Home Sweet Home

Arrived home last night after our whirlwind trip to Melbourne. Very tired, but with lots of happy memories. A great family night out for my nephews 21st, a visit to the fabulous Victoria Markets, and of course seeing the lovely Elyte and Marina. We braved the cold and wind on Friday night to see some live action role playing (larping) by Swordcraft. There were about 200 people involved, dressed in assorted medieval costume and bearing their pretend weapons. Excellent entertainment.

Of course there was some souvenir shopping too......Carolyns and Tranquility were just so tempting. Some fabrics and a new portable work light from Carolyns. Tranquility had these cute jars with special lids for adding a pincushion top. Some fabric and thread also slipped in, although I seem to have lost the thread already.

I would have liked to stay home in my pj's with the boys today, but alas, I was off to work. Have a great week everyone.

Susan x

Lunch with friends

I have had such a lovely afternoon with Elyte and Marina. We spent an hour at Tranquility crafts choosing and buying some goodies. It's such a well stocked little shop and Joanne is so friendly. I was very happy to find a fabric that I have been looking for since I was here two years ago. You know when you carry a tiny scrap around in your purse for months searching for a fabric....very happy to find it again at Tranquility.

Then we had a scrumptious lunch at Puckle Street and talked late into the afternoon. Elyte and I had planned a mini swap to exchange while I was I here in Melbourne. I love my new mini. It has some elements from Elyte's new Stonefields quilt, and is made in my favourite French General fabrics. Thank you so much for making such a beautiful new addition to my mini wall.

Time spent with blogging friends is so good for the soul. Thank you!
I'll be back soon with a pic of my purchases.

Susan x

The things you see......

.....in the middle of the countryside. We left home at 5am today for our 900 km drive to Melbourne. We took a break at Holbrook in NSW and look what we found.

HMAS Otway is a replica submarine that has been yarn bombed this month as a community project to attract people to the town from the bypassing freeway. It's made up of knitted and crocheted patches from all over the world. At the end of July the pieces will be donated to animal shelters in the area. It was amazing to see the yellow submarine.

My lovely family also let me visit Carolyn's Quilt Room At Wodonga. Lots of beautiful reproduction fabrics to choose from. Always so exciting to check out a new patchwork shop.

We've had a great night with my sisters family and now ready for a long sleep. Looking forward to more quilty fun tomorrow with Elyte and Marina.

Susan x

Hand quilting

I love hand quilting, but it really doesn't make for interesting posts. So what have I been doing apart from hand quilting my SIL quilt? I finally got around to having a go at Shez's bunny pattern. This one was a practice, but I'll definitely make more, so easy and very cuddly.

The cream fabric is about 15 years old, leftover from these cute sheep cushions made for my nieces.

My secret project is finished and waiting for a photo shoot before it heads off to it's destination. I am hand delivering it to Melbourne later this week as we are having a quick road trip for my nephews 21st. I am so excited about catching up with Elyte and Marina while I'm there. Unfortunately I won't have time to visit the craft show, or Millrose, or Threadbear or L'ucellos.....maybe next time. But I am hoping that my family will let me stop to visit Carolyns Quilt Room at Wodonga.

I got a lovely squishy package on Friday from Fiona. She organised a little swap to clean out some of her up cycled wool collection. I was thinking charm squares but instead this big pile of 10" squares arrived. Excellent for the woolly stash.

Winter has definitely arrived here today. Hope you're keeping warm and finding some time to stitch.
Susan x

Three teenagers!

My baby turns 13 today, so we'll have three lovely teenage boys in the family. We didn't really put him in the bin, he's too cute.

Love you EJ.
X

Finally making a start

An unexpected trip to Bathurst gave me the opportunity to buy the wadding for my SIL quilt. So now it's all basted together ready for some quilting.........I've got two months to finish it. Just starting with straight lines on the lighter sections, and if time permits I'll add some more.

A little bit of secret sewing which is nearing it's deadline too.

I found out this week that the local fabric shop that doesn't sell wadding has announced that it's closing at the end of June. 50% off everything........but unfortunately not a lot worth buying. I did stock up on DMC though.

Hope you find some happy sewing moments over the weekend.

Susan x

FNWF

I had planned to have the top of my SIL quilt finished, basted and ready to quilt for FNWF. The extra fabric did arrive in time but unfortunately the local fabric shop (it's not a very good shop) has decided not to sell batting anymore so the top will be as far as I get for now. Not very happy about that.

I also spent a bit of time tidying my very messy sewing room, and started sewing together the blocks from the traditional nine patch swap. The blocks have been cut and sorted for ages, just needed sewing. My sewing machine and I have spent a lot of time together lately.........but I'll be ready to get back to hand stitching when I sew the last rows together.

So I got quite a bit of sewing done during the day, but sidetracked in the evening. We have been planning a fire pit for a while, and we finally got an old centrifuge basket from hubby's work. Before........

And after..........drinks around the new fire in the front paddock to start the long weekend.

Hope you find some stitching time over the weekend.

Susan x

Hmmmmm

I laid out my Irish Circles blocks at the weekend. I'm not unhappy with how it looks but I'm having second thoughts about the red bordered squares. In the original pattern they blend in more.......I'm thinking about replacing them with circles.....with the added advantage of getting to sew four more circles! I'm hoping that once the blocks are sewn together and quilted, the cream background won't look so stark.

Then I really need to go somewhere to audition fabric for the first border, just can't do that online. This is my blue block finished from the weekend. I love red most, but these blues are a close second.

I resolved my block shortage on my SIL's quilt by buying another LBD fat quarter and will use some of the back as well. Hoping it arrives on Friday so I can finish the top at FNWF. Pop over to Cheryll's to sign up.

Happy stitching.
Susan x

I love half square triangles

I started cutting this morning and this is how far I got with my blocks by lunchtime. Half square triangles are so much quicker than hand piecing!

I made a little mistake calculating my fabric and I'm two blocks short, so I'll have to put it aside for now.......not sure how that happened. All I need is two 8" squares grrrrr.

My SIL's birthday is in August so I'm really happy with my progress. The next question will be dark thread on the light zigzags or light thread on the dark zigzags? Given time constraints I think I'll quilt with perle.

Hope you find time for some sneaky stitches this week.

Susan x

Finally partying!

Finally sat down to sew in my pj's at about 11pm last night. Working on another Irish Circles block.

Thinking about starting my SIL birthday quilt tomorrow. Hoping for a cold, wet start to winter.

........I wrote that last night and today my wish has been granted.

I'm not even cleaning up my sewing space, just pushed everything out of the way to start cutting my SIL's quilt......AND I'm still in my pj's..........does it get any better than this?

Happy Birthday Chookshed, and have a great day everyone.

Susan x