Just before going to sleep I think about what I will do the next day???? funny thing is I really get to do what I planned; some thing else always comes along and all my plans fly out the window but I still do it LOL. May be it is the thought of a full empty day that I will have to my self that gives me a good night sleep. This is what I woke up to this morning.
It was much more beautiful than this but by the time I found my camera the best was gone.
Looking North this morning around 7.30am It is a 30 mins drive from my home to here a lovely drive down the range we are about 1000 feet above here????
Now turning around and looking South, my friend and I walk to the end of this beach and back it takes roughly an hour.
Looking back from the Southern end of the beach, it was a picture perfect morning.
I stopped at our local village on the way back home this morning and there were dozens of vintage sports cars visiting; there must be a rally some where up here.
How gogouse are these lovely old vintage sports cars, what a joy it was to be able to walk right up to them and admire them. They were parked in the village car park this morning.
Just look at that stunning YELLOW Lotus what fun it must be to drive around in the tropics in this beauty!!!!!
I was going to sew yesterday morning but this is what happened
Yesterday this was covered in 1/2 dead ferns DH cleaned them out for me, so this morning I have been out in the garden instead of sewing!!! This is getting a make over
First wheelbarrow full of dead leaves Ive plucked from the Bromeliads before I throw them on to the garden!!! Broms in the wheelbarrow from down in front of the house, then I have ended up with
THIS!!!! Start of a survival garden in our extreme climate; it now needs lots of rocks and more Bromeliads
This is an area where I used to like sitting quietly in the winter after-noon sun but has become over grown over the least two years, I removed all the hanging down Broms and used them to the garden bed above.
2 hours later we now have a quiet place again, it needs to be water-blasted to get rid of the mould, a splashed of paint here and there, some coloured bromeliads added here and there, a umbrella and it will be a peaceful place again.
Couldn’t help myself, after coming inside and having a shower I went back in to the garden and added more Broms here, a frame for the creeper to climb over and a screen door to cover up all the water pipes on the wall.
I did manage to hem my darling Annabelle blocks this week ready to be appliquéd on now. I brought the gerbera’s home this morning they are beautiful and bring spring in to my lounge.
I found time this morning to pin the circle blocks on to the background fabric
Then pined on the hearts so to night I will be able to start appliquéing them on if I can stay awake??????
I’m back working on those endless border hexagons of my 1930’s Grandmothers Flower Garden kingsize bed quilt
What wonderful fabrics she was able to choose for this quilt they were not left over scraps.
Every stitch I make to finish this quilt for the unknown quilt Im thinking about her. What was her life like, she had enough money to be able to buy all these different fabrics they are not just scraps or old shirts been recycled. she planned this beautiful quilt
that I started restoring, hemming, and quilting in 2013. I thought it would only take me the year to do it ???????. It takes me roughly just over an 1 1/2hours to add one hexagon?????? from the time I cut out the templates of wash away freezer paper and the fabric shape and make a hexagon, join it to the quilt turn it over to the back, quilt it then hem the edges down.
I’m adding 12 more hexagons this week they have taken me 10 hours so far and I still have 6 to quilt then hem around the outer edge of them all.
When I quilt it I have to take two movements to make one quilt stitch as there are 5 or more thicknesses to quilt through. There are only 210 hexagons to make but ever hexagon on the outer edge of the original quilt have to be resewn as they are all slightly bigger than the inner hexagons and will flute if I leave them as they are.
This is the only corner not completed yet , some one has unpicked the edges of all the outer hexagons I still have not worked out why??? may be they were going to cut the edges straight to hem and never had the chance or did they find they were going to flute like I did and had not got around to solving the problem????
So I’m sewing the sides of each hexagon to a 1/4 inch off the end, ironing a wash away hexagon shape to the back of each outer shape then finger pressing and basting the edges of the hexagons then I add my new hexagon which becomes the hem. SO thats why it takes 1 1/2 hours to completely finish adding one hexagon. But of course I don’t just do one at a time I have made all my hexagons and I resew 12 outer hexagons at a time and then add 12 new hem hexagons at a time.
Opposite corner finished and quilted, this quilt is a gem and I will find it hard to part with.
Last but not least a tiny slash of colour from the garden.
small local Dendobium orchid it’s so lovely to have these flowering in the garden.
A pretty small cattleya
I’m also quilting the whole quilt by hand quilting inside each hexagon. Hexagons are just under a 7/8th of an inch an odd size????? It is a delight to work on but I burn out quickly and have to have a change.
Off to link up with Esther http://www.estheraliu.blogspot.com/
Thanks so much for dropping in. Till next time Cheers Glenda
Glenda, the Grandmother’s Flower Garden quilt is beautiful. How kind of you to finish her. What is your plan for her, you mention you she will be hard to part with. The flowerbeds are looking lovely, especially the orchids. Enjoy the special time you have relaxing there.
Now I have to ask: Do you sleep ? Just joking, I love what you did in the corner with the bench and all the plants. Wish I could be walking on that beach, it looks amazing. Crazy thing is, everytime we plan to do xyz, everything else happens. It is great that get to sew, your hexagon quilt may take time but I think you are doing it to last for a long time to come. If quilts could talk, they could tell us a story…..
