French Medallion finished.

I have finished the largest quilt I have made for many years. I fell in love with the French General fabric-Rouenneries. So I just had to make a quilt for our queen size bed. Mostly I make smaller quilts or samples and many have not been quilted.

It is shown here hanging at St Helen's over Easter in the Break O Day Stitchers exhibition.
And I even got a small viewers choice prize.
I did quilt it all myself even if it did say Leanne quilted it on the tag! Just a small goof but a lovely exhibition, congatulations to the organisers.
I think I am over this range now, after two bags, a cushion and two quilts. And that's a good thing cos Rural Jardin has just come in and another big quilt is in the beginning stages.

Back to blogging

I’m back.  Sorry for the big delay in posting. My computer collapsed and there was a wait til we got the new one.  Then I had to get used to it. It’s hard to cope with new things sometimes and this one wants to do things automatically and it also hides things, very frustrating.   Then there was Christmas and a sort of holiday. and I was embarrassed cos I offered a giveaway and didn’t follow thru, so if those people that did leave a comment would like to email me a snail mail address I will post some goodies out.  I will try to get it right next time.

So what have I been doing, you ask.

Well, we have re organised the shop. A bit of a change around (seemed like a holiday!!) it has opened it up a bit and made it brighter . Started a lot of new projects, finished a couple, had a break in, they didn’t take much, just some scissors, small change and my most recently finished stitchery bag !

I had a lovely afternoon with the Dear Jane group today. A very small group, Simone, Helena and I, for the start of the year. I have been making my applique blocks using machine buttonhole stitch, I am not a traditionalist, haven’t got time for hand work, but I wanted to see if I could do needleturn by machine as well. I will post a picture and you can judge.

I still need a lot more practice.

This is bag that was stolen.  It’s an Ella and Skysie design from their  Present of the Month range. It’s going to be easy to recognise because I changed the name to Esmes Antiques and if you look closely you will see that I didn’t finish topstitching the top of the bag.  I was rushing to finish it one morning before going to the shop and the needle broke, I didn’t have time to change the needle so just took the bag meaning to finish it at a later date. I guess this will not happen now.

I have just been handed a lovely glass of  sav blanc so I had better go and be sociable.  Tomorrow I will find some photos of the shop and my new block of the month featuring the lovely Rouenneries.

Presents

Thanks to Rebecca for the lovely flowers she sent me for my birthday.  They are beautiful and still looking great over a week  later.

And here is the bag Leanne gave me.

Thanks Leanne and I promise I won’t tell anyone!

Giveaway

As promised I will give some goodies away to some lucky people.  Just leave a comment here to be in the draw and if you link to my blog you will get two chances to win.  I have  charm packs of Aster Manor and Santoriniand a Moonshine bag pattern.  Must remember to take a photo.

More quilt market photos

Monica Poole from Moonshine design with new simple clothing designs, quilts and bags.

Anni Downes from Hatched and Patched and me.

Me and Libby Richardson  with her new block of the month.

 

Bronwyn Hayes from Red Brolly, Kerrie from XLN and me (again).

 

Brenda Ryan and me with her new block of the month.

Photos were very kindly taken by Terry.  I do thank him (I think).  We did have a very wonderful time in Melbourne. It’s always good to get away ,catch up with and make new friends, source great fabrics and get new ideas.

In the next post I will be giving away some new fabrics so stay tuned.

AQM and great weekend

As promised I am posting about last weekend. It was great. Caught up with so many people I hadn’t seen for a long, long time. Met some new people, and didn’t stop talking all weekend.  Spent lots of money!!!  Wonderful catching up with Rebecca, and her Mum and Aunt.  We wont leave it so long next time and maybe she will recognise me!

Here’s Jo at the beginning of the show on Helen’s Pattern Press stand. Unfortunately I didn’t get back in time to take more photos of the stand and before you knew it this was the end.

All packed up for this year.  But I did take heaps more photos of other stands, so I will post them tomorrow.

Long weekends

I have been lucky enough to have had a four day break over the long weekend. We went to the Deloraine Craft Fair on Friday and then spent the rest of the weekend at St Helens. Deloraine was great, so many terrific crafts people. I even tried my hand at glass bead making but I don’t think I will change crafts for a while.

It was lovely to catch up with Annie at St Helens and to just rest and sew for the weekend.

I took this photo on one of my walks.  I think a tree quilt might happen soon.

Saw the Harleys on the way home from a drive to Exeter last weekend. Were they not a magnificent sight!

And this weekend I will be in Melbourne at the AQM checking out all the great fabrics and designs and attending a lecture with McKenna Ryan and several great Australian designers.

Back next week with lots of photos from Melbourne.