Red & Aqua

I have joined up yet another quilt-along!! EEk! But I just can't stop myself!!

Wendy from Hartylittlepeaces - a Melbourne girl (just keep finding more crafty Melbournians!) is just finishing a quilt-along with some fellow quilt-a-holics and was talking about starting a Red & Aqua quilt in Feb 2010 - well, I said to myself, that is just what I want to do too!!

A quick email & I am signed up!!

Here is the start of my necessary stash buildup preparation - aqua I do have a bit of - love that colour; red, no so much!! Paula Prass Flights of Fancy.

A beautiful box/block

This is a simply delightful handmade box from Finki

I love and adore this style of very oldfashioned trade - usually found in the bottom of op-shop shelves, crushed and defeated, often made with Christmas cards and the like.

Jay from Finki has taken wonderful images from old children's books, laminated, holepunched and handsewn them together.

This is for my D2's birthday - she would dearly love to fly and I just had to get it for her.

Also had to get it for her to help store her multitude of collections!

While I was there, I had to get this as well - love love it too!

Another ATB block finished! I am liking these short and sweet projects! These two are for Louise - Loulou on Flickr - come on Louise - start up a blog so we see more of your lovely fabric and sewing!!

Aren't the fabrics pretty and delightful!! It is going to be an extremely lovely quilt!

My school recently had a Community Artists Morning - where family and friends of the school are encouraged to show their art, be it sculpture, music, paper, fabric, flower arranging and many more!! I forgot my camera - drats! - but I had a lovely morning with all the kids coming around to see my little 'stall'. Louise's block was very popular! The kids asked lots of questions about how it was sewn and was fascinated in the sewing machine and how just using rectangles, an interesting pattern can emerge!

I made lots and lots of half square triangles and they kept asking for more - "Do it again, do it again!!" Makes me laugh!!

I'm doing a little 'Summer Dance'..

Well, I have jumped on the bandwagon again, and got myself caught up in the Munki Munki swirl of fabric collection and obsession (though I think it is obsession, fuelled by collection)

I am finding lots of lovely pieces from etsy and from swapping on Flickr - this swapping caper is a wonderful way of doing business with someone - you have too much of a thing, and you want another thing, so you say Hi, will ya swap?, they say Sure, and you swap, and you get the thing you want!!!

I also NEEDED a particular pattern of HRH HR (ie Her Royal Highness Heather Ross - cos she really is royalty in the fabric world!!!) which I did not have and COULD NOT FIND anywhere - so I placed a callout on Flickr's Buggy for Heather Ross group (cos we are) - and Sheridan came to the party and just gave me some of hers -

now that's what I call sharing -

"when you give away what your heart desires most (ie her beloved HR collection) only good things will your heart receive in return" (ie. I owe her big time!)

That's my Sunday sermon for today.

Sheridan's generous Summer Dance

Lots of yummy pink - I could stare at the watermelon colour for ever!

Love me some skinny dogs!

Love me some doggy jackets!

Ahhhhh....weddings!

Ahhhhh......1/2 strength flat white, 1 sug, thanks

That reminds me; gotta get some more fruit!

Do you.....

'It only takes a minute to check for a bad seed'

What a brilliant idea by WorldwideBreastCancer.com

- great graphics, great info, terrible problem,

an essential part of life, ladies!!!

Darwin - everyone should visit!

We had such a wonderful family holiday to Darwin, NT:

stayed with my brother

swam all day

ate ice-cream and Barramundi

drank beer watching sunset

smelt frangipani

swam some more

ate jack fruit (tasted like a bubblegum lolly!) and many many mangoes and limes!

listened to rock digeridoos

held a python

swam in waterfalls and rockpools

ate some more ice-cream

swam just a bit more!

Be Warned - this time of the year IT IS HOT! Sometimes the heat was deliciously enveloping, sometimes the heat was irritating and exhausting

Here are only a few photos - I had to hold myself back from loading more!

First up - gratuitous family shots

Leanyer Recreation Park - totally free - pool, waterslides, water playground, BBQ's, fully life-guarded - best kids place in Darwin!!

Florence Falls, Litchfield National Park

Buley's Rockhole

Darwin's new Convention Centre and Wavepool!

The Lagoon Pool! We must have spent 6 hours in the water here!

A child needing an ice-filled water bottle on her tummy, on a very very hot day at Territory Wildlife Park

Some photos of the Botanic Gardens beauties:

We are Melbournians, so we had to take a photo of the wonderful display of SPRINKLERS!!

(we have water restrictions)

The Wave Pool! Lots of tubes and boogie boards to use.

This is the BEST!

Pinks & Oranges & Greens

This is going to be part of a bag for a lady who is needing some TLC - a bag to carry her quilt in when she goes in and out of hospital. The fabrics are from a quilt that is being made by a lovely group of women; a continuance of the Bushfire Quilting Bee.

This is part of the backing material.

It doesn't matter that I don't know her - it could be any one of us in her predicament - I do for her, what I hope, someone would do for me.

My next ATB block - for Louise, who is blogless, but who I hope will start one soon - she obviously has great taste in fabric!!

This is no. 1 block - no. 2 still coming.

My Baby has turned 10!!

Isn't she cute!!

Despite a possible tragedy of a pav being left in the oven for hours on end, but rescued at the last moment (just a smidge coloured!), my daughter no. 2 enjoyed her mountain of pav, cream, flake and candles for her birthday cake, after a delicious dinner of Teppanyaki - think rice flying through the air, delectable wagu beef cooked oh so tender, omlette caught by mouth, nose, hair...

These pictures are so her - cute, funny, exhuberant, happy, bright with just a touch of darkness

(she loves Twilight at the moment - I mean, loooooves it - family have learnt to not mention the T word, otherwise she goes into a 20minute speech about the characters, the actions, the scary bits, the romance.......)

Maybe this pavlova describes her too;

just a little quirky, determined to be what she wants to be,

strong and confident on the outside but soft and delicate on the inside,

small in stature but tall in spunkiness!

I love a good pavlova

I love her