Batten down the hatches!

I have been up for an hour and it is still only 3.45am! Poor Ruby has an upset tummy she let us all know.......too late but none the less she let us know! She eats the most gross stuff, it is any wonder that she gets ill from time to time. Why do dogs do that? It is not like she is hungry. It is really hard when you live in the country to monitor what they eat when they go for a little wanders off the mowed lawn. Especially when she goes over into the horse pasture. She even eats hoof clippings. Ok I am going to change the subject now. Sorry!

Hurricane Irene is looming and hundreds of thousands of lives will be effected. What a week for the Mid and North Atlantic states, first an earthquake and now a hurricane! How rare! My Nana, bless her heart would be blaming it on Nasa! heehe Seriously though, I pray that those in coastal areas in the path of Irene heed all of the warnings and evacuate with their pets to safe havens. I pray that damage to property is minimal and that loss of life is nil. It is scary stuff! Stay safe all!

While I am up with time on my hands, I would like to share a photo with you of a quilt that my guild made. We all made a block for this quilt and one of our members pieced it and another member quilted it. The quilt was then recently donated to The Cobleskill Library. We hold our meetings in this library each month and the quilt was a token of our appreciation. It will be hung somewhere in the library. The quilt is even more beautiful than the photo depicts.

I am excited to be in two swaps here in blogland. One is a Christmas swap called Santa Sack Swap 2 and my awesome and fun partner is Donna in Florida. I am having so much fun with this!
The second swap is one that I linked up with from Donna's blog. It is a FRIENDS swap and hosted by an Australian girl Khris. I am delighted to have an Aussie swap partner, Sue, who happens to live in Western Australia. I have a son who lives in the north of this state so I feel somewhat akin to Sue!
So there you have it. I have become a swapper! What does one send to a swap partner? This is all so new to me but I am thinking of things that I would be happy to receive and doing some research into my partners as well. Something handmade? Something bought? A bit of both? How fun!

In the meantime I have a couch full of customer quilts lined up. 8 in fact! So I am off down to the basement with a coffee, to listen to my latest audio book, Franklin and Lucy (about the affair of Franklin D Roosevelt and Lucy Mercer) and to load another quilt onto the frame.
Ooroo for now!

a birthday doll takes shape..

My only daughter, Louize (weezie, poo, Lulu, Lou) will be 37 this year. For the past 12 years I have made her a doll for her birthday gift. This year will be no exception although she did send me a quilt book this past Christmas with a pretty ribbon marking the page of a 'quilt'. That's a story for another blog! Her birthday is at around Halloween time and I am usually frantically trying to put the finishing touches on the latest and greatest doll to be then packaged up and flown across land and sea to the land of Oz! Anyway this year I am way ahead of the game and have already started the birthday doll. Years past I have made angels, faeries, country gals, primitives and even a little amish doll. This year I am making one of Mimi Kirchner's hand-sewn felt dolls. It is very relaxing and I am enjoying working with felt, it is so forgiving and pliable! I am making the middle dolly. This little girl is going to be Pearl Bea, named after the blog where I found the free pattern and tons of other great ideas! The Purl Bee.

Tonight I am going to a canning workshop at our local agriculture extension. Should be fun and hopefully I shall retain some knowledge! I am usually running on empty by evening. We shall see. My friend Bonnie is coming with me and I told her to prod me if I start snoring!

It's been raining for a couple of days, the horses are sodden and of course would rather stand out in the rain than go into their shelter. The dogs are restless and need a good run. Ivan the cat could care less as he dozes high up on a basement window sill keeping one sleepy eye out for anything moving outside. Have accomplished much these past wet days, blocks for friends quilts, sacks for christmas swaps, bits of dolls, other things I cannot mention and some baking for us and a sick friend. I love a few rainy days now and then just to slow things down and get all those little things done. Oh and I cleaned the oven and fridge this morning! yay me!
Here are some of Weezies past birthday dolls...

a nip in the air

It has been a lovely week, with a crispness in the morning and evening air. I am so much more alive when the weather is cooler. I spent 5 whole days from Saturday till Wednesday working on a customer quilt. This quilt came to me with a row of quilting already done. It was not in very good shape because the quilt had been on this ladies frame for several years. She had in the interim lost her hubby and will to finish this quilt. It was a king and JUST fit on my frame with only room left on each end for my machine. The quilt was covered in fused applique that had not been stitched down and most of it was coming unstuck. I spent 18 hours ripping out the VERY tiny stitches and then reironing down the applique. I put in new batting and loaded the quilt onto my frame. I meandered the whole thing and sewed down the appliques as I came to them. It was all I could do and all the customer wanted me to do. I was pleased with how it came out under the circumstances. What do you think?

My son Joe is trying to get his Liberian girlfriend a visa so that they can come for a visit in November. She has already been denied an australian visa which is the pits! We have written an invitation letter to the Embassy of the USA in Monrovia on her behalf. We are now praying that she will be allowed to come and then one day soon she will be allowed to visit Australia too. I do believe that Joe and Ruth will eventually marry and that hopefully will solve all of her visa woes. I am trying not to get too excited but I can't help it!!

This weekend I am going to be working on my tote bag and first gifts for Santa Sack Swap 2! I tried to put a button on my page but surprise, surprise, it doesn't appear to be working - my fault, I know it!

ooroo for now!

