Australiasian Quilt Convention

I managed to steal an hour on the way home from work yesterday to sneak into the AQC and take a look around. And yes, I managed to spend my convention budget in that hour!

Institches of Williamstown

The stands were jam packed with good stuff and you could probably divide them down the middle between what we would class as "modern quilting" and that dusty rose Americana traditional quilting. Institches of Williamstown had a beautiful "Kellie Wulfsohn" quilt adorning the back of their stand.

In this quilt they had written
"love" in the stippling!

They had spread themselves out a bit more this year and it made a world of difference. More room inbetween stalls. Even at 3.30 in the afternoon, it was very, very busy with far too many people called Margaret there ...

I love they way they did the
thistles in this display quilt.

The Quilt Show was spectacular, I hope that as I grow older, I develop the patience to make something as spectacular as I have seen. I really should have written down who made these quilts.

I have a fascination with colour wheels,
and I just love the finishing touch
of the wreath on this display quilt.

I haven't ventured beyond a baby quilt at the moment, Tori's single bed quilt is the largest that I have worked with, but I haven't started putting that one together.

I love this black and white
"redwork" but not redwork quilt.

And yes I bought things! Mainly Japanese prints and Japanese embroidery thread. Mainly personal shopping, rather than business shopping.

I could have spent a small fortune in fabric and gadgets, but my biggest splurge was a gorgeous Japanese panel that I am hoping to sash in red linen and hang down my stair well.

Did you go? What did you get?

Tom Jones Adventures

The other day three packages arrived in my mailbox. I was truly excited as I thought that the fabric fairy had visited me again, but alas, it was only three Tom Jones CD's, of course in separate packaging.

I had forgotten all about these CD's that we were meant to get with our Tom Jones tickets back in March.

Tori's Nanna and Oma

Back in March I took Tori's Nanna and Oma to the Tom Jones Concert at Rod Laver Arena as a BIG THANK-YOU to all the baby sitting they have been doing. I work 4 day a week as a secondary school teacher and two of those days she spends with her Nanna and her Oma.

My mum was going a bit stir crazy
with all the baby sitting she had been doing!

They had been looking forward to this for weeks. We met under the clocks at Flinders Street Station, had some dinner at Federation Square and then traveled up to 'Rod Laver' Arena via tram

While waiting for a Tram, we noticed that everyone was cashing in on the concert!

When the tram arrived, the tram attendant proudly announced that our tram was the "Tom Jones" tram and a group of excited mature women piled into the tram. The trip out to the concert had people singing and talking about the type of underwear that they would be flinging at the stage. Would it be a sniper attack (g-string) or a parachute assault (size 20 bloomers).

I listened to the CD and some of the songs are certainly toe tapping, but not something I would load into iTunes. However, I do have some of his earlier stuff like "What's new pussy cat", Tori loves to hear that song!

Black Market part 2

I'm feeling quite ill today, but I need to start functioning. So a quick blog post to get my brain going is in order. First some gratuitous stall pictures from the Konstant Kaos camera.

The one thing that disappeared rather quickly was my crime scene embroidered pencil cases. You might be able to spot the black "kitchen fruit holder". Originally white, the hubby rubbed it back and re-sprayed it a more Konstant Kaos friendly colour.

People were interested in my gothy patchwork, but probably not the right audience for it. I am hoping to get a few more done in time for my next stall at the Modish Market on the 8th May.

Tori spent some time on my back in my Batty baby carrier that I made a while back.

Tori and I bought a few things from hair accessories to a lovely bracelet. But the purchase of the market, was a pre-loved wrought iron candle rack which now sits in our back room and lights up an awkward wall quite nicely!

It has been interesting seeing the reactions to the market online. It is a very casual market or garage sale which is placed in someone's backyard. There are a few of us who runs stalls for a business reason, but most of the stalls are friends selling their pre-loved stuff.

Goth Club blog did an interesting review on the market writing about how much better it would be if it was a bit more organised. But I fear that if it was, then it would not be the lovely casual event that it is.

