Marcia Layton Designs - Quilts for Kids

At the end of last year I reported to you that during my visit to Houston Quilt Festival, I fell in love, head over heels, with MARCIA LAYTON'S quilts for kids.  Why?  Because they were refreshingly different, not gimmicky, but three-dimensional in a quirky way using Yo-Yos made with Clover's Yo-Yo Makers.

When I added them to my website, I had several customers comment that they couldn't see the detail enough to see what I was raving on about. Marcia has so generously given me a Trunk Show for the Show Circuit in Australia during 2014; so yesterday I hung them on my back verandah clothesline and photographed them for you, even though the day was dull, but no grizzling here as we received some much needed rain.

Please enjoy and marvel with the detail.  Her ideas are adorable and will delight any child, made with love by Mum, Grandma or Aunty! (You don't have to be a child to have one either)

COTTONTAIL TRAIL QUILT

COUNTRY CROSSING QUILT

LION'S DEN QUILT

FLAMINGO COVE QUILT

OCEAN FROLIC QUILT

Now, you have to admit, indeed delightful, are they not?

I hope you now appreciate my excitement in being able to present these patterns to you.

THANK YOU MARCIA.

SEE THEM AT THE AQC, MELBOURNE next week on our Stand 111

I will also have an International Guest from Janome America 

demonstrating the SILHOUETTE CAMEO 

which is an electronic cutting tool that connects to your home computer just like a printer.

An AMAZING machine.

Royal Exhibition Building, Carlton Gardens, Melbourne. VIC.

Seniors Week at Howlong Public School

What is SENIORS' WEEK?

It is a celebration for people aged 60 and over acknowledging their continuing contribution to family, friends, workplaces and their communities.  The theme for 2014 was 'LIVE LIFE' offering great opportunities for seniors to stay active and independent and be recognized for their community involvement.

Photo courtesy of What's On - City of Sydney

NSW Seniors' Week is an annual NSW Government campaign with a program of events organized during the week of 15th - 23rd March and has become the largest celebration for seniors in the southern hemisphere. Did you know that?  To be fair, other States also have celebrations.

The purpose is to promote positive attitudes towards ageing.  

IS THIS ME?

YES, apparently!  

John and I attended Seniors' Week celebration at Howlong Public School where our youngest grandchild, Hunter, attends. 

GRANDPARENTS' DAY!

Where is HOWLONG and why such a "funny" name?

Howlong is a lovely riverside country town situated 597 km south-west of Sydney, nestled upon the Murray River on the NSW-Victorian border, with a population of a little more than 2500.

The name Howlong is derived from the Aboriginal native language, "Oolong" meaning a haunt of native companions (Brolga Birds).

I am writing this blog mainly for the benefit of our diverse range of readers ALL over the world as I think it is of interest for an insight to the opportunities for children in Primary Schools that maybe we never enjoyed when we were at school - seemingly a century ago! (Probably quite true!)

John and I were entertained in the classroom and in the playground.  Our classrooms were NEVER this bright and cheerful. Hunter with School Principal when he was elected as his class SRC member (school council representative)

Children at Howlong have their own gardens and animals. We were given beautiful, freshly-made egg and lettuce sandwiches for a picnic lunch, made by the children from their own outside activities.

Children care for their garden and for their chooks.  

Loved the fluffy black one!

Planting another tree - they have a very large 'nature' area and they look after it themselves.

Loved this old tree - just look at the size of the trunk!

The playgrounds are typical of every Primary School today, but I am in awe compared to our days of making do with our own imagination in schoolgrounds.

Notice how everything is under cover with protection from the weather.

WELL DONE HOWLONG PUBLIC SCHOOL

 So, what do you think?  

John and I thoroughly enjoyed our visit to the school and for a small country township, their Primary School is something the community should be very proud of.

Schools have come a long way and our children are being looked after beyond belief.

 Just for the record, we have three children and they are ALL Schoolteachers!

Weekend Getaway

Everyone needs a break now and then, so since computer work has been pretty full on for several weeks due to our website's Birthday Sale, John and I took this weekend as an opportunity to get together with family.
Sharelle and Jasmine (Daughter and Granddaughter) were home from Sydney for the weekend and it is Hunter's 6th Birthday tomorrow - St. Patrick's Day. Hunter is our youngest Grandson belonging to Rowan (Son).

