I’ve been to Quilts in the Barn a few times – it’s always a lovely way to spend a few hours – gorgeous quilts, afternoon (or morning!) tea all in a beautiful setting and the biggest bonus is all the money raised goes to Breast Cancer Research.  Linda and her helpers do an AMAZING job each time.  This year the guest exhibitor is Jo Morton from America so it promises to be an incredible display.  Linda is organising a signature quilt for the raffle and is asking for quilters to contribute blocks…..have a look here for all the details!  (And whilst you are visiting Linda’s blog take the time to have a look at another incredible display of red and white quilts that she recently visited in NYC – wow!!!)

And speaking of America…….I’m leaving tomorrow morning to go to International Quilt Market with Kellie!  Can’t believe how quickly it’s come around….just feels like we got back from Houston but that was 6 months ago!  I’m hoping to post whilst I’m away but won’t have my laptop with me this time so we’ll see……

Enjoy your week.

iPod blaring through speakers in family room….

Me:  ‘Girls, can you turn that down please?? 

Turned down (a fraction)….

Me:  ‘Sorry I sound like my mother’

Daughter No. 1: ‘What do you mean?’

Me: ‘Grandma used to say that to us….’

Daughter No. 3 (the cheeky 8 year old one): ‘But what did you have to turn down back then?????’

Well, you know we had those old grammaphones that you could wind up…..

I said that I wanted to make some more time for sewing this year…….and in January I mananged to get a bit more than usual.

My yoyo count  is steadily increasing and I’m just about up to the number required to make the curtain for the Princess Room.

And I sewed all my Around the Block  pieces together into a quilt top which fits perfectly on the bed in the Princess Room.  It went together really well in a couple of hours one night last week up at Sewjourn.

I started a cute little sewing bag using a Rosalie Quinlan  pattern that I’d had for ages and some fabric from my Houston stash.  Now I’m up to handquilting the outside with some Perle thread.

Which reminds me that I haven’t shown my purchases from Houston. 

Fabric bundles from Sample Spree including  the gorgeous Sherbet Pips by Aneela Hoey, Quite Contrary by My Mind’s Eye for Riley Blake, Anna Griffin’s beautiful Carmen and Just Wing It by Momo, which is really special.

Anna’s divine stand was opposite us at Houston – so nice to look at for four days. 

Not that we had much time to look as Kellie’s patterns and stand attracted LOADS of attention as usual.

Including attention from two of the best – Kaffe and Brandon!  And speaking of which, the Kaffe Workshop at Ballarat Patchwork  in February was great fun…..more on that later but here’s Kaffe talking about my quilt.

I was lucky enough to spend the following day at Sewjourn with some lovely girls and so got most of my quilt top sewn together…..just need to finish the middle section but haven’t actually pulled it out since then.

March didn’t see me doing much sewing even though there was a short stay at Sewjourn during the holidays – I did make lots of Welcome Cards for the guests coming to Sewjourn though. 

Oh and I did go to a Sashiko Class at Kimono House  which was lots of fun…..I think sashiko could become quite addictive.

And in April I spent lots of time sorting out my stash and did make two cushions that I love.  I was especially happy with the way the zips worked out as I’ve had a bit of a block when it comes to zips…..but really it was very easy.

It would be nice if I could say at the end of May that a few of the half done projects were finished…..we’ll see as there is 2 weeks in the US and then planning (and cleaning) for a special birthday party at the start of June.

PS  Sorry for photo overload……you’ve done well if you have made it to the end of this post!

A knock on the front door this morning and the friendly postman delivered this:

Which made me very excited because I knew that it contained this:

Haven’t had time to sit and read it properly yet but definitely know I am going to make this:

By the way, Nikki is still awaiting the return of this:

It’s been over 2 months since the last post! Which means I don’t really know where to start.  Or even if I SHOULD start.  Which has gotten me thinking over the past few days…..WHY am I blogging??

Everyone blogs for different reasons but these are my reasons.

1. I originally started reading blogs for inspiration……and there is some amazing stuff out there…..so I was inspired to join in.

2. I started to connect with bloggers and have met some really lovely girls.

3. As a record – of both the creative journey and family life.

4. To share with people what is happening at Sewjourn.

5.  Because it is fun.

But sometimes ‘real life’ is demanding and things need to be prioritised and it seems blogging was one thing that was put aside for me.  For a while I didn’t even read any blogs.  Over the past few weeks I caught up on some of my favorite blogs however and had time to discover some new ones.  And I’ve seen the enthusiasm of a gorgeous sewing buddy who has started her own lovely blog.  So I’ve come to the decision that I’m not going to make excuses and feel guilty for not being around but I AM going to give it another go.  But where to start talking about all that has happened?  So let’s start with the most recent and who knows I might go back and cover some other things if time and energy permit!!

Thursday night was Parent-Teacher interviews for daughter No.1 …….what an experience!  She started High School this year so parent-teachers were VERY different to ever before!  5 minutes per teacher and then the bell sounds and you are off to the next person.  Really not enough time to have a decent conversation about anything.  And all in a very noisy hall surrounded by other waiting parents and girls.  So, although I didn’t learn anything from last night, Ella seems really settled and happy and has grown up so much this year….catching public transport, getting herself up and organised in the mornings and organising her schedule of homework……we are so proud of her. 

This was her on the first day of the year…….

And here’s daughter No. 2 ready for her first school camp this morning…..much excitement!

And on the sewing side of things this week I’ve made a couple of cushions and inserted the zips a la Kellie style…..quite chuffed that they worked so well. *Too dark to photograph now so will post photos tomorrow.  (By the way – have you seen Kellie’s new quilt – Animal Alphabet???  If you head on over to her blog you can sneak a look and enter her great giveaway as well).  In just over a week this lovely quilt will be accompanying us to SLC.