April's UFO finishes and a baby shower pressie

I managed to get two more UFO finishes done this April if i can keep going at two a month I will knock quite a big hole in my UFO list.  I started a weekly sewing group and this has helped me keep some time aside to get my UFO's done.

 

Firstly this table runner has been designed (by me) and waiting to be sewn together for a few years.  I used an Authentic by Sweetwater charm pack and have enough left to make a 2nd table runner.

These hand towels are the last of the pile I started on last year.  Two of these are heading off to Shirley as part of a swap, she made me some dish cloths and these hand towels are in return.

 

Went to a baby shower today for my nephew and his wife.  I decided to make them a Very hungry caterpillar kick rug to go with a few other VHC items.  It turns our she loved green and VHC was one of her favourite books.

 

 

End of April garden

We are starting to wind down our large vegie patch.  In the next week we are moving the girls down so they can till the soil and do their magic in their.  We have a small bed over by Royce's granny flat that we will be using as our winter garden.  We also have rebuilt the herb garden by putting a border around it, topped it up with  well composted mulch from the dump and we shredded some hay to pu down as mulch. Forgot to take a photo so will be back with one in a few days.

 

So these are the last photos you will see of our large patch with plants in it until Spring.

 

 

we still have few pumpkins growing not sure if they will ripen though. We tried growing a few different capsicum this year with mixed results, here is a tiny yellowy capsicum.

 

Again playing around with the macro on my new camera.

 

A harvest of eggplant, tomatillos, tomatoes, carrots, lettuce, spinach, chili, zucchini and rocket.

Our Garden early April

A Beautiful day for gardening.

 

 

 

 

We started by pulling out the corn patch. We had over 40 stalks that produced the most amazing sweet delicious corn.  next year we hope to plant a few waves to keep the eating season going a little longer.  Quite a lot of weeding was needed and we played with the herb garden to get it looking a little more like a herb bed and not a bed of pineapple sage.

A days harvest, carrots, parsnips, tomoates, colored beets, herbs, zucchini, eggplant, capsicum, chillies and cucumber.  We have been harvesting lots of parsnips for Royce to take to the resturant he is working at - Silo's at Jaspers brush.

 

 

I have been playing around with the macro on my camera again, which incidently eventualy turned up....

 

These photos were taken in the first few days of April, just took me nearly two weeks to get around to posting them.....

Stay tuned as i have more photos to put up very shortly.....

Let's Get Stitched - warning long, photo heavy post

Around 3pm on Thursday 8 March my uncle dropped me at Adelaide Shores Resort for the Lets Get Stitched 2013 retreat. I arrived to the hugs of so many lovely ladies that I had know online for many years but not met in real life. The first to greet me was mo cabin mum for the weekend Wendy and then I dissolved into the arms of the gorgeous Dawn who had organised this retreat. we then popped over to the Nutters executive cabin to meet the rest of the girls who started these weekends - Joy, Vicki & Fee. After Wendy & I picked Terri up from the airport (Terri was the only one I had previously met) we went to the cabin next door to meet quite a few more ladies.

A couple of the ladies thought they knew of me but didn't think it was through the craft forum, we decided it must have been through our blogs.  Anyway as the conversation continued Deb (pictured with me in the first photo) was asked how she came to Australia, she was from the States, Texas in fact, as she shared her story it triggered a distant memory. I then asked her if she was ever a part of the Craft forum, "for a short time many many years ago" she replied.  I said "your were TXmogga", "Yes" she replied. "You were my first ever swappee in the garden swap, I made you a table runner" was my reply. "Oh my goodness I remember that".  we then hugged, cried a little and were both sooooo amazed that we could fly over to Adelaide to meet a swap partner that at the time lived on the other side of the world. She told me that she still has the table runner in fact sits next to it everyday as it covers her filing cabinet. She blogged about it over at Sweet Little Cottage , her memory & retelling is a little different from mine but that's OK

After all this excitement Wendy, Terri & I drove (well Wendy drove) to Semaphore Rd for dinner. I took many random photos on the way.

We ate at a lovely Greek restaurant, A taste of Greece, we all chose the same meal - a gorgeous cheese stuffed chicken breast.  Made our way back to the resort, Terri & I went to bed early, while Wendy picked up the late arrivals from the airport.

Friday was our bus trip to 3 quilt shops and Hahndorf, a wonderful German town in the Adelaide Hills.  we only spent two hours there but had a lovely lunch and a little wander. Middle bottom photo is the brooch I made from the fabric sent to us all so we could be identified at the airport as most of us had never met b4.

 

Here is my little stash of fabrics I bought over the weekend (one of the ladies bought part of  her shop with here & there was a shop on Sunday as well as the 3 quilt shops we visited).  The top left fabric is for Haylee's Babushka doll quilt that we will be working on together soon. The next photo is the pre-cuts that I just had to have. Bottom left is all my fabric purchases and the bottom right is fat 1/4 I bought just because they were pretty.  I was very excited to see the Kerri had a supply of Basic Grey's Eva which is a very old line so I bought a charm pack as well as a jelly roll, I have never seen it in any of the fabric stores I buy from.  I came in $5 under my alloted fabric budget so I was quite pleased with myself, I am not normally that restrained.

Friday night was an absolute ball.  we had pizza in the Nutters Cabin followed by a night of games & much much laughter.

 

Saturday was a free day.  So our cabin mum took us to Harbour town for a look around the direct factory shops.  I didn't think the prices were much better at most of the shops but did manage to buy a few pieces of clothing and anew pair of black slides that I desperately needed.

 

Saturday night we all went out to Glenelg for dinner at Watermark.  was a lovely meal and another night of lots of fun and laughter.  Did I mention that these girls, especially Narelle, are just so funny.

