Hope all the mothers had a wonderful day on Sunday……. the cake was great, thanks for asking Muse. This past week I decided to delete my earlier blog entries as the photos had disappeared anyway and I didn’t have any posts on how I made the various quilts…except for Daniel’s and that seems somewhat outdated now. Also through my flickr use I am more aware of which quilts have been viewed the most and which quilts/throws non sewers find most interesting.

This week CJ taught me how to optimise my photos and I have actually remembered how to do it …..and retrieve them as well… poor CJ almost lost it when I asked where do I go to get them now? Always making things harder for myself than I have to! I am a good problem solver on the computer though…just keep trying until I get it right!!! Well apart from the emoticon thing and the google reader thing and the etsy thing and the uploading my own photos to WordPress thing…well its good for CJ to feel needed and that he has more knowledge than his mum!

I have also decided not to commit myself to a particular day or flickr group for thrifting and it might also have something to do with the person who runs that particular flickr group not being exactly cordial over the banning and photo links etc …but mostly because I do not want to feel that I have to go out thrift shopping especially for a certain day…the people who were waiting on my thrifting posts, and can you believe it there were, will see by the rss feeder anyway when I have done a relevant post.

So over the past week I found a gorgeous black sequined chinese style jacket by Maggie Shepherd [as new] for $8 which I promptly sold to a friend and a violet strappy top for $3 which she also bought. A gorgeous little hand painted glass candle holder for $2 and Jason Magnolia coasters for $8 [as new] and some assorted haberdashery items for $11…. everything cost $32 ..all in all a good hall and not just for me! I should have taken photos of the whole lot together and can’t now as my friend is probably wearing them in England as we speak so would you please bear with me yet again and click on flickr on the right side of the screen if you need a closer look? Thanks so much will try to add that new skill soon but do not want to overload my brain and in the process lose the ability to optimise. Whew, am sweating thinking about it!

Ooh in case you are wondering that top picture is of a stunning little baby quilt I am making at the moment…will have completed the hand finishing soon.

At last I have something to show my loyal readers who may have forgotten this started as a craft blog. Blushing started life as part of a bag of scraps gifted to me by a friend who had quite a lot of bits and pieces. She has been making bags and scarves with her pieces and I was unsure for a few weeks what I would do with the strips as most of them were quite narrow…around 10 to 15cm with a few 25cm wide. I like the idea of table runners come bed runners come wall hangings so decided that it would be a challenge to work within the limits of the colours in the bag. I divided up the scraps into one large pile of medium to heavy weight linen mixes in taupe with charcoal and blush and another pile of beige though copper to peach rusty orange. There are also a few scrap strips which I have put aside for use in my strippy throws.

I sewed various strips of the taupe pile together after arranging them in some semblance of order, then pressed it and took a photo of it hanging from a cupboard so that I could get an idea of if anything needed to be taken out. Sure enough once I loaded it onto the computer I could see that one strip was standing out too much so I took that out and rearranged that area a bit and then it was time to hunt for the second hand yet as new curtain for the backing that I just knew I had somewhere in my garage! After about thirty minutes I found it and was delighted to see that it was even better quality than I remembered.

Then it was simply a matter of sewing the back to the front by machine and then I did some top stitching with perle thread to finish it off. All in all a simple project made challenging by the limited colour scheme and size of the pieces. We have however found that it is probably one of the most attractive things I have made, probably due to the quality of the fabric. It also goes incredibly well with our dark red curtains and has made the room have a more contemporary feel.

Yesterday I caught the train north to visit some friends. I was also going to be visiting my parents who live about two and a half to three hours depending on traffic north of Sydney and as I don’t drive it is quite difficult for me to see them as often as I would like, however last time I was there I showed them photos of my friends and they said that they would love to meet them. I asked if it would be allright if I brought them up to visit next time I came up as they only live thirty minutes apart. They said fine and when I checked two weeks ago to see if this weekend was okay they again said it was. When Saturday night came and I had not heard from them I phoned and my father said that my mother did not want my friends to come because she was worried the house might be dirty. When I phoned my father back later he said he would meet me about 30 minutes from his house and he said that though my mother did not want my friends coming he would come and pick me up at the railway station where I usually get off the train and take me back to his house.

