An Australian day of Thanks.

I have been post surfing in the last few days and reading all about every-one's Thanksgivings in the U.S. What a fabulous reason for a celebration. We don't have anything like that here and I think that is kind of a pity because it is always great to give Thanks and it would also be lovely to catch up with all the family for something other than Christmas.

We have a family ritual every day about giving thanks, because focussing on the joys is very important to me.

When we all sit around the table for tea everyone takes turns talking about the best thing that happened in their day.-parents as well. This has been heartily embraced by the children and I have found it very illuminating to realise how little it takes to make the children happy. I often make the mistake of predicting the big things as highlights and it is an excellent lesson to hear that the main thing the children enjoy is the little things that we have done for them or special time spent.

Today I am preparing for a girl's day. The kids have report writing day off and hub had to go up North to the Harvest for a load of grain so he has taken his boy with and wont be home until tomorrow afternoon. This has caused great excitement and planning here. We are going to our favourite aniques and coffee shop in a little while for a Devonshire tea, then sewing together, a birthday party later in town and she is sleeping over in my room tonight-do you think chocolates and the portable DVD player in bed would be going too far?

The whole plan almost came crashing down at 6.30 this morning though. The boy awoke grumpy and said he'd miss his Mum. I have never seen his sister apply herself so fully to the task of breaking him out of it! It all ended well when he fully woke up.

I have posted a recent picture of my girl and me. (no, I haven't as blogger says he will but isn't! I'll try to add it later.)
Have a great Thanksgiving day.

I give Thanks for:
1. A healthy, happy family.
2. A very happy marriage.
3. Great old friends.
4. A new Blogging interest that has reinvigorated my Patchwork and bought new people.
5. Being born with optimism.
6. Living exactly where I want to be.
7. A comfortable home with lots of quilts.
8. My new sewing room.
9. Chooks and chocolate.
10. God, without whom there would be nothing.

The World...and my associated responsibilities... have dared encroach upon my quilt finishing time!

Major encroacher: the lack of fabric at my quilt shop to allow me to do the big wide border I wanted so that my enlarged Gratitude would be even larger and fit my QS bed! So yesterday I had to get inventive and make another 5 scrappy squares to cover the lack of fabric! There ended any chance of completion! (Especially on another 37 degree celcius scorcher of a day!)

Extra encroachees:
1. Farm work called and I answered.
2. School swimming organisation called... and I answered.
3. Quality time with husband prior to him leaving again called...and I answered.
4. Back appointment in a town an hour away called- a town with Christmas Shopping shops and my sister, so......I answered - and have now effectively finished the "shop" part of the gifts. (Found 7 brides for 7 brothers, Little House on the Prairie, Oaklahoma and Singin' in the rain-how much fun are the daughter and I going to have these Christmas Holidays!

So now I will just surprise you next update with something finished..or something interesting at least! ps the new quail laid an egg about the size of a marble-how excited is daughter going to be when I take them for Show and Tell tomorrow! Have a great day.

From one extreme to another!

This time last week we were preparing to have our coldest November day on record, 9 degrees celcius,(or about 48 Fahrenheit if my conversion calculator is to be believed!) It was snowing close to here! Now we have just seen today and yesterday pass 36 degrees celcius, (or 97 fahrenheit!) Today was of course the day my daughter went to School all day and I had 6 hours in the sewing room- a sewing room my husband offered to put air conditioning in but I opted to save money and have a fan instead. It wasn't so bad because I was very busy-very busy with something that is so close to finished that Iam not going to give into temptation on and post my progress. No, no, if you wait until tomorrow and I don't have to spend all day in town organising School stuff and swimming- you may see a finished quilt top!

Spent a lot of fun time in the pool this weekend instead of sewing, even the hub got in, much to the kid's delight-it really must be hot! we also went to my old local Agricultural Show. It's an hour and a half trip but I met my sister, her kids and Mum there so it was well worth it. A great little Show. The kids picked out a duckling and a big fat pair of quail to bring home as new pets. We really need new pets! It takes me an hour a day at least to feed and attend to them now.
Let's see how I go at preparing a list, -let's call this a farming wife's "Meme"!(let's hope hub never finds this blog and realises exactly what he is feeding!)

