A lovely weekend....

This last weekend was the annual Stitchers Dream Day Out hosted by The Quilters Angel .... I am lucky enough to be allowed to attend both days.. one as a helper and the other as a stitcher...  its lovely..

Kris and I consider ourselves in charge of getting chairs ready.... don't they look so pretty?

.. and there is a little shop stall for those emergency items one needs at a stitching day

...

.. and gift bags with patterns and starter kits for the projects....

.. display boards with samples of the designers work.... this year we had Julie Lovell from Calico Farm Designs and Bronwyn Hayes of Red Brolly....

... No pictures of the designers but they were both lovely... I have read Bronwyn's blog for years and was a bit celebrity tongue tied meeting her... I have to tell you she is just lovely, down to earth and was quite happy getting her hands dirty helping clean up at the end of Sunday... ooooh and she sat in my car!!!! woohooooo

Here are the samples for the patterns we got...

I helped with registration and had this lovely red tea cup with lavender in it... and a cup of lovely coffee from the lady with her van...

... and wonderful to meet friends... here is Susan....

... and Marilyn... and Robyn (no blog)

... and here is all the bloggers together... Susan, me, Kris, Marilyn and Narelle (who drove 3 hours in the morning to get there)

... pretty roses at the tea table...

.. and lovely cake.... 

Narelle stayed overnight and joined us on Sunday too and it was lovely to get a chance to sit and have a chit chat (just a little!)

On Sunday I got my pack and kit... my project was one of Bronwyns ladies designs.... I do love her 3 glamorous girls....

Christine Lyn and I dressed for Tea Time (which was the theme for the weekend)....

(we do look like the girls in her drawings don't we.. though I don't think they blatantly show off their legs!)

... and there was another lovely cake....

(by the way they tasted just as good as they looked)

When I got home I found a little parcel in my bag... I thought someone had dropped it by mistake but Narelle sent me a message and said it was for me from her ..

I lovely gift - a little hanger for my new home, a thread holder and all wrapped in fabric and tied with ric-rac...

 - 

... obviously she had taken note of how my thread was during the day!

... so now it is sorted .... thanks Narelle....

A lovely weekend... I'm looking forward to next years already....

Right, Gotto Go.... 

FMQ challenge for August

Lucky for me Darlene has given us extra time to get this challenge finished..... (I have to admit I did finish it a while ago and completely forgot about blogging it!!!)

Augusts feature tutor on QuiltShopGal was Angela Waters... I already had one of her books and found this the perfect excuse to purchase another - I do find good books a helpful means of inspiration and handy tips.  I have followed Angela's blog for some time too

I went for Option 2 of challenge  using Angela's book Shape by Shape ....

I divided my cushion top fabric  into 4 squares and then did that shape on the cover of the book....which is a bit modern and zentaglish... and which is like the snails trail block and does my head in seeing how things work....

I drew the lines first and then quilted over them using one of my handy rulers to keep the lines straight....

For this I used a thicker top stitching thread and needle as I wanted the lines very predominant....

.. for the back I changed to general size thread and did a long piece using Angela's signature design .... no marking necessary...

I struggled with the wavy look so I included a figure 8 design in some ....

 ... then I sliced it to get the two pieces for my favourite envelope finish...

... here is the completed top... I do like the secondary patterns that are created with this design.  it needed lots of turning of the fabric (I don't have a foot that can take a ruler in any direction) so I don't see this as being practical for me on a quilt....

.. and the back... which makes me think of corsets!!  your choice which way the waist fits best!!

.. the fabric looks very white in the pictures but it is more buttery-sandy with a light background design (which you can see in the first picture) ...

I like this look... more modern and masculine than what I am used to ... and I think this might be perfect for Hubz new office space (yes... he is getting an office in the new house - I had to trade off something for a sewing room!)

Thank you Darlene for hosting this challenge... anyone can join... it is not competitive but great for learning and practicing and wonderful inspiration looking at what others have made....

Thanks Angela for sharing your talents with us...thank goodness for quilters who do ...

Double Date.....

Friday night was 

 

and Cheryll had us over at her place..... thanks very much it was such great fun

Friday Night was also

Stitching night at the Quilters Angel....

I have some little stitcheries designed by Kris that I am doing... and you can see we get our tea in the most beautiful mugs....

I couldn't resist some of these very pretty pearls... candy coated chocolate... so pretty I wanted to thread them into a necklace....

.... earlier this week I went stitching the sampler blocks with friends Christine and Lyn....

Trip Around the World (25 pieces)

The Friendship Quilt (17 Pieces)

Milky Way (25 pieces)

Arizona (41 pieces)

Arizona is a record breaker... we haven't had one with so many pieces...

For those number nerds this adds another 108 pieces and we have 756 patchwork pieces in all our 42 blocks so far - there are 98 more blocks to do...

Next week we are tackling several foundation paper piecing ones.... hmmmm

Now I have a confession ... of lust.... I seldom feel jealousy or lust but I do for this ...

... meet Christine's Singer featherweight she has recently aquired....

... just makes the gentlest of purrs as it goes... I love it....

... meanwhile at home we are seeing the signs of spring....

my wisteria is covered with buds.. next week it will be stunning and I am planning where I am going to have one growing in my new home...

.. and the jasmine scents my bedroom perfectly in the late afternoons.... (however I am also wondering if it is not the hayfever culprit???) so I may or may not be planting one in my new home...

Righto, Gotto Go... time for some sleep .....

Sampler blocks... laaast weeks

Before we went on our mini break to see the whales I did have a stitching day with my friends .....  we all made a few more of our Sylvia's Bridal Sampler blocks

This was my first attempt at Snails Trail.... needed a bit of reversing... I find with these kind of blocks I can see something is not right  but find it very hard to spot what I did wrong.... luckily the other girls could see straight away..

.. so effective but fiddly diddly....

Snails Trail (20 pieces)

this one probably would have been better with non directional background....

Mosaic #3 (13 pieces)

a bit of curve sewing...

Winding Ways (12 pieces)

Foundation Paper piecing

Mother's Delight (24 pieces)

Pinwheel 2 (16 pieces)

Pinwheel 1 (8 pieces)

I used button hole stitch with a single thread for this one - this was a homework block

Lancaster Rose (15 pieces) 

I saw this lovely trunk on sale so got it for all my Sylvia's Sampler stuff... it fits all my bits of fabric I have collected up for it, the pattern book, my sewing machine pedal, the box of blocks etc etc.... 

... but I always forget something.. this week it was rotary cutter, scissors ... lucky the others share...

Righto, Gotta Go and add that 128 pieces to my grand total....