a weekend away....

i love getting away with my mates and spent a lovely weekend with my craft girls and also some of the Strathdale quilters...Bacchus Marsh has always been a town we passed thru on the way to Geelong and its nice to get the chance to explore these little towns.... the camp is located in such a beautiful valley and is lovely being out of town surrounded by nature.... ....

a little hut one of the school groups built...

we went into town on Saturday morning and poked around the two quilt shops and op shop but unfortunately the fantastic paper shop had closed down... we ate lots of yummy meals, drank a fair bit of wine and managed to get some craft made.... we had a major storm in the middle of the night and unfortunately the rain got in the window of the craft room and soaked merrys electronic sewing machine and also heaps of patchwork... fortunately after an anxious day we turned the machines on and they worked....:) and the patchwork dried in the sun with no lasting damage...

Di has been working on her scrappy quilt now for 3 years and we had a wonderful community effort laying it out late saturday afternnon.....a few wines later and it was sorted :) She managed to get it sewn into groups of nine before we left and i cant wait to see it finished...

so that was my weekend , how was yours ?

ps...blogger changed my dashboard on friday and ive just read a few blogs where peeps are having trouble or just hate it.... i have actually found it ok and havent found any glitches....one of the things that has been bugging me for ages is a simple way to make my photos bigger and i just found how by accident... click on your photo in COMPOSE and it gives you options not only to enlarge but also to position...also i love that you can upload more than 5 photo at a time... just realised i cant find how to tag ???

have a good week Jen xo

well, i finally got it finished and on her bed for when she got home after her trip around Australia last week..

i found the original pattern on the front cover of this book and knew instantly that i could incorporate the photos into circles and from there it was easy to come up with other ideas for the circles...

i used a lot of the old quilt but had to order more green fabric which i managed to find after a loooong search [it had been discontinued]. Charlie had picked this out while she overseas and just loved it....

i cannot lay claim to the quilting tho, there is no way i could manage that .... Gail did a brilliant job and we seem to be on the same wavelength which makes its easy....

anyway heres the BEFORE .. i just wasnt happy with this, it just looked boring to me........

TA...daaaa.... the AFTER.......
this quilt is huge and hard to get to fit in a photo :) the circle strip is off centre .....

lots and lots of freemotioning....






I took the Photos from Charlies Facebook,[tried to get one from each country] converted them to b/w and had them printed.i still couldnt fit them all on....
This pic is the view from her last host family's house....



Danish Daisies :)

i used some of her favorite quotes and a little message from me....

i

so thats it, my second and last quilt :)

doona covers , now thats an idea !!

The Little Book of ATC Background Techniques.

Wooohoooo, the book has gone postal :)

Its a massive post ahead so dont look if you are waiting for yours and want to be surprised!

This morning i toddled off to post the backrounds off....all in all we had 18 fabulous techniques and i hope it inspires you to do some creating , i know i cant wait to try a few....
I dont usually post before people recieve their things but as they going all over the world and they will get there at different times,i thought perhaps it was better if i posted first.....dont look any further if you want to be suprised....:)

Some were hard to photograph due to their shininess but i have done some close ups of the more textured ones....also there were different colored ones so some surpises still:)

so in no particular order....











Jens Gesso/Paint Resist...


Shirley's Pva, paint and metallic accents...
these are similar to les' but the end result is very different due to the different products used.....love their lusciousness....

Kathy's Sharpie Ghostwriting...
This a great for journalling especially for stuff you dont want seen.....Ive used it bit when im upset !

Sherry's Plastic Wrap Crinkle with Brusho
a favorite ! the colors are just so vibrant....and the utee gives so much texture...

Jens Gel /Paint Resist
saw this Here.....thanks Nathalie it was loads of fun....

Les' Distressed Glue
see how they are quite different to Shirleys.... more like a resist...love the intensity of the inks....

Carin's Webbing spray
i love the way Carin was able to get such fine webbing, mines always very unpredictable and chunky ! looks great over the WScrayons too...

Jenny's Soap Technique
loved the colors jenny used on these and the different patterns that she was able to achive...would be great for asian atcs...

Wendy's foil tape .....
I think out of all them , these are my favorites...i know you shouldnt have favorites but when i recieved them, i was gobsmacked...the patchwork effect, the lovely soft colors, the little wrinkles and the dots...whats not to like !!!


Vicky's Masking tape ....
These havent photographed anywhere as lovely as they looked, the bronze paint really picked up all the lovely little crevices in tthe masking tape and such a beautiful color combo...

Jan's Simple Coffee
love the simplicity of these....and the way jan framed them...really set them off...

Les' Melted Crayon
Cant way to try these....i loved the array of colors les used...

Gails Marble Painting
an oldie but a goodie , lots of fun too.... love the little tracks the marbles make and in one of my favourite color combos...

Les' colored bleach stamping.
Les added chalk and gel pen to these and i thought they looked fantastic...

Karen's (no blog ) crackle background
another oldie and goodie :) great effects although my results are usually a bit random....

Les' burnt glue background
And another one i want to try ,they are bit metallicy looking... love the sooty smell too....

Ros' fusible film background.
Now these photos dont do justice either...they are so vibrant and full of texture, i love all the burnt holes :0


Jens Nail polish remover and magazine page....
a simple one for the back pages of your books....

i want to thank Les who contributed a whopping 4 backgrounds and sent each of you a sweet little art charm... Also for the ones who were new this time i left the front and back covers for you to decorate.....
and i want to say thank you to each and everyone of you for the cards, little extras [and some big extras :) as well as postage and enves.....i really appeciated it...

its a fatty now !!!!

Tag Tuesday....Spring Cleaning....

woohooo, a Tag Tuesday tag on a Tuesday no less :) and the right Tuesday :)

you might wonder what this tag has to do with Spring cleaning.......especially as its not spring here....as you know i have been purging.... i still have a couple of cupboards to go but i have thrown out, given away and even sold some stuff , bags and bags and bags of stuff....i have also saved some stuff from my cleaning and used on this tag...target tag, magazine pages,book pages,onion bag.

while i was making it, i was thinking of all the excesses of Easter [chocolate and hot cross buns to be precise] and thinking back how when i was kid some 40 odd years ago and seeing starving Ethiopian kids on the TV and being absolutely horrified at the images.....and whats changed in that time...not much, people are STILL starving all over the world unnecessarily...

so my tag for this week.......

Tag Tuesday...Easter...

Well Easter is nearly over but i hope everyone had a lovely one :)

it suddenly dawned on me i hadnt made my tag, must be chocolate fuzz on the brain ;)

i collaged and painted over a clothing tag......something i love doing. Have you noticed how many different shapes and materials they are made of?

found the egg sticker and a bit of washi tape in my stash and it was done. love these text fringes too....


i am still beavering away with the atc backgrounds too, have started packaging...so not long now ....

ooppsie....its that chocolate again )))
i also forgot to share the prevoius weeks TT which was egg....i used a scrap of denim to make an eggy shaped pocket and added 3 little pink chookies with polka dot scarves....i love practicing my free motion stitching , dont think it will ever come naturally but it is fun...:)