Family ...

Marcos was away all weekend .. had a bus charter to do .. so I thought .. hmmm .. clean and vac the house on Saturday and then Sunday is left for sewing ... all day with no one about ... YAY ...

So I spent the day Saturday ...  (I do apologise for all this swearing girls) .... cleaning ... vacuuming ... doing laundry ... ironing ... changing bedding and even washing the quilts ... .. busy busy day ... by 6 o'clock I had eaten and showered and was sitting down with plans of falling asleep in front of the telly ... perfect end to a busy day ...

then at about 7 the dog jumped up and was at the door very excited ..tail wagging ... not barking ... just happy like Marcos or one of the kids was at the door ...

so I dragged my very tired frame up out of my chair and opened the door ... and there was our grandson .. all 18 years of him standing there with his bags in his hands and a girl by his side ... and of course my brain started racing off in 20 different directions with all sorts of scenarios .. I said to myself ... do not jump to any conclusions .. just wait till you hear what he has to say ... so they came in .. and to make a long long long story short ... she was not staying ... phew .. although he wanted to ... he left home in a huff a few months back .. and was supposed to come here a few months back ... but his mates mum talked him into staying there ... I met her the day after he was suppose to come here and I did not like her .. I don't often not like people .. but there was just something about this woman ... something off ...

Anyway .. this boy .. all 18 years of him told me how the weekend prior which was his 18th birthday ... this woman and her boyfriend and her son .... the grandson's mate .. purchased a bottle of rum and gave it to him for his birthday .. then told him a real man could drink the lot ... so being a stupid boy .. all almost 18 years of him decided to show them he was a man .... but turns out he could not drink all that rum at all ... well not drink it and then remember what happened .... thank God kids love to video things that happen around them ... .. there are heaps of videos floating around of my grandson .. tied and faffer taped to a chair ... basically unconscious cos he was sooooo drunk .. this tying up and taping was the handy work of the woman's boyfriend and her son ... then these 2 males attempted to punch and flog him sober ... he had bruises and lumps all over him ... his ear is still split .. a couple of the kids that were there called the police and 10 officers turned up .. no one has been charged yet ... i have to take the lad to the police station thru the week and he has to give a statement to them regarding this .. however he only knows what his friends have told him and what he has seen in the videos ... he remembers nothing ... apart from my very very very harsh words about drinking so damn much and being such a fool .. supposed to be an adult now mate ... if you want me to treat you like one .. then act like one .. blah blah blah ... i then made him ring his dad and tell them that he was here with me ... daddy then came to visit and left at about 11 ... so much for my relaxing .. falling asleep in front of the telly haha .. love my darling grandies ...

and today was spent with the dad ... mum .. and siblings of the 18 year old ... well until 3 this afternoon ... anyway ... tomorrow I will spend the day at the school and the police station and then to centrelink to get his payment removed from this woman clutches ... and then Tuesday it is a doctors appointment and hearing test for me ...

Yes I could have been sewing today ... but I wasn't ... instead I was talking and playing and feeding my family .. in my nice clean and very tidy house ... Then Mr 18 year old and I cooked dinner and ate .. and hubby got KFC on the way home from his job .....

On Wednesday I think I am going to lock myself in my sewing room and hit anyone who comes near the door with the broom handle ... or maybe I will just make them use the broom for the purpose it was designed for .... that would be good too ...


Sorry ... it was a bit longer than I intended it to be ... but then I never could tell a short story ... lol

it's a bit of a worry ..

Last Wednesday afternoon .. hubby was at work .. he drives school buses .. his bus was full with kiddies all eager to get home and get their homework done .. or something like that .. and he was driving along one of the many roads in town .. he had to make a right hand turn at a T-junction.. there were I might add two sidewalks on this road .... one which had a cement walking path .. anyway ... as hubby pulled up at the junction he saw a chap walking along the 'fog' line on the side of the road .. and he proceeded to pull out onto the road ... the noise of the bus motor must have startled the guy cos he tried to run up onto the sidewalk using someones driveway .. he missed his footing (we assume) and stumbled back onto the road into the path of the bus ... luckily ... and to be honest it would appear it all could have gone much better ...... but the side mirror clipped the guy's backpack and he went flying onto the ground ... Marcos pulled the bus over as quickly as he could .. told the children to stay in their seats ... got one of the seniors to take charge and went to check on the man ... as he was getting out of the bus he was on the phone to 000 ...

