Werribee Open Range Zoo

A few weeks ago it was Kalani Thomas' first birthday which he celebrated at the Werribee zoo.

Here he is below with his Dad on the bus that we saw all the animals on.

And below with his Mum my daughter Rebecca. His blonde hair is starting to grow and he still has the brightest blue eyes.

Here is Coco Daisy on the bus.

Isabella and Kalani with their Dad.

Here is Romi on the bus.

Isabella looking at the meerkats.

Here I am...at last!

Well I have survived my first semester at uni.....almost! Just a little 2 hour psychology exam tomorrow. I figure if I don't know it by now I am not going to know it so I am rewarding myself with a night off. So much has happened in the past few months. I opened bloglines this week and started trying to catch up on everyone's blogs, however with over 10,000 posts I don't think it is going to happen especially with this rotten dial up. It has started me thinking about doing some crafty things though after months of nothing but study and research. I had to drop off a quilt which was long overdue at the patchwork shop yesterday and couldn't resist buying a little something for the first time in months....

Last Sunday was spent making Miss Isabella's dancing costume, I thought those days were gone!! Her concert is next Saturday so I am looking forward to watching her on stage. (it did fit a bit better when it was finished)

In the meantime she turned 4!

On the 29th of October Romi Emerald came into the world, a little sister for Coco Daisy!

Isn't she beautiful, not that I am biased at all! Here she is with Mum (my daughter Holly) like a little koala.

Nine days old....

Bellas little brother Kalani Thomas is 8 months old and still has the bluest eyes! Here he is with my daughter Bec.

Coco's hair is curlier than ever!

What a monster!!

And spring is here.

My Grevillea has finally flowered after 3 or 4 years!

Hopefully over the summer break I will get back to catching up with all my favourite blogs and have some crafty show and tell!!

I am off to Uni!

Yes that's right, I am heading off to Ballarat University. I received my offer in the mail on Friday of a place in the Bachelor of Arts Rural Social Welfare and I intend doing the psychology major. I am feeling a bit nervous but also excited. I will have to have a rethink on some things and probably my custom quilting will be one of the things that will go as I just won't have the time. I am working 22 hours a week at the moment in my non quilting job although it's more like full time but that will cut back to 12 hours after the 10th August for two weeks then after that I will be back to my normal 6 hours per week so hopefully I can still fit in some edge to edge quilting in between uni and work.

Now back to some crafty things. Here is my selvedge passport cover I made before we went to New Zealand. I got the tutorial from this blog.

Here is the inside with my Aussie passport and his British one.

I have done a few blocks on the Lucy Boston quilt, I did a lot of the hexagons when we were in NZ as well as quite a lot of the 1" hexagons for another hexagon "one day" quilt.

I did get the Noro wool and I did finish the fan scarf!

Here are the swaps I received from Chaletgirl's vintage sheet swap.

I got some more reproduction fabrics for Christine's nine patch block swap

and I couldn't resist this gorgeous Aunt Grace Tie one on fabric, I don't know what I will do with it but I just had to have it!

In the meantime Kalani Thomas turned 3 months....

and his cousin Coco Daisy turned 2!

This is what I did on Thursday!

Congratulations Constable!

The Interruption....

Here is the interruption, my new grandson Kalani Thomas!

Here he is about half an hour old, looking very much like his big sister Isabella looked when she was born it's really like seeing her all over again except he has blonde hair underneath the brown and has blonde eyebrows and eyelashes like his cousin Coco had. He is very very tiny only 4lb 5oz or 1.9kg.

Here is big sister Isabella getting to know him.

Kalani four days old.

with Aunty Kylie

Cousin Coco is fascinated, I think she thinks he is a doll as he isn't much bigger than her Lola!!

I was rudely interrupted

Last Sunday night I was very busy working away on this, trying to get it finished (then another one after it) for the Ballan quilt show which is on this weekend 28th and 29th March.

When I was rudely interrupted.........

Double Delight Mystery Quilt.

When I saw that Bonnie K Hunter of Quiltville fame was doing another mystery quilt I was interested. When I saw she was using reproduction fabrics I was hooked! Here I was before 2008 was finished about to start another new quilt!!!!!!!

So much for any quilting new years resolutions. I have decided to basically go with the colours that Bonnie is using, brown, pink, shirtings, navy/indigo, and cheddar. Although I am still unsure of the cheddar so I have skipped ahead to step 3 to make up some of the nine patches to see if I will use it or replace it with pink to finish off step 1 and sew step 2. I think I will have to end up sewing a couple together to make a decision.

Of course I have peeked ahead and I must say I just love how this quilt has turned out. Bonnie is one very clever and generous lady. I have also always been intrigued by the leaders and enders but have never been organised enough to get around to doing them so I thought this was the perfect opportunity.

Here are some of the results. So far I have 30 nine patch blocks made from 2/12" squares leader/enders whilst sewing the mystery quilt. I am not quite sure yet if they will become a sister's choice quilt which I have always really liked or this quilt......

This was in a magazine quite a few years back, another reproduction 1890's scrap quilt by Julie Wallace. I will need 111 nine patch blocks for this one!

Oh and guess what I got for Christmas........

as well as a Heritage Collection for a cause jelly roll and charm square pack. Just had to finish with a photo of the girls at Christmas....

Miss Coco (complete with large bump on the head and bruise from hitting her head the previous night) who thought it was hilarious to be rolling around on the floor when I was trying to take a photo of her.

Madam Isabella modelling for the camera! (sometimes we get NO camera!)