Have I really been so slack?

No excuses really for my lack of blogging, just being blog time poor. Between continuing the house sprucing for the new floors, and meeting all of my other commitments, I'm afraid speaking here has been at the lowest of my list.

The main bedroom is ready for it's new floor. The termites ate the original floor and we decided to place a covering over the rest as there are some gaps in the remaining sections. Hopefully it will be a bit warmer in winter.

 A similar story in the second bedroom.

We are after all a cattle grazing property and this is quite often the sight I see coming down our driveway in a cloud of dust. This was a more memorable event as it was our own heifers and steers coming home from their agistment paddock. Since we reluctantly moved away from Mt Perry in 2010, we have had some cattle on agistment up there. We were able to secure a paddock closer to our new home and after waiting weeks for the paperwork to be completed, we were finally able to bring them home and end our association with Mt Perry completely. This hopefully means a smoother running grazing business.

 
I have now turned my painting attention to the hallway and living areas of the house, ready for the next section of flooring. Maybe by December it might all be done. Do you find things happen when you set some achievable goals? If I pushed myself too hard it would never happen.

 

In amongst all of this I have done a Hand Embroidery workshop at Koala Conventions 2015 in Brisbane. A three dimensional fuschia with Annie from Room for Threads, it is a long process but I loved attempting the workshop. You can see a photo of her completed project on her website at Room for Threads. I think I need new glasses ( not my graduated lenses I usually wear for work). She asks her optometrists for lenses like surgeons need. The following weekend I was back at work for 5 shifts before I attended a 3 day workshop in Sydney for Professional Development for work.

I went hiking along the Pacific Highway at St Leonards for 2 hours before the workshop commenced. The clouds rolled in from the north changing the weather from bright sunshine to pouring rain in about 30 minutes. It was certainly a lot colder all day long with the wind chill factor but at least there was no frost.  I sat next to a scientist from Armidale who was missing out on seeing the snow falling at his home. He has been there for 5 years and is still waiting to see the snow fall.

The same weekend that I was in Sydney was the Bundaberg Quilters Competitive Quilt Show. I entered 2 quilts and got 2nd prize for each. My large Sunshine Rose Garden Quilt also received Viewer's Choice .I was disappointed that I had to miss seeing the show.

 

 

 The spare bedroom after the new floor was laid.

 

Our bedroom after the new floor was laid. I still have to organise for the Joinery guys to come back and re measure and adjust the screen doors for the new floor height. We are putting the same flooring down in the rest of the house when the painting is finished. During this time I also have to meet my goals for the Dining Area ceiling. I am getting a little bit behind schedule. I might take a day or two off though for some sewing, so I can show you more sewing photos in the future.

Days too short.

We are now officially in winter, and yes right on cue June 1st saw a blast of cold weather. I took advantage of the warmer autumn months to commence painting our bedroom. We have decided to continue with the bamboo flooring to cover the remaining floors. We had originally thought carpet to cover the repaired termite eaten floorboards. I thought it would be a good idea to repaint the rooms before we put the flooring down. I had finished painting the spare bedroom and as we will do half the house at a time, it was our bedroom next for the paint brush. I washed, filled the cracks and started painting.

The fretwork came up nicely but you need 2 ladders to stop the paint runs on each side. The door has to be removed, stripped, sanded, and trimmed before the flooring can go down. It has a nice antique crackle showing its age. Not sure yet what colour to paint it.

Here are our built in cupboards undercoated. I have since painted the top cupboards the wall colour. Taubmans Tullah Belle, (same colour as downstairs) We have kept slightly to tradition using shades of pink and green that seemed so prevalent many years ago.

I have to reputty and repaint around the small glass panels. I am mulling as to whether to change the glass colours. As this does not need to be done before the flooring I will have time to ponder.

 

Life has certainly been busy, keeping up to all of our commitments, I have been working on Charlee's quilt, she is 20 weeks old next week, and could use it on the floor now. I finished the top a few weeks ago, decided to get over the fear of the long arm ( now that it is set up in its new location), I finally installed my Red Snappers, so loaded it on this morning.

A close up photo of the work in progress.

You can see I still have not finished the room set up yet.

6 hours later, not continuously quilting by the way, I have a few threads to tidy up and the binding to do. And it was not so scary after all. I had to re learn how to thread the machine properly before it would sew though. The back of the quilt is a rose print, it is Charlee Rose's quilt after all.

I have also started playing with some batiks again, and this is where I am at. Who knows what will happen next? Hope you're enjoying the busyness each day brings forth. I have made mine shorter as I am making certain that I go for a morning hike each day that I am home. My knees are thanking me for it and I feel so much better for it also. Hopefully I can show you more quilt stuff next time.

Days Go By, Faster than you think.......

