Lovin' that Lotus ...

First things first. The blogetogether was great. Met some lovely crafty blogging ladies (and some babies) who I have been wanting to meet for such a long time and believe it or not, they scrub up OK in real life! And they are every bit as witty, charming, clever and did I mention stylish, as their blogs.

It did come to my attention, however, that some people (who shall remain nameless) thought that "tcaovar" was perhaps something in Russian. Firstly, I don't speak Russian. Secondly, they are the initials for the name of my blog. T for The, C for Complete, A for Adventure and so on. And who are Violet & Rose? Who knows. Are they people? Are they flowers? Are they scents or colours? They are all of the above, and they are the name of my little brand/shop. Hope that clears things up for those who thought tcaovar was a type of caviar.
To see more, visit Justine's flick-r shots here.
The venue for our get together was Amitie. Last week I saw that the new Amy Butler Lotus range had arrived in their store. Couldn't wait to get my grubbymitts on it. I had spied this gorgeous pale, almost duck egg blue and slate grey combination and I knew it had to be mine.A very good friend who loves stationery, gave me these two blue notebooks around Christmas and asked me to make her some notebook covers to fit them. They were such a lovely blue and Amy (not Butler, my friend, but hey, what a coincidence!) is a wonderful friend, so I really wanted to search until I found something that did them both justice. I think I hit jackpot. That fabric is so good to sew with and when you combine the prints and get such a great result, well, it's like you've reached fabric nirvana. Am I going overboard? If you sew and you love fabric, you will feel the love going on here.One is A4 size, the other, pictured above, is A5. I put the pen inserts in the A4 but not in the A5. The pocket was too deep for pens, so I just left it as one large pocket, maybe to put loose papers in.
I feel some more of these coming on ...

Block under scrutiny ...

You may have noticed over in my side bar that there is a button for "A block for MS". One of those great ideas that are really easy to get involved with. And it gives you the sense that your sewing is for a purpose and not more useless faffing around. Did I just say that? Sewing? Useless faffing? Well, you know what I mean.

The quilt is being organised by Amitie, and as I am going in there on Saturday, I thought I really should get to and make my block. I've been a little naughty and my central block has a few extra colours, but it is predominantly red, black and white, which was the criteria. I have really wanted to use that little scrap for so long and it just seemed to be right as a central piece. It has interest and character and I liked it.

Normally, if I was making a quilt, the back would be, well, to quote my father, as rough as guts. But when you are making a block that is going to be part of something bigger and going to a shop where the work that comes out of there is, well, stunning and precise (have a look here, in particular, the Faux Fassett), I took a little more care.

In fact, so proud am I of the care I took, I present to you, the back of my block.

Please note the carefully pressed seams! The other reason I took so much care with it is that I am not just sending it off in the mail. Mail gives you a sense of anonymity. No, I will hand it over myself, in person. Scary stuff that!
If you too would like to put your work up for scrutiny, and endure the torment that is self inflicted upon you, then I am sure the ladies at Amitie would love some more blocks!

Blogalicious ...

A pile of blogalicious goodies for some blogalicious ladies for theblogetogether. And they smell really good ....

Organised by Justine, it's going to be at Amitie on Saturday the 17th, and we are all going to swap little gifts. And eat. And chat.

Have I mentioned I love gifts?

Making and giving. Receiving.

Oh, OK, perhaps receiving just a little more.

Now all I need to do is wrap them.

Wrapping courtesy of the very lovely applehead, over here.

Shake your groove thang ...

Yes, my groove thang needs some shakin'. It's taking a while to get back into the swing of things. School is back, kinder has started. Any parent doing the school and kinder pick-up/drop-off thing will know what I'm talking about. I am currently watching an old supermarket turnstile on e-bay. Hope I win it, because I seriously need one at our back door.
I'm joking. But I do need one.

I really do subscribe to the theory behind "The Over Scheduled Child". Big fan of kids being kids. Hanging out. Chasing the dog with buckets of water. It's the bath water, for all you Melbourne people who are sitting aghast at your computers, thinking that I would give my children our precious drinking water to throw on the dog. We do a couple of "extra-curricular" activities that my children really enjoy. But I'm taking a while to get it all together.

Which means that blog posts are less frequent, as the crafting is too.
But I did make a rabbit! 
All recent baby arrivals have been girls. Which means that bunny's in skirts have been a plenty. Not sure what to do with a boy bunny? A scarf perhaps? 
A few people have been posting about polka dots lately. I am a recent convert and I must say I can't get enough of them. I always thought of myself as a stripes girl, but something swayed me to the spots and now I am hooked. I bought this fabric, Maywood Studio, for a quilt. But it will be lucky to make the quilt. If you go to the Maywood link, scroll down to the Vintage Flower Garden range. I was a little shocked when I double checked my link to find the "Beary Merry Christmas" range appear. I may be into hand knitted bunny's, but I draw the line at bear Christmas fabric.
I'm hoping that the week ahead proves a little more fruitful for me.
And if you are easily shocked at the risque, please look away from the next photo.
Perhaps if I spent less time on bunny photo shoots and more time on some more constructive endeavours, my groove thang may come back.