This is the northern wall of the kitchen/dining area. Looks a forlorn sight on a very cold windy morning, a wood heater waiting patiently for the plumber to come along and install it. After numerous phone calls waiting for a quote to arrive, I suggested to the dear man about the house, how about he make another phone call. He dutifully did and hey presto, NO QUOTE , BUT WE'LL BE OUT TOMORROW TO INSTALL IT!!!!!!

Another cold windy morning, the boys turned up ready to climb the roof and drill and saw and install a chimney etc. 5 hours later and the wood was burning. Lucky we've got quite a few spare ironbark trees. Now just the windows to replace and maybe I might have the wind cut in half.

Just been TOOO BUSY!!!!

Yes I know it has been awhile since I last posted to this blog. Life has a knack of getting in the way sometime. The most exciting thing happened just before Proston showday. Phil the woodchopping builder decided he just had to come for the show and install an upstairs shower in the bathroom for us. I think his wife also enjoyed spending our money on all the fittings. She certainly does a good job for her clients. This first photo is of the existing wall in the very corner of the house. Perfect spot for a shower don't you think.


After a few hours of measuring, cutting holes in the tongue and groove, packing to make it all square , we then had a shower base on the floor and slots for some taps.

A few more hours went by and the adhesive applied , the plastic backing installed, then the figuring out of the doors and hey presto, we now have a corner unit shower. The photo is a bit distorted due to the small space. 3 days later the plumber turned up and installed some new pipes downstairs. Came back 2 days later and it was finally functional. No more showers downstairs with the toads and the breeze coming under the wall.

The door opens into the middle of the room. The next thing to purchase will probably be some sort of blind for the window. The electrician is supposed to be coming back and installing a ventilation unit sometime. I bought a small heater to take the chill off the air in winter.

Sewing wise I went to Yeppoon and spent a weekend teaching kaliedoscopes in March. The girls were busy as usual. I then spent a lot of time preparing for my venture to Coffs Harbour in NSW for 2 workshops with one of my quilting heroes Hollis Chatelain. If you google her you will see her Precious Water quilt. This was the first quilt of hers I ever saw in a magazine. I would love to see it in real life.Another quilt of hers I love is the one with Desmond Tutu with the african children in it.She dye paints then quilts. Her idea of quilting is YOU MUST SEE THE THREAD. Some of her quilts are just a dye painted background with the images constructed solely from thread.

I spent a day learning to paint with dye, I think I did well considering I have not painted pictures since Primary School. It is certainly a different medium to work with.

The second day was a huge discussion on threads, quilting and design. I would now love to join her 10 year class, where you go once a year and learn from the design up. Hope the dollar stays high so I might get there for the colour class.

Just to show it was not a dream, here is a photo of me and my teacher, standing in front of her

"The Gift " quilt. The stitching is awesome, photos do not do it justice. The quilt is about a philipino girl working on a cruise ship ( that Hollis was on ) as a masseur and she had to send all her earnings home to her family. Hollis could feel the tension in her and said she had an amazing rapport with her and ended up making a quilt from the experience.

I managed to bring home my 2 artists palettes with my leftover dye paints in and now have 3 small dye paintings to wash out in synthrapol after curing. Off to patchwork again tomorrow. I need a bit of a break from the work routine as I have been involved in too many "Massive Blood Transfusions" lately, with some not good outcomes happening.

Will try too post a bit more frequently also. The next renovation work is replacing the windows at the back and installing the second wood heater. I had to remind the tradespeople AGAIN today for the quotes.

It Has been Awhile, I Know

It has certainly been awhile since I last did a blog post. Well one can never underestimate the forces of nature. I was stranded by flood waters for a week from home and spent most of my time watching the events in Toowoomba, Lockyer Valley and Brisbane areas on the television as they unfolded. Then of course we had to have Cyclone Yasi devastate North Queensland.

We have made preparations to get three of our dams repaired and fences fixed. We consider ourselves very lucky with the damage we received compared to other areas of Queensland.

Then we also saw the floods in Victoria, bushfires in Western Australia and today more earthquakes in New Zealand. The snow storms across the USA added to the world's misery. I may be called a climate change sceptic, but I tend to think the Earth's poles are going for a bit of a tilt instead. I won't be alive in thousands of years to learn what really is happening though.

Back to the house renos ------- called to a halt for awhile. A wrist injury from work halted my activities a bit. Got that sorted now, blame the replacement centrifuge that needs a 10 ton force to close both lids on it, and my wrist has been xrayed, ultrasounded and it is perfectly normal. Does not hurt when I use the centrifuge in a different manner so that must have been the cause.

BUT I HAVE BEEN SEWING. Yes!!!!!!

My Yeppoon workshop was delayed until March due to the floods, so have been playing with the 60 degree triangle ruler for some samples. I must apologise for the photoes taken with the quilts hanging on the clothesline as I did not have time to set up for a real photo shoot.

I like the movement created across this quilt. Technically quite difficult to sew as there is lots of seams at some intersections. I love the narrow contrast colours and how they all interlock.

This green heaxgon was started using the same principle as the interlock one but to use up more of my green fabrics. This one has 2 photos showing the changes I made in progress. I used the camera as my design wall and have about 8 pics from beginning to end.The best part of making this one was the time spent arranging the blocks.

This is it finished with a narrow dark border frame. It somehow reminds me of a cyclone tracking map.

Finally I got the UFO out of the cupboard and have sewn it up. My Strips n Curves Demo from October 2009, not sure about a border/frame or what yet. I hope to take some of these with me to my Hollis Chatelain quilting quilts workshop at Coffs Harbour in May 2011. I think they need a bit of spicing up with some thread.

