Kerry and Matt May 4

Matt took Kerry down to Perth to meet my Dad and step mum Pat on Sunday and then took her down to Fremantle to have a look around. This picture was taken at the Round House in Fremantle (which was the first prison in WA) over looking Fremantle Yacht Club.

Kerry is settling in well and loving WA despite not being particularly fond of Northam! :) Northam is a bit too quiet for the city girl from Portsmouth England!
On thursday they both had the day off so Matt took Kerry for another drive to a local picnic spot called Lake Leschnaultia which is only about a half hour drive from here and very pretty. She is glad to be getting out and seeing a bit more.

Row by Row update - Quilt Number 5

While I was in Meckering at the retreat, I tossed around ideas for the next row by row I had to do and have finished by Tuesday May 16. I found the most fabulous printed flowers in one of the bargin bins at the Cottage and decided to use those. With Rossy's help, we arranged them around the saying and then Rossy drew all the tendrils for me to embroider. I finished the row last night and am really happy with the results! I hope Shirley will like it!

I only have two more rows to complete! Shirley's quilt is a couple of rows behind as she came into the project a bit later but another lady has pulled out so we will all still get our finished tops back when we go to Fairbridge in September.

Collingully Retreat May 5 - 7, 2006

What a wonderful weekend! On Friday 2 May I headed up to Meckering for a patchwork retreat with my quilting friends from Northam. Eleven of us moved into Collingully Patchwork barn for the weekend and had a wonderful time. We had all weekend to just sew and chat and eat! And we did all three with gusto! We laughed a lot! Some achieved a lot, and some just enjoyed the atmosphere but by Sunday afternoon when it was time to pack up and go home, none of us wanted to!

One lady (that is Bev at the ironing board in the pictures) was so relaxed and felt so at home that she was still in her pajamas at 3pm! She then made the decision that as she only lived 10 minutes down the road, she would go home in them! It was just priceless.

Lynne the quiltshop owner runs these weekend retreats all the time and you have the option to have a class or two as well but we all just take along our UFOs and work on those. It doesn't matter if you forget anything either as you are in the middle of the shop and everything is at your finger tips. All meals are provided along with morning and afternoon teas and all are to die for!

The other surprise was one of our friends who left town a few years ago came along for the weekend. It was fantastic to catch up with Ruth, who was the first person I met when I moved to Northam 15 years ago!

Ruth brought along a little baby quilt and a christmas quilt (on the hoop in the background) to finish quilting and she ended up getting both quilts finished right down to the binding!

Over the weekend there were three quilts in total completed and a doll made named Annie which was stitched by Wendy. The picture is of our Anne holding the doll Annie who also has a cat and and a cow to look after.

While I didn't finish anything, I made some progress on a bears paw quilt and my diamond table runner and got led astray by Rossy who insisted I needed to make a stitchery quilt! This was helped by the fact that Jeff gave me a $250 gift voucher for the shop for Christmas and Rossy decided I needed to buy a complete project. So now I have some beautiful fabrics, a pattern and some pellum ready to make this very pretty stitchery quilt!

In all it was a fabulous weekend and as I drove home, I was planning what to make for dinner. I still hadn't decided when I got home and as I walked in the door Jeff was grating cheese over a huge dish of lasgne! The Perfect Ending to the Perfect Weekend!!

I can't wait to go back at the end of June with another group of friends!