Australian Open Tennis

In 1976 three friends (Lynell, Robyn and Wendy) and I travelled to England, backpacked around Europe then sailed home to Australia after almost a year away.

In January the four of us went on a short cruise to Melbourne to attend the Australia Open Tennis.  This was my first cruise and I had such a good time.

The cruise for was 5 nights and we had two days at the tennis.

With Evonne Goolagong Cawley

The two days in Melbourne were pretty hot but we had booked Centre Court tickets in the shade.

The ship docked in White Bay and I thought it was amazing when we sailed in to Darling Harbour and did a three point turn to reverse into White Bay.

A Big Birthday

Last weekend was full of birthday celebrations for a big birthday, starting on Thursday with the arrival of my dear friends, Diann and Bill, who had driven down from near Brisbane.

My best friends, Lynell and Robyn, arrived for lunch on Friday (my birthday) with me, Diann and Bill then in the afternoon Jenni, Kurt, Vinnie and Daisy arrived.  Always a party when Vinnie is around.

Vinnie was so excited to give me a birthday present

and it was The Best Present - pink, metallic cowboy boots!

For dinner we went to a local restaurant, The Lagoon.  Elizabeth decorated the table with beautiful jars of pink and pink/white roses and loads of photos of my life on cute little gold stands.

Jenni made a delicious Lemon Poppyseed cake.

We managed to get a photo of my brother, Philip, smiling.

Cousin Steph

Diann

Lynell and Robyn

The Grandbabies

On Saturday afternoon we hosted an afternoon tea for the family and more of my friends - the weather had been dreadful for weeks and was no different on that afternoon - pouring rain all weekend.

We had a lovely time and I really enjoyed being able to spend birthday time with such lovely friends and my family.

Little Sweetheart Daisy is now 12 weeks old.

Elizabeth organised a continental birthday cake for the afternoon tea.  The table cloth was stitched by my mother-in-law in the 70's.  I think it was a kit from Family Circle.

Gulli and Daisy coincidentally wore matching outfits

Hugo and Vinnie had the best time playing "The Floor is Lava" with all the loungeroom cushions.

Sunday was Mother's Day and it was lovely having Jenni, Kurt and the little ones still here as I found the whole weekend a bit emotional being my first birthday and first Mother's Day without Mum.  I took some of Elizabeth's roses to Mum and Dad that afternoon.

All Vinnie wanted to eat at the party was hot chips and I didn't have any so, on the way home, Jenni and Kurt stopped at the McD's, about 5 mins from my house to buy Vinnie some chips - she thinks he ate 5.

Making Quilt Tops

"Starlets" blocks are very quick to make and because I'm making the small throw size, I had the number I needed pretty quickly .  I put these blocks aside to sew together on another day - I seem to do that a lot.

I hadn't kept count when I was cutting out the house blocks for "Dwell 2" and I cut way more blocks than needed - turns out I have enough to make quite a large quilt

Decided it was time I sewed up some of these blocks I have piled up on the spare bed and started with "Swoon", which has the least number of blocks.

Backing and binding fabric for Swoon.

Next up is "Dwell 2" - this is just over halfway.  I'm waiting for some more red fabric to arrive to make another two stars.

I hope to sew up "Berry Parfait" next, then it might be time to send a couple of parcels to Karen.

The laundry is finished

Before

After

but the "new" room (5th bedroom/study) isn't quite done - the skirting boards need another coat of paint before furniture is moved in.  The paint on the skirting boards was damaged when the floor was polished - I painted them a week ago but that didn't quite cover the damaged areas.  Might have time next weekend to paint.  The light fitting is in.  I'd love to be able to afford new white windows in all the rooms.  Still trying to decide on a blind.

Spent Saturday with my friend Lynell packing - after 40 years in her home she and her husband are moving (to my suburb) - it's a big job.  Yesterday I visited Mum then went to a lunch with another friend.  I'm really pretty shy and it's good to meet/chat with some new people.

June Churn Dash Blocks

Spare time on Friday was spent cutting out Churn Dash blocks.

By last night this month's blocks were finished.  As I've made a couple of Churn Dash quilts before, I'm really happy to have stumbled onto this variation.

On Friday night went to see "Top Gun:  Maverick" with some friends - what a great movie.  Loved it.   Had a lovely dinner afterwards.  Fun way to start a (very cold) weekend.

On Saturday, after usual housework, I spent the afternoon and evening with my friends, Lynell and Darren, packing.  After 40 years in the house they are moving to a house in my suburb, so there is a lot of sorting and packing to be done over the coming weeks.