Rowan had booked dinner at Howlong Golf Club on Saturday night and it was a lovely surprise to have Sharelle and Andrew and their three kids, now nearly adults - Reece, Nicholas and Jasmine all to join us.
So proud to find out that Jas had just been selected in the Open Soccer Team for the Sydney West Combined High Schools and will play at Armidale in a few weeks time. Congratulations to her.

Had a sleepover at Rowan's in Howlong and then today became tourists. Visited the Corowa Whisky & Chocolate Factory which is related to the brilliant Junee Licorice & Chocolate Factory. Commenced in September 2009, renovations of the magical old flour mill have transpired to a lovely tourist attraction for the town along the Murray River, border of Victoria and New South Wales.

The mill had been abandoned since 1970, so it is a huge task to transform it into a distillery. In the very early stages, but the Chocolate is to die for and I LOVE Licorice. These are made at the Junee site - well worth a visit if you're travelling that way.

They only use Belgian chocolate which is luxuriously smooth and organic too. Belgian chocolate is very different to common or compound chocolate in that Belgian chocolate uses all the cocoa bean rather than substituting other ingredients, resulting in a smooth and full flavoured chocolate that is actually good for your health. Do you believe that? True! Chocolate was an ancient health tonic, once described as the "food of the gods" and prescribed by doctors as a stimulant and a soothing balm. I'm living in the wrong era????

Then we drove to Campbell's Winery at Rutherglen to collect a box of my favourite desert wine only to find they'd discontinued making it. Boo hoo. Came away with another, of course, but such a shame re my favourite.

All of their wines are estate grown and made from grapes grown in the Rutherglen Wine Region.
The offered a lovely hamper to choose from to enjoy outside listening to the jazz band who were just setting up. Biscuits, dips, chips, etc. Didn't stay though................

Walked the touristy type shops of Rutherglen and enjoyed the luxury of such an excursion. There are indeed some beautiful towns along the Murray River, make it a must-do-sometime-soon event and you won't be disappointed.

Drove back to Howlong and enjoyed lunch at one of my favourite bakeries.  

The HOWLONG COUNTRY BAKERY

Wish we had one like this at downtown THE ROCK.

Home again and back to work!

Sulphur-Crested Cockatoos

As a child, we had a pet Cocky who could mimmick most of what a human would say - I am quite sure many Aussies would have similar stories as it was common to have such a very much loved pet and they could live for up to 70 years in captivity, though only 20 - 40 years in the wild. They are an extremely intelligent bird and naturally curious.

The Sulphur-Crested Cockatoo is possibly the best known of all Australian parrots.
There would not be one Aussie reading this who has never said "Hello Cocky!" expecting a return "Hello Cocky" from the parrot.  True?

HOWEVER, at the moment they are a real pest on our little farm as thousands of them have made our 100 acres their home - squawking and being destructive. These are the two bad traits they are famous for, that distinctive raucous call and stripping the bark off trees and often stripping house decking and verandahs.

They have stripped all our pine trees feeding on the pine cones, leaving them laying all over the ground and often flying off with them in their beak, often dropping them on our tin roof sounding like a bomb going off and then the noise of the cone tumbling down the roof into the gutter.  All our fruit trees are ruined with half eaten fruit on the trees and the rest on the ground.

They've been eating the seeds of grasses trying to grow in our drought and feast on the feed John gives the stock in these harsh times - not to mention being a pest in my chook yard. In this smallish photo, can you see the myriads of them on the ground eating the seed?

Normally, I love them, BUT.............

Our heart goes out to those experiencing bushfires throughout our country. Particularly, in Victoria and South Australia as the smoke has been so dense that it has found it's way to our region, day after day.  Even our beautiful sunsets at this time of the year have been subdued with the dense smoke.

Of course, anything business-wise to do with farm products take my fancy and I'm pleased to announce we now have received our stock of Bonnie Keller's Award Winning Quilt, "Ms MacDonald's Farm" Farm Quilt Pattern.  Included is a 32 page technique book describing Bonnie's applique method and all 12 full-sized patterns.

LOVE IT - LOVE IT - LOVE IT

Australia Day Weekend Getaway - DAY TWO

Sunday 26th January, Australia Day, was a very overcast, grey, cloudy day in Sydney, then changed to a bright blue sky very late in the afternoon.  Quite a warm, pleasant day and just as well the sun was hidden by the overcast conditions as we went on a Captain Cook Harbour Cruise to see the Tall Ships Race, otherwise, we may have been sunburnt since we were out on the deck, cruising the harbour for 2 hours.

