A BIG catch-up post

Once again, time has just gone, but not sure where! Thanks to those who have noticed my absence, and reminded me that a whole 11 days have elapsed since my last post. It’s nice to be reminded that someone is reading. Thankyou.
I have looked back through the diary and photos just to see what has happened, and will try to update you all.
I started to quilt an embroidered quilt, which has been “waiting” for awhile to be quilted, and I had intended to enter it in a show, and even filled out the necessary forms and posted it off. And then “life” took over, and things happened, and I decided I did not need to add to the stress in my life, so I made a phone call and withdrew it from the show. I am disappointed, but felt relieved after I made that decision. Better to come back to it when I can concentrate. This photo is the little progress I did make. There is a special story to this quilt, which I will tell at a later date.

I have been teaching Embellished quilt classes all year, and there have been 9 lessons. I committed to doing a lesson 10, and suddenly realised that the scheduled class was up to lesson 9, so I needed to get busy. So that took 2 days of making a sample, and writing notes of the techniques, silk ribbon embroidery by machine. And then another 2 days of classes, which accounts for a few days. I forgot to take photos of the girls at work, but this is some of what they worked on.

I have been visited by angels. Firstly an angel who came and pruned my roses. Thankyou to David, husband of one of the ladies who came for the weekend classes. It was another of my gunna do jobs.

And during that week it was Gumnut Angels day, when members of our patchwork group meet to sew quilts from donated fabric for local people who are not well or having treatment of some sort. We have given away lots of quilts over the last few years, and it’s always a good day of sharing and sewing.

These are the last 3 quilts we have finished.

And then another 2 angels came for a visit, and weeded my front garden, put down lots of mulch, pruned some trees, cleaned gutters and lots of other jobs. Since I purchased The Sanctuary, almost 4 years ago, the maintenance on this house has not been happening, as the priority has been “across the road”. And this has weighed very heavy on my mind and been quite stressful. What a great job they have done. Should have taken before and after photos. Thanks so much for all you have done.





Another long overdue task, was clearing out “stuff” in the shed. As my children have moved out of town, one by one, they have left “things” in the shed, which also still contained the residue of farm things that we still had. And lots of sorting has happened in the last few days. What a relief to go through these things and we filled the skip bin and burned heaps more. Now there are organised heaps waiting for the family to collect or dispose of. There is also some old furniture in the shed that belonged to my grandparents, which I had been reluctant to get rid of. Back from the days when they made furniture properly, not this modern stapled together flimsy stuff. I am very happy to say I have found a home for this furniture, so in a couple of months, my shed should be very tidy. Another weight off my mind! And a trip down memory lane as well.







Also in the last week I have had a visit from my cousin and her husband. It was great to see H and H again, as it has been a long time since we met up. Our mothers are sisters, and H and I are 2 of 45 cousins in our family.They have spent the last 2 years teaching in Cambodia, and were on there way to visit with their daughter in Victoria, and then heading to New South Wales to house sit for a friend for 2 months. They had their car packed fully, as you can see.

H and H have just purchased a home, which is over 100 years old, and all the lovely old furniture in my shed will be going to their house after settlement in November! How good is that, their visit was very timely. (Not a coincidence, but a Godincidence!) And I was very happy that a couple of bags of clothes went with them. Some of the clothes that had been decluttered from my wardrobe. This sorting has been going on for a few months now, and it is such a relief to make some progress. But there is still lots to do yet. And I still feel an urgency to get this done, not sure why.



I read an article I found on the net last week about the Psychology behind Messy Rooms and why the the most creative people flourish in clutter. So not sure if this de cluttering that is happening here will be a good idea or not! What do you think? Are people more creative in messy places? Or is it that while you are being creative, that you don’t take the time to clean up? Interesting subject, as I know that I often work in a mess.
Last weekend was also another UFO retreat at The Sanctuary. The photos below show some of the work that was happening, and most of us managed to finish some projects.

Pauline was finishing the quilt she has made for her grandson.


Val was making her Paper Bag Mystery quilt larger, by adding 2 more borders.



Helen was working on her Japanese Reflections Table runner.



Jocelyn was starting her Bedford Quilt,



and also put the last border onto her Paper Bag Mystery Quilt.

And I worked on my Head to the Border quilt, finished a block I had to make for a special quilt, and added a border to the brown quilt, which is now ready to quilt.
We have left the red flowers from the Christmas in July retreat on the tables to make the place nice and bright. They will stay until we need to put up the pink flowers for the Pink Retreat.


