Retro Jazz

So lucky to get into the top ten for the History of Jazz contest. I haven't been entering as many contests this year, this one had so many amazing entries, you can see the top ten fat quarter  bundle below available this week at Spoonflower.

The Local Wildlife

There was a sleepy visitor at the boys school last week.

After the hot weather this little koala spent two days snoozing in a tree at the boys school. There have been quite a few around the neighbourhood lately.

Japanese Cameo Quilt Progress

Over Christmas I did some more work on my Japanese Cameo Quilt. It is going to be a wall hanging and I have to do a row of half hexagons around the edge and then the binding. It has taken a while but this year my goal is to finish of the many projects from last year before I order any more fabric. There is about six cheater quilts to put together as well as three small quilts to finish off.

Crochet Scarf

Just started on a scarf recently, I have always wanted to try this wave style crochet. A friend lent me a pattern but I found it difficult to follow, not having done much crochet. There was a great tutorial on You Tube which was very easy to understand, although I have made a few mistakes here and there. A bit more practice and then maybe time to try a small rug. 

The Local Wildlife

Walking down to the school this afternoon something caught my eye, a very large Koala in the front garden of a house just over the hill from where we live. It has been so hot the last few days he may have come down to look for water, he was still there when the boys and I walked home.

From the Garden

Some of the flowers in the garden this Summer.

Fabulous Finds

Two of my favourite finds in recent times.

 I love this tablecloth from a local op shop, I think it was about $2.

These dishes were actually from an op shop I have wanted to go to for a few years now. It was the Salvation Army op shop in Kaniva which is about halfway between Adelaide and Melbourne. I had seen the shop every time we passed through and unfortunately it had never been open before. They were $3 each.

Sewing Designs Available for Sale

Recently I discovered that a number of collections and designs of which I had swatches had not been put for sale in my Spoonflower shop, so now here is the first of these collections now available for sale. 'Sewing' is based around a contest entry 'Treasures From My Sewing Box', developed a little while back now. Some of the buttons, pin cushions and sewing boxes are designed from things I have collected over the years.

A Trip to Black Hill

The boys have been back at school this past week after six weeks of holidays, in the last week of the school holidays we went for a drive up to Black Hill, a small country town where my mum grew up. Her father owned the General Store and I have a few early memories of staying there when I was three or four years old.

We stopped at Mt Pleasant on the way for an early lunch at the bakery. Definitely one of the best bakeries in the Hills. The park here is beautiful and there are two small bridges where you can walk across to the tennis courts.

We drove up to the Black Hill Rocks where they mine black granite but of course we could not go in. The roads are covered in limestone, a very interesting landscape. We stopped at the old hall just up the road from where my grandfather's general store was and then the boys went for a walk on the old swing bridge that leads to what was my grandmother's garden. As the shop is now a private residence I did not take photos, but the new owners have renovated the property and the garden looks lovely.

On the way out of Black Hill we stopped at Shell hill, this is the remains of what was a large area of shell said to be around 5 million years old, the shell was used for garden fertiliser until around 1950. We then drove down to the river at Wongulla, on a road side was a really awesome robot family which were of course mail boxes. You never know what you will see in the country!

On the way back home I took this shot of a giant christmas bear a farmer has made from large hay bales at Mt Torrens. 

The Local Wildlife

We have had a few visitors to our house and garden lately.

A family of sparrows has been nesting in the roof, the parents take in turns feeding them about every five minutes for the entire day. They are rapidly getting louder and more developed and it is amazing how they survive the heat under the roof, we have had so many days above 40 C. A little blue wren has also been in our front garden this past week, he looks so happy hopping about.