Slowly, but getting there

Well, as you can see I'm slowly getting the blog back to normal.  It is a slow process as I need to look at each post and fix one at a time.  The longest part of the process is searching and finding the correct photo.  Unfortunately in some cases a few photos were downloaded directly from my camera and I have no way of retrieving these photos. 

I was told about a great free site - 'Recuva' to download - this program searches your hard drive for any files/photos that you have deleted.  It searches all drives on your computer and it can take a while for this to happen - but oh boy! it recovers any file/photo/site that you may have looked at (even those that you hadn't actually saved).  When finished searching it came up with over 7,000 images, and I didn't click on ALL, just images.  Imagine if I clicked 'all' that would mean each and every file/site/page etc I have looked at since I've had the computer!!!!!  A tad scary.  At the time it got me thinking - this is a free download, what do the authorities (ie police etc) have to use when checking a criminal's or suspect's computer!!  Nowhere to hide these days.

Hopefully by the end of the week I will have recovered most of my pictures - those that I can't, I will edit the posting to reflect no available photo, or delete altogether.

Then I can get back to posting in the proper manner. Till then, take care and enjoy life.

Joy V

Not Happy Jan!!!

Have just received an email telling me that unfortunately, my photos can't be retrieved.  Not happy!!!

Apparently, when using Picasa to store one's photos, if you do a clean-up like I did recently and deleted some photos that I thought I wouldn't need any more, because (a) they weren't relevant; and (b) I had them on my blog anyway.  Well, deleting them from Picasa also deletes them from your blog!!!  I have just sent a rather 'not-so-nice' email back to say there is no warning about this on either Picasa or Blogger and I just may consider changing my blog across to WordPress or taking out a domain name myself. 

Another thing I found out was that with the new smart phones - if you have them integrated with your computer, ie a gmail address etc; then all your photos on your blog can appear on your phone.  This also happened to me and as they took up a lot of space on my phone, I deleted these also, about the same time as the clean-up.  A big NO. NO.  This will also delete them from your applications, such as your blog etc. That is two ways you can have a problem with your blog, AND again no warnings.

The upshot of all of this, is that I now have to go and delete all those nasty black blobs on my blog and try and find the photos and repost them.  Unfortunately some can't be replaced, but luckily the latest postings I can retrieve as I have them backed-up on an external drive.  This is going to be a loooooong saga, but hopefully by doing a few each day it wont be too long.  There will be some very old posts that wont have photos anymore, but unfortunately I will just have to edit them and take out any reference to a photo.

Time to have a glass of red and chill out a bit I think before I tackle this rather large undertaking.

Be aware dear readers, what you delete from your computer....

What a disaster!!!!

As you have noticed if reading my blog, yesterday something disastrous happened - ALL my photos have disappeared and been replaced with that horrible black thingy-ma--jig!  I have sent an urgent message to Blogger to find out how to reinstate them.  Not sure how long it will take for them to look at it and advise me what to do.  Just hope there is something that can be done.

Please be patient while I try and get this fixed.  I'm trying not to tear my hair out in the meantime!

Thanks,
...Joy

New Block of the Week

Barbara Brackman has done it again!  Another Block of the Week has started - on 1 September 2012 and will go for 49 weeks.

How many of you followed her Civil War BOW?  I did, but unfortunately didn't keep up with making the blocks although I have saved them all on the computer!  Another 'to do' quilt on my never ending list.

This BOW she has called 'Grandmother's Choice' and will be relating stories of the Suffragettes and Women's Rights in those early years.  Barbara has started another blog for you to follow and get the patterns.  I have put it in my Blog List on the right or you can click on any of the links in this posting.  This is one project I really really want to do.  I feel very strongly about the rights of women and the abuse some suffer in other countries (and here in the 'civilised' society as well - mostly within their family units).

Not sure how I want to make this one.  Do I use the colours of the Suffragette movement, purple (for dignity), green (for hope) and white (purity);  (if I can find enough reproduction fabrics in these colours, it might be the way to go).  I have always wanted to make a red and white quilt, (which by the way was the English women's colours);  will I chose this option?  Australia's Women's Right Movement chose the colours green, gold and white - another good option.  I could just go with scrappy and use my civil war and reproduction fabrics that I have.  But to honour these women I feel I should use their colours.

Decisions, decisions.  Which way would you go?  When I have made my decision I will let you know.

