~A Respite Weekend For Us.......and Chooky's Christmas Swap~

This weekend we had organised a much looked forward to respite for JoJo

We thought we'd have a day trip down the coast

We started off at the Blue Earth Cafe for coffee/lemon myrtle tea and lunch

We ended up at the beautiful seaside port of Bermagui where Billy Connolly filmed part of the film The Man Who Sued God

We had Fish 'n Chips here and saw a fishing boat come in.

This morning I made (gluten free) Choc Chip Muffins with Choc Chips that were organic from 

The Rustic Pantry

This afternoon I did a little on my Tilda Club Pin Cushion

 and to finish off we went for a beach walk in the late afternoon and saw the sun catching the waves

 and on the beach grass

'round the corner this piece of gum!

A lovely relaxing weekend just being 'us' and tasting the 'normal' world

We could come and go as we please

Sit for as long as we wanted without having to jump up and down

We even walked together and held hands on the beach

Something we don't normally do as one of us has to be with JoJo!!!

All in all a lovely weekend........

I have joined Chookyblue's Secret Santa Christmas Swap this year and looking forward to receiving news of who my partner is!!!

Thank you to everyone who comes over and reads my humble little blog and comments on it

I truly do appreciate it and do try sincerely to get back to everybody

Hope your weekend was a good one

Here's to another week........Dzintra xo

~South Coast Quilt Show~ (and some sad news)

On Thursday I received the new Blogger dashboard....still learning my way round it

Let's hope I can get through and work out how to post pretty quickly...

Last weekend saw Batemans Bay host the South Coast and Country Quilter's Guild (SCCQ) 11th Bi-Annual Quilt Show at the Batemans Bay Soldiers Club

Above is the striking quilt that showed us the way

The stage was all set for the beach

I took a few pics of some of the quilts that took my eye

This one is Log Cabin by Jenni Miller ~machine pieced and quilted~

'Joelle's Quilt by Tricia Wheeler

Made for a lovely French lady that Trish met in Nice in 2008.   Lucky Joelle is to receive this next year in Turin where she lives......and Tricia is going to hand deliver it to her

Lucky Joelle......and Lucky Trish
I love it Trish!!!

Of course there has to be at least one quilt at a show by Anni Downs

This one is 'Angel Story' hand and machine pieced......machine quilted by Oriel Smith

'Kaleidoscope' by Rebecca Baumgartner 

This one by Martha Trimmer 

Summer Palace by Liesse Chandler of Chandlers Cottage with lots of adaptation

Machine pieced and quilted

'Earth Lines' by Margaret Foster

This reversible quilt was designed to show off a striking indigenous hand printed fabric.  It is coupled with abstract furnishing samples and uses a quilt-as-you-go method

Machine pieced and hand quilted

'Our Harvest Spice' by Robyn Sammons

Machine pieced and quilted

'Chocolate Truffle' by Maggie Froggatt

An Ann Sommerlad design.  Made with the Moda range of fabric called 'Chocolat'

'Monarch Paradise' by Lois Dibeler

Monarch and Blue Emperor butterflies in a garden setting including Monarch life cycle

Machine pieced and quilted

'Kyoto' by Barbara Steller

Machine pieced and quilted

'Eva Trahern' by Margaret Herzog

Paper piecing and broderie perse around a central appliqued panel

Hand Pieced

Designed by Sue Cody

Quilted by Christine Fahey

'Summer Circles' by Irene Coburn

Machine pieced

Margaret and Trish in front of the Raffle Quilt Autumn Leaves

The view looking across the road to the Clyde River from inside the Dining area of the club

I made some small purchases.....above some Christmas fat 1/4 by Lynette Anderson

and some lovely batiks

My hand is doing really well now

Last weekend I was till trying to limit water on it still and not bend the finger area too much 

Mr Armchair thought he'd give making berry muffins a go and here is the result 

Recipe can be found over here

These flowers were bought home to me by Mr Armchair as a bit of a cheer up

My beautiful Brother has been diagnosed with prostate cancer which if he does nothing about will get him in about 10 years time.  He also has diabetes.

He underwent a stress test to see if he could undergo surgery as he has an irregular heartbeat 

He failed the test and the Dr has said he would be more worried about the heart than the cancer

Now he has to see a Heart Specialist ..........

~OPAM (One Project A Month)~August ~Bars of Gold~ And Pirates Costume

Woo hooo doing a Happy Dance here with this month's OPAM

What started out as some fabric and a Jelly Roll (I didn't even know what that was when we moved here 5 years ago)

When I first saw this Jelly Roll at Steph's it just sung to me of pretty blues and mauves and sunshine just perfect for our Sea Change so I went back and bought if for myself for my birthday

and a blog win of this book by Pan and Nicky Lintott from Micki

I can now proudly present 'Bars of Gold'

Front of quilt on Father's Day morning

and the back

all waiting for the addition of this little label

by Hatched and Patched

I even made a little 'frame' for the label

binding

All quilted very simply with 'In The Ditch'

all neatly folded up

Thank you to Sweet Peg and her Partner in Crime Kris for hosting OPAM!!!

And to celebrate I made some Choc-Chip Vanilla Muffins for Morning Coffee

I didn't realize this till one time I went out of my sewing room and saw my little doggie Paris 'guarding' the staircase whilst I was upstairs

I thought I would show this off too

Even though JoJo is not part of OPAM she did stick these felt flowers onto a book for a friend's birthday

And onto the Pirates of Penzance which is playing at Bay Theatre Players next month 

Here is my Policeman's jacket with braid/ribbon on which had to be taken off

gold buttons had to be replaced with black ones

and all set ready to be taken to the Theatre for duty!!!

Once A Season Swap Gift Arrived at Shez's......and Blueberry Muffins

I recently participated in a Once A Season Swap at Cheryll's and my parcel to Shez arrived on Friday!

I ummed and ahhhed about whether to enter this swap...

the brief was......send something either handmade or bought to a secret partner that depicts Winter...

I was at Moruya Markets and saw this cute little felt girl and she said to me "Winter"...

That did it......I came home and registered for the swap!!!

Also included was a stitchery pattern that said......'Winter' by Cathy Penton

A little felt pin keep...

And all stitcher's need chocolate......Blueberry Intense for Shez as it just seemed to match...

Thank you so much Cheryll for hosting this swap...

now I'm thinking...perhaps enter the Spring Swap...

And to think the Sun will be on her way back to the Southern Hemisphere in about 3 weeks time...

the mind boggles as we are entering into Winter here...

and it's a perfect Sunday morning to make Blueberry Muffins!!!

All perfectly gluten free...

the recipe can be found over here on My Dolce Vita, my food blog

Happy Stitching......Happy Baking......Happy Sunday

Dzintra