Home from Australia and a sewing post

You may have noticed that I didn’t post anything about sewing while I was in Australia.  That’s because I really didn’t do any sewing.  I took lots of hand stitching projects with me, but we were too busy most of the time for me to pay attention to them.  I’m not sure why I didn’t sew on the plane going to Australia but on the way home it was too rough for me to sew. 

I did get to sit out in the yard a few times, listening to the lilting song of the Australian magpies, watching the parrots swoop around, enjoying the sun and sewing.  I made two sets of hexie flowers for my February and March swap partners in the Inchy Hexagon Flower Swap.  Interestingly both Michele and Nora asked for 30s/40s reproduction fabric petals and yellow centres.  My LQS doesn’t sell 30s/40s reproduction fabric so I had to find some in my stash.  I think I did okay with these – I really like modern fabrics and haven’t paid a lot of attention to the reproduction ones, so had to sort of guess whether I was using the right fabrics.

When we were on the train travelling from Armidale to Hawkesbury River I added second round hexies to one of my own flowers.  Look at all those dots!

I only made it to one quilt store in Australia, EasySew in Hobart, Tasmania.  I guess sewing was really not at the forefront of my mind.   But I was able to get some Australian print fat quarters, which I’m really happy about.  Animals and aboriginal designs, which I love.  My sister gave me the one with the Eucalyptus leaves for my birthday.

The sewing highlight of the trip however was the opportunity to meet my blogging friend Lynne, from Never Too Hot to Stitch.  Even though they had sold their house and bought a new one and were working on packing their house for the move, Lynne and her husband Mark met us at the ferry docks in Sydney and we had a lovely visit.  They bought us dinner at a lovely restaurant, City Extra and we chatted into the evening.  I fear that we kept them out too late as they had a long trip home and Mark had to be up early for work, but it was so interesting to meet them and learn about their lives in Australia.  And I forgot to get a picture of us…

When I got home my second round hexies from my January swap partner, Celine, were waiting in the mail and I promptly sewed them onto flowers.

I am behind on a few swap items – my February/March paper piecing blocks and my March Canadians Quilt block.  But today I finished up my last piece for the Get Your Hex On swap.  This flower is for Sara in Italy.

That’s all the sewing I’ve done since we got home.  Jet lag, returning to work and all the catching up have kept me busy.  And this weekend I HAD to make Ukrainian eggs with my friend Donna…

The  one on the top right is dyed.  I wrote words all over it with the wax, then dyed it, but unfortunately the dyes aren’t dark enough to be able to read the words.  So I made another one, bottom left, where I dyed the egg a light blue then wrote the words all over it with Sharpie pens.  The other two are dyed.  These are fun to make and always look so pretty.

That’s all for now folks.  I am back in the saddle, have a quilt retreat coming up later in the month and plan to get lots of sewing done in the next while.  And I am going to try and post a little more often to the blog.

Janet