Its all relative…your personal level of bonkers

I went to the AQC last Thursday and had one of the best days I have had in a while. Nope I didn’t buy much but I got to catch up with heaps of friends, some old and new ones, some previously internet-only ones and each of them that I need to find the time to see more of.

The quilts (see dog’s butt in previous post) were varied and I found some that I really loved. I especially loved the 12 x 12 exhibition. I also found a new shop, L’uccello that I really need to go and visit in person.

I have to admit I rarely buy fabric at craft shows. The very nature of the tiny booths means that most retailers bring pre-cut fabric, and as a non-quilter pre-cuts aren’t much use to me. Unfortunately as well, when you spend a lot of time hanging out on the internet, it is not often that you will see something that you haven’t seen before at these kind of shows. (in fabric ranges I mean).

One of my goals for the day was to buy new Haemostats and I got two pairs, they are great quality and bring my total to four .

You know, with four sets (pairs?) of haemostats I am almost a doctor.

Not on the shopping list but always needed – I got some delicious new pins. Yes, I seem to have developed a bit of a pin fetish over the years. These are glass headed pins and the deal-sealer for me was that they included black pins. When I make toys I always use black pins to mark the eyes, so I never have enough of them, and they are hard to come by so this purchase needs no further justification.

This book is actually one of the reasons I went to the show. Once upon a time my friend Linda made an outstandingly amazing quilt. The quilt has a most wonderful to story to go with it – you may know it, the story of Linda’s Dear Prudence quilt ? Now Linda has written a book. The book is more than just the pattern for the amazing quilt, it talks about Linda’s inspiration, the story behind the quilt and the sometimes hard decisions that brought this quilt to life. Personally I think Linda is the best kind of bonkers, I mean her quilt has 17,977 hand stitched hexagons in it people !!!!  She is also incredibly generous; after she refused me purchase of her book (gifting it to me) I bought one for you guys anyway.

If you would like to enter to win Linda’s book just tell me what is the biggest project you’ve tackled? What drove you and kept you going? This stuff fascinates me. Which of your crafty endeavours do other people think are bonkers?

 

(and yes I am slack, but prizes are heading off to the following folk ASAP)

Jess of Apple Spice

Stitch and Sew

Jenny from OhJoh

Tuesday Rotate (Mary’s shop)

Greetings and welcome to another instalment of Tuesday Rotate.

Today I am going to tell you about my friend Mary’s shop in Gisborne- Patch ‘n’ Quilt.  I met Mary years ago on my very first trip to sewjourn, when my friend Annie convinced Mary to stock my patterns. Now I get to catch up with Mary every time I go to sewjourn.

My visit to Mary is always a bit of a sewjourn joke, as my arrival may  be delayed somewhat when I pop in to Mary's.  (Ok Mary and I once spent three hours chatting over the counter …but only once and we have never lived it down !). I love hanging out in Mary’s shop, everyone gets a cheery hello when they enter and as much help as they need. The customers all strike up conversations and offer suggestions, it really is fun. There is always lots of laughter coming from the back room where the classes are held…..

     There is a huge range of really diverse fabrics, lots of bright and lots of more traditional fabrics. Mary also stocks both acrylic and wool felt, buttons, masses of hardware and gadgets, threads, doo-dads, gizmos and whatchamacallits.

On this trip I got some great little clip thingo’s that I had been searching all over the internet for, a little top-up of delicious wool felts as I had run out of black, some fabrics for a new bag, cotton – a little bit of everything.

I did ask Mary if it was Ok to take all the photos and I told her about Tuesday Rotate and told her it was a little bit about sharing the love and a little bit about me being sick of talking about me all the time.

So, in her usual gorgeous Mary style (the woman is insanely generous) she gave me a fat 1/4 pack for one of you guys.

So tell me, folks, what makes a good shop experience for you? Are you a leave-me-alone kind of shopper or a chatty shopper. What brings you back to a shop or what scares you off?

I’ll randomly pick a winner and send them this great set of fat 1/4’s courtesy of Mary.

Tuesday Rotate–Liberty

Last week on a trip to Millrose  in Ballan, I found the cutest packaging ever!

I stole this photo from their Facebook page by the way.

yes, that just happens to be a ricrac display – look at those little tins, down near the owl… Kits to make up the chubby birds- crazy on the cute meter.

Of course I don’t need to buy a kit of one of my own patterns, (although I was tempted) that would be bonkers.

Instead I bought you guys a present. A tin of liberty!

What is this obsession with cute packaging? I think I would purchase anything if the packaging were cute enough.

Once again , there are no hoops to jump through and secret deals, I bought this ‘cause I knew you would love it as much as me. The tin contains ten 10cm strips x the width of the fabric of Liberty Lifestyle Bloomsbury fabric (that’s the craft weight stuff). All up, its a metre of liberty, tiny little tastes of ten different flavours.

Last weeks winner is Maria of The next stage

I am in the mad almost back to work last week of holidays where I try to crazily achieve everything I set out to do at the start of the holidays. Sleep is an elusive beast as my brain rockets into overdrive and I am humming the Long service leave mantra to stop me losing my mind. In a few short weeks I shall be a lady of leisure…..

