It's in the bag ...

...or at least it was. The online group I belong to, Friends in Stitching, is having a paper bag swap. Each of us had to pop our choice of two fat quarters, some trim and a button into a paper bag to send to our partner, who would make us ... who knows? A covered notebook? A small cushion? A bag? A pincushion? I've just put the last few stitches into what I've made for my partner and I'm so pleased with it I wish it was for me! I've used one of my favourite fat quarter project patterns and the fabrics and trims I was sent were just so nice to work with. Hope my partner likes it! So I've got another OPAM finish to add, and more projects to be getting on with.
Another secret swap, this time for my overseas partner in Fiona-Marie's Great Global Christmas Swap, just needs its handles and a few more stitches. Non-secret sewing includes a bag for me and Lynette Anderson's My Garden blocks. I am loving both these projects, especially the stitchery bits.
The bag is designed by Jenny of Elefantz, who does such lovely designs. It has a central panel of roses in chain stitch - what a nice change from backstitch, and it looks so effective. I'll be making up the bag with the Verna fabrics I bought from Jenny's ebay shop.
The My Garden originals are stitched and bordered with muted country colours; I've raided my hideously untidy threads collection to match the bright, pretty pre-cuts I'll use for the borders.
As one of my jobs is in a school library, and it's school hols here in Victoria, I've had some spare time and am loving being productive and having time to mooch as well.
Now I'm off to enjoy the sunshine while it lasts. Hope everyone is having a lovely weekend.

....and more catching up

I spent my afternoon off this week with one hand up a giraffe's backside. Yes, I know, the things we do. Didn't hurt either of us a bit. My new creation is one of the softies Melly from Melly and Me designed for the Daylesford Craft Experience back in July (it was a great day out and Melly is as lovely as I thought she'd be.) The dear little giraffe is a gift for my new nephew Thomas in NZ. Hope he likes it - do you think he will consider the design merits and how very well it is stuffed as he dribbles on it? Maybe not.

The crafty day out was two days before my trip overseas - what an enjoyable way to get out of packing and house-organising! We've been back home, and back to normal, for three weeks. The weather has been cold and wet for most of that time and it's hard to believe we were away from home for five weeks, seeing fabulous sights, eating wonderful food, having such a good time and feeling WARM.

The highlight of our trip - apart from Monet's garden which is gorgeous, gorgeous, gorgeous - was spending time with friends and family - Majken in Copenhagen, Jean-Luc and Sylvie and their daughter Anne-Laure in France, John and Carol, our Aussie friends, in a small village in Portugal. Randolph and Sue and their extended family came over to Singapore - where we were staying with Rosy, our daughter, who lives in China - from their home in Johore Bahru, Malaysia, to take us out for a big lunch. It's so nice to have friends who live in interesting places!

We spent two weeks in France - a week in Paris and the rest of the time in Lyon, Clermont-Ferrand, Le Puy en-Velay and Avignon - all fabulous places with lovely countryside in between. Must say we got a bit blase about 13th century thises and 16th century thats! I'd go back to France in a heartbeat. Enough writing; hope you enjoy the pics. No captions cos I'm too lazy. Hope everyone is having a great weekend.

catching up

this post comes from paris, where we are sitting in an internet cafe near the pantheon and other wonderful buildings & struggling a bit with the european keyboard.this is still our favourite city & we are here for 6 days - wonderful. yesterday we admired the lady &unicorn tapestries in the cluny museum, relaxed in the luxembourg gardens and generally gawped a lot.today we will probably go to montmartre where we stayed 9 years ago, eiffel tower and maybe other places; there's so much to see & do & lots of gardens to relax in, too; i have done a little bit of the stitching i took away with me but have only seen 1 patchwork shop so far - in lyon last week & it was closed; very sad. i am speaking lots of bad french & eating far too much great food; will probably look like a croissant when i get home.singapore is the next stop before home; our daughter rosy is joining us & we are all looking forward to our time together. we have had a lovely time catching up with friends in copenhagen, portugal and france and are loving our travels (apart from arriving at a strange railway station with our luggage & wondering where the hell to go); au revoir

What a week!

