Farewell 2013 - What a Year!

What a year our family has had this year.  It has been a year full of excitement and extreme anxiety, amazing joy and terrible sadness and I think I have had enough and am happy to welcome in a new year.

The most joyful event happened on the 19th December, two weeks earlier than planned.  I would like to introduce you all to our precious little granddaughter, Evie.  She is perfect in every way and we have fallen instantly in love and are totally besotted by her.  She weighed just 2.65kg (5lb 8oz).

 Evie two days old

 Evie sound asleep on her back today

A friend sent me this pic she found on the internet.  I can now show you the whole quilt that I made prior to Evie's arrival.

 The front

The back

Today has been a very sad day as we said goodbye to our Grand Doggy Lucy.  She has been Chris & Amy's baby for 7 years and holds a special place in our hearts.  A beautiful loyal companion and friend and we will all miss her terribly.

Wishing everyone a Happy New Year with lots of health, wealth and happiness for 2014!!!

Sue-Anne xxx

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

I cannot believe how fast this year has gone and in just a few short weeks, we will be welcoming our first precious little grandchild into our family.  We are on the home stretch now and I CANNOT wait!

I have finished the first quilt, something to take to the hospital to use straight away.

It is hand quilted and I even did a little appliqué on the back.  

I have finished my tulip quilt.  

I have also finished the next frame of Hertfordshire, 48 little hexagons.  I miss doing them now they are all done......

I have also made a little bit more progress on St Neots, finishing all the hexagons.  I think I will tackle the appliqué that runs across the top of the quilt next.

I'm off to CAG tomorrow so I'm sure I will have lots of Show & Tell pics to show next post.  I have started playing with Instagram, I am loving it.  If you want, you can follow me on there.  Just click on the button on my sidebar.

One final thing, I have prepared this post on my iPad using the Blogger app, so fingers crossed it works ok????

Sue-Anne xxx

Rememberance Day 2013

From Flanders Fields to the poppy fields of Afghanistan, we honour the fallen, who have made the ultimate sacrifice so that we can be safe and live free without fear.  Lest We Forget.

Quilts in the Barn 2013

We had a fantastic day on Friday at Quilts In The Barn!  It was so much fun catching up with quilting friends and once again Linda and her fabulous helpers did a fantastic job.  The theme this year was "All About Chintz".  The quilts were magnificent and included quilts from the Quiltmania book "Promenade in a Dutch Garden".  There were also some beautiful antique quilts but unfortunately no photos were allowed.  On the shopping front,  Mary Koval was there, Leonie from the Quilted Crow and Di & Megan were in charge of all the beautiful fabrics available from Petra Prins.  So sit back and I hope you enjoy some of the photos that I took on the day.

I was particularly interested in how spectacular the border fabrics looked and also how the chintz mixed beautifully with the reproduction fabrics that we all have in our stashes.

 This was the section of the barn where Mary Koval was selling her wares - very popular!!!

This was one of the quilts Mary had for sale and it was lovely.  You can see all the antique tops for sale on the table below.  There were lots of individual blocks for sale and the most exquisite fabrics.

 I came home with this piece of fabric, dated 1870.  The red in it is gorgeous and I have a plan for it too.

I am planning to use it as a central panel in a quilt.

I also came home with this applique block, dated 1850.  It is 12 inches square and is going in a frame and then will be hung on the wall in my sewing room.  

This is the dutch fabric I bought and I think I am going to have lots of fun with it, the colours are gorgeous!

After the Barn, we made our way across the suburbs of Melbourne visiting quilt shops along the way and the following is the result of that shopping.  I actually got a bit of a shock when I saw how much I came home with.

Sue-Anne xxx

Finally a Finish!

 I actually have a finished (for me) project to show you!  This year our Saturday sewing group has a challenge to complete a quilt made from 1930's fabrics and I am very pleased to say mine is DONE!  

 Since my last post, I have been on a couple of adventures.  I went to P!NK  in Melbourne and spent a couple of days with my best friend.

 Two weeks later I went to Brisbane with the girls to visit the V & A Quilt Exhibition at the Queensland Art Gallery.  What a fantastic experience to see up close and personal all those famous quilts - absolutely stunning!

There were no photographs allowed in the gallery but I did take lots of photos of this little guy who was sitting near us at lunch.  He was soooo cute, his colours were amazing and he was quite friendly and not bothered at all by all the people.

We had a short stopover in Sydney on the way home and my son met me there for lunch.  We both had our first ever "Krispy Kreme Doughnut".  OMG they are so nice!  Lucky there isn't a shop at home, but I did go back and get some to take with me so that Howard could enjoy the experience.

 I felt compelled to make a new bag to travel with and this is it.  I had started making another one in red and white linen but whilst looking in the cupboard for something else, I found this fabric and knew that it just had to be made into this bag.

 I took a class at Avonleigh Country Quilting to learn how to put together these cute little Applecores.

And another class with Shelley learning how to string piece and make her "Wendy's Tulips" quilt.

I have been having fun with hexagons and dabbling in a little bit of Fussy Cutting.  These are for Hertfordshire.

And these are for St Neots Band Sampler.

If you are in the area, don't forget about Quilts in the Barn!  it promises once again to be an outstanding exhibition and all proceeds go to Breast Cancer Research.

 It's a very lazy Sunday in our house today and its been so long since I did a proper blog update, it has taken me all afternoon to download and upload photos, update the laptop because its been so long since I've turned it on etc etc.      I took these photos of Milo and Buddy at lunchtime when I started this and now, 4 hours later, they are both in the same position!  

Sue-Anne xxx