Punch with Judy - Happy Australia Day 2013
PUNCH WITH JUDY - AUSTRALIA DAY 2013 NEWSLETTER
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HELLO EVERYONE & HAPPY AUSTRALIA DAY!
Yes, I know, I'm a day late, but this SHOULD have gone out yesterday, but it is a whole weekend of celebrating since tomorrow is the Public Holiday for Australia Day. What amazing people were awarded the honours of recognition at yesterday's ceremonies announcing the winners of Australian of the Year 2013 and various other awards! May I invite you to visit my Blog http://punchwithjudyblogspot.com/ for my comments and wonderful Aussie Sculptures from the recent Lockhart's Spirit of the Land Festival. I just loved one of the winners, though not the first prize, but look at this Aussie humour! Read the full story on my Blog. You may think I've been very quiet since Christmas re Newsletters, Blogs, Facebook & Twitter, but quiet is so far from the truth as you can get. Have had a continuous flow of visitors and rellies plus the January Website's Birthday Sale. Whew! Obviously, I've given you offers too good to refuse! A guy from USA contacted me wishing to purchase my website and I tell you it was tempting. He asked was it for sale? I replied cheekily that everything is at a price. But, when I told him he'd have to do the show circuit round if he wanted it "as is", then he declined. Wonder why? The time is 'a-coming' though eventually. Maybe I had a weak moment? Also been busy rearranging the mailroom because we've finally had the ceiling repaired and the architrave which was hanging. All due to water. Took the opportunity of clearing it all out and erecting a second-hand compactus which John drove to Sydney to pick up. Quite old, but a good price and it should make it easier to store stock in. The van was full as well as the trailer. 9 units.
Celebrated last weekend with our Annual Getaway Weekend with my two daughters. We saw Chitty Chitty Bang Bang in Sydney and visited the Wax Museum. Too much to show, so I'll pop it on the Blog this week. Will also report on the full story about these Alpacas on our property. You really should subscribe to my Blog too because when I post a new one you get an emailed notification. So easy!
Till next time, hope you enjoyed your Australia Day and keep celebrating over the weekend, plus a Public Holiday on Monday, with plenty of events still to come in the capital cities and so much sport happening right now. TAKE CARE THOUGH. Happy
Australia Day, Judy |
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1. SHOWS Craft & Quilt Fair Palmerston North NZ The first Show of the year is a NEW one. A Craft & Quilt Fair will be held at Arena Manawatu, Palmerston North from 14th - 17th February 2013, from 10.00am until 4.30pm daily. The Fair includes over 55 workshops and Craft Circles, new Pop Up Classes and, of course, our Nifty Notions all day demonstrations on the Into Craft Stand. IMPORTANT: I need
to explain our involvement with this Show. Punch with Judy will NOT have a stand selling products, but I WILL be there demonstrating on the Into Craft Stand right at the front entrance. John will be assisting and taking orders. Orders will be accepted at a very attractive offer for all Kiwis which I think will be more appealing price-wise for you than purchasing at NZD hiked prices covering our freight over and your GST. I hope those who visit the Show will applaud our new venture. Not only can you order all the products I'll be showing during my Nifty Notions demonstrations, but you'll also be able to order anything from our website at a special offered price just for show visitors and we'll mail it to you POST FREE for any orders over $100.00. Make your arrangements to attend the Show to see displays, demonstrations, workshops, specialist retailers and full or craft and quilts. Three great door prizes too - one of which we are donating - a Sew Steady Table combination. See you at the FAIR! Sydney at Rosehill Gardens Racecourse from 7th - 10th March followed by Brisbane at Brisbane Exhibition Centre, South Bank from 21st - 24th March. Punch with Judy will be attending both. More on these later. Full schedule of our Show Program for 2013 is on our website.
2. RETREATS Machine Embroidery Retreat will be held from 21st - 23rd September, 2013. Everyone learns so much whilst having a great time with other fellow enthusiasts. We will be supplying you with designs to upload and most of your requirements. Everyone will come to the Retreat fully prepared so as ALL the time will be spent sewing and learning. NEW COURSE! Quilting with Machine Embroidery: "In The Hoop" quilting - make a quilt literally in the hoop. View full particulars on our Retreats section. To pay your $100.00 deposit, book here. Online Classes commence again in less than a week. If you are interested in the Westalee Mystery Sampler Quilt Course, I will be emailing students their requirements and other details this long weekend. Enrol now - it is only $30.00 for the entire year. The Westalee Mystery Sampler Quilt is a very popular course and quite suitable for a beginner and intermediate quilter; commences 1st February. For those who've completed it, you may like to join us for the Westalee Constellation Quilt Course commencing on 15th February. Others follow in forthcoming months. The Curve Master Course commences in April, the Pleatmaker in June and Punchneedle in July. Still workimg on the new third Westalee Course. 4.
