What can I say ....

I am just a really bad blogger ... 

I should have done a couple of posts by now ... showing off all the stuff I have been doing .... but some of it I can't show you cos it is Secret Squirrel Stuff or should that be Santa Sack Swap ... haha ..... same amount of S's in the title .. I shall just refer to it from now on as ... S S S  .... and I have been making other stuff is well ... just not finished enough to show off ... 

I could have posted about my grandson's and their birthdays ... our precious Seth who turned ... 6 ... wow .. time has gone by so quickly ... I remember the mercy dash I made the night he was born ... came flying into the world 6 weeks early and he hasn't slowed down yet .. still in a rush to get to everything ... haha ... 

He had a wonderful birthday party with a few of his friends from school ... 

And after they all played for awhile they had cake ... apparently even kids like cake 

Happy Birthday Darling .. Nanni loves you to the moon and back ...

And my precious grandies still sleep with their baby quilts that I made them ... 

This is the quilt I made for Seth when he was born .. 

And here it is .. still being used ... and in really good condition too all things considered ...

 This is the quilt I made for our Miss Hayley at the same time Seth's was made .. 

 And here it is ... much loved by my darling little grand-daughter ... this one too is faded and well used ... 

yes .. both the kids were asleep in the lounge room under their rugs ... 

I reckon they are both just about due a big kids quilt ... haha ... 

Something finished ...

Instead of cleaning and packing for our trip .. I decided to finish this instead ... well it did seem like a great idea at the time ... and ... I am so pleased I did it .. I have no pixies at the bottom of my garden so they do not come a-visiting in the middle of the night ... so my cleaning .. sorting and packing will still be here in the morning .. and now ... so with this most lovely cushion ... 

I am very well pleased with it ... this is one of the dresen plates I was playing with a couple of posts ago  .... this is one of 2 odd ones ( a couple of the blades don't match up ) ...

I do think the colours in the plate go well with the marbled green ... so this could well be a very good candidate for the overall background for the quilt .... I have recently seen a photo of a Dresden Quilt done with all different colour backgrounds ... that too looked very nice ... which is also another option ... I honestly don't want too many options though ... cos then I will get really confused and not be sure at all which way to go .... 

I am going to head off to bed now .... it is still quite early for me but lately I have been feeling very tired and sleep is a nice thing when you're tired ... 

Will catch up sometime soon ... Possibly from my boys place ... I am so looking forward to seeing them all ... giving the kids a huge hug and catching up on everything they have been doing ... the two little ones have both started school since last I saw them ... and Blake is now in high school ..... and Brad .. well he left home ages ago .... yep .. it is about time Nanni went for a visit and did some serious catching up ... 

Quick update on what's happening here ...

I have been moderately busy doing stuff ... 

Cutting fabric ready to make stuff ... and ... 

Not getting any of it finished .. yet ... but will one day ... 

oh .. and ... packing and cleaning to go visit the 2nd youngest son and family ... We won't be taking the bus this trip .. it is easier to take the car and stay with them .. we are having a bit of a problem finding somewhere that will take the bus and the dog ... not very friendly I think ... 

We will be heading off on Thursday ... driving from here to the Central Coast in NSW ... hopefully hubby will allow me to pop in and visit with a couple of online friends on the way there ... if not I shall just borrow the car and go visit them myself and he can stay and play with the kids .. 

anyway .. this is what I have been doing ... Nothing is finished yet ... 

Chopping and hacking up perfectly good pieces of fabric into bits like these .... 

 And then putting them back together into these bits .... 

 And .. then ... one day after I do some more chopping and slicing ... and putting and piecing ... Hopefully I will end up with one of these .... 

I love my EQ6 .... I get to play with what I am making before I even chop up my fabrics ... much fun ... 

Have also been trying to do a catch up with at sew along at 

Victoriana Quilt Designs with the plan to eventually make this 

So far ... I have this done ... still waiting for some stitching ... but I am not real happy with this .. I think that is why I haven't finished it ... reckon I will try again maybe with different fabrics .. I can always turn this one into a cushion cover ... 

and lastly before I head back off to bed .... 

My darling grandson Brodie had a birthday ... He is now 16 and quite the young man ... he stands as tall as his Poppy and I am so very proud to be his Nan ... 

Happy Birthday my Darling ... you are still as cute as you used to be ... and yeah ... this is a very old photo ...haha ... like most teens the only photos he likes getting taken are the ones he takes himself ... I will get one soon ... and show you all just how handsome he is .. 

oh .. no ... not more mug rugs ... haha

Yes ... just a couple ... then there should be no more for a little while .. maybe ... unless I get the urge to do some more ...

I just find them so addictive ... and in a fashion they are sort of like little mini quilts ...

