New roof

 Not quite but it looks like it.

I dont have a before photo but the roof was looking very dirty.

One guy arrived to repair and clean, thirty one tiles needed to be either repaired or replaces including the skylight that Warren had put in my sewing room. It had a crack across it and was taken out. Warren bought me a free standing light to shine over my machine.

after the weekend the painter painted and sealed it so hopefully it will last another twenty odd years before it needs it doing again.

Warren took the screens off and painted the front porch.

This was before the gutters were painted. 

Tomorrow the concrete is going to be cleaned.

Soup

 It is definitely soup weather. I like soup but maybe not quite as much as my Dad. During winter Mum would make soup and we would be served a bowl and Dad would always have seconds, then main course.

It seems when ever I make soup  there is always enough for six or eight serves so some ends up in the freezer. Currently there is mushroom, pumpkin and cauliflower soups in there.

Crock pots or slow cookers are great for soup. I had green dried peas in the cupboard. I didn't have pork bones or hock but I did have some bacon pieces, the pieces were quite thick, a few frozen vegetables and that was dinner and next days lunch. Yum.

This week's quilt

 I should have finished this during the week but sitting at the sewing machine gave me a aching back so I had to give sewing a miss for a couple of days. 

I found some years ago that I need the chair down as far as it can go to avoid back ache. I checked the chair when I got back into my sewing room.

Well, I'll be, the chair is not at the lowest setting, I wonder how that happened? Ha, got on to it and finally got the result.

The green looked a bit plain so I added felt hearts that I had cut out for another project several years ago. I knew I would find a use for them somewhere, same as the buttons.

Finished projects

 I wanted a light jacket to go across my shoulders when it's gets cool. From making a which way fillet blanket I designed my own very simple stitch. I made it to go from west to east and was quite happy chugging along with it. I packed it up to take to Canberra over Easter but ended up not doing anything on it. After a few weeks, I really thought I must get on with it. Got it out and to my horror my sides were not straight and in fact one end was two inches narrower than the other. Nothing to do but frog it!

I used a cotton, two threads together in pale green. The above is the pile that I pulled undone, what a mess! I should have rolled it as I pulled it undone but I didn't, lesson learnt. 

Start again, this time I went from south to north thinking that there would be less chance of making the same mistake.

This is the end result. I have done cuffs at end in double crochet. Took nine days.

Tree cutting.

 We put in one tree before we officially moved into our house twenty two years ago. It must have been a good year as we planted another tree of the same sort three years later and it never did any good. Ended up removing it as it was a stunted looking thing that never really grew. 

Could not say that about the first tree. Three years ago, we had it professionally trimmed, the guy cut limbs off and then took it all to the tip, three trips.

Tree had grown well and there were branches reaching and hanging over the roof. It gives a lot of shade but we are due to have the roof repaired cleaned and painted in a few weeks so branches needed to be dealt with. 

We have loppers or a brush cutter thing but with Warren having trouble with his arm/shoulder it wasn't an option just now. Jason offered to come and help after doing park run. Last week, they both ran then cut some of the branches and loaded the trailer, this week was a park walk for them, breakfast then the rest of the tree filling another trailer load.

Still plenty of shade from tree.

Can now see blue skies between tree and house.

Trailer ready for the tip, some sizable logs in there. Too heavy to tip so everything had to be picked up and thrown into the large area at the tip. 

My weekend sewing projects

 We were near a large op shop last week and I said to Warren that it would be rather rude of me not to visit to see if they had any wool. I also said that I didn't need any so we went further and had coffee.

I caved in on the way back and just thought I would see what they had. Well, they didn't have any wool that was suitable for my purposes but I couldn't leave empty handed so I bought a halter neck long dress that I thought I could refashion it into a skirt for our cruise. 

I didn't take a before photo but I undid one of the side seams after cutting the top off and inserted a small zip. I had a brown and a yellow one both 5 inches long, long enough for my purposes. I used the yellow one as I felt I could find more uses for the brown than the yellow. Dress came with a long time belt so I cut it to size added elastic through it and stitched on a waist band. $5 spend at opp shop, an hour or so at the sewing machine, zip and elastic was on hand and now I have a new skirt.

I also completed a quilt.

This is the back, I really like this fabric, it was another opp shop buy and started left as a king sized doona. Lots of fabric in it and no wear at all.

This is the other side, one of the scrappy quilts. This one I did in three panels. Somewhere I picked up a piece of scrap that had ABC on it so I put that in the very middle. The top of the skirt also features in this one.

I did do a clean up of my sewing room last week and have a clear floor. All the scrap fabric is in a large plastic bin and I cut some sheeting to size for the backs so once the scrappy bits are done, the rest of the quilts should go together much quicker.

Woodford pub

 After a week away and having lunches out at different venues, we had become used to that. 

Last Friday, we decided we would pay the Woodford pub a visit. No far from home but it had been several months since we had been there.

The town looked a bit busy with much of the parking on the sides of the road occupied so we parked up early and walked the rest of the way. Got in a 1.4km walk without even trying. I will be in Cloncurry before I know it, only 86 KMs to go, maybe by the end of the month.

Anyway, lunch service was just starting and on our table was a menu with the daily special. Roast meat, either lamb pork or beef and vegetables for $18.90. That sounded good, we both chose the pork.

 

The vegetables were very good, I left a potato, just too much.

No drawers

 We stayed in an Air bnb recently and it had no kitchen drawers.! How odd! I mean where it the third drawer, always the junk drawer.

The cupboard to the left hand plates, cups and glasses and a cutlery tray, as it was an Airbnb, there was really only enough for three or four people but it still seemed strange to not have drawers in a kitchen.