Block two of the circle game featuring Kaffe Fassett fabrics.
This entire block was pieced by hand.
Saturday, 23 May 2015
Thursday, 21 May 2015
Candleberry Country - Yarragon
During my recent stay with friends in Drouin, we drove out to Yarragon for a "girl's morning out". On the mainstreet, tucked down a laneway is a quaint little quilt shop called Candleberry Country.
Candleberry Country stocks a large range of patterns from designers such as Little Bird, Rosalie Quinlan, Leanne Beasley, Amanda Brooke, Vivian Robinson, Hatched & Patched, Simple Stitchin', Cinderberry Stitches, Melly & Me, Jennifer Knol Designs, and Brenda Ryan for Thimblestitch.
They are also a Tilda stockist and they have a large range of Cottage Garden Threads.
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| Mmmmmmmmm Tilda!!! <3 |
Candleberry Country
2/109-113 Princes Highway, Yarragon VIC 3823
(03) 5634 2755
Tuesday, 19 May 2015
Sewing Connection - Pakenham
Back in April I travelled by train down to Melbourne and stayed for a few days with some friends in Drouin. On the way down they met me at Pakenham station and took me to visit The Sewing Connection. I had never been here before but my friend Ashleigh works here part time so I was keen to check it out.
Although the shop specialises in Bernina and Brother sewing machines & overlockers, they have a very good selection of fabrics, notions and threads. I was impressed that they had a good selection of Kaffe Fassett fabrics (which I needed for my current W.I.P.) and a good display of Emma Jean Jansen fabrics. I was also able to purchase a template that I had been hunting for.
The Sewing Connection
115 Main St, Pakenham VIC 3810
Tel: (03) 5941 2244
Saturday, 16 May 2015
The Circle Game - Block One
Following on from my Jen Kingwell class, I have since had time to complete some of the blocks for "The Circle Game" quilt.
I have decided to use Kaffe Fassett fabrics for my quilt with a black & white spot fabric called "Spot On" by Robert Kaufman (design #14868) and a grey "Architextures" print by Carolyn Friedlander for Robert Kaufman (screen print D# 13503.
This will be a long term work in progress so I will post block by block as they are completed.
Block One
Block One was started in class. It is entirely pieced by hand.
Thursday, 14 May 2015
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.
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| 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"
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| 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....." |
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| Photograph courtesy of Isabella Golightly. Alison vB, Katharine vB, a waitress & Me. "This one time, at the Forge with my quilting friends....." |
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| My calamari salad (gluten-free of course) |
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| Quilter's Dinner - pizzas |
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| 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 ~~~~~
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| Brrrrrrrrrrrr!!!!! The next morning was mighty cold, or as the locals call it "brisk"! |
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| But after a coffee or two we checked out of the YHA and wreaked havoc on Ballarat's fabric & embroidery shops... |
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| Our first stop on "Lisa & Fiona's Tour of Ballarat" was a quick visit to "Eureka Patchwork" - 143 Victoria Street, Ballarat East. |
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| Eureka Patchwork has a large variety of quilting fabrics |
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| Eureka Patchwork has a large variety of quilting fabrics |
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| For some reason Eureka Patchwork feel it is necessary to cut fabric using an electronic rotary cutter..... yep - enough said - let's move on.... |
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| Then a quick trip to Big W to see if they had any Lori Holt fabrics hidden among their FQs. |
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| which they did |
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| then a quick visit to The Elephant Patch to pick up some Perle 8 threads for a Secret Squirrel Sewing Project... |
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| 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. |
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| 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.
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| Alison White presented me with "Bluey" the squirrel. No he's NOT a dunny brush!!!!! |
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| "Secret Bilby Business" as Mr GL, Greeny & Forest bilbies conspire... |
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| 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 |
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| The lovely Katharine von Bibra had flown up from Tasmania for the weekend. |
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| 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. |
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| 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.
Tuesday, 12 May 2015
Jen Kingwell class
Back in March I had the opportunity to do a class with Jen Kingwell (of Amitie Textiles in Melbourne) which was hosted by Cotton Factory in Ballarat. Alison from Cotton Factory had hired a local hall for the class so that we would have plenty of space to spread ourselves out as there were about 20 students enrolled (people had travelled from New South Wales, Tasmania and various parts of Victoria to participate).
The class was based on Jen's quilt pattern "The Circle Game". In the class we covered several techniques including; hand piecing, machine piecing, English paper Piecing (EPP), foundation piecing, and applique. Jen also demonstrated her hand quilting techniques.
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| Jen Kingwell & myself. Jen autographed a copy of her new book "Quilt Lovely" for me. Squeeeeee!!! #FanGirlMoment |
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| Squeeeeeee! Jen autographed a copy of her book for me. #FanGirlMoment |
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| Hand piecing in class. |
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| A view of our class room |
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| Another view of our class room |
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| Me with the gorgeous Jodie Carleton from Ric Rac |
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| Jodie & Jen |
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| Isabella Golightly - the Bilby Lady - flew down from Sydney to join our class. I took Greeny the bilby along to catch up with his "birth" mother. |
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| Greeny wasn't on his own, Katharine had her bilby in class as well so they got to hang out & do "Secret Bilby Business" whilst we sewed. |
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| Sue Clark, Carlie Lincoln & Kendra Watson - friends of mine from Melbourne |
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| Me & Carlie. Carlie was my first quilting friend and kindly took me under her wing when I started out. This is the lovely lady who encouraged me to start foundation paper piecing! |
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| I finally got to meet my dear friend Alison White in person! |
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| Jodie from Ric Rac brought some of her selvage art for us to admire. This is her selvage chair & her selvage dress. Also on display was a selvage parasol which I forgot to photograph. Jodie has kindly talked me through the process so I am hoping to do some work with selvages later this year. |
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| English Paper Piecing in class. |
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| Alison from Cotton Factory caught in the act of photographing Jen Kingwell's "Midnight at the Oasis" |
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| Jen Kingwell's "Midnight at the Oasis" |
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| Alison from Cotton Factory holding up Jen Kingwell's original copy of the quilt "The Circle Game" |
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| The Circle Game pattern by Jen Kingwell & her new book "Quilt Lovely" |
We worked on a number of blocks during class which I will feature in upcoming blog posts.
Rather than drive all the way back to Bendigo after such a long day, I stayed overnight in Ballarat and spent some quality time with some of the other out-of-towners who chose to stay over. My next blog post will be the "After Party" - I mean the after class photos...
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