WHAT'S
NEW
Is there such a thing as "Perfect Scissors"? Karen Kay Buckley claims her new scissors are such so named them exactly that. View them here. Available as 4" and 7 1/2". That's what I wrote 2 years ago in a Newsletter. Well, Karen has now introduced another little gem. Perfect Curved Scissors with large finger holes and very short blades that are curved at the tips. I think you'll appreciate how easy they are to handle. Havel's Scissors have released their popular Ultimate Machine Embroidery Scissors with much larger finger holes for those who need that extra comfort. Think you'll be pleased with these.
Some new Machine Embroidery CDs from Hatched in Africa too. Purely Gates have introduced some of the best yet. Just peep at these, all done with Mylar Embroidery Sheets. If you haven't tried embroidering with mylar yet, why not? It's so exciting. The colour of the thread determines the irridescent appearance tones and they are brilliant. I have some more fabulously exciting new products on their way too from my last visit to USA. The Swatch Buddies have been selling extremely well since I introduced these to you before Christmas.
Julie Hall has released several new CDs - a host of new ones to choose from, just view them ALL here but here are some examples. Julie has some new designs suitable for the little boys in your life too.
Jenny Haskins has a set of three Clever & Crafty ideas that available as a set for a discounted price or available as three individuals CDs. Always coming up with something different. You have to hand it to her!
Kay Hanley from 1-2-3 Embroidery has some great new designs too. Her Christmas ones will definitely have to be on your list for next December. Or, buy them now and have everything finished early without the last minute rush!
Would you like to make similar blocks to this with absolute ease and accuracy?
6. SPECIALS Well, you've had a whole month of specials as part of our January Website's 12th Birthday Celebrations. My oh my, who wishes to come and work here for a while sorting through them and mailing them? Will take us a month of Sundays! When we start on 1st February, it really will take us quite sometime so I beg for your patience. The specials were SO good that you went berserk so I imagine you don't mind a little wait. Means you don't have to pay up as soon as you thought, so that may be a good thing possibly??? PLUS,
everyone who purchases from our Birthday Celebration Offers, goes into
the Lucky
Draw for
the Main
Prize of $150.00 Spending Spree on ANY items throughout the entire website. Runner-Up
$100.00 Spending
Many, ever so many, wished me personally a Happy Birthday and I thank you for all your good wishes. Though I've just about stopped counting, I do appreciate your thoughtfulness. I think I've got back to most individually, but to all those who popped a message at the bottom of their order, a big THANK YOU. Also, for the comments from many re the specials being offered this year. Maia called me a "wicked, wicked, woman!" for tempting her strength. Jenny keeps sending me "booster-type" emails with the hope they'll keep me going as I wade through the emails and orders, trying to make some kind of sense of them. Elizabeth says she hasn't had so much fun for a long time. Another Jenny tells me she HAD intended to be strong this year! Wendy has finally got the hang of what to do and is so proud of her efforts. Plus so many other stories I could relate. Questions, order changes, queries, special requests, urgent orders, all of which take time, but I THANK you all. I think this illustrates what many may feel though. Hi Judy, I think your birthday specials are such a fantastic idea! Not only can we take advantage of a different special each day, but in actual fact, it opens us up to many, many different products that we had no idea existed. I especially liked yesterday's - it being Australia Day. Had no idea we had so many talented Aussies responsible for such great products! I just love your website. I spend many hours looking and getting enthused. Thank you Judy, I hope to meet you one day! I feel quite touched and honoured, thank you. 7. SUPER SPECIAL
In the clean up of our mailroom I have decided to clear some old stock I have of a Hoop-It-All product. Stick-It-All is an adhesive embroidery backing and I have several OLD packaging of their Light Adhesive Roll 6 1/2" x 20' which should be still 100% okay, but no guarantees. To CLEAR at only $5.00 per roll to anyone who already has a January Birthday Order, to save on the postage. RRP $23.00. Order online or simply email me a request. 8. JUDY'S BLOG I don't always get time to send a Newsletter, in fact, each one takes me more than a full day to do, often till the wee hours of a morning. Many say "make them shorter and more often" but that's not my nature, I just have to tell your everything. Anyone who doesn't like can delete or they unsubscribe. But the BEST way to keep in touch is to have an email sent to you when I post a new blog. Then, you don't have to keep checking and you don't miss out on anything. A very small percentage of those reading this actually have subscribed to my Blog. Go to http://punchwithjudy.blogspot.com and over on the right hand side if you scroll down a wee bit you'll find "Receive our posts via email". Simply enter your email address and click "subscribe". Now that's not hard. EASY. I think you'll enjoy reading the ditty about "You Know You're an