I spy

I spy - one corner of the sewing room.

Can you see:

• one super cool mini-wagon bought from My Poppet
• a parcel of selvedges yet to be unpacked.
• awesome dolls bed from IKEA
  
• some felted jumpers resting on a chair
• a basket containing dismembered dollies and a cut out bag for a special dolly.
  
• some pale green cardboard for an experiment that didn't work
• a still-not-finished Nanna trolley containing one large pink tutu
• a tiny bit of selvedge hanging from the window winder
• the reason I have achieved almost nothing crafty this week

What you missed it??? Hang on a tick - I'll get closer


At long last we found another kitten -this is Jude and he is very very small. He was only 1 gram into the legal weight range when we bought him from the shelter. He can't meow yet he just mews and cries like a baby. He is totally (and hysterically) uncoordinated.


He has stripey legs but a spotty tummy.
He hides and cries and eats and poops (thankfully in the litter tray)

and is learning to be loved!


So if its OK with you, I might just need a bit of an extension on those monsters.

Monsters

The teacup has been put on the very very back burner for a few days. Sometimes, if I leave things alone and work on something different the answer will just come to me. I do tend to get a bit grumpy with myself when I can't work something out, so it is best just to leave it completely alone.

I have been monster tweaking recently and I am far happier with their new, slightly more demented look.

Even though I feel I need to get started on some Christmas gift crafting, I find myself a bit stumped. Most of the gifts I need are for teenagers and I find it hard to achieve the right level of "teenager cool" with handmade gifts. I am happy to buy gifts from Etsy, but man I find etsy overwhelming at times (especially when I have no idea what exactly I am looking for ).

Can you guys shed any light on this ? Can you point me to an uber-cool Etsy shop for teenage girls and boys ? Is your etsy shop what I am looking for? Want to fill my comments with shameless self promotion - go for it ! and while you are there I wouldn't mind something for Grandma, Grandpa, a few teacher pals and the singing teacher.

Meanwhile I am going to spend this week playing with monsters

The evolution of a teacup.

Just in case you guys think that projects spring forth fully fledged and craftilicious from this sewing room I am here to tell you different.

Welcome to
Reality Ric-Rac
starring Jodie the ridiculously optimistic crafter who doesn't know when to stop. Watch, as she attempts to create a teacup. Laugh at her misfortune, snicker at her stupid mistakes and reassure yourself that your own mistakes could never be as bad as this misguided attempt.

Early teacup !
This lovely green blobby thing is actually attempts one two and three all here in this one little shape. Not too bad, it has a certain "cupness" about it.

Attempt four where I think the hard stuff is done and I can now just plonk it all together. Apparently not.
It looks more like a night-potty than a teacup. That handle is wrong wrong wrong. The lining is also hideous, trust me - it looks like a pair of bloomers on the inside.

Attempts five and six. It should have just been attempt five but being too lazy to go to the cupboard and check I had the right interfacing meant I made it up with whatever was floating past at the time and ..... big surprise.......it wasn't stiff enough.
You would have thought I'd give up here wouldn't you?? Admit defeat, throw in the towel and move on.
HA!!!

Attempt 7 - All cotton. The lining has been tweaked again and I think I have achieved basic "lined cupness".
Feeling pretty pleased with myself I digress off to the saucer.

OK - Not bad . Only three attempts to achieve saucerness.

Teacup 8- having evolved to the "lined cupness" stage and achieved saucerness as well, I am almost certain I have got it nailed. A quick redraw of the handle and we have

A really really bad handle on a still wonky teacup.

Stay tuned for the riveting sequel to the Evolution of a Teacup , where Jodie will tenaciously continue with her attempt at achieving "full Teacup". There may very well be tears. There will undoubtedly be bad language and small tantrums.


I am going to go and bang my head against a wall for a few hours now.

It would be almost as productive.

Little crafts

Umm, I am not really sure what to say after that bit of craziness last week.....is Thank you enough?

Thanks to everyone who visited or commented or linked or generally joined the crazy selvedge love-in , but mostly thanks to Team Selvedge once again and of course to all the regular crafters who pop in and say hi, even during the boring bits.


So while it went a bit crazy here and I got a little bit embarrassment , I made teeny tiny Christmas stockings for dollies and sorted selvedges - ready for the next big project.

(and I really do mean it - Thank you)

The Big Selvedge Project

Lots of selvedge

Lots of sewing

and one cheeky brat!

The winners

Hi Guys, we are all a bit under the pump at chez Ric Rac this morning.
The big 100th is finally here. Actually Granny turned 100 on Wednesday.
The quilt is finished and wrapped, the kids have been washed and ironed, I got some new hair (as you do) and we are almost ready.

