SIT 2011 - A Day of....

...meeting up with fellow bloggers. It's lovely to put faces to names and blogs. Look at lovely mini shops. Buy stuff. Talk about what's being made right there in front of me...see some fine stitching, applique...There was the constant background noise of happy chatter and laughter. Someone commented that my sewing machine was so quiet...but I think in truth it was drowned out by the sounds of FRIENDSHIP AND HAPPINESS!
...receiving goodies...(I'm going to put in as many links as I can, to let you go & have a look at some of the sponsors, who contributed to the excitement going around)...bag from Innergreen...

Out of this bag came an assortment of patterns from Clares Place, The Red Thread, Chasing Cottons, Jodie   - and one made especially for the day: Honey Bunny from Clares Craftroom,

Fun stuff - a key fob kit from Earth Girl and a badge from Handmade Canberra...

loads of wonderful fabrics: fat quarters, width of fabric pieces and some sweet samples from Hawthorne Threads and Saffron Craig who I had the pleasure of meeting again on the day.

...swapping: I swappped these

for these...

Thank you Michelle, Dolores, Kayscha,(who added some other goodies and chocolate that has already disappeared), Sarah, and my poor overworked brain can't remember who made the crochet roll that I am so grateful for (no more zip lock bags for these little babies!) Edit: Fiona of bee-abi made the crochet hook roll... If you know, please let me know, so I can stop dying of embarrassment and acknowledge the clever crafter...

...winning: more goodies from fabulous sponsors...Retromummy and Material Obsession . I finally got to meet Kath, who is a mutual friend of a very dear friend of mine. Somehow with the busy-ness of life I've never made it to Material Obsession, but now they've moved closer to where I live (they've WHAT? say the MaTH) and time and distance is less of a barrier...yippee!

...accomplishment: these fabrics went from a pile of strips...

 to an almost finished quilt top...

There was also a night of laughter, food and wine...

...I can't work out why there is only water at this end of the table!!!
A huge thank you to Sheridan, the amazing organiser of a 3 day long, sewing/knitting/crochet/quilting, fabric buying and classes, extravaganza.

Roll on SIT 2012!

thanks for taking a peek over the fence...

Under Pressure...

Only 6 more sleeps till Sew It Together 2011.

I've spent today finishing working on my swap items for the sample swap. Apart from having to share the sewing machine will Miss Bee, who wanted to make 2 headbands for her big sister, things that I know I can do, I just kept getting wrong.
On a good day  I can make my own double fold bias pretty quickly. Today...
...I got the direction of the lines wrong...

...I had to unpick the teeny tiny stitches because I forgot to offset the lines by one row!...

...even the seams were dodgy when I got it together!

I waaayyy over estimated how much binding I'd need, and have enough left over to make a crazy binding for the bright quilt that is in the pipeline for Minky.

...and that doesn't include the green that I still have to sew on!

Anyway, despite these annoying hitches, I'm pretty happy with how it all turned out.

This is my favourite little tool, 

 and gives the neatest corners.

Four down, 1 1/2 to go! (I had to have a sample one for myself too you know!)

thanks for taking a peek over the fence...

On Air...

A slight break in transmission occurred. Returning to normal programming shortly...

It's been hard to get a moment to catch up here. Good things have been happening though.
Here's the lovely name tag that came in the mail for the SIT Name Tag Swap.

From Rachel at The Two Windmills.

Look at that exquisite stitching...

I'm slowly getting ready for Sew It Together...I haven't finished all the goodies for the swap (I just need a full uninterrupted day... Oops...sorry hope that flying pig missed your head!)...or cut out the quilt pattern that I'm taking to start on the day. It's a pattern from Clare's Place, a Tasmanian blogger/pattern designer.
I just found out that Clare is now sponsoring Sew It Together, and is including one of her patterns in our goody bags...they are going to be overflowing with sewing goodness! Yippee!!

