Black Friday Sale

Yep, It is that time of year again. I'll be off at Australian Quilt market in Melbourne so feel free to poke around the shop and grab a bargain or two - or ten !!

You don't need a code, the discount is already set up.

First in,best dressed.

YE OLDE SHOPPE

Llama fur

Because there are loads of questions about Llama fur I figured it would be easiest to write it all here.

 So my first version of the little Llama used a long fur from Lincraft or Spotlight.

 This large Llama is made with a minkee cuddle fabric that I think I may have purchased when I was investigating sloths. 

It can be found at fabric.com  and is a Shannon fabric called minkee cuddle Llama in the sand colourway if you want to try and track it down yourself.

 This super long curly fur is from Fur addictions in Australia. 

   

It is called English Rose Extra curly  Mongolian

I also bought the one below from Fur Addictions and it is going to be awesome. I have the Llama cut out and ready to sew and will add him to this post once he is done.

This one is called Blanc De Blanc Extra curly Mongolian.

and this at last, is Tassle & Pom.

These guys will be my last new pattern for the year. 

The pattern is available in my Etsy shop

llama llama llama

I have been working away on this project for about half a lifetime but recently gave myself a good talking to and got it done.

I use the term 'done' loosely. No I haven't finished writing the pattern or drawing the diagrams and no it doesn't have a a name yet but apart from that it's done.

Any name suggestions ??

U is for Unicorn

U is for unicorn is all done and finished and her mane is curled and ready !!

I'm not sure why this design took so long , it seems obvious to me now, that she is exactly who she is! 

The glitter felt comes from My felt lady and there is a spectacular array of colours - Pop on over and check them out. There is also metallic felt which I have sitting in the sewing room just waiting for it's turn.

Here is where we stand with the alphabet animals : Ten done and I think I might know what is coming next but it won't be until next year. I am slowly gearing up for Australian Quilt Market at the end of November and hoping I might finish off one curly friend before then.

I am also having a teeny booth at AQM for my pins which is going to be loads of fun and a little bit nerve wracking (just how I like things). 

This quilt love pin is my new pin for October with another sassy one on the way a bit later. 

For now it's time to get out of the dressing gown and look at the to-do list and the mountain of dishes and get started for the day. Hope you are having a good one.

Pins and patterns all available in ye olde etsy store

Lost again

In a sea of felt and manes and glitter.

The haunting .....

Today I went shopping with Daughter, we started off at a cute little vintage clothing place. I was the walking wallet, and happily so. I bought two crazy western styled shirts for Son but Daughter found nothing.

We headed off and did some op-shopping (thrifting) and she bought some stuff and I tried not to breathe too deeply at the fountain of human odours mixed with moth balls.

We went to a discount food bulk buying kind of place. It had the craziest array of foods , it had litres of toppings, like you use for milkshakes, plus the pumpy things to put in the top. I stood there for a ridiculous amount of time trying to justify buying one.

 They had food items for five cents !! Five cents, you can't even put five cents in a parking meter... They also weird angry woman doll things to make your fridge smell good.

Then we saw the bag of sauce, yes a BAG of sauce.... like litres of sauce.... a huge bag of sauce (ketchup). It was like the bag of wine inside a cask , but clear and full of sauce. It had no valve it was just a sealed bag...of sauce.

I totally lost my shit. I could not stop laughing. It was huge and blobby and wobbly and strangely medical...like a giant bag of sauce. I would stop laughing but then think about laughing and it would all start again like some weird hysterical time space distortion of laughing and I had to clench every woman muscle I have.

After I calmed down and wiped the tears, we continued to shop and yet I kept thinking of all the shit I could do with a bag of sauce. I could buy two bags and be totally sauce-rich. How would I decant it ? Could I pierce the bag and squirt it at people ? There was a lot of boxes of bags of sauce at this place...why hadn't I heard of sauce -related mischief around the town?

We kept shopping , we bought stupid stuff but its food so I am ok with it. 

On the drive home we discussed all the pranks we could pull with a bag of sauce. Oh how I wish I took a photo....

(I have shoppers remorse-I can't stop thinking about the sauce)

Monster Mash

I will admit I am obsessed with stripey toys. They are just so cheery looking. This is my (almost) latest pattern. Three delightfully ridiculous monsters called Monster Mash. The pattern comes with facial variations, including the use of a jelly bead zip for the teeth. 

I really have had loads of fun playing with these guys. These would be an awesome beginner pattern or a pattern kids could work on. One of my pattern testers added a moustache and glasses to her monster !!

This pattern is in ye olde etsy shop.... 

I have just realised all the things I have neglected to tell you... I better come back tomorrow.

Normal and boring - a giveaway

Hiya, 

You know, there is no real news to share - which is great. A bit of normal and boring is good don't you think?

I thought I'd pop in and share my favorite print from Bug City. 

This print is called collection. I love the order of bug collecting and the labeling and the tidy rows - I do not love the killing things bit. This print was my take on a bug collection. I popped a bit into a cheap frame and it looks awesome with the bonus of not having to kill actual bugs. 

Blogger has decided this photo is next, so this is today's prize - to be in the running to win 4 FQ, 4 patterns and a pin just tell me what you would use this print for.

