IM BACKKKKKKKK

yes peoples im back, Things are working out for the better, i have moved to a tiny little place in the central highlands of Queensland called DINGO it is 150km west of Rockhampton for all those aussies that know where rocky is. Its a small sleepy town of not many people and best of all the closest Quilting shop is only 27km away from me and there is a local quilters group which i will join when dd goes to school full time next year!! belive me im counting down the days hehehe. unfortunately i have down graded from a 3 bedroom home to a 2 bedroom home so i am sewing roomless at the moment until the boys pull their fingers out and build me one under our 2 story house. so my machines are in lockdown under my bed, Dingo is a very dry dusty town so everything gets covered in a layer of dust every couple of days i have to wipe everything down. but hey that is a small price to pay when the family is back together and happy again. My stash of fabric is awaiting its use and since moving i have thought of a few things that i need to make.
We just got a new bedroom suite all timber so i have to make runners for the tops of the dressers so they dont get damaged. My bedroom is painted blue so im thinking yellow and blue mariners compass design.
the rest of the house is a very pale green so i have ordered some lovely curtain fabric off ebay for the bargain price of $50 for over 15 mtrs and it is 56 inches wide so i couldnt pass that one up.
one day when i am heading out of town i will stop and take a photo of the local dingo.
the town consists of a pub, a post office/ local store, and a 24 hr service station (gas station) and 2 saw mills.
the little town where the craft store is called BLUFF, it is 27km away from Dingo and that little town consists of a pub , post office, takeaway/convience store, and a huge rail way transfer station. this is where all the trains get swapped over to different lines as out here is a booming coal mine industry , 47km from Dingo is the closest place to do shopping and it is called BLACKWATER this is where the mines start and there are more further out toward places like EMERALD. from EMERALD there are gem fields called RUBY VALE , springsure, and a well known aussie place called LONGREACH.
I didnt sleep for the first few nites as there is a train track that goes straight past our house it is about 200mtrs from our home and it Carts Coal from places like emerald and blackwater to places like GLADSTONE to be exported to the rest of the world. These trains go past every 30 mins or so and usually have over 100 carriages on them so it is pretty noisy. once a week we see a passanger train go past and sometimes cattle trains.
cattle trains are good, call me crazy but because i grew up in the country on a farm and then moved away i always miss the smell of cow poo lol. so when the train goes past i breath in deep to bring back memories of when i was a kid on the farm. I told you im crazy lol.
anyway thats enuf for today will catch up soon , love yas!

What a bargain!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

well after many un returned phone calls to my sewing machine repair man to whom has my singer 7422, i have decided to go and buy another sewing machine, so i could finish my 2 quilt tops i have on the go.
much to my suprise i went to a garage sale at the retirement home in boyne island, i picked up a bargain, i found a Bernina 530-2 shes 54 years old but she runs like a dream and the stitches are perfect in which i also got 12 different feet for the machine, and I LOVE the fact that it doesnt have a foot pedal, it has a arm that you move to the side with your right leg. it is fabulous!!!!!!!! for the bargain price of $15 i got it home set her up and she sewed perfectly for me so i was able to continue with the quilt top for my nephew, he is 13 years old and he loves all the quilts i have made and was constantly asking me when are you gonna make me a quilt.
well after a breif chat with mysi from quilt chat on what type of pattern i would use that would suit camoflague fabrics. Mysi then sent me a email with a quilt top she had designed i presume on EQ.
well i have almost got the top finished and i am soooooooooo over the moon with how this machine runs.

my top 25 fav songs on my ipod.

ok peoples remember that i am only turning 28years old in july so dont pass too much judgement on my choices in music,.
do tell me what is your top 25.

