Crafty overdrive

It's always appreciated when other peeps like your hand-made stuff......and then they further validate it by parting with their hard-earned dosh in exchange. Kinda makes you want to make more, yes?


So, out came the precious japanese canvas prints....but what to create? A quick trip to the local spotlight did the trick on the weekend.... et voila!



Stay tuned! More zip pouches are coming, as well as corduroy smocks and pram blankies, to replace the ones I offloaded.


There's a list as long as my arm at the moment of stuff to make. If only the bub can nap longer than three hours. Looks like I'll have another round of "night sewing" happening soon. Fortunately, the geezer can sleep through most noises, including the hum of the sewing machine.

Market happenings

It was a nice sunny day! We met one blogger and one blog reader.....hello ladies!

Belinda and I rolled up slightly later than the early birds, being newbies and all. The chilly wind was freezing my arse off and we were praying for the sun to come our way quick, as our allocated spot was in the shade.

After a bit of sorting out and unpacking, this is what our stall looked like.




And here I thought we might not have enough stock.....we ended up filling two trestle tables with our wares. Claudine made patchwork totes and softies. I brought the smocks and the pram blankies. Belinda had her cushions and tissue holders. Corrie had japanese fabric fat quarters, japanese craft books and lots of other retromummy goodies.

I managed to sell a few pram blankies and a smock.....so not too bad, considering we may have misjudged our target audience with this market. After going for a wander around the other stalls, it became clearer that it was mostly a second hand everything - apparel, bags, shoes and homewares - kind of market. Probably should've staked it out first. We learn something new everyday!

Each of us managed to sell a decent amount of our stuff, too. Hooray! Which means we will be doing some more markets in the future.

Okey dokey! Hope everyone's having a good weekend.....I'm knackered. See you next week!

Time's out

I had such high hopes to make more stuff this week for the market tomorrow. But the bub ended up with tonsillitis early this week and wanted cuddles badly every time she saw me. So the plans to make more stuff got dashed.

But I did get to finish these last two pram blankies. The patchwork design is a lot simpler and so is the quilting.


The ruler fabric ended up on the binding for both. They both look rather cute!


Hopefully, the cute busy prints will appeal to people.

I'm getting excited about tomorrow.....and if the weather promises to behave, we should have a good day of it, too.

Oozing japanese fabric

Literally! Nope, this is not an exaggeration. I spent most of the morning at Corrie's place admiring the fabric piles.....lots and lots of fabric piles......spoils of the recent Japan trip. And as if I don't have enough fabric already, these just had to come home with me.


These would have to be my favourite prints! And I'm thinking a summer skirt for the bub in the black russian doll fabric.


But wait, there's more!


Yes, I also had to get that elusive Lotta Jansdotter book. What's more, there's english translation alongside the japanese.


Here's a sneak peek of a potato stamping project.


And for you aussie peeps, you can share in the fabric and craft book goodness, too, because Corrie's just opened the Retromummy shop. Small hiccup! Paypal is taking its sweet time verifying her as a merchant, but don't let that stop you. Just select cheque/money order when purchasing and leave a message for her to advise you her paypal user details. There's still a heap of cute fabric left. For Sydneysiders, there will be fat quarters of japanese fabrics for sale at Kirribilli market this Saturday.

Now I just need to plug away some more at the binding sewing. Cheerio!

Night sewing

Just sharing some new block layouts and testing the fabric combos for the next round of pram blankies. I pulled out the Moda "building blocks" last night quite late. The ruler fabric, which was everywhere in blogland last year still looks good. Anyway, I'm still playing around with the design.

Apologies if your bloglines show that I've posted several new entries. I'm fixing up some of my old posts and it looks like everyone's doing the same.

I logged on late after the block sewing and found I had around 800+ unread....what the ffffish sticksss?! It appears bloglines has spat the dummy on me. Has this happened to anyone? Anyhow, I think its back to normal now.

Hope the rest of your weekend is good!

Just flooring it

My walking foot and I have been doing great distances this week. What was this bunch of squares has become two pram blankies (or security blankies). That's what I'm calling them anyway.....all part of the product development process, you know.


I used some plain homespun, some Michael Miller "playpals" and lots of the Moda "peas & carrots", including that ubiquitous candy-shaped fabric on the binding.


And the other side is some light green soft minky fabric.


The second one has some of the orange fabric binding.


I had a lightbulb moment last week when I saw the "playpals" fabric at the bottom of my fabric box. This was one of my first stash building purchases.

Now I just gotta think up a new patchwork design for another two blankies and finish it all by next week. Maybe small log cabins? I have some green gingham lying about somewhere....hmmm, must rummage some more.

So if you're local to Sydney, come by our stall at Kirribilli markets next Saturday and say hello. Belinda and I will be doing the morning shift, while Corrie and Claudine will take over in the afternoon. It would be nice to put a face to a blog.

Alright, I need to put my thinking cap back on and come up with some more goodies for the market.

