This one made me laugh, hope it does the same for you.

It's a bit cold and damp here in Paradise - my faithful hot water bottle sprung a leak.  Never to worry - there are another three in the cupboard awaiting to make their debut.  Will it be another blue one, or the purple or red one?  Quite warm outside and really rather chilly in the bedroom, I can see that I will have to go outside to get some warmth.

Just had a call from Hostel Boy, I love to hear his voice, unfortunately he has hurt his hand and needs an xray.  Initially it was for 3pm TOMORROW.  I rang the Hostel and said that I thought that was too long, which thankfully they agreed with me, and they did the heavy and he is in for 3.45pm today.  From what he has said I think that it is heavily bruised.  Better to be safe than sorry.  I still get a feeling of joy when I hear his voice on the 'phone, will that feeling be replaced with that of trepidation?

This a group of us working at our local Arts Council on a quilt made for a very dear friend whose son died recently.

And the final quilt and we finally gave it to her yesterday.  Many tears.

Well the last couple of months have been busy and enjoyable.

The boys completed another successful school year and both made the observation that the year went too quickly.  The youngest Sweetie has decided that when he was younger, time went slowly and the fridge was always full of food.  Now that he is older, time gallops and there is never any food in the fridge.

This is a bag that I made out of scraps for Blogless Kathy and filled it with goodies and sent her for Christmas.

After Christmas we headed down to Albany for some much needed R&R for all the family.  Three of us took part in courses at the Albany Summer School and the Hostel Boy started a diving course.  The Hairiest Sweetie was enrolled in Metal Sculpture and the Youngest Sweetie and I had a crash course in ukelele.  It was utterly fantastic and exciting and FUN

We were also able to catch up with some great friends who live down there - always wonderful.

I have also started a new job at the local Hospital after much badgering by friends and I am thoroughly enjoying it although we are understaffed.

Oh Bugger Blogger you really are trying my patience today.  Here is one of the seven photos that I uploaded this morning to show the wonderful houseboat weekend that we had on the Murray River, West Australia, in early October.  I must be doing something wrong - like holding my mouth in a smile or something.  Pretty wretched stuff.

P.S.  Jeana if you are reading this, the wheelbarrow is FANTASTIC.  I used it last night for the first time to help me plant a fig tree and I was delighted with it's lightness and sturdiness.  As I am older now, the wheelbarrow that Tim bought me for Christmas, the first year that we were here, is heavy although well made, and has has some hard use transporting small boys, canoes, picnics, manure, water, cement and really the list is endless. So thank you so much Jeana.  It even has a hole in the handle were I can keep my divining rod to work out the best place to plant trees.  Nyx

Niki and the Strippers met on Saturday - although it must hve been cold as there weren't too many of us there.  This is what we did.  It was meant to be Scrappy Trip, although there was some leftovers from the Scrappy Bargello there as well.  Well whatever works.

I'm working on a spiderweb block, using the rule and Kaye England DVD that I bought ages ago.  The first block has been sitting up on my orphan block wall for over a year.  The DVD is such great value and a real laugh as well.  It's another way to use up that stash and make a fun quilt without too much angst.  The blocks are made using 21/2" strips sewn into stratas and then cut using the Kaleidescope rule.

I have quite a stack of hexagons made into grandmother's flowers; another stack that have been basted onto the card and a whole stack that have yet to be basted. I consolidated all that I have here decided that I needed to order around 7000 hexagons to finish off, sounds so flippant 7000, my great hexgon quilt. There have been times where I have thought of other things to make with those that I have already made - egg warmer, glasses case, table runner, doll's quilt - however I have to keep going and one day, sometime when I'm much older we will be able to sleep under it. All those little pieces of fabric from people who threw them out as they thought that the pieces were too small and there it will be. I'll hold that thought. Hmmmm ......... just had another thought, I hope that the younger Sweeties don't both want it. There's no way that I will be able to make another.

My friend the Librarian loves blue work and made a beautiful top. Some of the stitchery blocks were designed by one of her lovely children, others come from Bronwyn Hayes of Red Brolly as well as an old favourite from Jean Jensen that she designed many years ago for candlewicking. These were combined so well with a variety of pieced blocks, all surrounded by timeless ticking. So I was lucky enough to be allowed to quilt it - all freehanded with some rule work in the crosshatching and baptist fans in the outer border.

This is what 58 of the little tackers look like.

