Ugly Fat Quarter Challenge...

My friend Bobbie held a little challenge on her site a few months ago... (I am late with mine)

you sent her what you considered and ''ugly fat quarter'' with a return address envelope inside and she sent you one back... now everyone knows I love ''lime green'' and the ugly I got was lime woohoo... and Bobbie says she didn't peek either so how lucky am I...

I decided to make myself a plastic bag holder...

 as you can see I appliqued butterflies to my fabric...

 and I heavily machine shadow quilted around the 3 butterflies...

I just love it...

and who says lime is ''ugly''

the pattern is in 

Handmade Patchwork Annual Vol 29 No5

I have changed mine as I didn't use their applique but used the butterflies that are on the pattern sheet also and chose to make a handle instead of drawstrings...

I still love it...

The Gums...

We have tourists at the moment and one of them is a keen photographer... so just before sunset we took them for a drive to what we call ''the Gums'' which is and area of Gum Trees that always has plenty of birds nesting especially the pink and grey Galah...

 there were several ''cockies'' about and they were keeping a keen eye on us... we found a few hollowed out dead branches with evidence of a nest being built in and some could of had eggs in... if there were any babies they were being very quiet...

 

 but..............

the surprise was this Eagles nest... I have never seen one before... 

there were plenty of photo's taken of this

today they are going to take a ladder down there so the photographer can get some shots of in the nest... we don't think that there is any activity from eagles using it but we did notice a Galah being very protective of the nest area.... which would be so funny if they were using it...

CupCakes...

Hubby is away doing a course and he is going to stay the night with a friend of ours who use to live on the neighbouring station... she has two little girls who I use to cook cupcakes for when I visited or they us...

sooooooooooo I made two batches yesterday for him to take one container for the girls and he is to drop off another container to his cousins kids on the way past... those poor little ones are having a rough time as Mum has been away having a baby and the baby has been sick so Mum and baby have been in hospital for 3 weeks and Granny has come from South Africa to help Dad BUT............. now Dad is terribly sick and in hospital in the city and Granny is on the station with the two kids!!!!!!!!!

I tell ya if it ain't raining its POURING...

hopefully Granny will have some ''bribing food'' in the next couple of hours dropped off at her door...

pink and purple and orange and flowers and butterflies and blue and green and dinosaurs

and

chocolate and plain

Roses For A Friend...

I have been having ''applique withdrawls'' I seem to have been doing a LOT of piecing of late and I do love doing applique and after doing the mug rugs I was itching to do some more applique...

I had been thinking about a friend and what I could make her so........

I made this

and a closer look

there is some hand stitching in the cream I used a variegated pink and it's not showing to clearly might be something to do with the time I took the photo...

The rose pattern can be found at Fat Cat Patterns 

the fabric use for the rose I dyed myself with procion dyes...

and I am not saying who the friend is as I think she drops in every now and then...

I've Got Mail....

What a lovely lot of mail I have had these past couple of days... 

some have been swaps and others purchases...

this block I received from Ann my June swap partner over at Quilting Block Swap Australia...

Ann is from Canada and I just love the cherry fabric

thank you Ann...

Now Ann and I are good friends as well... we met via another website a few years back and have stayed in contact via msn ever since and for my birthday in this same parcel was this

a gorgeous little bag that I have put to very good use with my hand stitching project... it is the ideal size and very portable around my home and out into the sewing room when I am up before dawn breaking... I sneak out of the house so I don't wake anyone else up as I am sure that they don't want to be up at 4.30 hehehe...

the fabrics that Ann used are so me as well.... thank you thank you Annie Mac xxxx

I also received my August ''Santa Sack'' parcels from my partner Michelle... I promise I didn't squeeze toooooooooooooo hard

I am very curious about the one with the long bit added to it????

Thank you Michelle xxx

 My shopping was at Vicki's Pickledish Patch... go to her blog and the click the link on her side bar to go looking or shopping...

I purchased some Aurifil as there is so much talk about it and I have been wanting to try it out with my piecing to see if there is a difference as I generally use Gutermann poly and have been trying different brands of cotton thread to find which one I prefer better... so when I use it I will let you know what I think... does anyone else have a brand they prefer to use?... Vicki also had the cutest cotton reels of ric-rac and I couldn't help myself... actually I would love to have all the colours and have them all lined up on a shelf for display only hehehehe....

I also have a splurge at the Fat Quarter shop...

a pack of Jelly Roll strips ''Delilah by Tanya Whelan"... these are destine for a baby quilt for one of my daughters friends that's if the baby is a girl which we are hoping for as they have a boy already... and if it's not a girl that doesn't matter as I am SURE I will find something to make with them...

 and also these...

as I needed/wanted some more darker blues and hey at the time the Aussie $ was looking very good...

this was only one from the shop still waiting on the second parcel which should have the Kona Solids in it mmmmm... might have to do some chasing on that one...

A Few Things To Show You

Last week we did go to Perth for a quick trip because

this girl

was entered into the Barr... she is now a fully fledged Lawyer 

WOOHOO

very proud moment for all of the family... 

5years of University and 2 years of Legal Aid work a very long haul for her

well done sweetheart...

I must share this recipe with you too as it tasted so good... I made a pot of this to take to Perth as I knew that after we had lunch to celebrate... and yes we did have champagne... dinner would be the last thing we would be wanting...

Creamy Chicken and Cauliflower Soup...

2 tablespoons vegetable oil

2 chicken breast fillets chopped

1 onion finely chopped

750g cauliflower chopped

4 cups chicken stock

1 cup milk

3 teaspoons chopped tarragon

sea salt and cracked black pepper

Place a saucepan over high heat, add half the oil and the chicken and cook, stirring for 4 minutes until the chicken is well browned. Remove from the pan and set aside. Add the remaining oil and add the onion and cook for 3 minutes or until soft. Add cauliflower, stock and milk, cover and cook for 10-12 minutes or until cauliflower is tender. Use a blender stick or blender to process until smooth. Return to saucepan add tarragon, salt and pepper and the cooked chicken cook until heated through.

I thought this was so easy and very very yummy so did everyone else... we had ours with crusty Sourdough

I have also made some rug mugs for a friend who is Auctioning them on eBay for Mission for Life Mums

I just used up some of my scraps that I had cut into strips...

thoroughly enjoyed making them...

I have been trying to make a start in sorting some of my craft books and magazines out... which I thought would only take me an afternoon hahahahahahaha... in between going to town on Thursday a meeting on Saturday friends turning up on Sunday and another trip to town yesterday it was still in chaos yesterday afternoon...

but I have now sorted those books and magazines into 3 boxes that I am keeping and 2 piles that I am donating when I next go to Perth or Geraldton... so now I can do some sewing as the machines I can get to and the table is cleared well sort of cleared... cleared of magazines and books anyway hehehehe...

Next I need to start sorting some of my woods and paints?????