Kangaroos

Most Australians have a love/hate relationship with kangaroos.  Kangaroos are not shy or elusive, they are common place.  Everywhere.  At least where I live, they are everywhere.  I live rurally, and towns are sparsely situated in the middle of bushland, or ‘scrub’ as we call it.  Driving these country roads, especially at dusk is quite dangerous.  I doubt many families locally would have been spared the experience of ‘hitting a roo’ whilst driving.  It’s scary and very dangerous, and you can never really relax whilst you’re driving long distances.  The problem with kangaroos is they jump, and you can never be sure if they are going to jump away from you, or right smack dab in front.

But as much as they are a danger on our roads, I do love them.  I love watching them bound along, I love seeing a little joey poke its head out of its mother’s pouch.  We have a big male kangaroo live close by with his little family, and to see him draw himself up on his hind legs, his broad shoulders ready for a fight if need be – it’s remarkable.

You do not want to be near an angry male kangaroo.

Till tomorrow,

Suzie

Calm Blue Ocean Month Nine

Ohhh it’s nearly reveal time!  I’m sure you’ll have a good idea what kind of quilt you’re going to end up with after today.  Have fun!

Click here to download the next step

or

Click here to take you to the mystery quilt page.

Enjoy!

Catching Up–Civil War Quilt

It’s no secret it’s school holidays, and very little gets done during school holidays.  It’s late here now in Australia, the little people are in bed and this has been the only time to myself I’ve really had all day.  Ahh, the serenity.

I’ve had little time to sew, but I did manage to do one block today:

Only because I had pre cut it, I think.  It’s from Barbara Brackman’s website Civil War Quilts.  I’ve done a few of her blocks for the free quilt on her website, and as is typical of me, I’ve put it away and started on other things, most notably Dear Jane.

However, whilst surfing the other day, I read that she is nearly about to start another free quilt series.  And of course, I will be have to start that, won’t I? 

So it seemed like an opportune time to finish these ones off.  Or at least put a dent in them.  Dear Jane is all well and good, but these blocks, finishing as they do at twice the size of Dear Jane, seem like monsters.  And much more achievable.

I’ve done a fair few of these….want to see?

The rest are over at my flickr stream. 

One of these days I’ll get sick of these reproduction fabrics, and then what will I work on?

Till tomorrow,

Suzie

Wedge Tailed Eagles

My secret blog is out, as I have found out my mother now reads this.  I’ll have to be careful what I say from now on. 

She made this quilt for my husband, who has always been very attached to birds of prey, in particular our native Wedge-tailed eagles, or wedgies as he calls them. 

Till tomorrow

Suzie

Blue Wrens

Obviously, this is not one of mine.  Obviously, this is another one from my clever clogs of a mother.

These are blue wrens.  They live on the river, but only the boys are blue.  The girls have the same tails, but aren’t flashy.  Typical of men.

We live on the Murray River, but we don’t see them very much around here – perhaps there are too many other birds around.  They are very cheeky little things, much like willy wagtails.  I wonder if willy wagtails exist everywhere?  Willy wagtails are small birds, whose bravado well outweighs their size.

That’s your Australian birdlife lesson for today. 

(I haven’t forgotten the Bountiful Bouquet – as soon as the house clears of children I’ll sort it out, so please bear with me)

Till tomorrow,

Suzie

Uluru

I didn’t do this.  I’m no nearly as clever.  My mother did this one, she’s the landscape queen.  The idea appeals but then I never feel particularly arty enough to do more than appreciate other people’s work.  Give me a good old scrap quilt any day.

Calm Blue Ocean–Month Eight

Heading towards the finish line – are you guys enjoying it?  I’d love you to send me some pictures if you’ve got some.

Okay – here you go!

click here to download the next step

or

click here to take you to the mystery quilt page.

Till tomorrow,

Suzie

Dear Jane J7 Chicken Tracks

I really don’t know where Brenda got some of her names.  Does this look like chicken scratches to you?

Oh dear, I forgot to snip those threads.  Ignore them.

Loving Dear Jane at the moment.  Such an addiction.

Till tomorrow,

Suzie

Dear Jane L7

Another one whose name escapes me right now.  I’ll update when I find the book.

Machine pieced, rotary cut.  Points are pretty well matched, considering.  Lots of tiny pieces.  But it’s coming together! 

Can I tell you again how addicted I am to this jolly quilt?  I’ll go through withdrawals when I finish. I can understand why some people make more than one!

Till tomorrow

Suzie

Vintage Dresden Plate

I stitched a little bit over the weekend, and threw this little top together.  I probably showed you this at the time that I cut it out – I cut out all the wedges for this dresden plate in about ten minutes flat with that wonderful invention, the Accuquilt.  The cutting out took no time, the sewing – well, that took a little bit more time.

I’m ridiculously thrilled with the look of this quilt.  I can see now I have a few of the same fabrics too close together – funny how we look and look and we’re certain that it’s definitely right, and yet after you sew it together the errors (or misplacements) pop up still.

My only problem with this is that I used a background fabric I no longer have access to, and I’ve not got any left.  So this is only 39” square, and it’s kinda too small for any of my spaces.  Ideally I’d do another round of dresden plates, but I can’t.  So I’m thinking of putting a different fabric around the border and maybe doing some smaller half dresdens on it…but I don’t have any fabric just yet that will do as the background.  So it has to wait for now.

But for now, it’s awfully pretty, don’t you think?  Those reproduction fabrics – oh be still my beating heart.

I’ve got a houseful of girls this week due to the school holidays (six today, only two of them mine).  I’ll do my best to upload the next Bountiful Bouquet (the LAST Bountiful Bouquet!!) but I know you’ll forgive me if I’m a little late.  I tend to make computer errors when I’m under pressure, and I’d rather do it properly the first time.  Who said girls are quieter than boys?

Till tomorrow,

Suzie