Achievement!

Imagine being able to do something on your own that you have never been able to do before. How would that feel? This is what it looks like! Right above grandson's head are the buttons that control the exercise bike. (The buttons that beep when you push them) Guess who can now push them without help. Not safe probably, but immensely satisfying.

A Drive to Port Elliot

I woke up today feeling terrible. So, what do you do when you don't feel so good? I go for a drive. Well, perhaps more correctly, I get driven. My Bradley decided that lunch in Port Elliot would be a good distraction. It is a lovely seaside town. Read about it here. We lunched at The Registry, wandered along The Strand, and watched the ocean.

Mr 9 and his strawberry milkshake. It was warm today, but we sat outside under vines. Very comfortable and pretty!

Horseshoe Bay. The colours were just so beautiful today. How lovely to watch and listen to this every day. I wish!

We drove home via Waitpinga Beach where my Bradley and Mr 9 played in the sand. Now we are home and I am in bed. I'm hoping to feel better tomorrow. Perhaps I will sew. It is the best medicine ever invented I think!

Bakery Report

This weeks pies. I stitched pies at my quilt group on Thursday. Don't they look delicious! (Just a thought. If all the pies in my life were made of fabric, I would lose a lot of weight!)

Happy Birthday!

It was back to school today here in Adelaide. Back to school after 6 weeks of summer holidays. Not enough weeks I think, personally! It was a BIG day for Miss 12. It was not only back to school for her - it was back to a brand new school. Slightly scary! It was also her 13th birthday today. She said that when she had to "borrow" textbooks today the teachers wished her a happy birthday because her details came up on their screen. She was nervous last night and didn't get much sleep so she was tired when she got home. We met all the kids at Fasta Pasta for dinner (Miss 13's request!) and we were surprised to find that we are 14 people now. Mrs 25, her bloke and grandson; Miss 23; Mr 21 and his fiance; Miss 19 and her boyfriend; Miss 17; Mr 15; Miss 13; Mr 9; me and my Bradley. Who would have thought that there would be so many of us! It was a fun night which ended at our place with Miss 13 and I giggling at ANYTHING! Well, not really anything. Miss 19 is pretty hysterical and she kept us in stitches!


Speaking of stitches......... this is what I have been working on this week. It is a raw edge applique centre square for a quilt. It is the first time I have used Kelli's (Don't Look Now) applique technique since I went to her workshop last year. So much fun! And I think I'm even improving! (Which has me flabberghasted! I was not so great at this at the workshop so it was good to be able to see some improvement!) Of course, I am still working on the double Irish chain quilt top. Oh, and the pies and tarts too. I really need several projects on the go to keep my attention and prevent boredom. I have only had one finish for January and would like to get another, but I think everything I am working on at the moment is part of a large project which won't be finished any time soon! I'll have to make sure that I have some quick projects on the go in February otherwise I am going to look like a major slacker next to all those over-achievers doing the 2010 OPAM. Lol! Finishing really does seem to be the buzz word of 2010. I see finishes all over the place in blogland. Hope all your finishes come to you too!

What did I do this week? Umm.....

What did I do this week? Umm...... not sure.

• I am busy making a quilt top from Moda's Wiscasset. Beautiful fabrics! (They are the fabrics in the photo above) It will be a double Irish chain quilt and I already love it even though it is nothing more than a few scraps of fabric on my desk!
  
• I worked out that since January is almost over I should probably start using my 2010 diary. So I marked all my classes and retreats I have booked so far. 2010 is looking good! (I am also loving this diary! It's really well set out and I feel happy every time I use it!)
  
• I worked a little on the pies and tarts and thought I should plan out my pies and tarts year so that I can make sure I finish this quilt this year. Didn't actually plan it mind you, but I did think about planning it.
  
• And..... no, that's it!

Can't believe that took me a whole week! Well I'm sure I did some other things as well, but they must have all been boring things! I am looking forward to the weekend and the sewing time I hope to have. Maybe I'll even plan out those pies and tarts!

Quick

Another quick post to let you know that Miss 23 is off to Melbourne to study. I'm sure she will be back and forth quite a bit because we are all quite exciting here in Adelaide. There will be a niece to visit in five weeks time and a nephew who is just getting more and more exciting all the time. He popped in for a short visit today and was busy galloping all over the house. His latest best thing! I'll leave you with a photo of him and his Mum busy playing at the playground. She always was the most fun to play with when she lived at our house and it's not any different at her house!

OPAM Finish

So I actually finished this quilt. I finished the sewing this morning and completed the snipping at the Patchwork Apple's sit n sew this arvo. I quite like the finished feeling. Maybe this is the new feeling for 2010. I might just finish something else.

Much excitement!

Just a quick post to note that Miss 17 was offered her first University choice yesterday. She is over the moon! She was dancing around well after bedtime last night. It is her dream course, the perfect one for a storyteller - creative writing. Miss 23 has another 3 days to wait because she has applied to Victorian Universities. Hope there will be as much excitement then too!

