Back during the heyday of craft blogging in the late 2010s/early 20teens, there was a group of us that read each other’s blogs, met up for blogmeets at cafés and generally encouraged each other. Most of us had young kids and between us, we created a warm, friendly and utterly creative corner of the internet. Over time, most of the blogs gradually dwindled as kids grew, we went back to work and all of that.
One of the most creative of us, Kellie from ‘Don’t Look Now’, decided 5 years ago to follow her passion for fabric and open a quilting shop. Unfortunately, it was over the other side of town in Fairfield, where I never go. It was also when I was in the middle of my Europe trip and then buying The Best House in Melbourne. I was busy, busy, busy. Still, I filed it away as a place I’d visit ‘one day.’
Fast forward to this morning. I realised that, due to the 4th lockdown, June had almost gotten away from me and I hadn’t had a Little Adventure. Basically, now that I’ve retired, I’ve set myself a challenge to go somewhere new every month. Being June 30, it had to be today!
Fortunately, I had all 4 boys and their partners over for dinner last night and the 2 who live in the Western suburbs needed a lift back home. Yarraville isn’t exactly close to Fairfield, but it’s a darn sight closer than my side of town! So once I dropped them off, I fired up the Tomtom and headed on over.
This shop is utterly exquisite.
It’s also where I found the pattern I used for the Vintage-look baby quilt. I actually saw the original! Sadly, Kellie wasn’t in the shop that day, but once I regaled the other women with the tale of how I made mine, then unpicked it all and made it again, the conversation flowed and I had the best time!
Remember how I bought a painting in Hahndorf when I was on my holiday to South Australia? On my way over there, I decided that I’d buy the fabric for a quilt to begin bringing the colour-scheme from the painting into the rest of the room.
I was probably there for an hour. I pulled up a photo of the painting on my phone and then the pulling of fabric bolts from the shelves commenced. I learned a lot, just listening to Liz talking about why each fabric would work. She was really clever in how she mixed and matched colours, which is something I need to learn more about.
We were walking up and down the shop, pulling bolts out and putting them in a stack and then stepping back to see that they’d be like.
I’ve been following this place on the blog and Facebook since it opened, so it was a thrill to see the incredible quilts in real life that I was so familiar with.
While I was there I also bought a little reading lamp. Sometimes the guest room/sewing room gets a bit dull. It’s on the south side of the house and I’ve been meaning to fix this problem for ages.
Look at how Liz packaged up my fabric! I kept glancing over at it all the way home.
Here’s the photo I took of the painting after I’d unwrapped it. You can’t really tell from this photo but it has a 3D effect – the flowers and fallen petals are made from layers and layers of paint, so they stick out. So much so that I have to keep an eye on anyone who sees it for the first time. A surprising number of people try to touch them.
In different light during the day the painting changes as the light moves across it. It’s really quite extraordinary.
So there’s the colour palette. I also bought a hexagon template so I’ll be learning a new skill when I’m making this.
I’m glad I thought to do these Little Adventures.
