I'm back.

Despite my week long lock down because of the flu (not the horse one the hoarse one) and my weekend away with my hubby and my intermittent computer access at home I'm back in blogland. We have been having great fun at school getting ready for our school concert next week but because of my germ infestation I haven't been able to go to school and have been left to read Ric Rac and Flower Garden's blogs. I must admit the week long break from the Old Man Emu song (my class' item) is a bit of a relief. Like Flower Garden I've been dreaming about emus and black skivvies. Who would have known that black skivvies would be so hard to find. The parents have been very enterprising shopping out of town, perusing every opp. shop and dying white skivvies.
Crafting - Before going down with the flu I had started a teddy bear blanket and my Sashiko embroidery. When I get bored with one I move to the other. My first set of teddy faces looked great. I'm not so sure about the second lot. Now I'm on the hunt for some appealing ribbon to make bow ties for the bears on the rug. Ric Rac took me for my first visit to Ballarat Patchwork a couple of weekends back. What a lovely lovely shop. It must be so good for your soul to work in an environment like that where you are surrounded by beautiful things. The fabrics were delightful but even better towards the back of the store they had a great display of books and fabrics and stuff all about my new love Sashiko. I'll be dropping plenty of hints to my hubby and son about gift suggestions. Although Sashiko is basically running stitch it seems to be a very relaxing and soothing activity. While I'm stitching I try to keep the history of this craft in mind and keep my stitches even and equal.
Felt buyers beware!
Shopping with Ric Rac is always enlightening. I learn lots about fabric and techniques, the value of gadgets and interesting tricks of the trade. Last Saturday while shopping for the school concert in Spotlight Ric Rac decided to look for felt for her toys. The young shop assistant was adamant that while the squares of felt might be acrylic the rolls of felt were definitely wool because they couldn't sell the acrylic felt in that size. Off went Ric Rac to check. We found some rolls that were obviously acrylic and others that were labelled wool from Italy. These rolls certainly held fabric that was thicker and softer to the touch. On closer inspection ( pulling back the fabric and reading the whole label) Ric Rac discovered that the woollen felt was actually a polyester/wool blend. 35% poly and 65% wool. Persistence pays!
Craft Markets
While Ric Rac and Flower Garden were off having a wonderful time with Brenda at Magnolia Square meeting Auntie Cookie I deserted my friends and went off with my husband to the football at the MCG. We were given tickets to the President's Lunch and the match between Essendon and Carlton. Sadly the first half of the game wasn't that great. The final quarter was very exciting even though poor old Carlton lost. We had a lovely dinner out and stayed in Melbourne for the night. The following morning we decided to visit the National Gallery and has luck would have it the Gallery weekend market was on. I saw some wonderful felting and remembering how hard we worked on our felting day I made sure I told the felters how clever I thought they were. Some of the felting was very fine and extremely well made. I found an artist who make porcelain jewellery. Several of her blue and white designs featured Sashiko patterns. I would have loved to have bought a brooch but she had none in the design I wanted. I did buy a handbag with an appealing shape and a lovely silver bangle. My husband had a great time jotting down ideas for things he could make and taking photos. He has now bought lots of old silver cutlery for a future project.