POULTRY
-About 40 normal mixed variety bush chooks. Everyone looks different and this 'good Shepherd' knows them all.
-4 pekin bantams
-5 silky bantams
-15 mixed roosters that need homes or to be soup. (Too amorous-lucky men don't meet that same fate!)
-6 good quality pretty roosters to stay.
-Trio of purebred frizzle bantams.
-7 frizzle crosses.
-I turkey gobbler and 1 turkey hen sitting on 10 eggs.
-Trio of Indian runner ducks.
-5 Khaki campbell ducks. (one sitting on 5 eggs.)
-4 Muscovy ducks.
-2 muscovy/Khaki cross 'mules' that the kids insist on keeping!
-1 chook sitting on 10 duck eggs.
-2 chooks sitting on eggs.
-7 chooks with broods of chickens (46 chickens total)
-11 young ducklings.
- 2 new quail and a duck!

GENERAL
-24 calves reared this year, one I am still feeding.
-6 pet lambs, thankfully weaned!
-Archie the dog.
-Yoda and General grievous, the cats.

Still room for enlarging there-unfortunately hub has drawn the line at a goose, goat or pig but we may bring him around. He seems to be under some illusion I have enough jobs!

Thank you for all the lovely comments about dad's quilt. It's obvious that you have all had similar 'good stuff' experiences as well. One day, when I'm hormonal, I'll tell you about the response I got to a quilt I made my MIL, but that's another story.....

The little bright quilt pictured was a way of playing with some leftovers from strip bags I made. I like it so it has not yet managed to be given away. It's an unusual size as well, a table centre or doll's bed throw really. Basically just an excuse to try a different technique. Have a great day and hopefully some good patchwork progress tomorrow.

A very special quilt for a very special dad.

*oops, post update, I forgot to say that this is actually me presenting Dad with his quilt and as I'm not likely to be seen much, you had better apply face to name today!

My dad turned 70 back in February. He swore that he wasn't having a party and there was not to be any fuss. But I knew this was just so that Mum, who doesn't really enjoy organizing things, didn't have to go to any trouble so I organized all of his friends and family to go out for tea. It was really great, but it was especially great because two years ago he really shouldn't have got to his 70th.

He decided to enter a shearing competition, (at 68!) because he loves shearing and a bit of a challenge. Well, the shearing part wasn't the problem, perhaps getting overly keyed up was and he proceeded to lose strength down one side, general dizziness and a headache. Being a man, he just decided it would go away and not to mention it. Well it went away enough that he could function but not shear so he had to tell Mum who took him to hospital and the rest as thet say, is history. A stroke and a particularly fortunate mild warning one as one of his carotid (neck) arteries was fully blocked and the other had 5 % blood flow!! Two ops and a month in Melbourne followed and he recovered.(but certainly not back to 100 %)

So the Birthday was looming and I felt people wanted to share and celebrate so invites went out, he had specifically said no presents but on the Tuesday before the Friday night birthday I realised that a quilt is not so much a present as an extension of love so I started! The log cabins are all made from what was in the cupboard that night and the back is calico where I had a go at printing photos of the family and everyone wrote a message of love and support at his party (Which he loved.!!) Only you people will understand when I say that it HAD to be made and you are probably the only ones who will be able to empathise with sewing the bindings on during the trip to the party!

