Productive

It has been wet here, for days now. We haven't seen outrageous rainfall, unlike other parts of Australia, and no flooding here. Two reasons it doesn't flood where I live. Firstly I live on the side of a hill, so if it floods here, we are in very very big trouble, and secondly this area has always had very heavy rainfall it's not uncommon to have 4 inches of rain in a single thunderstorm in less than an hour, the landscape is able to cope very well with heavy rain.

Enough of the geography lesson, lots of rain meant I made the most of the cool weather and tried to make a tiny inroad into my ever growing pile of WIP's which are slowly turning into UFO's.

I finished piecing this quilt top, it has a name too, Spice Boxes. Excuse the very ordinary photo of it, it's just too wet and grey to take photos of it outside and this is the best of a bad bunch. The pattern is a  Kate Conklin design that was in a Down Under Quilts magazine earlier this year.  I just love the colours in this, I started off using the warm palette from Anna Maria Horner's Innocent Crush line and added some Kona solids to break it up as they are beautiful fabrics but very busy. I also wanted to use a few more fabrics from my stash to make it a bit more individual so I added some Castle Peeps, Hope Valley, Deer Valley, and Meadowsweet.  I'm really happy with how it's come together, after a lot of time spent trying to make it look random, I just can't do random random, I have to have controlled random. Now I'm just stressing about how I'm going to quilt it.

After finishing the Spice Boxes top, I tackled the Wonky Owls quilt in an effort to reduce my pile of unfinished 2010 quilts.  After a lot of brow furrowing, swearing and an almost "art installation" moment, where it was quite possibly going to be burnt, stabbed or run over, or all three, I finished the quilting. No photo yet, but in the meantime, a photo of the binding all ready to go.

We also put  up the Christmas tree on the weekend, unlike Mrs P's at QIMP whose tree looks fabulous and very finely dressed, mine looks almost naked. Bitchypoo wanted to go with a blue/silver theme, unfortunately I don't have that many decorations in those colours, and I don't want to buy anymore so it's going to have to stay naked.

 Sorry I had to crop the photo so you couldn't see the disaster zone* in the background. The tree is tall and slim as the layout of the living area means a lovely big fat tree would take up half the floor space.

I bought a couple of decorations in a sale about two weeks ago, they were so cute I couldn't resist.

I'm having second thoughts so I think I'll buy some silver tinsel to make it look a little less forlorn, I can't have a naked Christmas tree.

* The reason the disaster zone in the background - due to the very wet weather, the verandah decking oil still hasn't dried so I can't put any of the furniture back on to it, a lot of it is still taking up space inside. I'm hoping I'll be able to show the big reveal later in the week, that's if it stops raining for a day.

ETA: I didn't buy any tinsel, when I had a look at what was on offer I decided against it.    I am very glad I didn't buy any and thank you all so much for your wonderful and supportive advice. M

Organized - for today!

Somebody whose name starts with Q and ends in P, had a bet with me last night that I had lots more fabric than her. That was all the incentive I needed to clean up my fabric stash dumping ground, as I was positive I wouldn't have as much fabric as Mrs P. 

I don't! 

However I now have kind of neat/tidyish piles of fabric. Here it is in all it's glory. This will be the last time it is this tidy for another 6 months.

The top shelf, on the left are the solids, behind those are some Kaffe Fassett fat quarters I bought earlier in the year. I fondle these regularly but still haven't decided what to do with them. The solids are mainly half yards except for the two bags on top which are the Kona solids fat quarter bundles, pretty in pink and spice which just arrived this week. To the right of those are my charm squares, behind those, yardage (mostly 1/2 yd) of blue/green/greys.

On the left below are the 1/2 yds of orange/pinks/mauves/reds and black/white. To the right of that, all my layer cakes and on top left overs from layer cakes, and the Pure disappearing 9 patch quilt top. (And a mini iron)

The bottom shelf has the chenille and flannel quilt kit I bought earlier in the year, which I haven't started, and a box with all my Martinique fabric ready for when I make my next Martinique based quilt.
By the way, my mum loved her quilt and has asked me to make one for my dad, in the same fabric, so another quilt in Martinique but a more masculine feel,  no florals.  Even my sister liked it and has put in an order of a quilt for her **th birthday in 2 years.  I never ever thought they would want hand made quilts, so I feel pretty special this week!

On the right of the bottom shelf, yardage bought for backing.

My drawer stuffed full of jelly rolls. This is the only drawer with fabric in it, the top one has quilting books and the bottom one is empty.

An Ikea box full of fat quarters and some solids charm squares.

This box has been hiding the infamous snowball blocks and also the  scraps I used to make my first ever wonky log cabin block.

That's it. Even I was surprised how it all packed up nicely into this. I had visions of purchasing lots of storage boxes to hold it all once I had tidied up.  

So woo hoo now I can buy more fabric, yippeeeee. 

No not really, I have a couple of orders to come from the States, but I think I have more than enough to keep me going. It's just so tempting to keep on buying now that the good old Aussie dollar is so high against the U.S. dollar.

My latest sewing efforts have been using these lovely bright fabrics, Plume.

 A messy pile as I was sewing. This is the beginning of bitchypoo's quilt using 30 fat quarters, and the solids above.

. 

 I love the blocks, I am just hoping when it is all put together it won't be too overpowering.

These are the left overs from the blocks which will be made into matching pillows/cushions/something!

Dangerous animals and more

Saturday's post about the spider had me thinking.  


