What happens when your BFF decides today is the best day to clean out the sewing room....

We'd been talking about it for a while - it really was a disaster area - I couldn't find anything, I had to move piles of stuff out of the way sew with any freedom - but first we went on a big shopping day on saturday (oh, but the best kind, we went to The Quilters Patch at Shop 9, 3 Tuck Street Moorabbin and had a lovely chat with the owner - and bought a couple of things -  her shop is filled with a range of fabrics for all tastes - had a fantastic coffee and a divine vanilla slice at Sweet Lovers round the corner - the owner of that shop showed us a wedding cake he was ready to deliver and it was simply amazing - very talented fellow - then off to Amitie at 103A Gardenvale Rd, Gardenvale - their new premises - and bought too much stuff - and left a lot behind too! - then off to Mornington where my BFF treated me to a shirt and a frock for my birthday - how spoiled am I?? - , then we stopped for a bite to eat, then home....and into the sewing room....)

everytime I picked something up, fabric fell out from under.....

had to move all the tubs out into the other room so we could move

starting to make some sense of the fat quarters - it was either keep (so refold) or throw into a 'sell' pile

While the room isn't completely sorted out - there's magazines, dressmakers fabrics, patterns and other things to go through - I've been able to put the fabric away (I found a great shelf unit in the shed that used to be a mail-sorting unit from when I worked at HSBC many years ago - it needed a good clean and it's perfect for fat quarters),

the grey mailing unit fit perfectly into the shelving unit, width ways at least - serendipitous!

so now I can get to my fabric and I have a better less vague idea about what I have...thanks Miss Lizzie - wouldn't couldn't have done it without you!!!!!

tubs now only hold scraps, batiks, ufo's and pieces I'm 'playing' with or actively making

this lot is to be sorted and sold on line

still need to get in here and sort it out - but that's for another day

I have the Leutenegger man coming tomorrow to discuss my buying their fabrics and start selling them on-line - so I best go and hoover and dust the rest of the house, which has been sadly neglected and then (and only then) can I go and sew....

baby done a bad, bad thing....

...I didn't mean to do it - but my sister-in-law asked me to go with her to buy a sewing machine - and I did - and Pat from Camberwell Sewing Centre provided such wonderful service, a fabulous demo of several machines, and an offer too good to refuse so when Robyn bought her machine, I bought one too....and we each bought a Janome Memory Craft Horizon 7700...and it came with a table...and it is AWESOME!!

I've already been sewing up a storm - it cuts its' own thread as well as 50,000 other things - I love it - my christmas sewing is just about done and next I can make further inroads into my winter summer sewing list.

If I was feeling a little more reckless, I would have bought the Bernina 820 - but that really was not economically feasible at this stage - maybe next year!!

I have dragged myself away from it's allure to quickly catch up on blogland then I really must go to bed - it's Christmas next week!!! (although I feel that it's already come to my house.......)

On line again

Just got back from gorgeous few days (albeit cold) camping in Daylesford - we went with my sister-in-law Robyn, and her husband - and it was very relaxing.  Robyn is the lady who brought me to the 'dark side', igniting my love for all things quilty, so we have a lot in common - not least of which I'm married to her brother!

We spent a lot of time travelling around the district, with visits to Trentham - and the wonderful RedBeard Bakery.  I can thoroughly recommend this bakery - the bread is divine (and the chocolate flourless cake) and we've decided we'll visit again and take in a workshop - I already make sourdough bread from a starter that's been going for some time - but I don't get the same results as these guys so a little tuition is in order - but damn, there goes that diet again!

Once we'd had coffee at the bakery, the men went their way (hot rods or some such foolery) and Robyn and I went ours.  We went to Ballan first up, specifically to visit Mill Rose Cottage Patchwork, but they're not open on Tuesdays (but I got there later in the week!) so then we went to Ballarat.  We went to two patchwork shops here - Ballarat Patchwork where I got this little lot.  I love coming here - it's bright, full of modern fabrics and the owner, Emma, is an extremely talented designer:



some more reds for my FWQA, greys for a garden quilt I want to make and orange apples cos I liked them

 Next stop was Gail's Patchwork Emporium - a beautiful bluestone cottage filled to the rafters with fabric, books and notions - it was difficult to know where to start, but I persevered and bought this:



A linen fabric for pouches, a grey ashiko print for my bff, reds for my hexy quilt, a green christmas print that I thought I could use in the Table Runner swap - but after stalking I've discovered my partner doesn't like christmas prints, so into the stash with the rest.

