A thank you, genealolgy and a quilt

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'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

Sewing and gardening

Hello, how are  you?  This morning I sat down and finished sewing the squares to make the cover of my quilt.  Hanging it on the clothes line is the best place to take a reasonable photo.

I'm very happy with how the squares are looking sewn together.  Now I'm on the lookout for some fabric for a border and will probably use calico as a backing as I have a roll of it to use up.

This afternoon I decided to tidy the front garden next to the footpath.  It is a large area that gets overgrown quite quickly if I don't attend to it regularly.  I've managed to take rubbish photos again, sorry, but at least you will get an idea of the area.

I've got leaves,spider webs and dirt in my hair but at least I have the satisfaction of knowing the green waste bag is full, ready to be taken away tomorrow.  Now I'm off to make a beef and vegetable pie for tea.

I hope you are all having a great day.  I'd like to welcome my new follower and thank you everyone for stopping by for a visit.

.Anne  xx

110

Hi everyone and welcome to my new follower.  I hope your weekend has been enjoyable, perhaps with some sunshine, none of which has appeared in Melbourne the last two days.

Remember the fabrics I showed you in my last post,

they have been cut up into 110  6 &1/2 inch squares ready to sew into a quilt.

I purchased a few more pieces of fabric last week to give the colour scheme a bit more pop and I'm quite happy with the colour combinations.  So all these squares are pinned together in rows and numbered so I remember the right order in which to sew them.  Sorry about the rubbish photo.

Late last week I had an overwhelming urge to have a good sticky down in the local op shop.  I came home with a few bits of pieces, a dress with fabric that is gorgeous and will cut up, a few pillowslips which will be turned into something else and this little china jug which cost me the grand total of 50cents.  

It's just perfect for displaying some autumn hydrangeas I picked from the garden today.  I suppose the hydrangeas are really too big for the jug, but do I care?  Nope!  It's all about what makes me happy, not about being perfect.

This afternoon I took my dog Sophie for a walk around the streets of the neighbourhood which was a lot of fun because tomorrow morning we are having a council hard rubbish collection.  Anyone who has stuff to get rid of has put it on the nature strip and what stuff there is.  Some of it is just rubbish, but I saw so many things I could have come home with.  Wooden chairs that could have been sanded down and painted, an old tiered garden stand and this which I did bring home.

  I'm not exactly sure what it is but it was sitting next to an old broken cast iron fire place grille.  

I have a weakness for wrought iron and I just couldn't leave it sitting on the grass.  I will use it as a display somewhere in the garden.

Well I'm off to iron hubby some work shirts for the week.  I hope your week ahead is a good one.

Till next time, take care,

Anne  xx