Catching Up

Elizabeth's birthday lunch was so lovely.  Jenni, Mum and I decorated the table with vases of sunflowers, balloons and photos of Elizabeth from a newborn to almost 40.

Elizabeth requested a baked ricotta cheesecake with fresh canneloni on top for her birthday cake - Matt did very well organising this - it was delicious.

Two days later Elizabeth, Matt, the two Sweethearts and I headed off on holiday to Cairns for 10 days.

Last time I was up north we stayed in Port Douglas - it was nice to be in Cairns this time and spend time there visiting Green Island, a couple of water parks, The Lagoon and Kuranda.  I caught the train home - wasn't game enough to take the cable car up to Kuranda.

Such beautiful carriages with pressed tin ceilings.

Little Sweetheart loves to wear dresses and needs some for summer and pre-school, so we visited the local Spotlight - it's a lovely shop - such a huge variety of fabrics.

Of course, she had her heart set on Elsa fabric and luckily there was some in stock.  She also loves My Little Pony and Space People.

We ate lots of lovely seafood at home and at a couple of great cafes/restaurants.

Someone was suffering a bit of an identity crisis on the way home:  Wonder Woman/Moana.

I was able to put together the Sampler Quilt before I went away.

After the holiday, I had a few more days off before coming back to work and pretty much all of Friday was spent in the sewing room adding borders to the Sampler Quilt, making backing and binding

and then sewing together the "Christmas Cheer" rows, my 2019 Bonnie and Camille Aussie Beehive Quilt.

The backing:

So happy with how "Christmas Cheer" has turned out - looking forward to having it on my bed this Christmas.

Mum, her friend Nora and I went to see "Ride Like a Girl" on Saturday afternoon - second time I've seen it because Mum couldn't come the first time.  Really enjoyed watching it again - love a good Australian story.

After the movie I dropped off "Christmas Cheer" and the Sampler Quilt to Karen.  On Monday, I saw via Instagram and Facebook that she was quilting "Chamomile"

and yesterday she quilted the Sampler Quilt.

I picked them both up last night and they are now awaiting binding.

On Sunday morning I finally got around to pin basting the littlest Sweetheart's quilt.  Running a bit late with this one - he's now 7-1/2 months old.

Sunday afternoon was The Hawks basketball team's first home game of the season.  Michael, Peta and Gulli were able to come along with me and The Girls and we all had a great time, even though The Hawks lost.  Now that MP&G are now living locally, they'll be able to come along to lots of games.

Sunday night I did the vertical quilting on "Little Chicken Feather".  I'll get to the horizontal quilting maybe next Sunday night.

I've also been plodding along with some "Sweet Escape" blocks - at first they were driving me nuts as the centres were a bit off kilter but they're going alright now.

Halfway with this one now.

Last year for Christmas, Jenni and Kurt told me they would paint my front entry way.  This is starting this weekend.  A trip to Bunnings to buy paint also resulted in a tin of jelly beans because I bought 8 litres of Dulux paint - hope they're nice jelly beans.