I'm back & it's only been a couple of weeks since my last post, been keeping myself busy doing a bit of handicraft, still working on that quilt from my last post, I am still buying fabric a couple of fat qtrs at a time (Margaret must be getting sick of me, LOL) & it is evolving, I really don't like those purple & yellow nine patches, so I am reverse sewing (unpicking) them & making them into ohio stars with a beigey colour background, wasting a lot of time & a bit of fabric but am happier with the result, the purple looks blue in the pic below

Another ATC done, Pauly I kept my promise & did better this month, it is only the 18th day of the month, (instead of the 5th of the following month) & they are finished or almost, just have to stick the info that I just printed onto the backs & then I can post them off tomorrow. I think maybe I got last months theme, "sew it" mixed up with this months LOL, I traced the elephant pic onto homespun, embroidered it, coloured it with inks & it looked a bit flat, so then I cut out the elephant shape in thin wadding & quilted it onto some tulle to give it some dimension.

Brilliant photography, I don't think.

I will have to get those knitting needles mobile, four of my aran jumpers, some hats & two of my mohair bears sold in the craft shop in the last couple of months, that means I only have two jumpers & the cardi left there, but i am cashed up enough to buy some more wool, like i haven't got a big plastic tub full already LOL, but Bendigo woollen mills keep sending me sample cards of new yarn in delicious colours and I just can't help myself.

Anyways I better stop rambling on & go to bed. Bye for now Helen

Late again

Just to show that I haven't been idle the last few weeks, a bit of patchwork & applique, not sure I like it, too much purple, i have made a few Ohio star blocks in more muted colours to tone it down a bit, forgot to take a pic of them, it will all come together & look OK I hope

Went to Wagga last week to the Patchwork Group block swap, had a good day, got inspired looking at the show & tells, was lucky (or unlucky) enough to win another bundle of nine blocks, didn't mind winning this time, these blocks were hand applique daisies, I'll post a pic later when I make the quilt.

I have finally done the ATC'S for May, thanks to Margaret for the loan of her Stampin' Up stamps & Vicki for the gentle shove today & the help with the cutting out we did this afternoon.
Pauly they will be in tomorrows mail, you should have them on Weds, I will do better this month , I promise

I had trouble getting a decent photo, ended up propping them up against the fruit bowl on the table, see the mandy & the pear in the background.

Not much going on around here, we had few nice days, frosty mornings, sunny days, but they were too good to last, it's raining now, started a couple of hours ago & the forecast is for rain on & off all week.

I guess I better stop rambling on & go chase some zzz's, it will be time to get up before I know it. So you know the drill, be good etc, Bye for now Helen

Nothing to do

You would think i had nothing to do & all day to do it in, wouldn't you? the housework will wait, the faeries don't visit here very often. LOL
Look what i finished off this morning, the face is a bit lopsided, but that adds character, now i have to make a smaller one for Emma, the pattern was for 6mts size, it looks like it would fit a 6yr old to me.

Next pic, hooray i finished my cardi at last, except for buttons, I have a couple that suit but Murphy's Law, not enough of either one, the joys of living in a small town without many shops, I have to wait til I go somewhere to shop, there's always ebay but I can't touch, feel & compare.

Next pic is of the frost out of my kitchen window, (u can see the curtains reflected in it, that's yellow tulips in bottom left corner, not grot. LOL) it was too darn cold to go out im my jammies to take it, it was one morning last week, can't remember which day, but take your pick, because most days last week started out that way, check out my garden ornaments, not many urban back yards have unique ones like me LOL, caravans yes, tractors & slashers maybe, but D6 dozers? it was sitting there for a few days, waiting for the float to pick it up & take it to the next job. Any wonder i gave up trying to have flower gardens. LOL

Next pic is from the week before last, when we woke up to a winter wonderland, snow fell through the night, didn't have time to take any pics in the yard before we left for work, so this one is the only decent one I got, MOTH reckons I am mad, I wound the window down & was snapping away as we drove up the Tumba road, of the snow over the town, most of the pics were a blur of bushes as we went past them, I aimed one shot at Vics house, but missed it altogether.

last pic is the atc i did for the F & F swap, the theme is birds, done & posted on time for a change. Hope the next theme is an easy one too.

