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. 

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.

 

Jen Kingwell & myself.  Jen autographed a copy of her new book "Quilt Lovely" for me.  Squeeeeee!!!  #FanGirlMoment



Squeeeeeee!  Jen autographed a copy of her book for me. #FanGirlMoment



 

Hand piecing in class.

A view of our class room

Another view of our class room

Me with the gorgeous Jodie Carleton from Ric Rac

Jodie & Jen

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.

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.

Sue Clark, Carlie Lincoln & Kendra Watson - friends of mine from Melbourne

 

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!

I finally got to meet my dear friend Alison White in person!

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.

English Paper Piecing in class.

Alison from Cotton Factory caught in the act of photographing Jen Kingwell's "Midnight at the Oasis"

Jen Kingwell's "Midnight at the Oasis"

Alison from Cotton Factory holding up Jen Kingwell's original copy of the quilt "The Circle Game"

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...

Strathdale Quilters "Parade of Quilts"

I think most of you know that I was without a computer for the past month+ as my laptop unceremoniously died after installing a Windows Update.  Well the fabby guys at the computer tech store have fixed it and thankfully resurrected all of my files.  Now the fun job of trying to catch up...

 

On Monday 6 April 2015, Mum & I went to the Strathdale Quilters "Parade of Quilts" quilt expo at St Andrew's Hall in Bendigo. The entrance fee was only $5 per person and it was money well spent.

 

Here are some photos of some of my favourites:

"Whirling Twirling" by June Danger.  June did this quilt in a class at Honeysuckle and the tutor was Margaret McDonald.  Machine pieced & machine quilted by June.

 

"Hooley Dooley Village Patch" by Jenny Simpson.  Jenny saw the quilt at an exhibition in Melbourne and was impressed and decided to do her version of it.  It took many years to complete.  From the book of patterns by Suzanne Gray.  Hand appliqued and machine pieced.  Machine quilted by Jenny.

 

"Memories of Mother and Daughter" by Kerrie Anderson.  A patient from Castlemaine gave Kerrie a box of fabric with two blocks completed which she started with her daughter prior to her daughter dying.  Kerrie added two extra fabrics to border and circles.  Hand machine pieced by Kerrie.  Machine quilted by Alison Bacon of Canterbury Quilts.

"Life is Beautiful" by Barb Krause.  Block of the month seen in a magazine.  Pattern by Hugs'n'Kisses.  Hand embroidered, machine pieced, machine quilted by Barb.

 

Close up of "Life is Beautiful" by Barb Krause.

Close up of "Life is Beautiful" by Barb Krause.

"Australian Wildflowers" by Phyllis Mills.  Phyllis saw this quilt in a magazine and fell in love with it.  A Jenny Rofe design.  Hand appliqued, machine pieced and machine quilted by Phyllis.

"Celtic Garden" by Alice Proudfoot.  This was Alice's latest challenge.  Designed by Dianne Johnston who gave her the pattern.  Hand stitched applique and machine pieced.  Quilted by MA Lewis - Long Arm Machine Quilting.

Close up of "Celtic Garden" by Alice Proudfoot

"Wind in the Whiskas" by Bev Coates.  Design and colour were the inspiration for this quilt by McKenna Ryan when Bev saw it at a trade show and she knew it was a quilt that she wanted to make.  Raw edged machine applique and machine pieced.  Custom quilted by Geoff Coates - Mulberry Lane.

"Botswana Safari" by Carol Carmody.  Carol made this quilt after a camping trip through Botswana in 2013 where she had the most amazing animal encounters.  The names on the quilt are those of the national parks she camped in.  Machine pieced, machine embroidered - designs by Petro.  Custom quilted by Wilma Ladiges of Deep Creek Quilting.

Close up of "Botswana Safari" by Carol Carmody

Close up of "Botswana Safari" by Carol Carmody

Close up of "Botswana Safari" by Carol Carmody

 

"Firebirds" by Barbara Dellar.  Centre design by Jane Spolar, Sauk Rapids, MN, USA.  Quilt layout inspired by magazine photo.  Barbara loves applique and worked the centre while on a cruise from Canada to Sydney.  Needleturn applique, machine pieced.  Hand quilted by Barbara.