Australian When:" It's on my current blog. 9. DAMAGED & DISCONTINUED Simply visit Damaged & Discontinued, order whichever you please, then type in the Additional Comments section of your order that you wish to purchase the one from the D&D for such and such a price as the normal retail price will be showing on your order. Don't worry about that, we'll adjust manually. Mid week I will add some great bargains of damaged stock, so be patient and check it out then. There are some there already, I'm just saying more will be added asap. Just having been opened or have no packaging at all. 10. INTO CRAFT All of my NIFTY NOTIONS editorials in the e-newsletter from Into Craft are archived on my own website which is easier than through the archives of their website, simply because they are all together. Makes interesting reading if you wish to learn more about products and how to use them. There was no Into Craft in January, everyone is permitted some time off over summer holiday time! Resuming in February, my next column is for those who wish to embark on quilting as a new hobby. Maybe it was a New Year's Resolution? So many questions of where to start and what do I need? I've finished my editorial but I thought it would be nice to add at the bottom some comments from experienced quilters as to what they thought they'd learned as essential advice for a beginner. Maybe I'll just add 5 or 6, but I'm asking you to email me a short sentence of something you feel would be good advice for a true beginner. Please do it tonight or tomorrow morning though. 11. GALLERY
I've received some new images of Student's work from our Online Classes so will try to include them this week. For other Students, if you have some that you've not sent to me, please do so now. Helen has one of her Westalee Dresden Plate quilts in an upcoming magazine, so well done Helen.
Did you know that there is tool which will calculate a block, a piece, an image, an anything to a different size for you with a percentage to increase or decrease it by using a Photo Copier? I know I've mentioned the Quilter's Assistant Proportional Scale before but I read recently the following and thought, aggghh, but there's an easy way. Read this and I quote: "Imagine a darling little applique that's just perfect for your wall, but the 12" block is too large. You decide you'd like to make it 10" square. You take the 12" pattern to a photocopier with the intent to make it smaller, but what percentage should you make it? In the words of my friend, 'Ya start with whatcha want and ya divide it by whatcha got'." They did go on to explain how to do it with a calculator, but geez, using the QAPS is far easier, quicker and more accurate. Did you know that Glad Press 'n Seal is not only used in the kitchen but in the sewing room too? It is used to transfer an embroidery or quilting design onto your fabric by tracing the design onto it and hand-pressing to your fabric. Stitch through it then tear it away when completed and there's no residue left on your fabric. For quilting designs, place it over your design and machine-stitch through all the lines without any thread, simply to perforate the paper. Place it over your fabric and use a Quilt Pounce to smooth over it which will enable the chalk to sift through the perforations and voila, you have your design onto your fabric instantly and accurately. Did you know that the Electric Quilt Company has been designing software for quilters for several years enabling a quilter to design, draw, colour and create original blocks and layouts beyond imagination? I have stock of 3 superceded versions for sale to clear. EQ6 is a complete quilt design software program which can be upgraded to the current version EQ7. I've seen it currently on Aussie websites for nearly $300.00. Remember, I have THREE EQ6 only wanting a good home for the best offers I receive. Interested? Email me for a dutch auction. For more information, visit EQ website. I also have lots of accessories and books. Will make them available another time. 13.
GOLDEN OLDIES During all my years owning a sewing machine dealership, one of the worst nightmares was with 'what' and 'how much' oil or substitute was used to oil a sewing machine. Peanute oil, easy glide, cooking oil, thick glunk, you name it. Some modern machines claim it is a 'no oil' machine, but if you do need to oil anything, please use only good quality fine oil and only sparingly. A good old time favourite of mine is the Fine Point Oiler which not only has excellent oil in it but administers it drop by drop giving excellent control. Do consider it next time you need some. Till next time, Judy
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Deb
Tucker has introduced a 
At
times I've had problems with obtaining stock of Kwik Klip and Needle-Eze,
so I'm pleased to say we now have another alternative, Made in Australia
too. The 
Westalee
Design
I
really do wish to thank you all for your participation and if you haven't
as yet, there's still a few more days of super specials. Don't forget
the wonderful Lucky Drawer too. Some lucky shoppers will have even
more money to spend if they win one of my dollar value prizes. The
website states:
John
prints all the orders and collates them - must have been work overload
because his computer died and I had to supply him with a new one!
He reckons he has orders coming out of his ears and wants you to stop!
Of course, we NEVER listen to HIM anyway, do we?