Guess I better go and finish vacuuming etc, before someone about my size trips over it in the hallway, It's a wet & miserable day here today, a good day for crafting or sitting by the heater, knitting or crocheting.

So bye for now. Be good til next time. Helen

Back again it has only been a week this time LOL, I thought I would show & tell my bit of creativity for this week, the 1st pic is the applique block I did for me cos I liked it, might use it on a bag, I think

The pic below is the one I did for the block swap, weren't supposed to embellish it so I left the birds off it, as I didn't get to Gundagai on Weds, ( the MOTH stuffed up my plans as usual) so I don't know who were the lucky ones that won the sets of nine blocks, the trouble is if you win , you then have to make them up into a quilt, so it is really a booby prize LOL

I had a bake up this morning and made a couple of batches of "muffins", started out the first batch was going to be pumpkin & sultana scones, & as I never measure my ingredients the mixture was way too wet, if I add more flour that would make them heavy, so I grabbed the muffin pans & filled them, still had more pumpkin left so I mixed up another batch, this time used orange juice, instead of milk, so I guess they're orange & pumpkin.

And of course I had to have a taste test, the last pic is of the muffin scones with my homemade prize winning blackberry jam, it won a 1st at the local show, & no, it wasn't the only one in the section, that would have been a hollow victory LOL

Anyway must go and check the mail, get another handful of bills out of the box, as it is early in the month that's all there will be, maybe as it is Mothers Day on Sunday there might be a couple of M D cards for me LOL. So bye for now. Helen

Back again

Hi folks it's been a while since I blogged, I'm still around, don't know what I been doing the last five months, but been busy doing it. I finished the jumper that I started last winter & delivered it to the craft shop before Easter. I found it a real chore, don't usually take orders, but it is one of my old favorite patterns, so i made an exception, same as the one in the pic below, she wanted it in a larger size, well it's done now, haven't collected the cash yet, should have charged double. LOL. Went back to finish the cardi for myself, which I put on hold, to do that one, it's all knittted up & just waiting to be sewn together. Not been very creative on the papercraft front either, sent off (very late) my School themed Family & Friends ATC's without taking a photo of them. below is a pic of the April ATC, Showtime theme, how goods your memory Pauly? that pic of the carousel pony is the applique cot quilt that I made for Shaz when she was a baby,(she now has 3 babies of her own) which I scanned then reduced down to fit, then printed on card, stuck PP on, cut it out & paper peiced, spent half the night & most of the day on them.

Better stop rambling on, get stuck into my homework for the patchwork block swap, left that til the last minit too, got to hand applique a birdhouse onto cream homespun, we meet in Gundagai on Weds.

So til next time, you no the drill, if you can't be good
Cheers Helen

Another ATC done

Hi this old slacko decided it was time she updated her blog, haven't got much creativity to show for the last couple of months, my mojo has been AWOL lately, need a kick start to get me going again. I shouted myself a Sizzix Big Shot for my birthday, that was on the Oct 24, i only started to use it in the last couple of weeks, it has been sitting there on the sewing cabinet, gathering dust, screaming use me lol
Below is my finished ATC for the F & F swap, a bit late you have probably all got them by now.
One more to go for the year, bought a new die that I planned to use on it, but it is back to the drawing board now, I can't use it on it, cos it's too big.

Next pic is the Christmas wall hanging that I did for the surrounding craft group block swap, seeing as it was last one for the year, Tumut the host group said instead of a patchwork block, we make a handmade item to take along, the items were numbered on arrival, & we were given a number, the gift with the corresponding number was your gift, there were some nice gifts & as you can imagine some very ordinary ones, but luck was with me that day for a change & I scored a very nice crhistmas decoration


this one is a just becauseone I made cos I was on a roll, & felt like it, I'll have to lash out & buy some proper quilt hangers

Pauly, you will be pleased to note that I have used my birthday pressie at last, I got motivated & did some painting with my sparkling H2O's, there are a couple of samples below, I also painted some bears but the photos of them were even crappier than these 2, so I ditched them.

more flutterbys

I better stop rambling & go think about cooking something for tea.

