13th June 2016....Inspiration

So..I haven't posted for about as long as I haven't touched my sewing machine.

That is about to change.

I have a pile of gorgeous flannels on my sewing table, ready to stitch.

I've worked out why I couldn't access my blog. Fixed that - neo-counter removed and deleted.

No more excuses.

Not sure if anyone even follows this anymore.

Circle Quilt...borders on

The next stage of the quilt is finally completed, and not without drama. You know how some quilts just go together with ease....and some just do not?? Well, this one did not. The red spot border went on with ease, and that's where it ended. 

I couldn't tell you how many borders I have cut and sewn. Too many to count. Too many to remember. But first thing to go wrong was I measured once and had to cut twice. First mistake. We all know that we measure twice and cut once....so lots of white homespun is already cut for my next quilt. So a bonus I say.

In the end I called Martha and we did it together. I had had enough and was ready to throw it out the window! Then yesterday we took a little drive to Warren to drop it off to the quilter....

Circle Quilt....progress shot

Martha & I have joined forces to make this quilt from the Oops-a-daisy range by Moda. It's not quite finished, as it still needs borders. This would be my fault....I am the slack one. Surprise surprise. I was the big noter who had my circles cut out before Martha, as everything is a race. (I may have sent multiple texts to her bragging) Then I was struck down with a migraine or two, and Martha got to work and got her half of the quilt completed while I was still up to sewing the circles onto the squares....

Totally unmotivated at this point, I went to visit her, poured some wine, (this however was my undoing) and attempted to sew my first two rows together....hmm, the seams are not matching! Out came the quick unpick....to cut a long story short. The quick unpick came out again, I gave up, had more wine, had a sleep over, the quilt didn't get looked at again until yesterday....

.....who knows when the borders will go on??!! More photo's soon, Martha has given me a deadline of Wednesday...she is a taskmaster ;-)

By the way, it's a gift for a friend, who has no internet, so I'm pretty confident she doesn't read our blog.

Graceland....Memphis, Tennessee

Another highlight of our trip was visiting Graceland. The photos just don't do it justice, as we weren't allowed to use a flash as they damage the furniture and artworks, so all photo's were taken on my iphone minus the flash.

One thing about Graceland is how well organised it is. People are escorted through in an orderly manor. When you arrive you are given a headset which gives you a guided tour all along the way through the home. The home is magnificent. I loved it.

This is the first room you see as you enter the front door and is on your right. It is beautiful, and when you consider Elvis lived here in the 70's...he was pretty comfortable for the times.

I won't show you every room as I took about 70 photo's. It is a large home for the times, and even though every American I spoke to that had been there said to me, they liked it but were surprised at how small it was, I thought it was huge.

This is the kitchen, nice carpet, and massive. Every appliance known to man. CCTV was had by Elvis even back then, even a microwave-type oven! A dated looking thing that was huge, but the same type of thing. I'm telling you it looked pretty modern compared to kitchens in Australia of the 70's.

This room was one of my favourites as it was covered floor to ceiling in fabric, and pretty funky fabric at that. It was pleated all over. It was the pool room. Even though the walls, the ceiling, the furniture and everything was covered in the same fabric, it actually worked together in a way only someone like Elvis could do.

Maybe the splash of red leather chairs just broke up the excessive fabric enough to make it work. I did love this room, as did Elvis apparently. He had plently of parties in this room.

 The lights above the pool table were stained glass. They were gorgeous also.

Outside the pool room, was the staircase, the walls and ceiling were covered in green pile carpet which leads up to the famous "jungle room". This was unreal. I have never seen anything like it. I just loved it. Are you ready to see it???

This is the jungle room....it was full of jungle themed items and jungle furniture. It was so amazing. That green pile carpet was just unbelievable and reserved so well. Everything was just as he left it. In the corner of the room was a staircase that lead up to Elvis' private quarters which nobody was allowed to go to. When he was alive, he never took people up there, so to show him respect, nobody is allowed up there now, but family.

Here is a huge painting of Elvis...oh and me :)

At the end of the tour, it ends at the cemetry of Elvis and his family. It's a pretty sombre place & you can't help but get emotional.

Graceland is on our top 10.

Toadstools & Chickens

This week was Easter week & we had family visiting so I thought I best spruce up the dinner table with a new arrangement....and I purchased these gorgeous red toadstools from a Paper Pear in Wagga Wagga recently but needed them arranged in a pot. I took them down to my local florist so she could whip up some magic and look what a wonderful job she did with them. 

