Australasian Quilt Convention - Done. And a little old T.G.I.F.F.

 A couple of months ago, I googled "quilt shows".  Mr Google led me to a fabulous website HERE which gave me all the dates for craft and quilt shows in Australia this year.  I then added all the Melbourne dates to my calendar, in the hope that I would be able to get to them all!

The first cab off the rank was the Australasian Quilt Convention.  Of course, nothing goes completely to plan for me, so when Chloe decided that Tuesday night would be the perfect timing to get sick, I started panicking that I would not be able to go yesterday.  Thankfully, both my sister and husband came to the party and played tag team, so I could jump on a train in the morning and make my way to the city.  The train ride was entertaining as always - I felt like I had been transported back to 1992 with a variety of homeboys and ganstas (wannabes) riding my carriage (that sounds wrong).  We even had an impromptu dj performance - as you do.

So here are some pretty pictures from my day.....

 A wet and cold walk through Carlton Gardens to get to the Exhibition Building.  A beautiful part of Melbourne.

The line to get tickets.  Lucky I bought online the night before!

The beautiful Exhibition Buildings!

There was a beautiful display of "Quilts from Korea".  This was my favourite of the bunch.  It is called "The Beautiful" by Eun-Ryoung Choi.  She says "I intended to express many Korean traditional beautiful patterns and beauties in this quilt".  I think she succeeded!

A close up of amazing stitching.  I'm pretty sure there's hand stitching there?

Another display was the AQC Challenge: Free.  I love this one!  It's called "Free Beach" by Elaine Surmfels.  It is hand dyed background with various threads, silk and beads.  She has used thread painting, free motion raw edge appliqué, free motion quilting and beading.  "My quilt was aimed at stimulating those emotions within us.  To make people smile, feelings of being liberated, uninhibited and carefree".

The detail in this quilt is amazing.  The texture brings it to life.

The third display were all quilts by teachers.  This one is "Last Night's Left Overs" by Deborah Louie.  The colours and the fractured dresdens struck me!

Isn't it just beautiful?

This quilted portrait of quilter Margaret Rolfe drew me in.  It is quite large in size, and the colours are mesmerising.  It is called "The Quiltmaker" by Jenny Bowker.  She used traditional machine piecing, raw edged applique, free motion quilting, hand dyeing, paint applied on a quilted surface!  Amazing.

The best part about all of these quilts was when you got up close and personal with them.  The detail is very impressive.

And my favourite from the day - "Maynard" by David M Taylor.  One of the most gorgeous, unusual quilts I've seen.  It looks like a painting from afar.

And up close.  The first picture I took was inadvertently of the dog's bum!  I thought it a little inappropriate, so took another.  Millions of stitches making up for texture and shading.  Again, amazing.

This gorgeous quilt grabbed me as I rounded a corner!  It is from the "Best of the Best" display - all the quilts from around Australia, which have been awarded at quilts shows.  This particular quilt is called "In Love with Dahlia" by Sandra Aston.  It is machine pieced and quilted on a domestic machine.  This gives me much hope for the future!

Just look at those feathers!

A great part of the day was finding quilts that were made by some ladies I "know".  Well, I know of them through the Quilt Club Australia Facebook group!  This beauty is by Jill Radcliffe.  "Wheels to the West".  Hand appliqued and machine pieced.  I especially love the little triangles around the borders - they remind me of bunting!

This close up shows you just how beautifully pieced it is.  In awe.

And another of the ladies from QCA - Sheila Oaten - is the creator of this piece of magic!  "Kaffe and Kim and Me" is a beautiful version of Kim McLean's Flower Garden.  All hand needle turn applique.  Amaze-balls!

Big, beautiful Kaffe flowers!

I also sat and listened to a seminar about thread.  And needles.  I learnt quite a bit!

AND I met another lovely lady from QCA!  Norma!  Hope your hand heels quickly!

All in all, I spent around five hours there.  Five hours!  I wandered around aimlessly for about one of those hours, spent half an hour in line to get some lunch and the rest of the time pawed beautiful fabric, bought some quilting tools and generally just lapped it all up!  This lovely photo is of the most daunting escalator in Melbourne.  Parliament station gives me the heeby-jeebies!  So long and steep!

And when I got home, I unpacked my bags and found all this lovely loot!  I will show it all to you properly in my Sunday Stash post.  I'm quite pleased with my purchases.

And in breaking news - I started AND finished something today!  I told you last week that I had been invited to take part in a paper piecing bee - well, here's my first block!  Gemma is the Queen this month and her theme is Party.  You can find her inspiration board HERE.

