A HUGE compliment.

Chicky Babe walked into the lounge where I have been hand quilting my new quilt a few minutes ago and said "Hey don't get too shocked but this is really pretty."

"Pardon???"

"It's gonna be mine huh? Eventually."

Because she actually likes it, and that doesn't happen often- hence the dont be too shocked preface to the comment,  I think it will be hers as soon as I finish it off, as a graduation present. (Maybe I won't stitch the doilies on in that case!)

Now I'll need to make another one for myself, I'll have to start browsing for inspiration again.

Will post daylight photos when it is completed.  

Added next morning-

It's not quite done yet, just the edging to do but now that it's not for me to use now that can wait a little bit and now I can tidy the house a bit in preparation for an afternoon tea with the girls tomorrow. After all Chicky Babe doesn't finish until the 19th of November.

  These colours look a little better than the nighttime photos.

Holiday sewing project.

Yesterday I went out for lunch with my mum to a little cafe called Hubble's Yard. It was nice to spend some time with her on my own. As I walked back to my car I went into a little 'eco' gift ware shop and was inspired to make some skirts for myself, there were these nifty step in wrap skirts, that were too small and definitely too short (Read point number 4.1 of Anki's list 'seven signs of aging')

I bought this Indonesian inspired print some time ago and I knew I had it tucked away so I bought a length of  plain brown fabric to create a wrap around layered skirt. As I thought about it I decided it would benefit from some embroidery on the front to lift the plainness of the top layer. 

So I sketched a design in chalk to reflect the design in the print that will be on the inside of the skirt and embroidered it using a blue/grey to match the floral fabric. I used very simple stitches- running stitch and stem stitch.

P.S. Actually this skirt can be reversed so the pattern is on the outside.

Now I just have to sew it together and if it works I'll make another in black or navy.

Then I've got some new cushions to make too. - I'll post pictures when I'm done.

Hooray for the Holidays!

Over the last couple of days apart from the time I took to make these costumes for Chicky Babe and Bek. They loved them! (oops! the way I've cropped these makes it look like the text has decapitated them! But they like to remain a little anonymous in this forum at least! )

I've spent a lot of time sifting through my computer bookmarks and linked posts etc to try and figure  out why I bookmarked them in the first place. Some of them are a complete mystery, I don't know what I was thinking others gave me a glimmer of inspiration and some complete envy! Anyway I've been sorting and 'Pinning" the photos of the ones that I want to keep as a reference. I am so totally enamoured with this sharing function BUT enough is enough! So very, very late last night I started drawing and decided that I needed to do some things rather than just think about them.

So today I've made a slip cover for a very comfortable but ugly chair that had scratchy acrylic fabric cover on it. Now it is comfortable and makes a bit of a statement in the hallway 'office' area where it currently resides. (Usually it lives in Bantam Boy's room but I'm sure he wont mind the new cover when he gets home again next week-Yay! He misses home too much. Awwwhhh. Anyway he painted one of his walls navy blue so it will fit nicely with his decor.)

My next job is to shorten the new curtains I bought for spring. And maybe continue with the drawing / painting that I started last night. I was considering abandoning it but Chicky Babe thinks it is ok as it is. I get very frustrated at my lack of drawing skills - I really need to do more! (Mental note: draw every day, practice makes perfect.) But as you know I don't like anything I do but I am trying to 'get over it' and just 'get on with it'. Because I am certainly not as hard on others as I am with myself.

I drew most of it with my left hand although I'm right handed generally I think I might be left handed when I am an artist???? I actually like the things I do with my left hand much more than those I do with my right! I'm tempted to keep playing with the face, but Chicky Babe said it looks Ok and that she look Spanish, let's just pretend I wanted it exactly that way.

Right! Back to it!!!!

Print AND pictures!

Just a few pictures. I now have batteries AND the camera cord!
A new top made some weeks ago.
Mid room swap. Chicky Babe's very clean room (Much of the stuff is still around the rest of the house almost 4 weeks later!!!!)

