Well the dust has settled and my 15 minutes of fame has passed so we can now get back to the business of creating beautiful things and having fun – not necessarily in that order.

First the fun – there are three events coming up. For those who have been in a cupboard for the past month – the Melbourne Cup will be run on Tuesday 1st November. To commemorate the event we will be having our annual hat competition judged by the world’s finest Apatchy-Melbourne-Cup-hat-competition judge – our visiting dignitary from south of the border. To add to the pleasure of the morning would you please bring a plate of food for us all to share for morning tea prior to the prize-giving ceremony.

The second event is the long-awaited ‘Christmas in the Country’ at Gatton on 4th and 5th November. We will have a stall at that show so pop in and say hello if you’re there. I might even give Dave an outing for the event.

Finally, the last event, which also requires you to bring a plate, is the annual Christmas party/Challenge unveiling to be held on 3rd December. No doubt you are full steam ahead with your challenge pieces based on the theme ‘Nature’ and remember that they are due in to me by 2nd December. And I’m sure you also remember that the secret Santa gift this year is to be a handmade Christmas decoration, the wrapping for which should include a card with your name. So I won’t remind you of that.

I knew that there would be a couple of show-and-tell photos to add to this blog but when I went through the list I realised that what we were about to see was an episode of the Sharyn show! Sharyn has consistently brought us all manner of beautiful projects and clever hacks that we all want to use (who could forget the slap band pincushion). In fact I forgot to take a photo of her latest effort which were very clever origami-like wine coasters – maybe next time. Anyway here’s what she’s been up to lately –

• a very sweet Winnie-the-Pooh themed baby quilt;

and this great bag made around vinyl mesh (isn’t this a great photo!);

a coffee-machine cover for a very lucky person;

which, by the way, includes one of her famous d-i-y labels;

and a clever Christmas runner.

So there’s another challenge for you – see what you can create in the next couple of weeks to rival Sharyn’s output!

There were, of course, some other people who also finished a project or too. Here’s Robyn pretending she’s not the one who finished this;

and inspecting the seams here in this very, very cute baby’s quilt.

Meanwhile….I met Clare at the Maryborough Quilt Fair and she was quite taken with the vinyl mesh that I used to make my Doctor Who bag. So much so, that she went home to Tassie and told her sewing group about it. Nearly 40 rolls later these girls are whipping up mesh bags like there’s no tomorrow. And they haven’t just stuck to the rectangular tote version. Oh no – these girls have added all manner of curves and who knows what. Here’s one they prepared earlier (thanks to Robin for the photo)

So there you have it – the gauntlet has been thrown down for you to sew faster – remember Christmas is only weeks away – and there’s lots of fun to come before the end f the year. Until then

Happy Quilting

Kaye