Knitted Toys

Joy commented on the knitted toys that were on the bed in a previous post. They were knitted by my mother over 10yrs ago. They are Jean Greenhowe patterns. Mum has made quite a few of these toys over the years for various family members. At 85yrs old she is still knitting toys for her great grandchildren.

This is the Scarecrow Family. There is Sam, Sally and their twins Sonny and Suzie. I also wanted mum to knit me Grandpa Septimus and Grandma Selina but instead of knitting them she gave me the pattern book to knit them myself. The book is in my pile of things to do.

Mum also made a Santa, a Peddler Lady, a St John Ambulance Cadet (as my son was a cadet when he was younger) and a Nurse (as this is my profession).

Sewing Machines

I have started collecting miniature sewing machines.

Treasure found this one in a shop at Tamborine Mountain last year and just had to buy it for me. It is called "We're Sewing Love".

This one we found in the Royal Dalton shop at the DFO shopping centre near Brisbane Airport. It is a Music Box and plays "These are a few of my favourite things".
I also bought one for my sister for her birthday last year.

This sewing machine clock I bought last month at the markets at Brunswick Heads northern NSW. It is just gorgeous so I also bought one for my niece Bec.

Sewing Room

A couple of years ago I made my small spare room into my sewing room. As there is only 1 small wardrobe in the room there isn't much storage space so I had all my fabrics piled on top of each other in it. Last year Treasure decided to put shelves in the cupboard.

In a few hours he transformed this

Into this

Now I can get to my fabrics so much easier.

I just wish I could keep it this tidy all the time.

Pumpkin Soup

On Tuesday a friend came for a Spa and lunch.

As we both love pumpkin soup and it's getting cooler homemade pumpkin soup and fresh bread rolls was on the menu. I always add potato and sweet potato to the pumpkin when cooking pumpkin soup. The sweet potato gives it a nice flavour. The pumpkin was grown by my brother-in-law. It is a very healthy meal.

Of course it had to be served in my pumpkin bowl and ate from pumpkin soup bowls. I bought the bowl set from the Tamborine Mountain markets (a small town in the Gold Coast hinterland in South East Queensland). I have wanted to buy a pumpkin bowl set for years but have never seen a really lovely one until I discovered this one last year, so of course I just had to buy it. The bowls look great and are really nice to eat out of.

Sampler Quilt

I haven't had much time to sew lately as I've been too busy at work so I have decided to show you all a Sampler Quilt that I made a couple of years ago.

It was the 2nd quilt that I have ever made. I decided to use bright colours to brighten up what was then my spare room. This room is now my sewing room. I still have a single bed in this room. The quilt really makes the room very bright and an inviting room to sew in.

The quilt is made up of 12 different blocks ranging from the very simple 9 Patch Block to the harder Broken Star Block, which was one of my favourite blocks in this quilt.

It's Blue

I have made a quilt for my spare room and yes it is blue. Well, technically it's blue and green. For those of you that don't know me very well, I don't like blue very much and wouldn't normally make a blue quilt for my house. My spare room, which used to be my son's room before he moved out, is painted blue with green trimmings so only a blue quilt would do for it. It was that or repaint the room which was too much like hard work.

I found these fabrics in various shops in Brisbane last year and bought them especially for this project. It was a really easy quilt to make. At the moment only the top is made and that will stay on the bed for a while.

I have another quilt that I need to quilt before I can start quilting any other quilts. I am determined not to quilt any others until it is finished as it is for a very special friend. Will show it to you when it's finished.

Bicycle rides and a little bit of luxury

We bought bicycles in January and have been slowly increasing how far we ride each week. I can now finally ride 10kms in 50mins. This is a real achievement for me as I haven't ridden a bicycle for over 30 years (Gee that makes me sound really old) and also have a chronic back problem which means I can't do a lot of things including certain exercises. However, my physio has told me to buy a bicycle and I finally took his advice.

I am loving going for a ride 4 times each week. When you have this beautiful town right on Morton Bay to ride around it becomes a pleasure to exercise.

After my ride I get to lie in my Spa. It's no ordinary Spa but a Theraputic Hydrotherapy Spa bought especially to help my back pain. It has over 30 massage jets and is heated at 38 degrees which is very hot. A hydrotherapy pool is usually heated at 30-34 so my Spa is absolutely wonderful. I felt very indulgent buying the Spa but it has been wonderful for my back and has decreased the need to visit the Physio and Massage Therapist so it was worth it.

The Spa is at the back of my bedroom. It was a dead area between the house and water tank but now is my favourite place in my house. Treasure has put a roof over the spa and now just has to build walls around it to enclose it. I feel so very lucky to have this Spa.