Tuesday, 15 May 2012

Belated Mother's Day

Here in Australia we celebrated Mother's Day 2 days ago -  May 13th. I have never been enthused for this day...........probably a legacy left to me by my late Mother who always said "Mother's Day should be everyday. Please don't buy me anything...just a bunch of flowers"
But this year was different. Life is passing us by and with baby Beau around it all seems different - sorry Mum! Larry always makes sure I have chrysanthemums so I set to and decided the family would get together for a picnic. Now I am not one to cook but I went all out and had fun finding recipes - the links are below each one and they were all easy!

BUT the weather was cold and drizzling - so we had to have it inside but with paper plates!


 Emily's very first Mother's day
 A Mother's day kiss from Auntie Sophie
 Such a special Mother's day
 Flowers from Sophie
Mother and baby Ant - a gift from Emily and Brett confirming my continued obsession with the TV series Minuscule (I have the whole series of over 60 episodes...have a peek.....(I love it!!)

And to top it all off we had sweet indulgences baked by Brett and Sophie.....

 A Mother's day to remember..........



Back to Morris and Quilting next time (lots of show and tell)
Take care wherever you are X

Wednesday, 9 May 2012

Quilting at the Sanctuary

First of all I must let those winners of the last pattern give-away know that your patterns will be in the mail tomorrow!! Sorry but life got away from me yet again! Enjoy it all when it arrives.


Now to my recent weekend at Jude's Sanctuary. Jude has done an amazing job doing up a house in Bordertown about 4 hours south of Adelaide. Her plan is for it to be a home away from home for small groups - especially quilters! The house can accommodate up to 10 people. As you can see by the photos it is a wonderful retreat.............
 A cozy fire to stitch by in the evening
 Quilts on every bed
 fresh flowers in the bathrooms!


 And on warmer days the outside patio
 below - "the shed" for the dying workshops






Jude invited me to do my favourite workshop......"Designing for Applique". For me this is very rewarding as it empowers others to design their own work..and look at the results!!
Kay's efforts above - she was so excited and I hope this is the beginning of loads more designs and maybe a block of the month or two!!
 Pauline wanted to do a table-runner with a Scottish celtic theme on Blackwatch tartan - stunning
 Above is Jan's beautiful design minus a few extra details to come
 Marie's eye catching black, red and white number inspired by a tile
 Very shy Jean with her sensational thistles
 Pat deserved the award for patience.
I am sure she drew and redrew, then cut and cut for 24 hours non stop!!
 Jocelyn pretended she didn't know what she was doing so had a little help from me!
Well done everyone...Jude and Jill are missing with designs on paper.

 The end of a creative weekend and time to go home for two happy campers - and one patient husband of course! Check out the boot.....
 So on the way home I stopped by a wee shop at Culburra on the Duke's Highway between Tintinara and Coonalpyn......if you blink you will miss it and Wikipedie tells me there was a population of 10 in 2006!! Sandy Tonkin and her husband are the delightful residents of this house which is also a little quilt store full of all sorts of bargains - especially Madeira threads!! I have told her to make sure she has quilts hanging on the verandah because I have driven past many times and did not even know she was there! So do visit and tell her I sent you..she might let you see her kitchen wallpaper that I drooled over....from the 1950's we think - see below....




So thank you Jude for having me.........hope there are many more quilting retreats at the Sanctuary. If you have a group of friends who need some time away together do give Jude a thought. Email via her Blog.
Have great week wherever you are X

Tuesday, 8 May 2012

Workshops and babies

The past two weeks were filled with three workshops....firstly I visited Murray Bridge Quilters but sadly left my camera at home. It was lovely to catch up with quilting friends and all the news including grandbaby news from many! This past weekend was a two day design workhop in Bordertown (more news next post) and today I caught up with quilting freinds at Pt Elliot - thanks one and all for having me! So with grandbaby news I am afraid I just have to share this with you....
 Above is Emily at the same age in 1982 and below we see such a resemblance.....
 Dear little man......
Now I would really like to know how to put this little video on to the blog but you will just have to click this link instead.........you must see it as it is priceless! Emily was thrilled to hear Beau gurgling as he starts to make sounds, so she decided to capture it....but she did not expect this!!! Click HERE!! (I hope it works!)

So much happening

In just two short weeks so much has happened! I will need to do about three posts - so here is the first. Last week I had the great honour of being asked to judge Tea Tree Gully Quilter's quilt show challenge. The criteria was as follows:

 The variety and interpretations were amazing and it was very hard to choose a winner....but this is what I selected by Judith Clements......
 And one of the highly commended quilts by Julie Tanska
It was a wonderful exhibition and I was thrilled to see the results of a design workshop I did for the group about 3 years ago............
Above..........someone please jolt my entry...I can't read the label -sorry!!
 Above from Gill Schache
 Above Mary Schmidt
Above from Anna Rackham
 It was wonderful to see Lorna Nash's interpretation of one of the nursery quilts from the second William Morris applique book (above and detail below)

 And finally Vivienne Dale's Maggie Walker quilt....the embroidery and detail was breathtaking....





Thankyou to all TTG quilters for inviting me and I hope it was a great three days for you all.
Enough for now as I need to do a new post for more news!