The real Floriade

Floriade is on in Canberra at the moment and last week we went to have a quick look. We were lucky to go when we did as the dust storms came not long after! It was a lovely morning to wander around the floral displays.

Here are a few more views.

Floriade Stitching day

On Thursday at Hobbysew, I taught the Floriade stitching day projects. We had a really nice day of stitching. Five ladies came and they all worked on the canvas work but went home with the patterns for all the projects. These are the projects.

Three of the ladies, Pam, Jeanette and Rhonda had been at Stitching on the Lake and Queanbeyan a few weeks ago and brought along some of their works in progress. These are their canvas works. Nice to see so many different colour combinations which all look fantastic.

Jeanette has fused her Santa, ready to stitch.

Rhonda has finished her biscornu which looks great.

Here they are hard at work.

This is a lovely needlecase stitched by Pam from a pattern by Lynette Anderson.

Wednesday at the shop

One of the Wednesday social stitchers, Angela, is into all things Japanese and has just made this foundation pieced Japanese girl. The fabric of her kimono is Japanese kimono silk.

One of the girls at Hobbysew put some borders on this delightful Christmas panel by Sandy Gervais. It is a lovely range of fabrics and it turned out so well several of the panels sold in the days following! It is always inspiring to see a sample.

In the evening class, Sue showed us her lovely stitched Santa. Doesn't he look great. Hard to believe that he is only about 4" or 10cm tall.

Sue has also been working on her biscornu from the stitching day. She had almost sewn it together by the end of the evening. Linda had finished hers too.

Stitching on the Bay will have started by now and I do hope you are having a good time. Wish I were there.

Among the gum trees

Jenny from Elefantz has organised a group of Australian designers to have their own blog and they are having a giant giveaway and will be posting free patterns in the months to come. I do hope this link works but if not the blog is here.

Shopping

Thought I had better confess to what I bought in Melbourne and at our stitching days recently. Just as well I am not going to the Bay this weekend as I would surely be forced to buy more lovely things. One of the lovely ladies at my class yesterday, Jeanette, reminded me that you only have one life to live so make the most of it. And I do! I bought these beautiful felt creations and some wool (I used to knit once!) at AK Traditions. Made me want to come home and make felt things.

Then I just had to have some fabric at the stitching day and some wool pieces from Mrs Martin's Quilt shop too.

And just a few patterns and books. The book at the back is Gail Pan's new Basket of Blooms book which is lovely. I bought one of Rosalie's patterns and one of Leanne's patterns at the Stitch-in and then just a few other bits and pieces.

And some hangers, tea towels and buttons (and a kit, pictured above) from Rebecca at Cute as a Button. I also bought a lovely book at the Queanbeyan day called Colourful Stitching.

Oh dear. I did buy lots of thing to make. I might have to live for a very long time to do it all!

Stitching on the Bay

Stitching on the Bay is on this coming Saturday and Fiona has just posted these 2 lovely collages of the projects. I am so sorry that I won't be able to help and be there this time but do hope that the ladies who are attending have a wonderful time. Due to some changes in plans over the last few weeks I am committed to staying in Canberra this weekend. I would really rather be with you all in the Bay but I am sure there will be many more opportunities to catch up. Fiona has promised to post lots of pictures of the day on her blog. I'll be thinking of you!

Mrs Martin's Quilt Shop

On our last day in Melbourne, Fiona and I headed to Mrs Martin's Quilt shop. I read Karen's blog regularly and have it in my list of favourites. It was exciting to see the shop and we were not disappointed. The shop is in a house and there are several rooms full of wonderful fabrics, samples and patterns. One of my favourite designers, Vivien Robinson, has her samples here and it was great to see her lovely new patterns made up. Fiona and I had planned to go to a few other places on the way to the airport but ended up spending our time here. This is Viv's BOM about the 12 days of Christmas.

This is the sunny classroom with walls of quilts.

This is another of Viv's BOMs. Such a lovely one for a baby.

This is the entry to the shop.

Here are a few other views. The middle one is a bag which is made in lovely colours. I think I have the pattern so thought it would be nice to have a picture to help choose my colours when I make it ONE day.

Show and Tell

I do look like I have been thinking only about the Stitch-in but the photos were so nice and they are so easy to share. Here are some pictures of some of the lovely show and tell at Glenharrow.

This quilt was amazing with lots of needleturn. Such a lot of work.

This is a lovely stitchery quilt. Felt rather guilty as my one is stitched but not pieced. It is listed in my Projects to finish list! Felt inspired to come home and finish it but haven't had time to even think about it.

The same lady showed the previous quilt and then this amazing one!

There were so many clever ladies showing their finished projects. Here are a few more. This is a Sue Spargo bag.

This is a lovely embroidered sewing box in the shape of a house.

Here is another gorgeous quilt. I think it is a Birdhouse design with a circus theme.

This quilt is one from Rosalie's new book using her fabrics. It is very clever as I think some of the blocks are cheater blocks using the printed fabric.

Glenharrow Gardens

Even though it was chilly that day, Fiona and I braved the great outdoors to take some pictures of the beautiful gardens. This is the main building where we were.

This is one of the cottages you can rent.

I love this little birdhouse.

There were lots of birds and even these!

Here are a few more views including us.

Wonderful food

One of the other highlights of the Stitch-in day at Glenharrow was the lovely food. The presentation was so beautiful. Oh, to have people who bring food out like this when you have visitors at home. The trouble is if is up to me to do it!!!! This cake looked wonderful but the hit of the morning tea appeared to be the lemon tart behind. It went very quickly.

This is the flourless orange cake.

Lunch was server on large platters and breadboards with lots of yummy relishes and sauces to go with the meat. At the end of the table there were 2 large salads.

Yummy bread too.