Urban Stitches Melbourne

Tiff, Wendy, Gill and Me met Vanessa and Leighah in Melbourne to attend the

2013 Urban Stitches

We had a great time!

The road trip is an event in itself...

We stopped in Hamilton and called into Hazel Greens where I picked up some Merchant & Mills supplies...

We stopped in Penshurst to eat lunch at this amazingly cool cafe that was totally decked out with retro everything...

Cafe Baghdad

This was just the 'Orange' display cabinet!

I totally want to do this at home...

Colour coded displays

It would look absolutely crazy, but such fun!

We stopped in Geelong at the Kaisercraft Outlet.

I got the things I need to make this...

This store has loads of projects to look at and is quite inspiring.

And our last stop on the way, was at Ikea...

And I found this sweet little trolley...

 And now it is mine!

It is now mandatory for the driver to stop at any second-hand/antique/junk/op-shop

seen along the way, as well as fabric and craft shops!

That was a 12hour trip from departure to arrival!

Urban Stitches
Projects

Baby Bug, Lady Bug

 

 It is supposed to be a rattle, but I made mine to be a pin cushion.

This is a new project by Melanie McNeice of Melly & Me.

 Picollo, Picollo

Picollo

This is a sweet little felt project by Simone Gooding of May Blossom.

The pattern calls for a knitted nest, but my knitting is not so good so I crocheted - or hobbled together a fabric raggy nest, whiched worked out well enough that Gill got me to make one for her... and Wendy wants one too!

Jodie Carlton's Peg Bag project - a Ric Rac pattern.

A nice one to hang in the Laundry.

Rosalie Quinlan's Sewing Compendium.

Very Sweet.

Here's Tiff working hard!

And
Ness multi-tasking,
texting & sewing!


Some of the lovely items on display.
Patterns for these sweet things were available to purchase.

May Blossom Bunny

Simones Foxy Love softies

Jodie's Map Bag


And this is fab! I love it!

Jodie's mini Laundry Mangle
What a great display piece.


Pretty Felt & Fabric 

I found a small window of opportunity in between eating, laughing and sewing
(probably in that order), to do a bit of shopping.


Pizza, Pyjama's & Pina Colada's

Saturday night we dressed down in our jammies and ate pizza and drank pina colada's, well some of us did anyway...

We played games and there were prizes!

We got into teams and made an Alfoil Handbag?

This is the one I helped make.

And here they all are together...
(photos didn't do them justice!)

And lastly some very terrible pictures of us all having a bit of a laugh...

 Oops!

Looking forward to next time!

Birds of a Feather

Birds of a feather flock together...

This little bag is one of the projects from last years Urban Stitches...

This is a Melly & Me pattern.

 

And then I made a little purse to go with it.

And I enjoyed making the little purses so I made a few more.

I am off to 'Urban Stitches' again this weekend...

I am really looking forward to it.

Road Trip

No trip to Daylesford is complete without a visit to

Ballarat Patchwork

I do so love that little shop.

It is totally full of gorgeous fabric.

I absolutely could not go past this...



Or this...

And these little bits wanted to come home with me too...

We also called in to the The Crafty Squirrel

Where I stumbled upon some wonderful things...

...

We called in to see Jo at the Elephant Patch in Creswick

and

spent a few hours stitching.

I made these little sweeties.

Nice wool off cuts to be found at Creswick Woolen Mills,

and Ribbons from Daylesford.

Also this thrifty find...

So many lovely things to found...

Daylesford Craft Experience

We have just been away to the Daylesford Craft Experience.

Here is a recently finished project from last years Experience...

Craft Clock - A Ric Rac pattern

The presenters this year were

Jodie Carleton of Ric Rac

and

Natalie Lymer of Cinderberry Stitches

Here are a couple of excellent pics of us,

taken on Kate's iPhone - at the end of the day...

The following photos are the samples of the pattern projects

we were given as part of the deal.

Firstly Natalie's Butterfly Dreams

Butterfly Dreams - Bag

Butterfly Dreams - Stitched Canvas

Butterfly Dreams - Needle Holder

Jodie's Patterns

Cafe Bag

I am going to make mine in the blue.

Robots Three

Woodland Christmas - Santa

Woodland Christmas - Tree

I have completed a Woodland Christmas set since getting home,

I decided against the tree decorations,

and I think maybe Santa needs a mouth.

Perhaps just a couple of stitches under the centre of the moue...

We also received some lovely goodies in our take home bag...

and

I won a prize...

A great fun weekend away!

 

SA Rural Women's Gathering

The 16th SA Rural Women's Gathering

Penola

2012

I have just been to my 4th Rural Women's Gathering,

They are such fun!

It was great to see other's from around the state that I have met at previous gatherings -  there is so much packed into the weekend you really can't slow down too long to have big catch ups!

Lot's of yummy food, excellent workshops and fabulous guest speakers.

Fantastic delegates bags full of goodies.

and I was rather impressed with the merino wool t-shirt we were all given by Visione - an extremely generous gift.

Prizes & Give-aways.

The 3 workshops I took part in were:

Funky Fabric Flowers, here is my creation...

Weld Your Own Rake

I was so excited about this workshop.

Turns out I am not the best at welding...

I might try soldering instead seeing as I am quite good with a hot glue gun I feel I may be a better solderer than welder - welding is hard!

You have to virtually weld in the dark

covered by a claustrophobic face mask...

Not good.

Still, I am reasonably happy with my Rake...

Which I never intended to use as a rake but...

A jewellery Hanger!

Limestone Sculpture

I have done a little bit of Limestone Sculpting before, but it is fun, so I thought I would have another go.

It is a pear.

I plan to put a metal stem in it

so it will look something like this when it is finished.

The Keynote Speaker Saturday Evening was Ita Buttrose

She is taller than I imagined her to be.

I've had a lovely weekend.