A Little Pouch...

A couple of Sundays ago I ventured down to Melbourne and met Rosie & Judy at Jeff's Shed at the Craft & Quilt Show....yes I know, it was over a week ago but what can I say, lazy...local quilt group bought group tickets for all members so my ticket was "free" (only reason I went really)...knowing where unrestricted parking is on a Sunday from my days of working at Etihad Stadium I walked the 10 minutes down and across the river...it's always dodgy when I cross the river, my radar goes all out of whack on the wrong side...when I worked in an office situated in the World Trade Centre, back when dinosaurs walked the earth, I once asked my boss where Clarendon Street was...he pointed out the window and pretty much straight down...yep I had no idea that Spencer Street became Clarendon Street when the river was crossed!!!...Melbournites are now requested to kindly stop laughing!...anyway, the point is, it's way safer for me to park on the right side of the river and walk, I have much less chance of driving around in circles or ending up lost in the wilds of the south east somewhere with no idea how I got there!

So, anyway, free ticket, free parking...liking the cost structure so far! I arrive and find Rosie & Judy who tell me they've booked into a class at the Brother stand...a quick trip to the stand and I snaffle the last spot in the class...yay!...and again, free!!!...no idea what the class is mind you, I'm being a total follower this day and just happy to tag along and I'm not adverse to playing with a new machine...

At the "classroom" area of the stand the tutor gave everyone a project pack and we got to play with a nifty little machine...we started by stitching rows of pretty embroidery stitches...

Such pretty stitches...1 1/2 hours later and cream homespun was transformed into a cute little button closure pouch (pattern by Brother - Take-Anywhere Purse)...

Decorated with embroidery stitching and an appliqued heart the pouch finishes at about 7" x 4 1/4", a useful size for toting about a little stitchery or some hexies/paper piecing shapes in the handbag...and did I mention...free!!!

This is the whizzy little machine we got to play with...very nice...and user friendly too...

Probably a good thing there isn't any spare in the bank account or I'd have been very tempted as they were not at all expensive and sewed nicely.

After lunch Judy went off to do her own thing for a while and Rosie & I sat in on a no-cost talk by the lovely Monica Poole who shared the basics of her quilt-as-you-go techniques, which was interesting.  I was sitting right in front of one of her applique quilts (a BOM with a peacock in the centre) and it was just gorgeous.

The Victorian Quilters Showcase is part of this show and there were lots of lovely quilts but as signage at the entrance requested no photos you'll just have to believe me.

Thanks to Rosie & Judy for a lovely day out.

There has been precious little else to share going on...although I have revisited the Quilt Whose Name I Can't Remember, all the diamond paper shapes are covered, the triangles are started and I've joined the first round of hexie flowers (took a little detour from covering papers)...if I can keep up any sort of momentum there may be something to show with that soon(ish).

Hope there has been more happening in your world.

Happy Stitching...

Journeying Around Jeff's Shed 3...

*pictures edited into Smilebox slideshows...
Still at the Stitches & Craft Show Quilts...grap a cuppa for a look around the small quilts...Art and pictorial...and miniatures...

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There were lots of hexie quilts so they deserve their own section in my tour de quilt show as the hexagon has always been my favourite shape, long before the current hexie resurgence, so lucky me I am enjoying the current proliferation of hexies...

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Finally it was into the display of challenge quilts based on the quilts featured in Annette Gero's book The Fabric of Society...prepare to be awed and inspired big time...

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Whew! There was a lot to ooh and aahh over this year...well done to all the quilt makers, you are awesome, thanks for the opportunity to admire and be inspired by your work...

Happy Stitching...

Journeying Around Jeff's Shed 2...

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There were just so many great quilts...enjoy the picture show...

Some favourite large quilts...I didn't take photos of the labels (which was remiss as I usually do) so I can't credit the makers, oops!...

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Back later with some more eye candy...

Happy Stitching...

Journeying Around Jeff's Shed...

I wasn't going to Jeff's Shed this year...when I was asked which day I was going I said I wasn't...until Saturday...when all resolve to resist temptation flew out the window and I made arrangements to meet GF Rosie (no blog) Sunday morning...*sigh*...

We didn't get there too early - I didn't arrive until 11:00 - so we did a tour of all the aisles having a bit of a cursory look at the stalls leading up to stopping for lunch.  Rosie had been on Thursday as well so she had already taken care of her retail therapy and I had made a list - a very short list - that if it wasn't filled it didn't matter.  After lunch we revisited the aisles and it was much nicer...far less people and easier to see what was on offer...then it was in to the quilts...I wasn't expecting too much as last year I was considerably underwhelmed but our local group had two members who both won multiple prizes and the group's raffle quilt for our quilt show this year won the group section and I was keen to see those quilts hanging...but I was so not disappointed generally...this year there was considerable "wow" factor...I took 90 photos!!!!

First of all the local winners...*pictures edited to Smilebox slideshows

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Want a chance to own the award winning quilt?  Well you can...this is our raffle quilt for our quilt show at the beginning of October...before I left for the show I found the book of tickets to sell that I was given oh, about 5 weeks ago and then promptly couldn't find - oops!...now the next part of my challenge...remember to sell the darn things!!!! *LOL*

State winners 2010...

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Back later with more from the display.

Happy Stitching...

Show Time!...

This weekend the Melbourne Stitches and Craft Show was on in Jeff's Shed and yesterday I set out to meet Mistea and spend the afternoon in crafty goodness.

I finally made it into Melbourne...you know how sometime the universe is telling you you shouldn't have got out of bed? Well, that was my yesterday morning so I didn't make it in as early as I would have liked...good thing being Saturday the show was open until 7:00pm

First off we did the shopping thing...

A combination of crossing items off the "wish list", project requirements and a small "just 'coz"...

A 14 1/2" square 'coz you can't have too many variations of ruler...pinking shears which I've wanted for ages, the pinking wheel on the rotary cutter isn't always right for every occassion...a pair of those gorgeous Scissaroo embroidery scissors...a set of jelly roll templates of varied shapes...bag batting for the two projects from the Inspired Stitches weekend...and a cute pattern for a purse just 'coz it was there and I liked it.

What? No fabric???  You're right...but I did get a fabric fix with this yummyness that Mistea kindly picked up for me when she went to Ink & Spindle's last open studio event...which I'd quite forgotten about but she remembered to bring with her yesterday...

Then, retail therapy taken care of we made our way into the VicQuilters display of quilty inspiration...

Images of nspiration from Jeff's Shed 2010

It always takes a good couple of hours to get around the quilts and absorb the inspiration.  Yep, good thing it was open until 7:00pm because we left at about, oh, 6:50pm!!!  They didn't quite have to kick us out but we certainly made the most of the time available.

By now it was time for tea and the tummies were a bit peckish so we wandered over to Southgate and had the most scrummy dinner at The Blue Train Cafe...after much deliberation because there were too many yummy choices we both settled on veal scallopine and citrus berry tarts which were to die for...definitely good choices. Delicious!!

Still plugging away on the A Gardener's Journal Stitch-A-Long getting that fence put up around the house...it certainly isn't a quick job but there is a week to go of July so if my neck stops playing silly buggers and let's me stitch for longer periods I might just get it done...I hate it when it's being able to work or stitching 'coz the being able to work bit always has to win.

Hope your weekend was a good one and you got some crafty goodness in there.

Happy Stitching...