At Long last I am back

I am sorry this this is not such an interesting post, so I am interspercing the paragraphs with some of my stitching for the band sampler which is growing.

Good morning to my friends (if there are any left reading this).  It has been a while, hasn't it, but yes I am still alive and kicking!  I have found Facebook where Sharon Boggon has her Tast Site this year so that is why my poor blog has been neglected lately

Health issues continue to bug me, but on the whole I am going well.

At the moment am in the process of getting rid of skin cancers as a result of all the years I have spent on the beach.  One was a melanoma, but the best kind to get and has now all gone.  I have only a small BCC to be removed from beside my nose near the corner of my eye, and every time I think of the numbing injections in that area I wince.

Anyway it is all over by the shouting now.

Because the biopsy was so close to my eye, I havent been able to wear my glasses so have not been able to stitch but will add some photos of the recent efforts.   As a result of a nasty fall recently I have also had a black eye which hasnt helped matters much.

Last week I had a visit for a much loved grandaughter and her family.  She has two children, and girl and a boy.  I managed to de-stash some of my work to her because I know she will treasure and care for the things I have given her.

 My greatgrandaughter fell in love with this bear, and also the elephant and doll, so I just had to add my first crazy patchwork cushion to the collection   

We had a lovely couple of days.  When my great grandson looked out my door and saw the park, his words were "that is the biggest back yard I have every seen".

Click on the images to see complete versions.

Tyrell (Mr T) had a great time at the park with his soccer ball.  The park is right next door to my patio and when he looked  out his words were "That is the biggest back yard I have every seen Nan" (he is 7)

While misty was here we were remeniscing about old days and I showed her photos of my navy days.  This was her favourite. I was 18.

Well that is enough for today, I hope to get back here soon.

It's Been a While

It has been a while since I have been able to post photos.   My son and his wife have now settled into a house in Surrey in  the UK, and are thoroughly enjoying it.

This is the back yard of the house they are living in since moving to the UK.  It is in Surrey and the pups are having a lot of fun in the lovely garden, and intrigued by all the new types of wildlife.

This is the front of the house.

They were feeling the cold when they arrived

Since I last posted I have had my operation for the hernia, and also more heart troubles. Think the poor old ticker is getting a bit tired.  Last Thursday week I was admitted with heart failure.  An xray showed and enlarged heart and fluid , which was caused by the specialists in Brisbane changing my medications in February and taking me off the bloodpressure/fluid tablets and reducing the bloodpressure one to half the strength.

 I had been to the doctor with a choking cough and gasping for  breath, weight gain, and high blood pressure........only to be told it was a cold night, that I had asthma, and my BP monitor was faulty I couldnt possible have readings so high 170-180...when hers only read 166/whatever.

Anyway I insisted on something else being done, and she sent me for xray and a nuclear imaging test for clots in the lungs.   She was in a panic when I phoned her for the results, and told me to be careful and come back in the morning when she would contact the cardiologist because I had heart failure...........hello?  .......I wonder why she did not ring the specialist when she received the results to have me admitted to the cardiac ward......

I want to change doctors, but would I get anything different.

I must be a pretty tough old girl though because I have come through all this.......a lot weaker and more breathless, but alive.

 Does anyone remember the gum tree in the park next door behind number 3 unit at the back of where I live now.   It dropped heaps and heaps of leaves on the patios and did the same here.  I was forever raking up leaves and twigs, and could not walk outside for gumnuts sticking in my feet if I was barefoot.

Here is a photo of when a branch dropped onto the roof and the fence during one of the storms.

Well guess what!!!!   It has GONE!!!!!!  Evidently the council got tired of the complaints about the damage to the units with blocked up gutters.  To say nothing of the cost to the owners and their insurance.......
Yippee here it is now....

No more rotten leaves and blocked drains and gutters....wonderful.....happy face.

I cant understand why anyone would plant gums anywhere near buildings anyway.  So hope this does not upset  the greenies.....it was damn dangerous  and finally someone saw some sense.

Since I came home from hospital last week I am feeling better, but still having trouble breathing.  Thankfully Blue Care come and do my vacuuming and mopping for me and himself took me to do a stock up shop before he left.  

