It's a Start

Well, as I say "it's a start". I forced myself to start sewing by giving myself permission to sew for just 10 minutes. Did the trick. I have been making crumb blocks from scraps for a little quilt for Chloe's dog bed. The photo shows the 4 blocks and I plan to put the red in the centre between them.

So, I'm on my way again. The rain helped too I think, as I find it hard to sew when it is hot and humid.

A bit short of time so this will not be much of a post, but I'm also excited to report that my Travel Bug arrived today, and I have assembled the components tonight and it's ready to start its journey to Oregon to meet Holly . The photo isn't the best as the flash is bouncing off the plastic, so tomorrow I will take a better one. Holly's Travel Bug is already on its way, having been picked up by a geocacher whose Grandmother is a quilter, so fingers crossed for them both to reach their destinations safely. When I activate it I'll put up its number so it can be watched if anyone's interested.

I see in the US that people track dollar bills by their number - what next? The site is called "Where's George?". Amazing the stuff that goes on out there that you don't have a clue about.

Have to dash, will post more when I finish Chloe's quilt (said in confident tone!)

Still Slack

I still haven't touched the sewing machine. I don't know what's wrong with me. The Quilt Show is on this week and I'm not even going. It's raining on and off today, so maybe that might motivate me - rainy weather is quilting weather to me. Shame it doesn't rain that often! I might try and make some string blocks later.

I thought I'd make Chloe a little quilt from scraps for her bed, as the cushion she has is really a winter thing. I probably just need to start on something, anything, to get back into the groove.

It was interesting to read the responses to my geocache post - Tami have you found one yet? I'm still looking for them when I can. Here is the keyring that will be attached to my 'Got the Quilting Bug' Travel Bug to send in Holly's general direction. I am still waiting for the actual travel bug to arrive - something else I ordered is on Back Order, so the whole order has been delayed. It will be fun to see how far they go. I'm tempted to release mine at the Airport so it gets going to the US straight away, but then it would be nice for it to travel a bit in Australia. I think it would be more fun watching it go to places in the US though. A local cacher here has just started a similar swap with a cacher in Portugal (I think), but their travel bugs have to go to a particular cache in Greenland (!!) join up, travel together to Portugal, then back to Australia. Sounds a bit ambitious to me, but you never know.

Otherwise there isn't much happening around here. Life goes on regardless, doesn't it?

If You Hide It, They will Come

I have fallen for the Geocaching Addiction, thanks to Holly from And Sew It Is. I was asked in the comments from my last post what it is, so I will give you the short version, as it isn't really quilting related. Well there is a little bit later on.

Geocaching started in 2000 I think, when the US Govt made it possible for civilians to get an accurate GPS signal and fix. Before that only the military could get an accurate fix. After this happened a guy in the US thought "if I hide something in the woods and post the GPS co-ords on my website, will anyone use their GPSr to look for it?" Someone did, and the whole thing started from there. Now there are Geocaches hidden all over the world, and a bit of a subculture of people who go looking for them, just for the thrill of the find. Once you have a handheld GPSr and a way to log onto the internet, the rest is free. The original cache was buried near where Holly lives, and she has been there.

Geocachers hide a geocache, give the GPS co-ordinates, rate the difficulty of the terrain and "the hide", log it on the internet, and other geocachers go and look for it. Sometimes they are at a beautiful scenic spot at the end of a long bushwalk, other times in a suburban park or even in the centre of the City. The other issue is that it's important that the general population (or 'muggles' as per Harry Potter) don't see you extract the cache from its hiding spot, nor see you put it back. This can be the hardest part, sometimes requiring 3 or more visits to the hiding place to grab it without detection.

The cache can be the size of a thumbnail, magnetically attached to something (see Holly's blog and the bridge), a 500ml plastic food container, an ammo box up to a 20 litre drum hidden in the bush. Depending on the size there are different things inside - if tiny there is just a log book to sign your name - up to toys for the kids to swap, or even dressup clothes and a disposable camera to take your photo all dressed up! Some are intentionally easy to find, others practically impossible.

When you've found it (or not found it) you log it on the internet, describing how it went. Some logs are really funny, others give little clues, others record a find only.

The other part of it is that there are Geocoins and Travel Bugs that travel from cache to cache, moved by people then logged on the internet. This way the owner, and anyone else interested, can follow its progress by its trackable code. The red Chinese Flag coin I found in a cache has as its goal to continuously travel between the US and China. I knew of a cacher going to China so I put it in the cache at the airport and she picked it up and it's now in China. The Berlin Bear Travel Bug (above) started his journey in Berlin in 2002 and his goal was to reach a town in the South island of New Zealand where the owner's brother lives. I passed it to a visiting Kiwi cacher, and he took it to NZ, where he has nearly reached his destination. I also moved this lovely coin - there are some really beautiful ones.

Now to the Quilting Content of this post. Holly and I have decided to each send a Travel Bug off, hopefully to reach each other. She lives in Oregon, USA and I live in Queensland, Australia. We are going to attach a quilty keyring to our travel bugs and call them "Got the Quilting Bug" North and South Hemisphere, to tell between them, and let them loose. We can follow their progress on the internet.

