Biology 101

Tucked deep inside our bodies is a tiny little gland. It is not much to look at and very few people, outside medical circles even know of its existence. It is red and blobby like almost all internal stuff and most of us won't ever need to hear about it.

It controls a lot of our day-to-day stuff and it works hard and keeps us on the straight and narrow ...until it doesn't.

In hindsight I should have known things were a bit weird, but I just pushed on, as people do. I convinced myself there was nothing a few good nights sleep couldn't fix. The signs were all there, but as the symptoms mirror my general GOW (Grumpy Old Woman)  symptoms, I just ignored them.

Anyway friends, it turns out my people-er is broken. Apparently I did some serious damage to it while in Houston. I overworked the poor thing and instead of resting when I got home I launched straight in the Australian Trade Show and spent two full days peopleing like a lunatic.

I answered forty five thousand emails, promised eleventy hundred promises and talked a million talks.

My people-er is totally shredded. Doctor's have rarely seen one so trashed. It is barely able to cope with the necessary peopleing required to hold down a day job and not bite the relatives but it can not do anymore. 

I want to slap people...often. I want to rant at the stupidity of the human race. I want to go into my sewing room and never come out. I want only to commune with dogs and cats and passing lemurs. 

Yeah yeah, I know it is my own fault. I peopled too hard and too often.
 I binged and I apologise -  I swear I will people more responsibly in the future!

I am sure there are others out there with the same affliction, Doctor's say it is most prevalent at this time of the year. Look after yourselves friends. Drink some tea, have a nap, chat to the lemurs....
See you soon.

yestermorrow

That was bizarre! There really is no other way to describe quilt market. I feel like I spent longer on the various flights than I did in America ! The trip was nothing like the leisurely Spring market trip to Minneapolis.

Houston was hot, smelly and busy and we had the most spectacular tropical storm ( a downgraded hurricane) that saw half of quilt market holed up in the Hilton bar for hours. I saw nothing but the convention center, Ikea and my motel room until the day we were leaving - it really was bonkers. (oh and the Hilton bar maybe more than once -networking folks, networking)

This time, Ella Blue had a schoolhouse, where each designer had a short time to speak about their fabric range. I had never seen schoolhouse before and not only was I jet lagged, I was suffering a most explosive tummy bug at the time, so I was talking and clenching both ends at the same time ! I am sure I seemed completely erratic.

I have been home a week tomorrow morning and am back at work and feeding the cats and brushing the dog and every now and again I wonder if it really happened;  the child centre of screaming babies that was the first flight, followed by the incredibly drunken man ejected on the second flight ( along with hymn singing nervous flyer woman and vomiting woman). The crazy speed walking through LAX, the sweet gentleman from Alabama with the best accent ever who helped me schlep all my stuff to the Convention centre and all the crazy wonderful friends and conversations and drop dead hilarious moments. 

I have a bag full of American 'candy' that I am working my way through and a  whole bunch of friends I need to thank for helping me pull all this off, but right now on Wednesday night at 8:30PM - I feel like it is the early hours of the yestermorrow morning. I have dropped my phone in a drain and walked quite painfully into a random thing poking out of the school garden. From this side of the screen things are feeling pretty ragged. 

Goodnight for now blogfriends - and thanks, as always for making all this crazy happen.

Needles down

 I have been especially absent lately and I am sorry. Please don't take it personally, I have been just as absent everywhere. It has been three weeks of "no thank you "and "I'm sorry I can't make it" and "I really don't think I'll have the time". I am forever grateful that the people in my real life are so understanding because basically I have been a shut in for three solid weeks.

I have been sewing before work and after work, and even at work (lunchtime library club). I have been sewing late into the night and at every chance. Dinner guests were fed pizza from the box (no wasting time on pesky dishes). The to-do list has been consulted and rewritten and typed and re-categorised at every juncture.  

About an hour ago I turned off my sewing machine. There are still one or two things on my wish list that I would have liked to finish for quilt market but the world won't end if they aren't made. I have a load of hand sewing to finish, suitcases to pack tomorrow, a day at the real job on Monday and then off to the airport on Tuesday morning. 

This is The Cat's Pyjamas . 

I want to tell you how much I love it without sounding like a dick. I want to tell you how much I love that a little bit of my cats Jude & Eloise are in there, I want to tell you that those toothbrushes crack me up every time I look at them and how happy I am with those little cat faces - but that all sounds a bit Mrs Big-Head so I'll just say thanks for popping in, it's been a crazy few weeks so don't mind the dressing gown. I'll put the kettle on and just sew up a few turning gaps while we chat.

