TO DO !

TO DO LIST :

(as tagged by Cottage magpie)

1. Invent an exercise that does not require a sports bra, or in fact, any sweating, exertion or discomfort at all. This program will enable us to lose weight according to kilometres sewn.
2. Abolish any clothing sized in single figures unless it is in the children's department.
3. LEAVE Paris Hilton in jail until everyone has forgotten who she is.
4. Develop truth vaccine for staff meetings - now that would be funny !!!
5. Forget polyester, matching sister outfits, fleuro orange, that strange obsession with inappropriate boys at Uni and The Culture Club.
6. Ban puffed sleeves on any garment intended for a female over the age of 8.
7. Remove the word "whatever" from functional use.
8. Become a pirate (helloooooo Mr Depp)
9. Remember where I hid "my Style". I mean I last had it just before Jem was born but the minute I hit maternity trousers I decided to put it away somewhere safe so it wouldn't get damaged. 15 yrs and a number of house moves on I still can't remember where I put it.
10. Learn not to keep every important piece of paper pertaining to my life in my underpants drawer.

Oh I am not sure about this whole tagging thing but I checked out wikipedia and it seems I will be in dire trouble if I don't.

I mean, can I tag people I don't even know? It seems a bit weird so I shall just tag Annie and Emma then jump on over and tell them all about it. (I told you I take this stuff too seriously.)

Too much thinking !!!

Parcels, Presents, People

How much do you love getting parcels in the mail? Even if they are things I have bought and paid for they still feel like presents. This week I got an extremely presenty feeling parcel from Samantha of Whizzme. I popped into her Etsy shop to grab a bag of papery goodness for my mum's birthday (today) and while there just happened to buy some delicious fabric scraps.

Gorgeous greens with a little hand painted ribbon and beautiful card. My favourite is the one on the extreme left !
I also grabbed these great pieces of Japanese fabric and they came beautifully wrapped and presented with the sweetest little fishy ribbon. My mother adored all her paper bits and pieces and cannot wait to show them off to her scrap booking friends. Thanks so much Samantha !!!!

Yesterday afternoon I played ladies with the fat quarters and we headed off to the local scarf festival. Held inside the huge glasshouse in the botanical gardens, the festival has scarves, handbags and shawls.

There was lots of great stuff on display and they kindly let me take a few pics. This has strengthened our resolve to crack open the wet felting in the next school holidays and get started !

I have to say I have been tagged by the very funny Angela of Cottage Magpie - this is my first ever tag and I am taking it far too seriously (as expected). More on that (I promise) tomorrow.

My blog conscience or Jimminy cricket is not a crafter !

Dear Diary,

This week I promise to finish things off and not start any new projects until the THREE UFO baskets are empty and I have put the binding on the baby quilt.

Monday ...... Dear Diary, I finished off this little baglet. Yes I know I had cut out and partially sewn four of them but this is like totally finished -the base is covered and stitched and and the button is on - like totally finished.

Tuesday .......Dear Diary - Hows this? I finally machine embroidered the scarf that I started last winter ! Yes I know there are two others rolled up ready to be done ...I know . OK ?

Wednesday.......Dear Diary -

• Went op-shopping and bought a coathanger. Came home and hung it up on the wall. This is not a new project diary but rather an ongoing collection so it doesn't count ! NER ! (wish I could find nicer hooks)
• Bought fabric to make binding for baby quilt.
• Tweaked ongoing pattern (first started about 2yrs ago so it does count.)
• Fiddled with, but did not ACTUALLY start new handbag.

Thursday...........Dear Diary -

• Bought fabric for binding baby quilt.
• Googled embroidery stitching instructions (googling doesn't count).
• May have almost quite by accident kind of started the new bag a little bit.

Friday ................. Dear Diary

• Worked on new bag
• blogged
• threw away diary.
  

Dick and Jane !

Annie and I were recently chatting and she had the idea to upgrade those green bags we use at the supermarkets. Her final results were amazing.

I decided to make something similar for work. At the moment I carry a tub in and out of work each day - I call it the guilt tub. I toss all sorts of stuff in there, promising myself "I'll read that when I get home, I'll go through that catalogue properly on the weekend etc etc."

I dutifully carry the tub into the car then into my house every night where I ignore it until I throw my lunch on top of it in the morning and carry it back to work !

So now I have a bag for work to carry all that stuff in. It is not as big as a supermarket green bag - I narrowed the base and sides to a more manageable 6 1/2 ".