All of these I did for swaps ... which reminds me ... I have not taken photos of the ones I recieved ... hmmm ... looks like there will be one more post of mugrugs to come ... LoL ...

as you may have guessed already .... crazy swap ... 

this one is now living in Western Oz ...

and this is its backing  

and this one went to New South Wales ... 

and its back ... 

and i am not sure yet where this one is to go ... partners still yet to be assigned ... 

 and now for a little change of pace ... 

some lotto blocks ... still homeless

and these lovely little hexies will one day be part of a rainbow ... the top lot are cut and awaiting the needle and thread ... all a part of a great little free sew along called Sew Over the Rainbow ... you can find out more here ...  Victoriana Quilt Designs 

and these are just something else I am plodding along with .... my gorgeous dresden plates .. I have 12 here a

these will be cushion covers ... 

 and the rest of these will one day be a quilt ... I just have to get the background fabric ... and am not too sure what colour to go ... would appreciate any input for this ... ta ... 

and lastly ... my potmits .. waiting in the wings for when I get bored with the other things ... 

That's it for today ... I am working on a bit of a give-a-way thingy ... for no particular reason .. I just have this lovely little quilt kit I was given and I will possibly never get the time to do it ... and I reckon I should at least do something constructive with it ... like ... give it to someone who will do it ... haha .. before the fabric gets too 'dated' ... 

so ... watch this space ...

and thanks so much for popping by ... 

Our Time in Townsville ...

This is a post I started in February ... and ... here it is June ... this is one of the drafts I had sitting to be finished .. so I will do just that .. I have not actually posted too many entries at all this year ... which is really not very good at all ... and some of this is really old news ... but must have seemed important at the time .. so I will post it now and get it out of the drafts ... there are a few more in there too waiting to be finished ...

Anyway ....  I will post this as I wrote it back then ... 

What glorious weather we have been having here ... no 'big wet' this year ... woohoo .... not sure if the farmers will agree with me or not .. but I am happy enough the way things are at the moment ..

I have been doing some sewing and I have been having a wonderful time staying with my son and his family ... 

We are just south of Townsville at a little place called
Alligator Creek .. 

our bus parked in the front yard

and we are having a fantastic time ... just sitting around ..... swimming in the pool with the granddaughters ...
and generally doing a lot of very little ...

our BB

 and Shyanne

and let's not forget Poppy along with Bingo & Missy .. 

both dogs wishing they were allowed in the pool 

... can you see Poppy in the corner of the pool ??? ...

he is only just visible .. maybe he is camera shy .. haha

life really does not get too much better than this ...

I did sign up for a couple of mug rug swaps

I did one for a new year swap .. basically the theme was ... My New Year .. and as we were going to be travelling this year I came up with this idea ...

I also did this one .. and in case you are not sure .. it was for St Patrick's day ..

I had to upgrade my camera as well .. my old one was giving me very poor picture quality .. I will miss its simplicity though as the new one is a digital SLR and quite a different camera to use ... mind you if I set it to auto it is sooooooooooo much easier to use ... haha ... one day I will get used to it ...

I am no photographer .. never really aspired to be one either ... my daughter, my niece and my sister are all very good photographers .. but me ... no so ... but as I was wondering around my sons property .. playing with my new toy taking photos of different flowers and plants .. more for focus practice than anything else ... I got this shot ... and didn't even realise it until I was sorting through them on my computer ..

. this rather large bumble bee must have popped in and out of that flower while I was trying to work out which buttons to push ... because I honestly didn't see it in the flower ...

that was some of the time we spent there ...

and to finish off this post .... my precious grand daughters .. 

 Nanni misses you so much it hurts ...

Last Friday night ...

Last Friday night I had a long night cutting and sewing and ironing ... it was a great night .. I would have posted all this sooner but I have had Internet connection issues .. One day the teleco's may give the country folk what the city folk have .. but that is not going to happen soon .. so we just grin and bear it ... 

 I am still having a few hic-cups with it today and hopefully I will get this entry done and posted before it becomes 'old news'

I actually wrote this yesterday, Saturday ... 

Anyhow as many of you know there is a website that does a FNSI (Friday Night Sew-In) where you go in and sign up to play ... and then you do a blog post about your nights stitching and link to her site ... but the only problem I have with it is ... it is the 3rd Friday of the month and I don't always remember it .... So I want to try to make every Friday night a sew-in night at my place that way I may remember to join in the fun on Heidi's site as well ..

Living here in the bus at the kids place certainly does have its advantages ... I don't have to cook for us ... therefore .... I don't waste precious time feeding hubby when I want to sew ... at dinner time I just go over to the house ... strap on the feed bag ... and when done .. leave .. oh .. I do help load the dishwasher if I can get into the kitchen .... Most days I shower early in the afternoon .. about 3:30 when Katie is off picking up the boys from school ... so on the nights I want to sew I shower then I go over to the bus and set up for the night ... all my tubs of fabric are currently on the veranda of the house .. so I have to go digging for what I need for the night in the afternoon .. or I end up .. like I did last Friday night at 11 o'clock creeping around in the dark with a torch finding my applique interfacing .. haha ..

