Holiday Hours!

Precious Purl's usual trading days are Wednesday to Saturday 11-4pm but PLEASE NOTE:

Precious Purl will be  
                               OPEN: Wednesday 21st & Thursday 22nd December 
                               CLOSED:  Friday 23rd & Saturday 24th December

                                

                               OPEN: Wed 28th, Thurs 29th, Fri 30th December.

Sale continues this week with all reasonable offers being considered on unsold Sale items.

                               CLOSED: Saturday 31st December

During January we will only be open on Saturdays 11-4pm while we take a well earned break.
Other times may be arranged by appointment!
Please ring 0423 514 668

                                OPEN:   
                                               Saturday 7th January
                                               Saturday 14th January
                                               Saturday 21st January
                                               Saturday 28th January

                                             Resume Normal Hours 1st February 2012

Thank you to all our lovely customers for your support and we wish you a very Merry Christmas.
We look forward to seeing you back at Precious Purl in 2012

Nuno Felted Summer Scarf/Wrap Workshop.

We had our last workshop for the year at Precious Purl today.

 

 Our participants made beautiful filmy wraps with Muslin. These would be equally beautiful on silk but the girls chose muslin. Glen selected wool top, silk top, mohair curls and some silver lurex to make this beautiful tone on tone wrap, just right for cool Summer evenings. This was a great workshop for beginning Felters to learn the steps involved in Nuno Felting without too much of the rubbing /rolling being required. Glen, our sometime assistant at Precious Purl, did a great job on her first felted piece.

 

Moyna chose beautiful blues and greens producing a gorgeous wrap she was making for a gift. Lucky friend!
This was a 3 hour workshop that I will run again at Precious Purl as it produced lovely results in a short space of time.

I have just 3 more posts to reach my 100th and I am planning a great giveaway, so keep checking back!!


Keep checking our Lara Downs Online Sale (see the address in my sidebar!) for some great bargains too.
All products featured in the Sale are available from Precious Purl - Wednesday to Saturday 11 -4pm.

Engaged!

 I don't often have personal posts on my blog, but sometimes, very important family happenings need to be announced to the World!!

The Purly Family Number 1 and only son has become engaged to his long time love!

We had a great Party to celebrate this event along with a House-warming of their beautiful home!  We are so happy for both of them!


It's not just his Mum who thinks he looks about 18 years old. He was always the one asked for ID!
He's really almost 28!!
Wonder where those youthful genes came from??

"SALE" and Out & About!

Busy times at Precious Purl!

This Sunday 27th November from 10-4.30 we have been invited to join the very active Geelong Patchwork and Quilter's Guild to trade at their Biennial Quilt Exhibition.This will be held from Friday 25th November until the 27th at Deakin Waterfront Campus. Enter via Gheringhap Street.
Hope to see you there on Sunday! We will have lots of goodies to tempt you!

Our ANNUAL SALE commences at 9am Monday 28th November online at www.lara-downs.com.au  
All SALE items will then be available at Precious Purl from 11 am Wednesday 30th November.
Lots of Bargains so be early!

I'm sorry if you have this post twice in your Google Reader! Blogger wiped all my previous posts from the page when I posted it the first time??? Love the Cyber Gremlins!

Great way to spend a day!

Saturday! What a beautiful day! Warm and Sunny in Melbourne, some great company and enthusiastic "Cobweb Felting" was happening at Precious Purl.

 Designing with pre felts.

Laying out a Merino/Silk Lap, hand dyed by Pam of Lara Downs in a gorgeous colourway called Jewel.

                                   

The fibres have been thoroughly wet and rubbed and now ready for the rolling.

Coming together nicely! Definitely looking like a Cobweb!

So pleased with the final result!

Thanks Lynda, we had a great day!

Final Workshops for 2011

Another great Cobweb Felting workshop at Precious Purl last Saturday! The girls worked hard and were very happy with the results.
Several samples using Merino/Silk Laps in various ways were produced in the morning session. The afternoon saw beautiful scarves/wraps being laminated to hand dyed Tissue Silk. 


This Cobweb Felting Workshop will be offered again on Saturday 5th November 10.15 - 4.15, cost $150.

The last workshop for the year will be a Nuno Felted Flowery Summer Scarf using Silk or Muslin on Saturday 19th November. This will be from 10.30 to 1.30 and will cost $95.

Samples of these workshops can be seen at Precious Purl and as numbers are quite limited - be Quick!.
Email me (see my profile) for more details.

Woolly Wall of Fibrey Goodness!

We have added to our supply of Wool top for all those Spinners, Felters, Embellishers and fibre lovers.
From 18 to 22 micron and in luscious colours, I'm sure you will find something to suit/tempt you!

 

Solid colours, blends and gorgeous hand dyes from Treetops in Western Australia and Waratah Fibres in NSW.

We even have taster packs -  mixed colours of coarser fibre, perfect for Dry Needle Felting.

 Beautiful Silk Top to add a gorgeous lustre to any fibrey piece.

