Quilt Show

Well, a week has gone past and so I'm running a little late to tell you about our weekend at the Quilt Show at Darling Harbour but here goes anyway.

We headed off on the Friday and got there in time to check out the Powerhouse Museum (it had an ABBA exhibition...not sure if Gorgeous Girl actually knew who that was!!) and then went for a quick look through Paddy's Markets. Back to the hotel for a wee rest before heading out for dinner and a night time trip on the monorail. Then bright and early we headed off to the Myer's sale - shopped like mad women - then met up with our lovely friends to head into the quilt show. I was luck enough to pick up a free ticket from the Busy Thimbles blog - what a bonus!!


It's great to see all the wonderful creations and check out the latest things in the Crafting World. I admit I get a bit overwhelmed and usually buy very little - well, very little compared to some of the serious shoppers out there!! Here's my purchases:

Some templates to use with Jelly Rolls from Just Patchwork




Some lovely buttons using Japanese fabric from Kimono Girls.I hope to make a broach out of these.














Some Kaffe fat quarters from Fifi's Fabricology (that's a bit of a tongue twister! LOL)

At the quilt show I also got to catch up with some of the lovely ladies from my online quilting group, Patchnchat!

(On a less positive note my poor Gorgeous Girl was being bossed about by some of the women at the show, she got pushed and shoved and one even told her to get out of the way of a stall as 'I deserve to have a look more than you"!! The cheek!! And frankly some of the ladies use their handbags as lethal weapons!!)

After the quilt show we headed out for a slightly crazy dinner at China Town and then went to see Mary Poppins. It was absolutely terrific and I thought the Capitol Theatre was amazing!

We had a lovely time and would have loved to stay longer. Hopefully we'll get to go another year.

Hope you're having a great week!

A Quilting Limerick

She thought she would like to learn quilting
To fill in some quiet, spare time
But the hobby I did mention
Became an obsession
Taking up every spare space, second, dime.

(My Gorgeous Girl has been writing limericks at school. It is also slightly addictive!)

Fabric - Brooklyn Heights, Kitty Yoshida

Some poetry....

She started a quilt on Monday
Her stitches were very fine
She forgot to defrost the dinner
So they went out to dine.

(from Tractors and Teapots - a recipe book by M Charlesworth)

I'm a lucky duck

Yesterday I received in the post this lovely charm pack that I won on Gone Aussie Quilting. It's the new Denyse Schmidt fabric called Picnics and Fairgrounds. I was pretty chuffed to win - putting my "I never win anything" theory to rest! If you haven't checked out the Gone Aussie Quilting blog please do -I love her quilts, especially her use of colour!

And my new charm pack is resting on the new addition to our home. I was at the local tender shed, looking for a wardrobe and came home with a piano!! I figure with four kids, one has to be musical, right??!! (actually, seriously, we were looking for a piano as Sunshine Boy is going to start learning next year). I love that it's old, and just slightly battered. Slightly battered things work better in our house as I'm not good with the stress of trying to keep new things new with four kids! I'm sure with a polish up and a tune it will be great. (I did have it checked out by someone who knew pianos as my piano knowledge is very limited!)And it was a bargain - who sells a decent piano at a tender shed??!!

Oh, and if you are in the market for a huge old four-poster bed with posts the diameter of a pumpkin, and a fully carved wood canopy,do I have the shop for you!!

Hope you're having a good week!

One baby quilt (nearly) finished

So here's the panel shown in the previous post, sewn back together with a hotchpotch border in between the animals.



I find it interesting to see this quilt with just the first border sewn on. Frankly it's a bit "in-your-eye" at the moment but I think it will all "work" when the next border goes on. Just shows you that you should choose any borders all together and not one at a time. (well, I'm hoping that is what it is going to show you, and not just that my first border was a bad choice!! :-)

The builder is pretty much finished in our 2 story area and my daughter swept up 2 garbage bags of saw dust and shavings from the floor. Glad we don't have the carpet yet!

Hope you're having a great week!

Hoping the dust settles soon!

Hi there! Just thought I'd quickly check in and let you know I'm still here. I would love to be able to show you some crafty stuff I've been up to but alas there is none to show.

Seven years ago we started on an extension for our home. We really wanted it to match the rest of our 1930's house - in which we had strippped, stained and varnished all the skirting boards, architraves and windows. So we were building this grand extension and then I fell pregnant with bub no.3. I wouldn't say he wasn't a planned pregnancy, but after some difficulties with falling pregnant with no.2, and expecting to have to do all the charts, dates etc for another bub, for us to suddenly have a baby on the way when we had an 7 month old baby was a bit of a shock!And so soon I was 8 months pregnant, with a half finished extension (and not much money left), living in a unit and I suddenly decided I needed to get back into MY house. So we moved back in, naively thinking we would finish our building off as we lived in it.Yep, delusional. Three kids under 4 and extensions to finish...as if that was ever going to work!


Six years passed and we lived with no skirting boards, no picture rails, no architraves (and no doors!)

About 18 months ago we finally got all the timber necessary and started the long process of staining and varnishing.

Then in the last week we were speaking to a builder who, fortuitously for us, had a job fall through and was availabe now! Eeeekkk! Suddenly furniture needed to be removed, rooms were re-painted, kids found other places to sleep. And the dust...oh the dust is everywhere!!

But the end is in sight..I hope...

But on a quilty note, I bought this panel..and some matching fabric...

..to make a quilt for a new niece or nephew that is arriving soon.

If I was smart I would have left well enough alone and just put borders around it. But I'm never one to take the easy route (apparently), so I've cut it up and now I am trying to sew it back together into a reasonable looking baby quilt.

I'll let you know how it goes!
Have a great week!