It's been a big week - a bit of fun, lots of reading, not much stitching, a whole lot of thinking and a few big sighs of relief.
First up was my new very bad cold on top of my former very bad cold, accompanied by a cough that sounded like a cross between a goose honking and a dog barking. Nearly all gone, thank goodness; didn't fancy sitting on a plane for hours on end making that sort of noise...
The fun part has been mainly conversations - with the kids in the school library last week, and with new and old bloggy friends at the get-together Jodie organised yesterday in a swish new Ballarat cafe. Lots of chat, lots of laughs and some fabric shopping after - just what a recovering wuss needed! And I actually went home and made something - a cute little needlecase that was little freebie pattern from www.erinrussek.typepad.com. No pics of the fabric I bought yesterday, but above (because I couldn't get blogger to put them where I wanted them) are the fabrics I received for my birthday recently, from a fat quarter swap and from my Friends in Stitching group.
The reading - always my favourite thing. I once worked in a bookshop and now work in two libraries (school and public) and if I had a dollar for everyone who has said at some point over the years "It must be lovely being able to read all day" I'd be super-rich. Working in a library just makes your feet hurt (although as I do all the ordering for the school library, it would be irresponsible not to read at least some of the picture books - wouldn't it??) All my general reading (think who-dunnits and biographies, with a bit of chick-lit thrown in) comes from libraries but since I have discovered Book Depository, I have a whole new library of lovely craft books.
The thinking - Peter (my lovely husband) and I are off overseas tomorrow week for 5 weeks (Asia and Europe, including a week in Paris and 5 days in Singapore with our daughter Rosy, who lives in China). I've done most of the arrangements and am just wondering how and when to tell him just how many of the museums in Paris I want to visit. He knows by now that I'll be ducking into any fabric shop that looks even slightly interesting (all in the interests of research, of course!)
The sighs of relief were for the redhead who got the guernsey as our new PM and for the fact that as of 5.30 pm last Friday I am now officially on holiday for six weeks.
Just have to get through the next week, which will be a mix of now-I'm-on-holiday-I've-got-time-to-enjoy-myself stuff (including the Daylesford Craft Experience on Saturday) and packing and repacking and discovering I haven't got enough summer clothes that I actually like and packing and....you get the picture.

Great giveaway

You probably already know that Jenny of Elefantz is a generous soul. And you probably already know that she designs lovely patterns. But did you know that she's having a great giveaway - Robyn Pandolph fabrics and a pattern to go with it? Well, now you do. Pop over to Jenny's blog, leave a comment and who knows - they might be yours (or mine, hopefully). And don't forget to tell Jenny I sent you.

What a day it was

I had the best day out on Saturday. It was just me and 59 other crafty people, at the inaugural Sew It Together bloggy get-together in Melbourne. Lots of chatting, lots of laughing, lots of acquaintances to renew and new people to meet - oh yes, and some of us even crafted a bit. I'd arranged to meet Jodie Ric-Rac and fellow bloggers Rachelle and Deborah at Ballarat station at ridiculously-early o'clock. Lizzie joined us further down the line and we laughed all the way to the city and back. Huge thanks to Sheridan for organising it; a mammoth task. Our goodie bag was amazing - patterns, pieces of fabric, little kits for this and that, knitting needles - and she had even organised a prize for each of us (mine was one of Dear Fii's gorgeous little hexy brooch kits). Everyone was so great - crafters are the nicest people. I bought some of Corrie's gorgeous quirky Japanese fabric and couldn't resist this green fabric patterned with birds during a quick dash to Tessuti. Friends from Belgium were staying at our house and when I got home Mia asked if I had learned anything. I sure had - that crafters will go anywhere for a get-together - one girl had even travelled from NZ! Thanks for the great company, the friendship and the laughs, girls - see you at Sew It Together 2011 in Sydney!

Good weekends

 

 

 

 

On the March long weekend a few weeks ago we drove down to Port Fairy (a lovely little town on the Victorian coast) to its annual folk festival. The shortened name is PFFF for Port Fairy Folk Festival, but I think there should be a couple of extra Fs thrown in (for Fun and Fabulous). It really is a great event, not strictly traditional folky, but a great mix of musical styles, with local and international guests all contributing to the audience's enjoyment. Highlights: American singers Nanci Griffith (who we also saw in concert in Melbourne later that week) Kim Richey and John McCutcheon in separate performances; Brian Kennedy from Ireland, Genticorum from Quebec - how energetic they were!- Dougie McLean from Scotland and Ego Lemos from East Timor. It was, as always, a pleasure to be there - for the music, the people, the food, the incidental conversations and entertainment. We came home with sore hands from clapping so much, and with several new CDs by John McCutcheon (who is also a wonderful storyteller), Kim Richey and Ego Lemos. Brilliant!
Last Saturday I spent having a last-minute panic over a project I was making for a swap for my Friends in Stitching online group. We were all doing designs by Leanne Beasley, and although a few of us chose the same patterns, everything looks so different. In the end, my bag turned out well and my partner likes it, which is the main thing. My partner sent me a gorgeous cushion. There are some wonderful Australian designers, and Leanne is one of my favourites.
On the Sunday I got together with some work friends to learn how to make soap. It was quite an eye-opener - all that stirring and measuring - but enjoyable too. One of the nice things about the day was just getting together; we all work at different branches of our library service and rarely see each other. Now there are emails and phone calls back and forth about the progress of our blocks of soap. We plan to get together in about a month, once it has cured properly, for show and tell. It's fun to learn something new.