Geelong Fibre Forum and Victorian Feltmakers Textile, Art & Craft Charity Market!

What a busy "Fibrey & Textiley" time at Precious Purl!!
Last week saw us trading at the Geelong Fibre Forum. A wonderful annual event that sees around 200 people move in to Geelong Grammar for an intensive week of learning and fun with International and Local tutors.
Classes this year were offered in Print making, Book making, Jewellery, Creative Machine Embroidery, Weaving, Felting and more!
We joined in the Party on Friday night and were blown away by the hard work of SooMee Kim's Felting group who paraded their beautiful jackets and wraps for us all to admire.
The Open Day on Saturday is a huge affair where the public can view all the work produced during the week, visit the Traders, attend the Heathen Bazaar and just enjoy the beautiful surroundings and soak up that vibrant, creative atmosphere.  Add this to your diary for next year!

Our stand looked "Gorgeous!" Thanks to everyone who visited us and loved our "stuff!"
There was a little treasure trove behind this mesh screen!

This Saturday 8th October, Precious Purl/Lara Downs will be at the Victorian Feltmakers Inc
Textile, Art & Craft Charity Market at Hartwell Church of Christ hall off  Highfield Road, Hartwell between 10-2pm. Many crafty items have been donated for a silent auction and all money raised will be donated to the Cancer Council.
Hope to see lots of people there! Stop by our stand with the large Precious Purl poster displayed and say Hi!

Precious Purl at the Australian Quilters Exhibition.

Spent a lovely weekend trading at Siena College in Camberwell at the Australian Quilters Members Exhibition.
Over 100 amazing quilts that took me 2 days, in bursts between customers, to see!
I loved this Crazy Patchwork Quilt that featured some amazing treasures in the detail, just the sort I like!

 Just love to see buttons and lace and all those embellishing treasures that we sell, being used in this way!

So many other "beauties"too.The colours in this quilt, featuring Kaffe Fassett fabrics were amazing.

I do wonder why I don't see more young Quilters at these great shows I attend. There are many young and enthusiastic quilting bloggers and there is so much pleasure and learning to be gained from attending these group run exhibitions, not just the BIG quilting and Craft shows.




I apologise for not getting the names of the amazing creators of these 2 Quilts.


Our next big outing is the Textile Fibre Forum at Geelong, being held at Geelong Grammar from 25th September to 1st October.
This is always a great Textile and Fibre highlight, so mark it in your diary now!

Welcome Spring!

What a great start to Spring with a beautiful day yesterday!

 We celebrated by making Felted Spring Flowers with Kris at Precious Purl. Lots of fun! Lots of inspiration to use flowers in adorning ourselves. Kris covered the table with real flowers to inspire us!

Beautiful embellishing with silk, mohair, threads, fabric bits, in fact just about anything to give depth and luscious colour. The girls also learned how to make dreads to which they can attach flowers making a statement piece to wear. A photo of all the finished pieces would have been great, but just too busy!

 See the previous post for details of more workshops at Precious Purl

Current Workshops.

Three or maybe Four workshops for you to choose from before this year runs out - all too quickly!

Saturday 17th September - Knitting Basics and Pattern Interpretation. A 2 hour workshop withVicki, an experienced teacher of knitting who will help with all your queries.
Scared of tackling a pattern you love because it looks too complicated? Bring it along and Vicki will help!
OR if you want to try Knitted flowers, we can do that too!

Saturday 15th October - Cobweb Felting ( repeat) 10.15 - 4.15.
A wonderful workshop that sees you walk away with a beautiful Merino/Silk scarf and many samples and ideas to pursue. Great for beginners and those who have not used Merino/Silk laps before.We only take 2 participants for this very popular workshop, so get your name down quickly! We may be able to get Pam to run another in November if we twist her arm!!Update: Only 1 space left for 15th Oct!

Pam and Ingrid holding a completed Cobweb Felted piece from the last class.This was Ingrid's very first lesson in felting and what a great result!

        Lori and Helen laying out the merino/silk lap in a previous class.









Saturday 12th November - Nuno Silk scarf with felted flowers. No experience necessary for this lovely class. Limited number of participants again.

If you are interested in any of these workshops, please email me (see my Profile) and all the details will be sent to you, or enquire at Precious Purl.

What's New at Precious Purl?

 

A wonderful array of new goodies to share with you!

Hand Dyed Silk Ribbon and Embellishing packs from Colour Streams, 

luscious hand dyed wool top from Treetops Colour Harmonies range, 

Sari Silk loom ends and Sari Ribbon in gorgeous colours, 

beautifully soft 100% wool felt, 

some unique Felted Wraps and Hats,

hand dyed Tissue and Paj silk lengths, 

hand dyed silk top and mohair curls,

many beautiful yarns from near and far,

  more vintage buttons

together with the lovely range of fabric bits from India that I mentioned in the last post.

WOW! the shop is even more colourful than usual!

Come and see for yourself!