Pride and Prejudice

Last night Pride and Prejudice was on TV and, as I had only last week watched the series that started Colin Firth as Mr Darcy, I decided to watch it. I am not a great TV fan and only watch it occasionally.

So my verdict on the Hollywood version? Well, Matthew MacFadyen's Mr Darcy was just OK until the end. He was simply smoldering when he strode across the fog filled moor, coat flapping around his ankles, simply oozing sex appeal.

Kiera Knightly, although a fine actress, was no Lizzie - she seemed to simper and giggle too much for my liking. I think I had been spoilt by Jennifer Ehle's portrayal - she was much better suited to the character.

Colin Firth is by far the quintessential Mr Darcy - he played the part to perfection. It is as if Ms Austin had him in mind for the role when she wrote the novel for he slips into the character perfectly.

He will definitely be my Mr Darcy.

Now if I could just get him to walk across that fog filled moor with the smoldering sexuality of Matthew McFayden ......... ah it would be perfect.

The Finished Bags

With only a couple of days to spare I have finally completed the two machine embroidered bags for my dear DILs.

The colours didn't photograph as good as in real life - they are both very rich and deep colours - but you can get the general idea of them.

Still toying with the idea of adding a handle - some nice chain but I will wait until the girls get them for Christmas and then see what they would prefer to do.

Most of the colours are metallic so the bags look really rich and sumptous, the butterflies have a background of cream and the pale mauve on each bag is the only other 'plain' cotton the rest is metallics.

Ready for the big day.

Well, everything is organised for Christmas - the cakes are cooked and wrapped, the presents wrapped and labelled, gifts to friends and relations not nearby have been sent, the tree is up and the lights around the house all lit.

Our grandson, Nathan, has put in his list to Santa but I doubt he will get it - he would like a V8 Supercar (not a model a real one!) - not bad for a 4 year old. That's what happens when his parents and maternal grandfather race cars. I am amazed how he can tell you models of cars are on the road as we drive and if there is racing on the TV he can tell you the car and who drives it.

Last Saturday my elder sister and her family came over for a Christmas lunch - each year we hold at a different persons home and this year was my turn. We have another sister in Victoria and she comes up every other year. I decided on a BBQ this year because the weather has been so unpredictable.

The picture shows some of the family tucking into the third course. My younger son is in the yellow and elder in the black. My sister is in the blue hat.

This year I made little stockings for everyone and inside was a paper hat I made from tissue wrapping, a christmas lollypop and a game and for the girls, a beaded chain with their name on it. You can see them on the tree in the closeup.

Everyone was happy with their little gift - and my sister was most impressed with the stockings which I made on my embroidery machine. She was a sewing teacher so praise from her is a rare thing.

In case I don't manage to write before the big day can I wish all who read this blog a Christmas filled with childlike wonder and joy, a day to share with loved ones to laugh and enjoy; and may your New Year be filled with only happiness.

Embroidery Lace

This is one of my first efforts in making lace with my embroidery machine.

I was happy with the final doily but learned a lot - my next piece was much better - I don't think I had the water soluble backing tight enough on this one.

Made some lovely decorations for Christmas using the same technique and they turned out really good. Will post them later as some of the people who read this blog are getting some....BG

T'is the Season

I am in the middle of making Christmas cakes. Each year I make about 30 as I give them as gifts to my relations and close friends. This year I am a little behind but have finally got myself organised and began cooking.

This photo shows the fruit and nut mix that has a full bottle of brandy in it and the fruit and nuts have been soaking the brandy up for a few days. Also in the mix is water and golden syrup. For this amount there is about 3 cups water and approx, 250mls of golden syrup. This is brought to boil, heat turned off, then a lid place on it and left, stirring a couple of times a day.

I usual leave it for about 3 or 4 days and the fruit by then haas plumped up and is thoroughly steeped in booze - its ready for cooking.

Once the cakes have finished baking and cooled, I wrap them in silver foil and then once a week or every 5 or 6 days I pour more brandy, port, sherry in fact any grog over them - about a dessertspoon per cake and re-wrap them.

These cakes will keep for ages - one of my friends kept hers for a

Christmas in July party and it was perfect - maybe its the booze?