In crafty news we have two winners of the Pre-project giveaway. There was no fancy staging of the draw - we just chopped the comments into a fruit bowl and pulled out the names as Mr Ric Rac looked on with a bit of a " this really has to happen NOW????" kind of look on his face.

From Team Selvedge the winner is Christie of Pigeon Pair and from the comments, the winner is Nannette Merrill and daughters of Freda's Hive.
Yay !!!
Send me your details guys and I'll be in touch tomorrow

Granny Boo
( because she played peek-a-boo with the grand kids when they were small and the name has stuck right through to the great grand kids.)

Born in 1908 , a childhood without cars or electricity and now ...... can you imagine the changes she has seen? One hundred years - it kinda blows my mind.

Big project tomorrow (shes says with some trepidation)

The pre-project giveaway

The big selvedge project is a bees whisker away from completion and I have been thinking of a way to thank everyone for the their support (and selvedges).

I would like to introduce you to Team Selvedge.

Flower Garden
The Quilting B
Trashcan
Frogslegs'n'vaseline
Scrapbag
Silly Gilly
Four Wise Monkey's
Natasha burns
Lucy Locket
I'm a ginger Monkey
Don't look Now

Two Little banshees

SnailBlazer
Cheeky Beaks
Adrienne (No Blog)
Dear Fi
What were we thinking?
Pigeon pair
Button beauty
Pamela ( from Sandford, CT -I have lost your details - do you have a blog? please email me)
My sweet grade 6 friend who has no blog but she is darling .
SadieandLance
Selina (No blog....yet)
Moogsmum
Aunty Cookie
Supermonkey shop
Nicole Mallalieu
Sewkalico
Fabricologist anonymous
Lululollylegs
Miss Marzie
Amitie
LadyDi
Bug andPop
Our Shabby cottage
What katy Did
Linda - (I am still trying to figure out which Linda you are - please email me)
Rousabout

You know, I started selvedgeing a very long time ago and people used to send me their spares but it was only recently that I thought I had better start to keep a list so please please please if you are part of team selvedge and not on this list -email me from my profile page.

This is a giveaway with rules - and two SELVEDGE prizes!

Prize one: This one goes to one of the Team selvedge members (drawn at random).

Prize two: Anyone , anywhere in the whole wide world can enter this giveaway (including team selvedge) but to enter you must :

1. Visit at least two of the blogs on the Team Selvedge list.

2. You must leave a comment on each of those two blogs

3. Come back here and leave a comment telling me which blogs you visited

The winner will be drawn at random and I will check for their comments on the blogs they say they visited. Does that make sense? So have a look - Is there someone there you have never heard of?- pop over and visit , you might just find a new exciting blog to add to your list.....

I know some people are still collecting selvedge for me - You won't be forgotten I promise I will do something again after the next big project.......yes it is already planned (In fact I have already drawn the pattern.......)

The winners will be drawn in one week -and then I will show you the the big project that all these generous people were involved in.

a wee hiccup

Sorry about that rude interruption folks - it seems that what I thought was an eensy computer problem was actually a bit bigger than - Like FOUR WHOLE FLIPPIN DAYS big.

• So 6 litres of fake blood - Miss Jem's media assignment. Of course she had to film a horror movie in the kitchen last Tuesday. Yes I am still finding little specks of fake blood everywhere. At least I hope it's fake, a small slip with the rotary cutter here on Tuesday night meant that there was a lot of real blood up for grabs as well. I managed to slice right across the very middle of my fingernail. It is my rude finger so I am taking childish delight in poking the big blob of dressing at people and showing them what I have done.

• Wednesday was totally awesome. I asked some of the local bloggers to pop over to my place - ostensibly to craft but really it was to eat and laugh and be a bit crazy together. Bernadette,Kathryn, Racheal, Kate and Annie all rose to the challenge and we had a great day. If only I had a bigger house then I would have just invited all of blog land. The girls all have photos as well - Mine have disappeared into cyberspace it would seem.
  

• The finger slash means my insufferable slow hand sewing is even slower but I have Granny's quilt under control. It also means the label will probably be on ink jet printable fabric but I have decided to be OK with that.

• Because I am working on the post to end all posts, I have nothing crafty to show you but I do some eye candy of the highest order.

Aunty Cookie fonty deliciousness. You guys know I love all of Shanon's stuff but this fonty stuff slays me.

Some new Kokka fabric from Ballarat patchwork

Does this scream "apron" to anyone else?


and a Pay It Forward gift from the lovely Fiona. How much do I love/need that handbag organiser. You put it in your bag and pop all your business in it and then when you want to swap bags you just take it all out in one go and you're away.
Have you seen the inside of my handbag Fiona?
This gift is perfect for me.
Thankyou so much.

The keen-eyed among you may notice that the selvedge ticker has been removed.....

I'll be back tomorrow with news of a giveaway - but don't go getting those knickers in a twist because this is a giveaway you will have to work for.