We WILL remember them

At the going down of the sun

and in the morning 

we WILL remember them

Lest We Forget

Remembering our Anzacs 2020

My FNSI and an Adventure

Friday started out a little differently for me....well, different to the stitching I was expecting to do all Friday for our Friday Night Sew In.

Mr B has been laid off his job due to the C-19 so has resorted to a business he has had sitting on the back burner......piloting.  No, not the 'up in the air' one but rather vehicle piloting (aka escorting, but that leads to a whole lot of other questions!!).  His car has all the flashing lights and signs to warn oncoming traffic that there is a wide/long load coming and that they need to get off the road.  His 'real' job, although fulltime is a a casual position and working on a property, that means he's down from work there when the wet season hits.   Last year with the Townsville floods, he was out of work for 5 months.   Our wet season this year wasn't much however this corona virus has taken a toll everywhere and they have told him they probably won't even be looking at getting him back till August at least, if at all this year!  So, lucky we don't have all our eggs in one basket as he has reacquainted himself with his other job-love and it's a good opportunity for us to spend time together as I'm his bookkeeper/media driver/business partner!

So Friday saw us up at 4 in the morning to drive 100 + kilometres to join our load, and boy was it a big one!  We, along with another pilot and 2 police wide load specialists, escorted a rather large bucket from a mining dump truck (those things are HUUUUUGE) that had been reconditioned from the engineering works in Bowen to its worksite at Sonoma mine. Then we were picking up another, in not such a good condition, and taking it back for a facelift.  All in all the journey was a 12 hour round trip what with waiting times (a crane used to remove the bucket broke and they had to organise others!)

Like I said....HUUUUUGE - 9 metres (or 29.5 feet) from side to side.  Needless to say, the road HAD to be cleared well in advance of this beast because there was definitely no room for anyone else on the road!  It was lucky to clear the posts on the side of the road as most of the way the bucket hung over the top of them.

So by they time we got home, I had a lovely hot shower and relaxed in front of the tv with my stitching, working on my next block from Love and Hugs from Australia Stitch-a-long Facebook group.  Have you seen them yet?  They're free and lovingly donated by a myriad of Australian Designers to help us get through this lockdown period.  I managed to get some of my block done before I collapsed in bed, but managed to finish it over Saturday before beginning the next one.

I've added a bit of wool felt applique to this block by Marg Low end employed a bit of 'creative licence' to the colouring and stitches I used as well....it's all in the fun of the stitch-a-long, seeing how each person has interpreted the block and made it their own.

This block is the one I'm currently working on by Robyn Welsh of Country Hart Designs.  You may have noticed the printing on the fabric below my hoop, the unstitched flowers and the stitching line around the 6 inch block?  This was an idea by one of the ladies in the group.  She had tried and suggested printing on fabric using our inkjet printers and I thought I'd give it a try.   I loved how it turned out so easily.  If you want to try too just using your inkjet printer and  some freezer paper,  I've included the Youtube video for you.  

If you would like to give it a go, the Freezer paper is available in your favourite quilt shops and Spotlight (in Australia) and I'm sure most quilting supply stores worldwide.  I have a large roll of the Reynolds brand which has lasted me 'forever' as you can reuse it a number of times.  I hope you give it a try. Let me know if you do and what your thoughts are on it.  I like how it makes stitching much more accurate as the stitching lines are 'true' and not how I've randomly traced them.

Off to organise dinner /tea (we always have that argument in our house...is it dinner or tea at nighttime?  Mr B says tea, but I've grown up with dinner.....bit like the chicken and the egg scenario!)

I hope you enjoyed our FNSI this month and make time to pop back HERE to catch up with the other ladies.  I'll be back in a day or so with some winners too!

xox Sugary sweet hugs :o)

Lockdown FNSI

Its Wednesday, in case you didn't know!  With all this Covid-19 and isolation, it's getting hard to remember what day it is, especially after Easter.  So I'm sorry but time has slipped by me again!  Such a slacker, I must get myself organised (not one of my better traits!).

I hope you have all been keeping well and safe and were blessed with a lovely Easter?  I have been still working, up until yesterday when I got the phone call to say that all staff had been laid off until this has all passed so I have been preoccupied with work and busyness...this morning was a little odd having a sleep in and at 11am, I'm still in my pyjamas!    Note to self:  I REALLY need to organise my schedule!    In our house we phoned and facebooked family and friends to keep in touch over the Easter weekend and Mr B supplied me with a healthy supply of chocolate Easter Eggs!  We have been practicing social distancing for a while now, and apart from shopping for food and going to work, we have done nothing...which has given me more time (and money!) for crafty stuff!  However, I need to make a special visit to the post office to post two very special gifts from the last two months....I've been wary of going outside my regular places and, like I said, I REALLY need to get organised!

I have been playing with some stitchery and stitching and have been encouraged by two very special friends who run two lovely facebook groups.   You may know them or even be members yourselves, but if you don't/aren't I recommend you take a look.  The inspiration is amazing in our lockdown phase.

The first one is the Tilda Lovers Club, hosted by my wonderful friend Fee.  She has encouraged us to try projects from one of the Tilda books each week and if we don't own that book, there's a project she posts up for us to complete.  Each week she offers prizes, courtesy of Two Green Zebras.  Two weeks ago, we made Easter bunnies, last week was a dapper dachshund and this week is a Tilda paper pieced pincushion.  I've had fun with each of them.....

I've also been stitching along with my good friend Natalie who joined with a group of crafty ladies on Facebook to create the Love and Hugs from Australia stitch-a-long.  16 lovely fellow Australian stitchers have donated a 6 inch block each to create during this lockdown so that we can stitch together and create them into anything you like.  Mine's going to become a lap quilt to remind me of our time during Covid-19.  I'm not as prolific as others and have only done five blocks but two I haven't got photos of yet so they'll be in my next post.

Why not pop over to either of these groups and join in the fun?  I'm sure I'll get a lot more of my UFO's finished, that is if I don't get to distracted by all the new pretties online!  So, with all this time on our hands, and all this stitching to be done, I'd like to invite you to sign up to our regular monthly Friday night Sew In.  Everyone is welcome and you can read more about it HERE if you're new and would like to find out more before you play along.  *Please note:  if you don't have a blog, you can play along using your Instagram account, Facebook or Pinterest if that's your thing.  Nobody should miss out on the fun!

It's taken me most of the day to learn the new Blogger and PicMonkey interfaces so I'm now off to do some stitching of my own.  Don't forget to sign up for Friday!

xox big sugary hugs :o)