Lucky Me

I was in a cushion swap.
Look what I received from Aunty Al.

 The cushion is on my couch. My other cushions are looking very dated in comparison.

 I also got yummy chocolate and a notebook, just perfectly sized for my handbag.

Thank you Aunty Al.

Take care,
Kayly

Recent Holiday

Warning - photo heavy post with no craft.  ;-)
Last March/April, Hubbie and I managed to have a 3 week holiday overseas, again in England. Yes , we did pick to go in what turned out to be their coldest Spring in 50 years. Many people we spoke to kept saying we should have been there last year when it was a hot 24deg C.  LOL. Trust us.
Yes we had snow. Something that amused us Queenslanders.

The lane next to our B&B

Sunday morning walk in Snailwell

 We saw.....
 Ancient villages and churches,

 and incredible museums.
(I'm no plane buff, but I was very impressed by Duxford.)

One of the hangers at Duxford

The National Train Museum in York

The Transport Museum in London - very well set out. You start at the top of the building and back in time and work your way down and to the present time.

  

 We saw dykes and windpumps. (Didn't know they had dykes in England.)

 See, we did have blue skies. It was just the wind -gale force, and the chill factor  - minus 5.







I loved this shoreline.  Rocks of all sizes and smoothed after tumbling about in the sea. Heaps of people walking, heads down, looking for the perfect one.

 Hubbie trying to hang onto everything in the wind that was coming straight off the North Sea. Look in the background...England does have sandy beaches!

 We walked the Yorkshire Moors.

We enjoyed many pretty east coast towns including Whitby.







Also castles. This is Castle Howard where both films, Brideshead and Brideshead Revisited, were filmed.

 In London, we got to go to the Agatha Christie play 'The Mousetrap' which is in its 60th year of continuous production.

 How many of you, like me, thought this was a tall sign?
When you see it in films and TV shows, it looks so big. I think the photographers/cameramen must have laid on the footpath to shot it.

Have you noticed no pink beanie or gloves?

It was warming up, 9 degrees - positively balmy.

Looking over to Greenwich from what was once the 'Call the Midwife' docklands.

 Hampton Court was on my must see list this time.

 M&M World was a surprise find. DH was in seventh heaven! We bought souvenirs from here for our son - stickers with his name on, a lanyard, plate etc. We had a winner there. He thought they were cool.

I did give some thought to my crafting while away. At Bridlington, the same place as the stony beach above, the promenade has been paved in at least 4 different patterns. It gave a 3D effect if looked at from the right angle. All just clever placement of colour and line, just like patchwork, really. You can see the other patterns if you use Google maps and zoom right in.

Talking of patchwork, I had better go and organise the baby quilt I only have to quilt. I have just got word I have my first grandnephew on my side. That makes 10 grand nieces and nephews between hubbie's and my families.

Take care everyone,
Kayly

Home Sewing.

Before we went on holidays, I decided I needed some more long sleeved t-shirts. So I dragged these out. Yes, they are circa 1977!

They don't look too flash hanging off a bedroom door, but trust me, they fitted and looked okay on.

 Inside the packet was the size 12 pattern, I traced off the master all those years ago. Let's just say I traced off another larger size this time, and leave it at that.  LOL.
After practising with the old Knitwit pattern, I allowed myself to buy this new Kwiksew one. The blue material above was out of stash. The pink and the grey below came from East Coast Fabric on one of their $5.95 a metre days, so it was not going to be a great loss if it all failed.

 

This fabric was very slippery and try as I might I could not get it to fold and sit neatly.  So I retraced  whole front and back pieces. That also helped work out where the pattern blotches were going to appear on me. It has a cowl neck - something I've never done before. I also tried for the first time using the tape (sort like applique paper) to do the hems - impressed with that and will definitely use it again.

 

 All in all, I was very pleased with my efforts. It looks good on, hangs nicely, and feels great.
There was also a basic pull-on skirt in a warm material, but that's nothing too exciting to look at.