The Black Market

The thing that I love about this market is that it is so casual. Konstant Kaos were one of a handful of commercial stalls, but it was mostly pre-loved things for sale. The marketed is targeted towards goths, punks and alternative crowds and originally came about because a few friends wanted to sell off their old black clothing and club wear

We got there nice and early and it was cold! Tori behaved particularly well for a day that was not her usual routine and lots of friends with kids rocked up and said hello. For part of the morning she was strapped to my back in my Kaos baby carrier and there was a lot of interest about that.

Thanks to Beky at Pivotal Xpressions

Both Beky from Pivotal Xpressions and Fab from Little Cooties joined me for the day with some of their products that suited the audience.

It was a good day and I found a home for my Wicked Witch bag and Decapitation bags, but then a rain storm went through and washed a lot of us out :-(

Thanks to Beky at Pivotal Xpressions

My crime scene pencil cases walked out and whilst people were interested in my patchwork, it wasn't the right time or place for it.

The Resignators played yet again. A group of talented gentlemen, if you caught them and loved them or missed the Black Market, go along and show your support their CD launch at the Evelyn Hotel on Brunswick Street on the 4th June.

Oh! and I have a lot more pictures on my camera, but I feel quite under the weather at the moment, so I thought I would use a pre-loved one from Beky's facebook!

Orb Weaver

With the warmer weather returning for a few days the Orb Weavers are out and about doing their stuff. This picture was taken at Mum and Dad's the other night.

I love the macro features on my Canon G9 ...

I was quite excited this morning to see the following fabric swatch sitting in my inbox ... almost like the universe was speaking to me!

I might grab a few metres as I fear that this one might go quickly!

Happy Anniversary Andreas

Today my gorgeous Husband and I celebrated 15 years together .. this picture was taken at some point in 1996.

Not quite sure where the years have gone, you blink and then all of a sudden it is 15 years! To mark the occasion we ducked out of town last weekend to the Healesville Hotel, sans child. We had been wanting to dine there for a while and our anniversary proved an ideal excuse.

On the way we stopped off at stopping at Rochfords for lunch and wine tasting at Oakridge Estate. Rochfords do the most wonderful cheese platter in the cafe. We have never eaten at the restaurant there, maybe next time.

Healesville Hotel has a wonderful dining room with an extensive wine selection. They also have a lovely function room which we managed to peak into the morning after. Maybe I should celebrate my 40th there ...

Then on Sunday we did the Healesville racecourse market, Yering Station farmers market and tasting, then Yarra Glen for lunch at Hardgraves Hill Brewing Company and finishing with cheese and tastings at De Bortoli's.

In our travels I managed to score a volume of the infamous Golden Hands Crafts edition (white folder) at one of the second hand shops in Healesville.

At a James Bond dress-up party many many moons ago.

So thank-you, my friend, my partner, my lover for a wonderful weekend and of course a 15 wonderful years. It has been a fun ride!

Eye Mask

Tori and I had a go at making an eye mask the other day. Filled with wheat, these eye masks can be put into the fridge and used when one has a bit of a headache ...

My model was very good at demonstrating how it might be used, unfortunately she didn't stay that way for long!

The eye mask is backed in black velvet .. I am hoping to get around to making a few for "The Black Market" this weekend.

Sunday Stash

I had some lovely fabric arrive this week, time permitting it will be turned into something wonderful for my market stall next weekend at "The Black Market" .. warning, this market isn't like the usual craft market that I attend.

If I ever get the time to sew, this is what I might do with these fabrics, I don't have much of them only a few metres combined, enough to make a few "one off's" with ...

This one is such a large and dominating print that it really needs to be on a large bag or cushion.

This print is just divine, and I want to use it on little things; wallets, journal covers or eye masks .. nice and small projects where the fabric has been fussy cut to accentuate the design.

Unlike the one above, this print is a bit spread out. I am thinking that I might use the individual prints for applique.

A dear friend sent me a fat quarter of this print and I just loved it so I found it and bought some more. The print is so complex and full of contrasts. Definately bag material this one.

