121 What I'm Working On

Hi everyone,

I put Lucy away for a little while, and I am working on one of my oldest UFO's.  

I made it years ago.  I can't even tell you how long ago.  But it was blah and needed more and it all got too hard.

I spent the afternoon playing around with applique.

I think this will work.  I'll still do the other side before I do the top and bottom.  Shall wait and see.

Hope you're all doing well today.

120 Red Lucy Boston

I really think this is the last one to show you.

I don't seem to get much done these days.  Are you finding that?  It's harder to get revved up and get stuff done when there are lots of hours around.  Why is that, I wonder.

It's rained all day which is lovely.  Last year was so very dry, this year is proving the opposite and it's one good thing we can take from the year 2020.

Oh and we had another case free day in South Australia.  Yay us!  That's a whole week now. 

Helps when we have about 193 people living in South Australia. 

Talk soon!

119 lucy boston block orange

I think this is it now, lovely readers.  If I have time tomorrow (who am I kidding, all I have is time right now) I will put all the blocks up on the wall in one go and show you what it all looks like together.  I'm a little impressed.

118 Lucy Boston

Hi lovely readers.

As promised the last of the Lucy Boston. 

The kids went back to school today.  South Australia's had five days in a row with no new cases.  And the number of people recovering is growing too.  So that's some good news, at least.

We are all terrified of the second wave though, so I wonder how long it'll be till they open up borders, both domestic and international.  Probably quite a while, I think.  Singapore has scared everyone witless here, and let's hope we learn from it.

Have a lovely day!

117 Lucy Boston

A few more Lucy Bostons for you.

I'm done with them now.  Finished all of them, I just have a few to show you over the next days while I quietly cut a million background pieces and get them up and going.

Other than that, I spent my day sorting out my UFO's.  God help me.  I'm never going to find the end of that list, I can tell you.

Have a lovely day!

116 - Anzac Day Crochet Poppies

Our town, like many other small towns, has a Cross of Remembrance in the middle of a park.  In our case, it's in the middle of the street.

Each year we have a growing number attend the Anzac Day Parade and Service.  It's lovely really, for a long time I don't think soldiers received the recognition they deserved, but as time goes on, more and more people seem to attend.

We did the whole 'red poppy' thing that everyone else did around the 100 year anniversary, and now they bring them out for each service.  I know it's meant to be a somber day, but seeing those lovely flowers really is uplifting, in a weird way.

Our school makes a big deal of including the children, which I think is awesome because when I was growing up, we never were really involved.  Having the kids in the thick of it is a great way of getting them to know what the wars were all about.  Like all small towns, we lost quite a few young men in the various wars.  It's good they should know and remember them.

There weren't any any parades or dawn services this year.  We were all supposed to get up at dawn and stand in our driveways honoring our veterans.  I'm not sure what that will accomplish.  I'll just donate to the RSL instead.  I always buy a poppy, I'll just do it online this year.

Hope you're having a lovely day, 

115 Lucy Boston Final Straights.....

This block doesn't show as well as it does in real life.  But it's glorious and chocolate brown and I love it very much.

It's the weekend tomorrow.  What shall I do?  Shall I do the same as the rest of the week?  Why bother with a weekend, it's all the sammmmmmeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee.

On other news, we're sending the kids back to school on Monday.  Our schools in South Australia (and most of Australia) have stayed open, though with the option to keep the kids home if you wanted.  Most people kept their kids home for the two weeks before school holidays, so most kids (including ours) have been self isolating at least a month.  

Our SA Health organisation has sent information out that's it's okay to send your kids to school if you want.  So, off the back of that, and of trusting the authorities to do what they think is right, and trusting that we've got a handle thus far on this virus thing here in South Australia, we are sending them.

It's agonising trying to make a decision though.  I'm not one to blindly follow authority, but I do recognise that people way smarter than me, and more trained than me, and with more information than me, are making these decisions, and not doing it lightly.  So that's what's happening.  

