It’s been a fun month.  And busy.  A week at the beach with all of the family – great weather and a week of the best weather we’ve had in over 10 years that we’ve been going to Phillip Island.  And being joined by our Hungarian exchange student and Lucy’s host brother from France made it even more fun.

But the most exciting thing happened the day we returned from holidays when Lucy came home from 12 months in France.  It’s great to have her home.

And then Eszter’s parents and sister arrived from Hungary and stayed with us for a week or so.  A very full house but so much fun.

To finish off the month our gorgeous eldest daughter Ella turned 18.  We celebrated on Australia Day with about 50 family and friends at Sewjourn.  And the celebrations continued with a party with her girlfriends on Saturday night.

But now the holidays are almost over – back to school for the younger two .  Rowing and netball have started again and with Lucy changing schools the past couple of days of holidays were filled with getting books and uniforms sorted.

But, I did manage to do a bit of my first UFO for 2017 – the Lucy Boston quilt.  I completed another one and a half blocks and have started another.  Not sure if that truly counts for substantially progress  but I figure this is a UFO that I will work on continuously between the year.  (Note I didn’t publish this post at the time as I was waiting to get photos but still don’t have photos of  them all so maybe in next month’s post!)

So which one on the list is next?  I think  No. 7 on my list – the Kaffe quilt which just needs the binding finished as it’s still a busy few weeks.  I missed the cut off for Meredithe’s link up for this month  (even when I first did this post a few weeks ago….) but you can look here if you want to see what others are up to.

Last week Meredithe announced the first round of the Medallion Quilt-a-long.  Triangles!!!  And I couldn’t wait to get started.  I chose to set my centre on point and square up with half square triangles.  (Meredithe actually has a great tutorial coming on how to do half square triangles as soon as SOMEONE (aka ME) gets the photos to her….)  Anyway, here’s the results.

There’s at least 10 people joining in the fun and you can see everyone’s progress photos in this flickr group.  It’s not too late to join in if you are keen – we have all of September to get the first border done and M will announce the next border at the start of October.

On Saturday I visited Quilts in the Barn which was great as always.  Linda does such and amazing job organising this great event which raises lots of money for Breast Cancer Research.  This year’s display feastured Jo Morton’s  gorgeous quilts.

And Sunday although it was Fathers’ Day I spent a HUGE proportion of the day at gymnastics comps.  The two elder girls both competed (which is why I was there for SO long) and both did a great job but the proud mother part in me can’t resist telling you how well Lucy did in her level 4 comp…..individually she won first on floor and bars and first overall and her team came third!!!  Well done Lucy, we are so proud of you and your hard work.

Hmm, I just counted up and it’s eight weeks today since I arrived back from America!  Wow – that time has flown but in another way it seems like ages ago. I had a lovely time and as usual Kellie’s quilts and patterns  were incredibly well received.  Although it’s old news now I hope to post some photos in the days to come.  But since being back lots has happened……..work to catch up on, change of working arrangements for my husband, his 40th birthday party and my ‘baby’ girl turning 9 just to start the list.  It’s all good though – it’s been a fun type of busy and there’s exciting plans ahead.  It does mean though that blogging has yet again taken a back seat.

It’s back to school and routine today – holidays have been relaxing which was well needed by all in our house – but it’s nice to be back into everything with fresh energy.  There’s even been a bit of crafting over the break which I’ll show soon.  For now though there’s 2 things to ask:

1.  There’s a couple of spots in the Don’t Look Now class at Sewjourn next Tuesday and Wednesday.  Please let me know ASAP if you are interested and I will email you the details.  You can either come each day for the class or choose to stay at Sewjourn overnight as well.

2.  The Sewjourn copy of Nikki’s new book ‘You Sew Girl’ has gone missing……has anyone picked it up by mistake when packing up their belongings??  Please let me know if you find it at home.

And lastly, if you haven’t seen the Hottie Exhibition at Open Drawer  yet it’s on until July 24th.  There’s loads of amazing hottie covers on display and all funds raised go to the Margaret Pratt Foundation which supports research in Lung Disease and Transplantation…….a really worthy cause.  There’s a good coffee shop next door as well.

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…..

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.

It was the first day of school today.  At least for two of the girls, because Ella is off to High School on Friday.  But Lucy and Kate were super excited and didn’t sleep much last night.

They both had a wonderful first day.

And Happy Birthday Ella!

