Too, too long....

...and procrastination and duff sitting may have something to do with it....anyway, just finished a late dinner (home made gnocchi with prawns), having my coffee and enjoying the cool change after a stinky hot day in Melbourne.  Dr No is on the telly (I'm a huge Bond fan, but I've seen Dr No umpteen times and my husband really wants to watch it again), so what to do? Sew? - I could go and make some Christmas presents....or I could blog.....hmmm, what to do.....?  Well, blogging won - and for those who have commented on the last couple of posts (which were a few weeks/months ago - I'm sorry I haven't responded - I'm turning over a new leaf today)

It feels like such a long time since I actually wrote anything and I have done umpteen things in the meantime that I'm just going to record them as I remember them - so in no chronological order whatsoever...

1.  I hosted the delightful Caz of The Accidental Quilter for some time on the longarm - Caz had 2 queen sized quilts she was loathe to wrestle with through her domestic machine so she came to mine to do them - apart from an unexpected powercut, which curtailed tuesday afternoons' session, she got them both finished and did a fabulous job - most impressive for a first time - way to go Caz :)

2.  I made a frock - one of the 2nd year students at school made a beautiful linen dress and luckily the pattern is a new one.  It called for 4.5m of 150cm wide linen which wasn't very budget friendly so I searched through the clearance table at Spotlight and picked up some gorgeous voile for $5 per metre - the dress is a lot less structured in the voile and has beautifully soft folds - it turned out really well and I hope you get the idea from this crappy picture.....I'm saving for some linen to make another one but there'll have to be a few pattern adjustments....I don't think I can fudge them in the linen like I did in the voile!

3.  The Somerville Community House banner is FINISHED - yay - a lot of blood, sweat and tears in this banner - 12 1/2" pieces of calico was handed out to all the class/activities currently on at the Community House with instructions to fill the square with representations of their class or of Somerville itself.  We got back some very interesting blocks - they were painted, stitched, drawn and knitted and with a variety of mediums, from thread to paper to, in one case, a fan!  Putting it together was a bloody nightmare challenge but a couple of wonderful ladies in my Stitch and Chat group kept everything together and appliqued and stitched away with me to come up with a fabulous finish - there's a presentation/launch next week.....but here's a sneak preview....

4.  The veggie patch is growing strongly - we're already eating lettuce, silverbeet, zucchini's, sugar snap peas, asparagus, rhubarb, carrots and spring onions.  There's fruit on the tomato plants - many that self-seeded from last year and the first lot of corn is almost ready to throw up the flowers that will pollinate the ears of corn...there's also pumpkins forming...this abundant growth is thanks to the very changeable weather we've experienced over the past month or 2

5.  I joined the wonderful ladies of the Mornington Stitch Group for our Christmas breakup, hosted by the lovely Emma at Treehouse Textiles.  I've nicked the next photo from the Group mama, Cathy's blog...(Cabbage Quilts)....thanks Cathy and Emma :)

we had a Kris Kringle swap - what a talented bunch we are ;)

6.  I made 3 more Farmers Wife blocks - so that's 100 finished and I only have 11 more to make - YAY!!!!

...and now I've run out of memories!  So, I think I'll sign off - the sewing machine is calling and Christmas is approaching...til next time

smiling...

Nothing like a visit from your bestie to add some much needed perspective - thank you Miss Lizzie - you always make it better :)

We spent the day yesterday loading up the long arm with a quilt that Liz is making for me - I feel so spoilt - it's a beautiful quilt - and there's going to be hand quilting as well - soooo looking forward to this one being finished and I can show it off in all its glory then....

While Liz was quilting, I actually got some Farmer's Wife blocks done - another 6 making a grand total of 93 complete - only 18 more to go - last time I did anything on this was about 3 months ago - so an attack of the miseries substantially increased my sewing output this last week....hopefully it continues (not the miseries, the output - I have an assignment due on Friday and my piece is still only at concept stage...)

blocks 88 - 93

....and here's me trying to get a good shot of my new top - some say it is a good shot because I cut off my  head  - and I will never win prizes for photography.......but, check out the shoes - these are so high I can only just about  stand in them - although the first time I wore them, at a wedding, I managed to do the 'Nutbush' without falling over - they are highly impractical but I love them..

Hope you have a good week

rushing in.....

Catching up on stuff - and trying to be more disciplined with my time - there is so much I want to do and seemingly so little time to do it in - surely, I could apply all I learned in the corporate world to organising myself at home? - but then, if what I love doing becomes a 'job', it'd be devastating and surely counter-productive in terms of creativity? Oh, what a dilemma!