Patchwork Posse

Last term I noticed that one of my students was playing Tetris in class rather than doing the Humanities work I had set her. This sparked a conversation about the following post on my blog about the Tetris Quilt.

image via Rabbit style news

I asked her if she would like to learn how to make something like this and she said yes!

So I got her to play the game (outside of class of course) and take a few screen dumps to work out a design. We worked out how much fabric she would need and then I sent her off to get fabric during the "student non attendance period" (ie. school holidays).

And today at lunchtime we have our first "workshop" at lunchtime with my sewing machine, iron and rotary cutter. Our aim is to make a cushion as a trial, providing I am not too busy, every Wednesday Lunchtime might be the goer for our Patchwork Posse ... cheesy but appropriate if you know the student.

I am going to use the "block" method. Nine squares equals a block and see how it goes. Any advice on teaching patchwork?

PS... and talking about Tetris, check out this low-tech version ... can someone in the UK buy it for me and send it to me?

Zakka start to the year

I felt I needed something to start the school year with. I love the japanese idea of Zakka, making something extraordinary out of something quite ordinary ...

I am all excited over this computer keyboard material I got through a few weeks back ... I am IT teacher after all!

So, a good opportunity to play around with my covered diary pattern again and make some more improvements to my product.

I decided to wrap around the keyboard fabric around the front of the diary.

The back of the diary has a flap that can be used as a divider or you can tuck it into the back band for a more "traditional" cover. Surprise lining inside, circuitry!

I also put some elastic on the cover to close the diary up!

I also had a strip of black canvas left over, so I thought I would try my hand at a quick bag to carry all my important book writing stuff in.

Straining a bit because there is lots of important stuff in it!

Grey over Grey

I have a handful of Kona strips that have been kicking around in my handbag for a while now ... grey, teal and fuschia.

Three glorious colours that I can't find appropriate matching monochrome prints for. Most of the prints I have found have other colours in them and for Tori's Paintbox quilt to work properly, they need to be monochrome prints. Whilst I want to finish Tori's Quilt as quickly as I can, I do want to make sure the prints I choose are fitting and look good.

Enter .. Kelani fabric online store ... I found this print .. isn't it gorgeous!

I bought a fat quarter of this fabric, I should have enough to do the blocks for Tori's quilt and maybe some other cute things! But wait ... look at all the other lovely prints by this Aussie designer, Sproutdesign.

These prints are expensive ... but how gorgeous are they!

Can I just say that unlike some other Australian Online fabric stores ... Kelani was very prompt in their delivery and the fabric was lovingly wrapped with a cute little thank-you note!

As for the subject line of the blog post, are there any other Banco de Gaia fans out there? I love listening to this music while quilting away. A friend introduced us to Banco (thank-you Mr Edwards), and in particular the album "Last Train to Lhasa" one night while sitting in car at Kangaroo Flat waiting to view a total eclipse.

Ever since then, I have loved to listen to Banco and we were at his Melbourne concert (or more specifically, performance) at the Northcote Social when we realised that we were pregant with Tori.

What is happening in Austin, Texas?

I got another Etsy order through the system yesterday. The order was going off to Austin Texas (again!). I remarked to my hubby, that it feels like every second order is going off to Austin Texas.

So decided to do some quick plotting of where Konstant Kaos ending up in the US. The process was quite simple ...

And it turns out that the east coast seems to be the most popular destination for my products. Not Texas as I first thought (boo hiss). I might add this last step to my sales procedure, "plot on google maps".

Now if I had this data in a spreadsheet .. oh the data visualisations I could do!

Mentoring

I am currently contracted to spend a few days a term at a Melbourne independent school doing some mentor work with one of their Information Technology teachers.

I took a few snaps on my lunch break ... how could I not!

Wouldn't you kill to work at a place like this every day?

Family Snaps

I just wanted to share some family snaps ...

A nice one of Tori and her Pops, Tori is getting better at her smiling.

My dad being the joker that he is .. and Nanna

Tori and her cheeky Opa!

Tori and Oma, and Tori is smiling properly (how did I manage that one?).

And then there is us ...
our little family and Mummy without her glasses.