As my 8 yo nephew and I were scrabbling in the bushes the other day looking for a geocache, my Father who was waiting nearby told us he thought we were mad. But my answer to him was that it's a bit of harmless fun, that gets you off the computer (good for kids these days) and into the outside world. It's amazing how far you'll walk if you think that cache is just around the next bend! Lots of families do it together, and there is friendly rivalry between people to be the first to find a newly hidden cache, sometimes running into each other in the bushes at 2am!

So that's Geocaching. What intrigued me was that I found out there were 2 geocaches on the 2 x 1 km island where I live. The thought of these people coming here especially to find them, doing so secretly possibly right under my nose, just about killed me. I had to know. If you want - or "need" - to know, go to www.geocaching.com and have a look. There is a feature where you can download a little thing that puts all the geocaches in the world onto Google Earth, so wherever you look you can see where they are. To do this you have to log in, it's free, but I suspect if you go that far you will probably end up hooked anyway...

Bored With Me

I'm feeling a bit bored with me - not bored - just bored with me. It's very hard to write on your blog when you don't want to do the things you normally do (quilt), not to mention when you don't want to talk, think or write about yourself. I did try to blog a few nights ago, but blogger was so uncooperative that I gave up in disgust.

I don't feel like cooking, and have been living on strawberries and raisin toast, with the odd banana, glass of milk or olive thrown in. I truly love olives.

I've even gone off the garden a bit, as I took some photos the other day, and was disappointed when I was reminded that the camera doesn't lie. I see the vision, the camera doesn't. I'm trying to keep at the vege garden though, as the price of veges here is so scandalous that I really must try to grow some.

I will show this before and after shot though of the front garden to show that things are growing. This is 10 months growth. I had to move the waterpot and put a plant there instead, as the cane toads were jumping in, and I couldn't take the stress of having to get them out. Too low to the ground.

The other problem is that the wretched Holly (grin) from And Sew It Is has got me hooked on Geocaching. I promise not to turn this into a geocaching blog - Holly is doing really well with hers, mainly because she is actually quilting as well, unlike me!

I'm quite enjoying it - who'd have thought I'd enjoy sneaking around in the bushes so much? In fact what I really enjoy, is sneaking around in urban areas - I think I missed my calling. I should've been a burglar. I've met a few local people that are also into it, and find that everywhere I go I have some caches planned 'just in case I get time'. I think that's a bad sign.

I took Chloe to dog training class tonight, and managed to squeeze a find in on the way, but on the way home there was a big storm hitting, and Chloe and I were so traumatised that I resisted... She was fitted with a head collar tonight - like a Halti or Gentle Leader for those who know dogs, but with a little spring adjustment so that it fits better. Nevertheless, dogs usually hate them when they first wear them, and Miss Chloe was no exception. She tried to get it off, rubbed it on the ground, refused to walk etc - rather distressing, but I know that they usually get used to them, and even by the time we got home she was a little better.

Still, I worry that she has only been here a few weeks and is just starting to settle in, now I torture her with this.

But if she will wear it, walks will be more enjoyable, which means we will go more often. We'll see how it goes, as there is an alternative harness type thing, and if need be we will swap to that.

She is so pretty, and is a perfect dog considering that she has been pushed from pillar to post.

Another Slump

Just can't seem to get into the sewing at the moment. I am still doing some sewing to try and keep the many projects alive, but nothing exciting to show. I am still sewing pink squares to 4 patches, still doing the pink/orange and lime/aqua string blocks (19 now) and not much else to be honest.

I read a comment from Elin today about my Civil War Diary Quilt, which she is about to start, and that made me think that maybe if I made another block for that it might get me doing something different.

The canine visitors have gone home, but may be back this weekend. Another pair of dog lovers and I are sharing the responsibility this week, so I am to ring on Friday and see if they need a rest from it all. Chloe is doing well, and we are starting some basic training classes next week to see if she will walk better on the lead, and just be a bit happier and less anxious if she knows exactly what she is supposed to be doing. She is in the room with me at the moment, moving from bed to floor, trying to find somewhere cool to sleep. She has a warm cushion on her bed, so maybe I need to make her some cool cotton quilts to lie on. She is a nest builder, so likes to have a few layers to puff up.

Other than that I am trying to keep the small vege garden alive as the cost of vegetables here is absolutely scandalous at the moment. The boring old round tomatoes were 3 times the normal cost this week, so I refused to buy any. I have cherry tomatoes in the garden so I am eating those instead. I have some more cos lettuce coming on, and the snake beans are up, so as long as I can keep the water up to them all should be well.

I put a birdbath in some weeks ago, and am pleased to report that I have finally had some visitors. I'm told I was being tested by the local birds to see if I was going to be a good birdbath owner and keep the water supply constant - it seems I have passed. Oh the responsibility of it all!

While my sewing is in a slump I might take some garden photos and bore you silly with those. You have been warned.