The man had a very nasty gash on his head and on his leg ... from we assume where he hit the road ... Marcos did all he could do to reassure the guy that help was on the way ... emergency crews turned up very quickly ..  the man was taken to hospital and the police questioned hubby for awhile .. the boss turned up with a relief driver and the kiddies all got taken home .. some were very upset and were crying ... naturally .. but they were all fine the next day ... once they saw hubby was back on the bus and was not in jail .. they had heard on the news that the man was ok ..

We have not been able to get any information on the guy ... and I guess that is the right and proper thing with litigation and insurance and responsibilities and the world as it is ... but all we want to know is .. is he ok ... we don't want his name ..address .. contact details ... just is he ok ... but we cannot be told anything ... and we must understand that ....

Now the other side of this is .. Marcos may be charged .. not sure with what at this point cos we don't know anything about the man that was hit ... he also may lose his 'drivers authority' which he needs to drive school buses / carry paying passengers .. Until we hear otherwise he is still allowed to drive but at any time Queensland Transport can ring his boss and say ... remove him from the driving roster ... that simple ...

Marcos is ok .. worried about the guy .. who was 59 .. we got that off the news ... and now worried about his job and his license  ... I do believe all will be ok as he really could not avoid the accident ... but we are just sitting now and waiting to see what the next ??? however long it takes ?? ... will bring ..

Living in limbo is not nice  .. my concerns are different from hubby's... and I don't like that I can't really share this ordeal with him ... all I can do is still here ... love him and support him the best I can ..

ahhhh bugger ...........

More dedication needed

I have really got to be committed and dedicated to this blog .... which entails actually writing stuff in here and putting up photos of the things I do and the things that are important .. to me .. 

I am going to try very hard to do the right thing by this space ... 

And I guess I could start with these ... 

the first 5 blocks in a very large collection of blocks which will one day go into the making of a quilt from this book ... The Farmer's Wife .. Sampler Quilt .. 

there are 110 blocks in total .. all 6 inch in size .. I am really loving making these and reading the letters that go along with them ... 

And here is another photo of our little Miss Carleigh ... 

Daddy calls her his princess ... 

opps .... just found this in my drafts

March 2015 ... This was the first time Nanna and Poppy met little Carleigh Jean ... Ricky and Nikeia came up for a week which was really wonderful ... we all got to have cuddles and catch up ... 

and I took photos and forgot to post them ... oh my ... well here they are .. these are the ones that really touched me ... hope you like them .. 

Nanna .. deep in thought 

Poppy's first hold

Nanna and Carleigh ... I simply love this photo .. 

Oh My Goodness

My last post was back in February ... I went to visit with my son and his family ... did a couple of posts and then seem to have lost all track of my poor blog ... 

I have been busy though .... making cushions and swap blocks .... I say this in the hope of somehow redeeming myself for my total neglect of my blog .. I really am very sorry ... I will try to do better 

Here are some of what I have been doing ... 

This cushion was made for Chance .. he turned a big 6 this year .. 

This one was for Beau .. he turned 10 

 This one for Cameron .. turning 12 and as he got a telescope for Christmas this fabric just made sense ... 

for Cory .. he turned 17 ... well skulls and cars are apparently what kids this age are into ... so this fabric was the perfect choice .. and apparently he takes it on sleepovers to his mates place on the weekend ... 

this was for Phoebe who turned 14 ... very femine and in her favourite colour ... takes after her Nanni ... 

 for my daughter Megan ... a cute little mug rug with 3 dimensional butterflies .. 

and a sweet purple cushion for her ...