My new desktop is chugging along nicely and I have so much more space on my desk.  I have had all my files transferred over now, so have access to them.  My young tech Anthony did a wonderful job, and I learned so much from him......it is good to have everything working again.

For now I am just resting and doing a minimum of things.  Cant walk to the shops on my own  yet, because of the breathlessness,  but that will come.

The good news is that as I lose the extra fluid I also lose weight....am down to 64.5 kg from 68.5 kg when I went to hospital.

Bye for now, thanks for visiting and listening to all my health problems once more.  I will try to behave in future.

Long time with no post

Good morning everyone, it is quite a while since I posted because my everyday life took over.  I have had a lovely holiday and since my last post been in hospital 3 times.  So my time has been ruled by other things since before xmas.

My son has given me a new computer, which he has not had time to finish configuring.  He still has to transfer the files from my old computer to the new one.  The main thing is I have the basics for now.

He and his wife and the pups have today flown out of Australia to move to the UK, so it is a very sad day for me.  With what has been happening to my health issues, my plans to move there with them  are on a total back burner.  I am going to miss them so much.

As far as the computer is concerned he has put skype on, and a programme so he can remotely finish adding my files over to the new computer.

I am also waiting for my photos and the programme I use to come over to the new computer as well, so there are no photos with this post...... Sorry.

With my health issues, my heart just about gave way a few weeks ago, and I was lucky to survive.  While at the Gold Coast I had to go to hospital with what I had been told was diverticulitis, which meant an overnight stay and antibiotics.  It was the 3rd time I had had the same problem with excrutiating pain in my hip.  Then a couple of weeks ago it happened again, and it seems that there is no sign of diverticulitus, but the problem is bursitus, and also 2 hernias.

After 2 weeks I am still not pain free, and have an appointment on the 15th April with a surgeon to decide what to do.......so will keep you all posted.

Anyway folks, I am sorry for the lack of communication.  I am now on facebook if anyone wants to friend me......under the name Shirley Margaret.   (I didnt like to put my full name to keep it more private).   My icon is a vase of white lillies, and my header is a picture of yellow daisies.

Better go, and hopefully will have less boring things to blog about in the near future.

Hope all is well with my wonderful friends.

Lost Month

Does anyone ever feel as though they have lost their nice quiet life. Well that is just how I am beginning to feel.  Dont get me wrong I have undertaken caring for himself willingly, but I had completely forgotten how much more work a man in the house makes.

However, Himself is recovering very well from his hip replacement, but not without a tiny bit of bullying on my part. He is actually beginning to walk unaided, although still needs to be careful and resort to the walking stick.   He is also off the painkillers after only 3 weeks and doing his exercises as  instructed, so that is a good sign.

In between I had a birthday happen, and received some lovely flowers from family and friends. I also have Iris blooming in my pots and my Mint is flourishing.

 Friend Julie and her husband came for lunch, from Nanango, and we had a lovely day.

Himself is itching to get home, so we are off to the farm tomorrow for two weeks, and then back here for the surgeon checkup, then back to the farm again until I am able to set up some home help there for him so I can come home and be back to my normal life.

Bye for now, I am really looking forward to December when I will be enjoying a relaxing Christmas with son and DIL and the pups. 

Bye for now, till next time.

Busy Busy Days

I think all my blog friends must be despairing of me ever coming back, but like a bad penny I always turn up eventually.

These past few weeks have gone in a whirl and there are more busy times to come....will get to that.

Through it all I have managed to have a finish of one of the later pages....and may have to extend my expected finish date the rate I am going.

This page is about playing with textures.  I attended a workshop at the quilt group last year where we learned a couple of techniques.  This one was free motion stitching layers and then burning the top layer.  Well I used that as a background for a collage, something I am coming to love, but still learning.

The leaf on the right is  a piece of crazy patch from many moons ago, and carried the leaf shapes across to the second piece of burned fabric.I stitched the seams in gold thread. The check leaf on the left is the same pattern as the  taffeta fabric I had my first long dress made from when I was 17.

