Just for a moment ...

I am stopping by, to reassure you that I have not fallen into the big black hole of 'Jet lag' entirely, although I have succumbed somewhat. It has left me lacklustre in my enthusiasm to brave the battles of uploading, sectioning and resizing photos, even though I am so excited about sharing them.

Just now I have stolen an hour to resize some photos, but now am being 'kicked off' the computer by the incessant whining of the nine-year-old. As my Jet lag brain is not very robust, I have acquiesced to his demands rather demurely.

Stand by for my return to my ability to overcome the smallest, and youngest, of issues - at which time I expect to conquer the photo upload exercise.
dls

Bonjour

Today we are off to see the sights of Paris, oh la la.

We had two days at the Festival of Quilts. COngratulations to Helen Godden for FIRST in the Art Quilts category, and to Nic Bridges and Lisa Walton for second in the Group Quilt category.

The festival was marvellous, absolutely wonderful. Next year Down Under Quilts will have a stand, plus we are are taking a tour there, so start saving your pennies - its not to be missed!

When I get home at the end of the week I will share photos and tell you more.

au revior
dls

3000BC

Today I stood in front of the structure of Stonehenge. It was one of the highlights of my life. It was a truly gorgeous day, blue blue sky and a nice breeze. Walking around the structure was so overwhelming, and humbling - imagining its meaning and past ...

This morning we visited Bath. What a delightful town. The Georgian buildings and curving streets are so fabulous, and the surrounding undulating hills and verdant lands are mesmerising.

I have declared to myself that i love London. I didn't expect to, what a great place.

dls
PS, don't forget to pop over to Bid-4A-Cause and take a look. And take a look at Sue Dennis and Lisa Walton's Goddess Roseus artworks ...

Pussy cat, pussy cat where have you been?

Ive been to London to visit the Queen...

I love that old poem, and use that particular line alot with my kids. However, it wasn't London per se, it was Windsor (about half hour out of London) and the queen is at Balmoral (so they tell me), but that's too far to go.

Instead of having tea with Lizzy, I marvelled at Queen Mary's doll's house, the Windsor state rooms, and felt a rush of goosebumps as I stood over a large piece of black marble in-bedded in the floor of St George's Chapel, that marked where King Henry VIII and his favourite wife, Jane Seymour's remains are buried.

Then to V&A this afternoon. Much was seen, much to tell, but way too tired to do so... will catch up again soon.
dls

BTW, cant upload photos on public computers.. so cannot share the many, many amazing photos I have taken with you yet

Sunny London Town

Here we are in sunny (yes, sunny - and hot) London. Yesterday we took a Big Bus tour around the city and saw all the sights. I didn't realise how large the city of London is!

Our first stop, of course, was Liberty of London. OMG - we were overwhelmed. What an amazing store, four levels of exquisite items ranging from fabrics through to amazing etched handbags. Don't ask the prices, they were way out of reach. We spent almost 2 hours here.

Then last night we visited Harrods, what another amazing experience.

Today we off to Windsor Castle, then the V&A museum, then an exhibition about Henry V111, it is the 500th anniversary of his coronation and there are a few exhibitions in and around the city.

Will keep this brief, suffice to say, I am overstimulated and LOVING it!
dls

Coffee in KL

Here in Kuala Lumpar the sky is till dark, and here inside the airport there are thousands of twinkling lights. We have had a nice coffee, and are waiting for the SHOPS to open. Then back on board at 10.30 local time, noon in Sydney.
ta,ra
dls

My birthday pressies

Yesterday was my birthday, I was too exhausted last nite to share my lovely presents, but here I am now ...

My gorgeous biggest girl, Tara-Lea and her hubby gave me a glorious Jasmine bush, which is what i asked for, but as a surprise they also bought me an authentic Pandora charm - the sweetest little cupcake with a gold ball on the top. Now that was a surprise!

