A Spendathon Road Trip.

On a crisp and sunny autumnal Saturday morning in mid April, nine of the the Sewing Sisters met bright and early, well, eight were bright and early- there was one straggler... for a trip up the Calder Highway to Castlemaine (Meghan was in the UK visiting the V & A quilt exhibition).

Our first stop was at the Malmsbury bakery, full of delicious goodies to eat, where we met up with our country sister, Sue. Of course we had to restore ourselves; we had been chatting for an hour or so and it was taking it's toll, so coffee & tea, cakes, tarts and slices were devoured in between more laughs and storytelling.

Why Castlemaine? Well, remember that we are all patchworkers, and by definition, we all have this uncontrollable urge / need to replenish our fabric stashes whether they are dwindling or not. Castlemaine is where Corliss and Kurt of "Threadbear" call home, and this way we get to visit with great friends and fulfil that fabric addiction in one trip.

A hive of activity ensued once we arrived, fabric was all over the place, many "oohs" and "ahhs", lots of "I'll have some of that, please, if you're not taking it all", I even heard a "Di, can you help me ????". I really do pity anyone else who decides to shop at "Threadbear" on the days when we are there en masse. I don't think anyone left with out a purchase, some even went back for seconds!!!

What did we do next? Eat, of course!! We bundled our cherished pieces into the car and headed off to "The Bold Garden", where we had a delicious meal, and lots of chatter.

Time to go, so after cheery goodbyes and "keep stitching"s it was back on the road for another session of solving the world's problems.

A great day out; I was glad to arrive home safe and sound, and happy to have spent a day out with the Sisters.

Although I've been patchworking since 1987, I don't usually get to escape on Saturdays to spend time with the Sisters, as I have 2 boys who play lots of sport and need their mum to drive them from one venue to another (besides, I like to watch them play basketball; they'll be grown before I can blink, and they won't need me so much then). This weekend, however, I left my husband in control and disappeared into the wild.

As you are all probably aware, the Sisterhood is exhibiting at "Quilts in the Barn" later in the year, and I, like all the others, am trying to complete one more quilt. My current project is a quilt "Home Sweet Home" by Barb Adams & Alma Allen. I've now got all the nine house blocks completed and 2 of the swag borders, so with a bit more work, it'll be ready to send off to be machine quilted.

Here are the first 6 houses. It's taken quite a while, I keep getting distracted with new projects, but I'm back on track again, and it'll be quilted and ready in time for the exhibition.

Writing on this blog, my very first attempt, has been fun, but if I'm to get this quilt finished, I'd better go and get some stitching done, till next time...

The Morrell's European Holiday and tomorrow is Thursday Secret Sewing.

On Monday I felt like a Mum sending her beloved child off to camp ! I have lent the Morrell Quilt to Petra from Petra's Patchwork and Quilting in Zutphen and Den Haan and Wagenmakers in Amsterdam. I feel like I have known Petra forever so know the quilt is in excellent hands. She is displaying it on her stand at the Pour L'Amour du Fil Quilt Show in Nantes in France and The Open European Championships in Veldhoven. It will be back home again for Quilts in the Barn later this year.

Tomorrow is Thursday Secret Sewing and we are heading down to Clare's holiday house at Barwon Heads. This passion takes us far and wide !! We don't mind what distance we have to travel for a day together. I've just been baking some chocolate cakes to take but was also trying to organise a new baby quilt for Maggie to start tomorrow...... got a tad carried away and from my sewing room could smell burning chocolate in the kichen. The thermostat on the stove must of had a hissy-fit and low heat became full on. The smell filled the house...absolutely foul. Our food addicted Springer Spaniel, Flic, got all excited thinking the mess would go to her instead of the bin ! The look on her face when I told her she couldn't have chocolate was very sad. Fortunately, due to my chocolate addiction I had another block of choccy and could start all over again. This time staying in the kitchen ( but I did move the fabric I was playing with into the kitchen with me !)

Maggie's quilt was going to be very simple....or so I originally planned. I have so many UFO's ( see one of Merri's earlier blogs re the no. of these we each had ) to finish as well as 2 Significant Pieces of Work... SPOWS....for Quilts in the Barn ,another time consuming project seemed out of the question and I also thought 5 week old Maggie would like it before her 21st birthday!


I was teaching up at Threadbear on Sunday and bought some gorgeous "pretty" little girl fabrics from a 30's Collection by Lecien (2nd photo) then added a few from the stash ( I must confess I did lightly tea dye the new ones... they were a little fresh for me. (1st photo) I now can't decide whether to do a minature Granny's Flower Garden or a mini version of the quilt I'm doing for Ballarat. (last blog ) I think this might be a decision for the sisters tomorrow.I'll keep you posted.