A post for Senior Management

Yep, truly ! I got to have another go at this fabric designing stuff. My new range will debut at quilt market in Houston at the end of October. I can't believe I will be heading off to America again. Who am I ? How did I become this traveler ? 

All of this crazy wonderful stuff has come from you guys, every single member of Senior Management, whether you are a brand new lurker or a real life long time reading friend - because you bother to pop in and read my irregular ramblings and you stop and say Hi and you encourage me and you make me laugh. 

I know I have said it before, but look what we have done folks. 

You , me and a blog , un-bloody-believable !

I am giving you the side eye blogger

Blogger is being a bit of an arse lately , but that's not the reason I haven't been posting.

I have been feeling a bit hamstered and over-doctored and generally out-of-sorts but it is all OK and I have given myself a sound talking to!

When I am not here, chatting to you guys I am usually floating about at the day job, or hopefully farting about in the sewing room. Sometimes I am teaching, sometimes I am up to my ears in secret stuffs and sometimes (though not often) I am just having a cuppa and a bit of zombie killing time.

I am (very often) on Instagram posting pictures without the blog-need to stop and chat.

There have been some birthdays which meant I made a wool version of my Circus tuffet pattern - and I LOVE IT ! But 'cause I am an awesome mum I gave it away to my TWENTY-FOUR year old daughter. (I know, how is that even possible?)

 I made a new creative card pattern : This is Karma Chameleon and he can be made in either cotton (degree of difficulty quite painful) or felt (super easy). It is the ear worm that will get you with this one !

I made him with hand dyed felt from Winterwood and seriously wanted to make a whole mountain of them

 but this little fellow needed some time as well.

This is P is for Pig , my newest friend in the Alphabet animal series. He is number seven so there are only 19 more letters to go.
Do you all get the newsletter ? It's kinda boring but it does give you shop discounts - current discount uses the code BLOGLOVE for 25% off all the stuffs until Tuesday midnight.

So stakeholders, we have 19 letters to go, having used D E F G H P T - what do you suggest ?
(and no you can't make rude words out of it yet - you know I have tried !)

A slight diversion

 I started an experiment - something that had been niggling away at the back of my mind. Would it work? How hard would it be?

Tonight after work is the last night I'll be working on this - It is taking over the whole kitchen. I'll post a tutorial as soon as possible - I  just need to start a new one so I can get some photos of the beginning stage. Gotta run folks - realwork is calling.

Holiday Boss

So whilst the holiday boss might not have been thrilled with last weeks performance, quite a lot happened. I finished up a stack of shop samples including Circus Skittles and Tuffets.

I visited Kellie's new shop in Fairfield called Cutting Cloth. The shop is stunning and full of Kellie's wonderful quilts. You can follow her on facebook to see some of her wonderful range.

Still in Fairfield , it was off to visit G.J's. Having recently moved, the G.J's store is enormous with a huge amount of quilting fabric as well as everything strecthy and sparkly and sequinny that any dancer could want. (I find myself so drawn to all that sparkle.)  

While I was there I saw my fabric in the wild for the very fist time. It was a bit weird, I didn't want to stand near it in case someone said something awful about it.

I made a new friend (almost but not quite),

and I celebrated the birthday of our slightly older friend, Annie flowergarden.

I look forward to all the adventures you have planned Annie, it is going to be some ride !

I went to the zoo

Despite the wrath of the holiday boss, I skived off last week and went to the zoo along half of the population of Victoria I might add.

 I saw all the usual suspects and took photos

 and wished, above all else that I could be a zookeeper.

In the far left you can see a teeny little baby elephant. I could spend all day just watching the elephants even if they didn't seem all that thrilled to see me.

 The holiday boss was mollified with last week's output:

Four new creative cards, originally named Three Ring Circus (although there are four diamonds) Circus Skittles, Circus Oli's and Circus Tuffet.

That last one should be called Circus-how-can-anything-take-this much-stuffing? 

All the details will be in tomorrows newsletter and they will be in all good stores super soon. They might also be in some crappy stores too, I have no standards.

The holiday boss sits back and drums her fingers on the desk...... "That is all well and good but what are you doing this week Jodie?"

Holiday plans

It is school holidays so you all know that means I have set myself some splendidly ridiculous goals. There are pattern writing goals , lion-finishing goals , designing new stuff goals and general get-your-shit-together kind of goals.

 I have to be a grown up and sort out the NBN crap and there was something else that was pretty important too but I seem to have forgotten it for the moment. (probably tax stuff)

I am teaching a kids class at Millrose in Ballan on the second Tuesday (the 7th), where we will make one of the Landlubbers. 

and the holiday boss is watching the clock and locking up the tea-room and suggesting strongly that I get on with things.