The other big'ens - Jake and Sami gave me this adorable mini orchid - too cute - and this pretty pot. Lucky me! The littluns, Mason and Lulu gave me a frame, and my husband gave me a gym membership (now that's the gift that keeps giving - to us both!).


Now, back to textiles girls... I mentioned on the last post that I have purchased some lovely items from Cecile at Unique Stitching... (don't forget to check out Cecile's blog) here are the three silk hankies. I bought them with a purpose - they will be used in my A4 artwork for the Bid-4A-Cause textile art auction...

Now, here is the most exciting BIT, Erica and I fly to the UK tomorrow to visit the Birmingham Quilt Show, lots of patchwork shops, museums and castles, then to Paris, for more of the same!!! What fun.

To keep myself occupied on the plane I have bought a new book today, plus, like Erica, I will cut out some hexagons ready to do a bit of sewing (no scissors allowed!). I will make some rosettes for Gail Chalker's Biggest Hexagon Quilt. (This will be displayed at the inaugural Australian School of Applique in Qld May 2010, contact Gail for more details).

Stay tuned, we hope to keep our blogs updated ... technology willing ...

The last five days ...

It seems like forever ago, but it was only 5 days, since I last blogged. Maybe it seems so long because so much has happened?

6 August - my daughter turned 22 and I traveled out to Penrith to attend Calm Birth classes with my eldest daughter and her husband - I am part of the Birth team (woo hoo)

7 August - after school caught up with some school mums and dads - impromptu - for dinner, and drinks...

8 August - very early start with slightly fuzzy head, packed for a night away and whisked the family to Canberra so I could visit the Quilt and Craft Fair at Canberra Exhibition Centre. On the way down I was delighted to travel through a corridor of blossoming Wattle Trees between Cambelltown and the Southern Highlands.

9 August - up early again, breakfast at hotel buffet breakfast. Eloise who was quite confused by the darkeness outside, insisted she would not be eating breakfast at night time! Oh hurry up sun, get over the horizon so we can get moving out of this room! It didn't take her long to get into the mood for breakfast, there is something about buffets that bring out the glutton in us all.

Then in the car on the road up to Moss Vale for a christening at St John's Church - isn't this regal? How blue is that sky!

Then we attended a little party for the special boy at his grandparents home ...

Back in the car to head home, and get prepared to welcome 13 family members to celebrate Sami's birthday (last week) and my birthday (this week). I had not had time to get anything organised prior, so it was a little crazy. But as always, it all turned out okay, thanks to my husband's help, he basically did all the cooking.

So, that's the end of my crazy few days. Tonight is the first time Ive even been able to sit at the computer since last Wednesday. I think I've earned a glass of wine, and a quiet sit down in front of the telly ... don't you? sleep tight.

dls

PS: while I was at the Quilt and Craft Fair I purchased some treasures from Unique Stitching, more about that tomorrow, the telly is awaiting ...

I can smell the spring

This afternoon I took my two littl'uns to the new local park after school. As the sun dropped over the horizon, and a little chill crept into the air, it was time to head home. I could smell, ever so faintly, spring in the air! As we walked along the kids each picked a few colourful blooms, it truly does feel like spring. Nasturtiums, I love their depth of colour!

Have you ever tried to photograph your own decolletage? not easy my friend!

Not even close, angle down maybe

A little better, but maybe more front on ...


thats better, but this is as much as I can get with my arms at this length ...

This is what I wanted to share, the necklace my Aunty Krissy gave me as a birthday gift, isnt it swish!

dls

Passion

I just popped over to the Twelve by Twelve website to take a peak at the new quilts in the theme of Passion, why don't you take a look too?
dls

Magazine in quarantine :-(

Hello my fellow enthusiastic quilters ... today we are all sad, the news has come thru that the entire shipment of Down Under Quilts #135 (august) and Creative Expression #24 have been held up in quarantine. They are being sprayed, and sprayed again, due to a piece of bark being found lurking in the large container that housed not just our stock; some other importer was the culprit, grrrr.

