Moving right along....

...in August! In wet, cold, windy August, to boot! Brrr, what I'd give for a week in some balmy northern climate. I guess the weather is giving the winter woollies an airing. Which kinda inspired me to attempt making my very first beanie from some leftover wool. Not a bad effort, if I may say so. But I need to learn how to make a neater seam when sewing them together. Anyway, one for KoGo, and may it warm some homeless person's head. And I enjoyed using the heavenly Cleckheaton 8ply and bamboo knitting needles.
The Melbourne Craft and Quilt Fair has come and gone. It was marginally better than last year, and it seems that fewer stands are a continuing trend.

With A$2,000 a pop for the smallest stall, exhibitors really need to think about whether participating is an option for them. I for one am grateful for every exhibitor attending. I attended a workshop about needle felting, which was useful, and a class with Natalie May, making a couple of cards using Lindy's Stamp Gang pigments. These are beautiful colours, and the names are all German-inspired - Bratwurst Brown, Yodelling Yellow, Polka Purple, Oompapah Pink and so on. You sprinkle the pigments on paper (heavy watercolour paper works well), then spritz them. Once they dry, you get a lovely soft shimmer to the surface. Natalie

gave us the materials, including stamped flowers and leaves, and I finished the cards at home, using stamps and glitter pens to embellish them more.
Yesterday was a culinary experience, with lunch at Houdini's - including the gorgeous affogato! Followed by afternoon tea to farewell Pat, who will be leaving us soon for a stint in Hamburg with her family. Paula, one of our Friday group members, had the brilliant idea of making a quilted card for Pat, with little handmade mementos from all of us. I think Pat enjoyed that, the ladies had made some lovely little mementos. Paula thought Pat might need some

extra warmth in the cold German winter months, and gave her a lovely hand knitted blanket.
Late July and early August were busy with visitors, e.g. Wayne's cousin from San Diego and her family came to visit. We enjoyed a nice lunch with them and the other cousins in Williamstown. My friend Susan visited, then accompanied me to the Craft Show. A friend of Wayne's dropped in and they worked on a photo book. And the Owlery was popular as usual, with different quilters groups visiting and stitching away.
This week, we headed to the South Melbourne Town Hall, for a book launch by Multicultural

 Arts Victoria. Wayne wrote a chapter about his great grandparents and their family travelling to Australia in the 1800s. Some of the stories were quite sad, but in the end, everybody was grateful for their ancestors coming to Australia and making a good life here.