A word of warning - you will test positive to a roadside test if you eat a piece just before being tested - this is a fact because we tried it!

Embroidered Evening Bags

I have been working on some christmas gifts using my embroidery machine. I bought a CD of designs from Sue Box Collections and decided to make my DILs an evening bag each from the collection.

Just finished the embroidery part of the first bag and thought I would share it with you.

The photo doesn't really do it justice - got some serious flashback from the shiny fabric - satin backed shantung. Still you can get an idea of how it will look. Most of the threads are metallic, the butterflies have a white base with gold thread.

Still have the side gusset to embroidery and then make the other bag. I will line them in the same shade as the bags. The other bag will be a deep purple, hopefully the girls like them.

This is the bag flap design, it gives you a better idea of the details - as I said it is from Sue Box Collections - have a look at her website - she has some really beautiful collections available and also has some freebies for you to try. http://www.suebox.com.au/

Water Lily

Have been working on a design for my next quilt and researching water lilies. Thought this might be a nice wall hanging.

The leaves could be foundation pieced and the flower a mix of 3D and applique.

I bought some lovely fabric - fossil fern and handdyes with lots of different shades of each colour and I will fussy cut to get the colour variations I want.

Will keep you posted on its progress.

Of course I could get into some of those UFOs ....... nah!

Doggie Tales

Thought I would show you all a picture of Fozzie - some of you would remember when I bought him last year , he was just a bundle of soft fluff. Well he is all grown up now and a real character.


For those of you that don't know about Foz - he is a first generation Labradoodle - I bought him last July when we lost our wonderful male boxer, Harley, after 11 years. Our female boxer, Xena, went into depression and lost a lot of fur, wouldn't eat and wouldn't get out of bed. Harley and Xena were great mates. He just loved it when she came into our lives.

Fozzie and Xena were great friends and he actually got the "couch potato" to move about - she even lost some weight!

He was rather quiet for a while after we lost Xena but has bounced back and is now his usual cheerful self.

He loves to play with his ball but he really prefers to play with an empty toilet roll. He naturally loves to eat but strangely his favourite treat is a 'post it' note! I have had to hide them because he would sneak into my work room and pinch them. I have one of those pop up dispensers and he would just keep helping himself.

He and our cat, Sheba, have a love/hate relationship - she hates him and he would love nothing more than to play with him. He tries to corner her on a daily basis to play and she hits him every time. You think he'd learn but he is forever the optimist!

Embroidery Fun

I have been spending the last few weeks playing with my new embroidery only machine.

Once a month my local patchwork shop has a club for my machine and each month there is a different project to make. I have made some lovely lace and this month we learnt how to use our Gigahoops and make large designs.

At home I have been making things for Christmas. Instead of crackers this year I am making little stockings with the persons name on them and I will fill them with goodies - much better than a cracker than contains a tiny plastic toy.

I can't post a picture because some of my friends who read my blogs are earmarked to get one.

Xena - our lovely Xena

Its been a terrible couple of days for me - I have lost my boxer dog.

Xena was very lethargic yesterday and took herself outside (she's a couch potato and hates to go out). She spent the day lying on a couch on our deck and when my son got home last night we took her to the Vet. I couldn't take her before because she is too heavy for me to lift.

The Vet felt she was bleeding internally and probably from a tumour. Boxers are notorious for tumours.

He worked on her last night trying to get a drip into her but her veins had all collapsed and we left her there thinking she may not last the night.

I got a call from the Vet this morning to say she had rallied a little was was able to stand and so I went back down to talk with him.

He felt there was something bleeding internally and so he suggested an exploratory op to find out what it was and if it could be fixed. He just rang me to say she had a massive (bigger than his fist) tumour on her liver and some secondary on her spleen and lungs. There was nothing they could do - the tumour was still bleeding and so they let her go.


Rest in peace Xena - we will miss you so much bubby girl.

Hair

For the last forty years I have had long hair; very long red hair. Last October I decided to get it cut. I have avoided it for years because I have very curly hair and the length makes it manageable. I was able to sit on it; it was that long. My natural hair colour was a dark auburn and over the years the grey has taken over.