The kids are giddy with excitement, even Miss Fifteen who has been known to drag her feet to go to school in the mornings.  It's lovely really.  They are missing out on such a lot this year.

Anyway.  Have a lovely day, won't you?

114 Lucy Boston update

A few more Lucy Bostons for your viewing pleasure.

It's rained all day today.  South Australia is still keeping our numbers low.  Things are good.

Have a great day!

113 Sewing Plodding Sewing

This mystery quilt is taking its time, let me tell you.

Most of the units are done, but putting them together in a way that is correct is taking up a lot of my little grey cells.

I think I'm going to go with the sashing.  I have loads of the background fabric so can easily use that.

My next problem is the border.  I probably don't have enough metreage of any one thing. 

We'll see.

Hope you're having an excellent day!

112 Show and Tell Wildflower Stitched Quilt

A hundred years ago, when we owned the shop, someone (Mum, Nanna?  Definitely not me) stitched these beautiful little kits that we were selling.  Australian wildflowers, if I recall correctly.  We made them into a little quilt and I think from memory they were quite popular.

Another one from the vaults for you.

How's your virus going?  South Australia is doing very well, really.  No new cases for three days.  Admittedly we are all on lock down and the borders and international borders are closed, but still.  I'll take whatever we can.

111 Mystery Quilt Update

Hi lovely readers.

I've spent the largest part of today stitching these blocks together.  It's taking a remarkable amount of time, I'm not exactly sure why.  But I've put two of the nine blocks together.  What do you think?

I do like it, and am at the stage where I need to decide if I'm going to put sashing in between or not.  Some are, and they look lovely but it's equally lovely without it. 

I don't know.  My brain isn't working anymore.

110 Mystery quilt update

So the instructions for putting things together in the mystery quilt arrived, I've done absolutely nothing all day and I still didn't find time to do it all.  I've gotten soft.

But I like it so far, even if I have to stitch a heck of a lot more tomorrow.

How's your day been?  Are you getting soft like me?

109 A stroll around the garden

Hello lovely readers,

The weather is starting to turn colder now, as we are now halfway through Autumn.  The leaves are starting to change colour and fall, and I'm trying to take notice of it rather than letting it go by without a thought.  

We don't have many trees in our front yard, we have this one, and a baby jacaranda that one day will be enormous.  But this one is giving us its yearly show.

The protea is finally flowering again.  The first year or two we thought we were so clever, it gave us wonderful flowers and then they got to a certain stage and wouldn't open up, but look at it now!  It's flowering everywhere and I think all of these will bloom properly.  

I just love them.  I love everything about them and the way they look, on the bush, in a vase.  The whole lot.  Maybe I should do a quilt block about them.

The red hot poker that we got from my Nanna's garden is looking a bit straggly, but still rewards us year after year with colour.  

And speaking of my Nanna, years before she died, when my eldest girl was a little person, she used to pick her up on her gopher (mobility scooter) and take her grocery shopping for a half an hour.  They had these gerberas for sale and she, on a whim, bought one for my daughter.  Nanna didn't do things like that, she had 20 or so great grand kids and was always trying to be fair.  It wouldn't be fair to buy one a present and not the other.  But obviously my eldest took a fancy to this flower and so it came home with us.

It's probably ten years old now, and hasn't been repotted, but every year we get one glorious, strong and healthy gerbera flower to remind us of Nanna.  As if we'd forget. 

The roses are in full bloom again.  So much colour, I must pick some for inside.  Maybe tomorrow morning.  

The ornamental plum is slowly shedding its leaves, but soonish it'll dump them all over a couple of days and that will mean lots of raking.  Husband is quite lawn proud and he likes the leaves off, so that's the girls' job while they are in lockdown.  Much to their disgust.

And whatever this glorious shrub is, it has been flowering non stop for weeks now.  So much colour, it's lovely!

So that's it for today.  I got the instructions for the mystery quilt so now I know what it looks like, and I can stitch that tomorrow if I have time.  I spent today houseworking, and tomorrow will be a washing day.  So nothing creative to show you yet.

Hope you have a lovely weekend!