Tin Whistle

HEAT WAVE

2012-01-28T14:06:00.000+08:00

So we are up to day 5 of a heatwave. The Bureau of Meteorology reports that a heatwave is declared if we have three consecutive days over 35C (95F), which honestly I think is a bit pathetic. Anyway, we are up to day 5 over 35C and the 3rd day over 40C (104F). The weather is forecast to be at least over 35C for another four days.

I've had our air conditioner running 24 hours a day since Monday, and this has managed to keep the inside temperature at a comfortable 24-28C (54-58F). But we haven't been venturing outside much, which is a bit disappointing for the week of school holidays.

Today, to stop the kids spending another day in front of the TV or other screen, we decided to make pencil cases.

We had a practice run with some Denise Schmidt fabric (its quilted so does it doing towards m7 12WIPS in 12 challenge??). I'm going to fill this one with lollies and use it as part of a birthday gift for Elizabeth's Class mate.

The Elizabeth picked out some fabric and had a go. She did most of her own sewing (except for the zipper).

Matilda did a lot of her own quilting. I pieced together 2.5" squares of fabric left over from her aqua pop quilt and then put together the pencil case. She wanted hers long enough to fit a standard 30cm ruler.

Ella was a last minute inclusion in the fun (she often gets invited over when we do kiddy sewing because she loves to craft). She picked some strawberry fabric with the same green spot as Elizabeths pencil case for the lining.

We used bits and bobs for this project; salvaged zippers, scraps of fabric and left over bits of wadding.

We used the same pattern for all the pencil cases, but they all turned out a little bit different- sometimes by design and sometimes by mistake!

MonSwoon

2012-01-27T09:35:00.000+08:00

This is the colour design David picked! It's my least favourite and not at all the direction I was thinking this quilt would go. I really was loving the blue palettes.

Well I did give him permission to decide didn't I? And at least I can say its a quilt we will both love (or both hate LOL). For the next step I went back to design seeds and pulled out some more colour palettes with green in them (and maybe a hint of ice blue. Tee hee hee). I forgot to photograph the colour cards that I printed off, but I ended up cutting up the colour cards and sorting the colours according to tone. My plan was to choose a background colour from the lightest tone (bottom row). The Swoon quilt needs 18 fat quarters of feature fabric, so I was going to select 6 dark tones (from the top row), 6 medium tones (second row) and 6 light tones (third row).

My initial concept was to use Kona Solids for the quilt and I spent a lovely morning looking through and matching up the colour cards with a kona solid. But then I started to second guess that choice. Perhaps Swoon wasn't quite the right pattern to showcase solids since its such an over sized block???

Next I spent that evening looking around the internet at fabric... specifically searching for bundles with greens and browns and beiges (with hints of blue) in them. I found this bundle of Batiks on Etsy that pleased me a lot. I have a love/hate with Batiks. I LOVE the intensity of colour, and that its a bit hippyish but I don't often see finished batik quilts that I like. I also wondered Swoon + batik??? would that work????

So then I started hunting around the Swoon-along flickr group and look what I stumbled upon:

(image source)

The whole quite is fabulous

(image source)

Seeing that one gave me the confidence that it will work, and when I showed David my various idea's (green kona solids, Batiks or something else) he was keen to go out on a limb and use the Batiks.

So that's where I'm at...A MonSwoon quilt; built with Batiks reminiscent of jungles and tropical islands. I have ordered a bundle of 21 fat quarters in green, brown and blue batiks with an even mixture of dark and light tones.

Another man shirt

2012-01-27T09:07:00.004+08:00

This one actually started out as the 'calico' for the striped one and I only got so far as zipping up the shoulder and side seams then set in the sleeves, before I could see that the fit was fine and moved onto the real fabric. David said he's probably wear pale blue so I thought I'd finish it off. I used the overlocker to attach the grey marle binding and then coverstitched the bindings and hem.

I have been reading the kniterview series on the Made by Rae blog. Its basically a Q&A type thing with other bloggers who ejoy sewing with knits. The blogger, during their interview, suggests tips for sewing with knits, where they buy fabric etc. The thing that has my head scratching is that most those interviewed admit to using only a sewing machine when sewing with knits. Can I just say that I had absolutely NO JOY sewing knits with a regular sewing machine?! The garments looked ok to start with, but pretty quickly stitches would bust, causing seams to pop and hems fall down etc. Buying an overlocker improved things significantly, but I still had lots of issues with hems busting (as they were done on the sewing machine). The Coverpro, which allows me to hem knit fabrics with ease, has finally put me in a place where I am completely confident I can turn out a durable knit garments that will last wear after wear and wash after wash.

Designing a Swoon

2012-01-24T17:34:00.002+08:00

I am one little step closer to making a swoon quilt. I am having trouble with the colour scheme and I want David to also be happy with it also (ie not too girly or floral). I decided to look through Design Seeds for some colour palettes, printing off half a dozen that appealed to me. I tend to lend towards blues/greys/creams when I decorate my bedroom, so I deliberately tried to pick out some greens as well.

Then I used a really neat website, that I just happened to read about today on a blog, to do some digital versions of the swoon quilt. The website is Quiltr, and it has a lone star block that happens to be fairly similar to the Swoon block. So I plugged in some colours and printed off the 'quilts'. I am going to let David decide which one we should go with, and then I will hunt out fabrics to match the appropriate Design seeds colour swatch.

Once decision I have made with regards to the Swoon block, after seeing lots of them pop up on blogs and on Flickr, is that I prefer the look of a dark tone in the centre star and its radiating points, and a lighter tone (even better its a light tone of the same colour) for the other feature colour. So that's how I will use my design seeds colour palettes when selecting fabric. ie the lightest tone on the palette will be the background colour, the two darkest tones will be used for the centre star and radiating points and the mid-tones will be used for the other colour components of the Swoon star.

I *think* I know which one is my favourite colour scheme. I'll be back to let you know what David decides on.

Man shirt

2012-01-22T17:51:00.000+08:00

My husband admired this stripe back when I made this t-shirt for George. I used a bit more of it here and he mentioned, again, how he would like a t-shirt made from it. I got a bit side-tracked with quilts in the mean time, but today I finally decided to give it a go and use my new Coverpro before it started to collect dust.

I asked David to give me his favourite t-shirt and used it to carefully trace off a pattern. I thought this was better that road testing some commercial patterns. Men's patterns are pretty dire. And yes I had to cut the sleeves sideways on the fabric because I didn't have enough to cut it on the grain. David didn't even notice so I didn't mention it :)

I'm pretty happy with how similar the new shape compares with the original.