   Looking at the area that these cover, I am probably looking at around 200. If you too wish to follow this path of idiocy stash busting  go to Keryn's site and there is a PDF pattern to buy and it is all downloaded through the internet with the pattern emailed to you. Easy peasy, as long as you have a printer.  Blogless Kathy has of course finished hers, mine is residing in a tin and I have no idea how many I have stitched.  Might be a good project to take to the weekly sewing group that I am hoping to start going to again, that's after I have finished the nine patch thing that I started a while ago and is in another tin.  I just have to find them all in their secreted spots.  Out of sight, out of mind.

Hmm, on another note the top of my blogger composing box has changed and there appears to be no spell chech.  Maybe I have removed it in my latest bout of housekeeping.  It has put the strikethrough in, which I can see getting a good workout.  I Just had a look in the Blogger help and they were so focussed on getting the new editor out on time and speel check wasn't working so they left it out.  Blogger!

Early this year we, at Niki and the Strippers, made Scrappy Bargello quilts. Participants were encouraged to cut extra strips to make a quilt to be raffle and the money to be given to a local organisation to help others and this quilt is the result. Niki and the Strippers evolved because I thought that there was a place for a fun group in our Arts Council to use strips either from the infamous Jelly Rolls/Bali Pops or most importantly their own stashes to extend their quilt making experience and have FUN.

I run the classes on the last Saturday of the month, and give the opportunity for people to come free of charge and just sew. People seem to become consumed with matching colours and really the one of the ideas behind patchwork was to use what you had to make beautiful, useful items to keep your family warm. The participants had to cut two sets of strips, keep one set and put the other one in a lucky dip box and then go in and take out the same number that they put in. If they baulked at their choices I had some VERY striking fabric that they could have instead. Hmmm.......I wonder why no one took my up on my rather riotous fabric? One of the participant s pulled out the day before the class claiming that she wasn't ready. Later she confessed that it was because we weren't going to match our fabrics and regretted not coming as the results were fantastic and she realised that she really had missed out on a great time. One very dear friend had an ongoing war with her sewing machine, and now after sewing 4x32 stratas together, for her Scrappy Bargello, claims that her and her sewing machine are one. All good fun.

The pattern for this quilt (Scrappy Trip Around the World) and the Scrappy Bargello came from Bonnie K Hunter's Quiltville

The quilting pattern is a new one from Lorien Quilting called Continuous Feathers and I think it's smashing. The thread? An Aurilux variegated that fitted the scrappiness of the quilt. The lustre of the thread adds another dimension

Due to many things this winter, we have not gone walking as we normally do. However this Sunday past the usual suspects went of to Boyagin Rock, a fantastic granite rock ~40kms north east of here off the York Williams Rd. Took our lunch and a cake to share and what a wonderful day we had, clambering all over this marvellous huge rock. Lovely weather not too hot and a little cold. There were tadpoles in the pools at the top of the rock, my word that's a long way to hop.And no hat all day.

Over the weekend is was particularly exciting here, we not only had visitors, and a teenage birthday but a fire as well. All a bit hairy and eyeopening. It was a bout a kilometre to the south of us and the wind wasn't helping at all. There were two fire fighting 'planes as well as a wonderful helicopter.






The fire was started from the belt off a water pump becoming too hot and shredding rubber.

Thankfully we didn't make to the national news, no one was killed or injured; all the houses survived and a few sheds were burnt.

Thanks to the local firefighters and those from surrounding districts who came to help. It ended up being an all nighter, and thanks to them there was a good outcome.

After standing in at the end of the driveway and watching the flames and smoke from a distance, I decided that I will create an emergency box with all our pertinent documents ready to go. I will not stay to save our house. The fire if it had have continued on its journey it would've burnt our town, there was only a short tract of land before it could have started on an uphill journey and then down the other side and hit the town. I think there will be some serious thinking happening hereabouts about what people will do in the event of a fire.

A while ago when things were younger, my family holidayed down in the south west of West Australia and I learnt to snorkel. I snorkeled a lot, whenever the opportunity. Hey, I even snorkeled in the family pool. I was very enamoured with snorkeling. Snorkeling has become a bit of a legend with the younger Sweeties and of course they wanted to snorkel. Soooooo they learnt to snorkel and as a bit of a reward, the Hairiest Sweetie and I took them to a place that I snorkeled and 'hunted' abalone. The Hairiest Sweetie had never been there, and to say that he was shocked with the length of time it took to walk there, is a bit of an understatement.

