Kerryswainscottage

Happy Australia Day/USA trip

Well I hope everyone has had a great Australia Day - mine has been very quite - nothing much on the agenda here. I didn't even make it to our local celebrations. I have acheived a couple of things today - one being hand stitiching the binding down on the secret double wedding ring quilt I showed a sneak peek of last month. It is already now to give to the special couple this weekend. Also I have been busy working on the itinery for my trip to the USA later this year. I am planning on taking a small group of ladies on tour for about 2 weeks, taking in New York, Pennsylvania, Washington and Quilt Festival in Houston. If anyone is interested in joining our group contact me for further details.

Happy Australia Day - isn't it great to be an Aussie

Hello I am still here !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Hi everyone I am still here thanks to all those who have been dropping to check on me. I hope everyone had a ver Merry Christmas and a wonderful holiday season. I have so much to share with you from the past few weeks I am not sure just where to begin. I will start with sharing some photos I have copied from FB of Nicole and Josh's wedding - the wedding was on New Years Eve and it was the most amazing night. The whole day was just so nice, we were so totally organised, relaxed and just enjoying the wedding day experience. Nicole looked gorgeous in her stunning but simple gown, Rachel's dress just suited her so well, Josh and Tommo looked handsome. The church was filled with the perfume of the most amazing local flowers and the service was full of Love, friendship, laughter and tears. Back at the reception the marquee took pride and place in the paddock just outside my garden, the weather was very kind to us, the food was fantastic, the music was great - the whole night was enjoyed by everyone who made the special effort to share it with us - we couldn't have asked for anything more. Here are a few photos from the wedding - thanks to all those who sent us messages of love.

 

More Christmas Gifts in the post

 last week my parcels arrived from QLD for our Secret Santa swap from our Friends in Stitiching online group. This years swap was a little different - we had to send 5 small parcels to be opened one each day starting from today - 20th December. Then a larger handmade gift to open on Christmas morning - wow how much do I enjoy Christmas morning.

Thanks so much for these gorgeous gifts - T - I will be back to share the contents of all these parcels later - have a great week leading up to Christmas Day

Kerry

A little taste of New Orleans

While I was visiting New Orleans I purchased a post card with this very yummy recipe on it - Friday I found time to make up of batch of these Pecan Pralines - easy as to make and extremely yummy and very sweet. They are mostly brown sugar with Pecans - Pralines are very popular in New Orleans - what a great memory.

 The sugar mixture has to boil to 238 F -

 

Then you add the Pecans - stir

Spoon out onto baking paper and let set.

I have placed a single Praline into a cello bag with ribbon and card - I will add these to my Christmas giving basket. I love sharing homemade goodies from the kitchen with friends and family at Christmas or any other time of the year.

My Secret Santa Gift through Chookyblue's SSCS  arrived from Ann-Mari in Norway the other day - how exciting - in the decoration gift I received 5 gorgeous little red and white cloth hearts they look great hanging on one of my dressers. The other gifts are under the tree waiting for the 25th.

Thanks for dropping by hope you are all enjoying the lead up to Christmas.

Kerry

 

The Eagle has landed

I was out working in my garden a week or so ago and I heard a strange sound - turned around and saw an eagle only metres away from me. It took off and landed again just down the paddock so I quckly slipped inside grabbed the camera and managed to take a few photos.

Not everyday do you have a visitor like this - believe me all the other birds in the paddock didn't like his visit. They went mad - there was so much screeching going on - it truly was an amazing site.

 

Here he is standing up in the long grass

Here he is in flight with a Magpie in chase.

Nature is so incredible - do any of you have visitors like this??????????

Kerry

 

Look who else I ran into

Yes look who else I ran into at Quilt Market

 Sue Daley from Patchwork with Busy Fingers - my tutor for my  "Girls Day in the Country" in March 2012

  

Here's Sue and I at Quilt market in Houston - the photo is taken in front of some of the gorgeous projects in her new book.

It was a very long way to go to catch up with Sue, but it was great. Her work was so inspiring - I attended her 3 School House workshops where I fell in love with one of the projects in her new book that will be out in December. That night at Sample Spree I purchased a fat 1/8 pack of the new French General range due out in the New Year called Rouenneries Deux, the next day I purchased the papers and templates from Sue and  quickly set about cutting out fabric, using Sharons glue stick I glued lots of papers to the fabric and started hand piecing a Double Wedding ring quilt for a surprise wedding gift - the wedding is coming up very soon. A month down the track I am addicted toSue's method of English paper piecing - I am just loving the journey. I have 2 weeks to get it to my dear friend for quilting - so fingers crossed.

This is a sneak preview

While I was at quilt market I was one of 25 very lucky ladies who received a copy of "New English Paper Piecing" at a book signing by Sue. I would love to make all the projects in this book - they are stunning - (These can be pre ordered by contacting me via email or phone).

