Giveaway - More Hexagon Charm Packs

The New Year inches closer and closer but it's not too late to enter the giveaway for my brand new Hexagon Charm Packs.

I've made lots more pre-cut hexagons for you to chose from. These are large hexagons, the same size as Moda's regular square charm packs. This batch includes Good Fortune, Sassy, Little Apples and others, plus the not yet released California Girl. You can find more details in the pbpatch store.

There'll be an Australian winner and an International winner. To enter, just read my previous post and leave a comment there before 2011 runs out. (If Blogger doesn't let you leave a comment, send me an email and I'll enter one for you.)

Good luck everyone!

Now available - Hexagon Charm Packs

Another busy week has flown by - busy in my day-job and busy at night making new products.

The new hexagon-shaped charm packs that I previewed the other day are now listed in my store. I have decided to sell them for around the same as the Australian retail price of the regular square charm packs from Moda.

Yes, that's right - a charm pack of pre-cut hexagons for the same price as the squares! (My local store sells the square ones for $17.95 and some eBay stores sell them for $15 so my hexagon ones are in between.) Ready for you to machine-sew or hand-sew without any further preparation.


I couldn't resist using another pack myself. Here's my latest charm quilt, using A Walk in the Woods by Aneela Hoey for Moda. I need lots more practice at free-motion quilting!


You might have noticed in my store that I often only have 2 or 3 packs available for each range of fabric hexagons at any one time. That doesn't mean that more aren't available, it just means I haven't made it for you yet!

I'm not a store so I don't have a lot of stock sitting on the shelves. I generally just custom-make my products when anyone orders them. If something is 'out of stock', that just means that I will custom-make it for you, so please do not hesitate to email me your requests. If the fabric is available, I'll make it for you within 24 hours.

I am determined that from the New Year on, I am going to spend a full day each weekend at my cutting table, making LOTS of stock so I can do LOTS of markets in 2012. I enjoyed getting out of Sydney so much in November to go to the Braidwood quilt event, so I want to do lots more of that.

Do you have a favourite market? I'd love to hear about it, so how about we make that the theme of a new giveaway.

This giveaway is to launch my new Hexagon Charm Packs. An Australian winner and an International winner will each receive a Hexagon Charm Pack of their choice. You can see what's available now here, but I will add more Moda ranges over the coming weeks.

Plus, each winner can nominate a friend to receive a surprise present. Keep it a secret for now, don't mention any names in your comment, just let me know their details when you win and I will send them whichever Hexagon Charm Pack you think they'd like.

To enter, leave a comment telling me about your favourite market, whether that's in Australia or overseas, a quilters market, flea market or whatever. I'll draw the winners on New Year's Day. Good luck!

First quilt made from a Hexagon Charm Pack

Here's my first attempt at doing machine-pieced hexagons. I wasn't sure how I'd go with the set-in corners but they turned out to be quite easy. I think that was because of the larger size of the hexagons.


Construction was fairly easy. I joined the columns of hexs together to make vertical strips, just like you do with square charms, then I sewed the strips together. (I think I must have turned one or two strips the wrong way though, as all the florals are now clumped together.) There's a little trick to sewing the strips together. I'll tell you more about that later.

Initially I was going to add some red hexs, but I ended up trimming the sides to make the quilt square. I used just one hexagon charm pack (Ruby by Bonnie and Camille) and it ended up at around 55cm x 55cm. I used all 42 hexs in the pack, so there was absolutely no wastage.


My first attempt at free motion quilting was a little rough, as you would expect, but I'm so proud of myself for giving it a go. I think I did too many squiggles too close together so it looks a little tight and over-quilted. I think they key is to not try so hard.

Everything I needed to know about free-motion quilting I found in RetroMummy's video tutorial here. (Well, almost everything. It took me an hour to figure out how to drop my feed dogs!) I looked at quite a few other YouTube videos as well, but all the presenters just talked about FMQ, no-one actually demonstrated it.


My stitch length varied a lot as I tried to figure out the perfect speed to go at but I know this will improve with practice. I definitely need to buy some gloves like RetroMummy's, as it was hard to manouver the fabric smoothly without them.

All in all, I am VERY pleased with the fruits of this weekend's labour. I am very very tempted to start another little quilt tonight, I'm thinking of using Walk in the Woods. The large hexagons will show off the fabrics wonderfully.

New Products - Notice something different?

I am so excited, I have a new product line for you. Notice anything different about these Moda charm packs?


That's right, they're hexagonal! They are the same size as the regular square charm packs (these are 5 inches from point to point), but they are already die-cut into hexagons (with 2 1/2 inch sides).

Now before you rush off to your local patchwork store looking for them, I have to tell you that they are ONLY available here at Possum Blossom Patchwork because they are all die-cut by ME.

They're not listed in my store just yet as I've only just finished cutting this batch, but I will list them over the next week. (If you can't wait, or if you want me to cut any other Moda ranges, send me an email.)

But first, I'm going to crack open one (or two) of these charm packs and spend the rest of the day sewing. I've never machine-sewn hexagons before. Is there a trick to it? I will find out and report back to you.

I am also tempted to try some free-motion quilting, I've never done that before, but I guess I better take it one step at a time and piece the hexagons first.

Anyway, I am very very happy with these hexagon charm packs, and I can't wait for my next fabric delivery to arrive so I can make some more for you.

Escape to the country 2

It rained and rained and rained, but I had a great weekend at Braidwood. It was lovely to get out into the wide open countryside and to meet lots of friendly quilters.

