Mr Gocco

Yesterday I spent some quality time with Mr Gocco and once again rekindled my love for him.

I seriously love that machine.

I printed some little girl panels

I printed some badge panels
and I printed some little owls.

Today I was invited to go and talk to the group at the Ballarat Quilt -In .

I had a blast ! They were a very fun bunch of people and they kindly laughed in all the right places ! I raved on and on about craft and blogging and even did a bit of shopping before I left.

Now if only I could manage a crafty finish tomorrow, without any major mishaps......I could be heading to weekend nirvana !

Just like Martha!

I didn't realise how many people have yet to make the acquaintance of Mr Gocco, the little blue machine in the previous post. There is heaps of info about him online (Just search Gocco) .
Rumour has it that a camcorder will be making its appearance at our house for a birthday in Mid - January so maybe I'll do a little video of Gocco in action ? Yes?

It'll be just like Martha Stewart, there will be stylists and camera crews and sound people, there will be make-up artists and security and finished products prepared earlier.....

Or just me and the teenager if I can convince him to help, the kitchen bench and a whole lot of reality !

In the meantime , I 'll keep you posted !!

(groan)

Postcards from the sewing room

On the very off-chance that I venture further than the sewing room for the next five weeks, Mr Gocco and I have have got the postcards totally sorted. I'll be sure to send you one!

If you want something done.........

If you want something done ...give it to a busy person.

So in amongst the preparations for the show and all the other general life things ,including a bizarre sore ear/throat/mouth thing...we bought a kitten.!

We actually planned on two(one each for the kids) but there was only one suitable for rescue from the RSPCA.

As things go that was probably a good thing because Miss Eloise is a bit sick and we had to take her back to the vet today. She won't eat which obviously isn't good, but this evening she has a had a bit of kitten milk so we are hoping she is improving and yes we have supplements and things and are monitoring her very closely so don't worry.

Yesterday while she was off at the vet getting de-sexed and vaccinated and implanted and so on , Connor busied himself with kitten preparations and asked me to make a mat for the bowls to sit on - He was so excited he was driving me mental so I told him to think of a cat design and we could use the last of the gocco bulbs to burn a screen.

First off - no pins , just winging the three layers ended in total skewiffness and I had to unpick it.

Next - added the walking foot and some pins but put the layers together wrong so the wadding ended up on the outside (and yes I had sewed all the way around before I noticed.) Unpick it again.

Third time - no hassle! So my ten minute job ended up taking most of the afternoon and you know what?

I don't think the cat has even noticed it.

Johnny? ...oh Johnny?

Its done ! The scarf of longing and branches and texture is finished. (You may need to backtrack to this post to understand)

The fabrics are a mix of bought from pipijoe, donated by Kirsty (Thank you) and stuff from the stash.

I love the gocco pieces. I retyped part of the Scarf blog post and translated it to French and then gocco'ed the text onto some wool, satin and other general shiny fabrics as well as some velvets.

I foundation pieced it together and then backed it with some soft black velveteen.

I actually made two of these at the same time, one I am going to keep and it will debut at work tomorrow and the other one will be in the next shop update.


Now which one to keep...Johnny? oh Johnny? Could you possibly come over and just drape these around your neck? pardon? You think they might look better against bare skin?

Do I mind if you take off your shirt?

Of course not dear, Whatever makes you comfortable .......

tongue firmly in cheek

Ahem......to the tune of Abba's Dancing Queen please maestro!

Friday night and the lights are low

I’m looking out for something to sew…..

Its gotta be the right project, getting in the swing
I can hardly choose just one thing

Everybody should see me stitch

The night is young and I’ve got that ……itch
With a bit of new fabric, everything is fine

You’re in the mood for a stitch

And when you get the itch...

You are the stitching queen, not as young as you once had been..... oooh oooh

stitching queen, feel the beat from the Janome...... oooohhh ooohhh
You can blog, you can sew, having nowhere else to go

See that girl, watch that scene, dig in the stitching queen

(and with unreserved apologies to Abba - especially if they heard me singing along )

1. Fabrics from Pipijoe (love these to bits)

2, 3 Fabrics from Amitie as part of Blog mailout and destined for dollie clothes i think.

4. Some gocco'd pieces for the scarf

Quick craft

Some little Gocco printed felt toys for the dollies and monkeys. I used Gocco stamp ink for cloth and printed onto wool felt.

In a quest for pocket money Connor has been ironing his way through a garbage bag of vintage fabric scraps - I really think he just loves squirting water all over the fabric.!

(If you think they don't look very well ironed, that would be because he popped them on my chair and I sat on them - oops.)

That one on the right just kills me - I had to use it straight away.

How excited was I to see that little cherry - it is offset , I just love it.

Two steps forward.........

Noodles anyone?

For ages I have been keeping a few little wire noodle-box handles with the aim of creating a fabric box for them. This was easy easy. I had a cardboard noodle box here so I just chopped it up to become the pattern. I used some hammer- in eyelets on the sides for the handles.



It kinda falls into the cute but useless category- or at least I haven't thought of a use for it yet. To give it structure I used wadding (batting) as well as a firm iron-on interfacing. I carefully ironed the interfacing to the batting rather than the fabric (less wrinkles that way).

I have also been spending a little quality time with Mr Gocco and made some teeny tiny designs on fabric. It is still a bit of a hit-and-miss affair but I think I am slowly getting the hang of it.

I have also started my first ever real sized quilt. How do you people make quilts.... it takes for bloody ever!!! I might still be doing this one when I am ninety !!! I didn't want to do anything complicated so just decided to wing it and make it up as I went along. (what was I thinking) .

If today was anything to go by it is a good thing I have the men-in-white-coats on speed-dial.