I just love the coverpro. I hadn't played with it since my first experiments 6 weeks ago so I was pretty nervous I had forgotten what to do. It didn't help that I had to rethread the machine with a different colour thread (it came already threaded up in white).

Neck binding

Sleeve hem.

I meant to have the twin needle on the outside but accidentally put the wrong side of the garment through the machine!

Hubba hubba!

SALE!

2012-01-21T11:28:00.003+08:00

I'm just updating my tin whistle shop for the new year. All my pram liner stock is on sale and I have some custom order slots available.

Vintage musings

2012-01-21T11:25:00.000+08:00

So here is how things looked at the end of yesterday. Let me take you on a quick tour...

I finished piecing the vintage sheet charm quilt. I've ordered some vintage flannel for the back so this project is stalled while I wait for that to arrive.I might end up making this my February finish for the 12WIPS12 challenge. We'll see.

I had 8 charms left over so I used 6 of them to make this simple little baby quilt- its about 20"x25". I already had the stripe and kona solid.

I want to get this finished up quickly, so I decided to piece together some bits and bobs for the backing fabric rather than wait for the vintage flannel.

Remember my commitment to make one hexie block a month? This is January's one. I have 9 made, with 6 to go.

Making a start on the Vintage sheet charm quilt

2012-01-18T10:31:00.001+08:00

Boy I'm on a quilty roll aren't I? When I accept a challenge I tend to work ahead of shedule.

I completely stress out if I leave things to the last minute. But the problem is that I tend to do the opposite... stress out making sure things are finished well ahead of schedule.

This project is number nine on my list of 12 WIPS in 2012 =====>

I bought the charms last September from Etsy.

I love the idea of a vintage sheet charm quilt, but knew I would never have the patience to trawl Op shops collecting sheets.

I bought the charms here. I follow this lady's blog and when she announced she was offloading her collection of vintage sheet charms on Etsy I snapped up 3 sets of 36 charms.

All the for bargain price of $31.50 including shipping to Australia!

This has allowed me to layout the charms in a 10x10 arrangement and will result in a generous lap quilt. It will look fabulous on the couch I showed you in my last post don't you think?

Giddy quilt finished

2012-01-18T10:13:00.003+08:00

Well that was a nice quick finish... four day turnaround for a quilt. Not bad for me!

As previously discussed this is my own drafted up version of the Swoon block.
I discussed the layout here and here.

For the quilting I went quick and simple (I'm due to catch up with the new mum this week) with a all over meander in a light grey.

The only fabric shopping I did for this quilt was to pop up to Spotlight and buy 30cm of fabric for the binding.

I didn't have anything suitable in my stash.

I picked out this stripe as you just cant go past a nice striped binding.

I went with the mish-mash backing using up all the left over scraps from the front and adding in a piece of grey TaDot and a small strip of Alexander Henry Larkspur.

I think it falls on the side of 'arty' rather than 'frugal piecing'. That's what I'm telling myself anyway!

I'm loving my newly furnished formal lounge for photographing.

After a 3 year search we finally found our perfect sofa's for the room and they are proving to be a perfect backdrop for photographing quilts. The lighting in front of the window is great. and the room is usually tidy so its an easy location to set up a quilt or two!

I love the arm chair most of all. We are slowly buying accessories for the room, like this gorgeous lamp I found in a store selling restored mid-century furniture and bric-a-brac.

PS... while technically this quilt uses up some of my Denise Schmidt 'Picnic's and Fairground's' fabric, which is #10 on my 12WIPs in 2012 list, my original post indicated that I intended to make "a couple of small quilts I could donate to a hospital NICU". So, unless someone thinks I am cheating, I will carry this quilt over to another month and call the WIP complete when I have made at least one more quilt from the DS fabric.

Still working on Swoon (Giddy) baby quilt

2012-01-15T21:44:00.000+08:00

It's only been a day, but I have progressed nicely on this quilt. This morning I stitched all the units together to complete the Swoon (Giddy) block and added some grey sashing.

I really wanted to just add a one nice big sash of grey and leave it at that- ie the swoon block floating on grey. But alas, I only had enough grey left over to do 1" of sashing around the block.

With the small sashing I had a quilt of only of 26.5" square. So I started auditioning borders in order to push the quilt up to around 35" square. Knowing the friends that this is for I knew I should keep to the soft blue and grey colour scheme. I know, I know... hard for me right? No brights, no extra colours and no pops of red. Yikes!

Of course it doesn't help that most of the fabric I bought in the Picnics and Fairgrounds range does not actually have blue in it!

I came up with 3 options, and decided to audition all 3 for a day.

Border option #1: Use up the last little bit of the two feature fabrics from the main block. Problem... not much of it left and I would end up with a really skinny 1" border.

Border option #2: Cut out the blue sections from the green/blue P&F plaid. Problem... would require a trip to Spotlight to buy some more of the plaid and this is supposed to be a stash buster project.

Border option #3: A border using the blue/white lattice print from the P&F range. Problem... too white/light? compared to the rest of the quilt.

I got on with other stuff (you know like feeding children/housework etc) and let my subconscious mull it over.

The solution seemed obvious when I returned to sew after dinner. Option 1 AND option 3!! I added in the plaid to the two feature fabrics and this allowed me to create a 3" piano key border. The quilt will end up about 33" square, which will be a great size for a newborn baby.

I briefly contemplated throwing in some red corner posts...

But, my recipients tastes not withstanding, I decided it looks much better without.

I think I am going to have to do a mish-mash backing- you know where you just sew random bits of fabric scraps left over from the quilt top. I don't really like that sort of backing but I don't have a nice large piece of something that I can use instead.

Even this A.H. Larkspur, which goes perfectly, is a smidgen too small.

I have plenty of this turquoise bird fabric, but its just not quite the right colour.

Stay tuned!

David came into the sewing room just now and commented on the Swoon (Giddy) quilt by saying "Wow that looks nice". I think its the first time he has ever made a positive comment to me about a quilt pattern. He often compliments me on what I sew (as in; the skill shown or whatever) but without actually saying whether he likes the finished product or not. There's a difference obviously, I know for myself that I can marvel at and be awe struck by the work other quilters do, even though I think the finished quilt is awful. I mention his comment only because the fact that he has specifically complimented the Swoon pattern has cemented my desire to make this one up as a quilt for our bed.

Feeling all Giddy

2012-01-14T14:30:00.003+08:00

Well first I'll update you on Flowerburst. I added in the purple and turquoise border. Then I sandwiched, quilted it and added the binding.

If I want it to count towards the 12WIPs in 2012 competition I have to wait until February to complete the quilt (as I have already completed my January WIP). So I am going to put it aside for 2 weeks before I do the hand stiching. Sneaky!

