joy Molly. She is so sweet and I had a cuddle for about 20 minutes. Heaven! No quilt for Molly though - my friend is a bit short of $$$ right now, so I opted for baby clothes instead. Molly will also get one of the softies. I did have fun buying baby clothes again - they're so little and gorgeous.

I'm off to Melbourne yet again tomorrow and Friday for work. Then overnighting with my parents on Friday night and back to Canberra on Saturday. Little wonder I'm so tired all the time. My doctor is sending me for a battery of blood tests next week to see what's going on with me - I haven't been quite right since I had food poisoning/gastro at Christmas time, so he suspects Glandular Fever (mononucleosis) post-viral fatigue. Ah well, who knows what it is - hopefully I'll start to feel 'myself' again some time soon!

Wonky geese is finished. Finally!

Ta da!

Only took six months!

Haven't ironed it yet. It washed up well this afternoon. I am very happy with how it turned out. Will deliver it tomorrow after it's dry and ironed. I hope it gets a lot of use.

No quiltmaking for a little bit for me - I am going to be making a couple of 'patchwork' bunnies (like this one), kittens and bears (like this one) from a pattern designed by Hillary Lang from Wee Wonderfuls instead!

Hope you're all having a good weekend.

Old Macdonald Had a Farm

We had a lovely time at the farm, until, that is, Romily, Carl and I all came down with colds and Romily woke up crying at 1.30am Saturday night, having vomited lunch and dinner all through her bedclothes, including the quilt I so lovingly made her last year! I spent half an hour scraping it clean and rinsing. Gross. So, we called it quits after lunch on Sunday and came home a day early, leaving the rest of my family to spend another day hanging around with the lovely animals, gorgeous scenery and way too much food!

Carl showing Romily what pedals are. And Romily deciding they're way too complicated! This is in front of the guest accommodation.

Oldest of four nephews Zach with my sister-in-law Jacinta

Romily is one plucky little kid. Here she is patting the 'nice horsey'.

Grandma and auntie Jacinta help Romily feed one of the two abandoned lambs being hand reared by the family

The toy bikes and tractors were a big hit with Romily and her twin cousins Cody (on the left) and Darcy.

All the littlies enjoyed patting the animals - large and small. Guinea pigs on the left and black dog on the right.

Afternoon tea in front of the campfire. The cake was a big hit with Romily, as you can see from the telltale icing sugar on her nose!

With Uncle Bill.

And Tim Tam the deer.

Romily was a clingy little thing all weekend. No doubt due to her cold. As endearing as 'Mummy...hug' can be, it wears a bit thin after 48 hours straight!

Hay rides in the back of the ute were a hit with all the family - big and small!

Romily playing hide and seek in a cupboard in the shearing shed.

A budding farmer on her tractor?

And I rode a horse for the first time in my life! I loved it. It was so much fun. I don't look too bad do I? (That hand is the farmer, who stayed pretty close!)

A portrait of my brother Bill.

And yet another photo of the very adorable Romily :)

Eeeieeeiooooh!

Colds are receding, drugs are a wonderful thing, and it's back to work tomorrow.

The yellow fabric arrived from Fabric Shack - hooray. They even threw in a couple of freebies. Now I can get Campbell's Wonky Geese finished. Just in time, as the new Australian Quilter's Companion May issue arrived today, chock full of inspiration for the next project!

Tagged by Joyce!

I've been tagged by Joyce to tell you seven things you didn't know about me. Let's see...

1. I was in the Australian Army for three and a half years
2. I played the flute for five years
3. I can't do maths, other than basic arithmetic - although I pick up foreign languages pretty easily
4. I have a Master of Strategic Affairs from the Australian National University
5. My favourite author is Dorothy Dunnett, who wrote the Lymond Chronicles - for lovers of historical fiction with a romantic vision
6. Sewing machines and I have a very sad history - I broke so many of them in Year 8 craft classes that I was banned from machine sewing and had to do everything by hand!
7. Jersey Caramels are my favourite lollies. Ever.

Now it's Simonetta, Tina, Jenni, Tracey, Steph, Tracey and Duyvken's turn!!

Have a good weekend everyone. I'll be back next week to share our adventures at the farm!

Hope all the mummies had a great day

I certainly did! The morning was spent in Melbourne with my wonderful mother (and father) and then I flew back to Canberra and spent the afternoon with my gorgeous daughter (and husband). Doesn't get much better than that!

I was in Melbourne over the weekend to help my dad celebrate his 60th birthday, which is actually this coming Saturday. We had his party last weekend because this weekend we are going to all meet up at this fabulous farmstay:

www.hanericka.com.au

Seven adults and five children. It should be a blast!!!

Grandma made sure Romily is ready should it rain. Do you think she likes it?

