Worked it on Wednesday

First up this morning I managed to fit in quilting this small quilt for Queensland.  This is one of the quilts I brought home from the Quilts for Queensland Sewing Day to finish.  Andrea found the wonderful sunset fabric for the borders and added it.  I took the bit between my teeth and had a go at stippling seeing as it was a smaller than average quilt and I figured I would not have too much trouble manipulating it around the machine.

 I did a large stipple all over except for the bottom which I quilted to represent long grasses. 

As it was such a beautiful sunny morning I took it outside to hang it on my lovely new clothes line for the photos and then, just because I was already out there with the camera, I took some photos of the house.  A friend asked to see the new pergola and awning we have had installed.

In the photo above you are looking at the BBQ area which is now covered by the pergola, and to the right of that is the conservatory - which is where my design wall lives in winter.

Here you are looking at the conservatory again and this time you can see the new awning which shades part of the conservatory and the dining room window.  That door on the right is the laundry door and if you step through there, through the laundry you will be in my sewing room.

 This is the back garden looking towards the State Forrest behind us. 

 Below and above you have two versions of Geraldton Wax.  Love it  - reminds me of home.

 Below is a kangaroo paw, so named because....you guessed it...it looks like a kangaroo paw!

This is me feeding a baby kangaroo called a Joey at my nephew's house in Perth in January 2010.  My sister lives on a farm and she hand rears any joey's that are found abandoned, but why I am showing you this photo is coz if you look closely you can see the kangaroo's paw.  Now go back and check out the photo above and you can see why it is so named!

And just because I can, here is the same joey relaxing between my two goofballs sons on the lawn. The blue bag it is lying in is the replacement for the mother's pouch.  When not being nursed, my sister hangs the bags from her door handles and the joeys just climb in and out like they would if it were their mother's pouch. 

By the way, that is Fly boy on the left and Guitar hero on the right.  Now back to my garden...

 More Geraldton wax above and a grevillea below

This is an orange lechenaultia.  There is a gorgeous bight blue variety but it doesn't seem to like the conditions in my garden.

 This is pink boronia

and of course a protea.

 This is the stretch where are these plants are growing

And now we move out the front.  My ornamental plums are still blooming but more petals fall every day.

This grows along my driveway and is called limonium or stattice - it flowers most of the year and the flowers are great fillers in a vase with other flowers and can also be used for dried arrangements.  The colour is way more vivid that this. 

 This is brown boronia.  It doesn't look at pretty as the pink variety but the perfume is just wonderful.  My Dad used to grow this at home along the path by the side gate at home.  I used to come home from school and come around the side and smell it.  The scent will always remind me of home. 

 Two more varieties of protea.

And another Kangaroo Paw.  There is a red and green kangaroo paw and it is the floral emblem of my home state, Western Australia.  I had some growing but the conditions in my garden weren't quite right.

 And finally some sewing.  This is another of the Quilts for Queensland.  Andrea finished this one also by adding the blue border and then the gorgeous little cowboys on the border.  She then quilt a huge star in the middle and bound it in red fabric with white stars.

And this is what we worked on today.  Two of us sewed, Andrea cut and the other girls ironed, snipped, and chose what fabrics went with what.  This is what we got done.  Bear in mind that I have just put the blocks on the design wall for a photo, I haven't arranged them properly and didn't give any thought to what looks good where!

 My personal preference....I am not such a big fan of these blocks with the different block colours in the corners and the middles if you can see what I mean...

 I much prefer the ones with all 8 outside blocks in the same fabric or the same tone as then the star pattern really stands out.  Once they all go together though they should look great.

We still have over 50 blocks left to make.  The plan is to have all of them done by next Wednesday so that we can throw them up on my design wall and work on the layout and also decide if there needs to be any more added or taken away.  We also need to decide if we have a good balance of colours.

Oops, I just realised that I forgot to push the PUBLISH POST button before I went to bed last night.

In that case.....happy stitching!