The clutter lead to a small flurry of sorting and cleaning starting here.
The linen cupboard sorted...
here's some of what came out of it and packed off to the good sammies.
Ever hopeful I have labeled the drawers in the kitchen in an effort to make it easier for others to put things back in the right place.
Do you remember the computer cords labeled, bagged and boxed.
Well this is what they look like again! ***Sigh***
This is under foot...
And this is beside me... Bantam Boy need not worry- there is no way I am confusing him as a house husband at the moment. He was concerned that I would as he is neither studding or working yet he believes he should not be expected to do anything extra at present...yes we have had some words! :-(

I have managed to ignore some of the mess to feed my need to do something a bit creative. I'm trying to get the kids at school interested in art from different times and places and to become familiar with some well known artists as a part of the arts in society section of the visual arts. So as I love the work of Frida Kahlo so I decided to put one of her works on a t-shirt using a computer iron on transfer then add some embroidery to it and then wear it to school.

I love the way it turned out! It's now my favourite shirt. I'll have to buy some more plain black shirts and do some more.

Playing with fire and reinventing the wheel...(post two today!)

I found a couple of yo-yo's or suffolk puffs in my sewing basket. I made a couple of tiny little green ones and sewed them together added beads and sewed them onto some chord.

Progress Report.

Two cute little felt birds made last night and almost complete (just a few tiny glass beads to add I think)...

1 walk and breakfast at a cafe with my friend across the street this morning,
1 movie to see and dinner out with friends tonight.
260 or so art marks entered Friday afternoon...
26 classroom reports to finish.
Well a girl has got to have some fun!
I'll do them tomorrow.

lady bird and bumble bee....

After dropping Bantam boy off at work I had a couple of hours to myself so I thought I'd have a little lie down. As I lay there I started to drift off not to sleep but to that other place- you know the place and as I did all the things I'd been looking at and reading about (I've had a thing for old embroidery of late) anyway as I lay there my head started to clear and finally it became empty- in a good way! All the clutter left and I knew what I wanted to make. I have been thinking of miniature embroidery brooches on linen. And finally today I knew what and how I wanted to do them.

So I raced off to "Art Mart" fortunately they are open 7 days a week and I got some unprimed linen. It has such a lovely coarse weave and it has nice body too.

Chicky babe finally made me understand how to find the micro focus function on my camera so I was able to take a couple of close ups, with thumb to illustrate the scale.

Here it is almost finished, I don't have a brooch back to finish it off with. (Oh and this is a short scarf I'm working on at the moment, I've also almost finished a Chevron cardigan I started a couple of weeks ago, I've finished it enough to wear it I just want to make it a bit longer, I forgot to take a photo of it!)


Close, close up!

The most important thing I realised today was that to relax is not enough. To create properly and connect with your ideas and what you want to do you need to be able to clear your mind to allow space for the ideas to flow into. And this makes timetabling 'creative time' a bit tricky.
Obviously for me I need to find a way to clear my mind of the day to day rubble to allow my imagination space to "percolate' (It is a bit like a coffee dripper, my imagination has to flow through all the things in my head until it forms a creative puddle, hopefully into some sort of "cup" and not a messy puddle!)

Oh gosh! I just realised it's not sunday anymore no wonder I'm a bit tired it's after 1am!

Two little dancing dolls

Here they are two little dollies ready to fly over to victoria to play with someone who needs a new friend.

I'm pleased with the way this hairdo turned out.

and I'm happy with the little ballet slippers and bows.

I really wanted to do something pretty and as I said before these dollies had strong opinions about what they thought was pretty. I think they chose quite well.
Unfortunately I've run out of time this weekend and the third doll is still unstuffed...but I really must spend some time preparing classwork for school.

Doll Number 2

Almost done!

In my mind originally she was going to have stripy stockings and a cute floral smock type dress. But these dolls appear to have minds of their own. She didn't want to wear it at all. She was happy with the stockings but...

She insisted on having a tutu with the same red and white floral trim as her friend.


I think she wants ballet slippers too!
Back to it - it's almost 2am, last night I worked until 4am I think I should go to bed a tad earlier tonight. I still have one more dolly sewn up waiting to be stuffed! But I'll be stuffed if I don't get some sleep, but I'm having too much fun and am a bit impatient to see how they turn out.

Bushfire toy drop: doll number one.

She's ready to go!

I'm off to make the next one now.

Go to the Toy Society Blog to find out where to send your handmade toys.

Doll

Well I've made a start on my little doll tonight to send off to someone who needs it.

Here she is trying on clothing...

Yes she was happy with the Balinese braid and the very full pink skirt.

She is still thinking about the braid going over the shoulders...

But she is very happy with her red dancing shoes!

I am happy with her little hands. Tim said they looked like they were stretching out for a hug. Perfect!

Things I hate and christmas but not in that order and not really in the same sentence...