Cheerio!

"Eight" meme

Sometime back Kate had tagged me with the "eight" meme and I had been mulling long about it. I haven't forgotten, Kate. Just collecting the list and I thought instead of just random facts about me, I'll tell you eight of my habits, the good and the bad. But first I must list the rules:

- Each player lists eight facts/habits about themselves
- The rules of the game are posted at the beginning before the facts/habits are listed
- At the end of the post, the player then tags eight peeps (who else hasn't done this?), posts their names and give them a virtual pat on the shoulder to let them know they're tagged

And off I go....

(1) I hate going to bed with dirty feet. I can't sleep and I will usually toss and turn until I resolve to get up. I then go to the bath and run cold water on the soles of my feet until they feel clean. Sounds like OCD, I know.

(2) I'm very anal about neatness and order. When I used to work, I would always keep my meeting notes and correspondence notes clean and neat. My boss, bless him, used to try and annoy me by making random pen marks in my notebook whenever he could. Nowadays, in my sewing...all stray threads are snipped off and binned as I go along. It probably takes me longer to finish, but it keeps me saner.

(3) I try to avoid public toilets, to the point of pain sometimes. I try my hardest not to touch the door handles when I've been desperate. Over the years they've become disgusting in Sydney......almost down to the level of Hong Kong or any of the other south-east asian capitals.

(4) Just so you know how anal I am about public toilets, whenever I've been desperate enough to be forced into one and its stinkily rank, I always hold my breath....or breath through my mouth....or even worse squeeze my nose shut with my fingers when nobody's looking.

(5) I have a morning routine....get out of bed, take a trip to the loo, prepare the bub's breakfast, wake up the bub, settle on the couch to watch breakfast tv, then feed the bub. If any of this sequence is disrupted or left out in any way, I get very cranky and it pretty much throws out my balance for the rest of the day.

(6) I'm happy to lounge around in my pyjamas all day long.

(7) I always leave dinner meal planning to the last minute. Not good, I know. I've annoyed the geezer so many times by sending him to the shops for some missing salad greenery or ingredient, after he's already relaxed and put up his feet. Thankfully, this hasn't happened recently or I'll be getting sulked at for sending him out into the icy weather.

(8) I can't go into the bathroom without having a look at the state of my eyebrows....and if they've started sprouting off-shoots. then. I. must. tweeze. and. pluck. now.

Good grief! I must get myself seriously checked out. I seem to exhibit more and more signs of OCD every year....or is it just a sign of aging?

As for the tagging, I think this meme has been done by pretty much everyone I know. However, if you're itching to do this and you wanna be tagged, then consider yourself "it". Just let me know in the comments below so I can have a look-see and laugh along with you.

And the photo? Another bad habit or so the geezer thinks....my craft books are breeding like rabbits.

Pay it forward....no, not the movie

Biscuit anyone? I've been closely following this particular swapping chain that's starting to filter through the craft blogosphere and each time I wanted to take part, I got gazumped. But I finally managed to sign up with one of my fave blog peeps Anna, when she dangled the proverbial carrot. Hopefully there are some nice crafty folk out there who might want my handmade stuff. What more can you want....its free! But with a catch, of course. So here's my promise (and a promise to the blogosphere is as good as gold!).

I will send a handmade gift to the first 3 people who leave a comment on my blog requesting to join this PIF exchange. I don't know what that gift will be yet and you may not receive it tomorrow or next week... LOL... but you will receive it within 365 days, that is my promise! The only thing you have to do in return is pay it forward by making the same promise on your blog.

Just so you know, whatever I send may be either made of fabric, yarn or even paint....how would you like a small painting? So do you wanna biccy?

Edit: Thank you for signing up, Bianca, Jennie and Miss Dudley. Don't forget to copy-and-paste the above pledge into your blogs. I'll be contacting you for your snail mail addresses as soon as I've churned out your packages. Don't worry! I'm not going to take 365 days.

Back in the swing

We are finally germ-free at last! What a downer a round of chronic sniffles is, especially when it hangs around for three weeks. Like I say, we're all light weights.

The downside for me is the lack of crafting or painting around here (with the exception of the quilt). I didn't even have the energy to haul my arse from the couch to the sewing table....a scant five feet away. But things are a brewing!

Our newsagents have decided to cash in on the recent crafting revival and have started stocking the right sort of magazines. I have a tonne of ideas swimming around in my head at the moment for new projects.


There is also two weeks left to make cute things for a craft market which we girls all decided to have a go at. We're testing the waters, so to speak. And here's a sneak peak of something new I started, which may make its way to the market.


Okay, I'm going back to the fabric fondling. Hope everyone had a great weekend...short as it was!

Show quilts & little old ladies

I've been kicking myself stupid for forgetting to bring a camera to the recent local quilt/craft show, because now that I've finished the ginormous quilt I wanna make another one....and I wanted to have a photo on hand of the one I spotted two weeks ago for the colour inspiration.

