107

Plants are in full flower everywhere I look, on my morning walk, even with the lack of rain ... This is a flower on a vine that I have never seen here before - it does remind me a bit of a pea sortta flower. It looked so pretty growing on the fence of the lane -here is a close-up of it too...

106

We have not had any rain in weeks now & the garden is looking so sad that I sometimes just despair with it ... in doing this you can often miss the beauty. I had a friend visit with me & she was totally amazed at the lovely plants we had growing in our back garden - she said 'they look like you have been down there with your paintbrush painting the insides of them' ... well it's true that's just how they do look especially those growing in dappled sunlight ... our dear common bromeliads are putting on a lovely show & my friend made me take stock & admire them with new eyes ...

105

I have not been completely idle between going to craft & quilt shows ... I've make a card or too for my family ... both of these are wedding cards - the black & red one, somewhat matches the invitation ... when I make a card I do my best to match the inside of the card with the outside plus match the envelope with just simple decoration...

104

Well I added to my stash on Sunday at the Craft & Quilt Fair - me t'inks I had better pull my head in big time & for a long while & use my stash before I go even looking at more 'good stuff' ... ha ha, famous last words eh!!! But I have got to admit that I mainly bought non-perishables, so to speak ... still accumulating the necessities of the trade I keep telling myself ...
I also went on my pat-malone on Fri.[think I told you Wed...drrr] & spent all day taking advantage of all the lectures & hands on classes that they were offering... Free workshops ... I did one on all the different types of stiffeners, stabilisers & fusibles & what the different names were for them all ... tad confusing at times when my poor old sewing machine just stitches - none of this 600/800 stitches per something or another ... ha ha but good in other ways as they gave you a sampler pack. Another W/S on free motion stitching of flowers & the like ... another on how to organise you craft room with see-through containers etc & the last in the free ones that I did was on memory quilts that you actually did all through your cp then just stitched on the lines - all so easy & ended up looking like a pieced little quilt ...
Bernina were offering a hands on classes where we made a bowl out of a soft thick cor/rope & bias strips of fabric sewn with a large corded foot ... sorry no pictures as I'm still looking for the snake that belongs in my 'strange' shaped bowl ... ha ha and the last class I did was in the Crafty Classes area where a Lace shop did a hands on class for Fabric PostCards - right up my alley.
Yesterday we had time to look at all the lovely quilts on display - there was also a Fabric PostCard display as well as Art Quilts. In another section they had the Flying Doctor Quilts - that was a great display to honour our outback service that two of my children have used in there time out west. There was also a Japanese display as well ... We tootled off home before closing time rather time & a lot poorer but we had a great day...
Giveaway:- Please pop on over to Crafty Ramblings as Dawn is doing a giveaway for having 20,000 visitors ... great job Dawn ... to be in Dawn's giveaway she would like you to put a photo up of your crafty room/area... a lotta fun...

103

Drum roll please ... the winner of my little giveaway - picked by the Random Number Generator was #7 which is Dawn ... Congratulations Dawn & thank you for coming on by - gosh my little quiltie is going all the way to Scotland.
I would like to thank everybody for entering my little giveaway, I was surprised to see this many - I do so enjoy your comments so please pop on by again & say G'day...
I have had a very hectic but wonderful w/e - hasn't been so interesting & busy in a long time ... ha ha
DH [Dear Heart] & I celebrated our 40th [Ruby] Wedding Anniversary on Sat [& to think they were laying bets on it only lasting a year or too...] All our children live a long way away now but our youngest lives on the other side of town about an hour's drive away so she had us over to celebrate with a Seafood BBQ - yummm it was lovely & the Grandies put on a little concert for us as well so all in all we had a wonderful night - thanks Love. Our other children rang us so we had some long conversations on the phone... Telstra did well out of it ...
Sunday my girlfriend Luc & I went off to the Craft & Quilt Fair for the day ... I'm feeling slightly knackered today but we did have such a fun day. I had been on the Wed as well but will tell you about the Craft & Quilt Fair next time ...

102

Myy I'm a tad behind with telling you what I've been up too ... The other w/e I got to go to a great Quilt Show called Quilt Indulgence Festival one of the days it was on ... never been to one of their shows, only to find out it's all a bit new ... so off I went armed with comfy clothes, always wear comfy shoes, water bottle & camera ... ohhh & plastic [CC] ...
The Gee Bend quilts were on display & I found they were really quite inspirational & humbling especially when you read their story... I gotta admitt I was blown away with 'all' the quilts on display, they were wonderful & the art quilts ummmmmm I got lots of ideas & inspiration there ... seeing the actual art quilts that are being used in the Down Under Quilts 2009 calendar gives them a whole new feeling & appreciation... But I was a bit sad that we couldn't take photos of the quilts on display ... but there again I can understand the legal thingos about it all but it sure was some good eye candy.
The show was put on by Creative Living but I don't think it was advertised that well which was a bit sad for the stall holders but great for me the shopper as I had time to have a really good look around [I think there was a grand total of 10 stands] didn't get squashed & shoved in the maddening crowd as there wasn't one but I did manage to give my plastic a bit of a work-out. Here is what I bought ...plus some books - well ya just gotta have more books ...
I did a free workshop by Genesis Creations about dying cloth, clothes etc & was very impressed. It's an all Australian product ... gotta love that too, so I hope to be having some great fun very soon.
Now to top all of this we have another show this w/e ... Craft & Quilt Fair & there are so many free workshops I'm actually going an extra day just to try & fit them all in ... daa drrrrr