I went to CraftExpo yesterday (hurry if you want to go, Sunday 13 March is the last day). I did a class in Sashiko embroidery...making a coaster.

I got the embroidery finished in the workshop and I need to put wadding and sew on the backing. I don't pass the "even stitch" test, but it nice to learn a new technique. 

I'm thinking of using something like this on a mug rug for this mug rug swap I joined...turns out my partner LOVES oriental fabrics, now to work out a suitable design. MUST do the SIT swap stuff though!

thanks for taking a peek over the fence...

Name Tag for SIT

The name tag I made for Sew It Together has reached it's destination!

A bit of canny detective work by Jen and she was able to email me to say it's arrived.

I'm driving the postie and the rest of the family nuts as I wait for two parcel to come; one is my nametag and the other a blog giveaway prize.
Just realised there are only 25 days to go till SIT. I'd better get a move on with the sample swap then.

thanks for taking a peek over the fence...

*SCREAM*

Hope that didn't hurt your ears...but that's what I've did this morning when the courier arrived...um...and last week when the other courier arrived...

with this...

A gen-yew-ine CurlyPops iphone cover...I'm walking around with a *silly grin* on my face... I just LOVE it!

and this...

 The parcel that was the impulse buy ( I know - I'm a bad little Australian, but sometimes that $AUD is just too tempting!). What's making me so HAPPY is that the prints co-ordinate so well.

The are all from different collections, but they just GO together exactly how I want them to for making this pattern that I got a few weeks ago. Hawthorne Threads little fabric colour matcher works!

I've been slowly making the swap items for Sew It Together in March. The badge was mailed a day or two ago, so it should arrive at it's home shortly. I'll post a pic of the finished nametag in a day or too.

(PS sorry about the funny test post that may have appeared earlier - I downloaded that wretched windows live writer - and I still don't think I want to use it. One time I used Word 2007 to post,  thought it was brilliant and it hasn't worked since! and it's giving me the pip. I'll have to get InHouse IT Guy to look at it...)

Something for somebody...

Today I mailed something...to...somebody.

 It has some piecing and quilting, some stem stitch, a charm...

...even some paisley.

Do you wonder who I mailed it to???

thanks for taking a peek over the fence...

My Creative Space...Jaffas, Bananas and BBQ chips

 

Mmmm...I'm a bit partial to jaffas and bananas. Not just the lovely sweet taste, but the colours too - orange, brown and yellow...can you see where this is going?
Yes, I'm not just eating stuff for My Creative Space...it's more like putting the colours together...

Could this be your name tag for Sew It Together Sydney 2011???

To see some other yummy creativity, pop on over to Kootoyoo.

thanks for taking a peek over the fence...

And the Winner is...*drum roll*

...Sunnybec of Living the Dream is the winner of the "hearts table runner" from my post here and guest post here.

You were lucky 13!!!!!...an email is on it's way as I write this.

DID YOU SAY ME?
...I got distracted from drawing my own giveaway becasuse of an email I got from Toni at Make it Perfect.
I won her giveaway and the prize was a set of quilting patterns from this Clare at Clare's Place . Lovely, lovely quilt patterns.
I am going out on a limb here and saying that I am going to collect all the fabric, notions etc needed for this pattern

photo from Clares Place Blog

and I'm going to take it to Sew it Together Sydney  - how far will I get making it? Who will remember I've made this rash promise? will I chicken out beforehand?...

FLOOD AUCTION:
I bid for this fabric and ribbon that was being auctioned by Kerrie at Busy Gnomes. It arrived today and it's just gorgeous.

Kerrie included some samples of Pima cotton - I'm in love - GORGEOUS, SOFT, PRETTY fabric. I'd love to make some clothes for myself from some of the cottons. (If only I didn't make rash promises about quilting, I might have more for-me sewing time!).

Thank you Kerrie - go visit her lovely fabric site at bloom.

thanks for taking a peek over the fence...