Wonderful weekend

Some time ago (we were trying to work out when...), Cathy of Cabbage Quilts put out a call to stitchers on the Mornington Peninsula to see if anyone would like to join her new sewing group.  The call came at the right time for me - I'm not usually a 'joiner' but I'd decided to push myself a bit and I'd been reading Cathy's blog for a time and felt the warmth of her personality come through her words and pictures.  Additionally, I'd been following Michelle's blog, The Quilted Tortoise, and she too shared Cathy's warmth and welcome - and a wicked sense of humour - and Michelle said she's go too - so I thought "why not?" - and I dragged my bff Liz along too.....

Best thing ever........

I've made some wonderful new friends.........Deb (72 Derwents), Emma (Treehouse Textiles), Kate, Miriam (Yellow Rose Quilts), Julie, another Cathy...oooooh, hope I haven't forgotten anyone!

Anyway, Cathy, Michelle, Emma, Kate, Deb, Liz and I went off to Ballarat for a weekend of stitching, chatting, knitting and shopping and had a fantastic time - Deb found a fabulous house for us to stay in - all 15 foot ceilings, wooden floors and central heating (it is pretty cold in Ballarat at this time of year) - and it was 2 doors away from Ballarat Patchwork!

Not a huge amount of sewing/knitting/crafting got done, but we ate well, laughed a lot, shopped a bit and had one or 2 wines to help the days along - perfick!

I did a little shopping - shops of note, Ballarat Patchwork, The Crafty Squirrel, Mill Rose Quilting, Such and Such and Cascade House.

fabric, twine, linen, threads, needles and a large offcut of wool fabric

Liberty from Mill Rose - aaahh, swoon!

beautiful crewel threads from Cascade House - they rival, if not surpass, Appleton..

I bought a hat from Such and Such - and they serve the BEST coffee

Fabulous weekend ladies - it was wonderful to get to know you all a bit better and so looking forward to doing it again.......

Quilt show bounty

Like many, many others, I joined the throngs at AQC in the beautiful Royal Exhibition Buildings to view quilts and NOT buy anything.

I actually drove a bus full of the wonderful ladies who come to my classes and we had a fabulous day - of course I forgot to get a photo of us all but I remembered the camera to take photos of the quilts...I especially enjoyed the twelveby12 exhibition - the artistry and work(wo)manship of the miniatures is very inspiring - I think I'd be breaching their copyright if I added photos of their quilts so I've linked to their website instead.  If you get a chance to view these beauties 'in the flesh', you should - photos really don't do them justice - especially not the way I take photos anyway :)

Another exhibition was from Korea - I had hoped to see a piece or 2 in the traditional pojagi style but unfortunately there wasn't one - but it didn't take away from the pieces on display.  I was particularly drawn to this next one...

It appears to be influenced by pojagi and the use of colour and the method of assembly is just brilliant - love it.

Given it's shaky beginning, AQC continues to get bigger and better and I really am glad I went - there was more quilts and they weren't limited to the 'traditional' - lots of 'art' quilts and different techniques displayed - something for everyone....here's a little montage of others that caught my eye...

I did take photos of the makers of these so if anyone wants info, please let me know :)

...and of course, best laid plans and all that......I bought stuff, including fabric (of which I have thousands of metres already....)

I bought fabric paint, gorgeous shot cotton applique pieces from Reece Scanell, English paper piecing templates, stamping foam, printable silk sheets, silk sari strips (to make cords from), aluminium for mixed media and some fat quarters: including Pure, Comma, Zen Chic, Urban Mod, a little Flea Market Fancy and a fabulous stencil of old London town.  I told myself that most of what I bought is for an upcoming exhibition piece, so I shouldn't feel so guilty.....

