An '0' birthday!

It's been a while since I posted but I've been away again. A significant birthday prompted a trip to Uluru (Ayers Rock), somewhere I've always wanted to go. It certainly lived up to all my expectations! Awesome, inspiring and quite surreal!  Nearby Kata Tjuta (the Olgas) was equally fascinating. We did two big walks, one around the base of Uluru and one though Kata Tjuta. It has been raining up there recently so it was green, with lots of wildflowers. The resort we stayed in was like an oasis in the desert - beautiful and so relaxing!

So, not a lot of stitching has been done lately!!

A dog's life!

Lot's of dogs having their walks on the beach this morning. One lady had five!
I made a quilt several years ago called "It's a Dog's Life!"  There were nine blocks, each with a dog in a different chair. Here are a couple.  All machine applique and machine piecing. All around the border I had sayings such as - 'his bark is worse than his bite',' let sleeping dogs lie', 'love me, love my dog', 'beware of the dog', 'dog eat dog', etc, etc.  It was so much fun picking the fabrics for the dogs and the chairs.
(I must have taken these photos with my old camera. Or else I didn't know how to use the close up mode!)

Birds!

 

We think this handsome fellow and his little lady friend have a nest in a bush near our birdbaths. The first year we were here we never saw any blue wrens, the following years they would pass through once or twice a day. This year this couple are constantly around and keep flitting in and out of the bush. I have looked but can't see a nest - I'm sure it's very well disguised. Now I am constantly on the lookout for next door's cats!  As much as I like cats I wish there was a law that required people to keep cats on their own property!  When I spoke to the owner she was sure her cats never hunted wildlife!  Yeah, right!!
And just so there is a bit of stitching on this blog here are two little stitched pieces I did last year just for fun. They are about 16cm square and the tree in the second one was inspired by a drawing from the lovely Cathy of onepinkgoose and used with her permission of course!  I really enjoyed stitching these. I've used stranded cottons and some lovely variegated crochet cotton dyed by a friend, on a dark brown background.

Back again!

Oh my! it's been nearly two weeks since I last posted. Where has the time gone?  Had a fabulous time in Geelong with a great tutor, wonderful company, good food, fun shops and lots of inspiration! We stitched pictures from photographs, I have lots of new ideas!  Home to lots of washing, catching up on chores and weeding, but at last some lovely spring weather.  It was beautiful at the beach this morning.  The seagulls were enjoying the sun too!