Unfortuantely I cant contact everyone who eagerly awaits their copies at the post box and newsagencies and specialist stores, but maybe you can pass on the news?

Thousands of quilters around the world are going to start feeling anxious pretty soon, so I thought I should remind you to GO ONLINE to grab a look FOR FREE ...

You can catch up on the new Pincushion Challenge and get started creating

Look Inside >> Issue 135, 2009

or, you can see a zebra's bottom, a black and white bag, a three-dimensional poppy, the winner of the Bernina Best of Show and Down Under Quilts Best Use of Colour ...

Look Inside >> Issue 135, 2009

Click through and take a look ...

dls

Top 10 things

... in random order...

Eating vegies and herbs fresh picked from the garden

Baking and eating homemade cakes

Having happy birthday sung to me by beautiful people with beautiful voices

Sewing pieces ready for the grandbaby's cot quilts

Sewing with my aunties

Sitting by the huge fire

Being loved, and loving back

Seeing a fresh-born foal - which has been named "Patch" in recognition of our patchwork sewing weekend! (see photo on blog post below)

Picking lavender that was soooo fresh it was awesome!

Gazing over a wondrous view

Finishing off my linen scarf, and wrap-around Be-Be-Bold skirt, thanks for the button hole aunties! (yes, it was a two-woman team effort - and they're experts at it now)

:-) I hope your weekend has been filled with such small and lovely blessings too.

xxdls

Stitching in Lamb's Valley

Here I am with Aunty Krissy and Aunty Doffy.

Just arrived back in Sydney after my lovely few days in Lambs Valley. The weather was gorgeous, although it was windy, and Friday was quite chilly. By the time this morning dawned the wind had gone, and we sat out on the deck to have coffee and cake.

Homemade - of course. Lavender and Honey cake (front), and Whole Orange cake (at back) and coffee made by our personal barman and barista - aka Uncle Hugh - on his wiz-bang coffee machine!

We had great fun sewing for a few days. The main objectives were for my two aunties to cut up a whole bunch of doilies, ready to make a quilt each, and for me to start and finish two cot quilt tops for my eagerly-anticipated grandbaby due in November. Alas, I did not have enough of the pieces cut out for one, so that only got 1/5th done. The other one was a whole batch (or would that be flock?) of flying geese in warm and cool colours - a la Material Obsession style! I am afraid to sew the strips together, I need Kathy's input for the next step.

While we were quietly sitting by the fire last night, me arranging the flying geese blocks, Aunty Krissy hand-quilting (the lovely sampler quilt she learnt with Lynn Hewitt), and Aunty Doffy making a gorgeous Asian-style dinner, I found out that two of my great-aunties (my grandmother's sisters), are sewers and they do patchwork! I think I have a mission to embark on ... to catch up with them, and their quilts! I haven't seen either of them for more than 20 years - to be perfectly frank, I was surprised they were still alive.

The embroideries were very bravely cut up, and here they are ready to be sewn into six strips of 2x2in-wide strips. Both have a king size bed, and this is all the doilies used, so it was a close call, and fortunately no squabbling broke out, they shared very graciously. The strips will be off-set with silk ribbon and wide fabrics strips. Should be gorgeous! Will share a photo when they're finished.

And, here are a few of the views we had to gaze upon, in between sewing and eating ... sigh


As I drove back down the mountain (we were 300m above sea level - which you just may have guessed by the view) I came across the herd of wild horses that live on my Aunty and uncle's property and there was the brand-new-just-born-yesterday foal ... too cute!


This little fellow was named, by Auntiesx2, Patch to honour our weekend of patchwork sewing. While we were sewing his mummy was labouring to bring him into the world; how nice it was that today was warm and sunny for the little Leo bloke! Hey, just had a thought - he was born on August 1 - Horses Birthday!... omg... how clever.

Later tonite, after kids are asleep, will google stuff to do in PARIS - how many sleeps now Erica? Got the tickets on Friday - it's really happening ...

dls