Now anyone that is quilty or reads quilty blogs is either participating in the Swoon-a-long or reading about it on everyone else's blogs. I am not immune. I think its a lovely quilt and am thinking about making a Queen size version for my bed. I shouldn't really be taking on a huge new project when I have 12+ WIPs to finish, but I think I can sneak in a small swoon quilt. A friend has a baby earlier in the week, so I thought I might make one Swoon block and turn it into a small baby quilt. If I use some of my Denise Schmidt fabric then I am working towards another of my 2012 WIP' goals too.

I didn't really feel the need to purchase the pattern as it was quite easy to see how each block was built. The original Swoon block has flying geese blocks, some rectangles and larger square pieces in it, but I decided to create my Swoon block (shall we call it Giddy? or is that being too cheeky??) from equally sized square units. This way, the entire block can be built from half-triangle-squares (HTS) units and plain units.

Here is a break down of the units that need to be created. I decided to build the block using 3.5" units (3" finished) and the overall block is 24.5" (24" finished). Obviously you could decide to scale down the final block size, reducing the size of the units accordingly.

The HSTs are created in multiples of 4 using this neat technique I read on the Internet...somewhere...sometime.

To create four 3.5" HTSs cut a 6" blocks from each of your two fabrics. Place the fabrics right side together and stitch AROUND the outside of the squares using a 1/4" seam (This is very counter intuitive as you essentially stitch your squares shut with no opening).

Cut your squares into triangles buy slicing diagonally from corner to corner.

Open out the triangles to reveal your 4 HTS's

Press and trim down to 3.5". By cutting the original squares at 6" you have a generous amount of trimming to do. If you don't have heaps of fabric to play with you can reduce the original square to 5.5" but any smaller and you wont be able to trim out a 3.5" HTS. There is probably a formula to work out what size to cut the original squares, but I just played around with scraps until I worked out that the 6" square would yield 4 x 3.5" HTS units.

Once I had cut and stitched and trimmed all my block units I used my graph to start building my 'Giddy' Block.

Here it is all laid out ready to stitch the units together. The final block will be 24.5"- which is the same size as the Swoon block.

I've run out of puff for today, but once the giddy/swoon block is all sewn up I will add some borders and then quilt it as a small baby quilt.

More on flowerburst

2012-01-10T13:47:00.000+08:00

Having finished my January WIP I have decided to make a start on my February WIP. According to the rules, so long as I don't FINISH the WIP until February then it counts as an entry into the final prize draw.

I have sewed all the 3.5" blocks together and if I leave it like this it will be a small quilt, about 20x30". That would make it a cute little bassinet or pram blanket (or humidicrib blanket if I donate it to a children's hospital).

I think, however, I will add a border of half-triangle squares to it. Just to make it slightly larger and I think the border frames and completes the flowers a bit more. What do you think? with the border added it will be ~30x35"

In an effort to completely stash-bust this project I will use this gypsy-esque floral on the back and bind with this yellow fat flat left over from some other project along the way.

Today I drove past Textile Traders on my way to buy some chicken satay sticks Mr Weezee (as you do) and I noticed they (Textile Traders that is) were having one of their "Buy 2 get 1 free" deals. So I popped in and stocked up on homespun for my Hounds tooth and Wonky Pirate quilt (some of my 12WIPSin2012 projects ===> see right).

Matching pillow slip

2012-01-08T14:56:00.004+08:00

When I cut up my fat quarter into charms for the Aqua pop quilt I had little strips left over. A fat quarter happens to be the exact same width as a pillow slip. So I sewed all the left over strips together for simple pillow slip to match the quilt.

I've made this type of pillow slip before using a jelly roll. Two and a half years later they are holding up well.

Stripe Racer and Blah Blah shorts

2012-01-07T20:47:00.001+08:00

My nephew is here on holidays (with his Mum, my sister, and big brother) and yesterday he broke his arm! He has a cast on for the next 6 weeks. Being only little, he is having a some trouble managing his button up shorts and my sister mentioned a shopping trip to purchase some elastic waisted shorts. Well, if you've read this blog for any length of time you will know that I have 'ishews' when it comes to boys shorts in wacky fabrics (ie I cant seem to stop making them)! I immediately dragged wee Timmy to the sewing room and instructed him to pick out some fabric!

He picked out some yellow and white striped canvas (Ikea) and I immediately thought of Dana's Racer shorts tutorial. I've made a pair of denim racer shorts using this tutorial before and George wears them quite a lot. I've always wanted to make some more, but, well George just does not need more shorts!

I used a Kona solid (don't remember the colour name) to make some bias binding in my Simplicity bias tape maker.

I liked the back pockets I added to Georges version of these shorts, so I repeated the detail on this pair.

Timmy also picked out some Blah Blah Blah fabric. I used the same pattern, but left off all the details, including the Bias binding. These only took me about 20 minutes to make!

I thought Tim might get a laugh out of an "ants in your pants" label.

Aqua pop quilt {WIP 1 of 12}

2012-01-07T19:46:00.001+08:00

This quilt is finally done! I've been working on it for a while and joining AJ's 12WIPSin2012 challenge gave me the motivation I needed to finish it off. The quilt (and matching bunting) is my January WIP in the challenge and it feels great to have it finished by the 7th of the month!

For Christmas Matilda asked for a "rainbow rug that is round". As it turns out that was quite a hard shopping challenge, but thanks to Etsy I was able to fulfill her wish. Now that she has her quilt and bunting in place too it feels like her room has had a little makeover.

I've discovered that if I get my girls to stand on the front fence then I can display the quilts nicely for a photograph. But only if its not too windy.

The original plan for the back of this quilt was to use the blue fabric and add in some some scraps from the front for a bit of interest. However Matilda spotted the pink Chinese girl fabric and requested that instead. I now have 5-odd yards of the blue fabric waiting for another project. Fortunately it's unisex and pretty plain!

The quilting has a nice wrinkled look about it.

I chose a free motion fan design- well I say 'fan design' very loosely, as it really is a love heart underneath a rainbow. I have a love hate relationship with the quilting. Basically it looks terrible up close; really messy. It's so messy I cant even call it 'wonky'. It's just a bad quilt job. I think could have done a better job if I had tried this design on a mini-quilt. I found it really difficult to execute this design on a single bed size quilt using a standard sewing machine. I should have stuck with straight line stitching or a meander/stipple.

I tried to be really neat on the dark fabrics as the quilting would really stand out... so I am happy to show you a closeup of the dark fabrics! At the top of the quilt I had about 2 or 3 inches of space left and rather than try and do half 'fans' I wrote Matilda a message into the quilt using free motion stitching. I said something along the lines of "Made for Matilda with love and kisses by her Mum". Does that count as my first ever quilt label?

