BETTER LATE THAN NEVER- THE LOW-DOWN ON DECEMBER CRAFTERNOONS 2014!!

AND HERE'S HOW OUR DECEMBER QUARTERLY CRAFTERNOONS, 2014 UNFOLDED. CRAFTY GOODNESS FOR THE YOUNG AND NOT SO YOUNG, EXPERIENCED AND THE NOT SO EXPERIENCED!!

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I just love the bright, bold colours in this picture, although the angle is a little hard on the eye don't you think? There are many beautiful items that find their way into the Upper Yarra Arts Centre, Warburton for our Quarterly Crafternoon Gatherings.

Look at this beautiful sewing box bought in by Ing who was hosting our 5000 Poppies workshop. 

It's poppy-mainia as there are now well over 100,000 poppies that have been created internationally for the display at Federation Square.  It's so wonderful we have been able to contribute. Speaking of which, have you seen the gorgeous mosaic display out front of the Warburton RSL. Souix Dolman, Mosaicist extraordinaire along with the local  community have created an inspiring tribute to the 40+ local soldiers lost at Gallipoli. Get along to see it if you can or check it out on your way to our March Quarterly Crafternoons in a couple of weeks.

Once again, our workshops were packed to overflowing leaving me quite humbled by the fabulous support these events receive. Love it! 

LET'S START WITH OUR 5000 POPPIES TABLE 

 Ing Cuttiford hosted this table and her lovely sister can all the from Numerka (!!!!) just to participate and support us, what a fab gal!! Just look at that sea of red poppies! I am so excited about the final resting place of these creations coming up in April and will definately be at the exhibition.

 Guests were guided along in their poppy-making journey with expert guidance and enthusiasm. Little Chloe came along with her mamma and they created a beautiful felt poppy to be proud of.

Whilst our doyene of Yarn Bombing and Community Craftivism Dakini of Warburton Stitching Witches actually learnt to crochet! She can knit til the cows come home but crochet has eluded her til now. And how great is it that we had a fella this time around. He had seen how one can crochet with plastic bags so came along to learn the ropes! Fantastic!

WET FELTING WITH MARLENE HOULDEN 

Marlene is an expert felter and runs popular classes on the subject. SHe is so king and generous and loved sharing her skills with us. Seeing it was almost Christmas, Marlene (standing up in the blue wearing a gorgeous felted necklace) shared her method for wet felting baubles and I could not believe how quickly and easily these worked up.

Here's a brief pictorial......................

First we started with a small ball of yarn which is a fab way of using all those little bits of left over stash. Some wool rovings, a bar of soap, dry felting needle and a tea towel. 

 The wool rovings are layered and wrapped around the yarn ball and when thcik enough,the whole ball is dipped in warm water and rubbed onto the bar of soap until really soapy.

 You can add trimmings and detail and then roll the ball all soapy and wet until it feels like it's shrinking. This is such a fantastic activity to do with kids too. My kids love it.

When it's completed, it can be embellished anyway you like. This was sooooo much fun and we thank Marlene from the bottom of our hearts for being with us on this day. We had a ball!!!!

 

And look at this.............................. Ta- Dah!!!!!!

LEARN TO CROCHET FROM A CHART TO CREATE A CROCHET STAR BUNTING WITH JENNY SCAMMELL

Jenny is just a superstar when it comes to our Quarterly Crafternoons. She comes up with the goods time and again and is a fantastic teacher.

This particular workshop was to focus on learning to read those funny pictures that come with some crochet patterns and if you like a lot of International designs, learning to follow a symbols chart is the best way to go. I have often been frustrated by a gorgeous design that I can't make because I haven't learnt how to read the symbols. Unfortunately there was no time for me to join this table but I may receive a private lesson from Jenny! Also, I can't believe this is the only picture I have of this workshop. I am continually surprised how on the day I'm pretty sure I ahve taken enough photos and then it comes time to writing this blog and, well, here's the evidence- I haven't !!! Sorry! It was a huge success yet not without it's challenges. There's a link to learning how to read crochet symbols chart here  (might look at that myself!) or you can do your own search. yay, just found another picture of the lovely Jenny herself showing the crowd how it's done.

ooo, and another of the crocheted star itself............

 And a better one of the chart pattern............

Speaking of stars, here's a pic of an amazing star blanket Shara Lambeth bought in for our Show N Tell.

ooos and ahhhhs here, it's totally gorgeous. Me wantie!!

EVERYDAY OCCASIONS CARD MAKING WITH AMANDA DAVERN

Amanda returned with her gorgeous card making and she never ceases to surprise me how easy she makes this all look. Actually, it IS easy. Especially with her Stampin' Up kits and if this sounds like a bit of a plug, well, it kinda is!! Only because I think it's amazing and I'm all for it!
Because if I can open a box and pull out these gorgeous materials.................

 Then simply add a stamp..............................

And arrange them in a way I like (or use the suggestions the kit comes with which = even easier!!)...........

Then change it all (coz I can!)........................

Then, get side tracked by another gorgeous design..........

Then make a professional  looking card just like that................

I WANT to plug this and no way do I get anything out of this other than to show you how how amazing this is and to tell you you should come to Crafternoons to try this for yourself, then my job here is done!!
Thank you Amanda, I love having you here at Quarterly Crafternoons! 


