Sweet stitching finishes

Finally I have some finishes to show you from my stitching day out at Warracknabeal. 

 This is the needle roll (called Little Bird Roll) designed by Shelly Kelley.  I found a sweet little "S" button in my sewing room that I got in a packet of buttons from the op shop...forgot that I had ever brought it, but amazing what goodies you find when you clean up the spare bedroom robe (and the linen press and laundry cupboards!).  So I just have to add the "loop" to catch the button and its done!

It has a great little pocket for thread and is a lovely addition to my sewing room, perfect for stitching on the run.  After borrowing more thread from my stitching neighbour Rose, I got the "Cornflower Blue - Doorstop stop by Leonie Bateman finished.  

Well that enabled me to get the applique finished then I had to sew it all together and fill it with kitty litter, which is very tricky!  We don't own a cat (we have budgies) so I am going to be making a lot more doorstops before I run out of kitty litter!

I enjoyed the wool applique so much that Lisa (and hopefully Rose) and I are back off to Quilters Harvest, Warracknabeal on Sunday for another wool applique class - this time with USA teacher Debbie Busby.

Happy sewing, Sue.

Threadbare, Castlemaine

     Threadbear, the patchwork shop in the Central Victorian goldfields town of Castlemaine specialise in reproduction fabrics.  I didn't just love it, I wanted to live there!  Honestly the phase, "like a kid in a candy shop" applied to me the minute I walked into Threadbear.  I didn't know where to start or what to buy...eg cute muffin packs or yardage!

The second question people asked me, after finding out that I finally made it to Threadbear, was, what did your husband do while you were shopping!  Frankly that was important as this was not a shopping trip to be rushed.

Well normally he would be entertaining the kids, but gasp, we were on a weekend away without the kids!!!  

OMG yes we might have racked up a decade of marriage, so thought we were entitled to a weekend away to celebrate.  

 The general consensus was that I needed to buy a metre for every year we were married....a bolt per child was mentioned as well, but DH managed to avoid complete financial ruin!

 Yes we had a lovely anniversary weekend away.  I did ask DH if on a scale of one to ten, where he rated wandering through markets and patchwork shops, but I didn't get an answer!  Don't worry folks I also went BBQ shopping with him and we brought the Rolls Royce of BBQ's!  

The final fabulous touch to the weekend was visiting Buda, the historical house and gardens donated to the town of Castlemaine by the Leviny family.    I took this photo off their website.

It was well worth seeing as it showcased lots of lovely landscaping ideas and DH took lots of photos (sorry on his phone not my camera), because without me saying a word, he wanted to replicate them at our house too!

Happy quilting Sue.

Table runner curves

 Not a lot of stitching action is happening here of late.  However I did have one sewing deadline to meet.  I needed to finish this table runner as I am donating it is a prize in a raffle.  Ann from Periwinkle Patchwork taught us how to used the curved ruler in September.  

I wanted to keep the quilting modern, but I am no expert in that department and had a deadline to get it finished!

I stippled in the centres and straight lines which curve back at the end....so much easier to do this continuous line then piano keys, so I might try this again on a more traditional piece.  

All the big ticket non sewing time wasters are been completed now, so hopefully I can get some productive sewing done this week.

Happy quilting, Sue.