Day 15 – From above
Sawn off trunk of an Australian native grass tree.
Day 16 – Family
(xxx)
Day 17 – Centred
Brass door knocker on the centre of a door in Venice, taken on holidays 3 years ago.
Day 18 – Street
(Mine)
Day 19 – Currently reading
This is the sweetest, must touching story. I recommend it!
Day 20 – Cute
Young Chester looks so cute hanging over the front stone wall waiting for passers by to stop and give him a pat.
Day 21 – Lunchtime
Lunch on the run.
It’s no secret that the last 10 months have been the hardest in my life. Even now there are moments when I wonder if I’ll wake up and find it’s all just been a very bad dream.
I’ve been blessed with the most loving, caring and generous family and friends who’ve stood by me even when I’ve been a proper misery-guts and not fun to be around. And God has patiently held me close while I’ve kept on asking “Why?”.
The future is still unclear, but I’m more confident than ever that God has a plan for me, even if I’m unimpressed with his timing.
The last few weeks have brought some welcome sunshine in my life. It began with my Daisy a Day quilt being chosen as one of the three Viewers’ Choice winners in Amy’s Bloggers’ Quilt Festival.
When sponsor Vicki Welsh asked me which stash pack I’d like as part of my prize I chose her “Sunshine” pack because I love what a touch of yellow does for my quilts. Vicki sells the prettiest hand-dyed fabrics in her Etsy shop.
These delicious fabrics and Mistyfuse will be wonderful for my newly-begun hand applique project! Thank you so much, Vicki.
A few weeks later I won a local photographic competition with this photo, taken on a gloriously sunny Australia Day in January this year. I’m so excited about my prize, a course in camera craft at the Australian Centre for Photography. I really need this – but first I need to buy a DSLR camera.
Then a quick entry in Good Reading Magazine’s giveaway on Facebook won me a copy of this thriller. I can’t wait for it to arrive.
My next little grandbaby, due in September, continues to thrive.
Best of all, I might soon have a new home where I will wake every morning to this expansive, green view. Hope I can tell you more soon!
Life is gradually looking up and becoming sunnier.
Day 8 – Animal
Echidna snuffling around for ants in my mother’s garden.
Day 9 – From below
Day 10 – You!
Day 11 – Something funny
The Princess pulling a silly face for the camera 
Day 12 – 11 0’clock
At the Sydney Quilt Show with Di B
Day 13 – Kitchen
The kitchen sink.
Day 14 – Texture
The hand-picked (possibly by convicts) sandstone of the walls of my 160 year old home.
Forever Diamonds – by Sue Robbins
A Humble Quilt – by Margy Syrett
Easy Street (from Bonnie K Hunter’s pattern) – by Margy Syrett
Lime Star – by Sue Rowles
Shining Light – by Aviva Fox
Easy Street – by Sue Rowles
And finally, Rainbow Connection – a collaborative effort by the Sydney Modern Quilt Guild.
(From a pattern in Tacha Bruecher’s book, Hexa-Go-Go 2012)
Look who we have here!
It’s Team Di, enjoying a very tiny bit of the limelight after contributing a grand total of two blocks each, out of 49, to this spectacular quilt.
They’re all in the top row. Di B’s are the blue and the green (#6 and #7) at the right hand end, and mine are the yellow/orange and the deep pink block (#2 and #4). So many others did the majority of the stitching and piecing, including a very pregnant Jenn, and Sel machine quilted it. They did a fabulous job!
Every year I go to the Sydney Quilt Show I’m excited to see more and more quilts made by my friends. This year my talented quilting buddies, Di B and Sue Murtagh, entered sampler quilts that were the result of a happy, and often hilarious, collaboration over two years.
Di’s Singing the Blues (above) and Sue’s Learning Curve No 1 (below) are in different colourways and differ slightly in their selection of blocks, but these two friends spent many hours together comparing notes, techniques and fabric as each created her uniquely beautiful quilt.
Both Sue and Di machine quilted their quilts on a home machine using the quilt-as-you-go technique.
Several months ago Di let me take more detailed photos of her quilt, but I put off posting them until Singing the Blues had made her debut.
It wasn’t easy to keep it under wraps 
I reckon a quilter’s entitled to be just a little excited at having her first quilt hung in an exhibition, especially when it’s turned out so well.
Day 1 – B is for… basin
This is the washbasin in my brand new (renovated) bathroom.
Day 2 – A moment
Sun glinting on the windows of an apartment building in that moment before the sun finally disappears over the horizon.
Day 3 – On your table
I made this miniature bear.
Day 4 – After dark.
The Sydney Opera House lit up for the Vivid winter light festival.
Day 5 – Environment
Day 6 – Transport
Mr J riding his scooter with his Daddy guiding.
Day 7 – Bright
Tonight I attended my godson’s birthday dinner and the table was decked out in his favourite colours, orange and bright green!
