It's time to say goodbye.

The day before I went to Perth we received some very upsetting news. It came as quite a shock. We received news that our racehorse (jumps) Menkaure had to be put down in Adelaide where he was being trained. The most upsetting thing is that he had an infection in his tendon which could have been treated if it had have been treated earlier.

I don't want to go into the blame game here but knowing that it was preventable is the most upsetting thing. Not only was he a very good horse with great jumping ability which we still hadn't seen the full potential of but we have had him since he was a yearling, he would have been 8 in August. I put it to the back of my mind in Perth but now it's time to say goodbye. I still get a bit teary when I think of it and I have been trying not to think about it but now it's time.

This is how I will think of him........running free in the big paddock in the sky with his mates. Goodbye Junior I will miss you.

Perth Spoils

Here's what I got in Perth! Lissa and I went halves in most of the civil wars. Some are 1/8's some are 1/4's if I wanted one and she already had it and vice versa and some are only pieces but if not enough for one of our blocks (she is doing Civil War Love Letters Quilt) then enough to go into a scrappy quilt. Below on the left are our CW pieces and on the right are other fabrics and Beatrix Potter cot quilt kit.

Below are the asian fabrics I bought $20 for 10 FQ's, WW and I got a different pack each and swapped as there were only a couple the same.

Some lovely wool tops I bought from Janine M for needlefelting.

Some Retros, Fresh Cut fabrics, quilt panel and some coordinates and quilt backs.

More photos from the Perth Retreat

There's one in every crowd!!! WW couldn't resist testing the beautiful thick green grass which was a lot greener than in this photo.

Lissa couldn't help herself. She had the tape but of course I was totally innocent and didn't help her at all when she wrapped it around WW's and MA's door. And it wasn't her fault that the housekeeper made the beds in our room (we were sharing a 2br apartment) but didn't clean the room with the caution tape on the doors!!! vbg

Some shots from Perth

Sunset from our window at Como . I didn't take my digital camera these are all snapshots from my mobile so some may not be as clear as I would like them. Lovely view we had!





On Monday the day of the shop hop we had lunch in beautiful Kings Park...it was so green those of us from Victoria couldn't believe it!




Flowering Gum Kings Park




Floral Clock Kings Park




Snapshots of Kings Park including the War Memorial. More shots coming soon of my spoils from Perth. I have to wait for the post to arrive as I sent one large express post satchel of clothes and a small one of fabric.

Back from Perth

What a wonderful time I had in Perth.

Thank you to everyone involved for making the retreat possible. Thanks also to all the scquilters I met or had a laugh or two with over the four or five days.

A special thank you to Lissa who organised the room and made WW, MA and I Lissa survival kits! Mine and Wendy's (Honeypot Quilting) was even made with bee and honeypot fabric, how organised is that!!

Thank you also to my retreat angel Nicole H.

Here are the last three gifts I received at the retreat. Some gorgeous beads quilters socks (which I had to take off to photograph) some lovely earrings and scissors which I forgot to photograph. Hope I remembered everything! Thanks again Nicole.

Thank you also to my mortal Rosemary for the lovely bag she made me. LOL we had some fun tricking her I think MA had her convinced in the end her mortal was Wendy which was my intention. You can have some good clues which could either be The Quilting B or Honeypot Quilting!

It's been a busy couple of weeks in the Workroom!

I did forget Susan's lovely sampler quilt! With the lovely classic Chantilly Lace.I have been trying to get some quilts caught up before I go to Perth so now all the edge to edge are done, well were until I dropped some off today and picked up two more as you do.

Julie's lovely D.Irish Chain red and white quilt with once again Chantilly Lace but a smaller size.

Last but not least Kaye's Honeybears quilt....I have been working nights the past week or two!!

The countdown to Perth is on!

This time next week I will be in Perth attending the pre-retreat dinner....I am starting to get excited!! Next Thursday I am heading out to the scquilters retreat for 5 nights of eating, drinking, socialising and probably a bit of sewing. My roomie Lissa was very naughty and sent me this lovely squishy this week. What a surprise, just when I was feeling rotten with a cold that kept waking me up at 3-4 in the morning with coughing attacks. The pencil roll (filled with crayons) is just so cute and even has bee's on it!!!

And then there's the emery board (hmmm she must remember my nails), the scraps of 1930's for my scrappy log cabins the cute little handbag note book and last but not least the 1930's fabrics for my D.Irish Chain I am going to do. How spoilt am I???? Thanks Lissa, you're just the best. I will have to get you breakfast in bed...lol.

In the workroom the past week

Some nice quick edge to edge quilts done this past week, Julie's cute log cabin flannel quilt which I put Waterworld on.

And Jan's Spring Fling quilt, which has Springtime on it. I love that range of fabric!

Currently on the machine, Kaye's bear quilt which is a pattern from my friend Kerry, My Favourite Things.

SID done and Linedancing underway as requested by Kaye!

Dear Jane this week

It's been a bit of a slow old week for Dear Jane, only two new blocks to show BUT I only have one more block to go before Row A is finished. It just happens to be A-9 Cabin Fever which has the most pieces so before that I will do a simple one as I just finished A-12 Framed Fancy which wasn't my favourite (41 pieces) but at least it's done.

I have also added my block chart on the side of my blog to keep track of my progress. I am now at 38 blocks, 5 triangles, 1 corner kite and 869 pieces.




A-12 Framed Fancy once again don't look too closely!!!

(which reminds me thanks to the lovely girls that left kind comments regarding my blocks!)





A-4 Courtney's Stethoscope.