some great finds for my class

In July next year I am teaching at National Quilt Symposium in Taupo. I am teaching my journal class, my free motion machine and hand embroidery class and an embellishment class. (the link is at the top of my blog on the right hand side)

I have started looking for exciting bits and bobs to take with me for my students to use. I found a whole card of this pretty lace and it will take dye well.

I also found this fabric which will make the best ever covers for journals! Isn't it gorgeous?

I think I may have to think about making goody bags for my students.
Have you ever attended a class and been given a goody bag? What sort of things were in it? And how many things were in it? I'd love to know if you have time to leave me a comment!

Carole x

A brand new Singer sewing machine...

photo by Nathalie

I'm the new owner of a brand new 'old' Singer sewing machine!
You might remember the QB5 girls are doing a zine challenge at the moment and my zine has been visiting with Nathalie. I thought I might show you a peek at the page that Nathalie did, what do you think? Isn't it FANTASTIC!!

Nathalie has more on her blog and you can visit her here...... take a look and let her know just how darn clever she is!

Thanks Nathalie!
Carole x

making old and vintage

I've taken lovely brand new fabrics and have been busy making them look old and vintagey looking for a project.
Mmmm, I think I'm nearly there.

Carole x

A snail mail pick-me-up

As you all know, I recently had a special girls weekend away with my daughter. We went to Hamilton, (about 7 hours drive north of where I live, for those not in NZ). I got to go to the Craft and Quilt Fair and then we drove to Auckland where we got to have cuddles with the new grandbaby, and see all of the kids and attend the Vintage Textile Fair where I Shane and I met up briefly. I got to visit with my grandfather who had no idea who I was, and stay a night with my parents. We had a lovely time.

However, what I didn't tell you, was that on the way home my car broke down. And if that wasn't bad enough, it broke down a second time for the very same reason. So it spent time in a garage twice during our trip resulting in us missing our stay in Taupo at the hot springs, and costing me a whopping $1,000.

And what's more the car was booked into the garage at home on the Friday after my return to have a new cambelt and water pump put in which cost another $1,000. I had a very depressing week last week as you can imagine!

But then in the mail on Saturday I discovered a package sent from America full of vintage laces, buttons and cotton! WOW! The laces were tatty and some were torn, just the way I like them, and some were stained, and I like them like that too.
My lovely lace merchant knows what make me happy.

I am so thankful for my friends, they listen to my troubles, they tell me about theirs, together we halve the load. They have the ability with very little effort to brighten an otherwise depressing day and they are capable of inspiring and motivating me.

They are so much apart of me.

Thank you. xxxx
Carole

Okay, so you do have odd collections, but...

...do you have a collection as weird as this one? I doubt it. Why on earth I would be collecting all the old plastic cotton reels I have no idea.
I chucked them out!!
How liberating! haha

Carole x

A few purchases...

Of course those of you who know me will know that I couldn't visit a craft fair and a textile fair without making a small purchase or two! My first purchase was some hand dyed muslin, lovely colours!

And just a couple of fat quarters! Very restrained. And then there were so many things to see at the textile fair that I had to be very very very restrained! LOL

Forty meters of rick rack, just what every girl needs. :)

A small purse sized tin with a few wooden cotton reels inside. It's a perfect size for popping in your bag with scissors, cotton and fabric.

A little pink crocheted coin purse that will just fit my coffee cards and a few coins.

And the most exciting purchase was this hand stitched framed landscape. All done in dark burgundy thread, it matches several landscapes I already have. I love these old works. Beautiful in their simple way.

Yes I know, you are probably thinking I have very odd tastes! But that's me.
I'm wondering what you collect that's just a bit odd?

Carole x

And this was the highlight of my weekend...

My wee granddaughter Neve. Here she is at 10 weeks, isn't she the cutest wee thing? She was wide awake for this visit and we got to have loads of cuddles.

Hope you all have a great weekend, I will be working in my sewing room to try and restore some order! lol

Carole x

you'll be wondering...

Our weekend is now but a memory but what a memory!
The Craft Fair and Quilt Show in Hamilton was great, so much to see.

And then the Vintage Textile Fair in Auckland. There was so much to touch and sort through, and so much to fall in love with!

And I managed to catch up briefly with Shane which was fun, but way too short.Sorry we couldn't have spent more time together, maybe next visit?

Lots of lace and linens, not always that cheap either. I had to be very strong.

