Latest treasures from the Antique Centre

One of the things I enjoy so much is when my daughter comes to visit and we head off to the Antique Centre at Paddington, Brisbane.

We usually come away with some new treasure or other, sometimes both of us, sometimes just one of us, but it always seems to be a successful trip.

My daughter is visiting now for a few weeks, so we have had 2 trips to check out the treasures.  My finds have been

This set of shelves to display my spool collection.  And also the large spool on the bottom shelf.

The other one rather took my fancy, and it has potential for storage in my sewing room.  Any suggestions of what I can store in it?    It is a bit difficult to open (the bottom comes out but takes some effort to do so without damaging anything) so I dont want to put in anything that I need to access frequently.   I am thinking of painting it but havent decided for sure about that yet.  It is made of wood, I think the tag said bamboo, and wooden bars.  It is 25 cm square and 30 cm high.

There are beautiful little carved decorations on the sides as well, and it has a fancy top and hook for hanging. (but I didnt get them in the photo.)

We are hoping to go back again sometime in these next couple of weeks.  I wonder what we will find then.

Gorgeous goodies and a finish

Our fabulous local patchwork shop, Sew This and That in Morayfield held a Super Sunday Kick Off Sale.  From now on they will be trading on Sundays, so what a great way to celebrate.  As always the girls outdid themselves in putting on a very successful event, which saw lots of bargains, many people, demonstrations and fun.

Who could resist bringing home a few goodies - certainly not me.  It was a good time to shop for some coming projects.

These will make a machine cover for my new Janome.  At our sewing club at the shop this week we are doing sashiko - using the printed fabric on the right - the design doesnt show too well here - wait till after Thursday to see it with its stitching. 

These ones are for projects later in the year, though I havent decided whether to use them for the table runner class, or for Joy's Doctor Bag class - will wait and see how the mood takes me.

Although there has been very little time for sewing in the last couple of weeks, I did manage to finish off my butterfly quilt.  It is now in use on  the daybed, making a bright and showy presence.  (though after looking at my blog, I have to say the pink in the border is not nearly as bright as it seems to be in the photo.  It does blend in much better.  May have to try an outside photo to see if it looks better.)

Farewell, Kristian

My young nephew,  shown here with his Mum, looking so happy

for some reason, took his own life on Monday.

It seems it is not for us to know why, but merely to say

Rest in Peace, Kristian. 

Another enjoyable week

Embroidery progress slowed down once the knitting project came along, but it didnt stop completely.

Lots of progress on my Snow Hearts blocks - all stitched out  except the last one, which became available last week.  These have been so relaxing to work on, and I love them.  I wonder how they will
be assembled.

I have done some more of the mini quilts for Give Thanks, the BOM from Jenny of Elefantz

Also last week was Sewing Club day at Sew This and That.  We were making a wine bottle carrier.  Now that was so convenient for me.  At Christmas when I gave my sisters these sleepover bags

one of them asked for a matching wine carrier for her birthday, which is this month.  Thanks to this month's club project I didnt need to go hunting for a design, or make one up. It was there for me.

Made to fit !

The knitting has not progressed too far.  I think there is some more reverse knitting waiting to be done.  It has been relegated to the "think about it later" category.  Sewing is much more satisfying.



What have they talked me into ?????????

I guess it is peer pressure.

I thought I  could make up my own mind about what I would like to do.

I guess I was wrong.

It didn't take too much arm twisting.

After all, they are my friends, and the people I like to hang out with to indulge in my favourite activities.

"We'll do this when we meet up on Monday.  You can do it too."

Yes, I gave in. (Eventually).

So this is what I am doing, and (sob sob) it has taken over my life !!!

It's not that I dislike knitting, its just that I enjoy quilting and embroidery more. 

It's not that I havent done much knitting in the past, I did heaps when I was younger and lived in cooler climates.

It's not that I have nothing else to fill my time, its  just that I have enough projects on the go already.

Anyway, I am working away at it.  Talk about reverse knitting.  I think I could have done twice as much if I didnt do so much reversing. 

It is one of those free patterns from the store, hanging there to encourage you to pick it up and then go buy the requirements. 

But the instructions are very sparse.  There are odd mistakes in it - not a lot but you need to keep your wits about you and work around them.

Anyway we will see in a while just how this project goes. 

I HAD been firing through some embroidery in the evenings, now that is put aside and this knitting thing has taken over.

Still, I can sit HERE and work away comfortably.  (our lounge chairs have higher armrests and it is awkward trying to knit while sitting in them, so what a good thing I now have my marshmallow cane chair.)

Got to love surprises !