After Mrs P from QIMP posted this post and this one some time ago which included a lot of deadly animals, and a number of comments from people living overseas about the scary creatures here in Australia, I googled poisonous/dangerous animals in North America.
Guess what I found!  And you lot worry about coming here, I'm pretty sure I'm never going to venture outside any metropolitan center in the U.S.A.  on the off chance I might meet one of these.


Grizzly Bear
Don't try and run from a bear because they will easily catch and dispose of you. Lastly, if the bear does start attacking you, either play dead and protect your neck, or punch him in the nose, one of the bear's few sensitive spots. 

Fatalities: 5-10 per year 

American Black Bear

Fatalities: Few, although they attack humans more than Grizzly bears This was intriguing - does that mean they would rather attack a human than a Grizzly bear or do they attack more humans than Grizzly bears do!!!!!!

Western Diamond Rattlesnake

Watch where you are walking and be attentive. If your hear a rattling sound, that means there's a rattlesnake nearby and it is ready to strike. Keep in mind snakes can extend their bite up to 2/3 their length and are too quick to dodge.

Fatalities: 5-15 per year & over 8,000 snakebites 

Not just one kind of rattlesnake too -

Eastern Diamond Rattlesnake

Timber Rattlesnake

Mojave Rattlesnake

Speckled Rattlesnake

Pygmy Rattlesnake

Massasauga

Sidewinder

Black-tailed Rattlesnake

Tiger Rattlesnake

Panamint Rattlesnake

Banded Rock Rattlesnake

Western Twin Spotted Rattlesnake

Red Diamond Rattlesnake

Prairie Rattlesnake

Grand Canyon Rattlesnake

Arizona Black Rattlesnake

Cottonmouth 

Copperhead - 4 types

Western coral Snake

Eastern Coral Snake

Texas Coral Snake

Fatalities: 5-15 per year & over 8,000 snakebites 

That's at least 24 different poisonous snakes!!!!!!!!!

Mountain Lion

Stand tall, shout loudly, stare at them intensely, and throw rocks at them if you feel threated by a mountain lion. Do not corner, confront them, flee, or play dead because it may stimulate their instinct to chase and attack you. 

Fatalities: 0-5 per year 

Coyote

Same as Mountain Lion

Fatalities: 0-5 per year

Alligator

Don't swim where alligators are suspected to be (bogs and rivers in Florida). 

Fatalities: 0-5 per year 

Great White Shark

Avoid wearing bright colors because it attracts them, and if you are bleeding, exit the water immediately because they can smell blood from miles away. 

Fatalities: 5-15 per year, 50-70 reported attacks 

Bison

They have powerful legs and may start rampantly kicking you, in which case you should try and curl up into the fetal position until it leaves.

Fatalities: Few, although indirectly (car crashes, etc.) they cause 100+ per year 

Deer

Deer had the same comments as Bison -They have powerful legs and may start rampantly kicking you, in which case you should try and curl up into the fetal position until it leaves. What the? I'm not even safe from Bambi, great!

The Black Widow Spider

They inject an especially potent neurotoxin along with their bite. This type of poison blocks nerve impulses to the victim’s muscles, resulting in cramps, muscle, spasms, rigidity, and, in extreme cases, paralysis.

The Brown Recluse

They also enjoy bunking with humans, and have a nasty habit of crawling into clothing as well. Most victims are bitten while dressing or sleeping. In its own way, the brown recluse’s venom is much nastier than that of the the Black Widow. Recluse venom is a necrotic toxin: that is, instead of affecting a victim’s nervous system, it acts directly on the skin and musculature to kill the tissues immediately surrounding the bite. The dead tissues heal very slowly, if at all. 


Gila Monster


One of only two poisonous lizards in the world.

Scorpions

Tarantulas

Puss Moth Caterpillar

Hornets

Wasps

Horse Fly

Ticks - Lyme Disease, 

Skunks

Poison Ivy

Have I missed anything?

Slack Tea

In honour of the great blog  Quilting in my Pyjamas,  I have dedicated tonight's evening meal to Mrs P.

I am having a very quiet Friday night at home as I have no social life, well actually I went out for lunch to the Noosa Yacht Club and had a lovely lunch and a couple of wines with a girlfriend.

Originally I was going to cook up a storm, involving chicken and a new secret ingredient which fell into my hands yesterday. (All will be revealed in a later post.) However, I didn't go to the supermarket, because of lunch and the couple of wines, so I had to shelve that plan. Next plan was to get take away, but the effort involved in driving 20 mins there to pick it up and then drive 20 mins home was just too much.  So in the great tradition of Slack Tea Thursday, instigated by the marvellous Mrs P, I present the following.

This is Turkish Pide bread slathered with lashings of yummy New Zealand butter and something that looks a bit like Vegemite, doesn't it, but this is edible unlike that disgusting road tar. It is actually this:

A new and IMPROVED version of Vegemite, yes Mrs P, IMPROVED!!!

The sensible people at Kraft obviously decided that those of us with discerning tastebuds would prefer something edible instead of being forced to eat road tar. So this was invented.

It is actually Vegemite but has been watered down mixed with cream cheese, so it has a much milder taste and is far more palatable.

Now we can send this to unsuspecting friends overseas and they won't feel as is they have been poisoned.  The only problem with this version, is because it has cream cheese in it once it has been opened it has to be refrigerated.  Vegemite is so toxic it will live forever un-refrigerated.

This was followed by:

A bag two Fruchocs, a delectable chocolate confection from South Australia. These were giant ones, almost golf ball size, they make them big down there!

So thank you Mrs P for making slack tea a new tradition and for introducing me to Fruchocs, I might have to put in a standing order.