Oh, what a feeling.......

When you complete some UFO's that have been hanging around for a number of years! As I have ordered a quilt pattern, and plan to start the quilt very soon, I thought I had better clear the cupboard and boxes to make room for more work.

Prior to Christmas, I almost finished Aysha's gift, but it needed to be wrapped up unfinished, taken back, and completed in the following week.

This quilt began life looking like this jelly roll....





And finished like this.....




Aysha was very happy with her gift, and so was I.

Aysha is multi-talented, sewing being one of her talents, so together, we finished a couple of bags we had started several years ago.








These came together quite quickly, and hers went off to Tasmania with her for the Girl Guide FanTAStic gathering over there. Mine will be gifted later in the year.


Last, but by no means least, is the sampler quilt I began about ten years ago. For those who are familiar with quilt making, each block of the quilt is a different style of patchwork, some are machine pieced, some are appliquéd and some are pieced by hand. I think that I changed two of the blocks, and did the double wedding ring block instead, as I intended the quilt to go on our bed in time for some anniversary or another. Needless to say, this did not happen.

Once I had the top together, I took the easy way out and did very minimal machine quilting to hold the three layers together. This one will be on our bed tonight, and TRO has already tried it out, as the weather has at last, thankfully, cooled down.











As I said...oh, what a feeling.....it feels great to have a couple more things of the "to do" list.



Posted from another day in Paradise

Goodbye 2012, welcome 2013

After delivering our mothers safely back to Melbourne and their respective homes, we had just one hour to relax at our home before welcoming our next guests, our friends and ex neighbors, Judy and Russ, who came to help us welcome in 2013.

A most delicious seafood dinner was enjoyed on the front deck, the weather had cooled down, and was most pleasant for our door dining.





Russ doing what he loves to do, he is so kind, peels all the prawns for everyone else to eat.

New Years Eve day saw us down the Skydancers in Harcourt, where they especially put on breakfast for us, just because we had rung to enquire. Judy and I had the "green breakfast", egg, pesto, avocado and parsley . Just delicious! Again the weather was lovely, and we sat outdoors,under one of the huge shade sails they have installed there.




After such a large breakfast/brunch, a fruit platter was all that was needed for mid afternoon snack, and Russ excelled himself with the making of the same.






A BBQ for dinner, and more outside dining, this time on the back patio. We all managed to half stay awake for the countdown to midnight, wished each other a Happy New Year with a kiss and a hug and were all bedded down by 12.05!

New Year Day dawned with the promise of a hot day, but we headed off to Maryborough to watch the street parade for the Highland Games. This was mostly wonderful local pipe bands, with some dancers and brass bands thrown in for good measure.

Our own local Castlemaine Pipe band was there, and put on a good performance, as did all the others.





It was very hot standing in the sun, so Judy sought shelter, and made a new friend, who had done the same.




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After our visitors had headed off home to Mulgrave, we had some more of the furry and feathered variety that evening, and along with a lovely sunset, it was a perfect ending to a very pleasant couple of days, and a nice welcome to the New Year.














Posted from another day in Paradise