A Fine Example of God's Love :)

What a heart-warming story...with a picture of John Gebhardt in Iraq John Gebhardt's wife, Mindy, said that this little girl's entire family was executed. The insurgents intended to execute the little girl also, and shot her in the head...but they failed to kill her. She was cared for in John's hospital and is healing up, but continues to cry and moan. The nurses said John is the only one who seems to calm her down, so John has spent the last four nights holding her while they both slept in that chair.

VANILLA BISCUITS :)

Hi Everyone,

Today I made some biscuits based on an old recipe from The Australian Woman's Weekly "100 Delicious Biscuits and Slices" printed in 1972.

I like the brown bikkies and hubby likes the undercooked ones....so I made both.

Here is the recipe if you'd like it.

Oh yes....they taste really nice too ;)

VANILLA BISCUITS

1 ½ cups self-raising flour
½ cup plain flour
¼ tsp salt
4 oz (113gms) butter
1 cup sugar
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla
2 tsp milk

Sift plain flour and set aside. Sift self-raising flour and salt. Cream butter, add sugar gradually, beat until light and fluffy. Add well beaten egg, vanilla, and milk. Add sifted dry ingredients except plain flour until dough is firm enough to handle (I had to add more than this recipe listed).

Refrigerate for at least 1 hour.
Roll out dough to 1/8 inch thickness on lightly floured board, cut with floured 2” biscuit cutter.
Put on lightly greased oven trays, sprinkle lightly with sugar or ‘hundreds and thousands’. Bake in a moderate oven (180oC 350oF) for 8-10 minutes.
*Biscuits can be left plain, when cool, topped with icing.
MAKES APPROX 4 dozen

Retreat Quilting Stash Collection

Hi Everyone,

Well I've just returned from my annual quilting retreat with the wonderful Rainbow Piecers.

Here are some quick pics of the fabric I couldn't afford....but simply HAD to buy ;)

Check out these gorgeous batiks!

And these yummy bits....

Here are some backings...two of them were only $3.99/mtr

Last, but not least...what about this! I just love the colours :)

I had a very exciting time on Retreat at Bribie Island this year despite the record rainfalls and widespread flooding of South East Queensland.

I wonder where we're going next year :)

My Sewing Room

Well it looks like I have to completely reorganise my sewing room again.
Please wish me luck!
I'll be back later with pics and the reason why :)

JC Epidemic

Today I finished my latest applique...and for a very good cause.

The JC Epidemic team are an awesome bunch of extremely talented people as you can see from this video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v_HeKsSX58E

No, I can't ride motorbikes...but I can applique :)

Here's a picture of JC Epidemic's ...now appliqued....table cloth.

I really hope they like it :)

This Looks Better :)

Well, my sewing room might not look as 'chic' as those other gorgeous sewing rooms with built in cupboards and perfectly appointed sewing centres but its now at least much tidier and organised.

With my mortgages being as they are, there wasn't the money to finance little matching baskets or drawers...but my local Spendless shoe shop did donate several shoe boxes which have proven to be very handy as you can see. (organisation-without the price tag)

I think that the next step is to "defrag" my sewing room and then reorganize everything so that everything is easy to access :) My project today will be my 'Red Bag Round Robin Swap'.

It's so wonderful to have a nice, clean and 'relatively organized' place to sew !!! :) *vbg*

Time to Tackle the Sewingroom

Well it would seem that I've been a little over creative in my sewing room (VERY over creative) and it looks like a bomb has exploded with little bits of various fabrics strewn everywhere.
I've got 3 different projects happening all at once and to top it all off, my dear daughters have been 'searching for treasures' in all my storage boxes.
There are bits of wrapping paper laying around, glitter from making an Aphodite costume that my daughter just 'had to have' as well as various bags of school uniforms (I'm uniform shop convenor at my daughter's school). There are bits of ribbon and elastic from my little darlings making hair ties for the end of school term and bits of curtain, rags for hubby and thousands of 'bits' of fabric that I will most likely sweep carefully into a pile to donate to the local kindy rather than take the sensible way out and simply suck the stuff up the vacuum cleaner.
Geez, do I have my work cut out for me !
Anyhow, tonight the family have voted to eat pasta which takes all of about 20 mins to make(grin) so it's time to roll up my sleeves and tackle the dreadful state of my dear and wonderful sewing room.

PS: The picture taken of my sewing room has been taken at its "better angle " ;)

My Little Find

I recently went to WORD in Southport and found this lovely little card.

How true it is :)

...and very, very quilty!

I'm almost tempted to applique myself a little wall hanging *vbg*

A Person Giving a Man a Cup

In this world we can not do great things....only small things with

great love.

Here a person gives a homeless man a cup.

This is Sooooo Cute!

My Very First Round Robin Swap

Thanks to the very wonderful Rainbow Piecers (my amazing quilting group), I have finally been able to participate in my very first Round Robin Quilt Swap. This is a picture of my 12" finished centre block. I'd really love to see what it looks like now that the swap is now in its 3rd month.

As everyone who knows me knows, I LOVE frogs. Naturally, along with frogs comes all the other things I love...spiders, bugs etc etc. I can't wait to see it

I think the best thing about this swap though is that it will be made by my most wonderful and talented friends :)

The Most Beautiful Hug

This has got to be the most beautiful hug I have ever seen in my life.
One of the greatest blessings we can have is the ability to simply Love simply.

Rainbow Piecers Quilting

Here are some of the most wonderful people I know...the Rainbow Piecers Quilting Group.
In this picture, everyone is saying hello to my terrific friend Dianne, and her US quilting group. (I'm the one taking the pic ;) )

Disappearing Nine Patch Quilt

This Disappearing Nine Patch quilt I made for my brother and sister-in-law for Christmas 2008.

(I hope they liked it)

Please don't take any notice of the date on this picture...my camera was playing up.

Animals Asia Charity Quilts

Here are 2 quilts that I made and donated to Animals Asia ( www.animals asia.com ) for their Australian Roadshow on the Gold Coast.

Hopalong Hollow

The name of my property is Hopalong Hollow. Our home is near the Lamington National Park in Queensland, Australia.

We have many native flora and fauna here in our rural area... but best of all we have our frogs.

Here our 3 "greenies" are facing the river and waiting for it to rain :)