So many people pushing to see what exciting things are on offer. But I think one of my favorite stalls had to be this one. Lots of vintage American quilt tops.

All from the 1830's and 1840's, all sizes, all stitched by hand. And all made from Feed sacks.

Apparently the farmers wives were always looking for fabric to sew with, and now and again used the feed sacks. Then someone discovered that if the sacks were made with more colourful fabrics, when the farmer had finished with them they were in high demand by wives for making quilts.
These are what all the reproduction fabrics are based on.

On Monday we were lucky enough to experience $12 Scallop night at Iguana in Hamilton.

The scallops got delivered to my table and I cooked them myself on a very hot stone. Melt in the mouth!

Back soon to show you the best part of the weekend......

Carole x

a girls weekend....

I'm going on a girls weekend!

And I'm going with my daughter.

We are going to a craft fair and a vintage textile fair 

and

we're going to visit my grandbaby again!!!

See you after the weekend xx

of course you all have one of these on your window, right?

Well if you haven't then you should! LOL All good stitchers have one.

I don't have a light box, can you tell?

It will end up having a very close relationship with this lovely vintage fabric :)

Are you all busy stitching?

Carole x

inspired by the humble daisy

I'm inspired by the humble daisy. It's always out making the best of every day, head held high, bright and sunny.

Have you ever looked at the plain and unassuming and seen just how darn interesting it really is?

Next time you're out and about, take your camera and look at things from a different angle.

You'll be amazed by what you actually see.

And when we look at one thing in a whole different way, it can be very inspiring!

Hope your weekend has been an inspiring one...

Carole x

I'm back!

I'm back!
I know, I've been a bit quiet of late, but it's been so miserable here with constant rain and grey gloomy days. It takes all my effort just to get up in the morning and go to work. It certainly doesn't inspire any creative goodness! I have been spending a lot of time in front of a lovely fire, reading and writing.

But today, well today is Friday and I have the day off work. And to add to this today is fine. Yes, fine. A gloriously sunny day with the bluest of blue skies. So it's time to put the book down and put my gumboots on and go for a walk outside. Wanna come?

The spring bulbs are a riot of colour, thousands of them, the smell is divine. In an attempt to bring Spring inside I now have daffodils in every room of the house, even the smallest :) They bring a smile to my face!

Blue on blue!

 

Wow, the plum tree is loaded with blossom! The smell is heady and the bees are working overtime.

Even the apricot tree is promising lots of fruit this summer, yay! And there are a few satsuma mandarins still left on the tree, the last of the season so they should be super sweet.

I'm leaving mud puddles all round the garden and it's flicking up all over my trousers! Arrgggg!

I'll leave you with some spring happiness and I'll be back soon, I promise!
Hugs
Cx

what do I collect?

I was asked to fill two pages in a zine on what I like to collect.
So I sat back and thought about this, probably because I was asked to create inside the boundaries of two pages of a paper zine.
The first problem is that I'm not into collage, paint, or paper and I struggle to work in these mediums.
Of course I can, but I prefer not to, and I like to challenge myself to not work in them.
The second problem was that I probably could've filled way more than two pages with thing I like to collect!

So here goes with a few of my favourite things and what better way to add them to the page than in free motion stitching!

I've completely taken ownership of the zine page, hope you like it Nathalie!

Carole x

being creative in the kitchen

It's my daughter Traci's 27th birthday today, and we've both taken the day off work to spend together. But I thought I should make a special birthday cake for her this year, so I attempted to make a Red Velvet Cake.
Amongst the ingredients it has 30ml of red food colouring in it and 2 desert spoons of cocoa, and 6 eggs, and made a rather large cake! I used 3 tins and everything was going well until I tried to get them out of the 'well greased tins' and you can guess what happened next! (of course the name of my blog gives it completely away!!)
Anyway they stuck to everything including the tin, one cake broke completely in half, one cake split in half, half sticking to the tin and half coming out, and one almost came out ok, but left a chunk in the middle stuck to the tin. You can imagine by now that I'm being very good natured about all this!

But once the icing had gone on, you couldn't tell any difference. Doesn't it look gorgeous? And of course it has to have birthday bunting! lol

The best thing was that Traci loved it! And my it did taste good! The frosting in the layers and on the outside was made of cream cheese and white chocolate, mmmmmmmm!!!!

However, as nice as it tastes, I'm not sure that I will make another on any time soon!!

Gotta go, cake's waiting!

Carole x

Here is the link to the recipe I used. (for those brave women amongst you!)