An Update on Melbourne and who did I meet ?

I would like to introduce you to the lovely Liz from Broderie.


I have followed Liz's blog for a long time, long before I had a blog and I always felt she never updated it often enough for my liking, but since having a blog I understand how time consuming blogging and blog reading can be. I would like to now introduce you to Sharyn. Sharyn does not have her own blog but is an avid blog reader, and feels that if she didn't spend so much time blog surfing she would be able to achieve a lot more quilt finishes. (Don't we all) Sharyn was a reluctant quilter, she originally felt it was silly to cut up fabric only to sew it back together again but somehow she was bitten by the bug and since has become very prolific in her achievements.
The girls put on a great show and tell for me. This is one of Liz's nine patch that is really an eight patch ( I hope I have got the right) but how striking is it?

These girls had a great show, lucky for me my excuse was I was travelling and had no room , I have many starts not nearly enough completions.

This is Liz's circle quilt , I have long been an admirer of this quilt so it was great to see it in real life, it is spectacular, loads of fussy cutting. it is nearly finished being hand quilted.

both the girls have made this candied hexagons quilt. I think this one belongs to Liz, once again loads of fussy cutting, and hand quilted. Sharyn's is fairly similar and once again hand quilted. You can't beat hand quilting in my humble opinion, not that I want to start a debate about machine quilting, it has its place and serves a purpose just my opinion.

This is Sharyn's version of the Kaffe snowball, lovely greens and pinks, I think she was being persuaded to hand quilt this.

Melbourne is a lovely city, a city that takes a great pride in its gardens, after all they are known as the Garden State.

This is a collage of images through my lens. You will notice pears in the bottom right hand side.

It is due to our love of pears that began Liz and my friendship so when I noticed this cushion in Liz's home I felt it worthy of a snap.

Liz picked me up from my hotel on Saturday morning early and we headed to Auburn Road, Hawthorn.

Here are a few images of the lovely shops we managed to contribute to their takings

This shop hadn't opened at this stage so this their window, beautifully enticing.

They had some divine Christmas decorations.

Our first port of call was Est. Est is known for their beautiful handmade soaps , ceramics, string, braids and trimmings and Linen.

Well worth a visit if you are in Melbourne.

Everything is packaged beautifully , a one stop shop for gifts of all tastes.





A real feast for the eyes

Baskets galore, along with rolls and rolls of twine in all colours , I liked the Linen and Raspberry colour ways.

Sorry this image is a tad blurry but you needed to see every corner of this packed to the rafters tiny store.

even the floor space used to every advantage.

Yes I did manage to do a little damage to the credit card.

After we had visited EST we needed coffee and a chat. I don't think we stopped to draw breathe the whole day, loads to catch up on.



After coffee we crossed the road to a shop called Perfect Pieces, this place had lots of rooms all very tastefully decorated and priced extremely well.

How divine is this table setting

Loved these candlestick holders, but alas I had a plane to catch and already my bag was full.

They were extremely well priced.

These bells formed a part of their window display

Just another room , pleasing to the eye.

After I finished work on Friday evening I decided a walk was in order, I set off with my trusty point and shoot and captured some typical scenes around the area I was staying.

It is quite an old area and I still love these old time worn fences being embraced by this unruly vine.

Gate hinges are something that always catch my eye

This old stone wall has the canopy of a Birch leaning over it, this did provide a little shade as it was quite warm on Friday evening and I was grateful for a rest in the shade.

I hope you have enjoyed my visit to Melbourne as much as I did. I had the most wonderful day with Liz and Sharyn.

Until next time be happy in whatever you achieve

j

I've Been to Beautiful Melbourne

More about that in my next post. I felt it was high time I did an update and announce the winner of my sampler paper lined box.
Just before I do though , when I arrived home last evening there was quite a lot of mail. ( I won't mention the credit card bill) I did receive however my quarterly fabric club from Patchwork on Stonleigh.
I can't tell you how nice this fabric club is to be a member of. It is priced so well, truly those girls Christine and Susan put a lot of work into this mail out.
You get 10 fat 1/16ths of fabric along with a really newsy newsletter, a sheet with photo snippets of fabric that is coming or new fabric that is in stock , usually a pattern for a quick quilt. Now the best part about this mail out is , the girls are going to provide a pattern for the next year sort of like a block of the month but I will call this a quilt of the year. It is going to be a take on an old Sampler known as the Browne Sisters sampler. I have given you a sneek peek of part of the pattern but trust me it will be divine as always.
As you can see the pieces of fabric are quite sufficient for scrappy repro type quilts and if you need more if you are a club member you get a discount on your further fabric purchases.
Who could complain about $15.00 a 1/4 even if it was $20.00 it would still be great value.
I believe the girls now have a blog , I'll just quickly check , yes it is up and running, go check it out here

This has to be one of my favourite magazines (no bias here of course) the December issue is on the newsstands now.

It has some of the loveliest Christmas images

How could you resist this beautiful green and white display, so fresh and for us down under in the southern hemisphere our Christmases are usually very hot so this cool freshness is welcome, believe me.

There are pages of very inspiring homes and gardens

I love white so this really took my eye.

Another mag in the mail was the Summer edition of Donna Hay. I think I have every magazine that has ever been printed, even if you aren't too much into cooking the pages are a delight to view.

but they do have some yummy temptations.

What have you decided to cook for your Christmas ?

Oh and by the way the random number generator picked number 8. Vintage Sandy in Ohio

I promise I will do a post very soon on my trip to Melbourne. I had the most wonderful time and met up with someone you all know.

See you soon

j

My 50th Post and a Spring Giveaway

I have to say that Spring is one of my favourite seasons, one of the reasons being, I just adore the Jacaranda trees. I just love the confetti of petals that form a lilac carpet.

This driveway caught my eye this morning and thought it very worthy of a photo.

The abundance of roses this year is also a joy to behold, we have had some fantastic rain after many many years of drought.

I only hope the intense heat we can have here in Sydney remains at bay for a few more weeks so we can enjoy the fruits of spring, Gardenia's are so delicate with an intense perfume that fills the evening air but can quickly turn brown with such intense heat.

This past week I had a class at Material Obsession and couldn't resist this piece of fabric, imagine the possibilities for fussy cutting, it also came in a terracotta colourway. I think some of the girls imagined making a piece of clothing (not for me I don't do clothing :-))


This is what I have been up to this past weekend, remember it is only 7 weeks until Christmas.

You maybe wondering what it is , stay tuned and I will reveal in a couple of weeks.

I think I have mentioned in previous posts that I have a passion for stitching samplers, I have many that have remained unframed and when I read on Alma's blog that she photocopied a sampler to line a fabric covered box , I rummaged through some of my unframed samplers for some inspiration to use as a box liner.

What better way to celebrate 50 posts than to make a fabric covered box and copy a sampler I have stitched in the past to line the box .

I am giving this box away as well as some cards to use a trim winders, along with some photocopies of my stitched samplers .

I have been inspired by so many blogger's during my first year of joining the blogging community, so many of you are so generous and sharing of spirit.

Leave me a comment and tell me who or what inspires you. I will draw a name via the google random number generator on the 14th November.

Until next time happy creating

j