Wisteria, Bags, Vintage Dress and Keens Mustard

I have been busy this week making bags of allsorts, not the kind you eat. I am partial to Licorice Allsorts , in fact any kind of licorice. I had to publish two photos ,the teabag fell down from the bluetack, I had holding it in place.I saw these little bags on a couple of blogs, the tutorial is in French on http://kerouezee.over-blog.com/article-12257927.html The cotton multi coloured one is for Andrea, the Brown one is a shoe bag, and the smaller bag is an Angel's in Disguise pattern.

Is there anybody that does not like Sausage Rolls ? I make a batch of three dozen when the Clarke’s (Andrea) come up from Cobden . I use the scales in the background each time I cook, I have a conversion table to help with ounces to grammes.
The Wisteria has come out over the weekend , so I have to show a photo now as next week it may well be blown away or the rain will come and its beauty will be gone. The creepers and vines have been doing very well during the drought. they seem to survive with very little water.
Carol’s page Pins'n' Needles has been showing old photos, they are a joy to look at, and the memories that they bring to her and her family. I have a photo of a dress that when I had it in my minds eye, it was going to be a stunner. My sister was my seamstress, and she made all my clothes. I would see an idea tell her, and she would attempt to make it. This dress was in red silk chiffon, very hard to work with. When I wore this dress and even now I think it looks more like a curtain than a dress.

Vintage 1958

Now for all the Geelong fans here is what the cup looks like, this photo was taken last year at a thank you from the Geelong Football club to the charities. The Leukaemia Foundation being one of them.

Brad Ottens and Keith --- ( A Brisbane Bears supporter. )

And just to finish off , I snapped this in a street in Geelong West near Ashby Primary School, I wonder if Keen's Mustard really does aid indegestion?

Hurry over to Quilter Gone Banana's she is having her 100th post giveaway. With a mystery prize...

Doulos Geelong

The Doulos has been in port at Geelong the Doulos was built two years after the Titanic, Doulos is staffed by an international crew of 330 Christian volounteers from 50 nations. Doulos hosts the worlds largest floating bookshop. Today my grandson Cameron and I went on board, we met Oyver Lassen from an Island off Norway any Norwegians will know the island from the map Oyver is holding I can't rememberwhich Island she came from. The painted bollards you can see in the photos are a few of the 104 featured along the waterfront at Geelong, they were the work of artist Jan Mitchell they represent life in the early days of Geelong, these are only a few I will post more at a later date. Cameron and I in the engine room of the Doulos The ship has been swarmed by visitors every day she has been in port. As well as going out with Cameron I have been doing some sewing I now have nearly finished my Noah's Ark work to date, they have been so much fun to do. I haven't done any embroidery in the last 50 years, the last table cloth I did was this one with the small roses and that took five years to finish.

Royal Melbourne Show and Fairfield

During the last week I went to Melbourne for a couple of days. Number 1 reason to go to the Royal Melbourne Show. That was very disappointing experience. The heart of the Showgrounds has been ripped out. The R.M.S. served the community for 150 years. In 2005 / 2006 the area was redeveloped. Sadly it lacks atmosphere. This photo was taken in 1948. Look at the clothes my mother is wearing a suit and white crocheted blouse Maggie my mother's cousin has a hand knitted jumper and home made dress, George an Maggie had a farm in Mornington. The photographer,snapped you and developed the photo within minutes, I seem to remember he had a bucket of water on the tripod and the camera had a black cloth over it, Ah! halycon days.

Moving on to the 21st century,have a look at what I captured with a digital camera. While doing my stitchery of Noah's Ark from out the window I saw that the Ceanothus was alive with bees so out I popped and here is the result.

30 years ago I pieced this from material used in the girls dresses, skirts, blouses of the time. I had forgotten about it until I went to Fairfield to stay with Liz and there it was, she was using it on the sofa. I did not know about quilting then so I pieced it together and put an old comforter inside.

While browsing in Fairfield I went into the M.S. shop and bought these beauties for $15.00. I have these glasses in varying sizes, when I had the Leukaemia Lunches I did not have more than five of this size glass so I had to improvise, now I can set the table for 13 all with the same glass.
That I went into that shop; Coincidence or Gods incidence ?

I have finished two of these scarves and another which is on the old camera with a film of 36 in it, and I am only up to 24 so I will have to wait until I finish the film before I can show and tell those photos .

Spring is here

Ailsa's Peanony's & Our Green Goddess

Spring arrived yesterday a little late, after the cold weather we have been experiencing over the last fortnight. I have been rummaging around in the material trunk, and came up with this old apronmade in the 1960's at Broadford C.W.A. my aunt made this apron.

The apron is made from material 72 cm square. The ties are very long , they pass through loops on the edge as in the photo. The apron is very comfortable to wear. I have a very talented friend : Dorothy, who was a quilter and still is off and on and now working with paper and shells, sequins,and and anything else in her workroom, she has allowed me to show you some of her recent work

Dorothy's house is like walking into an art gallery. Yesterday Dorothy another friend: who has the Peanony's in her garden went to Bacchus Marsh to Pentland Patchwork in Main Street. Wow what an exciting place that was. I bought this pattern kit . A Barbara Green Fan Bag . I can get all the outside fabric I need from our daughter Andrea . I bought a button and fusible webbing so I can get started.

I made a couple of bags this week , very plain, very functional. The tapestry material was $2.99 a metre form Spotlight, reduced from $14.95. Mere Male built the seats many years ago, thought I had better give him a plug, he works very well under orders.

Nectarine Blossom and Freesias under the roses.

Unfortunately the Nectarine is on it's last legs, the crop last season was sooo heavy that branches fell out one stinking hot day while we were inside watching the cricket with the A.C. going full bore. When tea was announced we went outside to see what the noise was that we thought we heard and spent the next hour taking fruit from the branches and sawing the branches and tidying up. We lost a couple of wickets , so not a good afternoon,

SPRING HOW LOVELY. The Royal Melbourne Show opens on Thursday, being a canny scot from three generations ago, I found out that you can gain admission with your gold R.A.C.V. card on Thursday for $2.00. How about that ! I will take the camera and photograph all that I like. Bye for now. Margaret

Jane's Giveaway

Jane is having a birthday and has a Giveaway

http://janesfabrics.blogspot.com

Garden

Well here I am again. I went out into the garden the sun that was sooo warm coming through the windows wasn't as warm outside . The ground was cold where I was standing weeding and there was a breeze blowing so I decided to take some photos and come back inside.

The garlic and Bok Chow are doing nicely. look how nicely I weeded the bottom row of the Hippeastrums. Mere Male husband Keith made this stand last year, so this season I am going to have the best Hippeastrums around.

The Camellias are near the front door, they have been blooming for around eight weeks. They were a talking point when I had the Leukaemia Lunches, by the way my photo and a write up about the lunches and the money raised was in The Independent Newspaper and that bought about another $90.00.

Nostalgia

G,Day the sun is shining and it is a beautiful day, I should be outside in the garden instead of sitting in the study reading the emails and looking at blogs. I had to get way from a block that just wouldn’t go together properly. So came to look at blogs for advice, and they are very informative. The photo opposite is from the "Halycon days "

as is the patterns of dresses from that era. Now I have had my respite so I think I will go out in the garden and pull some weeds, that have been loosened since the rain.