Pretty quiet on the sewing front here. We have a Japanese student staying with us, so we have been spending our time sight seeing and working on communicating. It's certainly been an interesting experience! In honour of his visit I got out an old UFO, a sashiko panel from a craft show a few years ago.

I've done some more quilting on The Simple Life and finished another Irish Circles block. I love the blues in this one from last week (maybe I should get the iron out too!).

Hope you find a quiet moment to stitch this week.
Susan x

Surprise package

Postie brought me a little soft package yesterday.....I wasn't expecting anything.....least of all this beautiful pincushion from Marina. Perfectly stitched with a clever little bunny sewing, and a lovely navy wool backing. As a rabbit collector it's a perfect design for me. Thank you so much Marina, I love it.

Susan x

And now back to some sewing

I used to do a lot of cross stitch but it fell by the wayside when I started patchwork. Just lately, thanks largely to Marina I have been dabbling in some very small projects using just one colour. I found this cute free pattern at The Primitive Hare, and used some linen and thread I bought in Sydney. I don't know how many cute small cushions one person needs, but it's relatively cheap therapy. This is where I'm up to.

The thread is Baked Apple by Weeks Dye Works......it would have to be my favourite shade of red.

It didn't snow here today, but it was certainly very cold and windy. We will be braving the soccer fields tomorrow and then some sewing time I hope.
Susan x

Day 2

Instead of returning to the show on Saturday we decided to visit Quiltsmith and Material Obsession. I'm sad to say that I was suffering from shopping fatigue by this stage, but I was happy to find a fabric for my Irish Circles border at 25% off. Quiltsmith is always a joy, so many beautiful fabrics.

I was surprised by how much I enjoyed Material Obsession, they had a really eclectic collection of fabrics. Will definitely have to visit again one day........when I'm off my fabric diet! Yes, you heard correctly. I'm not getting quite the same thrill from buying patchwork supplies as I used to so I'm taking a break, and using what I have for a while. Well that's the plan anyway, it remains to be seen how long I'll last.

While I was away Hubby and Mr 13 went to the Mudgee Small Farm Field Days, and we are now the proud owners of three little ducks.

Happy stitching.
Susan x

Sydney Craft Show

I was up bright and early on Friday to drive to Sydney for the craft show with the Cassilis Quilters. The ferry ride from Darling Harbour to the show was glorious, much more enjoyable than driving. The new venue was good, very spacious with lots of natural light.

One of the highlights of the day for me was unexpectedly meeting Sue-Anne from Buddy and Me. Sue-Anne makes gorgeous quilts and her blog was where I first saw Floral Beauty and Irish Circles. No photo unfortunately, but we instantly recognised each other....it was a perfect blogging moment.

Plenty of retail therapy was had. Lots of little purchases. Especially happy to find my own little pair of Appliquik scissors and stock up on some purse frames. There were so many cute projects, it was hard to resist them all.

The Quilt Show was full of variety and amazing quilts. I was very happy to see the hand appliquéd and hand quilted Best of Show quilt. Lots of intricate machine quilting to be seen too. I particularly liked this one by Chris Serong and Desley Maisano, beautiful use of colour and orange peels.

Here we are at the end of the day, happy and exhausted. From the left, me, Kylie, Raelee, Julie and Lea. Please note that I am not as tall as I look, my companions are vertically challenged.

This is the view of the city as we stepped out of the show to catch the ferry back. You can just make out the full moon in the centre.

We finished off with a very good Thai dinner with Chookyblue and Anita at Darling Harbour.

Susan x

In my hoop

Next on my quilting list is The Simple Life, a Hatched and Patched design. I finished the top last September, and now it is definitely cold enough to be snuggled up quilting of an evening.

I'm using DMC Cebelia no. 30 to quilt it. It's very similar to perle 8, maybe a little finer. I got it at Spotlight mainly because of the colour. It seems to be working ok.

Happy stitching.
Susan x

FNWF and a finish

I joined up with Cheryl and 53 others to stitch the night away on Friday for FNWF. I was still quilting my SIL quilt. With a little more stitching yesterday, it's finished. I'm very happy with the quilting in Perle 8, and how the Little Black Dress fabric looks. It's for her 50th birthday, and I don't think she has any idea that I have made a quilt. I found it hard to choose fabrics since we don't see each other all that often, so I stayed with a safer choice. I hope she likes it.

Now back to some appliqué, and start quilting the next quilt in the queue.

Susan x

FNWF

FNWF seems to roll around very quickly each month. I will be working on my SIL quilt. I have reached a point where I can sew the binding on, but I might still add some more quilting. I'm using my Clover clips that I bought from Red Raspberry quilts, they work really well (and don't poke into me like pins do!).

I love using the perle. It gives a nice hand quilted result very quickly. See you all tonight.......but if I'm lucky I might start a little bit earlier.

Susan x

Melbourne mini swap

I loved the mini I received from Elyte. The one I made for her was also in reds and creams. I intended to do an eight pointed star but the papers I bought weren't the right size, so six sided it was. It measures 12" square.

It was actually square, just looks wonky on the grass.

I also made a little pincushion for my fellow hexie lover, Marina. It looks a bit wonky because it was. 3/8" hexies.

I have been busy quilting my SIL quilt at night, it's keeping me very warm. Also planning my trip with the Cassilis Quilters to the Sydney craft show next week. Looking forward to catching up, seeing some beautiful quilts and buying a few supplies.

Susan x