Caught in the act

Over the past few weeks I have noticed holes appearing in the soft earth areas of the garden.   My first thought was "that bandicoot is at it again" but on closer inspection these holes are smaller and not in the grassy areas of the yard.    A couple of days ago when working in my kitchen I just happened to look up and see earth being sprayed around.   Out I go to have a closer look and  found the culprit at last.   An eastern water dragon.   Head down and front claws busy.

Here it is with its head up looking at me looking at it.

On the other side of the garden we have a resident blue tongue lizard.    They are good for keeping down the snails and by the look of the size this one many snails have been consumed over the past few months.   Or there could be another reason......soon to be a mummy.    Perish the thought of many baby blue tongues running around the backyard. 

On the sewing front I discovered that I had run out of 1/4" elastic and so the twirly dresses have come to a standstill until I buy some more.     All that needs to be done is slot it through the neck and sleeve casings and the job is done. 

I did have a play around with the red scraps.

More on that experiment later.    Sadly the last remaining hexie block is still waiting  to be completed.     Tomorrow for that one.

Back soon and in the meantime

Happy sewing all

 

A hidden gem

Hubs and I have just returned home from a few days at Nelson Bay.   An area that neither of us have ever stayed at so we were not quite sure what to expect.   Friends had told us about the area in the past but for some reason we just kept driving past the turn off and headed further north.   No more will we be doing that.   What a lovely surprise we both had.   Such a pretty area with lots of  shops to  browse in and easy walks around the streets.  This path leads down to the Marina.

Our hotel overlooking the Bay

I did make a list of three items that I wanted to do whilst away.  No 1 was to buy some fresh prawns and oysters and enjoy them with a glass of my favourite white wine on the balcony of our room overlooking the Bay.  Ticked.

No 2 on the list was to do a dolphin cruise around the Bay and see some of the 140 bottlenose dolphins that call this place home.  This was the boat that took me cruising around the Bay for over an hour and a  half.

Unfortunately the dolphins were proving to be very elusive yesterday and after chasing around the Bay for an hour only one was spotted.  If you look very carefully you can see it just in front of the pole.   Ticked....... I suppose.

And the third item on my list was to have a swim  in one of those white sandy secluded bays.  We drove around the point from where we were staying to Fingal Bay and this is where I had my first swim of the season.   You can see my head just sticking out of the water.  Ticked.

 
And as an added bonus I decided to try out the pool at our hotel.

Sometimes it is so easy to overlook what is under our noses.  With just over 2 and a half hours drive north of us we have put Nelson Bay on "the return to one day list" and hopefully in the not too distant future. 

Fortunately for me I am home in time to take part in FNSI to finish off my week nicely.   I have had a request for a couple of twirly dresses for Miss M so while the washing machine is grinding away it is the ideal time to cut out the fabric ready to put through the overlocker during  the next couple of days. 

Back soon and in the meantime

Happy sewing all

Slowly, slowly

I have been working solidly on getting my hexie blocks joined together and so far 9 are joined which leaves the last row to go and then the border to be added. 

Just for a break a couple more hot bowl holders were made during the week.

Linking with Oh Scrap and OMG.

Back soon and in the meantime

Happy sewing all

No more hot hands

I saw an idea on the "net" as one does for cosy bowl holders.    What a great idea was the thought that crossed my mind as it can be a bit of a juggle taking hot bowls from the microwave and transporting them to the table.      It does state quite clearly in the instructions to use 100% cotton for the project but I do not intend putting them in the microwave so polyester thread and whatever wadding was on hand was used.  Mine were cut  2" bigger than the pattern as I wanted my pasta bowls to fit in  snuggly and  the wadding was trimmed down by 1/2" to reduce the bulk in the seams and here is the end result.

The photo below shows the pasta bowls nicely nestled down in their holders.    So much easier to carry a hot bowl out of the microwave rather  than trying to hold a bowl between a double oven glove and walk across the room.  A great scrap buster project as well.    A double bonus.

So that was my FNwF project.     What was your project if you joined in with Cheryll  and the others?

That  was my little diversion from the hexie production line.    To date all the hexies have now been sewn onto the background fabric and with my trusty Frixon pen I have marked all four corners of each block with two lines ready to do some quilting along those lines.   This is what each block looks like now.

A close up of the quilting.

My OMG for November is to do the straight line quilting in each of the four corners of the 12 blocks and make a start on joining the blocks.

Linking with Oh Scrap. 

Back soon and in the meantime

Happy sewing all