Easter Holidays

I'm having an extra-long Easter break; back to work next Monday. Thinking I could get used to being a stay-at-home.

Yesterday Sharon and I had a day in Sydney, visiting a couple of patchwork shops on the way. Called in at Jules Craft Shoppe (Loftus), Peg's Pieces (Kirrawee) and Remnant Warehouse (Alexandria) - love this shop. Also called in to Gordon Smith (selling Rodney Clarke, Gordon Smith plus other clothing) - Sharon found lots of bargains.

Tammy, my friend from work, is making her first quilt - "Flowerbed" by Bronwyn Hayes. Most of the stitcheries are finished and she has been having a great time purchasing fabrics. Today Tammy came over to learn about rotary cutting and to put some of the blocks together.

Not content to be making only one quilt, while net surfing Tammy bought a kit for "Springfield Stars" - today she also put together her first star and was thrilled to bits.

Butterfly Garden, Block 2:

Butterfly Garden, Block 3:

Yesterday I bought some hot pink to use for the applique hearts; still undecided about colours/fabrics to use for the butterflies and threads for some of the stitching - I'll think about that tomorrow.

I have a bit of a whinge - I bought 1 metre of the pink/white medallion print to use as the outer border on this quilt, thinking I could cut it to look like this:

Problem is the design is printed so crookedly on the material that if I cut the fabric so that the design is straight, the material will not be on the straight grain and I will need to buy more material because there isn't enough fabric if cutting it following the design, but, if I cut the material to be on the straight grain the design will be wonky. Anyway, I decided I'll buy some extra fabric, follow the design and be extra careful when the time comes to sew on the outer border.