Thursday post

This was the photo that I posted before the Rendlesham group retreat, taken on June 13....................

...................................and this taken after that, on June 18th.............

............................................and this was taken yesterday, ready for the arrival tomorrow of another group to do the Pick a case Mystery retreat. Maybe I have not been sitting idle, twiddling my thumbs this month!! Hopefully everyone will find something that they are happy with. I will be back in a few days with a retreat report.

In amongst that job, I have managed to get some quilts finished, and here are a few photos for you.

First are quilts made by Liz, for the family of a farmer friend that died. She used his shirts and made 3 quilts.

We used a tractor tyre tread pattern, so give the quilts texture, and you can see that the shirt pockets were included.......

......and the outside borders were made from trousers, and here a part of a pocket was left in too.

 The backings used were of John Deere tractors.

This quilt is a sampler made by Marion, who is trying to finish all her UFO's, and has made steady progress with this.

This morning I headed up the highway again, and this was my view for part of the trip. It was hard enough to see oncoming vehicles even with their headlights on, but I was totally stunned that some vehicles were driving in that soup, WITHOUT LIGHTS ON??!! A bus turned onto the highway from a side road, without any warning, that caused me to brake hard, and further on a man turned onto the highway when he should have waited. And in the hills, on a 2 lane freeway, one driver chose to stay in the right lane all the way!! All I can say, it was the day for ??@@@@ drivers. Is it a full moon or something? Rant over. (Note, I did stop on the side of the road to take that photo!)

And this was the outside temperature!, But I was nice and cosy in the car, and sorry it looks like an inside car clean might be necessary!

This was my purchase today. It was an end of financial year deal that was too good to leave. It is not the current model, and is slightly used, but comes with a 3 year warranty from a dealer. Did I need another machine? No. Am I intending to trade in any of the 5 machines that I have here? No. My "good" Pfaff machine is quite old now, and having a problem that can't be fixed. I do love my Pfaffs, and already had 2, but do have Janome machines here as well. Those machines are used by others, and the angels when we have sewing days here. Or when the grandchildren have a sewing session with grandma. But no one else gets to use my Pfaff. I have tried out another brand, but it didn't feel right, and I already have lots of feet for this brand. I do feel a bit extravagant, but I am hoping that this will give me the incentive to get back to some of my own embellished quilt projects which I haven't spent time on lately. So watch this space, and remind me of my intention won't you??

Time for some shut eye, ready for a cooking session in the morning, before the arrival of another bunch of ladies. This group is quite different this weekend, with some new faces, so will be good.
I hope for a relaxing time, in between the food prep, and have sewn the binding on one of my own quilts, ready for hand sewing, in between lots of chatter and laughter.

Blessings, From Jude