Hi there dear quilters, if you’re feeling like you haven’t heard from me for a while, well you’re right! I have been away on Norfolk Island taking part in their Quilt Norfolk week. I was one of six tutors who presented workshops to very keen and excitable students. I’ve missed you all, and hope that life has been good to you over my absence!

What a ball I had. The organisers truly have got things right and the week went very smoothly. We were very well informed of what, where, when etc and so moving from teaching to being tourist was awesomely seamless and really saved any angst you might have being a stranger to the island.

Norfolk is truly an island paradise. It’s not very big – about 5km by 3kms. You can actually stand on a mountain in the middle of the island and do a 360⁰ and see nothing but water surrounding the island. That is pretty awesome for this girl from Oz, which is also an island, but that’s where the similarity ends.

The people of Norfolk Island are very, very proud of their heritage and the incredible history of the island and the circumstances of how they arrived there. One cannot help but be carried away by the romance and wonderful stories of the settlement of Norfolk Island. Luckily there is a large amount of physical evidence of previous settlers, and the museums are full of wonderfully interesting items that have been saved from the ravages of time and tide.

My workshops were a heap of fun (for me for sure, and I hope for my students); and I met some wonderful quilters from New Zealand and Australia. I hope to keep in touch with many of the girls that I met during our stay. Everyone was very accommodating and friendly which made my job that much easier. My darling accompanied me and he really rested and relaxed doing some lovely bushwalks and touristy stuff. We arrived home rather weary but extremely delighted with our week away.

Just before I left I posted yet some more free christmas patterns that I've sourced from the web. Here's the link to that article: http://www.bellaonline.com/articles/art41423.asp

So I’m sorry that you didn’t get a newsletter from me, and I’m going to make it up to you by giving lots and lots of lovely links for you to follow up in your own time. Enjoy!!

http://www.thirtyhandmadedays.com/2010/07/funner-in-summer-everyday-chaos.html Love the idea of these little treat bags and accompanying poem.

http://jessicapeck.blogspot.com/2010/04/anthropologie-smoldering-hues-shower.html my daughter would just LOVE to have one of these

http://ajpadilla.com/patterns/themes/just-kids/rock-bye-baby/blocks-box love these boxes in boxes.

http://firefliesandjellybeans.blogspot.com/2010/04/how-to-make-activity-bag-for-car.html a great idea for activities in the car

http://dollsanddaydreams.blogspot.com/2010/07/free-baby-sling-tutorial.html a baby sling tutorial – wish we’d had these in my day!

http://the-crazy-gecko.blogspot.com/2010/03/your-very-own-miss-mouse.html I have a soft spot for mice – this is a cutey

http://sewincrediblycrafty.blogspot.com/2010/04/rag-quilt-tutorial.html a rag quilt tutorial

http://chappelloflove.blogspot.com/2010/07/baseball-room-headboard.html Absolutely nothing to do with quilting what so ever…….. but I thought this was a great idea for that baseball loving young man.

http://bagsbegone.com/plastic-creations/ a great idea, and here’s the instructions for same: http://bagsbegone.com/learn/

http://blessingsoverflowing.blogspot.com/2010/06/placemat-bag-tutorial-2.html Got some spare placemats? Here’s a great idea for using them

http://mypatchwork.wordpress.com/2010/07/31/pincushion-tutorial/ whoops, another pincushion – can’t resist ‘em

http://www.marcusbrothers.com/makeit/projects/petalicious/index.html I’ll make one this weekend!

Well, my dear readers, I must say goodbye for this week. But I’ll be back again next week with some more chat, and some more goodies for you. I do hope you are keeping in good health and getting some quilting done!!

Cheerio for now


Judie Bellingham, Quilting Editor
http://Quilting.bellaonline.com

One of hundreds of sites at BellaOnline.com