Birthday candles for Gemma!  I used Kristy's pattern, which you can find HERE.  She is quite the clever gal!

Phew!  What a post!  I'm linking up with T.G.I.F.F. being hosted by Sew At Home Mummy!

W.I.P. Wednesday #12.....All my Geese in a row

Hallelujah for the cool change!  Whilst Melbourne has sweltered under the longest string of days over 32 degrees celsius, there has not been much sewing happening!  Some of my Ms Midge dress orders have been on hold, for otherwise I may very well have withered away to nothing.  Instead, I spent some afternoons sitting here upstairs in the air-conditioning wasting spending my time very wisely, pawing over Pinterest and blogs!  Which is what leads me to the TWO W.I.P's I managed to get going - albeit very slowly!

I pulled out the gorgeous dresden I made a few weeks ago, and put that baby to work.  She is now sewn on to a big yummy square of vacant white space, and has her first border.  I'm trying to take some inspiration from all the Marcelle Medallions I'm seeing on Instagram.  In fact, I purchased the E-book version of the Liberty Love book, however, am having major issues being able to open it.  The online book store I purchased it from is trying to help me!

I digress.  Again.  As usual.

The following day I felt compelled to make another thing I'd seeing flying around the traps.  Geese.  Flying Geese.  I used THIS tutorial. I am continually petrified by all the fabulous designs and techniques I see in the quilting world, and am equally surprised when I manage to figure it out.  So yay for me!

A gaggle of geese.  I have plans for these birds......

Then yesterday, once home from work, I decided I needed to get started on a birthday gift for a very special girl.  It was 37 degrees outside, and "only" 29 in.  So I dug out this bag of "scraps" I had, and forgot there were actually a few very big pieces (read - half yards!??!) of Terrain!  Yeh for surprises!

And I then went back to the Craftsy BOM I joined for free, and took a deep breath before diving in to this baby!  More geese!  In fact, a circle of geese!  This is my second attempt at paper piecing, and I must say, it was certainly easier than I had anticipated.  I'd only ever seen this pattern using white background, but the receiver of this gift is not a white background kind of girl!  I love the effect.  It will end up a cushion.  I still have no idea how I'm going to finish it off, as it's too small at the moment!

So that's it my friends.  Another week, another TWO W.I.P's to add to the pile!

I'm linking up with Freshly Pieced!

The Year That Was...

As I'm madly thinking of everything we I need to pack for all six of us to jump on a jet plane tomorrow, I wisely thought I should sit down and reflect on 2011.  So, here are some highlights......

*  I muddled through a very tough situation with the ex-husband.  I managed to come to a peaceful resolution in terms of where my eldest son wanted to spend his time, and how he wanted to spend it, and was very relieved that I was savvy enough to do all of the legal paperwork myself and save thousands of dollars.  It was worth the stress - as we now have a very settled, happy and content 13 year old boy.

*  Five new babies were brought in to the world, through my very close circle of friends.  I have been lucky enough to spend time with them and come to grips with the fact that I will never bare any more children myself!  This is something I NEVER thought I would be at peace with......but I am more than happy to hand the little bundles of joy back now!  I get to meet the fifth baby tomorrow, when my god-daughter to be and I lay eyes on each other for the first time - can't wait.

*  This time last year I was still very much struggling with the loss of what I thought was a very important friendship.  I am happy to say that 2011 has brought me so much on the friendship front!  Women whom I knew and liked, from an acquaintance point of view, have now become much nearer and dearer, and I look forward to our friendships getting stronger and the laughs continuing.  I have also "almost" found closure with before-mentioned friend, and have realised how absolutely blessed I am to have the amazing long-term friendships I treasure.

*  I have watched my "little boy" aka 13 year old, develop and blossom in to a teenager.  I know it's only early days, but gee I'm proud!  His first year of high school has been trying, but he has done so well.  He still drives me bonkers, but I really do like him!!

*  We had a Japanese exchange student stay with us for two weeks......and managed not to kill him!  It was a super hard lesson in communication - but it paid off for all seven of us.  The kids learnt patience, and this painfully shy and quiet Japanese boy found his voice, and showed us his personality.  Memories that will last a lifetime!

*  My youngest son went the full circle this year - at the beginning, we were worried, really worried.  He was struggling to settle in to Grade one, and his behaviour was hideous.  Through lots of meetings with his wonderful teacher and the help of a child psychologist (aka The Worry Doctor), by the third term, he was a different child.  So very proud of how far he has come in all areas of his development.