On the craft front, I owe my nephew a 30th birthday quilt. I've at least started all the cutting, but he might have to wait until his 31st to get it. So many little squares and the black ones are hard to see. As he is well over 6 foot tall, I'm making it bigger than the pattern.

Off to cut more squares!

Take care,

Kayly

Not what....

...you want to find when you venture into the sewing area after a five week absence!!!!!!!!!!

It's their revenge for me cleaning them out of the garden shed a couple of months ago.
Brisbane has had a lot of wet weather since January. I think they were only trying to find a dry spot, but why did it have to be my sewing space.
Luckily, I haven't found them anywhere else and no harm has been done to my stuff.

Take care,
Kayly

Redwork Swap

I'm late posting about what I received in the Redwork Swap because I have been lucky enough to have been away on holidays.
So without further ado, here is what the lovely Christine of Time Out Stitching sent me.

Thank you so very much for my lovely sewing compendium. It is the perfect size to fit in my bag for days out stitching while big enough to hold everything I need. The notebook is a good idea.

This is what I sent Maree. Talk about pressure, as Maree is the organiser of this swap.

I enjoyed doing it because it contained a few things I've never tried before.

I had better put my thinking cap on as the next swap is due soon. \

Off to do a bit of blog stalking.

Take care,
Kayly.

Back Tracking.....

....to February, when I had the opportunity to go to Canberra. DH was down there working so I was able to join him for a few days.
I went to the War Memorial. On temporary display is 'Remember Me - the Lost Diggers of Vignacourt'. Thanks to the generosity of Kerry Stokes AC, hundreds of glass negatives from World War One have a new home. These negatives were found in a large truck in a small French village. They had lain undisturbed for nearly 100 years. They have been carefully restored and some printed. The clarity is wonderful. You can't help wondering if the soldiers in them made it home. Find out more about it here
Our War Memorial building is very impressive, just a shame about its reason for existing.

Canberra, our National Capital is having its centennial birthday this year. Just for my overseas friends - Canberra is located where it is - in the middle of nowhere - because of a fight between Sydney and Melbourne at the time of Federation. Neither wanted the other to be  the National Capital. It was/is a very planned city. Walter Burley Griffin won the International Architectural competition to design it. It might be 100, but I don't think it was until the 1920s that the public servants started moving there to live. The reason I'm telling you this is to explain this photo.

Griffin designed the vista from the Parliament House to the Memorial to be uninterrupted. He wanted the Parliamentarians to be forever reminded of the consequences of their decisions. Appropriate then and now.

The other reason I went down was this.....Toulouse-Lautrec....at the National Gallery.

It was wonderful. We thoroughly enjoyed meandering around the exhibition with the other hundred or so people there. We have started using the audio guides on offer.  We never used to bother with them, but have found them really informative.

The National Gallery is going to have 'Turner from the Tate' on from June to September. I wonder if I can get DH working down there then? I'd like to see that to.

 Afternoon tea at Koko Black, of course. Why, oh, why is there not one of these stores in Brisbane. Maybe that's a good thing...my waistline wouldn't survive!!!!!

Back soon with report on our day at Highfields last weekend.
Take care,
Kayly

First Bloggers Meet of 2013

Last Sunday, twelve of us were able to make it to Cafe on the Park, at Shorncliffe. Maree is behind the camera or I should say behind her pink iPad.

From the left - me, Helen, Marilyn, Sandi,  Noela, Lynda, Teresa, Susan, De, Deb, and Maria.

It was a great day, full of laughter, catching-up and show & tell.  It is wonderful to be able to sit with like-minded women and just share.
There was a turtle meet also.

Lovely quilts by De (hiding behind quilt), Marilyn (left) and Helen (right).

Some immortalisation in fabric.

Some of us even got to do a little stitching between the mouthfuls of food, sips of coffee and gabbing.
Thank you ladies. I thoroughly enjoyed your company.
Take care.
Kayly