At present I am home, but for the past two weeks have been helping Himself prepare for a hip replacement operation.  He came over to see the surgeon, and was fortunate enough to get a date this month so there have been a flurry of visits to various people, and lots of paperwork. 

We spent a week at serenity getting things organised there.  The op is next week, and he is here with me now.  I have had to wrap him in cotton wool because the surgeon said if there is even a suggestion of broken skin he wont operate because of the chance of infection.

He will stay with me again after the op, and then I will go back to Serenity with him until he is able to look after himself again. 

This afternoon I have escaped to the back room where the computer is determined to have some time to myself.

While I was at serenity I had a couple of days sewing with my friend and old neighbour, Julie.  She has been working on a schwalm cushion cover I started her on about 5 years ago, so it was good to see how much she is achieving with a bit more encouragement.

Julie is a great friend, with a lovely nature and is very supportive of me.

Here is a photo of her piece.  She had never even heard of pulled thread work or schwalm before she started this so even though it has been a long time project she has done well. She was always an enthusiastic learner and took to everything I taught her with enthusiasm.

The weather was lovely while at the farm, and the flowers are all coming out in bud.

 From top left my yellow orchid, pic of the bush, azaleas, marmalade bush, rainforest tree with seeds, monsteria , iris in bud, old faithful purple crucifix, and a white iris.  The garden there is so neglected it is lovely to see some of my plants surviving

It is almost wine o'clock now, a time I look forward to at the moment
happy stitching my friends till next time.......

Super Moon and More pages ready

Sunday night I woke in the middle of the night...the result of dreaming a snake was chasing me at the farm.....and when I looked out and saw how bright the moon was, I realised it was the time of the Super Moon.  This is when the moon is closest to earth over our area.   Although I did discover that the event was in fact last night ..trust me to get is wrong.

Wee hours of Sunday night

Monday night  

Both nights  could not resist going outside in my pj's to  take photos. The first one is very clear, and don't remember what setting that was on so second one was not as good.  The moon looked much closer in reality and it was amazing to see it so close.

I managed to finish off this page.  The theme has a story that I wanted to include in the book as this technique played a big part in my embroidery journey.  When I first learned embroidery in 1994 I became obsessed with crazy patchwork and created a number of bears, cushions etc.   The circular piece I used for the the head of the butterfly was one of a pair that was to be made into earrings....never happened.  The body was to be added to a shirt....never happened either..... so I resurrected them for a page in the book.

The seams are stitched in gold thread. Because of the busyness of the wings I did not want to overpower the body so the three images across the bottom of the collage are closeups of the 3 embellishments I did on the head and body.  The wings fabric was left over from making a clutch bag for a bride, and the fabric was left over from her wedding dress which she gave me to keep.

Over the weekend I managed another finish. It shows a method of couching.   The design was something I created when I took part in  Sharon Boggon's journal course , where we learned about colour and design.

I have called it Cactus Garden.  The I used bright pink 'rats tail' which I couched with herringbone stitch.  The beads were from my stash. I might add that the postcard is really straight on the piece, but dont seem to get straight photos.

The above page also has a story, and was created for a challenge also at the beginning of my embroidery journey.

 The theme was "joy" and applique was the technique to be used.  Well! the only applique I knew was commercial applique on shirts, I had never heard of Visofix, my library of embroidery techniques was non existent and I had no one I could ask.  So the above is the result.

The stitching is deplorable, but it was what it was at the time so is really significant in showing how far I have come from those early days.  I am enjoying getting all these old memories together.

I actually do still have the first bear I embroidered and display it proudly on a shelf.  But that can be a blog for another day.  The stitching is so ugly, but I love that little bear.

Till next time .....

I Can See Again

Can you imagine not being able to see the bright colours clearly on these lovely plants or to be able to read a book.   If you imagine a veil covering the photos then that is how my sight has been recently.  I have had to use a magnifier on my head to see to do any of the everyday things like reading my phone messages and  reading my mail.  Checking out the groceries for place of origin was impossible.

Now though, I have undergone laser surgery to both my eyes, and these colours are now as clear as crystal again and the print is shape and black.   It is wonderful.  We do not appreciate just how important our sight is until we begin to lose it.

