More PhD's Have Been Added

OK, so I've finally made the time to sit down and add to my list of Sewing PhD's. You can go HERE to read all about the PhD's.
I have fourteen on my list at the moment, of course, I have so many more but I think I will stop at this or I will never get them done :-)

This is how it now looks;

1. Friendship Tree - Natalie Bird
2. Hearts Return - Natalie Bird
3. Berry Branch Wool Tote - Natalie Bird
4. Prairie Flower Tote - Natalie Bird
5. Red Home Pincushion - Natalie Bird
6. Angel Project Tote - Natalie Bird
7. Sewing Angel Tool Store - Hatched and Patched
8. Caddy Pad Jnr. - Sister's Common Thread
9. Robots @ Play x 2 - Janelle Wind
10. Shashiko Quilt
11. Shashiko panel/bag
12. Desert Morning - Judy Wilford
13. Knitted Sampler Rug
14. Scrappy Quilt Along

If you would like to join in, please go and visit Cheryll over at GoNe STiTcHin

Australia Day

I'm pretty late with my Australia Day post. Have been a little too busy to get to the computer.
I had a great Australia Day this year, woke early and made the one hour drive to Salt Ash to Hunter Valley Arabians for their Summer Show 2013. Although my purpose was to help prepare the horses and riders, I didn't get to help out much. Most of the horses had been prepared the night before so there was just a little tidying up, brushing, plaiting, Show Sheen-ing to do and a little braiding of the riders hair too.
I went down and stood at the sidelines to watch the first tow events and my back gave out so I hobbled back up to our campsite and sat myself there for the next few hours. Unfortunately I was pretty useless this time. Connor was able to help out a bit which was good. I managed to get myself kicked by one of the new horses. He was pretty on-edge because his owner/rider was unnecessarily worked up, which of course affected him. I tried to do his mane but the kept striking out at me and as a result I have a couple of nice bruises on my thigh. Thankfully, that's all he could reach.

Here is Connor getting Izzy, the gorgeous little Welshie ready

She is such a good girl

Here is Izzy with her owner and rider, Miss Sarah. Aren't they just the cutest?

Then we left early (because I had injured my back and wasn't feeling too well) and went back to my sister and brother-in-law's house for a lovely Australian Day dinner. The star of the evening was this delicious butterflied roast leg of lamb. The most delicious lamb we had ever eaten.

We partied all night and Connor and I ended up spending the evening.

The next morning, we were up at and it beause it was our cousins' babys' christening. Of course COnnor and I were late to the church. Between being completely unorganised and feeling our way up the freeway through the torrential down pour, we managed to miss the service :-( 

But we managed to catch up with the little tyke at the after party. Not the happiest little chap, he cried and cried. I don't think he was too impressed with that fontanel water.

Cooper (Coopy, Bupa) spent the whole time glued to Connor (Nonnor) 

Awwww, "I lub you Nonnor" and many hugs and kisses ensued. So cute :-) 

I will leave you with not one, but two of my favourite songs that to me represent Australia. Not necessarily Australia Day but certainly Australia.

This first one, has been a favourite song of mine for many, many years. My first husband had this whole album on vinyl and of course, when we divorced, he took it with him, I have been trying to find a copy of this song ever since and finally found it on CD a few weeks ago...

 and then there is this one.... Love it!

Happy Australia Day :-) 

Knitting

I have another knitted block to add to my PhD today.

The weather here yesterday was disgusting. It hit 46 degrees along with the bush fires and HOT westerly winds made for a very uncomfortable day. As a result, we sat up until 3.30 am in front of the air conditioner trying to cool down. I managed only one block in this time. It is not a hard block by any means but it seems I had to give it my full concentration. I did much more reverse knitting in this block than I did knitting ;-)

This block is called "Loop Stripes"

Cream: Vintage 8 ply pure wool from my Great Aunt Peggy

Orange: Moda Vera 8 ply pure wool

Yes, it was pretty darn hot!

Progress on PhD

I've made a little progress on my knitted sampler rug. Unfortunately, it's been a real challenge to blog about it but I'm here today and I'm sharing my progress so far.

I'm trying to set myself a goal of one block a day minimum. I foolishly believed this was achievable but of course, life happens and sometimes it just isn't so.

