Of droughts and Flooding Rains........

Well what a week we have had in my small part of the world.  Our town had a rain total of 256mm for the week, with over 100mm  in one day.  Above are a couple of pics from the golf course behind my street.  The fairway was like a river and the carpark was completely cut off and under water.  Thankfully the water has all dissipated and run off to wherever it is supposed to go but please spare a thought for our quilting friends in Wagga Wagga and surrounding towns as they brace for some seriously major flooding.  My thoughts are with you all.

I have had a testing time with Irish Circles.  I originally chose the pink fabric as the separating border.  I stitched it all down, added the next appliqued tongue border (with mitred corners) and then laid it all out to see how it would look with the next border and YUK!  The pink looked flourescent and totally took away from the blue centre of the quilt.  As you can see from the above pictures, the fabric isn't that bright or solid, I just needed something really soft.    Anyway, all the unpicking and resewing is done so now, I am onto piecing the final border and I will be very happy to have this one finished.

Nic was home for a couple of days so of course, I had to make another pavlova (I promise this will be the last photo for a little while).  I decorated this one with passionfruit and we have all decided that this is the best topping.

We had some Show & Tell last Friday at sewing.  This gorgeous quilt was made with lots of reproduction fabrics that have been collected through a fabric club.

Jan is making a quilt from blocks like this one.   The blocks are really big and this block looks fantastic.

There is less than two weeks to go until the Gathering in the Barn and I am starting to get really excited.  Jan and I also made the trip down to Castlemaine a few weeks ago to the Castlemaine Applique Group meeting.  We had a fantastic day catching up with quilting friends and making lots of new friends.  I am definately looking forward to the next meeting.

I haven't done a lot of blogging lately as we have had some computer issues at home.  Hopefully things are back on track now.  It amazes me on how dependant we have become on computers. 

Sue-Anne xxx

7 More Sleeps!

It's been a fortnight since I posted and as things are still quite hectic at home with Howard and Christmas preparations, I have found that one day has blended into the next and my brain is turning to mush (even more so than usual).  I have been reading all your blogs but have been really slack in not commenting.

We have had a little bit of flooding in our town.  The drought has well and truly broken here and we were told the other day that there will be NO WATER RESTRICTIONS this summer Yay!!!!

This picture is of a road I travel on almost every day and usually has a little creek running under the bridge.  This creek runs right through our town and the afternoon it flooded, every road that travels over it was impassable.  I have never seen the water run over the road like that.

This is the same creek over a different road.  My son usually walks his dog along that footpath.  The Murray River at Albury burst her banks due to water being let out of the weir and I can tell you, it has been a very very long time since we have seen so much water.  

We had our Friday Girls Christmas Lunch at Jan's last week.  Look at all those presents under her tree!  They were all for us!!!!!

We had the best day together, celebrating our friendship and exchanging gifts.  Here is just a small sampling of the goodies I received.

This is Jan's little table beside her armchair.  Don't you just love that little quilt!  It's "A Patridge in a Pear Tree".

Now I haven't done any sewing that is blog worthy so I will just leave you with a few pictures of some of my favourite Christmas decorations.

This just happened to come home with the shopping the other day, nothing like a bit of retail therapy.

If I don't post before, I just want to wish you a very Merry Christmas and a happy and safe New Year.  I want to thank you all for making me feel so welcome in blogland and I feel very lucky to have made so many wonderful new friends,  I love you all!!!

Sue-Anne xxx