more than halfway

I have sewn more than half of my blocks together tonight for my mod sampler baby quilt. I am a little worried about one of my fabric pairs, but I am perservering...for now. I seem to have a lot of yellow in there... Otherwise, the blocks are looking really sweet. I am still waiting on a delivery of white fabric from my favourite store, so I won't be able to get the sashings on these blocks until then. I hope to have it finshed ASAP though so I can send it with my other quilt tops for some long arm quilting love after the school holidays.

This morning, Michael and I headed to Lakemba for some grocery shopping as well as some lunch. I'm not sure what it is, but ever since I fell pregnant I have been craving Lebanese food - and in particular, the dishes that I would eat as a child. Lunch today consisted of kafta, felafel, salad, bread and baba ghanouj at Jasmin's. Last week I made a lamb and okra stew called Yak'nit Bahmeh and after my exciting find on this mornings shopping trip, tomorrow I am making Jew's mallow or Molokhia with chicken. I wonder what it is that it causing me to crave these dishes of my childhood? It has been a great push though to finally learn how to cook these dishes which my Mother, Aunts and Grandmother have previously prepared for us. I only hope I can do these recipes justice.

The haul from our shopping trip today

what are husbands good for?

They help you remove the cover plate on your sewing machine when you don't have the strength to turn the screws yourself.

Which helps turn this disgusting mess...

into this

They cook a beautiful dinner so that you can keep sewing and bring you a gin and tonic while dinner is being cooked...

AND they watch you quietly while you stamp your feet and swear like a sailor when your quilting won't work and THEN figure out what you have been doing wrong that has been frustrating you for months...

What on earth would I do without him?

a weekend in the mountains

We had such a lovely time in the Blue Mountains last weekend - probably because it was cooler there than it was in Sydney! We stayed in a lovely cottage and we slept late on both days - it was bliss!

We visited the Jenolan Caves - and it has to be one of the coolest things I've been to in Australia! The caves and the formations within them were simply awesome and I can't wait to go back and explore some more of them.

We spent an afternoon wandering around Katoomba where we came accross many lamp posts, street signs and even bike racks adorned with knitted or crocheted decorations - very cool!

And my darling husband made me breakfast on both days... Gotta love him!

This weekend we are planning to start our Christmas shopping - I'm counting down now until we leave for our 2 week break in Melbourne!

To my sister...

who is moving to London tomorrow...

We'll miss you lots
xxx

Spring Stitch-In - 12th September

I flew to Melbourne on Friday night ready for my day at Glenharrow with Leanne and Rosalie...



There were giftbags at each seat with some very cute cookie cutters, a kit each from Rosalie and Leanne and also 2 fat-eighths of Rosalie's new fabric range!!

There were lollies to keep our energy levels up (note the tablecloth of Rosie's new fabric)...

And he barn was decorated with gorgeous samples of Rosalie and Leanne's work.

It was lovely to see these quilts up close and to discover the incredible amount of work that Leanne had put into them - her embroidery stitches are so tiny!

We did a little stitching too - in between nibbling on the lollies!

Here's my Mum - busily stitching!

We enjoyed a lovely lunch...

And then went for a walk through the gardens of Glenharrow...

We met some of the Glenharrow family....

This little guy was my favourite!

We went back inside for some show and tell. This is Chantelle - one of the lovely girls Mum and I shared a table with. She had two gorgeous quilts to share.

Then I showed off my Leanne's house quilt (yes, I know, I've still not finished! It will happen one day!)

Leanne spent some time chatting with us and teaching us her method for needle-turn applique

Then Rosalie taught us how to mount our stitcheries onto a canvas

I was a little nervous when we arrived as all the ladies seemed to know each otheralready. But everyone was so lovely and Rosalie and Leanne were incredibly friendly, approachable and very honest. A huge thankyou to both ladies (as well as Nel, Erica and the others) for organising such a wonderful day.

Mum and I had such a great day - when can we sign up for next year?!?

Italy

After days of sightseeing in Paris, some very late nights with my best friend in Strasbourg and running after two little kids in Switzerland, I was feeling a bit like this little guy when we arrived in Italy:

We started our Italian adventure in Manarola, one of the 5 villages that make up the Cinque Terre. The Cinque Terre is a world heritage listed site on the Italian riviera. The 5 villages perch on the edge of cliffs overlooking the Mediterranean. The villagers have spent years carving huge steps into the surrounding mountains to allow them to grow their grape vines and vegetables. My husband had found us a beautiful room to stay in, complete with a balcony on which we enjoyed many a glass of wine while watching the sun go down. There was a 12km hike which took you to all 5 villages which we also did on one day. Below is a picture of Manarola taken from the walking track.

After lazing in the Cinque Terre, we headed off to Florence. The picture below was taken from the Ponte Vecchio in between browsing the nearby jewellery stores(!).

One thing I loved about Italy was that it didn't get dark until quite late at night - it made the days go on forever!

