Being a tourist

Today was one of those days that you just had to be out and about enjoying the sparkle of the city.   I caught the Manly ferry into the city.  This is the view of the bridge from the ferry as it comes into the City.

My aim was to find the newly installed lift that takes you to the main deck of the Sydney Harbour Bridge.  It cuts out the need to walk up 64 steps.   Well there it is but how do I get to it from where I am -  do I go up these steps or down this alley?????

It appears none of them so I wound my way around the streets of what is known as the Rocks and finally found the entrance to the lift.  Up I go and here is the view from the walkway.   The first photo is of course the Sydney Opera House, the second is taken from underneath the first pylon on the bridge.   You can access the top of the pylon but I did not fancy going up 200 steps and then back down 200 steps.   The traffic never stops across the Bridge day and night and the last photo is taken back down in one of the park areas at Circular Quay.    

After all that walking it was time for a coffee and catch the ferry back to Manly.    I thoroughly enjoyed the day being a tourist in my city. 

Back soon and in the meantime

    

Happy sewing all

If at first.....

You do not succeed try, try again.    Well that is what I have been doing for the last week in order to restore the facility on my blog whereby I can receive emails from those who leave a comment.     Not only did I try, try and try again but had many unsuccessful attempts during the week and thought I would give it one more try this morning and then give up should it not happen.

My lucky day - all the planets and whatever else it took to be aligned with "blogger" happened and

YEAH

It worked.

I am one happy blogger again and can now reply to those commenting on my blog.

Back soon and in the meantime
 

Happy sewing all

In the dark

The storm season is upon us and  we have had three storms in as many days.   With the first one we only caught the tail end of it and the second one passed right over but with the third one we were not so lucky.  It was one of those storms where the thunder and lightning were striking together and right above us for quite a while. 

Fortunately we had no damage but did loose our power for over 2 hours just after 6 pm....right on dinner time preparation.    I had seen this storm "brewing" for sometime and decided that we would eat a bit earlier than usual as I had a "feeling" that this storm was going to be worse than the previous two nights and being an all electric house we did not want to be eating a half cooked  meal.

As darkness settled around us it was out with the torches - which provided enough light to see around the house but not enough to do anything such as sewing or reading.    Hubs and I looked across at each other and decided that life without power is pretty dismal.   I cannot image life without electricity - no lights, no tv, no computer, no sewing machine, no power to make a cup of coffee but that was how life was in the not too distant past.  

Even though I was walking around the house carrying a torch I still was in the habit of walking into a room and turning on the light...a big cheer went up from us both at 8.30 when the first flicker of light appeared.    It was on with the tv and off with the torches.

Before the power went off I was able to use my machine to make a small zip pouch with a mesh front.

When buying the mesh  my choice would have been white but it was a case of take it or leave it.....black, black or black was all that was available so black it was.

And I am still in the dark as to how to fix my blog problem of not being able to receive emails from those who leave comments.   I have gone into the screen that I went into a few months ago but it is different and I have tried to do what was done before in a couple of places but still no emails coming through.     Thank you to those who  left a comment on my "Help" post.   Computers...….grrhhhh.

Linking with Finished or not Friday and Oh Scrap.

Back soon and in the meantime

Happy sewing all

I need..........

Sometime ago there was a legal change to blogger whereby a setting had to be activated in order to allow bloggers to receive emails from those leaving comments.     At the time I did activate this and just the last two days I now find that I am no longer receiving emails from those commenting.   I do like to reply to all those who take the time to leave a comment on my blog and now I cannot.

I am hoping that one of you clever readers can give me some instruction on what I have to do to allow emails to come through again.

Back soon and in the meantime

Happy sewing all

This is the front.....

And this is the back

Of the checkerboard quilt that I have been working on for the last couple of months and pleased to call a finish today.    I always like to put a border on my quilts and decided to go with a white border and black binding to be in keeping with the black and white theme in the blocks.

Now I can make a start on my next project knowing that there is nothing  else in the sewing room needing my attention.  

Thanks Wendy for organising another fun FNSI.

Linking with Finished or Not Friday , Oh Scrap and OMG .

Back soon and in the meantime

Happy sewing all

A Fairy party

Miss M turned 5  last week and she was given a fairy and unicorn party to celebrate her birthday.

Fairy bread

And a selection of other fairy food

Of course every fairy birthday party needs a visit from a woodland fairy and a knight in shining armour to help with the cake.

 Miss M had a great day as did all the guests....small and big.

I did manage to squeeze in some sewing in between treeloppers and fairy parties in the form of a  boxed pouch.     This is the first time that I have made one of these but I can see more happening in the future.  

Linking with Finished or Not Friday.

Back soon and in the meantime

Happy sewing all

Out on a limb.....