I have one room in my house that has not been touched since we moved in and it is used as a junk/storeroom and the door is always closed.  The room needs gutting, re-gyprocking, painting etc and it is going to happen.  An electrician is coming this week to remove the old ceiling fan/light and wall control and install a new light fitting and then I can book in the plasterer.  Pretty excited about this.  I will use the room as a study and extra spare bedroom.

My quilting frame is in this room and I'm hoping someone would like it (I'll be happy give it away to anyone who wants to pick it up).

Started clearing out the room yesterday morning then after lunch my brother turned up with Mum and he and I had the job finished by mid-afternoon.  I have lots of stuff to drop off to the Op Shop and lots of stuff to throw out.  Nat's What I Reckon's Lamb Ragout was bubbling away on the stove all afternoon - was a delicious dinner last night.

I've enjoyed all the Platinum Jubilee celebrations.

Lots of Colour

Seems that I am sewing with lots of beautiful colours at the moment.  I belong to an online Scrap Busters Group.  The first year we made Jen Kingwell's "Gypsy Wife" quilt and "Boho Heart" was last year's quilt.  I've used mostly Alison Glass fabrics with loads of low volumes for the backgrounds and the long background strips.

This is the backing for "Boho Heart" - same as I used for "Gypsy Wife".

This year's quilt is Tula Pink's "The Butterfly Quilt" and I'll be using my Alison Glass again.

A dear friend gave me two identical fat quarter bundles of 21 Kaffe Fassett fabrics.  I opened one of them a few weeks ago and decided to make Kaffe Fassett's "All Stacked Up" quilt.

The pattern has very specific cutting and fabric placement instructions, which are a great help.

The blocks sew up very quickly.  The above photo shows all I can fit on the design sheet - there are two more rows to add to the width and length of the quilt.

Last Friday the Wollongong International Women's Day event was held - it's usually in March but Covid has mucked up many plans this year.  It was such a fantastic event - Olympian Emma McKeon was the featured speaker (so gracious) and Mahalia Barnes provided entertainment (such a powerhouse voice).

Tania, in the photo below, is my immediate manager at the University and she is also Wollongong's Deputy Lord Mayor.  She is such a wonderful advocate for the Illawarra (and a fellow lover of musicals).

When Michael was a baby I made him a set of crochet granny square overalls (no idea where they ended up).  Made another set when little T was on the way and they were also worn by her brother and now little Vinnie is wearing the overalls.  The photo of T is from a video of her dancing at the Sydney Quilt Show in 2016.  She kept her audience well entertained.

The weather was awful over the weekend - can't believe how much rain is still falling.  The only good thing about it is staying inside to sew.

Lovely Weekend

 Four more "Stitchery Sampler" blocks.

The final two machine-pieced blocks are also made and the two applique blocks have been prepared - hope to work on them during lunchtimes at work this week.

Made last September's "Boho Heart" blocks yesterday so the next step is to cut the backing strips to assemble the third quarter.

Peta posted this gorgeous photo of Gulli and Wynstan last week - they're both so cute.

I had a fun weekend starting with dinner out with friends on Friday night, lunch on Saturday with my cousin at Headlands Hotel in Austinmer - such a lovey spot, friends visited yesterday morning then Mum and I went to see "Operation Mincemeat".  Really enjoyed the film - I love anything based on a true (and so does Mum) and, once again, she remembers the event.   Always happy to see a movie starring Colin Firth.

Canberra

I spent most of 1976 overseas and a couple of months of that time backpacking around Europe with some dear friends.  We try to meet up a few times each year but Covid has played havoc with that over the last two years.  Last year we managed to see the Monet and Friends exhibition in Sydney and on Saturday we drove to Canberra to see Van Gogh Alive.  In 1978, 4 days after our wedding, John and I flew to Holland and spent a year living there - we were fortunate to be able to visit the Van Gogh Museum and see the real paintings.

This light exhibition was wonderful and Vincent's writings were interspersed with the pictures.  I believe the exhibition is heading to Melbourne next.

There were sunflowers everywhere.

Saturday night we had a fantastic dinner at an Afghani restaurant - the food was delicious.

Sunday morning we visited The National Gallery to see the "Know My Name" exhibition featuring female artists, including Jenny Kee, Linda Jackson and Romance was Born. 

A very interesting piece of display looked like a floormat but it was made up of old cutlery and chillis.

Romance was Born also designed my daughter-in-law's fabulous floral and black lace wedding gown.

After the Gallery, we visited more sunflowers - this time a Sunflower maze.  It's a lovely farm where fresh eggs and other produce may be purchased, as well as sunflowers.

Am definitely looking forward to our next adventure.

The sewing machine hasn't been turned on since Friday last week!