More quilts........

It's either feast or famine around here, meaning, either a post each day for awhile, or nothing for a week! Better get this post from the draft files, or other "things" might happen and it won't get done.

By other things, I am meaning a baby???? Talked to the mother-to-be this afternoon, and nothing to report yet. I think time is hanging heavy on her hands now, and they (and all of us!) are ready for this baby to arrive.

So in the meantime, maybe a quilt show will distract us?

First is Stacked Coins made by Erica. This was quilted allover with a pattern called "Carribean". A very simple design, but very effective. The solid red fabric is a linen, and caused a few "moments" in the piecing, because of the stretch.

This was made by Sherrel, using a charm pack of William Morris fabrics, and quilted allover with "Cilantro".

Di has been busy finishing quilts, and the next 3 were made by her. First one is a Twinkle Little Star panel, with borders, and was quilted allover with "Stars and Loops".

This Japanese Quilt was quilted allover with "Lotus".

Archer's quilt has photos of Archer around the farm, and was quilted edge to edge, (with a trim over the photos), with a Soccer pattern.

I love this log cabin quilt, made by Jenny, and the allover pattern called "Square Spiral" gives it a lovely texture.

Jenny also made this Bedford quilt, which was quilted allover with a pattern called "Streamer".

The colours of this Framed Squares quilt look a bit washed out in this photo. It was quilted with a Ripples pattern.

This was a piece of Paris fabric, that Helen will cut up and make into placemats for her table. Crosshatching was all it needed, as any other pattern would distract from the fabric itself.

This Owl quilt was made by Sam, and was quilted edge to edge with a pattern called "Celestia"".

I think that will do for this post, and I will save the others for a future day. I have spent a good day with Max, and now that my break is over, shall get back to the job again. Might try and do a few evening hours in case I have to go soon (????). There are still a lot of days left on this quilt yet.

Blessings, From Jude

Catching up again....

Here we are and it's Sunday night again. It is a bit scary how fast time is going, as 7 weeks from today I will be in the city, and wondering if I will get any sleep before being at the airport at 4.15AM the next morning. In the meantime there is a lot to tick off the list, and lots of quilts to finish.

I managed to tick a visit to the optician off the list this week. I knew my distance vision had changed, as my driving glasses have not felt good for the last few months. This was confirmed on Wednesday, and new glasses are on the way. And another task was achieved at the clothes shop, and this "little" pile are some of my purchases for the day. Not looking forward to working out what to pack, and still leave room in the suitcase to bring "essential" purchases home from America.

 My quick phone post from yesterday showed a photo taken from the cafe looking across the river to where we used to live. After my coffee break I drove onto the ferry and crossed the river, then drove the memory lane road again. Things have certainly changed in the area, as a lot of dairy farmers have sold their irrigation licences, and many dairies are no longer used.

This is the school my girls all went to before we moved to Bordertown.

It was a short drive from here to my next stop, which was the home of my nephew, to celebrate his recent engagement. The party was held in the shed on their farm, at Langhorne Creek, which is a well known grape growing area. The vines are looking good, and harvest is about to commence. I am told there was a nice selection of local wines at the party, and here you can see just one of the lovely platters available. A BBQ and salads followed.

Miss Bridie had some new shoes............

.....and look Aunty Lisa, at my shoes!

There was a lovely area set up for the children, with games........

...........and bubbles to blow, although the bubbles did not show up very well in the photo.

Sorry the next 2 photos are a bit dark, of the cake......

and the happy couple, making their speeches.

 It was a lovely evening of catching up with family that I don't see very often. (Note to self - take time out more often, the quilts will still be there when I get back!)

After the party, I decided to drive a bit further and stayed at Strathalbyn with my cousin and her husband. Helen and Harold have stayed with me on several occasions recently, and were the recipients of my grandparents bedroom furniture that had been stored in my shed. They have retired to Strathalbyn, and purchased a very old house, that suits the old furniture. The bed that I slept in had one of my quilts that I gifted to them on the bed, so I felt quite at home........

...............and the furniture was in the room also,.......

Their home has the original fireplaces......

..........lots of high, ornate ceilings,......

                                                     .......stained glass windows........

........and doors.........

This is the house, and it used to be the hospital in an earlier life, so has quite a history.

They have a fantastic garden, and I love these dahlias.

I left this morning, and took another detour to visit Neville's 89 year old aunty, who I had not seen for a few years.  A visit to my mum and dad in Murray Bridge was next, before heading south and home. It was only about 24 hours after I left, but really feels like I was gone for much longer.

Tomorrow it will back to work, on that quilt I showed yesterday. This is the largest quilt that I have ever loaded to Max and will take a few more days yet. And maybe there will be a call from Melbourne soon, and I will be off again?????

I shall be back soon, with a few quilt photos from the files.

Blessings, From Jude

Saturday afternoon

 A quick phone post.  This is my view looking out cafe window at tailem bend looking across the river at where we used to live.

 and this is what is loaded onto Max so could be working on that for a LONG time !!     Be back when I get back home.    Blessings fro Jude 

Sunday evening.......

I have been sitting here for about 2 hours, and sorted, and exported all the photos I wanted to use, loaded them to the blog, and written half of what I wanted to say, and then................. !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!@##$T%U........... don't know what happened, but it went off into cyberspace somewhere! 

I shall try again, and make sure that I hit save more often, (although I had done that) but not sure you will get all the same story this time, will be more brief. (EDIT - was not brief after all!)

