Getting things in order.

Oh Well, I have finally got my act together, and stopped doing selfies and commit myself to a few presents that I had promised myself that I would make for some friends. This week I achieved a great deal, so feeling quite pleased with myself. I had a friend who had a baby on the 17 th September. When I heard that she was pregnant, I bought a kit for a cot quilt and was going to have it made and ready to give to the baby when she was born. Not too bad....only 6 weeks late with the quilt, Jemmima was born on the 17 th September.  I also promised a library bag for one my colleagues little girl, as she started school this year and I had the best intentions, but always seemed to be caught up in what I was making for myself.  The bag was worse in the delay, as her first year of school has nearly finished, the embroidery for her name was completed very early in the year.  After a good talking to me from me, I dedicated these days off, to getting my act together and just do it. The quilt from beginning to end took me a whole day, so all of Monday was dedicated and in the afternoon, I had to go down to get some veggies for tea, so I popped the quilt in the mail and got a delighted phone message on Wednesday, yah.... For Australia post.quilt.

As you can see, the fabrics were a mix of satin, flannels, cottons and plush, not easy to sew.

Little Jemmima looks great snuggled in the quilt, I need permission from mum! before I post some photos, she looks gorgeous wrapped in the quilt.

The library bag that I made was more of a universal bag, that may be used for shopping as well, I embroidered Lily's name and made the bag out of this great American Jane fabric, "Dick and Jane"

I will also give you a sneak peak at my selfie quilt, will reveal more when it is finished being quilted.

Don't I have great legs!!!

Bush Fires, design board and upholestry.

What a devastating week with new fires being ignited in our beautiful Blue Mountains and lower regions of Lithgow. My heart goes out to all those people who have lost homes and been devastated by the fires, loss of pets and personal belongings. We in the Hawkesbury area considered ourselves to be blessed and owe a great debt to the rural fire service and the wonderful firefighters involved in fighting the  fires, rescuing people, animals and homes. In Windsor Downs on the 2nd November we are having a community garage sale and a stand will be available for goods to be donated and the money raised will be donated to the RFS.
I have been a bit busy over the last few weeks, finishing off projects and thinking about the next. My DH finally got his act together and my design board is now finished and it is quite large as I am known for mostly doing large quilts. My motto is... if you are going to do a quilt you may as make it worthwhile and make it large enough to cover a queen size bed. I suppose doing it this way there is more cost, time and materials involved, but I really enjoy the process, so will push on.
My latest quilt that I have just finished measured 3mtrs by 2.2mts, I was not feeling so great about it being so big, when it took me four days to sew on the binding.
Our family night for the next 10 weeks has moved to tuesday night beacuse our two youngest family members are doing "box and burn", a fitness program. This week I decieded to have a ploughmans lunch for dinner, so the week before I pickled the eggs in preparation for dinner and for dessert we had brandy baskets filled with chocolate mousse and fresh fruit. For the dieters there was a diet version, but mostly opt for the gourmet version.
This week I also covered some second hand chairs  with a great cotton drill fabric, I was quite pleased with the result...what do you think!.

The commencement of my design board being fixed and made sturdy  by DH.

  Finished and flannel tablecloths attached.

A sneak preview of my next project! On my finished design board.

These are the chairs that I purchased and covered, love the fabric and how they turned out.

My black and white antelope fabric. 

Gourmet Tuesday

My ploughmans lunch and dessert

Spring has sprung and my flowers are blooming, what a pity about the dry weather, little rain and bush fires. I will need to water, but how the garden would bloom if we had a little rain.

On Tuesday the 22nd October, Chris Book and I went into Quiltsmith in Annandale, boy ! we had not been there for quite awhile and was overwhelmed with the selection of fabric available, but  I was very good and only bought what I thought I needed. On the way home we had lunch and then went to Patchwork products and did a bit of damage there with the purchase of fabrics, I was very pleased with my purchases.

Quilting Retreat, Enjoyment and new projects.

