Busy, busy, busy

The past couple of months have been very busy for us, hosting evenings at the shop, a Christmas function off site, a breakfast/morning tea fundraiser for breast cancer and working on the Quiltaid 2011 project.

So I am heaving a great sigh of relief at putting these events behind me.  All have been a very successful, enjoyable and great learning experiences.  Above is a photo of the girls hard at work on Saturday at the Christmas Gathering. We had a wonderful day with Helen Stubbings from Hugsn kisses, working on two new projects. See more pictures on Kathy's blog and Jo's blog .

Watch for our next gathering with Helen in July 2012.

This pink strippy is a fundraiser for Breast cancer.  We have been making a few of these very easy quilts- called 1600 or 800 quilts.  The name relates to the length of the strips used. Add 4 1/2" accent pieces to the end of each of your strips and join all strips to make one continuous length. This length is then cut in half and joined together.  Repeat a few more times and this is what you will end up with. It makes a very quick top. If you would like to win this quilt, make a gold coin donation and guess how long it took me to piece the top. Hint-between 35 and 120 minutes.

For more photos of our morning see Leanne's blog.

And here is my finished Quiltaid 2011sample - aka Secret Squirrel. It's no longer secret, but I think the name has stuck! Big, big thank yous to Helen for all her work - a mamoth effort in putting it all together and for letting me take part. Also many thanks for my fellow piecers - Marian, Leanne, Helena, Kim, Sue and Raelene. Thank you to Leanne for helping me to quilt it.  For more information on the project go to http://www.quiiltaid.com.au/

And finally a photo taken at Bridport on Sunday. A little bit of time out.

Now to write up all the patterns I have been putting off. 

Lots of news

 Here are the two blocks we are selling for Quiltaid 2011, designed by Bronwyn Hayes and Natalie Ross.
I have been working frantically to get the quilt top finished. It is looking really great. Hence no time at the computer.


Below we have a couple of pictures of some projects from the Asian night. We had two wonderful nights, many thanks to those that came along and to Marian and Terry for the great support.

Next function will be a Christmas Gathering on Saturday the 29th of October with the wonderful Helen Stubbings from Hugs n Kisses. I am taking names and promise to put all the info up real soon.

As well we have organised a Pink Breakfast on Wed 2nd Nov.  More details very, very soon.

Quiltaid 2011

A small peek at one of the new quiltaid blocks.  More to come soon. Get in early so you don't miss out. 

Spent a night in Sydney on the way home last week and these were some pictures of the view from the top floor of the hotel.  And no, I didn't try the pool.

A little holiday

Having a lovely break in Coffs Harbour, enjoying the beach, sunshine and a little rain.

Working occasionally on some small projects for our Asian Night, at the end of September.

 

                 

And I did finish the last block of Stitched by Me, before my holiday, only the borders to go now.
Just as well cos I hear Lynette has a new one!
Hope Leanne is having fun without me!

Piecing and Pizza Night

Our piecing and pizza night was a huge success. Thanks girls and Terry for a great night. I didn't know what to expect when I decided to have this night but it was so greatly received that we will have more. I just hope I can be a little more organised. Here are some photos from the night.
Coming next is our Asian Affair.
Esmes website with shopping cart has gone live! http://www.esmes.com.au/
Needs a newsletter -it's coming soon.
And facebook - www.facebook.com/EsmesPatchwork
Now to get some more projects finished.

Raelene's doyley bag

Raelene brought her new bag in to show us last week. Made from old doyley's, it was a wonderful piece of artwork. A lot of the embroidery was newly worked by Raelene.  Well Done!

A quiet Sunday at home, finishing sample projects for our Piecing and Pizza Night on Friday. Will put up photos later.

And playing with Terry's new camera.  Last weekend there wasn't a sign of blossom in my garden and yesterday my plum tree was covered. Hidden in amongst the blossom were several cobweb's covered in dew.  This one has disappeared today. 

This week

It's been a big week for me. I finally bit the bullet and signed up for facebook.  Why , you may well ask?
I needed to have a presence for the shop, so it was time. What a huge learning curve!
I'm not really liking it but I guess that will come as I get more familiar. So I am posting here tonight for a little normality. When I learn how, I will put up  facebook logo (page?) for those interested.

New fabrics in this week - Sophie by Chez Moi.

New quilt that I've been putting together this week

Finally finished the first part of Helen stubbings Stitching Sunday sampler, I'm way behind.



Block 5 Stitched by Me

I have finished another block from Lynette's BOM-only one to go!
It must be nearly spring, I have been tidying up the shop and putting up new quilts.
We have a sale table with lots of good specials and great sale bargains on Janome machines.
Plus 20% off all flannel for this month.

