I am still here but what weather we are having!

The last week in Tasmania has seen every season that there is. Up to now we have been in drought and as of last weekend there were around 70 fires burning in the state. Most of those started as a result of lightning strikes the previous week.

This week more thunder and lightning but not enough in the areas that need the rain to dampen the fires and we are only a relatively small state. Within a distance of 200km we now have flooding as well as the bushfires. It is hard to settle to do anything when we have gale force winds and torrential rain that drops a few inches in an hour or so each time we have another storm.

We lost our modem as the lightning took out the phone lines in the area. We had sparks inside when it hit.

We have a pop upstream in our backyard where the storm water system cant take all the rainwater

We have had some very colourful sunset due to the smoke haze as well as a blood red full moon as a result of the smoke in front of it.

Red full moon

Sunset in smoke haze

Sunset in smoke haze

I am asking for expression of interest for another BOM using the Magnolias in my Garden set of designs from Hatched in Africa. If you are interested and have not received  an email then please contact me. This is one of the possible block combinations that I have come up with.

Jacobean Roses BOM Started

Block 1 of the Hatched in Africa's Jacobean Rose BOM has been sent out to those who have signed up via email. If you wish to participate in this BOM please email me

Hatched in Africa Jacobean Roses BOM Block 1

I was originally going to do the BOM in red, black and white but changed my mind when I found this selection of fabrics in my stash.

Hatched in Africa Jacobean Roses fabric palette selection

We are having bushfires here in Tasmania so the air is very smokey. Thankfully no property has been lost and more importantly no one has been injured. We desperately need a goo downpour of rain.
The smoke in the air provided a magnificent sunset two nights ago.

Lovely weather continuing

We have been having lovely warm weather but need rain desperately. We have a number of bushfires in the area and the smoke haze last night made the sun glow bright red at sunset.

Red sun west of Lillico

We have had some gorgeous sunsets.

The penguin babies are growing quickly with many having left to go to sea and soon the adults will be on land to moult

The sunsets over the water have given some lovely hues

I have been busily sewing some Bridies' Blossoms packages for 2 funeral homes in the Launceston area so that we can deliver them on Thursday.

Bridie's Blossoms outfit packages

 On Friday I spent the day taking apart a beautiful dupion silk wedding dress from a generous local lady called Clare. I tried to maintain the design integrity of her gown  as much as possible in making this first angel baby gown.

Angel baby gown from Clare's dress

These are photos of Clare's original gown. As you can see I used the complete beaded bodice. I remade it to take out the bust shaping.

I am just about to ready to start the new BOM featuring the Hatched in Africa Jacobean Roses. The requirements list should be ready by tomorrow morning at the latest.

We have had quite a few birds still visiting our fountain and there is quite a turf war on who gets to use it exclusively. The last photo is of the little green finch and the sparrow as it arrived on the scene.

BFC Anniversary quilt done and dusted

The BFC 12th anniversary quilt is all done. I just need to wrap it up to gift it to its new owner when I see them. The remainder of the instructons Blocks 10 -18 will be sent out over the next week or so. Block 10 will go out tonight or Friday morning my time.

BFC 12th Anniversary BOM

I have had a great deal of interest in the proposed new BOM using the new Jacobean Roses designs from Hatched in Africa so that is definitely going ahead. I will not send out the requirements list and block instructions for a week or so so that I can get everyone into the email database.

I was cleaning up my emails today and found this photo that Karen had sent me before Christmas. She put this little quilt together early on using the anniversary set. I must apologize to Karen as I forgot all about her picture as I was so busy with my  Bridie's Blossoms sewing around Christmas that I forgot to post her pic

This is what she wrote

"When I started stitching out these beautiful designs, the whole quilt design formulated in my head.  So I just had to continue.  This quilt has been inspired by you and everything I have learnt from your previous BOM's and for that I sincerely thank you.

I realise that it is not what you are doing with this BOM but as I have said in the past I really only need small quilts as they are all donated to Nursing Homes or the Townsville Hospital."

New BOM

I was going to have a bit of a rest for designing BOM's but then Hatched in Africa came up with these gorgeous Jacobean Roses so I was hooked again. I am going to do mine in black , red and grey. One of the designs will look like this.

This BOM will not be fast paced, If you have not received an email from me earlier and would like ot join please email me HERE.

The birds have been having a lovely time in my garden fountain, cooling off in the heat of the summer day. There is a pecking order though as you can see by the arrival of the blackbird. These photos were taken through my lounge window so are not that clear.

Lots of stitching and stuffing

Since the end of November I have been working on Bonnie Hunter's  annual mystery, this year named Allietare inspired by her trip to Italy. I chose colours completely different form hers and did not know if they would turn out so have not shared my progress at all. The mystery was revealed very early on New Years Day and I put the quilt together. I am very pleased with it and will get it quilted when the weather cool down.

My  Allietare quilt top finished

You see what others have done with their interpretations of Bonnie's mystery quilt at this link up on her blog.

I have found the perfect outside border fabric for the BFC 12th Anniversary BOM quilt and hope to get on to that today and to also send out some more of the Block lessons this week. Blocks 1-8 have been emailed to those participating. I took time out to finish the Allietare quilt top.

BFC 12th anniversary quilt top

A call also went out on over the weekend from one of the mothers with a small baby in our state NICU in Hobart. They had run out of small peanut pillows to put behind the wee ones. They also need some little fabric covered balls of fabric they call "ookies" rather like small plum pudding.When the premmies are born they give the Mum two of them, she then gives the little baby one and mum puts the other one down her top to get her smell on it the idea is to alternate them to transfer the smell of Mum to baby. I have so far made 37 little peanut pillows and 30 sets of "ookies". So lots of stitching and stuffing has been going on. Would you believe that I have used 8 metres of fabric in making up these. I used the walking foot to stitch the centre section on the peanut pillows as it is a bit tricky when they are already stuffed with fibrefill.

"ookies" for the NICU

Peanut pillows for the NICU

We are also seeing many of out penguin chicks leaving their nest down at  Lillico. It is a great joy to see them progress each week but there is also a tinge of sadness when you go back on a Saturday and they have "flown the coop" so to speak and have headed out to sea for the first time. Due to the weather being very warm many have ventured out of their burrows before it has become too dark and this has provided some great photo opportunities we do not normally get.

Penguin at  Lillico

There was also a hang glider during this last week over Don Heads taking advantage of the the thermals. We quite often see raptures down at Lillico soaring on the  wind currents.

Last week the international space station also went over a couple of times at a reasonable hour. The sky was clear and I managed to take this pic of sorts.

International Space station over Devonport