Welcome to Shiralee Stitches. I live on a cattle farm in Australia with my family.
I am passionate about all things fabric so much so I started my own online and mobile store. Link is on the sidebar to my store. I teach patchwork classes and take my shop to quilting and patchwork groups and also attend various craft markets.
I love English Paper Piecing, applique, machine quilting, working with woven wools. I have started making my own designs which I love.

Sunday 31 July 2011

So Very Generous...

Recently I admired some gorgeous key fobs here, and asked Peg if she would share with me how to make one
.......and this was her reply........
Aren't they just lovely. I have only met Peg once, at Girls Day in The Country at Nundle earlier in the year, and we have been communicating via our blogs since then.

Thankyou  Peg, I love them both, and now I'll think of you each time I dive into my bag for my keys......
Don't you love the gorgeous fabric wrapping 'paper', all tied with a bow....this is MY kind of mail!!!...

Hugs and kisses to you Peg, hope you're having a lovely weekend....

Saturday 30 July 2011

Retreat weekend.....

Oh wow!!!. I am just landing back on this earth (after a whole week!!) following an absolutely fun and fantastic time, as well as productive too (of course), at a 2 day retreat hosted by the lovely Kerry at Cottage on the Hill at Nundle NSW last weekend.

 .................busy girls.........sew, sew, sewing away...........
.........Kerry's lovely shop in the background....it was like sewing in heaven.......lol......

This is my first ever sewing retreat, and only one of very few times I have taken my Pfaff to sew outside my home, and I am hooked now....nothing like some company while you sew, and Kerry is the Queen of help and shortcuts. I learnt so many tricks....thankyou Kerry.
.......Kerry at the cutting board.....what an amazing lady.....she cuts all your fabric and you are left to spend your time sewing........you get very spoilt here.........

After visiting Kerry's shop on Friday and choosing our quilts and fabrics, Kerry turns it all into this pile of yumminess overnight....like the "Fabric Fairy" she is...lol....
.......this is what awaited me on Sat morning.........


........During the weekend, the piles became these flying geese units and 4 patch blocks.....
....and eventually, I joined some together to create these stars, the beginning of Kerry's own design called 1800's Star Quilt, with these lovely Civil War fabrics.
....and here's some of the other quilts created by the other girls over the weekend.....all so varied and in various stages of development.......enjoy........







.......there's a couple of ladies missing from these piccies...there were 11 of us all together.......

....and of course, we had to eat!!!!....and consume beverages!!!!....lol........
.......evenings went something like this.....happy hour at our cabins, a short stroll to the hotel for dinner (extremely chilly dash really!!!), a lovely meal, loads of laughs, great stories, a few drinkies, and then a very brisk stroll back to the cabins for some sewing........
Please don't ask me to confess what culinary delights Kerry created for us during the day.....there was cheesecake, scones, chocolatey delicious something....etc, etc.....Tuscan meatballs, spinach and fetta rolls, cous cous salad......oh dear, I did ask you not to tell....I really broke the diet....!!!

All in all it was a fantastic time, a year's dose of laughter therapy in one weekend, and I have now made some very special friends, and enjoyed the further company of some special ladies who had already found a place in my heart from earlier meeting times. I remain forever grateful to the wonderful friendliness of Chookyblue who extended the invite for me to join her for the weekend.....an amazing lady....

.....speaking of amazing ladies.........I am off to take some piccies of a very special parcel that came home from the PO Box with me yesterday....handmade gift from a very generous someone....
.......
I hope you are having a great weekend, enjoying some special times.....

Monday 18 July 2011

A Lovely Doll Quilt

I have recently been involved in a fun doll quilt swap organised by Christine. I was partnered with a lady called Bonnie in America, which made the swap kind of exciting to know my little quilt would be flying all the way to the U.S., and I would receive a quilt in the mail from there........
.......Well the mail arrived.......
.......A gorgeous doll quilt, and Bonnie added some extra treats for me......
Her hand quilting is so lovely.....thankyou Bonnie....I love it.........

Saturday 16 July 2011

Machine Piecing......and a new sewing friend....

The sewing machine has been beckoning me. I love to stitch by hand, but every now and again it's nice to give the machine a 'whirl'.......
When at the Girls Day in the Country at Nundle, Mum and I both picked the same prize out of the basket, when we were drawn in the raffle.....a charm pack of Martinique fabric......Mum donated hers to me, and this is what has been happening to them........

....little brown squares onto each corner.....
....some antique white sashing.......and more little squares at each junction.......
....and voila.....the quilt that will look like this once a lot more piecing has been done........
....the pattern comes from Anni's new book, Some Kind of Wonderful......

.....and my new sewing friend helps to care for my pins....his name is Larry the Lamb, also hatched from Hatched and Patched.......I loved making him....the wool is lovely to sew with, like sewing butter..........
He is filled with silica sand, which I am told will sharpen the pins too, so watch out my 10yo son, when he tries to distract me from my sewing he could be fought off with much sharper pins now!!!!   haha....

I hope you are enjoying a pleasant weekend, enjoying some sunshine (we are cold and overcast here), and happy doing something you enjoy......

