Daylesford Craft Experience

What a weekend! What amazing people! What a lot of fun!

Last Friday, we were desperately trying to finish last minute preparations before our helpers and designers arrived. 

Jodie Carleton of Vintage Ric Rac arrived first, then Jody Abel. We then got our priorities right by starting with a coffee & fantastic toblerone cake at one of Daylesford's local cafes, Bocconcini.

Amazingly, after that we seemed to have an increased energy to get things done!

That afternoon, we set up the venue at Peppers Springs Retreat with huge numbers of goodies, kits, bags, patterns, fabric, books etc, etc ...

As you can see, the room looked absolutely lovely in no time!

Melanie Hurlston & Anette Eriksson then arrived & the level of excitement reached a new high.  The designers set up their beautiful displays which left us in complete awe of their amazing talents.

Here is a photo of all the fabulous designs:

Here is the one & only photo of Zoe & I (centre) together for the whole weekend - we seemed to just keep bouncing around & talking - generally having a great time!

An exciting feature of the retreat was the postcard swap & the results were absolutely amazing ...

As were all the participants ...

Zoe & I would like to acknowledge some of the lovely people that made this event so much fun.

First, thank you to our gorgeous designers - Melanie Hurlston of Melly & me, Jodie Carleton of Vintage Ric Rac & Anette Eriksson of Anette Eriksson Design. 

These ladies made the weekend spectacular for us, with their gorgeous designs & joy of creating.  These ladies also donated some of the lovely prizes during the weekend.

Our fabulous assistants, Jody, Jill, Michelle, Amy & Rani who worked like crazy all weekend (plus more) & kept the weekend going.

We would also like to acknowledge the following local businesses who contributed to the retreat:

Lark - fabric backed mirrors
Sweet Decadence - yummy chocolates
Jules Soaps - aromatic soaps
Hepburn General Store - fantastic giant Smarties
Portal 108 - discount vouchers that you all received

Daylesford Makers' Market - for staying open late.

We were also supported by the following industry sponsors:

SSS - thread snips
Birch - tape measure wrist band
Victorian Textiles - transfer pens & templates
Charles Parsons - Art Gallery fat quarters

Peppers Springs Retreat & Spa were wonderful with their support & amazing food & service all weekend as well as providing some lovely vouchers for prizes.

The biggest thank you goes to all of you who came to our very first Daylesford Craft Experience. Without you all this would never have happened & we are very appreciative.

Regards
Merrilyn & Zoe

PSSSSST - I'll let you in on a little secret ... we had so much fun we are going to do it again next year !!!!

Rural Jardin by French General

We've recently received these fabulous fabrics from the Rural Jardin collection by Kaari Meng of French General.

The collection is named Rural Jardin because the designs are reminiscent of old French gardens in the South of France.

Many of the designs have been reproduced from 19th century French textiles.

We have printed & woven 100% cotton fabrics from the collection as well some cotton/linen mixes.

100% Cotton Prints (Width 110 cm)
- $24 per metre

 Cream / Red Floral

 Cream / Red Floral / Leaf








 Cream / Red Leaf

 Red Floral

 Red Floral / Leaf

 Red Leaf

 Plain (with border)

Cotton / Linen Mix (Width 140 cm)

- $34 per metre

 Cotton / Linen Red

Cotton / Linen Beige

Woven Cotton (design on both sides) (Width 110 cms)

- $24 per metre

 Woven Check (Large)








 Woven Check (Small)

Workshop - Embroidery Floral Bag

Denise Longmire is a talented local who will teach a course in embroidery design utilising a number of design techniques & embroidery stitches.

The bag shown below illustrates the beautiful work you will complete.

This course will give you the confidence to create your own embroidery designs & you will learn the techniques required to create your own works of art.

We're planning this class to commence in May, over a series of four weekends (probably fortnightly).

If you are interested in this class, please contact me via phone or email.

Ballan Quilt & Craft Show

Last weekend, I had a stall at the Ballan Quilt & Craft Show held during Ballan's Autumn Festival.

This year's theme & challenge was ... "All the fun of the fair, life's just a circus".

The Ballan Quilt group makes a terrific effort to host this annual event.  The hall entrance was decorated like the "big top" at the circus.

Inside, amongst the superb quilts & craft on display there were a dozen stalls.  During the weekend, there were a huge number of visitors, particularly from out of town.

Autumn is a great time to visit the country-side, since it seems every town & village has its own festival at this time of year.

Here are a couple of photos of my stall ...

Journal Secrets

I have a regular group of school girls who are becoming very accomplished with a needle & thread.

The journal cover design below, from "The Janelle Wind Collection", will be the the project for our next class during the Easter school holidays.

As usual, we will have other school holiday classes as well, including papercraft & beading. 

The workshop schedule can be viewed by visiting our website.

What are you doing Maisy?

I've just finished my "Maisy Mouse" quilt.

This simple cot-sized quilt (135cm x 110cm) designed by Michelle & I, has been in my project basket for a while.

The fabric is from a range of Maisy fabrics designed by Lucy Cousins for Andover Fabrics.

I have Maisy fabric packs available that contain a panel & 5 fat quarters for $49.90 (plus postage).

Photos of the individual fabrics can be seen by following this link to an earlier post.

Claudine

I feel like I'm beginning to catch up with unfinished projects.

This is Claudine from designers, Rosalie Quinlan & Melanie Hurlston of "Melly & me".

I started Claudine before Christmas as a fabric challenge with Daylesford's Spa Quilters group, but I hadn't finished the face.

I admit it's an unconventional entry to a fabric challenge, but the ladies thought it was very cute.

Now she's finished, I think she's very cute too!