I said that as my friends were driving me there I would rather wait in the shopping mall next to the station with them and treat them to a coffee while I waited for him. So I went to bed and phoned my father at 7.30 am to say that I was about to get the bus to Central Station to get the train and he did not talk for some time so I asked him if something was wrong and he said that mum was not up to coming anywhere today. Well I was a little rattled and said he was the one coming to get me so it did not matter. All quiet again so I repeated again that he said that he would come and get me so what was the problem? He then asked if I would come up again to see them another time. I was pretty rattled as I was literally on my way out of the door and said I had to go as my bus was due.

I slept most of the way up north which was great and was met by my friends whom I had to tell yet again that the plans had changed. We had a wonderful day together, my friend had made some quilts in the style that I showed her several years ago. As she stays in Sydney during the week I had never seen the quilts as she made them when she was home at the weekends. They are so beautiful and also colourful in the way of her culture…she is Phillipino and very exotic and quite beautiful in spirit as well as face. She is taking some photos of these glorious quilts as the battery in my camera died. I was totally spoiled and we were able to really enjoy our time together and I also was able to get to know her husband….whom I had wanted to meet my parents as he is originally from the north of England, like my mother. After lunch us girls went for a walk and even my friend was amazed that there were deciduous trees …..Japanese Maples shedding their leaves and we walked through them talking, laughing and kicking the leaves like children. What was interesting to me was that here was my friend of around two years, whom I have only become close to since standing up to a friend who spoke to me abusively a few months ago, treating me as if I were family. I felt spoiled and valued, something that I needed after the phone calls with my father.

Some years ago I asked them to meet me three quarters of the way there at a shopping centre so that we could eat and shop etc and my father said on the day that mum was not up to it. When my husband and I became Australian citizens about four years ago I thought it was something that they might like to share with our son who was born an Australian citizen. My father said yes they would come weeks ahead and then on the night of the ceremony he phoned to say that mum wasn’t well enough to come. I asked why he didn’t come and he said he couldn’t come without her. That night our son sat alone for about an hour amongst the huge crowd of people supporting the new Australian citizens until the eleven year old son of my best friend and his nineteen year old sister came to sit with him. They then joined us for family photos and it is something that I will never forget ..that my friend’s children came when my own family would not. I was heartbroken for my son…he has an aunt in England and a grandmother who you would have had to kill to stop them going to the ceremony if it had been in their country.

My parents never saw where my son went to school in Sydney and they have not seen where we live in over ten years. I have been the one to visit even though the trip to and from their house takes up to six hours in a day and as I have severe nerve pain it takes up to a week to recover from it. Anyway this is getting way too negative, it is just so interesting to me that my memories of the happy times of my life are full of memories of my immediate family and friends and the absence of my parents, sister and brother. And how so much of my happiness these days is found in the simple things…the leaves, the quilts and showing people who you care about that they are valued, that you care so much about them that you want to see where they live and want to spend time with them there.

Shopping has taken a back seat to crafting this week as I have been getting caught up on all my various works in progress, WIP’s to crafters, some call them UFO’s…unfinished objects…but a science fiction lover like myself needs an alternate expression! Speaking of that last week we went up to Westfield where my son and I bought some books at Borders and then in a little Asian shop in the pedestrian mall I found a stunning poncho wrap that has large paisley swirls allover it in red with slashes of purple throughout. Last year at David Jones I bought a merino wool wrap in similar shades of red and purple but this is slightly different as it is a poncho style and though acrylic it is a much thicker and also at a third of the price of the merino I can wear it more often without wondering if I am going to catch it or worse…forget it when I am in a coffee shop somewhere.

While in Bondi Junction we trudged through driving rain to the charity shop to look around and for CJ to donate several of his shirts, he is getting into the more vibrant colours now which I love. While we were in Myer he was about to go into the changing room and I was making myself comfortable in one of their squishy leather armchairs when I felt someone staring and looked up and saw Mike Whitney who used to play Australian cricket and is now a television presenter. CJ then went off to try on his clothes and wandered in and out while I unobtrusively observed the various guys at the counter making their purchases. Mike stayed for some time, saying its like Pretty Woman …he had two gorgeous stylists with him… CJ later said he thought it would have been to select his television wardrobe for the show…smart casual as it is a show about whats on in sydney each weekend.

