BRISBANE CRAFT AND QUILT SHOW 2011

This is one of my all time favourite days out.
A group of lovely ladies and I set off this morning for a delightful day at the Quilt Show.



Yes, lovely quilty stuff was everywhere.
We wandered for hours, looking, touching, planning, dreaming till we were ready to drop, so off we went for some sustenance.
When we returned from lunch we entered the Quilt Competition section.

Oh my !

Rows and rows of beautiful quilts.

These ones in the colours of International Women's Day
 green, purple and white

 green being for growth;
violet for dignity
 and white for purity of purpose.


Right by the door was this prize winning beauty.

There were so many lovely quilts so I will show you a few that I thought were outstanding.

These modern designs were pretty spectacular.

 

 

Then there were those which were more traditional.

Thought you might like a closer look at this design.
 I think it is called a Dresden quilt.

Of course there were the traditional hexi quilts....

.....but look at this lovely modern take on the traditional hexi quilt.

I took some close-ups so you could see the detail better.

Beautiful!
Vibrant !
Delicious!

I've saved some really interesting ones for tomorrow !

Cheers.

A NEW SKILL

My journey to learn how to patchwork has led me along a path I vowed I would not take.

I vowed I would never attempt to work with triangles.

Too hard !

But as usual I was tempted by a lovely item.

This is it - a lovely tablerunner.

To say that I didn't know what I was taking on is a HUGE understatement.

Not only did it involve

 Half Square Triangles

 but

Quarter Square Triangles

too !!

I decided to make it a Christmas table runner and with guidance from some super talented  patchworkers with enormous amounts of patience I began. 

The cutting out left me with lots of triangles in three different materials which had to be sewn together in different combinations then recut to size ( and that's another story !!!).

Once all the bits were resized to 3 and a half inches the puzzle had to be put together

but that's not all !!

The bits had to line up !!!

The points had to match !!!

Intricate , multi-coloured bits ....

... slowly came together into   this ..



masterpiece of perfection.....,

... this triumph of sewing mastery !

How good is that ?

Of course along the way there was quite a bit of unpicking,

a fair bit of complaining

and just a little colourful language.

but
I'm thrilled with it so far.

I'll be back to show you the finished object.
I'll expect lots of praise as I absolutely amaze you with how clever I am.

Cheers.

PS. Huge thanks to my patient instructors

FAVOURITE THINGS FRIDAY ( or Saturday ? )

Oops!

I know I'm late for Favourite Things Friday.

Surely it's still Friday somewhere in the world?

Click here for one of my favourite things.

It is an Australian Magpie doing what they do best.

It's a sound that you can hear anywhere in Australia wherever there are trees and birds.

Now that nesting season is finally over in our neck of the woods the male birds have stopped attacking all who venture into their territory as I explained in this post previously.

 They have gone back to minding their own business and filling the air with their lovely carolling.

I bet that sound will make Aussies living overseas just a little bit homesick!

Cheers.

PS.     1. The noise in the background of the Youtube clip is mainly Lorikeets screeching.
2. All the photos today are from the Internet                                                    

A GREAT READ

The range of fantastic Children's/ Young Adult Literature that is available these days really amazes me.

Today I finished reading a fabulous book, The Book Thief  written by Australian author Markus Zusak.

It is a book that has been marketed as an older children's book in some countries and as an adult novel in others and can be appreciated by either.

I loved it.

Set in Nazi Germany, it describes how a young girl's mother delivers her into the care of foster parents around the start of WWII. Her brother is not so lucky as he dies on the way. The girl never hears from her mother again and spends the rest of the war with these rather unlikely, generous souls who also shelter a Jewish fist-fighter in their basement for a time.

The Book Thief is written in a most unusual style, narrated throughout by Death. It was published in 2005 and has won numerous awards. It has also been listed on the New York Times' Children's Bestseller List for over 190 weeks.

 If you're like me and you haven't read this one already, I thoroughly recommend it.

Cheers.

WHAT'S IN A NAME - HELSIE'S HAPPENINGS

I'm joining a linky party over on  Dawn's blog As Sweet as Cinnamon
The task is to explain how you came up with your blog name.

My explanation is very simple.....

When I discovered this wonderful world of blogging I was enthralled.
I couldn't stop cruising all these wonderful windows into people's lives.

I spent hours and hours at the computer ( and it was a pretty slow computer in those days ) and one day I was telling a friend about them, how interesting it was to peep into the daily lives of people all over the world, making new friends as you go.

She said, " Why don't you do it too? Other people might think it is interesting to see what your life is like here in Australia."

So there it is. What is happening in my world. Helsie is my family nickname.

and here's the photo from my first header.

Cheers.

FAVOURITE THINGS FRIDAY - ALL ABOUT BARK

Edit: I've just realised that it's FTF and since this post was a waffle about a favourite thing I thought I'd make this my FTF post too.