I like to clean!

You may not realise at first glance, but yes that is a toy vacuum cleaner! It is in fact a Miele brand toy, an exact replica of our real appliance. Just a pity that it's not a working model!

You missed a bit Daddy!

Romy does seem to love the feather duster - and becomes quite distressed when we try to put it away!

Oh yes and we are encouraging this behaviour! Isn't it lovely at this age where they want to 'clean, clean?'

(No border on Wonky Geese. Realised the fabric I had picked out was wrong, wrong, wrong, so have ordered some bright yellow plain fabric from www.fabricshack.com - let's hope my experience is as good as Jenni's.)

Quilting is d-o-n-e!

Click to enlarge all photos - but don't look too closely!

Hooray! I stayed up a wee bit late last night and finished the freehand fans on Campbell's Wonky Geese. I am consequently too tired tonight to do the binding - it will have to wait until Wednesday night now.

I am very happy with how the quilting turned out - at first I was a little worried about combining machine quilting with hand quilting, but I think it really works with this quilt. The machine quilting was my first non-straight-line quilting, and I'm pretty happy with it too.

Brave me showing the back view!

I am looking forward to getting the binding on and finished and delivering to baby Campbell who is now five months old! Ah well, you just can't rush these things :)


A good weekend here. Very quiet - a trip to the zoo yesterday and Carl took Romily on a bike ride, with new bike rack on the car and new kiddie seat on the bike - they both loved it. I am still very tired - I was in three different cities with work last week and all the travel caught up with me. I've finally managed to catch up with all the blogs I subscribe too - although I didn't leave as many comments as I would have liked. Just not enough hours in the day!

I have a very busy week coming up - I'm losing a day and half of productivity to get some mandatory training done, so it compresses an already busy week into three and half days. I'd better be on the ball from minute one tomorrow morning!!

Ersatz pin cushion

Lots of very talented crafters out there have been posting over the past six months or so about the fabulous pin cushions they've made.

Well mine is obviously not up there, but it's recyclable, which makes it nice and green. Actually, it's nice and brown. It's chocolate!

I find that my pins stand up beautifully in it when I'm at the machine. I can't keep my pins loose with a curious toddler around, so they have to go back into their packet after every use. So, all I really need is a temporary pin cushion. And then I get to eat it afterwards! The best of both worlds methinks :)


Campbell's Wonky Geese is coming along really nicely - I am on the last three-four fans, so should be able to get the binding on either tomorrow or Monday night. Woohoo!

Balloon! Flying!

We took Romily to the Canberra Balloon Fiesta the weekend before last, which she just loved. All morning it was: 'Balloon! Flying!!'


When we got home we could see the balloons from our balcony and lounge room windows, so she was very excited to watch them glide past in slow motion. Then quite a few of them landed in a nearby paddock, which she could also see, so then it was: 'Balloon! Down! Land!!' on repeat for quite a few hours later.


We love the fiesta, as you might have guessed and I also enjoy photographing the balloons and the people there watching them - it's quite challenging taking good shots in such low light. The colours are fabulous of course and this year it was the most perfect dawn and gorgeous autumn day. it certainly is worth getting up at 5.40am to see the multitudinous balloons all take off within minutes of each other. A lovely start to the day!


------------------------------

Thank you to everyone who left such lovely comments on my last post about Campbell's Wonky Geese! I am having such fun playing with colours and textures. I don't think I'll ever be a master at piecing, but I do love to experiment, so it's lovely to receive such great encouragement!

The hand quilting on the quilt is coming along nicely. I am almost half-way around, so the quilt should be ready for binding by next weekend at the latest. I wonder if I can get my machine serviced by then?

I went and had a cuddle with Jack today - he is one day old. Thank goodness my friend had an elective caesar - he weighed in at one ounce under 10pd!!!! (That's 4.5kg for my Aussie and Anglo friends!) Crikey! He is just darling of course. A lovely big healthy baby. Cluck, cluck, cluck!

I bought him a gorgeous little outfit as 'part one' of his present, as no doubt he won't get his quilt for at least another month - probably two! Unfortunately I have to take it back, as I bought size 0000 and he is too big! We'll swap it for a larger size tomorrow and 'represent' the present!

Wonky geese with borders on!

I knew from other quilters with cats that this was bound to happen!

Finally I can post some quilty photos! As I mentioned, I got the green border on Wonky Geese, as planned, but when I looked at the top, I felt that the green had really subdued the rest of the quilt, and I also realised that the top just wasn't big enough. So I thought I might put another border on. That's when I discovered I didn't have quite enough of the orange with gold flecks fabric that I used on the inner border. What to do? I didn't really want to introduce a new colour, but I did want to lift the 'bright factor'. So I went down to my LQS and tried to find some more of the old fabric, but of course they had none left.


