Rydal

We spent a lovely weekend at a retreat in Rydal NSW not far from Bathurst. Its a quaint little town and the retreat is an old primary school that has been converted. It was great for our group of 18 and was perfect for quilters it had great light lots of tables a huge well stocked kitchen and a large loungeroom with fireplace.
Above is our raffle quilt that was completed on the weekend, I couldn't resist styling it up in this setting.

Here is the front entrance of the School, which is now called Rydal Mount. If anyone is interested for their group let me know and I will give you the contact details.

The old Railway station is converted into a B&B.

The local church

There was a great old show ground to explore.

Wooden boat enthusiasts

Mark and I are now the proud owners of an old timber boat (Huon pine). We joined my sister and her husband and another couple in the venture and have already enjoyed a few great days aboard. Although we have yet to leave the mooring as it has been undergoing a lot of repairs.

Its 32 feet and was built in 1939, so we are looking forward to lots of weekends on Sydney harbour hopefullt cruising around and not just carrying out maintenance.

Note the flag, its an ensign which denotes a private sailing vessel and is original to the boat, as you can imagine I was very impressed its all stitched together and looks like a vintage quilt It has a great outdoor area that seats about 8
The galley is quaint but practical.

Catch up

This blog is becoming tragic! my last post was May, how sad.

It would seem I have been doing nothing and therefore have nothing to post but the truth is I have been busy and life just gets in the way sometimes. Also a daughther doing her HSC and is completely hogging the computer of late.

We attended a friends wedding in Fiji in June and had a fabulous time. The resort was lovely and relaxing so that was pretty hard to take.

My niece Rebecca and daughter Marnie with a few of the locals

My friends Casey and Bert the happy couple. Casey surprised everyne and wore red.

Here I am with the girls, enjoying another night out.

The wedding ceremony

AQC 2011

I was in Melbourne a couple of weeks ago enjoying the Australian Quilt Convention. Here we are with the girls from The Quilted Crow, their display was later voted Stand of the show, well done girls. From left Leonie, Linda, myself and Deidre.

Later that night at dinner from top left Deidre, myself and Sharon, bottom left Linda Chris and Leonie. Thanks for a great night girls.

We then ventured down to Sorrento for a relaxing weekend of sewing, laughing ,eating and drinking-not necessarily in that order. From the left Sharon, Linda, Jill, Helen, Sandra, myself and Margaret

I helped out by quilting some small quilts for Linda, here I am in the zone watched by Margaret.

Sandra busy cutting tiny half-square triangles.

Ann finished this lovely japanese inspired quilt.

Helen worked on this wool applique block from a Quilted Crow Block of the month.

Margaret's blocks took shape on the design wall.

One of Linda's quilts that I machine quilted, all in all a great weekend Thanks again

Linda

Happy Easter

Hope you all enjoyed a lovely Easter break as I did caught up with friends and managed to start quilting our raffle quilt.

Surprise Package

Arrived home this afternoon to a wonderful surprise, a bundle of "Civil War Chronicles" fat quarters from the Fat Quarter Shop. I recently machine quilted a cot quilt for my sister Gail and this was my reward.

The fabrics are wonderful and the way they are displayed is stunning, the only problem now is the fact that I want to use them but don't want to ruin the packaging.

Thanks Gail.

Not completely idle

Before my holiday I was looking for a hand-piecing project to take and as I searched my sewing room I found the perfect block. I had made up one and cut several others but had put it on the back burner and totally forgotten about it. The sunburst blocks are hand-pieced in circles then pressed, the surrounds are set in and then the centres are appliqued.

I am really enjoying the process and have a finished project in mind although there are 3 finished and 17 to go -Watch this space

Hello 2011

Happy New Year to all, I am back from a lovely break with the world and enjoying a few well deserved weeks lying on the beach. As I haven't done much through January I thought I'd share some of my Christmas decorating and this time I thought I'd change a few displays so I decided to group my snowman collection and display them on the mantle.

Previously the wreath housed a Santa but that wouldn't do, so I made this large snowman head from fabric and cotton batting and he really finished off the display.

I set up the village which usually graces the mantle on one of the treadle sewing machines.

A recently purchased sled became a perfect spot for these two snow people.

A vintage style Santa looked at home on my hooked rug stool.

The snowman trio were probably a bit out of place as Christmas day in Sydney topped 38 degrees C, but I think there cute.

This German Twig tree was a new purchase from the States but it was too tall to fit into the pic.