52 Quilters - Week 27 - Fiona Forsyth - My Favourite Quilty Hang-outs

I tend to spend most of my time at home either in my sewing studio or sitting on my "soffice" - sofa/office - hand sewing:

My Sewing Studio

My Sewing Studio

My Sewing Studio

My Sewing Studio - view of the "Nut House" where my secret sewing squirrels congregate

My Sewing Studio - view of the "Nut House" where my secret sewing squirrels congregate

My Sewing Studio

My Sewing Studio

When I am not at home, these are a few of my favourite Quilty hang-outs:

Honeysuckle Stained Class & Patchwork - Bendigo 

My local quilt shop is Honeysuckle Stained Glass and Patchwork - which is owned by Nicky & Peter.  They have a large range of traditional and modern fabrics, buttons, ribbons, trims, DMC threads, Cottage Garden Threads, and other sewing notions.  Nicky is a modern quilter so she has a good selection of the latest fabric lines & is very knowledgeable.  If you lose me in the shop you will often find me in the Kaffe Fassett corner drooling over all the pretties!! Honeysuckle are a Quiltworx certified shop and they regularly run classes on the premises.

 

Honeysuckle Stained Glass and Patchwork

2 Havilah Rd, 

Long Gully (Bendigo) 

Victoria 3550 Australia

Phone: (03) 5441 3289

Opening Hours: 

Monday to Friday 9am – 5pm 

Saturday 9am – 12noon

http://www.honeysucklepatchwork.com.au/

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Spotlight Bendigo

I often refer to the local Spotlight store as my second home - as I live less than 5-minutes away, I often pop in to get my supplies. Spotlight is Australiasias largest supplier of Fabric, Craft, Party and Home Interiors, with Superstores in Australia, New Zealand, Singapore and Malaysia.

~

Further afield - Ballarat is just down the road a bit from Bendigo :-)

Cotton Factory - Ballarat

My home away from home is Cotton Factory in Ballarat and I tend to go down there a few times a year.   Ballarat is "just down the road a bit" from Bendigo (it is 123kms south west of Bendigo - and it takes about 90-minutes to drive there). Cotton Factory is owned by Alison von Bibra (known affectionately as "#theAlison").  Cotton Factory is a small business in Ballarat with an aim to make craft available to everyone. They work with many independent Australian pattern and fabric designers to bring you some great goodies. Alison recently attended Quilt Market in Salt Lake City and she has access to all the products that are about to hit the market.  Here is a link to a previous article I wrote about Cotton Factory

Beyond these unassuming lime green doors lies lots of pretty treasures!

THE Alison - Alison von Bibra - Cotton Factory Ballarat

Cotton Factory

128 Clyde Street

(Cnr of Brougham Street)

Ballarat, Victoria, 3350, Australia

Opening Hours:

Thursday, Friday & Saturday

10am to 3pm

The online shop is ALWAYS open.

http://www.cottonfactory.bigcartel.com/

https://www.instagram.com/cotton_factory/

https://www.instagram.com/cotton_factory_destash/

Cotton Factory Community Block Swap

#cfcblockswap

A common theme when crafters talk about swaps, is how hard they are to organise, how varied the fabrics are (some chain store, some high quality fabric store, some Vintage) and how hard it is to manage when people don’t follow through. Cotton Factory is hosting a community block swap where you are guaranteed to receive your swap blocks.  The swap is open to Australian Quilters and Overseas Quilters and will work as follows:

• Purchase your BlockPack from Cotton Factory
• Make four blocks
• Return as many (or as few) as you decide
• You will receive the SAME number of swap blocks by return mail that you sent in.

All fabrics have been chosen by Cotton Factory. They include Carolyn Friedlander, Art Gallery, Jen Kingwell, Free Spirit and a range of well known, best quality, quilting cottons. For enquiring minds, the colour scheme is: mustard, teal, muted oranges and hints of citrus. Cotton Factory has partnered with Eye Candy Quilts to provide the pattern in your Block Swap Packs, at cost.  

Recapping key dates.

1. To start, just purchase a Block Pack before the end of July 2016.
2. Make your blocks
3. Post your swap blocks such that they arrive at Cotton Factory by 31^st August 2016
4. Get ready to receive your Swap blocks later that same week (or early the following week – dependent on Australia Post, the Universe and the usual postal planetary alignment).
5. In your own sweet time you make up your quilt. Keep using the hash tag #cfcblockswap, so we can all stay connected with your progress.

Sadly my Block Pack did not arrive in time for my 52 Quilters take over week however, Alison did give me permission to share some of her photos:

photo courtesy of @Cotton_Factory

photo courtesy of @katharine_von_bibra

UPDATE - this swap has since closed.

For more information about the #cfcblockswap, please go to:

https://cottonfactory.wordpress.com/2016/06/11/cotton-factory-community-block-swap/

Ballarat Bilby Reunion

On Saturday 24 October I was invited to an "IG Meet Up" aka a Bilby Reunion at Cotton Factory - my home away from home in Ballarat.  My hexie partner in crime @IsabellaGolightly26 had flown down from Sydney and was one of the "hostesses with the mostesses" together with @AnneBoundy.

My dear friend & sister @Micheles_kitchen drove up from Melbourne on the Friday and stayed for a few days with me in Bendigo - we drove down to Ballarat together on Saturday with our bilbies - Mr Greeny and Miss Penelope. 

