Sewjourn Experience August 2010

On a cold, wet and windy Friday (aren’t we all pleased to be having a REAL winter for a change?) five friends ventured forth for their second visit to Sewjourn, full of anticipation and excitement.

 After fully loading the car (how can 5 women have so much STUFF?!) we set off down the freeway, first stop Gisborne to visit Lorraine at Quilter’s Bazaar and Mary at Drapers of Mount Macedon.  Several packages later (which we weren’t quite sure would fit in the car) we lunched at a lovely café and then headed off to Lancefield …….. except the sign at the freeway said Romsey straight ahead so we thought, let’s bypass the freeway and go to Lancefield via Romsey.  Well that was the only sign we saw (VicRoads please note, we need more signage!).  After the third road we tried led off bitumen and onto gravel it was time to get out the tomtom – and thank goodness it was available otherwise we’d still be traveling backroads!  Tomtom led us on a delightful tour of Mount Macedon through mist and rain, and then Sewjourn was in sight.  On the way we saw four rainbows and a fifth after arriving at our destination.   A good sign for our weekend away.

Because of the weather, we’d already allocated tasks, number 1 being Karen “light the fire”, number 2, Vikki “put the kettle on” and the rest of us unpacking.  We soon had a blaze going and settled in for a cuppa and some sewing.    Off to the pub for dinner and back for more sewing and dvd’s.

Saturday morning most of us spent sewing, and Vikki headed off to the Antique store.  Just as we were starting to worry she came back full of the sights seen, prompting a visit there in the afternoon.  (Don’t worry Phil, there won’t really be a truck pulling up on Thursday filled with Kaye’s purchases!)

 Then dinner and several dvd’s later, Meredithe headed off to bed leaving the others to wonder over the fate of the nation’s election results.

A beautiful, blue sky morning Sunday and after a slow start, more stitching, more dvd’s, one nanna nap by Meredithe after a late lunch (she saw the start and finish of a dvd, but what happened in between???), a quick clean and pack up.  We left feeling refreshed and relaxed, but wishing to stay for at least a week.  Thanks Jan for making your wonderful retreat available – we just love staying!

 Helen’s beautiful embroidery.

Kaye’s appliqué, inspired by a Robyn Falloon project.

Karen’s stunning William Morris on black

Vikki’s gorgeous ode to William Morris for her daughter and son-in-law’s wedding present.

Meredithe was hand quilting (and still is hand quilting……)

Sunday’s lovely morning weather – it rained later.

We love the new look stork!  Very fashionable!

 Our delicious lunch

 Kaye spoilt us all with a not-so-edible but just delicious cup cake pincushion each.

…………from the Mindil Market

…………for the Crotcheted Room at Sewjourn

This quilt hangs in the foyer of the Peterborough Town Hall and was done by the local patchwork group to commemorate 100 years since federation.  It depicts the local area and is accompanied by a great audio commentary.  It took 1700 hours to complete all 3 panels.

This is what the new walking shoes look like today.  But we are off for 11 weeks camping around the Northern Territory and the Kimberleys so not sure they will look this clean for long.  Mal has long service leave and the girls are taking the term off school…….Ella is in grade 6 so it seemed like a perfect time to have an extended family holiday.  It’s been a bit crazy around here lately getting everything packed and ready to go so apologies if you are waiting on a reply to an email or booking request……hopefully I will get onto it in the next couple of days.  I have wireless internet access (thanks Kellie!!) so will be contactable as long as there is coverage!  Not sure how good the access will be in most places so I may be reading your blogs but not commenting.

Whilst we are away there will be occasional posts on this blog…….some crafty discoveries or some guest posts from crafty peeps who stay at Sewjourn over the next 3 months.  Meanwhile if anyone wants to follow our travels I will be posting over here.

Meanwhile, this is what we’ll be living in….

Ciao!!

Maybe it’s because the ducted heating is playing up and they realised how cold it was outside.  Or maybe it’s just because the kind crafty peeps at Sewjourn last weekend felt for the poor stork who has to sit amongst the prickles day in day out.  Or maybe they just wanted to let future guests know they’d been there.  Or maybe the scarf was meant for themselves but they read the pattern wrongly. 

