What are you Reading?

Elaine at SoggyBottomFlats recently did a post on quilting magazines - like how many do you keep and how do you store them... My short answer is I keep everything and while most are stored in cardboard magazine holders along a shelf, a good portion is stored in stacks around my house... I tell myself I simply must stop buying them. I already have more projects on my list than I'll ever be able to make... but how could I resist these yummy projects?

From Simply Patchwork and Stitching

This gorgeous doll for the little (or big) girl in your life...

Or this little play quilt with removeable groceries...

And from Homespun "The Kids' Issue"

The perfect quilt for adventure...

"The Stash-busting Issue"
And how's this? Just in time for Halloween...

And we all love a good owl...

These are recent issues so still available at either your newsagents or through the publishers.

I have one of each to give away. Leave me a comment telling me about your magazines and how you store them. I'll choose 3 winners so mention which of these magazines you'd like to win... entries close Friday, November 7th at midnight.

Cheers!

Busy Weekend

On Friday I left work early to attend an afternoon wedding. It was lovely with the usual beautiful, radiant bride, nervous groom, gorgeous little girls in twirly dresses and handsome young boys in little suits. The couple had some candy specially made as gifts for their guests:

I have it on good authority that they turn your tongue blue.

I haven't tried one yet...

On Saturday I attended a workshop run by the Western Australian Quilters' Association. Our teacher Judy Campbell discussed borders. This is one of the exercises - to pull an element of the body of the quilt and incorporate it into a border design...
It was a really fun and informative day. No more details though, as it is proprietary information. There are heaps of books and articles out there on borders though so please go have a look and stretch your imagination! No more whacked-on plain borders!

Today we have church in the morning and then this afternoon we are going ten-pin bowling with Mr Fixit's work - in celebration of their anniversary for 20 years in business. Then we pop next door to this Italian restaurant for dinner...

So no time for sewing this weekend, although I did manage to get in some cutting... Sorry - no sneak peaks!

Giveaway Alert!

Marj at the Eclectic Quilter is having a giveaway!

Pop over to enter.

Marg also has some great photos of the

Pieceful Hearts Quilters 2009 Quilt Show.

Be sure and scroll down to see their bra challenge!

What's in the Tin?

This is pretty. I wonder what's in it...

Templates!
Lots and lots of templates...
These could be handy for Christmas...

Hmmmm... Christmas dinosaurs?
A little note from a few years ago...
These made a little mouse, if I could remember how...
Well, I am an Aussie girl...

Tuck everything away, except for a few bits to play with...

What have you got tucked away?

SigOrnament Swap

Well I said I wouldn't but I did - I joined another swap.

This is a signature ornament swap from Robin at rsislandcrafts.

This is what the block looks like:

And this is what you can do with them...

There is still time to sign on - go and visit Robin.

PS Robin is having a great giveaway ending soon!

Sweet Treats

My #2 daughter went to Tasmania recently and look what she found for me... some yummy Pop-Tarty goodness! Some little shop in the middle of Hobart had a dozen varieties. Now I live in Perth with a population of over a million people from all over the world and there are numerous weird and wonderful things from all over the world - but no pop-tarts. (If you live in Perth and you know of somewhere - you must tell me!)
Perfect Saturday morning treat before the day gets craaaaazy!

I work with a great group of ladies. The sweet thing that gave me these says she loves me... but she's feeding my addiction... it's really a mixed message...

But it didn't stop me hugging her - or eating the chocolates...

Any sweet treats coming your way lately!

Mayoral Dinner

Occasionally we attend a formal dinner as part of my husband's duties in his role as an elected local government official. Not sure how many more of these we will get to attend as he is up for re-election this year (we will know on October 17th). He has already served his local community in this capacity for 8 years. I'm a simple girl overall - but it's always interesting as these dinners are formal and are usually held in the local government buildings - usually a civic centre which is a big room in their administrative building. Then it is decorated by staff and catered externally. Catering is always amusing to me - especially after watching Master Chef. Everyone is now a food critic and I am no exception - LOL. So here is the menu from the night. I had the steak and it was delicious! Ummmm... there may have been some champaigne along the way as well...

This dinner was hosted by a neighbouring council. Most local mayors or presidents host one dinner a year and nominate a purpose (ie present awards, thank volunteers etc). This dinner awarded local businesses for outstanding health and safety programs, or customer service programs etc. Each person attending received a gift box:

The back of the placecards were also printed so the person on the opposite side of the table knew your name and where you are from. This is what was in the boxes...
It was a fun night. Hope you get to do something interesting!

Fall Quilt Festival

.
Amy at Park City Girl is hosting a Fall Quilt Festival. Here is my entry.

This is the first quilt I ever made. The year is 1996. I drafted it out on graph paper then cut template plastic for each shape - even the teeny tiny triangles. I used a clear quilter's quarter to add the seam allowances and cut each piece out with scissors. It is all hand pieced and hand-quilted using the stab-stitch method. I totally didn't know anything about quilting and had not even seen a quilting magazine before. But this was logical to me. Can't remember what type of wadding was used, but definitely not a natural fibre! In fact the fabrics are probably poly-cotton.

This was made for my #2 daughter as a Barbie quilt. She loves it and still keeps it on top of her dresser. She has kindly lent it to me for a photo shoot.


Please visit the Fall Quilt Festival to enter your quilt... there are some fabulous prizes to be won. Better still, there are so many blogs to visit!

Cheers

Shari

Gadget

This wise old Owl lives in my kitchen. It is a real-time indication of electricity usage in my house. This indicates that on the day this photo was taken at 8:01 and 33 seconds am - 185 watts was in use. It was 20.2 degrees Celsius. (It's always lovely in my kitchen). The other number is the total of kilowatts used since we plugged the device in to our household grid (1328.3kw). When the kettle is on it shoots to over 2,000 watts and if the kettle and the electric oven is on it's over 4,000 watts. It's interesting but my Mr Fixit is the one who can make the most sense of it to check appliances and how much stand-by power is drawn etc.

Do you have any odd and wonderful gadgets?

PS: For a great giveaway pop over and see BlueberryBuckle - she's giving away a yard of beautiful Kona solid - colour of your choice (if you win!). Hurry - closes on Sunday!

Perth Royal Show - Part 3

This lot weren't too excited about being at the Show.

That's all! Hope you have a good week!

Cheers

Shari

Royal Perth Show 2009 - Part 2

This caught my eye - I absolutely adore it. Does anyone know what the pattern is?

It was a part of this district display...

Beautiful beach-theme mixed media....

Not a lot in the quilting section - it seemed to have a Japanese flair...

The amazing ice sculpture - cut with a chainsaw. Unfortunately did not see him in action...

A gorgeous felted purse - no prize but I liked it!

This is such a cutie! What a lot of personality!

How much fun would this be at Christmas?

This one's for Stephanie...

What a gorgeous treasure box...

And interesting things in threads and beads...

This was my favourite in the stitcheries... nothing like an interpretation of the Australian landscape...

And who can't resist pelicans? This is on a fine linen - my poor old eyes couldn't see the stitches...

Cheers

Shari