I spent about an hour checking out various fabrics and found that a lot of them were too bright, the wrong orange or yellow, or just the wrong finish. Then I found the most incredible fabric - it has been dyed a couple of different colours with gradations in between so that they melt together. Perfect! When I put the second outside border on, I wasn't quite sure, but when I stood back and took a look, I decided I really loved it!

Bright enough for you?

I am now hand-quilting the freehand fans (although I've only completed one so far!), which should take me another week or so. Then to bind and deliver! Campbell will only be four months old. Ah well! At least he'll have it in time for winter.

Then to make a start on the new one - the baby is being born this Friday, so I'd better get cracking. I haven't yet decided what quilt to make - I have been trying not to jump ahead and to finish this one first!

A reasonably quiet day was spent today - we vacuumed upstairs and down and mopped as well. This is a big undertaking in our split-level house with rampaging toddler and crazy cat in tow! We had a short outing to the park too, where Romily had a great time flying high in the baby swing and pretending to come down the slide but at the last minute balking. She thinks it's the funniest joke in the world!

Back to work tomorrow - at least the weekend will come around quickly this week!

Oh my goodness - hoorah!

The new computer is here! Can you tell I am just a little bit excited? And I have finally been able to download some photos. Hoorah!

Muah muah muah kisses for my new PC :)

Here's a photo of Romily with her grandparents when they were here a month ago (has it been that long?) - she is adorable, non?


More photos to come tomorrow. It's a public holiday and day off work here in Australia. It's ANZAC Day. For those of you who do not know the legend of the ANZACs and the birth of Australia as a nation - not as a dominion of the British Empire, you must visit this site. It is a day of spiritual significance for most Australians - even the most die-hard atheists! We remember the bravery and courage of those brave men and women who embodied the spirit that we today call 'Australian'. We will remember them.

A two-headed puss?

No, not really. A photo my mum took of Bashka last time she was up here.

New computer arrives on Monday. Old Mac is busted, so we had the techs retrieve all our old data and once it's loaded on to the new computer we'll toss it. And this laptop we're working off will become Romily's computer in a bid to keep her away from the new one. We're almost certain that she is the common denominating factor between the two computers breaking within a short space of each other! She just loves pushing the buttons and 'typing'.

Quick update

Still waiting for a computer to turn up! In the meantime, I've finished machine quilting Campbell's Wonky Geese quilt - now to the freehand fans.

Also the two books I ordered from Amazon have arrived. Might go open the parcel right now.

We are all well. I haven't been sick in over two weeks, so that is a good sign. Let's hope my immune system is on the road to recovery! Must've been all that chocolate I ate over Easter!!

Still waiting

Well we bought some software we hoped might fix our Mac computer, but to no avail. The computer is now back at the shop with the technicians, who will take 3-5 days to even look at it. The good news is that even if the computer is cactus, they'll be able to salvage all of our image files - which, sadly, I hadn't backed up for quite a while.

Thank goodness that at least will be possible, as I would be very upset if we lost all of the photos I've taken over the last few months. Let this be a lesson to me. And to you! PLEASE BACK UP YOUR DATA NOW!!

The laptop that I am writing this post on is also broken, as you may recall - the USB ports are fried, so I can't download anything from my camera. But, the good news is that we've finally ordered our new computer, which should be here within the week. Romily won't be allowed near that one and she'll be quite disappointed. We'll let her bash this laptop about though, as it's now worthless. It can be 'Romily's computer'! Hopefully she'll be happy with that.

In the time I would have spent downloading photos and editing them, posting on here, etc, I've been quite productive! I have almost finished machine quilting the centre panel of Campbell's quilt. I'm just doing a very loose overlapping wavy line up and down and across and back again. I can't remember what it's called! I'm having a little trouble with my machine again - I'm having that thread bunching on the bottom problem - but after doing some research on the Internet, I've discovered it's not in fact a problem with the bobbin, but with the top thread. I think I'll change my needle over and see if that helps. If not, it'll have to go in for a service - but not until I've finished the machine quilting on this quilt!

Then I'll hand quilt some baptist fans around the borders - I've never tried it before, but I'm going to follow Tonya's tutorial, now hosted on Bonnie's Quiltville.com website. Looks easy enough - let's hope it is in practice!

------------------

We had a lovely Easter - stayed close to home, but went out every day. Sometimes just the three of us (which is my favourite way to spend a day), sometimes with other adults, and other times with lots of kids around. Romily was fabulous fun, and although she doesn't yet 'get' Easter, she certainly got the hang of the Easter egg hunt and then eating the booty! She had her first ever chocolate, and - no surprises here - loved it!! She'll be allowed a little piece or two here and there, but it won't be a regular thing until she's old enough to know a little goes a long way. Of course her mother never really learnt that, so I might be kidding myself!

