Merry Christmas.........

 Taking a break now until after Christmas............if I get some reading time I might try and do some catch up on blog reading which i am way behind in and miss, but I won't be posting again before Christmas...........

Just want to say a huge thank you to everyone who reads and comments on my blog, joins in on zoom sewing times..........

Have a wonderful Christmas............
Catch you later..........
Chookyblue...........

Weekend catch up.............

 Finally I feel like I am catching up on things...............
Last weekend considerable rain was forecast so I thought it would be a great time to zoom...........

As it had rained and I didn't go to work Friday I thought I would host Friday afternoon drinks and stitch...........we had a lovely crew join in I think 10 of us..................

Saturday morning I started early as usual..........
22 ladies popped in and out during the day...............
It's always great to see what everyone is up and hear the talk of snow when we are sweating it out..............

It rained most of the day which was so nice............

I worked on my random quilt from retreat.......

lots of 3 sisters fabrics plus a few others thrown in I am sure..........

the bird baths are all full.................

great to catch up with everyone and just enjoy good company...............

finally we had to duck to the neighbours to pick up some supplies and this was the end of the day view............

the week has continued with storms floating around most days and a good heavy fall on Tuesday ran water everywhere.........

The creek was up the next morning.............

so nice to see it full..........

got bogged going to work with my neighbour on Wednesday......

We could not budge it........had to call for help.....

Still chance of storms for the next few days.....

97mm (nearly 4 inchs) since it started last Thursday........very nice.......

some very big falls around.........5-6 inchs is pretty common.......some 8-10inchs

Anyway its great for the summer feed to come away..........lots soaking in.........dams full........

Catch you later...........

Chookyblue.........

Qld Retreat.........

A few weeks ago my partner in all things quilty Miss Jules and I headed off to QLD for a retreat.........This is the 3rd time we have headed north for this retreat.........normally we add a bit on at the start going to Toowoomba and extras at the end but given everything else going on I cancelled all that............

Along the way we found some stunning cactus flowering........

so delicate on such a harsh plant............

We checked out some new cotton plants.........

We all have such a huge investment in cotton we should know where it comes from............

This is an irrigated crop............but it was not going to be watered for a few more weeks when we saw it..............

Checked out Fairy Girls current rental and enjoyed this lovely waterhole...........so much bird life here to enjoy also............and look at the reflections..........It was lovely to have the night with her even if I had to take a spare bed with me to leave with her...........lol.........

Jenny was finishing her retreat and were were starting so I got to catch up with her and Gail briefly also...............

Didn't think to take a photo.......

Food is always very important and this cafe with a nursery and gift shop at it was just wonderful once again............

I continued to work on my Fat 1/4 mixer quilt..............

enjoying the beautiful gardens.............day lilly.........

the roses were past there best this time sadly.............

it rained every day were were there which was wonderful................

that doesn't usually happen at my place...........

I wanted to web (join) my project and I got it all in one stack to start.................

saved so much space and confusion............I used this tutorial...........

happy and cheeky stitchers..............

a little G & T hit the spot.............

Once I got my top together I started working in these random blocks I made one day ages ago................

Adding some sashing........more on that one later................

We also did some coaster dot things..........mine is the middle right................

it was a bit of fun............

Here is my finished fat 1/4 mixer quilt..........

I just need to flip one block around...........

It is huge and super bright..........

100x90...........just need to find a backing now...........

Most of the fabrics came from The Next Stitch and a few from my stash and I added a couple from the shop in Warwick...........

Also I can say that I nearly have all my blocks for my Chapel Street quilt.............

477/512 so not many to get now.......

I will cut some from the left overs of the fat 1/4 mixer quilt...........

Maureen popped out to visit us one day and joined us for morning tea and lunch............well she did  bring morning tea with her..............

Susan worked on her Chapel Street (I may have coerced her to make this one) and you can see a few blocks on the wall.........she is using a solid black where I used a stripe..........

We each have some of our own bits but we also shared a lot of fabrics..........

