Back from AWOL - a bit of a mish-mash of stuff

I feel like I've been away from the computer for ever - but in reality, it was only last week, but I haven't caught up with my blog reading nor emails - I've been quite busy - lots of things to see and do - but I got some mail today that I couldn't not share...

Some time ago I received a lovely note from Fiona, my secret partner, to tell me that the MCTS I made for her had been happily received (so glad you liked it Fiona!).

I eagerly awaited mine - and seeing so many beautiful runners in the swap, I was happily anticipating all of them!  However, on November 20th, a photo appeared in the Swap Flickr group that got me thinking that surely that one was mine - red and white (my favourite combo) and stars - and guess what arrived today??  Lynne, from Ridge and Furrow got is sooooooo right - I love it - and the 2 little tree decorations in the parcel are just fantastic.  It's beautifully made and the rich reds in the runner go so well on my dining table........

Just gorgeous - thank you to Lynne for reading me so well and thank you too to Susan for her wonderful Swap bee - I really enjoyed every bit of it.

In other news:

Me and my BFF went to Australian Quilt Market last weekend - we stayed in the city as the market opened early and it was on for 2 days - in the end, we only attended on the saturday -  lots of gorgeous new fabrics coming in as well as threads, patterns and clever tools - we met Saffron Craig and saw her new range, listened to distributers and what they could provide, we were inspired by various talks and bought some fabulous fabrics (no photos of anything - forgot the camera and put everything away when I got home trying for some semblance of order in my sewing room house).  We're also planning to become on-line fabric sellers so we've been looking over the fabrics we want to stock (Echo by Lotta Jansdotta is on top of the list!) - so more on this new venture at a later date.  When I got home and told me husband about the new idea, he FULLY supported it - funny, I've been married to this man for almost 30 years (aaaagh!!) and he STILL has the capacity to surprise me.

On the Sunday, me and my BFF went to the DFO's at South Wharf in Melbourne - Lizzy picked up the bargain of the century at Fossil - a big, gorgeous black leather handbag - for 50 bucks!! - she really is the bargain queen.  We had a great weekend - no-one to please except ourselves - and the weekend incorporated sewing, quilting, fabric, food, movies (The King's Speech, Young Victoria and Oranges and Sunshine) and chocolate - and BFF's - so sensational all round really.

I finished a couple of things...

a flashy tote bag

a new pouch for the Madeit shop

 I sorted out all of my hanging clothes as my son fixed the rail.  So there was a pile of clothes for family to pick over, a pile of clothes (and shoes) for the bin and a pile of suits for a charity that kits women out and prepares them for job interviews.

The 'family' pile has been picked over and the remainder was sorted into 'recycle' or 'op shop'.  So all is in order again - I even found some clothes I had completely forgotten about - and due to me losing a couple of kilos (without even trying - what's THAT about???? - I only want to know so I can be sure to keep doing it) they fit again - woo hoo!

Anyway - I have to prepare for my lesson tonight - my students are on block no. 8 and really learning a lot, so I'm off.  While I'm not a prolific commenter, please forgive me for not leaving any this last week.

Cheers

testing - cos blogger seems to be having a conniption......

testing - cos blogger seems to be having a conniption......

A slight deviation

Today I was supposed to be sorting out my hanging (well, laying down on the miners couch) clothes after my hanging rail collapsed - but I didn't get there at all.

I fished around in the huge bag given to me by a TT member and found some beautifully co-ordinating furnishing fabrics, cut them up and sewed them together with some linen and some hot pink polka dot fabric, to half make this..

front - with a pocket

back

inside

I still take stinky photos and it doesn't look half bad in real life.  It'll end up being a flashy tote - the back and front, and the bottom is lined with a bag weight Pellon (interfacing) which means it can stand up.  It has a wide gusset so it can fit all manner of things - I just have to hand sew the binding down and put some handles on - not sure what handles I want to put on as yet, which is why it's still sitting in my sewing room unfinished.

While I pondered that quandry, I fished about in that big bag again and found a large piece of furnishing fabric that looks like linen - but doesn't behave as badly - and thought it'd make a great skirt.  So off to my paper patterns and I found this..

I like the shape of the blue one, not so much the style though - so I made the blue skirt out of the furnishing fabric, found a Prints Charming screen print (from a small bag of screen prints I bought at a quilt fair from Kelani Fabrics - and which is on my Winter Summer Stitching list to use on a skirt) and cut out a circle which I raw-edge machine stitched to the skirt.  I then made a bias cut striped binding which I used to finish the hem.......and voila.....

and this is a photo my son took - we were going off to watch his girlfriends' end of year dance concert

we were going for an arty farty styled pose but I didn't have my red lippy on!

So, maybe I can sort out my clothes tomorrow.....