I was reminded of this quilt twice in the past weeks, one sadly and one humourously! Dad had another small stroke that meant no driving and that he is now at a 50 % chance of a major one that will end his life-to the extent that they are not going to worry about a few minor prostate concerns 'as the Vascular disease will mean that is not a problem.' This made me so thankful that I had made the effort but did make me think, "where are they keeping that quilt, I haven't seen it" and presumed it was on their bed. Then my daughter came home after our date night and said that Ma had asked if it might be alright for Poppy to use his special quilt because he's getting cold of a night!! She had put it away for 'good'. When is 'good' when you are old? I just laughed as that is so how I was brought up-use all the old cheap stuff everyday and have every good nice thing put away! I do not live like this anymore. I was very fortunate to marry a man who says, if you like it use it, if it breaks, buy another one! Boy, did that take some getting used too!!

Mmm.. this was going to be a very short post and I was mainly going to tell you that husband is concerned about the new me (the one who is not going to let things bank up and overwhelm her)....concerned I may be pregnant!! Seems the kind of change where I did actually iron the clothes straight off the clothes line-AND his hankies.. must warrant a bigger change! Fortunately doctors would be sued if pregnancy was the cause so I shall just have to keep it up and prove it's a permanent non-hormonal thing! Cheers and enjoy your weekend.

A November New Year's resolution!

Today's post is another one of those..."and now for something completely different" ones.It's time for a big change here! I'm not a depressive person but sometimes get weighed down with my responsibilities and especially getting things done right and just so. (Yes... desire to please, etc, etc,) But not anymore! I have realised that the weight aspect comes from putting off these more hated responsibilities-school swimming organising, funding applications, all farm bookwork, bill paying, business calls, everything that sounds too hard... I worry about it, let it hang over me and then it takes away my enjoyment of other stuff I do. (Read: patchwork, playing with kids, etc.etc.)

So, as of last night I have become a person who does the stuff as soon as it arrives or presents itself and I feel fantastic! Everything is faxed, lists are made, bills are paid, all swim parents are contacted, RSVP's are in and I feel free as a bird. If I am not careful I may even iron the clothes straight off the clothesline-oh wait, I've not changed that much! What would I do while I watch ER? ps, are they putting it on at odd hours over in the US, as this is upsetting my routine here-I have to watch taped episodes, and has Abby had her baby?

The sleepover went well. I am really, really genuinely pleased that he had a brilliant time and did not seem to miss me at all, really I am! But the fact that he did not want to hug me when I came in at 7 am to do the breakfast shift did upset me ever so slightly-especially when he then asked, 'wasn't I meant to be doing breakfast?' I said I was and he said, 'well why aren't you down in the kitchen then!?' Ok got the point and bid dignified retreat, realising this was only the first of many times. Sniff..maybe I'm not feeling that great anymore after all!

Something to cheer me up. This is one quilt that will never be given away. I made it on a weekend quilting retreat 2 years ago at Port Fairy-a cold old Winter weekend that was warm with sewing, friendship and laughter. I thought I took a 6 inch square from all my stash (then got home to find I had left out a few boxes of stash on top of the cupboard.) then I had a great time turning them into this quilt top. I was sick of giving away all my favourite fabrics and wanted a lasting memory of them. This worked really well for that. It lives folded up on my kitchen couch. I wish I had included those last boxes of fabric as then it would be big enough for my bed. I'm very naughty, the yellow border is not yet quilted ...and is coping with that neglect! The rest is done to enhance thae colour lines. Have a great day, it's pretty much the weekend here!

A land of ice ...and rain... and even snow!

Brrr, did those clouds ever pull through!. We ended up with the coldest November day on record, hail, rain and snow down to 500 metres. This climate change thing is too confusing! We received almost 70 points or 17mm and I enjoyed spending the best part of the day sewing warm quilts with my heater on and watching hilarious episodes of the English comedy, Vicar of Dibley.

The results are pictured here. Two chenille quilts, with normal cotton fabric prints in between. Nice and simple but I think they are quite effective. As you can see they are mostly done with just a few outside borders still to be attached. In the top one I have included a cheap and handy sewing tool, as requested by Angie. (or was it Libby... anyway..) It is a huge ruler, over 1.2 metres or over 50 inches . It has metric and imperial on it and a handle and I use it all the time for squaring up big quilts and big anything! I purchased it for $15 in the farm tools section of a field day and it's great. My other favourite tool is that little quarter inch foot that changed me from idiot to someone slightly advanced from that!

