Canberra Quilt Show

I took a few photos of some of the quilts at the Canberra Quilters Exhibition last weekend. This one was amazing as nearly all these blocks have been hand pieced.

 Here I am with my Some Kind of Wonderful quilt.

 This one by Jenny Bowker won Best of Show and several other prizes. It was just amazing.

 This quilt was Linda's from class and it was made with very quirky fabrics. It was all about families and how they are all different and special in their own ways.

 I loved the colours in this more traditional quilt.

 This was a delightful modern quilt by Michelle Law.

 Here are a few other favourites. It was hard to choose my favourites as there were so many amazing quilts.

Two finished and some progress

Hooray! Finally a finish! I have been working slowly on Scandinavian Christmas since last year and only just finished the binding and the label a few weeks ago when it came back from Robyn Cawdron, my special quilter. I am very pleased with it!

 Here is the label.

 This sewing pocket was started in March at Urban Stitches in Sydney, has been hand stitched for a while and took only a short time to sew together! I wish I didn't procrastinate with the machining.

 Even more exciting is that I finally put together the last piece of stitching for the Vignette quilt by Leanne Beasley. I have left this quilt 3/4 done and haven't had time or the inclination to continue till now. There is still plenty of patchwork that needs doing but at least I am back working on the quilt.

 I have been enjoying a little crocheting too. I bought this variegated Noro wool in Melbourne and am making a scarf....again!

Shopping, patterns, stitching and a little show and tell

After 2 very busy weekends with Melbourne and then our retreat, I realised that I hadn't shown my shopping or the kits and patterns we were given at Friends in Stitches. On the Friday we went to the craft show and these the patterns that I bought.

 I also "gave in" and signed up for this wonderful BOM by Yoko Saito. I had gone away planning NOT to get any BOMs as there are too many things unfinished here but this is beautiful and I couldn't resist.

 The fabrics are all gorgeous Japanese ones.

 Marg Low's stall was beautiful and her new Christmas book is lovely.

 These are the patterns we received in our goodie bag at the Friends in Stitches day.

 Finally, I have a little stitching to show! Here is block 2 of the Chateau Hexagon Button club.

 On Wednesday, it was lovely to see Karen's wonderful quilt she has been working on for her granddaughter. It is looking fabulous!

 Lynne had also finished off a delightful cushion from a pattern by Viv's Creations.

Off to the Canberra Craft and Quilt show again today. I went yesterday to do my duty (white glove duty) in the quilt show and did wander around the stalls a little, but will have a closer look today.

Show and Tell

We had some wonderful Show and Tell at the retreat. I only managed to capture a few photos but there were so many inspiring quilts, bags, cushions and lovely sewing bits and pieces!
Anne had both of last year's retreat projects beautifully finished.

 This amazing cushion was stitched by one of the very clever Bodalla ladies. It was so beautiful.

 Michelle has finished this lovely painted scene we did a few years ago.

 Jeanette needed to make another cushion to match the one we made last year. Isn't this lovely?

 Sue used the stitchery we made at one of the stitching days to decorate this bag. Looks great and I love the trim used for the handles.

 Michelle, along with several other ladies, finished her canvas scissor keeper! She just needed some lovely new scissors to attach it to.

 Last week, at Hobbysew, it was great to see this amazing runner that Terrie is making. These are quite large hexagons and they are set on a brown background and look so good. The fabrics are by Anni Downs.

 Bernadette came to class and brought along her lovely finished notebook cover.

 In the evening, Judy brought along a gorgeous quilt she has made using a layer cake.

Barb also showed us her first block of Chateau Hexagon, the Lynette Anderson Button club BOM. Looks great, Barb.

Stitching in the Hills

Fiona and I have just enjoyed another wonderful weekend of friendship and stitching at our retreat, Stitching in the Hills. We have had a lovely time preparing our patterns for this day especially as they were inspired but the wonderful range, Chateau Rouge, by French General. It is a delightful range! Because it is predominately red we did have a bit of a red theme for our weekend. Here are the samples of the projects that the ladies had to work on this time. There were several smaller items but if they wished to add a bit more fabric, then they could make the quilt. Their kits included a charm square pack of the range and a larger piece plus the stitching and backing fabrics, hexagons, canvas, buttons and threads. It was lovely to see everyone stitching these designs over the weekend. It was chilly outside but the room and the friendship (and all the chatting and eating) kept us quite warm!

 The bags were a lovely bright red and looked great.

 Even the name tags were made using the fabric.

 Here is the room full of busy stitching with quite a bit of chatting and socialising as well.

 On Saturday, Najelle and Terrie came out to set up a little Hobbysew shop at the retreat. I think the ladies enjoyed the shop very much by the number of people looking at the goodies.

 On Saturday night we were asked to wear red and everyone joined in and it was great fun.

 Even out littlest "stitcher" joined in. This precious little lady was so good all weekend. We all enjoying visiting her to say hello throughout the weekend.

 There was a "little" wine consumed with dinner but the ladies all headed back to stitching taking the glasses of wine with them! I wonder if the stitching was a little wobbly!

 Here we are on Sunday ready for another day of stitching and chatting.