Til next time, you know the drill, if can't be good, be careful

long post part 2

My last LO for Katas comp, the only one I did I think for the month, very slack

A close up of my crochet butterfly

My ATC for the F&F swap, found that quote on an email, so don't know who gets the credit for it

The Pancake Princess, isn't she sweet (this was last week note hair is brushed & tied back)

It was one of those mornings today, the grand kids arrived for me to get them off to school, the Pancake Princess would like some pancakes for brekkie, so between us we make a batch of pancakes, a knock at the door, the guys up the street doing a concrete slab for a shed need to 4 metres of sand now, is there anyone to load it, we have our own tipper, only me I say, so I leave the princess devouring her pancakes & go down the yard & fire up the bobcat, get his truck loaded, do him a docket. Meanwhile the princess has had enough pancakes, won't brush her hair & Nate informs me he forgot the book he has to take to school, we'll go to your house & grab it on the way, times flying by the way it does, Ash you will have to brush your hair on the way, so I grab a couple of brushes, clips & hair band, get nearly to his house & I realise the key is at home on the other keyring, wheel around go back & get that, all the while nagging Ash to do her hair, get his book, get to school just as the bell goes, "Ash wheres your bag?" " Don't know." "Let me brush your hair." " NO!" "Go into to school now & I'll go home & get your bag & bring it back" Do that take it up to her, get home & find another bag of books in the lounge room. Ring her Mum to find out what are they for, will they keep til tomorrow, & to warn her she will probably get a letter from the school to tell her that her daughter is a poor neglected little girl, shame on Nanna sending her to school with bed hair, not to mention the pancake batter on her uniform. LOL

See you again in about a month I guess, seeing I average about an update a month. Bye for now Helen

Long post

Hi all, it's been awhile since I updated, life is pretty dull round here most the time, haven't done much scrappin' lately, mojo has been on holiday, but my hooks & needles have been flying lately so following are a few of my finished items. 1st up is the jumper I finished the other day,still undecided whether to sell it or keep it, I'll wear it out trying it on, looking in the mirror & feeling disgusted with myself, for the extra kgs that I let creep on. Once again the photo doesn't do the colour justice, much nicer IRL.


No.2 is the blanket I crocheted for my great granddaughter, done in chenille yarn, so soft & cuddly, modelled by my reborn Amelia

No3 is the hooded cape that is knitted in the prettiest pink, like coconut ice, looks good enough to eat IRL, modelled by Sofia Rose.

No.4 is the cabled cardigan that I almost finished, so cranky that I run out of wool with only the the front bands to go. If any of you that read this have a mother, nan or auntie that happens to knit with Bendigo wool, and have any scraps of Alpaca Rich , Rich Rose, that I could buy, beg, borrow or whatever, I would be eternally grateful, the girls at the woollen mill can't help me there is no more of it in the store, if I can't find any the only alternative will be to unpick back down to the arm hole shaping and make it shorter and I really don't want to do that.

This is the label off the ball of yarn & all that I have left, which isn't much

I'll say bye for now & try to be a better blogger & update more often in future, I have good intentions but don't seem to carry them out, as my Dear old Mum used to say " The road to hell is paved with good intentions, so they say"
Susan if you reading this HAPPY BIRTHDAY !! fro Friday You will have reached a big milestone on the 3rd Sept. (I won't give away u r secrets LOL)

Hi all, it's been a while since I blogged, haven't done much since last time, a bit of knitting, a bit of reading, the only scrappin' I managed to finish was at Katas Scrapping day at the shop a few weeks ago. this months day is tomorrow, maybe I'll get some more done.
The 1st one is of Tack, I have added a title since I took the pic. I got 2 kits & reversed one of them


2nd LO is my two gorgeous great grand babies. The colours a bit pale in the photos

3rd LO is the landscape photo I took to the previous workshop. Instructions were for 2 portraits & a landscape LOL. (those nice people that were there thought it was a great joke) It is hard to see my fancy pinpricked edge, it started out as a machine embroidered crosstitch edge in purple cotton got about 2cm along & the bobbin ran out, so just kept on going without any cotton, then very carefully unpicked the little bit of sewing.

guess I better stop rambling on, check my emails & go snuggle up in bed with the electric blanket it's cold here in the office, it's cold every where at the moment, there's snow on them thar hills & the wind is blowing off it, winter is not my favourite time of year.

