Melbourne Cup Mystery Day

Last week we held a day at The Sanctuary to have a bit of fun, do a bit of sewing, have a little drink or two, eat a pooled lunch, to risk 20c on a few races, and a whole dollar on the big race! Each lady chose a fat quarter of hand dyed fabric and was able to use threads, yarns and wools from my collection of these. Then it was down to playing on their machines, using all those pretty stitches that we hardly ever use, and trying them out with different threads, or couching on some glittery yarns. Their creations are to be made into something else another day, like a bag, or cushion or book covers. Although a couple of ladies have since finished their projects, which I have shown below.

Just a small part of my collection of “stuff”.

Yummy hand dyes, supplied by Holly Hand Dyes.

Time for the big race. They tell me that this is the race that a nation stops for. It is the first year for a long time that I have actually watched the race. And as there was a lot of overseas horses in this race this year, maybe a lot of nations were watching.

Val is checking all the details of the horses.

Pauline came dressed for the race day!

They are off, and we are trying to hear the name of the horse that we have drawn in the sweep. Some girls wondered if there horse was actually in the race!

But, I was lucky and number 5 was the winner. Not sure what his name was, although if you can read, it is printed on the ?? under the number 5. Horse racing is not really my forte, and I have never actually been to the races, and the only “bet” is a sweep in the Melbourne cup some years. I do know the winner from the year 1974 though, because Think Big won that year, and I drew that horse in the sweep. And it turned out to be fitting, as I was only 3 days away from giving birth to my first child!

Pat was our “bookie” and came around collecting our 20c and drawing our horses.

This is Jean’s effort, and below the bag she has since made with it!

Lois’s creation looks a bit like a road map! And she surely travelled fast along those roads too!

I think Val has some sort of landscape happening here, and is very pleased with her sun above the hills.

And this is Pauline’s, and below the 2 journal covers she has made with this. (Sorry the colours look different, but it is the same piece of fabric).

And this will eventually become a cushion cover. Hope is does not remain a PHD for long.

The start of Helen’s creation.

And another PHD of mine, that hopefully will be a bag soon. Need to make the lining and some handles.

It was a fun day, and using our machines just to play, which we don’t do often enough.

A whole week has flown by since Melbourne Cup Day. I have managed to finish the custom job I had been working on, and it was freighted back to it’s owner today. Have finished a small custom today and found quite a few allover quilting jobs to do in the next week. I have another group coming into The Sanctuary this weekend, and the Adelaide Festival Of Quilts is on in Adelaide from Thursday until Sunday.

I hope you have a good week, whatever you have planned, and I shall catch you again soon.

Blessings, From Jude