Well, I hope you have enjoyed the catch up albeit a little late! Now off to prepare for our March 11 Quarterly Crafternoons Gathering. Are you going to come along?

INTERNATIONAL CROCHET DAY 2014.......DONE!

THANK YOU to everyone who came to participate and those behind the scenes who supported this years' International Crochet Day Gathering at the Upper Yarra Arts Centre in Warburton. This was our third annual celebration and the 12th September will forever more be set aside to share this craft with our community and anyone who would like to join us. 
An enormous thank you goes out to the Yarra Ranges Council who provide this beautiful venue  free of charge and to the ever supportive Upper Yarra Community Enterprise who sponsors our gatherings through their Community Sponsorship Program. Shortly before this gathering I was made aware we had been successful in our application for a second round of sponsorship which clearly indicates the community value skills sharing and networking have in this area. Yay us!

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It was a truly amazing day with in excess of 65 lovely crafty people attending and lots of onlookers.
It took quite a few hours over quite a few days to wind 60 x 100g balls of Stylecraft Special DK into over 360 sweet, little yarn cakes. Whenever I look at all this gorgeous, yarny goodness I just see an array of colourful cupcakes with beautiful swirls of buttercream icing!

The first thing to see upon arrival was the stunning display of poppies created for the 5000 Poppies Project. This is just a very small portion of the 35,000+ handcrafted poppies Lynn has received for the project. Knitted, crocheted, felted, burnished sateen, hyperbolic shaped, embroidered beautiful poppies all making their way to Federation Square, Melbourne for the ANZAC Day Centenary in 2015.

 The red is so difficult to photograph and the lighting in here wasn't great for photography. It's glary through the windows and the brightness of the overheads creates lots of shadows. It's a shame you can't see all the beautiful detail in those closeups. The texture on these panels is gorgeous.

 Lynn was all too happy to provide guidance along the way and she did confess to dreaming about poppies quite often! Lynn left with 64 of our crocheted poppies that will be included in the display. I will be holding  a few more poppy making sessions in the coming months to add to our contribution.

 TUNISIAN CROCHET WORKSHOP

The INTRODUCTION TO TUNISIAN CROCHET was a huge hit and Shara handled a MORE then full table really well. We were hoping to run 2 sessions however our 4 hr time slot wasn't enough. I'm really sorry if you missed out however it is really tricky to merge new arrivals when the tuition has already started. We have discovered through experience that the learning is much more beneficial when everyone arrives at the starting time and our tutors can guide you through all together. 

 As you can see, it looks rather a bit like knitting and works in return and forward rows never turning the work as in crochet. Casting on the stitches and then casting them off again leaving just one stitch on and working in the vertical stitches the forwarding and returning creates. Making a dense, close fabric is the benefit of Tunisian Crochet so it's awesome for gloves and jumpers and the sweet little pouches everyone made on the day. 

 Here's Shara Lambeth guiding everyone along. She is an amazing crafter and a very good teacher. We were so fortunate to have her along. Thanks Shara.

And here's the ta-dah moment. Sweet little lavender pouches that could easily become little coin purses or Christmas decorations.

If you did miss out or you want a refresher, here's a link to a really good tutorial you could try at home. Try hooking up with Purl Bee Tunisian Crochet Basics to get you started. Good Luck

CROCHET MANDALA WORKSHOP

Jenny had a huge following with our CROCHET MANDALA MAKING! Jenny too, was swept off her feet with a full table and a constant wave of coming and going all day.

Jenny is a very thorough teacher. She is clear, concise, patient and knowledgeable and managed a fine jig about this table going from one participant to the next with gentle guidance and expertise. These manadalas were a tonne of fun to make. With endless colour combinations, each one is truly unique to it's maker.

Kylie made a beautiful pastel mandala in Stylecraft Classique Cotton.

Contrasting colours were a hit

This crocheting duo have attended almost every one of our gatherings and always have a great time.

Multiples of Mandalas left the Upper Yarra Arts Centre on this day

  

BEGINNERS CROCHET WORKSHOP

I think I love this workshop the best. I love that we are still able to fill this table to overflowing with lovely people who so desperately want to join in the crochet fun. Whether they are 'refreshing their memories' or 'starting from scratch', this table gives me such joy when those light bulb moments happen.

One lovely lady who after many, many attempts over the years finally 'gets it' after one on one expert tuition from  Kaye Adolphson. Kaye is a professional crochet designer from the Yarra Valley and clearly enjoys her work.

From learning to how to hold the hook and yarn to completed granny squares, this table was full of joyful giggles and success reigned. 

A big THANK YOU to Kaye for coming out to us after teaching a workshop in Olinda the same morning.

An example of Kaye's creative crochet work.

Quarterly Crafternoons is not just for the adults either. Children are a very big part of our community and making provision for the little ones to enjoy some hands on crafting time is a big part of these gatherings.

Proud moments are shared by us all, big or small!

Then I just had to share this colouful picture. This is a suitcase full of happiness!

Our next opportunity to craft along is our Quarterly Crafternoons December gathering held on 3rd December, 11am til 3.30pm. Hope to see you there.

x Le x