Mini Quilt Swap - I am so lucky!

When I signed up for the Lucy Locket Mini quilt swap, I was a bit apprehensive , as I had never done a real bonafide organised swap before.

After I got my partner, Monda, and read her bio I did have a small panic - she is a graduate in printed and multimedia textiles after all.

So I started emailing her and found a wonderful, and funny woman , very down to earth and incredibly creative.

After Lucy posted our partners I got a few emails from people telling me how lucky I was to get Monda in the swap and you know what.....they were right.

My quilt from Monda arrived and it is breathtaking . It is just so perfectly me, Vanessa included buttons, selvedges and one of her incredible Monda birds. She obviously put a lot of thought into it. To say I love it would be an understatement.

I have taken it to work and even to the local patchwork shop to show it off. Rachel saw it last weekend when she was here. It is going to look perfect hanging on my lime green wall in the sewing room. Thank you Vanessa, I am thrilled and I think you are amazingly talented - your machine embroidery is beyond belief!

My quilt should be arriving at Vanessa's any day now and I hope she likes it half as much I like this one.

I also have both Annie's and Rachel's quilts in my possession ready to be sent to Lucy tomorrow along with mine ................... Better gets yourself some of those grown -up lady diapers Lucy!!!

The new camera - or the worlds most boring title

I have been fiddling with the new camera.

Most importantly I wanted to check out the close up function - very important for those crafty shots you know.

and by accident the sharp close-up, fuzzy background shot

Then I figured out the black and white trick......................

Tonight I went for a walk to the local park to get some night shots.

You'll need to turn your heads on the side for this one - I haven't figured out the rotate thing yet.

I didn't do any editing to these pics, just uploaded them and blogged them and apart from changing to night setting or macro setting I didn't do anything fancy to the camera- you should see the instructions !!!!

In an effort to maintain day-job sanity and because I saw the idea over at futuregirls blog, Annie and I have now got a CRAFT-AT-WORK challenge for ourselves.

We each have 24 linen squares measuring 6.5 inches. We each have a week to complete a small stitchery on each square during our lunchtimes at work. We can prepare (iron on the stabiliser etc) at home, but the stitching is at work. Of course we will make up or change the rules as we feel like it.

I am hopeless at stitching - I only know blanket stitch and stem stitch and I just do it bigger and smaller as I need it , so Annie is charged with teaching me something a bit more exciting.

We aren't sure what the squares will become and I am yet to decide if I will have a unifying theme to the squares, in case they all end up together or whether I might just wing it...... suggestions anyone????

a mixed bag !

So yes, the full time work continues and crafting is slow but my mind is full to keep-me-awake-at-night-capacity with ideas. !!!!
This week I sent off my mini quilt to Monda and I received a great parcel from Erna of blij als mij
Erna and I arranged a little swap when I coveted one of her teeny tiny hedgehogs. This week I got the best parcel .



Can you see why I fell in love and not only did Erna send me a promised hedgehog, she also sent a friend and a gorgeous toadstool for them to live under. Thanks so much Erna , they are very happy here and have a little shelf all to themselves in the sewing room.


There is also a new addition to the family this week.



This purchase has been a long time coming and I spent an inordinate amount of time yesterday pressing buttons and trying to make sense of it - you know I think if I press the buttons in the right order it might even cook dinner for me. The gorgeous Donna helped me with this purchase and has been waiting patiently for me to show some photos. I have taken hundreds, the software is loaded and I promise tonight after work- there will be photos. I'll warn you now , they will not be anywhere near as good as Donna's or Annie's. I got a twin lens kit but the other lens is arriving hopefully this week. I have no idea what it does but I guess I'll have another manual to read.

I have done some crafting this week - I made a bag for the Mirabel dolly. The dolly is sewn and half stuffed - I would love to get her finished this week, I have braces on the brain this week and want to make a little boy with a knitted vest and braces.




Also, with thanks to futuregirl -Annie and I are setting up a Craft-at-work challenge but I'll tell you all about that tonight. If I don't get moving I may have no job to actaully craft at!!!

It's a ghost blog

Can you see the tumbleweed blowing through this blog? Do you here the coyote howling at the moon? - well maybe not quite, but I have had a bit of an unscheduled blog break.

No big dramas just the minutiae of life and work getting on top of me there for a bit and whilst I am normally a "not drowning, waving" type person , this week past I was definitely drowning.

The crafting has been in fits and starts but I am back on track with a list of jobs to finish / start this week.

I managed a dolly dressing gown for the Mirabel doll (she is cut out but not sewn yet.)

My mum scored me a huge pile of cottons

and right now a strong cup of tea and a block of chocolate are calling me plaintively from the kitchen.....

