Happiness is:

A long overdue date with Mr Gocco

All the ghosts

I am feeling a bit discombobulated at the moment. I won't bore you with my existential angst, but suffice to say I don't even have a Christmas list.

Oh in years gone by I had lists that would make you weep. I cross-referenced and I colour coded. The list was a mightly beast and it was long lived. Months of work went into the list, endless planning and changing and perfecting. There was no person, no gift, no awkward hardly-known Kris Kringle or Secret Santa that the list could not serve.

I was the queen of Christmas, the handmade cards were sent in November, ( there was a list so no-one was forgotten) ,the hand made wrapping paper which matched the THEME was made months in advance. I had last minute gifts, spare gifts and even a few dozen kiddy Kris Kringles in reserve so none of the kids at school missed out. I was like a human Pinterest board of glitter fuelled Christmas cheer.

The ghost of Christmas-now would hate the ghost-of-Jodies-past . She was a candy-caned fuelled pain in the arse. The ghost of Christmas now discuss practical vacuum-like gifts with grown children. She looks at value-for-money and finds herself buying things that they won't buy for themselves, like new sheets. She is not happy about this. She wants to buy Lego and potato guns and stupid zombie stuff.

Discombobulated

Posted with Blogsy

I've long had a thing

for pirates

and now I seem to have a thing for Vikings as well.

(Could be worse)

Busy head - busy hands

I am busy getting ready for Australian Quilt Market next weekend and I seem to have been struck down with a thinking bug. I've been thinking small thinks, and tricky thinks and some really big thinks. 

When this happens, I need  some brainless repetitive craft to work on and so,

I have been busying my hands by cutting felt and making kits for the alphabet animals.

They are all in my Big Cartel shop, and each animal is available in natural or multi-coloured.

The kits (or fabric packs) don't contain a pattern but they do have delicious 100% wool felt, safety eyes, buttons for joints and embroidery threads. the patterns are in the shop of course but it got too tricky offering with and without pattern versions.

Being easily distracted I have to admit that they a bit of an endangered species. 

( lets call this an experiment)

Do you have a particular craft that you do when you need to think? 

A craft that soothes your mind?

(If you say crochet I may want to hit you)

sideways glances

It's Ginger & Blue of course, finally ready and making there way to shops near you.

I am busy making samples for shops and I realised that making six tiny duffle coats gives me a strange kind of happiness that I can rarely speak of outside the land of blogs. 

 (Well I can speak of it, but people never look at me in quite the same way afterwards)

Little Dot

I have a new project in this months issue of Homespun Magazine. That rather straight forward sentence doesn't begin to convey how excited I am by this project.

 Much earlier this year I was asked by Homespun to create a little toy for them. The editor had been particularly taken with Baxter in his bathrobe and wondered if we could come up with something that would work for the magazine. I had never imagined creating a softie story for a magazine and really wondered if it would work (yes I am a control freak as we all know). I got hold of the magazine yesterday and
I love it !

So here (in the green) is Little Dot.  Her story along with her pattern are in the magazine and yes I have had magazine projects projects before and yes they are always exciting....

but this one has me buying copies for my mum and shoving the magazine at anyone who stands still for a minute or two.

My name is Jodie and right now I am loving myself sick.

(much much thanks to Susan for making this happen-you are an egg of the finest quality)

Sewing Tales: a book review

OK, so lets begin by saying I don't really review toy making books (I don't tend to buy them either). I get all crunchy undies about it and worried that I might "borrow" other people's techniques or ideas so I stay well clear of it all. (and lets be honest there's enough insanity in my own head without adding too much more to the mix). A while ago though,  I met Kerry Goulder on Instagram, and we became insta-friends, so when she asked me to take part in her book blog hop I was happy to say yes (and I am glad I did)

Sewing Tales to Stitch and Love is a brand new release containing 18 whimsical toys, each with a little story (you know how much that appeals to me). Even before I received the book I knew I had to make Morton the Turtle. The book is peopled with gnomes and mice and magic mushrooms.

I chose Morton because of his interesting construction and my abiding love of  turtlefolk- can you see his turtle body actually slips in there under the bottom of his shell? I was a bit worried, thinking I had chosen the most difficult toy in the book but in just under three hours - he was finished. Everything works and fits together perfectly.

I love his underneath so much !

Each toy has step by step photos and clear concise instructions.  The bummer for some people might be the lack of full size pattern pieces (you need to enlarge them on the photocopier). In the end those kind of things come down to the book production cost and really a bit of money at the photocopier is not too bad when you get 18 patterns for the cost of the book.

There is plenty to learn from in this book, Kerry has a very different instruction style to me and also a really new-to-me way with embroidering eyes. There is also a great way to draw larger pattern pieces on a corner fold (That actually took me a minute or two to work out), that i haven't seen before.

If you would like to follow along the blog hop, there are lots of people posting their projects and if you are instafriendly you can follow the hashtag #sewingtalesbookbloghop

MONDAY: Nov 4th

Mollie Johanson – Wild Olive

Jessica Fediw – Happy Together

Abby Glassenberg – While She Naps

Jennet Jones-Rau – Feathered Nest Studio

TUESDAY: Nov 5th
Sabra Gubler – Sew a Straight Line
Amber Carillo – One Shabby Chick
Caroline Hulse – Sew Caroline
Amy Friend – During Quiet Time

WEDNESDAY: Nov 6th
Miranda Anderson – One Little Minute
Andrea Taddicken – Knitty Bitties Sews
Kristi McDonough – Schnitzel & Boo
Terri Harlan – Sew Fantastic

THURSDAY: Nov 7th
Shari Butler – Doo Hikey Designs
Jodie Carleton – RicRac
Jen Goode – 100 Directions
Justine Henshaw – Sew Justine Sew

FRIDAY: Nov 8th

Emily Levey – Strawberry Patch Ramblings

Nicke Cutler – Kiss Kiss Quilt

Cathe Holden – Just Something I Made

Kate Henderson – Two Little Banshees

Thanks to Fiskars, Dritz, Fairfield, Bosal, Free Spirit, and F+W Media for the box of goodies that were sent all the people participating. I told Kerry not to bother sending it all to me (postage to Australia was a bit obscene) and I didn't want to be "paid" to participate, but she sent it anyway. (She's kinda nice like that)

So, of course I am going to share it with you guys. All you need to do to enter is pop over and have a look at   Sewing Tales  and let me know which project you like the look of to be entered.

The winner will be picked at random and they will get all the goodies plus a signed copy of the book (with a smudge on page 49 where the cat stood on it while I was reading the instructions- sorry)