Wonderful Week of Gardens

 I have had a wonderful week visting the gardens around Toowoomba with my Mum, Aunty Mary and my cousin Dice. Each day we would go and look at 3 or 4 gardens. They are all stunning. So much work and love in each garden. It's great that they open their garden for every one to look at.

  Dice ,Mary and Mum found a nice area to sit and enjoy the sites.

There were all so pretty.

One day we even got Uncle Allan joined us. We all had lots of ideas for new garden projects for him to make for Aunty Mary. Don't know if he was keen on that or not.

  While out and about we also went to the Toowoomba quilt Exhibition. They had lots and lots of stunning quilts on display. Just sorry I can't show you.
The photo is of the ladies demon.... different techniques and projects.

I love the lines the grubs have left on the leaves. It looks like lace.

 We also made it to a Tea Pot display. They had teapots, cups and saucers, tea towels, aprons and table cloths. There was so much to look at. Old, new, funny, ugly and pretty. They also put on a lovely Devonshire tea, that we all enjoyed.

Do you remember the stitching samplers we had to make at school? They had a few on show, wonder how old they are. I still have my sampler but it was no were as good as this.

Mum, Megan and Me. Megan arrived later in the week to join up with us. She really enjoyed the gardens and catching up with Mum and everyone.

 The last day we all went of to High Tea at Platform 9  at the railway stations. It was very nice. We had a few more join our little party. Mary's daughters Jan and Sandra plus Grand daughter Elle.
While there the old steam train arrived so we went out to watch it. Great old train. Megan and I were waiting for Harry potter and the kid from Hogs Warts to get off.

Well it's time to go, I have to pack my bags. We are off to Darwin for a family wedding.  Our niece Lorrrea will be wed in a few days time. Going to be great to catch up with every one. We have another busy week ahead

Jig Saw Puzzle

 I was back in the quilting swing so I thought it was time go finish the Bali Bed runner, (Wedding ring quilt) that I started for a class at Peter's. It was the last project I was working on before I had to pack up the house. All the pieces were carefully put in bags, pined and ready to get out and start with no hassles.
 Or thats what I thought. Didn't work ! It was one big mess.

  Took me a few days to work it all out. It was one big jig-saw puzzle. I had bits stitched together, some half done and loose pieces. For a few days I had a fun job, but I got there in the end and I am very pleased with the finished quilt top.

 I had paper from one end of the house to the other. This quilt is a Judy Niemeyer foundation paper piecing pattern. Great way to make a wedding ring quilt. Simple.

  The finished quilt top, ready to quilt now.

Back in one spot

After a few weeks on the road catching up with family and friends, we are finely back in the one spot for a while.
 I have had time to unpack the sewing machine and do a little work.
The first project I worked on was the block of the month, I started this quilt as a class at Peter Taylors.
I had to make a few more (lot really) of small blocks for fillers.
 Then the fun started, putting it all together, A lot like a jigsaw puzzle. This really is the exciting part of the project.


Build bigger block out of all the smaller blocks. Step one

 With all the blocks from the class plus a few more the quilt top is slowly coming together.

The quilt top is finished, sorry it is not a very good photo but you get the idea.

This was a great project to use up a lot of your scraps or old fabrics.

Many of the fabric in the quilt, I have had in the cupboard for a long ,long time. Very impressed with my self when I finely used them.

A good mix of old and modern fabrics

 

The second quilt top I finish was one I started in a class with Sue Ross 2 years ago.
I have also used a lot of old and modern fabric in this quilt. A lot of the older fabric is ugly. really, really ugly but when mixed in with every thing else you don't see it. Slowly eating in to that old stash of fabrics. It's a great feeling to be using it up.

Spring has hit us a little early this year. The flowers are all out, and it look stunning. This is my Aunt Mary's garden at Toowoomba. Mary's garden is lovely all year round.

Time to get back and finish of a few more UFO and I seem to have a lot of them waiting for me. I wonder if you ever get to that time in your life that you don't have a UFO.

 I think that would be really sad, but knowing me I can't see that ever happening.

Catching up with friend plus fitting in a workshop at Carinda NSW.

 

Cathy and her daughter Louise
 Spent a wonderful week end at Carinda teaching "Circle Play" and "No Rulers No Rules".

One of the special things about going out to Carinda was that I got to catch up with friends, It has been over 25 year since I have been out this way. I stayed with Cathy and Oz plus Belinda came out for  the week end, we had a few late nights catching up.

 The first day we had the Circle Play class. Every one enjoyed them selves. We had a good range of colours working through out the class, no ones work was the same.

 Country colours for a table runner

  Helen had lots of fun playing with her colours

 Rachel had soft pinks and oranges

 Ret was bold with her brights

 Black, white and red is always a good colour choice.