I had a spur of the moment thought a couple of nights ago to play cards, while I had family here, and it has been a long time since we did this. It used to be quite a common pastime once. We had a lot of fun playing Frustration, and I came last. But it was still a good night. You can see it was a bit frustrating to get sets when I was needing a run of cards instead!





And all good things must come to an end, and the family returned to Melbourne after their week’s holiday. I think they might need to go home for a holiday, after all the work they have done here. It was a busy, but very fruitful time.


And a special parcel arrived in the mail today. Full of pink things for the auctions at the Pink Retreat. Thankyou so much Faye, they are fantastic.



There is lots more to blog about, as we visited former homes, and had a trip down memory lane, but I will save that for another post. I have done some more quilts in amongst all of this, and have lots of quilt photos to post.

Be back soon, I promise,

Blessings, From Jude

In the Pink Retreat News

 

I know that the “In the Pink” Retreat is not until September, but it’s time for some info about this.

Photos of the raffle quilt are posted, and I am selling tickets to whoever walks into my room. This quilt has an estimated value of $1200, so I would like to sell as many tickets as possible. All money raised goes to the Breast Cancer Network Australia and is my way of thanking them for the support that I received when I had treatment for breast cancer. Tickets are $2 each, so if you would like some, please let me know. I know there won’t be thousands of tickets sold, maybe 2 or 3 hundred, so the chances of winning are good, don’t you think?

The ladies in the quilt are part of a range called Fast Women, and were donated by Alison Bacon of http://www.canterburyquilts.com.au. Thankyou Alison. I have decided to call the quilt Girls Having Fun. In the green border I have quilted lots of sayings about friends.

A friend is a gift to treasure forever…… Live well, laugh often, love much……. Enjoy life’s little pleasures…….. A friend is always in reach……… Everything is better when shared with a friend…….. Gather friends like flowers…… Life is a patchwork of friends…… Friendship is made one stitch at a time…….. Girls just want to have fun…..

As part of the retreat weekend, we have mini auctions and bid on donated “pink” things. They get little pink purses with “play money” in, which they have paid for with real money. The proceeds from the auction also go to the www.bcna.org.au/ It is always a lot of fun, and some lovely people have again been donating pink items for the weekend. This is the collection so far, taken on the table in my very messy work room.  (I do hope to tidy this a bit today).

The Pink retreat will be happening from September 19 – 21, and will be hosted by the lovely Michele Hill (http://williammorrisandmichele.blogspot.com.au/), who is presently in England leading a group of 21 on a May Morris tour. I am enjoying reading Michele’s blog about the places they are visiting.

If you are interested in joining us for the Pink weekend, there are still a couple of places left, and I would love to hear from you.

I have been up since 5am this morning, and sitting at the computer typing up the notes for a class that is happening today. I must be the queen of last minute!  It’s time for a shower now, and then to photocopy the notes before the ladies arrive at 9am.

Hope you are having a great weekend, whatever you are doing,  and wherever you are.

Blessings, From Jude

This week

 

I have been quilting

Above is a quilt made by Prue for her granddaughter, who requested soft colours for her quilt, which is the school house block. And because she likes strawberries, I have quilted them all over the quilt.

An below is the quilt I have finally finished that will be a raffle quilt for a group, and custom quilted, with lots of SID, lines, CC’s and feathers.

The weather this week has been very wintry, with rain, gale force winds, and low temperatures. A good week to stay indoors, with the heater going. I was thankful for my wood heater as I had the washing from last weekend to do, and my lounge looked a bit lot like a Chinese laundry. (That is a saying from my younger days, but I can’t say that I know what a chinese laundry really looks like??)

It has been cold and wet

Collecting fabric

This a the start of my collection of fabrics for the next Paper Bag Mystery Retreat, which will be in October. Now I have decisions to make, and patterns to design to use it all. If you might be interested in coming, I will have more details soon.

And a special delivery

When I went to the post office today, I collected 2 parcels, one of those was a quilt that I was expecting, to go on the machine next week.

