Greetings from Singapore

Our adventure continues but coming close to the end. Thought  I'd share just a couple of events with you.

First of all, we stumbled across a patchwork shop on a late night walk in a beautiful town called Bruges in Belgium. You will never guess whose BOM was advertised on the front door of the shop!

Looks like Anne Downs has a following in Belgium. Went back over the next two days ( Sunday and Monday) to take a look inside only to find out that if I could read this note in Flemish....

I would have known that they are closed Sundays and Mondays. Too bad we were leaving Monday afternoon and could not return. Oh well...

I did find a few shops that had cross stitch, tapestry and lace making supplies. I bought this kit which should keep me busy for a while. It is a sampler from 1790, completed by a girl of thirteen years and will be 94cm x 61cm when complete.

Bruges has a lace making school and museum and the streets are filled with shops were you can buy loads of beautifully hand crafted lace tablecloths, table runners, handkerchiefs etc.

There have been train strikes in both France and Belgium over the last few weeks. They finally effected us last Monday when our trains from Bruges to Brussles and Brussles  to Paris were cancelled. I won't bore you with the details of the inconvenience it caused, however, we chose to look at it as a bonus night in Brussles rather than missing out on a night in Paris. Even though the we decided to splurge on a motel for the last two nights with a view of the Eiffel Tower. What else can you do but go with it? So bonus night in Brussles....it was beautiful too.

We both had window seats. Mr stitch played cards on my iPad while I did get a little stitching done on the train as the scenery flashed by at about 300km/h. It's very cool how quickly you can travel on these comfortable and VERY quiet trains.

I made time to appliqué glue my flowers onto the final border of my Violet Quilt before leaving home and have been stitching them down on the plane and train rides. Can you see the little dental floss container Fairy Floss Stitches gave me to cut my threads so I didn't need to take scissors onto the plane?

We were so pleased to make it back to Paris for a final night. Here is the view from the balcony of our motel...

And by night...

Now that I've shown you the nice view, I will show you the REALLY flash, big balcony we had to sit on to watch the sunset....you will be amazed at the size of it. (Have you sensed the sarcasm yet?) 

Here is Mr Stitch setting up with the drinks and nibbles...

Yes that is a pillow he is sitting on to make the concrete a little more comfortable. He was able to make use of the guttering in lieu of a table to place his beer and chips on...

And now a another attempt at mastering the selfie...

Ooops...not that one...

Now that's very cosy. It was JUST long enough for us to stretch our legs out. 

Mental note to self....when I ask the travel agent for a room with a view, I should clarify and say with a balcony big enough to at least sit side by side, maybe even big enough for a chair would be nice. Now that would be REALLY lashing out. It was a fun night watching the sunset over Paris one last time.

So we are now semi-adjusting our body clocks in Singapore for a few days. Only three hours difference to home.

Bye for now.

Guess where I am?

You may have noticed I have not posted for a while. Well....there is a good reason. And by good and mean REALLY good. Mr Stitch and I are celebrating our 25th wedding anniversary. He has whisked me away to a special place and if I show you a photo, I wonder if you can guess where we are.

Still mastering the selfie. 

Can you see the structure in the background? Let me make it bigger for you.

So now you know.

We left for Paris via Singapore a couple of weeks ago. We have been on a tour of some very beautiful areas around France and are now back in Paris. On the tour we saw the Bayeux tapestry. It is 1000 years old and shows the story of the battle of Hastings in 1066. It is an unbelievable 70m long and half a metre high. It was AMAZING!!

I found a broderie (embroidery) store and bought a couple of kits as a momento. 

Mr Stitch thought it would be a great idea to collect kits with all of the images and stitch them....

ALL 70 m of them!!

Yeah sure!!

Have not found a patchwork store yet, but I know they exist in France.

We are having a fabulous time. Tomorrow we catch the train to Bruges in Belgium. They have over 35 different beers and 22 Chocolatiers in Bruges.....something for everyone I say.

My only concern is that three days in Bruges will not be enough. That's an average of 7 Chocolatiers per day.... I can only try my best. 

My French is improving. I have learnt lots of greetings and phrases to manage the basics as well as some really important ones like ......you know 'au vere vin blanc s'il yous plait' (a glass of white wine please), 'mouse au chocolate' (chocolate mousse) and 'soldes' ( you guessed it, clothing stores have sales in France as well). 

I have also found the restaurant that makes the BEST PROFITEROLES EVER!!!!!!!

The only problem we have experienced is that the clothes driers in France must dry clothes at a much higher temperature because my jeans seem to have shrunk. They were not that tight when I left......hmmmmm.

Will be back on line in a du (2) weeks.

Au revoir

Cassilis Quilters

It was a big day of English Paper Piecing yesterday when we gathered at the Plough Inn for our Cassilis get together.

Kylie worked on hexagons for her Vignette quilt.

 

 

Lea joined her hexagons to make a gorgeous bag.

 



 

Our new friend Bev used quilt-as-you-go for her hexagon bag.

 

Susan decided to be an individual and worked on EPP diamonds instead.