25. Bull Roarer - Midnight Oil

24. Black eyes blue tears - Shania Twain

23. Wrapped around your fingers - The police

22. Alone - Heart

21. Walking on the moon - The police

20. Rain - Dragon

19.(glad im ) Not a kennedy - Shona Laing

18. Heart of stone - Cher

17. Bette Davis eyes - kim carnes

16. We dont need another hero - Tina turner

15. I cant tell you why - The Eagles

14. Money cant buy it - Annie Lennox

13. Dont stand so close to me - The Police

12. Island in the sun - weezer

11. Cold - Annie lennox

10. Victim of love - The eagles

9. Stand near me - creed

8. how you remind me - nickleback

7. sarah - starship

6. burn for you - john farnham

5. suspicious minds - elvis

4. WITCHY WOMAN - the eagles ( i sing this song as loud as i can ) lol

3. Im on fire - Bruce springstein

2. One last breath - Creed

1. ONLY YOU - KEITH URBAN ............ this song just makes me melt.

some ink

well peoples following the trend of cat scratch diva i too have my share of ink, i would like to show you the following picture of a tattoo that i have at the moment.The first one is of my baby Griffin,which is on my left arm shoulder/bicep.
some of you may ask what is a griffin? well here is a breif description ""...originated in Greece and has the front legs and head of a giant eagle, but the body and hind legs of a lion. Like sphinxes , griffins are often employed by wizards to guard treasure. Though griffins are fierce, a handful of skilled wizards have been known to befriend one. Griffins feed on raw meat." At times, it is portrayed with a long snake-like tail. In some traditions, only the female has wings. Its nests are made of gold and its eggs resemble agates. Pliny believed griffins came from Northern Russia; Aeschylus thought they originated in Ethiopia; and Bullfinch wrote that their native country was India. In its body, the griffin is blessed with the speed, flight, and penetrating vision of the eagle and the strength, courage, and majesty of the lion."

i will show other pictures in future posts.

OH NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!

i have had a terrible week peoples!
my second love of my life has crashed and burned!

my 2 year old singer 7422 after putting 4 rows of my pineapple blossom quilt top together decided the light was going to die, so i emailed singer to find out how much it was going to cost me for a new blub , the man there informed me that i cant just replace it myself as it is a LED with a circuit board on it has to be replaced by a techinican :( i thought to myself this morning i will plug it in and see if it really has just blown or just playing up. when i plugged her in all the lights on the left side of the machine beeped at me and now will not sew or anything.
i rang the shop that sold it to me and he said no it isnt under warranty anymore and they no longer have their shop his wife now works for LINCRAFT and he still does servicing from home, i told him what it was doing or rather say NOT DOING, and he said he has never seen a singer with out a normal bulb in it before, needless to say he said if it is in the wiring it is going to cost me a fortune to get it fixed .
but never the less i am dropping it off to him in the morning to see what he says.
do i get it fixed ???? considering the machine cost me $400 brand new or do i just save up and buy a new machine? if so what brand of machine do i try next as the one i had before my singer was a janome and i burned it out in 12 months. so i wont try a janome again and i dont really want to go computerized again as they seem to be more expensive to fix.

on a nicer note it was my babys 4th birthday today so we had cake and sang songs all day , and i let her run amuck all day, she is so tired from it all she went to sleep at 5pm this afternoon.

MANDY MURPHY??????????????

mandy murphy are you still in the world of blog?? i was looking back to my first post and noticed a message in there from November 2007 that i didn't know i had.
If you are out there mandy murphy please contact me again if you still have problems with you pinnock. i will photo copy the instruction manual for you and send it to you ! please forgive me i don't know how your message had slipped past me.
just slip me a message with a email address and i will get back to you as soon as i can . thanks heaps hefty.

dust 'n' oil

well after many many many weeks of not sewing anything other than curtains and taking up pants for dd.
i dusted off my machine gave it a kiss and gave it a clean and a small oil. and i went to work.
i changed my blade on my cutter. pulled out my ONE box stash , i kid you not, i have no excessive fabric collection, (not that there is anything wrong with fabric collections) i just feel i havent been quilting long enuf to obtain a large collection or do i ever feel i have enuf money just to go buy fabric. I am a NEED only person. As with anything in my life i am happy with just basics and happy with what i have got, as there are some out there that dont even have what i have.
I'M far from being rich or well off , most of the time we have had only enuf money for bills and basic groceries, to get us thru to the next pay day.

