one more journal cover and some garden visitors

I think this will be the last cover for a while. I used some paper pieced blocks from a workshop a few years ago - one more ufo 'completed'. 

There is some machine embroidery/quilting though that is a bit hard to see. It's a cover for  the journal for a design course with the very busy Dijanne Cevaal  (check out her blog at Musings of a textile itinerant ) Not much to show yet. We've been doing paper exercises - these are somepaper collages.
Surprised:

 

 Lonely:

 Confused:

Have had a couple of visitors to the garden, well actually the fish pond, in the last 2 weeks - 2 blue tongue lizards. They are not really swimmers, but can survive in water for a while as long as they can climb out. Not so from our pond, so I have had to give them a hand. That is with a scoop, not literally my hand. First

This little fellow was about 30cm (1 ft). The green coat is duck weed from the surface of the pond. And then today, one twice the size, about 45 cm - a very rotund and healthy specimen - seen first in close up

I haven't seen many of the fish lately. Don't know if they were dinner, or have just been laying low.
I don't know either if the lizards have fallen in or walked in off the end, but I have stood a pot in the pond so they can climb out by themselves in future.

2 steps forward and one back

I've managed some stitching this week in between watching tennis and soccer. They are both over now so I have no excuse from here on. Great result for our Aussie soccer team, and lots of really good tennis even though the Aussies didn't make it through.
I have finished (for the time being anyway) my scrapbook project and started some de-cluttering and tidying in my sewing room/studio. The scrapbook is 3 large volumes of documents, photos and memtoes in between the stitched 'pages' (which can be seen on one of the blog pages). I don't like the folder covers, so I thought it would be good to use up some unfinished workshop pieces and samples, left over strips etc and make some covers - a bit of de-cluttering at the same time. Well, sounds simple, but wasn't. I had plenty of pieces to pick from, but they (naturally) didn't all go together, and the fact that some had batting behind made it more complicated. So, 2 are complete. The third one can wait awhile!
Embroidering with thread...

and on the back a miniature mystery quilt I have had awhile (1999!) with a bit of couching

 A machine demonstration sampler, a folded cut out applique test...

 and on the back left over strips, some already pieced. Rather bright, this one, with some machine quilting to highlight..

There must be some law that says as soon as you reduce the pile of ufos/wips, you create one more. I met up with Quilters' Dozen friends on Saturday and we started some penny rug work...

I am enjoying the stitching but who knows what it will end up as - or when it might be completed.

In the garden we have picked our gala apples - not a huge crop which probably has something to do with my first ever fruit tree pruning efforts. We are picking tomatoes and keenly watching the pumpkins to see which ones set. This one is hanging right where I can hit my head on it every time I enter the chook yard. There are 2 more behind it in the picture too.

Is it an apple? No it's a pumkin in the apple tree. The first to set and now quite large.

The vines have found there way through all our trees. While looking for a pumkin up in the willow myrtle tree I spotted these 2 top knot pigeons. They must be young ones, as they sat all day, and much of the next day. (The pumpkin is in the picture too, just to the right of centre though not in focus)

Heard this morning that January here had been the coolest for about eleven years. It's been very pleasant and easy to cope with. No doubt we are in for a hot spell soon.