 

 

 I decided to stick with the most popular shape of the day and FINALLY finished the ninety two flowers that will be appliqued to border six of my Violet Quilt. 

A little tip: when the pattern says to use dark farbic for centres and petals, you really should do that. Unfortunately I did read the instructions but did not follow them and ended up unpicking about twenty something flowers to replace light coloured centres and making another twenty something new flowers so that they didn't disappear into the light coloured border fabric.

 

 

With all papers removed and a little bit of pressing I did get to start attaching them with applique glue. Three sides down, one to go. I need them prepared by next weekend as Mr Stitch and I have a little holiday planned and this will be my holiday stitching.

 

I have been VERY slack with my blog this month. At 11.29pm on the 31st May, I have just scraped in with one post before the month ends.

Happy stitiching.



OPAM Finish for April

 Today I am linking up with Finish It Up Friday and OPAM as I do the big TADAAAA!!

and show you my Star Flannel Quilt finally finished. I hand quilted this in DMC Perle 8 thread. Please excuse the washing hanging either side. As you can see, its an overcast day and I needed to get the boring jobs done before doing the fun stuff.

 Quilting on the back...

 

I quilted eight pointed stars on the larger blocks.

Here it is on my son's bed. An antique one I purchased at an auction years ago.

 

 

I love the carving at the head and foot. The whole thing was painted fire engine red when I bought it.

 

The carving  reminds me of the Legacy Torch and and the wreaths we lay on ANZAC Day. I must research the significance of this one day as my Uncle thinks it was made back as early as 1920.

Which leads me to my final photos.

 Son No. 3 played euphonium during the ANZAC Day parade yesterday. He took part in three parades. The first one in a small town nearby. It only has about 1500 people and they were very excited to have a band lead the parade for the very first time. Then back on the bus to head down the highway to play during the parade and commemorative services in two more towns.

 

 



 

 Perfect Autumn weather prevailed as we remembered those who made the ultimate sacrifice.

 

Lest we forget.

FNSI and Toes In the Sand catch up

Yesterday was very quiet. Mr Stitch unfortunately working this Easter weekend. Son No. 1 home tonight for Easter break. Son No. 2 spending time with his girlfriend and her family before she heads back to uni and Son No. 3 recovering from birthday sleep over with mates.

 

Nothing to do here but sew.
 

I decided to catch up on my Toes in the Sand BOM. I was  three months behind. But I am all caught up now.

 

Block 10

Block 11

Block 12

 

All blocks are now completed and I have fabric to finish this quilt. Thanks goodness for holidays. It might be a finished flimsy before too long.

 

During the evening I joined in with Friday Night Sew In. Pop over to Wendy's blog if you would like to sign up or take a look at what other people were up to. I kept plugging along with the quilting on my Star Flannel quilt.

 

 I am looking forward to all of my family being home tomorrow and celebrating Easter.

Happy Easter to you and your family.



Phew!!

 

I am so excited, no, make that relieved that the problems I experienced when attaching the star border are resolved and I have finished adding border number four....the hexagons and diamonds. It is SO big now, I have to stand on the dining room table to take a picture!! Over 80 inches in each direction.

 

To jog your memory, here is a photo of me trying to ease the star border on last year. The result was a VERY bumpy quilt. The quilt was banished to the cupboard for a few months until I stopped sulking had a little think about it. Anyone who does EPP knows, there is no point moving on because the rest of the quilt will not fit together.

 

 

Now I have a smooth, flat flimsy. I never really knew until this border was on if it was going to be OK.

PHEW!!!!

So next border is the third and final border stripe. I have the papers ready to cover with fabric....

...and the scallops on the final border are joined and glued onto the background and currently being appliqued.

So, I am going to take a little rest from Violet while I finish the quilting on this WIP. This flannel was almost finished when Summer hit. I just couldn't swelter under it any longer and put it away until Autumn arrived. Now the nights are cooler, I am determined to make it my next OPAM finish.

 

I hope you have time to stitch too.



FNWF, Cassislis and Violet Progress

The tittle of this post is long, but don't worry, have told the story in pictures rather than lots of boring words.

 Friday Night With Friends (FNWF) started early with our bi-monthly get together of the Cassilis Quilters.

Julie bound her daughter's quilt.



Kylie worked on her Rosalie Quinlan Stitchery. 

Susan worked on her Irish Circles and Lea on her Lynette Anderson project from Nundle.

 

 

I joined scalloped pieces before lunch and then stared to add the fourth (hexagon) border afterwards. I finished adding these borders last night during FNWF. If you look closely, you will see that flowers have been appliqued on the star border....did that last week.

Some of these flowers have been fussy cut...and some made out of some REALLY ugly fabric. I apologies to all lovers of purple, but it is my least favourite colour. These flowers were stitched on the long flight to visit my brother in London back in 2007!! They have been hiding patiently in a box waiting to  finally see the light of day. Eighteen lucky ones are now on the quilt. The other eighty will have to wait a little longer until I have completed the scallops on the sixth and final border.

 

 

If you would like to see what others got up to last night, click on the image above.

 

Have a great weekend.