Butterflies!!

Last week we had some friends over for dinner who were leaving the Kingdom to go back to the US for good. "Hello" and "Goodbye" are so much a part of life here and it is always sad to have to say goodbye to people you are just getting to know.....

I was glad we were able to have one last dinner together though. As I was thinking about what to cook, I thought of a yummy lasagne type casserole that I used to make a lot. Since I had just finished a row of butterflies for the new Round Robin over at Patchwork Posse, I decided that it was meant to be....

So I got out the butterfly pasta (that's what we call it anyway!), made up white sauce and mince.. then started layering:


White sauce and butterflies... then steamy hot mince mixture:


More butterflies:


More white sauce and cheese:


Ready to go in the oven... forgot to take a photo of it done, and it didn't last long enough to take a photo once I remembered.... :) Yum! Must make it more often!

And what about the Butterfly Row for the Round Robin? Here it is, blue butterflies all in a row:


Ready for the next row.... Just in case you are wondering, I am using my stash for this quilt and also decided to try to do each row with one main color... let's see how it works out, and let's see if I can keep up this time!!!

Color my world...

..... with just over a hundred colors.....


Faith's quilt (from my beginner's class) pinned and ready to quilt:


A Jelly Roll all sewn up like they did in the Jelly Roll race:


And a Honey Bun done in the same way:

Oh, you can colour my world with sunshine yellow each day!
And you can colour my world with happiness all the way!
Just take the green from the grass and the blue from the sky up above!
And if you colour my world just paint it with your love!
Just colour my world.

I didn't have a notion!

A few weeks ago one of my new friends asked me if I had been to the notion store... and I said, what notion store???? She's like, oh it has lots and lots of threads and buttons and ribbons and... and... and.... Of course I had to find it and go see for myself.

So, another friend and I went in search for it on Wednesday morning. She has a driver, however he doesn't really know where he is going and hardly speaks English, so it was quite an interesting morning!

I think we must have done a tour of Riyadh, becuase we passed most of the important sights. At one stage I called Cameron to see if he could help us because the GPS was taking us into the center of town instead of the edge... and he wanted to know where we were... which of course we didn't know... and just saying that we could see the Faisaliah Tower didn't help either because you can see that from most spots in the city...

I think the driver was getting a little stressed too, because at one stage he pulled up on the side of the road and said, "One minute madame..." and proceded to sit there for a few minutes while my friend and I looked at each other in confusion. A few minutes later he pulled out into the traffic again and kept going.....

Anyway, we made it in the end with a little help from our friends... many phone calls and u-turns later :) It was worth it in the end, because it is the coooooolest little shop I have seen in a while (litereally as well as figuratively- they had a/c thank goodness). (It is now in the mid 40sC during the day.)

We went into the shop and found ourselves surrounded by color and glitz...


You know how I hate zips, but these were almost tempting:



Buttons anyone?


Yes! DMC for my stitching!!!

And some yarn!!

But the main thing I went for was this:


Threads... many colors for applique! The top boxes with threads are all 100% Italian cotton which I love to work with. So I asked the man if I could have two of each color.

He said, "No problem."

It took him a while.

And when he had reached 100 different colors he'd had enough. I asked him if that was all the colors, and he muttered something about it being enough... poor guy... I got him to pick 5 more and then took pity on him and decided 105 colors was a pretty good range :)

I need to set them up somewhere in the shop so that while we are doing a class if someone runs out they can grab one. There is nothing worse than needing a color and having to just drive out for one... However, at least we do know where the shop is in case we need more :)

I also bought some pins and needles and tape measures to have in the shop in case we need them too.... so all in all it was a great day!

(Thanks Janelle and Marisol!!!!!)

And some more....

I thought I'd let you see a few more lovelies from our Quilt Guild Mini Show... Lots of the members were busy making wall hangings this year to donate to one of the children's hospitals in town. They were all so pretty, and lots of work went into them:



Here's a close up of the flower one, click on it to see how the centers were made with Texture Magic - a technique I really want to try soon:

Some more embroidered and appliqued ones:


Hmmm... do you see the one in the middle? I wonder who made that one.. anybody recognize the pussycat?! More on that one another day :)

I am sure the kiddies will enjoy looking at these wall hangings don't you?

