Up, Up and Away

Tomorrow I'm off to Vietnam and Cambodia.
The last few weeks have been mad. I've had end of year parties, finishing up the term with my gorgeous students, cleaning and shifting classrooms, professional development sessions for the new National Curriculum, writing Maths activities for next year, birthdays, going to Sydney last weekend for a family celebration.
I am exhausted!

View from my cousin's balcony in Sydney

So now I'm packing, cleaning - because I know no one will do anything while I'm gone and doing my usual panic.

We've got friends coming tomorrow from Perth in a campervan and I am going to miss them. They have been driving all over Australia for a couple of months. Really sad not to see them.

I haven't sewn anything serious for weeks but I have packed a couple of Staring Girl embroideries that I hope I can work on whilst flying. As long as they don't deem my sewing needle too dangerous.

Anyway I will try to keep up with what everyone is doing in Blog land but I probably won't be posting for nearly a month. I don't know how I will cope but I hear Vietnam has cheap internet access so maybe...

Fabric Shack to the Rescue

40 days ago I ordered some fabric from a very well know internet retailer of quilting fabric. Unfortunately the fabric did not arrive in the usual swift manner. I emailed the seller and although several emails were exchanged, it seemed that the seller was not prepared to resend the fabric and simply advised me to sit tight!
Normally, I think I could have been patient but the fabric was required for a commission and my time was running out as I am going overseas in 10 days.
The seller-who-must-not-be-named was getting less and less inclined to believe me or offer a satisfactory outcome so I decided to reorder the fabric from The Fabric Shack. 11 days later my new order arrived.

Today the quilt was finished. I didn't even use all the fabric. The Urban Circus is really lovely and soft too.
Meanwhile.... my other parcel is still lost and the seller-who-must-not-be-named is not being nice to me. It's not my fault the parcel is missing.
Whilst I was fretting and worrying, I just had to order more fabric because it makes me happy and I ordered some from Fabricworm
Their parcel arrived in 5 days on a Sunday!
I made this with it but that was the day before the Urban Circus fabric arrived so I had to leave it.

So this is the finished quilt. Ready to be shipped overseas to a new baby boy.

Its not much but at least its something

Last weekend was a sad attempt to sell some of my cot quilts. I had a stall at a school market but despite lots of advertising the event was really down on numbers. Melbourne has had ridiculous amounts of rain and that Sunday was really cold and really wet. The few that came were not my kind of customers. I did sell a few toys though.

Good bye Super Boy

I also had some fun starting a little embroidery project because I need something to take overseas with me that is not too bulky but keeps the fingers busy.

This is 'Staring Girl'

She is a creation of Tim Burton.

I love his drawings and his poetry is hilarious and brilliant.

There are a few drawings of Staring Girl in his book and I hope to make a series of them.

So last week was rain, rain,rain and this weekend its boiling!

GJ's advertised a 25% off sale. They are a good hour's drive from home and I was cursing the heat and time in the car but it was great once I got there. They had stacks of fabric I had not been able to buy in Melbourne and although I am trying to be really frugal with my fabric buying, I picked up these bits and pieces.

 Love, love love!