Monday 11 July 2011

Funky Scissors and a Finish from the sewing room.....

While I was at the Sydney Craft Fair, I was treated with the joy of meeting Michelle Hill, the very talented lady who designs quilts based on her passion of all things related to William Morris.........
 .....Michelle is as beautiful on the inside as she looks on the outside......
Here is a closer look at the delightful quilt she has designed on the wall behind us.....
The 'P' in no way means that Michelle is only newly licensed!!! ....haha....that is the p for Pfaff, which is the stand hosting Michelle's visit at the fair....believe me, Michelle Hill is very well experienced at driving those Pfaff machines, and I came away tempted to upgrade!!!!....of course!!!!....lol...This is what she was sewing on at the fair to demonstrate.........

I am keen to have a go at some of these lovely projects, and you may remember a few posts back I assembled a couple of blocks ready for stitching.........well after all the tiny intricate cutting of the little pieces I had 2 numb fingers on the right hand for 2 weeks!!!!!!.....Michelle put me onto these scissors as a solution....BIG handles, weeny points..........

Aren't they weird looking?....but they are fantastic for fiddly cutting.....no more cutting RSI for me...thanks Michelle.......they are Fiskars brand...I got mine at Spotlight......

I have been busy in my absence from blogland.....busy in the sewing room....and sewing at the beach this last weekend.......ta da ......My Garden is finished.....
All machine quilted in the ditch so as not to detract from the little stitcheries.......




Now I think I might move on to a project in Anni's new book, Some Kind of Wonderful........
I hope you are enjoying some sewing time in your corner of the world........

Sunday 3 July 2011

My Craft Fair Goodies!!!!

...........The list of things I want to make just got a whole lot longer......hehe
I could have brought the whole fair home with me, I loved so much stuff!!!....lol....
But this little lot managed to fit in the suitcase and with only 1kg left on the scales at the airport, I was wiping my brow.........!!!!!....
......Sue Daley was demonstrating her English Paper Piecing, so I kind of bought ALL the things a girl needs to get started.......
 Some patterns I fell in love with, along with a lovely piece of felted wool for one of the pattern bags.
 Did I say I could have brought EVERYTHING home....well if I could have brought one stall home to live with me it would be Hatched and Patched......I wanted it all!!!!......I fell in love with some silk fabric...great texture.....what colour???....couldn't decide....bought all 3 bundles!!!!!......and a few patterns........
 These pretty fabrics I went looking for all over the fair.....they will become Leanne Beasley's Butterfly Garden....have a look at Bec's, she's responsible for this little bundle of fabrics!!!!!....her quilt inspired me to make one....and behind the fabric, 2 hand quilting thread spools....hard to get locally...
.....and a personally signed copy of this beautiful Hardanger book........a new challenge for me......have done some Hardanger years ago, and need reminding.....
I absolutely loved my few days at the Fair, and the extra socialising in between. I had been to the Fair in Brisbane before, but this one was so much bigger. I feel all inspired now...this is the best kind of retail therapy in the world for me........
So you will understand if I sign off now.....I have to get busy, busy, busy!!!!!!!    soooooo much to do...lol...

Friday 1 July 2011

Craft Fair Fun

Whilst I have been absent for a short time from blogging, I have been having the BEST time on a little trip to our capital city of Sydney with my Mum to attend the BIG Quilt Fair there for the very first time....
OH WOW!!!!!
It is huge, and I wasn't disappointed.....such a lot of exhibitors, quilts on display, and workshops and demos to watch........
No time to waste....after our flight in the morning we were here at 1pm.....this is Mum....ready to head in......
.....and within half an hour we'd met up with this bunch of amazing bloggy friends.......
Lea, Mum, myself, Cardygirl, Chookyblue, and Sandy N...............then the shopping onslaught began  ........(piccies of purchases to come, when I finally rest from work this week to explore all the goodies!)

Every opportunity was taken to catch up with the online sewing community........here we are at a blog meet Chookyblue had arranged.....some of these faces  familiar to me and some I had the joy of meeting in person for the first time.....so lovely to put names to blogs, and also have a peek inside their bags and see what they had found to buy at the fair.......
As you know shopping is exhausting and a girl needs a girly night out every so often..........
 Meeting up for dinner........Rileys Ramblings, Heavens to Bettsy, This Old Aunt Quilts, Lyn, On My Verandah, Leah, and Chookyblue......of course they have real names but this will get you to their blogs.......
This is where we ended up....waterfront restaurant.......very special for this farm girl who rarely gets to the BIG smoke....lol......
........Here we all are......
Beautiful Darling Harbour in the background..........
......and the evening wouldn't be complete without it's fair share of laughs and silly behaviour!!!!!!!.......
.....I shall not name these normally well behaved larrikans!!!.......

.....needless to say we had a ball...(well I did anyway!!!).........
My life has definitely been enriched by making the plunge into blogging.......to meet and socialise with like-minded sewing ladies is priceless, and something that's only just begun for me..........
....more photos of the Fair and the must-have(??????) goodies that came home with me soon........