Lovely Quilts

I've been pretty quiet, haven't I?! I am sorry about that, but it truly has been a busy month, and then last week we all had the flu - again - honestly, twice in 6 weeks is a bit much, don't you think? Thankfully we're getting better again and this week I am able to do some things around the house that I've been wanting to for soooo long...

Just a few days ago my eldest son Daniel turned 17.... where has the time gone? Years, not just days... but it is fun watching them grow up.

I have been busy with teaching classes, and also doing some sewing for others. School is on a break for two weeks, but unfortunately I spent almost the whole first week in bed with the flu! Still, it is nice not to worry about correcting and supervising school for a fortnight.

The highlight of this month was the Annual General Meeting of the Riyadh International Quilt Guild! A few days before the meeting I was privileged to be one of the judges of the challenge quilts for this year. Oh, it was a hard job! All the quilts were lovely, each special in their own way. Thankfully I was not the only judge and between us we managed to come up with some winners :)

Feast your eyes on these:










All the challenge quilts had to have at least one Log Cabin block in them, so you can see how everyone has incorporated that into their quilts.

The next one is the winner of the Beginners Category. This lady has been quilting for about 6 months and came up with this creative quilt, using many different embellishments:


The other category was for those who had been quilting for more than a year, and third prize went to this stunning quilt:


Second prize was this gorgeous one, love the colors and design!


And first prize was this amazing kaleidescipe of colors, just beautiful:


The evening was lots of fun and I'm so glad I didn't get sick until the day after!!! I would have been so disappointed to miss it...

That's all for today.. it is bedtime and I have to get up early tomorrow. Must sew, must sew...! Actually I need to pin some tops and QUILT! I have way too many tops done that need finishing... so more photos soon... night night... xxx

April Finishing Stitches Winner!

And the winner for last month is.................

............................................ Narelle from Nell's Notions!!!

Congrats Narelle!!!

Now for news of May..... Alice and I have decided to have a break from Finishing Stitches this month... we both have a hectic month aheaad of us and need time to catch up with other things. Alice also needs time to send the last charm packs.... she has been busy with so many things that she needs a break too!

BUT, that doesn't mean you should stop finishing things!!! I like what Bonnie has done on her sidebar - she has a list of all her finishes and block finishes, so even if you are not part of a challenge, this is a great idea for motivation.

So, keep sewing and finishing things ladies!!!

Why oh why????

Why did I not finish my two blocks for the stitch-a-long this month?
Why did I buy two rolls of batting?
Why have I been cutting and folding dozens of fat quarters?
Why have I been repackaging 5 inch squares into nice little bags?
Why have I been bossing the boys around and telling them to move this cupboard here, and that bookshelf there, and that table here?
Why has Elizabeth been putting together nice little fat quarter packs and tying them with a ribbon?
Why oh why has all this been happening at my house??????

Remember my word for the year is CHANGE. This is a year of changes for us for sure... first moving to Arabia, and settling in to all the changes here. Then this week..... starting up a little quilt shop in my house :) Yes, we all dream of that don't we?! And now I am blessed to have the opportunity to start one of my own... very small right now, but if it is small, it can only get bigger, right?!

Yesterday a dozen ladies came around and we celebrated the opening of my little shop with lots of tea, coffee and snacks! Before they came, when it was almost tidy (lol!) I took some photos:




The shop is in our front lounge room. It is the only room on the bottom floor that has natural light, since the rest of the windows are under the shadow of the high wall that surrounds our house. I may need to start using a few other rooms if I get too much stock ... but for now this is really good. I have big tables for classes which work really well.

So, most of the month I have been working behind the scenes to get this set up. I was also doing lots of blocks for sample quilts to hang up... and didn't manage to finish any of the tops, lol!!! I decided in the end it was better to organize and package the stock and worry about samples later.

I managed to finish 16 blocks for a sample of the next quilt we are doing in class, so I was able to show that to the ladies. Today I finished the other 8, and this is what it looks like laid out on the floor:


I kind of like it, don't you? I got the pattern from here, so you don't need to come to my class, but if you want to drop by for a cuppa, please do :)

I want to do applique in the middle of the white blocks, which is a bit different from the original pattern. But because I used white, it is a little boring like this. Alice is also making this quilt and she has fussy cut some pretty fabric as these center squares. I can't wait to see hers!

So now you know why I have been busy and what I have been doing in April :) I get a feeling that May is going to be a busy month as well.... but then these days, isn't life just constantly busy? At least I am never bored :)