Where I Live

These trees, although from the Eastern States of Australia, are very beautiful and they are in the reserve that borders our property. The White Tail Black Cockatoos roost in them throughout the year. For those non Australian readers, this type of Eucalyptus are called 'widow makers' as they are notorious for dropping branches when least expected. This is the view of our river that we swim in in the summer time and a place of very special memories for us. The youngest Sweeties become water rats in the summer. They have become exceptional swimmers and paddlers of boats, extremely important for great childhood memories. They get their love of water from me, there is nothing like being totally immersed in water, although I find these days that the temperature range in which I'll swim has narrowed somewhat.

Customer Quilts

Two quilts finished and with their owners - satisfying! Keryn's Field of Flowers and Hermoine Agee's Continuous Baptist Fan. Favourites.

Charity Quilts

These are some of the quilts that I recently quilted for charity. My friend Karin and her group of trusty patchworkers pieced several tops and I was able to quilt them. A great opportunity to see what the new patterns look like and if they work like I want them to.





This applique quilt I quilted with an allover rose pattern by Hermoine Agee of Lorien Quilting, called Rosewood. Looking at the pattern I should have quilted the pattern closer together. Next time.

This was quilted with a Keryn Emmerson pattern called 'Field of Flowers'

This is another Keryn Emmerson Design out of the Simply Sashes Pack - I wanted to see if I could use it as a pantograph. It works better as an offset.

The Experimental Plot

Somewhere at the start of this month I spoke about an experiment that I was doing for Tech, well it has started. The plot that I picked is in some pretty hard ground, so with a bit of tap water and some very welcome rain this was dug up

to look like this

I had to add some sand in the two inorgainc plots as it really was soil with attitude.

Eventually I planted it with vegetables and then it looked like this.

Yesterday I went out and besides planting broad beans, I also blood and boned the organic plots. And what did you plant in the plots I hear you ask? Three of silver beet, red cabbage, and I think Chinese cabbage. I have not fertilised the inorganic plot yet as I'm waiting for the results to be copied of all the inorganic fertilisers that we measured. Last week I was getting so excited about an inorganic fertiliser that I had found, beautifully packaged with bright orange surrounds and purple flowers and a touch of yellow. Well the salt content is astronomical so it got very short shrift - but It LOOKED soooooooo good.

I also spread some blood and bone around the plots to discourage the rabbits that seem to be abounding at the moment. Lets hope it works or I'll be turning into Mr MacGrrrrregor of Peter Rabbit fame.

My Favourite Quilt

My favourite quilt is made from a kit (I don't normally buy kits) that I bought from shop that no longer trades. This quilt waits for me on the couch. Why is it my favourite? Colour, feel, memories - all the things that make a favourite quilt.

The Christmas Wreath

Slowly I am working my way around the back of this small quilt. It seems to be taking forever, so much so I've started some more hexagons for another wreath.

Briggs Myer Personality Tests

You Are An INTP

The Thinker You are analytical and logical - and on a quest to learn everything you can. Smart and complex, you always love a new intellectual challenge. Your biggest pet peeve is people who slow you down with trivial chit chat. A quiet maverick, you tend to ignore rules and authority whenever you feel like it. In love, you are an easy person to fall for. But not an easy person to stay in love with. Although you are quite flexible, you often come off as aloof or argumentative. At work, you are both a logical and creative thinker. You are great at solving problems. You would make an excellent mathematician, programmer, or professor. How you see yourself: Creative, fair, and tough-minded When other people don't get you, they see you as: arrogant, cold, and robotic

What's Your Personality Type?

This should explain a lot - A few years ago I took part in a leadership course and part of the experience was taking a personality test. Well I've always be a bit odd and then I found out just how odd I was. It was great, it explained so much as why I was always outside the box with just a few, but very valued friends, and that my 'type' was just 1% of the population. It really made me accept who I was and that there really wasn't anything I could do to change, so I might as well revel in who I am and enjoy everything that comes along.

The Key to My heart

For our sweetie's birthday I decided to make him a special present. I all the years that we have been living here he has never had a front door key, we have always been here or simply left the door unlocked (that doesn't happen anymore). So I made a little quilt (how unusual - a quilt) and it is called 'The Key to My Heart'. The orange background is hand dyed, the lime green is one of my favourites and the binding fabric was given to my by my friend Ros.

Holes

These chooks were walking along the road as we came along so they were snapped. Hopefully they belonged to someone and made their way back home. The sights you see.

Our overhead power pole was eaten out by those

wonderful fertilisers of the earth - termites -

so we have gone under ground. To stop our sweetie digging up the power line ( I swear his shovel has a pipe attracting beacon on it) we all came to the decision to place a path over the top. The rocks that are place so decorously at the side are out of the holes that are being dug for the fruit trees.

This is the latest in a long line of holes that will be

dug. By the end of the day it was as deep as we

wanted it and my oldest son and I were delighted to have removed so many rock out of it. About seventy years ago, this place was the site of Tannin Extracts Pty Ltd and our house was the office. So there are many and varied things that were buried in the ground, including

these rocks.

Life in the garden

Well if I tell you that life has been busy, you would all agree. Busy is what we have become. So I thought that I would show you some of the plants that I will be planting in my garden. For the next six months or so I am enrolled in a Horticulture course covering 10 subjects. There needs to be something else in my life besides quilting and family, something to has nothing to do with them, something to literally take me outside. I have always enjoyed plants and can remember asking my Dad if I could have a vegetable garden. The answer was negative, as at that stage everything was swinging towards Australian natives. So when I left home, I had a vegetable garden and have had a few through out my life. My Dad even has one now, which I love visiting so see what is happening. Yesterday, at Tech, we tested 10 fertilisers for pH and electrical conductivity. Very interesting, and it rocked us back on our heels. Part of the assessment for this course is a fertiliser trial. We have to, over a three month period, plant and maintain 4, 1 metre square plots growing 3 lettuce, broccoli, and sliver beet in each. The plots are control, inorganic, organic and combination of inorganic and organic. I'll be posting pictures. One of my friends did the same course, awhile ago, and said that the inorganic plot took off like a bomb, however two years after the experiment the only plot that has been sustainable has been the organic plot and she is still able to pick out of that plot. All will be revealed.

This is a quilt that I quilted for Dawn last year for

her Grand Daughter and it came up quite well. It had the full treatment, SID and every block having something quilted on it. It was a bit unsquare and now it is reasonably flat.

This is one of the views that we have on the way to and from school. In fact most of the views are like this. Very peaceful, very lovely and GREEN for a while