I found a picture of a style I liked and armed with it went to the hairdresser. They all decided I should change the hair colour to suit the grey growth and added 25 foils also!! He didn't give me a chance to change my mind he just cut it off at my shoulders then proceeded to style it.

Anyway, I loved it and so did everyone else. Since then I have gone back to have it recoloured and cut at least 8 times - funny how you never go to a hairdresser and now I am there all the time!


The other thing is each time I get a different cut and style. At the moment it is pretty short and very spikey. The first cut was shaved into my neck and a mass of curls on top. I just love the fact I can have a new style every couple of months.

I know my mother would be pleased - she always wanted me to get my hair cut - she felt it was too long.

I still love long hair and I do miss not having it but I feel younger with it short and all my family likes it and that's all that matters.

Appliqued roses

I have been working on the next block for the online BOM.

Last month was appliqued and this month continues the theme. I designs a small wreath with flowers (sorry the photos not crash hot) that is a bit more involved than last month's design.

I also wanted to give some of the girls who would be interested a bit of a challenge so design this rose block. It needs a bit of thinking when assembling the pieces and you could use as many shades for the flowers as you like to get it more life like.

I did a little free motion embroidery on the leaves for veins and to give the 'picture' a little texture.

I am happy with the result and hope the girls like it too.

Embroidery machine

Well I have a new toy!!

I bought myself an embroidery only machine - Janome 300E.

I was really happy - the shop where I buy my fabric had a great deal and as well as getting $450 off the cost I got over $800 of freebies with it!!

Have been having a little play with it and love how easy it is to use. It just burbles away in the background while I am doing something else and I only have to change the cotton colour every now and again.

I have a lot of different ideas for quilt using embroidery blocks; I also want to make one using soft coffee colours as a hierloom type quilt. Of course this means I will have to live to 250 now to finish all the new projects I have in mind.........

Bearded Irises

My favourite flowers are Violets and Bearded Iris. I decided to make a quilt using Bearded Irises and in 4 blocks. Each block was made using a different technique - reverse applique, raw edged applique, hand painted and finally quilted.

This first block was fiddly to do but I was pleased with the result.

The second block was easier to do because I like raw edged applique and have done a lot of it.. This is the final 'picture' on a sheet of teflon before I ironed it onto the background.

The third block was hand painted and for the final block I drew the image lightly onto the background fabric and then quilted it.

I put the blocks together with black sashing between them and added a border of the background fabric then a final border of black to frame the whole 4 blocks. I quilted it in the ditch.

I am happy with the end result - there are a few things I would do different but overall it is pleasing.

Still have a little more quilting to do on it and then have to bind it (in black). It is a nice size to hang on the wall so now have to think about where to put it once it is finished.

Treadle Sewing Machine

I bought an old Singer Treadle Machine on Ebay recently. I did some research and also contacted Singer to find out when it was made and discovered it was made in 1926 at Clydebank in Scotland.

I have spent a few weeks restoring it. I only have the drawers and the inside top wood work to finish. Also have to clean up the bobbin winder; it is a bit tight and doesn't wind the bobbins very well at the moment. I am really pleased with it; it is looking really good, almost like new except for the lovely aged wear. The decals are in pretty good shape for its age.

I have got the tension working perfectly and it sews very well. I would like to make some quilt blocks with it and see how it goes. That will be another project for me once I finish with the restoration work.

Coffee making

Recently I won a coffee machine on the radio station I listen too. I am a fan of a show on Foxtel called "Coffee" and have been watching it for a few months so it was great to win a machine that I could play with.

I have been experimenting with grinds and tamps and having fun. My husband is loving it because he likes his coffee. Think I make a mean Latte now and want to try some Latte artworks.... will post a pic if I ever get one to work.

Still not happy with the amount of Crema I am getting but I guess that comes with lots of practice at getting the grind and tamps right.

My kitchen looks like a coffe shop; I have several containers with different beans; a grinder; tamper; thermometer; SS jug for milk frothing; SS cups and latte glasses. Got all the gear - just need to learn to make the perfect cup......

Books to read and shows to watch.

Just finishing the latest Jeffrey Deaver book - Cold Moon. I love his Lincoln Rhyme series, even loved the movie adaptation of the Bone Collector (probably because of Denzil Washington). I have my next book to read waiting patiently - Kathy Reich's latest -Break No Bones.

