What a wonderful Day

Can't believe it is over a week since I last posted, what a busy week it has been.
Last Monday I left home very early with a 3 hour drive in front of me, and headed for Taree to be part of a Jinny Beyer workshop for the day, I enjoyed the day immensly and learnt lots from the very talented Jinny. Instead of driving home that night I decided to drive onto Tuncurry and spend the night with my Mum & Dad, it was a very nice evening and wonderful to catch up with them and their stories of their 6 week trip up into Queensland.
Tuesday morning I rose early again and drove home ready for our weekly Tuesday group of ladies, then Wenesday & Thursday I had a two day retreat as well as Saturday & Sunday. Can't believe how fast the year is flying by I think there are only 6 more retreats left for the year, which is very scarry. Sorry there are no photos of these 2 groups, slack photographer, LOL (Me)




On Saturday morning I was very lucky to have a gentlemen caller bring me this gorgeous bunch of fresh flowers ( He is actually an elderly man who lives near by and every year about this time, brings me beautiful flowers from his garden) There are stocks, Iris' and stunning Tulips.



Then today - Monday - it is surpose to be my day off but very rarely do I do anything that doesn't envolve work, so today Judy and I went for a drive to visit a friend Donna who lives about 20minutes away, we spent a couple of lovely hours in her garden just talking and catching up. It was so nice.
Then this afternoon Sebastian and I decided to go up to Hanging Rock to Sheba Dams fishing, what a wonderful way to spend a spring afternoon. We set a few lines and sat back relaxing and taking in the peaceful surrounds, I couldn't believe how wonderful the afternoon turned out, sitting by the dam, with not a care in the world, with the sun fading behind the tall Gum trees watching the reflections of the flowering wattle trees grow longer across the dam. It really was a magical place to spend the afternoon and all only 10 minutes drive from home. We did end up catching one yummy Trout which just topped off a magical day.
I just love this time of year, all the new shoots appearing around the garden, flowers ready to bloom and being woken up each morning before dawn by the birds singing outside our bedroom window. How lucky I am to live where I do.
Anyway back to work tomorrow, until next time, thanks for dropping by and catching up with our news from the Hill.
Kerry

So.............Cold

What a freezing cold change that blew in yesterday afternoon, I knew winter wasn't over yet.
It was a great day to be inside sewing so thats exactly what my retreat did all weekend, I had 11 wonderful ladies with me for the two days and they all made gorgeous quilts. Here is photo of them, Kim is actually snuggled up in her "So Pink" quilt, it wasn't quite that cold inside. Thanks Kim for keeping the wood on the fire, we certainly needed it.
Hope you all have a great week, I am worn out after a late night at the Farrer Ball in Tamworth last night so I am heading to bed. Off to Taree early in the morning for a day workshop with Jinny Beyer from America, looking forward to it.
Kerry

Welcome to my first online tutorial

Stitchery Roll

Welcome to my first online tutorial, I have been teaching patchwork and other handy crafts for 17 years but this is a first. Hope you all enjoy the class, feel free to down load it and complete at any time. If you make a stitchery roll please email me with a photo and you can go into the draw to win a fabric pack from the shop, email address is kerry@cottageonthehill.com.au. If you can't send a photo just let me know, competition will be drawn on the 8th October.
A Stitchery Roll is used to store your work in progress - it may be a stitchery block, and applique block or some other form of embroidery or patchwork, simply release the bow and unroll.
From start to finish it should only take maybe 2 hours.
Fabric requirements - 1 x card board roll - mine is from a cling wrap roll. 40cm of Pellon, Main Fabric & Lining, 40cm coordinating braid, 60cm matching ribbon, hot glue gun (or craft glue), cardborad scraps and matching sewing thread and needle and a sewing machine.
My roll measures 13" adjust all measurements to fit your roll. I have added 3/4" seam allowance just a little extra to allowance.
Cut - main fabric, lining and pellon to 13 3/4" long x 20" wide.
Sew the braid onto the right side of the main fabric, along the shorter side approx. 1 1/2" in from on edge. You can use any type of braid, ric rac etc. Fold the ribbon in half, place the folded edge onto the centre of the same side, sew.














Iron the pellon on to the wrong side of the lining fabric, place the lining fabric and main fabric right sides together, pin and sew using 1/4" seam allowance around all 4 sides leaving an opening on the opposite side to the braid. Clip across the corners.









Turn through the opening, press well and slip stitch the opening closed.
From now on I will refer to this as the pad.
Quilt the body of the pad as desired, I have machine quilted diagonal lines 2 1/2" apart across the pad. Just lenghten your machine stitch to about 3 for quilting.











Now we are up to using the glue, Cut 2 circles, the same size as the ends of the roll, from the cardboard scraps. Cut pellon the same size and glue onto one side of the card, cut the main or the lining fabric a little larger then the circle and glue the fabric onto the top of the pellon.


Run a row of glue onto the back side of the card and glue excess fabric down.

Run glue around the ends of the roll and glue the circles onto each end.







Cover the roll with the pad, lining side against the roll. I have placed a few spots of glue to hold the pad in place.








Using a double thread slip stitch the end of the pad onto the body of the pad, pulling it firmly around the roll. Once stitched in place slip stitch the pad to the end circles just to secure the whole thing.



You should now have your stitchery roll finished and ready to use.
Thanks for joining me, the next tutorial will be a new Table Runner design I have been working on and will be post it in a few weeks time.

Have a great day
Kerry