.....and now I have to go and get some work done - I've client quilts to quilt, some screen printing to do for my work-book as well as a portfolio cover to make, then after that some items for 2 upcoming markets........good job I like being busy :)

On the Friday night I attended a lecture by Judy Coates Perez, a mixed media artist from America who shared her inspirations and her works with us - lots of inspiration there - she also had a booth within the show so we could watch her work - and she is the reason I bought the aluminium sheets....

ps - Box Hill TAFE are advertising another Diploma of Textile Arts course to start mid-year - if you're interested, have a look at their website for more information.

Press this, sew that, print this.......

Busy - loving it....

I quilted and bound the little Apple Bugs child quilt last week - I had intended quilting it with a spiral but I didn't like it so unpicked and started again....

I bought some of Sarah Fielke's 'On the pond' from Spotlight, added a couple of other fabrics and pieced a little child's quilt top which now needs to be quilted.  There was a LOT of trimming which is one of the reasons it stayed at child size.....The block is called 'goose tracks' but I'm calling the quilt 'Duck walk' - hopefully the things 'in the pond' didn't get eaten by the ducks (ok, mind slipping away here.....)

I tried a few different layouts...

The main picture was the final layout and it's now all stitched together - my husband thinks it looks 'fresh'

Some time ago we learned about collographs at school - using bits and pieces glued and shellacked to a piece of wood which is then used to print onto fabric.  I spent some time at a school friend's place and we picked up pieces from her garden and arranged them 'artfully'.  Kristen kindly shellacked my 2 pieces as we ran out of time on the day and they stayed in that state until this morning when I had a go at using them....

I used acrylic paints as it won't need to be washed - I really love the soft effect of the printing - I tried a couple of ways to transfer the image to the fabric and the best result was a little less paint, no water and me standing on the print block on a printing pad - it was recommended that we use the car to run over everything but I had visions of the blocks flying out from under the wheel and sconning one of my chooks - so standing on it was the next best option.  I'm looking forward to adding some embellishment and stitch to these at a later date.

Now I best go prepare for my classes tomorrow - a new term and a new subject for my quilty ladies - thinking about playing with colour and creating packs of fabrics to be used in blocks that will ultimately become a quilt to donate to a worthy cause....

The wedding post.....and other stuff

Well, the wedding is done - the bride looked radiant and the groom (my eldest son) looked so incredibly happy that it made me all teary - one of  the most important things I want for both of my boys is health and happiness - and my Adam sure has both.  They're really enjoying living in Wodonga (about 4 hours from where I live) and are set to make as much of their lives as possible - excellent!

Here's the happy couple after being declared 'husband and wife' and after the obligatory kiss!

Lloyd and I with our great niece.  Miss Stella is just waiting for the signing of the register so she can give Dana a wedding favour.

The reception was an absolute hoot - there was much dancing and drinking - and my youngest son Ben had a 'dance off' with Dana's nanna - it was captured on a mobile phone so hopefully it'll be available on Youtube soon :)

So we're kinda back to normal - the unpacking has been done and the laundry completed and Lloyd went back to work today....so did I....I have another market coming up so there's sewing to be done......and I sold a quilt at the last market (I was sooooo excited) so decided to finish a top I'd had hanging around too long - it's now ready for quilting and binding and it'll be available to buy from Red Hill Market on 4th May...

Thanks Heather for suggesting a border of the 'scraps' from the main piecing -I really like it.

I also had a crack at some free motion quilting on the long-arm..........need more practice but definitely getting better.....

the pink is from my chalk marking

So onwards and upwards - have to get stuck into more market sewing (cos I'm also doing the Mornington market the following week, 11th May.....)

omg Brad, I forgot to blog!!

Not really - I have been super busy and given I have absolutely no discipline when I get onto the computer, I thought it best not to 'switch on' - I have occasionally Instagrammed and Facebooked so I didn't manage to be electronic free - but I did delete all the electronic games on my facebook account as well as my new smart phone so I wouldn't be tempted - sad but true....

