I am not long home from a lovely day meeting up with two ladies from the Craft forum of which I have been a member of for the last few years.

Ronnie has been travelling around in her caravan with her "girls" - two lovely poodles. She left Victoria several months ago and hopes to be back home just before Christmas and has been calling in to catch up with as many of the forum members as her travels have permitted and today was one the days she was in Sydney.

Jo the other member of the forum kindly offered Ronnie a bed at her house for the last two nights and we all meet up in the City today.

As you can see by the photo below we found our way into the Botanical gardens for morning tea.



On our way back to the Rocks we wandered through the Gardens via Government House where a kind person offered to take a photo of the 3 of us together. Little did he know that he would have 3 cameras thrust at him! Poor man he did not complain.



Jo on the left, me in the middle and Ronnie on the right.

Ronnie leaves Sydney tomorrow on her way South to meet up Gail and hopefully other members of the forum.

Safe travelling Ronnie and enjoy the rest of your journey.

I found my way to the Spotty sale last week and feel in love with the fabrics above. I especially love the can can dancers but then again the domestic goddess print is cute as well. They were all marked down and with 20% off on top of that what could a girl do - make a choice - I do not think so!!!

I was told there is another co-ordinating fabric that goes with the can can dancers so I will keep a look out for it.

I also grabbed machine needles, threads and a new blade for my rotary cutter and having a gift voucher to spend I was in 7th heaven even though it took 50 minutes to be served!

I finished off the "sea theme" quilt today and quite pleased with the result. I hope the quilt police do not look too closely at it as I machined the binding down instead of hand sewing. Naughty naughty!!!



Next project to finish off is my Christmas placemats. So far I have 6 blocks finished and I am aiming to have them quilted and bound by the middle of next month. I need a total of 9 altogether - I should have them all finished by Christmas. I also have a cushion cover to make but I will use the fabric as the feature so that will go together quickly.

There I was getting ready for work on Friday morning and happened to look out the bedroom window and the two below were happily making their way around the back of the house. I saw them wandering around the park the day before however they obviously needed to explore further afield. After a couple of pecks in the garden they about turned and marched off again. They must reside in the wetlands across the road.




Yesterday was back to winter again, cold wet and miserable so what better than to catch up on the September BOM which I had fallen behind with. I had run out of the green fabric that I was using but found a similar fabric which is a close match.



Now onto the October BOM. I will need to do a little adjusting on this one as I am using 3 colours as my theme.

I have been at it again - making another bag. A friend saw my tote bag and asked if I could make one for her with the "specs" of blue and green and pretty fabric. Here is the end result. She loved it and I was pleased - so we were both happy.



I just love this mug that I was given as part of my birthday present from DS and DIL. Most appropriate as I sit and knit squares for Wrap with Love and sip my coffee. It even works well when I am sewing and sipping!

DH and I have just returned from a weekend away at Blackheath with 15 others. We all knew each other over 30 years ago and for some over 40 years ago. Everyone enjoyed themselves and the weather - well what can I say - it was typical winter weather. Funny thing this weekend was chosen as we thought the weather would be "spring like". Anyway what can you do and really it did not stop us doing a great deal. Everyone had waterproof coats and brollies. So off we set. A couple of the photos below show just how foggy it was.

I hope this cable knows where it is going!!!




Getting closer to the valley floor.




At the other end of that cable is a boardwalk which passes by the old Katoomba coal mine. Real rainforest vegetation and the rain to go with it. However vision was good at this level.



This lovely old tree was in the grounds of the resort where we stayed and the second photo is taken from the dining room of the birdlife being fed at breakfast time.





One of the guys insisted that we go and see the view from his favourite lookout



By this time the wind was whipping the rain up and blowing it everywhere however it did not stop him and his partner from undertaking one of the mountain walks around the cliff edge with a duration of approx 1 hour. They may never been seen again!!

The rest of us piled into our cars and headed off to Leura for some retail therapy and a meal to finish off the day with.

The photos above were taken at 6 am on Wednesday morning as Sydneysiders woke up to the worst duststorm in 70 years with the highest recording of pollution ever. The sky was a horrible orangy-red colour with fine grit getting into everything, stinging eyes and causing everyone to choke and splutter. The air has now cleared but everything is coated in red grit.

I have taken the last week off work and had just the best weather and time and I still have 1 more day to go before returning on Tuesday. We are planning a day at Manly tomorrow then followed by a trip to "Spotty" - DS and DIL gave me a gift voucher for my birthday and with the $10 voucher I received from Spotty last week I will have a spend up.

Talking of Spotty brings me to thinking about sewing which in turn reminds me of flying geese. I just had to take this photo the other day when we were at Bobbin Head. Isn't this the best flying geese you have ever seen!!! I know - a toilet but this must be the best one around.



Once we had attended to the coffee and call of nature DH and I set off on a boardwalk along the waters edge which would have ended up at Wahroongah 2 hours later. Not feeling that energetic we enjoyed the sights on offer and managed to see some of the wildlife as we took our time and "drank" in the peace and quiet.





This cute rock wallaby allowed me to get quite close to him whilst he was having his lunch.

On our way home we turned into McCarrs Creek Road and ended up at West Head. After driving through what seemed endless scrub the view is something else. If you look closely you can see a rather large "lizard" sunning himself on a rock. What a view he has every morning.



Well the champagne cork popped the other night as I finished my oriental quilt. I had given myself a challenge to finish it sometime in September and I did. It is very hard to photograph on the bed so I borrowed 2 tall people today and had them hold it up. The photo does not do justice to the colours but you can at least see the pattern and effect in the photo below.



The next photo is on the bed and the one underneath is of the backing fabric which I feels goes in well with the oriental theme.





Today was the first morning DH and I started back our morning regime at the beach. Now that the mornings are getting brighter and warmer it is not too difficult to get out of bed at 5.30am. It is the best time of the day for the beach before the seabreeze gets up and too many people around. It is a lovely way to start the day. I was very brave and put my toe in and DH was completely mad and took the plunge! It needs to warm up a whole lot more before I venture in.

My next quilt is well underway with another one on the drawing board. More on those later.