Sharing

I've just had a few days away with friends under the care of Judy Simcock (who we call Jude), at one of her scheduled retreats - this one was with 'William' and Jude has loads of photos of our time together! I feel so lucky to have found an outlet where we can not only create but also share in the journey of life. It is inevitable that life hands out unexpected hurdles but it is always so much easier when you can talk about it. The drive from home is about three and half hours and on the way I met the beautiful Delma for lunch at the Henry and Rose Cafe in Keith. It is a gorgeous place and serves our favourite Robe coffee too......

 We quite liked our water tumblers........

 Delma is a very special friend and a brave soul who has had more than her fair share of family sadness but on the weekend she stitched away and almost finished one quilt and did finish another.........

 There were eleven of us on the weekend and seven the next couple of days. Everyone was busy as you can see at this link but I was a bit slow with photos. But I did manage to catch Pat embroidering some of my designs......

 Another Pat was busy with Peter Rabbit and Brenda was hand piecing with Morris fabrics.......

 Jean was thrilled to finish her 'Morning Chorus' quilt and I even completed one of my new Morris quilts that I've called 'Morris Brocade' - I just have the quilting to go!........

 Hilda reduced my 'Strawberry Thief' pattern by 60% and isn't it stunning? She added the border from 'Morris Magic' and added some hand embroidered highlights.......

I think Jude misplaced her glasses a couple of times as she tried to complete the appliqué preparation for her 'Dear William' quilt! But Jude spends more time making us all feel special with her hospitality and the most delicious home cooked meals too......and of course quilting many quilts for customers! Jude's blocks are simpler than the pattern so she can showcase her award winning quilting later.......

 Julie started a sashiko project and Marion was busy on her 'May Morris Sampler' blocks......

 Chris is making a version of the 'William and May Sampler' quilt for a family member who asked for this colour palette that we all admired........

 Kathleen was busy hand piecing hexagons after she had finished her small Morris wall hanging........

 For some strange reason I accidentally deleted the photo of Kathleen's wall hanging so I've pinched an image from Jude!........

I was also working on another new quilt that I'm calling 'Elegance' and I now need to appliqué the triangles and design the corners and then quilt it.......

 Being away was a welcome break but it was also hard leaving family at this time. I had taken some images of our time together a few weeks ago at an open day for family play activities at Flinders University where Sophie works. Little did we know that only a few days later Sophie would be in a serious condition and little Wade would be making an unexpected entrance. But it was a lovely day and such fun for Beau and Maisie playing with dinosaurs and making flower stew........

 Flinders University has several campuses but this is the main one at Bedford Park where it is surrounded by parks and lakes with stunning views out to sea.......

Some days later we repeated the outdoor fun at home complete with their own pretend shop, restaurant, and cubby house complete with garage!!.......

 So it was yesterday that I drove home from Jude's in somewhat treacherous conditions! It was pouring heavy rain for over an hour and I had to reduce my speed due to the hydro planing - very scary seeing my warning lights come on a couple of times and even more scary with lunatics speeding past me! But when I arrived home to dear Larry there was a delightful card with a hand stitched bookmark waiting for me all the way from New Zealand! I had offered to send some personally signed book plates to someone to paste inside her William Morris Appliqué books and this was my thankyou - I am so touched by such a generous thankyou for such a simple gift. Thankyou so very much Anne - I love it x

 So on a final note an update on precious Wade. He has had a couple of set backs which we are told is normal for a premature baby but none the less it has been very stressful for Sophie and Tim. I am looking forward to seeing him later today and giving hugs to Sophie as well...........