ScrapHappy Saturday on Sunday

Pink on a grey day

I dragged myself away from watching cyclone updates to work on some scrappy sewing.  First were pink wonky log cabins...my favourite to sew when I'm feeling distracted.

Half a dozen blocks made and a few more in various stages of completion

Then browsing Pinterest I came across Kath Hall, an Aussie woman who blogs at Wombat Quilts and has an absolute plethora of scrappy quilts.  It was the wonky stars that caught my eye, and I absolutely loved this one.  Then I spied this wonky star  with a novelty kids print for the star centres. I want to make a couple of littlie's quilts for a charity and thought this would be perfect.  Digging in my stash, I found just the right fabric, these sweet little birds, so I added some solid pink homespun for the background and scrappy pink star points and here it is, the first block.

This is a 12" finished block, I have all the 5" blocks cut ready to go and 8 more blocks to make.

The weather remains wild and wet, the last ditch effects of ex-cyclone Marcia which is sitting off the coast, not too far away, and still making her damp and unwelcome presence felt...perfect sewing weather.

And how about this lovely all pretty in pink?........

Great-grand daughter Memphis......and Mojo

Head over to Angela's at soscrappy to see what everyone else has made this week.

'til next time

Wet, wet, wet

I woke this morning to weak sunshine and an eerie silence

Mt Warning this morning, a beautiful sight

....the constant heavy rain of the last few days had stopped.

Although we've had a ton of water dumped on us, with the threat of more to come, this time with damaging and destructive winds, I can't complain.  There are people up north who were directly in the cyclone's path as it made landfall, and hit with 200+ km/hr winds, and thankfully while no lives have been lost, there's been a lot of damage and hundred's are without power, water or homes.

This image from the Bureau of Meteorology site shows there's still a lot of weather heading this way, so it's just be prepared, and wait and see.  The SES (State Emergency Service) was door-knocking last night to alert us that there was a chance the river would break it's banks.  I always find these visits...while absolutely necessary....scarier than the weather itself......flashing lights in the street, heavy boots on the stairs, the loud and demanding knock, the echo of official voices up and down the street as groups of SES go house to house, dogs going berserk, outlines of large silhouettes in voluminous wet weather gear at the door, they politely check first that all is ok, then the stern command to prepare belongings, no animals thankyou and evacuate if told to, they pass on information about evac centres and are gone again into the night, bright yellow ghosts looking eerie in the emergency vehicle lights. Then the phone rings and there's a shrill klaxon sound, and a robotic voice advising the river's rising and to prepare to evacuate.

I haven't had to yet, and I've seen the river rise to nearly 8 metres, which sees it washing over the bridge.  My house is on the high side of the street, so I always feel quite safe where I am, but it's best to be prepared and ready for anything.

The river this morning, broken through onto the levee, but still a way to go before it's a serious flood.

Mirrhi enoying all the extra water  

It's very slimy and slippery out there....ask me how I know!  I have some nasty grazes and bruises where I took a slide this morning and came down with a crash on my butt and elbow.  I was worried I'd broken my camera, but it seems to have come out of it better than me.  I'll make some soup now, have some hot tea and take it easy for a while, then go do some sewing.....the sky is getting darker and there's a bit of a wind picking up, so all I can do is wait now and see how the day unfolds.

To everyone who's been in touch wishing me well, and checking I'm ok......thankyou.

'til next time....

Marcia is on the way

I started this post yesterday but was sidetracked to prepare for this 

this being a trough that's running ahead of a Category 4/5 cyclone that's heading towards the Queensland coast.  The bright yellow and dark green towards the top right of the map is the cyclone.....named Marcia, expected to make land around 7 am in the morning. I'm in Murwillumbah, about a third of the way down the picture and while the actual cyclone....with reported wind speed of 225kms/hr as it crosses the coast....won't directly hit us, we'll still feel the brunt. These systems don't necessarily follow the path ascribed to them, but it's predicted this one will head south west across Queensland, then swing to the south east towards the coast, about 40kms south of me. It'll meet up with the trough currently dumping a lot of rain on us, and between them, there's around 400mls of rain expected, plus high winds. I don't mind the rain, but the high winds worry me.  The river I live near is tidal, and with a king tide expected, there'll be flooding for sure, and although there'll be a lot of water rushing through my yard, and things will become very sloshy, my house will be safe.

I have a friend in Mackay, where the cyclone is predicted to make landfall, and I've been following along with her all day as she's prepared as best she can for a very dangerous and scary situation. Be safe, Kate and all those up north who are waiting now for the cyclone to hit the coast, it'll be a sleepless night for many.  My thoughts and prayers are with them and I wish everyone safe passage through this.

I've prepared too, for the deluge to come...mowed the lawn, done some weeding, tidied away lawn chairs and anything else that can blow around, put the chook's weatherproof shelter up, brought in lots of kitty litter and cleaned the water tank filter. There's plenty of candles, new torch batteries and tins of baked beans in case the power goes and I can't cook.  So we're all set.

Nicely mown yard, dog is pleased, she can find her ball now

A bit stiff and sore after all that hard work, I usually do the garden work in small bites, but I really wanted to stay ahead of the rain and be prepared for whatever the heavens throw at me.

***

I want to show you all the lovely things the postie has delivered lately, but first, look at this fun promotion the local library did for Valentine's Day... they had a stand of books in plain brown wrappers, with saucy labels.  I chose this one, bit of a lucky dip as to what the book might be, I was hoping not a Mills and Boon romance ....

This is the book I received, I haven't started it yet, but it sounds as if it could be quite good. "Set in WW2, Miss Carter leaves her French lover to return to England and be one of the first women to receive a degree from the University of Cambridge. She becomes a teacher, and has a mission to fight social injustice, prevent war and educate girls"  I will let you know how it turns out.

