Monday, March 9, 2009

A tuneful weekend

We've had a long weekend here in Victoria to celebrate Labour Day (?); DH Peter and I celebrated the extra day off work by taking off to the little coastal town of Port Fairy for its very big annual folk festival.
What a fabulous time it was; people everywhere, all smiling and happy and enjoying the music; good food to eat, only short queues for the loos...
Singers we heard and loved: Eliza Gilkyson (an American singer, new to us and now a favourite with her rich, mellow voice and sparky lyrics); Poms Chris While and Julie Matthews (beautiful harmonies); Aussie group The Audreys; Seamus Begley and Jim Murray from Ireland (Seamus has been around forever; plays accordion and has a beautiful voice; Jim plays guitar and sings harmonies and they share a rather naughty sense of humour); the April Verch band from Canada; April is a gorgeous little thing, a great fiddler, lovely voice and she does step-dancing while she plays; you have to see it to believe it (great to watch but it must be exhausting; don't know how she manages to do it and still continue to be so perky).
Anyway, no pics, because the ones I took were rather dire and dark. If you can, go next year - you'll love it!
And that, folks, is why I've done no sewing this weekend, despite a sewing room to clean up and new challenge projects to start. Since arriving home I've been catching up with the washing, getting ready for the working week and reading blogs (no prizes for which I've enjoyed most!) And I can't stop singing...

Monday, March 2, 2009

Let's go shopping!



I missed out on meeting the Tassie blogging girls, who were there on Saturday, but Sunday was a great shopping day at AQC. My non-bloggy friend Margot and I caught the train from Ballarat just after 9 am, and the train back from Melbourne around 5 o'clock , and had a great time in between. There were so many tempting things to buy - and we did - interesting classes and lectures (we are now sold on the idea of jelly rolls and 10 inch squares) great things to see and friendly stallholders and fellow crafters to talk to. I was so pleased to meet the Quilted Crow girls from Hobart; I won one of their lovely felted wool patterns just before Christmas and it was nice to be able to thank them in person; their stand was lovely and so are they. It was great to catch up briefly with the Selvedge Queen herself (Ms Jodie Ric Rac) and to see so many fabulous quilts. Forgot to take the camera, so I'm posting pictures of my haul and wondering when I will ever get time to use it or where I will put it (storage in my sewing room is chocablock and I have only recently rediscovered the floor, which gives you some idea of how messy it was) -but I love everything I bought and don't regret any of it. And despite the fact that I really don't need to buy any more patterns or fabric, I AM going to the Stitches and Craft show in Melbourne a couple of weekends hence. No sewing next weekend - DH and I are off to Port Fairy Folk Festival over the long weekend to sit in the sun and listen to great music - can't wait!