Things to be Happy About

Yesterday I was talking to someone about the state of the world, and how all the news seems depressing. They suggested I should look for things to be happy about to counter all the doom and gloom. So here is my first effort at that.

 There are lots of flowers and buds on my "Limelight" protea:

And the leucadendrons are covered in flowers:

 

This is one of about 4 bushes of various sizes in the garden. They don't seem to attract birds or insects, but they look colourful. 

Revisiting the Blog

This is my Rajah Revisited quilt, in progress since Feb 2018, but in reality not touched since the end of 2020. The next round is 168 small half-square triangles, and I need to make a decision about what colours to make them in by the end of this week, so I can make them in a special HST project day on Saturday.

Testing the idea of restarting my blog.
 

 

Ups and Downs

This week I took a trip to Maryborough to visit the Golden Textures exhibition. Since my last visit in 2021 the gallery has had a complete make-over.

The architects have kept the history of the building (a former fire station), while updating and extending the display areas. One welcome addition for those on a road trip is that there are now toilets (no photo, but they were nice). A garden is planned, which will be good to see next time I visit in perhaps another 2 years. I liked this view through a skylight in the reception area:

We have had a bit of wild weather this week, and the wind created a view through the roof of my shade house:

The shadecloth ripped right across and left half the roof uncovered. I was a bit worried about my orchids being unprotected from potential frost, so I moved as many as I could to the greenhouse, especially this one which has a few flower spikes developing:

 I hope it will be happy in there!

Last week at work I was quite disturbed as large machinery was working across the road, demolishing what has been a pedestrian mall:

I was particularly upset at trees being smashed down:

 

It was shocking. 

When I got home I did some searching to find out what was happening. It turns out they are not completely demolishing the mall. There will be one lane of traffic through here, but there will still be a playground, and seating areas. But I couldn't see why they needed to just smash up what was there, particularly the trees! However this week when I went to work I found that lots of the trees are still standing:

It was still noisy, as the digger was pulling up the paving and dumping it into the big skip. I wonder what I will find next week?

I have not managed to do any sewing this week, so here is a tiny fairywren that hopped almost up to me as I stood very still one morning:

And for contrast, a pelican I saw when I popped out of a meeting for some fresh air a couple of days ago:

Fun at the Fair

On Wednesday I took the train to Melbourne and met up with a friend to visit the Craft and Quilt Fair.

We enjoyed a session watching Dai the Patchwork Ninja demonstrate making his Accordion Wallet:

Picture from their website. 

I couldn't resist buying a kit to make 3 of them. He is an excellent salesman and it would have been easy to spend a lot more at his stall than I did!

The kit includes pattern and instructions, interfacing, 6 fabrics (3 outer, 3 lining), press-stud type closures, and fancy marking pen.

My only other purchase was a fat quarter I needed for a birthday gift later this year. I was on the lookout for some sewing supplies (nice elastic, in particular), but there weren't any vendors with that sort of thing.

In the Quilt Showcase, this amazing quilt won Mariya Waters another Best In Show award:

Dreadful photo, so look at the applique and quilting details:

Four years in the making! It also won ribbons for Excellence in Appliqué and first prize in the Mainly Appliqué - Professional section. Mariya is a talented quiltmaker!

Perhaps we have been quilting too long, but there weren't a lot of stand-out quilts. Many looked just like quilts seen in other shows and other years. However this one made me stop and have another look:

I thought it was a printed fabric at first glance. The colours blended together so well I thought it was a lovely printed design that had been turned into a wholecloth quilt. But then I noticed there was some embroidery as well:

and in fact when you look closely all the leaves and flowers are needle-turned appliqued. And look at how the branches around the edges are done - they are a continuation of the border, appliqued in place:

This beauty is called "Springtime Meadow", and was made by Pat Leviston and quilted by Vicki Jenkin. They won a two-person prize, but sadly I can't read the rosettes in my photos. Just a gorgeous quilt, anyway!

This one won a special heart-warming accolade:
 

Isn't that sweet?

All in all it was an good day out.

Red Bits

 The RSC colour for July is red, so I whipped up a couple of red heart blocks:

As I was putting them away I realised I never posted photos of the orange blocks I made back in May, so here they are too:

I didn't make any hearts in June because the colour wasn't something I needed for this quilt.

I had a look around the garden for red things, but there isn't much happening at this time of year. This coprosma cultivar has red leaves all year, but they look particularly good when the sun shines on a winter day:

Reddish leucadendrons:

Correas:

Salvia hanging on through winter so far:

Flowering quince getting ready for spring:

I finished assembling the last charity quilt top:

Regular readers may notice the odd green block is missing. That was my guilty secret - I decided not to use it. And then I went to our quilt group meeting and was handed several squares that someone else had "left over" from a top they had assembled. So now I have this lot of odd blocks:

It looks like there may be one more LAST quilt top to come, if I can think of a way of making these work together.

Another red thing - this "mad cap for skiing"I saw in an exhibition at the Bendigo gallery last month:

Sadly the date of the magazine isn't in focus, and I can't remember what it was exactly. Do I need to try and find the pattern and make it?

I wrote most of this a week ago, but left it as a draft and didn't get back to it. So I will link it to the next SoScrappy RSC link-up, rather than last week's.

And here is the link-up: Scrap Happy Saturday

Good-bye June

Here we are at the end of the June already. 

At a sit and sew day I was handed some more blocks for the charity quilts. Most of them I could pass on to other people to turn into quilts, but I ended up with 10 blocks left over. I decided to make a few more myself to sew up just one more quilt. Here they are pinned up after I had made a few extras:

And here they are today, with still a few more required to make a quilt top:

I'm worried about that green one in the top corner. I don't think I can make look like it belongs. Perhaps I will end up with one block left over after all.

 

A few months ago it became obvious that this tree beside the garden-water tank had died:

The guy in the hi-vis vest is one of 2 men who came to take down the tree before it could fall and do a lot of expensive damage.

Not a job I would want! I couldn't even watch most of the time.

Fortunately the job was accomplished safely, with no damage to people or property. 

There's not a lot of colour in the garden at the moment. The last autumn leaf has fallen since I took this photo:

We haven't had enough frost yet to knock back the salvias, so this eastern spinebill is one of the birds still enjoying the nectar:

And the first of the bulbs are appearing:

Jonquils above, snowflakes below.

Happy end of the financial year!

Time Flies

 Where have I been since my last post nearly 2 months ago?

 I did some quilting:

Hanging outside on a grey day once I had finished:

I handed it on to someone else to do the binding, and I think the recipient was happy when it was presented:

The colours in that photo are a bit closer to real life.

I've been doing some garden maintenance with the help of this little cart:

Found dumped beside a country road. With a new set of wheels, it has become my favourite garden helper. It is very light-weight and easier to use than a wheelbarrow. (Two crimson rosellas checking out the prunings and weeds.)

My sister bought me a rose from a nursery not far from here. They didn't do deliveries but I was happy to go and collect it:

I was "volunteered" to run a charity quilting day in late May. 

A couple of quilt tops were finished on the day:

I've assembled a couple more since then:

I have enough of the blocks to put together at least two more.

At the beginning of June the tree dahlia was looking good:

It kept looking better and better, as more flowers opened, and I kept thinking, "I should take a photo of that". Then a couple of days ago we had a very windy day and several of the stems snapped off close to the ground, so I missed my chance.

In better garden news, I have taken over the small greenhouse. I moved some of the more delicate plants into it yesterday, just in time as the temperature outside dropped to below freezing this morning.

Some new additions in the far corner:

Three new vireyas.