TA - DA- FINALLY!

Yes ........ Finally the top is finished on the "Down the Rabbit Hole" quilt!  

Started in 2017 as a block of the month project with Sarah Fielk - what I thought looked like a more

simplified pattern turned out to have ALOT more little bits and pieces than I had ever imagined!  It took me on a journey of learning to piece things differently, cut differently, learn to applique using a turn down method and many hundreds of small stitches, learn how to make bias binding - and that was just the first couple of months!!!  Trying to piece the houses nearly sent me round the twist lol and got me a couple of months behind while I struggled with them ....... 

Then it was time to pack up the house as we made the interstate move from Bundalong in Vic to Maryborough in Queensland.  Here a bit more work took place during that first year, but then it was packed up yet again to make the move to Hervey Bay where I don't remember if it even got unpacked since the house was smaller and Covid hit so I worked a bit from home in the "sewing room" (working full time and extra and ended up back in the hospital working through it all anyway), and we had Dad up a few times to recover from hospital  visits before we packed up yet again to sell in Hervey Bay and moved back to Maryborough ............ as you might know, a year later we packed up and sold Maryborough to move back down south across the river from Bundalong in Corowa!  Thank goodness we have been here 2 years already and so finally the sewing projects are finding their way out of boxes!!

Anyhow, since its such a huge quilt, and thankfully I had already purchased the batting and backing way back so I put it all together and have it pinned ready to begin the hand quilting part of this!!!  I've never hand quilted anything bigger than a cot size before so this should be very interesting!!!! Wish me luck as I work it out as I go ...................

I think the whole country knows that Taylor Swift had a concert in Melbourne lol ...... Our daughter in Law Renee and Granddaughter Jacey  flew down from Townsville to Melbourne to see it!  Renee's cousin and friend also were with them and looks like they had a fabulous time with great seats going by the photos!! We haven't seen them since Stacey and John were married back a couple of years ago and it would have been lovely to have caught up with them had we known they were there.  Jacey is certainly growing up ...... 15 years old already!  I'm hoping to get up to Townsville for her 16th birthday in October, but that will depend if they will be there for it as I think they are planning a holiday - possibly overseas which would be amazing!

Then we have the big gap with our new Granddaughter Mila just a couple of weeks old to our eldest son and his partner! I feel very blessed to be able to be part of little Mila's life, especially having her so very close - less than an hour away.   Finally the other day she was awake and had her eyes open long enough for me to be able to capture a couple of photos!  Such a little  sweetie 

I finally got around to getting another blog book made up whilst a special was on ...... usually they

come through when I'm too busy to be able to sit and see to it!  I had to pull out my first 2 books to check what date the 2nd book went up to so I had a starting point for this 3rd book and decided to take it up to when we sold Bundalong and had the move to Maryborough.  My blogging became quite sporadic during the time up there and first moving down here due to full time work up there and all the moving which might mean I only need 1 more book to bring me up to date.

Oh! And before I forget ....... whilst out the other day in a little township about 20mins away called Howlong ..... I remembered years ago heading into a little estate and finding a material outlet at a lady's home.  At the time she had the whole front lounge room and the entrance as her "shop" - very squishy and difficult so my friend and I never tended to go back ....... I was very curious though if perhaps she was still operating given there is no sewing shop in Corowa ..... As it turns out, not only is she still operating, but she has grown quite large and now has a separate building on her property out the front which has a lovely selection of goods, plus an area for sewing with others and a separate "class room " area  ...... needless to say, I will be going back lol  And right now, I'm off to go do some letter writing so I'll catch you all later !

February Progress

 

With only 11 days to go till February comes to an end I thought I should share my progress ........ which has come along since the chaos of early February when so much was taking place ....... Dad turning 95, The sister & BIL over for the weekend from New Zealand, our little Granddaughter arriving (obviously the most exciting news!!) and a girls day out to Echuca!   But then I needed to get onto some sewing and knitting in particular!   Our daughter has a very good friend who is almost part of the family since they have known each other since they were 13 and Carly spent many, many days and nights at our place over the years, and even coming on camping holidays with us.  She was also one of Stacey's bridesmaids (but unfortunately due to lock down was unable to make it to the wedding - along with 2/3rds of the wedding party and guests!).  Carly and her partner are now expecting their own little bundle of joy so I've been busy trying to get a couple of things made for the baby shower being held in March.

Although Number 2 on my knitting list says socks ...... the No 1 had Baby Jumper✅  so that's now ticked off  instead lol.  The beanie was made in January and the yellow yarn worked well with the Ravelry Stash Buster Challenge✅ ...... White is the February Colour for the Rav Colour Stash Buster✅

And onto the sewing .........  Whilst Number 2 on the list is the Eye Spy Quilt to get started ..... that

may yet happen but I'm not in a great hurry as I plan to make it as a Christmas Gift for Mila - so lots of time left to work on it yet!   Instead I decided to make a little pram quilt  and made it reversable so she can use it whichever way she likes ........ I had made a start on this on a previous post when I was working on the back of it using neutral colours ........

 then last weekend I chose the pastel type colours for the "front" and during the week and  FNSI and yesterday have managed to get it sewn up, quilted and the binding sewn down!  So I'm super happy with this being finished so quickly!!  Here is the finished Front

And the "Back"  ✅

I've also been making more progress on Down the Rabbit Hole with 3 of the corners now Appliqued and hand stitched ...... so just 1 more to go and it will finally be reading for the backing and the quilting process!

