Mad Quilters Gathering at Penrith next weekend

Hello! Yes, I'm still here, just busy busy busy as everyone seems to be these days.


I'm just logging on quickly to let you know that from next Friday 2 August to Sunday 4 August, I will be at the Mad Quilters Gathering at Penrith Panthers. I'll be at Stand 87, surrounded by mountains of my personally-made fabric die-cuts!

Now some of you may have heard that Moda has started making hexagon charm packs, but that's not going to stop me making mine! As well as my great range, remember that I can custom-cut whatever you want.

I'll be bringing my inchy fabric hexagons, large hexagon charm packs, diamonds and triangles, and for the first time ... my apple-core charm packs! You won't believe how quick and easy these are to sew!

Oh, and I'll be bringing my own brand of die-cut papers for hand-piecing of course, although I can't bring all shapes/sizes with me, so keep in mind that if I don't have what you want on the day I will mail it out to you next week with no charge for postage.

Here's the flyer, but if you need more details go to the the Mad Quilters website. They've got a video of last year's Gathering too.

Market mania

Oh my, what's my Google password? It's been a month since I logged on to blog!

Since I last said hello, my better half and I have done the following markets for the first time:

• Revesby Craft Market 
• Hornsby RSL Craft Fair
• Ettalong Market
• Bondi Junction Village Market 

My better half is now doing Ramsgate Foodies and Artisans Market (Saturdays) and Bondi Junction Village Market (Thursdays) by himself as I work Mon-Fri. Please stop by and say hello to him.

As well as my gorgeous vintage-stamp pendants and so on, you will now find Gary's very own (and very wide) range of badges. He's crazy about dogs, so they feature heavily!

As well as these markets, you'll also find us at these upoming special events:
 

• Sat 30 March - Handmade Craft Market, Bridgecorp Stadium, Terrigal
• Sun 7 April - Oatley West Annual Art and Craft Show
  
• Sun 14 April - Now and Then Vintage Market, Wolli Creek  

See you there, wherever that may be!

P.S. I've had a problem receiving emails over the past couple of days. I think I've fixed the problem now so if you haven't received a reply, please email me again as I didn't get your email at all.

New in store

I've just added these layer cakes to my store - Tapestry, Old Glory Gatherings, Flirt, Marmalade and La Belle Fleur. Remember, you can get them die-cut in the shape and size you want (or just the layer cake as is).

I still have more fabrics to list - Posy, Avalon, Noteworthy, and Boho. I hope to get them listed over the next few days.

Maybe you'll find your next project here!

TAPESTRY by Fig Tree and Co

OLD GLORY GATHERINGS by Primitive Gatherings

FLIRT by Sandy Gervais

MARMALADE by Bonnie and Camille

LA BELLE FLEUR by French General

Good as new

I woke up this morning feeling entirely back to normal and I kept some food down too.

I feel soooo much better. Now, where is my list of crafty things to do, my hands are itching to do something productive ...

Something's bugging me

Already halfway through the month and I haven't yet blogged. I swear I've been getting LOTS of things done though, really I have!

• I've been back at work for a few weeks now but I can't complain as I had ALL of December off. (25 years in the public service so I've got LOTS of long service leave accrued.)
• Gary and I have mapped out all the markets we want to try this year, as well as the good ones to repeat from 2012. I plan to do some bigger patchwork events, Gary will continue to sell my pendants, and wherever possible we'll take both to the markets.
• More markets means I have an excuse to make even more pendants. I've been in research and development mode for the past month, thinking about new things to make, as I want to tailor my stock to each market rather than have a one-size-fits-all approach.
• Unfortunately this means that all my patchwork projects are still on hold, although I spent last Monday night making some behind-the-scenes changes to my patchwork store to make it a little easier for shoppers.
• I received lots of new fabric from my supplier in Nov/Dec and was planning to catch up this week and add them to my store, but I picked up a tummy bug. The less said the better. Hopefully I can get back to job-work and craft-work soon.

I've trying hard to keep the momentum going from last year, but my brain has been distracted by my third passion - crafty recycling. I try to keep this obsession in check, but when I went back to work a switch went off in my brain, I don't know what triggered it. Oh, yes I do ...

Someone asked me if I could recycle lever arch folders. I said no, I can deconstruct/ repurpose/ recycle all other types of office folders, just not these ones because of the particular materials used. But that started me thinking, and before I knew it I had figured out how to pull apart these ones too, which means both the metal and cardboard can now go into their separate recycling streams.