I have also been making these coasters too ... they are fun and easy to do and make excellent gifts .. 

now a couple of photos of those precious great grand-babies of mine ... 

Harrison ... who is now 10 months old ... 

and little miss Carleigh who is 4 months old now ... she is so cute .. 

Initial Heart Swap Received ...

My little squishy arrived today from my partner in the Initial Heart Swap ... I was thrilled when I opened it ... a lovely little card with my second favorite flower on it ... and a beautiful mugrug / candle mat in all sorts of purple fabrics .. my all time favorite colour .... and ... a little heart filled to the brim with lavender ... again another favorite ... ... and a tiny bundle of chocolate hearts ... and yep ... you guessed it ... they are my favorite norti thing ... and all this came from Illene .. from over here ...

very pretty little parcel of goodies ... and I had already eaten a chocolate ... 

haha ... very very nice ... 

lovely little bear in a heart ... too cute ... and all those lovely purples ... 

and this just smells divine and is now hanging in my wardrobe ...

thank you so much Illene ... I love my gifts .... they are all just perfect ... 

Now to reveal all ..

OK ladies ... you have gotten your message through loud and clear .... and I am sorry for keeping you in suspense ..... I shall post a full photo of the bits that I sent my partner ... who was Lisa from Lisa's Stitching Lounge

if you pop over to her blog you will see the photo she posted, which is much better than these .... seems she loves the candle mat .... I really did enjoy making these for her ..... scrappy is something I am getting a real feel for .. 

the candle mat ... and on the little scolloped edge of the heart there are tiny beads at each point ... helped to make it look 'finished'

a simple little mug rug .. 

Everything thrown into one pic ... not too clear I'm afraid 

and here is a more recent photo of Harrison .... loves his food ... 

oh ... and I must share .. our little great granddaughter Carleigh Jean was born a on the 10th February .... she is just gorgeous ... I am still to meet her .. next weekend I think they are coming for a visit  .. such a happy Grandma ... 

introducing ... Miss Carleigh Jean .. AKA Daddy's Princess ..

life is really great ...... loving these babies ..... 

oh .. I will have her quilt finished soon too ..... 

busy  busy busy ... haha

Initial Heart Swap in the mail

I am only popping in for a quickie ... to let you know that my Initial Heart Swap gift has gone in the mail today ...

I truly loved making it ... and I do hope my partner likes it ...

Now I do apologise for the fact that this is not a total reveal ... there was something my partner asked for that just may give away the surprise if I show you the full pic ... sorry about that but we do need to keep it all a surprise .. and we only have a couple of weeks to wait ....

I am having a wonderful time with the kids ... miss hubby terribly .. but still having a wonderful time ...

hope you all are having a great week ...

I am going away tomorrow ..

I am heading to my son's tomorrow .. Sunday ... which is really today .. but later ..

My plane leaves Brisbane around 3 tomorrow afternoon but I will be catching a bus into the airport from here ... so much easier than hubby driving all the way there and back ... and I will have an hour or so to do a little hand sewing ..

I have all but finished my Initial Heart Swap gift .. just a little hand sewing to go .. then it will be in the mail .. I am sorry but I really can't show you what I have made ... cos my partner may or may not be trolling here ... gee I don't even know if my swap partner knows who I am .. this is a most fun swap ...

but .. when she has it in her hot little hands ... then all shall be revealed .. I am soooo impressed with my embroidery work ... I really am getting better at this ...


I am not sure if I will be online very much while I am away .. maybe I will be just too busy galavanting all over the country side .. or just playing with my precious little great grandie Harrison ... and the other children of course ...

well I have to get some sleep so I will say bye for now ... catch up with you all soon ... and if you don't hear from me before hand ... Have a very safe and Happy Australia Day ... I do believe we will be spending some of the day at the beach ...

Have a great one folks ...

Coasters ...

