I am Back.......

Hi Everyone... Here I am at long last. We have had, [no other word for it] but a SHIT of a year so far. As most will know we lost our only son in a horrific car accident in late March. Since then I have been so out of it... I just haven't felt like doing anything. The only things that have kept me same is photography and reading. That is all I have done all day long every day. That is until a week and a half ago... All of a sudden I am back crafting again.

I will pop up some photos soon...... Before that terrible morning March 27th... I had finished and sent off some items to the magazines and most have appeared in Country Threads and Handmade throughout the year.

Here are some of my photography shots taken during this time.

Too numerous to tell you what I have read... but I can tell you my Samsung Galaxy Tab3 is the best investment I have ever made.......I love it.. so easy to download and just read away...... That is what I am about to go off and do again now... so until I take some craft photos....... I will say have fun and chat again soon......

Bus trip to Warwick.......

Yesterday I went on a bus trip to Warwick with a group of ladies from the Tenthill craft group. We had a wonderful day.

Our first stop was to the most wonderful patchwork shop. It was called Glenrose Patchwork. The shop was amazing. The ladies there provided us with a lovely morning tea. Unfortunately it was raining when we arrived and I left my camera on the bus. But I did steal a couple of photos from their website. The first one is of inside the shop and the second is the shop front. A few of us sat out on the veranda with our morning tea and watched the rain... It was lovely.

Another lovely shop we went to was Canning Town Patchwork. I got a couple of photos inside there.

From this shop I bought the most amazing tiny ric rac... I fell in love with it and got 10 metres of each of these three colours....... The large ric rac from another shop Shelly's Curtains and craft and yes I got 10 metres of it as well.....

We had a couple of competitions on the bus and I won one of them... Look what I got as my prize....

We also found a surprise waiting for each of us when we got on the bus to come home... mine was a wee small pink wheelie bin to sit on your desk... I forgot to take a photo of it...

I bought this at Spotlight in Ipswich last week. I need it for a project I am working on for the magazines.

You may have noticed the back ground in my photos... it is my most wonderful bag that I received from Cindy as a Christmas gift...... Here is a photo of the bag......

And lastly a photo of a name bunting that I have made for our newest grandee... Odin..... I have made these for our other grandees... Xavier, Rilee and Charli. They are so quick and easy to make. I think I will write up a quick little pattern and have the alphabet there so you can make what ever you want to. I have also made Merry Christmas.....

Well I had better get off here as it is time for me to prepare lunch. Steak and veggies today.....

Happy crafting......

Boonah Quilt Show.

What a wonderful time we had at the Boonah Quilt show, held on Friday and Saturday. I had my friend Lorraine next to me on her stall..... we had a ball. Lorraine's lovely grand daughters came with her on Saturday... one of them stayed and was making and selling cute little bracelets made from ... of all things, wee rubber bands... they were so cute. Lacey, my daughter who came with me to help and I both were given one to wear and keep. Though that didn't last long. I took mine off in the car on the way home as I was so hot and sweaty. Left it in her car and when she went back to Toowoomba our youngest daughter Louise saw it and ended up with both of them.... LOL went to town yesterday and found the packs to make them, for sale in The Reject Shop... so I have bought two packs for our youngest grand daughters to have a go at making some.

Here is a pic of my stall at the show......

And here is a pic of Lorraine at her stall.......

It really was a lovely couple of days. The Boonah Girl Guides look after you so well, a very enjoyable show.

The lady who ordered  the bone lacy zipper off me... if you read this could you please message me as I have lost your name and address......

Have fun everyone.........

What I made today........

I have been busy today, playing around making some little bags. Well two are really little bowls.

The first two are made from circles and are oh so easy to make.

 This one takes a little longer, but is still quite easy to make. I love the lacy zipper. Anyone who buys a zipper from me at the Boonah Quilt Show [on Friday 14th and Saturday 15th March], will receive the instructions on how to make the zipper bag.

 This bag actually holds quite a bit. Good to toss in with all your craft gear in your bag.

Well I am off now as all of our pets want to be fed.... they sure know how to tell me they are hungry.....

Have fun....

Project that will be in The Rusty Tin Roof online US Magazine soon.

This is a little scrap basket that I made.. well from scraps really. It is to sit beside your sewing machine or when you are hand sewing to collect all of your scraps in. Don't you just love the ric rac... it looks like a row of chickens running. I found the ric rac idea on Pinterest and thought..... I so want to do that on something...LOL 
I had so much fun making the basket that I got carried away and made quite a few of them in different colours. I still have to embellish the last 5 or so. The rest I have sold, so I cannot get photos of them. The remaining ones I will photograph as soon as I get them gussied up.

I really am going now. Hoping that after lunch, if it is fine, so hubby and I will get to go on a photo shoot and see what we can manage to capture. 

Lorraine's Birthday.

Yesterday saw me once again at my friend Jan's place for the Thursday get together. I usually can only stay until lunch time. But yesterday was a special day it was Lorraine's birthday, so we had a yummy BBQ lunch. Thank you Ross for doing the BBQing for us.

