First anniversary

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Today is the first anniversary of KenmaursCorner!
Talk about fools rushing in where angels fear to tread--------
I must acknowledge the help and encouragement that SharonB
and LindaB have given me over this period,as well as the help from members of Bloggerswhoembellish

Thank you ,one and all!

From memory,this is also the first anniversary of Linda's Chloes Place

I was going to link to a mention in one of Sharon's musings about whether blogging had helped me complete more UFOs if I journalled my progress,but......
the answer is plain and simple: NO
Some UFOs were completed.......my Starry starry skies quilt for one;
Three Bags of Fun
and I fell into ever deeper water blogging with CQCrazy to entrap new CQ addicts,
and Kurliskottage where I was going to try out new(to me)formats and things pertaining to maintaining a better blog.

Enough,already...........I'm going to stitch today.
And,thankyou,for visiting !

Completed patch

 
Final scan of young M's block before it goes off on it's travels again tomorrow.I added a couple of flutterbys to the wisteria vine at the top of the patch,and a cat(of course is sitting under one of the Norfolk pines surveying his garden and thinking about curling up in the wheel barrow the other side of the cobbled garden path.

I must complete another 3 or 4 Mother Goose blocks before mid February and make a start on a bag for Kaz in Victoria to be with her by first week of February....
Then I really must commence journalling my ideas for the Art quilt Challenge;the Post card for the Rocky Mountain Crazy Quilters/SCCs swap in May.........
and tackle some UFOs...............
Try out some new(for me) tecniques............ 

More buttons

This is for Darilyn of Tropical Screamer & Tropical Dreamer
who spoke of her buttons being in Apothecary jars!
How I envy her............my dad was a pharmacuetical chemist in the days when pharmacists still prepared the doctor's prescriptions instead of (like today) just slapping a computer printed label on a manufacturer's container!
I'd dearly love to own some jars and an old stone mortar and pestle or two.
But that's not gonna happen,so I'll make do with my fancy Brandy Balloon. 

Don't drop the button box!

 
One of several button and bead containers that were re-organised today:
This one contains MoP, Bakelite,ceramic,timber,glass, metallic buttons and even some crafty plastic shapes.
I know some purists will throw their hands up in horror at the button soup,but

a serious collector I'm NOT and I plan on using them all..................one day! 

Feeling virtuous in the New Year

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As it was too warm (again) outside,I've spent the afternoon sorting buttons and beads!
Must admit I didn't realize just how much I'd accumulated,but at least most of it is "sorted" and I have emptied a lot of makeshift containers into a better setup.(Well,"better" is probably rather subjective)
Any way I'll close,by adding this message I received from an online contact:


A WISH FOR NEW YEAR


May peace break into your house and may thieves come to steal your debts.
May the pockets of your jeans become a magnet of $ 200 notes.
May love stick to your face like Vaseline and may laughter assault your lips!
May your clothes smell of success like smoking tyres.
May happiness slap you across the face and may your tears be that of joy.
May the problems you had forget your home address!

(It reads a little like an Irish Blessing,doesn't it :-)

A slight change of direction!

In an effort to tidy up my Blogging life,I've decided,that in the future ,postings on
birdlife
my cat family
"garden"
will be made on what till now has been my "try it out" Blog: Kurliskottage http://kurliskottage.blogspot.com/.
I'll trial it this way for a while,and rely on you to tell me if it's worth continuing or not.

Ciao,
Maureen

It's amazing,what crops up...........

.......when you read your emails and start trawling the Web!
First,Bernadine logged in and left a message............her gallery led me to Ozquiltnetwork,which I never knew of until tonight.
I'm sure you'll recognise some of the names in their Gallery...........go have alook at yet some more Art quilts by Australians.

For Mairead

Don't you HATE it when you plan how to work on a block,and said block develops a will of its own!
This is the block that came to me from Mairead,a 12 y.o. British girl who a group of us are enveigling into the joys of CQ.
I planned to "garden"on this lemon patch:My idea was to have two Norfolk pines framing a pond(the shisha mirror) and have a garden path leading down to the other blocks.
I think that the sun (made with an art doll mold and framed with bugle beads needs more beading.............. 