My girl is managing her half days O.K but sleeps for an hour at least after I pick her up. I think they will have to continue for a while yet. My boy is on his first excursion and School sleepover today, so excited-he was up and dressed at 6 am! He seems to be coping alright with the idea of no Mum, we'll see!

Oh, I included a picture of Yoda self-serve shopping! I suppose it has entertainment and nutritional value, what better pastime could a cat have?

An Add-on: Tic -toc biscuits are lovely little biscuits iced white, yellow or pink with a clock face set on the other side! I'm sure that any pretty iced biscuit would do for the "cups of tea".

A top 10 present!

Above is the Hans Heysen print that hangs above our bed. Hans Heysebn is more famous for his Australian landscapes from the 1800's but this is a little different. I think it may be his daughter, I'll have to check my research!

My sister found it , then very nicely organized my present illiterate hub to give it to me for Christmas. Apparently it look like me and she's on an old singer, so between that and my two favourite people being involved in the giving, it is very special to me. Definitely a top 10 gift, and very high up the 10. A challenge to bloggers to think about and post a "Top 10" gift. (I'm thinking about trying it for my profile shot, but it's hard to get it straight without glare.)

Had great fun with the Chenille. For those interested, Chenille in quilts is very big over here, there is a lot of new material in the shops and it retails for up to $42 per metre. You don't want to get too intricate with it, big squares interspersed with a normal print generally look good. Very tactile and cosy, great for kids. I have about 1 and a half little cot quilt tops done since yesterday and tomorrow I'll show. My friends are enjoying their shares as well.

Big weather news! As you can see from the photo of my Red Gum out in the back yard, the clouds were closing in last night and as we speak, we've had over 9 mms or almost 40 points of rain-probably a little late but it is filling my tanks and meaning I wont have to shower with a bucket or bail water from the bath to my plants for a while so I am very happy today! Anyway, after being a lady who lunches and cuts up Chenille yesterday I need to get some work done. Have a great day.

A great find!

I had 10 minutes to kill yesterday when I went into town to pick up my girl from School so I thought the least damaging to my waistline or purse was to check out an Op Shop.
My treasure was the red and blue Chenille bedspreads pictured. I picked up the lovely butter yellow one a few weeks ago from another Op Shop. The price was $10 for the mint condition butter yellow and $6 each for the red and blue. I added some extra, seeing it's a good cause and I'm happy with my finds. I've been wanting to make a chenille quilt but baulked at the prices. These new high priced fabrics are beautiful but I feel like using them all the time is slipping away from the patchwork point. I hope to get something that could go back to charity from these and something for myself and others. I'm going around to a friend's this morning to share and work out a plan for it!

Update on my Gratitudes: Doing an extra 8 blocks to make it bigger has upset my time frame but I think that the end result should be worth it. Thank You to my assistants with colours, you reinforced my feelings about the darker red and hopefully in a few day you will see what it looks like. -(And I know I still need a few more borders around those top blocks!)

Nature update: we received a whole 8 points of rain here yesterday but more may come. Due to the drought, a flock of Brolgas are using our teeny little dam on the way to the bus for wetlands. They tend to fly away if I get out of the car near them but I am desperately trying to get you a photo without upsetting them. I probably need to camouflage myself and hide in the grass but that could be the end of any chance of sewing today! You should see them dance in the twilight... Have a great day.

A mixed bag today.

The daughter has gone on the bus this morning to attempt half a day's school and it is trying to rain here so the joys are major. Some parts of the state and country have received very nice rain, it has successfully missed us but at least there is some refreshment for the badly hit areas.

A few different photos for you today.Quilts should be back tomorrow! The Calico cat very nicely assisted me with where to put my counter, as did Cynthia. Thank you. Here are the promised cat photos in gratitude.

