Scatterday I

Scatterday I
Originally uploaded by lulubelleliz

Had to think about this one - at the last minute as usual.

Yellow - Irises from the garden. They are actually more yellow than this photo shows.

In the air - Insect. Well it was in the air, but I had to wait until it landed before I could actually photograph it. I did try, but went dizzy trying to track it as it was flying.

Australian - Indigenous species. A baby emu chick.

Another Australian - an idiotic, impatient, impossible, impulsive, irritable, impetuous, impudent, impoverished, imperious, intelligent, illogical, immoveable, impecunious, impenitent, irrascible, impertinent, irreligious, incorrigible and quite irresistible, incomparable and irreplaceable individual

Liz


PS. Having dragged my Civil War quilt everywhere for the last week and harassed all my friends, the voting shows that the green border has the nod, much to Don's disgust as he loved the red. However, when I tried the red on all four sides, I had to admit that it did overpower the quilt. So, unless some of the original red border magically appears, it looks like it will be green. Thanks everyone for your input.

Civil War Quilt

Nearly there with this BOM that I have agonised over. A few weeks ago I was asking if anyone knew where I could get some red and beige stripe from the Nancy Kirk Civil War range. No luck with the red, but I was able to get some of the stripe in green, but somehow it lacks the zing of the red in the original.
I have found another red though and this may do instead. Have a look at the photo and tell me what you think. The quilt has a strip of the red on the left and the green on the right. Which one??? Thge colours in the photo are not as rich as they are really - had to use the flash to get a clear shot, but you get the idea.



Liz

Stars in My Garden

Stars in my garden
Originally uploaded by lulubelleliz

Finally, the quilt is finished and I am really pleased with the result.

The pattern is a design by Lori Smith. I have hand appliqued and machine pieced the top and it has been beautifully machine quilted by Tracey Browning of Constantine Quilts.

It is huge - far longer than the height of my veranda as you can see. And who is it for, I hear you ask? Moi!! I am even going to paint my blue bedroom gold or green so that it will feel more at home.

Liz - feeling very satisfied with herself.

Scatterday Z

Scatterday Z
Originally uploaded by lulubelleliz

Well, I nearly didn't make it this week. First week back has been hectic to say the least and late Friday night I decided that I would have to give Scatterdays a miss. Then I had second thoughts and sat down with my trusty Websters and discovered that i wouldn't even have to leave home to find any number of Zeds.

I must admit I did get a bit carried away with my own cleverness, but just had to include these piccies. I did leave some obvious ones out though - like zucchinis of which we have an overabumdance at the moment.

Zebra that I saw at the Zoo when I patted the cheetah.

DH Don - a Zamindar (owner of an agricultural estate) and his brother who sports a Ziff (beard)

Zilch - a photo of nothing and a Zero

insect Zapper and of course a Zipper

Zits - a comic strip I just love and Zodiac sign

Zecchinos (sequins) that I Zoomed in on and Zinc cream, beloved of our cricket teams.

I thought about Zabaglione, but I had no Marsala left and a Zig Zag stitch and orange Zest and Zinnias and a Zebra crossing, but figured i had done enough showing off for the day.

Now back to school work - the Zenith of my priorities at the moment.

Liz

Scatterday N

Scatterday N
Originally uploaded by lulubelleliz

Easier letter, but I had to think a bit about what to put in. Finally...........

South American - Pablo Neruda, the Chilean Poet.

Orange - what easier than Navel oranges - note the naughty little navels.

Good for me but disliked - my Nose. The bane of my life!! Now reconciled to it, but boy did it cause me some angst in my youth as I watched it grow bigger and bigger!

Pablo Neruda. I had heard of him, but never read any of his poetry, so I looked for it and was quite taken with what I read. Found a series of odes that I really enjoyed. This website has some Elementary Odes - not too complicated for my elementary brain to understand and enjoy. Hope this works. haven't learnt how to add links to my blog yet.

http://sunsite.dcc.uchile.cl/chile/misc/odas.html

Liz

Scatterday U

Scatterday U
Originally uploaded by lulubelleliz

Running late this week- only just got the last few photos late this afternoon. Had fun playing with Photoshop trying to create a collage.
So, here are my offerings.

Things people pay a lot for - Urban sprawl in the country. Some of our state's best farmland is being eaten up by this urban sprawl. People who want an Unpolluted, Unspoilt, Uncluttered, Undeveloped environment are paying big bucks to live in the country - in a crowded sUbUrb. And we are paying for it by the loss of productive farmland and natural scrub!!

Streets - had to find these in a street directory - and one of them was actually in Lobethal and I didn't realise it. Duh!! It's not like Lobethal is a big place!!!

