Fun and learning

Today the St Leonards girls and I loaded into the car and headed off to Geelong, where we met my buddy Shez and Pat ( Seachange girl) at the hall. We were all doing a Clamshell class with Irene Blanck...

Irene's pattern .

We had a great day, we had lots of fun and laughter and  even got some sewing done!!! I know that's a surprise!! Irene is a wonderful teacher and happy to answer any silly questions!! I have to say it was Irene's birthday today so we surprised her with a chocolate cake with Lindt choc on the top.....I forgot to take a photo sorry, but we did sing her happy birthday!!!

happy sewers with Irene

work in progress

Irene and Pat working away

some serious instruction time on the next step

The St Leonard's girls working away, love Jill's colours here in the front

Jill working away at her clamshells

look at these two!!! I tried to sneak a serious teaching type photo but was sprung!!

one group of happy stitchers, some with their clamshells on display

this is a section of Irene's quilt..isn't it beautiful?

a combination of some of the St Leonards girls work

this is what I brought home at the end of the day...I am quite enthused to keep going on this now, I really enjoyed the class and the wonderful company today, always good for the soul to spend a day with like minded stitchers. 

This weekend I also signed up to join in with

well I was not a hermit today but did get quilt a lot of stitching done, tomorrow I will be a hermit and hope to get lots done! I found this link over on Susan's page and thought what a wonderful idea! 

I have been stitching in the week but they are secret projects so I can't show them just yet. Also still working away at the hexies.

I am off now to have a G & T...

happy sewing.

Day 3 and back home

Well all good things have to come to an end sadly!!!! Sunday morning saw a bit of hand sewing and some show and tell

Maria showing us her beautiful wedding ring quilt,

Sue finished her first ever quilt that has been waiting for some attention for a while!! This pattern was given to Sue at the first patchwork class she went to.....seems like a hard one to me!! Sue has done a fantastic job of getting this quilt finished this weekend.

Maria has the cot quilt and backing made ready for quilting 

Tracey working away Saturday evening making Chinese lantern blocks 

here we all are just before dinner I think and movie night. We watched How to make an American quilt.....

Sue was busy working on some baby bibs Sunday morning

Our final lunch together, thank you ladies for a wonderful weekend.

I did some hexies and continued on last night at home.

I have just realised that the other photos are on the tablet so will go and do some editing...

bacl to reality now, washing, cleaning....and who is cooking dinner?????  Uh oh, I think it is me!!!!! 😞

Better head off and get organised.

Happy sewing.

Day 2 part two

I have been very patient today, have not rushed the sewing or cutting, and finally just before lunch finished the star block

managed to get all the pieces the right way around

Yay it is finished! !!!

Then I started another block

I had lots of help choosing fabrics, and with a couple of interruptions, I finally finished at 6pm tonight.

this afternoon we had another go at some of the caches we couldn't find yesterday and had a 100% success rate. We had a look around the Anglican church

a beautiful old building, and next to it was a cork oak tree that is 130 years old

Such an amazing tree,

ladies gearing up this morning

Judy has finished this quilt today

this was a piece of fabric that was in a huge frame, now Marie is turning it into a cot quilt

another little sitting area in the house here

down the hall way

the library room

ward 3 with the billard table, now our ironing room and a place to lay out quilts

time for happy hour. ..cheers Carleen and Sue!!

Judy is now making these blocks for another quilt.

It is now movie time, so I'm off to get ready.

Happy sewing.

Day 2

Today has been a day of joy and frustration, some sewing has been done and LOTS of unsewing has been done, some geocaches were found and others remained hidden, we saw some beautiful countryside

the edge of the golf course

part of the golf course

the old water tower at the train station

part of the old train station

old saw mill over the road

I have started working on the Celestial stars blocks, this is the first one, and it took me ages to get the points nearly meeting.....the main fabric is orange, but looks pink here, I also didn't read the pattern properly so it is different to the original!!

this is one of the house residents, we have had several hello and pretty boy converstaions......I found out later it is a girl!! 

this is my second attempt at a Celestial Star  block this one had given me the heebegeebies!!!!!! I got them all finished and then found I have sewn two the wrong way on the papers so I had to make two more, then I managed to cut off two points, so guess what I am doing this morning????  Yep, another two blocks need to be made. 

reject blocks!!!!

So I am off to have a third attempt at these two blocks!!

Happy sewing.

Today

I am at a retreat in Burregurra, the place we are staying is an old hospital....beautifjl conversion here and a huge collection of bits and pieces all around. Last night we had dinner at the pub then came back and sewed up a storm, I managed to finish the tree blocks I wanted to do for the Christmas row by row,

Christmas trees

I alos managed to get another Sylvia's Bridal sampler quilt block done, had to do a,bit of unsewing with this one!!! It is the Crossed Canoes block.

Will show you a few pics of where we are

parts of the room we are sewing in

the main hallway

Barb and Carleen busy working.

I am off now to do some more sewing.

Have a great day.

Hexies and applique

I have been out and about this week with sewing days at Port Arlington, Barwon  Heads and here in St Leonards..my grab and go projects are still the hexie quilt and the applique wall hanging, Minerva pattern by Irene Blanck.

the hexie quilt probably looks the same each photo but I have added some black flowers and some single black  hexies to fill gaps.Have decided to add another row of hexies on the bottom, it is either that or unpick the black hexies on the outer edge, not something I am keen to do!!

I have also made progress on Minerva although again it is hard to see, most of the side stems are sewn down and several of the small circles. Now I need to sew down the central green stem, then on to the leaves!!

Jill has made amazing progress with her quilt

I didn't take a very good photo I am sorry but all the floating squares are on and two sides have their vine and leaves borders. Such a beautiful quilt!

Well I am off to pack some fabric and my machine, I am off on a retreat for a few days with some of the Bellarine Quilters girls.

Happy sewing.

FNWF

update...last night I joined in with FNWF'ers  and enjoyed some sewing. I did some more fillers on the hexie quilt

and then I did some sewing on the binding of the Santa wall hanging

hopefully I can finish this today and tidy up all the endy bits front and back.

You can see what the other Friday Nighters got up to over at our lovely hosts place.

Thank you Cheryll for hosting.

Happy sewing.