101

Thank you so very much to all that have left comments on my 100th post giveaway ... only days to go now... 'ya gotta be in it to win it', as they say ...
Got a lovely surprise the other day when I got home from a very long day shopping with my elderly Mum ...
my flat-top sewing table arrived & I'm thrilled to bits with it - it looks good - it feels great - it fits well & best of all it works ... I know, I'm sooo easily thrilled!!! but it has come from ID. USA. I had asked my local Janome dealer if I could buy a flat-top table for my machine & with a little scoff she says ''no' not with the age of your machine' ... gosh she didn't have to rub it in, I know my sewing machine is old but she has been very faithful, sewn many clothes for me & the kids, plus curtains, etc, she still sews like a dream [she does like to be serviced regularly]& she is the last of the models they put out before they went fully computerised. She's nearly 30years old & from what I hear around the traps you don't get that age out of the newer models so I'm hanging onto to her for as long as I can... like they say 'if it ain't broke why fix it' ...
I'm am also very thrilled with the service as I had it in about three weeks - I know I couldn't be buying something from O/S at a worse finical time with the money exchange at pressie but that's OK as I couldn't get one here plus the workmanship on it is great ... I got it from Nancy's Notions - don't ask how I found them cause I really don't know but I'll hazard a guess at finding it while I was blog surfing - the weather's great for surfing at pressie ... ha ha. I did spend some time on their site as there is a lot of very useful info there besides things to buy ...

100 yaaa 100 posts = Giveaway

Yep 100 posts does equals a GIVEAWAY ... and I even have something made for it too ...



This is my little 'Thank You' for popping on over to my place for a look-see & leaving me a comment [can't get on by without your comments ... even if it's only from the 3 of you that visit me ... ha ha] - please leave me a comment as I will take the names from the comment section - if you don't have a blog that's OK still leave a comment & then contact me via the email addy in my profile. I'll be drawing it on Sat week - 25th Oct [or day after] as it is a very special day for us here - I'll tell you more of that then...
I'm giving away this little quiltie 'Shine' that I made - I'm still in my learning curve with these & loving it - it is approx. 200mm [8"] X 150mm [6"], machine sewn with a little beading. Come one, come all I'm thrilled to have been blogging for 100 posts which for me has equaled 12 months at Bethel's Place.

99

Back from a couple of little trips away to visit with the Grandies ... poor DH had to have surgery on his lower leg for sun cancer - poor thing this is a legacy of being of Danish decent with the red hair & skin to match & being brought up out west where it is so hot & before they knew about the Slip, Slop, Slap where you Slip on a shirt, Slop on some suncream & Slap on a hat... but DH was a outside worker, he often worked without a shirt or even a hat for that matter for hours on end coming home very burnt... luckily our kids know so they cover their kids but they themselves have sun damage already just by inheriting their father's genes plus I also had copper hair when a child with a fair complexion/skin SOOO please now that we are in our southern summer Please remember to cover-up & Slop on the sunscreen even just for a morning walk or school. I see they (SunSmart) have extended the saying now to Slip, Slop, Slap, Seek & Slide the 5 S's - Do click on the hyperlink & go to the bottom of the page & hear the little song our kids used to sing.
Talking of walking Gilly must of found the trips away a little exhausting, as this is how she looked at me the first day we got back - you will notice that she parks herself in the covers after I have got up in the morning ... but she still came for a walk with me then the next day one of the neighbours dogs were out wondering the streets & as Gilly is only a toy poodle I had to very quickly scoop her up as one swipe at her by these much bigger dogs would have been disastrous so we were both a little nervous going off today but that soon disappeared when a chap further down our street brought his little grandie out so she could pat Gilly - Gilly loves kids & of course loves to be patted but not them big dogs ... ha ha
As per usual I was doing some blog surfing since I've been back & found that Denise Fenton had commented on Baumcat's blog so of course I followed the link and then found Tactile Pleasures... in Fabric... Myra is doing a giveaway[I'm late it's only til Sun] & would love folks to pop on over & visit - I found Myra's Tactile Pleasures a very inspirational blog to visit with a few tuts to look at too, so even if you miss the giveaway for her 200th post I know you will find it a great blog.
Did I say that I got my sewing machine back from the dr.? So now that the visiting is over I need to get back into my 'In This House' swap... I was a tad naughty while DH was having his surgery - well maybe it was "Stress Relief" in the form of 'Retail Therapy', but I visited Spotlight[large fabric & homeware shop] & just had to bring some of the lovely fabrics home - I'm going to have a go at making some aprons for Christmas pressies - well that's what I say now ... lol but first I need to finish my swap.