.....well to be perfectly honest ... I am not so little after making sure I was so very well fed during the winter months ... but that's a whole other story!!!!
Anyway as I was saying I had my very first stand at the Australian Quilt Market held here in Melbourne last weekend .. and you would have to say that it was a very successful weekend.
I could not have found a more supportive or enthusiastic helper than I did in the gorgeous Jan from Sewjourn ...
Set up was interesting & exhausting .. it took 3 attempts to finally have everything looking OK in the small space. Saturday was an incredibly busy day and if it wasn't for Jan I would never have managed! We met so many people that I have gotten to know through blogging and through Don't Look Now!
Before the show started I thought I saw Rosalie walking past my stand ... but I didn't want to behave like an absolute groupie so I just smiled like a doufus ... so although I got to see Rosalie many times I didn't actually meet her! I did meet up with the amazingly talented Helen, Jo ...
Sandy ...
Corrie (I am going to be teaching for Corrie in Sydney next year ... let her know if you are interested as a few spots have already been taken!), Andi, Jodie & Annie (who always cracks me up!), Lynn, all of the gang from GJ's (who still don't have a blog!!!!!), Melly, Anni, Di, Sarah & I'm absolutely sure I have forgotten to mention many of you ... please forgive me if you are one of them as I spent most of the two days in a daze!
A group of us got together and had dinner along Southbank after the market finished on Saturday night ... I really enjoyed the evening getting to know everyone a little more. Mind you I don’t think that any of us managed to take a photo .... :( ... not very good bloggers are we!
By the end of the day on Sunday Jan & I were both totally exhausted ... but I am very excited to say that there are now 36 more Australian retailers that are stocking Don't Look Now patterns!!!!!! Obviously this is fabulous for me ... but it was also fantastic to meet the shop owners and go through the products that I use and work on making sure that they are able to access them .. including the Floriani Stitch & Wash Fusible & Lite Steam-A-Seam 2. They were also able to ensure that they can access the wide linens & white cottons that I have used in many of my projects and something I find even more exciting ... some of these retailers have just placed their first order of Kaffe Fasett fabrics!!! I will list all of these retailers on the weekend and then over the next few posts I will tell you a bit about each of them state by state .... and do the usual new retailer giveaway.
It's about time I also got off my bottom and sorted out my class list for next year because after last weekend I have been virtually booked up entirely with teaching for next year ... but I'll let you know once that's done.
It was also nice to catch a glimpse of the latest quilt that I made up for Homespun at the market .... an advanced copy even found it's way into my letterbox today ...
... this is Little Monsters and I will be able to show you more when it hits the magazine stands early December.
So what have I actually been doing since the market ... well there were a lot of projects that I should have made a start on this week but to be perfectly frank I have felt totally zapped and have managed to make a start on just one ...
this year I am planning to have a candy coloured Christmas ...
Now for our Joseph's Coat over achievers!!!! Well as for Marielle ... what can I say ... 24 hours after posting the last tutorial she had finished her first block!!!
And only a few days later she had finished all 7 - enough for her first row!!!
Absolutely amazing! Well done Marielle! She chose Meg's Garden as her prize for finishing 7 blocks and has already received How does your garden grow for finishing off the first block.
Janet from Quiltsalot, Good 4 Once & Quilts & Threads have also finished off 7 blocks. Quilts & Threads is actually planning on making a king sized quilt .... yes I think we will need to arrange psychoanalysis for this poor girl!! (guys if you have blogs please send me the links so that I can add them)
So ... in light of all of these over achievers in our group I thought that I might toss in one more pattern for one of you who has shared photos of their progress on flickr ....I figured that it best to just choose a random number which turned out to be 17 ...
which was posted by Mary on Lake Pulaski ... I would love to send you a copy of How does your garden grow? Mary ... email me your snail mail details please.
Well done to you all for such a great start & thank you all for being so very enthusiastic. Please do make sure you take great care to make sure the points on your petals are true & that you take care when positioning your shapes ... the placement sheet needs to be your best friend!!! Shelly has kindly made up a little 'helping hand' for us on her blog to help those of you that might be still having problems making pointy points. Thanks Shelly.
A couple of other stars have made buttons for our side bars but I have 'miss placed' their emails in the sea of emails that I have been getting lately ... I will be able to find them ... but it was taking too long to find while I was writting this post ... next time :(
OK ... so for the incentives for this coming week ... I will select one random photo & one other person who has posted a photo of their first 6 blocks ... which is what our goal will be by the end of next week.
Please also remember that the Flickr page is intended as a sharing place for projects involved specifically in this quiltalong ... please save photos & descriptions of other methods for your blog or own Flickr album ... don't place them in the group pool please.
***********************************************
OK that's it ... I had stacks more to share including a peek at Buttonberry stand at a recent market and some photos of other peoples things but as my internet has dropped out on me three times while I have been writing this post ... meaning that I have written this post three times ... I trust you will understand my need to salvage a little of my sanity and sign off for now!
Enjoy your weekend!!!
Kellie