Off the Beaten Track

Well hello,
Here in the Feral Castle we have been gallivanting around the country side. The eldest Feral #1 and I have been on a retreat with her year 6 class to Geraldton for Confirmation ( a part of the catholic faith and one of the sacraments), team building exercises and a mass with the Bishop of our Diocese. We love our Bishop Justin, he is one of the most gorgeous men i have ever met, and just loves the kids to bits and always makes everyone feel welcome in his presence. But after 5 days with 32 kids i am feeling a little war weary, but it was a wonderful experience to get to know the eldests friends and class mates a bit better too.
AAAAANNNNDDDD we are about to embark on our next journey with the Ferals by going on our annual holiday in our little caravan, Last year we went on the Golden Outback trail through Mt Magnet to Kalgoorlie and through the Wheatbelt and back to Carnarvon. The Ferals had a blast as did the King and I too. We learnt so much about our states history and bonded as a family in a way that has made our little family unit much more appreciative of each other. Even though we love our little van i now have my eye on another one, a Paramount Duet.

This baby is my dream van.  LLLLOOOOVVVVEEEE  it.
This year we are going to go down south to the Wine country and coastal areas of southern W.A., and we are all very excited and therefore are counting down the days.
No crafting has been done, but maybe this week a little bit of sewing will be done, and if i get my backside into gear i will post a photo of the laundry bag i made to take away with us last week, it was a great little bag and i may have to make some more for gifts for all my girlfriends.
So until next time, Live as though today is your last, forgive, forget, cherish and above all love. Ciao.

A new quilt

Here at the Feral Fairy castle we have been busy once more and not much else has been accomplished in the crafty dept. I may have not sewn anything but i have been cutting madly. I have cut all the pieces out for a new quilt by Elizabeth Hartman from Oh Fransson. It is from her book The Practical guide to Patchwork. I am hoping to make the small plates quilt from heaps of my scrap fabric that i have been accumulating.

This is a wonderful book that i love reading over and over and i am determined to make more than just one quilt from this book. I still have not finished the PIP pile, but i am sure that cutting scraps was in that pile and i am going to use them up if it kills me.
I do believe that with all the scraps i could more than likely make another 3 quilts so that will keep me busy for a while longer. Until then Ciao.

Decluttering

Well hello! again time has flown by but i can tell you i have been super busy.
For the past 2 weeks, since the ferals have been back at school, i have been decluttering the house. It started as a general tidy up, emptying cupboards and getting rid of things that haven't seen the light of day for the past 12 months. but who knew that in that process i would make a wee bit of moolah. Yes my trash has become someone else's treasure, and i feel less cluttered in spirit too, so a win win situation all round really.

I have even been at the old sewing machine and finishing off another PIP (project in progress), UFO just sounds so ugly these days and having a PIP sounds much cuter.I will post a pic when i have finished the binding hopefully next time, the i can finally finish the last quilt topper i have and start a new quilt. (which i have already started cutting out). I know naughty hey, but then i wouldn't be a patch worker if i didn't have something else on the go.

Anyhoo i have also done a little housekeeping on the blog and if you notice in the side bar that some of the blogs i used to link too have gone, it's because they are no longer relevant to me now, but i have put some new ones on there and i hope you enjoy them as much as i do.

well until next time slow down, smell the roses and relax. Ciao

Finished at last!

We are still on cyclone watch as of this minute but not much has been happening in the last 24 hours, so that is a good thing. But i do have some monumental news for you, I have finally finished my Twinset and Pearls quilt that i started about 4 years ago. I put the last stitch in it yesterday and to say that i am glad it is finished is an understatement as this quilt has been the bane of my existence for the past 12 months. You see i have many UFOs and i just don't like quilting much so i keep making toppers and not finishing any of them.
But then i decided to stop being a coward and jump in at the deep end and get these suckers done. This one is the first one i have tackled and it did me for six as i have never quilted with flannel and chenille before and to say that these two fabrics cooperated is definitely wrong. I had it all pinned and started quilting and then realised it was too thick, so then i had to unpin and unpick and re pin with no batting and quilt it again and then hand sew the binding and with no batting in place this was difficult. but now it is done. Even with the no wadding it is still extremely warm and lucky i live in a very warm place so no extra warmth is really needed.
Well without any further ado here she is introducing Twinset and Pearls.

For Christmas i also got a wonderful present from the King it was a surprise the first one he has given me since we were married 12 years ago, guess what it was! Go on guess!

It was a Kindle and i love my Kindle so much that i made a cover for it the day after boxing day using some special fabric that a friend gave me the first time i looked after her dog while she went on holidays. i have had it sitting in my stash for the past 5 years and i love the look of it. I am very proud of my Kindle and it's cover. So here it is.

It is a pouch and ties up with ribbon, this is the last thing i have sewn with my machine so i think it is high time i dusted of the little baby and got to work again, only a couple more UFOs and then i can start making some new quilt tops. Yay.
Well till next time Ciao.

Cyclone Update

Well we are now on cyclone watch, cyclone Iggy is currently a category 2 storm and hovering off the northwest coast and heading our way. Although with the unpredictability of cyclones we are unsure of what it is going to do. Our region is still battling with the massive bush fires and a cyclone with the winds it generates is the worst thing that could happen, but the next 48 hours will tell us more information.So i thought i would leave you with another picture of the cyclone forecast track map of the weather bureaus hypothesis of what may happen.

source Bureau of Meteorology

As you can see we are just below Cape Cuvier which is only an hours drive away from us, so we will be watching with baited breath as they are predicting the cyclone to become a Cat 4 storm system, (and a Cat 5 is the mother of all storms and the highest category rating). So until then wish us luck. Ciao

Happy Australia Day

Happy Australia Day to you and yours,

Enjoy one of these,

And a slice of this,

And even some of these if you are lucky,

But above all Have a wonderful Australia Day.

The Bad and the Ugly!

Well to say that 2012 has started well is not exactly true. You see here in Carnarvon Western Australia we have had bush fires surrounding us since just after Christmas. It has burnt out many thousands of hectares and is not dying its death any time soon.
We are extremely lucky to have dedicated fire crews in the area to try and stop this disaster. (see photo below of fire)

                                                                      photo source  ABC news.
But to top things off we have a couple of cyclones brewing off of our northwest coast as well that may cause problems (see below)

                                                           picture source Bureau of Meteorology.
We are below Coral Bay only a two hour drive away, rain would be nice but the firies don't want the winds or the fires may get bigger. Cross your fingers for us all please.
We are extremely hot here too, yesterday we had a top temp of 43 Deg Celsius and today we are predicted 41, way toooooooo hot for this little black duck, the air cons have been cranked high since yesterday and i know my power bill is going to be huge. :(

Well just thought i would fill you in on the Bad and Ugly to date, Lets hope that 2012 gets better, because surely it can't get worse.
Ciao for now.