Firstly, apologies for the corny title up there  . . . erm, it was the first thing that popped into my mind :-)

The girls and I travelled to the other side of town today to see my latest little collaboration – a giant Fawn!!!

She is currently on display at Sportsgirl’s flagship store at the Chadstone shopping centre and will be there for the next 3 months as part of their current campaign.

The girls were so excited to see her and I am so happy that they were with me to see it for the first time :-) We enjoyed a celebratory lunch after wards . . . and some sweet treats!

The fawn is modelled after Francesca, who was on display at my recent show at Hudson. She has been fully replicated from the bulging eyes and large eyelashes, to the spots on her back and gingham under-ears. It even has a large tag on one of its back legs with my website details.

My sincere thanks to Amanda, Steff and the wonderful team at Gloss Creative for making this happen, and to Sportsgirl for their interest in and support of my work. If you live in Melbourne, I do hope you’ll get a chance to see it :-)

P.S. Thank you so much for the comments and message of support I have been receiving. It’s like my inbox is feeding me with a constant stream of little bits of sunshine :-) I even managed to get behind the machine and do some sewing! Hoping to get a couple of projects done before I start packing everything up and move elsewhere in a few weeks’ time.

Hubby was able to take the girls along to the show yesterday and managed to take a few photos – I thought I’d share some of them with you. My girls had a blast and were excited to see “Mama’s toys” on display – so you will see them in many of the photos too :-)

The entrance to the show – it was a huge venue meaning lots of room to move (and good for parents with prams too!) The indie crafters were on the row you can see on the right in a section called “the Incubator”:

On display, sewing machines atop a turf covered table-and-chairs set:

Me giving the girls a pretzel for afternoon tea (which was chocolate filled – so yum!). On the left, you can catch a glimpse of Louise and Jodie at Audrey & Maude’s stand, and on the right you can catch a glimpse of Nikki’s stand (which was packed with people ALL. THE. TIME):

The girls striking a pose next to the mannequin:

Sand sculpture by Sandstorm Events:

The girls hanging out by the giant knitting needles:

In this area, you could rummage through some discarded clothes and refashion them into something else (sewing machines and over-lockers were provided). Such a great idea! I think this area was provided by Wardrobe Refashion:

A glimpes of Jodie’s, Fii’s, and Justine’s stands:

The girls on the steps, enjoying the sweet little softie ice-creams and cupcakes Jodie gave them (thanks Jodie!):

Tired but happy girls :-)

Some of you asked about the cuckoo fabric panel I mentioned in the previous post – you can see the full panel over on Kirsten’s blog here (amongst other lovely things!).

I’m back at work today and it has been hard to change gears after such a wonderful time at the show. One thing I am definitely missing is hanging out with like-minded people and talking about all things crafty. So it’s a good thing I am going to the Brown Owls meet tomorrow night (yippee!) – looking forward to it!

I won’t be sewing for a while – I may be absent from here for the next few days but I do hope to re-open the little shoppe with goodies from the show on the weekend. Have a most wonderful week!

(P.S. I’m working on the emails – hope to be fully caught up by the end of the week!)

Mama mia, my feet and body are aching!!! Me thinks I am not cut out for shows like these :-) Day 3 of the Stitches & Craft show is over with 2 more days to go. I’ve had the opportunity to get to know some really crafty ladies (with such diverse backgrounds) at my brooch classes – the turnout has been small but it has meant that we can do a lot more chatting during the class :-)

The other upside of this show? Getting to see a lot of beautiful work in person. Here’s what has come home with me so far:

A gorgeous sunshine yellow dress (for my youngest) from Dana; an amazing fabric panel featuring a cuckoo clock and birds from Kristen; delicious fat quarters from Ink and Spindle; an applique canvas kit (for my eldest) from Audrey and Maude (such a great idea!); super cute pin cushion and note card set from Dear Fii; and an irresistible owl brooch from Liz (for me!). I’ve got my eye on a few more things – fortunately there are still 2 more days to go! :-)

Thank you for all your nice comments on the last post :-) I certainly wouldn’t assume that my softies appeal to everyone but it was just surprising that some people were very vocal about their opinions. But really, it’s all good and I am having a great time at the show.

Silly me forgot to add in the previous post that the lovely Cindy also dropped by, and I met Stacey and Leisl for the first time. Yesterday Sharon popped by to say hello and I met Suzie this morning. It’s been such a treat meeting all of these talented women who I have only ever interacted with online.

I’m still behind on emails and comments but I am sure I will have heaps of time next week to catch up on them all – thanks for your patience if you are waiting for a response from me.

Wow, I am exhausted! Who knew standing around all day in one spot could make one so tired? :-)

I forgot to bring my camera so here is a slighty dodgy photo of my stand taken from my phone:

On the left of my stand is Audrey & Maude’s gorgeous stand – and what wonderful ladies Cathy and Louise are – so friendly, bubbly, funny and very helpful. I am so happy to be their neighbour. On the right of my stand is Nicole’s stand bursting at the seams with an amazing range of bags and hats. She is so lovely too – I am indeed quite giddy to have such great neighbours :-)

This is the first market that I have done and it has been an interesting experience – both good and bad. The bad – well, people walking by your stand and saying some nasty stuff about your work as if you are not right there standing in front of them! When you normally operate through a blog and online shop, you do have a buffer from that kind of feedback – so yes, that was surprising! But as the experienced market stall-holders have told me, it is just part and parcel of selling in a market environment.

