The girl's sewing day!

Over past months our sewing days have been sparse compared the fortnightly routine of last year, and with the prospect of more than a few months before our next one we made the most of today's get together at my place!

 An extra highlight was celebrating Heather's birthday...

When your friends are as much fun as mine (plus crazy, loopy and downright lunatics) you can count on aching sides the next day from over-use of laugh muscles. 

We plied the birthday girl with (in this order) presents, coffee, lemon and blueberry muffins, curry, tea and more muffins....

 

Lots of smiles...

(Barb and Wendy)

(Michelle)

...chatter over work and study...

...and spreading the news on Facebook for one some.

You may not believe it but between nibbles and coffee and lunch and tea we actually got some stitching done!

While Michelle continued working on her bag (here), Wendy showed us how much she'd completed of Little Miss Shabby's free "Quilty Stitches" (love the colours)...

...plus this really pretty BOM by Nikki Tervo she's working on.

Barb is continuing to stitch a bunting for her niece from the Rosedaisy  Alphabet...

...and Heather has begun her Christmas stitching. 

(don't forget to head over here to her blog to say happy birthday!)

I started a brand new design for later in the year - only a little sneak peek for you, though...

And just to prove I'm real...

I've actually been auditioning photos to send to Homespun Magazine with a project of mine they're publishing in the February 2015 issue. The magazine will also include an interview with me so they requested an accompanying pic, but you know it's a bit intimidating to be sending self photos to a magazine so I had to choose carefully.

Anyhow, I've chosen this one after getting the nod from Mr E...of course, he is biased. Gotta love that in a husband. ;-)

I hope you've had some fun stitchy time with a friend or two recently. 

It's SO good for the laugh muscles...

hugs

Where have I been?

When my children were little I taught them the rhyme -

"Pussycat, pussycat, where have you been?

I've been to London to visit the Queen!"

Well, I've been somewhere, but it wasn't to visit the Queen.

It was to the annual Stitches & Craft Show here in Townsville.

My buddy Wendy and I have this day all to ourselves each year and we begin with coffee by the sea, followed by a deep breath before we head inside the Entertainment Centre and the stitchy sweetness laid before us.

The show grows smaller every year, but we were both surprised by the evident lack of exhibitors and empty stall spaces this time. We walked very slowly along the aisles, and as it wasn't crowded there were ample opportunities to talk to the stall holders who'd travelled from interstate to display their wares. We found only three quilt fabric stalls, and fortunately two of them carried fabrics in our favoured styles. 

Here is Wendy drooling over the array offered by Karen at Fabrics 4 U 2...

There were some lovely quilts on display so we wandered along oohing and aahing. This "Dear Jane" quilt has been done in all shades of red and cream...

It was gorgeous! I've never seen this quilt made in one colourway before. Have you?

It was machine quilted in the ditch between each block, but hand quilted inside each block. Wendy found her favourite...

Loved this "Dieter's Dream" quilt too...

BUT, the quilt that grabbed my heart was this one, aptly named "An Affair of the Heart" and is from the book of the same name by Aie Rossman...

(sorry about the photo quality...I only had my little camera with me, and it's good photo days are sadly over)

The maker of the quilt is Danelle Hodgson, and as she was closeby when I began my drooling, she came over and chatted with me about her interpretation of Aie Rossman's design...

Danelle chose to omit some of the applique and use embroidery in it's place - and naturally that's what caught my eye!

Coincidentally, The Fat Quarter Shop have just released this as a BOM, making it up in it's original black fabric background. All info HERE.

The featured teacher for this Stitch & Craft Show is Judy Perez Coates, someone I've long admired for her technical ability with mixed media in her quilts.

I LOVED her Moon Garden quilt which was on display...

(you know by now that I adore little birds in trees!)

The tree, deer and bird are all painted on to the solid white fabric, and machine quilted all over. As you study the quilting you find leaves, flowers, birds, butterflies...so very charming indeed!

After three rounds of the stalls, and a long lunch, we called it a day and headed off home. 

This morning (Saturday) I opened up my bags to inspect yesterday's purchases.

Some very "Jenny" sweetness...

...Christmas fabrics for next year's new designs...

...and a first for me - some novelty prints for the children's designs I am working on for the next two issues of Elefantz HOME e-zine.

Lastly I purchased two pretty panels for some quick quilt ideas to share with you in the next month or so.

I clapped my hands in joy at the Lace Lady's stall! She was the reason I wanted to come to the Craft Show. Last year I came home lamenting not purchasing some of her very reasonably priced cotton lace. This year I came home content...

An unexpected purchase were these balls of Perle #12 thread from one of the knitting stalls. At only $2 each Wendy and I almost emptied their stock!

Both Wendy and I bought a copy of this book...I like the fact that Camille has used 'super sized' quilt blocks in her 12 quilt patterns, so this will be one of my 'time out' projects over the next year for the large fabric pieces I've put aside for just such a project...

Just noticed HERE on Wendy's blog she sneakily snapped a photo of me taking a photo!

It's another brilliant memory making day with my buddy, and we even came home with lots of lovely things this year, so double bonus!

Have a blessed and relaxing weekend, my friends.

I think I will stitch - what about you?

hugs

Jenny
 xx

Cal made the cover, and some blanket stitch sweetnesss...

Last year in my e-zine I shared the pattern for a block I'd made using an enlarged drawing of a cow my grandson Cal had given me back in 2008.

He was just seven at the time and had drawn his sweet cow at my request (as well as pears, I really like cows!). I knew one day I'd make a design from it, but it took 4 years to get it from his coloured sketch to my piece of fabric.

This month 'Cal's Cow' made the cover of Creating Country Threads!

What a very clever grandson I have, and how much fun I had bringing his picture to life with applique and thread!

 This is a close-up of the cushion...

Also inside this issue you'll find a profile article about my stitching journey...

 What a blessed woman I am!

In the August 2nd issue of Elefantz Home e-zine our monthly tutorial will be to look at different uses for blanket stitch. 

The special project I've made for that tutorial is almost finished. It uses blanket stitch three ways...

"Pot Me Pretty" will be a binder cover with matching bookmark when it's finished...

Later this week I will show you photos of all the projects inside this coming issue. Everything is so pretty that you won't be able to stop smiling at them...well, that's how they make me feel. 

Have you downloaded your first two blocks of "Shabby Roses Home" yet?

I made a little boo boo in the pattern, which a lovely subscriber emailed to tell me about. (thank you!)

I forgot to add the measurements for the green strip of grassy section across the bottom of the large house block....

A revised pattern was uploaded just hours after the first incomplete one, but if you did upload the pattern as soon as I released it you might have gotten the original version.

Just go HERE and download it again if you're not sure.

This week will be busy, busy, busy, with pattern writing for the Elefantz HOME ezine, but I will be taking time out for an hour or so each day to work on a project I'm making with Wendy.

She came by last week and we spent hours and hours cutting all the pieces for our "Mrs Beasley's Sampler" quilts.

By the time Wendy (below)  went home we were still only a quarter of the way through because we had talked so much!

We agreed we'd not go to bed that night until we had both finished all the cutting of our Tilda fabrics. I finished at 10.30pm, but Wendy was up till after midnight.

She already has her first block pieced and is working on the applique. Hopefully I'll get mine done before Leanne releases the second block!

Drop over HERE to Wendy's blog and see how she is going with the assembly of the gorgeous Christmas quilt she has made from the Homespun Stitch-a-Long last year...

Homespun Magazine still have the blocks free HERE on their website - all except the first one which was in their magazine. It's just lovely!

Have a mellow and magical Monday my friends,

hugs

Jenny

xx