Any way back to the thing i was actually posting about.
i decided to finally start a new quilt, and because i rarely have much SCRAP fabric left , i decided to cut 2inch wide strips and 3&1/2 inch square calico squares. any ideas yet as to what i am making?
well to put you all out of your misery i will tell you.
THANK YOU TO BONNIE HUNTER AND QUILTVILLE i have been looking at this pineapple blossom pattern for almost a year and finally decided to tackle it.

As life has been pretty hectic lately and things dont always go as they seem or as planned. I have come into the fortune of some ME TIME cause, Now it is just me and dd here at home i dont have to wait hand and foot on a pain in the butt male anymore.
just how long will i get this ME time for i dont know, depends on how long the Male takes to decide he wants to come grovelling back cause he doesnt want to wash his own clothes and look after himself anymore.
and with that , if that time comes, I WILL be laying down the rules that i WILL have ME time and the world does not revolve around HIM.

I will get off my soap box now lol and yes i seem a bit cryptic at the moment im not one to just spill my guts so if you can figure out my cryptic messages then you will be on the same page, right track, with me. lol anyway

I got 32 9inch blocks done so far dont ask me how many more i need to do cause i dont know , i always just keep making them until it looks like enuf and then i stop and join it all to gether , this one is for my second sister she has wanted a quilt for a long time, and i do think she will be the most grateful for having one of my quilts as she sees with her own eyes how much work goes into one.
i have offered to teach her basic quilting and she said Nope not my cup of tea, she doesnt know how i have the patience to sit for hours and sew when i cant stand hearing my dd whine and whinge at me for 20 mins about something.

she laughs and said maybe i should have gave birth to a sewing machine not a baby. lol. sewing machines dont have attidudes or voices or tantrums in the shopping centre. sewing machines dont whine at you , im bored, im hungry, im sick. GEE I REALLY LOVE MY SEWING MACHINE.

heres some pictures of the crochet blanket i am making and some of the pineapple blossom blocks that i have completed.
have a good one !
cheer's heft.

I'm still alive and kicking.

Hello world, Yes I'm still alive and kicking, I'm still in one piece and still in the same place lol.
Things here are OK, the only thing i have been sewing lately is curtains. and gee i think my singer desperately needs a service before it gets to the point of no return.
She doesn't seem to like rubber backed curtains at all.
And she has also been sewing denim and corduroy as it is coming into winter here and my dd whom is 4years old in June, has put on a considerable amount of weight she now takes a size 7 pants around the waist and the only problem with that is she is still the height of a 4 year old so i have to cut off about 3 inches off the bottom of all her long pants and jeans :(. funnily enuf the doctors inform me that she is not obese , thank god! but he did say how ever that if she gets sick during winter it wont knock her around as much as the average kid cause it wont harm her to not eat for a few days the doctor laughed and told me she has plenty in reserve for her body to survive on. I guess that should make me feel better but compared to all the other little kids around here she is allot tubbier than the rest of them.
I guess if i don't let it get out of control she should be fine, I am trying to get her to eat healthier food but that is a task in itself. I'm thinking if i maybe plant a veggie garden that mite encourage her to choose the better foods with allot of my pushing.
darling lily also decided to cut her own hair when i was out hanging out the washing on the line 2 weeks ago and mascarared her hair right in the front i was so furious i almost cried cause she climbed up on my office chair and onto the computer table to get my scissors then she cut her hair and also decided to cut the cats hair as well not badly on the cat but she informed me that the both needed a hair cut and because she saw me cut auntie lou's hair she wanted hers cut too.
apparently i did it when i was a kid which isnt hard to belive because all my barbie dolls had crew cuts now i know why my mother also told me when i was about 8 years old i had a facination for cutting the bottoms of my t-shirts so i hope i dont have to deal with that one when she gets older.
Love always Tracey.

OH I KNOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

well yes it has been over a month since my last post, life has been that pre occupying at the moment i havent even been able to chat in quiltchat lately.
cant say exactly what is going on for me atm but when every thing happens and is set in concrete i will tell you all whats going on.


so until then i hope you all keep safe and happy .

Another one for the aussies, this is what our national anthem should sound like!

very aussie!! warning this has a M 15+ rating.

