Will I see you there?

Apparently the class is booked out (they're now taking bookings for when I return in May). 

You can still come to the trunk show, win prizes, take advantage of some great in-store specials, play dress-ups with all my samples and have a book signed.  Now, that sounds like fun, doesn't it?

Contact Bargain Box for details.

Ahem.... where was I...?

It appears that I've had better things to do than keep up a blog about the things I've been doing....  This hasn't been the case.  I've just done a bit more driving about the countryside (and collapsing - exhausted -  in a heap at the end of the day) than usual.

Last weekend, the wee girl and I made the trip out to beautiful Ballarat to see Annie at the quilt show and catch up with Jodie, Rachel and Kathryn there.  

We spent a good part of the day being led on several wild-goose-GPS-chases around the city before finding the old Mining Exchange building and the fabulous quilts it held.  I was so excited about eventually getting there (!!) and seeing the girls, the only time I thought to take the camera out was while waiting for the girls to get their cups of tea and join us at the table.

On Wednesday, there was my trunk show at The Blanket Box in Geelong - a first-outing for these newest Shell Purses.

Thanks to the lovely people who came to say hello, try on skirts and dresses and peek inside bags.

I love this Pippijoe Waterhen print.  I had a tiny scrap left over and had to use it, so teamed it with the tiny scrap left of the Portuguese linen that Meri sent to me years ago.  Fabric gold....I couldn't waste any of it.

 And there was more hacking into the GJ's haul.  I have a Shell Purse workshop and a trunk show coming up at Bargain Box Fabrics in Mornington on 28th March, so I'm making up lots of new little samples for that and thinking through all the new tricks I can show people who come to the class.

There was a fair splash of Saffron Craig fabric about the place this week, too. I'm preparing for a workshop for the International Federation for Home Economics Congress, which is to be held in Melbourne this year. I wanted to infuse an Aussie flavour into the class, so chose Saffron's cheerful prints for the job.

Precious scraps of Ink&Spindle and Yardage prints were also put to use this week. 

I'd started this patchwork bit for a workshop last year (at the Technology Teachers Association conference) and finally put it all together on Friday. 

 I made a bag (the piecing above appears on the back of the bag). 

 And I'll admit to a bit of blog-finishery here..... so that's as far as le tour de bag goes.

Oh look... there's a bag-making class....

 Yesterday was filled with the finer points of bag bases and straps and zippered gussets.... a Customised Bag in a Day workshop.  We focused on the details that make a super-special handmade bag even more special.

 (And yes, Patternmaking gals from Thursday's class... perhaps your toiles could be used as scrap tub covers after all.... the current Yoplait models could do with an update!).

There were some very satisfied bag-makers at the end of the class, and quite justifyably so.  Love ya work, girls!

So... it was a bit of a busy one and I didn't have the brainspace left to blog at the end of each day. 
But I still love you.....

Show and Tell

Today, being a public holiday here, I snatched a few hours for myself and went into the studio to sew.

 I had a lot of finishing-off to do.  Between things that I'd started and not finished, and things that I'd delegated coming back (thanks Adele), I had an interesting and varied afternoon.

 I'm trying to finish as many new samples as I can before I head off to The Blanket Box on Wednesday.  If you're in the Geelong area, do drop in from 11am- 2pm this Wednesday, for my Trunk Show!

I have a lot of lovely new things to show you, and you can try on samples of garments, hats and bags.  It'll be fun. 

Family Fun Day

We had a cousin's get-together today, with the idea that I'd teach everyone to make a purse. 
Mostly, it was about getting together and enjoying a fun day.

We're all daughters of these eight sisters (that's my Mum in the centre of the back row), and we have more in common than we can name.    

There are shared memories, parallel experiences of being parented and parenting... there are cheekbones and mannerisms.... resemblances...  and a bond that has survived sometimes-decades of separate lives and life experiences. 

Today, there was also a distinct lack of anyone over five-foot-six.

So anyway - we got to work....

I bossed everyone around and showed them how super-easy it all is.... even if you've never been remotely interested in sewing before...

 There were side-splitting, mascara-running belly-laughs....

 ...and there were, indeed, purses. 

