I'm told it's August

I am still sick and haven't really been keeping up with much other than resting. Mr 9 tells me that it is August and on the whole he is a truthful young man, so guys, it's August! Who can believe it? Obviously not me!

Loz and I travelled to Port Pirie on Saturday morning for Country Hart's retreat with Gail Pan and Natalie Ross. I had had a pretty good day on Friday at red club and even had my voice back (Gosh I missed it!), but Saturday saw me without a voice again. It was a well organised weekend with great teachers and a very welcoming and generous host (Robyn). Apart from feeling sick, I had a wonderful time. I spent the two days stitching the Gail Pan stitchery above and was really pleased to finish it while I was there. Since then I have done very little and I still don't have my voice. (Just the voice of some old guy called Irwin I think. Every time I speak it shocks me.)

I am at picklestick's house today for sewing day. So far all I have done is this post. I am working on another stitchery from the weekend and you may see that later in the week. Last month I had all sorts of goals and plans for the month. This month I hope to get my voice back. And that is all. Okay. Back to the stitching!

Christmas in July Retreat

My Bradley and I had a weekend away this weekend. We spent the weekend in Mannum at Patchwork on Parade's "Christmas in July" retreat. I got to spend an awesome weekend sewing and Bradley got to spend an awesome weekend hanging out with me. (He really did have a good time. Honest.) I got into the spirit of the retreat by putting together my Rosalie Quinlan "Redwork Christmas" quilt. Some of you may remember the redwork that I did for it last year. (Hmm...... it never sounds very good when you use the phrase "last year" whilst talking about a current project!)


I cut fabric and organised the blocks and then began sewing. I was able to get all the blocks finished and put together. I just have the borders and quilting to do. (Just!) All my photos turned out blurry (shock!), but the one below shows how it ended up.

Wallaroo.......With edit

Edit..... Just reading Loz's account of the weekend and I realised I forgot to mention Sharon's Mum, Mavis, who helped looked after us all. Sorry Mavis. You are a star! We all fell in love with you (Well, some of us just fell in love with your cooking!). No wonder Sharon is so cool - it's genetic! (Bodes well for you Shontelle!) On with the retreat commentary.........


I'm sure you are going to be seeing quite a bit about this retreat in the blogs. There were a few bloggers there. Like Vicky (seen in the left of the photo, sitting next to Jean), Loz, Jan, me, and of course Sharon and Shontelle who organised the retreat. Vicki and Jan are both fairly new to blogging so go check them all out! (If you are a blogger and were there email me and I will include you here) There were great projects available to do at the retreat, but I chose to finish a project I had already started. The light was a bit dull when I got home from Wallaroo, but here are the photos Miss 17, Mr 15 and 9 and my Bradley managed to take for me.

Lecien flower rectangles, pink and green spotty sashings and cornerstones, and pink ric rac edging. Who could this quilt possibly be for? Yes! This is granddaughter's new quilt. Hope she likes it. It is my first "quilting the Kellie Wulfsohn way" project I have finished. I have made some mistakes on it, but overall I am pretty happy with it. I think also that I have improved as I have practised on this quilt, so will have to get another started!!!

These are the men I currently live with. (Mr 15, Mr 9 and my Bradley.) They are crazy, which is pretty lucky for me because I have been told I am pretty crazy too. Miss 17 is holding the camera.

And a close up of my quilting (don't look too hard!) and the ric rac. I'm off now to get some rest. (It has been a BIG weekend. Wallaroo, back to Adelaide for the arrival of granddaughter, Wallaroo, and finally back to Adelaide to rest!) What are my plans for next week? Well....... I think I'd like to sew!