I have seen an ad on the TV that this week start a series called Bones based on her books so it will be interesting to see how it translates onto the screen.

Last night I watched the premier of Criminal Minds and really enjoyed it. It is on again tonight so will see how it goes. I don't watch much TV - usually just a few favourite shows - LOST (which finishes this week); Spicks and Specks, Coffee, Simply Quilts, Dr Who and Rosemary and Thyme. Will have to add Criminal Minds and Bones to my list now.

I have another book ready to read - Terry Goodkind's Phantom - it is the penultimate book in his Sword of Truth series - it will be hard to say goodbye to this series after 10 books. I love fantasy books when they are done well. Of course Tolkien leads the list but I love Terry Book's Shannara series; David Eddings; Raymond E Feist, Anne McCaffrey and J K Rowling. And of course who can dismiss Terry Pratchett's wonderful Discworld books, they are a warped as I am.

My friend Alison in New Zealand has told me that her husband suggests I give Nelson de Mille's books a try - he think I should enjoy them so I will keep my eye out for them when I go to the library next.

The Walk.

Took the dogs (Xena an 7 yr old female boxer and Fozzie 15mth old male Labradoodle) for a walk this morning - I haven't taken them for ages because I didn't think I could handle the two of them together but decided yesterday to give it a try. It was a bit frantic to start with but as they settled down (and got tired) the walk was easier.

We didn't go too far and this morning did the same again althought we managed to go a few more houses up the hill. The fun thing is when they both want to go and smell something in different directions, they have a combined weight of 60kg at least.

Xena crashed once we got home - she loves the idea of getting out but hates the fact that she has to walk! I'm afraid Xena is a couch potato, her idea of exercise is moving from the lounge chair to her bed. Fozzie on the other hand is like a whirlwind, he is always running through the house, playing with his toys and trying to coax Xena into playing.

Remember

My favorite online quilting group had a challenge which we had to make something that represented a word - Remember.

We were given the project in March and I thought it would be perfect to do something that related to ANZACs and the lovely Flander's Field Poppy. While I rummaged on the 'net I found a lovely painting by Georgia O'Keeffe that was perfect.

I appliqued my poppy onto some scrap fabric and then machine embroidered the flower and stem in all the lovely shades of red and orange so evocative of the Remberance Poppy.

I cut it out carefully and then stitched it to a neutral background that I had added a small border in burnt orange. The quilting on it represents the wind blowing across the fields of Flanders. I wrote the word "Remember' across the bottom.

The whole quilt is just A4 sized.

August BOM

This is the block for August for the BOM I am designing. It is raw edged applique so is a good beginning and very little overlaps. Next block will be harder - there will be more overlaps although it will still be a raw edge applique.
I am trying to think of what design to draw for the needle turn but that is a couple of months away so I can scribble down ideas and see what happens.

It was very foggy here this morning but now at almost 11 it is finally lifting and the sun is shining at the moment although the weather bureau has predicted rain.

Back to 'normal'

Well all the excitement of the past few weeks has settled down and now I am trying to get back to normal; or at least what acts as normal in this house.

I received my quilt top that I had sent off in a Round Robin with my online group group the other day. I was pleased with the result. Naturally my centre had purple in it and the theme was carried through to the border. I just have to decide what I will do for the final border and then quilt it.

I also have almost completed next month's pattern for a BOM I am designing for the online group. We are up to the 4th block - the first three were pieced blocks and the next few will be applique. I am trying to go from simple blocks and then increase the difficulty so we can learn something from the process. The first three blocks were Broken Dishes, Ohio Star and Card Trick.

Nathan's home

Well Nathan came home on Saturday. He had an Xray first and that was clear so he was outa there!

He has a little suitcase (Finding Nemo characters on it) that he brings to our house when he stays each weekend. It has wheels so he can pull it along, Ben (DS) and Michelle told me it had it backed and as soon as they said he could go he was out the door and off down the hall pulling his bag, there was no way he was staying any longer!

I haven't seen him yet, he has gone straight to MIchelle's as our dogs would go crazy when they saw him and jump, not worth the risk. Ben will stay at Michelle's over the weekends and back home with us through the week.

