The Neglectful Blogger

I might have to change the name of my blog, I have been so useless lately, and I have done heaps to blog about, so on with the show.

Firstly, I have secured my Fleetwood Mac Tickets, they are in my hot little hands. I am so excited, and I only have to wait 3 months! Argh. They are playing in quite small venue, that is a 6 hour drive away, but I am so there. I have two tickets. Does that mean twice the experience?

Last week saw two trips to the Hamilton Quilt and Craft Fair. This is an offshoot of the  Melbourne (Australia) Quilt and Craft fair. Two trips meant quite a bit of financial mis-management on my part, but come on, when a girl needs beads, she needs beads, and there were a LOT of beads....
Thursday saw Belinda and I shoot down after dropping the kids at school (an hour drive). We browsed, bought and tried plenty.

Here we are trying Bobbin lace. What a process. It was actually quite relaxing once you got into the rhythm of it, but the chairs we had to sit in hurt my back, so there was no way I could sit there to finish it. The lady demonstrating had a wonderfully intricate piece she had been working on for 3 years. She estimated 4 more years until it was finished. Belinda is below working on the same piece.

 

Below is our piece...

and the piece the lady next door was doing, which was lovely. She was naturally talented at this obviously.

That wrapped up Thursday. Saturday, the craft show posse turned up at 8am, and off went again, more browsing, more bead buying (seriously, you can never have enough beads) and a couple more classes I booked into on Thursday. The craft show was actually really well organised I thought. They offer lots of what they called craft circles - which were the classes you paid for, and got a wee kit to work with. The workshops were the free 'talks' basically from various stall holders plying their wares. I went to a couple of those, and will try for more next year. Helen Dafter , who is an Aussie SRE expert gave a few talks throughout the day. She was an excellent presenter, humorous, lots of samples she passed around and tips and tricks. I didn't stay for her whole workshop as I had a craft circle to run off to, which is a shame. She is on my 'to do' list for next year. To finish up this mini review of the show, I was impressed by the fact that  there was  some good deals to be had. Prices were not overinflated, especially on beads....

So here is what I did

This is a paverpol sculpture. I have long been (about 20 years) enamored with these fabric sculptures, and this was a must do one for me. You are basically using a strong PVA glue to harden the fabric. Some of their sculptures can be put outside, but i would guess there is a special ingredient to make them weather proof. I just loved the hands on messiness of this.

 

Next was this beaded pendant. Not really my cup of tea, but i wanted to learn the technique, and it served its purpose there . Apparently I was the only person to finished the entire thing . Brooke, loved this so I will give it to her .

To finish off this mega catch up post. A few more things for the shop.

First these stockings, which are custom order, so don't y'all go rushing off to buy them...though there is a similar one there in blues

 

 

So there you go. As you can see I have completed 3 out of 5 pouches to meet my weekly target, so I have some stitching to do tonight and tomorrow.