A big thank you to my friends for such a great day

Just after Easter, I thought that it would be a good idea to have a Xmas in July party just for something different........as there are just so many party in December........I had also organized to have the outside of the Studio painted in June and it would be nice fresh and clean........well... we have had so much rain the painter is about 2 months behind in his work and I am about the same.......the idea of digging around looking for Xmas decorations was not so appealing at the beginning of this month....so I sent out a email saying how disorganized I was and we would have a social day instead.......the ladies came along and we all had a lovely day even the sun came out for a little while

Joan, Barb, Ellen and myself

Margaret

 all the ladies bought a small plate of food to share....we had home made Sushi, meat ball, chicken salad sandwiches, homemade cakes, slices and quiche and a little vino...it was a little feast

some of the yummy food for lunch

Lynne and June

Pat and Patsy

Margret

Heather and Margaret

and the ladies bought along some show and tell.......

 

Patsy showing her cushion top to Barb

June, Lynne and myself showing off our applique

   

Lynne's thangle star quilt top

this a the backing for Lynne's star quilt

Barb's wall hanging of her beautiful Geisha Girl there are so many different techniques in this piece

Patsy showing her Bargello table runner

 

Margaret showing her convergence quilt with the under water scene and mermaids

Sandra with her ( wip) wall hanging from the Helen Godden workshop....this piece is called Princess Sea-anna

Joan showing her beautiful work

Ellen bought along her felting to show us....

Margret and Joan looking at another piece of Joan's work.....

Ladies looking Sandra's piece with the African animals on it

Kaylene checking out her photos

Jens set up a small table for the ladies to have a go at doing a jigsaw that I bought last year when we were on holidays in the USA......a couple of the ladies were hooked...it was amazing how much they did........there are 1000 pieces and finished it is 16" x 11"........

The day was also a way of starting another challenge for those who wanted to........it is a silly game that we played.....it like musical chairs.....but you have a piece of ugly fabric......and everyone's idea of ugly is different....anyway.....we stand in a circle and when the music starts you pass your fabric around until the music stops..........then we snip the fabric and then rip it in half........you then keep one piece and get ready to pass the other piece around...and keep repeating this so that you end up with 7 different pieces of fabric ranging from a half meter to a square about 4''sq....... we then have 12 months to make something with these fabrics.....where you can add one more piece of fabric......you can dye, paint, stamp your fabric and add as much embellishment to it as you like..... 

these are the fabrics for our new challenge.......they are not as scary as last time....

Heather's piece from the Xmas 2010 challenge

Sandra's piece from the 2010 Xmas challenge

these are some of the challenge fabric from 2010

I hope everyone has had a great weekend with their family and friends

Cathy xo

Ric rac, buttons and fabric.....

A bit of ric rac, a couple of buttons and a piece of hand dyed fabric.......along with some machine embroidery, hand embroidery and freemotion stitching and this is what I ended up with........I must admit that I was inspired by a photo I saw in a Quilting Arts magazine from earlier this year....but I don't think my bag looks anything like her work........sorry will post ladies name later.......I have tried to keep it very individual and unique.........

I really enjoyed making this bag......my machine only does about 25 embroidery stitches and four of them are for the button hole.....so I did a little hand embroidery with different threads to fill in a few spaces.......the last strip I was going to do some heavy freemotion stiching around these circles but decided I like it as is.......it's a bit rough and ready......but that's ok......

I showed the ladies at work the other day and they have started their own panels........so check out what they have been doing at...... http://itchintwostitch.blogspot.com.au/.........

I have been quilting a little panel for my great niece...Isabelle....it has been a lot of fun..........I have to fix the threads and then do the binding...hope to get it in the post on Monday........

I will post a photo when it finished......

Hello.....what are you doin.......

I have planted out the new shrubs and vines that I bought at the Expo on the weekend.......

I follow the moon guide planting system so I had 2 days to get them in the ground......and since then we have had a couple of good heavy showers.....so they are off to a good start......

over the last two weeks I have been painting two of the small fences white.....they are so bright and clean it makes the rest of the house look grubby........when it fines up again will have start scrubbing the house and studio down to get them ready for a tidy up too.......

You can see part of the big fence in the background.....it has been undercoated and is ready waiting for me to paint......it is about 12m long so it's going to be a big job..........have to wait for good weather now....

Matilda is getting a little better........you can see how big she is these days...

always on the go......does not leave Koda along......

Until next time....happy stitching -----------Cathy

I went to the Garden Expo yesterday with my friend Sandra..........we headed up to Nambour on the back roads through Eudlo and Palmwoods.......to get away from the traffic on the highway.......and spent the most of the day in the Kitchen Garden.......

listen to a couple of talks on growing garlic and potatoes........

we also spent an hour with Costa (with 200 other people) when he spoke about Why Food Matters.....

 There were some great displays, I really enjoyed looking at the natives gardens also.....

The colours in the native flowers are just beautiful...

Check out these Macaws......they were so cheeky.......one lady was talking to them and the Macaw on the left started posing and opening his wing up to show off....I could have watched them for ages......

We went back to the Kitchen Garden, not so many people around then and I managed to get a photo with Costa.........

Sandra and I were so inspired by some of the Garden Clay Art that we enrolled in a pottery class at Eudlo in August......something a little different, I'm looking forward to that.......

I about to get out into the garden to plant the vines and shrubs that I bought yesterday..........I feel all inspired again and have a few new ideas for our garden.......

until next time......Cathy