End of February Updates

Gatakers Bay, Qld.

I visited my old favourite holiday spot in mid February when babysitting our grandson, Parker.
We went for a drive from Maryborough to Hervey Bay for some quality sleep time in the car. When I was young we visited this spot for our daily swim sessions and quite often launched the fishing boat here.

Gatakers Bay, Qld

 After arriving back in Maryborough, Parker detested the noise of the shopping centre and we ventured to Queens Park for some peace and quiet only to discover this noisy machine. Parker thought this was a bit more entertaining than the shopping centre.

Queens Park Maryborough, Qld

Life has been pretty much the same, no rain, work commitments and the usual struggle of business responsibilities and driving from here to there and back again. I have progressed no further on my Inner City UFO.
I happily finished the baby Owl Quilt, and handed it to the expectant Mum one whole day before she became a Mum. They welcomed a Baby Boy 9 days early, so I hope he doesn't mind sleeping under a small amount of pink.
I have found another UFO started about 9 years ago so it is currently being worked on.
Getting a bit dry, weather wise here, as we are now officially drought declared. 80% of Queensland is now drought declared. So we have started the process of destocking. I have checked out possible available assistance but at this stage we do not really qualify for any yet.
 The house renovations have ceased temporarily as I have been "driving". I have done a road trip to Brisbane to catch up with 2 old friends and then went north to Rockhampton to visit the family along the way. Hopefully it rains soon but the long term forecasts don't appear to be very positive so this coming winter might be very difficult to get through. Wait and see I suppose.

February News

The proud aunty to a beautiful baby girl named Emmerson. She finally arrived 6 days past her due date, a bit bigger than the Doctor expected needing an emergency c-section. All is well now and the parents are thrilled to have her.

One very proud great grand mother finally meeting her first great grand daughter.

Its hard to believe that the young boy standing in this photo from 1996 is now a father himself. The baby in this photo is about to celebrate his 18th birthday and has been accepted into uni to study Bachelor of Theatre in Mackay. Danielle's little boy is 8 months old today and the girl at the back is also expanding the family in June. I am lucky that her mother makes many more quilts than me so I can find another gift for the baby other than a quilt.

I can proudly comment that I finished this one 27 hours before Emmerson arrived and Amanda is very happy with her choice of  fabrics I used.

 Back to the house restoration. I have been filling the cracks and topcoating where the walls were undercoated before Christmas. I went to Bunnings for more filler supplies and saw this scaffolding for sale. Craig had seen one before in use and we made numerous enquiries with no result so I was very pleased to see it available. After some discussions with the Bunning's staff, where I could not purchase one and collect a few days later as I did not think it would fit in my car, I left a bit disappointed. BUT out in the car park was a lady and a Bunnings man fitting one into her SUV. I looked at the size of her car, and thought it just might fit in my car, and in the end the Bunnings man went and got one, wheeled it out to my car and it fitted. I did have to have my driver's seat a bit forward but I could still drive, so I happily put up with the discomfort to get it home.It's box was 1.92m long by 78 cm wide and about 20cm deep.

 

It will also be ideal for washing our 11 foot ceilings.

 This was the last wall needing the first topcoat. I had to do a fair bit of sanding of the paint runs of undercoat as this was the last wall to be finished when the others did the undercoating for me.

 This is with one topcoat. Now I have to do it all again, then finish all the door frames, window frames and the roof beams.Then I have to finish the rails and the doors.

 Here is a test coat of Resene Gumboot on the window sill. I want to use this on the rails, stairs, sills and soffits in a cool colour paint ( reflects heat) but it is a bit dark for someone else. So back to Murgon I have to go to find another test colour. I have one selected that is slightly more blue. Soon I'll be able to paint the shed with the test pots. I also have to finish reputtying the top windows.
I have taken some time off from working on the house, and have been quilting this cot panel for another baby arriving in March.

 Our work roster has changed and I now end up with extra spare time between shifts in Bundaberg, so I have dug out a UFO to work on. This is an Inner City arrangement where I have placed the mediums on top. Not sure how it will finish up, but the camera is the best tool for looking at it with. I need a few more days of sewing on this one yet. I think I need to make a few more Y units.

I am also in the planning stage for finishing my large Sunshine and Roses quilt, the start date for that one was back in 2009. I hope to have it finished for August. Will keep you all posted on its progress.

Late December, great excitement here at Ivanhoe

 I scored my Christmas present a few days early this Christmas.  I had been "joking" that all I wanted for Christmas this year was a gift voucher from each of the kids to help me with 6 hrs of painting. I went to work as usual on Monday the 23rd of December ( albeit reluctantly as I had been on antibiotics for an infection) expecting the kids to all be home the next day for Christmas. Not knowing that they were already in the district and ready to start undercoating the Ivanhoe walls for me. Craig had purchased 20 litres of paint, 6 new paint brushes and they started 30 mins after I drove out to Bundaberg. First step they did was wash the walls, a break for morning tea, then they started.