Bye for now, Helen

Back again

Hi, been a while since I updated,haven't done much the last few weeks, I finished the jumper I started at the end of last winter, I love the colour, it's called rich apple, much nicer in real life, the photo doesn't do it justice, I was going to keep it for myself til I tried it on, it's definitely going into the craft shop, & I got to start dieting & exercising lol, nearly too ashamed to post that photo

Have also knitted my 2 great grandsons a jumper each & a couple of cardies for my 1st great grand daughter, expected to arrive in Sept.

this bag is what we made at the workshop the local craft group had a few weeks ago, nice & roomy, not difficult to make.

Not a lot been happening on the scrappin or cardmaking, hardly been home long enough in the last 3 weeks to do much, scrappin is a bit hard to do in the truck or the support vehicle, that's the reason I got so much knitting done, it's portable. Did a fair bit of reading too.

Did get half the day off on Sunday to meet the David & Pat, would have liked to have spent more time with them. Didn't even get to say goodbye to them properly, they were coming to visit on Monday morning as I wasn't supposed to be working, but as usual Monday morning the plans changed, & I had to go to work after all. Maybe one day we'll be able to retire, & do what I like, when I like.

LO & cards

Hi, wonders never cease, it's only been 3 days & I'm back again, first pic is the sky at sunset out over the Co-Op on Sat evening I think, had one of those days on Friday, that happen sometimes, got out of bed & it went downhill from there, knocked my 2 nd full cup of coffee off the bench, had to clean that up, then realised some feather brain about my size forgot to go to the supermarket & buy some fish for Good Friday, scrounged through the pantry & found a tin of red salmon,(6 bucks a can,supposed to be a luxury) so boils up some spuds & makes salmon cakes, shapes & crumbs them, put them in fridge to set for 2 hrs. Lunch time gets out the deep fryer, new oil, put them in the basket lower them in to hot oil give them a bit of a shake to stop them sticking, so what happens is they disintegrate into an oily mess, tip them out onto kitchen paper & try again this time lower them gently into oil, no shaking, they came out looking OK kept their shape mostly, 3 left, I'll shallow fry them tonight. Meanwhile I put the red salmon mush out for the cats, told them what a treat they were getting, the bloody ingrates wouldn't eat it. thought maybe they weren't impressed with the oil, offered the rest to the MOTH that night & the ingrate said he would pass, in the meantime Vic had given me a few pieces of frozen crumbed fish out of her freezer, so we had a decent bit of fish for the evening meal. gave the 3 uncooked fish cakes to the cats next day, wouldn't eat them either, the European wasps ( thats another story that I won't go into, but theres a clown in every circus, LOL ,I was too pee'd off to take pics of that fiasco) found them & had a feast, until I disposed of what was left.
I made a couple of cards, excuse the crappy photography, got the paper tole pics from Vic's Popcorn Bear CD, they are belated birthday cards, which I ought to make by the dozen LOL

This LO I have been trying to do for about a year, I had it sitting on a lt green cardstock, I'd get it out & put different paper backgrounds & embellies on it, never happy & put it away without sticking anything on then the other day got it out ditched the green CS, put it on a very vanilla cs run a few rows of stitching around & the rest just came together, only thing I not sure if i like the natural chipboard, but I can paint that later if I want to I guess.

Been a quiet Easter break Vic & I took ourselves for a drive to Tumut Sat morning had a browse around the shops, didn't buy much, then went to the Chit Chat Coffee Shop & had lunch, just the two of us, no men or kids, thanks to mobile phones we still managed to get harassed by one of them wanting to be taxied somewhere. Lunchtime again so I better sign off & go organise some tucker, as they say a woman's work is never done, I got home from Tumut on Sat arvo at about half past three, Mikey & Pop here, we haven't had any lunch yet, so I cooked them toasted sangers, told them how useless they were, they are big enough & ugly enough to get themselves a feed, they deserve to go hungry, ones 64 & the other is 15. Anyway better go now & find them something to eat.