So once he had gone laughing about being a kept man again I saw an Italian looking gentleman in cargo pants and t shirt and clogs who had bought some gear return…he seemed to be having some trouble wandering back and forth and going behind the counter looking in the staff’s bins etc so I asked if he had lost anything as I remembered seeing a Myer docket on the floor somewhere in the men’s department. I pointed to where I could see a piece of paper on the floor…he went to get it, laughed and said “this is what she calls a docket” to the various staff. I said again that I had seen a docket somewhere but could not remember where. He asked the cashier to go upstairs to the “office” with him to explain it all to the management and just as she started to get ready to go with him I saw the Sportscraft rep sauntering up with a smile on his face and he waved the docket at me, smiled and said to the gentleman “the lady said she saw it so thought it was worth taking a look to see if it was still there. The Italian gentleman thanked him and went on his way while totally ignoring me. So there you have two different men of similar age with hugely differing public personas…one jovial, nothing too much trouble, smiling and acknowledging the public while the other seemed to expect preferential treatment. Mike Whitney is really well known in Australia and could be forgiven for being a primadonna yet was absolutely delightful in his normalacy while the other man was totally obnoxious and soured everyone’s day a little. When Mike left the store everyone smiled and chatted about how truly lovely his personal shoppers were and also a little about cricket matches etc. When the other chap left it was totally different…there was relief certainly and many thanks were expressed to me by the staff, we all chatted about CJ’s purchases and on the way out we thanked the reps from various companies for their help and advice. What I love about Australia is that there is no working class…anyone who works is as valued as the famous who are famous because of their work. This chap seemed to have a servant mentality and more power to the staff for treating everyone with the same courtesy.

So we also saw a few actors from various television shows as we went about our shopping and coffee drinking. We cannot do this unobtrusively as people really stare at us…whether it is the mother and son thing being cute or CJ being 6′2″….. at times it has been difficult as people really stare at him. The beard and his height and his unfortunate good looks all contribute to this but we choose to think that people think he is a rock star or someone they have seen somewhere.

That day I found several things at the charity shop ….an offcut of fabric, a pair of turquoise prescription sunglasses and three brand new glass bead necklaces. The fabric was $1.80, the sunglasses $8 and the three necklaces $12 Total $21.80.

At last this is getting back to being a craft blog…or this is the crafty side of it. As you may know I get a bit bored with purely one dimensional blogs. Luckily this week I was not only able to find my sewing machine under piles of fabric and clothing repairs but I also found the Designer’s Guild fabric for Ollie the little boy who lives opposite…..it had been stored by ’someone’ behind the Xmas trees when they were put away. When I was looking for our duvet/doona and our heater to ease the colder nights I found a large laundry basket full of fabrics I was obviously going to work on after Christmas!!!

So I am asking your patience today as there have been a few unforeseen problems caused by my uploading so many photos…remember when I taught myself to upload them? Well apparently I have not been resizing them so the ten that I uploaded to flickr this evening took up a gigantic 10 megabytes my son said. Yowser!!! So if you don’t mind just for today click on Wild Blue Yonder and you will see what I have been up to lately! This is going to be a series of quilts of throw size with a very pale to soft inner centre of at least a square metre going gradually darker to the last few rows of blocks which will be really dark with the odd splashes of lilac to purple in one and pink to red in the other. Each block is 15cm in size so it will end up having 100 blocks….for some reason 100 blocks appeals to me.

I had no sooner put them up to our group on flickr when I started getting comments and questions…must remember to do that after I have cooked dinner…not during! Speaking of flickr I have found the most amazing talent, both globally and locally and I am hoping to start bringing you design reports or updates on what these wonderful artists designers are doing and more importantly, where to find their work. Not only are they incredibly talented with an astounding amount of work behind them but I have also found some new designers, so look out for them……get in now while they are not as well known and save yourselves a lot of money while getting a piece of a new designer’s history. It is very exciting and it is a privilege for me to be sharing resources and knowledge with these very talented designers and artisans.

I have almost finished Blushing Mokum, the luscious table runner come bed runner come wall hanging which is made from purely recycled reclaimed fabric offcuts from a really great textile company here in Sydney, Mokum Textiles. They distribute Osbourne and Little, GP and J Baker, Liberty Furnishings, Nina Campbell and all the really good quality textile houses worldwide. This reduced my pile of boxes of fabric by one in our bedroom and finishing the WBY will also help reduce the amount of boxes that are messing up our room. Also putting the finishing touches to Wan and Pale…the most subtle quilt I have ever made…shades of grey through to black, interspersed with the softest shade of pink. All that and cranes and dragonflies too! It is backed with lovely pure cotton in soft grey with pink on white, originally a pair of Laura Ashley reclaimed curtains…how lucky was I to find that in our garage/ storage area, never mind the original charity shop?

Thanks Sulz for this meme, sounds like fun, fluffy things usually are! Here we go:

Five things found in your bag

1] Sunglasses…..Have photophobia and am blinded without them.