So the busy part - I've had another market which obviously involved making things, I've been teaching (but school hols now so no classes for 2 weeks), I've made a memory quilt for a client using clothes that belonged to her husband (and he used to ride treadlies so there was a bit of spandex - now that is challenging to work with!), I've created a more useful set of books for my home business in Excel and haven't yet transcribed all the receipts and purchases - but I'm a good way through that -  and I've had several quilts on the long-arm.  Throw in a few days of my Diploma plus homework and a day spent dyeing fabric at a class mates house, then re-dyeing the fabric because I didn't like the result and it pretty much sums up a mad month.

I haven't caught up on Blogs yet either but do intend to - I've put an egg timer in the study in an attempt to curtail the time in front of the computer so it may take a while!

Over the Easter break we didn't go away - which is the first time for many years - we usually head north in the camper trailer but this year, my eldest son is getting married so there was entirely too much to do - the wedding is this Saturday (6th April) and it was my intent to start sewing my frock after the last market - but, Sod's Law and all that - my sewing machine broke - AGAIN - same problem as before and as it was over the Easter holidays, Janome wasn't open - however, I drove off to their HQ this morning and they've fixed it - and suggested reasons why this problem occurs.  I'll be monitoring it over the next few months - the volume and the variety of the sewing I do, as well as all the different fabrics I use, means my sewing machine has to be robust enough to withstand the workload - I have to be able to rely on my tools - so we'll see.....

But for now, sewing machine is fixed...

CHECK

The beautiful silk fabric I dyed is dry, pressed and ready to be cut, the adjustments to the bodice have been made and tested on the toile, the remaining pattern pieces are ironed and the silk thread is ready...

CHECK

It's my intent to do some embroidery and artful stamping once the pieces are sewn together, but I'm going to wait to see what it needs when it's constructed. Hopefully this time tomorrow I will have a frock worthy of the mother of the Groom....

Market Survivor...

Well, a combo of aspirin (because the strong painkillers just made me loopy) and antibiotics, a strong dose of adrenalin and excitement and the best wishes and sympathy I received from my gorgeous readers got me through on Saturday - thank you.

The day started a little awry - my bff hadn't seen my face until then so it was a bit of a shock to her - and then we got slightly geographically challenged on the way to the market - I'm blaming that on the 5.30m start!

We set up pretty quickly then it was  matter of waiting for customers and getting to know our stall holder neighbours - both of them were old hands at markets so had a few tips for young players!

The swelling went down as the day progressed so I was looking halfway normal by pack up time.  A strong contingent of friends and family came to wish me luck - and buy something (which was the SWEETEST thing ever! - thank you from the bottom of my heart) - and even wonderful people I didn't know bought as well :)

I think I'm calling it a modest success - I certainly got some lovely feedback and have a better idea of the things I could make and how things could be better displayed (there was a surprising number of questions about what the soft baskets could be used for).  So I'm doing it all again on the 30th March for the Mornington Easter Market.....back to the sewing machine!

On the tooth front, it was removed yesterday and while not completely pain free, it's certainly on the mend.

Thanks again for all your kind wishes - onwards and upwards.......

Timing is everything......

Went to bed last night with a bit of a headache - woke up this morning with half my face inflated like a barrage balloon.

I have an abscess in my gum - the result of ignoring a broken tooth (cos I'm a scaredy cat when it comes to dentists) and now I have the look of someone furtively stuffing her face and not so furtively storing said stuffing in the side of my mouth.  The dentist won't see me and remove the tooth until the swelling has gone down - so that'll likely be Monday - and the doctor has given me an antibiotic jab today and some sooper dooper antibiotics and pain killers to have over the weekend.  The pain killers could have 1 of 2 side-effects - they can make me hyper or they can make me sleepy.  I rarely take painkillers - certainly not sooper dooper ones - so I don't know what to expect.

I have my first market tomorrow morning.

I'm going to look like a rabid squirrel storing her nuts for winter (at best) or comatose under my display table and hoping my bestie can cope with what we hope is an onslaught of buyers.

So if you're coming to Red Hill Market tomorrow, I'm just saying that it's the painkillers - whichever way it goes.....or I go.........