Au revoir

Crying a few tears now as my best mate, buddy, pal, Shay, is finally on her way back home, despite that I may have tried to kidnap keep her here. Firstly, forgetting to look at the ingredient list on a curry paste that was added to a stir fry. We had both taken a mouthful before we looked at each other and let out a swear word or two and then ran to the refrigerator to check the ingredients.  A long stay in hospital so that I could visit her was averted, and so was any possibility of trying to kill her.  Secondly, the weather gods attempt at trying to keep her here almost worked.  We had THE MOST ATROCIOUS weather,  the last couple of days, horrendous winds and lots of rain. Fortunately we were spared the worst of it unlike a lot of people who have had to experience flooding again, only two years after the worst floods in many years. My sister and a friend are still without power after more than 24 hours, with the possibility of not having power back on until Wednesday morning.   Shay had to change her flight that flew out of Brisbane, as Brisbane airport was closed, and anyway, we hadn't been able to drive down to Brisbane from the Sunshine Coast as the weather was bad, roads were flooded and we were experiencing cyclonic winds. It meant that she had to stay an extra morning, woo hoo, but it still went too fast.

During the first part of the Tour de Shay, we took lots of photos, the second part, not so much.  Believe me, it's better if you don't have too much photographic evidence.

AND the best news,

I didn't get arrested.

WHile Shay was here we spent quite a bit of time sewing and chilling out. It's so nice to be able to sew with a buddy. I finished the binding on the Triangles quilt, and it;s now my second finish for 2013. It's still called the Triangles quilt because I can't come up with a better name right now. The plan was to hang this in the entrance but when I hung it there it looked horrible, the proportions were all wrong.  After a bit of a discussion with my go to quilt hanger upperer buddy, we decided to hang it in the dining room.

 It looks much better and happier hanging above the sideboard. I really love this quilt. It was quick to make and a great way to practice sewing triangles. I'ms definitely going to make another bigger quilt using triangles.

I used a charm pack of Lucy's Crab Shack for the triangles, the background is a grass green stripe by American Jane and the binding is a plaid from Lucy's Crab Shack line.

For the backing I used a Denise Schmidt dot print that I bought at Spotlight and some left over strips of the American Jane background. I quilted it in straight line quilting, 1 inch apart using a quilting guide that came with my Janome. The first line I quilted was marked out using a Hera marker, then I just used the quilting guide to follow 1 inch away from the previous line. I checked periodically to make sure I didn't stray too much. If I did, I adjusted the next line by either quilting closer or  further than an inch at the start of the line but tried to make sure the centre of the line was roughly an inch. It worked out really well, even I can't tell where I had to adjust the width of the quilting lines.

Starflowers has been growing too. I'v nearly finished phase one, all the whole flowers that I need and have 5 half flowers left to do. There has been a big change of plans and heart on this one, mainly because I value my questionable sanity too much.  All will be revealed, soon.......... eventually................when I know what I'm doing.

This photo was taken way back in November 2011, it's been a slow but quite satisfying project to work on.

In other news at Chez Sunshine, I had to have some palms removed as they were too close to the fence line, pushing against a wall and paving and were not planted correctly so that a lot of the root system was above ground. The photos aren't great because they were taken at 7.30am facing east into the rising sun.

The guys who removed the palms were amazing, so quick, and did a great job of cleaning up after themselves.  The palms were removed just in time, as they would most likely have blown over in the wild weather this weekend.

Entertaining Mrs Pyjamas

Mrs Pyjamas had said she just wanted to relax on her holiday here. Lounge around by the pool in her bikini and be served drinks by Julio the pool boy and if he wasnt available, BP and I could be poor substitutes.  As much as I was happy to attend to Mrs P's needs of relaxation, alcohol and standing holding an ostrich feather fan to cool her, I thought I should rustle up some entertainment as well. It's not all about laying by the pool when you stay at Chez Sunshine. 

One of the nice things to do here, is take a sunset cruise along the river. 

It's a cheap and cheerful way to while away an evening.  The cruise we usually take, is with the Noosa Ferry company. The cruise lasts around an hour and a half and takes in some of the very pretty sights along the river and Noosa Sound. You are allowed to take drinks and nibbles with you and they supply ice, ice buckets and glasses.  That meant instead of carting a truck load of supplies on to the boat we only needed a porter to carry the 14 bottles of wine for the two of us and a weeks supply of dips, crackers and cheese. We were sensible and took our designated driver with us, BP.  This was to avert any run ins with the law and put off our imminent jail time for another day, however BP would not double up and take on the porter duties, which meant Shay and I had to carry all the supplies.  To save our arms and backs we made sure we demolished the lot so we wouldn't have to carry it home.

As always, we sat at the back.   We soon had a nice space to ourselves as our fellow passengers decided it was nicer further up the front and edged slowly away from us.  I'm not sure why.  Maybe they couldn't hear the nice music or the occasional commentary from the skipper because it was noisy down the back. There was lots of laughter and the occasional snort as somebody choked, by laughing as they sipped a champagne or two or three!

