Busy times wandering

The last two days have been busy for us, yesterday, late afternoon, we went up to Melbourne to see #2 son, Shane,  in the one man play he wrote and acted in. I know I am the biased mother but it was fantastic and we all really enjoyed it. The play lasted about 50 mins, a long time for one person to be along on stage and keep the audience entertained.

Today I have been into Geelong for an event organised by the Guild, We had a master class with Ricky Tims. Three by one and a half hour lectures on his life, quilting experiences and how he does things. He was very generous with his time and  quilting tricks, short cuts etc. We saw a few of his quilts

Here we go...

self portrait and applique quilts

Harmonic Convergence Quilt with an Australian theme

love the colours and pattern in this one

tulip quilts and applique using fancy stitches and a circular attachment on the machine

some Ricky Tims quilts made by the class participants

Off we go.

the colours of the quilts did not come up well in the photos, they were much more vibrant than they seem. The last quilt here was made by Ricky and his father. Unknown to each other they started quilting on the same day and are both self taught.

One happy group after the class

Ricky and some of the Guild committee members who were at the class today.

A dead line is always good for me to get a quilt finished!

This is the Harmonic Convergence Quilt I started back earlier this year, so being able to show it here at Ricky's class was great motivation to get it finished!! He was very polite and said it was amazing!

I had a wonderful day and learned so much, lucky we have a printed syllabus so I can go over things again later. 

Even though I haven't any outdoor photos today I am linking with  Whims and Fancies blog for Wandering Camera. I have been wandering, just not out in the wide open spaces!

Happy stitching.

Back home

I spent Friday thru Monday over at Eve's place in Boronia, doing some gardening, walking her dog, stitching, watching DVD's and I took Eve to an ephemera fair. The days went by very quickly!

Part of the local arboretum where I walked Basil every morning 

beautiful iris in the flower and food section

another view of the arboretum, I saw several families of ducks, the little ducklings are so cute! 

this cockatoo watched from above

the circles are attached

and I have made a start on the bias, this is going to take a while!!

gathering done on the circles

but still more to go

one happy Supervisor!

I am off to get some lunch.

Happy stitching.

Doing the Rounds

I have been working on this quilt top this afternoon, I have ironed it as much as I can, then pinned on the bias pieces and a few circles

my concern now is that it does not sit flat, I am hoping that has something to do with it being on the rug.......fingers crossed!

Happy stitching.

Home day

Yesterday the Supervisor and I started out with a walk along the beach

I caught a photo of a little fairy wren, they are like ping pong balls bouncing around on the grass

this Willy Wagtail followed us on our walk for a while

Windy, but nice day for a walk

the wind was pushing the waves in

we found a patch of freesias growing wild, the perfume was beautiful. The local parks and foreshore man is trying to get rid of these as they are considered a weed. Someone must have dug them out of a garden and chucked them into the bush where they are spreading very happily.

heading home with a beautiful perfumed bouquet and one impatient supervisor! :-) 

I got into some  sewing in the afternoon and the thread on the machine kept breaking, eventually I worked out there was a series of knots! The machine did not like them at all. Neither did I!!

Some prep was done for the Doing the Rounds quilt

glue basting with a few pins on the edges

putting some bees on

I have free motioned around the bees and then made their trails the quilting, possibly not enough in some places but it is a wall quilt so should be ok. I have put facings on this one so need to hand sew them down plus add the hanging sleeve today. Then it will be ready to hang at the Rickie Tims talk next week.

Off to sit and sew with the St Leonard's girls this morning, our little group has grown to 10 as word is spreading and new ladies come to the area.

Happy stitching.

Here and there

Friday hubby and I went for a drive, we were aiming for Meredith but took the wrong road, this seems to be a recurring theme when we have a day out, and ended up at Steiglitz. We were going to look for geocaches at Meredith, 5 of them, but as we went to Steiglitz first, decided to look for caches there first! I was a bit sneaky and didn't tell hubby how many there were or he would have pulled the plug! We followed the road into the National Park, the caches were 15 in number and followed a circular route. Hubby did a bit of a dummy spit at cache 10...but I said we are on our way out now so might as well carry on!! Good logic huh!!

this was our view for most of the time in the Park, with some up and down and creek crossing.

We found all 15 caches and hubby admitted on the way home he had enjoyed the day out!!

Yesterday was Guild day, so have some show and tell to share.

Lesleys quilt from when she first started quilting, each member of her group made her a block.

quilt for a grand daughter

Dr Seuss quilt for two nephews I think.

Another quilt belonging to Lesley, this time made with blocks from the same group of people as in the first photo, but 20 years later! Beautiful.

Love the play mat and birthday quilt on the other side of the room.

I managed to do about 5 stitches for the day!! Not to worry had a good time.

Happy stitching.

A finish

The Aussie Hero quilt came back home yesterday and is finished, it just needs a letter to be written to go with it, which was my plan for today but somehow the day got away on me...possibly something to do with having lunch on the back deck and remaining there reading a book!!

the supervisor was on hand to assist with the photo shoot.....NOT!! I was trying to avoid getting more of his hair on the quilt and he walked under it!!

I had a walk to the PO and back this morning, it was lovely down near the beach

Having a play with the zoom on the new camera, breath held...

Love the spot of red on the boat launching ramp

Majestic bird, again with the zoom.

The wool keeper is finished

all wrapped up

Opened out.

The wisteria is just about to come out, very pretty flowers.

It is the time of the month to link up with Anthea at Hibiscus Stitches to celebrate all things EPP

Not much happening here in the way of EPP, but I have been working on these.

I am so happy the evenings are getting a bit lighter, but it does make me lose track of time,

had better go sort some dinner.

Happy stitching.