It's such a purrfect day

Another project in mind

2009-12-19T12:46:59Z

As if I don't have enough to be getting on with I have just purchased some seriously nice retro 40s fabric from the "Hope Valley" collection and some neutral linen for sashing so I can make a durable bed throw for our bed. I went for something less "pretty" to pander to A's tastes and also because Zoe dog likes to sleep on our bed sometimes, ok, often and so hopefully it will be a bit more forgiving. I handed over one of the baby quilts today and it was very well received. : ) Now to move on to the wedding quilt I am making for my friend. ~~Stay posted for photos.~~ Here is the colour range going into the wedding quilt...

Baby Quilts complete!

2009-12-16T13:07:11Z

Over the last few evenings I have put the finishing touches to the two baby quilts I was working on. Here they are:

Cute book!

2009-12-10T14:24:49Z

This looks like a book I and my crafty friends might be interested in. Well, Christmas is coming up... : )

Baby Quilt 2

2009-12-07T14:21:40Z

Here is the very loud "Sea Monkey" baby quilt top I started sewing on Saturday. It is for a friend's baby boy.

Note the demon hound in the corner.
These are the blocks that go in to it:

The banana material was in the bargain bin at Textile Traders - how cool is that? Much of the other material I chose based on the fact it looks like board shorts. : )

Christmas table runner

2009-12-01T15:34:18Z

I have completed my first quilting project from beginning to end. Admittedly I have another two nearing completion but I chose the table runner to experiment on (ie small surface area to stuff up quilting on and not too much binding to get bored with handsewing :)). I will be giving it to my parents. It is a surprise, mainly because I had no idea how it would turn out and I didn't have to commit to giving them a disaster to proudly display as parents do.

Here is the finished runner from the front:

And a close up showing the back and binding...

Well, you can't really see the binding but I suppose that is a good thing! Apologies for the colour on the second photo, my camera is playing up and nearing the end of its faithful life :(.

My kind of book

2009-12-01T15:11:48Z

Certainly these days anyway. Check out this book on Oh Fransson! Perfect for those of us with fabric stash...or those of us who just happen to have a yard or two of fabric lying around. Looks like there are some cute ideas in it.

Help?

2009-11-21T16:54:10Z

I appear to have lost most of my editing tools in lj - no "insert lj username", no bold, underlined or "journal cut"...anyone else had this issue or know how to fix it?

24 Patch Scrappy Quilt

2009-11-18T15:50:43Z

Remember these patches?

Well they are now a quilt top!

The backing is also done and I just have to make the binding before my class on Dec 21st when we are quilting the lot! I am pretty pleased with the result and particularly like the gold border - the gamble paid off I reckon as it makes the poppies pop. :)

November block

2009-11-17T13:10:52Z

I have just had confirmation that willowgypsy has indeed received her block from me so here it is for general consumption.

To be honest, this is my kind of thing. I love scrappy, I love bright and I love the idea of breaking the rules a bit. : )

Gettin' crafty

2009-11-09T14:25:40Z

I can't post my latest Virtual Quilting Bee block just yet in case willowgypsy peeks but I can post my table runner.

I am quite pleased with this - it is the first really tricky and unassisted project I have completed so far. As per tradition, no matter how badly it turns after quiltingout I will be giving it to my parents to proudly display for an appropriate timeframe (in this case it is Christmas appropriate) as parents always have to proudly display the handiwork of their offspring, no? This really is no different from a gold painted macaroni encrusted jam jar vase really...

Here is a close up

If I had my time again I wouldn't put that tiny inner border that looks like piping on it. It was a complete sod and really doesn't do much (apart from make the outer border harder to attach and sit properly). To give you an idea - it was a 1" piece of material, folded then attached to the entire length of the (3 x 12" blocks) with a 1/8" seam allowance. Then the border was attached to this tiny flap also with a 1/8" seam allowance. It certainly was an exercise in sewing accurately but not really worth the hassle I don't think.

The next step is to quilt it. The back is done as a patchwork of wide strips of the 4 materials in the front and quite strangely I think it looks much nicer. Still, as A said, that just means I have made a double sided table runner! Will post the final product when I get the courage up to complete this final stage...