For those who have booked into Girls Day in the Country in March - deposits are due to secure your place - I will be opening it up to the general public next week - so if you haven't paid your deposit please do so ASAP.

Sue's latest Block of the Month - "This goes with that" is running along well - I have lots of ladies doing this project and believe me they are all hooked and can't wait to receive the blocks each month - if anyone else is interested in joining give us a call - $36 per month over 8 months - everything included except a glue pen which we have in stock.

Kerry

 

USA - Quilt Market

Our journey continued from New Orleans to Houston where we stayed for nearly one week. First day there was penciled in for a shopping day and that we did - arrived at the mall at 10am and arrived back at the Hotel at 9pm. Here are our purchases

 Sharons shopping

 My shopping

The next day we both joined a tour organised by Quilt Market out to a few Patchwork shops and to the new Texas Quilt Museum - some stunning quilts but most of us were a little dissapointed as it actually had no antique quilts in it.

During the trip we saw some terrific Halloween displays - here's just one to share with you - I just love the displays of pumpkins - the colours are great

Then it was time for Quilt Market - these are a few of the friends I caught up with

 Edyta Sitar from Laundry Basket Quilts - I fell in love with her and her designs last year at Quilt Market so it was great to catch up and see her latest quilts - they are truely amazing - I do stock all her books and patterns in store.

 The girls at Sweetwater were lovely - Mum and her 2 daughters - I loved their new range of fabrics - Reunion

 The clothing designs by Kay Whitt of Serendipity Studio have inspired me for a couple of years but with little time I haven't managed to make any of them - this is going to be the year I do - I just love the simplicity of them - keep an eye out - hopefully I find time to sew - I have some great fabrics in store that would make great clothing at the moment including a couple of voiles from FreeSpirit.

Hope you have enjoyed a little preview of Quilt Market - more to come

Kerry

 

Missing in Action

Thanks to all those who have been worried about me - over a month of no blog posts - slack I know but hey I have been rather busy - tripping around the world.

On the 20th of last month - I headed off to the USA to Houston to the International Quilt Market - this year I left Geoffrey at home and Sharon came with me. Our first stop in the US was New Orleans - no real reason I just thought it would be a good place to visit and it turned out to be a fantastic place. New Orleans has so much history which we both loved - we went on a Plantation tour which gave us an insight into slavery and plantation life - we did a walking tour of the French Quarter and learnt lots about the combination of cultures, went for a ride on a paddle steamer up the Mississippi River, ventured to our first game of American Football along with thousands and thousands of mad football supporters, ate Cajun food and drank cocktails on Bourbon Street, did a swamp tour where we spotted Alligators  living in the wild and listened to incredible Jazz music in Bars and on the street. Our visit to New Orleans was much more then words can describe - so many wonderful memories - here are a few photos to share with you all.

Oak Alley Plantation

A private Courtyard in the French Quarter

Our paddle steamer ride

Strange game this - we couldn't get over how many players, coaches and officals each team had - Wow

This place is certainly worth a visit - very entertaining

Music was everywhere

For anyone heading that way New Orleans is certainly worth a visit - the city of FUN

Next stop - Down town Houston 

Kerry

Purse Swap

I should have shared these photos a few weeks back - I took part in a purse swap with my online stitching friends - I made for Jan and she made for me

This is the purse/case I made for her from wool with a little applique on the front - I made it with the intention of maybe storing glasses, but decided to send her a small pair of scissors and a tape to go inside her purse - and I wrapped it all in a gorgeous fabric.

This is the gorgeous purse that Jan made for me - I just love it and love the fact that in a previous swap Jan made me a bag from the same fabric - it will come in very handy when I fly to the USA next week - I always love to have a spare purse to put all my foreign coins in. I also received this cute little note book that is already packed. Thanks Jan. 

 

These types of purse clasps  are really so easy to stitch onto any purse - one tip you must always start in the centre of one side - stitch towards the left then back to the centre - then out to the right, then back to the centre.That way you should have your clasp centred onto your purse. 
Use a very strong thread such as a demin thread and as you stitch push the fabric up into the clasp with your needle. I stock 3 different size clasp's in the shop - prices start at $8.50

Hope everyone had a great weekend - I will be back tomorrow to share with you my sewing from the weekend.

Kerry

Wild life visitors

 Look who's been visiting me over the past few days - this is an Echidna - they are native to Australia - every now and then one will wonder by - so cute but very dangerous - it is covered with spikes 

  Then there is my Pigeon who arrived over a month ago and is still here, he/she follows me around the garden - Geoffrey is wishing he/she would fly away but I enjoy having my friendly pigeon around.

 Since I have been feeding my Pigeon all sorts of other birds have been flying in for a feed as well - here is a pair of King Parrots - the colours on these two are incredible.

Kerry