But the other parcel was a lovely surprise. One of my family had a book made for me, with lots of photos from my 60th birthday party. It is beautiful, and is a lovely remembrance of a special day. Thankyou so much.xxx

I have lots of photo albums that go back through the years, but when I started taking digital photos in 2004, I stopped getting the films printed, and they are all on my computer. (And have been saved to a separate hard drive as well).Not such an easy way for others to go through your photos and share memories though, is it? It has been my intention, (and don’t we all have good intentions) to go through these and print some of the photos and put into albums. But what a time consuming task, so it has not been done. And I have just now realised, that there are 10 years of my life waiting there. And mixed up with thousands of quilt photos as well. It’s always been a “gunna do” one day job. And seeing this album just makes me want to get and do it. But maybe I won’t get all the photos printed, I shall get books made instead.

Well, Max has stopped quilting, which means I need to load the next backing and work out a pattern for the quilt.

Be back soon, with more info about the Pink Retreat coming up.

Blessings, From Jude

Christmas in July, 2014

Time for a posting to report on last weekend, which was another fantastic weekend at The Sanctuary. Before I could take the time to do this, I needed to finish the custom quilt that was started last week, and I am pleased to report that I reached the end last night. All the washing has been done, dried and folded, ready to go back “across the road”.
Santa left some goodies in the stockings for all the ladies, who had obviously been good this year! After my posting last week, about the stockings being made, I did receive a text message from one lady, telling me that she had been extra good this year!


The house had been decorated a couple of weeks ago, when my grand daughters stayed here, but some more decorations arrived, and you can see the red balls hanging above, which added to the Christmas atmosphere! When the Adelaide contingent arrived, they unpacked their luggage, and left again to check out the local shops, and “spread the tourist dollar”, was how Raelene put it. I was a bit puzzled about the photo below and just what was it?? A bag of green bottles, and some sticks with red paper on the end!


All was revealed when they returned, and you can see the gorgeous red flowers for more Christmas decorations.



We thought that the flowers would look fantastic, made in pink paper for decorations for the Pink Retreat which is planned for September 20-22. So another trip to the local shop, and a purchase of pink tissue paper, and then a lesson on how to make them.

The “teacher” was very strict, making sure that the creases were sharp, the edges were trimmed properly, and everything was folded accurately!! And Jean was appointed as the “person in charge of storage”, and they are put away in readiness to be unfolded for the Pink Retreat. One lady got a bit ahead of the instructions, and unfolded a flower, but you can see just how pretty they look. Thank you to Raelene for a great idea. And you can see that they all made different colour flowers after that. I am sure that there will be a lot of these flowers made for upcoming events.

It was not a weekend of great productivity, instead a lot of sitting around and lots of chatting, and many good laughs. Some great stories were told, which can’t really be told on the blog. A couple of ladies did achieve some sewing, and a few bindings were completed. It was very relaxing, and good therapy. Lots of sharing of life situations. Sometimes you think you are the only one dealing with things in your life, but there is always someone who understands, who is going through the same situation, or has been there before.

This was the creative, messy corner, no sewing, just glue! And you can see the creations below.

I was very fortunate that this year we had “city chefs”. Thankyou to Gay for cooking us this delicious Christmas Ham. And thankyou to Pauline for the loan of her weber barbecue to cook the ham in. I only had to do the vegetables to go with this. And thankyou to Raelene, who cooked the Christmas pudding, and my apologies for not taking a photograph before we ate it. It was a treat! And while I am saying thankyous, also to Pat for cooking us bacon and eggs for a scrumptious Sunday morning breakfast. And also to my granddaughters, who made us the gingerbread men, and the Rudolph biscuits.


Above, a few drinks before that delicious meal, and below, the obligatory group photo. I should take a least 6, as there is always someone not smiling, and this was the best that I could choose.

This was a funny demonstration from one lady, who shall remain nameless. But I shall say, that many times a day I remember this!

Some ladies achieved some show and tell, but sorry I forgot to take photos.


The girls who came from a distance, stayed an extra night and left Monday morning. We went out for Sunday evening meal, and then sat around the fire and chatted, and laughed some more before going to bed. All in all, it was a fun, very relaxed weekend meeting up with old friends, and making new friends. And some who did not know each other before, found out that they lived only streets away from each other!!
Thankyou for coming girls, and making it another good weekend. And also thankyou for packing away all the Christmas decorations before you left. Many hands make light work, I think is how the saying goes.

I did manage to get the binding done on the Pink Retreat raffle quilt, and will show photos of this soon.
Time to get to the shower, it’s much later than I thought. I have taken awhile to do this posting, but thought I better, before I get more reminders.
Blessings, From Jude