Some of you have seen my growing stash. I was having a play with tones and patterns last night and came up with some rather soothing arrangements, to my eye anyway. Here is some of my stash

Sooo yummy. I was playing with ideas here for quilts for my nieces. They love pink and purple. I then somehow ended up on the internet looking at material (I don't know how this happens, honest) and ended up not being able to resist this layer cake. Maybe it's the name. This purchase has set me thinking about another way to approach their quilts... I think the colours in my stash have made girliejones ' brain explode though. :)

Femmecon & Kiddycon at Swancon

2009-11-08T13:23:55Z

I am in somewhat of a dilemma. I have got my day membership for Femmecon next Sunday and time on the programme to discuss the children's stream at Swancon. However:

From what I am hearing there may not be many interested parties going to Femmecon this year who want to discuss the stream and who this is useful for.
Although I said I was happy to help organise the stream for 2010, I have not heard a peep from the committee despite having approached them some time back. This leads me to wonder if they are really interested in making it happen as I don't fancy doing it without support and backing.
Should they be interested in making it happen for next year, maybe a separate get together of interested parties might be more worthwhile?

As it is, Femmecon unfortunately has bad timing this year. I have just spent the past two weekends doing PD for school and am in need of some weekend space, on Wednesday I begin TEE marking and as I have a wedding on Saturday, Sunday would be a good chance to do that too. Not least because there is a birthday celebration I should be attending then....

I would love to be able to help Calli and M out on the day but to be honest I have so much on that I would be stressed being there and am currently only hanging out on going to get something moving for next Swancon. I already have ideas and plans for 2011 and that will be no issue because the committee is talking to me about them already (no surprises there though!)

I therefore ask for your comments. Let me know if you are going and if space to talk about the children's needs at Swancon is something you are wanting. Otherwise I will look to reschedule the discussion to somewhere and sometime otherwise convenient. Should the 2010 committee give me some support and should those of you with children, who want a say, get involved.

Projects

2009-10-26T14:25:56Z

Here are some pics of two quilting projects I have underway at the moment. Nothing to do with the virtual quilting bee although November block material should be arriving soon and adding to my to do list...

Project 1: Square in square baby quilt for sister in law due in Jan:

and a close up of some of the blocks:

The starting point for this quilt wasn't the Robert Kaufman monkey print but its cousin the brown animal bubbles. However, as you just can't have a brown baby quilt (practical as that might seem) I took the blue and orange from the bubbles and ran with it. I was rather pleased with the overall effect. That spotty looking cream material is actually covered with little hoof and paw prints!

The pattern is from Oh Fransson! and I am planning at this stage to add the appliqued giraffe. We'll see how I go on the quilting first...While her pattern and quilts are quilted freestyle I am considering in the ditch quilting (ie following the big seam lines and maybe the inner squares) for this first project. Might be less room for complete disaster. Anyway, have a bit of time to build up skills and familiarity with my machine before embarking on that.

My second project on the go is the one I am working on for my classes. It is a 2 part class - last Saturday we learned to cut accurately, form triangles from squares and matched them to strip sewn squares to make 9 patch blocks. I wasn't sure how I was going to go with this as we didn't make huge progress in class and needed to have the blocks complete for next weekend's class so I though about doing 16 blocks and creating a small centre table throw. After discussion with Mother in law and due consideration about how much more useful a 24 block lap quilt/throw would be I pushed the boat out and managed to complete them just over 48 hours later. It wasn't so bad as the techniques we are learning mean our strips and blocks require no pinning along the way and many pieces are strip or chain sewn thus cutting down the time. Anyway here the are in little piles ready to go:

Some of the materials are "Christmas" fat quarters and I was thinking the overall effect was going to be Christmassy with the red and green. However, the choice of the poppy accent block (a Melbourne purchase) in the middle as well as the apple material has toned this down a bit and it now looks like it will happily be a pleasant red and green quilt. The diagonals have turned out nicely too - they are intentional and will form part of an overall design on completion. Tomorrow I need to go and choose the border material (it will have two borders). I am leaning towards lightening it up a bit by going more for the greens and maybe incorporating the light green...Any thoughts from my flist?

I have one more project in strips at the moment - a (definitely) Christmas runner for my parents. I will post those when the blocks are assembled...

Fame

2009-10-21T13:34:16Z

So in the absence of stephbg , valeskah1 and I flipped a virtual coin and decided on Fame.

1 If you are rubbish at dancing or singing become a teacher.
eg1 Singing teacher loosens up and takes her students to karaoke. They get her on stage for a giggle but wow, it turns out the teacher can sing. Over hot chocolate and bonding afterwards they quiz her as to why she is a teacher if she is so awesomely talented. According to her it is a boring story but apparently the students love boring stories so she tells them. She was young and aspiring like them once, headed to Broadway to audition etc etc and kept being knocked back for parts etc etc. However she dealt with her disappointment and apparent mediocrity by becoming...a teacher.
eg2 Male ballet dancer struggles to improve his whole time at the school. Eventually, in his final year his dance teacher pulls him aside and not very gently tells him that while he had some potential in first year he has never improved and that he will never be selected by a ballet company and that he will never make it in the big wide wonderful as a dancer. He looks crestfalled. She assures him that not all is lost because although he is a total failure he would make a wonderful... teacher. He tries to kill himself but is rescued by some of his self centred mates and eventually graduates, at peace with himself to become....a teacher.