Spring is coming....

How do I know?  Instead of green, green, green, some colour is starting to showing in my garden. 

My Fresias are up but still green. 

Not a lot of colour yet, but this is a start.

After 12 years a labour of love is finished!!

It is 12 years since I first started my hexagon quilt - Nell's Garden.  Finally it is finished and on my bed!

Nell's Garden

 I've called it 'Nell's Garden' in memory of a dear Aunt who taught me to sew, knit and embroider when I was a little girl.  She loved her garden and she also loved making hexagons.  Auntie Nell had them all over her house - even the curtains in her spare bedroom were made from hexagons!  Most special of all I was allowed to take the papers out!!  How good was that?  When she knew her time was coming she gave me her cardboard shapes - a whole shoe box full - my uncle who worked for a Greeting Card company had them specifically cut on the guillotines at work using some of the excess greeting card paper.  They measure 7/8", not sure why they are this size.

When I started to cut out the material I chose to fussy cut the centres of the flowers to represent something that is found outside or in the garden.  You can see from the following two pictures some of the centres.

 For the border I chose a brick red to 'fence' her garden and make it safe for all the kids who used to play there.  You can also see that I quilted (by hand) around each hexagon.  That is why it has taken so long to finish.

It truly was a labour of love.

Have you heard about

'Quilt @ Winter School'?  The wonderful Glenys who organises Fibre Arts in Ballarat each year and other week long fibre arts retreats/schools has put together a fabulous 'Quilt @ the Winter School' for next year - 2013.  There is a great selection of tutors AND the best thing is you work with the one tutor for the week, so you can complete your project, not take it home half-done and then put it away for another day.  How many times have you done that and then forgotten about it?

Plus, there is NO cooking or housework for a whole week (5 days).  To find out more click here or above - the link will take you to her website and all the information is there.  While there have a peek at some of the other schools she has organised - there is even one in Darwin!

In case any of you are interested(?) I have booked into the class with Carolyn Sharkey.  So I'm on the hunt for some fabulous photos and images that I can work with.  I will post some pics when I have the photos.

Please go and have a look at Glenys' site and really really think about joining the rest of us.

A relaxing week at Hall's Gap

A fortnight ago I spent 5 days relaxing, sewing and chatting (not in that order) at a retreat in Hall's Gap, in the Grampian Ranges north of Melbourne.  There were 14 of us altogether. 

Most of us only get together once a year for this special time as we come from all over Victoria and Mt. Gambier in Sth Australia.  It's a fabulous time and the Retreat where we stay backs onto the National Park, and we get a lot of wildlife coming around - this inquisitive Roo thought he was going to join us for morning tea!!!!

I was very pleased with myself as I was able to complete 12 blocks of the pattern 'Patriots in Petticoats', a pattern from Common Threads Quilting.  I adore this pattern as the setting is very different from a lot of other reproduction quilt patterns.

There are 16 blocks of this size (12") plus a larger one in the middle and a border of log cabins set in a ribbon pattern.

Cheeky Monkey is growing!!!

The cheeky little man is growing!!  He is now 8 weeks old.  Already a junior member of the Kangaroos (for those who aren't in Australia - that is an Australian Rules Football Team here in Melbourne.  Cute as......Proud Nanna talking here......

Mystery is solved!!!

In my last post I related the story of the upcoming Retreat and the Angel/Mortal swap that was happening.   Well, I can now tell you who my Angel was - Christine from Qld.  She was even further devious with one of the gifts at the retreat - when I was arriving to dinner on the first night she had the girls at the desk hand it to me!  The only clue there was that I knew she had to be in the room - among 60+ others.  A really lovely person and I hope we keep in touch.

Townsville is a beautiful place in far north Qld.  Retreat venue was fabulous and the staff very attentive and friendly.  This is a view from my room overlooking the river (around the corner from the main beach).

 And this is what we saw when we went to Magnetic Island for dinner on Saturday night - a supurb sunset overlooking Horseshoe Bay.  Just look at those colours, I took this photo with the camera in my phone, (and while on the bus) so not quite as good as the real thing, but still beautiful.

I will have more to tell you about the retreat as soon as I get myself back into gear and into the real world!!  Oh how I wish I was back there, relaxing in the sun, instead of rugged up in my winter woolies with 0c degrees the last 2 nights.  brrrr.