A finish, some breathing space & a catch-up

Hooray! I put the final stitches into Suzanne's quilt on Tuesday night. It's all wrapped up ready to give to her tomorrow. I hope she likes it.

Although I've started another project already (more on that in a future post), I've had a couple of nights down time, just reading magazines and watching telly, which has been really nice.

So, what have I been up to for the last month apart from Suzanne's quilt? Here's a quick snapshot...

Mother's Day was perfect. We went boating, the whole family together for the first time in a while which was fantastic. My wonderful children surprised me with this on arrival at the boat, and some spending money for the craft fair.

A chocoholics dream!

The Perth Craft & Quilt Fair was fantastic - 2 days of shopping, classes and inspiration. M survived the first day really well, then spent a half hour running up and down the aisles of the WAQA Quilt West exhibition with me close on her heels. Needless to say I didn't actually see much of the display.

The second day was just me & Mum. We ran ourselves ragged with classes. I spent waaaay too much money on these wonderful purchases.

My Mother's Day present - a Sew-Steady extension table

Beautiful fabrics showcasing Australian animals

Can't wait to use these products and read these books, especially the Gloria Loughman books

On the Saturday M & I popped back to the fair to catch up with some of our West Aussie blogging friends, and make a new one. L-R they are Lisa, Tracee, Sandra, Anthea, Maria, me with Miss M, and Julia. This pic was borrowed from Anthea's blog. The girls went on to enjoy the fair while M & I headed up the coast to visit family.

West Aussie Bloggers

Since then we've had lots of visits with and from family which we've really enjoyed. M has loved having her younger cousins close by for a change.

This weekend we had the boat booked again. We've had 2 days of perfect weather, although a little cold in the evenings, and taken several friends out for the first time.

DH and I enjoying our beautiful day on the Swan River.

It's been an awesome weekend. I hope you all had a wonderful weekend as well.

Happy stitching. Cheers, Tracy.

Friday Night With Friends

Well, I didn't get much done on Friday night but did manage to do about an hour's worth of stitching during the day while Miss M slept. And I'm pleased to say I have been able to continue stitching in bursts during the rest of the weekend.

I've been sewing the binding down on Suzanne's quilt and it's nearly finished. Yay! I just have one corner to go and the label to attach, then I can finally give it to her. I'll post a photo of the quilt once it's completely finished. In the meantime, here is a photo of the quilt in progress from the May WAQA meeting. It was good to get some feedback from fellow quilters.

My friend Phil helping me hold the quilt up
Miss M in the background exploring the stage.

I've been trialling a new tool to help secure the binding ready for hand stitching. At the Perth Craft & Quilt Fair (can't believe it was almost 2 weeks ago!) I learned about Clover Wonder Clips. I bought a box and they have been fantastic.

A glorious row of red

I used to have pins sticking into me left, right & centre when attaching binding to my previous projects. This project has been much less painful. The only thing you have to watch is the clips slipping sideways or coming off by accident when the quilt is folded between stitching sessions. I'm very happy with this purchase.

Thanks to the wonderful Cheryl for hosting our sew-in again this month. If you would like to see what everyone else got up to, or join in for the next one, you can visit her blog 'Gone Stitchin' here.

Once I finish the quilt I will be able to give a proper catch-up on all my goings-on for the last month or so. Until then, happy stitching everyone.

Cheers,
Tracy