Bloggers catch up

Today I went up to Gisborne for the bloggers catch up...our swap was  a felt toy, which morphed into a toy, made the way you wanted to!! We had a great day of chatting and laughter and a little sewing!

Getting started for the day, then we had the swap....

Jo with the lovely teddy made by Lyn

Maria with the beautiful hedgehog made by Kim

Shez with the colourful bunny made by Barb

Kim with a very cute elephant made by Marg

Marg with a beautiful teddy made by Maria

Lyn with the honey bear made by me

Barb with the rabbit ( and veges ready for the pot!!) made by Jo

The beautiful Santa made by Shez that came home with me, plus elephant and bear

how cute is that face???

Then we moved on to show and tell...Marg made this as a challenge..she was given the blue panel to which she added the Japanese fabric and beads and stitching. Annie checking it out!!!  PS Thanks for all your help today Annie!! It was much appreciated. :-)

some serious discussion happening here with Anne, Annie and Marg....table topper made by Shez.

A gathering of swap items.

and a gathering of bloggers!! But it is soooooo hard to get everyone in the shot...Tracee is missing, well I can see the top of her head!!

this one is a bit more serious and I am talking but we can get a peek at Tracee, but Ann is hiding  and Annie is blocked and Elyte is hiding too!! Combining both photos we get a look at everyone!!

Thank you for a wonderful day ladies!!

On the way home I stopped in Geelong to look for two geocaches..no luck with either, I am hopeless at searching when I am in a busy place!!!

I was at the top of the stairs searching while all kinds of sports people were going down the stairs to the pool below, they were standing in the COLD water ...must be good recovery for the muscles of the legs!!

Not much to show for today, one wonky looking applique flower!!

Friends

yesterday I met up with Shez and Lyn in Geelong, we met at Jiddys Patch as we all know where to find it!! I wonder why!!!

I have pinched Shez's photo as I didn't get the camera into action!!

We had lunch at the Whole foods cafe, the food was wonderful and down the back they have a store with all kinds of organic goodies!

Again photo courtesy of Shez!! Thanks Shez!!!

We did a little shopping and I found this cushion for son #2, he loves Combi vans, sadly no chowchow in the van!! Lol!!

I did some more work on one of the applique blocks

and glued it to the back ground

The last couple of nights I  have been sewing knitted rectangles together to make a rug for KOGO, I get sent the kitted pieces and put them together, then do some crochet around the edges.

this one I had laid out on the bed last Monday, I went out and when I got home found that hubby had rearranged them...some pieces are bigger than others, so the mixing of smaller and larger pieces has worked well. Have some friends coming to have a go at Free Range Quilting this morning, so had better get myself organised.

Happy sewing.

Word photo challenge and EPP

It is that time again to link up with Shaz at alshasspace....for the word photo challenge...actually I have just been to her blog and can't find Mr Linky so I think I have missed it again!! The work was GALLERY and I was at the Geelong gallery recently but didn't take any photos so instead I have taken a photo of the What's on in Geelong brochure instead!!

I saw some Arthur Street paintings which were interesting..

It is also the time to link up with Anthea to show all things EPP.....Piece yourself together!!

bit of a weak effort from me this time...one hexie flower and it is only sewn on at the centre, but I will get back to it before long!!

Happy sewing.

More class time

Today was the second day of the Irene Blanck class, we had a closer look at some of Irene's quilts

this wonderful quilt has this...

wonderful fabric on the back

beautiful leaf quilt

a close up of the clam shells...this class is happening in Geelong on July 15th.

a beautiful hexie quilt

detail on the top

Irene herself

and this is where I was up to at the start of the morning...I forgot to give the birds a branch to sit on and legs!!

now I am launching into needle turn applique!!!! Aaaghhhh!!!

One happy group of students with Irene...Jill with her version under construction

Look at these two!! You can see we had fun!

Showing of a tiny bit of work!!!

And then it was home time, which came far too soon...and this is where I am up to now

I need to add more flowers and leaves but will get to that sometime!!!! We had a wonderful two days, I would be happy to have another day tomorrow!! Irene is a great teacher, we had so much fun but learned lots as well. 

Irene challenged us to a Mintie wrapper competition today, I managed to get a length of 50 inches,  and the four who had a go were given a pattern each!! How good is that!! This is the pattern I chose

It is called Gardenhurst....something to add to the to do list!! it was very generous of Irene.

Back to reality now, I had better go and sort some dinner!!

Happy sewing.

Today

I have been learning new things at an Irene Blanck workshop. We had the choice of three quilts to make, most of us have chosen the smallest, I did as I haven't done needle turn applique before so was a bit learning curve for me!!

this is Irene's quilt Minerva...very nice huh!!!

this is as far as I got today...my homework is to make some circles and applique the flowers below!!

I need to do some more trimming here!! 

Have to show you the sunrise this morning it was beautiful!!

Makes it worth getting up early!!

Off to eat fish and chips now for dinner.

Happy sewing.

Quilt in

Today I spent the day at the Geelong Guild Quilt in,,, they  had 216 people there if I remember correctly,,, we had a talk from Irene Blanck and got to look at two suitcases of her beautiful quilts.

Irene talking about her quilts

and again, she was very entertaining!! 

I made the challenge block, mine was very namby pamby compared to the others

had a play with tracing a pattern in permanent pen and then colouring with crayons, then stitching the flower tops, I was happy with it and was good to try something different!! 

see what I mean, mine is very blah compared to the others...

and these too!! The black one of the far stand was chosen the winner.

I had some wonderful company today

some serious conversation happening here!! We had lots of chatting, some shopping, eating and an all round good day!!

Lynne who took the photo said to us "Watch the birdie" So Tracee did!!! Hence she is not paying attention!!! Lol!! Fuzzy photo as Lynne was laughing at Tracee!!

Wonderful companions for the day, Marg, Tracee and Donna who travelled down from Gisborne for the day.

I didn't get much sewing done as when I was straightening my block this morning I managed to drive the rotary cutter off the edge of the ruler and thru my finger!!! Ouch!!!! So not a happy camper today! So long as I hold my finger up in the air all is good!!  Hubby keeps asking me why I am pointing at him all the time!! Lol!! Better go rescue the dinner!!
Happy sewing!