I am so glad that is all over.

Update on Nathan

Well it has been over and week and Nathan is doing remarkable well.

He was in ICU (intensive Care Unit) from Monday after the op until Wednesday morning when he was moved to the HD (High Dependency) section of the ward. He had three drains removed on Wednesday and still had two drains into the lung area to drain the fluid. He had a catheter in but this was removed on Weds or Thursday. He is also on morphine drip and, until Sunday morning, he was on oxygen.

When I saw him this morning he looked really good and the Drs are talking about removing the remaining two drains and the morphine drip.

Once that is done he will be able to wander around. It will make a big difference. He still has some fluid in the lungs to get rid of but it is draining less each day as he gets better.

At this stage we do not know when he will be home but the worst is over.

The picture above shows what was done to the outside of the heart, inside the heart is now one chamber divided so the blood comes in one area and out the other.

Nathan

My grandson Nathan was born with Tetralogy of Fallot, a severe heart defect. He was given a shunt between his Aorta and pulmonary arteries when he was 2 months old as a 'stop gap' until correctly surgery could be done. This would mean that the blood and oxygen would flow to the correct side of his lungs.

Tetralogy of Fallot includes 4 defects within the heart structures:
Ventricular septal defect (hole between the right and left ventricles)
Narrowing of the pulmonic outflow tract (tube that connects the heart and the lungs)
An aorta (tube that carries oxygenated blood to the body) that arises from both centrioles, rather then exclusively from the left ventricle
A thickened muscular wall of the right ventricle ( right ventricular hypertrophy)

He finally had his surgery yesterday (after having proponed 5 times)

Nathan came out of surgery about 3.30 (just over 6 hours). Originally they were going to do the surgery in two parts because they 1, weren't sure how bad it was; 2. didn't know how his body would cope on the bypass and 3. the time factor of having other surgeries to do that day.

Anyway apparently the team were surprised at how well his body was coping and as they had no more surgeries arranged for the day they did the lot.

Ben and Michelle saw him about 3.45 and already they had taken him off the respirator. The staff were very happy with the way he had responded.

They spoke with the Professor who did the op for a quick 5 minutes and he told them that Nathan should not need any more surgeries now. The inside of the heart and the valves were pretty shot and basically he now has one chamber. Ben and Michelle said amazingly the best part was seeing his blood oxygen stats - before the op it would be around 75-80 (when the shunt was in) and 45-50 before the shunt and now it didn't dip below 94 and actually hit 100 a couple of times.
Not sure how long he will be in hospital - we have been told he will be in ICU anything from 3 - 7 days and then in the ward from 1-3 weeks; it is going to depend on him - how quickly he recovers.

Native fauna paintings

I like to paint native fauna. I did a small water colour painting of a possum which I was very pleased with. I love the colours of Black Cockatoos; the bright red highlights are magnificent. Had to try a pair of them.
Decided to try a lizard in water colours and using a thickening medium for the crinkly bits on his skin his spines along the back and on his head. I feel he looks pretty lifelike.
I tink I will use this medium again because I like to texture it gives.

Chemo Quilt

My husband recently under went chemotherapy and to fill in the time sitting with him I decided to make a quilt, hand sewing the blocks. I chose a top with lots of different blocks that would be more manageable. Naturally I chose to make it in shades of purple.
It was pleasant to sit and sew while chatting with staff and patients, I had not hand pieced before and was pleased with the results. Philip's chemo lasted eight months (from August 2005) so I was able to finish it just after his chemo finished.
I machined quilted the top because I have never hand quilted and wanted to finished the quilt. I had decided to donate it to the Chemo unit where Philip had his therapy (Blacktown Oncology at Blacktown Hospital) and wanted to hand it over. I knew the unit had occasional raffles and thought they might like to use it.
The finished quilt was duly handed over - I put it into a calico bag with some lavender 'pillows' to keep it fresh until it was raffled. The girls were happy to receive it and thought they would save it for their Christmas raffle. I was so overwhelmed by their response - the quilting wasn't perfect but they thought it was wonderful. I felt very humble and so pleased that I had decided to donate it.
I hope who ever wins it has good fortune with their chemo results.