 

"Licorice Allsorts" by Frances McCulloch.  Based on Suzanne Lyle's pattern, "Memories of Japan".  Frances made this for her daughter's friend, Kate, who chose her own material and colour scheme.  Machine pieced.  Machine quilted by Lee Conforti.

"Simple Things" by Barbara Gross.  This quilt is adapted from a Leanne's House design.  When Barbara saw this design she loved the combination of embroidery, applique and piecing.  She enjoyed making it and it now hangs on the wall in the guest bedroom.  Hand embroidered, hand appliqued, machine pieced.  Hand quilted by Barbara.

 

Close up of "Simple Things" by Barbara Gross.

"Birds on a Wire" by Dianne Brown.  Dianne really loves Wendy Williams' work.  She loves working with material and felt and hand sewing.  Machine and hand pieced.  Machine quilted by Stacey Rodgers.

Believe it or not this is just a small selection of the many many wonderful quilts that were part of the exhibition. 

For further information please contact Strathdale Quilters

My Date With A Dinosaur!

Today I had a date with a dinosaur! Yep, I saw online that Bendigo Marketplace had hired a Baby T-Rex from the "Walking With Dinosaurs" fame to make some special guest appearances during school holidays for the children. 

I messaged the management to check if a 43-year old "child" would be permitted to have a photo taken with the dinosaur and they said yes. Although the competition was only for children under the age of 16, I could still meet "Fluffy" &have  my photo taken. Yes, "Fluffy" is the name of the Baby T-Rex!

Here are my photos:

These are the official photos taken by Bendigo Marketplace; however one of the staff members kindly took some using my iPhone:

Look at the smile on my face!!!

"who's a pwiddy dinosaur hey?" Fluffy enjoyed having his snout rubbed and he started to purr, then I gave him a tickle under the chin...

Well, you know how excited a dog or cat gets when you scratch them in that favourite spot of theirs? Fluffy was no different. He started to get a bit frisky & rubbed his head up against me (nearly knocking me off balance) and wiggled his tail excitedly. We all started to laugh! It must've been a nice break from all the kiddies poking him and screaming in fear.

I tried to get some full length photos of Fluffy without people's children in the photo, it wasn't easy to do as there was a big crowd and Fluffy was so large.

Seriously the "puppet" is so lifelike and yes there is a man inside the suit operating all of the animatronics. The suit is VERY heavy and very hot - the outer skin is a rubbery material - so the operator needed to take a break every 20-minutes. I had to wait in the queue for quite a while but I didn't mind. I made some new friends in the queue and helped to calm & encourage some timid kiddies. 

I cannot thank Bendigo Marketplace enough for allowing a Big Kid's dream to come true. I have always loved dinosaurs and to "meet" one up close was such a privilege! 

Fluffy is doing limited appearances until Wednesday 8 May 2015 between 1-4pm. Contact Bendigo Marketplace for further information.

Technical Difficulties

Hi everyone, I've had major issues with my laptop and somehow my hard drive has been erased including all of my files, photos, emails, email addresses, quilt patterns, yep EVERYTHING!

I have limited files and contacts on my iPhone & am now too scared to plug it into the laptop in case I lose those too.

The annoying thing is that I had a whole lot of photos taken of work to be blogged about, including all of the items that I have made for the Downton Swap, Kitten Mini Quilt Swap, Aussie Hoop Swap, Aussie Swag Bag Swap, Rainbow Swap, plus everything else that I have made in the past few months.

Plus all the correspondence for all my past and future quilt swaps & quilting bees has gone. Thankfully I had printed some off, but since I am also a Swap Mama in one of the swaps this is going to be a right royal pain!

Yes my laptop was password protected and yes my anti virus software was up to date so I have no idea what has happened or how.

Anyway, this was quickly typed up on my iPhone, it might be a while before my blog is up and running whilst I try to sort out this mess.