Judy, Kate and I went to Ballarat for the weekend for our quilters retreat. We stayed at a lovely characterful Airbnb house with three bedrooms, plenty of comfy seating and a dining table we could sew at. There was a hatch between the kitchen and the dining area and we were able to use that for our cutting mats.
I went with Judy and we met up with Kate at Millrose Quilting & Gallery where Judy was delighted to find some shot cotton fabric remnants for sale. We paused for a hot chocolate and a cake and to take a picture to show Kay what she was missing out on! All retreat pictures were taken by Judy.
We went an interesting way to get to Gail's Patchwork Emporium as Google decided we needed to go the scenic route which was very exciting! Gail's as always was chock-a-block with fabrics and Judy scored some $10 a metre fabrics to make into backings.
I wanted some Morris & Co Kelmscott fabric by Free Spirit for table mats but decided in the end that I'd need too much if I was going to fussy cut and then by the time I'd hidden them underneath the plates they'd be a very expensive purchase. But the fabric is so lovely!
We then stopped off at Beechworth bakery for a delicious pie and some fresh cream cakes. I am obviously delighted with my cake that I'll be saving for afternoon tea. Kate is more laid back because she has eaten her cake already!
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After lunch we went to Eureka Patchwork and Elisabeth has done an excellent job of selling a whole heap of fabric on online de-stash sites which was brilliant for her. Judy picked up a few bits and pieces but Kate and I just had a look this time.
We arrived at the Airbnb and set up our machines etc. I'm fairly sure the first bottle of wine was opened soon after!
Judy is making the Mistletoe Quilt by ZenChic and she prepped all her blocks ready to blanket stitch the appliqué shapes. There were rather a lot of them!
Kate swore she wouldn't be doing any more work on the clamshells on her Oakhampton Quilt and then swore because she did some!
I started making a Happy Birthday bunting banner using scraps of fabric. This project has been on my to do list for years and I thought it would be the perfect easy thing to do at retreat. Before retreat I stumbled across a video showing how to pull the points out when you turn your fabric through and I was so excited to try it but I got confused and spat the dummy so used my trusty pointy stick to prod them into place instead.
The weather was gorgeous so I went outside in my pyjamas for a bit of sun.
Ta da! I finished my bunting!
And it did me in!
We had a lovely weekend and can't wait to go again! When I arrived home I strung my bunting up and hated it! The white bias binding string was messy and see through and it just looked awful because where I was hanging it you can see the back of the bunting. So I unpicked it!
I redid it using the dark grey fabric I'd used on the letters and it turned out much better! The banner had it's first showing for my son Jâc's 23rd birthday.
I didn't want to throw the scraps of fabric that I'd cut out of the inverted points of my bunting so I made a stillborn baby quilt. Ooh it looks very wobbly in this picture! I'll make up a bit of binding then hide it away in a box until I can get around to quilting it.