They are ceramic, and as I am a sucker for red and white spots....they suit me perfectly!!

Martha on the other hand had an Easter hat to make, so with the help of my Maddilen and her Claudia, who drew the pattern for the chicken, she whipped up this hat for Jack. What you can't see in this photo is the chicken legs that hang down either side of the hat and are made from brown felt.

Maybe if I took the photo before pouring the wine you may have seen the legs ;-)

Highway 61 to Memphis, Tennessee State 11

On the morning of 7th April after breakfast, we headed North on Highway 61 towards our 11th State, Tennessee. We are heading for Memphis to visit Elvis. This will be a two part post, as Elvis put on a big show. Now, before visiting Memphis, I wasn''t a massive Elvis fan, I appreciated his music and his movies, but let me tell you. I am a fan now. But let me show you about our trip to Memphis.

Along the way we saw the most random things. We were near this little town of Cary, on Highway 61 when we saw these homes below which were very trashy. I couldn't believe just how bad they were. they looked like something from a movie, I was so busy taking a photo of them as we drove slowly through the town, that as I turned my camera off and looked to the left....well I just couldn't get my camera back on quick enough to photogragh what I saw there. A chain gang. A real life chain gang. I was horrified. Two African American men in shackles, in black and white stripey jail clothes, with hoes, digging weeds, on the side of the road, and being guarded by a policeman with a rifle. I thought it was a joke, surely this couldn't be for real. But it was. There was a jail just behind the men. We kept driving.

Not far down the road we came across this flag on the side of the road, made from plastic cups simply sitting in chicken wire. Pretty well done.

By this time of the day I was starving, so we stopped at some little servo and it was scary looking, I was almost a bit too scared to go in. This is what I bought, and oh my goodness, it was so good. It was a dagwood dog, not what the Americans called it, but that's what it was, and it was divine. I wish I got two as it was alot smaller than our dagwood dogs.

Then we passed the good old golden arches....we didnt stop.

Yay...another State line. Entering State 11, good old Tennessee!! So where is Keith Urban??? I looked everywhere, but I never did find him....

Elvis Presley Blvd....well we are heading in the right direction. Now where will we stay? Need to find a motel for the night....

What a dork...Elvis glasses that were the cheapest plastic I have ever seen. They could have passed for showbag quality, actually no, worse than that, and had a $29.99 price tag. So even I didn't let Robert buy them, I let him play with them only.

Here is Elvis' white suit. Funny story goes with this. See how its boxed up? Rope along the front? Well, prior to this photo, Robert was doing an Elvis stance in front of the rope for a photo (I have saved you all from viewing that photo!!) and he bumped the rope, over the loud speaker three times came, "please step away from the white suit" very loudly. Everybody in the store stared at us & the guard came straight over to us. Robert jumped, and we giggled. I mean, seriously. The rope is about two feet from the boxed up suit, the store had security guards & cameras. We were no where near the white suit really. It was funny. Nobody else laughed.

This display, however, we could get close to.

Me out the front of Graceland. We were going tomorrow. Cannot wait. The rock wall which runs all along the width of the property is signed by people as a memorial to Elvis. It's amazing.

Oh, and we couldn't go to Memphis without staying here....

Our room was gorgeous, and all set out with Elvis memorabilia. It was modern and funky, & quite cheap too. It was also situated across the road from Graceland, so was perfect for us. We found a groovy burger bar close by too for dinner. Too convenient really. We finished off the night by heading into Memphis city for a tour of the sights....
I'm pretty excited about checking out the inside of Graceland tomorrow.

Easter weekend sewing

Being such a long weekend this weekend, it is the perfect opportunity to get some sewing done. I have had these cushion inserts in the cupboard for months....5 of them to be exact, just waiting for covers.

I couldn't decide what design to do, so My first one was just a 14" square edged with 3" borders in small tangerine dots. Hmm....something just didn't quite grab me. I am not in love with it. So, next cushion is different.....

Like I said, I wasn't happy with the first cushion, I think it was the small dots, so I pulled out my Amy Butler dots. The big ones, and changed the square to a large circle using a dinner plate as a template. Love it. It's perfect. I did raw edge applique but I think I'll do a few more circles on the machine inside and quilt it. I backed the cushion cover with wadding, so it will puff up once I do that. 

Now the back of the cushions....both of the cushions have self covered buttons and matching backs. The backs I do like.

I think the first cushion may be going to the scrap heap, I just do not like it. I love the circle cushion with the big tangerine dots....looks like I need to make four more :-)