Time to set up the machines, and get your self organised ........

......and Val was off and running, ruled up all her squares ready to make hourglass blocks.......and made one block before calling it a day.......

By Sunday lunch time her quilt called "Modern Roses" was done!!!

Di got off to a good start. I stress the importance of the 1/4" seam as I have cut a lot of the units, and they need to fit together well. She checked the measurement on the "ruler" printed on the side of her machine and was very happy.........but when it came to crosscutting, she found that the ruler only measure a bit under 6 1/4"!! So it was a "bit" of unpicking to correct the strip sets.......

.......and now all the 9 patch blocks are done and accurate.......

.................Now onto the half square triangle units.....

...................and the first 9 blocks put together....................

.........And by Saturday evening we have a finish, called "Spinning Around"!! Di then decided to buy another case and start another one..............

This was progress by Sunday morning, and I am sorry to say I did not get a photo of the rest, before she left this afternoon.

Sadie was a first time "mystery retreater", and was happy with her progress for the weekend.

Lots of 4 patch units, and flying geese to stitch.........

....one star coming together.........

...............and lots of units ready to be sewn together by the time she left this afternoon. This was called "Dancing Daisies".

Cathie is another first time "retreater", and chose a scrappy quilt, called "Twosies and Foursies", that had lots and lots of 2 1/2" squares to sew together................no strip piecing in this scrap quilt....

Some blocks coming together, and there will be a further photo later, as she is still sewing and planning on leaving in the morning. Maybe she will achieve lots tonight as we are the only 2 left, and as I am RETYPING this blog post, it is quiet and she has no one to talk too. (She did tell me that she can talk to herself!!)

Sherrel is usually rather quick to get her quilts made, but this time she had lots of strips in Bag number 1 to sew into 16 patch blocks.........

 ......until there was a loud exclamation about 3pm on Saturday afternoon when she finally got to open Bag number 2!!!!!!

This is the centre of the quilt, partly sewn together, and then there is a black border. The colours in this photo look a bit washed out, and are actually much brighter.

The background fabric is a newsprint, in French, so I can't tell you what it says. For want of a better name, I called this quilt "French Puzzle".

Robyn was full steam ahead, and making good work of lots of half square triangles, in varying colours..............

..............and then she had all the units ready to sew the block together..................

.........but when she got to this stage, I believe there was quite a bit of unpicking when she kept sewing the points in the wrong direction, more than once, or even twice!!??

 ..........which did slow her down quite a bit, and when it was time for home, there were some blocks finished, and some ready to sew together...the blocks will be sashed, and then bordered. Maybe there will be a photo on the blog one day. Her quilt is called "Whirlygigs".

Margaret was probably rather apprehensive about making her quilt, because I stuffed up the cutting of the sashings on her last retreat quilt. All was well this time though, and I breathed a sign of relief when she reached the end. She did have a bit of a laugh, and confessed that she thought the other quilt ended up much nicer with the substituted fabrics. 

This time she was working with grey and pinks, with a quilt called "In Full Bloom".

 And this is the finish about lunch time on Sunday.

At some retreats, there is occasionally a queue at the cutting table, but this time it seemed to space out a bit...................

..............but there was often a wait at the 2 ironing stations, and even a "protest", when someone jumped the queue once.

Sue's quilt was called "Amethyst Trails", in those jewel colours, and the background was a pearlessence fabric with a shine, and looked great when she had finished. (Did you hear that Sue, I loved the background fabric!!??)

......nearly there, only one more border to go!...........

Sue was a "day girl", and lives in town, and this was her mode of transport each day. Gives a whole new meaning to the term "on yer bike!"

 Last, but not least is Paulines's quilt, called "Folk Festival" using the Rosalie Quinlan designed fabric of that name. Pauline was not doing the retreat, but had 2 of the ladies staying at her house. She called in Friday afternoon for a coffee and to meet up with them. And "somehow" got conned into playing bingo, and choosing a case, and spending the weekend here!!!????

The reveal late this afternoon, with 2 borders remaining to be done. I think she was very happy with her quilt, which a grand daughter will get, and is pleased she was "conned" into joining us.

We had some local girls drop in, including Jean, who wanted some crochet help from an expert........

.......and Marie who came to visit and had a coffee and met some new girls........and Helen called in late this afternoon after most had left, so sorry no photo of her.

.....one afternoon there may have been a little tipple or two, of a nice drop......and had the girls writing down the name of it, with a view to finding a supplier!!

Sunday morning we were blessed to have Pat cook us pancakes, and bacon and poached eggs, which were delicious. THANKYOU PAT.

This is our group photo. Sometimes there are more quilts finished, but that's usually in a 3 day retreat, and this was only 2 days. But I stress, it is not a race, and is meant to be a stress free weekend.

And then it was time to pack and head for home. The house is quiet tonight, with only 2 of us, and Cathie will leave in the morning. 

So there endeth another great retreat, with quilts sewn, new and renewed friendships, lots of laughter, stories, sharing, and food. I hope they all go home refreshed and revived to the reality and demands of their lives.

Tomorrow it is back to the quilt loaded on Max, and the usual week's activities. Maybe there will be news soon of a baby??? Still taking guess' in the competition, and thanks to those who have.

Blessings, From Jude, who feels like she has done a marathon, by doing this blog post 1 1/2 times!!!