Since blogger will only allow me to upload images from my phone but won't let me add info about each image underneath, I will come back as soon as possible and add the info on each block.

Until then, have fun, behave and get to work on those PhD's ;-)

Before you go, how hot was it on the east coast today? We hit a top of 46 degrees here plus an outbreak of bush fires made for an awful day in NSW.
Although I'm located about an hour and a half north of Sydney, the last image below, shows just how hot it was in Sydney today.
Take care in that heat and stay safe with these fires.

This block is called "Chain Gang"

Black: Vintage 8ply pure wool from my Nan's (Gladys) Stash

Purple: Hand dyed yarn from Forest Hill Hand Dyed Yarn, purple trim from Peacock Feathers 

This block is called "Little Blocks"

Mauve: Moda Vera 8ply Pure wool

This block is called "Lace Chevrons"

Light Blue: Moda Vera 8 ply pure wool

This block is called "Offset"

Multicolour: This gorgeous yarn colour is called "Monty Python" and is from Forest Hill Hand Dyed Yarn

Mustard: Moda Vera 8 ply pure wool

And this, as you can see, is depicting just how very hot it was here on the east coast

PhD's (Projects Half Done)

Well, I have decided to join in with the PhD fun over at GoNe StiTchiN'. You can learn more about my PhD's HERE

What Now?

Well, now that I'm not working, and it's not looking like I will be re-entering the workforce anytime soon, I have been trying to work out what on earth I am going to do with myself.

I have thought of going back to TAFE, but what would I do? and then there are the fees, how on earth would I pay for those? Time to scrap that idea for now. Then I searched WEA, there are a couple of courses in there that interest me, but the cost is still there and then the outlay for the tools and materials and it's just not a viable option for me right now. Besides, the courses I am interest in only go over one day! Now that's not going to fill in much time is it?

I participated in the #scrappytripalong, which has so far kept me busy for just three evenings.

Here is my #scrappytripalong quilt so far. I used a Balipop and this is as far as I could stretch the 2 1/2" squares, as far as blocks go. I have quite a few odd squares left and I am thinking of adding a strip of three or four squares across the top and the bottom of the quilt to make it longer. I still have plenty of that purple batik that I can add another, wider border to it.

I've come to a bit of a standstill with this, trying to figure out how to make it a little larger and then trying to work out how to quilt it, can I quilt it myself? I certainly don't have the funds to have it quilted this time.

Then I stumbled upon this blog, Red Pepper Quilts where Rita has quilted her quilt herself. I am inspired and I think I may be able to do mine as well :-)

Then I stumbled upon Cheryll at GoNe StItChIn' who is doing a PhD (Projects Half Done) and I thought I might join in with this.

I don't even know where to start with this one, I have so many PhD's. I will have to start sorting through my boxes and bags and create a list.

I think that should keep me busy for a while. What do you think?

Check back soon to see my list of PhD's.

A Scrappy Trip

Well, I've finally worked out to to be able to upload images again. I had to switch over to Google Chrome. I have no idea why but it worked so I'm not complaining.

I have stumbled upon a #scrappytripalong on IG so decided that I just had to join in. I thought it would be a great way to use up one of those Balipop's I had laying around. You can find a tutorial HERE over at Quiltville

I used a Hoffman Balipop in a colourway called Rum Raisin. It looked a bit like this;

so here is a picture of my first block

then here is my second

 Here are my first four blocks together

Here are the same four in black and white to check the values. I am pretty pleased with them so I continued with another 12 blocks.

 and here is my final 16 blocks which is the most I could squeeze out of my balipop.

I have so far placed a 2 1/2" border in a purple batik all around the quilt. I have some more 2 1/2" squares left that I might piece together and add a double row of blocks to the top and bottom of the quilt. If I have enough to do a strip of four 2 1/2" blocks at the top and bottom, I will do that and then add about a 5 - 10" border of the purple batik all the way around the quilt to make it a little bigger.

Have you joined in as well or do you plan to? 

Go on, you should, it's fun!

No Fun!

Well, I was going to blog about all sorts of things this evening like the scrappy trip along, the photo a day challenge and just life in general but blogger won't let me post any pictures. I don't know what is going on. Anyone else had any issues with posting pictures?
Looks like I will have to try again tomorrow.
Until then, have a fabulous day/night/weekend :-)