Til next time, be good. Luv Helen

A couple of LO's

Hi, I haven't done a lot since my last update, finished & posted off my Family & Friends ATC's for March, & only managed to do 2 LO's. #1 is from the the Sunday class with Kata a few weeks ago, #2 for the comp at Kata's shop.

We had the local show last week, a couple of hectic days for me, being a steward, getting the knitwear organised & ready for the judge, with the help of Vicki & Gloria we managed to get it done & displayed & guess what spaghetti brain forgot her camera as usual so no photos again this year, the pavilion looked very impressive again this year, top marks to a dedicated band of workers, that don't get a lot of thanks for the time & effort they put into it. There were not many sideshows for the kids to waste their money on this year

I hope everyone has a HAPPY EASTER!!! & that the Easter Bunny is kind to you & brings you heaps of chokkies & if you are going away, that you have a safe trip & enjoy yourselves. As per usual we will be going nowhere, doing nothing more exciting than getting the tipper ready for Rego. & pushing up apple trees into heaps to burn off.

I guess I better go and do some shopping so we don't starve over the exciting weekend ahead of us.

So bye for now Luv Helen

Back at last

This post is a bit mixed up, this pic of the family & friends atc is supposed to be under the quilt one but they loaded in the wrong order & I forget how to move them around, I have done it before, but it is not happening tonight for some reason. I ended up deleting the other pics.
I had intended to put a pic of the cakes & jar of relish so my girls could drool & think about the snags cooked ,threaded on a green stick over the campfire & dipped in relish, way back when they were kids.

Hi, I'm back in blogland at last been meaning to do this for the last couple of weeks, so this will be a long post, been a bit crook the last week or so, not sick enough to waste money on a visit to the docs, just feeling yuk, no appetite (which is probably a good thing, seeing as I'm carrying a few extra kilos) tired & full of aches & pains that people never die of, must have picked up a bug of some kind. I seem to have shaken it anyway. I worked like a trojan today, did 3 loads of washing, cleaning, defrosted the fridge, cooked up a storm, made tomato relish, an Armenian Nutmeg Cake, a new recipe, if I make it again I will replace the walnuts with almonds I think, a double batch of patty cakes, as well as a casserole for dinner.

Below is a pic of the the quilt top I made with the blocks I won, I mentioned in a previous blog that I won one of the booby prizes at the last district patchwork friendship day, last year. the last one was in Tumba, a couple of weeks ago, so the week before it was on I set myself a challenge, to finish it for the day, didn't do it of course, got the top finished, but didn't manage to get it quilted, maybe tomorrow I will get to craft and get it sandwiched together on the big table & ready to quilt. Not the most brilliant photo, the colours look a bit wishy washy, looks better in real life.

Guess I better say Bye for now & go sleep, so until next time, be good , if you can't be good enjoy yourself. Luv Helen

Hi, been awhile since I updated, I been very slack the last month, must be getting old, not enjoying this heat one bit, this little effort for the comp at Kata's shop is the 1st LO I have completed since Christmas. I'm not very confident with vintage LO's.wasted most of the day yesterday making roses & flowers to put on it, the rose in the bottom corner is a bit different, from normal, some dill forgot to change the size of the photo to 4"x"6", & tried to print the 1st photo A4 size on a 4x6 photo paper, so rather than waste it I made a rose out of it, very creative LOL

Below is a close-up of the detail in 3 of the corners, a couple of roses from the page of the old book.

The photo rose & folded ribbon roses

A crochet butterfly & the little scrap of leftover lace made the birdies wing, birds have to have wings.

Last is a pic of the moth we found on the screen door, how cute is that.

I guess I had better go & get this food dished up, as it is all cooked. Maybe I'll get a walk in this evening before it gets dark. so bye for now folks, be good & if you can't be good, enjoy yourself
Luv Helen