I know - only 2 days since my last posting

... and only 1 more sleep until we have fish and chips. This is how DF Hans and DH Ian put it at happy hour tonight.

Each Thursday evening the local Tirroan pub has battered red emperor with chips and home made coleslaw for $8pp. I must admit whatever the fish is, and I don't know one from another, it is the most yummiest and huge.

There is also a lucky door prize. A seafood tray. We have been there about 10 times and have come away with the door prize on 8 of those visits. There is enough oysters, crab and prawns for the four of us to have for lunch on Friday. Well three of us, seeing Ian only eats fish. Poor him!!

The local pony club also holds two raffles on Thurs night as well and the prize is usually a bottle of spirits. One week we took home the seafood tray and a carton of beer (in lieu of the spirits).

The fellas are now getting greedy. Each week we head off to the pub at 6pm just in time to buy tickets in the last raffle, tomorrow night I have instructions to drive them down there at 5pm, then Margie and I can arrive for tea at 6, supposedly by then they will have already won the both raffles. Personally I think they are going to get us kicked out.

Wendy from Iddybiddy Cottage emailed me last night and said that she had 1metre of the Versatile fabric that I needed. When I spoke to Wendy this morning she was mailing it out this afternoon. Thank you so much Wendy. When it arrives I will cut out the border and the chook quilt will be ready for photographing.

Today I had to go over to a friends home (Evelyn) and give her a hand, but I was hoping to get back around 3pm to spend the rest of the afternoon in the 'sns shed'. No luck, I arrived home just after 5pm, cause that had nothing to do with both of us spending time internet window shopping.

Evelyn also gave me her pink and green top to quilt. I am a little bit nervous quilting for other people. I personally don't think I have had enough practice on the quilting machine, but both DSIL Lyn and Evelyn say 'just for practicing'. I really am procrastinating with this machine. I have 7 of my own tops to do plus 'Trev's Quilt' before I start on theirs, but they both say 'no hurry next month will do'.

Up to date

Well, late this afternoon, or early evening to be precise I finally finished putting the chook quilt together and decided that to finish the top off completely I would put a 2" unfinished border round the quilt. Guess how much material I have left.

Not enough!!!

I need 30cm minimum of this material. It's called Versatiles by Jane Edwards and made for Sullivan Intl. 2004. If anyone can help me I would be grateful.

I had to take a photo of our fogged in view. This photo was taken through my front window at 8am this morning. We couldn't even clearly make out the cane trucks going past, they were like ghosts.

Forgot!

Next door started burning the cane tonight and DH Ian was asked to help.

The fire is so fierce and so quick by the time I got the camera out it was nearly all over. I shall try and get a better photo next time.

Busy, busy, busy!!!

Don't ya just love life. Ours is certainly an adventure.

Since I last posted we had an impromptu trip to Townsville and back in an imported US motorhome which now belongs to dear friends of ours Reg and Lori. Our place was the first stop on their way back north to collect their belongings before heading to Victoria and parents who are not too good. They want to spend quality time with them before its too late.

You are looking at 37' of luxury


The interior is all stained wood, the finish is just lovely. It just needs some TLC to get it back to perfect again.

The lounge on the left of the photo also folds down to a double bed and that's where DH Ian and I slept. It certainly was a fun 5 days.

I and Rhonda J. from Krazy Krafters have put the finishing touches on the cat quilt to be donated to Kolan Gardens next month. One of the moggies now has a collar and bell and the label has been embroidered and sewn onto the back of the quilt. Voila one finished quilt.

I've also been tearing my hair out trying to put together my chook quilt. In 2001 in my before life I was in a group of ladies who met on scquilters and we met monthly in each others homes. We had a swap as quilters usually do and we each made 9 chooks any shape on any size block. Well what a dilemma, but one I'm sure the other 8 quilters have beaten. I'm probably the last one to put mine together and of course none of them would go where I wanted to put them, but I do see a light at the end of the tunnel and after making and discarding several blocks have finally started to get the quilt to look like one. Shall put up photos when I get a little further advanced.

This was my youngest GD after her birth last February

This is her now - 6 months later and with 2 and ¾ teeth, being held by a very proud mother.

Have been having a ball out in the sns shed. I get out there and forget the world, except that I have a tv which I listen to.

Tomorrow we go and put our signatures on a contract for a new caravan. This time a Jayco poptop. We are trading in the Roadstar Trackvan, Ian found it just too heavy to tow and I found it just a little too high to get in and out with my gummy hip and leg. This should be more to our liking — fingers xrossed. We have to wait until the new one arrives sometime towards the end of Sept. So our last trip in the Roadstar will be in a couple of weeks when we head off to Peach Trees State Forest for a week, with my DB Ken and DSIL Lyn. Peach Trees is at Jimna near Kilcoy in Qld, a lovely little park where in winter you freeze your b....s off. One time we were camping there, in a tent I might add, and my DB Trevor's car was white with frost, we couldn't see the red paint underneath.