....................................................

After reading this post and this one too I have been taking more notice of the trees around me

or their bark in particular.

I've mentioned many times my love of trees and most of the time that is mainly because of their leafiness,

or their pretty flowers,

or the wonderful shade they give  ........
but , when I thought about it, some of them I love because of their bark.

So I've been taking more notice of bark as I move around in my day to day doings and I've found lots of very interesting examples to show you.

Some type of palm/cycad tree

Iron bark

Paper bark

Spotty bark

Smooth bark

Stringy bark

Scribbly bark

("The scribbly gum tree is a eucalyptus tree with a very smooth, pale trunk. The distinctive brownish 'scribbles' are made by the larvae of the tiny scribbly moth.")

Colourful bark -Snow Gum

and even bark that looks like a  grumpy face !

Cheers.

PS. The last four photos are examples of the bark of Australian trees that I  found on the internet. 

MY DAY

I've just been reading this post about a day in the life of Sue from The Quince Tree and I thought I would have a go at documenting my day.

So here it is. How I spent Monday.

Dragged myself out of bed around 7:15.
I make a habit of never getting up before 7 o'clock now that I'm retired unless I really have to. I like to stay up late ( midnight-ish) so I get my necessary sleep that way ! Make the bed straight away, get dressed.

Rush out to garage to let dogs outside to go to the toilet ( Have to lock them in as the old Border Collie has slight dementia and likes to sleep under my bedroom window in all weather and I think it's too cold for him to be doing that at the moment  (  He gets all wet with dew !!)

Feed dogs.

Turn on breakfast TV and make myself breakfast ( toast with ham and tomato, kiwi fruit and strawberries, BIG cup of tea ). Tony has cereal.

Give dogs arthritis medication - both old .

 

Eat breakfast while reading blogs ( drop crumbs on my desk and the floor) keeping my cup of tea on the far corner of my desk ( don't want to spill it on my computer- done that before - not good for computer !!!)
Still there at 9:00 when Tony comes out dressed to work in the garden (mowing lawns which are beginning to go brown through lack of rain ).

Put a load of washing on.

Begin my job for the day which is cleaning the house.
Kitchen comes first. I love cleaning kitchens because they look terrific when they're clean ( and it's pretty easy work !)
Move on to dusting the lounge, dining and TV rooms - Lick and a promise!
Bathrooms next - we have two but only guests use one so it is easy. Try out new cleaner on the clear glass shower screen - great success, it comes up sparkling with not too much effort.
 (Tony finishes mowing and goes off to part-time work )
Now the floors - mainly tiles with carpet in the bedrooms. This is the bit I dislike most.
Vacuum...............
then wash floors - including bathrooms and toilet - lots of area . This is another bit I dislike !!!

11:30 All done and house looks spic and clean. Cup of tea.

Hang washing on the line

Lunch - Toasted muffin with ham, tomato and cheese, cup of coffee.

Change out of cleaning clothes into something mildly presentable.

Bring washing in as rain is threatening. All dry.

2:00 Doorbell rings. Two friends ( retired teachers like me ) arrive to help me judge children's competitions for CWA.  (Raindrops begin to sprinkle)
Chart about East Timor for 8 and 9 year olds
Computer generated booklet about East Timor for 11 and 12 year olds.

Takes us a while to debate and compare and mark Criteria Sheets. Glad I'm not doing this any more. Once a year is enough !!

Judge adult competition - Greeting card. Pretty quick and simple.

Good company, lots of laughs ( thunder grumbles outside )

Cup of tea and biscuit reward for all that hard work. More chat. Plan another get together and check upcoming social activities.

4:45pm Friends leave.  More thunder

5ish Downpour begins with more thunder and lightning, then a sprinkle of small hail.
Great rain (15mL). Just what the garden and lawn needs.

6:00 Change of plan for tea - was going to be a BBQ but suddenly cold ( from hail I expect ) and too wet anyway. Tony watches his favourite program (Bargain Hunt !!!) while I prepare tea. Chicken ( grilled like on BBQ ) and lots of stirfried vegies, pumpkin and potatoes in their jackets. Yoghurt for dessert.
 Eat at 7:00. All cleared away by 8:00 ( watching kid's Masterchef but a bit too hard to stomach - everything perfect and precocious kids -yuk!!)
Nothing worth watching on TV. Tony fools around with his Android phone, I fool around with my laptop reading blogs, Facebook, researching holidays in France ( dreaming !!) . Show Tony some photos of Merton in France to get him enthused - both sitting in our recliner chairs.
Dogs asleep on their beds.
11-ish Bedtime . Read for a while.( very good book The Book Thief )

Midnight-ish  ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ ( loud I'm told !!)

I wonder if anyone else would like to share their day?

Cheers.