A couple of years ago, while checking out the antique stores at Paddington (Brisbane)

my daughter and I saw a marshmallowy pink cane chair, of 50's era.  It caught my eye, but it had to stay there that day.  Next time we went there of course the chair had gone.  So I didnt need to dream of sitting in "my" pink cane chair, doing my stitching projects, because there was no chair.

Last night, I walked into my garage/sewing room, and there was MY pink cane chair.  Yes, the exact same one!!!!  (dont check out the grotty floor).

It is!!!  The woman who purchased it has to downsize and had put it for sale on ebay.  (Sometimes you have to love ebay!!!)  My daughter spotted it, alerted my hubby and the rest is history.

What is even better is that a few months after missing out on that chair, I bought a chair from the same store to use at my computer.  I love its shabby pinkness, and dont mind at all that it is just a little wobbly.

Check them out sitting together.  A match that was meant to be.

Yes.  Just perfect, especially when I make a cushion for it.

The week that was.....

The past week I have been working on some WIPs and a UFO.

This quilt came about by default.  When I bought my first machine embroidery program some years ago I experimented with the different functions, taking some butterfly designs and altering them in all sorts of ways to see what the program could do.  I stitched them out on leftover scraps of fabrics I had dyed.
 I eventually had enough blocks done to be able to piece into a good sized quilt.

 Now, this many years later my first program is not compatible with Windows 7 so I have just bought another program.  This time I have the same quilt out and am doing the same learning experience, but  using the designs I edit to quilt the borders of it.

using butterfly and flower redwork designs.  I am almost half way round the borders, then just a bit more quilting in the blocks, add the binding and it is another UFO completed.

I am also working on these:  (not a very clear photo - better one will come once I have finished)

 to go on this:

the "Give Thanks" free BOM from Jenny of Elefantz.

I also have some catching up to do on this BOM:

the Snow Hearts blocks from here.  It is so relaxing working on these at nights - so why did I get behind?  Who knows.

Hopefully by next weekend I will have achieved great things with these projects.  I wonder.............

A special bloggy meeting, and time on the "farm"

It was such an activity packed week away, catching up with family, staying on a farm in the middle of cane fields, experiencing just a little of their life.  The reason we were there was to celebrate with my brother-in-law on this occasion:

Such a huge highlight was meeting ..........

                                                            ...... Wendy.  (She was SUPPOSED to be selling raffle tickets, but we chatted while Ann did most of the selling).  It was soooo good to meet in person.  When you read a person's blog regularly you do get to know quite a bit about their day to day life, but to meet is so special.  I wish we had had more time but I had to remind myself that I was there for a family occasion and needed to spend most of my time with them.  Still, as we have family living there and there are farm houses we can stay in, maybe we can plan another trip up there before too long, and hopefully be able to stay a little longer also. 

I got to see close up the beautiful quilt Wendy's quilting group is raffling.  It is even more beautiful in real view - made by some very talented quilters - a beautiful prize.

Staying in the middle of the cane fields during harvest time meant we were able to see some of the action.

Explore a picturesque spot on the river.

We kept a close watch, but didnt see any crocs.  Wonder if they saw us, or if they were in a different spot on that day.
AND...... I dressed up in this glamorous outfit........

while we got up close and personal with these little guys

resulting in a jar of very fresh honey.

Our time  came to an end way too quickly, but we did fit in a visit to these friendly creatures -

the cattle my B-I-L keeps.  Most of them are off to the abbatoir in the next couple of weeks, but not yet for this fellow - under my hand he has a "red patch", and he is named KD after my red headed B-I-L.

Three little mice, and ....visiting a friend

Fiona has just finished off her 3 little 'meeces', so thought I would show the three I have just finished.

One Christmas one of my friends gave these little mouse pincushions as Christmas gifts.

  She then agreed to teach us how to make them, including the hardanger on their backs.

I finished one, which then went on a plane flight to live in UK.  The other three have been sitting in their little box waiting to be completed for over a year, so last night was their night. 
Now they are ready to go to their new homes to be loved and used.

On Thursday we are heading off to visit family in North Queensland.  And..... the excitingest thing is that we will be staying in the town where Wendy lives.  So we have arranged to meet up.  Blogging quilting friends are the best, so to be able to meet Wendy is awesome.  Cant wait.

Here she is........

Yesterday I picked up my new sewing machine, the prize I won at the Quilters Muster.  It came from Janome to Sew Creative at Gatton, then to my LQS, Sew This and That, and finally to my eager hands.

So here she is:

complete with all these bits and pieces .

Today I am going to give her a lot of attention as I work out all of this:

She even has a bonus walking foot and 1/4 inch foot included.  Just perfect !!!

I think I am going to LOVE getting to know this girl.  I think she is going to accompany me to lots of my classes and sewing get togethers.  (Much lighter than my lovely Hussy.  - mind you I still love my Hussy.)