2] Wallet with credit card as well as money just in case I see that one special thrift item that I have to have!

3] Tissues as I have sensitivities to cigarette smoke and perfumes, anything really and it gets the old sinuses going

4] Notepad and pen for writing down quilt and design ideas and to write down websites that I see in design and art magazines while I am at the coffee shop.

5]Unscented wet wipes as I often find they come in handy, if not for myself then for others.

Five favourite things in your room

1]My vintage sewing table, it is quite like a shaker design.

2]My tablerunner on my sewing table, it is a gorgeous colour.

3]My three Chinese ginger jars, hand painted and they are lovely colours.

4]My turquoise artwork made from a photo frame and four gorgeous cards that CJ and his father and I have bought over the years.

5]My duvet cover I bought from Target on sale for $69 instead of $169, it is chinese faux silk patchwork.

Five things you have always wanted to do

1]Go to a Kaffe Fassett workshop.

2]See The Gilmore Girls from start to finish.

3]See some of the churches and buildings housing some of the works Tiffany and William Morris, especially the tapestries and the stained glass.

4]Visit America.

5] Tidy my work/storage area.

Five things you are currently into

1]Our flickr group about Laura Ashley, William Morris and Liberty.

2]Our flickr group fabric, patchwork and quilting.

3]Our flickr group fabric, patchwork and quilting reclaimed.

4]Our flickr group fabric, patchwork and quilting in the home.

5]Blogging, and guess what I no longer check my stats religiously!

Five people you want to tag

1] Bombshell.…give the bastards more fodder Ivy

2]Jacquie….take your time and no offense if you hate these things and do not want to do it, know you are busy at present, think these things are open ended.

3]Stina …although she too is MIA

4]Janey....although she already owes me one so she can take her time…also she has three kids and two dogs and a sick cat!

5]Ginger ..like she hasn’t already got enough to do!

This was fun and as for being fluff it actually exercised a few brain cells!

School holidays over here so we had the pleasure of showing my young friend Daniel of quilt fame the movie Terminator..he is 13 now so after starting him off on Star Wars, Indiana Jones and many others we thought he might like to see the Terminator films in case he happened to catch the series and needed to know where it all began. I remember being petrified of the machine as he/it just kept coming when I saw it twenty years ago. Now it was the dilemma of time travelling that got to me. It stood the test of time though cinematically, must say James Cameron is a genius.

We went shopping yesterday and bought some things on sale. A chef’s trolley to store all my saucepans etc and some lovely butterfly cups and saucers which will also come in handy for my photography. I also bought the last two seasons of the Gilmore Girls on sale as Foxtel keeps going back to the beginning instead of showing them and channel 9 of our free tv decided to put it on at 3pm on Sundays with no advertising so I missed too much of it to know what happened after Rory left Yale etc and went to live with her dastardly grandparents breaking Loralies heart in the process. Whew, feel like I need to draw breath.

My groups are doing well, oh did I not mention that we now have three groups on flickr? Fabric patchwork and quilting in the home and fabric patchwork and quilting reclaimed. I have long been interested in layouts of rooms using quilts cushions etc so we now have a wonderful place to showcase the actual quilts as they are meant to be used…you might even like it as it is more what you do with the quilts than how they are made. the reclaimed group is to showcase work made using at least 50% recycled fabrics and trim.

This week I found two lovely white and silver items while charity shopping. One is a lovely little box with a mirrored inside which I am using to store my new jewellery set of hall marked silver and a brand new photo frame. In a different shop I found a silk georgette evening coat which is sublime. The box was $5 and the frame $10 and the coat$8 and the jewellery $15 all told…..$38

I am going to start putting up photos of some of the quilt tops I have recently finished as I need a little help deciding whether to have them as quilts or tablecloths or duvet covers…please please please give me feedback, I would really appreciate it. Also going to showcase once a month past quilts I have made with the stories behind them for those of you who have come here in the hope that it is a craft blog! I have been aiming for a mixed kind of blog as I find craft blogs fairly boring especially when the issues of the day are often totally ignored and everything is hunky dory in blogland…..it isn’t in life so why should it be in our blogs? I have come to really enjoy the blogs where the writer slowly reveals small things about themselves, not the woe is me day after day kind of thing, just little things so that you don’t feel you are in Stepford land. I have also found memes to be a good way of opening things up a bit so look out for the two memes that I am participating in this week thanks to Janey and Sulz, two perfect examples of fiesty women who never bore!

