Back Again

C24 Ouch	Just a few or Carol's  latest gems	C24 Bali Jungle
C24 Planes of Paper	C25 Windmills	C25 Kanuka
C25 Sparrow's Flight	C25 Kimberly Gem	C24 Too Tight

Well now that I have decided to resume this blog I will also have to upskill my Photoshop skills. Since I last used Photoshop I have upgraded my version and the latest version, in my opinion at least, is not as easy as what I have been using since the ark landed as they say.

I have been trying to get some more photos of blocks and Carol thankfully sent some photos which she has previously uploaded to the yahoo group.

I really appreciate the time she took to do this as she is in the midst of preparing for a six week stint in Brisbane, where her darling husband Bob is to start chemo. It really is unfair that just as one has time to do things the old body decides to develop aches, pains, bumps and other bits.

Fingers crossed for Bob that news improves over the next few months.

Nursery Rhymes begins

Well after a long delay I have decided to restart this blog. I had thought that it would be too busy for me to upload all of the photos from blocks that people are making, or hope to make. However it appears as though most people don't like to upload their photos and so I have decided to resume this blog to hopefully show some blocks made by others. 
I have photographed a few myself and am hoping to take some more photos in the next few weeks.

The above photo is of a new design layout that I am trialling with the Raconteur 141 blocks. I love the appearance but if you look carefully you will see that the top of the blocks slopes slightly. When I put the layout into my CAD it is very obvious that because of how the coloured borders meet each block is slightly lower than its neighbour.
The second photo shows the spacing needed for the blocks to line up straight but it doesn't seem as WOW as the first. Oh well I still have another 19 blocks to make and will worry about it when I finish.

Nursery Rhymes begins

Well after a long delay I have decided to restart this blog. I had thought that it would be too busy for me to upload all of the photos from blocks that people are making, or hope to make. However it appears as though most people don't like to upload their photos and so I have decided to resume this blog to hopefully show some blocks made by others. 
I have photographed a few myself and am hoping to take some more photos in the next few weeks.

The above photo is of a new design layout that I am trialling with the Raconteur 141 blocks. I love the appearance but if you look carefully you will see that the top of the blocks slopes slightly. When I put the layout into my CAD it is very obvious that because of how the coloured borders meet each block is slightly lower than its neighbour.
The second photo shows the spacing needed for the blocks to line up straight but it doesn't seem as WOW as the first. Oh well I still have another 19 blocks to make and will worry about it when I finish.

Scatterday N

Time is flying by so quickly. This week's letter is N and the categories are
 * medical
* celebration
* ocean
* notion from the sewing room

Oh for those who are interested this is the 13th Scatterday so we are now onto the final stretch

posting date 6th July

Scatterday B was just that bountiful bodges

Well it has been an eventful fortnight.  For a start I actually did some cooking and that is a rare event in this household. I attempted to make some rissoles, as hamburgers are my most favourite food. Unfortunately there weren't many leftovers in the fridge and so I substituted with fresh food. My hamburgers have always been made with whatever is leftover in the fridge, and so a 1kg packet of mince often ends up being at least a 2kg if not even 3kg hamburger mixture. Always tasty and a handy staple for the freezer.
Well after four eggs I had run out of eggs, and with the mixture still falling apart thought it may as well become a bolognese (always thought it was spelt bologonaise - but online dictionary and wikipedia both state that I am wrong!!). Added the obligatory tomatoes, tomato paste and italian herbs.  Now had a bolognese reject and decided to go for chilli con carne.... not bad when you consider what happened in the process.  So for smell it has to be bolognese reject.


Library well it really has to be book or book based doesn't it. However I live in a trendy town with lots of modern yuppies who refuse to have anything which is considered dull and boring and so when our library was recently refurbished, in truth demolished and rebuilt, they installed a bench for people who want to loiter around the door way.  I had meant to go into Kiama to photograph it, but haven't managed it. This bench is the closest that I could find on the net, except our bench is double sided and the slats go horizontally rather than vertically. If the image isn't there check this link where you can see it.


Equipment...will have to think on that a bit more...ok after much thought and surfing I have found a Hogarth Book Press. This wonderful machine was owned by Virginia Woolf and her husband and was used to print books. The use of this machine by the Woolf's lead to major changes to the printing industry in terms of the books which they published at times challenging censorship of the times. They were also innovative in cover art, different aspects of printing and book marketing. Not only did they publish works by provincial authors but also those in the colonies and they published quite a range of genres.

I know it is a brag but I still like my second blog which relates to my Raconteur quilt. I stopped writing on it a few months ago when I started a yahoo group and have decided to restart it again.... as I have just so much time on my hands.

Stop press... just thought of another piece of equipment Bernina 750QE .. my new toy... yet to be delivered but I can't wait for it.... also can't find an image for it so good thing I found the book press a few days ago.

Happy surfing everyone. Look forward to catching up with all of the scatterday posts

Who is Cinzia on Scatterday?