I have also continued with another idea from the green quilt, but using my stash of orange/pink/purple fabric. More pics when that is finished. Off to Mt Perry Wednesday for another patchwork day so I hope to get some more strips sewn.

What a Finish for the Year !

What a lonely and devastating sight to see. The rain continued in December and I think shocked a lot of people. This is the supposedly unfloodable bridge over the Burnett River at Mingo Crossing in a photo taken by my friend Patty. Two cousins experienced the flooding in their houses in Mundubbera upstream from Mingo earlier in the week. Friends have been cut off for weeks in their homes and trying to enjoy Christmas on their own.
In all of this chaos before Christmas, Archie returned on the day the bridge came out of the water, weaved his magic in wrecking our kitchen,some of the photos are out of order but I think you can see the changes. The old pantry doorway has been filled in with some overhead cupboards, the bench tops replaced with his suggestion for the laminate ( he knows his stuff!!!)

While he was here with his truck "bogged on our lawn" it RAINED and RAINED and once again the water went over the bridge.

A 16 hour power blackout occurred, the work stopped, the rain eased, the power guys were flown in by helicopter to fix the power problem and hey presto, Archie changed the end of the kitchen to this

FROM THIS

I certainly have lots of storage space, and it is not filled yet. He also made built in cupboards for our bedroom. We are very pleased with Archies's work.

The river also dropped late on Christmas Eve allowing the truck across so he could spend Christmas with his young family instead of being stuck with us. Mind you it came back up twice as high a few days later to peak over 9m. All of this water flows down to Bundaberg so no wonder they had a huge flood as every creek and river in the Burnett catchment was full.

One can only look at photos in sheer disbelief at the devastation happening in Queensland at this time. Of course no creative sewing has been happening but the real patching has once again been completed in the enforced indoor jobs. No outside renovations have been attempted. I did notice some mould coming on some paintwork. ARGH!!!

What a finish to the old year, so am hoping the New Year is a bit quieter than the last month has been, but not looking too good at this stage.More rain has been falling and the floods are still happening. I guess we have to just tolerate the conditions and do our best.

STRANDED!!!!

Sorry no pics this time. I am stranded in Bundaberg, due to some flooding that we have not experienced in years. Last week I took the long way home, Friday I detoured around 5 roads to get to Murgon and back. I travelled to Bundaberg for work, watched the rain radar and somehow I knew this would happen. I packed extra clothes for a change. What is a girl to do when they are short staffed at work and I am stuck in Bundy but volunteer for an extra shift, so instead of driving home tonight then back 2 days later for another shift , I will just do 2 in a row.
At least the shops were open this morning so I got a lot of Christmas food shopping finished. Now for the perishables on Tuesday after work and I will be nearly ready. In all of this ABSOLUTELY NO SEWING has been done. Hope your weekend was better.

Electrician's visit

He may have been 5 days late in arriving, but he certainly got in and finished numerous small tasks for me. The small light above the sink has been installed. He pulled a 6 foot snake skin down from the ceiling cavity after installing the light. We knew the skin was there since 2007 so no panic buttons were pushed. This is the view from the floor looking upwards.


Here is a view of the kitchen area with the hot plate pulled out and for a temporary fix, I have a board from an old cupboard filling in the space. The microwave is now sitting on top of that. 2 new sets of power points at the end above the tiles means no more leads and power boards running across benches. The different amperage power point for the hot plate was moved over to the stove area. So guess what, MY STOVE IS FUNCTIONING albeit without the GAS.
I have temporarily moved the hot plate over nearby so we can use either the oven or the electric hot plate. I am off to BBQ's galore to source a regulator to fit so we can maybe use a small gas bottle if the switching over of the hot plate/oven annoys us. We are waiting to get the plumber/gasfitter when we install the shower.

Just to show you it is indeed on and working, I am cooking afternoon tea. Care to join me for some oven baked goodies ( the first out of this kitchen in 3.5 years) . Alas now I have to go shopping for some Christmas Baking stuff.

I think we are now nearly ready for Archie's return. But first there is some mustering for Craig to do and some paid work for me. It took me a little longer to get home last Sunday morning, but I was pleased I left Bundaberg at 7am. Mind you I was pretty darned tired when I did eventually get home. I had to try 3 different ways to get past 1 flooded causeway near Hivesville. Belinda got through it in the X Trail but my car was just too low and I certainly didn't want to flood it.

Archie's Visit

Sounds good doesn't it. Archie is actually a cabinet maker who suggested he be allowed to do our cupboards for us.He paid us another visit as we had a problem with matching the existing laminate. So I seized the opportunity and while he was here remeasuring, we removed the half finished cabinet for a wall oven and moved the freestanding bench along to decrease the space as the stove will slide in there now. The splashback and rangehood will go above. In the background you can see the newly painted white wall of the dining area. By the state of the existing green boards one can assume that area was previously the wash up area. The large hole in the floorboards was also a giveaway to its previous function.We have now selected a different bench top colour and these will be recycled to the downstairs laundry area. A few hours later, I painted the recess with 2 undercoats, and moved in the stove. If you have lived without an oven for nearly a year, one can appreciate how excited we will be when the electrician comes and installs the power point. Then we wait to get the gas fitter so the top half will work. In the mean time we can use the existing hot plates until Archie comes back. The matter of the deleted laminex colour has probably been a blessing as we had a dilemma as to how to fill in the hole when we pulled out the hot plate. Since we now have new bench tops coming we don't have to worry.