Wonderful pretty and practical gifts.

So, firstly last week was my Initial Heart Swap gift, which came from Anthea at Hibiscus Stitches in Western Australia.  Thankyou Anthea, I was absolutely delighted with my swap gifts, ( I pinched this photo from Anthea's blog, as I've left the tote bag in the car...hope you don't mind Anthea?)

On the card, Anthea wrote about my goodies....
An "N" mug rug for my drink
A pouch and bag for market day visits
Something to care for my hands after gardening
and a sweet treat.  

and here's that lovely bag after a trip to the farmer's market...the pouch worked well too

Then from Kerrie who blogs at http://www.channelbankcreations.blogspot.com.au/ this beautifully stitched and very thoughtful gift .... a diary with a handmade cover.  Here it is opened out to show the whole cover with it's fancy buttons on the front.  Thank you Kerrie for your kindness in sending this, I've already put it to good use.

Love the choice of colours and fabrics

Lastly, a gift myself, a couple of metres of lovely bright oildcloth to make a table cloth for the little table on my front verandah.  A friend who lives at the end of the lane has a pretty yellow Kath Kidston cloth and I just love it, it catches my eye every time I walk past, so I decided I would have one too.

The rain will keep me indoors tomorrow, and as there'll be no distractions, I'll be spending the day sewing.

'til next time

GROW YOUR BLOG PARTY GIVE-AWAY WINNERS

Vicki at 2 Bags Full hosted the Grow Your Blog Party again this year, and what a wonderful party it's been. With around 400 bloggers signed up from all over the world, I've had such a good time visiting all sorts of interesting and creative people, all with their stories to tell, and beautiful and exciting creations to be seen. I love that little peek into other's lives. What a wonderful place blogland is!  And...I've had so many wonderful bloggers visit me, that has been such fun and offered the opportunity to connect with like-minded people I probably would never have known about otherwise.

My GYB post is here and to celebrate the party I offered a giveaway......a bundle of batiks and matching embroidery threads for two lucky winners. I listed all the names of those who commented, gave everyone a number, and then had a friend draw 2 numbers from a hat......well a basket actually.

And the lucky winners are ....ta da !

Lindi who blogs at http://glassbylindi.blogspot.com.au/

 and

Cheri from  http://fabricandmemories.blogspot.com.au/

            

Congratulations ladies.  Could you please email me at belleg9atgmaildotcom with your snail mail address so I can get your prizes off to you.

Thanks to Vicki for once again hosting the Grow Your Blog Party, and to all my followers and visitors, old and new, for coming along and joining in my party.  It's been lovely to read all your comments, and visit you in return and see what you're doing in your part of blogland.

I've received some exciting and wonderful parcels in the mail lately, and I'll blog about them next post, so...'til next time.

Pink

Linking up late with the RSC 15 February Week 1.....another wonky star


Wonky alright!  I didn't realise when I started that I had only a small amount of white left, so a couple of the star points are quite small.  Never mind, the finished quilt is to be just for me, and I think I can live with it.  I might even make another when I get some more white, not to make a "perfect" one, but two in different shades of pink might be nice.

Nothing else done last week for the scrappy challenge.  You can check out all the other pink blocks on Angela's blog, there's some great projects underway.

...til next time

OPAM and Initial Heart Swap

For January and a little late....

I signed up with  Peg at Happy in Quilting to join the OPAM challenge.  For those that haven't seen this before, OPAM stands for One Project a Month.  The idea is very simple......participants try to finish at least one project a month, be it quilting, sewing, knitting..... a "soft" craft.....and at the end of each month we post pictures of our item/s and a tally.  Thankfully it's a low-stress challenge, so no OPAM police banging on my door if I don't manage to finish anything.  Whew, sounds like my kind of challenge!  I decided to join because I have a few ...ahem!....ufo's tucked away, and a few projects I want to make, and this will hopefully motivate me to get on and finish some things.  And with other participants visiting to see what I get up to, I'll have a cheer squad to keep me going.....thanks ladies.

I only managed one finished project for January, and the reason I'm late posting for OPAM is that it was my gift in the Initial Heart Swap, and I couldn't show a picture until my swap partner had received her gift.  My swap partner was none other than Peg who organises OPAM, and she let me know yesterday her parcel had arrived, so I can show you what I made her now.

For this swap, we had to make a gift of a heart with our partner's initial on it.  The gift could be an actual heart, or a heart on something.  So I made Peg this little mini-quilt with embroidery and applique.  I stalked Peg's blog and saw on an older post that she liked linen, so I used a soft blue-grey linen for the background.  The design is a mix of ideas....I saw the quote on a poster on Pinterest and thought maybe I could incorporate it somehow with the "heart" somewhere as part of my swap gift, then I remembered a pretty little vintage caravan my fellow blogger Maria  here at The Next Stage had embroidered that I particularly liked, and decided an appliqued van would do nicely with the quote.

Thanks to Cheryll here for organising the Initial Heart Swap.


....til next time

Morning stitching

If you've come looking for the Grow Your Blog Party, that post is here. Be sure to leave a comment there for a chance to be in the draw for a great give-away. 

A quiet moment with tea and needle and thread yarn as the clouds start to clear and the sun tries to make an appearance.  There's been gentle but steady rain all night, ideal for softening the ground nicely, so soon I'll head out to the garden to weed and start digging a hole for a new tree.  For now though, I'll sit here and put the final stitches into this surprise gift, that will soon be heading off to Tasmania to decorate a beautiful garden.

I hope there'll be some quiet moments in your day.....

'til next time