Coming up for air

Sorry I've been a little quiet of late, dear reader.

My creative voice has been somewhat muffled because I've been buried under a monumental pile of paperwork and admin tasks and a tad too often the sun has set on my day before I've had time to complete all the tasks on my To Do list.

Life's events have slowed down my productivity and the words just haven't flowed as easily. Perhaps you know the feeling?

Let me give you a quick glimpse of what's been keeping me smiling in spite of everything.

I've been...

Having fun…
…making a gingerbread village with the Princess when she came for a sleepover.

Cooking…
…apple slice and other sweet treats for some visitors.

Learning…
…not to leave the leftovers on the coffee table while I go outside to farewell my guests.

I wonder who "tidied up" for me while I was gone? I couldn't be cross with him, though, when he showed me this "sorry" face.

Sewing...
…with my friends at our latest class with Blue Mountains quilter Lyn Alchin.

Their Laurel's Stars quilts are looking so gorgeous, aren't they?

Di B was so keen she's finished her quilt top already - Oh, what a feeling!

Hosting…
…a rather depleted English Quilt Group for the first time in my new home.

Circumstances prevented Gail, Rae, Anne, Robbie and Wendi from being here, but it was fun to catch up with two of our travellers, Lyn and Jill, and hear tales of Mediterranean cruising and travels in Turkey (from Lyn) and traversing Russia via the Trans Siberian Railway (from Jill).

I love visiting exotic destinations vicariously through my adventurous friends!

Jill's making steady progress hand quilting this spectacular Mariner's Compass quilt for her daughter.

For a change from quilting, Lyn was crocheting granny squares in vibrant colours for a rug.

Helping…
…Di B and our friend Jane use safety pins to sandwich the quilt Jane's making for her daughter, another lucky girl.

We introduced her to the nifty Kwik Klip, a finger-saving tool we'd never be without for a job like this.

Growing…
…my little balcony garden.

My lime tree loves its new home and has a healthy crop of fruit, the diplodenias are climbing high, and the petunias, snapdragons, pelargonium and orchid brighten my day with their bold colours.

Being blessed…

…with new readers. My balcony garden's not the only thing that's been growing.

May I extend to you a warm welcome if you're a reader who's started following my blog as a result of seeing Snippets 'n' Scraps featured in October's Down Under Quilts.

The name of my blog says it all. I write about the snippets 'n' scraps of my life - quilts my friends and I are making, the joys of being a grandma, travel, photography, as little cooking as I can get away with, and settling into a new home and the next stage of my life after my husband's sudden death last year. 

Every day I'm conscious of God's blessings to me, but sometimes, when life throws me a curve ball, I can't help asking God "Why?".

I don't think He holds that against me :-)

100 Things Every Quilter Should Do - A Bucket List

 A little bit of fun we've been discussing in my Southern Cross Quilters online group.

Click on this link if you're a quilter, and see how many of these things you've done. Of the thirteen I haven't achieved yet, only two are truly on my Bucket List.

Can you guess which two they might be?

100 Things Every Quilter Should Do

Comfort and Joy

Christmas Day might be 6 weeks away, but today St Mark’s Quilters held our final workshop for the year and celebrated our 4th year of quiltmaking together with a break-up Christmas lunch in the garden.

We began the year making quilts for the folk of Dunalley in Tasmania who had lost their homes in the January bushfires, then went on, over the following months, to make dozens of Blankets of Love for Royal Prince Alfred Hospital and child-sized quilts for “The Marcia” kindy for autistic children at Liverpool.

Sadly we’ve ended the year once again working on quilts for victims of disastrous bushfires, this time closer to home in Winmalee in the Blue Mountains. That’s the harsh reality of summer here in Australia. And the season has hardly begun.

As soon as Di B and I read Tracey’s appeal to quilters for assistance in giving every school aged child a quilt, as well as an extra quilt for every household, we knew we wanted to get on board to make her vision a reality in the new year.

We emailed our quilters the instructions for a very simple double square block and asked them to raid their stashes, if they wanted to help, and bring along as many completed blocks as they could today. These were to be the building blocks for our quilts for Winmalee.

Those girls are wonderful. They brought along more than a hundred blocks!

After a day of crawling on the floor to arrange and rearrange blocks into child-sized and adult-sized quilts, we have around 8 finished quilt tops – and rather a lot of homework to do quilting them!

The blocks were numbered with masking tape and stacked together in order, making it possible for many hands to work together stitching them into quilts.

We have quilts in reserve (we like to keep some for emergencies), so along with these we’re confident we’ll be able to make a decent contribution to this heartwarming effort by the wider quilting community.

Lunch in the garden was a fun affair, with delicious food contributed by everyone.