I was looking forward to the Airing of the Quilts and seeing hundreds of quilts hanging from the historic buildings, but obviously that got cancelled because of the rain. I guess no-one wanted to see the Washing of the Quilts. LOL.

I was lucky enough to find a completely dry spot underneath a balcony to set up my market stall, on the corner of the main street and right outside a cafe. This is the building I sheltered under, although the photo is from a previous year. (I forgot to take my own photos!)


I'm thrilled to say my pre-cut fabric hexagons were a big hit. It makes me so happy to know that I am saving people lots of time and effort. And I think quite a few people will be getting my handmade pendants in their Christmas stockings this year.

My Mum was a fantastic co-stallholder and a wonderful B-and-B host too. Thanks so much Mum! The weekend could not have gone smoother. I'm looking forward to returning next year, and I'll make sure I allow some time to see the exhibitions.

P.S. There's a small problem with my website - I can't seem to update any information e.g. product availability. (I think this happens due to automatic security upgrades. I haven't figured out how to fix it yet.) If you want to order any fabric hexagons, can you send me a quick email at joanne@pbpatch.com.au to check they are available first.

Escape to the country 1

I'm looking forward to going to the Airing of the Quilts at Braidwood NSW this weekend. I've been meaning to go for years. I hope the rain clears up!

The Airing of the Quilts started in 1995 with a display of just 25 quilts, and now it has around 500 displayed inside and outside all over this heritage-listed town.

I might be breaking copyright by showing this photo from the Braidwood Quilters website so I'll stick to just one photo. Click here for heaps more great images of their past events.


I just know I'm going to fall in love with this place - the absolute opposite of the day-to-day demands of working in Sydney. I'll be staying at my Mum's in Goulburn (thanks Mum!) and we'll be driving down on Saturday morning to set up a market stall.

I hope it's a sunny Saturday for the Braidwood Markets because I've been clearing out my cupboards and have got boxes full of my handmade pendants and rings (made from Japanese paper), badges and brooches (made from vintage kimonos and saris) and other stuff to sell (all at special market prices). I have also been busy die-cutting more packs of fabric hexagons and paper and card templates.

The markets and the Airing of the Quilts are only happening on the Saturday (26 November) but there are other events on as well. According to the website, there's also:
- an official opening on Friday night
- a major two-day quilt exhibition and competition (indoors!) on Sat/Sun
- various open gardens under the Open Garden Scheme
- a textile exhibition of West Timorese traditional weaving, and
- a collection of vintage wedding gowns.

Wow! I'm starting to hope it will rain this weekend, so that I have an excuse not to have my market stall so that I can visit all the displays instead. Only kidding, I can't wait to see all the quilts hanging up outside on all the verandahs of all the heritage buildings. (Mum, I think we'll have to go back on Sunday to do the other things!)

There are many other craft things going on at Braidwood this weekend, not just quilting, and you can read all about them here.

I'd love to hear if you're planning on going, or if you've been before. Feel free to comment and tell us all about it. Maybe I'll even see you there!

Other things I make - and other things I am

What makes a good blog?

A funny anecdote? A structured well-written storyline? Great photos? I'm sure I'm not the first person to fall into the trap of wanting to do all these things well, then finding that their blogging has slowed down as a result.

To be honest, I didn't really intend to start blogging, although it had crossed my mind a few times. But on the spur of the moment I thought I'd give it a go, share a few of my crafty creations, and maybe get in touch with some crafters out there in the big wide world.

And what I've learnt is, a good blog is all about sponteneity, openness, generosity of spirit, and humanness. And real life.

So here's what's real for me ...

I went to a seminar on the weekend about living with Aspergers Syndrome. I figured out about two years ago that I have it, but I haven't really come to terms with it yet. I realised on the weekend that I've been telling myself "I'm only a little bit Aspergers, so if I make an effort, I will grow out of it". It doesn't really work like that, does it. There's really no such thing as just a little bit Aspergers.

It's time for some self-acceptance don't you think? Time to accept the fact that I think differently than most people, I feel differently, I even see, hear and smell things differently. I process information differently, I make sense of the world differently ... and I have my own unique contribution to make to the world.

So maybe you'll hear a bit more about AS on this blog. And you are welcome to email me if you need to talk about it.

I apologise in advance if I inadvertently over-share. Just ignore it and come back for the next post, because I guarantee you that this blog will stay 95% about craft. OK, maybe 90% about craft and 10% about me. I'm definitely not dropping below 85% craft LOL.

I'll finish off this post talking about my life-long obsession with "making something out of nothing". I previously told you about the retro-cool pencil cups that I made from floppy disks that were thrown away at work. (They were more popular than I expected and I ended up making about five dozen!)

Well here's what I made last week from some used manila folders that were thrown away at work. Die-cut Christmas decorations!
I made heaps and heaps in a quite a few diffferent colours, but I really love the folk-art simplicity of these red-and-white garlands.


The loose die-cuts are a big hit with my colleagues. The pot plants are getting baubled (paper clips do the trick) and the windows are getting snowflaked. Makes a welcome change from the tatty tinsel that we usually drag out each year.


(In keeping with the spirit of self-acceptance, I won't apologise for my poor photos.)


Here's the window next to my desk. (The dust is on the outside not the inside!) A nice contrast with the brick wall behind the window LOL!


That's all from me for tonight. It's way past my bedtime!