Fried Dough, Funnel Cakes, Elephant Ears.......oh my!

You guessed it, it's county fair time! I was roped into demo-ing in the home living pavillion and as I do most of my sewing by machine I decided that hand binding a quilt was probably an easy option for demonstration. Truth be known, I had no idea what parking was available and I didn't fancy lugging my machine and totes for miles on a mid summer afternoon. My friend Bonnie was demonstrating fusable applique and we travelled down the hill together. So we arrived early and went out to see the sites. It was a heck of a lot noisier than fairs (exhibitions or shows) in Australia. Ahhh the tractor pulling events......note to self, take ear plugs next time! They were very popular though - oddly, crowds of onlookers jockeying for the best viewing postions! What could that smell be? Fried dough stands on every corner, this must be good stuff. What harm in trying one just this once? We hummed and hahed then decided to split one. As if being fried wasn't enough, the server then brushed this plate sized monstrocity with melted butter!!!! We then had a choice of sprinklings of cinnamon sugar, brown sugar or powdered sugar and we opted for the powdered sugar. ughhhh I was less than impressed! This left a thin layer of grease in every nook and cranny of my mouth..lemonade made it worse! Coffee or hot tea was needed but neither could be found. Bonnie seemed to enjoy hers. Maybe it's similar to how vegemite is to us?

We walked through side show alley and I did get a kick out of the smiling faces of excited children and the travel weary faces of the carnival workers. Are they the modern day gypsy? I think they may be.

My absolute favourite thing was the draught horses without a doubt. These big beauties make my horses look like ponies. How gentle they were. And the big red horses with the blonde manes were Belgian's and they are used in the woods for logging. These boys had the names of Bob, John, Jack and Charlie and as you can see from the photo, they JUST fit into a stall! I petted each and every one of them too and I did sneak a couple of schnoz kisses too! :)

We were tired by now and it was time to start our demo's so we headed to the pavillion to set up. Bonnie was pleasantly surprised to find that she had won a best of show with one of her quilts and 3 first places and a second. Well done Bonnie.

We settle in at our table for the next three hours and worked on our projects as people came by and chatted and visited. I quite enjoyed that and I think I will sign up again next year! Minus the fried dough, maybe I will try an elephant ear instead! haaaa...

A Quilt for Romania

Finally finished the dino quilt that was my part in the Hands2Help challenge. I came across this challenge on Sarah Craigs blog, Confessions of a Fabric Addict, you can click on the Hands2Help button that will take you there! I tearfully watched a video from 2010 of quilts and other essentials being delivered to these kids and I knew that I had to help in my own small way!
This quilt will be mailed to Judi over at Green Fairy Quilts and in September it along with lots of other quilts and food, school supplies and more will be hand delivered by her and her hubby to less fortunate children in Romania. For this challenge I had a swap partner, Mary, who sent me 2 yards of dino fabrics and that is where my quilt and the fun began. And it was fun! Finishing it off really came down to the wire though as it had to be done and mailed by the end of July. Whew! I have just made the deadline! Here it is...

How Matilda and Banjo got their names

"Waltzing Matilda" is Australia's most widely known bush ballad, a country folk song, and has been referred to as "the unofficial national anthem of Australia".[1]

The title is Australian slang for travelling by foot with one's goods in a "Matilda" (bag) slung over one's back.[2] The song narrates the story of an itinerant worker, or swagman, making a drink of tea at a bush camp and capturing a sheep to eat. When the sheep's owner arrives with three police officers to arrest the worker for the theft, the worker commits suicide by drowning himself in the nearby watering hole, and then goes on to haunt the site.

The original lyrics were written in 1895 by poet and nationalist Banjo Paterson. It was first published as sheet music in 1903. Extensive folklore surrounds the song and the process of its creation, to the extent that the song has its own museum, the Waltzing Matilda Centre in Winton, Queensland.

The song was first recorded in 1926 as performed by John Collinson and Russell Callow.

summer is my least favourite season.......officially!

I am not a very good Queenslander am I? I can officially say that I hate summer! Even here on the mountain we get some days of heat and humidity and it's more than I can bear. For several hours this afternoon I lay on the couch in front of the only window a/c unit in the whole house and listened to an audio book. I actually dozed! It was just too hot in any of the other rooms to do anything constructive. It is almost 9 oclock in the evening and we have just eaten a light supper, the air is still thick and still. Back in Queensland the summers are so much hotter and humid, how on earth did I survive? I must be well and truly acclimated now!

We have another horse and he is a 4 yrold gelding who we have named Banjo. He is also a thoroughbred and comes from the same stable as Matilda. We could tell that they remembered each other and are now happy companians. It is hard to say what the pecking order is as it seems to change daily. Maybe they are equals? Can that be? Banjo actually trained to race but broke down with a bowed tendon so now he will live a pampered life in our pasture with Matilda to keep him company. We have almost finished building them a shelter for the winter. This project has been a lot of fun for John and I but our bodies have certainly felt the effects!!

I have almost finished the dino quilt that is going to Romania. If you want to know more about this wonderful cause, check out the Hands2Help link over there >>> on my page. I will post a photo of the quilt at the weekend.

Shower time for me....good night :)