Signs of autumn

 All around the garden, autumn is making itself felt. Beautiful tree colours, drifts of leaves, flocks of birds heading north, the acrid smell of burning from nearby properties.
A good time to start working with wool again, and OMG! there is some awesome wool around!
Managed to get to Tylden last week and found some gorgeous yarns at the wool shop. I was very restrained among all the glorious wool; supersoft merino, fat multicoloured 'cakes', glittery novelty wools (at $26 a pop!), fuzzy mohair, all made up into scarves and samples, plus knitting and crochet paraphernalia, luridly coloured needles, bamboo

hooks, scissors, buttons, scarf pins...oh, a girl can dream!
I did invest in a couple of beautiful balls of  Bamboo Blooms Handpaints; half the fun is finding just the right pattern for it. Good old Patons 8ply was on special at our supermarket, always good for a blanket.
And I just finished this mens scarf for a friend, such a simple pattern and it knitted up in no time.
Managed to capture a couple of visitors, one was a black yellow tailed cocky, who was having a rest on the ground (quite unusual). And a pretty beetle, but I'm afraid he's an ex-beetle....

 Saw two good movies this last week. One was the "Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society" (what a mouthful!), set in Guernsey in the late 1940s. Excellent movie, I highly recommend it. And I'm told it's just as good as the book. I never knew Guernsey had such a dramatic landscape.
The other was "Peter Rabbit", of Beatrix Potter fame. Cute kid's film, and just as much fun for adults. I was very happy the voices were appropriately British. Cannot imagine an American voice coming from Peter and his friends.

Some finishes

 Yay! It's not often I get to finish projects, but this week I surprised myself!
First off, here's the hexie quilt the Friday ladies made, finally done and modelled by the lovely Ann. All hand pieced and quilted, and it will be either raffled or put to silent auction via the Rotary Club. Congratulations, ladies, great job!
It'll make a lovely table topper for a lucky person.
Next, I went back to this scarf I had made many moons ago. Although I loved the wool and the colour, a beautiful dark teal, it always looked a bit 'blah'. It was made for a person in mind, but she likes colours and crafty things, so I sat down and added arty-farty bits of different yarn, quite simple really. And hey presto - now it doesn't look blah any more! It's a bit hard to see but there

are quite a few shiny and even glittery threads crocheted on.
Another gift - and I hope the person it's intended for isn't reading this! - are the four place mats I made with this beautiful Australian-themed fabric range from Material Girls (via Mary's). I hope the recipient will enjoy them, since she's a fan of our bird life.
And here's some wool I came across in Lincraft. I was looking for exactly that kind of multi-coloured, multi-textured wool after seeing a shawl pattern on Pinterest. I downloaded the pattern, and my next job is to translate the (US) stitches into the UK/Australian version. That'll keep

 me out of trouble. Well, for a while at least.

April happenings

 April - my favourite month. Balmy days, beautiful autumn colours, morning fog, just perfect. I only wish we had some rain. Wayne is trying to keep some of the more vulnerable trees watered, but it's difficult to keep up. Maybe I'll have to do a rain dance...
Sherman is feeling the cooler temperatures too. I had the heater on last week while working on the computer. And there he was, His Fluffiness soaking up the warmth while having a leisurely bath.
Yesterday I met my friend Susan at AQC. We had lots of fun looking at all the quilts. And they were magnificent! This is just a small selection

(see more on my FB page). The quality was unbelievably high. There were several Judi Niemeyer designed quilts, always spectacular. People were also quite adventurous with colour, which was nice to see.
I really liked Meri Wahl's quilts of India. They are so colourful and intricate, even depicting a smiling Dalai Lama. I must look out for more of her quilts; maybe we'll see some in Canada.
Gillian Travis' "Journeys in Stitch" quilts were another highlight, so colourful and interesting use of different media.
Caroline Sullivan had a retrospective of her art quilts. They were amazing, with a variety of textures that made us wonder "How did she do that??"
Another highlight was the Cherrywood Van Gogh challenge, from the USA. VanGogh's Stary Night was interpreted in interesting ways. The collection had quite an impact en masse.
I had an interesting experience meeting a fellow quilter. We chatted and exchanged first names, and after she left, I noticed she had forgotten one of her

 parcels. I left it at Lost&Found, and after posting an alert on 3 Facebook pages, she was found within the hour! And now we're Facebook friends! You never now what pleasant surprises the day holds.
Overall, a fun day, even though it felt a little overwhelming at times, with so many people, and so many things to see. I did not buy all that much, but splurged a little on Liberty prints (yes, I succumbed...) and another couple of fabrics.