A SCRAPPY QUILT FROM THE BLUE BOX

Hello my darlings!

As you can see, I have emptied the blue scrap box on to the floor and am in the process of converting all of  the bits and pieces into a scrappy quilt.

Dear Robyn let me borrow one of her scrappy quilts - which is hanging, not very neatly, over Papa's chair to give me an idea of how I should begin this project.

I've made two blocks today and I think I need sixteen in total.   The blocks are all around fifteen inch square.  

You loik?

Love Nanxx

SIBYL

Here's Sibyl, the new addition to Charlie and Ben's family.  Isn't she just beautiful?  To see some more photographs of the gorgeous girl, go HERE.

Love Nanxx

BILLY GRAHAM

Hello my lovelies!

This photograph is of a very famous preacher called Billy Graham.  

I'm not sure if you have heard of him but this week he died at the grand old age of ninety nine.

These photographs below will give you an idea of how amazing his preaching was and how millions of people throughout the world have flocked to hear him preach on the love of God.

This photograph was taken in New York.

Here's a photograph taken with the Queen.

After hearing him preach on television, she contacted him and asked him to come and speak with her.

At the end of his huge meetings, he always ended with the hymn Just As I Am.  Before everyone started singing the song, he would ask that if there was anyone who felt they would like to commit their lives to Jesus to come out to the front where he could pray with them and while, often hundreds flocked out, the people would sing this song.

I never saw him preach but I know people who became Christians at his crusades.

HERE is the song being sung when he was in Brisbane in 1959.

And HERE is a tribute which has been put together highlighting some of his preaching throughout the years.

Love Nanxx

NOAH AND THE LENGTH OF A PIECE OF THREAD

Hello my lovelies!

This term I have been studying Genesis with my Monday ladies up at the church and yesterday we reached the story of Noah!  What an amazing story that is!

Did you know that the 'Flood' story exists in lots of cultures and religions, not just in the Bible?

I heard that someone in America has built an 'ark' to the specifications in Genesis - chapter 6.  

"...So make yourself an ark of cypress wood;  make rooms in it and coat it with pitch inside and out.  This is how you are to build it:  The ark is to be three hundred cubits long, fifty cubits wide and thirty cubits high.  Make a roof for it, leaving below the roof an opening one cubit high all around.  Put a door in the side of the ark and make lower, middle and upper decks..."

I don't think they've coated the lovely timber in this picture with pitch though.

I'm not very sure how long a cubit is as it was a very ancient measurement but some say it was the distance from the elbow to the end of the longest finger - about the size of the piece of thread you should use in a needle :)

Love Nanxxx

WAVES IN THE HEBRIDES

Hello my lovelies

Do you like the waves I'm quilting on the outside border of my Outer Hebridean quilt?  I'm very pleased with how they're turning out.  Not long now and the quilt should be finished.

I'm going to hang it in Papa's office.

Love Nanxx

MIST, DAMPNESS, FEDUPNESS FOLLOWED BY A LOVELY DAY

Hellooo!   As you can see, yesterday was a rather dreich, misty, damp day.

The dogs were NOT happy!

Molly took to her bed inside the kitchen door...

...and Spot lay and listened to Papa practicing his guitar.

Today the sun has reappeared and it's lovely and warm again.  Plus, the garden is looking so much happier.  Yoo! hoo!  

We have friends coming for lunch.  I volunteered to cook!  I've made an Indian curry and rice for mains.  Can you smell it cooking?  And...a pavlova for sweet.  The pavlova was made last night and lay in the hot oven until it cooled completely all night.   Even though I say so myself it's looking fab.  I'm going to decorate it with cream and kiwi fruit.

Wine?  Probably a nice red to go with the curry.  Plus...Papa popped out to Baker's Delight and has bought a yummy French stick to mop up the juices.  

Love Nanxx  PS  Have you memorized your verse yet?  "Come to me, all of you who are ..........and burdened and I will give you rest."  Matthew 11:28

As you can see, I've forgotten a word.  Mmmm!  I need to get that hammer out again.  Weary? Tired?...???

FIFTY-TWO? YES! FIFTY-TWO!

Hello my lovelies from a very damp, foggy morning here in Toowoomba.