I enjoyed a walk every day and I found this beautiful grevillea on one of my walks.............

Thanks heaps girls for having us once again and Sandy for organising.............

it was wonderful to catch up with you all again..........

(not sure why this photo made the back row blurry - sorry)

Catch you all later............

Chookyblue.........

Cancer fundraiser results.......

 Still playing catch up...........

26th October I held a Cancer fundraiser on Zoom.............

I have lost several close family members to cancer and one is currently fighting cancer again.........

Last time I did this I co-hosted with Jude 18mths ago and mostly raising money for Breast Cancer Network Australia........

Once again to join in you had to make a donation to a cancer organisation.....which ever one you liked so long as it supported cancer.............

During the day I got everyone to say who they donated to and what there organisation did.............

Everyone emailed me their donation amount and if international I converted to AUD..........

I had to do some watering during the day and I found this beautiful hippeastrum flowering............

Cheese and nibbles is always enjoyed............

Stunning and flowering madly.............

I worked on my bright Fat 1/4 mixer quilt..........mostly Ruby Star with a few others thrown in and a few from my stash.............

Cutting and piecing some during the day..............

I did spend a lot of time just chatting.........but that's fine also.......

The last stragglers................

we had a very long day sewing..........

6am-8.30pm.........

We were nearly at $1000 at the end of the day and someone made another donation to kick us over...........but then a few more donations came in after the day..........

CONGRATS together we raised $1132.71...........

18 joined on the day.......

plus a few more girls made donations that didn't get to join us.........

THANKYOU EVERYONE 

Together we can make a difference..............

Catch you later..........

Chookyblue..........

Spring Stitchin' in the Scrub..........

Early in September I co-hosted Spring Stitchin' in the Scrub retreat with Deb from The Crafters Cottage......thanks Deb for co-hosting.....

There was 21 of us altogether...........great size group...........

Many regulars and some newbies............

As usual it worked perfectly............

Remember the daisies from the last post...........Brenda worked her magic with them and once again we had beautiful flowers on the tables............

We had so many we decorated the food area also...............

The room set up..........

massive thanks to everyone who helped..........

With Dad sick (not dying at this point) I was worried about him and popped away to visit several times........And my back was bad.........Standing was ok once I was up but how I got thru the first week when I hurt my back I am not sure..........I needed distractions really as not much provided any comfort except standing.....so pottering around was working for me........

I did quite a bit of cooking on the Wednesday after I hurt it..........Mr Chooky had to keep coming to do things like grab something out of the cupboard or put things in and out of the oven..........

Deb and I catered all the food..............

Most importantly we had to celebrate Brenda's birthday................

OMG I so want to be like Brenda when I am 90.........she is amazing..........

I didn't take many photos this retreat.........to many other distractions........

once again lots of happy faces and new friends to make.........

Machines and sewing stuff everywhere.............

Deb had set up a little shop in the corner which was great.............I brought a few bits........I didn't get a photo this time...........

my new table clothes..........an excuse for Janice to come and deliver the extra ones she brought me............She wasn't coming and then made a rash decision to join us...........

Unfortunately the cabins were not available so most of the girls stayed at Reggies Pub.........we had dinner there Friday night and I don't even have one photo.............woops...........

A couple of us were going to stay in one of the pavillions with Di and Miranda in their van but we got one of the cabins at the last minute..........they have painted and redone the floors and foundations of all the cabins so that is great...........

One of the quilts I made.............I did do a little sewing........

Some of the girls had there finished orange peel cushion covers that we made in the workshop I attended earlier in the year..........that's when this retreat was hatched...........nice to see theirs finished.........mine is still a work in progress........

Kaz one of the new girls was like a sewing machine........so inspiring.......she was constantly finishing tops..........some needed piecing.........others just borders etc....every time I looked over she was working on something else.........she held this one up at show and tell but it still needed the other borders on...........

Anyway that's it for the retreat..........

Catch you later.........

Chookyblue........

 

where were we at...........

