Historic Maldon

I had to take my son to Bendigo yesterday and on the way home I dropped in to the historic town of Maldon. Oh wow, what a lovely place.  With no children, husband or time limits, I was free to stroll the shops and look to my heart's content.  I can't count the amount of times I said to one shopkeeper or another, what a lovely shop you have. It was a delightful afternoon, beautiful weather, beautiful shops.  Just heavenly. 
So what did I buy, not much, a bit of this and a bit of that.
Some lace:

Some boiled lollies from the lolly shop, a couple of little glass angels; those I didn't need but they reminded me so much of the little glass angel my youngest bought me one year from the mother's day stall at school, I thought she needed a friend, or two.
Before I left bendigo I visited the Rajmahal shop; I have wanted to visit there before but it never seems to be open when I go through.  There I bought a kit for a little ribbon embroidery and another pattern for a tablecloth. So pretty.

The kit, with the dahlias, I finished last night. it is very sweet but now I need to decide what to do with it.  The briar rose one will have to wait until I can source the ribbons I need and finish one ro two other projects!
I also bought a new foot for my new sewing machine while in Bendigo. Next door to the sewing machine shop was a cheap bookstore, so I bought some books as well. One is a novel, the other a book of sock knitting.
All in all it was a lovely day of wandering around, looking at things.  It actually is not very far off the Calder Freeway if anyone ever goes up to Bendigo, it is worth the detour.

belated season's greetings

Hello to everyone out there. I hope the Christmas and New year periods were good to everyone.
December was quite frantic in my house with school events and kids going off in all directions so life got just a bit busy and I found it hard to manage for a while.  But it is the New year now and everything has settled down and life has gone back to normal, as normal as it gets anyway! I am waiting for the school year to start and all the running aorund to begin again.

As for crafting, I have been very busy making things for others and things for me.  I have spent more time knitting than anything else really but I am still sewing.  As everyone who knows me knows, I got a new sewing machine just before Christmas, which the family would NOT let me use before Christmas Day (it really sucks being the only girl in a house of boys!!). I wanted one with a wider throat/neck so i could quilt things a bit easier.  And it is amazing what a difference an extra three inches makes.
I have almost finished my first quilt on it, but with the heat we have been having, it has come to a standstill.  progress so far...

It came from a tutorial on the 'net. I added the black borders which I think sets off the rainbow fabric. I am going to put piping around the edge before I bind it. I have had so much fun making it.  A simple pattern but I thought it would set off the beautiful fabrics in a jelly roll I bouhgt before christmas.

What else? i have been knitting, this set is for a mother to be, I can't wait to give it to her. She is a young mum and I think she is going to love this set.

Over the christmas break I whipped up this scarf; again in rainbow colours (i think I am finally at a point in life where I care less and less about what others think)

The colours are much prettier and more vivd than they are in the photo; a shame really as it looks a bit bleah here.

This is a ball of wool I bought from the Bendigo Woolen Mills; sooooo pretty. Only I sat and wondered if one ball would be enough to make anything. It felts VERY easily I am told and is strictly hand wash only, with NO agitation. So a garment is out. A scarf maybe?  And as I sat and wondered i thought I really ought to get some more just so I didn't run out when I made, well, whatever it is that Imake out of it.  So I bought two more balls, and then reality set in; these are 200gm balls; four times the size of the balls I am used to dealing with at work. So one would probably have been ample for anything I was going to make with it!!  So now I have more than enough to do whatever i want really!!   That is a lesson worth learning! but it is pretty and I will eventually do something with it.  But, after I finish one or two other things first.

Work is still going well, I am still having fun, still enjoying the customers and still collecting way too much fabric and wool!  And with my new machine, the sky is the limit. I have been having fun with the embroidery stitches; it sews rows of turtles, cars, houses, trees, as well as all sort of other stitches. 200 of them to play with.

So that is the basics of life in the madhouse.