Since our friends Hans and Marg have been staying with us, a total of 8-9weeks now but who's counting, the fellas have been very productive, we now have 2 more outside walls of the house painted, one more to go, but that won't be for a while. We have to source some second hand weatherboards, we're not paying $5.65 a linear metre for them. That's just highway robbery.

My latest Decorative Painting

This afternoon I didn't go over to the sns shed. Horror I hear you say!

I spent it at my painting desk trying to finish off the lid to my special memories box. When I first saw this special box in a painting book I knew that I had to do it. When our son died I kept one tiny outfit and I have a couple of small items from my granmother who has now been gone for 5 years and this month I received a very special letter from my DS Jen and its going to be put into this box along with the others and any more that I collect along the pathway of my life

... and I hope its a lot more even than the step at my back patio, which is all of 3" high and I fell over it this afternoon on my way back from shutting my girls in and landed heavily on my right knee. I was carrying some twigs and dead leaves to put into the fireplace to give the fire a good start, well they went flying everywhere and you will all be proud of me I didn't say any bad four letter words. I hope 'frig' isn't one, cause I said that many, many times.

It is now 2½ hours later, the fire is burning merrily and the darn knee is still hurting, it's not swollen or anything and I can put my considerable weight on it, but boy I don't think its going to be a good night.

Anyway that's enough whinging from me. Here's the lid of my special box, its probably going to take me another few weeks or so to get the rest of the box finished.

I'm still there

... in the sns shed of course. I thank my DH every time I open the door.

This is the cat panel that my craft group did together. I sewed the buttons on today and one of our talented ladies is embroidering the label and should be finished by next Tuesday ready for attaching to the back. We don't plan to present it to Kolan Gardens until September when all our ladies will be back home from holidays. This afternoon when I closed up the shed I meant to bring over all the relevant data out of the magazine to tell you guys. I forgot!! Nothing new there!

Thought you might like to see a sunset from my front door.

I've almost finished sewing the backing together for 'Trev's Quilt', but even though DSIL bought all that was on the roll, 1m, we have run out so if anyone knows where we can get .75m of a Michael Miller Fabric Pattern C - 2592 Gear Up we would be eternally grateful. Right now I need a 24½"x 2½" strip to join the last 2 blocks. I can join up all my scraps but will only do that as a last resort, but then we will have to look for something to border the blocks.

DH left home yesterday for Murarrie, Brisbane where he picked up Phil and then leaving Ian's ute they travelled in Phil's Land Rover to Samford to Ed's home at Highvale where they spent the night leaving this morning for Biloela where they are having -0°C temperatures. There is a national antique machinery show on there this weekend and they are staying there until Sunday when they head for Gracemere and a antique machinery auction on Monday. If there's nothing there they will head for home that afternoon. So at the moment I'm HOME ALONE — the silence — the simple meals, spaghetti on toast, boiled egg with salad, BLISS — the time in the sns shed!!!!!

Wonderful Time

I just love it to pieces. My s'n's shed of course. I spend most afternoons and sometimes even get to spend most of the day in there.

At the moment it is blowing a gale in Gin Gin and has been for 3 days, usually on the third day it has blown itself out but not this time. The weather report says it will be blowing all week. It was blowing so hard today that I dried my washing in the drier and I just remembered the last load is still in there. Darn it!!

Today I finished quilting the Kraft Klub of Gin Gin's donation to the local nursing home — a wallhanging of cats, then I sewed the binding on ready for the next person to sew down. I also worked on the backing of Trev's Quilt, you wait till you see it, I think it is quite appropriate for a 50 yr old fireman. My DSIL Lyn found some more fireman material on the Sunshine Coast, this time it is clothing and gear and I have put it to good use. He He!!

I've also finished (including the label) my parents hanging that they will now donate to their church. I am quite pleased with it and will take another photo to upload here and also to put into my quilters diary - which I must start. I have a photo album in which I have a few photos of stuff I have done but not too many. I must rectify that. Mum and Dad are staying with us until Friday and were really thrilled with the hanging. I photographed them all snuggly in their pjs.

I've also been working madly on my ¼" hexagons and I find that they go together fairly quickly, I mean how slow can you go when they are only that big?

We have friends staying with us at the moment. Hans and Marg - he is Dutch and she is English and they are wonderful. Hans has been helping Ian do a few odd jobs, like put the end wall in the caravan shed, paint the front wall of Ian's shed green, restore a couple of huge kegs that was Ian's one day job. Here they are ready to start the shed wall.

.... and here they are celebrating the restoration of one of the kegs.

We also celebrated Dylan's second birthday last Friday and Saturday we had a small party for him where he got to blow out more candles. Luckily Katie made Dylan a special patty cake especially for him to blow out his candles ..... and he did, several times, each time spraying the little cake with spit, he hasn't quite learned to blow without spitting yet. We got to eat a piece of the cake in the foreground of the photo.