Back from Short Getaway

I've been on holidays this week and my husband and I took the opportunity to grab a couple of nights away in the Adelaide Hills at a place called Hahndorf. For those that don't know it, it is a town with a strong German history having originally been settled by a number of German families not long after Adelaide came into being. It has retained its original style as many of the original buildings are still standing and is a popular tourist destination. Here is a shot of the main street which has all sorts of interesting shops and restaurants.

We took our time getting up there and wandered along through Woodside, stopping at Melba's Chocolate Factory (to get something for the boys at home), Tilbrook Wines and Bird in the Hand Winery and then back into Woodside to get some yummy goodies from the bakery to soak up the wine samples! Once we got to Hahndorf of course we had to buy some bits and pieces: some beautiful smoked salmon from the lovely shop which smokes all its own products on site, some beautiful rhubarb jam from the local craft outlet, way too much cheese from Udder Delights, another bottle of wine, some cashew mustard and sun dried tomato relish, and the list goes on! Then on top of that the most amazing afternoon tea at a gorgeous flower filled shop with lovely large old wooden chairs to relax in and strawberries of course!

We stayed in a motel called The Stables which was right behind the restaurant of the same name so up a couple of steps and we were in the main street. Then we could head back to the room for a break when we needed it!

On the way home we stopped at a roadside shop in Balhannah and bought beautiful fresh apples, pears and rhubarb and a lovely rhubarb and apple pie to take home. You can see a theme developing here - wider waistlines for sure!

A short distance away was The Cedars, home of Hans Heysen, famous Australian artist and worth a tour through if you are ever in the area. Some of his most amazing paintings are still there on the walls of his home and the gardens are lovely too.

The autumn colours were lovely in the hills, although a little later this year I think.

Oddly enough I thought being on holidays this week I might get quite a bit of sewing done - wrong! I did get some of my hand sewing done while we were away but I had planned on a couple of days after we got back. It didn't quite work out that way as we are currently in the process of replacing our aging electric hot water service with a gas one and as we don't currently have gas connected it has been quite a long, drawn out process! Naturally they waited until we were away to finally get the gas mains in so then we had the plumber here all day Thursday doing his bit. 

Right I thought, onto the sewing machine after I've caught up with the washing after being away! A phone call later and I was sorting out my Trees for Life seedlings instead as my landholder happened to be in town from Gladstone and was calling to pick up her 3 boxes of trees I had grown:

After a coffee and look around at our bird aviaries, a chat to catch up on how the farm and other trees are going (I've been growing for Andrea for quite a few years now!) she was headed back up to the farm with her trees happily snuggled in the boot. For more information about the Trees for Life scheme which operates here in Adelaide have a look here. I'm sure they would welcome any donations or more growers if you are interested!

Anyway by now of course it was well past lunchtime, so a quick bite to eat and then onto the sewing machine. Well I managed to finish off the bags I was making for the cardiac unit at St Andrews and then it was time to hit the road and pick up my son from school and head to the library. Back home and then as the plumber had finished while I was gone, it was off to the shops with my other half to get the grocery shopping done, so no more sewing!

I did manage to get some done on Friday though, until my husband got back from an appointment and decided to start on making some special feed mix for his birds, which of course he couldn't possibly manage without interrupting me every 5 minutes! Every time I got into the flow of my free motion quilting, I had to stop - aaargh! Still I did manage to get quite a bit done despite his best efforts by which time it was time to go and pick up my son again. Still I persevered and did a bit more last night and hoped to get some done today but it was not to be! Maybe tomorrow..... hopefully?! 

Today wasn't a complete loss as I had to go to Spotlight and get some tear away stabliser, and while I was there they were having a 20% off special on batting, then I remembered I hadn't spent my $40 voucher so I bought a bit extra (as you do) and got the total over $100 and then I got $40 off as well as the 20% so I'm good for batting for a while!

Back to work on Monday. I think I'm ready for another week off (but this time without my husband!).

Thanks for stopping by,

Sue xxx

Couldn't resist sharing this sign on the leathergoods shop!

April Quilting Block Swap from Shirley in the USA

In April I was partnered with Shirley from St Louis in the USA for my block swap and Friday I received a lovely floral envelope containing these lovely goodies:

Shirley sent me some extra fabric and also included lots of helpful information about what fabric it was and where it came from! And here is a better look at the block:

I've decided to change my second option from any block in teal and red to a Hunter Star in bright colours. I can just see a whole quilt of these stars can't you?

Thank you Shirley for being my swap buddy for April!

Thanks for stopping by!
Sue xxx

Quilting Block Swap for May

Sue at Quilting Block Swap Australia  was super organised this month so we got our swap partner's names early this month.  My partner, Leena from NSW, and I have already completed our swap for May.  Leena asked for a spool block in bright colours and I found two fabrics in my stash which I thought would work for the thread part but couldn't decide which one to use, so I thought I'd just make both.

