Perfection

PERFECT, PERFECT, PERFECT......

is what Saturday's Retreat, courtesy of Tracy from Tinker's Cart was!  I have only one complaint......it finished waaaaay too soon!

North Queensland crafters were allowed the pleasure of spending the day with Leanne Beasley, Rosalie Quinlan and Bronwyn Hayes of Red Brolly fame. 

 It was such a treat meeting these ladies, and seeing their work 'in the real' aaaaaaaaaarrwwwwww!!!......simply spectacular!

Tracy had really put some effort into making the place look very tropical for our southern guests, and the weather really was on its best behaviour.  I was so excited in the morning that I didn't take many photos, and it was only during the lunchbreak that I thought, "How am I going to share this with my blogging buddies?", so........

....Notice our colourful, tropical bags....filled to the brim with goodies???  pity the flowers were too big to plant behind our ears.....despite that, Rosie and Leanne acclimatised to the tropics with their real-life versions....... frangipani flowers !!!!

Apart from Bronwyn's Sucky Puffs Challenge (aka suffolk puffs....where some ladies were able to complete them in less than a minute *yikes*), we pretty much had free range on what we wanted to do from the bag....I figure I spent the first hour just browsing through and coming to terms with the amount  of stuff that was in there!!!!  I reckon I've got enough projects to keep me going, at least until next year's retreat!

I ended up deciding on one of Rosie's Christmas stitcheries, but instead of reverse redwork, I thought I might try a beautiful blue on white version using my lovely new Cosmos threads......

Very Winter Wonderland-ish, don't you think???

I'm certainly learning to perfect my chain stitch and satin stitch too!   It's nowhere near as nice as Rosalie's .....more practice needed...... I wonder if the boss will mind if I take some time off....????? LOL

Thanks Tracy for a lovely day......take note....I'm booking in for next year....don't care where, when or how......a thoroughly, enjoyable day!!!!  Thanks ladies for joining us up here in the north..........you're Absolutely Fabulous and can't wait to meet up again soon!

I did remind myself that I really didn't need couldn't afford much, but there were sooooo many beautiful fabrics, patterns, embellishments, cottons, yada yada yada......, which found their way home with me....but I'll have to show you next post.

My mojo has finally been given a shake up and I'm so keen to get started on so many things!  (perhaps I should just finish some first??? LOL) 

Yesterday I got stuck into completing the first of my knee rugs our guild is making for the lovely people in the local aged home. We spent a weekend, heads down, recently making these rugs to donate (I could only make one day due to my anniversary fishing trip).  These have only a flannel backing as the home is centrally heated and after all, this is North Queensland and our winter does only consist of about two weeks of the year on average!!!! (sorry....not trying to make you jealous!.....our temperatures do drop down to single figures.......on the odd occasion!!)  

 I quilted it in a light zigzag pattern and bound it in a blue binding which sets off some of the 'bricks' in the quilt.  All of the fabric was donated and precut so I decided I would work a brick wall pattern....simple yet effective and I think it turned out quite nicely.  The next one is full of novelty prints....be interesting to see which 'character' gets that one!

Have a wonderfully productive week....hope it inspires you and gets your mojo moving too!

sugary hugs

XXX Wendy :O)