I can barely imagine what that will look like.

Tuesday rotate - Vignette

I think we have established that Tuesday Rotate is a rather ad-hoc blog supplement but here it is again.

Today I am going to brag – nope not even a humble brag- a real life Look at Me , I’m in a magazine kind of brag. The awesomely funny Leanne Beasley invited me ages ago to submit a project for her magazine Vignette. Do you know Vignette ? While it is kind of a stitching magazine, it also has travel and recipes and information about fabric shops and supplies – all that kind of stuff I’m guessing you guys are into.

So, enter Mrs sausage Dog (Not my most creative name I admit).

 

Leanne took some awesome photos for the magazine (and even stole one of me from my blog to include)

Leanne does all the photography for the magazine (in fact everything in the magazine) herself.

You have to buy it just to see the photo of Mrs sausage Dog with the cow !

So todays Tuesday rotate will be a copy of Vignette Issue 9 plus a kit for you to make up your very own Mrs Sausage Dog.

(The winner of the felt from the last Tuesday Rotate is Willywagtail – Congratulations)

Chuck in a comment folks and I'll see you tomorrow.

Tuesday Rotate -

Quite some time ago, Penguin Publishing asked me if I would like to receive review copies of books to chat about on the blog. Hello ! I said yes, they sent me a craft book and I reviewed it and gave it away. Then nothing for ages and ages. All of a sudden a few weeks ago these beauties arrived in the mail. Picnic at Hanging Rock and I can Jump Puddles.

No explanation. They don’t even send a cover letter, so I have no idea if the expect me to give them away or what, but I feel better about giving them away so I will.

The blurb states that “Penguin Books is excited to launch the Australian Children’s Classic series. This beautiful Collection re-imagines our country’s most enduring stories for new readers to discover and old fans to revisit with affection.”

These books are very beautiful, the bindings are gorgeous and the quality is fantastic.

I remember a teacher reading I can jump puddles aloud each afternoon when I was in about Grade 5. I adored it ! It was my favourite part of every single day. Do you know I can’t even picture the teachers face but I can close my eyes and describe to you in detail the hospital that Alan stayed in as described in the book.

How about you – do you have book or a picture in your mind from a book that has stayed with you from when you were a kid? Let me know and I'll pick someone at random to win these two beautiful books.

(and if I had to be critical, I do think the covers look too ‘young’ for the contents of the book. From a library perspective,I think they will appeal to kids to young for the content , but maybe that's my 100 yrs in a Primary school that renders me conservative- Do you know the stories? What do you think?)

Tuesday Rotate

So, the basic idea of Tuesday rotate is to talk about someone else, shift the focus a bit. Blogs are; by their very nature a bit ME ME ME aren’t they? and you can guess that when my blogging slows down it is because I am sick of the sound of my voice.

Todays Tuesday Rotate is about the Softies for Mirabel campaign. Each year for the past 5 years, Pip of Meet me at Mikes has put out the call and people have responded by making a softie to be given to one of the children being helped by the Mirabel foundation.

This was one of the first internet /bloggy things I was involved in many moons ago and one of the things I make room for each year (one year Connor even made a toy).

If you would like to join in, you can make a toy and send it to Pip and they will all be displayed in her (resting) shop window.

Go and check out the flickr group-its great !

It has to be one of the great surprises of this whole blog adventure…the way people come together. As I have said many many times, it restores my faith in people more often than it makes me want to stab them in the head with kitchen forks – so that’s gotta be a win.

last weeks Tuesday Rotate winner is Red in Oz

and the winner of a hedgehog is Ellen (from Bookface) with her suggestion of

Little Stomp !

I paid him in macaroons.

Tuesday Rotate

yep, its here again…sheesh twice in a row makes it almost an institution on this attention deficit driven blog.

Lets start by sharing last weeks winner with you , it is Tas of Little Boozle. (applause)

I get a lot of questions about felt, about where I buy it and what I prefer.  I usually say to people that for something that is going to get a lot of love, you need to get the best felt you can afford. Because making is my jobhobby now, I am lucky to have a “craft account” and when the numbers look good, it is off to Winterwood for me.

You know I used to poo poo felt in crafts…I did. I have a childhood hangover from those nasty acrylic felt squares that we used in school.They were always green and brown and orange, and the scissors kind of made it squeak when you cut it.

You won’t find anything like that at Winterwood. It is hard to describe just how lovely (and forgiving )their felt is to sew with. So instead of raving on , I decided to have a look at my stash and share some felt.

Pop on over to Winterwood and have a look around, Sandra has a huge range of stuff (apart from felt) and stocks the awesome fabric that I make little hedgehogs from as well.

Let me know your felt experiences..Do you love it or hate it? Do you like to sew with it? Does the nasty stuff set your teeth on edge? Am I a felt snob?

A commenter at random will get a little kit to make up a Hedgehog of their very own. Everything will be included, a creative card and all the doings.

(Once again, no deals, no cash-for-comment, just sharing it’s Tuesday Rotate after all)