The good, however, most certainly outweighs the bad and that is meeting up with so many crafty people. How humbling it was to meet readers of the blog – thank you to those of you who stopped by and said hello :-) What a wonderful surprise to finally meet Angela and Allison in person. It was lovely to see the Ink & Spindle girls, Leslie, Dana, Nikki, Justine, and Kirsty once again. It was also a thrill to meet for the first time, Fii, Jodie (who is so hilarious and a joy to be around), Holly, Monique, Cathy, Liz, and Kirsten.

If you are coming to the show you should not miss out on visiting the stands of all of the ladies I have mentioned above – you will be so inspired, though be warned you will most likely leave with a much, much lighter wallet :-) Fabric stands not to miss are Amitie’s and Kelani’s.

Angela and the Living Creatively team have done an spectacular job organising and putting together this show.

Now I’m off to have an early night (the first in months) and hopefully I’ll have a whole lot more energy for tomorrow :-)

The chorus of this song has been buzzing around in my head a lot over the last week – because that’s exactly how I’ve been feeling! :-)

But the feelings of zombie-ness are fading quickly as excitement takes over. In a few hours I will be off to the Melbourne Showgrounds to set up my little stand for the show. The nerves are starting to swirl around but I am making a concerted effort to ignore them for now ;-)

Five little Peg Bunnies (with bells) are finally ready:

(Individual pics are over in my flickr).

And a batch of fabric packs (2 fat-quarters each) have been packaged up:

Now off to pick up the eldest from school. Hope to be back tomorrow with some pics of the stand. My apologies to those who have emailed or commented lately – I am running behind on getting back to emails and comments but I do hope to respond by the end of the week.

If you have stumbled over here from the Stitches & Craft website, welcome! Thought I’d provide some details on the Woodland doll-head brooch craft labs I’ll be running this week at the show.

These are what the brooches will look like all made up:

In the kit you will find wool felt, a cute little face, ribbon, button, thread, stuffing and a gold-plated pin-back. The bottom 3 brooches are examples of what you can make using the kit provided in the craft lab. The top three brooches are examples of what you can do with the kit plus a few extra crafty supplies from your stash :-)

You can fancy them up as much as you like! They are also nice and easy to make and are good little projects for the young ones – basically if you know how to do a running stitch, you are all set!

Here are the class details:

Wednesday 3.00-4.00pm (Craft Lab 8)

Thursday 9.30-10.30am (Craft Lab 3)

Friday 12.00-1.00pm (Craft Lab 3)

Saturday 9.30-10.30am (Craft Lab 8)

Sunday 12.30-1.30pm (Craft Lab 8)

And if you are wondering how to book a spot for the class, here’s what you need to do:

“Please visit the Learning Centre Booking Desk, at the entrance to the centre, or book through Ticketek Telephone Bookings or any Ticketek Outlet. Bookings must be made at least 30 minutes prior to the start of the session and you should arrive five minutes before your session starts.”

Check out the fabulous line-up of class labs and seminars over here.

Wow, I am exhausted. What a weekend it has been! I wasn’t planning on posting until later in the week but I am still buzzing from the excitement and wanted to get my thoughts down before I forget :-)

Firstly, it was such a pleasure to finally meet Helen (who runs Pattern Press). Helen is an amazing craftswoman in her own right (see her work here) and she did an amazing job pulling the booth together and getting everything organised for the AQM. She’s been so enouraging and so helpful – I feel truly blessed to be working with her.

The Quilted Crow – Leonie & Deirdre – also have their patterns under Pattern Press and it was an honour to be sharing the booth with them both. Their creations in wool are just incredible. It’s something you need to see up close. You can’t help but reach out and touch the scarves, the quilts, the pin cushions, etc. And Leonie & Deidre were so incredibly warm and kind too!

Being a part of the AQM was a wonderful and memorable experience. It was a real treat to be able to talk to people face-to-face about my softies, about how they were made, and generally to see the instant (and positive) reaction (that you don’t really experience through the internet). Thanks for all your well wishes!

And today, I had one of the most wonderful experiences. I was told that Ms Amy Butler was in a booth just around the corner, chatting to fellow booth-holders. I really, really wanted to drop in and say hello but was suddenly overcome with what I can only describe as being ‘star-struck‘. For about half-an-hour, I kept peering around the corner to see if she was still there and then thinking about how on earth I would start a conversation! My mind was completely blank.

Finally, thanks to a suggestion by Helen’s daughter, I went off and bought Amy’s book (since I didn’t have anything ‘Amy Butler‘ with me at the time as I had no idea she was actually going to be there!). I then lined up at her booth, knees feeling like jelly, and silently hoping I would be able to talk to her in cohesive sentences.

So finally it was my turn and you know what? Amy was soooo approachable, so warm, so friendly and so genuine. We talked about inspiration, Melbourne, and the importance of family. I even had the cheek to show her some of my softie patterns :-) But wow – she was just so easy to talk to and the nervousness slipped away in no time.

Of course I forgot to bring my camera, but she did sign my book and also gave me a little booklet on her new fabric line. I even got a hug :-) I can honestly say that she has a lifetime fan in me :-)

The mosaic up there is of the Pattern Press booth – you can see all the photos here.