I also made some bunting for Matilda's room. I used a panel sold by Riley Blake from their 'Delighted' range. The 'Delighted' Bunting panel has the triangle pennants printed directly onto the fabrc, and its a simple case of cutting out the triangles and sewing them up into bunting. I embellished the pennants using ribbons, rosettes and buttons using this tutorial for inspiration.

I intended to string the pennants onto the same fabric that I used to bind the Aqua Pop quilt, but it just didn't look right. Instead I used a black and white stripe from the same fabric range. I like the contrast of the shabby/pretty bunting flags with the sharp black and white stripes.

Matilda is very happy with her new room.

12 WIPS in 2012

2011-12-31T10:14:00.000+08:00

I've decided to join a year long challenge called '12 WIP's in 2012' being organised by AJ at AJ's Antics. The challenge is to complete one WIP per month, blogging about each as I go. Each month, if I complete a WIP, I get one entry to a great give-away being offered at the end of the year. At least half of the WIPs must actually be partially completed projects, but the rest may be fabric stacks or a pattern I've bought with a future quilt in mind.

Here is my list of WIPs. This is not necessarily the order I will complete the projects, and as you can see I have listed 14 projects, just in case I bail on one or two of them I have another couple up my sleeve. I have listed my partially completed projects first, then fabric stacks/patterns.

Aqua pop quilt + matching bunting. This is my current quilt project anyway and I have banned all other sewing projects until this one is done. I'm halfway through the quilting. The flags for the bunting are all done, they just need to be sewn to some fabric binding. I want the binding on the quilt and the bunting to match, but havent picked the quilt binding yet...

Flowerburst- This started out as a fun little diversion. It's only a very small quilt so far and I dont really have the inclination to build it into something bigger. I think I will finish it up as it is and donate to a NICU.

Raggy Circle quilt- need to choose backing/quilt and bind it. Possibly also a donation quilt.

Christmas Table runner. I had so much fabric for the one I made here that I got a second one sandwiched and partially quilted. The quilting needs to be ripped out and redone, the binding finished, and then I'll use it for my own christmas decor or perhaps donate to the end of year 12Win12M prize????

Rainbow Bargello quilt. Remember this one??? This must be my oldest WIP! I have no idea what to do with this really. Would love suggestions! I only have a small amount of the hand died rainbow fabrics- so it would either have to be a doll/art quilt or a small baby quilt . Should I keep building the bargello? Or perhaps some wonky/improv letters on plain homespun and then pull apart the bargello and use it to create a tiled border???? That would combine a few things on my wish list of quilt idea's.

Hexagon quilt I've been working on this slowly and steadily but would like to ramp it up and complete it in 2012. I need to make 7 more paper-pieced hexagon blocks, and then these will get cut down into a square and sashed with a solid grey fabric. Then the top needs to be sandwiched/quilted/bound. I will challenge myself with completing one handstiched hexagon block per month over the first 7 months of the year (that is in addition to the the other quilt WIP going on at the same time). Then I will use the 8th month to finish the top/quilt/bind and that will be the official month the Hexie WIP counts towards the 12Win12M challenge.

Matching Quilted Japanese bolster/cushions for Jills Giant Japanese quilt.

Houndstooth quilt. I have the pattern, I have the love. I even did a test run. I need to start it from scratch in black and white fabric.

Vintage Sheet Charm quilt. I bought a pack of vintage sheet charms on impluse. It should be a quick and easy quilt project.

10.

Denise Schmidt 'Picnic and fairgrounds' fabric I dont love this fabric for myself, but its bright and fresh and will be fun to work with.I have a stack of insteresting quilt tutorials bookmarked for 'one day' so this month might be time to sieze that day. For example D9Px2 tutorial and this D4P tutorial might work for a couple of small quilts I could donate to a hospital NICU.

11.

ISpy quilt for George. I've been collecting fabrics for an Ispy quilt for him for years. It might be time to sew them into a quilt before he gets too old! However, I really want to come up with a design that is a little bit more attractive that sewing a bunch of ugly Ispy charms together. Perhaps a series of log cabins with the charm as the centre square, and using a mixture of bright solids (or scraps?) as the log cabins.

12.

Denim charm quilt. Elizabeth made one with my last stack of 5" denim charms and I REALLY, REALLY love the look of this quilt (wonky sewing and raggy quilting and all). I started collecting more charms (ie slicing up old jeans), this time making the charms bigger, and trying to fussy cut interesting parts of the jeans; zips, pockets, stitching details etc. I plan to make these into a simple patch quilt and back with flannel, no wadding.

13.

Wonky ships or houses quilt. I've put this on in the bakers dozen position because it's really wishful thinking with all the other sewing that's got to get done. I'd love to get through the first 12 quilts and give either a wonky house quilt or a wonky pirate ship quilt a shot.

14.

Chenille quilt using olfa chenille cutter. This should be quick and simple and I can use up some of my ugly fabrics. I think I'll make it lap size and use it on the couch or give it away.

Fabric + Starch + wall = fun

2011-12-30T18:50:00.001+08:00

This is something fun I did at my sisters place over christmas. I have grand idea's for my house with fabric and starch, and decided to do a test run with my sisters kids. Sis picked out some car fabric from Spotlight and I cut out each of the cars and sprayed the back of each one with some 'Crisp' starch spray ($4.50 from the Laundry aisle at Woolworths). Once wet with starch it was a simple matter of placing the pieces on the wall in the desired spot and smoothing out the air bubbles. We decided to run the cars in a row along the top of a window in the kids playroom.

This was so simple to do that soon the kids took over the spraying and sticking part of the process.

Of course being kids they had to have the cars craching didnt they?! They made the cars topple off the edge of the window...

And down the wall

It looks really fantastic for something so simple doesnt it?

We also had some fish fabric and the kids decorated another small section of wall with fish and fabric waves. They didnt have any adult imput with design or placement with this one. I was a bit strict about making sure all those cars lined up in a neat row, so I thought I'd let them do their own thing with the fish.

Stayed tuned for the fabric starch projects we have planned for our house!

Best thing about starched fabric decorating is that when you want to remove the fabric you just peel it right off and there is absolutely no damage to the walls. You might need to wipe down with a wet cloth to remove some dried on starch, but thats it. Perfect for rentals or for people who like to redecorate all the time!

The down side to this type of decal is that it is very easily pulled off, dont put it low if you think toddlers might play with it.

