Another catch-up

Yes it's been a while, life really does get faster as you get older, there just doesn't seem to be as many hours in the day as last year of course it could just be me....

 Now I can show you a glimse of the quilt I FINISHED back in May on my UFO weekend away....sorry about the dodgy picture...

This was a big surprise for Kate..... she didn't think I'd ever get it finished especially when she wasn't home to remind me about it... she moved to the sunshine coast back in April and loved it but found it hard to find work up there so in July I flew up and stayed a couple of days and then we drove back home to Victoria together which was fun.....

I had planned to show you some more photos of Hobart but I can't find them on my computer...I'm thinking I need a new one this one has been giving me quite a bit of grief lately ....another reason for my blog absence...

Happy stitching , Sheryl

Birthday fat 1/4s

These are some gorgeous gifts of fat quarters and other lovely pressies I received for my birthday back in June from the ladies in the birthday fat 1/4 group....

Thank-you girls I am very happy with your fabric choices and I can't

 wait to get started with them....

Catching up....

Gee I just read over my last couple of posts and realised I have to catch up with my photos..... so here is some pics of my ufo weekend I went on at the end of May with my no-blog stitching friends, Sharon and Helen......

This was a scrappy floral quilt Helen stitched the borders on ..... the photo doesn't do it justice it was very pretty with lovely soft colours....

Here's Helen hard at it quilting her "Monet's garden" quilt, which was her own design named after the range of fabric she used, she stitched  flowers in redwork onto plain blocks with the beautiful floral fabrics bordering around each stitchery, it looked gorgeous.....

she even had matching gloves.....

This was a beautiful cross-stitch Sharon was working on... she had to add tiny beads to it ......

which as you can see caused her a bit of stress, yep she had to keep stepping out for a cigarette.....

Here are a few things that she did finish......... a cute little lunch bag on the right, it looked perfect in the fabric she chose and the little mushroom charm was a sweet touch.......

an absolutely gorgeous little red  bag...

and block 1 of a Sue Spargo BOM that she has joined, most of this is wool applique..... simply gorgeous....

This was an applique block Helen set up ... ready to stitch...

and lastly Sharon started this lovely cross-stitch, you can just see the design on the left....

I finished a couple of things which I am very happy about and I will post some pics of them soon.....

Birthday surprise.

Last week I had my birthday... DH asked me where I'd like to go for the weekend, after considering visiting DD1 Victoria in  Queenstown NZ.... no! too far for a weekend or maybe Sunshine coast to catch up with DD 2 Kate no! not long enough in the warmer weather.... I decided it was time we went over to Hobart ... we had been to Cradle Mt about 11 years ago and have always promised ourselves another trip to Tassie.... so we flew over Friday morning and we stayed here...

The Henry Jones Art Hotel

This would have to be one of the most interesting hotels we have ever stayed in, it was built in the old IXL jam factory which they preserved as much as possible.....

keeping the original beams and stone walls.....

Then on most of the walls and in every room there was artwork of every type; some that inspired and some that didn't but all very interesting....

this is a large painting of one of those little plastic pigs from a toy farm set... different....

I will show some more pics of beautiful Hobart  and some sewing soon...

happy stitching everyone.

Back in April I went to the Quilt Exhibition in Melbourne with three of my stitching friends ....

 the quilts on display were amazing to say the least here are some of my favorites....

loved this with all those hexagons and the dancing dollies....

this was gorgeous as well, it was a great design for the toile fabric in the centre....

the stripe fabric was a perfect background for the applique.....

I will show some more photos soon...

Tomorrow DH and I  are going to Queensland  for a few days back Sunday, I'm  home for three days then I am going away with two dear friends for our annual sewing weekend that actually starts on Thursday, so I won't be blogging for a week or two, must go now and pack for sunny (fingers crossed) Qld and decide what I'm taking on my UFO weekend.... have plenty to choose from ........

It's been a while.

Well it has been a while, I decided I needed to concentrate on using my time more productively which meant not spending so many hours on the computer which is why I haven't blogged for while and yes I have got some sewing done, I am madly stitching the Gardeners Journal with the other girls in the Stitch-A-Long and I am very happy with my progress; I have started machine quilting a flannel quilt for my youngest daughter; I just have to stitch a binding around a little Christmas wall-hanging... no pictures yet.
 As well as my sewing I have pulled lots of weeds, cleaned up some of my garden and planted some new seedlings of pansy's and lupins and a few herbs to replace the ones that were overgrown and totally out of control..... that's a very satisfying job done.

The chook house has been finished and we have three brown chickens....

that's Harriet on the left and Matilda on the right......

 this is a close-up of Iris, she is a week or two older than the other girls and we have had two eggs so far....

I will try and post some stitching pics soon.....

A great Easter...

What a great Easter we have just had..... perfect weather, little bit of rain on Friday and Saturday then sunshine and a little breeze for the rest of the weekend.....  I helped mow the lawns and pull a few weeds ..... we had Bob Steve (DH)the builder in and he built a bit more of my new chook house..... yay nearly time to go and buy some chooks I can't wait.... and we changed our clocks back... wow... that makes such a difference I know it is only 1 hour but the days seem so long I felt like I had a really relaxing few days....

Last week I joined the quiltalong group to stitch the Gardener's Journal..... what a good idea especially since I have had a kit for this quilt in my cupboard since 2006....

so Friday I traced off all the stitcheries and started sewing on Saturday.....

But we had a sad day today.... our baby daughter Kate has flown the coop again .... she and one of her girlfriends left this morning on a driving trip to the Sunshine coast, she plans on getting a job and living there for at least 12 months....

so now I will have to start planning a holiday in Qld to visit with her.... hmmmm where did I put that quilt shops of Australia guide...lol...