It's a cool sunday morning, Playing some Crosby, Stills, Nash + Young on vinyl, and cleaning up the aftermath of a week of heat and torpor. But as promised i have many pics to show from the class at Amitie yesterday, which was a resounding success due to the fantastically enthusiastic and super industrious stitchers! My how they went at it! As you can see all the blocks are diverse and totally unique, and once the process is comprehended there's no boundary's to what may be created. Check out their report card:
Justine's excellent four (!) blocks: Extra-ordinary use of colour and scale of prints: A+
Mindy's gorgeous trio: Delicious mix of fabrics, with a clever use of graphics: A+
Lucy's bold Graphic: For a first-time sewer(ever!), totally fearless, top result : A+
Emma's beautiful 6 blocks: Prolific, vivid colours and great attention to detail: A+
Anne-Marie's fiery 3: Clever use of strong colour palette, a striking design: A+
Hilary's brilliant Duo: Wonderful use of blue, punctuated with red: beautiful aesthetic: A+

I look forward to seeing the end results and for those of you interested I'm sure Jenny will timetable more classes for Gee's Bend-ers.

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And to top of a busy day, a gang of Mixtape enthusiasts gathered at Amitie for a lovely afternoon. We sewed, we ate, we chatted! Some Shopped.....always tempting. By far a really great mix-together. There was even some book-love sharing, thanks to Kirsty.
No Photo's here yet, those present may have go it together! Try Justine, Nic, Fi, Kirsty, Kitty, Steph, Holly, Beverly, Leslie, Sharon....... Well done Team Mixtape, another fun time!

Already the new year week has gone.....

So the new year is already one week old..... and we're back from the beach, (15 of us, aged 2 years to 52 years). 8 days of sunshine and rain, togs and gumboots, food, food and more food, cranium versus balderdash and plenty of rest, reading and red wine. Nothing like some ocean + bush to put things into perspective, (they're so big, me so small).

It's not all business as usual back on the home-front, here's a brief rundown of whats looming on the immediate horizen:

*Making 25 flags for Lilyworld, B.D.O., using an overlocker and silk for the first time, not as tricky as i suspected. (but man-o-man, the frayed threads are from one end of the house to the other...!)

*Preparing for a class at Amitie, my first as teacher. Inspired by the quilts of Gee's Bend we'll be exploring the no-rules block construction recipe!. Now, if you're anything like me, some quilt ideas seem so conventional, complicated and rule-centric that i feel defeated before i've even started! Not so with Gees Bend. It's a very satisfying approach, experimental, quick to construct and great for first time quilters. In a nutshell: exploration + process = design ...or something smart like that. Justine has signed up (and if she brings me an apple i'll give her an elephant stamp!) Go check it out at Amitie, (a really big work space plus lots of great fabric inspiration) Plenty of elephant stamps for all!

*sewing up some skirts, simple and quick i hope.
*finishing a quilt for above class...eek!
*quietly woo-hooing to 1 year of blogging!
* making a 2nd Christmas fruit cake cos the first was so good and was gone in a week!
*reading the Thrift Book by India Knight. Lots of good reading here, a nice reference to this clever person and even a section on emotional thrift...Right on!