Rain and its effects

We've had lots of rain lately in South East Queensland. Buckets and buckets of it actually!  Over the last couple of months I think we've averaged about one morning a week being able to go on our before-Breakfast walk. With the warm climate we live in and so much rain, everything grows fast.  The lily pily hedges needed trimming again:

 The grass needed mowing ... and the weeds just about took over the yard - along the fences, in the paths, in the vege garden and especially in the cactus garden:

As soon as there was some sunshine, my husband tackled the lawns and the hedges and it was up to me to deal with the weeds. There were far too many to dig out manually, so I resorted to some very safe weed-killer spray. Now I was aware that in the past we had had to share the cactus garden with a colony of paper wasps. I had 'despatched' their nest some months ago before the grandchildren came to visit, but I still stepped into the garden warily - not only to avoid the thorns, but with an eye out for any new nests that might have been built.  There were none to be seen so I advanced with my spray to reach all those weeds.  You guessed it - there was a nest hidden in there and I was attacked - three wasps swooped simultaneously and got me on my arm before I had a chance to retreat.  The bite isn't really too bad if you get some anti-sting cream on it straight away, but the worst part is that over the next few days a large area around the bites became inflamed, hard and manically itchy! I'm still scratching (or trying not to!) 5 or 6 days later.  And to add insult to injury, what started out as a lovely sunny day, suddenly became overcast and next thing it was raining again, long before the 6 hours of dry weather that the spray needed, was up.  It was light rain, so I'm really hoping that maybe I won't have to face the wasps again and the spray might work!

The rain is a good excuse to stay inside and do lots of stitching.  My Stitch and Sew machine cover is back from the publisher and looks good on my sewing machine. As I use my machine so often, I tend to leave it up instead of having it closed away in its cabinet, so it is nice to have a cover over it to protect it from the dust.

I was really attracted to this fabric with its lovely flowers and birds. The pink and pale blue really stand out against the brown background. You can find the pattern (with instructions on how to customise it to fit your own machine) in Patchwork & Stitching Vol 13 No 1.

Remember the fabric I used for the Consider the Lilies quilt?  It's the Rue Saint Germaine range by Robyn Pandolph. I had purchased a set of fat quarters, plus bought some yardages in various colours so that I had fabric for borders. I have made a couple of projects from the range since then.  This small wall quilt will be in Country Threads magazine next month:

I figured I had enough fabric over to make a quilt to cover our half-size pool table.  Out with the graph paper and another wet afternoon was spent cutting out all the pieces.  I still have to design the applique blocks but the hard yakka (Australian for 'hard work') is done.

And speaking of the "Consider the Liles" quilt, Dianne F has shared this photo of her lovely version: 

The colours blend beautifully, don't they?

Keep the photos coming - I love to see what you have done with my patterns.

Happy stitching!
Val