Apparently Danielle's photography is better than her painting skills.

Craig was still complaining of "chroming" the next day after this effort in the corner. I still cannot understand why he had to wear a near new work shirt that day and left it on.

 This is the completed northern veranda side, the old white cupboard has also been removed, a storm blew a door off it ages ago. Belinda said quite a few workplace health and safety rules were broken with ladder placements.

This is how the house looked when I drove in at 830pm that night. In my headlights I could see the walls were all white. I did dream fleetingly that they were top coated as well but no such luck. I have even found paint on plates and cups and quite a bit on the old veranda floor.

 

 I have since continued painting over Christmas and New Year working on the rails. I have since painted these large beams supporting the veranda also and have finished 1 top coat on 4 veranda panels.

 

After recuperating from working night shift during the heat last weekend I have managed to start top coating the walls. I cant work on the railings as storms are about. Scored 22 mls rain on Monday afternoon  so the grass is green again. This is the southern side. The colour is Taubman's silver blaze half strength and looks white against grey but grey against white. I really like how it looks against the unlined roof. I have been using No More Gaps Weatherboard to fill in the cracks. It  is the most flexible of those fillers apparently so we are hoping it lasts and does not crack out too much.

We had an enjoyable Christmas after the painting day. We celebrated together on Christmas Eve as Belinda had to work dayshift in Rockhampton for Boxing Day so had to travel back Christmas Day. She scored lunch with her grandparents in Mundubbera though on her way back. For the first time ever we had turkey  and a glazed ham. Glad I didn't have to cook that for a lunch as it was  hot enough  cooking it for tea.
 Parker's first Christmas was very special and he scored lots of toys. I did make him a shirt and shorts out of monster truck material. Oops forgot to take a photo but I think they will be his PJ's next summer. No news yet on the next grandchild, will be induced 3 days after the due date if it does not arrive before then. I am off to finish quilting the quilt as my neck is too sore after 2 days of filling and painting.

Just too busy again, what's new???

 

Christmas is nearly here. Our patchwork group had an early start to the silly season. Even Belinda managed to attend, having an event to go to in Gin Gin the next day. This meant I managed to catch up with her 2 weekends in a row.

The following weekend was our Meyer/Meredith Family reunion event at the Mundubbera Bowls Club. Our crew travelled from Mackay, Rockhampton, Monto and Proston to attend. All of our Gayndah cousins had  a short trip up the road to attend.

The Mundubbera Bowling Club's rooftop was the only part visible in the floods in January and the volunteers have done a marvellous job restoring the building.

My grandfather Harry would have been so proud to see his children, grandchildren, great grandchildren and great great grandchildren playing bowls or just running amok on the greens.

 

 

Here is Belinda, her Uncle Greg and her father.

 Here is Danielle, Belinda and Parker, looks like Parker wanted to join the other kids.

 Here is me, actually bowling a bowl. The second time ever I have played. Sure did end up with some wonky bowls. The next day, my knee and thigh was a bit sore.

Here are my three girls. I still have not started quilting the baby quilt. I intend to start when I finish the current house goal.

Here is the second of the last three veranda panels to be sanded, primed and filled.

This is the view late Monday 9 December. I discovered it is not a good time to paint after about 9am in December. I started again at 5pm.

 

Tuesday 10th December saw me back out at 6am, to prime the second panel.

This is the next one, then the purchase of some trestles are in order to tackle the outside walls.

 

 

This is the last week I intend to work on the house until after Christmas and the New Year. Somewhere in this  I still have to work.

The baby quilt is beckoning. Will let you know when the baby arrives. Hope it's not too soon for my sake but I think Amanda is hoping sooner rather than later.

November Notes,

I must apologise for the lack of quilting content. I have included a photo of a UFO and was appalled at it's age. I started this in 2009 and it is still waiting for some attention. The only sewing things I have achieved is sandwiching the new baby quilt and cutting out a few Xmas presents.

 

 Needless to say, these two babies have been back in action. Mind you I think they are starting to show some signs of age. The pointy one will soon need it's third base plate change. It was amazing yesterday that both were in action at once. I had a helper, albeit for all of 30 minutes as the showers prevented him from doing some outside work, and I insisted some help would be much appreciated.

 Just to show you, we attended the Queensland Axemen's Association Annual Presentation night and Bryan received three awards over the Standing, Underhand and Treefelling sections of the competitions held during the year of all events across Qld. Considering he only competes when he is not away working he has done very well.

