SOFTIES !

Hello ...........

Today I had to get ready for camp. So in between some washing and packing, I tweaked the Bobo pattern and came up with some new friends. In reality I did mostly sewing and threw lots of stuff in the case and wrote myself a note of things-not-to-forget. I packed the lollies and chocolate first.

What in the world I am going to do with them I have no idea.

Why is it now, with the kids both at high school, that I find so much enjoyment making cute (but essentially useless) little toys and softies?

They are so simple-just a little ball with a few "animal" features. When you think about it some animals only need a few things to make them who they are . A snout and a curly tail equals pig and none of the other bits and pieces seem to matter . An elephant is all ears and trunk.

I have a fish, elephant, frog and (hopefully) a hedgehog all drawn for another day. Well it has finally been raining here in Ballarat so maybe I am making my own ark !

My good friend Annie has started her own blog and when I read it, it is just like talking to her -something I struggle with here as I try to condense myself and not ramble.

See you all after camp !

The apron that became a quilt !

With Lara's prompting I had every intention of really joining the blog world by participating in the Tie one on challenge. I spent a lot of time thinking about the kind of apron I would make. (Note to self: think less , sew more)

I decided an apron for work would be good - I work with books and get pretty dusty.

So I wanted practical and interesting -with ric-rac (as that was part of the challenge.)

I bought some green canvas weight fabric and got started ....I really did. It was going to have ric-rac flowers all over the bottom and a cute diner-style name tag patch. Truly it was........

But then as I dug out more fabric for circles I came across a whole little set of sock monkey charm squares that I bought some time ago. That got me thinking of monkey polka dots and as I have a friend about to have a baby - Hey presto !!! Forget the apron I am now onto a baby quilt. I need about 30 little circles to go onto to my white squares - haven't thought about borders or anything yet as the hand sewing will take me quite a while.

I plan to use the tiniest bit of double sided iron on thingamajig to affix the circles in just the right spots before I pack them up and take them with me on a school camp next week.A little bit of hand sewing amidst the chaos -should be fun!

Craft:

After a day at work that seemed like it would never end, I came home to find this is my letterbox.......

I got a subscription to this fab mag for Christmas and although it is full of a zillion things I will never attempt - it is so jam packed with ideas and inspiration - I am totally cheered up. There are so many things I want to have a go at right now and Miss 15 will flip when she sees the punk T-shirts and fashions of Harajuku.

This issue is dediacted to Japanese craft and although I have only had a quick flick through - I am planning a glass of wine and some serious reading later tonight.


The Craftzine blog is awesome and updated all the time - great stuff and great tutorials- I should add it over on my side-bar !!!

More bags !

Why so many bags ?


One of my friends asked me why I seemed to be forever making, drawing or finishing off bags.
I guess bags are just so versatile and practical. They don't take much fabric so you won't break the bank if you end up with a flop.
I like that they are so quick to make, practical and you can make so many different varieties. I suppose I just like bags. I had the best winter bag last year and I really want to try something different this year so am trying out a few varieties.
This one is made with a grey wool blend, has darts at the bottom to give it a bit of body, quilted handle and magnetic closure. I kind a like it but am not in love with it.

This little one has been christened Ugly Betty by Miss 15 (thanks darling). In a way she is right as I was going for that widely known style called "good ugly". Sometimes things can be a bit ugly in a good way- I am not sure this is it, but it is quite nice even though it does remind me of the fabric you often see in those tired old share-house couches.

I do like this pattern though so expect a few more varieties in this style.

The button is an old diamante earring that I adore but I am not sure it will stay on this bag. The button is non functional as there is a magnetic clasp under the little flap and the button is just for decoration.

Vintage scarf !

Lots to say today !

This new scarf is made from the thrifted bag of wool pieces that I found a while ago.I used the foundation piecing method to get this to sit nice and flat and it is sooo inspired by the scarf in Denyse Schmidt's book. The wool just looked scarfy as they are all long narrow pieces but it wasn't until I look through the book that it became obvious to add the little pieces of Japanese fabrics.

I got stuck for while trying to figure out what to put on the back. I really wanted something soft like Minkee so I started at the top of the fabric food chain here in Ballarat but eventually my search took me to spotlight.

I found this fake suede type stuff in chocolate brown and walked around the store carrying the huge bolt with the end all unravelled and wrapped around my neck - I wanted to be sure it wouldn't be itchy. No one cared !

I don't want to give any false impressions so will own up and say that rather svelte model is in fact Miss 15 and not my good self.

I was planning to top stitch all around but I think that will make it look funny so have decided I will just run a few stitch in the ditch type lines across to stop it ballooning.

There are 6 handbags in various states of creation in this sewing room as well so stay tuned !

Felting!!!

What a great afternoon - Annie and kate came over and we played with our felting stuff. Take a look at what we did...

Annie's flowers and my spots

Annie's wild flowers- I have permission to borrow this idea for a handbag !!!

Kate's gorgoeus dog - just needs some little eye beads - see he has a patch over one eye!

My cherries - still on a fruit theme here !

The start of a bunny for Kate

More flowers for Annie.

This was loads of fun and we simply couldn't felt as fast as we wanted - the best thing about it was that anything that came out weird and lumpy just became a hand felted cloud - and you can never have enough of those around!

We only used one bandaid.

Dodgy Monday

Little did I know when I joked with Lara about needing a special day to show off our blunders, that mine would be so soon.

This was part of a pink and white vintage chenille quilt I have been fiddling with . It was not going well but I was determined and carefully unpicked and restitched until I could no longer sew straight, cut straight or think straight !!!!!

Eventually the unpicking turned into ripping, the craft swearing increased and one got a little tetchy .......

Today I am quite resigned to it - I shall toss the little scraps and save what I can of the chenille (I hate to waste any of it).

This afternoon I have friends coming over to play with our needlefelting bits and pieces.

(I have bought an extra box of band aids).

Bo-Bo's for Easter

Happy Easter

More bags!!!

Yay ! Well I am ticking off that list in a big way now.

I started these two bags last night and just had to do a few little bits to them this morning. This wool fabric comes from a huge bag lot that I thrifted last week. All patterned in browns, blues, greens. They must have been samples of some sort as they are all similar in size (long and narrow) and most have a tiny sticker on them with a little code. It has been crying out at me all week - come and make a bag woman !!!!! So I made two.

I used a few yo-yo's on the second one just to lift it a little. They both have magnetic closures but no pockets. Later today I am off to Office works to get some pattern printing done and then home -hopefully to cut out a few Bo Bo's and a variation that I drew last night......so much to do.......so little time. Oh and my local junk/antique/collectables store is closing down and I do have to drive right past it to get to office works so I may just pop in for a quick sticky-beak.

Chenille Holidays

YAY !!! Holidays....I have so many plans . The craft list is enormous.

• Finish off at least two half-drafted patterns...three would be better !


• Make a dolls quilt (they are everywhere in blogland)


• Start a real quilt


• Make at least two new handbags (-I have thrifted a huge bag of wool fabric.)


• Make some colourful friends for BoBo


• Do a million or so Ebay related things


• Use some of the great "Dick and Jane" fabrics I bought recently

In the mean time - here are some cushions I made with some pieces of a lovely old CabinCraft bedspread.

I'll check back and see how many things I manage to tick off........

Does everyone else set themselves ridiculous targets and then divert off onto tangents???