Can't always rely on scheduling...this should have been uploaded early in the morning but I found on checking my settings that it is set to upload early next Saturday...Can't win them all.

So what are some of the things that make me what I am

C for cooking. When Paul and I were married he was used to having a fully English cooked breakfast every day. I tried and lasted two days. At which point he was told that either he cooked it or he didn't get it. I have never been a morning person.

I for intuitive or an idealist. In 1985 Paul and I were married. Two days before the wedding his parents flew into Sydney airport. As Paul was ill I had to drive and collect them.  I was, and still am, a country kid. I hated street directories, or was it just that I was too lazy to use one. Either way you can picture the situation. I am driving the parents back to Wollongong, hoping that a sign turns up soon telling me where to turn. Paul's father not too keen on my occasional, 'I think I should have gone down there' comments, asks if I know where I'm going. My response of 'It's somewhere down on the left' didn't inspire any confidence and he started to search for the Gregory's. Fortunately the Wollongong sign turned up shortly after.

N for totally non neat freak. I used to be very tidy and orderly but as I have aged my neatness has reached a sensible phase and my places now look lived in.

Z for zombie which is the best description I can give for how I am after I find a great book. Unfortunately I am not one who can put a book down and so will read until 3a.m. or even 4a.m. You can imagine how I was going to work that day. That is why I stopped reading during term time, either the book had to be boring so I could put it down. In this case it wasn't worth picking up. Or alternately I didn't sleep. Great book I read earlier this year is January First, it's about a child's development of early onset schizophrenia.

I for immature However immature I may be at times I don't believe that this is a real elephant

A for algebra. This was one of the parts of maths I loved best when at school and still enjoy teaching it to kids. I love it when they finally understand how to use it and they see that once you have algebra the rest is easy peasey.

Scatterday B

 Quick update for next Scatterday. The letter is B and the categories are
# Library
# Smell
# Equipment
# Blog

posting date 22nd June

Time is speeding along

Far out. It is already Wednesday night and I am yet to start my Scatterday post. I wish whoever it was that put a bomb under the world time keeper had put it under me instead.

Scatterday X

This week was going to be the letter X but that is such a hard one I will give you a choice.
Now the categories are # hidden #famous # alive and # crosses in quilts.

So what is the choice you say?  Well if you don't like X you can find a photo for each letter of your name (similar to an acrostic), for example my name is Cinzia so I could find a photo of
Cat
Insect
Nose
Zoo
Ice cream
Apple 

your choice either X or an acrostic on your name
Posting date 8th June

Scatterday - M is for memories

WOW I can't believe that it has been two weeks since I listed the Scatterday M categories. I know I have been busy but I am sure that there hasn't been thirteen days since I posted that info. Note today is Friday which is why I said thirteen days.
So what will M bring you from my busy life?

M for sport -  well I have a bunged up knee and sore hip due to the healthy lifestyle of my teenage years. I was a hockey goalkeeper for many years and though I knew that sliding into the opposition wasn't really a 'nice' thing to do, it was just so cool and I could take out the player and the ball with one foul clean sweep. We all remember those first few training sessions when every muscle ached and we wondered why we were there. For those whose eyesight isn't the sharpest that is a hand holding a calf muscle not anything rude!!

M for foreign - a few years ago Paul and I did a cruise around the Mediterranean and while that starts with an M it was not what I was thinking of. No the M word has to be monstrosity. We started our cruise in Barcelona which is where the architect Gaudi comes from. If you check this link here you will see some of the buildings he designed. The word gaudy comes from his name and you can fully understand its origins if you look at any of his buildings. Architecturally I think his buildings are amazing but too way out in many aspects. Just like this monstrosity, Sagrada Familia which on the inside is magnificent but the outside does nothing for me. it is a church by the way.

M for animal - when my children were young for several years we bought a yearly pass to the almost local zoo, Symbio. Apart from an angry pig all of the animals were friendly and you could hand feed them and pat them. This includes a wooly mammoth impersonator. Now I realise that many of you believe all wooly mammoths died quite a while ago but when you have a young child asking you what's this and what's that and you are stressed to the hilt anything this big and wooly has to be a wooly mammoth. In truth this is a wooly buffalo(late edit...this is a highland cow?) I think but it didn't matter at the time..... how many kids got the chance to tell about the wooly mammoth they saw on the weekend during their school news session. Fortunately my children survived and moved on to another font of wisdom.

Modern Quilt - this is not my kind of category. I am seldom into the sew a few big squares together and kill it with quilting style of quilting, even my first quilt which was sew a few big squares together wasn't killed with quilting... it was too big and too bulky and I had no idea what quilting was at that time so for modern quilt I have had to steal from our dear friend google.
 Actually the google image search came up with some nice quilt but not nice enough for me to try this style.

Success another Scatterday survived and two weeks to go before the next one is due.