Token christmas post

2011-12-30T18:31:00.002+08:00

Well the Christmas period seems to have slipped by unnoticed on this blog hasn't it? I didn't do much Christmas craft and bought most of my presents this year. To top it off I was away from home over Christmas and didn't really get near a computer. ummm or take many photo's for that matter.

So I will just cover the last week with these 3 I found on my camera. I'm spewing I didn't get a pic of the 4 metre long dining table with my table runner on it.

This is what a pile of wrapped gifts look like when there are 28 people attending your house on Christmas day. They are up on a table because a toddler lives in this house and he wouldn't leave the presents alone.

The kids at the tree desperate to start handing out gifts.

Look Mum no carpet! I know it looks ridiculously consumeristic, but most people unwrapped only a few gifts :)

Baking marathon

2011-12-20T18:38:00.000+08:00

I know I don't normally do food posts... but today Big Sister and I had a mega marathon 5 hour baking session. Little Sister is hosting Christmas this year and has 28 people sitting down to Christmas lunch!!!! Little sister also lives on a farm... so all the guests will staying several days over the Christmas period as it is too far to travel to the farm for just one meal. Being nice sisters we offered to take care of all the morning and afternoon tea's for the 28 diners for the few days around Christmas day.

One of the guests has coeliac disease, so all but one of our baked goodies is gluten free.

1. Mini Christmas puds. We adapted these from an Australian Good Taste recipe (pg 18 December 2011). We used Arnotts Rice biscuits instead of Scotch fingers.

2. Fudge... My sister must make this a lot because she had the recipe in her head.

3. Christmas chequerboard coconut ice. My daughter brought this recipe home from school once day. She hand wrote it out so I cant source if for you. However it's such a classic google will help you find a version.

4. Gluten Free Fruit mince pies. This is a recipe I ripped from a magazine last year- I cant recall the magazine.

5. Chocolate Oatmeal bars. My sister sourced this recipe here. This was the only non-Gluten free recipe we made.

6. Amaretti biscuits. I used a recipe from a book called Biscuit and Slice Bible.

7. Almond clusters. Sister made this up using the melted white chocolate left over from the mini-puddings and some roasted almonds.

8. Rara's cherry bites. A thermomix recipe I sourced from the excellent Forum Thermomix.

9. Cherry ripe slice. I made a double batch of the cherry bite mixture and turned it into a slice. I made a (gluten free) shortbread base using a recipe from the Biscuit and Slice Bible, then added a layer of the cherry mixture and topped it off with a thin layer of dark chocolate.

Quilting the Aqua Pop quilt

2011-12-20T18:03:00.001+08:00

Remember this quilt? I finished the quilt top back in September so I wouldn't be at all surprised if you has forgotten all about it.

I pieced the backing together last weekend (sorry... I meant to show y'all with my last "snapshot Sunday post", except I forgot to do a snapshot Sunday post! The plan was to make the backing out of the a single fabric... the aqua one to the right in the picture above, but Matilda spotted the pick Chinese one and begged to have that one instead. So I combined a bit of both with a strip of green down the middle for good measure.

It took me a long time to decide how to quilt it. I wanted to do some sort of free-motion design but felt the need to broaden my horizons from a simple meander or stipple. I practiced with a 'pebble' effect on some scraps but it was a disaster. Some googling later and I came across this design. I was pretty happy with my free hand wonky version on a scrap sandwich and Matilda also loved it.

Here is it on the quilt...I am about half way done. I am now quilting through the middle section of the quilt its getting really hard to fit the extra quilt under the free arm of the sewing machine.

Tin Whistle December 2011

2011-12-20T17:47:00.001+08:00

I finished off the year with a rush of custom pram liners. All but the bottom two photographs are examples of Baby Jogger City Select pram liners.

Tin Whistle is now on holidays until February 2012. The store is still open, with a limited amount of stock available, but no custom orders are available until the new year.

Kwik Sew 3880

2011-12-11T17:44:00.001+08:00

I tested out another pattern on my new Coverpro machine this weekend. The photo's don't really do the top justice- its sort of a loose fitting, drapey type number. I couldn't really get any good self-portraits either so these will have to do.

For the first attempt I used some Stella knit. The pattern is really simple- just two pieces. There is, however, lots of binding if you go for the version with the shoulder cut outs.

I used some left over white stella for the binding, just so the loopy coverstich wouldn't be so obvious on the inside neck edge. I didn't have a blue thread that matched this stella knit so I decided to make a feature of the white thread (plus it meant I didn't have to re thread the Coverpro).

The pattern didn't call for this but I decided to add some elastic to the side seams. Stella is quite a firm knit and the top was sitting funny- the elastic helps it gather properly. When I hemmed the bottom edge of the shirt with the Coverpro I missed the raw edge of the shirt a couple if times. I was feeling too disheartening to unpick it all and start over, so I flipped the shirt inside out and did a second row of hemming below the first-- making the loopy stitching a detail on the hem.

This is my second version.

I made it in a soft light weight knit- I guess it features charm bracelets? I am not really sure what going on there but its cute!

This time I bound the neck and arm (shoulder?) openings with the same fabric used in the top. I didn't quite have the differential feed set right as the coverstitching has puckered the fabric a bit. I'm hoping a good steam press with the iron will sort it out.

Here is the pattern for those interested. Kwik Sew patterns are really nothing to look at on the packet covers, but they usually turn out really well and can form good staples in your pattern stash.

New toy- Janome Coverpro 1000CPX and polkastripe top

2011-12-09T12:43:00.001+08:00

Ahem... I went and purchased an early Christmas gift yesterday. I've been coveting coverstitch machine for a while, but they really are quite expensive and are a very specific type of machine with one only one real function (that is to hem garments). I have been saving up all my gold coins and small denominations in a big tin in order to justify a purchase 'one day'. When my Dad asked me for some Christmas gift ideas, it occurred to me that me that if I counted up the money in the big tin and he chipped in his little bit I would just have enough to bring this baby home.

There was absolutely no way it was going to get wrapped under the tree for 3 weeks before I could use it. So instead I decided to sewing new garments and wrap those up instead!

The machine came already threaded and after playing around on some scraps I decided to start sewing a t-shirt. I pulled out Ottobre 301 pattern, because I already have this traced out in my size and know it works well for me.

I wanted to get maximum use out of the Coverpro so I came up with this crazy patchwork t-shirt idea. I got out all my small scraps of striped knit fabric and had a play around with the layout. Once I was happy I pieced them together with the overlocker and used the Coverpro to do a decorative coverstitch over each seam.

Once I had pieced together all the bits I cut out the t-shirt pieces and sewed them together as per normal. The coverpro made short work of all the hems. In fact it took me about 2 hours to create the 'patchy fabric' and only about 15 minutes to make the actual t-shirt up!