Once again we thanked God for giving us a passion for creating quilts, a gift we all love using to give comfort to people in need of encouragement and hope.

There were paper hats (no photos!) and Christmas earrings.

And the usual show and tell.

Another Blanket of Love by Margaret

And these colourful kiddies’ quilts…

Barb

 

Gail

 

Di C

 

Michaela

 

Moo

 

Gillian

 

Michaela

Michelle worked on the binding of a beautiful quilt she’s made for the newborn  daughter of an Iranian refugee couple in her church.

1930s fabrics, large quilting stitches and knots give this quilt real vintage charm, and I know it’s going to be treasured.

Gillian has finally finished a real labour of love, two storybook quilts for her granddaughters.

I could suggest you play “spot the differences” and there are quite a few, but both are enchanting, with sparkle and quirkiness, and all the traditional elements of a fairytale – a king and queen (complete with golden crowns), a handsome prince and a frog who might be a prince in disguise, a beautiful princess, a rather friendly looking dragon, and a snow white unicorn.

Finally, if you’ve made it this far I’ll leave you with a little bit of silliness, a collage of some of the bags people brought today. They just made me smile

Di

Seven crowded days make one weak

ZZZZZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzz……

Hear that? It's the sound of this weary Mumma, and Chester the Wonderlab, catching up on some much-needed sleep after the frenetic pace of Sarah's final week here.

After 2 and a half weeks filled with retail therapy, attending to travel-related admin, catching up with friends (hers and mine), enjoying plenty of niece and nephew cuddles with The Princess and Mr J, embarrassing Chester by entering him in a Dogtober fancy dress competition dressed as a fairy followed by a late night mercy dash to the emergency vet with our precious pup very sick with Kennel Cough, and savouring the all-too-few moments of just hanging out together, the pace was ramped up a notch (if that's possible) with the arrival, on my birthday, of Nolan, Sarah's …um… Significant Other.

For seven days we lurched from one sumptuous meal to another, as we tried to give Nolan, a first-time visitor to Australia, the ultimate Sydney experience.

Lunch with Sarah's godmother, Liccy, at the Tea Rooms at Watsons Bay

Breakfast at The Grounds at Alexandria

Dinner at the Night Noodle Markets in Hyde Park

Nolan even cooked us a candlelight dinner at home one evening. Yummmmm.

We kept on the move too, with the young ones taking part in the Spring Bike Ride across the Sydney Harbour Bridge and around the sights of Sydney, and outings to Centennial Park and Bondi Beach..

On their final day, along with Lachy and Merry and Mr J, we took the ferry across the harbour to Taronga Park Zoo where I momentarily lost them among the meerkats :-)

 It was a delight to share Mr J's excitement and sense of wonder at the tall giraffes,

The elephants,

And the performing seals.

Chester's recovered from his Kennel Cough, though the poor boy is finding it had to understand why he has to be quarantined and can't play with his friends in the park yet. (Three days to go!)

These two have gone home to the States.

 And I've {almost} recovered from a tumultuous roller coaster of a month during which my blog posting and reading has been far more hit-and-miss than I would have liked.

My apologies. Normal transmission will be resumed very soon, dear reader.

Lindi made my day, and a scarf

Recently Lindi sent me a special gift in the mail, a strippy patchwork scarf that she had made for me in my very favourite colours! It’s about 8 inches wide and 6 feet long, and backed with snuggly flannelette. I can’t wait to wear it next winter because it will match simply everything in my wardrobe and make me feel very loved.

She also included some of my favourite chocolates (for ‘medicinal’ purposes, of course) and a little something for young Chester. How thoughtful! Lindi’s just that kind of gal.

Thank you, dear Lindi!

It wasn’t my birthday (though it is today ), and I had done nothing to deserve my presents.

It was a Pay it Forward gift, and came with certain conditions.

So here’s how Pay it Forward works……

In gratitude for Lindi’s kindness I’m passing on the goodness and offering to make 5 people a handmade gift.

I’m allowed a year in which to make these gifts.

If you’d like to be on the receiving end all you need to do is leave me a comment here on my blog letting me know.

Please include your email address if you’re a “No reply” blogger as I must have some way of getting back to you to confirm if you’re one of the lucky five. Don’t worry, your comments will go directly to my inbox and I won’t be publishing comments for this post, so your private details will remain with me.

However… you must be prepared to Pay it Forward once you receive your gift.

You should, in turn, offer (through your blog or on Facebook) to make 5 people a handmade gift over the next year. Please don’t put your hand up unless you are prepared to make the time to do this.

I am happy to post overseas too.

So, wave your hand if you’re up for it

Di