I was browsing through some blogs this evening when I wandered into The Fabric Mill ... and found this tutorial for these coasters .. now I had seen them before and just never got to the point where I thought ... hmmm ... I am going to make them ... well that was until tonight ... 

While looking at the tutorial it hit me .. these would make an excellent birthday gift for my DIL ... her birthday is next month so that works out perfect ... and I did have some Kaffe Fassett charm squares in the cupboard .. somewhere ... which would be perfect ... so ... I dragged them out ... cut a bit of wadding up to size ... folded the charms and pinned them into place .. ran around them with the machine .. turned them out and wow ... I love them ... perfect for drink glasses and wine glasses ... yep .. perfect ... 

And the very best thing with them is .. they took less than an hour to make ... yep .. all 8 of them in less than an hour .. 

Which has left me plenty of time to do some more work on this little heart project ... which is coming along nicely too .... 

It is now 3 in the morning and I really need to get to bed ... have a lovely Monday everyone

Finished .. Yay!!

These are the things I finished and posted to my DD for her birthday ... first birthday for the year .. let's see if I manage to remember all of them .. it is a task to do so but I really am going to try .. 

This is the cushion finished ... I think it turned out rather nice ... 

and a quick little mug rug .. 

the butterflies are done 3 dimensional and are very cute

Well that is all I have finished so far .... I do have a couple of other things on the table but are not finished and even if they were I could not show you cos they are for my 'Initial Heart' swap partner ... 

I am also busy organising stuff here for my little holiday down south ... the only problem is I still do not have my travel booked ... I am waiting on a certain someone to let me know exactly when it is I am going ... oh well, the suspense is sort of adding another layer to the excitement ... lol ... I do know this much ... I will be going one day next week ... 

Have a great weekend everyone ... I will be sitting in the air conditioning .. sewing .... and just enjoying myself .. 

What are your plans ??

At last .. I get to meet Harrison ...

I am going to visit with my son and his family in New South Wales .. and ... I am going to finally meet our precious little Harrison ... I am so very excited about getting to see him and the rest of my precious family ... Son .. DIL .. 3 grandsons .. 1 grand princess .. grandson's partner and little Harrison ... oh and #2 grandsons girlfriend .. apparently they are very serious ... they are both 16 and we know how serious those relationships can be .. haha ...

I have so much to do before I leave .. which is always the way isn't it? .. ahhh!!.. what to take .. what to leave ... well I will be taking stuff for me ... and I am leaving hubby and the dog behind ...... but will fix some meals for him so he doesn't starve ...

I will be catching a bus from here to Brisbane and then a plane to Newcastle ... works out cheaper than a bus all the way ... I would go by train as I really love the trains but there is no connecting trains from here on the same day .. which means I would have to stay overnight and there goes my cheap travel ... so ... I hope to leave here on the 20th .. which is 8 days away .. but I have heaps to do in those 8 days ...

I will only be taking a little hand sewing with me and I am not sure if I will get to do any of that ... the children are still on school holidays and my DIL goes back to work on the 27th ... that is also when the kiddies go back to school ... so after that I may have a little time to sit and stitch ...

I have a couple of things to finish making before I go ... so that will be a job for the next couple of days ... should have the daughters cushion finished tomorrow ... and then I will start on my 'Initial Heart' swap .. it is all ready to start .. getting the idea was the tricky bit ... but that is all worked out ...

But right now I am heading to bed ... it is 3:45 in the morning ... almost time hubby was getting up .... opps ... guess my excitement is getting the best of me ... but the eyes are really telling me it is time to get off the computer and go to bed ... so ... that is what I am going to do ...

catch you all when I am up and about ....

2015 ... well it is not waiting ...

Time is not waiting for me or anyone else it would seem ... the days and months and years just keep chugging along ... and I guess it is up to us to keep up with them ... or fall miserably behind ... 

well .... I am rather puffed from trying but will keep at it ... for the time being anyway ... 

I have managed to do a bit of sewing ... nothing Earth shattering ... but doing enough to keep hubby from repossessing my sewing room .. lol ... 