Stop me now! Otherwise I'll be talking about crafty recycling all day. I accept that 99.99999999% of people in this world do not share my passion for recycling office supplies.

But some do share my passion for crafty recycling. I recently found a YouTube clip on cutting up soft drink cans, which got me thinking. I put my die-cutter and embosser to good use and I now have a pile of embossed aluminium hearts to craft with. I have ordered some alcohol inks on eBay. They are probably waiting for me in my post office box. I wish I wasn't sick!

2012 wrapup - favourite blogs

I am the slackest blogger ever! You'd think that I would have blogged more while I was on holidays, not less, but I was so focussed on making stock for markets, trying out new markets, then making more stock, that everything else took a back seat.

Still, it was a very enjoyable time and a very welcome break from my day-job. Such a relief to be home in the peace and quiet and not have to talk to anyone for days!

But that makes for a boring blog, so I hope I'm forgiven for using this post to tell you about my Top 5 favourite blogs for 2012.

5. Tied at fifth place are Badskirt and Archie the Wonder Dog. Amy and Helen have completely different styles (bright bold moderns vs soft pretty piecing), but both inspire me to just go ahead and try something new. And whenever I need a pick-me-up, Archie is guaranteed to put a smile on my face and in my heart.

4. You Had Me at Bonjour is a beautiful beautiful blog. Kirsty's photos documenting living in and travelling around France would make a gorgeous gorgeous book, so we are lucky to get them for free. If I ever end up travelling I'll be using this blog as a travel guide, starting with the blogpost about Nice.

 3. Speaking of free, Frugal Queen is a daily reminder that I need to be much much stricter with myself. I have made some changes, but not enough, and another year has slipped by without much progress in paying down my debts. Oh well, tomorrow is a new year and a fresh start.

2. I want to say a big thank you to QuiltJane from Want It, Need It, Quilt. Without her friendship and support, I'd still be stuck inside my comfort zone.

1. The top spot has to go to Retromummy, who so openly and generously shared her busy life and beautiful family with us. Like a duck moving serenely across a pond while it's busy little feet are paddling furiously, Retromummy renovated, moved house, welcomed baby number five, kept the other four happy and healthy, had a blog makeover, spoke at events and met other challenges face-on, all with a positive mind and open heart.

Thank you Retromummy and daddy - it has been a joy to watch your children grow and flourish and be their own little persons.

To all these bloggers I wish a happy and blessed 2013, and to all those I've met this year (Quilary, Cherie, BACG, SIT and others), thank you for welcoming me with open arms and putting me at ease. I can't tell you how much it means to me.

Southern Highlands Christmas Fair

Hi All,

Just a quick note to let you know I'll be at the Southern Highlands Christmas Fair on Sunday 9 December.

If you happen to be at the Fair too, I hope you'll stop by and say hello. My stall will be close to the entrance, so I should be easy to find.

Markets good and bad

Despite the heatwave expected for Sydney last weekend, GF and I went through with doing our market stall at Ramsgate on Saturday. Luckily we were cooled down with a little rain early in the morning.

We had a lovely day and made a reasonable profit which made GF happy, but for me the highlight was seeing a shopper wearing a pendant she previously bought from me.

I wish I had taken a photo of the pendant. It was definitely one-of-a-kind. I made it from a vintage Czechoslovakian stamp that had a Praha (Prague) postmark perfectly centred across the middle.  The black postmark and the plain black necklace set off the red-and-white stamp really well.

So Saturday was good, Sunday not so much. We got up at 4am and drove to Maitland to do their busiest market day of the year. When we arrived, we found the longest queue of cars/trucks/vans ever! And when we finally got to the gate, we found out that they had booked someone else into our regular site. Hang on a minute - I prebooked and prepaid for that site three months ago!

Not only did we not get our regular spot, we didn't get any spot at all! And this didn't happen to just us. We waited almost an hour in a queue of other stallholders who had been bumped out of their spots, to find out where else the organiser could put us.

In the end, the organiser told us to go to our usual spot. I don't know why she did, when she had already told us they had put someone else there. But we weren't the only bumped stallholders she had to deal with, so I think it was just to get rid of us.

We drove to our usual spot and you guessed it, a stallholder was already set up there. Obviously we could not expect them to move. After all, they had paid their money (as we had) and had been booked into that spot (as we had) so it was not their problem.

