Australia Day Long Weekend.

I don't mean to go for another long winded posting BUT its been a long weekend and I have done lots!!!!

First of all I will start off with Saturday. We went out to visit my folks at Moura as they have friends up from Broken Hill. So it was nice to catch up with them.

Over the past week we have had huge rain fall. In some parts they had minor flooding as they received so much rain in such a short space of time.On the way out to Moura we managed to miss most of the storms and massive rain clouds. We could see the rain in the distance it was raining so hard in some places. Anyway we were driving along and watching a storm/cloud form and it was just amazing watching it go really black and then it just errupted. It was hard to photograph but managed to get it.

Not sure if this photo really did it justice. It was amazing though.

Check out the next photo....... see what the yellow road sign says!!

Just in case you cant read it... the sign says..... Dry Weather Road Only.

We had a lovely night in Moura catching up with mum and dad as well as the Dungys. They are dads friends from the Army days. They had lost contact many many years ago. However as a part of dads surprise 60th a few years ago I tracked them down.

SUNDAY:

After double checking that the boys stuff was all ready for them to go back to school I ventured into yep you guessed it MY SEWING ROOM. I started fiddling around with a quilt that I partly made and had started quilting at retreat last year. It is another one of Jan Phillips's workshops. See the link on the side bar for Jans website. This one is called Freedom. Its all about free cutting using just the rotary cutter. NO RULERS! No I wasnt drunk when I made it.... the seems are all wavey and crooked Thats why its called freedom! I decided not to square up the quilt but add to its style by leaving the edges wavey. Jan also showed us how to do her freedom quilting that she does. I just couldnt get the hang of it. It required me to go slow. Ever known me to go slow? So I decided to just use the free motion quilt foot and basically just pretended I was doodling on paper.

Its more a bed topper or wall hanging. I plan to hang it on the dining room wall to add a bit of colour to the house! hehe everyone will need to leave their sunnies on when they come in!

The photos below are close ups of the quilting.

All I have to do is finish hand sewing the binding down. It was fun to do and very different!

MONDAY:

Today I finished another UFO. Gee I am being good with my new years resolution so far!!! This brings it to a total of 3 UFO's finished. Well partly finished! The tops are done! HAHA that means finished to me!

Anyway this quilt is another Dissappearing Nine Patch quilt. This one is made using all breast cancer fabrics. I am going to finish this one off very soon as it will be easy to quilt as its not very big. Only knee rug size.

The Expanding Bag

Well today I used my brain and made a bag without using a pattern. Adi if your reading this and its not your birthday day do not continue!

Anyway one of the girls at works birthday is tomorrow and I decided to make her a new work bag. She usually brings her stuff to work in one of those green Coles or Woolworths shopping bags. So using the dimensions of one of these I have made her a bag using Purple which is her favourite colour. BUT made a little twist. I put tabs on the side of it so that when the bag is not full it can be made smaller but when she needs to pile lots of stuff into it she can make it bigger. Check it out..............

The closed not so full look.

The OMG I am going to burst at the seems look.

New Sewing table top

I have been wanting to do something with my sewing table so that my sewing machine would be level with the table. I have seen many new tables that I would love to own but my current table is attatched to the wall and it still works fine. I thought about cutting a hole in the table and lowering my machine but I felt that it would then be too low. I then thought about buying the table that Janome has designed for my machine. But then I would cut down too much room in my sewing nook. But I like to have my machine to the front of my table. So that didnt work either. So I designed a table top that would just sit straight ontop of my current table that was shaped to go around my machine. I took this to a cabinet making business and for $170 they made me exactly what I wanted. Loads cheaper than the tables I was looking at. So check it out............

BEFORE PHOTO

After Photo

Latest Sewing and wot not

Today I finished a bag I started last weekend. Its a Laptop bag. I wouldnt recommend the pattern to anyone! It was really confusing and not very thorough. I ended up just doing my own thing to get it finished. The first photo is of the font of it, the second is the back and the third is inside the bag. Inside it has 3 pockets. It also has another zippered section just under the front flap.