*  My husband, my amazing rock, has scored himself THE MOST amazing job!  This opportunity will surely open so many doors for us, that we dare not close them.  I am looking forward to growing as a couple, and as a family.  Today, as it happens, is our eighth wedding anniversary, so the perfect time to shout to the world - I LOVE MY HUSBAND!

*  And last but not least - I've managed to grow my little business.  What started out being a little hobby to earn some extra dollars before Christmas last year, has now built into something I certainly had never ever dreamt of!  Ms Midge is very dear to me, and I have absolutely no vision of what I would like it to be in the coming year.  What I do want, is to continue to watch it grow.  Continue to be stunned by the amazing words of "strangers", now customers, who love what I do - and are paying me to do it!  I have loved every single moment that has passed through my sewing machine.  I have wrapped the orders lovingly, posting them to all sorts of destinations over this country of ours, and am thrilled to think that there are little ones out there wearing something that I have made!  It's a privilege.

I would also like to take a second to say HAPPY NEW YEAR!  Thank you to each and every one of you who has stopped on my bloggy page.  Although you don't all comment, I can tell you've been here!  For all of you who do take the time to leave me a comment - Thank You.  Your words are like gold!

My beautiful Melbourne - fireworks on NYE.

Have a safe and most of all FUN New Year's Eve!  I will most likely not have time to check in here for the next 8 days.......I will either be too exhausted from all the theme park hopping on the Gold Coast, and the ghastly fact that the sun rises oh so much earlier there!  Wish me luck. xxx

Why I don't (generally speaking) drink alcohol.....

Because I am currently sitting in front of this computer with glazed over eyes, and would like to go and crawl in to bed!  I have blisters the size of ten cent pieces on my toes from inappropriate footwear.  My bank account is a little less flush......

I honestly do not understand how people can drink regularly, copius amounts of alcoholic beverages, and function like a normal human being?  How does that work?

I went out with a wonderful bunch of girlfriends last night, to celebrate the impending marriage of one of the girls.  I knew it was going to be a big night, based on past experience.....the last hens night we had as a group, we "retired" to our apartment room at approximately 5am......and it was not a pretty sight a few hours later when we wandered down to a local cafe for must-have greasy breakfast.  Last night was not as late, but I think I may have consumed more vodka this time round!  Add to that I stupidly decided to wear high heels instead of my comfy silver sandals - and you have one weary mumma today.....

The greatest part of being out?  We are all Mummies, with young kids - some of them only months old.  So to let our hair down and shake our proverbial booties, is a rarity - and an absolute scream of a time!  I never laugh as much as I do when I'm out with them, nor act as stupidly and much less than my age!

I've said it before here, and will say it again - Friends......love them!

What I LOVE about Melbourne

Amongst millions of other things, what I LOVE about Melbourne is the visual changing of seasons.  I can still vividly remember the long drive from the Gold Coast to Melbourne just a little over 21 years ago, when my Mum and Step-Dad decided a move was in store.  I was 15, and we piled all we owned in to a moving van, and Mum's hilarious Blue Datsun and started on a journey that ended in rural-ish Woori-Yallock.  Yes, that is the name of a place!

The thing I remember most from that drive, apart from the many toilet stops - for our pet chihuaha - was the crossing of borders, from New South Wales to Victoria.  It was mid-year, and I don't think I had ever really seen a true Autumn tree!  The colours were brilliant - oranges, reds and all kinds of gold and browns!  I was mesmerised.

So the fact that my children came in a couple of weeks ago and pointed out to me that Spring must be close, was really lovely.  My youngest son dragged me to the back door so I too, could witness this:

Our divine Plum Tree!

This is an amazing and huge Plum tree.  It is the most spectacular sight this time of year, and as its leaves turn to a brilliant green, it fills our yard with amazing shade during the warmer months.  And just to add to its brilliance, a beautiful old Wysteria winds its way through to bring lovely hues of blue and purple.  But it also becomes the bain of my life during Summer, when it fruits.  I am officially the only one in our family of six who actually eats plums!  So our Summer is spent raking up half eaten - by the birds and our dogs - plums, which then rot in our bins.

But back to the good bit!  I love that my beautiful city of Melbourne brings us such obvious signs of the changing seasons.  Because quite frankly - the temperatures do not reflect the seasons at times.

Welcome Spring - you are a sight for sore, and cold, eyes!  What do you love about your City or Town?