Now I am back to normal.....and it is such a long time since it was...I am anxious to get back to my embroideries.  I just hope I dont find so many mistakes that all my time is taken up in reverse sewing.

I am actually posting this without my glasses!!!!!

Off to read some more of my book.

On the Move Again

How Many Times is is possible for one person to pack and unpack boxes of their stuff of  their life and move from place to place.

I dont know the answer to that question, but I am close to finding out.

Last Sunday.....it is now Friday....the owner of my unit phoned me to say he and his wife  want their unit back as they are returning to Toowoomba to retire.

At that time I was sitting on a bench outside a shop trying to get over a slight heart turn I had just had in said shop so you can imagine saying I felt like I had been punched in the belly was a great understatement.

The friend I was with drove me home where i spent the rest of the day crying and bemoaning my fate......jinxed?.....yes......feeling like the end of the world had come? definitely a big yes as well.

It was only two weeks before that one of the nicest units in the complex had become vacant whidh was situated right behind me so I went on bemoaning my fate and berating the owners for not contacting me sooner.....  i felt so alone and helpless.

After a totally sleepless night, and many crying phone calls to whoever would listen and commiserate with me, the first thing I did next morning was to ring the real estate agent for the front flat to see on the off chance if it had been let yet.

I could not believe my luck to discover that it had not and the lady who was the agent knew me from doing inspections on my unit when she worked for my agency so was happy to arrange an inspection for me that day..

To say my heart was in my mouth all day until I had my first inspection is another understatement. 

Believe it or not aftger 3 days of tension, and more sleepless nights,  I GOT THE UNIT!!!!!!

I dont for a minute think that the fact that the previous tenants were very unsavourity characters, who were a few times raided by the police, and who had other unsavoury characters turning up at their door to make  "purchases" and them being evicted  had anything to do with the owners jumping at the chance to have a quiet little old lady rent their unit

i Signed the lease yesterday and when I was handed the keys I hastily put them in my pocket so they could not take them back from me.  

Ever the optimist after a night of wandering round the unit totally overwhelmed and wondering why I had so much "stuff" and how I was going to get it packed, or even where to start, a friend came over and with gentle pushing and shoving, we managed to pack up one room.....my sewing room which was no mean feat I can tell you. 

Even before I had a definite answer I had organised for the utilities to be transferred, and arranged a removalist........

That night I had a dream and in it I had my little shopping trolley and was gathering what I would need to go and live on the street.....my doona, a pillow, changes of clothes.....etc etc....and to cut a long story , I have signed the lease, paid the bond and rent in advance money, and I am half moved in.

I opened our two back gates, and chained them open to give a walkway between the both units which has made it so much easier to transfer my things across.

To my Mr. Himself I owe a huge debt of gratitude, who even though 80 years old  has been a rock and organised me and made sure for the third time that I was moved.  To my friend Gwen, I am deeply grateful, and the saying " a friend in need is a friend indeed" depicts who she is and who I am proud to call my friend.

I am assured that  this will be a long long term rental, but if it turns out to be another case of a landlord pulling the rug from me, then the next move will be to an elderly care facility.   At least there they don't turn your out, they wheel you out so I will never have to pack those damned  boxes ever again.

My internet is being cut off from Monday to Friday next week, so I will be "off the air" until the following weekend.

Sorry their are no photos to go with this....will take them when I am settled.

Till then,.....Adieu

.

Work in Progress Views and Memories

During my absence from blogging I finally got round to doing some work on the latest project for the Art Quilting Group.   The theme is "Botanica".  Although if you look that word up in the dictionary it has a different meaning to the group's intentions  of the word to describe the theme.

To start with I went hell for leather on the piece but once the background was done the wheels fell off the trolley and it went into the "wait and see" pile.

Somewhere along the way I recently  some motivation grabbed me,  and although it is still a work in progress, thought I would share what I have done so far.

The unfinished mushroom cap in the front is something I am still pondering on.....whether  to use fabric, or make some needlelace piece to fit the shape.  Am also trying to decide on the colour.  At the moment I am leaning towards blue.

