Twas a Bonanza indeed!

The Thornbury Craft Bonanza returned to my house yesterday (not really in Thornbury I know).

Bev bought over these delicious cupcakes that she made using the Chocolate Fudge Cake recipe from Homemade - The Handmade Help Recipe Book.

Liesl bought over her soon to be prize winning scones - good luck with getting the scones to the showgrounds today Liesl!

I spent the afternoon whipping up a couple of adult sized crazy chefs hats.

Bev and Anna are going to wear them at the official launch of Homemade - The Handmade Help Recipe Book.

But first, we had to test them out, just to make sure that they could withstand the pressure in the kitchen.....

Serena doing an impression of the Swedish Chef from The Muppets!

Me - all chef hatted out (can you see my new curtains in the background)?

Bev selling the Cookbook
Bec looking like she's disco dancing....

....and Annabel who managed to colour co-ordinate the chefs hat with her t-shirt...clever girl!

Now why didn't we get a silly photo of Liesl in a crazy chefs hat????

We all missed Cathy who was sick in bed today..... can't wait 'til the next one girls.

Sewjourn Show and Tell

Today I have a little show and tell of projects made on the weekend at Sewjourn. This is not a fully inclusive list - I was far too busy eating and sewing to take many photos, and of the photos that I did take, half are blurry!

Liesl finished off this lovely coat for her mum, and I finished off my Day Bag for me. I'll take some photos of all of the extra features that I included later in the week.

I whipped up this Seekers apron for Ms L. She bought the tea towel at the Seekers Concert a few years ago. I bought the black fabric with stars from the local patchwork shop in Lancefield. It wasn't exactly the print that I was looking for, but it works perfectly with a tea towel for a musical act.

I also whipped up a little drawstring bag from a scrap of zoo fabric. I forgot to take drawstring cord with me, but luckily Liesl had some on hand to finish it off.

Cathy whipped up a sweet little pink Burrito... he just needs a bit of stuffing

Bev finished off her quilt top (sorry about the blurry photo) - the applique is beautiful when it's not blurry.

Bec made this quilt top from scratch using her favourite chenille (or channeeeeeeeal in an aussie twang)

She even thought she deserved a halo after finishing off this little zippered purse...

Annabel whipped up this quilt top from scratch in lovely soothing blue and greens

The one thing that we forgot to do, was to tape our ad for Janome - once we'd all unpacked our machines Friday night, we realised that there were 6 Janome sewing machines and 2 Janome overlockers on the table.
Serena arrived on Saturday with an Elna which was obviously upset with the balance of the universe in the room, as it proceeded to break down..... poor little Elna!

The Rules...

What happens at Sewjourn stays at Sewjourn....

There was a lot of eating and drinking and merriment..... and even some sewing in-between

I think we all really liked Tinniegirls dessert

A huge thankyou to all of the lovely ladies for making it such an enjoyable weekend away, and to Cathy for organising, and especially for schlepping my ten tonnes of luggage and sewing supplies in and out of the car!

It's Tuesday and I can't wait.....

......to pack my bags and head to Sewjourn for the weekend with some of the lovely Thornbury Craft Bonanza ladies.

With only 3 sleeps to go, the excitement is mounting. I'm making lots of lists so that I don't forget any of the necessary items (especially a chocolate stash).

The hardest thing is trying to decide with crafty projects to take. I'm the queen of the quick and easy project - I get bored with anything that takes too long, so I need to make sure that I have plenty of things to chop and change with.

Head on over to Buttons by Lou Lou for more Tuesday can't wait!

I'm having problems with my Telstra Wireless internet at the moment - especially at night. I couldn't comment on any blogs lastnight - I just kept getting page load errors, so sorry if I haven't said hello!

The Wonky K and the Loot Glorious Loot Grand Finale

I suddenly remembered yesterday morning that I hadn't organised a mothers day pressie for my mum, so a quick flick through the ever mounting stash, and I found that I still had some of this lovely kitchen themed fabric that I received from Ingrid, and insulbright from Liesl.

So I whipped up a quick potholder and quilted (very haphazardly) a very wonky K.

I hope she likes it!

Then yesterday afternoon, all of the lovely Thornbury Craft Bonanza ladies came over to visit.

Liesl arrived bearing Loot! This beautiful tealight candle housewarming pressie with a battery operated candle (perfect for me because then I can't burn the house down)!

There was a bit of sketching, cutting, collaging, sewing, quilting, brooch making, crochet... I think we ended up convering nearly every category of craft over the afternoon - all washed down with lovely crafty conversation and yummy food. There was also planning for our upcoming crafty weekend away at Sewjourn!

PS - I'm not sure who left behind an entire packet of unopened tim tams but thankyou!

Serena took Charles and Di off to their new home in her kitchen, where I'm sure they'll be very happy...

Now, I'm off to have a cup of tea and one of Liesl's leftover cupcakes...

Eye Spy..... a new development

Yesterday was another lovely day out at Amitie Upstairs for the Thornbury Craft Bonanza. I didn't really have anything crafty planned to do for the day, so I put my hand up to help Bev with some quilts that she was putting together for Handmade Help.