New fabrics, antique machine, hexagons, plus.....

Many things have happened this week. New Kokka fabric arrived , as well as Christmas fabrics and more Can Can yarn. This yarn is just flying out the door. Sorry, I forgot to take photos of the yarn and the scarf I finished .

This lovely little machine was bought at auction this week by one of my students, so she just had to bring it to class and show us. Lucky girl.

And here are the hexagons I have been working on this week. They just have to be sewn together and used on the last block of Lynette's "Stitched by me" block of the month.

This lovely cushion was stitched by Leanne from Lynette Andersons design. Well done Leanne.

And last, but by no means least, Gina and Dana, checking out Gina's prize at the Dear Jane "Christmas in July" meeting on Saturday. They both love Christmas, so a very fitting prize.

Gina is working on a Christmas Dear Jane and below are some of her finished blocks.

Dear Jane Group

Esmes Dear Jane group will meet this Saturday at 1pm. All are welcome. Please bring a small plate to share and your Dear Jane to work on. This month will be Christmas in July theme.

Below are two photos from the last meeting. If you can identify the owners of these hands on the day we will have a small gift.

Look forward to seeing you there.

A big month

Yes, I'm still here. It has been the busiest month that I can remember. In June we managed to stay in three capital cities. A record for me. We spent a last weekend in Hobart with Lauren before she moved home to Launceston. We are already missing her little place.

Next trip was to Sydney. How lucky was I that Terry had to go to a conference on the same weekend as Quilt Expo. I spent a lovely day catching up with some friends, including Gail ( above). On Sunday we took the ferry to Manly and it was a beautiful day, felt like summer.

We also had a few days in Melbourne at the end of the month. Found a few craft places and saw the wonderful Tutankhamun exhibition. The worst thing about travelling has been catching a couple of colds. I can't wait to feel normal again. Can't remember the last time I took time off for a cold! And I have to learn how to be sympathetic to those around me who have been very nice to me lately.

And the best thing happened today - we finished stocktake! I managed to put it off a week this year. It's all done til next year.

Look out for our big news soon - we are part of Quiltaid.

New website up and running

We have finally gone live with our new website. Big thanks to Terry and Hayley.

Still a few things to be sorted and heaps more stuff to be added.

Such a lot has been happening over the last few weeks, I hope to catch up soon.

I have finished four blocks of Stitched by Me, only two to go.

Heaps of Brenda Ryan patterns came in today, shall take pictures tomorrow.

Mid week drama

We had a bit of excitement on Wednesday. Having a two story house makes it a little difficult to wash the outsides of our windows so we arranged for Jason to clean them. Luckily he was nearby when an electrical spark ignited a birds nest in the eaves. Fortunately there was very little damage, his other job is firefighting, so he new just what to do. We had a fire engine turn up, three firemen, two police cars, two policemen , one policewoman, one Aurora man and an electrician. Such a lot of people for one little fire. And apparently Win TV turned up as well, but Jason sent him away.
Many thanks to Jason for preventing any damage and saving Number One Son and my quilts.

I have finished the second block of Peacock's Garden and two from the Adelaide Floral Sampler.

Sorry, this one is sideways.

We had a lovelyDear Jane Day yesterday, very relaxing for me, and I even made one and a half new DJ blocks. I will show pictures soon.

Catching Up

I have been doing some catching up lately. I finally finished the last border of Rebecca's Friendship Round Robin. It has been posted to her, so I think I can show you now. Hope she likes it, cos I did deviate from the pattern somewhat.

This is another piece that I am working on, using Helen's centre stitchery. It was going to be a cushion and I did enter it in the exhibition, but alas it didn't get finished. Now I can't decide whether to finish it as a cushion cover or keep going and make a small quilt.

How are your Gidday Quilters stitcheries going? The shop hop has finished but if you missed out there will be a pattern released soon. And final results for the giveaways will be known when Helen gets back from Salt Lake City. This beautiful bag was made by Vicky from the platypus stitchery.

Here are two finished stitcheries made by Kathy.

I have finished two blocks from Monica Poole's new block of the month 'Peacocks Garden'.

This is the first, I haven't photographed the second, and I have finally received all the fabrics and started cutting so I am now set to go.

We have some new samples and patterns from Sally Giblin in the shop (the doll isn't hers, she is just adding to the display) and Marian is busily making up more new samples of her patterns as well.

The new header is a close up of the centre of a basket quilt I made in 2000. I will show you the whole quilt next post.

Terry has been very busy adding heaps of photos and info to our new website, so hopefully you can expect to see an announcement real soon.