I have also bought the binder attachment for the Coverpro, but decided not to challenge myself too much the first time (besides its wrapped up under the tree to make myself feel less guilty about not wrapping the machine) and attached the neck binding in a regular way with the overlocker. I did, however, use the Coverpro to topstitch the neck binding.

All up, I'm every so delighted with my new machine and think it will make great friends with my Pfaff sewing machine and Bernina overlocker.

A Traditional christmas runner

2011-12-05T13:54:00.001+08:00

I had the hand sewing left to do on this baby, so last night I popped out to the video store and hired the 1983 classic The Thornbirds to watch while I stitched it down.

The backing was hard to pick because the table runner is a gift for my sister. I kept second guessing myself on what she would go for if she was there with me in the store. There were heaps of really cute and retro Christmas fabrics at Spotlight and Textile Traders, but my sister isn't nearly quite so into the quirk as much as I am. Eventually settled on this gorgeous red/green damask style fabric.

For the quilting I just went for a simple meander using red thread.

I think this would be my favourite of all the fabrics on the quilt top. We tried to pick green/red colour fabrics, but not necessarily Christmas designs.

A closeup of the back.

I love me a striped binding.

tin whistle October/November 2011

2011-12-04T11:44:00.001+08:00

Owing to my other part time job (tin whistle book keeping services :wink:) I have been slow with the pram liners!

I have a couple of orders to finish off and then I will be taking my annual 8 week break over the summer school holidays. The store will still be open with ready made liners for sale- just no customs until school goes back in February.

City Select 2011 liner pair

City Select 2011 liner/blanket set

City Select 2011 liner pair. This customer also ordered some Pram Pockets from Mahogany Turtle in the same fabric. I'll be sure to share some pictures if she shares some with me.

City Mini pram liner

iCandy Pear liner. This is a new design to my range. It will fit either the main seat or the doubles seat.

Snapshot Sunday- binding

2011-12-04T11:28:00.001+08:00

Almost there on the christmas table runner. I've gone for the classic, but fun, striped binding.

PS... in case you are wondering why there is evidence of an overlocker... when I make binding I baste or overlock the raw edge before I sew it down onto the quilt. I find this stops the binding pucker and slide as sew it down.

Snapshot Sunday- busy busy

2011-11-27T15:59:00.001+08:00

I've got the top of my sisters christmas table runner done and had to stop because a trip to Spotlight is required to purchase the backing and binding fabric.

I had enough strips left over to make a second shorter table runner too. She can use one on her table and one on her sideboard, or maybe as a wall hanging.

After finishing up the table runner I started working on this cute 'Delighted' bunting by Riley Blake. The bunting comes printed as triangles straight onto the fabric- and I came accross this video as a quideline to put it together. I thought it would look great in Matilda's room with her Aqua pop quilt. I just have to get around to finishing that quilt too!

After all this I had a little tidy up and noticed that some time over the last couple of weeks one of the squares for this WIP has fallen off my design wall. Unfortuately, I think I may have tidied it right into the rubbish bin. Woops!

Jills Giant Japanese quilt

2011-11-27T15:42:00.001+08:00

I think I have blabbed on enough about this over the last 5 months so I will just post up some pics and type out the barest details.

The quilt is an over-size king. It sweeps the floor on all 3 sides of the bed.

With this nice generous triangle of fabric at the corners.

Here it is draped down my front steps. As you can imagine, a quilt this size is hard to photograph.

I got two of the rugrats to stand on the front fence and hold it up for me, but it was a really windy day and they couldn't hold it up for long.

On my (queen size) bed, showing the reverse side of the quilt.

Showing the binding, a fine grey spot fabric.

Quilt front: Japanese import fabric from Sanshi (now closed down).

Quilt Back: Cotton bed sheet + fabric scraps.

Binding: Grey spot from Spotlight

Finished quilt: 750" x 600" (3.0m x 2.4m)

I did!

2011-11-26T13:22:00.001+08:00

I dont think its quite sunk in yet, but this quilt is finished!!!!!

I'll post some proper pics soon.

I think I can?

2011-11-26T08:37:00.001+08:00

I'm meeting my Dad and Stepmum in a few hours. I'd love to be able to FINALLY present the Giant Japanese Quilt to them. But can I handstitch down 11 metres of binding in 3 hours?

PS....Remeber this dilema... well I ended up wearing the striped halter neck with some white jeans. I had to hold my tummy in all night though! Birthday girl even said she wanted me to make her a top just like mine.

Whip those WIPs

2011-11-17T13:28:00.000+08:00

I've been doing a lot of finishing off this week. I had a big pile of WIP's and it was beginning to clutter up my sewing room a little too much.

Matilda saw this fabric at spotlight about 2 months ago and asked for a simple frilly skirt. I made a matching headband/belt with a left over strip.

I finally finished the last 3 pairs of shorts I started way back here. George requested pockets on these. I normally dont put pockets on little boys clothes. They look gorgeous, and its a great way to add some interesting detail to otherwise plan clothes, but they just bring home so much sand in them! However, the boy requested a spot for his treasures so how could I refuse?! Treasures are so much more important that a bit of sand on the couch right?!

Impluse t-shirt using a mens promotional tee my husband had made for his business. I had the perfect stripe knit to match the logo and used a snippet of green rib at the collar. Now George can be a little Mini-me with is Dad.

I lengthed this singlet, which I blogged about here, by adding in a wedge of contrasting stripe knit.

All I have left in my pile of garment WIP's is this stash of cotton voiles, which is destined to be a made into a another maxiskirt.

Chillout room

2011-11-16T13:52:00.001+08:00

Here is the great unveiling of the new 'chill out' room I've been working on for the last month. I created it in the kids upstairs activity zone which comes right off their bedrooms. Its been empty for the 3 years we've lived in this house because I couldnt work out how I wanted to set up the space. Sometimes I think it's best to just live in a house for a while and let your spaces and styles evolve rather than force it.

The kids were quite involved with this project and I think we have created a fun zone that will suit them right into their teens/adult hood. The colour scheme might seem a bit out there (purple and orange furniture anyone?) but anyone who reads this blog would know that I love bright things, and I dont always go for the expected colour combinations.

Back to the room...for now there is still plenty of storage for toys (on the wall you cant see) but later this can be removed to make way for some study desks/more bookshelves or even a TV if we decide to recind the 'no screens' zoning on this room.

Even though it cost three times as much we decided to put a sofa bed in this room. The kids have sleep overs quite a lot so it made sense to have a bed in the common space right next to their bedrooms.

