Tilly the Christmas Elf...

Random-ness

So my inner fairy godmother has helped me out and I've found a way around the disappearing upload box (i have tried disabling pop ups, plug ins...to no avail.  Now I'm uploading via my phone to a picassa web album to the blog...laborious but it works. 

Here are 2 pics I wanted to post of Gypsy.  I love them and I'm going to frame the one above. She was so pretty and I loved her little beauty spot on her nose :)

More photos....

 

My latest crochet project.  Totally ramdom squares for a blanket. But I can't edit this one aaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhh for the second time.

 

 

 

My eldest girl - George (nearly 20) - got a brand new grown-up bed which we installed yesterday.  Her pink and green quilt looks lovely on it.  It was my first quilt.  I don't think it will be there for long - she's decided the pink and green (so 12 year old girl!) colour scheme is going.  :)



I could scream Mr Bumble, I could scream

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH.

I am so frustrated with blogger, I can't upload photos from my computer in any post. I've tried from 2 different computers.They have to come from a URL, phone, picasa web album or somewhere.  Why has it suddenly lost the option to upload from my computer? The upload option is there but there is no longer a search box there to use.  I am sure it is me being dense, but it is sooooooooooooo frustrating that something that used to be so simple has become complicated. What are my options?  Give up my blog in utter frustration, blog pictureless, use web images... I was really hoping to start the year off sharing all my projects etc.  Now I'm looking for a home computer tutorer...I've tried to create a new picasa web album after futile attempts to save to my existing picasa web albums.  I'm so fed-up  My fibromyalgia is flaring again and I just want to give up....but I don't really. I just want it to be simple like it was.  Today I could cry over it. Where is my fairy godmother?  Help...

Farewell my beautiful Gypsy-Girl

My darling girl was hit by a car outside our house and killed instantly.  I can hardly find words at the moment.  She was never very far from me in the house.  I was glad I was home from my holiday and we had a few days of schmoosing together.  She had been distraught without me, and was oh so happy to have me home and we spent lots of time cuddling.

Rest in peace my beautiful Gypsy-girl. Thanks for the memories and all the wild times you crazy, epileptic, tail-less cat.  You are forever in my heart. xxx



Always helping me sew




Getting into the Christmas spirit :)




Curled up on a quilt - she loved quilts and I would often find her curled up on one - even a folded one on a table!



Holiday snaps

So I promised some more pics and after days of trying to upload photos I seem to have finally pressed the right button somewhere to make it happen.  Why would my computer suddenly stop uploading photos?  One of the items on my "things to do this year'' happens to be computer courses.  Even though I work all day on a computer, there are aspects of it that are completely unknown and mysterious to me - and I lack the skills to figure it out myself, it would seem.  Take my blog - it's very stock standard and I would love to change it up a bit, but I struggle with that and it takes me hours trying to do something that I know other computer-savvy-bloggers do in 5 seconds.  It's one of the reasons I sometimes want to do away with my blog, in that I can't create the look I really want to create.  I am very time poor, so having someone show me would be a very constructive exercise I feel.

I digress (I do a lot I know)... here are some pics from my 2 weeks in Victoria.  Who else but me would go to (arguably) the shopping/fashion capital of Australia and return with wool and fabric only?

This is my hero piece from the pieces I bought.  I love it so much I want to base an entire quilt around it.  Now I know I'm not the only person who does that, am I?  Finds a piece of fabric as an excuse to make a quilt?  Below is a pic of my shopping...

Mum took me to the most fabulous shop called Morris and Sons. I'd never heard of it, but that means nothing.  This is an institution in Melbourne.  It's in the CBD!  Ma and I spent AGES in there browsing and I picked up the yarn pictured for my collection-of-many-splendoured-coloured balls for my granny square rug.  It is going to be G-OR-GE-OUS! Yum, yum, yum.

The fabric came from Jiddi's Patch in Geelong.  A great shop with LOADS of great fabric.  As you can (just) see I picked up some of the reprinted Flea Market Fancy range - this time in the green, grey and orange along with a few delicious bits.  I showed great restraint believe me.  I flew over with a suitcase full of fabric as I was going to get stuck into sewing - I had the beginnings of 3 quilts I hope to finish piecing the tops of !  I am nothing, if not optimistic!! Needless to say I worked on one of them, still unfinished.  So I flew home with a suitcase full of fabric too, in fact MORE fabric than what I flew over with.  I am a nutter! I also took knitting, embroidery and linocut tools.  

Here's a taste of what I did finish....

Yep that's it - one hat!  In 2 weeks I started and finished one hat!  I worked on other things I might add, however, only one item was actually finished.  I'm not a slacker you know!  :))

This is another Snow Hat by Rowan.  It's going to live in Chicago on one of my sister's heads... happily I hope!

I spent a lot of time enjoying the countryside.  It's beautiful country. Rolling hills, cattle, horse and sheep grazing.  I saw several native animals in the wild - koalas, an echidna, roos, owls, kookaburras and endless other birds.  Here's a few photos you can play "Where's Two-Thumbs? (the koala)'' with.  I promise there is a koala in every photo!.

It's always a thrill to see creatures in their natural habitat...

Hay bales were littered over fields everywhere

We ventured to and along different parts of the Great Ocean Road over the course of the 2 weeks. It is a spectacular coastline.

 A sign tickled my fancy in Apollo Bay.

The lighthouse at Aireys Inlet - lighthouses are  just so wildly romantic don't you think?

some local flora

Welcome 2013!

Wow the last few weeks have flown by.  I had a magical Christmas this year, I hope you did too.  I've been away for a couple of weeks staying with my mother in Victoria.  What a wonderful time we had.  It was a retreat for me.  Mum is a textile artist and has the most fantastic studio.  We worked together in the studio doing our separate things in blissful creative companionship.  I worked on some linocuts, a quilt, embroidery and knitted another Rowan hat.  I feel very inspired to work towards my goal of my own studio and time to spend in it.

I think Mum was thrilled with her Christmas gift - a quilt I've been working on for a while.  I took photos of it in her backyard.  Her ''plot'' is totally charming and rustic. I would photograph every quilt of mine there if it wasn't on the other side of the country! I think this one looks great in the setting of her backyard, strung over the washing line. It was exciting to see it on the bed in the room I had made it for too, but alas I forgot to take a photo of that - it really suited and enhanced the room (Mum's thoughts! but I agreed).

I have some more holiday snaps to share but for now I'll leave you with these of my version of Kaffe Fassett's Floral Parade Quilt, flapping happily away on mum's washing line. It's king size so it's tricky to get a great image of such a large quilt.

Back view

so you can see the quilt pattern.. and the lime green binding, which  I  feel finishes it perfectly...but that's my opinion :)

 I even took a short video of it.  (My daughters think I am so weird - I assured them that other members of quiltland would understand and "get it") But the birds were chirping and quilt was merrily blowing in the breeze which you can't capture in photos. Also the sunlight dappling through the trees was skipping around the quilt.  It was a lovely moment for me.