Night duty and not existing.

Been quite for awhile and not blogging, very busy on nights, helping to save lives. Funny how a day in the life of a NETS nurse can be steady, but when the dark of night  appears the emergency calls seem to come in thick and fast. At least I do derive some comfort in the knowledge that the babies and children of NSW have got the most dedicated medical and nursing teams sent to retrieve them. Our medical teams provides intensive care with specially built medical equipment that can be transported by road and air. The NETS teams are sent to smaller regional and rural hospitals that do not have  specialist care within their hospital. Winter is the time for viral and flu like  illness which makes our small cargo very vulnerable and on a lot of occasions, need respiratory support.  The downside of retrievals in winter is the extreme weather conditions such as fog, icing and turbulent winds. The combination of these adverse weather conditions can make the distances that we travel very difficult and often teams have to travel long distances by road, which incurs quite a lot of overtime, it may also take many hours to stabilise our patients and that in combination with  hours of travelling  are exposed to fatigue. What is admirable Is that no matter  how tired the teams are they just soldier and obtain the goal of stabilising and transporting sick children to a large tertiary hospital that can provide intensive care,  nurse them back to health and return them home.

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Photo shot of  NETS and Child flight, this photo was taken in 2007.
Many changes have occurred since, Child flight is no longer operational since December 2012 and now our dedicated helicopter is. Care flight. Of course many of the nursing and medical staff have left and new staff have joined. I no longer do retrievals, but now work in the clinical coordination centre of NETS.

Camden Quilt Show

On the first weekend of August every year, Camden has its annual quilt show. I have attended this quilt show for the last 6 years, usually on the opening night, which is always on a Friday. Attending the Camden quilt show is quite enjoyable, as they always have a wonderful display of quilts as well as a great trading table, loaded with lots of goodies. A great time to take advantage of purchasing some great bargains at a fantastic price. Sandy and I went to a German restaurant, called Bohemian Euro and had a great meal before attending the show. We both ordered the pork knuckle with sauerkraut and potato's, a very large serving, but a great meal.

Our serve of pork knuckle.

To share some of the quilts displayed.

First prize. "tree of life" made by Janice Morrison, inspired by Marg Sampson

First prize in the wall hanging, "The Hooter Family"

Quilts by Katrina Hadjmichael, Bundury and Hunsford.

The wall hanging that I liked was "Eagle Dancer" by Val Malcolm.

Toowoomba Visit

When  I visit Toowoomba, my agenda is to visit a quilt shop or four. In Highfields Village there Is a collection  of shops very close to where my sister lives. In this collection of shops there is the Chocolate Cottage Cafe,  Shoe shop, home living store and of course The patchwork shop called The Quilting Angel. The particular day that I chose to visit was a Tuesday and little did I know that for the last 18 years, this collection of shops in the village has been closed on a Tuesday. I missed having a look at this patchwork shop as it was closed. My sister and I left to drive to Brisbane for the quilt exhibition in South Brisbane early wednesday morning. I still got my  quilt shop fix and visited a few shops, first one was a new fabric store just opened, which had a range of different fabrics as well as patchwork fabric, I managed to buy 3 metres of a light coloured fabric with a dot design, I will use this for my Texas Wheel quilt. The next shop was called Quilt Craft, I bought 1/2 metre of reproduction fabric, also visited the shop in a blue cottage, no money spent in this shop, but a nice shop to visit. On the opposite Side of the road from Highfields village shops is a nice collection of shops and one of the shops called " Precious Time" had a nice collection of fabric, so bought some birdy fabric, great for a border on a bag or a pencil case, will have to see what I will use it for.

Not sure of the name of this shop in Toowoomba.

Shops near Highfields Village in Abbey Lane

The Quilters Angel... Closed.

The Village green shops in Highfields.

Shop where I bought the birdy fabric. Precious Time in  Abbey Lane.

Abbey Lane

The Chocolate  Cottage Cafe

A very nice setup with collectables etc in the gardens of  Abbey Lane, Highfields.

The fabric that I purchased. The Bird fabric also comes in red.

V & A quilt exhibition Brisbane July 2013 and a sister fix

Monday the 29th July saw me fly to Brisbane being picked up by my sister and then drive to Toowoomba, where I spent a couple of days with my sister and her family. We also celebrated my nieces 23 rd birthday. On Wednesday my sister and I traveled to Brisbane to Visit, Quilts 1700-1945. The reason for traveling to Queensland was to get a sister fix and also to see the famous Rajah Quilt which is in this particular exhibition from the V& A in London.  The Rajah quilt, 1845, was the inspiration of Elizabeth Fry. Elizabeth thought that setting a task for the convict women on this long voyage, would help the women to cope. Elizabeth Fry gathered the fabrics and gave it to the  convict women who were being shipped to Van Diemen  Land on the Convict ship "Rajah". This is how the quilt got it's name. The quilt when made, was to be a gift to the wife of the  governor of Van Diemans land. After getting lost in Brisbane because some bright spark put in the wrong address in the Tomtom, we finally arrived at our destination, a hotel very close to the Queensland Art Gallery in South Brisbane, we parked the car and rushed to the gallery to make the 1.15 pm tour. We actually arrived at 12.55 pm and made the 1 pm tour, which I highly recommend, although the tour guide was very informative about the historical aspects of the quilts, she had no idea about quilting, such as windmills, tumbling blocks, six pointed stars and the type of embroidery stitches used. My sister who does not quilt was amazed at the detailed workmanship in the quilts, embroidery and curtains displayed. After our tour we purchased the patchwork platter lunch in the cafe, then went back into the exhibition for a more thorough look. No photo's were allowed to be taken, not for the want of trying..but had to suffice with some shots of our lunch and the entry to the exhibition. Also on display was a collection of quilts from Ruth Stoneley, photo's were allowed to be taken in this exhibition but no flash. Overall the exhibition is well worth a visit.