But wait ....... there is more!!!  Just a tiny bit ...... one more bird has been made following the colours for RCH  - meaning I have the 2 Green Birds for January, but yet to make the February colours which are Red!

And then I came across some woollen blanketing material which is just the right size for a little

winter pram blanket for Mila since it gets quite cold down here in Winter ....... I've started working out a bit of an idea and begun a bit of woollen embroidery on it so we shall see how that begins to take shape over the next few weeks or so ......  And that's pretty much a wrap for so far in February!

Welcome Mila Jade

Less than a day old with her daddy

We were sooo excited when we were given the news that we have a new addition to our family ........ 

We are proud to present our little Granddaughter  ........  Little Mila Jade (pronounced Meela) who arrived late at night on February the 5th weighing in around 7 1/2 lbs and the most adorable little cherub.  

First Cuddles with Pop who is totally smitten

Grandma's Turn .....

Our 3 other grandchildren now aged between 13 - 19 all live in Townsville which is the other end of Australia so it was even more exciting to be able to drive to the hospital to see our new granddaughter and have those special first cuddles with her whilst she was still so tiny!

Tiny and sweet, but my goodness she has some strong legs on her! She was pushing away from her daddy while he was trying to change her ....... and look at that head of dark hair!

Meantime, I'm still waiting for her to open her eyes for me lol ....... she is a good sleeper.  

I've managed to get to see her since she got home and have a few more cuddles and we look forward to being able to watch her grow.  It's also nice to not be working full time, which means a little more time to be able to enjoy visits. I just love her to bits!

As you might imagine, you will be seeing more of this little cherub as time goes on ....... and of course I now have plenty more things to get making!!!!!

 

February Numbers

     Things were going quite well in January with the Chookshed Challenges and doing a great job with the number 6 items ........ then the latter part of January happened and Chaos entered with work picking up speed and the numerous things at the start of February .......

My Dad turned 95 on the 2nd Feb with my sister and her hubbie flying out from New Zealand for the weekend to celebrate .......... unfortunately they noticed how much he has declined since last October and getting out and about for him now takes alot more effort on his part and ours....... But he enjoyed his birthday dinner out!

We had some other exciting news the start of February that I'll tell you about in a special post next

Kaye and I at the Cafe

time once we've been told we can "share".  I've also been able to catch up with a friend - meeting up with Kaye up at Echuca for the day.  We met when we lived in Brisbane and the girls started pre-school and have remained friends through all our various moves - 34 years of friendship!

  One of my newer friends Deb came with me to keep me company for the drive over and back.  Deb lives just down the road from me in Corowa and we became firm friends once we discovered we had both gotten puppies last Christmas and the 2 girls (now 15 months old) get on so extremely well ..... You would have seen photos of Lucy with her friend Bella in previous posts.

Kaye, Deb and myself at the old port section

We had a lovely day out walking around the Port of Echuca and checking out the shopping.  The river was right down ...... so far that the paddle steamers are dry docked pretty much!  It's hard to believe the water rises up to the tops of that Warf you see in the photo!!  The downer was the $240 speeding fine I picked up on the way home ....... and I'm not highlighting that number!!!!

On the sewing front after getting my Number 6 jobs completed I started work on the "Down the Rabbit Hole " Quilt  which now just needs some applique in the corners before finally being ready to quilt! This might just be the year it gets finished!!!

Stacey's close friend is also due to have a baby in the next couple of months so I've been doing a bit of knitting and sewing for that little one as I've been invited to the baby shower in March - I dare not blink at this rate lol

SOOOOOOOO ....... FINALLY on the 10th day of February I dropped over to  Deana's Blog to find out what Number item from our list we will be working on for the rest of February .......

This means getting started on the "I Spy Quilt" from the sewing list;  From the yarn list - "A pair of Socks" to be either commenced or worked on - however my number 1 on that list is a baby cardigan and I'm currently half way through one that I need to finish for the above baby shower so I may just have to "twigg" my list ........ then of course I have the decluttering list which mentions something about kitchen drawers and the Tallboy in the guest room ....... Well, with just 18 days left or so I'm thinking February might not be the same crushing glory that January was lol!

And before I forget ....... I saw on a blog over Christmas where somebody put up all the books they

had read for the year so I thought I should remember to do this each month ..... I missed blogging about this in January but I did ready my all time favourite classic that I've read over and over - frequently it's a January read for some reason and my book is now beginning to fall apart ....... 

A Town Like Alice by Neville Shute

I also read "The Underground Railroad" by Colson Whitehead which I picked up from the library about runaway slaves in America trying to make it to safety further north

In Feb so far I've managed to read "Gone" by Margaret Wilcox - a true story about a mothers 14 year search for her daughter and a book I just happened to pick up from the little "give a way" book library that used to sit outside an old motel around the corner here and has recently been moved up to the Community Garden so more people can access it ........ place any unwanted books into it and take any that you might like to read!  I'll be dropping this one back so somebody else can get the chance to enjoy it.  This makes 3 books for the year so far which I'm quite surprised about in actual fact!

And Parkrun has started in Corowa .............. Yep, I decided to have a go and managed the first 2 weeks but missed yesterday as I was feeling a bit run down with the past few weeks of ongoing activity around here and desperately needed a home day!  Lucy runs with me and does a great job keeping me going at times!!!

Well, I think this is where I will leave it today ....... I really need to be blogging more than once a month so improvements are required ....... a little more disciplined organisation for everybody so I still get me "my time" to do the one hundred and one million things it seems I'm trying to fit into a week lol

Many thanks to those who have been leaving comments and visiting my blog

Hugs

Sharm