Getting back to our UFO's , after I read Merri's blog re the same, I went searching to see what I could finish for the show. The no. was a bit staggering and it was kind of like Christmas finding all this old stuff!! ( I used to be well known for not finishing...LOVED starting ) I did find my daughter Nicci's unfinished 21st Birthday Quilt.... she is Jake and Maggie's Mum and is now 37!! Sorry Nic. But it's now on the list. Most of the fabrics look like I made it yesterday, I'm just going to change the set in triangles.Machine piecing will be a welcome change from all the applique of late.The Aussie girls reading this may recognise John Farnham's signature in the top block!!!! After my gorgeous Brian, no.1 son and grandson and no.1 dog ,John is my very favourite male person and of course the best performer in the whole world !!

My next UFO to get stuck into will be my Baltimore... more on that next time.

Di.

PS I will master the photo positions 1 day!!

Edited by Deb for photo placement - I hope I put them in the right place Di!

The "Secret Sewing Saturday" March edition!

On Saturday 20th. March, 2010 several suspects carrying rather large bags and sewing paraphenalia began arriving at ther designated address.
The following is just one account of how the actual event unfolded and names may have been changed to protect the innocent!
Well, maybe not so innocent!! Especially when it comes to the patchwork and quilting we al love.
Or, should I say share with a passion! I just love those Saturdays when we all meet and share our lives, our quilts and our ideas!
This time it was my place and the time just flew by!






We may have even got some sewing done! in between the show and tell and the eating bit!
Speaking of "show and tell" bit here is Ann (top) with another masterpiece nearly complete!
Deb (on the left) showing her work in blue, white and yellow!
Merri also had a beautiful piece to show....originally inspired by Kim McLean's "Turkish Tiles" but radically different and unique! Merri? Does your quilt have a name as yet?
Have you noticed something about this group? We seem to all make rather "big" quilts!
That's it for this post..but stand by for some really exciting news about a rather stunning quilt that some-one out there may get to keep!
Cheers!

2nd Edition 21st March...I pushed the wrong button and published the first bit too early !!

I am very computer illiterate,therefore it is mildly amazing I have acheived what I have so far. I have just learnt what button not to push at a certain time but still not how to get the photos in the right position. DEB....HELLLP!

The top ph
o

The top photo is the raffle quilt for Quilts in the Barn that we are all working on. It is a repro of the quilt on page 75 of Quilts of the Oregon Trail.Yesterday was Secret Sewing Saturday so we layed all the blocks out to work out their order,then we'll stitch it together and turn it over to Helen Hayes to weave her majic with the quilting.

the next photo is one of the new quilts I'm working on .I've designed it for a class I'm teaching at the Ballarat Quilting Weekend in August this year. It has a Broderie Perse and Hexagon centre with small diamonds making up the bulk of the quilt then more borders to finish.I'm hoping for an English Frame Look.

I'm now starting to ramble a little so will save the next bit of news till next week (yes, I do mean next week !)

Happy Piecing

Di.

21st March 2010 Finally !! My 2nd Blog.

Having told myself I would update weekly ( I figured this meant that no matter what ,I would stitch like crazy each day ,no matter how bad the house or the garden looked!! ) 2 months have flown by. But I do have a really good excuse......I've been very busy becoming a Nana for the 2nd time. Maggie Grace was born 3and a half weeks early on the 22nd Feb.We were lucky Mum and Bub very healthy. Maggie is tiny and just back to birth weight this week.Sooooo cute. Oh I can feel another Quilt coming on!!! Almost 11 year old Jake is very proud of his baby sister. Life is great and now (hopefully) back to what we call normal.

We had our Secret Sewing Thursday on the 4th March at Barb's .Barb's show and tell was her Antique Wedding Sampler (AWS).The only words to describe it are stunningly spectacular.It is a series of pieced& appliqued blocks with lots of Broderie Perse. Barb's Broderie Perse has to be seen to be believed. She even changed the colour of the thread every time there was a change in the fabric shades. Just beautiful.We are all gobsmacked!! Hopefully it will be finished in time for the Quilts in the Barn at Wonga Park mid October this year ( those who read Deb's blog Needles, Sticks and Hooks will know how excited we were to be the exhibitors at the next show ) Photo shows our very proud Barb with Merri taking in the quilt.