Lorraine, Nicola, Jan and I were there. Judy did pop in for a quick visit to drop off Lorraine's pressie and to cut my hair. I feel so much better no hair touching my face or neck. Drives me nuts.

Here are a couple of pics of the girls.
Jan who is listening to something that Lorraine is saying. I must add Lorraine keeps us entertained with her stories... The second photo is Nicola.

 And now we have the birthday girl herself.

 What do we usually do at Jan's on Thursdays... some kind of stitching and to prove that this does happen, here is a shot of Lorraine working on a couple of jewelery bags that she is making. They are gorgeous and I should of gotten a close up of them.....

 Here is the basket I made for Lorraine to bring all her work to and from Jan's place in. I made it from 2 large T Towels that I got at Aldi... I love that shop....LOL Old doley on the front. Lorraine loves purple and then green is her next favourite colour. OK I know not purple and green on the T Towels. But when I found them at home I thought the dark stripes were purple... Not even close. Maybe I need to go and have my eyes checked again.......

Inside the basket is just plain, no pockets etc as it really is for Lorraine to just grab all of her stuff, throw it in the basket and then over the shoulder and be off. It worked too, everything fitted into it. You will notice that it stands on it's own. I used fast to fuse interfacing in it. After awhile it does tend to soften a little so we will have to see if it still manages to stand when that happens.

I am off here now as I have some more stitching to finish on the last of the stitchery sets I am working on at the moment. Then I will be sewing them into something. But that may be a couple of weeks away as I have a quilt show coming up in Boonah in a couple of weeks time and I have a few things to get ready for that. Things to paint and fabric to cut and fold.

Have fun everyone......

Hello Everyone..... I know it's been 12 months. But I am alive. But what a year 2013 was for us. Talk about sickness. I spent the last three months of the year in a lot of pain. I had two trips by ambulance to hospital.  Was admitted on one trip and spent three days in hospital. Was let go home and had four pain killing injections in my back the first week in December. Was bed ridden for a month.

By Christmas Eve I was able to get out of bed and sit for a little while. By early January I could sit without too much pain and hand sew, so I started on some projects for the magazines. Then by February I could finally sit and sew on the machine. So I have finished eight projects for the magazines and have written the instructions and posted the items off. Hopefully they will like them and put them in one of the mags.

For obvious reasons I cannot show you the completed items, but I can give you a sneak peek at some parts of a few.

I cut some pieces for a scrappy border on one of the projects. It is amazing at how far they go. I didn't even cut that much fabric. But I did the first project, made a smaller project and have made more similar and sold them. Plus I have more left over to use still......

I was in a lets get rid of scraps mood by the time I did this project. I have made about 10 of them and sold nearly every one .

While looking for fabric for my wall hangings I found some finished stitcheries, so into a wall hanging they went. And when hubby handed me the box I said just toss it. I don't even want to look inside. But he made me and lucky I did. It was full of good things that I wanted. These stitcheries were one of the things.

I love this one.... There are nine Raggedies in all on this wall hanging. It is straight, but it was so windy the day I took the photos that I had to do it inside and trust me I couldn't find a spot to take them. So it had to be on the back of my lounge chair and it makes the wall hanging look crooked and wonky.  But it is one of the straightest wall hangings I have made. Some have been shockers, but I am improving. Albeit like my photography...slowly, very slowly... LOL

Early last year hubby and I joined The Laidley Camera Club. The aim was to have fun and improve our photography. We are having fun... but I am afraid some of my photography seems to have gone backwards...LOL But in my defense I am now using a DSLR camera where as before I only had a point and shoot. Hey but I must be doing something right as last year I came equal third in the club for the photo contests each month and hubby came fourth. So I am aiming to improve that this year.

Our first shoot for the year was a night one. We were to get pics of the moon. Yeah Saturday night was the full moon and you couldn't see it because of the darn clouds. Hubby and I were just about to leave for the shoot, when I discovered our bore wasn't working. So he had to fix it as we do not have town water and rely on the bore for everything other then drinking and cooking. By the time it was going, well sort of, we had missed the shoot. Poor hubby was sitting out in the dark at the bore, while I showered. He was there to keep it running. I had to get buckets of water for poor hubby to wash in. He was out there first thing on Sunday morning and got it fixed proper.

I kept looking at the sky all night to see if the moon was out from behind the clouds. Then at 11pm there was a break so hubby and I were out trying to get a shot. I did manage to get this one.

Trust me it is hard to get a lovely clear photo of the moon, especially when you are novice photographers like we are. But we keep trying. Now this will show you how keen I am. I was outside at 3.30 this morning and I got this shot. Look at the difference four days makes in the shape of the moon.

We have been out trying to get some good bird photos as well.... Managed a couple.

Baby Ibis feeding from it's parent.

Hey I knew they slept... but how come they don't fall off the perch..??????

Not sure if they are about to snuggle or fight... LOL

Gosh these were hard to get a photo of. You would be amazed at how fast the little blighters swim. There were more ducklings then these, they were everywhere.......

Well it looks like I am trying to make up for lost time so I will end this post. I will be back in a day or so with some lovely Christmas gifts I received from crafty friends.