Evening clutch bag

We are going to a wedding on Saturday week and I didn't have a bag big enough - needed to fit my glasses, Philip's glasses and his meds and all the usual things women have to take - or small enough to be classed as 'evening'. The wedding invite said dress was semi formal.

So dragged through my stash and found some black damask and then edited a free standing lace pattern and got to work.

The bag is 29cm (11") along the bottom and 19cm (7 1/2") deep. The lacey accent is 4cm wide (1 3/4"). It is around 7cm (2 1/2") deep at the bottom and 4cm at the top so I should be able to fit everything in easily.

Happy with how it turned out - must save the bits of paper I designed it on because for sure if I throw it away I will decide to make another!

Waterlily Wall Hanging

Been working on my Waterlily wallhanging (among other things) and am liking how it is turning out.

I have quilted around the lily leaves and then quilted lily leafed shapes in the borders. The centres of the lilies are lots of tiny golden beads.

I am thinking of following the lily stems at the top and making 3 dimensional lilies. Not sure on that at the moment.

Too many projects....?

Why oh why did I buy and embroidery machine?

I had calculated that I would have to live until I was around 245 to complete all the quilts and projects I have planned and then I bought an embroidery machine as well!

Now I will just have to add on another 200 or so years to complete all the embroidery projects I have in mind.

At the moment I am working on my Elizabethan Splendour quilt and in between decided to make some white lace to edge some linen for a tablecloth. I bought a lovely pattern on the 'net and love the way it is turning out. (http://www.s-embroidery.com/).

On top of that my DIL gave me "The Latte Quilt" book and CD so that quilt is now on my to-do list.

My local patchwork store (Hobbysew in Blacktown) had a Presentation day for all their class teachers to show what projects were planned for the year; there were a couple that I would love to attend but because of caring for Philip I can't get to them. This is probably a good thing because that would add even more projects to my growing list.

So what about you? Do you have too many ideas and not enough time like me?

.................It is close to 40 degrees here at the moment and Philip (bless him) came in to say he thinks he will have to put a warm top on as he is feeling chilly - he already is wearing a tracksuit with long sleeved thermals underneath and a T shirt! And I haven't got the air con on at the moment either!!

Summer heat

Thursday was hot! 40 degrees Celsius and sooo humid. The air conditioner got a real work out and at least the house wasn't too bad to sleep that night.

Then Friday arrived and the mercury just kept climbing - officially it was around 41.7 but a thermometer here registered over 43. It was so unpleasant, I hate the heat even when it is mild so this burst of heat was anything but welcome. Once again the air conditioner came to the rescue (what on earth did I do before I got it installed - we got ducted install the beginning of Dec) but then around three o'clock in the afternoon some dark clouds rolled in the the thunder rumbled almost continuously.


I took this snap from the back verandah about 3.15pm and it looked so threatening but as usual nothing happened. It rolled over us and headed for parts greener to drop its load of rain.

The only good thing was about 6 a southerly rocketed in and cooled things down. A much more pleasant night for sleeping - all the windows and doors open and the cooling wind ruffling the bed covers.

Today (Sat) is around the 25 degree mark and much nicer. Now if we could only get some rain in the right areas like over the catchment (and in my watertank) we would be very happy.

Have you noticed how weird the weather is though? Three or four times since November we have had 40+ days then the next day around 16. Such wide extremes - I suppose the weather people would say its normal but really I can't recall such variations. And snow on Christmas day? Yes they had it on the Snowy mountains and in Victoria.

Chemo quilt update

When my husband recently under went chemotherapy I filled in the time sitting with him hand sewing blocks for a quilt, it was pleasant to sit and sew while chatting with staff and patients. I found the ideal pattern in an older Patchwork and Quilting mag - lots of blocks that weren't too big to carry around.

Philip's chemo lasted eight months 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.

Instead imagine my surprise and delight when the next time we went in for Philip's regular 4 monthly check up to see the whole Oncology Department painted in soft mauves and cream!

And there hanging on the wall in pride of place was my quilt. The staff had decided that all should share it and so they repainted the place and hung it up or all to see. They told me there have been lots of lovely comments on it and people are pleased to have something pleasant to look at during what can only be described as a horrendous time.

I was so humbled and proud and excited all at once. I never expected such an honour!

Elizabethan Splendour embroidered quilt

My DIL gave me a CD for Christmas with beautiful designs for machine embroidery - the designs are part of a quilt designed by Rowena Charlton (http://www.rowenacharlton.com) called Elizabethan Splendour and it had been featured over 8 months of Machine Embroidery magazine.

I bought the remaining CD of designs and started making the center panel. I am so pleased with how it has turned out - I only 16 more panels to make!

Its not too easy to see but some of the filigree panels are burgundy and some black; the little insects are dragonflies, ladybird, snail, butterfly, bee, worm and beetle. 6mm wide ribbon goes over all the seams to make a 'grid' pattern. The ribbon will be the same colour as the sashing.

The design in the mag has burgundy sashing and ribbon but I am not sure what colour I will use. I have been told that a lady made on with dark green damask and it looked beautiful. I will wait until I get a few more panels done and then try out a few different colours.

This is the original design by Rowena Charlton.

Stay tuned for updates and my final colour choice for the ribbon and sashing. By the way if anyone has made this I would love to know your colour choice and how it turned out.

New oven

I have finally got an new oven. My younger son put it in for me today.

The old wall oven wasn't really that old (about 6 years) but since I had it I have had nothing but trouble. A new element cost me an arm and a leg because it was a DeLonghi oven and the replacement parts are very costly. The fan made such a racket in the last 12 months that you could hear it all through the house and over the last 3 months I was never sure whether it was going to cook at the correct temperature.

Sometimes I would set it for 160 and things would burn the next time I used it and set it at 160 nothing would cook! I am amazed I managed to get my christmas cakes cooked. I had to baby the oven along and keep adjusting the temperature.

So what sort of oven did I buy? This time I went for a stainless steel Westinghouse with a separate grill; parts are easy to come buy and relative cheap. Also it is multi function so I can have it as fan forced or not.

Used it tonight to put some food from the BBQ in to keep warm while older son was fiddling with his truck - guess what - blissful silence and lovely warm food!