Cartoon character - Uncle Scrooge of course.

What are we being hit with next week I wonder?

Liz

Fun Day

Saturday Jan 12th

I had fun today. Played with some more ATCs. Heavens, they are addictive. If I am not making them, I am thinking about them.
This time I cut up a block I received in a Jan Mullins swap. I added a photo image of a sun, machined around it, did some quilting and voila! some more little cuties. Such fun to do and the beauty is if you muck up, its only a few square inches to throw out. LOL.



I made four like this for the SCQ ATC Swap.

This week I got back 3 quilts that had gone to Tracey Browning of Constantine Quilts for quilting. They are wonderful. She is such a talented machine quilter. I really should be binding them as I speak, for the Retreating Angels upcoming show in March. Trouble is I am hooked on these darn ATCs. When I do get the binding done I will show you what a marvellous job Tracey has done for me.


Sitting watching The Da Vinci Code - for the 3rd time, when a strange noise was heard coming from my computer. Totally puzzled I sat down at the desk to discover that it was a Skype call from Ireland - the mother-in-law of DD2. A wonderful lady and a good friend. Trouble is I could hear and see her, but she could only see me!! My microphone isn't functioning. Very disappointing. So I rang her instead and we had a chat. Have to get that mike fixed though - Skype is so much cheaper than international phone calls. LOL!!!

Liz

ATCs

Friday Jan 11th.

Today I received my first swap ATC. A gorgeous little card from Jenni Strachan. So bright and cheery, so colourful and so many new ideas on one small piece. I just love this ATC. Thanks Jenni.

Liz

Lights

Lights
Originally uploaded by lulubelleliz

Scatterdays inspired me to take photos of some of the lights in the house. There are a couple more, but that would have involved waking up the boss and he might not have been impressed.

Liz

Scatterday E

Scatterday E
Originally uploaded by lulubelleliz

Had to really think about this letter. E would seem easy, but I found it otherwise.

White - Electric lights. In fact I became quite taken with this topic and photographed a number of lights in the house.

Plant life - nothing looking really nice in the garden at the moment, so I took a photo of an Evergreen tree - this one is a macadamia.

Terrifying things - Effigy. Not terrifying to us, perhaps, but certainly culturally effigies are objects of terror in many places.

Doing my thing

Monday Jan 7th

Since the family left on New Year's Eve, I have been puddling along doing my own thing - catching up on reading, gardening (when the hot weather allows) and quilting. I have been able to put together the first five rounds of a Block of the Month and am really pleased with it so far.

Not so pleasing is the fact that the shop has run out of the border fabric for the last round, so if anyone out there knows where I can get it, please let me know. I am looking for a red and beige regency style stripe from Nacy Kirk's Civil War 1 range. It's by Benartex and is now a discontinued line, though may still be available in shops or in stashes!! It also comes in green, blue and brown, but I desperately need 1.5 metres of the red. Happy to purchase any amount.

Here is the quilt with 5 rounds done - 2 to go. The quilt is called 'Civil War' and was designed using the Nancy Kirk range for The Patchwork Apple in Woodside, South Australia.

The other things I have been playing with are a set of ATCs. These are the first ones I have tried and I am finding them challenging and intriguing. Way out of my comfort zone here. I am NOT an art quilter - very traditional and non-experimental, so this is all new to me. What do you think?

Have to admit I didn't start from scratch with the ATCs. The embroidery was an experimental piece I did at a workshop, so I cut it up and put it to some useful purpose. The photo doesn't really do them justice. The embroidery is in red and then a silver/gold variegated thread which doesn't show up here.

Now I have to design some more for a swap. Something bright and cheery.

Liz Needle

Scatterday V

Scatterday V
Originally uploaded by lulubelleliz

I found this one even harder than 'Y' and needed help from the main man. Finally had several suggestions to choose from, so here is my offering for this week

Kitchen - Vinegar and Virgin olive oil - pretty standard choices I would imagine
Motor parts - V number plate. Also took a photo of a tyre valve, but like this one better
Office items - Venetians in our school office and more important Vital Victuals found in the secretary's top drawer - items she cannot do without.

Scatterday Y

Scatterday Y
Originally uploaded by lulubelleliz

This was a very difficult one - not helped by Christmas, grand kids etc. Thought of lots of yellow things like school signs, school buses, but I would have had to get into a hot car in 40 degrees and drive 10 kms to photograph them, so took the easy way out and used stuff I had at home.

Final choices:

Green - Yarrow, growing in my garden
School-days - the 2007 School Year Book
Animal - Year 7s, Young animals, Youth of an animal species. You can take it any way you like.