This was a new block for me and I like it so I might have to make one for my quilt as well.  I'm collecting any blocks in red, black and white. This is the block which Leena sent me.  Isn't it great?!

For some reason this has shown up as a bit pink but its actually a lovely bold red.  Actually the plain red fabric in four of the blocks is almost an identical shade and the black and white fabric is also in the log cabin block, how's that for blending? Here's what I have so far:

I think they are looking great together!
The lovely Leena also sent me a surprise - a pair of sewing themed panels. I love them! I can see them on the wall in my future (long distant future!) sewing room.

Aren't they cute? And blue and yellow borders, my favourite colour combination!
Thanks for stopping by,
Cheers,
Sue

Love my Wednesday Sewing Days!

I love Wednesdays! Its my day off so this year I have designated Wednesdays my Official Quilting Day.  Today I decided to get stuck in and do my Craftsy BOM blocks for May.  Not a huge fan of  these blocks. I'm happy with my Modern Log Cabin other than I ended up with a really narrow outer border that is going to give me headaches when I'm joining up the blocks I'm sure. I'll have to see, might have to make some modifications, perhaps trim down the second to last border and add a wider outer border.

My wonky log cabin is just wrong for the other blocks I have, way too dark. My fault for throwing in some other fabrics in the purple tones but they're way to heavy compared to the rest of my block.  I might have to redo or just not use this one!

Here they are all together, so you can see what I mean!

I started on a new project today as well. My husband's cousin is turning 60 this year and while it will be a very low key celebration, I thought I should make something for her (and also her sister-in-law who will be at the dinner and also turned 60 this year!) and I found this pattern in a recent copy of Australian Patchwork & Quilting.  I was all set to get both put together today only to find I only had enough fusible web to make one, isn't that the way?!

Anyway, this is the project in the magazine (and some of the pieces waiting to be added!)

And here it is part way to being put together:

I'll post a photo when its done (although I'm not sure about putting the circles on it, might give them a miss!).

Lastly I finally managed to take some photos of the quilt I have been quilting for my mother-in-law Betty. Its my first all free motion quilt and I'm pretty pleased with the way it turned out:

Although I'm a little disappointed that one of the fabrics in the blocks ran into the cream fabric but as I didn't make the top I couldn't be sure it had all been pre-washed.  This is a close up of the quilting as well as the area on which the colour ran.

I'm toying with the idea of re-washing it to see if it will wash out if I throw in another colour catcher and perhaps some salt to set it. Its not too bad but I don't want to make it worse!

Here are a couple of my favourite blocks:

Finally, I couldn't resist sharing this photo of my lovely old girl, Molly dog (also known to many as Dingo Dog!), who doesn't seem overly impressed with the quilt!

Thanks for dropping by (and making it all the way to the very end of this epic post!),
Cheers,
Sue xx

Squishy in the Mail

Ooh, lucky me! I got a squishy in the mail today!  Luckily it was safely sealed in a plastic sleeve as the poor envelope got somewhat soggy while waiting in our letterbox, otherwise it would have been squishy for another reason!  For a change we had some lovely rain in Adelaide, always a good thing as far as I'm concerned!

Anyway, the lovely Kathy from NSW sent me this gorgeous creation, tied up with a beautiful blue ribbon and some goodies to make a cup of tea to christen it:

and here is the back:

Kathy must have known my favourite colour is blue. Thank you Kathy, great job!

Cheers,

Sue xx

Competition on Facebook

There is a competition currently running on Facebook with FabricDirect.com.au and I have entered two of my quilts. What can I say, who doesn't want the chance to win a whole lot of fabric!?  Also its nice that its an Australian company too!

If you are interested and able to vote for my quilts, I would appreciate it.  You can vote every 24 hours too so please try and come back as often as you can to vote. The process is that you 'Like' their Facebook page and you might need to agree to 'Offerpop' if you haven't already. Then you can view the entrants and vote for the ones you like. This is the Facebook page you need.

Anyway these are the two I've entered:

Thanks for stopping by today and thank you also if you go and vote. I appreciate your help! The more fabric I have, the more I can do - at least that's my theory and I'm sticking with it!

Cheers,
Sue xx

Mug Rug Swap - Quilting Mumma

I recently signed up to take part in my first mug rug swap on Quilting Mumma's blog and was paired up with Kathy in NSW.  I'm hoping Kathy has received my parcel by now.

I haven't made a mug rug before so found it hard to decide what I would do. I knew that Kathy liked bright colours (sounds like me there!) so I had a bit of a dig around and came up with this:

and this is the back!

I thought she might like to try it out so I popped a couple of little surprises in with the mug rug:

I wasn't sure if she liked tea or coffee so popped a sachet of each in for good measure!

Looking forward to seeing what Kathy sends me!

Oh and by the way I'm having another crack at a quilt competition over at Quilting Gallery. This time its for wallhangings and I've entered my quilt 'Waratah Wonder':

If you would like to cast a vote for my quilt (or any of the lovely wallhangings there), you can do it here!

Thanks for stopping by!
Sue xxx