 Then off to Lambley nursery - Robyn saw a photo of a beautifully planted bank that she thought would look perfect at her place - so we went to be inspired and possibly find the plants they used.  It's a gorgeous place and well worth the visit.

So, back to the campsite and a glass of wine and nibblies before dinner (we're very civilised!).

Rob and Robyn went home the next day, so Lloyd and I had a wander around Daylesford - we hadn't been there for years and there's quite a few changes.  Daylesford also has a patchwork shop, Threadneedle Craft, which stocks beautiful wools and embroidery threads.  This came home with me:



Some more greys for a garden quilt - have enough now so can start this one, a red for FWQA, christmas charm squares for christmas gifts and a couple of stash buys.

 Back at the campsite I got out my hexy sewing and made a couple more:




New hexies, top left and middle bottom - also thinking these would be better sashed rather than exactly next to each other - will have to have a play with the arrangement when Ive got a few more.


On the way home, we went via Ballan and Mill Rose - omg, gorgeous place, beautiful setting and the fabric - wow.  I could have happily bought the shop out, but bank balance and disapproving noises from my husband limited the spend to these:

Some French General in blues and a larger piece for my hexy quilt, some Fossil Ferns (love these), a little more red for FWQA, some Liberty (my fave), orange dots and linen for a pouch or two and a charm pack of Little Apples

I was one happy camper (har har)

A late breakfast/early lunch (brunch then) at Mill Cottage next door and off home to unpack and degunge the trailer etc etc.

House still standing (thank you son of mine), animals all alive and then back into the sewing room for me - the next few days I'm concentrating on getting my lesson plans and samples ready for my first formal teaching gig which starts next week - 10 weeks worth of sampler quilt, 1/4" seams, pressing and other basics to a new and enthusuastic bunch of women ready to take on the quilty world - eeeeeek!

Keep calm and carry on

I love boxes and tins and things that you can put things in - and it keeps me amused no end to look into all those boxes and tins looking for specific stuff...

Anyway, I was flicking through an English mag - can't remember which one, it was a crafty one - and I came across a picture of a little tin, marked 'first aid kit' with the 'KEEP CALM and CARRY ON' graphic on it.  This sentiment, with many, many variations (some quite rude, but funny) is all over the place, on tea towels, posters etc, but I'd never seen it on a tin before.

Being the staunch Anglophile that I am, I had to have me one of these tins - but John Lewis doesn't mail to Australia.  Lucky for me I have 3 gorgeous sisters in Britain, and Heather came to my rescue.  The tin arrived on wednesday (well, 5 tins arrived on wednesday - I'm spreading the joy!) and it's exactly what I was expecting - with a seriously fun bonus.......all the bandaids (plasters) are printed with the same sentiment - joy, oh joy!!

On the back of the tin, there's information about how this image came about.  The original phrase was part of the British Government's Ministry of Information propaganda agenda in 1939 when Britain was on the brink of war.  The idea was to reassure the population they would be defended at all costs - "keep calm, carry on with what you're doing, we'll be fine".  This theme was also continued in war time movies; "Mrs Miniver", starring Greer Garson springs to mind (and no, I'm not that old - it's just my mum loved Greer Garson!).

If you look at it another way, the phrase is also a bit of an oxymoron - 'keep calm' and 'carry on' - two diametrically opposed directions.......maybe this is why the poster wasn't ever offically used.  Whatever the reason, the back of the tin goes on to explain that the image was all but lost except a crumpled copy of the poster was found by chance amongst a pile of dusty old books in Northumberland many years later, and the rest, as they say, is history.

This tin will sit in my sewing room, urging me to keep going - and will attend to my wounds should I get attacked by pins, scissors or the rotary cutter.........(fade out to the strains of 'Land of hope and glory....)