A small reprieve...

As the cold weather has hit I decided to make a run this morning to the small local supermarket for some lamb shanks destined for either lamb shank soup or braised lamb shanks in the slow cooker. The best laid plans and all that...of course they didn't have any so I had to revise my plans and have made my Nan's curried sausages which I hated when I was young and I got some lamb bbq chops to make braised chops in the slow cooker instead for tomorrow.

Snowball bush

When I returned home the sun had appeared. Although it didn't last long I thought I would quickly grab some photos of the garden before all the roses disappear completely. This is their last hurrah before winter hits.

Apple Blossom

Hot Chocolate

Princess Grace de Monaco

Princess Grace 2

Potato bush

Pegasus

Of course Saffron thought it was lovely that I was outside walking around the garden in the cold!

Sunday....

Was freezing here! We (I) decided that it would be nice to go for a Sunday drive to Daylesford. Now I just happen to know that Daylesford has a nice wool shop or two and as it has turned to winter overnight I felt the knitting bug coming on. I also have had my eye on one of those Queen Anne's lace type crocheted scarves. We left Gordon at 11am and the car temperature read 6C. When we got to Daylesford it had reached 7C!! (and was still 6 in Gordon when we returned home)

Unfortunately the shop that use to carry all the specialty wools has stopped stocking them I think it has changed owners. However just down the road is Purls Palace. What a gorgeous shop it has a real mixture of bits and pieces including some Asian style fabrics and some lovely yarns. I was lucky to find another two balls of Noro Silk Garden for the scarf I had started last year, I couldn't resist the gorgeous colours and had purchased two balls last year at the Ballan quilt show.

They don't stock Noro Kureyon but have ordered some in for me, isn't that great service! In the meantime I couldn't resist three hanks of the beautiful Noro Iro. I did try starting the scarf with this but I have decided it's a bit too chunky so another scarf it will be. I love a nice warm scarf especially with beautiful specialty yarn!

I fell in love with a knitted jacket/cardigan and a beautiful shawl. I got the pattern for the cardigan it looked great on the model (don't know about me though) but have to wait for the shawl, I don't know whether I will ever use it but it is beautiful and I want to make one! I also want to put my name down for the Nuno felted scarf workshop in June....just loved it!

In the meantime Sylvester was on his perch next to my chair watching the wool with a glint in his eye.....

Mitts off mister!!!!

This is where I have been...

To the Scquilters (southerncross quilters) retreat in Adelaide, lovely Glenelg to be precise.

Scquilters host a retreat anually, usually in a different state each year. Last year was Perth, the year before was Bendigo and next year it will be in Bathurst. Scquilters are a group for online quilters either living in Australia or New Zealand or living overseas. As usual I had a great five nights staying with my fantastic roomies, Lissa, Wendy and Mary-Anne.

We ate too much, drank too much, laughed, some of us did a tiny bit of sewing but probably more talking (or listening)

This is DJ block E6 Michelle's Medley which I finished at the airport BEFORE the retreat!

Did I mention shopped too much? This was the haul from Harbour Town, a DFO for those of you in Victoria.

Then we went shopping on the shop hop visiting six patchwork shops! I did manage to add 146 new pieces of civil war or 1800's reproduction fabric to the stash, going 1/4's with Mary-Anne, Lissa and Pam at the first shop then thirds with MA and Lissa at the next five shops so some of them are quite small but large enough for a DJ block or scrappy reproduction quilts. A few of them were also swaps at the Dear Jane get together so we didn't buy all of them!!!

I also added a couple of Kaffe Fassett's to my collection for Isabella's quilt and started a William Morris collection as we bought Michele Hill's book William Morris in Applique and a few of us decided on a challenge. It will be interesting to see if we manage to finish it.

Last but not least, I finally saw Adelaide's famous frog cakes at the airport on the way home!

This is what I did on Thursday!

Congratulations Constable!

This is what I have been up to this week...

Working still......this time on Yvonne's quilt again.

I have finally got my mactivishing a bit bigger. This lovely quilt of Yvonne's is from a Robyn Falloon pattern Joie de Vivre.

Believe it or not I started this quilt a few years ago and got one of the large flower quarter blocks (as in the photo) needleturned. Sigh...I only have three more to do then the outer border.

The other thing I am working on as mentioned in my last post is Isabella's Rainbow Lollipops quilt.

Don't Look Now.....

but Kellie has a fantastic giveaway over at her blog. She has released a gorgeous new pattern which I have put an order in for as I have started her Rainbows and Lollipops quilt for my GD Isabella which is in the current Quilters Companion magazine. So go on over, leave a comment and be in the draw for the lovely prizes. Only you aren't allowed to win because I want one of her gorgeous sock monkeys!