Raffle Quilt

December 27th

My quilting group The Retreating Angels, holds a show every two years. In 2008 we will be holding our show in March at winery at Victor harbor. More details later. I thought you might like to see the raffle quilt we have made - proceeds going to Autism SA. We are really pleased with the quilt, although the photos don't really do it justice.





Liz Needle

Christmas

December 27th

Well the flurry of Christmas is over - and what a Christmas it was. For the first time in 3 years we had the whole family here - 9 sleeping in our house - only 2 bedrooms, so we had them camped everywhere, including a tent on the front lawn, which the grand kids loved.

We had a mountain of presents to unwrap, toys everywhere, great food, wine and lots of laughter. On boxing day we added more family in the way of cousins, uncles aunts etc and another great day.

Playing Pick Up Sticks

Now the Sydney lot are having a couple of days sleepover at our eldest daughter's house and we have the place to ourselves for a few peaceful days. Very pleasant watching the cricket today without a 7 and 3 year old wanting to watch 'Bambi'!

Liz Needle

Mark's Room

Mark's Room
Originally uploaded by lulubelleliz

Building happening at home. And it's almost there. For the last 18 months we have been working to get a granny flat built at the back of our house for our son Mark.
Mark is a chef, unmarried and currently living at home with us. He has been sleeping on a sofa bed in the lounge, but it's not the best arrangement for any of us.
We live on a 10 acre farmlet and I have a 2-3 acre garden which is getting a bit much for me to keep in order and teach full time as well. We love having Mark at home with us as he can help with the heavier tasks around the place. We think his being home extends by 10 years the time we have here. We don't want to move, but without help it is going to get too big for us.
This being so, we decided to build a room for him - which also adds a bedroom to the house which makes it more saleable eventually. I won't bore you with the traumas we have gone through to get a builder to do the job - too small for most of them. After 18 months it is almost ready - in fact we can use it over Christmas which will be a blessing as we have an influx of family. Here are a few of the stages of growth.

Liz

Scatterday S

Scatterday S
Originally uploaded by lulubelleliz

Hey, back at last. School is done for the year and I have had a few days to get Christmas more or less organised and get onto the important things like Scatterdays.

I have really missed this fun activity and am glad that at last i have the time to do what I want to do and not what I am expected (paid) to do.

So on with Scatterday S

Beverage - Here a Sparkling wine especially bottled for our school (can I never escape it) 150 birthday.

Christmas - Star - part of the world (LOL) famous Lobethal lights.

Medical - a Slipper bed pan. Found in my great aunt's home when she passed away. Must be pretty ancient because she died 20 or so years ago and was 99 when she died. I think it was used for her older sister whom she nursed for 20 years after she retired to her chaise longue in her 70s. I had it in my bathroom with a pot plant in it.

Scatterday H

Scatterday H
Originally uploaded by lulubelleliz

I struggled with this one. Couldn't think of many alternatives. Everything I though of, I thought everyone would also have. Finally at 11.45pm I came up with my selection.

Toy - cute little rocking Horse that sits on my window sill.
Human - homo sapiens himself.
Soft - my Husband's Hugs.

I wanted to do a whole lot of hugs and I found a number of them, but I know my family would murder me if I put them on my blog, so just this one will have to do.

Liz

Scatterday O

Scatterday O
Originally uploaded by lulubelleliz

Saturday is here again and so is Scatterdays. It's amazing how I look forward to this every week. Thanks Michelle and Dy for creating this time-wasting activity.

Small things - olives from my fridge and my small bonsai Olive tree, that does not get the attention and care it deserves, but still survives.

Breakfast - oats to make the porridge that I love in winter.

Shiny - opal. One of the few pieces of jewellery I own and probably the only piece Don has ever given me apart from my engagement ring. And I only ever got that because he had a winning bet on a horse!!!!

Liz

Scatterday A

Scatterday A
Originally uploaded by lulubelleliz

Had to think for a while about the letter 'A'. Here are my final selections

Vegetable - Artichokes growing in the garden last year. This year's crop are not looking at all healthy - Don accidentally sprayed them with glyphosate. Needless to say, they are looking a little sick!!

Something I like to smell - allspice or pimentos

round things - an astronomy dome,housing a very large telescope. This was also used as a tracking station for enemy satellites, rockets etc , hence the disguise. In fact a spy tracking station.
- and a rather cheeky 'round' thing. When I asked Don what round thing he could think of starting with 'a', he immediately came up with ' arse'. I think though he was thinking of a cute young 18 year old female one in a g-string. LOL.

Liz Needle