Some random photos that I took to use in the blog...

However, for whatever reason the photos weren't used. On our recent 1 night stay on the Gold Coast, DH and I went to Fingal in northern NSW, to have a look around. I had never been there before! We walked along a track which lead up a hill to a headland. And that is where Fingal lighthouse is. I noticed that it's quite small compared to other lighthouses that I've seen. Small it may be, but it has been  very effective. 

DH reading the plaque on the lighthouse

Looking out to sea from Fingal Head

Looking from Fingal towards Point Danger and Coolangatta beyond...

The other lot of photos are some that were taken by DH with his phone, whilst on his New Farm walk last Saturday...he found these interesting sculptures near Brisbane's Powerhouse complex. 

An early Australian ute (utility)

The grille on the front suggests that it is the FX model which came before the famous FJ. 

Here's a very fetching Mrs Sheep?

Today I've been working on a knitting project as well as a sewing one...more information in a future post :-).

Flitting around...as usual! lol

Yesterday, I spent an enjoyable afternoon at Chermside Library for the fortnightly gathering of Sisters of Stitch.

Lots of stitching going on at this table... (except for me, I was crocheting when I wasn't taking photos!)

Lot of chatting going on at this table...lol

 This photo is my friend Cheryl who was working on a project using the EPP method. I'm working on the border of the lap blanket that I was working on for FNwF last week.

The lady in black, Nicky, was working on the binding of her latest quilt. Next to her is Judie, who is the organiser of S.O.S.

And today, DH and I had a drive down to the Gold Coast. To be specific, we drove DsD2 and her fiancé to Coolangatta Airport so they could catch their flight to New Zealand. They are going over for a friend's wedding this weekend, then staying on for a week to do some organising for their wedding in Wanaka (Sth Island) in May.

Departures; Coolangatta Airport

Then, on the way home, DH and I dropped in to IKEA. DH had commented last week that our laundry needs to be 'sorted out'. My answer to him was that there was not enough storage ...so we had decided to buy a small set of 'Expidit' shelves and the cubes that fit in the shelves. Naturally we bought other 'stuff' too. (as you do at IKEA) A gift for Lucy and a small kitchen bench/trolley on casters. Photos will happen when we've put these things together. lol
Last time I was at IKEA, I took photos of the sewing room that they had set up, for this blog...well now they have a different display sewing room....

Cute little storage unit

A wall of shelving and storage boxes. On the top right hand side are some cylindrical shapes that were filled with rolls of gift paper... great idea. you could also use it to store rolls of fusible webbing or tracing paper perhaps.

Nice wide/deep table for the sewing machine...and the big light!

A small wheeled set of plastic shelves for storage...note the iron

More shelves on the back wall and a work table with adjustable height which would be wonderful for cutting out etc! Note the small ironing board hanging on the wall.

I'm planning a quiet day at home tomorrow, finishing off a few projects hopefully.

More mail...

The postie has been busy around here lately...
Last week I got a parcel from Jeanette...it was a prize I'd won in her recent Giveaway. I unwrapped this pair of hand sewn pillow cases that Jeanette had sewn. Jeanette's blog is a joy to read...she does exquisite sewing and her home decor ideas are just so elegant and beautiful.

close up of the beautiful cotton  lace...

Certainly a lovely prize to win and many thanks to Jeanette.

Another parcel that  arrived last week was also a prize. I guess sometimes I can be extremely luck! lol This was a Giveaway from Jodie Carleton over at Ric Rac. Jodie makes the most amazing items/toys out of felt.
My 'Mrs Sausage Dog' kit along with the Vignette magazine that featured the pattern for Mrs SD were in the postpak. Love it!

My Initial Heart Valentine Swap gift arrived yesterday. My partner was Sharon from lilabellelane.blogspot.com, and what a lovely lot of goodies were in the parcel. Look how beautifully Sharon wrapped the parcels....

Here is my little angel ('Matryoshka Angel from Rosalie Quinlan's book 'Gift' )...

The sweetest little angel who will 'live' in my sewing room...

Sharon also included some chocolates and a cute owl thread keeper with 2 skeins of embroidery thread.

Thank you so much Sharon for my lovely gifts.

Now my partner in this swap was Debbie and today she wrote about what I'd sent her...

And last of all, today...
 I also got a parcel from Kaite, a fellow blogger. Kaite sent me some balls of yarn and some knitted squares to create some more warm items for K4BN and some other little surprises...thank you Kaite :-)

Blogging Workshop Part 2....

Continuing on from my last post, now just a little more about the enjoyable 2 hours I spent at New Farm Library yesterday.
The purpose of the workshop was an introduction to blogging and Jean used her laptop connected to the library's data projector to demonstrate various features and to assist in explanations. The fact that Jean is 'self taught' to a certain extent, made her presentation very effective...'she has been there and done that' just as most of the participants hoped to do. Jean showed for example, how to start the blog, how to set up the components, how to do a layout, add links and photos and discussed tags.

Now I've been a blogger for a few years now, but I use 'Blogger' so I was really interested in learning about Wordpress which Jean uses. We had a very interesting group of people there, and the interaction was marvellous. And even though I consider myself to have experience with blogging, I realised I had learned a number of new things yesterday as well as meeting Jean and the others there. So...

• I learned all about the features of Wordpress and the systems capabilities. Naturally I found similarities, but also differences.
• I met a Brisbane author Ryll Paul, who came along to learn more about blogging. Ryll has published a book of memoirs of growing up in Brisbane 1950-1970s 'Pebbles in the Road', as well as a recently published children's book, 'Friends of the Flood'.

Rhyll Paul; a lovely lady...

