A quilt - finally

Finally, I have finished a quilt! It's been so long (too long). But that's just life. This is a special quilt, and had its origins from this book that Juni gave me in January 2010 for a "significant" birthday.

So, I figured I would take the inspiration. No plan, just meandered my way through it. Bought fabric that I liked, chose blocks that gave me some variety. Some hand piecing, some machined. Slowly accumulated blocks - how were they going to come together? The border fabric did it, along with its reverse as some blocks. Thanks to the gorgeous Japanese shop in Melbourne (thanks Heather).

A bit of off-centre placement, a splash of red, and it was ready.

Add both walking foot and free motion quilting, and a backing fabric which actually worked really well.

And the best bit of all, the finished product was given to Juni, from where the inspiration started. She has been a valued member of our team for nearly 4 years. I now wish her well on the next adventure that she embarks on. First, reuniting with family in Indonesia, a holiday in Vietnam, a grand tour of Europe, then hopefully passing that rotten IELTS test ( a con) to be able to be a part of Australian society if that is what she chooses. Good luck Juni, it has been a delight making this for you, hope you enjoy it. x

Musical Moonta Bay

It was fabulous to be welcome at Matt's family Christmas at Moonta Bay. The garage and back yard of the holiday home turned into a makeshift studio for the excellent, but largely impromptu muso's. "The Music Book" may have been a guide, but improvisation was the key to success.

There were a few "karaoke" attempts to sing from this book. Not pretty. Either because we singers had no musical talent, or the wine that had been consumed, or because the musos didn't stick to the script. Mysteriously, no video of this survives...

4 iconic images. Swings. Shed. Sandman. And Kim xx

Rosie with a budding drummer. And what a drum set it was. I think the young man just liked having Rosie enveloping him!

The mosh pit. You can see the keen interest Buddy is showing. Not true, the music was brilliant!!!
The drum kit was built out of buckets, tins and whatever else they found in the shed. The drum solo/duo was fabulous. I tried to upload it, but gave up after an hour. Maybe I'll try and put it on Youtube. Sigh, another challenge.

Moonta Bay was a gorgeous place to spend Christmas, loved the company, the relaxed setting, the beach, the walks, the golf at Wallaroo (well, not as much as I would have liked), the garfish (sigh) and the lobster. Just missed Kate. Thanks to the in-laws. xx

Birds

Meet my friends who visit me fairly regularly. They are a little noisy, but usually that is only to let me know they are there. And that they are hungry! Not knowing a lot about rainbow lorikeets, I am assuming they are a couple - they certainly only come as a pair. So what do they eat? I started with some crackers. Nope, they didn't even look at that. Nuts? I put some pine nuts out. What a waste. Maybe they are like possums and enjoy fruit? So I sliced some apple chunks. What I saw was a sight to behold. Synchronised eating.

Thought both photos were fabulous. The birds were happy to be the stars. They are always welcome here.