The first Statler Users Gathering at Number 8

Friday evening saw the arrival of girls from the other side of Melbourne, and Adelaide for our Statler Users Gathering. It is always a fun time, and this weekend has been no different. We gather for a long weekend of stitching, chatting, sharing, eating, and lots and lots of laughter. It is just the venue that is different this time.

The "other side of Melbourne" girls had a nice drive through country Victoria (directed by Google), and came across this mob of sheep, which held them up for a little while. Judging by the comments of the girls, I don't think they minded their delay!! 

This was what was posted on facebook.........."we had to pull over and let these girls pass. They were doing a ten km hike down the road. Behind this flock was a trusty sheep dog doing an excellent job and a chatty farmer in the truck who was considered by all in our car to be good Farmer wants a Wife material." 

Their trip took them a lot longer than it should have, but I did tell them I would not be home from Adelaide until 5pm.

It did not take long for everyone to get re-acquainted, and set to work on their projects. It is always a good weekend to work on your own sewing, that sometimes get put aside in favour of customer quilts. Some bring lots of projects, some have clothes to sew, some spend time doing hand piecing, and quite a few have bindings. And all the while we are sharing stories.

 The first photo is the scene early the next morning, before anyone else was out of bed.

 This little pile of fabric was a delivery for me, and was purchased at Quilt Market last year by a friend because I could not attend AQM. Some of this will end up in Mystery Quilt cases in the near future.

A hive of activity on Saturday. We use the TV to play teaching Videos and to keep up with the latest updates of our machines. Quite a few "light bulb" moments.

Hand piecing clam shells.

Making half square triangles from a charm pack........

 and pressing,.......

and the result at the end of Saturday.

A little treat at the end of Saturday!!

The sum total of my Saturday was 4 pot holders, to match my mixer cover. Must have done too much talking??

Sunday is another day of productivity, with bindings, 

and cushion covers, ....

and lots and lots of flying geese,....

and hand piecing ........

and needleturn applique.

The finished quilt with its binding done.

And multitasking at it's best!!!!!

The group photo of some very happy smiling faces.

And almost another finish, with borders left to be added.

We still have another day left to go, so lots more fun yet. I have almost finished the binding on my cross quilt, and hope to get this done tomorrow.
 I just asked the girls what other stories I could add to this post, and I have decided that I should probably stop now and say that what happens at retreat should stay at retreat. All I can hear are lots of laughs and I am a bit worried that someone might wet themselves.

Be back in a few days, with some quilt photos to share.

Blessings, From Jude

On the road again....

On Friday it was another trip, this time to the city for the Valuation Panel meeting. It is always an interesting day, and we get to see lots of different quilts. I had a friend travelling with me, and on the way we saw this cloud formation, which we thought was rather interesting, so stopped to take a photo. Not sure what sort of cloud this was, but looked very different to normal.

We were playing CD's in the car, and one was by Willie Nelson, and was called "On the Road again". Very apt as this was my 3rd car trip for the week! I have driven 18 hours in the car in a week.
We arrived home just before 5pm and not long after, a group of Statler Owners arrived from SA and Victoria which I will report on in another post.
I don't mind driving, but don't plan any more trips real soon.

Blessings, From Jude

Time is flying by...

Almost another week has flown by, and I am not sure where to? I certainly can't say I have been busy quilting this week, as the machine has been empty for a week now. 

I had a big list of things I wanted to achieve in the last few days, but have only crossed about half of my list off. Lots of little jobs, and some bigger jobs have been on the agenda. I have spent quite a bit of time in the garden, trying to finish edges, and trimming, and planting before the weather turns really cold and wet. All the preparation has taken longer than I anticipated and the plants are still in their pots I am sad to say. I did overdo things a tad one day, and am paying for it now. I just have to accept that I can't do as much as I want anymore, and things take longer.

But inside things are progressing, and the curtain hems have been trimmed, although still only pinned. The handymen crew have been here and the sliding door has new rollers, so it opens smoothly, after years of being rough. I have a shelf in the sewing room for the TV so that we can play teaching videos at this weekends Statler Gathering. (Only one more sleep, and the girls will be here). Always a good weekend with this crew.

The shower screen was installed today, so that means at last the bathroom is finished. 

And some of the errors in the kitchen will be fixed on Saturday, so it will be lovely to have some drawers instead of boxes. I have been making good use of the cooker, and cooked for some friends, for the freezer, and for this weekends retreat. I am loving the layout of my kitchen.