• I found out that Jean has another blog which focuses on retirement.
• Met a lovely librarian who works at New Farm library, who introduced Jean at the beginning of the workshop and who loves reading blogs.
• Another participant, Wayne Paul,  draws the most wonderfully funny cartoons and now he has become inspired by yesterday's workshop, to start a blog where he can showcase his work. The link will take you to his website which features his recently published book of cartoons. 

Rhyll's husband who came along to 'support his wife' is explaining to the room 'his lightbulb moment' ...he had never thought of it before but he decided to start his own blog!!

• I met another participant who runs book clubs and I think drinking and eating are involved as well as books in these clubs :-)
• I discovered that our council libraries don't just run storytelling sessions for children or author talks, I picked up a booklet which has the most amazing list of events and sessions throughout the year. I'm now planning to go to a session later this month at my local library to learn about uploading eBooks from the library. And that is just a start...:-)

So now some views of Brisbane as we made our way home via Toowong (we had mail for one of the girls)...we went via the city so we could use the riverside expressway.

This sculpture was on the footpath on Wharf St where it meets Ann St...

Looking across Ann St, from Wharf St

On Ann St coming up to the Edward St intersection. The old Peoples Palace is now a backpackers.... On the right out of sight is Central Station...

Moving through that intersection now...

Still Ann St...King George Square is coming up on the left...the iconic City Hall is dwarfed by the other buildings (when I was very young, it was the tallest building in the city)

Crossing George St soon...ready to get on the On ramp...

The old Grovener Hotel on the right...for a time it was a McDonalds...

We're on Milton rd now. The walkway links Lang Park...oh all right! ...provides a link between  Suncorp Stadium and Milton Station. In the distance there are 4 Xs...that's the Brewery 

One view of the football stadium...

What's On at New Farm Library?...

Well yesterday at New Farm Library, there was a Blogging Workshop presented by a fellow Brisbane Blogger, Jean. I thought that it would be an excellent opportunity to meet Jean, so I went along. 

New Farm is on the north side of the river and is an example of industry moving out and  being replaced by gentrification of the suburb. We turned into James St (now very posh in parts lol) and met traffic that was hardly moving...

Traffic turning into James St, only to find that the traffic ahead wasn't moving...therefore  we couldn't either...

 DH felt that the traffic jam was caused by people slowing down to look for carparks in the trendy section of the street which contains cafes, restaurants, nice (expensive though) shops and the cinemas. And he was right, because after we drove through that area, the traffic moved smoothly.

Still on James St but  driving speed has picked up :-)

 Not the best shot but a quick glimpse of the old Queens Arms Hotel. Once very much a workers pub, now refurbished a number of times that I can remember, and more upmarket. When I worked at  Fortitude Valley, we sometimes had staff dinners at this hotel.

The sign says it all...leaving Fortitude Valley and entering New Farm

Still on James St , heading towards the Brisbane River...

New Farm Library on Sydney St

The traffic had held us up a bit, but I got to the library with 5 minutes to spare before Jean's workshop began. The library is in a beautiful spot with the huge New Farm Park over its back fence. While I attended the workshop, DH did his daily walk but yesterday it was on the path through the park, past the Powerhouse complex and down the river path...

Now because I've taken so long to 'set the scene', I'll have to write about the wonderful workshop tomorrow. I try not to ever miss a chance to post photos of Brisbane as I know that some readers enjoy seeing photos of the city as they once lived here. If you used the link to Jean's blog, you will already have read about the workshop, so I will write just a bit from my perspective and then also post some photos of the trip home! lol

FNWF...and I'm 'on a roll'...

Last night I joined in with Cheryll's Friday Night with Friends and, on the strength of having just finished sewing together donated squares into a useful rug for the charity knitting group, K4BN, I thought I'd 'attack' another pile. These donated squares were actually knitted rectangles, approx 19cm by 14cm; but on closer inspection yesterday I found that relatively few were this size...many were quite different, especially in width.

Originally I had hundreds of these rectangles but in October last year, I did an 'unMarialike' thing...I took half the rectangles back to a Knit and Natter. Being all white/off white or beige and there being so many, I felt overwhelmed. I know that I hurt the woman who had given them to me, by taking them back. J said, 'I gave them to you because you always take photos of the finished items'...gulp......I still had a lot of rectangles though, and I promised her that I would photograph what I managed to make. I have 2 rugs planned and started one last year and have all the 'rows' in ziplock bags.

But yesterday I started work on the other one...
Earlier, I had started crocheting the rectangles into rows. But it became obvious that, with the differences in sizes, that I would not have enough white rectangles to make a throw.

After again sorting the rectangles by size, I found that I only had enough for  4 rows plus a few  that didn't make up the full row of 6.

Also while crocheting the rectangles together, I encountered a small problem. The knitter has a different way of casting on and off compared to me...that's ok except the stitches started unravelling as I worked at joining them...so that part's not ok!Lol

 

There were no ends left, so I used a tapestry needle threaded with white yarn and stitched the ends so they wouldn't unravel. Originally I'd planned to add some crocheted flowers to 'dress up' the plain white, using the same variegated yarn that I was joining the rectangles with.

So I had to have another strategy to make this throw a decent size. I decided to insert a row of 'granny squares' using the same variegated yarn.

So that's why last night, I crocheted 10 smallish squares to brighten up the plain white of these rectangles...I then crocheted the strip of squares on to the 2 rows that I had already crocheted together. By joining on the right side, I felt it gave some colour to the item.

Now I have quite a few of the rectangles left, that are too wide/long. After I sew on another 2 'white' rows and a row each of 'granny squares, top and bottom, I'm going to see whether I can make a border with the other rectangles. If that doesn't work, it will be a deep crocheted border instead.

The bag with all the wrong size rectangles.

And that's what I did on FNWF. :-)