This week I hunted for a Salvation Army store I was sure I had seen sometime last year. It was raining and cold and gloomy, making it hard to see where I was going, then I found it tucked in next to the back of a nursery [plant shop not childrens centre] up a back street which is used more for offices and real estate agents etc.

I tried to look relaxed as I walked in but wondered what I had let myself in for. It is a rambling old building which by the look of it used to be a house. The rooms are all knocked through but the layout of them is still there, it was like going into someone’s dining room, lounge room, then bedrooms and finally working back to the old kitchen area. It probably had been used as offices or something but it didn’t feel like it as it is such a rambling old place. I started looking for fabric…no chance and worked my way through various rooms until I found myself back in one of the middle areas…..a lot of mens coats and on the other side of the hallway formal womenswear. After looking for some time and getting dead itchy I had a half hearted look through the mens jackets in case something was there that I could cut up for my throws. I spotted a vinyl jacket in a turquoise colour and after checking realised it was a woman’s swing jacket from the…. wait for it ….the 50s. I found a changing room with a door, unlike the vinnie’s ones with curtains that people can see around as you change. It fitted really well as it was meant to be a swing coat and would therefore have been really roomy anyway.

I paid for it and started talking to a gorgeous young chap about some blue Spodelike dishes on a sideboard. It was like being in my grandmother’s house except no doors! We established that it was Spode and a divine shade of blue and I showed him my coat and he said “but that is kid leather”. So I went outside into the light to check and there it was, in all its glory, a sort of hand dyed swirly kid leather. Not a thing wrong with it and doesn’t even smell after all that time and what with the company it was keeping in that store!

So I skipped along…I wish…..hurry up damn knee replacements…. to Westfield and smiled my way through coffee and banana bread and everyone smiled back…..it is like being in love, everyone picks up on it! I had better be careful in case this feeling becomes addictive but there is really no fear of that as it is so rare that I find anything in my size and for my sort of age bracket. Okay I hear all you women screaming in rage…what is she talking about …we can wear whatever we desire…well maybe but it doesn’t mean we should!

I try to wear quality clothes of rich colours and textures in natural fibres and they are not readily donated to charity shops in my size I find. Okay I am a size 16/18 Australian….see Sulz it is not too hard to tell people your dress size, if I can admit to that then how difficult is it to tell all you are a size 8? [ Sorry, that's a whole other story! ]Last week you may remember I did not actually shop at all so this week I allowed myself $50 and the jacket was $25 can you believe it? Can you?

Speaking of value, Melissa of tinyhappy fame sent me some fabric in exchange for the embroidered linen that I found her and the floral fabrics are wonderful, thanks so much Melissa. It isn’t easy giving people who have particular tastes and needs fabric etc but we seem to have done it! Also a huge success was the Melly and Me swap that Dawn in Durham, England and I are doing together. Her swap arrived here the day before Melissa’s and I truly feel that I have let her down as she did not want too many florals [and me the floral queen] so I sent hand dyed and batiks and now am really really worried. Her fabrics are different to my usual though, bright and quite gorgeous so maybe we will both be moving out of our comfort zone. Perhaps that is why swap challenges are so successful.

Speaking of moving out of my comfort zone, after the thing with flickr and being banned by the administrator I decided after encouragement from several ladies to start a different group and since Monday we have over 150 contributers and over 650 photos. I have chatted with many artisans and been really astounded that the more talented these people are, the more humble. Most are truly delighted to have a new platform to share their work and to also share in the work of others. I have assured them that they will always be informed if there are any problems and that there will be no banning with no recourse here. Of course that has led to a few emails this week trading horror stories of being kicked out of quilting guilds or being asked to leave because their baby gurgling with delight was such a distraction to some of the members. The thing I love about our new group is that there are no rules apart from not flooding the pool with too many photos and I am really enjoying seeing the sheer quantity and quality and range of some of the work on offer. The generosity of the contributors is heartening and their support of the group has been overwhelming. Sally who offered to resign from the other group has been a huge support and her experience as a fabric rep, quilt shop worker and artisan is really appreciated. Some of us are trying to stylise our photo shoots more in future ….to show the quilts and artworks as they are meant to be used.

So this week has been really rewarding and interesting how sometimes painful experiences can be turned around, and an even better outcome develops…all I need now is for my son to start feeling a little better after he had a setback this week healthwise. But he turned things around bless him by writing the funniest post which had his core readers crying with laughter instead of the usual sadness his work evokes. He also fixed my google reader which is wonderful and means I should always be up to date on all your goings on!

