UFO Hell

I am the queen of the UFO.

Every year I faithfully open a new notebook, and write down each and every one of my many UFO’s with the grand idea of finishing them all this year.

It never happens, of course.  I do finish what I start nowadays (mostly) but trying to get through the backlog of things I made ten years ago is hard.  I’m not into what I was doing back then, my tastes have changed and I often think ‘What were you thinking??’.

I’ve done it all again this year, of course.  It’s very therapeutic, to be honest.  It also lets me know just where things are in the sewing room (no easy feat).  And it gives me a jolly good shake up when I see just how many things have been purchased for ‘later on’. 

It was another scorching hot day today and we entertained many children in our pool, so I couldn’t get time in the sewing room.  But I did pull out a UFO and took photos of it, so I could begin working on a block every so often.  If I do a block a day to all these quilts, I’m sure I’ll be on top of things by….well, probably 2020.

Lord knows how many years ago I started these, I think it was just as my reproduction kick was settling in.  I’d loaded Electric Quilt onto the laptop and was having fun printing up blocks, and I decided that I would make however many six inch blocks I could do.

That lasted a few weeks and I haven’t laid my hands on this UFO for years.

So that will change today.  I’m going to aim for one block a week on this one.  Hopefully this time next year I will be able to say ‘that ancient UFO – it’s done!’.

Let’s see how long I can keep it up.

Till tomorrow,

Suzie

How hot is hot?

Whilst I appreciate how cold the US has been, please spare us a thought in sunny South Australia.

Today’s temperature was 45 C (113 F).  Yesterday’s temperature was 44 C (111 F) and tomorrow, if you can believe it, will be 48 C (118 F).

We are used to a few days over 40 here, but 48?  I absolutely refuse.  I will not accept that.

We are lucky enough to have a pool, which has had a flogging these last few days.  The garden’s barely hanging in there, and I keep my chooks alive by showers from the hose every few hours.  They seem to be coping fine, even if they are annoyed at the showers.

So, when I’ve not been in the pool with the children, I’ve been in my sewing room.

I found a couple of jelly rolls at the back of the cupboard that take up way too much room and so when I saw this pattern here: Easy Jelly Roll pattern I thought I would try and fashion something a little like it.

It’s a funny jelly roll really, I do like all the colours together but some of the darker ones really seem to stand out.  It was one leftover from the shop days, and we didn’t sell it when we closed, so it’s sat there for years waiting for a use.  Today was the day.

It’s so quick to run up – it only took me a few hours to stitch them all together, but then in my usual clever way (working too fast, not thinking too much) I stitched a sashing to both sides of most of the blocks, only remembering later that they are only supposed to have one on one side. 

Took me no time at all to stitch the four rows, but gee whiz, did it take me an age to place them in a half decent way.  I find taking a photo works really well here to see the glaring issues.

This isn’t the final layout – I can see the glaringly obvious blue issues, so I’ve rearranged it a lot more.

It’s missing a middle white sashing and cornerstones, but I could at least see where I’d duplicated the fabrics – oh look, like that blue floral.

I adore, fall in love with, would get married to that blue circle print.  I wish I had more than just a jelly roll strip.

And so, when the children are safely tucked away in bed, I shall have another go at piecing some rows. 

It’s too hot to do anything concentratringish at the moment.  Sewing strips together is something I think I can manage.

So that’s today’s update.  Where ever you are, please keep safe – whether it’s from the stinking, horrible heat or the crazy cold.

I'm linking this up with Freshly Pieced Modern Quilts here for their WIP Wednesday.  

Till tomorrow,

Suzie

No Hair Silly Goose

This is me.

(not really me but you know what I mean)

I brought myself a Christmas present over the holidays - a brand new lap top just for me.  Not for anyone else, no one else's sticky fingers are going to go near it.  

I had fabulous visions of it being my blog laptop.  Currently I have a home email, a work email, a blog email - and it makes life hard.  I wanted to streamline my life.  I thought I'd be so clever and confine all my blog stuff to the one laptop, it would all work so seamlessly and I'd be a computer genius.

Well, that's all fine in theory but now Google (ohhhh I loathe Google with its tentacles that stretch into everything - picasa anyone?) has decided that the password I have used for my sillygoosequilts@hotmail.com account is no longer valid.  I've not changed it, I've done nothing wrong except to try and set up my new laptop to receive my emails there.  But it's spat the dummy at me and I swear, if it didn't cost me money, I'd be chucking that new laptop into the swimming pool.

