New friend

I have had a great day out today, did some necessary messages and met up at the local Bernina shop with a fellow blogger Chris of the blog Diet Coke Rocks, we both have a love of quilting, it was lovely to meet up with a kindred spirit, we had a browse in the Bernina shop and a few goodies made their way home with me, they are in the boot of the car so I will rescue them tomorrow. We met up with Chris's daughter Lacy after some op shop browsing and went to a cafe for lunch

Chris and myself

This where we went, in Tauranga, lovely place, friendly people and great service

Here was Lacy's lunch, chicken and ricotta in filo pastry

Chris has seafood chowder, she was very good and didn't eat the bread, even though it looked lovely

I had goats cheese and beetroot salad

It was wonderful meeting Chris and Lacy, we had a lot of laughs, hopefully one day we can get together again.

I went to visit Mum at the home,she is much better and had a lovely afternoon tea as it was Daffodil Day, the beautiful china cups were out and butterfly cakes were offered for afternoon tea. I had to go to the supermarket for Mum and coming home there was a thunder storm brewing, so I went down to the beach to have a look.

I am linking up with Whims and Fancies for the wandering camera link up

Storm passing over the beach at Ferguson Park, Tauranga, just before the rain started, just prior to this the lightning was on putting on a good display.

Looking the other way down the park and the beach over to Mount Maunganui just as the black cloud comes over.

I will finish up for now, cuppa time.

Happy days.

Another little star

joined the star family last night

Taking the photo outside was not such a good idea..the colour is much darker than it looks

These guys are just needing their centre seam and they are finished

I mentioned we vought orchids last week, here they are, we have created a bit of a jungle on the dining table  but the flowers are beautiful to look at.

I was given this orchid last year and it had beautiful white flowers, it is flowering again but now has these coloured flowers 😆

I have been sitting out on the back deck, it has been a beautiful day, cold start this morning, but lovely now. I am off to Tullamarine this afternoon and fly to NZ to visit my mother tomorrow, she has been mm in hospital again, but turns 93 on Thursday. Pretty good age to get to these days.

I had better to and get sorted.

Happy stitching.

Link up time

It is time to link up with Anthea at Hibiscus Stitches for the Piece Yourselves together celebration of all EPP. Luckily this month I have something to share

Two stars completed, one fussy cutting worked well ,the other not so well! I am trying not to waste too much fabric.

More under construction.

Some ready to sew, some ready to be glued down.

I went for a good walk this morning

along the edge of Edwards Point

out to the beach, low tide when I was there

and home along the beach. Lovely to be by the sea this morning.

Off to do some chores now.

Happy sewing.

Quilt In Bacchus Marsh

Yesterday I went up to The Marsh with Jill from here, and met up with Donna and Tracee and some of Donna's friends and attended the Quilt In. There were stalls with goodies to buy, I tried to resist, but came home with 2m of purple fabric @ $6 per m it was a bargain, and I was charged for 1.5m, double bargain. The speaker was Margaret Mew, originally a Kiwi, but had been here since 1985 I think. She has a huge interest in history and the history of quilts and so makes her versions of some of the old quilts she has studied. It was interesting to see her quilting style develop over the making of her quilts. Lots of photos, so here we go

You can see Margaret likes the old worn style of quilts, this last one is her current  quilt that needs to be finished in 5 weeks for teaching in the Netherlands, the middle hexies are the top border, the left hand hexies will go on the side...all hand stitched. Many beautiful quilts.

We had some show and tell, I didn't take many photos

the old 10 minute block, that never is for me!!

made with wool, love the tartan stars

Donna's friend Chris showed her beautiful art quilts, this one based on a photo she had printed on fabric, then free motioned a lot of details on to, a stunning quilt.

a slightly fuzzy closer look at the free motion stitching

another of Chris's quilts, the fabric chosen were beautiful and the quilting stunning. There were sparkly "jewels" around the elephant.

Here are my fabric treasures that came home with me

this  will combine with the green left over from the purple and green quilt I made at retreat earlier this week. Perfect and a bargain.

Margaret Mew had these fat eighths for sale at $3.00 each, so these came home to be made into stars.

I had some happy mail

the last package for Doing the Rounds 

beautiful fabrics for the final circle round. I am three behind now but slowly getting there.

Happy sewing.

Home again

Well life is back to normal or what  passes for normal here, we had a great retreat and some wonderful projects were worked on

I learned how to make bias strips for the Doing the Rounds quilt

And stored them in a special way!!

Maria is making this quilt for her great nephew, she produced so many flying geese!! 

This is the mystery quilt some of the Bellarine Quilters are working on this year

This is the raffle quilt for the show in September for the Bellarine Quilters, Maria has just finished the quilting and binding 

These are 3 bags I made for the oncology quilts to be delivered in.

This is a beautiful bed runner Maxine has made

Another bag finished off Thursday morning

Barbs beautiful fox quilt

Today hubby and I went to the local nursery, we stopped and got petrol on the way and noticed some flowers and plants for sale..we went to have a look and came out with three orchid plants, will take a photo in the daylight tomorrow.

We did some geocaching on the way home, down a quiet farm road

It was such a beautiful afternoon, calm and sunny

Towards the end of the road we had some puddles to navigate, I was sent out to see how deep they were, with the old stick test, once deemed safe by hubby, we continued on.

Back at home I put together a little terrarium , am quite pleased with it.

Hope it grows ok.

Off to do some stitching now, 

Happy weekend.