Sunday, September 23, 2012

My recent holiday

I have recently returned to work after having 2 weeks off.  I try to take sometime off during September as I always  think that it is one of the nicest months of the year - coming out of winter, longer warmer days and blossoms abound.  Hubby and I did a variety of outings during that time.  The  first day we headed off into the city to see the DJ's annual flower show and as always it is a real treat as you can see from the photos below.   This year the theme was "Fleuresence"

 

A walk across the road and we found ourselves in Hyde Park heading towards St Mary's Cathedral.

The next day we stayed "local" and headed up the peninsula to Newport Arms which is situated on the Pittwater side of Newport.    What better place than to drink in the view and eat our lunch.




It was time for a short break so we headed up to our favourite destination - Leura  for a few days.   Our "digs" can be seen below


Next morning we were up bright and early and headed off to Echo Point.  The photo below is of me with my "three sisters" behind me (the name of the mountains to the left of the photo.)

One of the many lovely mountain walks


And cool mountain streams

And of course the gorgeous cherry blossoms


 We decided on our way home to do the "round trip" and came back via Mt Tomah - one of our State's botanical gardens.    Here we saw fields of daffodils


Chocolate coloured plants  and proteas



On a clear day you can see over 150 kms but on that day there had been hazard reduction burn offs so the air was not clear.

Home for a few days did see some sewing done.  I have a growing collection of fq's and leftovers (bigger pieces than scraps from other projects) so I played around with them and came up with the following.     I like the secondary pattern of the diamonds in this quilt.


Well it is back to work for me.  I had a lovely break and some equally lovely memories.

Friday, September 14, 2012

A light bulb moment

My quilting group has been running a block swap where each month one member nominates a block and the other members make that block for the nominator.   For my block I chose the pattern weave the rails which is  in keeping with my theme of  "the year of the using up scraps".  When I received all my blocks and started putting them together that pesky 1/4" seam which seems to differ between each machine caused me quite some problem.   I thought that I would have to re-sew many of the blocks and then I had my light bulb moment - I started to play around with the blocks and decided that I would go with the pattern Chinese coins which is a far more accommodating  design for my problem.    This is what I ended up with.


Last month we were issued a challenge by our quilt group president to make an item with a Christmas theme and I decided to make a tablerunner.  This is the first time that I have used a patchwork binding and I was pleased with the result.   Again I used only from my stash.


The last item is tabletopper that I made for mum.    She loves fairies and when I saw this fabric I thought it would be perfect for her.  


I have been pleased with the sewing that I have achieved during my holiday.

Friday, September 7, 2012

One of those "O" birthdays

Since my last post I have had one of those special "O" birthdays.   I have been very spoilt by my family - being taken out for a lovely family lunch on the weekend, dinner out on my actual birthday to my favourite restaurant and given some beautiful gifts by everyone.   It took my mind off getting older.  There is one gift that I wanted to share with you and it was given to me by a very special friend - we have known each other for about 37 years.   It arrived in the post and when I was unwrapping it I did wonder what it could be from the shape


As you can see it is a set of the most adorable mini quilts complete with their own rack.


She has included 4 seasonal quilts and 4 traditional quilt patterns.


My quilt rack has pride of place in our family room and will be treasured for a very long time.