Love Nest Quilt Contest

Annemarie of Gen X Quilters is having a Love Nest Quilt Contest and I thought I'd join in. I've entered my(well, actually Austin's) Starry Sensations quilt (see this post).This was the 2009 International Friendship Quilters (IFQ) BOM. Most of the fabric came from my stash. I only had to buy the navy background and a little of the light gold fabric. Each month we used a different technique with lots of little tricks of the trade. One of the months we ended up with some extra blocks after making the main one. I haven't decided what I'll use these for yet.

Head over to Gen X Quilters and check out some of the other entries. There's quite a selection of lovely quilts to see.

So, the 2011 School Year Begins!

The 2011 school year started today for the boys. Well, actually it started yesterday for Austin (I forgot to take a photo yesterday!). Yesterday the Year 7's and Year 12's started school. As Austin is in Year 7 he headed off while the other two had an extra day's holiday. Mitchell's in Year 9 and Nelson's in Grade 5.

Have a good year boys and do your best!

One potato, two potato, three potato, four!

Today Austin, Nelson and I harvested our first potato crop.I think I only planted about 8 seed potatoes and this is what we dug up. They weighed about 17.5kg. I don't know if this is a good amount but we were very pleased with it. Everytime we thought we had finished we'd find more potatoes!Even Ginger came in to help. Next job is to pick the silverbeet. Still waiting on the tomatoes to turn red!

When is an op shop find, not an op shop find?

When you clean out your parents shed which hasn't been touched in years!

This dirty, moth-eaten, horrible box was way down the back.
But look what was inside.A glass dessert set. This was a wedding present to my parents over
48 years ago! I don't think it was ever used.

The spoons were very tarnished. I've only tried cleaning them once
so far using the tin foil/bi carb soda boiling method.
They didn't come up too bad for a first go.Here's the set all nice and clean.No-one can ever remember seeing this cookie jar so who
knows where it came from!A cute little chicken pot holder, still with it's tag.A sweet little vase.Do you remember Holly Hobby? Here's my money box. I just loved Holly Hobby when I was younger. This mug wasn't in the shed but I thought I'd show you it anyway. It's been in my cup drawer forever!
It would now be over 30 years old.And last but not least, this very cute(?) duck toothpick holder. Just the thing for those pre-dinner cheese and kabana nibblies!

A Trip To The Aquarium And Some Vintage Lace!

The boys and I headed to Melbourne Aquarium for a day out. We could have spent hours just watching the penguins. They are so cute!Nelson getting up close and personal!Some hands on!

After sitting by the Yarra River to eat lunch, and with a bit of bribery
(ice creams), the boys agreed to let me go the the Lace in Fashion exhibition at the National Gallery of Victoria.

They found a nice shady place in the lovely gardens of the gallery while I headed inside. The lace exhibition was from the 17th to 20th centuries.Photos above from NGV International
This night shirt was from the late 1600's. There are very few that have survived as any good sections of them were cut up to make new items. Just look at the beautiful inserts in the sleeves.Sorry about the quality of the photos (no flash). Unfortunately, when I went to get a copy of the catalogue, they had sold out the day before! It would have been lovely to have all the photos and information to read up on. Oh well, next time I won't leave it until near the end of the exhibition!