I realised this morning that I haven’t posted about my day on Saturday helping out Nikki at Stitches.  It was busy, busy, busy!  There were three of us on the Nicole Mallalieu Design stand and we were all helping customers from the minute the show opened until about 4.15pm, when the crowd thinned out somewhat leaving each of us enough time for a quick shop around ourselves.  I have a new respect for people who work in sales and are on their feet all of the time.  I was exhausted by the end of one day!  Hats off to all of you at the show who did such a great job for five days straight.  I hope that you’re all taking a well deserved rest and putting those feet up.  I did have a ball talking about bags and bag supplies, especially the importance of using decent interfacings and wadding when making bags.  I also had a rather good time purchasing fabric from those Aussie designers I mentioned in a previous post – an early Mother’s Day present maybe?  Thanks Nikki for the best fun that you can have working!

Many of you will have read Jodie’s “rant” about attending Stitches.  Personally, I had a ball.  If I’d had more child-free time there were many talks, craft bars, and studio workshops I’d have attended – many of those free.  Yes, this year there weren’t as many exhibitors as in previous years, for a number of reasons.  But you know what?  More doesn’t necessarily equal better.  Because I am “multi-craftual” there were lots of stands that interested me.  I’m not interested in scrapbooking or beading or cross-stitch, but I’m glad that those stands were there for those who are.  It all depends on what floats your boat, so to speak!  I attend other craft/quilt shows as well, and they all have a place, but this one is definitely the best for showcasing new trends and future directions in crafting (while still having a more than healthy dose of traditionally presented crafts).  Stitches and Craft are definitely thinking creatively and are moving with the times.

On the Anzac Day weekend I did a class on free-motion quilting at Patchwork Charm.  It was great to start at the beginning, so to speak, and to practice a number of different free-motion quilting patterns in different scales.

As I discovered on the weekend workshop I did with Kellie back in February, learning something new is really exhausting!  This time I made it a little easier by using my mother’s fancy Husqvarna Viking Sapphire.  Oh, the joy of the automatic needle down feature!  Oh, the bliss of tap of the foot pedal to change the needle position!  Oh, how good was it to be able to adjust the machine speed at the machine as well as with the foot pedal!  And those bobbins seem to hold way more than the ones for my machine.

One of the other great features of Mum’s machine was the blanket stitch. I have finally completed my Material Obsession Sue Ross BOM Block 5, which was meant to be needle-turn appliqued. I secretly knew that there was no way that would ever happen, so stopped deluding myself about learning needle-turn and simply raw edge appliqued and machine stitched it instead. The same stitch was used for all my previously made blocks that needed some applique, and to finish off Block 7.

None of these blocks have been made perfectly, but I am hoping that once it’s quilted you won’t notice too much (although you might, because I’ll be the one doing the quilting).  You can see the blanket stitch better in this photo.

Mum and I had been arranging and rearranging the 7 blocks I’ve made so far trying to figure out how this quilt would eventually come together. Luckily we got a preview at the Material Obsession stand at the Australasian Quilt Convention, and it looks so much better than we could have imagined – and completely different to anything we’d come up with!  I’m so pleased that I signed up for this BOM, even though it’s been fairly difficult.  I’ve learned a great deal, and that’s what it is all about.  Thanks Kathy for running such a beautiful and challenging (in a good way) program!

Enough from me for now.  There hasn’t been much sewing or quilting going on since my father-in-law died – we’ve all been too exhausted to do much other than have early nights – so my usual sewing time has evaporated.  I’m mentally planning what I want to sew when I go to Sewjourn soon.  Hopefully it will be clothes for me – I’d like to make a couple of jackets, and maybe some tops from some beautiful modal.  How much gets done will depend on how much I have cut out and prepared in advance.  We’re going to put a curfew on ourselves this year so we don’t return from Sewjourn more tired than when we arrived!  I’m also trying to decide what projects I’m going to take along to Sew It Together on Saturday – possibly crochet, because then I can focus more on talking than if I were sewing.  I suspect that there will be a whole lot of talking going on…