Another finish

 Another Friday afternoon with my quilting friends, and this time we celebrated Christmas in July, and the unveiling of the latest quilt challenge.
The ladies had outdone themselves with yummy festive fare, ranging from sausage rolls, dips, mini quiches, smoked salmon sandwiches, fancy cheeses, scones, and so on. Plus a little 'special' orange juice thrown in (also known as a Mimosa). Everything was very delicious, and enjoyed by all.

Most of us had done the "Miniature Quilt" challenge, and in the top photo it's some of the group and more in the last photo. Below are some more close-ups of the individual quilts. Again, everybody did a fabulous job. Challenges are such fun!
The first one was by Pat, a fun quilt in Kaffe Fassett fabrics. Once not a fan of KF, I'm now quite addicted to these fabrics.
The next mini quilt is by Helen, and it will be a dolly blanket once it is finished. Just perfect for a little miss. The two pillows in the background were Edwina's, one each for her granddaughters. Lucky girls!
The next photo shows a few of the quilts. Top row, left to right - The abstract quilt is Paula's, trust her to come up with a novel design. Beautiful fabric combinations. Next to it is a heart stitched by Julie, which will become a very pretty cushion. The tiny little pieced quilt is very intricate, made by Gabbie. So pretty! The big (mini) quilt is mine, and used up some of my Liberty fabrics. I found the pattern on Pinterest, and thought I'd give it a go. Marg made the sweet pears quilt, , quite gorgeous. Ann made the the black and white quilt with a dash of red, again very intricate and lovely.  Ann also made made the

small shadow quilt, which is really nice, great idea also for a large quilt. It's part of another challenge, to make something with Tania's Little square packs.
Janice made the tiniest quilt, a pretty nine-patch design with the tiniest pieces of Liberty fabrics. Amazing! Melva made the flowerpot quilt, a lovely traditional design. Maxine's was gorgeous, a little cottage, quilted and extensively embroidered, a real little treasure house.
Paula had also done another abstract piece, which looked so good! A very talented lady.
I'm very happy to be in this group, such a lovely group of ladies, and so very talented.
Finally, a quick photo of my ripple blanket, finished last week. It's very warm and heavy, made of 100% wool.

Catching up with myself

 Haven't blogged for a while; was actually thinking of giving it up or re-focusing the blog. But a couple of folks still follow my musings, so I'll keep it going for a while.
One of the reasons I haven't blogged much was because Wayne and I were on a cruise/holiday for nearly a month. We boarded the "Noordam" in Sydney, and headed for Port Vila, Fiji, Samoa, Hilo, Honolulu, and Victoria, disembarking in Vancouver. It was a lovely, leisurely cruise across the Pacific, and I had the pleasure of the company of a lovely quilter friend, Audrey. Also managed to catch up with our dear friend Nancy, who spent a wonderful day with us, showing us her Vancouver. We then flew back to Honolulu

for a few days of sunshine and surf (and shopping!), before heading home to autumnal Victoria.
Not long after our return, a kangaroo made a mad dash across the road right in front of me, and sadly, the roo died. However, her joey in the pouch survived. Just as we were frantically looking for wildlife rescue numbers, by some small miracle a wildlife officer drove past, and took the joey with her to be reared in a shelter. I could drive the car home, but there was quite a bit of damage, so I didn't have a car for nearly a month. I refuse to drive Wayne's car (the 'death trap'), so I had a rather boring month of not doing much. Thank goodness for the studio; it

gave me the opportunity to catch up on things.
I made a few cards, playing with different looks and ideas. I used my "Ladies Diary" papers for the first time (love them!), and a friend put me onto a foam glitter, available from the Chinese shop, which works perfectly well with dies put through the Sizzix. It comes in about 10 colours, most of them perfect for Christmas cards.
Sherman likes sitting with his friend, the Owl, as it is the warmest spot in the house, with the sun shining in, and directly underneath the heating vent. It's almost better than my lap.

 I've nearly finished my Scandinavian Rose panels, and I've bought my next hand sewing project, a Kim McLean quilt. It's made with Kaffe Fassett and batik materials, and I'll probably needle turn the pieces. It will no doubt keep me going for several years! In the meantime, I'm knitting another potato chip scarf (yes, again!), and just finishing off a miniature challenge quilt. More about that next time.