Warning, picture heavy post. I didn't realise how long ago since I found a chance to take photos and blog. I may have shown you the 2 rooms downstairs pre painting already but to refresh here is the mess before painting.

 

Here is room 1, now the spare bedroom/music /library room. It has always been a dream of mine to have such a room. The colour is a pale mint green Taubmans Tullah Belle which is not really evident in this photo. A better camera is now on my shopping list for 2015. Since then the floor has been laid, the guys shifted my piano in for me that afternoon. Now I just need to find a piano tuner. It did get moved here in the back of a horse float so I can understand why Middle C sounds like D now.

 

This is room 2 which is to be my new quilting room. The wall colour is Taubmans Mauve Mist. This photo is a quick snap taken while the floor guys were starting to lay the floor.

 

We used Embelton Bamboo Nullabor from Andersens in Kingaroy for the flooring. Much better than the dirty cement which was down there.

 

 This is the Nolting moved in. I have been culling the "junk" and it is amazing what paraphernalia 3 children leave behind when they "move out". Needless to say I have managed to rehome about 75% of their stuff. My next task is to sew my Red Snappers into the leaders.

I have been busy with work, and the general everyday tasks. Waiting for the next grandchild involved moving to Yeppoon for a week between work shifts. I decided to not take the sewing machine but take along something not involving pins/scissors which aren't toddler friendly. Instead I took a crochet hook. This is the 3rd project I am now working on. I purchased a couple of Japanese Crochet Books on ebay, found I can understand them, and am improving my skills.

This is hopefully what mine will look like soon.

 

January 21st saw a new baby girl grandchild for us. She had a straightforward delivery, but ended up in SCN for 2 nights. Here she is hanging onto her cannulated arm on Day 2.



I was so pleased that we were not in Yeppoon 4 weeks later when cyclone Marcia hit. Apparently the house where we stayed did not suffer too much damage, but the massive trees around the back yard have taken a hit. Belinda had to work the night shifts, pre and immediately Post cyclone. Survival without power and trying to sleep in the heat were her biggest concerns. 8 days later she was mighty happy when the lights came back on.
I have also been checking ebay occasionally for another Pfaff sewing machine like mine, and finally I have managed to purchase one. This one has been hardly used and is in a better state than mine. I may be biased but I think they do a great job in piecing patchwork. The Pfaff Machine I bought for the applique stitches cannot piece as well as these.

 

After  rearranging the downstairs rooms and office areas, I decided to shift some furniture around and now have a sewing desk under the front window upstairs. I still have my sewing table there as well.

 

In February, we woke up during the night to discover a 5.2 earthquake had rattled the region. Only about 30kms from where we used to live, the epicentre was  near Kerwee at Eidsvold. I looked outside and this tree was decidedly leaning over. I think I might just cut a branch off it and try to straighten it that way. That was the same week that Cyclone Marcia came through and flooded parts of the North Burnett and Callide areas again. We were lucky we received 50mls of rain with some wind but no flooding as a result.

Sewing progress: 18 months ago I decided to make another Inner City quilt. This is the existing one from 1994 and I have got back to doing some work on the second one. I will show a finished photo when it is hanging on the wall.

House progress: apart from the floor coverings downstairs and in the office area, our handy man tenant, came out and helped with the doors for that and replaced the termite eaten tongue and groove board in the spare upstairs bedroom. Now I can finish painting the inside and have to touch up the outside walls. At least now you can't put your finger through the wall. I have also kept paint stripping the dining are ceiling with some progress, 5 bays nearly done. Only 7 to go.

 

 

 This is the office cupboards and floor finished. All the paperwork is now behind those doors and in drawers. It is a real pleasure to sit at the computer desk now as I no longer feel cluttered.

 

We moved the double seater, but single sofa bed out here to be a third bedroom upstairs. We also have a comfy seat for "business chats" when we are planning what we need to do next. Prior to that we only had the computer chair. Made this room so much more livable.

 

With the rain, came another problem we didn't have to worry about for ages. Grass Seeds in socks. I always make his "gaiters" "oversocks" call them what you will, but his existing pair were rags. I usually make as many as I can from 1m denim at a time. Finally finished these, as usual just waiting for the elastic. Hope he's happy with them. I am sure Bryan will want a pair now.

 

Charlee Rose, the new baby needs a quilt, so I have started one for her. Certainly not going to be  Beatrix Potter like. I have made 4 blocks using this red poppy fabric. I hope they like it. I know I do and I would rather roses but I wanted to use what I already had and rose coloured poppies are just as nice. I am using the existing zinnia quilt as a design wall. Same pattern if you had not noticed. Might even give her Mum the choice of zinnias or poppies.

So that's been January/February for us. Lots of travelling, and now the woodchop season and autumn is here. Catch you next time.

Made it in time.