Life is tough, but someone has to do it.!

Strolled through the Darling Harbour area again during the morning, being entertained by so many buskers, the Army Band, people on stilts etc.  One area was spray painting everyone in green and gold and I mean, the whole body.  This is not green grass, this is spray and so is everything else sprayed.  Saw so many people, of all ages, walking around all day and wondered how they were going to remove it all? Bath or shower water would be a hideous colour.

The rope maze for the kids to climb was very popular.  I wondered how many fell? It was like swinging in the jungle like monkeys. Plus, beautiful butterflies on stilts.

Plenty of other such entertainment for the kids, so many that I couldn't take pics of them all as we were walking to Circular Quay to catch our cruise and the girls kept telling me I was dragging along behind!

Grey, cloudy skies as we walked across the pedestrian crossing at Darling Harbour.

See the Sydney Tower in the background?

Looked at it and felt very proud we had reached that red "Westfields" sign yesterday.

(Read previous blog posting)

Sydney celebrates Australia Day better than any other city in Australia many experts say, simply because they have so much more to offer with our beautiful harbour. No debate please, I'm just repeating what many officials say. Usually such a bright blue sky like the first photo shows, but on Sunday last week it was extremely overcast though never looked like raining. See from the following photos I took.

The day commenced with a Ferrython Race, followed by an F18 Fighter Jet Flyover and 21 Gun Salute.

I was taking a photo of "Captain Cook" on the wharf as we were ushered to the right boat, when someone tapped me on my shoulder and asked "would you like me to take a photo of yourself with CC?" People everywhere were in an amazing holiday mood, you could feel it and see it by their faces.  I thanked him kindly. For our overseas readers, Google for Captain Cook and you'll see why he is the very essence of our history with European settlement.

It was the TALLS SHIP CRUISE we were on and this was a race from Bradley's Head to the Harbour Bridge of a fleet of historic vessels, one of which had sailed around Cape Horn no less than 29 times. 

Four Tall Ships contested, including the HMB Endeavour Replica, but it was the Southern Swan who was the eventual winner. The other two were the Soren Larsen and the James Craig.

We were able to sail quite close at times and I was so surprised that with all the different types of boats on the harbour, there seemed to be no chaos.  The maritime police vessels were cruising around constantly.

The old and the new, side by side.

People paid $150 to $300 to be on board one of the competing Tall Ships.

There was a great spirit of rivalry - at one stage we witnessed a water bomb attack from one to another.

The cannons firing nearly gave us heart attack. 

Our commentator said it was sabotage.

A helicopter flying an Australian Flag flew around the Harbour constantly.

Another helicopter flew past us and landed on the L100, maybe to pick up the Governor General so our commentator said, but this wasn't confirmed. 

Qantas planes purposely flew over the Harbour giving passengers a once-in-a-lifetime view and they flew right over the top of us quite often.

Tall ships passing Kirribilli House, where the Prime Minister resides for official duties.

The actual finish line was under the Sydney Harbour Bridge and was fairly closely contested, but the Southern Swan narrowly won.

Some of the scenes along the journey.

Right in the middle at the very top are some Harbour Bridge climbers, they are only little dots, but just under the flag flying.  Both the Australian Flag and the Aboriginal Flag flew this day.

Note also some of the additional set up on the bridge ready for the Fireworks Display that night.

Passing Fort Denison, an island in the middle of the Harbour with a fascinating history.

Passing HMAS Sydney Cove.

Need I say more? Our magnificent Opera House.

Plus the Sydney Harbour Bridge and the buildings of Sydney.

Through to the other side of the Harbour Bridge.

Pubs, accommodation and a variety of buildings on the waterfront.

The site for the new Casino under construction.  They are rebuilding the very point of this land to the hill (bringing in enormous amounts of soil etc) with the vegetation that would have been there when the First Fleet arrived.

When we returned to Darling Harbour it was "packed" with people, possibly waiting for the fireworks later on.
 

I couldn't get over how quickly the sky had changed to a beautiful clear blue, JUST as we were going home.
Last pic is the view from our car park as we were sadly leaving.

WHAT AN AMAZING WEEKEND WE HAD 

& I HOPE YOU'VE ENJOYED SHARING.