Hello, how are you? I would like to say a big thank you to Louise of Ramblings of a Roachling for sending me two books and the most beautiful card for my birthday.
I love the two books Louise selected for me. In this post Louise talks about reading "The Uninvited", a true story about a family living on a farm in Wales being visited by creatures/aliens not of this world. I'm quite fascinated by the whole UFO thing and made a passing comment that I would like to read the book one day. So Louise went to the trouble of tracking down a copy for me for which I'm most appreciative. I read the book in one sitting and must say that parts of it were a little scary but compelling reading, for me anyway. :) The book about the interesting and at time weird exploits of some Brits is so much fun to read. I love it when people can go out and do something difference and have a lot of fun.
And just how cute is this card?!! You have the most beautiful cards in England.
I love the two books Louise selected for me. In this post Louise talks about reading "The Uninvited", a true story about a family living on a farm in Wales being visited by creatures/aliens not of this world. I'm quite fascinated by the whole UFO thing and made a passing comment that I would like to read the book one day. So Louise went to the trouble of tracking down a copy for me for which I'm most appreciative. I read the book in one sitting and must say that parts of it were a little scary but compelling reading, for me anyway. :) The book about the interesting and at time weird exploits of some Brits is so much fun to read. I love it when people can go out and do something difference and have a lot of fun.
And just how cute is this card?!! You have the most beautiful cards in England.
I've been kept very busy this past week continuing to delve into the intriguing world of genealogy. I met two second cousins for the first time and it just happened to be the 60th birthday of one of them so I decided to have a little fun and bake her a cake. Decorating this cake with silver ball things and butterflies was most interesting. I ended up with silver balls all over the kitchen bench top and floor with very few on the cake and the butterflies wanted to fly away.
I also made her a card from one of my sketches. Very handy to have a stash of little sketches to make into cards.
I had a very nice visit with my new found cousins and was able to scan some old photos of family members, some of which I had never seen including my great grandmother Annie Ashby. My granny is the baby and my great aunt standing.
About a month ago I discovered Annie's grave in an old part of a Melbourne cemetery posted about here.
Here is a photo of her grave, in the middle front of the photo without any markings.
It is a very special thing to have a photo of my great grandmother.
When I can tear myself away from my genealogy projects I have a quilt to complete. Some months ago I put these squares together.
I found this cotton quilt on sale, it's a summer weight at a bargain price and had the bright idea to use this instead of the normal insert batting.
I need some advice from all the quilt making ladies out there. The bought quilt is a Queen size and the squares I've sewn cover the top of a Queen size mattress so there is some extra fabric that needs to be joined to the edges to make wide enough. Can I also have some suggestions as to what I could use for the backing fabric? I was thinking maybe a quilting fabric but it would have to be joined down the centre to make it wide enough. I'm also wondering what would be the best method of quilting the layers together? Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks so much for taking the time to read this long post. I hope you are all having a wonderful day/evening.
Anne xx
I also made her a card from one of my sketches. Very handy to have a stash of little sketches to make into cards.
I had a very nice visit with my new found cousins and was able to scan some old photos of family members, some of which I had never seen including my great grandmother Annie Ashby. My granny is the baby and my great aunt standing.
About a month ago I discovered Annie's grave in an old part of a Melbourne cemetery posted about here.
Here is a photo of her grave, in the middle front of the photo without any markings.
It is a very special thing to have a photo of my great grandmother.
When I can tear myself away from my genealogy projects I have a quilt to complete. Some months ago I put these squares together.
I found this cotton quilt on sale, it's a summer weight at a bargain price and had the bright idea to use this instead of the normal insert batting.
I need some advice from all the quilt making ladies out there. The bought quilt is a Queen size and the squares I've sewn cover the top of a Queen size mattress so there is some extra fabric that needs to be joined to the edges to make wide enough. Can I also have some suggestions as to what I could use for the backing fabric? I was thinking maybe a quilting fabric but it would have to be joined down the centre to make it wide enough. I'm also wondering what would be the best method of quilting the layers together? Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks so much for taking the time to read this long post. I hope you are all having a wonderful day/evening.
Anne xx
Hey Anne, how wonderful to be meeting up with cousins for the first time. The cake looks yummy and I love the card you made.......
ReplyDeleteThe card from Louise is gorgeous too......love those owls.
All the best with the quilt, can't offer much advice not being a quilter, but just wondering about the backing.
Maybe you could recycle a suitable sheet.....plenty of fabric!!.....
Gorgeous flowers, love the colour against the background wall...
Claire x
What a lovely photo of your great-grandmother. Its always great to "find" long lost relatives.
ReplyDeleteLiz @ Shortbread & Ginger
Hallo,
ReplyDeleteThis is the first time I've visited your blog (found via Helsie's Happenings) - because I happened to see 'genealogy' mentioned. Do you know where your lady came from before she landed in Australia - do you have UK ancestors? My aunt married an Australian soldier in 1919 and that was the last her Mum and sister, my Mum, saw of her. No one travelled that kind of distance in the 1920s/30s.
Re your quilt backing - one way of getting a seamless piece is to buy a polyester sheet of the correct size - so many colours to choose from, doesn't have to be cream or white.
Best wishes...
You've certainly had a lovely - ongoing birthday Anne! Well deserved too I think. How nice to receive a surprise in the mail, very thoughtful indeed.
ReplyDeleteCannot help with the quilt sorry, can barely sew a straight line! cheers Wendy
Anne, I'm not a quilting expert but I think you have given yourself quite a difficult project with the quilt. You can buy extra-wide fabric used for backing from quilting shops for about $20 a metre that will probably be big enough for the backing.
ReplyDeleteFirst you need to put some borders on your patchwork to get it to the correct size. I like to pick out a dark colour for the first border(about 2 inches ) then a wider one (possibly 4 or 6 or even 8 inches).
Can I suggest you then make a doona cover with the patchwork for the front and a sheet or the special fabric for the back and put your pre made quilt into it as an insert. I think you will find it very difficult to quilt over the already quilted insert that you have.
As I said II'm no expert, that's just a suggestion.
cheers
how lovely to meet your second cousins & delve into family history. I've been able to do this with newly found second cousin susan ( The View from Here blog ) We natter over tea and cake too.
ReplyDeleteI thought you would like that card - I thought of you as soon as I saw it. We do have some fantastic cards over here, it's often so hard to choose!
ReplyDeleteYour quilt is looking great, as does that birthday cake. it's lovely that your family meeting provided you with a few photos of relatives you hadn't seen before.
Geneology, I love it! I did start researching a few years ago, but haven't done any lately...we used to go every weekend visiting cemetaries and finding graves and taking photos :)
ReplyDeleteIt is great that you get to meet up with some relatives :)
Sorry I dont know much about quilting, I have only made one and that took me three years lol!
xx
How lovely to get a surprise birthday present!
ReplyDeleteI could just eat a piece of that chocolate cake, it looks delicious. I know what you mean about those silver balls rolling all over the place.
You got me thinking about what they were called because my Mum called them cashews, which seems strange now knowing they're nuts. I've just googled them and it's spelt cashous which makes sense as I'd only heard her say it, not seen it written down.