2 If your girlfriend is sexually assulted tell her you told her so and then dump her.
Our young, naive acting heroine goes to see an ex student who has become a "big" star as he has arranged a meeting with his casting agent for her as she has great "talent". Like, duh. He tells her the agent isn't around but to run the scene in front of his handicam for her to see later. It is a sex scene. She goes to approx 2nd base then chickens out despite her professionalism and finally twigs that it is a scam. Upset, she tells her jealous boyfriend what happend and...he dumps her.

3 If you sing at your mother, she grows a spine instantly.
Another young heroine, this time one who plays classical piano, is not allowed by her strict father to contemplate any other kind of performance despite her aspirations to play jazz or sing. Her mother sits by like a doormat. Then the girl lies to her parents, telling them she is doing a "classical jazz" performance when in fact she is singing back up in a Hip Hop routine. They turn up. Her mother cries with joy and her father throws a tantrum saying he will pull her out of the school 3 months before graduation. Mother says look at the hand and tells the daughter to live her dream.

4 There are some strange movie sponsors out there
There is one scene where there are 5 close ups of the "Howard" name on the grand piano. Unusual product placement. I wonder how many in the audience had said "Gotta get me one of those Howards"?
End of rant.

Don't look Redbraids!

2009-10-13T14:24:44Z

Not until you receive the block - hopefully you have it by now anyway. :)
So the brief for the October block for the quilting bee was to contribute to a lap quilt for redbraids . Therefore no rough or sticky out bits. The inspiration was a Japanese wood block print. It was a very cool brief and very inspiring. I was so excited (added to by the fact I had my new machine to play with) that I got started straight away but then went to Melbourne in between. This is my final product.

and a detail:


I wanted to carry on the Japanese theme in the motif, hence the fans and also in the style. As Japanese art tends to be asymmetical I placed them off centre and one is slightly larger than the other. :) I also wanted to try out a new technique and so chose applique this time. I considered raw edge applique in my initial thoughts but rejected it in favour of the fans which really called for traditional applique. The pieces are decorated with an edging of blanket stitch in navy done on the machine and the fan "struts" or whatever they are called are machine sewn in straight stitch straight onto the background. Should have ironed it before photographing it really. :) Overall I am pretty happy with the outcome.

via Smart Bitches...

2009-10-12T23:19:06Z

For writing, Gaiman and twitter enthusiasts: http://www.smartbitchestrashybooks.com/index.php/weblog/comments/with-twitter-you-can-write-a-book-with-neil-gaiman/

I can haz sewing room

2009-10-10T15:18:28Z

Well, part of a room, the part not taken up with boxes of stuff (tm) and empty suitcases and lego. However it is sufficient for my purposes and is now beautifully furnished and organised.

Since embarking on sewing with a machine I found that my desk was really too high to be comfortable to sew at. I have managed short bursts but struggle to get comfy for longer periods of time so A and I headed off to Ikea to buy a wonderfully named Galant table. It is plain, quite large and deep and has much under table space. Ideal. I now have it set up in the spare room with an old set of drawers under it for extra storage. The table itself is large enough so that I can have my machine set up in the middle and still have room at one end to have my cutting mat or mini ironing board set up on a permanent basis! Very exciting. I also have storage boxes for my every growing fabric stash and some clear drawers in which to house projects which are underway rather than having cut pieces lying around the place. We also moved our (once again Ikea) Not lamp into the room to give better light - I discovered the dimness of the room last night trying to do detailed navy on navy sewing on my block - it would have been impossible had it not been for the quality of the LED in the sewing machine itself.

I can't wait to get playing on my first "big" project, a baby quilt for my sister in law. I have chosen the fabric and started cutting. It is a relatively simple square in square design, very modern and so should be a good starting point. Last night I finished October block for our quilting bee (redbraids keep an eye on your letterbox in the coming days) and am happy with the result. Photo to come when she has received it.

Speechless and rather amused.

2009-10-09T13:45:06Z

Thanks to Smart Bitches...

This is not an ex-parrot.

A Simon's cat quickie

2009-09-28T22:23:46Z

Happy Snoopy Dance!

2009-09-17T11:11:15Z

Despite my amateur status, my darling husband encouraged me to purchase this sewing machine. Long story short: I was looking at sewing machines because my parents suggested putting towards one for Christmas. I had looked at a few that seemed ok then met this one and fell in love. It has everything I would want now and into the future plus it was on sale, plus they had a demo model going even cheaper. At over $1000 off the regular price it would be after the end of the month I decided it was fate. : ) I can't wait to pick it up and start playing. Probably more updates to follow about it once I get working on it.