I've been tagged

i have been tagged by swooze to tell 7 unusual things about myself i will give it a go im not sure there are 7 unusual things about me and because i dont know 7 other bloggers personally i will only tag 2 and that will be bearpaw from quilt chat and judy whom is also from quilt chat other known as sew crazy or sugar queens dream . heres how you do it
THE RULES:
1. Once you are tagged, link back to the person who tagged you.
2. Post THE RULES on your blog.
3. Post 7 weird or random facts about yourself on your blog.
4. Tag 7 people and link to them.
5. Comment on their blog to let them know they have been tagged.

.......................................................
1. i can fit my whole fist/hand in my mouth.
2. i have a little moon shaped scar on my left ring finger from when i was a kid and my sister beat me up she some how hooked me with her finger nail and theres been a scar there since lol almost 20 years ago.
3. i am a chef by trade but dont choose to work as one lol
4. i always wanted to be a hairdresser.
5. i have sucker written all over me i do pretty much anything for anyone.
6. i have 4 tattoos and i have had these parts pierced but no longer have as i grew out of wanting to look different. nose, tragus- piece of cartalage in ear, right nipple, belly button 3 times. labret- between the bottom lip and chin. eyebrow.
7. i am not allergic to anything

scraps

well all i have started my paper piecing adventure, with very little time on my hands lately i havent had time to sit at my machine.
so im sorry to say bonnie hunters mystery quilt has gone into the too hard/no time/looks too complicated basket. and i am naughty and peeked at what it looks like in the end and i must say i think i should have used the same colours as bonnie did as i have seen some of the black red and white ones finished and i dont like them at all. but it is amazing what colour changes can do as i love the one that bonnie has done as it looks beautiful in those colours she has chosen. awww well learning curve
"hefty quilter thinks to her self " note to self dont do mystery quilts.
i mean really its each to their own some people love them i personally dont like the thought of starting something unless i know what it looks like in the end to start with "have i confused yall yet"? but i thought i would give this one the benifit of the doubt and start it but when i ran out of ME time to do any sewing i fell behind and saw what it looked like in the end. like i said i totally picked the wrong colours for it and didnt like the black and white and red finished.
so those first 2 steps will be put into a different quilt some how.
so this is as far as i have gotten with my english paper piecing and i love it , it will be finished by the end of 2008 and it WILL be for my bed, i love traditional quilts , i love the calico as it makes lots of stuff look antique. thats why i use so much of it i guess , ggg.
as i dont have much of a stash as such. i have alot of scraps and strips just big enuf to cut out my hexagons and use up all my scrappy bits, i guess i have just enuf scraps there for another 20 large hexagons the finished size of the hexagon block including calico borders around them is 7inches from one side to another. im guessing about 100 if im lucky maybe 150 to do a queen size , correct me if im wrong please lol
any way thats all for now im off to the hospital in a hour for more blood tests and then on tuesday im in for the cut to get my gall bladder out. ! wish me luck as i do not have too much faith in hospitals and doctors in australia , especially in queensland , thanks to dr jayant patel. if yall dont know who im talking about check out the link on the bottom of this post . it will show you how many people he killed at the bundaberg base hospital in queensland australia.
cheers.
http://www.theage.com.au/news/National/Queenslands-Dr-Death-linked-to-80-deaths/2005/05/24/1116700709781.html

quilty coat of many colours?

gee this song brings back many fond memories as a child for me, my mum loved dolly parton and i get a warm feeling of calm when i hear this song.
i love it also cause it is one of the basis of the reason why quilting became what it is today.
not because of dolly but because back in the day they had to use scraps of rags to make clothes and blankets. but every quilter knows that so i need not explain. lol

what do you get ?