This weekend I attended a retreat in Katoomba, hosted by Karen and Brendan Kirk, who own The Stitching Post in  Katoomba http://www.thestitchingpost.com.au/ , it was a wonderful couple of days, eating, stitching and meeting new people. the event was held in the Katoomba Christian conference centre. On Saturday the hours were 10 am to 4 pm and on Sunday 9 to 3 pm. I had booked quite early in the year for the retreat and had planned to have a weeks holiday at home, then stay overnight in the blue Mountains, where DH would travel up in the afternoon on Saturday and join me and stay the night. What I did not plan very well was my accommodation, I left this a little later, feeling that  I had plenty of time, but unbeknownst to me, the Leura garden festival was also on the same week, so

accommodation was sparse on the ground. I finally got some accommodation at The Katoomba Guest House, through Wot if, very comfortable, but one did not read the fine print and soon found out upon my hubby's arrival, when he checked in, that we had shared facilities and it was actually a backpackers accommodation, my DH had great delight in sharing this news with me, when I joined him at the RSL after the retreat, did I read the fine print..no I did not. We dined at "Pins" in Lurline St and I must say we were delighted with the menu, service, food and would recommend it as a place to dine, it is located in another gorgeous guest house, that is familiar in Katoomba.

http://www.pinsonlurline.com.au

Entree, salmon with a cream cheese, chives,capers and a rosti, yummy.

Tony had pork goyza and below was our shared dessert, lime and ginger crème brule'ei

After dinner we made our way the guest house, climbing three sets of stairs to get up to the entrance and then 2 more flights to get to our room, I finally saw the room, clean and tidy, and the facilities were down the hallway, oh well I say to myself, you can do this for one night, I must say other than no bathroom in our room, the room was dated but clean and tidy, the bed was comfortable and had clean sheets, other than it being noisy with doors banging and people chatting it was not too bad, my DH and I had a crackle, because if we would have stayed any other night than a Saturday night we would have paid a third of the price, and as plain as day on a sign outside the door, was marked BUDGET accommodation. The delight in the showers were the William Morris inspired tiles, could not resist taking a photo.

William Morris inspired tiles.

Now time to share about the retreat, the teachers present were Marg low, Michelle Marvig and Vicky Porter, Janelle Wind could not make it due to a health issues, but we were lucky enough to get three of her patterns in our goody bag. Each teacher had supplied two patterns and as Karen was kind enough to show us a preview before the class, so we could get some of our stash organised before the retreat as well as purchase ready made kits for each project, very convenient. Also included in our bags was a pin cushion and wallet, made out of coordinating fabrics, a nice little touch and much appreciated, as there was 72 people at the retreat and everyone got one, a lot of work, I used my wallet for my hexagons, thank you also for the gift.

The projects, displayed above, on the first day I did Vicky's Xmas table mat and on the second day, commenced Michelle's cushion, lovely in red, but I did mine in blue.

Lovely to catch up with Marg again, hanging behind us is her lovely Sarah's sampler block of the month quilt.

http://www.marglowdesigns.typepad.com.

We were table number three and had a great  group  of girls, Colette travelled from W.A, lives near Margaret River and Mandy, Janette and Sharnee, came from the Lake Macquarie district. And Sharon lives in Blaxland and attends classes at The Stitching post. The tables were decorated with white Xmas trees and displayed on them were brightly coloured glass Xmas trees made by Brendan, a gift to us all, very much appreciated, thank you Brendan. 

Cleaning up and more Lucy Boston and crafty things.

I forgot to share with you my purchases from Quilts in the Barn and Needles and Pins in Warryndyte, I felt that I had done very well and was pleased with what I had bought. I also purchased the panel, "Tree of Life",  now what to do with it. 

On my recent trip to Melbourne I also completed a few more Lucy Boston's, I am now going to start to put all the squares together if I do not get too distracted from other temptations. This week I am having a holiday as I am going to a quilting retreat int the blue mountains this weekend. It is being hosted by The Stitching Post and Marg Low is one of the teachers

Will try and find all the little bits required from my stash for the retreat so I will not make any unnecessary purchases, ha ha!. So.... This led me to having a clean up, oh my god 3 days later, I am still at it, where does all this stuff come from, will I ever use it in my lifetime, probably not, but I will have a great time trying.

The tree of life panel and some Dutch chintz fabrics.

A selection of fabric from Needles and Pins 

My other purchases mainly from Mary Koval and her fabric, except for the French General in the left hand corner

I bought this hand painted piece of black velvet off Mary's stand, does it not scream at you, to use it for a centre in a quilt.

More Lucy's completed.

I have really enjoyed doing the squares for Lucy, but all journeys must come to an end and now excited about getting it all together?

My other little project this week, drilling holes in china and making flowers.

Even cracked china can be drilled if you are careful.