Walking at Work

Last week at work I had to visit  a conference centre in the city. It was a fifteen minute taxi ride to get there in the morning traffic.

The morning was just beautiful with cool air and bright sunshine so I decided to walk the thirty minutes back to my office rather than wait for a taxi.

As I  headed down the hill to my left I saw the blue sky peeping through the buildings.

To my right I found a quiet oasis in ANZAC park.

I couldn’t help but sit for a short while and ring my Pete.

It seemed just the right place for a chat.

Traditions

A new tradition is easy to begin. If you have lived by yourself for three weeks and done the same thing each Saturday afternoon, then a new tradition has begun.

Each Saturday I take a long walk to the city and back. I generally have a contrived purpose for the walk and it fills three hours of my day.

On the way home I feel so virtuous and well exercised that I stop at the local French themed cafe and buy myself two pistachio macarons.

One should never mess with tradition.

Sweetness

My sister-in-law cameto visit me recently. She was here from Townsville on a work trip. It was so good to see someone from home and she always comes with lots of stories to tell.

She also came with gifts of sweetness.

Before you judge, the coconut ones were absolutely delicious. The pretzel ones were not so much.

She also brought me sweetly perfumed hyacinths.

These beauties survived for the longest time. Each afternooon when I came home from work and opened the door to my unit I was greeted by their lovely scent. Their colour faded as they got older, but not their perfume. It was such a luxury to have them in my kitchen.

These flower photos are dedicated to the memory of Sarah, whose every photo and every word shared joy with her blog readers.

It’s a Hoot

Have you seen the special edition of the Quilter Companion magazine?

If you’re a quilter I bet you have some precuts in your stash. Charm squares, jelly rolls, layer cakes – this magazine has projects using them all – including…

It’s a Hoot designed and made by ME!

As always the magazine has a beautiful layout to go with my pattern.

It makes me very proud to see it.

Keep Me Warm

Once I knew that I was coming to live for a time in Brisbane I made it a priority to make myself some new quilts. This is perfectly logical. Some might worry about whether they had packed enough undergarments to be away for eleven weeks, I worry that I’ll have new quilts.

I needed one that was cosy and girly. One that was just the right size to cover my legs while I sit on the couch alone.

You could easily make this one too.

You’ll need a jelly roll of Sherbet Pips fabric. I took out all of the grey and red strips to leave myself with these beautiful girly fabrics.

Lay out the strips in an arrangement that you like – be very careful of the directional prints. You don’t want puppies running upside down on your quilt.

Once you’ve stitched all of the fabric strips together trim about two inches from each side. This gets rid of the selvedges and neatens up each side.

Prepare your quilt top for quilting, then quilt across it with long lazy stipples.

Cut 5 two inch strips from a binding fabric. I used pink to bind mine. Stitch them together with diagonal seams to make one long binding strip.

Attach the binding to the front of the quilt with a quarter inch seam.

Fold the binding to the back and hand stitch into place.

Now…

you have a beautiful snuggly quilt. Perfect to warm you on a cool evening when your family is a long way away.

Three Hours

Yesterday my Pete and I walked hand in hand for three hours. We walked across bridges, through the city and along the river until we happened upon…

The Endeavour.

It is moored in the Brisbane River outside a busy Sunday market. It was open to be visited, but the queues were very long. We did tour The Endeavour when Ashleigh was only five and Pip just a baby, so we weren’t too disappointed to miss it this time.

After walking for three hours we stopped, sat and treated ourselves to sweetheart biscuits and a pink grapefruit drink.

It was a good way to revive our energies.