Fortunately, bloggers galore, as well as show organisers had copious, no, excessive amounts of pics online, it was almost hard to choose which one to filch....ahem, borrow. I've even lost track of where I lifted these from. Naughty, naughty!

Also, what's with the quilt nazis? My friend and I were looking up close just to admire the stitch detail and the delicate fabric prints, when in swoops this little old lady brandishing her cane "don't touch the quilts! don't touch the quilts!" We nearly jumped in embarrassment. Well, I can't remember if she was waving something in her hand, but we both felt like punished school girls.

And these are the two that I coveted and wanted to drag home with me. Teal blue, turquoise and chocolate brown squares....


...and stripey yellows, oranges and pinks. Those pointy triangle shapey thingies are little applique houses.


I'm thinking of a quilt for the bub when she moves to a big-girl bed? Or maybe another one for the geezer and I? Or maybe I can make a quilt and enter it in next year's show (she says ambitiously). Then when the quilt nazi comes to try smack me with her cane, I can just say "it's okay, 'cos its my quilt. I can touch my quilt, can't I?"

What I learned from this quilt

Apologies for the sporadic posting, folks. There's a lot of life getting in the way of the blog at the moment...the snotty, sneezy kind. I'm still bunged up. It seems I'm just hopping from one chronic nose drip to the next this winter. Don't know why when in the past I'm normally I'm like an ox when it comes to bugs. Its just a matter of grinning, bearing and working with it now 'cos I don't want to saturate on the drugs.


But this weekend past was quite relaxing. I've been glued to the Live Earth telecast while hand sewing what feels like endless lengths of binding on the humungous quilt. And of course, I couldn't miss the return of Crowded House to the stage. I've been a fan since their first album came out when I was in high school aaaages ago....and boy, was I bawling?! They were better than I ever remembered!


So, getting back from my digressions - let me just say that my first large quilt is now done and dusted, with lots of lessons learnt.

1. High threadcount sheeting is hard to push a needle through. Nobody told me! There were injuries, people.
2. Squaring the blocks is highly important...thank goodness I actually listened to advice.
   
3. Those curved patches are not as easy as they look and I was dumb enough to brave them. By the time I saw the error of my ways, it was too late!
   
4. I could've used thicker batting in the sandwich. Since its been freezing here, this quilt is not warm enough. But, there's always spring.
5. Queen size quilts use a mammoth amount of fabric. Because all I had to start from was the block template I had no idea how much to initially get, so I erred on the side of spending caution. But pretty soon I was having to order more as the blocks started piling up.
6. I have renewed admiration for other quilters...and whenever I see the price tag of a quilt on sale from now on I'm not going to guffaw. It's worth every cent!
   

On to a new project! Now, what shall I do next?

Little dutch girl

Remember this smock? Well I just had to share with you a photo of the hip little girl wearing her new duds.


I love her little beanie hat...it just finishes off the outfit, don't you think? And technically she is half-dutch.

Doing the deed

And so she blogs after all.....I've been busy setting up the etsy shop. Keeping my promises, you know. But I didn't count on the bub taking home from childcare what looked like a fairly innocuous snotty nose, which ended up being another strain of the flu. We were both out most of last week. And while she's pretty much bounced back, I'm still a bit woozy from the drugs I'm having to shove down my gullet.

Anyway, like busy I say. In between the medication taking, resting and snot wiping, I managed to whip up another smock (still finishing up the hems) and tripped up to the local quilt & craft show last week. Silly me forgot the dang camera, so I can't share the gorgeous quilts I saw. Suffice to say that there was enough loveliness there that I'm inspired to make another quilt, maybe finishing in time for winter next year. And you've gotta admire my self-control with the spending. So many beautiful fabrics enticing me left, right and centre......and I only came away with some bargain threads and a thread spool rack. Yeah, must be the drugs!

And then there was the disaster that probably should've happened earlier but only got detected a fortnight ago with accompanying reverberations till now. Someone "effin" reprehensible stole my credit card details online, bought a huge chunk of electronics from Torino, Italy, an Easyjet plane ticket out of Luton airport and a stagecoach ticket in Stockport. Of course, I tell the bank me and my arse have been in Sydney the entire time....that's not me gallivanting in Europe and splashing dosh everywhere, nab them, please! Oh well! I'm sure this story will have a happy ending sometime next month, since the bank sided with me...but they still have to follow their rigmarole and dot the i's, cross the t's. While that's being sorted I'm not buying anything on the internet unless its via paypal.

Hmmm yeah, one last thing. The shop's open...woohoo! I've only got two smocks in there so far. I've kinda underestimated how long it takes to list each item, so I'll be taking my time with it over the next few days to do the rest. There's a flashy button on my sidebar, too. Big thanks to a very talented graphic designer who helped me out with the button and the etsy banner! Thanks, Sven!

Now I'm off to finish off one more smock and have a cup of chai. Cheerio!