More shirts.....

I finished two more shirts for grandson today, and a pair of overalls. I was so anxious to get them to him that I forgot to take a photo of them! I also managed to do another third on the shaggy flannel quilt for Miss 12. It's getting bigger!

Miss 23 got home from a two and a bit week road trip last night. I think she had fun! I also think she missed us. (We are soooo great - and modest!) We sat up late last night and listened to her tell road trip stories. Miss 17 is a Storyteller and one of her favourite ways to get everyone's attention is to say, "Hey! Telling a story here!", with a LOT of attitude. So that phrase was used over and over last night, with an excess amount of attitude, as we listened to Miss 23's stories as well as the stories of everyone who stayed home. Hey! Just because we didn't go anywhere doesn't mean we didn't have lots of exciting things to relate to Miss 23! While she was gone Miss 17 managed to get her driver's license which neccessitated the telling of many stories and that was just one of the many exciting things that happened in the last couple of weeks here at Rosemary Hill. Life is all go here! We seem to have a need to tell a lot of stories and laugh a lot. Perhaps that's why I'm so in love with blogging and reading blogs. It's the stories! Hope your story is a wondeful one today!

A heatwave = flannel quilt making

I was reading blogs today (a daily occurance!) and came across this post at Dancing with Frogs.
Here it is. Only in Australia would a quilt be held up getting photographed on a 43C/109F day!!! It made me ponder just what I had been doing whilst keeping cool during this heatwave. Yep, I have been sewing a flannel quilt for Miss 12. It sounds crazy, doesn't it? I put the air conditioner on, sit at the sewing machine, flick on my little fan and start sewing. Perhaps it is not so much crazy as a statement of hope. "I'm making this because it WILL be cool again one day". Like my friend's preschooler who spent yesterday in gum boots because she was sick of it being hot! So, this is my latest project. A butterfly fling flannel quilt. I am 1/3 of the way through it and am enjoying sewing it! I love butterfly fling!

I've joined in.....

.....with Peg and Kris for "One Project a Month 2010". So have 199 others so I guess you will see this logo around the place this year. The idea is to record your finishes which will encourage you to complete projects! It's also a kind of big cheer squad as well, because we will all be encouraging each other! This fits in really well with the goals I have set for myself this year which will also be appearing in my sidebar sometime soon. (Hopefully before February!) We are still quite busy here at Rosemary Hill. Miss 23 and Miss 17 are waiting anxiously for first round university offers which come out later this week. Their thoughts swing from "will I get my first choice" all the way down to "will I be offered anything???????". It's quite a stressful waiting time, as I'm sure lots of you know. Mr 15 and Miss 12 will be changing schools this year too so we have some organising to do for them as well. It is a busy time of year! After five days of extreme heat we have now had a cool change which even came with some rain. It is as if everything has had a huge sigh of relief! Hope your day is as wonderful at your house!

Shirts

It was a hot day today (42 degrees) so Mrs 25, her bloke, and grandson came over to keep cool. Mrs 25 is very pregnant with granddaughter (we think!). Miss 17 is in the photo of grandson above. He is busy not smiling at the camera. Eighteen month olds are quite cheeky! Of course we all think he's the bees knees as you can tell from Miss 17's adoring gaze.

Mrs 25 brought some sewing with her. She makes all of grandson's clothes because he is not an average kid. (We contend that he is above average, but we are somewhat biased.) She also designs his clothing because no ordinary patterns fit him. She had been sewing some new shirts for him and had been halted by the latest heatwave, so today I finished off three shirts that she started. I think that grandson certainly was born to the right mother because he would be naked if his Mum was not so talented! It is so much fun to finish things off and small clothes are so much fun to sew too!

Yes! It's January 2010!

I did plan this post for January first, but I just didn't get that far. Yes! It's January! 2010! Last year I didn't really get around to making any goals for 2009. I was determined to set some for 2010 because I think I really would have done more in 2009 if I had set goals. I think I was a little scared to set some of the goals I had in my head. Sometimes being scared really holds you back! One of the goals I have set myself is to get my blog tidied up a little and get some of my goals established in the sidebar of my blog.
Remember this bag? (See post here) I made it to keep my Pies and Tarts BOM in. Well, I have been working on the pies and tarts over the Christmas break and needed some more storage space, so made some drawstrings bags.


The larger one for the pies, and the smaller one for the tarts. The original bag is a brilliant work bag. (I love it!) So portable! And now I have somewhere to put the pies and tarts when I am not working on them.


The pies in progress. I have almost finished the first month's worth. (Not that impressive since I already have the third month at my house!) I am enjoying creating these pies and am getting better at them. I'll be an expert by the time I finish this quilt.


This is what I'm up to with the tarts. Not much! I have them tacked to the paper pieces, but that's as far as I got. I will wait a while before putting these together. I would like to mix the fabrics up a little. That's the pies and tarts progress update! Check back soon for more 2010 updates!