Well Hello to anyone who may still be there!  And after a 5 year hiatus I suspect that isn’t many of you.  A lot has happened in 5 years…..my last post on this blog was as we were on our way to London to live for 4 months.  You can read about those adventures here.  And then when we returned to Australia we hit the ground running and sadly my blog was forgotten.  But since then:

• We have started our own business, working from home for a few years but shifting to offices about 18 months ago.
• Ella has finished secondary school and is about to head off to University
• Lucy has spent a year on Student Exchange in France and is due home next week
• Kate changed schools, is involved in many sporting activities of which the current favourite is rowing
• Our gorgeous dog Hugo joined our family about 3 years ago and changed our lives completely
• We have Eszter a Hungarian student living with us at the moment and also Lucy’s host brother from France
• 3 of Mal’s siblings got married within weeks of each other and now we have 4 new nieces and nephews (and another on the way)
• Mal still loves his Ironman competitions and competed in the Ironman 70.3 World Championships in Queensland last year
• Sewjourn continues to be heavily booked and I treasure any weekends that I get to spend there as it is mostly the only times I get to sew these days.
• We’ve been really blessed to be have been able to have a few overseas trips in the past 5 years including visiting my grandfather’s grave in Papua New Guinea, spending our 20th Wedding Anniversary in Thailand, going to Morocco, a textiles tour in Vietnam and most recently to Cambodia with Ella to mark the end of school.

And over the past couple of years I’ve enjoyed Instagram but maybe it’s time to blog again?  I’ve decided to join in Meredithe’s 17 UFOs in 2017 and this is where I will document my progress (hopefully!)  Anyone else keen to join in? Regardless, wishing everyone a fantastic 2017.

Last Sunday Mal did the Melbourne Marathon again……and I did the 10km run! And anyone who knows me knows that I don’t run. In fact I hate running! But Mal ‘encouraged’ me to enter about 2 months ago and I did a little training and managed to get out there and enjoy it on the day. It was so beautiful running around our gorgeous city. Running past the shrine made me think of both my grandfathers and all they had to endure during WWII and that inspired me to keep going. (I will add a photo have a new laptop as my old one crashed….that’s ANOTHER story and I can’t seem to work out how to edit photos on my new one yet)

Anyway, last time Mal ran the marathon, or did the Marysville to Melbourne event he jumped straight on a plane to London that night…..this time at least he waited until the next day! But this time he’s working in London for about 4 months and so our exciting news is that we have decided the whole family will join him. So, the girls and I left this Sunday night. Haven’t decided yet but think we’ll do a separate blog with our travel adventures and just pop the crafty things on here. We’re in Dubai with Mal’s sister at the moment and having a ball. Today we fly on to London. The girls were fantastic on the plane, very excited and well behaved. Still it’s nice to know that two thirds of the flight is over and it’s only 7 hours on the plane today.

If anyone needs to contact me for Sewjourn you can TEXT me on my mobile or send me an email. We plan to be home for the start of the school next year. Hopefully a less crazy lifestyle over the next few months will mean more time for blogging…..and crafting!

Quite a few weeks ago one of the lovely groups that visit Sewjourn a few times a year emailed me to say they had to cancel coming along next weekend but there’s been so much happening here that I hadn’t gotten around to posting or doing anything about it.  SO, if you are keen on a weekend of relaxing, creating and enjoying  (and have the energy to get your group together in a week or so) then please email me asap. 

Dates available are: Friday 21st October until Sunday 23rd October.

I had a quick trip back to Melbourne last night to work and when we returned early this afternoon lots of the buds on the cactus that I’d been watching all week had burst into flower.  They were absolutely gorgeous….and there were 20 of them!!

Usually the blooms only last a day or maybe two so fingers crossed they last until tomorrow for my VIP (very important peeps) who are visiting to see!  (There are still a few buds to open).

And this almost makes up for my sore thumb that is still swollen from a cactus prickle injury way back at New Years……almost!

