A Stitching Affair

Last weekend I joined Helen Stubbings and Gail Pan plus a group of beautiful women at the picturesque Tarraleah, Tasmania for A Stitching Affair.

Tarraleah is an old Hydro Town which has been turned into a luxury resort.

 My job for the weekend was to make all the girls feel very spoilt, so I tizzied everything up in pink and blue,

wrapped all their gifts,

put a few surprises in,

(they each got a Tilda Charm pack)

made everything pretty,

 added some sparkle,

 gave them a few keepsakes,

 pom poms on trees,

and I helped the ladies shop!

We all had so much fun but do you know what surprised me the most, there was not one blogger amongst them!

Stitch and be happy!

On Saturday I spent the day here

along with an excited bunch of stitchers from near and far!

I didn't do any stitching as I played shopkeeper

which gave Helen and Lynette an opportunity to roam around the room talking and assisting the ladies with stitching techniques.

The ladies were given two kits in their goodie bags

This was Lynette's project

and this was Helen's project

 Lynette bought along some great new tools which help make glue stick applique not so messy and Helen showed her new wash away applique papers.
And of course there was lots of shopping at Helen's stand

 and Lynette's stand.

The day was catered by the most amazingly talented bunch of young ladies from the Buckingham Rowing Club, Thank-you!

I even tried my first macaron...absolutley divine!

But the part I enjoyed most about the day was catching up with lots of friends including

Cathy, Georgia, Leanne

new friend Dee, Pauline and Lib in the background there too.

It was a special day and I hope we all get to do it again one day!

Thank-you also to everyone for your well wishes to my son, he doesn't require any further surgery and it looks to be healing well. He is now in a red fibreglass cast for four more weeks and then everything will return to normal. It hasn't been much fun being dressed by your Mum when you're 16.

Let's Get Stitched in Tassie 2012

Let's Get Stitched in Tassie was a huge success! Fee did an outstanding job co-ordinating the whole event and deserves all the applause. Visit Fee's blog for more pics and what we did.

6 Gorgeous Guest Designers all provided little tutorials and starter 

kits in the goodie bags.

LtoR Helen, Fee, Me, Vicki, Dawn and Joy

My little project, A Memory Keeper for all the ladies to keep their mementos from their visit in.

Ladies visited from Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria, South Australia, Western Australia and even New Zealand! We shopped, ate, shopped, ate chocolate, stitched, laughed and just had a wonderful time! Thank-you to everyone for making it a memorable event!

I had the lovely Kerri come stay with me, we even had a couple of extra days together after the retreat for more shopping, stitching and eating.

Love you Kez!

Keep an eye on Dawn's Blog for next year's Let's Get Stitched as it moves to Adelaide!

Paper and Fabric

Fee has asked me to do a workshop at the "Let's Get Stitched in Tassie" retreat coming up in March and requested something to do with Papercraft. The last few weeks I've had ideas buzzing around my head and today I put the finishing touches on my little project. Here's a wee sneak peek...

As you can see it's not all about paper but we'll be having a bit of fun making fabric embellishments too.

It's going to be a hoot, hope to see you there!

Oh Happy Day!

On Saturday  I tagged along with Helen to a Christmas Gathering organised by Lillian of Esmes

Helen was tutor for the day and had some lovely projects to share.

and Lillian did too

I even ran into some friends, Val (no blog) 

and Kathy from Sew Happy House 

It was a lovely surprise to see them both there and getting to spend the day stitching and chatting with them.

I also met Edwina, no picture but there's one on Kathy's blog, she's a lovely lady too but then all stitchers are lovely!

Also on display was Esme's finished Quilt Aid, simply gorgeous. The photos don't show this quilt any justice but believe me the Ruby fabrics were perfect for this years them "Whimsy and Wonder"

Check out the Quilt Aid website for more info and designs by the other shops in Australia, UK & the US!

Easter Quilt Extravaganza

On Saturday I headed off to the Brighton Easter Quilt Extravaganza.

I set up Helen's trade table as she had to take No.3  to a ballet lesson first.

This event was well attended as you can see from the photo below

Beside the Hugs 'n Kisses table was my gorgeous friend Fee

Fee had some great bargains on the day!

Pauline from Calico Crossroads was even there (sorry no photo), she was still buzzing from her trip away to Koch's Boot Camp. I bought some lovely fabrics from her stand, Lecien Basics and a lovely horse print, perfect print for my latest snugglybug block.

There was also a new to me shop from New Norfolk called Patchwork Cafe, Janine had some beautiful goods for sale and I couldn't help myself and had to buy these lovelies

From Helen's stand I picked up one of Cori's Patterns

Love this quilt!

My Mum was there too with friends Heather and Polly, Heather gave me some lovely vintage buttons and Mum gave me the cutest little crocheted doily bag for storing a cotton reel, it stops the real from unravelling and you just pull the string out as you need it. I also got a scarf but I haven't got a photo to share.

There were lots of other traders there too from Tassie, it was a great event and a tribute to the lovely ladies that organised the day!

Sunday afternoon held some excitement, a bingle right at our driveway, thankfully no-one was injured, just a bruised ego for the young man driving the ute and lots of property damage and upset visitors to our neighbours

The Quilted Crow's Gathering

I was up bright and early Saturday to pick up Jan of Little Red Hen from the airport, we first went to Salamanca Markets (sorry no pics) for a very brief market experience then it was off to The Quilted Crow's gathering. Of course we sat with all our other bloggy friends

Back Lto R Leanne, Roseanne, Lib, Vicki

Front Lto R Sarah, Me, Fee, Jan

Our guest tutors for the day were the famous duo Leanne and Rosalie. Their projects were gorgeous, I started Leanne's needle roll.

Here's Leanne showing Roseanne and Jan how to sew Dresdons.

Hmmm and I haven't got one pic of Rosalie on my camera but we chatted with her alot. Rosalie explained all the different fussy cuts you can get out of her Sweet Broderie range, perfect for the circles on her bag and Leanne's Vignette hexagon quilt. I'm going to have to get myself alot more of that fabric!

Sarah got to show Leanne her version of the Remember pin board from Vignette Issue 1

Leanne signed my copies of Vignette Issue 1 and 2, they'll be treasures forever now and she also showed us her Vignette Quilt but no sneak peaks of the next block.

Our lovelys hosts Leonie and Dierdre also provided some gorgeous projects.

Dierdre's beautiful wall hanging which she says will fit perfectly on a door.

Leonie made a beautiful table runner and birthday book, you can see both on the blog.

And I had to finish with this beautiful photo of one of the windows on the church, so beautiful!