what do you get when you sit for 6 hours at the hospital waitiing for a sister whom had gone into day surgery for a colonoscopy that was supposed to only be there for 2 or 3 hours?
well 4 of the 6 hours i sat and stitched i started my hand sewing project which is some kind of english paper piecing i think lol i dunno the girls in quilt chat sent me this link and i decided i would have a crack at it.
this is what i achieved in 4 hours along with allot of patience because everyone in the room was hungry as they all had to fast the night before and by 4pm they were getting mad!
so was i too actually cause i didnt take my lunch with me (im on a diet) and what they said was supposed to be 2-3 hours turned into 5-6 hours.
so when she recovered from the anistetic i dragged her out of there and came home to cook dinnner. i tell you there is no rest for the wicked lol
theres always house work to do or someone to take care of , always some one wanting to be waited on hand and foot.
I agree with judy at sugar queens dream , yes for the most part i love men too but there comes a point when enuf is enuf , after me sitting at the hospital all day and i got home at 6.pm i walk throught the door and look at my dh sitting on the couch watching the idot box.
he had been home since 2.30pm and it was too much effort to start putting dinner on or even bathing our 3 year old.
i was furious along with lack of sugar due to my diet , i was starving i could have eaten a horse and chewed on the rider too.
but it never occurs to him it would have been nice for him to start dinner or bath lily.
considering when he goes to work , i always iron his work uniforms, pack his lunch for him make him coffee in the mornings, make him a snack when he gets home from work , make dinner , do the dishes, pick up the clothes he has dropped on the floor at the end of the bed cause he is too lazy to take 3 steps to put them in the washing basket. as well as bath our daughter and all the while, while he is at work i do the house work , contend with my 2 older sisters and their 3 kids whom are usually here all day everyday and usually end up staying for dinner.
you could call this "HEFTY'S DINER"
i never get a break from my dd in the 3 years i have had her lol. i have had 1 day off from her, dh doesnt belive in daycare.
im usually the family daycare cause i have constantly got my sisters kids for some reason.
there are not enuf hours in the day for me, and by the time im due to host my slot in quiltchat i am exhausted and dont make it into the chat room most nites which is bad cause it is something i love.
but of course something has to give and i am handing in my deputy's badge back to the sherrif and will no longer be a OP in my favourite chat room.
oh and the complaints go on and on but thats enuf for now lol
i have vented and feel better now.

where do i start?

yes i know its been almost a whole month since my last post , i wont go into all the boring details as to why i haven't been blogging and why i haven't been in quilt chat.
And yes i know i am wayyyyyyyyy behind in the bonnie hunter mystery quilt steps i have only just finished step one I'm using white on black , red, and calico my favorite fabric lol
and yes i know everyone is doing red and black and white but my sister#2 like black and white and i thought it is time she had a quilt.
considering sister#1 finally received her brown turning twenty quilt for her birthday a few days late but she got it lol.
She couldn't be happier with it even tho much to my dismay i didn't like the stitching in the ditch that she wanted.
so here's a picture of step 1 that i have completed.

On the home front, i finally got my surgery date which is 5Th of February 2008 to have my nasty old gallbladder removed.
So I'm gearing up for that the girls in quilt chat tell me no sitting at my machine whilst recovering as it will kill me with the pain and more than likely pull my stitches that will have, i am having key hole surgery they make 5 incisions to get that sucker out and remove it from my belly button. So now i have to find a english paper piecing project i can do whilst i sit infront of the tv for 5 weeks, thinking i mite do something like cathederal windows or grandmothers garden i think thats what they are called.

DH is still limping around on his sore foot that he hurt at work and he got the all clear from the doctors back in august that he was fine after spending 2 weeks in plaster they said it wasn't fractured.
well anyway the health and safety officer at work asked him last week if it was still hurting and he said "yes of course it is you don't think i would be limping if it wasn't hurting and still playing up" so back off to the doctor and they xray'ed it again and still weren't sure if it was fractured so they sent him for a MRI on his foot and found yes it is fractured in the TALUS what ever that is lol. so the poor bugger has been walking around on a fractured foot since august 2007,
so they inform him that he either has to have it back in plaster for 2 months or have surgery on it and then back in plaster for a couple of months either way he is having it in plaster, so once again the maid (ME) will be indisposed for about 2- 3 months waiting hand and foot on him, so in that time my quilting and my chatting will once again suffer as he doesn't think it is valuable use of my time lol. (joking)
no seriously having him at home for 2 months will be like having 2 kids at home.
so if you all don't hear from me for a couple of months you will know why lol.