 I would really love to be able to purchase this house for sale at Chelmer in Brisbane. This is what I am trying to get my hedges to do at Ivanhoe. The only problem I have is our house is much higher. Means pruning to the height is much harder. I am happy with mine so far though.

 Another blog I read about renovating old Queenslanders showed this picture of an old queenslander in her neighbourhood. They just need the 'right people " to come along with the patience and drive to restore them. I'm thinking I need a good injection of drive at the moment.

Here is my inspiration for the louvres I am very happy with in our office area. I would really like to knock out more of the wall and install something like this, to bring the outside in. Maybe one day, I would also get new shelves made for all the essential paper work storage.

 

Some progress though. This is the second bedroom which used to be a very dark dusky salmon pink colour. I spent a day filling holes in the walls after Belinda washed them for me. I have finished one top coat of British Paints Touch of Berry colour 1.5 strength. With undercoating and painting it has taken 6 days so far. The Joinery guys ( they are my current favourite tradesmen) came back last week and are due back this week. In their words Murphy's law always prevails for the furtherest job from the workshop. We now have 5 sets of these doors. The fly and mossie populations trapped inside have decreased. It is wonderful leaving the shutter doors ( that is my new name for the timber doors now) open all the time.

 

 The veranda progress has been slow, because of the showers yesterday we started on the wide beam at the top and the decorative parts. This is in the final corner for the railings. I have nearly finished the final front panel, ready for undercoating, then filling , then sanding , then finally undercoating and painting. The timber is that weathered that you have to fill it with something.

 The second panel undergoing its transformation. Had to insert 2 new poles. You can just see my tallest hedge plant at the front .

I went researching the roofing iron. This is the roof in the shed built during the early 1960's using Lysaght Australia iron.

 

This is the Lysaght iron on the Ivanhoe veranda roof. There are 2 different trademarks, the other is Redcliffe Trade Mark. These were imported from England as Lysaght Australia did not start production until 1920's in Australia. Lysaght England bought out the company making Redcliffe brand in the early 1900's so one can date the house from this a bit.

I have discovered that the original owner of Ivanhoe and builder of this house got married in 1916. I am trying to establish about when the house was built. I reckon around 1909- 1916 as it would have been fitting to bring his bride to a house. Some days I just sit on the veranda and marvel at the construction work done without power tools.
I will at some stage probably be heading to the state archives at Runcorn for more research.
A busy month, with even more to come. The new grandchild is due in early January so now doubt life will get even busier.

September Ramblings and a Real Blast from the Past

 I currently have a small project on the go. My family have decided to have a family reunion. Not just my immediate family who are a bit spread out across Qld but the entire family of descendants of my 4 grandparents. I have started converting some old Kodak slides to digital with the aid of a nifty little gadget. I found this one of my sister at 2 weeks of age, she was not a very big baby as you can see by the size of my dad's hands. One of her kids has already commented that she has hardly ever seen any baby photos of her mother. Glad I have had the ability to change that for her.

 We shared the same 4 grandparents with one set of our cousins in that Mum's brother married Dad's sister so we did share quite a close bond with these 4 guys. Amazing that all 4 of them still live in the same town as their father. I am the shorter girl with you guessed it the pig tails. My brother is the smallest one in this photo. Yes, black sausage dogs were in the family then. Danielle now has one called Ebony.

 In August, I won 2 prizes with this quilt at the Bundaberg Competitive Quilt Show. I was quite excited to win the best domestic machine quilting prize. Not sure if my longarming will ever be that good. At this stage I am still too busy trying to get the house in order. I did also get a third place for my Japanese kaleidoscope quilt.

I spent the night during the show on guard duty with Patty. I'm sure we will volunteer to do it again next time.

 Back to the Ivanhoe house. We now have some screen doors, louvres , front gates and I have progressed some more on the sanding. But come to a bit of a halt but started working again on the next set of doors to screen.

 Love this view of the old house.

 Here is the next baby quilt in progress. I have now stitched it together, and pinned the next border on. Baby is due in January, so not much rush yet.

Had our big  Wagner mediation. Needless to say the Wagner family members involved have not endeared themselves to us and I doubt very much if they ever will. I am also certain the mediator probably didn't really like their attitude either. Some people just never learn that bullying will not make people care for them. I bought an orange bouganvillia bush to plant at our front gate. It is our liberation tree. On my drives to work I  drive past a few in old homestead paddocks and they are left after the houses have fallen down. I want it to be the legacy for Ivanhoe now that we are the custodians of this place for a short while. Back to work tomorrow night. Those 4 weeks roll around fast.