Tuesday, August 19, 2014
Friday felty fun
Sunday, August 3, 2014
Friday night with friends etc
I signed up for FNFW but in between making and eating vege soup, beer bread and Karen Martini's lucious lemon and poppyseed cake and watching a movie all I ended up doing was cutting some hexies for the drawstring bag I'm planning to make. The pattern is Judy's Dilly Bag, designed by Judy Newman from a very fine house. It's hand pieced - hmmm, not sure about that - and will use up lots of the accumulated bits and pieces of fabric that I can't bear to throw away. This will be a long-term project so don't hold your breath.
Friday was a cold, snowy, indoorsy sort of day; this is only the second time I've seen snow in Ballarat in the 10 years we've lived here and it was beautiful to watch. Yesterday and today began with a bumper frost (-2 this morning) that brought clear blue skies.
Yesterday afternoon we headed up to Daylesford for a concert featuring the Melbourne Scottish Fiddle Orchestra and two travelling musicians from Scotland, Chris Stout (fiddle) and Catriona McKay (harp). We'd last seen Chris and Catriona featuring in a fabulous group from the Shetland Islands, Fiddlers Bid, when they played at the inaugural 10 Days on the Island Festival in Tasmania years ago, so we knew it would be a great concert - and it was. And at the end of the concert, the musicians left the stage, still playing their instruments as they left the hall, farewelling the audience in such an unexpected, happy way.
Yesterday afternoon we headed up to Daylesford for a concert featuring the Melbourne Scottish Fiddle Orchestra and two travelling musicians from Scotland, Chris Stout (fiddle) and Catriona McKay (harp). We'd last seen Chris and Catriona featuring in a fabulous group from the Shetland Islands, Fiddlers Bid, when they played at the inaugural 10 Days on the Island Festival in Tasmania years ago, so we knew it would be a great concert - and it was. And at the end of the concert, the musicians left the stage, still playing their instruments as they left the hall, farewelling the audience in such an unexpected, happy way.
Friday, August 1, 2014
CIJ swap and other stuff
So - the Christmas in July swap has been and gone and I am just wondering if the rest of the year will gallop along at the same pace as the first seven months. I'm not sure if it's just that I'm getting older but it seems that some years vanish faster than others.
Anyway, it was a fun swap and I want to show what I made for Sue in Dunedin. With overseas swaps (and yes, NZ DOES count as overseas!) I like to add a bit of Aussie-ness. The cushion cover I made has more than a hint of this - it was designed by Anorina at Samelia's Mum in NSW and the border fabric just screams Australia (or maybe that was the noisy cockies). I used the same fun fabric to cover the front of a card and fussy cut a little piece as a "stamp" envelope. The other Aussie components were the pattern for the clutch purse (from the book Meet Me at Mike's by Pip Lincolne in Melbourne), a Santa button by Barb Smith (Theodora Cleave - I love the quirkiness of her button designs) and a little pattern by Lynette Anderson.
All the fabrics used were from my stash (gotta love that) and were purchased locally or from quilt shows in Melbourne. I love the reindeer fabric on the flap of the clutch purse and the lining fabric, which also featured reindeer, was a lucky find at the bottom of one of my fabric tubs. Aneela Hoey's
quirky fabric was just begging to be made into a Christmas stocking.
And now it's the end of the month and OPAM is upon us once again. Our weather has been dreadful for most of this week - so cold and wet - and yesterday's crafting efforts consisted of felty fun. So now I have a little scissor ornament (designed by Marg Low, who is one of my favourite designers, from a kit purchased from her at the recent quilt show in Melbourne) for myself and a brightly coloured flower brooch for my young niece.And I've signed up for Friday Night With Friends tonight so must be off and sort out a hand stitching project.
PS: I've just looked out of the window and it's SNOWING - hooray!
PS2: I was the lucky winner of this adorable pincushion made by clever Susan who makes gorgeous things; her blog, Thimblestitch, is lovely to read and having been lucky enough to meet her last year I know she is lovely too! Needless to say, no pins will ever be stuck into this little beauty. Sorry to have been so remiss in posting about this, Susan, you know I love it.
Anyway, it was a fun swap and I want to show what I made for Sue in Dunedin. With overseas swaps (and yes, NZ DOES count as overseas!) I like to add a bit of Aussie-ness. The cushion cover I made has more than a hint of this - it was designed by Anorina at Samelia's Mum in NSW and the border fabric just screams Australia (or maybe that was the noisy cockies). I used the same fun fabric to cover the front of a card and fussy cut a little piece as a "stamp" envelope. The other Aussie components were the pattern for the clutch purse (from the book Meet Me at Mike's by Pip Lincolne in Melbourne), a Santa button by Barb Smith (Theodora Cleave - I love the quirkiness of her button designs) and a little pattern by Lynette Anderson.
All the fabrics used were from my stash (gotta love that) and were purchased locally or from quilt shows in Melbourne. I love the reindeer fabric on the flap of the clutch purse and the lining fabric, which also featured reindeer, was a lucky find at the bottom of one of my fabric tubs. Aneela Hoey's
quirky fabric was just begging to be made into a Christmas stocking.
And now it's the end of the month and OPAM is upon us once again. Our weather has been dreadful for most of this week - so cold and wet - and yesterday's crafting efforts consisted of felty fun. So now I have a little scissor ornament (designed by Marg Low, who is one of my favourite designers, from a kit purchased from her at the recent quilt show in Melbourne) for myself and a brightly coloured flower brooch for my young niece.And I've signed up for Friday Night With Friends tonight so must be off and sort out a hand stitching project.
PS2: I was the lucky winner of this adorable pincushion made by clever Susan who makes gorgeous things; her blog, Thimblestitch, is lovely to read and having been lucky enough to meet her last year I know she is lovely too! Needless to say, no pins will ever be stuck into this little beauty. Sorry to have been so remiss in posting about this, Susan, you know I love it.
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