Serendipity extended......

Apart from a family issue on saturday morning, the planets continue their alignment for my benefit...

Saturday evening I joined my besty and 2 other girlfriends for a night in the city - we went to see 'Bjorn Again', an Abba cover band and while I'm not a huge fan of Abba, they were fantastic.  The opening act, The New Romantics, had us up dancing to 80's hits - the lead singer had a fabulous voice and didn't take himself too seriously - very funny - and then Bjorn Again - they imitate the costuming, accents (they're Aussies) and songs of Abba in their heydey - so we continued to dance and sing along - and drink far too much wine!  Luckily we stayed in the city (at the Crown Metropole - very nice) and had a sumptuous breakfast overlooking Melbourne city. 

On sunday, I had a date with a group of ladies that have 'adopted' me - let me explain a little - I joined a quilting group last year - we sit and chat about stuff - no lessons or anything - it's mostly hand sewing on whatever we want to do - which is why my double wedding ring quilt got finished and why my hexy collection continues to grow.  Anyway, the woman who hosts this group (Ms CB) did a Textiles course some 20 years ago and she still catches up with the ladies she did the course with - they call themselves the TT  (I forgot to get permission to blog about them so won't spell it out). 

Now, I am doing that same course starting next year and Ms CB invited me to one of the TT gatherings - and these women are so talented - the stuff they've done (and continue to do) is amazing - a few make the most brilliant quilts, another makes the most amazing elfin dolls, yet another makes fabric boxes which are just beautiful - and a few of them teach too - so to fall in with this group is just the best thing to happen!  They are full of advice and ideas and books and hints and so willing to share it - and the lady who hosted yestrday's gathering owns a soft furnishing shop and GAVE me tons of furnishing fabric samples to make bags and pouches with....and they 'adopted' me into the TT's with the offer of help while I do my course.  How wonderful!!!

I was knackered when I got home - in bed by 9pm and after finishing this post I'm off to make a few things out some of the beautiful fabrics I was given yesterday - how lucky am I??

..........except the rail in my walk-in robe collapsed under the weight of my hanging clothes and they're now strewn all over a miners couch in my bedroom (and I HATE ironing!!) - I think those planets are suggesting I need a bit of a clean out!

Favourite thing Friday

There's a very serendipitous air wafting about the place, so it's not too hard to think about favourite things on this friday....so thought I'd share them with Shay at Quilting in my Pyjamas

• I sold a pouch - on Madeit - my very first sale - very excited!  I sent it on its way to NSW this morning.
• My fabulous Kate Spain fabric, won at the Bloggers Quilt Festival, arrived in the mail today too
• I have been confirmed to teach 2 more patchwork groups next semester, with a possibility of another one to be discussed next friday
• We met my new great-neice yesterday - she lives about 3 hours away so it was a long day - but so worth it - the only thing though, the little minx would not wake up for her aunties, despite our surreptitious efforts, so we left without seeing her baby blues - next time!
• A family get together tonight to farewell a fairly recent addition who is going back to Canada until her visa can be renewed (there's storms predicted - not because the family is getting together of course, although that is entirely possible too - but because there's a cool change due in after our stinky hot weather today - should be fun!)
• Our cat, who has been missing for about 2 months, turned up last night, a little moth eaten, skinny and beaten up - and after a feed and a snooze, wandered off again into the night - haven't seen her today but thinking she may just have come home for good

So a great week all up - hope yours was good to you too.

WIP Wednesday #11

I'm linking with Lee's WIP Wednesday

A mixed bag this week, and not a lot of crossings off on the UFO list, but some progress on current projects:

FWQA - blocks 57 (Morning) and 58 (Mother's Dream)

One hexie - and I played around with the setting of this quilt and I think I'm going to cut lots of equilateral triangles to join mine together - I've seen a few on Flickr and I like the look.

if you squint, it looks like 3 boxes

Some pouches (prototypes, plus a couple of others that have gone into my Madeit shop)

Two do.good stitches blocks, shown here

One client quilt quilted on the long-arm - it was a biggun too!

So, to summarise:

Finished:

Client long-arm quilting
5  pouches
do. good stitches blocks for november

New:

2 client quilts for long-arm quilting
1 charity quilt for long-arm quilting

Quilts in Progress:

Blanket Box Hexies - total made, 27

 FWQA - total made, 58

No action at all:

Class Sampler quilt - all blocks completed

UFOUFN's:

Psychedelic tartan - who knows??
Double diamonds - still needs something......
Which way to go - needs quilting
Dancing with the stars - needs quilting
Kimono mini - needs binding
Sashiko qayg - needs finishing!
Red and white challenge - needs properly starting

Please click on Lee's "Freshley Pieced WIP wednesday" button on the right to see what others are up to .....