Good Food and Family

It has been a very interesting couple of weeks since I blogged last.    We visited my brother and his wife for a weekend of story telling , reminissing , wining and dining. 

They had recently travelled to Tasmania and bought back this beautiful book for us .  

Then my very clever sister in-law cooked up a storm from the sea.....Not too bad since they live in western Queensland. We were so full and so spoilt.....yummmm........

My brother does a little crabbing when he goes to the coast so we had the rewards of that also. LOVE fresh mud crab! 

While we were there I delivered a little quilt for their daughter and son in law who are about to have their first baby next month. ( I started it at our Warwick retreat)

Such an inspirational book...especially when you can get the oysters...

With watermelon, onion, white wine vinegar and lime juice.....delish

Freshly caught muddies........mmmm.......

Trio of seafood

 Some nice days to enjoy a little drink in the garden......  "Tess" loves to go driving in the golf buggy .... perhaps her name should be "Daisy"   

A cot size quilt for my niece's  baby...  Just love the tractors!

Rainbow Magic

Mr Bird and I went to visit the kids ( well they're grown up, but they will always be our kids) in Bundaberg on the long weekend.  We had a lot of fun.

Hubby and Son trying their hand at fishing 

Rainbow  Magic just outside of Moonie  QLD on our way home.

Piecing Magic  - I have finally finished this little project.

This wedding photo just arrived so I thought I would share it. with you.  It hardly seems 6 months since the wedding. How time flies.

Hope you are all enjoying some sewing. I am now on holidays ... Yeh! I am planning on getting some done..

Food Glorious Food

A Beautiful Table

Cheesecake anyone ?

On the 7th June my year 10 Hospitality class cooked a 3 course meal for 45 people. There war 25 of them on the job.  I was so proud of them. They did a fantastic job. Sometimes there is so much bad press about teens that we forget there are many more truly lovely young people out there.  This group of young people were truly dedicated and hard working as well as considerate and cooperative. we began our day at 8.30 am and worked until 10.30pm.  I think they did a good job for 15 year olds....

They prepared 

Tomato and Mascarpone Tarts

Spinach and Fetta Ravioli

Beef and Sweet Potato Targine

Caramelised Sweet Potato with Chicken in White Wine Sauce

Sticky Date Puddings 

Tripple Chocolate Cheesecake

Weekend at Stacey's at the Gap

It is so wonderful to sit and sew all weekend. Our quilt group went on retreat at Stacey's at the Gap which was an old school camp at the top of Cunningham's Gap between Ipswich and Warwick in South East Queensland. Now it is a retreat. 

 Inside there was a beautiful warm fire and lots of places to sit and  sew and relax while chatting with friends.  Outside was beautiful by day but freezing by night. 

 We sewed all day and night until 10.00pm.  The lovely Leonie and Mal looked after us cooking for us all weekend, talk about spoilt, Mal even carried all our things to the car for us..extra spoilt I would say. 

We all worked on our own projects and their was a lot of productivity. many quilts finished and many started and we have all booked in for next year.

Safari Quilt- my own design

 Another view of Africa

I went to Nundle with a friend early in May. This is the quilt I made its by Abbey Lane "Match Box" I put the last border on over the weekend. 

Comfortable accommodation

The best place to be it was so cold Sunday Morning

In the Garden

I am making this for my niece's  baby

Happy Mothers Day

Happy Mother's day to all Mum's out there in Blogland. Hope you all have a wonderful day.

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY

http://birdontheborder.blogspot.com.au/2012/05/happy-mothers-day.html

Introducing a friend to quilts

Cottage on the  Hill Entrance - nice sign Kerry

We have just had the best weekend. I took a friend to Kerry's ( Cottage on the Hill) for the weekend to introduce her to quilting. I think she is now hooked. My friend Stef has never quilted before and has never sewn either so I think she did fantastically well. She did an amazing job and almost finished her quilt top. Kerry was her amazing helpful self and made us all feel really inspired and capable.

We shared the weekend with some ladies from Sydney and a local Tamworth lady, they were all lovely and we had a lot of fun.

The boys came with us so we made a real weekend of it.  We took the long way to Tamworth via Delungera to visit a winery there. We then drove around via Copeton Dam to Bingera , Barrabra, then onto Tamworth.  We wined and dined at the pub, the boy went trout fishing and to the Great Nundle dog races while we quilted. 

Stef's first quilt

My quilt

Stef and Jen quilts May 2012

Just the quilting to go

I have  finally finished my "Leanne's House " quilt   (by Leanne Beasley)  Just have to organise the quilting now.