Whatever the reason – the stork is the lucky one!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/24938442@N05/4782809546/

Question is – who is the clever crafter?

Finally it’s my turn!!  For the past 12 months I’ve been participating in Around the Block – a swap with some amazingly talented girls.  We’ve done circles and wonky logs and stars and squares and wonky houses and zigzags and lots of other fun blocks.

A couple of the girls who were in the early months have finished their quilts – and they are AMAZING.

Anyway, now it”s July and that’s my month.  So, using some of the fabrics from America and some from my stash I’ve packaged up 15 bundles and handed them over to the postman for safe keeping.  A couple are already with their crafty guardians who I’m sure will look after them and turn them into something beautiful before sending them back.  Actually the whole process of deciding what I wanted everyone to do, writing directions, choosing fabrics and cutting (how much to send??  I’m sure I’ve sent too much but at least people have a choice what to work with) took a lot of time. I’ve already made a few blocks using the feature fabrics from the new range so now I just to wait patiently until my blocks start coming back home.  I’m thinking the quilt will be for the Princess Room at Sewjourn.

After the business end of the trip to America we had four lovely days of shopping and sight seeing.  Before I left home I was told by one of the ladies staying at Sewjourn about a textiles exhibition  at the Russian Museum in Minneapolis.  So one day I jumped on a bus and trekked to a different part of town and visited the museum.  What a fun morning!  I got to see parts of town that I would not have been to otherwise…….and what a gorgeous exhibition!  For much of the time I was in the exhibition hall by myself so I could just stand and absorb all the beautiful work.  The photos I took aren’t that great because of course it was no flash photography but there are some more photos on their website.

(The blue sky in this photo reminds me of the gorgeous weather we had in America – nice to think of in the midst of a cold Melbourne winter!)

I enjoyed wandering through the rest of the museum as well……some nice paintings and some amazing lacquer work.  Thanks for the tip off Yvonne, it was one of the highlights of my trip.

My girls go to a small school and we had our first School Fair on the day of the last State Election (we are a polling booth).  Well four years rolls around pretty quickly so we are in the full swing of preparations for November this year.  But this time we decided to run a number of craft nights throughout the year.  And so far they have been great!  Each time the room has been buzzing with enthusiasm, ideas and laughter.  They have been more than just craft nights.  Not only have they been productive but they’ve been great for community building as well.  It’s been fun to have time to sit down and chat with friends and there’s been opportunities to meet Mums that I didn’t know.  That’s one of the things I love about craft – they way it brings people together.

So far we’ve done some beading, card making, basic sewing and made some calendars.

I’ve gotten a few ideas from Jenny who ran a very successful stall at her primary school’s fete earlier in the year.  But does anyone else have some ideas or inspiration for quick and easy items to sell at a fete??  I’d love to hear them.

Winter can get cold in Lancefield………but at least the stork will be warm.

the stork all set for winter, originally uploaded by [Suse].

Well, it had lots of things in it that I really didn’t want to lose but……..it also had my FABRIC PURCHASES!!!  And yes my bag did eventually turn up in Melbourne, and yes I know it’s taken me a while to stop falling asleep at 8pm and to get back to writing a blog post, and yes someone has been prompting me to share my purchases so here goes………

Here’s my bundle of fabric – some from our day trip on the first day and some from the Sample Spree

The whole bootie including some voile intended for curtains in Daughter No. 1′s room, but now not sure…..

It’s A Hoot by MoMo for Moda……the Around the Block  girls will have some of this coming their way soon……my month is July – YAY!

And there might be a spattering of this in there as well.

And in the closing minutes of Sample Spree I discovered this and couldn’t resist – the colours match my ‘sewing room’ (AKA ‘junk room’ or ‘front room’) so well!  And it’s gorgeous just rolled up like this so if it takes a while to make the quilt then at least it will look good in the meantime…)

And then there were these other goodies fromSample Spree (sorry about the por quality photo).  My favorite is the Kaffe Fasset umbrella….but of course I couldn’t take it on this  day because it was a bit muddy!