Last weekend I finally got around to finishing my Celestial Hearts quilt top that i started at CQ Patchwork retreat in September 08. I have yet to decide how to quilt it. Jan Phillips the designer actually hand quilted hers but I dont think I will be attempting to hand quilt this one! You can see Jans at her website http://www.quilttherapy.com.au/

Also wanted to show off my cupboard that Ronnie from www.cathroncountrydesigns.com/ made me.

Just in case your wondering........ No I am not going for the world record for the longest blog post just thought it was time I got some stuff up on it seeing I have not put anything up for sooooooo long.

Ok next on the agenda we have a photo of a quilt that I finished ages ago. OOOPPSS mean quilt top. For some reason all my quilts get completed into tops and never seem to progress from there. I keep telling myself one day I will quilt them. By the time that day comes maybe I might own a quilting machine LOL

Anyway the pic is of the Orange Crush quilt I made of Bonnie Hunters. She is a big time scrap quilt maker and has give so many patterns away for free from her website...... http://www.quiltville.com/ This pattern was one of her mystery quilts. Her recent mystery quilt is just beautiful so check out her site.

Humberstone Family Reunion Christmas Dinner

Tonight marks the first time in at least 16 years that the three remaining Humberstone children of Harry and Lyn Humberstone have been together in the one place at the one time. Its the first time ever that Lyn (my grandmother) has had all her grandchildren in the one place at the same time not to mention the 22 grandchildren she has! What a fantastic night to have everyone together.

This is Bernadette and Dion holding baby Crystal and Harley talking to his mum Patricia. Harley and Crystal belong to Trisha.

Mum and Kelly

This is Kianne on the left (married to Scott H.) Kelly and Michelle Humby.

Elaine, Candice and Nana H

Geoff, Scott Darren and Candice

My daugthers with their partners. Alana and Dan on the left and Antionette and Josh on the right.

Many many years ago my cousins Candice and Kelly put some sunglasses on my mum and dads poodle Jose and took a photo of him. Well tonight they wanted to do the same agian with Beau mum and dads poodle they have now. So the following photo was the two girls reliving their childhood! Beau was the perfect angel and sat very still!

Josh and Antionette.

I was busy taking photos tonight and so was dad. I knew he was behind me with his camera and he kept calling me so I half turned put my camera over my shoulder and took the following flukey shot!

Hot Diggity Dog

Well everyone Meribeth from Hot Diggity Dog contacted me today and told me she would send me the fabric I had ordered. So fingers crossed she is going to fix the mistake made by her posting department. Will keep you all informed when i get my fabric.

Feeling ripped off

Well I have learned NOT TO BUY from http://www.hotdiggitydog.com/. Why do you ask? Well I ordered the following fabric :


I also ordered some nice brown paw print on black background to go with this piece. I ordered the fabric for a friend who wants me to make one of those stable bags I make.
This is the fabric that arrived:
Can you see the slight difference? Its bright blue background looks nothing like the black background of the fabric I had ordered. So I contacted the store owner and she said she would send me the black background fabric at a reduced price of $12 but only when I have paid the postage to return the blue fabric! I reminded her that it was not my mistake I was sent the incorrect fabric. That seeing it was her fault I should not have to pay out more money to get what I originally ordered. Yep thats right she wants me to pay the postage to send the wrong fabric back to her then wants me to pay the postage to send the correct fabric back to me!!!!! And she wont send the correct fabric until I send the incorrect fabric back! Now because she in is Amercia and I am in Australia we arent just talking about a couple of dollars. It will cost me at least $10 to send this fabric back to her then she wants me to pay the $12 which is the cost she claims it will be to send the correct fabric back to me. Makes it a very expensive YARD of fabric!!!!!!!!!!!!
All I wanted was a yard of pug fabric to make this bag for my friend. Now I am $49 out of pocket with fabric I will never use and a seller who is not prepared to fix up her own mistake! I am so angry.
So if anyone knows where I can get some of this pug fabric on black background can you let me know. Oh dont suggest hotdiggity!!! Its a Michael Miller fabric titled pug. Oh and if your interested in some blue background pug fabric I have a yard of it as its not use to me as it does not match the other two fabrics I purchased to make the bag with!