Sorry Louise but I couldn't get the photo to rotate, Cathy and Louise's quilt. Have to wait and see who ends up with the quilt. Belinda thought she should have it for helping with the cutting and pressing. Louise after a hard day at class, Time to relax in Dads lounge chair.

 

The second day we had "No Ruler No Rules". This class is a lot of fun. The ladies found it hard to believe that they could do any thing and it was OK.

 Ret had a lot of old blocks she didn't like any more so we cut them up and added slashes here and there.

 Faye had a lovely big pile of scraps to work with. She had a heap of fun trying to use them up.

 On the second day we got Belinda sewing. She was very proud of the piece she made

 Jody was working with Plaids and stripes. It was looking good. Jody also used a lot of little blocks left over from anther quitls.

 Shading from pink, purple to blue.

 The class at the end of the week end. We all had a wonderful time.

After the week end I had to go back to Pilliga to pick Doug up. He had the week end with his mum. (He wasn't too keen on a week end of sewing. Why I don't know). I went for a drive through Come-By-Chance on the way. This is a photo of Comby. Its a big place.
After Pilliga it was off to mum's at Baan Baa. On the way back to mum's we caught up with more family and friends. We have had a lovely time. Then it was time to head back to Toowoomba.

Taupo Symposium

In the middle of all our packing and moving I had a trip to the New Zealand  symposium at Taupo. It was wonderful, had a great time. I went with Bev and we joined up with Laurene, Lorraine, Pam  and Bee. All arrived in Auckland, had a few days in Auckland looking around. Lovely city. So much to see and do, we only had time to see a little bit of the city. Will have to go back for holiday to check out the rest.

 While walking around the War Memorial we found the glass houses, they are stunning buildings and full of the most beautiful  plants. Took heaps of photos but the ones of the green foliage were very inspiring, it's hard to believe there can be so many shades of green in one little area.
 

 When look for a colour scheme for your next quilt you only have to look at nature.


Bev and I got a car to have a 2 day road trip to Taupo. We had a wonderful slow trip checking out every thing on the way. We had the night with Anne and Alistair at Tauranga. Anne has a lovely sewing room. Its up stairs, full of windows and over looking the harbor. Stunning, how she gets any work done with that view I don't know

. 

  On the road again, This time we had a stop at the Hobbiton movie set.  Unreal, I loved it.

  We spent so much time looking at every thing on the way that we almost missed out on our book in time for the symposium. Got there with one minute to go. Met up with the other lady's once we arrived. We were all staying in the same unit. So now it was time to get ready for our 5 days of  classes.

  The view from our unit, over in the back ground you could see the lake and behind that you could see the snow on the mountains
.

  One of my classes was with Kim McLane. It was a great class. Sorry I cant show you more photos. No I didn't do this quilt, the one I picked is not as busy but just as lovely. Though I had better start out  with some thing a little easier. Kim's quilts are all hand work, the second reason I start out with a simpler pattern.
.

  Third day into our stay this was the view from our window. Wow, it was bloody cold. Enjoyed every moment, ( don't get this at home ) I did get lots of ribbing from the girls tell me this is what I would get once we moved to Toowoomba. Ha ha

  Pam, Lourene and Bev on our way to class

  Another photo in the fog. All wrapped up in our winter wooly's

 One after noon we had a drive around the lake. The sun set was stunning. We were trying to get photos of the snow on the mountains but missed that and got the sun set.

 My second class was with Robby Eklow. Another great class. We were working on designing our own quilts and it's all done by fusing it together, the only stitching is the quilting. I had packed my work away, so sorry there is no photo. Next time.

 Lorain was also in this class. She has done a wonderful job with her piece, Still has 3 or 4 rings to build out on her quilt.

I tried to get in to Gwen's class but I missed out. Pam and Lourene got in to Gwen's class so I was over there visiting a lot. She is a lovely lady and I really love her work. The symposium also had a exhibition of Gwen's work on display at the Taupo Museum.
The symposium also had a second exhibition with every ones quilts. Stunning!!! It really is a pity I can't put photos up to show you, But I suppose the best thing is to go next time and have a look your self. It really was wonderful.

Back in Oz with no home any more..... Once I arrived back we had 3 days to be out of the house, so it was quickly pack the last few things, do the last bit of cleaning and leave. Very sad I cried most of the way to Toowoomba. ( what are we going to do, My lovely house and garden has gone, wow, what now) All this is running through my head, but once I arrived at Pauline and Rob's house it was all OK. New start, enjoy it all...... We will be house sitting for the Rodger's, (A big thank you to Pauline and Rob for there lovely home ) while here we can look about to see were we would like to settle down. Time to get to the unpacking.