Well here it is Friday and no thrift shopping done. Feeling really tired so decided to skip shopping for this week, instead I took some photos of some of the things thrifted before I discovered Thrift Thursday. The ginger jars are a real find as have not seen them anywhere new and love the design on them and the colours are just wonderful. Like everything in my home this week though they could have used a dusting, especially before photographing them. I tend to put things up high where I cannot see the dust…. my husband is 6′5″ and son 6′2″ but my husband just does not see dust, it is invisible to him!

Am really enjoying taking pictures of all my fabrics and shoes and bags and sharing them with other mad collectors on flickr. Funny thing with flickr suddenly most of the offending people who have business links under their blogs have taken them down so am pretty sure my benign link to my blog was the cause of my being banned. Looks like the others were warned or word got around and it snowballed but still naturally no confirmation from anyone….flickr said my blog was okay but some zealous administrator obviously thought I was abusing the system.

Still looking for the fabric for little Ollie who lives opposite, I told them to give me two weeks then to go ahead and buy some and I will make him one anyway. Can’t have him without one the first real winter of his life, that he will understand anyway, he is about 9 months old I think and crazy about animals. Bumped into my friend Daniel the one of the Bar Mitzvah quilt today and I swear that in the month since I saw him his voice has broken! Time moves on for us all. My flickr friend Sally was asking today could it really be 40 years since their daughter was born?

Today I was awarded a couple of blog awards from Glassoffashion an amazing blog whereby GOF regularly lets us into her vast collection of vintage Vogue and other catalogues and patterns and by vintage I mean 1920’s and 1930’s, absolutely fabulous. She is currently creating a lovely bridesmaid’s dress for her upcoming wedding, flapper style of course for her cousin to wear.

I will take this opportunity actually to apologise to everyone if I appear not to be commenting as regularly as usual but after going to GOF’s blog I realised my blog surfer has more than the not unsubscribing of blogs problem going on, it is not showing all of my subscribed blog entries either. I fear that I have missed huge chunks of peoples blogs and that is not acceptable so am going with the something or other feeder or rather my son is when he has time to set me up with it. Hope you have a great weekend doing whatever it is that warms your hearts, see you next week.

Feeling quite inspired after my latest lovely bag arrived from Janey of Sewstylish. She included a lovely handmade card and a really great magazine that I haven’t seen over here. Also sent off my swap for Melly and Me’s scrap challenge to Dawn in England and some embroidered linen to Norway for Melissa who makes the most divine baby shoes from old linens[when she can find them that is].

Did a little shopping earlier this week and found a couple of cute fat quarters and some wool to knit a scarf to go with my turquoise suede jacket. Also sorted through my shoes and gave some to a friend, the other ones I do not need will go up to the charity shop when I go there tomorrow. My handbags that I bought from charity and second hand shops are currently being photographed and loaded onto some more friendly groups on flickr. The link to my photos is here, especially for Sulz and the Bombshell. Bear in mind ladies that these are only some of my thrifted ones. Wait until you see some of the ones I bought new!

The photographing of my upholstery fabrics is going quite well but buggered if I can find a piece of Designers Guild fabric with giraffes and animals on it..the little toddler who lives opposite us will be at school by the time I find it! I was quite amazed at how much fabric that I have been shunting around our bedroom, no wonder I was so off sewing for a while. I am going to sell some of it on my etsy store which is soon to be opened and also some of my jewellery and bags as well.

Have finally photographed the skirts which I made a few months ago and I thought they would go down a treat in the coming summer months overseas. The photos of several skirts are here. The mini skirts are 10cm above the knee and are cut on the bias. The longer skirt I made for myself with some glorious Italian swiss voile [sounds like a contradiction doesn't it] and silk has been a real hit. It is a pleasure to wear as I used cotton lawn for the lining fabric, it is cool and helps the skirt keep its shape.

Update on the being banned from a group for no reason at all. I actually went to the help forum about that and they were pretty baffled too, especially since they thought quilting groups above politics! At first they thought it was the link to my blog in the description section of the photos and I spent a good few hours deleting that just in case and then they said that was okay!

So all in all a busy week, my son is starting to feel a bit better after a few weeks of being quite unwell so that is a relief and means we can plan to do a few things together. Also means I can ask him to do my website without feeling too guilty unless I stuff it up again that is! Back tomorrow with Thrift Thursday, hoping to find some goodies tomorrow at the Salvation Army shop and the other church run shop in Bondi Junction.