Extravagance

Oh dear - I have the man-flu and it's bad. I was going to go on a couple of walks in the bush this weekend, and swim tomorrow as usual, but all that is off now. I am just going to wallow in my own misery and eat dry toast and drink lots of tea, all preferably made by someone else.

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On Wednesday I flew to Sydney to see the Craft and Quilt Fair. And then 12 hours later I flew back home.

As most of you have worked out by now, quilting is my first love, But I have been out of the loop for so long I was risking being left in the dark ages with techniques and new fabrics! I haven't been to a quilting class in years, and earlier this year I was so busy with work that I didn't find time to rejoin Canberra Quilters, and now I can't enter anything in the quilt show (not that I would have had anything to enter ...)

So going to this show was sheer extravagance, especially given that I'm not working at the moment, but it was also a bit like quenching a really terrible thirst. Thirst hereby quenched - mission accomplished.

I went to the Material Obsession stand and gasped over their Harperville quilt, but didn't buy it until late in the afternoon. I couldn't stop myself, and neither could my credit card.



And before you think it's just "any" old quilt, let me show you what is inside the kit.



Flannel fabrics with tweed designs. I was a goner the moment I saw that. I love the feel of flannel quilts, but some of the designs in the last few years have been a little ordinary, in my opinion - over printed, over dyed and not at all "cuddly soft". This tweed flannel is beautiful - soft, well dyed and lovely.

I attended a workshop on how to use "Jelly Rolls". I'd seen this term used on the SCQuilters forum, but had no idea what or how. Basically it is a group of fabrics (usually 40 different ones) cut selvedge to selvedge into 2.5 inch strips and presented in a roll. Like this.



I bought this from the Tulis Textiles and Kiwi Quilts stand. I have the special "tube" ruler and I am itching to get started.

While at the same stand I was stopped in my tracks by the Abundant Ferns Quilt they had on display.



So I bought the kit for that too. Ooh, pretty batiks.



I went to the quilt show too, and was amazed at the 400 odd quilts they had on display. I could have spent hours there. Actually, I did. The quilts, particularly by the amateurs, were incredible. I applauded every time someone was brave enough to make a red quilt. I took lots of photos, but as the rules prohibit me from blogging them or putting them on Flickr, I'll just send you over to the special awards, and amateur, professional, open and junior winners.

My day away was made even more special by meeting up at the show with my dear friend Kali from Hobart. I first met Kali when she lived in Brisbane and I used to go up there for work all the time. Kali used to pick me up from the airport or my hotel and take me shopping or quilt-showing or to dinner. It was so nice to see her again. Later in the afternoon I met up with Patricia at her work and she took me out to a very flash winebar for dinner , before she rolled me down the stairs at St James station to catch the train to the airport.

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In shop news, I'm pleased to announce that all Australian orders now have free postage! FREE! I'm sure you are as tired as I am with the yo-yoing dollar, so I figured this might take some of the pain out of having to deal with the USD side of Etsy.