12 years.  Amazing.  You are such a delight.

And very good at using your new present  too……mind you there’s been LOTS of practicing!

Last week we had a lovely week at Phillip Island.  Sure, it rained at least once every day except for one and the sun wasn’t sparkling off the blue water like it usually is on the annual family trip to the beach but it was lots of fun.  The boys surfed every day (at least once per day, usually twice) and the rest of us managed to go to the beach each day bar one.

Why do children love being buried in the sand?????

Although the weather was a bit dull the mermaid was shining bright!

In between, there was lots of relaxing, book reading, board games and the other crazy activities that come with a holiday with all of Mal’s family……..

‘JUNIOR MASTERCHEF’

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Caught…..

Team 1 – The Little Cheflings

Team 2 – The Super Duper Three

The Winning Dish

‘ANNUAL FAMILY CONCERT’

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‘Wii JUST DANCE COMP’

And Ella was the innagural winner with BJ as runner up……Uncle Al was just unlucky he came up against Ella in the first round but he could be a hot favorite next year……

And 500 challenges….no photos but for the record the incredible team of Jan and BJ was joined by Nana (6 handed this time) and remained undefeated for the week!!!

And then, just in case there wasn’t enough chocolate in the creations from the young Masterchefs…..we had a visit to the factory!

And of course we can’t complain at all about a little bit of rain when you consider the floods in Queensland and now in Victoria.  Yet again the crafty community has banded together and there are heaps of ways you can help out.  Toni from Make It Perfect  has done an incredible job of organising fundraising auctions……..have a look, there are some amazing items up for offer, Corrie from Retro Mummy has lots of people quilting and Pip from Meet Me at Mikes  has a list of ways to help.  And we’ll be organising another Quilting Bee  for the LightHouse Quilters when everyone is back from holidays and making some quilts to send.

I do really enjoy New Year……it always feels like it’s a fresh start.  This year has been a fantastic year, even if I have ended up feeling a bit jaded by the end of it.

There’s been the blessing of lots of fun family holidays……

And the excitement of a couple of trips to the US………

A School Fair that was worth all the hours of effort……..

And the fun of seeing groups of women go to Sewjourn and enjoy it as much as me! 

AND I’ve been lucky enough to get to know so many of the amazing, talented girls who head for Sewjourn……..(and I’m working on a little idea to get us all together before the summer is out but more on that later…)

One of these is the gorgeous Suse who once again dropped a lovely package on my doorstep last week.  Thanks Suse, it’s great!  And if you would like one too you can find them here.

But there hasn’t been much crafting going on this year……well there was quite a bit for the School Fair, and there was some purchasing of supplies in America but my trusty Bernina will be rusting up if I don’t get the chance to use it soon!  So, that’s the plan for next year.  Along with the new adventure of No. 1 daughter starting High School and the excitement and challenges that brings with it, I’m hoping for some quality family time spent at home (or Sewjourn!) and lots more sewing time!!!  The plan is to complete one UFO a month next year…..but then I’ve made that declaration before……..

So whatever your dreams for 2011, I hope it’s really special.  Happy New Year!!

And it’s SO good to be home!

Our 3 month camping trip to the north of Australia was truly magic……..fantastic family time spent in an incredibly beautiful part of this amazing country.

Then my 3 weeks back here were a blur…..no time to post or even to catch up on other blogs.  It involved settling back into school and routines, lots of work, dealing with a broken washing machine, back into organising our School Fair and even a quick trip to Sewjourn with the UFO girls which involved as much gardening for me as sewing!

And what little time for crafting I could fit into that was for the school fair…..but we have some amazing goods for sale so more about that to come.

There was the excitement of lots of packages  waiting for me on my return……..thanks girls and I’ll post more about that in the next couple of days as well.

Before I really even had time to unpack my bags it was off to Houston and a busy time at Quilt Market…….yet again Kellie’s amazing work was admired by all and my favorite American gal kept me entertained.   And yes, there will be more of that to come too with photos of market and a sneak peek at the fabrics I bought (because I really need more fabric!!) at Sample Spree.

And last but certainly not least it was off to Sewjourn (less than 24 hours after my plane had landed) to celebrate someone special’s 10th birthday.  (Why do they call them ‘Sleepovers’ when not much sleeping actually occurs???)  Happy Birthday gorgeous Lucy – we are so proud of you!

So it IS great to be home today.   And this is where I intend to stay for a while!