The following photos are of 2 quilts made by Kaye. First is her TicTacToe quilt, which was very simply custom quilted.

And this one is a Jen Kingwell design, made by Kaye which is called the Smitten quilt.

Kaye and I were both happy with how the quilting came out on this one. This quilt is all hand pieced, and Kayes stitches are amazing!! Kaye said she was addicted to making this, and she was so keen to finish it that the binding was on and stitched the day after she received it.

I have lots more quilt photos to show one day soon. Now it is time for bed, ready for an early start for a trip to the city tomorrow, and then the arrival of the Statler girls when I get home from there.
Maybe Max is enjoying his time off, but I will have to get back to the machine next week.

Blessings, From Jude

Out and about

I finished those 2 custom quilts last week, and delivered them on Saturday. I will post photos in due course. I had another cooking session after that, and prepared a few things for the next retreat, and to take to family on Sunday. Friday I attended a funeral for family friend, which was very sad. A young life cut too short.

It has been a rather busy weekend, and I have covered a lot of kilometres in the car, and spent 10 hours behind the steering wheel.
Saturday morning saw a car load of us heading over the border to attend the Warracknabeal Quilters Exhibition. We had a lovely day out, viewing the quilts, socializing and chatting over a few cuppas. We did the tourist thing on the way home, and saw some different countryside.

These photos are from the exhibition and are of quilts that I had quilted. I took lots more photos, but have not got permission from the owners to show them. The colours are a bit washed out looking, as the light was not great in the hall for photos. It is always nice to see the finished quilt with binding on, as they are not really finished when they leave my room.

As usual there were shops to tempt you with their goodies. I know I left a few dollars there, as I am sure did many others. First up is the stall of Max and Dawns from Horsham.

And this is Quilters Harvest, who also had the shop in the main street open with lots more goodies.

This is Shirley in the Quilters Harvest shop standing alongside the quilt that she made, and that I posted on the blog last week. It makes a nice statement in the shop behind the counter.

While we were in Warracknabeal, we were told to drive 10 minutes out of town to view the painted silo's at Brim. I had not heard about these before, although some of the girls had. I am not sure just how much the photos really show, but it was an awesome site. It has become quite the tourist attraction and many people are stopping to see. I hope you can read the first photo if you click on it and enlarge it, otherwise you could google Brim Silo's and I am sure you can find out more info.

This was taken in the car park across the highway and gives a distance view.

You get another perspective here with the car parked on the side of the road, and if you look closely, you can see some people standing at the bottom of the silo. These paintings are of local identities.

And this is a photo of my purchases for the day. Just a few things to support the shops!!

Saturday evening my cousin and her husband came to stay on their way through to Melbourne, and left early the next morning. It was a lovely catch up time, and we enjoyed a meal together. Sorry, no photos. We enjoyed an extra hour of sleep, as daylight saving has now finished until next time. The days, and especially the nights, are getting cooler, and this week I have had the heater flue cleaned out, and the wood shed filled up, ready to light up soon.

Sunday morning after they left, I headed off in the car again, this time going to visit family, and of course a bit of shopping too.  Mr 5 year old had a birthday today, and as I had missed the post for his parcel, due to the Easter break, I thought a home delivery might be a good idea. I  phoned my mum and dad to see if they would like a drive. Due to a few health issues, dad declined, and mum came with me. It was a lovely trip and we chatted all the way there and back. It is not often that I have one on one time with my mum, so this was special. And it is the first time that she had visited DD2 and DS in their current homes.

Dressing up clothes seemed to be the gift ideas this year, and here is the birthday boy in his Darth Vader outfit, and the special cake his mum made for him, followed by the superman outfit he also received,

Not far from their house, is a bike track that goes to the next town, and at the start of the track are these 2 "figures". They look great, and I had to take a photo.

 And at the next house, we spent time with this smiley little girl! I can't believe just how fast she is growing, and that little baby has gone. She is 8 months old now.

A family photo outside their house, but little miss was more interested in Dad's hat than looking at the camera.

Dad has a few "pet" magpies, that wait patiently for him to feed them, and here they are sitting on the fence. Dad loves it in the morning when they sit up in the tree nearby and "sing".

Tomorrow it is our local patchwork day, and I hope to start some work in my garden. I visited the plant shop on my travels today, and have a nice collection to get in the ground.
It is a short working week for me this week, as I have a trip to the city on Friday, and then am looking forward to a lovely weekend retreat with Statler users at Number 8.

I shall be back soon, with some more quilt photos for you. Enjoy your week.

Blessings, From Jude