Merry Christmas!
And best wishes for a fabulous 2009

Although I had mixed emotions arround the whole christmas thing Christmas day was quite stress free round here. The kids woke at a reasonable hour (7am-chicky babe was excited about the arrival of her new red iPod) , I then went back to bed for a nap. I woke up about 10ish and started to leisurely prepare Christmas dinner. Mum and Ron came for dinner about 6pm. I had crayfish for entree and we had roast rack of lamb with potato salad, a green salad with roasted pumpkin, pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds and almonds and warm green beans blanched and tossed through fried onion and pancetta. We had fruit mince pies with brandy butter, cream and/ or ice cream. A super easy spread! This was followed with a game of poker sparked by a mini pack of cards found in one of the crackers! Mum won! She is so competitive!

My sister and her clan came up from the country for breakfast- not lunch as originally planned, on the Tuesday before Christmas. Most of the cooking had to be done the night before because alas I am not a morning person! I made stuffed mushrooms and ricotta pancakes with brandy butter and berries in syrup the night before. I found some organic sausages(that I could eat) to have with scrambled eggs and bacon which we cooked in the morning. (It cost me a bloody fortune! But no-one goes home hungry on my watch!)

Boxing day!

ONE THING I REALLY HATE:

Tangled cords. I hate them they stress me out! I don't know why but one look at a tangled mess of cords leaves my shoulder muscles cramped up and heralds the beginning of a tension headache! I decided to have a look for the printer CD to reinstall the printer and the modem one in order to fix my wireless connection in doing so I came across a tangled mess of cords many of which I had no idea what they were for!

So I spent some time tidying up the area (gathering up the empty choc milk cartons and lolly wrappers- this is one reason I am desperate to get my laptop working again) and doing this....

As many cords as I could label I did with a little masking tape tag to tell me what it is for.

They are now all sorted into snap lock bags under the appropriate headings so it won't take me forever to work out which cord does what when I want to add photos to my blog or download pictures from my phone. I just hope that my little chicks decide to play along and remember to put them back in the right bags! (Note the label on the largest bag at the back!!!! I'm too worried to throw them away just in case we discover we need them.)

Then , so I don't have to look at them at all they are tucked into a shoe box with a lid!
I still can't find the right information to fix my wireless modem connection- I am so close to going out and buying another modem just to get it going again but I know it would be such a waste of money!!! BUT I WANT MY WIRELESS TO WORK AGAIN!!!!

Todays playthings...

WIP

I've been looking at some sculptural crochet- check out gooseflesh, stunning pieces made using plastic bag 'yarn'. I'm playing with cotton to make a more sculptural crocheted piece of jewellery. This one will become a bracelet.

I had plenty of time to work on it, while waiting for Chicky Babe to get her hair cut. I had mine done too but it doesn't look the same as the idea I had in my head, never mind. Then I waited on a bench in the supermarket for an hour and a half while she had her group interview. Thankfully she has decided to go for another job, because apparently I unreasonably expect her to do unreasonable jobs when she asks for money! (Now I'll just ask her to do them for no money!!! )

I also revamped an old T-shirt today using a bit of one of my favourite fabrics.

It was incredibly easy so I thought I'd have a go at sharing a how to post. I got fed up with my lack of photography skills so I've had a go at doing some drawings to help too. Right here goes.

1: Take one plain t-shirt and fold it in half by tucking one sleeve inside the other.
2: pin a curved line of pins where you want the contrast fabric to sit (make sure it skims the top of the sleeve.) Once you are happy with the line cut just above the pins. Keep the bit you cut away to use a a guide for the width of the contrast piece that you will cut out in a minute.

3: Measure the length of the neckline you have just cut, as illustrated and them multiply this by four. eg. If your shirt top measures 20cm you will need to cut a length of fabric 4x20 or 80 cm plus 2cm for joining the seam.

4: Join your contrast fabric into a loop. Leave it partly open to allow for the drawstring to thread through easily. (No need to do this if you are putting elastic in to draw it up) Fold top section over and stitch to make a casing.

5: Divide the top and contrast into quarters and mark with pins. Match these together and and pin t-shirt and contrast together with right sides facing together. Sew together.


(****Don't do what I did, I pinned and sewed the opening at the back of my shirt! I had intended to have a little black bow at the front. It's now at the back!!!)


6: Thread your drawstring through the casing and pull up to the desired gather.