The cap on the mushroom on the left is made from some nice textured velved and for the underneath I have used a piece I had pleated on my smocking machine.  It had been done so long ago, that when I removed the threads the pleats remained.  The stem is a raised stemstitch  band.

The yellow cap I worked on a piece of dublin linen that I had dyed in a mix of tumeric and balsamic vinegar with some rusty nails added to the mix.  The stitches are four sided stitch, buttonhole wheels and buttonhole bars, with some french knots. The stem on this one is just vertical  rows of chain stitch.

I intend adding some grasses at the base of the mushroom stems, and probably whatever else takes my fancy, so this has a little way to go.  

sometimes of an afternoon when I am sitting in my sewing room stitching, this is the view that confronts me.   All these little tots playing and exercising in the park at the back of my unit.  I love the sound of their laughter and to see the fun they are having.

Dont you just love the view from my window

Because I have been in a bit of a reminiscent mood, I am going to finish off with a photo of one of my older pieces of work, which many will have seen.

I spent some happy hours with lovely friends while I was working on this and it has some wonderful memories for me of those times

Windy Weekend

Woke Saturday morning to nice rain which was not predicted, and there was not sign of it when I looked at the weather site on Friday.   I was checking  for storms, which we have had a couple of lately,  but no sign of them either for our area.   So dont know where the rain came from, and was appreciated by the gardeners.

Still haven't found my incentive to sew but that could be because I have been doing a fair bit of reading. I have just started Angels and Demons by Dan Brown but it is heavy going so far.

When I was at the farm I was able to buy quite a few second hand books for 50c each at the local markets. I just wish I had had a bigger bag with me to buy more at that price.

On Friday it was a bit windy out so I decided to make some of these rum balls. They are a surprise for a friend.  The ingredients are:

1 can of condensed milk

2 cups crushed Marie or Arrowroot biscuits

1 cup coconut

2 Tabsp. cocoa powder

vanilla essence or rum essence

1 cup sultanas

extra coconut for rolling.

Mix all together, roll into balls and in coconut.   Freeze .  Allow to thaw slightly and enjoy.

At the farm the mango tree was loaded so I bought some home with me to ripen and have been freezing the flesh for the off season.   This is just a sample.  I may have to buy another freezer if this keeps up, or just keep eating.   Frozen mango....yum on a hot day.

A week or so ago I was online and found this tv on sale new from one of the big stores.  It is just the right size for my bedroom so I "bit the bullet" and bought it.  Collected it from the store and proceeded to put the stand on, and ...you would not believe it......no go.

The screws that hold  the base and top together just would not screw in they were too tight.   After much exasperation and then  some enquiries I am told that I need a man with a screw drill.....huh!....do men designs things on purpose in order to keep women out of their sheds.

 
It is going to be wonderful in winter to lie in my warm comfy bed and watch my favourite programmes.   Although there have been comments that I may never get out of bed again. Lol....by the way it also has an inbuilt DVD player so I can watch movies if there is nothing good on tv.

I can hardly wait.

Surprise Gift and Great Purchases

It is Sunday morning here, and outside the weather looks a bit bleak and cool.  Other parts of the country are experiencing horrific bushfires and extreme heat so I wont complain about our weather.

Since I last blogged about my birthday, I had a nice surprise when my good friend Dianne arrived with this wonderful gift for me that she had made.

Isn't this just gorgeous.  I love the fabric.  She has watched me carrying my fabric pages round in a zip lock bag, so this is just the most perfect give for me to protect my embroideries from getting crushed and dusty.

At the moment I dont have any photos of the completed pages, but they are coming I promise.

With this beautiful gift I received a hand made card by Di as well.  I love it.  She is so creative.

This last week has been a busy week for me, out almost every day, both for social and business reasons.

Twice this week I have had social outings....   The first was a visit to the Toowoomba Embroiderers Guild Open Day, where visitors had the pleasure to view some extraordinary beautiful embroideries.    Sorry no pics.   I did take my camera but left it in the car....

