A quilt, a wedding, and family time

In my last post I said that I had an important job to do, and Thursday and Friday I did a bit of overtime to finish this task. If you check out the blog of  Michele Hill  you will be able to read all about the special quilt I worked on. 

My visitor was Michele Hill, who brought this quilt to Bordertown for me to quilt. While I have chatted on the phone, or emailed with her, it has been 2 years since we have caught up in person, so it was a special time. Raylene was still here too, and we had many laughs in between the work.

Michele is well know for her William Morris quilts, but this time we have an Australiana theme and you can read more about how this quilt came to be, on her blog. The quilt is called "Bee Mindful" and will be raffled to raise funds. Following that, it will be available as a Block of the Month quilt. 

Michele has added her magic touch to this quilt at home, by adding stitching to the bees and filling in a few empty spaces with more quilting, as well as the binding.  Her design work is amazing, and she worked on the patterns while I quilted, making some adjustments where needed. All the stitches around the applique are so neat and perfect. It has been an amazing achievement by Michele and her helpers in just over 5 weeks, from start to finish!!

Michele left late Friday afternoon, and then it was time to switch Max off for some rest, and start to think about packing my bag, and what I might wear to the wedding the next day.  Saturday's weather was a beautiful summer day, with blue sky, and "not too hot" sunshine. I almost felt like I had been "let out of school" as I drove up the highway. Note to self: I should do this more often. I usually take the highway through to the city and cross the river at Murray Bridge, but this time I needed to cross the river at Wellington, on the ferry. There was a long queue of cars and caravans waiting  to cross over, and I had to wait for the second load before getting on. 

Before the wedding I drove further on to Strathalbyn, where I had to deliver a quilt to a customer. I also had enough time to visit with my cousin and her husband which was good, as I had not seen them for a couple of years either. Then it was back to Langhorne Creek, to attend the wedding of my nephew and his bride. What a beautiful setting for the wedding, on a shaded, lawned area, beside the vines and the creek...................

                                     ........................and under this lovely gum tree.

DD3 and SIL flew over from Melbourne for the wedding, and the children attended the wedding and were babysat during the reception by GD2. Miss Billie had some rose petals to throw.............

...............and here is the latest family photo. Miss Billie is about to turn 2 years old, and Mr Jett is almost 5 months now. They are growing so fast.

                                 DD2 and SIL attended the wedding, and left their children at home.

  It was a good day for taking photos, while everyone was dressed in their "glad rags", and here is DS and DIL posing for a picture.

I had been looking forward to catching up with all my children, but DD1 was not well and could not attend the wedding.

Apparently "someone" snapped a pic of me from behind, having smiles with Jett.

After the wedding ceremony we all went back to the reception venue for pre-dinner drinks and nibbles. The lawn area outside was set up with comfortable seating, including lounge chairs for people to sit around and chat.

Long tables were set up inside for us...............

............and decorated with these floral arrangements..............

.............and each person received a named biscuit, as well as a bottle of Bleasdale Tawny Port, with the couple's name and date on the reverse. The district of Langhorne Creek is well known for it's grape vines and my nephew's family farm includes vines as well as cropping.

After the wedding, I drove to mum's house to spend the night, in lieu of a 3 hour drive home. Sunday morning I joined mum at church. It was a good time of catching up with quite a few people that I knew many years ago. This was the area that I grew up in, attended school and sunday school and church, and then was married in the church. I then moved away from the area, and I am sad to say that the old church was knocked down, and a new one built. I guess they call it progress?

This is a drawing of the old church, that holds a lot of memories for me.

After church, mum and I went to visit with Dad, who always has a smile, and a few jokes.

Following this there was an impromptu family lunch with my sister and one brother and families. Most of my Murray Bridge visits are usually short, as I am travelling through on my way to or from somewhere, so it was nice to have a leisurely time to spend catching up.

Well, that's about all the newsfromjude for this time. I have spent this morning going around in circles and not really achieving very much, so will declare the rest of today as a day off, and pick up a book and relax. The work will still be there tomorrow, won't it?

Blessings, From Jude