Entry to the exhibition

Patchwork platter lunch.

Ruth Stoneley collection of quilts

Reds and blacks seem to be her favourite colours, as well as crazy patchwork.

A stunning evening dress

Work by Ruth Stoneley in blacks and reds.

Circular Table Centre

This is the latest project that I have been working on and have taken my time in basting it, as I was not sure if I could use it as a table centre or make it into a quilt. Do I need another quilt?. I have basted the circular table centre so decision made and it will be kept as a table centre. Another wonderful design by Chris Jurd.  I just love the French General range of fabrics, so I have used this fabric In the table top.

Marysville and Black Saturday

With the recent arrival of the new royal baby, from the news bulletins, I have noticed that a number of references have been made about Prince William and when he visited Australia, especially after the Black Saturday fires and how compassionate he was at the time and  likened to his mother who also demonstrated  genuine compassion.  The Black Saturday fires occurred Feb 7th 2009, and devastated nearly all of the Yarra ranges National parks and into the Dandenong's in Victoria. The townships of Marysville, Buxton, Taggerty and Narbethong were totally wiped out, other towns were also affected as well. The reason for mentioning this is that I was fortunate enough to visit Marysville on my 30th wedding anniversary in December 2008. A friend in Perth sent me some gorgeous photo's of this magical garden in Marysville with the most amazing sculptures, set amongst the back drop of a natural wonderland and it was the work of one man " Bruno". As my hubby and I always do something special for our anniversary, I was insistent that we visit Marysville and now in hindsight, we were very fortunate to have visited, and the surrounding area's before it was devastated by the Black Saturday fires. We spent a wonderful three days touring Healesville, Narbethong, Taggerty and Buxton. Marysville is a 90 minute drive from Melbourne and I recommend that you visit. Since the Black Saturday fires, Bruno's new Gallery has been built and opened in November 2011. He is still rebuilding the gardens. Visit the link. www.brunos.com 

What also reminded me of Bruno's art garden, is this image above. This is one of my most favourite sculptures from Bruno's garden. Last week I was having lunch with my friend Sandy and after dining we went shopping.. as you do!. In Windsor a small historical town where we both live, has some very quaint shops, we stumbled across a boutique that was having a sale and had reduced some great clothes. I purchased 2 dresses to wear with tights and Sandy bought about 5 outfits for the cost of one. What Sandy bought that I was very jealous of was  a jacket with the above image all over the back of the jacket, we had a little dispute over the jacket, I lost because it looked so much better on her as well, than me and she also saw it first. That is the best thing about our friendship as well, there is no hard feelings, when either of us lose, we both just move onto the next item, as we both have similar tastes and like the same things, this is a regular occurrence.

Entry to Bruno's Art Sculpture Garden

One of the sculptures in the front garden in a café ... Marysville..

Puppies

We welcomed our new puppy Xena, in January this year, after losing our darling Jules, who was an American staffy and the biggest sook, whom we loved dearly. Jules was only 10 years old when she succumbed to cancer and died in november 2012. Jules had such an impact on our lives and was very much a treasured member of our family, when she died we were left with a huge hole in our hearts and lives that my hubby and I only lasted 3 months, before we adopted another dog. We were both finding it hard to adjust with out a dog in our family and missed  the greeting on our arrival at home and the unconditional love that having a family pet generates, as well as  a pleasant diversion from our normal routine. With our new family member, I feel that my hubby and I also forgot what hard work it is by having a new puppy. After having such a well behaved dog to a boisterous puppy was a huge shock to the system. Xena is now 11 months old and improving in her behaviour each day, She was a pound puppy and was 4 1/2 months old when we adopted her. Her breed is a staffy cross, possibly with a lab, as she does have a ferocious appetite. She still continues to jump at people, when greeting them and is still chewing shoes. But overall with training is getting better each day in her overall  behaviour. She is a typical staffy with wanting to be close and loves to cuddle up and is very spoilt as well. When posting, I have learnt to save my work as she loves to put her paws on the keyboard and I have often lost my data.

Xena at 5 months old, a bit scrawny and only 6 kgs.

Xena at 11 months old, very spoilt, 24 kgs.

Xena loves to come and have cuddles in the morning.