Last night we went to one of my favourite  restaurants on the Sunshine Coast, Wahoo Seafood at Peregian Beach.  They know me well there, too well, and as soon as they saw I was with Shay we were put in the naughty corner.  Unfortunately we didn't take any photos, probably better that we don't have any incriminating evidence. I think I'll be allowed back there again. We had a lovely meal sitting  under the stars, no, the naughty corner isn't in the alley out the back, some of the tables are in an open courtyard.

We had our designated driver with us again. Who knew that having children could be so beneficial once they are old enough to drive. I think BP has learnt a lot in the last few days, maybe too much. Sometimes mothers and their friends talk about stuff that kids really don't want to/need to know about. I'm hoping BP hasn't worked out that she could earn a lot of money through bribery.

If you would like to see other ways we have been entertaining ourselves, you can read all about it here, and no, it's not a link to a newspaper or court listings.

Friends

This is what happens when you let crazy people loose with an iPad.

Fun times at Chez Sunshine.

MARG AND SHAY

No title, because I can't think of one.

I've had a pretty productive week.

I can't believe that I am finding time to sew, enjoying it, and even finishing a WIP, hmm, let's face it, it's really a UFO.  Fingers crossed that this is the start of some crafty goodness at the all new Chez Sunshine.

I started this after doing the Kelly Wolfsohn workshop in Adelaide with Shay.

I really enjoy raw edge applique and think I'll have another try at it this year as this has turned out so well. Maybe next time I'll try some background quilting!

It could do with a good press. I suppose it wouldn't look like that if I had quilted it. It doesn't look so bad in real life.

Looking back through my Flickr photos, I see I started this at the end of April 2011. Almost 2 years ago. Why do I procrastinate so much? it didn't take me long to find a fat quarter for the backing and another for the binding, put it all together, make a hanging sleeve for it and hand sew the binding down.

I started a new quilt about a week ago as I desperately wanted something to hang on the walls. This is where I used the Lucy's Crab Shack charm pack.

When I'm piecing, I lay out the pieces on an old cutting mat covered with flannel. It's great for keeping the pieces in order and for carrying to and from the iron and my "design bed".

The pattern is from this book.

I spent part of the day basting and quilting it, in between having a swim in the pool as it's hot here today.

Evidence - me quilting in my swimsuit. The heart is to keep my modesty and to ensure this image is not burnt into your brain.  Hmm, swimming pool hair and a tan. Even though I slather on the sunscreen, don't go out in the middle of the day and try hard not to tan, it doesn't seem to be working.

I'm really really happy with how this has turned out. I think I might attempt another triangle quilt this year.  Now to finish the binding so I can tell you all about this quilt in another post.

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FAL 2013 First Quarter

I'm joining the FAL again, held this year by the lovely and very talented Leanne at She Can Quilt.  I should last longer than the first quarter this year.  As I'm not intending to move, and I've already de-cluttered, there shouldn't be too many reasons for me not to hit my stride this year with some finishes. Don't worry I'm not delusional,  and I'm not going to go crazy, I'm only going to take baby steps.  You won't see lots of finishes here, but I'm inspired (today) to try and complete more than last year. That won't be too hard, lol.

1. First on my list is to get this applique finished. I'm still not sure whether to make it into a cushion or a wall hanging. The wall hanging is edging ahead as I need some art work on the walls here. I made this in a weekend back in May 2011 and haven't touched it since.



This languished in the cupboard because I wasn't quite sure how I was going to quilt it. I'm still not sure but I really want to finish this so
- it will be done, one way or another.

2. Next on the list. Even though Christmas is approx 350 days away I really want to finish McFlurry. I started this one in July 2011. I didn't take very long to make the top and I have all the fabric to make the backing. I stalled on the backing as I wanted to make something amazing. I've decided that it's just not worth worrying about making the backing amazing if it means I never get the darn quilt finished so I'm going to whack some fabric together and make a backing and get this baby finished in time for Christmas 2013. Fingers crossed.





3. A new project. I always have a new project, no matter how may WIP's I have. Another wall hanging using one of these.

The pieces are all cut out and I'm in the process of sewing them together.  More details in a future post.

4.  The Hopscotch quilt, which needs a new name.  The top and the backing are both made, all I need to do now is baste it and then start quilting. I know how I want to quilt this, straight line, so it's just down to getting over my aversion to basting. 

A very modest list but a list that I think is achievable over the next three months.

So take a look over at Leanne's blog and join in the Finish-A-Long and you could be in the running for some great prizes too.

New Year, New Look

If only it was so easy.

No NYE resolutions but I am determined to stop neglecting my blog. So in anticipation of being a good blogger this year, I thought it needed a new look. A little more sophisticated, just like me, bwah ha ha.

An hour  I shouldn't admit that it took me an hour, it should have taken 5 minutes of mucking around on the computer and voila my new look, 

 if only I could do that in real life and magically streamline me. 

Remove excess wrinkles, skin, weight, facial hair etc.

Maybe after I've had some more of these!