Random Ramblings!

I have a few things to share with you and none of them are really connected to each other and there's no way to come up with a witty segue-way ... so I thought I'd just share my random ramblings with you ... something you'll all be fairly used to! Tee! Hee! Hee!

After teasing us with an early taste of spring weather, Toowoomba weather reverted to it's usual inclement self and the weekend was HORRIBLE!! Overcast, raining (OK, that part was good for our low water supplies), gale force winds and worst of all ... FREEZING! SIGH! So rather than scooting about and enjoying some of the Carnival of Flowers activities, we went into hibernation in front of the heater! :0)

Now, I have to confess to being a slug on Saturday and curling up with a book, no stitching happened at all, but Sunday saw me disappear into the sewing room to make some progress on two quilts that I have on the go. The first was my sort-of-sister Tiffy's 21st quilt ... squares were joined for the centre panel to look like this ...

These fabrics sure are BRIGHT, aren't they!! You can see I'd already started playing with outer borders, which will be the background to some appliqué butterflies in the same bright colours as the centre panel. Which led to a little problem ... I have even less ORANGE in my stash than I do PINK!! Thanks to Marion, I've begun to incorporate pink into my designs more, but I have to say, this is the first time I can remember working with orange ... EVER!!! So I had to pop in to my home-away-from-home to stock up on orange ...

Wow! Bright, huh?!! Will have to show you how I incorporate these citrusy tones. And speaking of colour ... I was playing in the spare room ... where I usually spread my quilts-in-progress out flat when I'm working on them ... and when I stood back to judge how the colours would work, this is what I saw ...

It suddenly occurred to me that while artists might splash paint around on their palette ... I was 'splashing' fabric colour around! Tee! Hee! Hee! Yep ... already I'm starting to see some butterflies here. :0) I'll keep you up to date with my progress on Tiffy's quilt.

The second quilt that I made some progress on was my French quilt. I'm SOOOOOOO excited!! It's ALMOST finished!! Do you remember this sneaky peek a while ago ...

Well ... let's expand that peek a little to this ...

A finished block!! I've tried to create the impression of a holiday snapshot that you might see in someone's holiday album, complete with caption underneath. I've stitched in brown to give that sepia photo effect and am pleased with how it's come together. Can you guess what name I've chosen for my new quilt design????

Well ... I finished the stitching on the final block and joined them all together with some sashing, was ready to add the final border when ... I decided it REALLY needed some red rick-rack to make it pop! Of course, I didn't have ENOUGH red rick-rack, so the wonderful Marion ordered some in for me. All was well until ... she gave me TWO CHOICES!! Uh oh!! Decisions, decisions!! Darker or lighter?? Cherry or raspberry?? EEK!! I couldn't decide!! So Marion suggested (very wisely!!) that I lay them both on the quilt to judge ...

It was a bit of a toss-up, but after getting a second opinion from my Beloved Geek Boy ... I chose the darker red to the right. So ... tomorrow will be border stitching day! Oooohh!! Can't WAIT to see it all finished and of course, I will share a look with you when the top is all together ... stay tuned! :0)

OK ... last random rambling for today ... while the lousy weather on the weekend might have been a negative, there was a balancing positive ... GB and I celebrated our 18th wedding anniversary ... AAAAAAWWWWWWW!! :0)

Here's a photo of us celebrating our engagement, with some of the flowers he game me on Sunday ... after a gentle reminder that it was our anniversary!! Our engagement was very low-key, just dinner with both lots of parents. And what you CAN'T see is that under the table GB's right hand is ... IN PLASTER! Wait a minute ... what did you THINK I was going to say!!!!! Tee! Hee! Hee! Scott was studying part time and working on a cotton farm near Bourke in north western NSW and the broken thumb (sustained during a game of football when he ... the SMALLEST bloke on the field ... tackled the BIGGEST bloke on the field ... and came off second best! BOYS!!! ) meant he couldn't work, so he came back to spend some time with his family ... and me ... in Toowoomba (where I was in my final year of a Bachelor of Arts majoring in Journalism at USQ). While he was home, he sold his microwave to buy a ring and asked me to marry him. After a brief moment of thought ... I said yes ... of course! :0) We were friends first, then girlfriend and boyfriend, fiancé and fiancée, then husband and wife and the best part ... he's still my best friend! We've had quite a few adventures in the last 18 years - good and not so good! - and I wouldn't change a thing!! Happy Anniversary, Sweetie!!! (yes, he DOES read my blog ... HE says so he knows what he's been up to ... supposedly! Tee! Hee! Hee!)

So ... that's the end of my random ramblings for today. No finishes to report that I can add to my OPAM list, but I still have a few days left in September, so who knows. OH!! Before I forget ... if you LOOOOOOOOVE Christmas and all that the festive season entails, hop across to visit my blogging buddy Kerryanne, cos she's got something that is SURE to gladden your deck-the-hall hearts!!! :0) Right now ... I'm off to pop on the kettle and brew up a pot of lavender tea. Hope your week is off to a fabulous start! Til next time ...

BEAR HUGS!
CHEERS!
KRIS