I made a couple of mug rugs .. from a swap that I didn't get into .. the theme was ... when I was young ... I had bought some Dick and Dora fabric off eBay but it did not arrive in time for the swap ... and I sooo wanted to make these ... cos I just loved those readers when I was in my early years of school ... now the kids would laugh at them ... too corny for them .. haha ..

Anyway ... I got 2 finished and one almost done ...

I was having a problem finding the 'right' fabric for the binding .... but located some this afternoon .. so the last one should be finished off soon .. and then these will go into the little box I have .. for giving away later ...

I also finished off a pot mit ... and have another one that just needs the binding put on

oh ... and I have another 4 waiting to be quilted .. they are sandwiched but waiting .. I like this one ... will be very handy in the kitchen me thinks ... 

I have a baby quilt I started a while back .. I did a bit of blanket stitching around the applique parts .. well I tried to .. not sure if it was the fabric or the machine but it would not play nice at all .. so I got the interfacing and spent a heap of time cutting and iron that on to the back of the top ... hopefully that will help and I can get this little cutie finished off ... I have no one to give it to as it is pink ... but I am sure someone someday will have a pink baby that I can pass it along to .. hopefully it won't be a great grand baby just yet ....

I think that is all that I have been playing with ... I am pleased with what I have done so far ...

Let’s see what this coming month will produce .... Hopefully more blog posts than last month ... haha ..

And my little Bingo seems to rather enjoy this bus life too ... she is making the most of being allowed inside thru the day ... cos it is raining today ...

Did I mention how much I love my DIL for looking after us so well ... 

both her and my boy are very special to me ...

Livin' in a bus .. ain't that bad ...

I am quite loving it really ... sure it has its ups and downs .. but on the whole ... it is really wonderful .. 

Currently we are visiting with our son and his wife and children ... all four gorgeous boys ... the 3 younger ones love nothing more than to spend their weekend on my bed playing 'playstation' with Poppy ... 

Lookout ... Chance seems to be beating Poppy ... 

 and the young fella does looked real pleased with himself ...
Cameron and Barak are sitting waiting for the inevitable ...

And it just happened ... 

 Watch Out Chance ...   Poppy don't play fair ... He don't care that you are only 4 ... 

He WILL kill you so that he can win ... He has no conscience ... 

Yes Chance .... Poppy is a really mean old man ... 

and he will not apologise .. even if you cry ... and thinks nothing of arguing with a 4 year old either ... 

mean old Poppy ... 

and now there is a winner the older boys seem to have totally lost interest in the whole game ... 

 and underneath all those bodies is my bed ... 

I may be able to fix it later when I need to go to bed ... maybe ....

And while the boys and the mean old man are in the bedroom ... killing my bed .... I am at the other end of the bus ... sewing ... I have my 'sewing room' set up ... everything has its place .. and I love it ... 

The ironing and pressing of blocks gets done here ... 

on my sewing board .. over the sink ... 

what do you think of that ... great hey?? ... 

 The cutting board lives here ... with my sweet Kevin over seeing things ... and if you look to the left of him you will see my little friend 'Chookie' ... the sweet Fiona made her for me when we left Toowoomba ... she keeps Kev company and makes sure he does not wander off too far ... 

The cutting board had to have a few minor tweaks to get it to fit on the countertop ... points cut off the corners and just a wee little notch in the centre so that it would fit around the wall paneling .. 

 and the beautiful machine ... well she lives here ... on my foldaway table ... this is the heart and soul of the sewing room ... 

and hanging just above it is my humming bird ... a very lovely gift from the very lovely Maddy .. 

Behind me on the other counter top is all the fabric and bits and bobs that get used ... 

And it is when it looks like this .. I really want to sew but I just stop and look at it for a while ... have a cuppa and take in the beauty of it all ... cos I know as soon as I pull out the fabric ... it won't look like this for very long ... it will look like all your rooms do .... a glorious mess ..... with good things happening ... 

I made this last week .. for my DIL's sister ... her baby is due in about 6 weeks ... she is having a little boy ... it was not a full size cot quilt as she really wanted something for a basket .. it measured 30 x 34 inches ... and the machine embroidery blocks were a gift from a friend who owns this site ... http://www.nanasweightedblankets.com.au/ 

Actually this looks a little purplish in this shot .. but it is a real royal blue ... 

And this was a prize that I won doing a Mystery Quilt from Here!!

I guessed the name of the block and had my quilt finished before anyone else ... woohoo .... 

I am guessing the little dragonfly was just a little extra something for Me !!! ...

a close up of the little dragonfly ...

Too cute ..

This is the Mystery Quilt ... 

As today is a Monday ... the big boys are all at school .. 

so this is what my bedroom generally looks like ... this is an old photo .. would take another one right now of the same scene .. but my battery is flat ... but they are in there again ... saving the world from the bad guys ... oh ... and arguing like a couple of school kids ... 

love my family ... love my life ...