Wonderful Weekend...

About three weekends a year Katherine and I head down to the beach house at Portarlington and have a sewing weekend. It started many years ago when Janelle was living in Melbourne and we packed up the car with sewing machines and unfinished projects, bags of fabric, cutting mats, rulers, chocolate, etc etc and a very small bag of clothes. (who needs clothes when you wear you jammies all weekend anyway!)

Now it's just two of us and Janelle sews in spirit over in Western Australia, while Katherine and I shut ourselves away and sew. Wait till you see Janelle's Dolcetto Bag, I got a sneak peek and it's gorgeous! There's lot's of fun to be had, projects to ooh and ahh over, food to be consumed and generally spreading our stuff out and not having to pack up until we head home!

For all the years we've been going away, one of us (mainly Katherine!) has either been pregnant, unknowingly pregnant or have a small baby in tow, this time it was Katherine's little Abigail who is just three months old, who made up the trio, and we had a special guest Lara join us with a mountain of photo's to put into albums sans 4 small children with sticky fingers wanting to help.

So, I hear you say, did you actually get any sewing done over the weekend?.....

While at the recent Quilt and Craft Fair in Melbourne I fell madly in love with a quilt at the Amitie Stand and had to come home with the pattern and fabrics to complete it.......

OOOOoohhhh, it's so yummy, all those autumn colours, gorgeous fabrics, just need to pop back to Amitie and get some backing and binding, that was project number one....

Next was an unfinished project that has been hanging around for about 12 months. I purchased this this fabric (Panic in Provence) years ago when we had three lovely fat chickens out scratching in the backyard, I thought the kids would love a funny chicken quilt to snuggle under on the couch or on sick days. Well, between starting and finishing this quilt Mr Fox visited our backyard and it has now become the Chicken Memorial Quilt, dedicated to Ruthie, Speedo and Angelina, who gave us so much entertainment, love and fed us with delicious eggs. It's ready for backing quilting and binding now, that was project two...

I purchased some Christmas fabric from Quilters Biz called Cranberry Wishes recently. Two charm packs and a jelly roll. I whipped up a table runner out of one charm pack, project three complete...

Last year I did a class at Somerset Patchwork and Quilting with Michelle Yeo for the California Star Quilt. I was ready for a challenge and it has been a really great project. You can see Michelle's finished quilt at the Foothill's Fabric and Thread blog site, and currently hanging in their lovely new shop in Tecoma. I have completed one full star and did a bit more work on the second star over the weekend, this one may take me a while! And that was project number four....

Last but by no means the least, I filled in the gaps during the weekend by taking my overflowing scrap box and working on my Scrappy Cabins. Over at Melly & Me they have a Scrappy Cabin Challenge going and have had a few scrap swaps. I decided to participate in the last one exchanging scraps with the lovely Betty in the Kitchen in Tamworth, expanding the variety of scraps in my box. Both Janelle and I still had so many scraps that we did a swap too and posted each other a scrap parcel. These log cabin blocks are so much fun to make and one day when I have enough I will stitch them together into a quilt. It really reminds me of where patchwork and quilting began, they used what they had and rarely bought new fabric to make a quilt top.

So there you have it, I did get a few things done over the weekend and had my soul nourished with friendship and time out to indulge in my passion for sewing. I think I had better wrap it up there, this post is dragging on a bit!

May your needle thread first time, every time.

Love :)Kylie