It was clear from looking around us that there was a huge number of extra stallholders there that day, all spots were already filled up, and other stallholders were still trying to drive in through the crowds. We made our way back to the front gate but it was clear that the organiser had bigger problems than just us. 

It was a looooong drive back to Sydney.

Markets old and new

I've been on annual leave for a couple of weeks now, but there were so many things I wanted to get made and/or organised for the markets that it seemed like yesterday was my first real day off.

It may not be your idea of a relaxing day off, but I enjoyed it - sitting at my craft desk from 10am to 10pm making a new range of pendants. (Yes, I know I've made way too many pendants to ever sell, but doing craft occupies my brain enough to stop my usual worrisome thoughts which gives me a much-needed mental rest.)

Sorry, no photos yet as I've only half-made them. They are all retro/1950's-inspired pendants, as a new vintage-themed monthly market is starting up soon very close to my home.

All the stallholder spots booked out really quickly so I missed out, (that's ok, I'm not sure if my current stock fits the market's style) but I'll definitely be going to have a good look. I hope there's lots of genuine vintage stuff - and I'd be especially interested to see if anyone is into the "repurposing" thing, i.e. finding creative new ways to recycle old things. I love that!

The Now and Then Markets kicks off on Sunday 9 December at Bexley Manor Hall (Bexley NSW).





Oh, I haven't told you about last weekend yet! My good friend and I went to Braidwood for the annual Airing of the Quilts. (We didn't get much of a chance to look at the quilts though - too exhausted!) GF took care of the pendants stall as usual and I did the patchwork stall. I had no idea there were so many hexagon-mad quilters out there! It's good to know I'm not alone LOL.

Luckily our stalls were side-by-side, as I was run off my feet answering my questions so GF was working at my stall more often then he was manning his. He was amazing - he packed/unpacked the van himself so I could rest, (I feel so guilty when he does things for me - do any of you find it hard to accept kindness?) then did the whole 3-hour drive back to Sydney (don't worry, yes we did the stop-revive-survive thing a couple of times).

Gosh, it makes me tired just thinking about last Saturday. I need a rest LOL. Bye for now.

A lovely day

I've had such a lovely peaceful day at home.

I moved my craft table out onto the balcony for some sunshine and fresh air and spent a few hours (ok, more than a few hours) finishing off a pile of pendants by adding some flowers and bead dangles.

My favourites are the ones made from vintage New Zealand stamps.

Happy Little Cupcakes

It's a little unusual for me to be blogging in the middle of the day, but as you know I'm on holidays (and still doing my happy dance).

I have been stitching away madly all morning, trying to finish off a Rose Star sample-sized quilt to show people at the markets. (It's not quite finished yet, but if I get it done today I'll insert a photo in here later.)

My good friend and I had a great weekend overall, with a very good day at our local Ramsgate Foodies (and arts and crafts) Market on Saturday (windy and rainy but we made lots of sales so we didn't mind the weather too much), and a not-so-great day on Sunday when we tried out a new market (it wasn't at all what I expected, we won't be going back there).

GF now pretty much runs the pendants/accessories stall and I have a table or two to showcase my patchwork products. I was happily surprised to find there was heaps of interest, especially in my die-cut fabric hexagons, and I enjoyed chatting with all the patchworkers and crafters who found me.

We will be back at Ramsgate this Saturday (17 Nov) and at Maitland Markets on Sunday (18 Nov) - look for stall number 71J and 71K. In between I'll be going to a birthday party and catching up with my family.

One of my sweet nieces is turning 6 so I've ordered a box of the cutest yummiest cupcakes I've ever tasted. I came across Happy Little Cupcakes a couple of weeks ago at Ramsgate. Shhhh - don't tell my partner that that's the real reason why I want to keep going back to Ramsgate every week!

I don't know if HLC does any other markets around Sydney but you can find them on Facebook here. I just gave Silvana a call and pre-ordered a dozen cupcakes like this, which I'll pick up on Saturday.


I'll have to buy a few extra for myself though (mmm maybe the red velvet ones with frosting mmm) otherwise these pretty pink ones are not going to make it to the party!

Bye for now, it's back to stitching my Rose Star, then once that is done I'll get started on making some new accessories. I have a long list of ideas to try out and I like to have something new to show at every market. I love being on holidays!