So the youngest Sweeties snorkeled in one of my favourite places, where the Indian Ocean is just over the other side of that reef and there are schools of fish and flocks of terns that don't budge, and cormorants that wash in the water right in front of you as you snorkel. The oldest youngest Sweetie was laughing through his snorkel with glee and the youngest Sweetie thought that the 'waves' were too high and 'really, what was so exciting'. Hey, at least I have one convert. Watching them snorkel was one of those 'aaahh' moments for me and I really wanted to be in there with them and next time I will, because it really is so grand under there where there are so many fish and other creatures. As I said 'I can feel a snorkel moment coming on'.

I had forgotten just how strong and rich the colours are.

The lights were out but there was somebody home.









The limestone cliffs where lots of birds nest.

In retrospect, I think that the reason that snorkeling is such a fantastic thing for me, is that it is just like all the swimming dreams that I have. Some people have flying dreams - I have swimming dreams. Like flying dreams, only better.

The weekend before last the Floreat Fairies and their siblings/spouses went away for the annual get together. This time it was at Siesta Park in between Bussleton and Dunsborough on the west coast of West Australia. I was desperate to finish this quilt and used the opportunity when the others were swimming/snorkeling/crabbing/sleeping to apply the binding. As you can see I had some strange companions, however they didn't impede my sewing. And I must admit it was rather nice sewing outside with such a nice vista. There will be more photos of the quilt after next weekend as it is entered in the local show.
The things that we do to get things done. Thinking about it though, not one of the Sweeties made a comment or complained about the presnece of the sewing machine in the back of the car. I've trained them well.

Our very lovely friend Janice, made this quilt top a few years ago for her husband and here it is quilted, although she doesn't know and I hope to bind it and enter it in our local Open Day as a surprise.
Some of the fabric is drill, however it was just the right colour for what Janice needed. Again one of my favourite patterns Continuous Baptist Fan from Hermione Agee at Digital Quilting Patterns.

After our great climb of two weeks ago, a group of us decided that we would climb Mt Cooke. So yesterday we climbed Mt Cooke(d). In 2003 a fire resulting from a lightning strike, blazed through a large area that included Mt Cooke. Five years later some of the area is still struggling to revegetate. Some areas they say will never recover. Rocks like this one, are looking normal. This is because their mass is so big, they were not heated and retained their lichen and moss growths. Smaller rocks were heated to the point where all plant life was burnt off and even today remain clean of any plant life.

Looking up the south side and to the rock in the centre, which forms the cave that provided much excitement and interest to us, especially the younger members of our party.

These walkways have been constructed to protect the fragile faces of the rock.

Looking south from the south side of Mt Cooke.

Writing all our names in the book that was under the rock. The book was found placed in a crevice in the cave and as it was started in 2001, would suggest that the book survived the fire.

Coming out of the cave.

The oldest youngest Sweetie with the Farmer.
The Waugal viewed through the 'leaves' of a grass tree.
These are some of the rocks that were affected by the fire's heat and remain clean of any growth.


Looking North at Mt Vincent and Mt Cuthbert, the two 'mountains' that we climbed a fortnight ago.

Looking north to the north side of Mt Cooke.

Travelling along the track towards the new Mt Cooke hut. The old hut was completely destroyed by the blaze, and a new one has been built to provided shelter for Bibbulmun Track walkers.

This is another part of the Bibbilmun Track that is accessible from the Albany Hwy, just south of Sullivan's Rock. The scenery is superb and this walk was far easier than our walk of a fortnight ago. We rested often and just looked at the view, and then climbed further up the slope. It wasn't hard just high in parts. These photo's were snapped by the Librarian, the youngest Sweeties and myself. Just such a lovely day, with great company.

It's a very special day - Blogless Kathy's birthday.

Happy Birthday to you,

Happy Birthday to you,

Happy Birthday dear Kathy,

Happy Birthday to you.

Hydroponics Week 3

AMAZINGLY, the lettuce seedlings survived although a bit toxic looking and BIG. Replaced the water and did all the proper tests before we added the nutrient to the vat. We read the instructions and it said add 10ml of nutrient to 5l. So we did all the calculations and ...oh boy. This time we knew that the nutrient recommended would result in a salt level that was way too high, so we calculated accordingly and ended up adding 18ml of nutrients A & B and the result was pleasing. In our initial vat filling we added 90ml each of nutrient solution A & B. Apparently the lettuce are now at the stage that they are ready to eat. I'll take more photos and have a progressive series of photos tomorrow.





HAPPY BIRTHDAY KATHY - I thought that I would take a picture of a whole load of flowers, albeit a canola crop (rapeseed for those of you in the UK) and put it on this page for you.