A Great Weekend at Quilt Fabric Delights...

Last Friday found Rosie, Melly and I flying off on Qantas once again! This time we were off to share a great weekend with lots of wonderful ladies at 'Inspired Stitches', organised by Sarah at Quilt Fabric Delights in South Australia.

Here's Rosie and Melly on Friday setting up their display (and if you love that quilt in the background it's Rosie's new Block of The Month):

Yes, a lot of preparation goes into a weekend, or even a day, like this. Sarah and her 'team' put in a huge effort to make sure that their first 'Inspired Stitches' ran really well. I'm sure if you're reading this and you know Sarah you'll know just how much effort she puts into making sure her customers are really happy and just how personally she takes every comment. Let me tell you there were lots of 'ooohhhs and aaahhhs' over the beautifully decorated tables and the fantastic goodie bags:

 

The venue was great and we had lots of room and perfect light for stitching (and chatting, and nibbling yummy food, and drinking coffee, and did we get much stitching done?):

 

Sarah had four designers: Me, Rosie, Melly and Janelle. The four of us just had a ball! We were sorry that Janelle was ill on Sunday and missed all the fun (we know you wish you could have been there Janelle - hope you're all better soon xxx):

There was a great selection of projects with everything to have a go at from stitchery to needleturn applique to punchneedle:

Sarah and all her helpers had such an overwhelming demand for finishing kits they ran out. But did this stop them? No! I'm sure I can say a big thankyou (on behalf of all the ladies) to all those who stayed up REALLY late and came in REALLY early (and kept cutting all day long!) to make sure there was one for anyone who wanted to go home with a kit to finish off their projects. The ladies made all the effort look like a breeze but they all worked so hard to make sure everyone went home happy.

It was great to be joined by ladies from all over Australia including some from Victoria:

We were so busy all weekend I forgot to snap a shot with Sarah and us! So here she is on the right in her white shirt!

I had such a wonderful time catching up with some ladies that I already knew and meeting lots of new ones too.

Rosie, Melly and I got to see a bit of Adelaide on Friday evening (thanks for the tour Jodie!) and we have fallen in love with it (okay, especially Glenelg where the Haigh's chocolate shop is!). We had dinner at a fantastic restaurant called Spices which I recommend if you're heading to Adelaide.

If you're a blogger please leave a blog address where readers can head over to your blog for more photos! I'm sure there will be lots of lovely stories to share and great photos to look at - Amanda? Leanne? LOL!

Leanne Beasley

A Day of Lovliness...

I promised another sneak at the very yummy 'Flower Sugar' fabric range from Lecien. I have been told that some of the fabrics have already been sold out by the supplier so be quick if you'd like yours. If your local patchwork shop hasn't quite ordered it in yet, you might need to let them know to hurry! I have my fingers crossed that there will be more coming into Australia! This is one of my favourites in the range, a big border print:

More 'Flower Sugar' yumminess:

 

Oh, and more:

Today Rosie and I spent the afternoon working sitting relaxingly in the sun in her yard stitching new projects. So I thought I'd show you another sneek peek of that project you've seen over the last few days:

 

And this evening I have been joined by someone (a.k.a. Allycat) in the studio! She likes my new Expedit (from my very favourite store IKEA!) as it's not full (yet) so there's lots of room to watch me on the computer:

Yes, a day of lovliness and now it's back to stitching and some t.v. I think...

Leanne Beasley xxx

P.S. I have put a photo album (see the left hand column of the blog) up of the great time that Rosie and I had teaching for Kerry at The Cottage On The Hill in Nundle a few weeks ago. I just had so many photos of lovely memories that I thought I wouldn't try to cram them all into one more blog entry. Hope you enjoy it.

Yummy Scrummy Flower Sugar Deliciousness...

(Not sure if they're all real words, but you get what I mean). Look what arrived today!:

The very latest Flower Sugar collection by Lecien fabrics:

My photos are a little dark because of the late afternoon Autumn light so I will do some delicious photos tommorow to show you! But you get the idea. This is my very most favouritist one in the collection:

I am using it to edge one of the projects that I will be doing up in Cairns in a few weeks. If you remember the sketches from last post they have developed into this sneak peek:

If you follow my work you know just how much Flower Sugar is my favourite collection, and really this one just builds on it to enhance any that are left in the scrap basket from the last collection.

I guess it might be a good time to reveal that I have been working on my next Block of the Month Quilt for the last little while and that this range will be the main floral collection in the quilt. So if you'd like your local patchwork store to order in this range now is the time to ask them while it's just out!

More tommorow...

Leanne Beasley xxx

In The Studio Today...

Oh it's been much too long since I was last here writing to you! I have been deep in 'Design Land' as I have a huge amount of designing to do at the moment. Most other things get completely ignored while I am in 'Design Land'. So I thought I'd show you a little peek at some portions of the preliminary sketches on the wall today. There's this:

And this:

Which lead me on a journey down to the local patchwork shop for this:

Back soon...

Leanne Beasley xxx

Down In The Garden...

When you see what Mother Nature comes up with it's easy to be inspired by her! This morning I noticed that a random self seeded sunflower had popped up under the bird feeder:

I couldn't miss the beautiful bright yellow and the amazing sunshine just making every rain soaked petal glow:

So while I am sharing my little corner of the planet with you and Mother Nature's beauty, I thought I'd show you a divine piece of stitching, not mine but her's:

This was, once again, an early morning surprise in my garden recently. I'd been slow to pull out the old red hot poker flower spikes and some lovely spider decided that she'd take the opportunity to weave a beautiful web between them. This is why the morning is best spent in the garden:

 

Meanwhile, back to this:

Until next time,

Leanne Beasley xxx

P.S. Karen Reid and Eva from Denmark: Please let me know your snail mail address so I can send you a copy of 'Sweet Christmas Dreams'. Thanks

They're Out!

Yes, finally, the 'Sarah's Pincushions' pattern is out! I know lots of you that missed out in joining Sarah's Pincushion of the Month program (because it was so popular and filled up REALLY fast) have been waiting for this! My pattern to come out:

The pattern has all five pincushions (and yes, we are all getting ready for Christmas now aren't we and we've all started those handmade presents!? LOL):

I really loved designing this pattern and it's one of my favourites. I love having five little pincushions to choose from everytime I sit down to start something new. So if you'd like to get your hands on a copy you can order one from Sarah at Quilt Fabric Delights:

And while we're talking about Sarah (and counting down the days to 'Inspired Stitches' - only 23 sleeps!) here's a little sneek peek of a bonus pattern you'll receive from me if you're coming to the retreat:

I absolutely cannot wait for this retreat and once again get to meet and spend time with all you like minded ladies!

Sometimes I have to call what I do for a living work (this is how I explain all this stitching to my hubby!). Yes, I am a lucky girl!

Leanne Beasley xxx

P.S. Go to Quilt Fabric Delights and enter 'pincushions' in the search and voila - up comes my pattern!