So - now I can't sign in with my email to the new laptop or the old laptop.  I can't log into blogger on the old laptop, the old laptop has decided my flickr account login (same as the hotmail.com login) won't work - and I'm ready to just pull the plug on the whole stoopid thing.

And don't get me started on Windows 8.  I couldn't even get past the first screen.  Where's the start button?  Where's the control panel?  Why do these companies change things simply for change's sake?

So, if you see a lone laptop floating down the river nearby, or find a crazy woman who's got no hair left - you were warned!

I'm just going to go quilting now.  At least my lovely Pfaff doesn't let me down.

Till tomorrow,

Suzie

p/s I've worked out how to navigate Windows 8 (mostly) now - all of it just taking up valuable quilting time.

Kangaroo Island–The Wildlife

As well as fabulous natural scenes, KI is filled to the brim with native birds and animals.  Many of them are in the wild, there are also lots to see in wildlife parks.

Whilst we have kangaroos everywhere here where I live, none of them are of the nature where I want to pat them and feed them by hand.  This park featured lovely tame ones, most of them babies or females.  No fully grown males in this pen, thankyou!

It was a lovely chance for my girls (and me) to hand feed them.  They are so soft and gentle, it's so lovely to see them up close.

Rainbow Lorikeet.  I don't like to see birds in cages, but most of these were damaged in some way and are being restored to health.

Some, like Stanley the cockatoo have lived in a cage their whole life and would not cope with life 'outdoors'.

Really bad photo, but this is a tawny frogmouth - an owl like bird who will mimic a tree stump if threatened. I almost never see them in the wild, which is not to say they aren't there - just that I can't see them.

Clearly a kookaburra.  This one is a mainland one, mostly brown feathered.  I adore kookaburras.

A very unattractive wild pig.  He was found on the island, though goodness only knows how he got there. The park keeps him out of the parks now.  Feral pigs are bad news out in the wild.

Extreme close up.

I'm a chook person, and I loved this guy, standing behind his women.  I think they were some sort of bantam - they were only very small.

 Kangaroo Island is a very fitting name.

Now, I'm not familiar with peacocks too much, but there were a family of white ones wandering the parks. Are they albino or are white peacocks a particular breed?  I must admit, they're not so spekky as their coloured counterparts, but those tails are wonderful what ever colour they are in.

My husband is a fully fledged Raptor lover (eg. owls and birds of prey).  Whilst he really doesn't like to see them in cages, he was in his element, being able to see these guys up close.

If he were here, he'd be able to tell you their names.  I don't know them at all.  This one is rare, apparently.

Here's a better photo.  Love his long tail.



A lovely barn owl.



With his friend.

I think this is a boobok owl.  Apparently they are very common though I have never seen one in the wild, ever.

Now I could be wrong but I think this may be a whistling kite or perhaps a kestrel.  I spent ages looking for him, and he was this far away from me the whole time, tame as tame.  I didn't stick my finger in the cage.

Though there was the token crocodile, he was imported from up north, as South Australia does not have any crocs.

We do have 20925950 turtles, however.  Quite common to pull them up in the yabby net.

After googling, discovered this is a curlew.  I'm ashamed to say I don't know the names of half of these birds.

 After that wildlife park, we visited Raptor Domain, which is a rehab/educational facility filled with raptors.

They brought out bird after bird for us to see.   This is a peregrine falcon, I think.

Black cockatoo, rare thing he is.  White ones are a dime a dozen, and pink galahs are everywhere.  Black ones are sadly all too rare.  Pink galahs are stooopid.

My photos are out of order here, but this lovely one is an owl of some sort.  He looks very self important there.

I was very happy with how these photos turned out.  It was a newish camera and it worked wonderfully.

 Another lovely owl, hidden in the treestump.  When they call him, he comes out for lunch.



Can you see the tail of a mouse ever so delicately hanging out of his mouth?

A Sea Eagle.  My husband just about took flight himself when he saw him.  They are very rare, this bird was particularly unsettled and not so cooperative, but he was magnificent all the same.

Oh lovely kookaburras again.  These are Kangaroo Island kookaburras, they are related to the Kingfisher family and they sport wonderful blue feathers.

And here is the reason we came to the park.  A wedged tailed eagle, or wedgie as my family call them. They are quite common around here, and they act much as vultures do - cleaning up carrion from the roadside and the outback.  We see them often in the sky, not so often close up like this.

 

See that arm? That's my husband's.  He's just fulfilled a dream of his, ticked something off his bucket list. All for the princely sum of $10.

It was so wonderful to see him do that.

And that's my foray around Kangaroo Island.  I hope you've enjoyed it, tomorrow I'll be back with quilty showings for you.

Till tomorrow,

Suzie