Anyway - stuff I have done.....

I made a thank you gift for a lady who gave me metres (yes, metres!!) of beautiful silk that she'd had forever and had decided to de-stash...

pink penguin's bento box bag

I finished 3 quilts for clients (no photos, forgot to get permission, again!)

Caught up with friends we hadn't see for ages - dinner and a show (Hairspray, put on by PLOS - excellent!)

I went to the Quilt Show at Jeff's shed with my bestie - no photos of quilts as there were signs everywhere saying that while we could take photos, they were not to be reproduced in any way without the express permission of the maker.....so in love with the beautiful wools, yarns and fibres available now - I bought a couple of fabulous books....

The pieces in this book are made up in all sorts of beautiful Japanese fibres - including linen - that looks and feels like raffia, and a stainless steel type that allows you to create a shape in your garment that will be 'memorised' - brilliant!!  Check out Dairing's website here - definately making the trek to Richmond....

This next one has lots of fabulous gifts to make with time frames - so given my propensity to leave things to the last minute, it's good for me to have a source book with ideas in one spot (because a 'quick' look on line for a gift idea usually ends up with blog reading for 3 or more hours..)

Bought just a little fabric - literally, a little - most unusual for me but I'm trying to use what I have in my stash before buying anything else - got this gorgeous piece from Kelani Fabrics

I could have bought the shop!!!

In between time, I went with my dil-to-be to pick up her wedding dress (gorgeous - so happy to be able to share in the motb duties because her mum lives 4 hours away) and she finagled me into making her a pair of socks - I almost had one made but so completely buggered it up I pulled it back and started again...

and now I'm going off to do the ironing before we have to start wearing our pj's out.....oh, wait a minute, I do that anyway....well not out....I just have a few pj days at home while I'm 'working'......

Christmas sewing

Like just about everyone else, there was quite a bit of Christmas gift sewing (so couldn't be shown prior to Christmas) and my machines certainly got a work out in the couple of weeks leading to the Big Day...

L to R, top row - shorty PJ's, owl pincushion, personalised silky pouch, back of cushion cover, front of cushion cover
bottom row - market bag, journal cover and drawstring pouch, girl dolly, boy dolly, frock, more pj's

I made more pj's (Simplicity pattern) but didn't get a photo - by time they were finished I had to wrap them poste haste - and they were the same as the others, only different fabrics!!  The owl pincushion I saw on someone's blog and I can't for the life of me remember which one and the dollies are Mirabel softies.

The frock was a Burda pattern and was for my ma-in-law - and which I'll get back as she decided she didn't really like it!  Ah well, it'll do a turn at Chez Shocking's.

The return to clothes making prompted a visit to Spotlight during their sale and I bought 5 new patterns, for tops, bottoms and a pretty frock, plus the fabric to make them with - so more sewing in my near future - go figure!!

A slight deviation

Today I was supposed to be sorting out my hanging (well, laying down on the miners couch) clothes after my hanging rail collapsed - but I didn't get there at all.

I fished around in the huge bag given to me by a TT member and found some beautifully co-ordinating furnishing fabrics, cut them up and sewed them together with some linen and some hot pink polka dot fabric, to half make this..

front - with a pocket

back

inside

I still take stinky photos and it doesn't look half bad in real life.  It'll end up being a flashy tote - the back and front, and the bottom is lined with a bag weight Pellon (interfacing) which means it can stand up.  It has a wide gusset so it can fit all manner of things - I just have to hand sew the binding down and put some handles on - not sure what handles I want to put on as yet, which is why it's still sitting in my sewing room unfinished.

While I pondered that quandry, I fished about in that big bag again and found a large piece of furnishing fabric that looks like linen - but doesn't behave as badly - and thought it'd make a great skirt.  So off to my paper patterns and I found this..

I like the shape of the blue one, not so much the style though - so I made the blue skirt out of the furnishing fabric, found a Prints Charming screen print (from a small bag of screen prints I bought at a quilt fair from Kelani Fabrics - and which is on my Winter Summer Stitching list to use on a skirt) and cut out a circle which I raw-edge machine stitched to the skirt.  I then made a bias cut striped binding which I used to finish the hem.......and voila.....

and this is a photo my son took - we were going off to watch his girlfriends' end of year dance concert

we were going for an arty farty styled pose but I didn't have my red lippy on!

So, maybe I can sort out my clothes tomorrow.....