MY WEEK OFF

Well today is the last day of my week off! I am devastated! Had a pretty productive week sewing wise. Nearly completed ANOTHER disappearing nine patch! This time its all from breast cancer pink ribbon fabrics. Should be pretty when its finished. I thought my mum how to make this simple pattern too. SSHH dont tell my dad but I showed her how to order from Hancocks of Puducha too! hehehehe

I have also been working on the Orange Crush mystery quilt from http://quiltville.com/orangecrushmystery1.shtml I have completed the first step and look forward to step two. Here is step 1 which is 150 four patch blocks that are 3.5 inch square.

Today I made a Stable Bag. Was a very difficult pattern to follow so ended up whinging it!

Disappearing Nine Patch Class

I am a member of the Port Curtis Patchwork Class. I voluntered to teach the members the Disappearing nine patch quilt technique. What a fun day it was. IT was amazing to watch the different combinations of the quilt appearing. Check out the photos of some of the quilts in progress. Its amazing how different they all look when they are made the same way.

This one is going to be amazing in red white and black. The middle square of the nine patch block was the red colour. The four corners of the block were the black with white print and the others were white with black print. Very effective hey!

This one is made using 3 different fabrics...

This one was made using the same background colour throughout and scrappy blue squares.

Doesnt the black squares on this one come to life! It was amazing watching this one grow. It will look amazing when finished.

This next one is going to be totally different again. This lady had two lovely turtle prints she wanted to incorporate into a quilt. YOu can see how we ended up placing her fabrics into the nine patch block (before cutting). The effect is going to be a stripey quilt! As the blocks come together the print fabrics are going to form a stripe accross the quilt and doesnt that aqua blue fabric just look like water!

The following are some of the other quilts the ladies have started on.

Disappearing Nine Patch

Hello everyone firstly I apologise as its been so long since I have updated my blog! Since the last time I have finished two quilts! I have totally finished my 30s disappearing nine patch quilt and OMG I stippled it! First time I have ever stippled a quilt. It has turned out to be a large single bed sized quilt. I stippled it using a pretty pastel coloured verigated thread. The second quilt I finished was also another disappearing nine patch (DPN)in only two colours. I also stippled it however found it easier after someone suggested I use stippling gloves! WOW what a difference they made. Oh and it might of been because it was a only half the size of the other one.

This one is my 30s fabrics dpn. I just love it.!

Next one is my lap size one. I used Kona Bay roses fabric with black muslin.

Noah's Ark

Today I made a baby quilt for the young girl up the road. She is expecting her first baby in July. Went to her baby shower today and had a nice time. I got the quilt made just in time. However I did cheat I machine sewed the binding down due to lack of time and also felt it would be more durable. Its quite a funny theme considering the amount of rain we have had. The saying on the quilt is "It rained for 40 days and 40 nights!" Of course its a Noah's Ark themed quilt. I bought this quilt kit quiet sometime ago from my favourite ebay seller http://stores.ebay.com.au/Quilt-Tops-By-Octavia-and-Friends_W0QQssPageNameZstrkQ3amefsQ3amesstQQtZkm They have the best value quilting supplies on ebay and are the best people to deal with.

RAIN RAIN RAIN GO AWAY!!!!!!!!!!!!

Here in Gladstone Central QLD it has been raining non stop for three days. Yesterday we had a wild storm that dumped a heap of rain on us in a short space of time. Check out these photos to show you the impact the deluge has had!

This fence here has been knocked down by the water. It is the boundary fence of the airport. That river flowing through there is usually just a very small creek.

The pic on the right is of the same creek above but on the other side of the road. It actually came up so high that it flooded across this road. One house on the left out of shot actually had about a foot of water under their house.

Picture on the left is Police Creek near the Big W complex. Those trees are usually high and dry as they are on the side of the creek!

The picture on the right shows the speed the water if running. The fence there goes down under the bridge above and divides the footpath from the creek bed! You say what footpath! Yes there is a footpath/bike pathway that usually goes under the bridge in the picture above!

The pic on the left is the footy field behind our Kmart shopping center. The river you see in the fore ground is usually just a very very small creek! But as you can see its turned the footy field into a lake!

The pic on the right shows the path that leads to the walk way under the Police Creek bridge, well actually it doesnt show it LOL cause its under water! You can tell how deep the water is by looking at those palm trees!