 Blogger would now like to show you this fantastic hat, made by my friend Bec who used to blog at Beccasauras . Now she is on instagram as becsibbi.

This is a pattern from the always awesome Nikki of You Sew Girl and you can now get her patterns from her Etsy shop !

So there you go friends, with bloggers 'help' we have another disjointed but vaguely informative blog post. 

Please leave a comment and let me know what you would use this print for.

Bug City Thursday... err Friday

Yep ! I fumbled at the first hurdle !
Oh well, we will be having sporadic giveaways over the next few weeks (that covers it).
Today I am going to show you the cute coordinating spots and stripes.

These babies are super versatile !  I am so pumped with this print. It is called Thorax and I designed it specifically to make stripey little bug bodies. Striped toys are the best. I have used it for everything, clothes, quilts toys, bags... 

This is Flannery in stripes and Flannery in spots. Flannery is a super sweet simple pattern. Stripey toys again !!

The stripes have also been made into binding  !!The binding is available wholesale through Ella Blue. It is the bomb. 

The spot print is called Pollen and features irregular little dots of white on solid backgrounds. Do you know how hard it it to draw a billion irregular random blobs. It is harder than it sounds.

This is Tiago by Melly and Me - the CUTEST little Toucan in the entire toucan universe. He uses the charcoal spot for his body and Melly pieced the stripes to make that fabulous beak. I think he is a masterpiece of design!

Today's giveaway includes some spotty fabric, some binding, patterns by Tied with Ribbon, Melly & me and myself and another cute pin !

Just leave a comment telling me if you are a spot person or a stripe person...

The winner is 2paw .

Monday - Bug City Giveaway

Here we are, at the start of a fresh new week and I am going to walk you through my Bug City fabric collection. (forgive me if I miss a day - real job, you know). 

 Bug City contains five prints with a total of 21 fabrics. Today's print is Beetles! I really enjoyed designing this range, working with bright colours and cute little motifs. There was another print that didn't make the cut - I might show it later in the week if I remember.

Beetles comes in the four colour ways shown below. When I first talked about this range with people I was warned not to add spiders to it but no-one mentioned beetles. This is a great print for clothes, from a distance it looks like little coloured blobs but when you get close you realise it is a bug skirt, or shirt. 

The strong blue is maybe possibly my favourite, although I have used the teal to cover a lamp and it looks awesome. I found that old metal beetle in an op-shop just a few weeks ago and for the princely sum of $5 he had to come home with me.

This is my latest quilt pattern - June bugs. Its a super easy one-block quilt that anyone can sew !! There are little embroidered antennae on each bug that are a bit hard to make out in the photo. 

These gorgeous hair accessories were designed and made by my friend Jemima of Tied with a Ribbon. Jemima is a super talented, hard-working designer, and all round good egg. The mini- pattern for these is available wholesale through Creative abundance or through Jemima's shop. 

Pop a comment in the comment box to go into today's draw. Look at that lovely bunch of goodies.

Happy Monday !

It all became clear

This week I had to go to the doctor. I had a few other things to do on the same day so I planned out my itinerary.

Now, at my house if you want to go somewhere and NOT be covered in dog hair when you get there...then you get dressed at the last possible minute which I did.

I set off, it was a lovely day - kinda warm but manageable. It became apparent that I was wearing really uncomfortable pants. I was squirming in the car seat as I drove. I stopped at the post office and did my posting and paused for a sneaky readjustment as I got back into the car. 

Nope, still ridiculously uncomfortable. I tried driving one handed while fudging around the back of my pants to no avail. Did I have a burr in my pants ? why were they all sideways ?

I did a bunch of small drop-offs and pick ups all the while getting crankier at the state of the stupid pants, determined I would throw the bastards into the bin as soon as I got home. 

I finally got to the Very Important Doctors place... and I waited. I squirmed a bit and waited some more. I waited until I started to feel the sweat rolling down my butt crack.

It was like my arse was having a hot flush. 

After more than hour I get escorted into the Nurses office, where she bangs on and on and on and on about how hard it is to be a woman. I smiled a lot and squirmed, and really really wanted to deal with the pants. She talked a lot, basically warning me of every possible disease I could and would probably have as my body falls apart between now and my inevitably horrible death.

(I don't think she was having a good day).

Finally it is time to go behind the curtain and remove the lower half (yeah, one of THOSE visits). I rip off the pants with glee only to find, I was wearing a pair of brand new pants! So new in fact that they had two safety pins, three ribbons, three cardboard tags, a couple of those plastic string things and a little plastic bag containing spare buttons all tucked inside.....

I laughed so much I think the grumpy nurse will need stress counselling

Pin pennant, banner and hoop (worlds most boring blog title)

 I made you a thing friends. Well not a thing but a pattern of sorts. 

It is super basic but it contains the templates for the words used on the hoop, curving for either the top or bottom.

it also includes the template for the words plus a diagram giving the dimensions of the banner

and a diagram and template for the pennant. There are no actual instructions but I figure anyone reading here can probably knock these out of the park without any hassle. There are a very limited amount of those finished pennants listed for sale in my Etsy shop as well if you are not inclined to make your own.

I made all these using 100% pure wool felt and I bought the glittertastic felt from

 My Felt Lady

To download the file just click here:

Pin Display File