I have never ever tried to make a proper quilt, and I've never ever tried hand quilting.


This is as far as I got....... but, my new development is that I actually enjoyed it. I'm usually the queen of the quick (less than two hours) and easy (meaning machine sewing) project, but in the last week or so, I've actually been craving for some sort of craft where I can snuggle up on the couch and relax and watch telly. The best bit about hand quilting is that you can snuggle up with the quilt while you're stitching. Who knew it could be so relaxing? Ok, so you probably all knew that already, but I didn't.... I'm such a duffa!


Here are all the girls hard at work


and Anabel modelling her quilt

Bev made delicious Zucchini and Cinnamon cake...

and Sharon made delicious Carrot and Walnut cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting (so I bet you can guess what I had instead of lunch)!

We finished off with a lovely dinner (albeit a bit noisy) in Black Rock.

For those that know me, no I don't eat seafood.... I actually forgot to take a photo of my own dinner!

Thankyou Christina for this weeks Eye Spy theme and to our lovely hostess Cindy.

Pretty Purses

I had a lovely day at Nikki's Purse Making Class yesterday. It's always fabulous to come home with a finished project after a class. I couldn't resist making a pink purse for all for me!

A WIP shot of some hammering action....

It's always great to combine lovely people, lovely crafts, and lovely food and drink too.

Belinda couldn't make it but we ended up with five gorgeous purses.

Left to right - Cathy, Annabel, Serena, Bev, Moi

Thanks for a great day Nikki and thankyou Cathy for organising everything for us!

Crisis averted!

Phew... I've re-stocked, so all is well in CurlyPops Land once again...

I'm off to Nikki's Purse Making Class today with Big Cat, Project Incomplete, Reenie-Sue, Taccolina, & Bellgirl. It's going to be a fabulous day out. I just need to pack my bag and off I trot!

Paper + Glue + Lino + Paint + Food = Fun

I had such a lovely crafty day out today...the time absolutely flew past and before we knew it, we'd cut and printed and painted and glued and eaten lots of yummy food, and then it was time to pack up and make our way home......

I managed to finish two small lino cuts..... the first with some flowers and leaves (of which I've completely forgotten to take a photo) and the second is this star print. I clearly need to work on the amount of paint I'm putting on the print!

Thess are Serena's mushroom and bunny prints (using ezycarve printing blocks)....they didn't work so well with paint but they're fabulous with ink.... hopefully she will have time to post some photos tomorrow.

There was a bit of doiley painting action happening..... and Cathy made some absolutely divine collages (no photos yet...not quite finished)

and another lovely flower lino print and a couple of gorgeous mini collages by Serena...

....potato print on calico by Juddie (not a great photo but this looks fab in real life). I missed getting a photo of Juddie's print cuts...she made a beautiful christmas bauble using ezycarve printing blocks...

We had the most amazing home made pizza for lunch...yum!

This is a sneaky peek of my work in progress collages. I'm going to finish them off tomorrow.

Thankyou so much Cathy for letting us bombard you and your house with all of our crafty mess...and thanks to Ms L for putting up with us too (he he he)!

And I should have included a Smencil link in my last post!

Packing

Blue skies and sunshine..... check
Lino.... check
Lino Cutters.... still need to find
Canvasses.... check
Banana Muffins.... check
Paint.... check
Paper/Wallpaper..... still need to find
Scissors.... check
Varnish.... check
Box of op shop gold.... check
Smencil.... check
Petrol..... get some on the way
House sparkling for todays inspection..... well sort of check

Fun... check check
Laughter... check check
Lots of Crafty Girls... check check
Can't wait to get there!

On My Desk.....on a Wednesday

On My Desk today is:

• Some beautiful morning sunshine
• My lovely journal from Serena
• Brooches and tags for The CurlyPops Shop
• Bib patterns to send to Serena and Juddie
• a bottle of varnish

Don't forget to go and visit Kirsty for more on my desk loveliness....

The Big Cat Bonanza!

I had a lovely crafty day out at the 'Thornbury Sewing Bonanza' courtesy of the very generous Cathy and Ms L. It was great to catch up with Serena again and to finally meet Sherrin and Juddie...

We began with a table full of scrumptious food (photo here on Cathy's blog).... and we ate and we chatted and we laughed, and in between, we actually did some sewing too!


... and with some help from Serena, and a zipper foot courtesy of Juddie, I managed to sew my first zipper...yippee!


I made this little zippered pouch which is fully lined (the lining is actually a bit too big but it's not bad for a first attempt). Sherrin made a lovely denim zippered pouch too ....great photos here.

I didn't get photos of everybody's creations...but luckily the hostess with the mostest did!

I also managed to bring home some of Cathy's textured canvasses to hang on the wall in my half craft room / half spare room..... and some of Ms L's choc chip biccies (which I'm going to have for brekkie in the morning)

....and I had soooo much fun that I came home a little too late to go to the supermarket, so the cat is getting lemon pepper tuna for dinner!