I hunted around for ages, and decided the sofabeds's at Ikea were the best value for money in my price range. The ones in the same price bracket at stores like Harvey Normans etc were just plain nasty looking. The Ikea ones have removable slipcovers too, which means that I can change over to a more neutral colour if the kids get sick of the lilac cover they picked out!

It feels good to finally have this room done. I am pretty jealous of that comfy couch with all those books to look at. Maybe I willjust sneak up there and snuggle down with a good book when the kids are all at school!

noir et blanc

2011-11-16T12:59:00.001+08:00

I used this pattern to create this cute little halter neck top for the 40th birthday party I mentioned a few days ago here. Can I just say that this photo is very very flattering and the top actually looks pretty awful.

Here is another view, still not too bad. But believe me when I say its way too small in the waist (should have adjusted the pattern). I had to take the back darts out so I could do up the zipper even, and that meant it was a bit gapey in a few other places. By then I'd decided it was a failure anyway, so I haven't bothered to fix it.

As you can see I also made the tragic mistake of running the stripes on the back piece and the peplum (that's the bottom piece on the front of the halter... live and learn hey?!) the wrong way (vertical instead of horizontal).

So have ditched that one- but in the efforts of keeping it real I blogged about it anyway. I have now completed this top for the party. Its a bit boring I suppose, but I'm hoping to jazz it up with some white jeans and some heels etc (I'm so not a dressing up person). I bought the frilly fabric from Spotlight and used Ottobre 303 t-shirt pattern to sew it together.

Snapshot Sunday- Where the kids starve so I can sew

2011-11-13T07:50:00.001+08:00

After a bit of a whinge in the last post about not having time to sew I finally got my sew-jo back on Friday night and have practically spent the entire weekend sewing. When I wasn't sewing I was shopping for online sewing patterns or visiting spotlight or at the very least thinking about sewing!

You've got to love a good stack of finished goodies don't you? I decided it might be cute to hand sew some lolly-bags for Georges birthday party next week. I'm sure plastic ones from the shop work just as well but these sure are cute.

I spotted the fabric for these at Spotlight on Thursday and bought 3 metres of it. Oh it is just so cute and retro and unisex and fun. I might also have popped back to Spotlight on Saturday and picked up a bit extra to stash away. I made these really quickly... just serged them together, slipping in a length of ribbon tie into a side seam as I went. I didn't even hem the openings, I just serged the raw edges. I figured most kids will eventually chuck them away so I wasn't going to waste time on them when I had other projects to move onto!

Next up was my sisters table runner. I have promised her one for her 3.5m long (yep that's right... 3.5m long) dining table. It is made of solid jarrah and is stunning. However, I digress. I promised a table runner as part of her Christmas table decor and we picked out the fabrics yonks ago as FQ's and quarter yard cuts. Most are from Spotlight, but I also slipped in a few from my stash that she doesn't know about. Tee he he he.

I'm just doing a simple strip runner. I cut the strips 3.5" wide (by 21" FQ length) and I'm joining them completely randomly. I loved the look of them all piling up at the back of the machine as I chain pieced them so I snapped this pic. Hopefully I'll get more sewing time today (Sunday) and may even try to get the top finished... all 3.5m of it!

Lastly I started work on a new top. I'm off to a 40th party next week which has a black and white theme. I thought it might be fun to make a crazy B/W top and I found this down loadable vintage pattern on Etsy. After a quick trip to Spotlight for some B/W striped fabric I've almost got this top complete. I have an awful feeling that my waist is not as slim as it should be (thats a euphism for me saying that I didnt check and adjust the pattern before I started sewing!)and that overall this top is going to look a bit dowdy and dated (rather than cute and retro). Luckily, I also picked up some B/W frilly knit fabric, just in case.... so I have a PLAN B. I also have plan C... which is to wear something boring and black from my existing wardrobe!

Sewing funk so here is my office/internet space instead!

2011-11-11T15:40:00.001+08:00

I'm in a bit of a sewing funk right now. Not for a want of desire, but I just seem to be stupidly busy. There is lots of P&C stuff going on at school (I am the secretary), plus I am still trying to get up to speed on my book keeping. Plus, its just getting closer to Christmas and the social events are on the rise.

We've also been doing a lot of organising and reorganising at home- which has eaten into my regular weekend sewing times. We've finally picked some couches for our formal lounge room (OMG they are so cool... pics, of course, then they arrive. Then there is the Chill out zone that I am slowly creating in the old upstairs playroom.

In addition, over the last few months I've slowly been fitting out a communal study area in what would have been the original 'formal dining' room in the house. And that is the topic of todays post. You know in old houses where a renovation/addition occurs somewhere along the line and a room ends up gets locked in with no external windows? Well that is the formal dining room in this house. It is really just a glorified hallway, as it has 3 doorways coming off it and the only window (that would have looked over the side yard once upon a time) now has frosted glass and looks onto the hallway that connects to the garage.

Some time ago we decided it would make a good study space/Internet space as it is central to all the living area's/kitchen but can be shut off with glass doors if some quiet is needed. The only problem is that because it is so open to the rest of the house it needed attractive furniture and plenty of storage so it could stay clean and tidy at all times. I really didn't want it to look like an 'office' either, so I decided to stick with darker timber traditional furniture to suit the art deco style of the house. The big long work area in the above two pictures is my work space, with extra space to the side if any of the kids need to use the Internet or do homework. I picked two smaller dining tables rather than going for a proper desk. The chairs are from our old dining setting (the dining table is currently in my sewing room being used as a cutting table). The above view is looking from our formal lounge onto the main work area and the picture below is from the same vantage point but showing the other half of the room.

The doorway on the right leads to the kitchen and the doorway you see off the the left leads to the main living area. I wasn't joking when I said this room really is right in the centre of the house! You walk through it to get from the front door to the kitchen/living area.

Here is my main work area. I've tried to keep the stuff on the desk top to a minimum with some quirky extras. The vase contains Georges 'stick' collection (its a work in progress as he regularly adds and removes sticks depending on wand/gun/fishing rod etc requirements of the moment) and the candle stick was bought at a metal market in Eritrea about 12 years ago. On the window sill I have a collection of knicky-knacky-noo's (lego creations, little ornaments etc). Everything else is just functional office type stuff and I try and keep most of it out of sight in my new drawers.

It has taken me AGES (think 6 months!) to find a set of drawers that will fit under the desk. I really didn't want anything in white melamine or with a filing drawer and struggled to find something short enough to slide under the desk. Eventually I found this Hemnes bedside table at Ikea and put it together without its top so it fit under the desk!