The meet up was also to be the long awaited launch of Isabella's prized Bilby Pattern. Limited patterns were available for purchase on the day however they can also be purchased on Etsy (details below).

The lovely lady in lavender is Alison's mum

Simone, Sharon & Isabella

Just call me "Duck face" quack quack - Isabella & I caught in the act discussing the flakers from "Hexie Down Under" round 1 - trying to organise angel hexies.

It was a good opportunity for Isabella & I to catch up and discuss what to do with the flakers from "Hexie Down Under" round 1

We don't like flakers!! Grrrrr

This is a more realistic photo of the two of us!! 

Alison & Isabella drawing the door prizes.  Yes some lucky bilby won a door ;0P

And the winner is.... "where are my glasses?"

Fiona, Mr Greeny, Michele & Miss Penelope

What does your badge say Isabella? "Full of Scrap"

And even the bilbies had fun!

Miss Snow Minty; Red Spot Special; Gidget; Forest; Moonshine (the little bilby); Miss Penelope; Mr Greeny & Dandy Boy - Mr Dandy Pants

Red Spot Special; Gidget, Miss Snow Minty, Forest, Miss Penelope, Mr Greeny, Mr Dandy Pants.  Moonshine in front (the little bilby).

"Awwww behold the sacred hole"

What is it about the hole in the table that the bilbies love??

Bilby Pattern Release:

The Bilby Pattern can be purchased as a PDF download.  You can also purchase kits and bilby eyes.

https://www.etsy.com/shop/IsabellaGolightly

Much merriment was had by all and we also raised $35 in gold coin donations for the "Save the Bilby Fund"

The After Party - post class fun in Ballarat

I had such an awesome day at my class in Ballarat with Jen Kingwell, but this girl can only handle so much awesome in one go.  So instead of driving all the way back to Bendigo, I stayed overnight in Ballarat instead.  I shared a private room at the Sovereign Hill YHA with Lisa from Horsham whilst others stayed at various other properties. 

 

Does it look like a couple of quilters are staying here?  Despite being told that there were other guests booked in, we ended up having the hostel to ourselves that night.  YAYNESS!  We didn't have to share the bathrooms with strange people ;)

~~~~~ 

After a much needed rest at the Sovereign Hill YHA, Lisa and I drove back into Ballarat and met up with some of the other riff raff for a "Quilter's Dinner" at "The Forge"

Photograph courtesy of Isabella Golightly.
Me, Lisa F, Alison W & "I'm sorry I don't remember your name"
"This one time, at the Forge with my quilting friends....."

Photograph courtesy of Isabella Golightly.
Alison vB, Katharine vB, a waitress & Me.
"This one time, at the Forge with my quilting friends....."

My calamari salad (gluten-free of course)

Quilter's Dinner - pizzas

this was my desert - a gluten-free lemon meringue desert pizza.  It was delicious and I forced myself to eat all of it!  It was huge but oh sooooooo good!!!!!

 

~~~~~ SATURDAY ~~~~~

Brrrrrrrrrrrr!!!!! The next morning was mighty cold, or as the locals call it "brisk"!

But after a coffee or two we checked out of the YHA and wreaked havoc on Ballarat's fabric & embroidery shops...

Our first stop on "Lisa & Fiona's Tour of Ballarat" was a quick visit to "Eureka Patchwork" - 143 Victoria Street, Ballarat East.

Eureka Patchwork has a large variety of quilting fabrics

Eureka Patchwork has a large variety of quilting fabrics

For some reason Eureka Patchwork feel it is necessary to cut fabric using an electronic rotary cutter..... yep - enough said - let's move on....

Then a quick trip to Big W to see if they had any Lori Holt fabrics hidden among their FQs.

which they did



then a quick visit to The Elephant Patch to pick up some Perle 8 threads for a Secret Squirrel Sewing Project...

Then coffee & Lamington Donuts at Vegas & Rose (otherwise referred to as "Death by Gluten").  They also do Nutella Donuts but sadly they didn't have them on the menu that day.

And then finally we arrived at my "home away from home" - Cotton Factory in Ballarat! 
How gorgeous is that mini quilt hanging on the front door! (yep, I made that)

Alison von Bibra had organised an informal "Sit & Stitch" at the Cotton Factory for the Saturday.   Sadly we missed catching up with some of the riff raff as they had headed off to explore Ballarat, but some were still lurking on the premises when we finally arrived.

Alison White presented me with "Bluey" the squirrel.  No he's NOT a dunny brush!!!!!

"Secret Bilby Business" as Mr GL, Greeny & Forest bilbies conspire...

Lisa Ferguson (from Horsham) and Alison White (from Melbourne) deep in conversation.  The quilt on the left is Emma Jean Jansen's "Pickled Orange Peel" quilt

The lovely Katharine von Bibra had flown up from Tasmania for the weekend.

Lisa Chambers had driven down from Griffith in NSW (Lisa had stayed overnight with me in Bendigo on Thursday before we drove down for the class on Friday).  The quilt behind her is Emma Jean Jansen's "Lime & Soda" made with Terra Australis 2.

Two beauties in this photo - the lovely Alison White and "Green Tea & Sweet Beans" by Jen Kingwell

It was a great way to finish up my stay in Ballarat as we didn't get a lot of time to chat with each other during the previous day's class.  I ended up leaving Ballarat early in the afternoon and arrived home in Bendigo late that afternoon after a quick stop off at "Twin Needles" embroidery & patchwork shop in Creswick and "The Village Patch" quilt shop in Maldon.