Dear Maggie, When I do sleep it is like the dead LOL. One of the things I have always enjoyed is restoring things of the past, from chairs to quilts. For some reason things that were used in every day life have always had a fascination for me, I can not walk past an old carpentry tool at a market with out finding out all about it. I must admit to not buying them any more now though LOL Yesterday I brought home for the shop a old small upright rocking chair with a cane seat, she needs lots of TLC and I will give it to her LOL. Now I’m going to watch Message in a bottle DVD and appliqué on my Annabelle blocks. Hugs Glenda
one day you will be glad that you did the Grandmother’s quilt, it is turning out beautifully even if slowly. Can’t rush it! The flowers are all so great. and I love the applique that you did bunnies are cute. You have a nice quite area to enjoy the winter sun it looks like. All those flowers and so many plants, I wish I had such a variety. Nice to be able to walk along the beach I bet that is so pretty in the morning do you find nice seas shells or are they broken up, it seems whenever we take a beach vacation it is in an area where we find no decent shells.
Hi Glenda,
you wer so busy in the garden, I got a bad conscience, I should work in my garden, too.
Your Grandmothers Flowergarden is so wonderful and pretty. Your Annabelle blocks are looking cute.
Greetings Marle
Hello Marle, we have an acer of land and it is a constant challenge to keep it liveable. I must admit though I would like it if I could finish some of my WIP quilts as quickly as I can clean up an area in the garden LOL. Yes those lovely little Annabelle blocks I’m going to find hard to part with, they will be off to Holland when the quilt finally gets finished. You have a beautiful companion please give him or her a hug from me. Cheers Glenda
Looks like you have a lovely garden. Your Grandmothers Flower Garden quilt is lovely too.
Hello Kate and many thanks for dropping in. My garden is really part of the rainforest and part tropical, we need to cut and slash constantly for 4 months of the year to be able to live here or we would be swallowed up by the rainforest. It is not a place for the faint hearted LOL. It is a constant battle with the mould, mossies, horseflies, sandflies,and a few other nasties but it is so worth it as usually we have up to 7 to 8 months of paradise. Your own Twinkle star blocks are lovely and I’m looking forward to seeing them as a quilt. Cheers Glenda
Hi Glenda, what a lovely blog this week, from your garden to the wonderful beach, your Annabelle blocks and then your fabulous restoration work on the hexie quilt. I have been scrolling up and down enjoying my visit enormously. Thanks so much for sharing.
Hugs Jenny
Hello Jenny I hope you are OK I dropped in to see how your final borders were going and could find no new blog this week so I hope you are just to busy and not sick. Your Love Entwine is so so beautiful and hard to believe it is so close to been completed. MY beach visit this eek was just beautiful, it was not hot or cold, I was in a light cotton top and grouses and what a joy to walk the beach when it is like that. There were so many in swimming, of course it is our winter but we have crowds of tourists from down South where it is snowing or they are having frosts so to them it is very very warm all 25C LOL. Cheers Glenda
To me, you live the quintessential QLD life Glenda, I always admire your lush tropical plants and wish for some Wednesday beach time myself, I could really use it 🙂
I have loved seeing you work on snippets of Annabelle and now it is really coming together, what a sweet, darling quilt you’ve made. I love the 1930’s one too, you might say your plans go out the window, but you really get those WIPs down!
Esther I made my self a promise when we came here that I would visit the beach weekly if possible as one day I knew would come when I could not go when ever I wanted to. Some times when we have some thing available 24 24 we keep thinking I’ll do it next week and 3 years down the track we still have not done it, so now I plan my Wednesday morning for the beach and for the last 15 years I guess I go to the beach on an average twice a month some time on my own and some times with a friend. Its like going on a holiday I always feel so relaxed after wards. For me the sand between my toes and waves rushing in and out at me stops ALL negative thinking and every person and dog who walks past says hello!!!! Its ALL positive. Hugs Glenda from beautiful Far North QLD.
Hi Glenda, I always love my visit to your beautiful blog. Love your garden the beach is beautiful and sewing garden of grandmothers flowers are beautiful. I need to work on my hexies too. Thanks for sharing your bromilades I love them and we can grow them inside our homes but once flower is gone that’s it never flower again. My orchid is sitting on my table that I got in May and it is losing its flowers now I hope I can get it to flower again. I do have a peace lily that I noticed has three new blooms on it, in our living room. Happy stitching, it’s a beautiful sunny day here hope it is nice enough to go to the pool later.
Hugs Bunny
Love your Annabelle quilt, very cute! And the Grandmother’s hexis are a real heirloom!
Morning Linda so nice to see your name here, I had such a treat when I visited your blog this morning seeing that beautiful Tui now that is some thing I really miss, we use to have then come in to our Kowhai trees, too see that beautiful iridescent blue black and their wee tuff of white under their throat and I also miss the Bell Bird their song is to die for. Cheers Glenda
Our weather is getting colder these days but if it were summer, that beach would look so inviting. I think I would want to spend part of each day on it.
Your gardens look beautiful and I especially like the little sitting area. It looks comfortable and relaxing.
Your Annabelle blocks are too cute. They have a lot of detail — and hand-stitching!