 Some with upside-down owls (but it's ok -it's an OFMK*).

Thank you to my (non-sewing) sister, for being staff photographer and  family-photo-scanner.  Thanks to the wee girl and her even wee-er second-cousin, for playing so beautifully together. And a BIG thank you to my gorgeous cousins and sisters for a fabulous day.  

Absentee sisters and cousins: you were missed, and you're very-much invited to the next one.  

There must definitely be another one.

*OFMK = Only For My Kid

Today's accidental fabric purchase....

I dropped into GJ's Discount Fabrics today to ...ahem.... drop off a sample of the Draped T-Dress for display.  I came out with this load (already excitedly-cut-into before I remembered to photograph it....).

The new range of re-released Amy Butler Gypsy Caravan, along with David Butler's new range (the name escapes me)  had just arrived.  The girls were making room on the shelves......

You wouldn't believe what was being put on the $12 table.....
Patty Young's Andalucia, Hunky-Dory by Chez Moi for Moda, Geniveve by Henry Glass, Flower Sugar by Lycien, Oh Boy by David Walker, Giselle by Red Rooster.... and that fabulous paisley by Alexander Henry, which I bought for my cousin Jan, who can't seem to get enough of the swirly stuff.

I got a little bit excited.
I bought more fabric. 
Oops.

Pattern Free

I made my skirt idea using the machine-knit linen-cotton fabric I made on the weekend.

I love it. I wore it yesterday and today.

The skirt is a folded rectangle with an elasticised waistband on one side at the top and a space for legs on the other side, at the bottom. 

I'm yet to work out the formula for the size of rectangle in relation to the size of person it is to fit. With this one, I got the length of knitting a bit wrong (the rectangle was too long) and had to tuck up the bottom a bit and stitch it into place.... Anyone at least 3 inches taller than I am (and that would be most of you) wouldn't have to do this.

The top is one featured in Le Book.

Clothing the family in wonky craft

A visit from my US-living sister gave me the perfect excuse to knit up lots of wonky babywear for her to take back to her toddling and soon-to-be-born granddaughters.  Cap-sleeve tops and hats delivered today.  Tick.

 The In Threes cardi I started last week is still on the go.  It might be finished by the time the soon-to-be-born girl is toddling.  The super-chunky pure wool is more suited to a North-West-USA winter than to a Melbourne one - it's like a little winter coat!

 The smallest fashion designer in the house has contributed to the new bub's wardrobe, too.

Wild young thing that I am (not), I spent  Friday night with the knitting machine and a cone of linen-cotton yarn.... 2000-odd rows of stockingette and not a dropped stitch.  Loving it.

I'm particularly liking the wrong side of the fabric.  The texture and the depth of colour in the yarn is more apparent.  It's soon to be something for ME!

 And I played with a ball of Bendigo 'Highlands' yarn, using every second needle on the knitting machine.  I like the fisherman's jumper rib-effect.  I like the tweedy colours and texture.  I just have to work out what I can make with my one 200g ball of this yarn...?

I remembered today, that I hadn't blogged the bamboo yarn machine-knit socks I mentioned ages ago.  Here they are on the washing line, between two hand-knit pairs.   I think I have the hang of the process of machine-knit socks now, I just have to get over my left-right dyslexia.... or else live up to my reputation of having two left feet.

 In other machine-knitted-wonk news, the girl finally wore the vest that I made (badly) months ago.  Cotton 4-ply 'Amalfi' yarn from Lincraft....the machine hated it.  There was lots of coarse language, silicone spray and a complete re-working of one shoulder...  And then  I realised I'd put it back on the machine the wrong way to make a "design feature" of garter stitch on one shoulder.

 I gave up decided to make it 'unfinished edge' style.  I really, really love the colours and the texture of the knit, but the shape of the garment  isn't quite right.  The girl agreed to wear it around the house but "not in public."

She did, however, wear her self-made outfit of skirt and top (seen under the vest, above) to a large (in-laws) family gathering today.  Luckily, I was at my own large family gathering and was blissfully ignorant of the fact.

Had I been there, I would have denied all responsibility for her slap-dash approach to fashion.