I'm Back - from a quilt retreat!

Hold on, I better blow the dust off my poor blog, its been so long!

I will do a bit of a review of my new sewing room and house but its only halfway there while we wait for our wardrobes to be installed and I can get my fabric storage cupboards back. They're currently being used for storing some of our clothes.

In the meantime I went away on the weekend for our six monthly sewing getaway by the beach at Wallaroo.  Unfortunately two days before my friend Kerry slipped in the bathroom, did the splits and pulled her hammy. Poor love, she had to pull out of the getaway so I had to go on my own. We missed her terribly but I have to say I did take over her space without feeling too guilty!  I entertained myself on the drive over by putting on my favourite CDs and singing at the top of my voice (which was a bit on the husky side by that evening!)

I loaded all my stuff for the weekend into the car (it even all fit in the boot - clearly Kerry brings too much stuff as we normally fill her car to the brim!..... Okay, my car is bigger than hers!)

We were blessed with beautiful weather even though the day started with rain in Adelaide.

We got settled in and I got cracking quilting my quilt that I put together the last time we were over there in March. I haven't done any sewing since then as we've moved house so I felt a bit rusty!  This is a quilt I made with blocks I got as part of a swap in Quilt Block Swaps Australia. I decided to donate it to Mary Potter Hospice who have started a program to give each new patient their own lap quilt.

While I was quilting Gaye, who suffers from a back injury, took some time out on the couch to recover from the car trip over. Terrible location isn't it?!

I forgot to take photos of what everyone was up to this time, I was too busy getting on with things! Pauline was doing some embroidered towels, Kerrie (not the one who injured herself) was making bags, Sue (another one) was making quilt blocks, Gaye was making dolls clothes and Doreen was making quilt blocks and also doing some lacemaking.

I finished my quilt, binding and all (minus pulling the threads through).

I quilted it with a loose zig zag as they've asked that the quilts stay soft. On the back I decided to use up some of the charm squares I had cut from my scraps over the last couple of years.

Oops, nearly forgot this one!  I also made this which I'm going to turn into a cushion.  This was made from leftovers from my Rainbow Lattice quilt (see tutorial here).  I might even have enough to make a second one!

My next job, which was long overdue, was to make a thread catcher using laminated fabric. I love it and the laminated fabric means the threads slide out easily when you empty it.  I've got leftover fabric so I'm going to make one for the car as well. I just need to work out what I can hang it off.

I rewarded myself with a walk on the beach. A beautiful end to a beautiful Saturday.

I've been working on these blocks for a while and put together another three on Saturday evening. I've still got another 8 blocks cut out to put together but I might need to make it a bit bigger as I'd like to use it in the caravan and I don't think it will be quite big enough. I really wish I had chosen a larger size as these are 12.5" square and they take quite a while to put together.

Here are all the blocks laid out together, don't they look great?!

On Sunday morning I used a layer cake I won a while back to make these teacup blocks. Now don't ask me why they are called teacups but that's what they are called by Missouri Star Quilt Company. This is a link to their tutorial. They are easy to make and work well with large designs. 

I really wasn't all that keen on this layer cake when I got it but its growing on me now. There are still some more greys to add into the mix yet as well. I might make these into a couple of donation quilts as well as I have two of these layer cakes to use up.

Well that was my sewing weekend at Wallaroo. The best bit? I get to do it all over again in a month as we're doing a family sewing weekend at the same place in September. Even better, instead of each of us contributing a meal my niece volunteered to do all the catering as she loves to cook. I'm happy as I'm not a big fan of cooking and that means more time to sew - yay!

One final photo. I just love the look on my dog's face in this one. I'm not sure if she can't believe how much I'm taking or she's sad because she's worked out I'm leaving her for a few days!

Well that's a wrap! Hopefully by next week I can share some photos of our new home and sewing room. See you then!