The world of fashion

2009-09-17T11:05:10Z

I watched the Project Runway Australia finale last night and was disappointed.

To be honest I went into the finale not too fussed about who won. None of the finalists really wowed me this season although I had a soft spot for William and I had a gut feeling Anthony would win because he is a bit of an enfant terrible.
When the collections were unveiled though I felt differently. I didn't really think much of Lauren - she is a bit young and immature in her work but did a better job of her collection than I expected. Not a big fan of all black though. My main gripe is about the final two though...
William put together a beautiful, fundamentally wearable collection. He designs clothes which, for high fashion, are extremely flattering to the female form and are feminine and lovely. He puts thought into construction and colour and fabric. By the end of the show I wanted him to win. A win for him would be a win for women really.
Instead Anthony won. I can't express how much I hated his collection or his attitudes. Photos from his runway show are here. I found his twisted headpiece with the flower over the model's mouth disturbing - it was a disempowering image, metaphorically removing her mouth and therefore her voice. The clothes were desexing and even dehumanising at times. There was one top (which looked more suited to medieval armed combat) which squished the model's breasts down so much they kind of poked out the bottom of it painfully. He kept stating he wanted men in his collection to model women's clothes. What does that say about his regard for the people he is supposedly designing? He may be good at construction and be avant garde in his ideas but he must really hate women and for the fashion industry to support him as the winner? They are perpetuating the idea that women are there to be objectified, bound and desexed. Very disappointing.

Today's new catchy tune...

2009-09-16T11:54:26Z

Another song I am currently loving and need to remind myself to look out for...

But seriously, how old is she? She strikes me as a little young to be hanging out at the laundromat picking up guys. ;)

Edit: She's from Australian Idol?!?

Advent Calendar

2009-09-14T10:20:05Z

I have had in my mind for a while that I wanted a really cool, modern, funky advent calendar for annual use. Spotlight and the like always have the traditional style ones - you know, sleigh shape/house shape etc which you basically sew pockets onto but I have never found quite what I was after either made up or as a kit/pattern to make. Now I have it! Even more wonderfully I ordered this exact same range of fabric from etsy just recently - it was so adorably retro kitsch I just had to have it for some Christmas project and now it has a purpose in life. This will be for Christmas next year however as we are getting waaaay too close to this festive season to do a good job of it. Plus I am only a beginner. :)

2 Songs I am loving at the moment

2009-09-02T14:19:55Z

For my reference really, to remind me of what they are, until I get around to buying them or get sick of them. Enjoy them too, if it's your thing...

Things that amuse

2009-08-26T07:53:03Z

So angriest was asking for cheery input today and reading some of the replies got me thinking about things I laugh at. One I would like to share is the Indian nipple song. I laughed so hard I cried when I first saw this. Call me childish but there is something the linguist in me loves - the fact we hear what we want to in foreign languages and adapt them to our own ears. On a less cerebral level I love the stupid lyrics and of course it's bollywood and what is there not to love about bollywood? :)

SYTYCD?

2009-08-25T06:15:18Z

SYTYCD? has been somewhat controversial for me this week. First of all it wasn't on at the time I was expecting it, which made me very cross indeed and then two truly wonderful (and one in particular female) dancers got booted out. Yes, I know it is a competition and that the stakes and standards are very high for the top 10 this year but I could not believe the decision. The female dancer (no name in case some of you recorded it like I did but haven't watched it) had put in two excellent performances. The one who was saved had one very mediocre (for this stage in the game) performance and one very good one.

The very good performance of which I speak is what I find rather controversial. There is no doubt that she and her partner survived on the basis of this dance. For those who didn't see it, they did a contemporary routine which supposedly told the story of a woman fighting breast cancer and her supportive partner. There were a lot of angsty moves, there were grimaces, flexed feet etc etc but had I not been told she was a cancer sufferer (and the fact costuming saw it fit to put her in a headscarf and granny pants for some inexplicable reason) I would have thought it was like any other angsty contemporary routine where the partners get tortured with each other. Having been given the story I did find it very moving and can understand the judges' resposes - everyone has been affected by cancer in some way and in this context the dance was extremely beautiful and moving, but as a dance it was really not much better than some of the other amazingly moving and beautiful routines they have shown.

I find it really sad that sometimes it is luck of the drawer. I reckon just about any of the couples could have drawn that golden ticket of a tearjerker and had a free pass into the next round - which isn't exactly fair at this stage in the game. Instead a very talented dancer, who put in two excellent performances that night had to leave, because she didn't get the golden ticket.