They had a sales table of books culled from their library and I was fortunate enough to buy these...for the princely price of $2 each and the small one was 50c. As if I need another embroidery book, but I could not resist these.  They are older publications, and I have discovered there are ways of using some stitches that I dont have in other books so I am tickled pink with my purchases.

creative and inspiring

this has history and clear illustrations

a great little book to carry in my sewing box.

this just makes me want to get the threads out.

This will give me lots of inspiration for thechallenge.

some great designs from the past

When I was culling some of my old handmade magazines, I tore out patterns and designs and discarded the rest.   While looking through the boxes I discovered this book which means I now have my favourite patterns from those magazines in one handy book.  The little doll in the front was one I made for a grandaughter together with that bear, except I made him in fabric

On Saturday after the Art Quilting meeting to discuss the challenge for next year we visited an exhibition  by the local ATasda Group.  (Australian Textile Arts and Surface Design Association).  Wow the work we were privileged to see was mind blowing.

The theme for our art quilt challenge is "Bottanica" and I think we all came away from the ATasda Exhibition  with our minds reeling.  If you want to check out this group go to their website at www.atasda.org.au.

Have a nice week everyone.

Busy Week and More Pages

I have been home a week now, and during that time I have ruthlessly de-cluttered my clothes and paperwork.  Out of all the "ideas" we tear out of magazines, how many do we actually use........when we find we have them 10 years later then the answer has to be not many.    I cant believe I paid to have so much useless paperwork moved.  But it is a good feeling to get rid of it. 

The clothes did fit me in those days.  But now I have gone from 83kg to 69kg everything was just falling down.

So I packed all the clothes that no longer fit me into  large plastic tubs.......just in case my willpower ever leaves me and I outgrow my "skinny" clothes. . I now have 3 tubs of clothes that dont fit.

I can hardly ever bring myself to throw clothes into the bin.....on a property there is always a need for old things for round the yard and with red soil they soon get grimey and then thrown away.

 Anyway, if I hadn't worn it for 4 years, out it went.  Unfortunately I still seem to have a full wardrobe, but not a crushingly full one. So I am pleased.

Does anyone else find they tend to wear the same things all the time because they are favourites.

While at the shops I found this little gadget that I can use to pick out the letters on the tiny keyboard on my phone.   My fat fingers just dont cope very well as anyone who has ever got a confusing txt from me knows.   It has a little rubber pad on one end and on the other a soft screw to push into a hole in the end of the phone.  I am very excited about this.

 Managed to get a little bit of sewing done this week as well.  I now have 16 pages completed, 10 to finish embellishing and 6 to find background fabrics for. Hopefully will find just what I want on one of the traders stalls at the quilt show.

 Here are som pics of the latest completed.

This is the verson I had at first looked at it for ages before deciding a big NO!

Here is flotsom and jetsom version that I prefer.  I feel the neutral cords dont take anything away from the embroidery. The background is also a neutral print cotton.

Chevron stitch round the duck embroidery.  Chevron is used in smocking and fits well into sircles. The ratstail cord is couched on

Triangular feather stitch.  The lovely tatting pieces are from my friend Sue from Suztats. The orange buttons were just perfect to match the tatting.   There are also some woven chain leaves

Since I came back I have also been able to complete the leaf sampler of stitches that have come up in Tast, and a couple of others that I like.

The outside edge of the leaf is buttonhole herringbone in a variegared stef francis thread.  Inside the leaf from left is chained cross stitch, wrapped coral, scroll, buttonhole bullion, scroll st, up and down buttonhole, twisted chain, breton stitch, knotted chain, sailors edge, portuguese stem stitch.

On the right side of the leaf starting from the bottom are buttonhole triangle, barred chain, spanish knotted feather, zig zag chain, crested chain, coral stitch, chained cross, top knotted buttonhole.

In the centre vein french knots lead to long legged bullion.  To the left is a spray of up and down feather, with bullion and buttonhole bars for the flowers.

The background fabric is a cotton which I coloured using acrylic paints and fabric medium.   The leaf is sitting on some dyed crepe.

I am going to use the leaf idea to show a new set of stitches to some of the ladies at quilting in November.

Sunday today, and since I have had lunch, it could be time for a nice nana nap.