Of course, being a library chick meant it was the perfect excuse to use a bit of the Dick and Jane fabric - totally appropriate !

And in my usual style how much fabric did I buy for one bag? Well the dick and Jane I already had and the green canvas weight was originally intended for the apron.

Bargain you think? Well I had first intended it to have different coloured base and sides so off I went and bought 1m of red canvas but then at another shop bought 1/2 m each of pink and blue as well. I also needed a bit of wadding so grabbed 2m from the patchwork shop where I fell in love with two other fabric (1/2 m of each of those too please madam and could I also have 5 magnetic closures ?).

I first made it up with pink sides (check out that free motion quilting) and hated it so had to unpick my triple stitching, so it ended up all green anyway.



So even though I had all the fabrics that eventually went into this bag , including a vintage cotton for the lining, that I thrifted last week, it would seem I purchased an additional 3m of fabric, 2m of wadding and 5 magnetic handbag closures........ (oh and a metre of unrelated but extremely gorgeous fabric from Aunty Cookie as well)

Its not that I am saying its a bad thing ...................

Crafty week

It's not that I don't craft through the week (some people would say it is ALL I do) but getting photos just proves to be beyond me. Ballarat has the deserved reputation of being somewhat cold and gloomy so by the time I get home from work there is usually no light left at all. Certainly no photo-taking light left in the day.

Monday / Tuesday

Those ball animals are still rockin around inside my head but I think I have nearly exhausted all options now. This little hedgie is my newest love. His name is Edgar !

Wednesday

A quick trip to the localist of op-shops revealed this little haul.

• A glass buckle



• a set of Brand new Japanese hankies (coming to handbag pattern near you soon)



• Some little spring loaded button studs



• a little brooch handmade by someone with more patience than I


• a purse frame that did have a daggy pink plastic purse attached but I removed it for an experiment.

I have also been working on a few bags through the week and will be able to post those tomorrow. I even had a go at a bit of free-motion quilting and I didn't totally suck at it so that was a bonus.

Here is a fuller picture of little whiplash quilt. for those who asked. Now I am off to Spotty for some canvas !!!!

Whiplash challenge.

The hardest part of this challenge may be me trying to get the whiplash button on here !!!

As part of the Whiplash challenge on Whip up I have made a doll quilt or miniature quilt.

I had so much fun with this that I thought I'd show you how I did it. (Mind you it is so easy I am sure you could just wing it).

Yep.... thats right its all made from selvedge !!! I just love how it turned out !! I am soo excited by this I am planning a bigger project !

1. 
   
   

   Step 1. Cut the selvedged edge off your fabrics leaving 1/4 inch of fabric (this becomes your seam allowance.) Then with right sides together sew two pieces together and press open, showing selvedge.



2. 
   
   

   Step 2. If you have nice thick selvedge you may be able to join one pair to another pair - giving you four (or more) joined togetherwithout losing all the details.




3. 
   
   

   Step 3. When you have pieced a few strips together you can begin to foundation piece them. I cut (ripped) a piece of very light cotton to the size I wanted and then simply began sewing the strips on. Sew as close to the very edge as you can but remember that this is the selvedge so it is not going to fray.



4. 
   

   Step 4. Continue on adding your little pairs of selvedge strips ( or bigger ones) until you have the size you require. I used my walking foot for this part.

5.

Step 5. When you have pieced all your strips , turn over your work and trim the edges, squaring up if you need to.

Step 6. I used cotton batting in this little quilt and I quilted it very simply by running some lines of stitching across the quilt in a "stitch-in-the-ditch style. My finished quilt is almost fat quarter sixe measuring approx 18 x 20 inches. Then of couse a bit of binding and your done !!!

I really love this project and am keen to do a bit more with selvedges. I have been chopping them off every scrap of fabric in the stash.

The added bonus to this project is, when asked about all the fabric in the stash I can honestly say "of course I use them all I have put almost all of them into a quilt !"

Miss Eloise says it is very snuggly !

and the winner is........

The winner of my little Cottage Charm giveaway is Lissa Jane of Fabricologists Anonymous.

Congratulations !!!!

I have really enjoyed this giveaway and can see a whole lot more in my bloggin' future and maybe one day I'll even do a swap. I'll be emailing right away for a postal address Lissa Jane.

Tonight I shall be working on my Whiplash challenge so hopefully a few pics tomorrow.