The first one, all being equal, is Yoda and Archie in their usual cuddled up position. Yoda and his mate, General Grievous ,(yes, I successfully made my children into Star Wars lovers like their mother-I didn't put that on my profile as I don't think this is quite the site those fans would be googling for!!) both arrived here about last April after a lot of desperate searching to replace the much-loved Gingerfluff whose gingerness may have seen him mistaken for a fox! He went missing and there were lots of tears and lots of searching for a replacement. In desperation, we took these two but they were in a terribly poor condition, wild and coated with fleas. I spent over an hour a day on them for the first week, bathing them, then picking off all the fleas with tweezers because I didn't think they would survive any harsher treatments. As you can see, they have thrived. General is still fairly timid so he is only included in a first week photo. He comes in at night when he knows my boy is asleep.... I wonder why?? About 4 weeks after we got them I finally let them out. They had been out about an hour and I came up to the office(near the pool) to check my emails and I heard a terrible noise like a possum. I thought a possum was drowning in the pool and ran out to find Yoda! He was stiff, cold and his stomach was 3 or 4 times it's size and he was doing that death roll kind of noise. Anyway I wrapped him in a towel, warmed him slowly until about 1 am in the morning, locked him in a box with a water bottle and the general for the night and came out in the morning to find the kids playing with him as good as new. He seemed to be called Lazarus for a good while after that and has never gone anywhere near the pool again!

The last picture is a great idea that a friend brought to Saturday's morning coffee. I t was a huge success with the kids who all said they were having a cuppa as well. It is just a marshmallow stuck to a tic-toc biscuit with a touch of icing, then she decorated them with little icing stars or 100's and 1000's, like this one. The handle is a lifesaver lolly cut in half and joined on with some more icing. Too easy but great.
Well, I'm off to clean the house so I can go sewing. Have a great day.

It's all about the gratitude!

Not really sure that I can fully express my joy in daily living today, but after 6 days of constant stomach pains, my daughter got off the couch yesterday afternoon, put on clothes and headed out to throw the ball to Archie (whose joy was only tempered by my own!) She stood up straight, she smiled and said I'm better! Then cleaned her cubby, tidied her little "nest" in the loungeroom and after her brother came home she even went kite flying! I honestly don't know how parents of children with serious long term illnesses manage, (I don't even want to say the "c" word) we've only had 3 weeks of tummy pains and it's terribly hard not being able to fix their hurts. There is of course the chance it will come back again in a few days, but we're praying this is not the case.

She even has the neighbors over at the moment and is playing dress-ups, ABBA dance party and making necklaces like there is no tomorrow!

So, I too, played this afternoon- I was flat out yesterday as I had the Church Ladies here for a coffee morning and trading table this morning and things had to look ship shape. Once again my little chooks sold out, almost as quick as my Hedgehog slice! Last night was a Church dinner, for the parents of School aged children. It was great, I had to go by myself as Hub is harvesting but shyness has not so far been an issue so that was fine.

Then this afternoon, I picked up the neighbors to please my little darlings then supervised from the sewing room-to please me! Thought I had better finish something- so George will get his baby blanket tomorrow, it is actually straight, it's just the photo's wobbly! I have decided to make Judy's gratitide to a double or bigger size and as I am overburdened with scraps and under burdened with the other fabrics, I made another 8 blocks today. As you know I didn't choose the sashings until the blocks spoke to me. Well, they're speaking but it is in 2 different languages. I'm not sure how good the colours will look on the photo but left is paler, right is deeper. Please be good little fairies and say what you think while I am busy sleeping! Hub's away so even his advice isn't available. A couple more sewing room photos if Blogger is in the mood. One is off the material storage section of my shelves that is built slightly shallower and faces away from the windows. This is really only the major sorted things. There are many of those plastic boxes you saw last post that are filled with large coordinating pieces and many other tubs full of scraps and strips. These should be sorted but it is just so much fun to dive your hand in a scrap tub and not know what treasure you will find. Enjoy your weekend, we're off to throw a snag on the barbie!