Hubs and I have lived with a very large gum tree at the front of our property ever since we moved into our house over 40 years ago.    It has seen many storms - even been struck by lightning - gale force winds and other weather conditions.

However this long and lasting drought that we have experienced for quite sometime has taken its toll on the old tree and this is what it has looked like for the past couple of weeks.

A dead and dangerous tree.

Every time the wind blew we held our breath and hoped that it would hold on until the tree lopper arrived at first light  today to do what a tree lopper does.

Up he goes

The man has nerves of steel

I hold my breath as it goes up and over the garage roof

Halfway there

The last cut

All done

What a difference a day makes.  

Back soon and in the meantime

Happy sewing all

My new walking companion

I know we needed the rain but we have had enough now and as I look out the window today might be the day  to try out my new bag as the sun is shining brightly and the birds are out singing.  I put the bag together by incorporating a few ideas seen on the "net".     

Another bonus of having a few wet days in a row is that good progress has been made on the checker board quilt.   Yesterday it was trimmed, ironed, the binding cut and sewn to the front and now turned to the back waiting to be stitched down.   I see a finish on the horizon soon.

Linking with Finished or not Friday and Oh Scrap.

Back soon and in the meantime

Happy sewing all

FNwF

Was able to start early this morning for me.    The much needed and long awaited rain finally arrived overnight so what better way to start the day than in my sewing room tucked up warm and dry.    My plan last week of working on small sections at a time worked well and today I am working on the last section.    So far all the quilting has been completed with the threads pulled through to the back and now the job of tying off and burying them is all that remains before trimming and binding can happen.

Just to give myself a break from all that close work my next project was planned and cut out today.   I find that most of my clothes do not have a pocket which generally is not  a problem until I go for my daily walk and need to put my phone somewhere.      It is not convenient to carry my normal bag and whilst I do have a cross body bag it is too big for just my phone,  some money and tissues therefore a smaller cross body bag is needed.   Hopefully when this is finished it will serve the purpose ideally.

I do have some "hardware"  which I can re-purpose for the strap.

Thanks Cheryll for organising another fun FNwF and I look forward to do some blog hopping over the weekend to catch up with everyone else and what they did.

I did finish the book that I wrote about in my last post and it was an ending that I would never have guessed.   I think it is a good thing that we do not have "a crystal ball" to look into and see the future.  That is life - all about making decisions and choices at the time and how that can affect our lives and the lives of others.    

Linking with Finished or Not Friday.

Back soon and in the meantime

Happy sewing all

Cannot put it down......

That is the book that I am reading at present.

Without giving too much away this book is about a woman who accidently discovers that her husband of many years committed a terrible crime when he was 17 and has lived with the guilt since then.    She now sees him not as the loving husband, good father, son and  upstanding member of the community that she thought he was.   

Of course her dilemma is now what does she do – tell the police and all the implications that will have on her family or does she stay quiet and let the crime stay buried as it has been for all those years and the victim’s family never know the truth.   

What a predicament to be placed in and one where you  can feel the woman’s pain and anguish as the pages are  turned.   

Anyway I did find time to put the book down and have a lovely lunch with hubs at a great spot near the beach.     It was one of the those days that you just had to be out enjoying the gorgeous day that it was.

After lunch we headed off to see the movie LADIES IN BLACK – one which we both enjoyed.    It was set in Sydney in the late 1950’s and while it will not win any academy  awards it was a “feel good” movie from start to finish.   

Time was also found to pull through, tie off and bury more threads on the checker board quilt.

Don't forget it is time to sign up for FNwF. 

Back soon and in the meantime

Happy sewing all

The plan is.......

To finish off the quilting on my checker board quilt and bind it so that it can be called it a complete finish for the month of October.  

Seeing that it is a lap size quilt and not too big to squish through a domestic sewing machine it was decided not to go with the QAYG method.     Not sure if this decision was a mistake - too late now!

As you know I am welded to my sewing machine and everything is machined on my quilts - even  the bindings - and I decided to stitch in the ditch in each block .     This is going to be tackled by quilting 6 blocks at a time then pulling though the threads, tying them off and burying them before making a start on the next 6 blocks.   There is a total of 30 blocks so that means I will have 5 sessions of sewing 6 blocks completely.    The thought of leaving all those threads to the end does not appeal to me.

This is what I have done so far

A  long way to go but doable by the end of the month I feel.

While I am pulling through, tying off and burying  the ends my mind is wandering onto what my next project will be.    

As Miss M will be starting big school next year there is will a decrease in the demand to make as many clothes for her as I have done in the past but I will check with her mummy to see if I can sneak in a few more items before February next year.     

Linking with OMG for October.

Back soon and in the meantime

Happy sewing all