John and Vincent

For longer than I've known John, he's been a Vincent Van Gogh fan.  One of the first places we had to visit when we arrived in Holland in 1978 was the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam.  The relatives thought we were crazy when we rode there from Eindhoven on our motorbike.  That sort of distance is nothing in Australia.

Quite by accident I came across this kit when shopping on-line for some other fabric - I knew John would love it, so I made this quilt for his 60th birthday present (along with a track day at Phillip Island, which will mean a trip to Victoria some time later in the year). 

"A Tribute to Vincent"

His birthday was yesterday and we had a party at home for family and friends.  I asked Elizabeth if she'd like to make her Dad's birthday cake and she used the photograph of John below (from 40 years ago) as her inspiration.

Such a fabulous cake - bottom layer is chocolate/ginger; middle layer is chocolate/guinness and top layer is chocolate fudge.

There has been so much going on in our lives lately.  On 1 April John retired from work after 32 years driving coal trucks. 

Finished

All's Well ...

because my machine is back where she belongs.

 So last night I was able to work on some more secret sewing for swap presents due in mid-April

and I sewed together Block 8 of Butterfly Garden

Butterfly Garden - Block 8

Next step in this quilt is drawing up the applique pieces for Block 7, the embroidery was done while watching tv this week. 

I'm hoping to make a large dent in the Big Birthday quilt sewing over the weekend.  Back to stitching The Wish Quilt at lunchtimes - although this quilt is taking forever the end is in sight.

Secret Sewing Started

On Sunday afternoon I started the Secret Sewing for the Big Birthday.

The background is made up on nine patches and then there's some applique to go on top.  There won't be any machine sewing happening at my place over the next 10 days or so as both machines are going on a trip.

The machine in the blue case is going in for its first service and the machine in the red case is going on a plane ride tomorrow night to Queensland to stay with Diann till we go to Kingaroy in May.  So looking forward to my weekend away.