Misty morning in Moodlu

Another view across the paddocks.
Summer in south east Queensland is the "wet season" and with the rain,heat and humidity, the paddocks are green and succulent. 

Misty morning

This was the scene at 4.45 a.m this morning.
I don't normally get up this early but when I saw how serene it was when I let the cats out for their "wee walk" I just had to get my trusty digital into business.
This is the view on the southern side of the house looking to the east!
Why would you want to live anywhere else? 

Looking back.......

">Link Checking through the archives of KenmaursCorner,I see that I'm 10 days short of my first(Blogging) anniversary.
As I said back in January, "it's all SharonB's fault" ...Meeting her at Can-Bra October 2003 has opened such a new and ever widening learning curve for me and I frequently despair at my lack of knowledge and expertise.

Anyway,onwards and hopefully upwards!
Yesterday I went back to working on a CQ block for Mairead:
it has been shamefully neglected the past month or so as other deadlines assaulted me.
Hopefully it will be in the post back to you by New Year

Blog cleaning

In the process of attempting to tidy up my "favourite Blogs" list I re-found
Valeri's Dyeing 2 sew Blog
and thoroughly enjoyed the visit;particularly when she made tantalising comments about designing "buttons" to use for links.

Joyce of Chief Ten Bears also employs this method.......
so,the question is: HOW do I get one?
Truth be told,I desperately need a web maker/designer(?) who can instruct in one syllable words to sort out my mad woman's breakfast!
Any offers??

Swingle #3

 
Using up some of the denim off-cuts from my various BoF(three of them..........there's still one to complete)
This Swing purse was for Colleen.
Give me another day to veg-out after Christmas,and I'll be back working on Mairead's block,I promise! 

Hohoho

 

For my friends in the northern Hemisphere..........I HAD to find a Christmas cat! 

Cadbury

 
Our little Princess.....well,she thinks so!
Cadbury,named for a very popular brand of Australian chocolate to which she is partial(if she can get it)is going on for 13 years and still thinks she is a kitten and the princess of the family.
A domestic long hair,my daughter found Cadbury being displayed for sale in a glass fish bowl (no water!)at a market one summer.
The up-shot was that the man paid Colleen to take the poor little kitten because she abused him for his cruelty.....it was HOT summer's day.The little furry scrap survived and has ruled us ever since! 

Jesse

 
Jesse is never quite sure whether he's human,dog or cat!
One thing for sure,he's foreman material.....has to supervise any activity whether out in the sheds,in the house or visitors.
Here is taking his leisure using the treadle of a machine as a pillow 

After the haircut!

 

We've just come home from the "hair dresser" and Poss is showing her displeasure at her visit to Mandy.
As she was pefectly behaved whilst there...........No sedating,no yowling,hissing or scratching;(And there were several dogs watching from cages)
I ignored her cold shoulder treatment....told her her name should be Honey(for her sweet nature and her colour and she forgave me!
Today was 38 deg C so I think she enjoyed being a cool cat for Christmas! 

Introducing Possum!

 
Meet Possum! The sweetest natured roly poly puss you could ever meet!
I'm sure Andrew Lloyd Webber had her in mind when he came up with Jenny Any-dots when he wrote "Cats"..........my favourite musical.

One thing wrong with Poss is that she's cursed with a very thick coat (she's a short hair domestic tortie ex street kid)
And the coat sheds and tangles something cruelly despite using a stripping brush on her.
So.........twice a year she visits Mandy at Doggie Hair Dooz for a "short back and sides"
This is the BEFORE look! 

A Swingle for KJ

 

Not as fancy as I planned it to be,but unexpected guests upset my (sewing) timetable and this was completed just before midnight Christmas eve!
Kayla my 9 y.o. grand daughter loved it......and that's all that matters! 

Two down,one to go!

 
The second of three Swingles (Swing purses) .This is for a special "someone" who was disappointed that she didn't get a Red Hat "Bag of fun" last month