Survivor

I'm back from an exhausting 3 days of camping with my son's Grade 6 class. It was full on, lots of activities, preparing food, cleaning up and having fun.

We headed off on Wednesday to one of Tassal's salmon farms just south of Dover. Here we learnt about the life cycle of salmon, their biology and how the farm operates.

Cockle Creek was our next destination, we arrived and set up camp. There was about 10 tents for the 27 kids that they put up themselves and then they helped some of the adults put up theirs.

We played on the beach for awhile then headed back to camp for dinner and marshmallows before lights out.

Up bright and early Thursday to prepare breaky and lunch for the day's hike. We walked for 2 hours to South Cape, through different landscapes to arrive at a breathtaking view.

and here's proof that I was actually there

When we returned from our hike we relaxed for 1 hour and then headed off for a bit of fossicking.

We found agates and petrified wood.

An exhausted bunch of kids and adults slept well that night as the rain came in. Friday morning we packed up in the rain and headed off the Hastings Caves.

The kids sang the school song in the Newdegate Cave and it sounded lovely.

Afterwards we headed to the Thermal springs and the kids had a swim and the grown ups had hot showers. We finished up with a BBQ before heading back home.

I've been extremely tired and a bit sore from the walk but I enjoyed every minute.

I am glad to be home in my own bed!

Goodies and camping

Here's a quick peak at the goodies I purchased at AQM:-

A layer cake of the the new French General Range called Rural Jardin some kits and a free Homespun Diary a FQ bundle or Panache and some Honey Buns Plus a range of gorgeous patterns by Marg Lowe

I could've spent lots more but Jetstor would've slugged me for the extra baggage!

On Wednesday I'm heading off for 3 days of camping with my son's Year 6 class to a gorgeous location, Cockle Creek
We'll be bushwalking, exploring caves and thermal springs, swimming, playing in the sand, fossicking and heaps of other fun stuff. I just hope the weather is fine! I'll see you all next week!

Pot of Gold

There really is a pot of gold at the end of every rainbow, well rainbow swap that is! This week I received a gorgeous package in the mail from my Rainbow Swap partner, hosted by Trash Can

The parcel was from Kate at Kate's Quilting (& other Fibre Arts) Blog and it was full of some yummy goodies

The chocolate didn't last more than 5 minutes after the photo shoot, devoured by my son and hubby and a wee bit by me. The candle has a sweet Vanilla scent and the lemon bath bomb is living in a drawer now giving everything a fresh smell. The mini quilt is so bright and cheerful and I think it'll make it to my office to brighten the dull walls up.

Thank-you so much Kate for all the work you've put into this swap, it is greatly appreciated and will be cherished forever! My parcel hasn't reached it's destination yet but it should be almost there. I forgot to take a photo of the goodies I sent so stay posted and as soon as there's a post about it I 'll direct you to my partner's blog.

PS Thank-you to Trashy for inviting me to join this swap and being a good first time swap mumma, everyone's gotta start somewhere!

Australian Quilt Market

Australian Quilt Market is awesome! For all those people that have to buy retail let me tell you that you're missing out. This is the place to meet all your favourite designers, see all the latest projects and fabrics and catch up with just about anybody whose in the business of quilty related goodness.

Leonie, Helen and I jetted off bright and early last Friday to Melbourne. We spent a few hours buying props for the stand, had a quick lunch at a pub before heading to the Exhibition Centre to set up Here's the Pattern Press Stand in all it's glory

Pattern Press distributes patterns for The Quilted Crow, Hugs 'n Kisses, Chitter Chatter, One Red Robin, Moonshine Designs, Emroideroo and Miss M. It was so good to see all their original work up close. I love Chitter Chatter's quilts, there's so much detail in them and Jhoanna's softies just need a big hug! Jhoanna helped out on Saturday too, she's the loveliest person and can you believe I didn't think to get my camera out to get a photo with her.
The Quilted Crow's new BOM 1864 by Leonie is worth a look, stunning wool felt on cotton background, I'm sure Leonie will post a good pic on her blog for you all to see and Hugs'n Kisses new BOM Life is Beautiful is a must see too.

I met up with some well known bloggers Kerri, Julie, Jodie, Annie, Andi, Corrie and Leanne , make sure you visit their blogs you might find a few pictures there. It was like meeting up with long lost friends, luckily I was able to have a break from the stand to have a coffee and a laugh with some of these girls.
I also met this very talented lady too

Kelly, from Don't Look Now and she's as lovely as those pretty quilts she makes. Jan from Sewjourn was behind the camera, thank-you Jan for the chopping board and knife, at least we got to share our Tassie fudge!