------------------

Sorry I haven't been getting around to everyone's blogs much lately. So busy and then so tired when I'm not busy. Let's hope I can find some motivation to get back out exercising again and build up some energy stores.

------------------

And let's hope that by the time I post next I am able to share some photos!

Hippity Hop Happy Easter

Well I missed my 200th post! Happy 201 posts to me! LOL

What another busy week. Flew out to Adelaide (in South Australia) Tuesday night for a meeting on Wednesday. Late flight back last night meant I didn't get home till nearly 10pm. Am feeling very tired today, but fortunately we had an early knock-off and I came home an hour early. Some of my lovely new colleagues brought me chocolate Easter bunnies - I did feel bad that I hadn't returned the favour but they said it wasn't expected, they just wanted to wish me a happy Easter. Did I say how much I like my new job? Tis wonderful to be appreciated!

And it was wonderful to see Romily, and of course Carl, the morning after I returned from Adelaide. I don't like going away for work anymore!

We are sticking close to home for Easter, although we have something planned for each of the four days of the break. All pleasurable though!

Romily will have her first Easter egg and therefore first piece of chocolate on Sunday. I think she will like it! She won't have a clue what Easter or the Easter bunny is all about, but she does know what a bunny is and everytime we take her past a shop window that has an Easter display she points and shouts excitedly 'bunny, bunny'! Next year, it won't be 'bunny' but 'chocolate, chocolate' - ah the innocence of babes!

For those of you with slightly bigger children, check out this cute website. I must confess I had fun colouring in the bunny!

Still no joy on the computer front - we are ordering our new pc over the weekend, but the Disk Warrior software for the Mac hasn't arrived yet so I still can't download any photos - it's driving me nuts! I have some great photos on the camera that I want to see bigger. I am not good at waiting apparently.

Anyway, Happy Easter everyone - if you're on the roads please do drive safely.

Luddite post

Well bad news on our Mac - it won't restart using the installation disk, so we have quite a serious problem. There's some software that will probably fix it, called Disk Warrior, but it's out of stock everywhere until the end of this coming week. So, I won't be able to download any photos until then. Unless our new computer, which we are ordering this week, is available before we can fix the Mac. I have heaps of photos to download from the wedding, from my parents' visit to Canberra and of Campbell's quilt, aka Wonky Geese.

Speaking of Wonky Geese, I have made quite a lot of progress! I have got the borders on and the whole thing basted with safety pins, ready to quilt. I am dying to show you a photo of it, as I realised after putting the first border on that the top was too small, so I added a second border in the most unbelievable red/orange/yellow fabric. It sure is eye-popping. I really like it though! Will post a pic as soon as I can.

Of course I'm now a little flummoxed as to exactly how I'll quilt it - it will be on the machine, as I unfortunately don't have time to hand quilt it - two more babies due in May! I may try a meander with monofilament, as the quilt is so busy/bright, that it doesn't really need more colour. But I'm a little nervous, as I've never done freeform quilting on the machine. Well there's got to be a first time!

We've had a lovely, relaxed weekend. My neck/shoulder is almost 100%, the antibiotics I'm on have done the trick and I am just about over the sinus infection/head cold, and I am feeling the best I've felt in ages. Romily and I have had two great outings together this weekend and she's been a little angel. We had morning tea at a cafe this morning, and she sat on the chair opposite me. We shared a piece of orange and poppyseed cake and we each had a drink - me a cappuccino and she a 'babycino', which she calls 'cino, cino'. It was just the cutest. I am totally in love with my little friend - she's just gorgeous and such fun to take out and about. She waved and said 'byeeee' to the waitstaff as we were leaving and everyone in the cafe was smiling at her. I had one of those wonderful mummy moments. Ahhh.

------------

Over at Fairybread Quilts, Jenni has been discussing the outrageous price of quilting fabric and books in Australia. I popped into my LQS on Friday night to pick up that great fabric I used for the border and tried not to chafe at the $22.50/metre price tag. I will be checking out some US online stores like the Quilt Shack and a few others for future orders, as I just cannot afford the prices here with the number of quilts I plan to make this year. I was also inspired by the discussion to see if I could find a copy of a book I saw in the LQS - 'It's okay if you sit on my quilt' by Mary Ellen Hopkins. I found a copy for sale on Amazon - while I was there I also ordered 'Machine Quilting Made Easy' by Maureen Noble. I got them both for less (including postage) than I would have paid for one at my LQS. Amazing!

Well it's off to work again tomorrow - but a short week as we break on Thursday afternoon for Easter. Hooray! Four days off in a row!