Last Saturday we had lots of fun making quilts for the Royal Childrens’ Hospital.  This is a spin off from the Bushfires Quilting Bees  of last year and it’s the third time we’ve gotten together since all the Bushfire Quilts were sent off………first to make a quilt to support a lady with Breast Cancer, then making 2 quilts for a Women’s Shelter but this time everyone was on a roll!  We made (or almost finished and gone home with lovely sewers to be completed) 12 quilt tops!!!!  What an amazing effort.  Who could have believe there was so much productivity buried under all that chatter and laughter?

(Sorry I forgot to take my camera………thanks Suzie for the photos……but somehow between our two computers the files are quite big so might take a while to load this post!)

Kay turned up with a bundle of appliqued hearts already done and these were made up into 3 quilts.  It was amazing to see the different effect from differently colored borders…….all the inner blocks were similar but all 3 quilts ended up looking completely different.

Bron turned bits and pieces from the boxes into this gorgeous quilt……another good lesson on working with what you have.

And as usual Maggie was head down and stitching…….she is amazing.

Along with the ‘regular girls’ we had some lovely ladies come along and iron and watch and learn………thanks Pam and Patsy and Elaine!

And the effervescent Jeanette brought along her Show and Tell……..a divine quilt she has done for her old High School to celebrate it’s 50th anniversary.  It was truly stunning.

BUT we still have lots of fabrics left to work with so there will be more opportunities to join in the fun and make some charity quilts later in the year.  Meanwhile we have another day planned on Saturday June 19th especially to quilt and bind all the tops that have been made.  Everyone is welcome so please email me if you would like to join us.

The cactus garden has had some amazing flowers on it this year.  Most of them last for less than a day but they are stunning whilst they are out.

……Good reason to have a play with the new camera.

After a week of celebrating (and not doing much else!) it’s time to come back to the real world and catch up on all the things that have taken a back seat ……. there’s plenty of work to do, blogs to read, stitches to make…..and of course get organised for our next Bushfires Quilting Bee.  I’ve emailed everyone (I think) who was at the last ‘Bee’ to touch base and see where they are up to with their quilts – sorry if I have missed anyone – please send me an email if I have.  It sounds like all the quilts are coming along nicely!  Well done girls!  And my Mum’s sewing group have kindly stitched up lots of bags to store and gift the quilts in.  And the gift cards are done.  So that just leaves finishing off and probably doing a couple of ‘quilt as you go’ on the day….then we can get the quilts to the people that need them.  If you would like to be involved in any way please contact me.   

Here’s a couple of photos sent to me of quilts that lovely girls have been working on……

As for me…….I’m off here for a lesson on the new machine tomorrow (it makes me laugh how all the instruction books call it a ‘Sewing Computer’ not a machine!) so hopefully I’ll have some good things to show soon too………

There are some blogs that have good photos………and then there are those that have great ones!  Suse has great ones – and those she took at Sewjourn last weekend are no exception.  In fact come to think of it – all the girls on her Craft Retreat are good photographers and you can see their pics on flickr.  A better camera is on the ‘Wish List’………but it will be a long while before I’m allowed to even have a ‘Wish List’ again!

Another Pink Chocolate fabric from Somerset this time from the red color range and to make a skirt.  I’d like this fabric as a contrast but they had run out so now have to search elsewhere………

For more Sunday Stash head over here.

PS. In Lancefield yesterday hence Sunday Monday Stash…….no internet connection caused a few problems – 3 lots of people tried to book the same weekend in July because I couldn’t get on to update the availability…….oh dear!

Looking through my photos for the Cactus post I came across these……….

Hard to believe this was exactly a year ago!!!  But it makes me realise how much we have done in the past year (and maybe why we are feeling pretty tired!) And thankful yet again for such supportive families and friends that helped to get us through it.

(Note: If you are thinking of a stay at Sewjourn please use photos on our website as a reference not these!!!)