After a quick pack up on Sunday afternoon we flew back to Tassie, totally exhausted! I'm still recovering!!

Next post I'll show you some of the goodies I bought!

***Attention Advent Swappers***

Hello Advent Swappers!
Time is swiftly sneaking up on us and it's almost time to have those advent parcels winging their way around the globe.
Arlene's is in the mail already so Ann Christine you better start stalking the postie!
Remember parcels must be mailed by the 9th November, please email me so I know they've been sent and email me when you receive one too. Then we'll see how patient you all are until December when we open a gift each day!

**Updated 2/12/09

Bunny posted
Peg posted

Annette J posted and received
Iris posted and received

Ailsa posted and received
Karol-Ann posted and received

Simone posted and received
Vickie posted and received

Kerstin posted and received
Maree posted

Kathryn posted and received
Simona posted

Clare posted and received
Ani posted and received

Shiela posted
Fransesca T

Dori posted and received
Melinda posted

Teresa posted and received
Annette posted and received

Ankie posted and received
Arlene posted and received

Marlene posted and received
Sigrid posted and received

Laurie posted and received
Isabella posted and received

Valentina posted
Rebecca posted and received

Gai posted and received
Cici posted and received

Fransesca G posted
Shirley

Rachelle posted and received
Micki posted and received

Helen (Helz) posted
Nancy posted

Betsy posted
Shiree

Elisa posted
Carol Ann posted

Rachel posted and received
Cheryl-lee posted and received

Sharon posted
Rosemary

Krystle
Valeria posted

Michelle
Antonia

Mrita
Sandra

Jeanette posted and received
Jenny posted and received

Jo posted and received
Maree posted and received

(keep watch here as I'll update who has posted to who as soon as I hear!)
blue complete
black half way
red - I haven't heard from you

P.S. If you can find the link to "The Stitching Cow" on my sidebar there's a great giveaway to be in

MOVEMBER

My Big Brother is taking part in Movember. I'm sure by now you have heard about it but for those not in the know Movember is an annual month-long celebration of the moustache, highlighting men's health issues, specifically prostate cancer and depression in men. To date Movember has raised AUS $60 million globally and as a result male awareness of health issues has improved. See here for more info .
So now my Bro needs your support, click his handsome face to be taken to his Mospace, then hit the donate to me button.

Make sure you save his Mospace to your favourites so you can see just how long that caterpillar gets and leave your vote after the 15th November.

A big thanks to all in anticipation that we can help him grow that Mo!!

Quilted Crow's Christmas Gathering 2009

What a huge weekend! Saturday was the 6th Gathering held by Leonie and Dierdre from The Quilted Crow. The guest tutors were none other than Rosalie and Leanne and they provided some lovely projects for us to work on. Leonie and Dierdre also provided some gorgeous projects too.

As you can guess I didn't get much stitching done as I was too busy chatting and if you visit Fiona's blog you can also see I was busy eating too! Thanks Fiona for letting the bloggers see me enjoying a rather ginormous piece of Rocky Road!

Fiona

I asked all the bloggers to wear something for halloween to win a little prize and Cathy took out the honors with her caldron filled with fantales,minties and sherbies and topped with the cutest spider, if you can ever class a spider as cute! She was also adorned in jewellry and a witches hat.

I should also mention Dierdre has the most awesome collection of halloween decorations that she proudly displayed in the hall and you have to check out her shoes here.

Here's a pic of Mum and I wearing our Halloween Fascinators, bit hard to see but I had spiders dangling off chains down the side of my head.

And what's a gathering without a pic with the guest tutors so here is Helen, Rosalie, Leanne, Me and Sarah all sharing a smile. Sarah, Helen, Mum and I were lucky to get a sneak peak at three of the blocks for Leanne's new BOM that will be released at Australian Quilt Market in two weeks, it's very pretty and includes some of Rosalie's lovely fabrics. OOh did I mention that I'll be going to Quilt Market with Helen, be sure to pop by the Pattern Press stand if you're going and say Hi!

The other bloggers that attend the gathering were Helen, Cathy, Leanne (aka Lizzie), Sarah, Fiona, Christine and Lisa, be sure to pop by their blogs to see more photos, some have photos of the projects on their blogs.

Christine

Cathy and Leanne

Sarah

I'll leave you with pics of the 80 + name tags and bag tags I made for the gathering with a little help from my Mum and Valerie, thank-you both for your help. It's the little touches that make the gatherings all the more special.