Nine Flowers

All the flowers are now open. Cymbidium orchid - Peter Pan X Snow Eagle 'Malcolm'

My Contribution

Hard rubbish collection day is tomorrow, so today I put out the items I wanted rid of:

I know, the ladder looks OK, but it doesn't fold up anymore, so takes up a lot of space and can't actually be used for anything practical. I'm always amazed when people throw out usable items, but I didn't expect much of this to actually go to landfill.
Approximately two minutes later, the first item was grabbed:

I told him that it couldn't be folded, but he wasn't too fussed. It just made it a bit tricky for him to load it onto his truck.

By late this afternoon, only a couple of items remained. (Added later - before it was collected to go to landfill, everything except a rusty iron bar and a strip of perspex had gone to new homes). Further down the street I helped a girl load a table into the back of her car. I've tried to avoid collecting stuff myself this year, but I've seen some interesting items go to new homes.

Farmers Market

Proof that this suburb has changed a quite a bit since I moved here:

Coburg Farmers Market started today at the local primary school, and is scheduled to run twice a month. It will be interesting to see how it goes. There were lots of people, but I don't know how many were buying. Having bees, chooks, a vege garden and fruit trees of our own meant I didn't need most of the things being sold. It should be good for the school, though, as they were asking for a gold-coin donation from everyone.

Scatterday - L

This week's letter is:

And our categories are:
# sky
# purple
# city
# and a lap quilt


Sky:
The sky over my home is the approach path for planes landing at Melbourne airport. Having spent my early years around air-force bases, I'm used to the sound of planes and rarely notice them. However this one still makes me look up:

A Qantas A380 about to land.

Purple:

Very purple lounge chair, marked down from $240 to $180 if you want it!

City:

Thylacine Family sculpture in the heart of Launceston.

Lap quilt:

I made this quilt for my mother's 80th birthday in 2008. It's "Pinwheels and Posies", designed by Beth Ferrier.

See how others met the "L" challenge via the links on Cinzia's blog.

About to Open

Bud on the orchid I was given two years ago.

It looks like there is only one spike this year, so I probably won't get four months of flowers like I did last time, but I'm happy that it is blooming again for me.

Plant Sale

The Growing Friends Autumn Plant Sale is on this weekend.

This salvia "Lime Bracts" attracts bees and people!

AQC2013

A full day at the Australasian Quilt Convention.

I enjoyed seeing the "Twelve by Twelve" Colourplay series:

I'd seen them all on the internet as they were released, but seeing them in person was so much better! It was also great to attend the floor talk by two of the "Twelves", Brenda and Kirsten.

Elsewhere there was plenty to be amazed at. Here's some of the inspirational free-motion quilting in the background of Helen Godden's challenge-winning Galloping Wild and Free.

And by way of contrast, a white-gloved attendant shows the incredible hand quilting on My Welsh Try by Janet Wood, which you really have to see from the back:

Zip-Away Pigs

Another day, another bag finished.

This time it is a zip-away shopping bag, made from this pattern.

It's the third time I've made this pattern. I find mine very handy to have in my handbag. This one was made at the request of my mother; not for her, but for her to give as a gift to someone who likes pigs. Not quite sure how that works when all the materials and labour were supplied by me, but I guess mothers are allowed to make that sort of request!

Finishing Touch

My bag project is all done, but as it is a pattern which hasn't been published yet, I can't show you the whole thing. So here's the last little bit:

An adjustable strap. I haven't made one of these before.  Next time I might try and position the slider so that the join in the metal is facing down rather than up, but apart from that I am pretty happy with the whole thing.  I'll look forward to being able to show it off properly some time in the future.

Scatterday - A

This week's categories:
# house
# bird
# junk
# art from/for/in your sewing room


House:

American Cottage, built in 1885 in Coburg, nowhere near America. This is not my photo, as I forgot to go for a walk past it until it was too dark. This one is taken from its heritage-listing page.

Bird:

Screen-shot of the Alcoa eagles. This was 11 days ago when the two eaglets were about a week old.  Below is a shot from a couple of days ago. They haven't grown as dramatically as it appears; the camera was zoomed in closer. But they are much bigger; their wings are getting longer and their talons are developing:

I'm glad I got these screen-shots when I did, as the camera was apparently hit by lightning in a storm on Thursday, and is now offline. Here's the link to it, but who knows when they will be back online.
Do baby bald eagles think the whole world smells of dead fish?

Junk:

This fire alarm was for sale on a junk stall at Camberwell market last week. What would one do with an inoperable fire alarm?

Art:

I'm not an artist. No art comes from my sewing room. I do have a few art books in it, but went with this instead. It's actually a dress I made of fabric featuring slightly odd interpretations of impressionist artworks. The dress, I'm afraid, was not a success.

Now go and visit Cinzia's blog to find the links to the other scatterdayers.

Wild

Part of what I've been working on this week:

The wild fabric is from Zimbabwe, although I bought it in an op-shop in Bendigo. The bright red straps glow against it, although the camera flash has flattened out the contrast.

Bees Like Palms

Spotted this morning:

Palm tree (probably Canary Island palm Phoenix canariensis) in flower, attracting lots of bees.

Orange and Green

Ladybird on a salvia leaf in my garden. Might be the same variety as this ladybird from last November.

Camberwell Market

Thousands of people enjoying the Sunday Market at Camberwell. It's the first time I've actually been; the end of daylight saving overnight meant it was easier to get going early enough this morning!

End of Daylight Saving

Sunset at 7:05pm. The last evening like this for a while!

Seeds

Seeds on a couple of plants growing at Lal Lal which we're also growing for the Treeproject this year:

Blackwood, Acacia melanoxylon. And a link to the ones growing at home.

Dogwood Cassinia aculeata. Growing at home here.

And what are the neighbours up to?

Standing on the boundary line. Those large stumps on the left-hand side are actually on our land. Don't know where the trees that used to be attached to them are! In fact the edge of the tractor tyre is right on the boundary, so anything they've cleared to the left of that wasn't theirs to clear.

Fun with Food

Christmas cake boat on a custard sea.

Bag Finish

Maybe a bit hard to see in the picture, but today I finished this bag:

The pattern is Nicole Mallalieu's City Bag. I've wanted to try this pattern for a while, but rather than use the "good" fabric, I used this fake suede to test out how the pattern went together. Now I've made it I'm not sure if it can take all the stuff I normally carry around with me. It's empty in the photo, but once I add in my umbrella, purse, keys, camera etc,  it loses its shape because the weight pulls the sides in. Either I need more stabiliser, or less stuff, or a less structured bag design...\

Added later: After using the bag for a day, and filling it with all the things I carry around which I forgot about yesterday (two glasses cases, Kobo e-reader, and more), the bag held its shape well. So no need for less stuff after all!