I made it in time, finishing my Christmas sewing the day before Christmas. I made a few soft toys, clothes and coloured cubes for the grandchildren and great niece. This is Rocky the rock lobster. He was actually quite fun to make. The coloured cube was very easy and a good way to use up some scraps. Mind you, the scrap pile is still very huge. My sister thinks I should have put a bell in the cube. I ran out of time to do that. Maybe next time.
I worked 4 shifts straight after Christmas and arrived home on New Years Eve. They talk about Emergency Departments can get busy at Christmas time. Tuesday night certainly showed that. I'm just pleased I was not there for New Years Eve. Hope it wasn't too bad for my work colleagues.

They made it in time, to get off the veranda before they wrecked it completely. The bearers have slipped away from the support beam in this section. It has been starting to sag at the top of the stairs for a while and I think they were all about to sit at the table when they heard a cracking noise. They were all up for the summer muster. Hope they want to come back again.

 Now it is time for some temporary repairs as our budget for this year  has gone on water infrastructure instead. The solar pumps are working wonderfully.
I drove in the gate to be greeted with this lovely view of the crepe myrtles. The rain came in time for them and they have responded in the only way they know how at this time of year. At least our garden has some mature trees after we lost one in the storm during the floods 2 years ago.

 I think they are just wonderful to look at from up on our veranda. (The safe parts to stand on.)

This is the view of the front trees. The bottle tree in the corner is really going ahead since we have lived here. Maybe it is getting more water now.

 

This is the view of the weaner paddock. 4 weeks ago this was quite close to bare dirt. The green panic grass is getting rather tall. We now have more weaners so just as well it rained for us. That was not quite "just in time" as I think about 25 old breeders left over, from the cattle numbers dispute, have perished during the drought. What is more work for us , of  the ones that are still alive, about 50% have lost their NLIS ear tags. Maybe the ear loses weight as well, or maybe they are foraging more in the trees and the tags  get knocked out. Will make it difficult doing a PIC reconciliation this year.

 

Today is New Years Day and I read somewhere that the activities that you do on that day, one should aim to do all year. Right, so I have been getting the existing sewing room ready for painting, This is the room underneath the house where the lady fell through the  floor above and wrecked the ceiling below. I have to undercoat the replacement ceiling, and obviously the previous owner replaced a wall panel as well.

At the same time I am also culling some stuff. I found a few storage bins with my hand dyed scraps and fabric in. After washing them I may get around to using them. I do intend to do some more fabric dyeing this year. So I think I have done fairly well today, had a much needed sleep, played around with fabric, did a bit of house reno work and the usual computer tasks. The cattle work is being done. So roll on 2015.
 We have only a short wait for the next grandchild now. Should be here by January's end. The first birthday party for the second one is next weekend, the grass is green again, so at this stage not looking too bad. Hope your New Year is off to a good start also.

Too Close for Comfort

 We had a small storm front come through in early December to give us some much needed rain. The grass responded slowly. Then a few days later the clouds rolled in from the west again at midday. They certainly looked ominous with some green areas in the cloud. We scored quite a lot of wind, no hail or damage thankfully, and 21mls of rain. Up the road at Boondooma Homestead they received 80mls and filled all of their dams. We are still waiting for a large fall of rain to fill our dams. We are thankful for the rain we have received as the pastures are starting to respond. Like everybody in this drought we hope it ends soon.

 

 

Some work on the home front has been happening here at Ivanhoe. I have painted one of the two downstairs bedrooms and will start the next in the New Year after my next lot of night shifts.

The old timber skirts which were only on two sides of the house were starting to fall down. Here they are slowly being dismantled. Minutes after I took this photo, a nail was embedded in his leg causing a slight injury. The very detailed first aid kit ( a Christmas present last year, from the family paramedic) came in use, and he was able to keep working.

I have planted some hedging viburnums along the front and sides so hopefully it will not be this bare for too long.

 

I have included this photo taken by Allan Honor of the ranges around Mt Perry for no reason other than I like it. To me, it represents a typical view of our area.

 In amongst everything , I managed to attend Project Day for Pfaff Owners at the Quilters Rest near Kingaroy. This was the project I finished in a day. There is only one Christmas themed fabric in this. It is a table runner using only 8 fat quarters and a 10 degree wedge ruler. The green fabrics have apples and avocadoes on them. I was so happy to finish something in a day for a change.

 

I have finally finished my Christmas sewing for the grandchildren as Christmas is pretty close now. I have been on a learning Japanese experience as I invested in a Cucito Summer 2014 childrens sewing magazine for babies and toddlers and managed to interpret it to make something for them. My years of using Burda and Neue Mode patterns stood me in good stead to understand the pattern sheets.

Hope you all have a happy and safe Christmas and we look forward to the New Year and hope some good things happen amongst the bad things that we seem to notice more.