That and a hand sewn zippered bag lining ......... hmmmm

Thanks

Yikes, It has been a looong week guys and the only crafting going on here has been of the incidental variety - lots of noodling, but even more flumping on the couch and doing nothing.

This week we started moving back into the library - I could wax lyrical about what kind of hell this is - but I would even bore myself. I am off the crutches but trying to be careful- you know as I carry boxes of books across the school.

I got a scrumptiously generous parcel in the mail from FroglegsNVaseline (isn't that a great blog name).

Yep....you guessed some great big Papa selvedges - I got so excited I started piecing them together right then and there , they are perfect for the ginormous project. Thanks so much , longer selvedges are especially hard to get.

Yesterday I went to Ballarat Patchwork (anyone want to buy a patchwork shop?) to meet Annie and Rachel. It was so great to have that quick little meeting and we showed each other our mini quilts for the LucyLockett Mini quilt swap. (aside here: Lucy, you are going to pee yourself with excitement when you see Rachel's quilt-I'm just warning you!)

While I was there Rachel gave me some selvedges that she has been collecting for me and so did Emma. How lucky am I? Thanks for helping me out girls.

Last weekend I thought I would be clever and list the dollies in the Etsy shop- it takes me a while so I thought that I would give myself a week to get them all listed and then mention it here this weekend, it didn't quite work out like that as they were snapped up . I promise I will get better at this stuff guys but for now just to let you know that Claire and Ester will be in the shop later tonight.

oh and this is Babette, but she already has a new home awaiting her.

This will be it for the dollie/animals for a little while. I am making one or two for myself and I also want to make another little girl with loads of accessories to be auctioned for the Mirabel foundation. That and the next 6 or so weeks of full time work may mean the next lot of dollies will be a while off.

I want to say a massive thanks to everyone who left a comment on the selvedge scarf- I am really surprised that it is so appealing....and a special thanks to Fi and Claire for the new title of Creative Selvedge Freak Woman - I have popped it on my sidebar !

1134 inches and still not satisfied!

Now guys, I really need for you to understand something........

The amount of excitement for a new project (see last post) is not always commensurate with the end result. I am not sure that you will be quite as excited by this as I am but here it is

My selvedge scarf.

Modelled by the rather aloof Cecilia, it is backed with a soft fake suede type fabric in chocolate brown.

Now because Robyn suggested -

I had to keep track of the measurements.

I went through my selvedge stash and measured (roughly) all the pieces. I set aside the longer pieces for a HUGE project that I have on the back-burner , but used all the pieces approx 7 inches long. I used 162 pieces of selvedge so that means a whopping 1134 inches of selvedge. (That's just a sniff over 28 metres)

Gulp.

I am really really pleased with how it looks and it is far more drapable than I thought it would be. I know selvedges aren't every ones cup of tea, but this is just slaying me- I am totally in love with it.

The only downside of course is that I have almost cleared out my stash, Papa selvedge had a still got a few, he holds all the pieces that are cut from metreage. Mamma Selvedge, well she is empty and baby selvedges has just a few wee scraps.........

I do not waste an inch!

Gettin' high.

Hello my name is Jodie and I am an addict.

O.K, so there are no dirty back street deals or running from the cops. No slight-of-hand as the goods are passed over.

I am not yet a social pariah and my addiction is not illegal.

but it eats away at me just the same, it absorbs my thoughts and makes me single focused.

It drives choices and decisions in other areas of my life.

It costs a truckload of money and other people are starting to notice as I chase the highs and suffer the lows.

You all know what I am talking about - that crafting high you get when an idea hits - when you just can't wait to finish off what you are doing so you can start THE NEW PROJECT. This project is going to be awesome , this is THE project, the perfect thing. It will be beyond belief, you will love it.There will be no problems, it will be a dream to create. It just might save the world.

This project will eclipse all other projects. All those other great things were nothing!

Yes you thought they were great but you can see now

that they pale in comparison to the NEW PROJECT .

You never know when it will hit.

There are times when you are crafting along quite happily, like this week, making dolly frocks

as well as some little dress tags for gifts. (pattern from Softies by Therese Laskey)

using some of the dyed fabric (This is Claire)


and generally noodling along.

But then , the idea hits , sometimes it has been the ghost of a previous idea or it might just strike out of the blue. There is no use fighting it. All dollies and clothes and parcels to be posted and mini quilts to be bound are cast aside and all the fabric is pulled out and inspected and tossed aside. Boxes are unpacked and tossed on the floor or shoved into the nearest cupboard.

You can't clean up or finish anything or stop right now !!!!!

Seriously, I can't help it - I can't stop to speak right now unless it is an emergency. Is there blood? No ! well then. I'm sorry I have to work on this right now - Yes it's really important, yes I am busy, No its not a new crafty thing - it is important!!!!

I need to measure every piece of selvedge in the house!