 

So here we are at Sunday morning.  This day was what the weekend was all about. The Nutters (first photo)- Joy from JoyPatch, Fee from Designs by Fee, Dawn from As Sweet as Cinnamon & Vicki from Pickledish patch, wanted to get together each year and share their designs with their on-line followers.  They invited two guest designers to join them Judy (my Adelaide host) from Judes stuff & Wendy from Sugarlane Quilts. 

 

 Each one of us received a goodie bag with all 6 designs and some starter materials, a bottle of wine, small jars of jam, a very cute pair of scissors, bag of Fruchocs and a charm pack .

 

and a very beautiful mug rug each that everyone else signed, a fabulous momento of a great week end.

We could chose to start any of the designs to start on so I decided on Fee's design "A Stitch a Day Project bag.  I have finished the stitchery and am working on the bag.

For dinner each cabin had a choice of what they wanted to do, our cabin (& De) decided on fish and chips.  So the wonderful Wendy drove us to Llargs Pier and we ate our fish and chips while the sun went down.  Gorgeous.......

 

When we got back to the resort we spent a little more time in the Nutters cabin  for more fun and laughter before we all said a few goodbyes (some were leaving at the crack of dawn) and went to bed.

 

Monday saw us all going our separate ways hoping to see each other one of the TWO Let's Get Stitched planned for next year, Melbourne in March & Hokitika, New Zealand, in September.  If I go again I will probably do the NZ one.

 

Well that's it - thank you if you stayed to the end of this very long post, please don't forget to leave me a message to let me know you popped by.

Adelaide trip

Wednesday 6 march I set off on my trip to Adelaide, this was my first ever solo flight Iwas a little nervous but also very excited. I was going to Adelaide for my very first Let's get Stitched weekend (more about that in my next post). I decided to make a holiday of it and arrive a day early and stay for an extra couple of nights. This allowed me to visit my aunt and uncle and meet up with a few Down to Earth Forum Friends as well as see a little bit of this very beautiful city.

Here is my holiday in a nutshell.

My trip over went with out a hitch and my host Judy for my extra days was waiting at the bottom of the escalator with her flower brooch on so I knew who she was. The beautiful Dawn, organised for me to stay with Judy for the first night, then Judy offered to let me stay for the last two nights too. 

Judy and Carey my very generous hosts for my extra days in Adelaide.

 

While in Adelaide I caught up with my Auntie Elaine & Uncle Rex for a few hours. Auntie Elaine is the last of my mother's siblings still living and we haven't seen them for many years, possibly 10.  Elaine is struggling with arthritis and had to wander off every now and then for a quick lie down.  It as so nice to sit and chat and share photos of our families with them. After my visit Uncle Rex drove me through Adelaide and pointed out some lovely building including the work on the upgrading of Adelaide Oval grandstands, i did not even think to take photos. He then dropped me at Adelaide shores to start my Lets Get Stitched weekend.

 

I also made time to meet up with a few of the girls from the Down to earth Forum, Kirsty and Carol. We had a lovely lunch at Tea Tree Plaza, Hope Valley and a quick look around the centre.

 

Kirsty offered to meet up with me on Wednesday at the markets and we ended up buy cheese, olives, antipasto, crackers and fruit.  Kirsty then drove us to Glenelg as one of the things I did not get to see was the beach, So we ate out picnic on the grass overlooking the beach. 

 

 we wandered through Glenelg for a little while. We passed some amazing buildings, a few trams and an incredible water slide adn this beautiful old Church, the only Church in the City of Churches I managed to take photos of.

 

 

 We then popped over ot IKEA as I had never been to an IKEA  and to Harbour town for coffee. Kirsty then dropped me at the airport in time for my 6.20 flight home.

I managed to score a window seat where I  watched the sunset above the clouds - amazing, these photos do not do it justice at ALL...

I had a great time in Adelaide and would love to go back one day soon.

Thank you for taking the time to read my blog, please  leave me a message, I do love hearing from my readers.....

Another UFO completed.

My first UFO finish for march. Table runner made from left over Basic Grey "Sultry" jelly roll, using a quilt as you go method. Hoping a few more UFO's to come this month, which is only a week away.

I hope to have my Adelaide holiday and Lets get stitched post up by Monday.  Watch out it will be a very long post.

I love hearing from my visitors, so please don't forget to leave me a message.......

How does your garden grow.

We are on the last of our summer gardening and the garden is looking a little raggy but we are still harvesting most days - tomatoes, corn, zucchini, leaf beets, carrots, parsnips, kohlrabi and lots of herbs.

We have had a big battle with weeds behind the garden bed as Royce removed the natural mulch from under the trees and the weeds just took over. we are on our way to get them under control,hoping in the next few weeks to put up a fence from the chicken paddock to the vegies patch to let the girls in to do their thing while we rest the garden over winter. Royce has been offered a garden patch on the wine estate that he is now working at (in cellar door as well as restaurant) for his vegie garden as he hopes to supply vegies for the restaurant. Our garden has never really been rested in the three years we have had it.

So here is what our patch looks like.....

A general over view of two of the beds.  Our tomatoes took of quite late this year and we are still harvest a container ever few days.

We had great success wiht our corn patch this year, next year we will do several planting to make the season last a little longer.  I picked the last of the corn yesterday but unfortunately a bug got into them...  but we had almost a month of picking several ears each day.

 

We planted our pumpkins and melons a little late this year so we are not sure if we will get any fruit as the days get shorter and cooler.

A close up using the macro on my new camera (which I unfortunately left behind on the weekend and am praying desperately that it turns up) of a sun flower and red leaf beet (as silverbeet).

 

Thank you for joining me in my tour of the March garden....... please don't forget to leave me a message, I read everyone of them.