Give thanks for doors

I will never live in an open-plan house. 

But wait there's more (and a giveaway)

 If you have been hanging out on social media for a while there is a chance you already know Bec of  beccasaurus blog (her blog is a sleeping at the moment but she is becsibbi on IG.) I have known Bec and her sidekick for years, since the very early blog days. I can happily say Bec is one of my friends. We don't get to see each other that often but we generally manage a catch up at crafty events - or over lunch at Millrose. Bec with her daughter's artistic direction, created this backpack for me. Not only did it look super on the booth it was a very clever hiding spot for my camera and badges and presents and all the other bits and pieces. Hanging jauntily from the chair is the cutest bucket hat ever that bec also made for me - she is a whizz at the little kid stuff being the best aunty on the Internet whipping up things all over the place.

I commissioned this bag from Marilyn Cardinal of Missy Mao Mao. Don't you love the little zipper pouch? You can find Marilyn all over the place on social media and she has a fantastic Etsy shop.  I can't stress enough how beautifully made Marilyn's bags are. This photo was before I left but in the next photo you can see me wearing it. I wore it everyday, it was the perfect size and has all the little nooks and crannies needed. Marilyn is local to Ballarat and is lovely. (plus she has two of the cutest dogs ever !) 

Here I am  wearing my bag and hanging out with Kimberly Jolly of fat quarter shop. I am excited to say they will be stocking my fabrics ! (like really excited ). Behind us, you can see a quilt I made - YEP !!!! 

There is almost no need to introduce Rita of Red Pepper quilts - she is a superstar in the land of quilts and I was beyond excited when she was able to squeeze a commission in for me - it was a tight timeline. What can I say? This quilt is simply stunning. It is better than I ever imagined. Everyone admired it at quilt market and soooo many people said "that looks like redpepper quilts ". Her style is so well known. Rita's work is impeccable and her skill with putting fabric together blows me away. I can't believe this quilt actually belongs to me ! I will take some better shots soon.

As a reward for reading all that - if you pop over to Rita's blog, she is giving away a complete fat quarter bundle of my fabric including the two doll panels. There are no hoops to jump through - just pop over and leave a comment and let her know I sent you.

At last - the booth (part 1)

I have been home and back to almost normal for a week. There seems to be so much I haven't blogged that I don't know where to start. The truth is, I cannot move on until I have thanked all the amazing friends that helped me pull my booth together in such a short time.

Sexiest cushion in the world award goes to the uber-talented Janelle Wind. Long before my fabric was ready I saw a cushion in Janelle's instagram feed that I loved. So I emailed Janelle and worked out a deal. Janelle worked with the teeniest slivers from my strike offs and delivered this fantastic cushion. I am still wildly in love with this. It just feels all circusy to me.

Do you know Cherie Bobbins? I first found Cherie on Pinterest.  I kept pinning her pins. A chance conversation with Emma Jansen about her friend Cherie had me excitedly telling her about this chick on Pinterest - one in the same !!!

Part of the fabric deal involved me writing a quilt pattern (I know...) , and being one not to shirk one's duties, I did it. This pattern is called Circus Stars and is available as a free download on the Ella Blue website. Of course just because I wrote the pattern didn't mean I wanted to sew it. (I did do a test block I promise) Cherie to the rescue ! Cherie makes gorgeous quilts and has the funniest blog ever. I wish that we were friends when I had little kids, I think we would have raised a fabulous ruckus together. Cherie put up with my nervous crazy dumb emails and made me the most beautiful quilt. it is exactly pointy and perfect and wonderful in every way.

I do have real life friends !! Carole and I work together at my real job and we share our love of craft. Carole is an astounding seamstress and can turn her hand to anything. I was so thrilled when she agreed to make me a little frock. I was a bit vague about the details , just that I wanted a sweet little frock. Isn't it gorgeous? I just love it, those little puffy sleeves and the Peter Pan collar. Everyone who visited the booth commented on how cute it was, in fact everyone made that 'awwww' kind of noise when they saw it and then told me about dresses their kids had worn.

All these people (and some more tomorrow) are responsible for making me look good over there in the US. I am so lucky to have these people as friends, real life or internet. I still feel like I am a big fraud most of the time and that one day someone will notice and tell me to bugger off, but I felt very proud to have these beautiful items on my booth. Together, we totally nailed it !

Quick bits

 

 

 

Minnehaha falls

Sculpture Garden

Freaky Albino Squirrel

Books !!!!

Signs

Stuffs

 

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