All I have done is a few blocks ... one for a swap with QSBA .. the other is a BOM for a Facebook group ... and the last one is for a cushion I hope to have ready for my daughter for her birthday ... need to get that done and in the mail this week .. oh and 2 cardtrick blocks that I made ... I was in a swap awhile back but only recieved 10 blocks and really need 12 to do a quilt top in a reasonable size .. 

ok .. this is one I made for a Facebook quilting group I am in

it is a BOM

I love the red and whites .. I do think this quilt will be stunning ...

 This is a swap block that I made for Sue B 

for the QBSA group ... 

I am very pleased that I am again doing the monthly swaps ..  

 This is the block I recieved from Sue B for the above swap

This is a block that will eventually (in the next couple of days) 

become a cushion cover for my daughter for her birthday ...

Some time back I asked for cardtrick blocks in one of the swaps I was in ... When I pulled them out last week I found I only had 10 ... now I could remove one of those and make a small knee rug .. or .. I could make 2 more and make a more substantial sized snuggle rug .. 

So that is what I did ... and ended up with these 

I just noticed .. this is my 100th blog post ... YAY I made it !!!!

almost the end of another year ...

I have no idea really where this past year has gone ... all I know is I did not do half the sewing I had hoped to do ... so with some luck and a little bit of good management I hope to do a little more this coming year than I got done this past one .. which really won't be too hard at all ... haha

My grandson and his partner came to visit the other day ... Polly Anna's parents .... and they tell me she can no longer be referred to as Polly Anna ... she has a name and it is Carly Jean ... she is also due on the 19th February and will possibly be a larger babe as mummy has diabetes ... and the doctors are already saying Carly is a little on the big size for her age ... mummy is a very little girl .. possibly a size 6  ... she is little and a big baby won't be an easy thing for her to endure .. but she is under a very good doctor and the hospital is an excellent one .. 

I gave her the little diaper bag I made the other day ... and I also gave her a bundle of baby clothes I had here too ... all pink and rather cute ... but some may never get worn due to the size of them ... but I am sure she can gift them to someone else .. 

I also made this today .. just sitting at the machine playing around ... and I think it is rather cute ... and I am certain Harrison will enjoy it ... 

I will have to make another one too ... a pink one for Carly ... haha .... this babies are going to keep me a bit busy I think .... 

Little Polly-Anna ...

I have a couple of pics this week  ... 

one of a bag I made .. the fabrics are very vibrant and rather bright although the photo really does not show it in all its glory ..... I will possibly give it to mummy for Polly-Anna ... this is not the great grandbaby girl's name ... it is just something I am calling her until the parents find a name for her ... and I kind of like it .. it is certainly growing on me ... and ... if her dad knew I was calling her this he would possibly disown me ... lol ... 

but ... I no care ... 

and here is a pic of the quilt I will be making for her ... This is my final decision and the fabric has been ordered ... I have the small bits for the girls and the windows ... the sun and the birdies etc .. and the door and roof ... I am just waiting for the walls and sky to arrive ... then it is on with the show ... I have until February to have this one finished ... and I do want it done before Polly Anna is born .. 

The pattern is called ... Our House ... by Toni Alexander of Me and My Red Boots .. 

you can find her patterns HERE ....

Although I have been struggling over the past few months I do feel like I have turned a corner ... and it is a positive one too ... I am feeling stronger and healthier than I have for years really ... it is all a little hard to get my head around at times but I do know I am on the improve ... and that I did not realise just how ill I had become ... but it did take a long time to get ill and I dare say it will take awhile also before I am back to full steam, but,  I am looking forward to the coming year ... with the birth of another babe ... and with that comes the making of another quilt .. 

And oh course there are all the other quilts that are still waiting to either be started or to be finished ... and the children are all very patient with their old nan ... I am just thankful that I have the opportunity to make them ... 

I hope everyone has a safe ... healthy and happy Christmas ...
filled with much love and fabulous memories ... 

 Merry Christmas everyone !!!!