We spent many a long balmy evening on the steps in front of the Uffizi, people watching and enjoying some gelato.

The local market in Florence - Mercato Centrale - was vibrant and lively. The local produce was glorious, I wish we had had access to a kitchen, I would have loved to cook up a storm here.

After Florence we headed off to Rome. Rome was the biggest surprise of the trip for me. Many people had told us that Rome was a big, brash city but I adored it. I loved wandering around and stumbling upon another monument, old building or ruins. Although we were there in summer, it didn't seem as busy as we had expected either. Or maybe we planned well? After hearing about horribly long queues at many of the attractions, we never waited any longer than 15 mins for anything.

The Colosseum was really interesting and it was fun to imagine what it would have been like in its heyday.

The Vatican museums and St Peter's Basilica were mind-blowing. The architecture and the art was simply beautiful.

And the food... oh the food... It should be a crime for food to taste as good as the food we ate in Rome.

And of course, after dinner, there was always a wonderful spot to sit and enjoy yet another gelato!

I promise my next post will have something sewing related!

Morges, Switzerland

Whenever we told someone that we were going to Morges, Switzerland the response was either "why?" or "you must be visiting someone". Well, truth be told, we were visiting friends, but the town of Morges is beautiful and somewhere I would definitely consider visiting, even without the lure of friends.

Located on Lake Geneva near Lausanne, Morges is a small and quiet town with the most tremendous scenery. A walk shortly after arriving in Switzerland deposited us here - with the awesome sight of the alps rising from beyond the lake. It was simply breathtaking.

We spent our 3 days in Morges with old friends. Friends we had only seen for the sum total of 4 hours in the past 5 years, so it was wonderful to catch up with them again. Our short time was spent lazing by Lake Geneva with picnics, hiking in the nearby mountains, playing with the children and trying lots of Swiss food each evening (mmm... cheese fondue).

The nearby mountains were every bit as stunning as the sight of the Alps and Lake Geneva. There were tiny wildflowers everywhere you looked and cows with large rectangular bells hanging from their necks, the sound of which could be heard from miles away.

Morges is definitely somewhere I can imagine living.

France

After looking through our holiday photos, I have decided that I am going to need to do this in 3 posts - we just have too many photos I want to share. I apologise now to anyone on a dial-up connection!

I thought I'd begin in Paris - where we started and ended our holiday. Full of excitement, nerves and adrenaline, we spent the first 4 days of our trip running madly about Paris trying to see as much as possible. Walking out of the train station that first morning was like a dream; the old buildings, window boxes full of red geraniums, the smell of fresh bread, the quiet of an early weekend morning, everything was so pretty.

We spent a long but wonderful day visiting the Musee du Louvre, where my Lonely Planet guide tells me there are more than 35,000 works of art on display. As you can imagine we only saw a small portion of these focussing on paintings and sculptures.

The room pictured above was my favourite. The sculptures were originally placed in a garden, so this room was designed to emulate that. It was quiet, filled with natural light and rather peaceful.

We also visited the Musee de l'Orangerie which houses a beautiful series of Monet's water lillies in two purpose built oval rooms.

Although Paris was filled to the brim with tourists, we discovered that there was always a quieter spot in which to enjoy the sights. Indeed, at the back of the Notre Dame Cathedral was a very pretty, quiet garden.

And just down the road from Notre Dame was Le Rouvray - a patchwork store! Unfortunately, we visited at the end of our trip and the store was already closed for the August summer holidays. I was so bummed!

There was a gorgeous tapestry store accross the street though which I did visit.

Of course, there was lots of eating to be done in Paris starting with delicate macarons from the famous Laduree.

and divine summer tarts from Pierre Herme

The last night of our 4 week jaunt was spent in Paris too - and we had a picnic under the Eiffel tower.

Another stop in France was Strasbourg in the Alsace region. Strasbourg has a most impressive cathedral - also called Notre Dame - which they light up during summer as part of a light show. It was a stunning sight.

The old town itself is surrounded by a canal and full of old half timber houses. These houses were originally built in this manner so that they could be transported - so you would literally 'move house' when you left one town for another.

It was easy to imagine I was in a fairytale, surrounded by gingerbread houses.

The wider Alsace region is also known for its wine and the surrounding hills are filled with vinyards.

This was a home in Obernai - a town near Strasbourg. Can you possibly imagine living in this? How fantastic!

Strasbourg was also home to the most glorious cheese store I have ever seen - La Cloche a Fromage. They boast the worlds largest cheese platter with 90 different cheeses! We bought just 4 to enjoy with our dinner.

Later in our trip we moved down south where we visited the medieval city of Carcassone. The old city of Carcassone is surrounded by two rampart walls interspersed with 52 stone towers, complete with witches hat roofs.

The city was full of kings and queens, knights and court jesters... ok, not really!

I am already compiling a list of places I would like to visit next time we are in France (fingers crossed - it might happen one day!).

Next stop - Switzerland!