Well I've done a few posts of things but I realised I missed August and Sept completely..........

So here's a quick summary of the last few months.........

August.......

Got some new chooks and they are doing great.........laying heaps of eggs..........

No idea now what I cooked scones for but hey they were good.............

Bridget had lambs.............Milly and Billy.............They have grown up and about to leave home...........

Loving seeing livestock drinking off mum............

We'd had some rain and the paper daisies were insane..............these yellow ones were the best I have ever seen..............

I picked lots..........

The countryside was a picture of green and flowers..............

I dried lots of bunches for the retreat I co hosted in September..........

more on that later...........

&&&&&&

September was full on...........but I did survive..........

on top of everything else I hurt my back and its sure taken it's toll........

A very big wakeup call with everything piled on death and illness makes you reevaluate many things..........

This beautiful grevillea was in the hospital garden when I was with Dad...........

Sadly he passed away.............

We had a crazy trip to Darwin for my son's wedding............what an emotional roller coaster..............

random photos.............

I should have said no to this drive that Fairy Girl wanted me to take her on as I was in agony with my back in the car but I the enjoyed the early morning light and the calm was nice...........

Here's a photo of Fairy Girl and I at the wedding............

There is so much water around Darwin............

That brings us to an end for September..........

&&&

Onto October..........

Lots of cousins to see at Dad's funeral...........

then I really just shut down for a lot of it as I needed too..........

We sold most of these steers............they did well.............

Fairy Girl went for a photo shoot at the pink daisy paddock and I got to go with her..........

There was a few zooms.............more on the Cancer Fundraiser in another post.............

I had been doing some gardening and heard this garden was open so I took myself off for a visit..............

It was beautiful..........

I was so inspired..........and been enjoying plenty of time in my own garden............

Boy Wonder and family were home for a few days which was such a surprise and I thought only Boy Wonder was coming..........they helped with some gardening also.........

Mr Chooky was rarely around for weeks while he helped friends with harvest.............

&&&

Then November came around......... 

I ran away from home with my Quilting buddy Miss Jules to a retreat in Qld for a few days..........

I went back to work just part time last week........

I've been off since early September when Dad got sick...........

I took a longer break...........my poor body was in need to repair and some extra care.........

Addy and the lamb are doing well............The dodgy lamb died - it just wasn't doing well or drinking enough either...........and another one accidently got run over.......not by me thankfully.........but someone did get told off............

Its been a firey month.........mostly machinery starting fires while harvesting..............

In our area we have been pretty busy..............

This was my view to one of the fires.........Mr Chooky has been picked up by one of the neighbours to get onto our brigade truck.............I was coming along with a ute and tanker trailer..........a young bloke I found at the fire jumped on my hose............I think we made a good team..........

I know this posted started off nice and green with heaps of flowers but it has hardly rained since.............so everything has been tinder dry.............this one took off in the wind from the crop stubble and into grasses.............

We had some big trees that caused issues during the night and sparks were blowing long distances into dry grass over the road.............It was very windy that night..............

Sunrise the next day and lots of trees burning on the edge of the fire...............

We managed to hold it and all was good but you can see the dust and ash that was being picked up by the strong winds in this photo............grit kept being blown into our eyes...............

A pretty sunset...............

the clouds to the east had the sun on them as it was setting............so pretty...........

there was 3 layers of clouds............one going east, one west and another south..........they were hiking it too...........

We have just started feeding sheep this week and it is raining today so I hope we get more..........

Agapanthus have started to open which I love............

Finally I put some christmas lights up...........

the only decorating I will be doing here............

"The lamb" was helping as the poddies are in the extended front garden yard.......

There have been some cracking storms around...........

we got 20mm overnight and I stayed home from work as they have forecast 40-80mm today...........and there was lots more rain between home and town............

we'll see what happens............last time they said forecast 25mm and we got 2mm............

I am hoping to do some zoom time over the weekend since I don't need to water the garden..........

 fingers crossed it will be way too wet to garden...........

Have a great weekend..........

Chookyblue........