I have been to the bookshop!  Do you like my book.  The string is actually part of the picture.  It almost looks real.

As you can see the book is about memorizing a verse from the Bible each week for a year.  Do you want to join in?  Papa and I have memorized the first verse:

"Come to me, all of you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest."  

This verse is from Matthew 11:28.  It's important to memorize where the verse comes from as well.  I'm going to test Papa at lunch-time because memory work can be a bit tricky.  You think you've got it and like a picture you have just put up on the wall, it can slip slightly and needs a bit more hammering in to make it secure and straight :)

The book also has a commentary for each verse over two pages which covers...

where the verse is...

...what the verse means...

...and why the verse matters.

I wonder what the verse is for next week.

Love Nanxx

THE MICE ARE SINGING

Look what Kerrie's working on!

Isn't it just gorgeous?  This is one of nine blocks for a quilt that she is making for her new grandson James.

As you can see by the needle which is still in her work, it isn't finished yet.  I'll try and get photographs of some of the other blocks to send you.

Some photographs came through this morning of the beautiful powdery snow you are ski-ing and tobogganing on.  It looks wonderful.  The path that has been cut through the snow into the woods looks as though it would take you on a walk you would never forget.  And I loved the river too.

All well here.  We've had some rain and yesterday a cool change came through after three weeks of very, very hot weather.  We are all enjoying having a breather from the heat and seeing the town green up again.

Trust you are singing some wonderful songs such as this one too as you sail through the snow.

Love Nanxxx

HATS AND SCRAPS

Hello again my lovelies!

I am on-line again!  Yoo! Hoo!

We had Robyn and Con and Quilting Robyn for lunch last weekend.  As you can see we had a wonderful time trying on hats.  

Robyn had gone with a friend to the cancer place here in Toowoomba which caters for people who come in from the country for cancer treatment at the Base Hospital.  The place where the folk can stay used to be a hotel.  When you come up the Range and are about to turn right towards Margaret Street, the old hotel is almost straight ahead.  It has a bit of a Tudor look about it.

Anyway, one of the many things the organization who supplies this service to the patients is a room where women can go and look at wigs, hats and scarves.  This, as you can imagine has been organized by very thoughtful people.  Once the patients' hair has grown back again, the patients leave their wigs, hats and scarves for others to use.  No-one needs to pay anything for this service.  They can take as much or as little as they need.

When Robyn visited she didn't think there was a very good selection of hats so decided she would make some.  Folk are giving her lots of material so she can keep cutting and keep that sewing machine going.  When she and Con came for lunch, she was carrying a big bag of some of her finshed hats, ready to deliver.  Here we all are having a wonderful time on the back deck trying them on.

Today I had my first day in the Sunday School Room with five little girls who had come to church this morning.

Simone took the lesson and I was her helper.  The lesson was on part of the Lord's prayer - "...and forgive us our trespasses and we forgive those who trespass against us..."  It was a good lesson.  We could all relate so well to the fact that we all do and think things that we shouldn't and that often other people can sometimes be very hurtful at times.  BUT, we must remember to forgive others as God has forgiven us.

Well my darlings I shall away and clear up some of the boxes of material that are lying around me.  When I was at quilting a couple of weeks ago, I mentioned that I didn't fold my fabrics and they were very surprised, especially Kerrie who said that she didn't know ANYONE at all who didn't fold their fabrics.  So...I rushed home, turned on the computer, Googled 'storing your stash' and looked at various ways of storing fabric.  I have now gone through all my boxes.  Anything that is less that a fat eighth has gone into the SCRAP box.  I have put these scraps into boxes by colour.  Fabric which is larger that a fat eighth I have folded and put into a boxes by colour.  Fabric which is quite big but not huge, I have rolled up and tied with a piece of material.  They have been put into their colour box and fabric which is very big I have just folded up into a box.   I am now feeling very organized.  Well, not quite!  I still have to take a walk around the house and collect any fabric hiding under tables, on top of tables or chairs and put them into their proper box.  

Now that I realize I have a lot of SCRAPS, I am going to have to start making some scrappy quilts.  Can't wait for you to get here and help me.

Love Nanxxx