Welcome to Wednesday

Welcome to your Midweek Moments. This week, we have lots of the usual goodies plus a rather unusual Big Thing featured in the Big ‘n’ Bizarre column. You may think all Big Things are unusual by their very definition, but this particular guest of honour outdoes the others mainly by what it’s been made of. Read on to find out what it is.

Also, over the weekend of August 27 and 28 Kay Haerland joined us in the store and taught us how to create realistic landscapes. The workshop covered the use of perspective and light, and how techniques like invisible machine applique and using stitching and stencilling to add texture to plain fabrics to give realism and life to your quilt. It was quite a great day!
Click here to veiw the class's projects on the day!

Book Worm

By Karli Galvin

This week we are featuring a great new book by Hatched and Patched designer Anni Downs called 'Some Kind of Wonderful'.
Whether you love applique, patchwork, punchneedle, or hand stitchery, you'll find the perfect project in this diverse array of quilts, sewing accessories, bags, and home accents.

Whether you need a pin cushion, heat bag, table runner, bag or pillow, this book has got you covered with 3 charming quilts and 12 unique, fun projects to bring out your creative home deco flair.

Purchase this wonderful book here!

2 Cool 4 School with Susan Carr

School Holiday Class

If you were impressed with last week's article on the quirky naughts and crosses game project then you'll be even more impressed with our 2 Cool 4 School classes with Susan Carr this holidays!

With an arrangement of fun projects for the kids, such as placemats, pyjamas, cat and dog softies, cushions and sling bags, you'll be sure to keep the kids occupied and entertained with giving sewing a go and creating something unique for them to keep!

This class is available on Tuesday the 27th September or Friday the 7th October from 10am to 2pm.

Click here to book now.

Big 'n' Bizarre

A road trip of Australia’s fiberglass monuments

The Big Wine Bottle

All up, there are quite a few bottles in the family of Big Things, especially of alcoholic beverages. But this Big Wine Bottle at the Wirra Wirra winery in South Australia is different from all the others for one very fundamental reason – it’s made entirely of corks.

Of course, the six million dollar question now is – does that make this Big Wine Bottle more of a work of art than a Big Thing? No doubt the debate will quietly rage ad nauseam, so we’ll nip it in the bud now by saying that it can actually be both at the same time. There, conundrum solved.
Wirra Wirra, which is Aboriginal for “amongst the gum trees”, is nestled in the lush and fertile McLaren Vale district, and has been churning out award-winning drops since 1894. Over the decades it’s developed some very strong environmental credentials as well as a creative, slightly quirky ethos; two things that have come together in the form of this rather unlikely Big Thing.

When the winery began phasing out corks for the increasingly popular screw tops, they decided to create a work of art with as many recycled corks as they could find. In the course of this creative journey they teamed up with the local Girl Guides. These young ladies also had a yen for discarded corks, principally for important fundraising activities rather than eye-catching artistic statements. Unfortunately, those pesky screw tops had been playing havoc with the Guides’ ability to raise a buck or two, as the corks were becoming more and more scarce. Sympathetic to the Guides’ plight, Wirra Wirra decided to construct a 10 metre high bottle of one of their most popular wines – the hallowed 2008 Church Block Cabernet Sauvignon-Shiraz-Merlot – to draw attention to the Guides’ cause. After all, it was 2010, which was officially the Year of the Girl Guides.

Several weeks and exactly 55,630 corks later, the imposing structure made its world debut at the Melbourne Food and Wine Festival in March 2010. A couple of days later it hit the road again and spent three weeks in Adelaide’s Rundle Mall where it made many new friends as part of the Adelaide Fringe Festival. After this brief but exciting career, the Big Wine Bottle was returned to its permanent home at the entrance to the Wirra Wirra winery where it remains to this day.

As well as some much needed publicity for the Girl Guides, this Big Thing has also drawn attention to the 2008 Church Block Cabernet Sauvignon-Shiraz-Merlot itself, which isn’t really all that surprising. This wine has been immensely popular with both quaffers and reviewers alike, attracting words such as “vibrant”, “zingy”, “persistent”, “spicy”, “suede-like” and “plump” to describe it. If there was ever a wine that deserved to have its likeness replicated in a 10 metre high cork monument, this was it. Just don’t bring it with you to a restaurant. Not only would you have trouble getting it in through the door, just imagine the corkage you’d be charged!

And the last word..

“When creative juices flow, catch them with a needle.”