The bookshelf was another item that took a while to find. Again I needed something that had to fit a non-standard sized space, plus it couldn't be melamine/white/office-y. I also wanted it to have filing drawers if possible (so I didn't have to resort to using more under desk space). I haven't quite got enough stuff to fill the shelves yet, but better to have too much storage than not enough, right?!

This view is from the kitchen doorway showing the piano, a recent addition to the room. Ummm I mean we've had the piano for ages... but we only recently decided to move it to this room.

On the top of the piano I have my table runner than I made for Christmas day last year. See I have managed to sneak some craft into the post!

Elizabeth's gets enough homework to need her own space so we bought this desk and popped it in the last corner of the communal study area. She likes being in this room to do homework as she is still 'with' the family but isn't being distracted by the TV or general shenanigans going on in either of the living area's.

So that's it! I finally feel like this room is complete and I have a nice space to do paperwork.

Snapshot Sunday- Tied up in knots

2011-11-06T14:32:00.001+08:00

Here is a post about the completed quilt top for this project and there is a little summary about the drama's I've had with this quilt in this post. In the 3 weeks since my last post on this quilt I've finished piecing the backing fabric, pieced together the wadding (yes that's right... this darn quilt is so big I had to add a strip of wadding down the edge of the Matilda's Own 2.4m wide wadding!), rearranged my entire living room so I had enough space to layer the quilt together, pinned it all and now I am finally knotting it. YAY!

So this is what a giant quilt sandwhich looks like all folded up for portability (snort). Its bloody huge to work with! You can see the backing fabric nicely here- its a lilac bed sheet (two singles joined because even the king size flat sheet wasn't big enough!) with a row of left over fabrics from the quilt top sewn in.

If I didn't need any other motivation to get it done, the fact that the hot weather is nigh upon us is enough! It gets very hot with this all tucked around me while I knot away.

And here is one of the knots. I have completed about half of the required knots and that's taken only a couple of hours. One more session in front of the TV with a good movie and I'll be ready to move onto the binding! I chose to use purple embroidery cotton for the knotting. Black would have been a more obvious choice, but I didn't want to have little specks of black all though the purple backing fabric. So I picked the cotton thread to match the back and it blends in nicely on the front.

{Blogtoberfest day 31} trick or treat and that's a wrap

2011-10-31T20:42:00.003+08:00

Well, yep I succumbed. For a few years the kids have been asking to go Trick or treating. Usually they ask on the 30th or 31st and I put them off by explaining that in order to pay proper homage to the tradition they really ought to put some effort into their costume not just chuck something on 1 hour before blah blah blah.

It's me... George.

This year Elizabeth called my bluff. She went on a sleep over with a friend, took some of her pocket money and spent a considerable amount of it on a Halloween costume!

Hovering about waiting for the fun to start.

So of course I had to hold up my end of the bargain and take them out. You see here in Australia, Halloween isn't celebrated. In fact, in some circles, there is quite an aversion to the tradition, with claims that its 'too American', 'too commercialised' and even 'hypocritical' because it teaches kids to take lollies (or should that be 'candy') from strangers.

Wahhhhhh whats that?!

I must admit to being a bit of a fence sitter about it all. Halloween isn't something that I'm hugely interested about participating in, but at the same time I usually have some lollies around on Halloween and some sort of sign up to say we are 'trick or treat friendly'. This year it was a spider and web stuck to our front fence.

George saying hi to a couple of school buddies

After talking to a few neighbours I discovered that a few households were going to go out trick or treating, so we decided to join in, simply visiting all the people we knew on the block.

Matilda, I mean Harry Potter, was out at swimming lessons and by the time she arrived home and jumped into her costume it was dark. We only managed this quick photo AFTER we got home from our neighbourhood walk.

At least we have all our costumes for next year!

So that's a wrap on Blogtoberfest. I've tried hard to stick with a craft theme, with only a smattering of kid/life stuff and no resorting to food posts (LOL not that I have anything against food blogs, I follow a couple, it's just not why people visit this blog). I hope I've kept it interesting for you! At the beginning of the month I drew up a list of potential posts and that worked well until about day 25. For about a week towards the end I knew I was going to be really busy and spent the weekend before writing up 5 posts in Blogger, saving them in draft form and posting one each day until things had settled down again. I certainly have become more familiar with the features and functions of Blogger and think I can create snazzier posts now (note font change and use of different font sizes. pretty swish hey?)

I would never be able to keep up a 'once post a day' pace, but I'd like to think that Blogtoberfest has inspired me to post a little bit more often than once a week. We'll see.

{Blogtoberfest day 30} Snapshot Sunday- Flowerburst

2011-10-30T20:20:00.000+08:00

I spent most of today working on something new. Yup naughty me, I have a king size quilt to finish, and Matilda's quilt is languishing as well. There is also a table runner I promised my sister. Not to mention half a dozen garments in various stages of completion. In fact on day 6 of the Fest I blogged all about my WIPs. Oh well. Sometimes you just have to follow inspiration when it hits. Right?

It started with this blog post. I've had a little bit of a thing for wonky/liberated/maverick stars ever since I participated in the bushfire quilt project. This one tickled my fancy in particular because the stars are tightly interlaced- it uses the same pattern arrangement as the plus/cross quilt top I just completed. I saw a similar interlaced maverick star quilt top like this, a few months ago but I donut remember where (it would be funny if it was on the same blog!).

image source

So last night I'm admiring the above quilt when all of a sudden all I can see is the negative space between the stars. In stead of stars I can see four-petaled flowers. Like these....

The maverick starts are still there, see? But now they are the negative space and the flower design bursts out at you (hence my name for the quilt... Flowerburst)

Here was the sketch I drew up this morning so make sure I had the block placement right in my head.

And here it is in fabric. I stash busted this one, using a Kona solid for the background (or should I say for the maverick stars?!). The flowers germinated from my scrap bin. ha ha. I can see so many versions of this design... with the flowers in solids, or white maverick starts with scrappy flowers, vintage flower fabrics on pale green maverick starts.

I was able to test out my new design wall while putting this quilt top together and it didn't let me down.

I am not sure where I am going to head with this quilt. As I said, I've already thought up some new variations. I may just finish this one off and gift it as a bassinet/pram blanket. Elizabeth hinted that she quite liked it, so maybe I will add a series of borders to make it larger and give it to her. The yellow is a bit 'out there' so if I go the latter route I am not really sure which colour direction I should take the borders.

What ever the eventual fate of the quilt it was really nice to scratch that itch!

When I recover from blogtoberfest I will do up a little mini-tutorial about putting together a flowerburst quilt top.

{Blogtoberfest day 29} Friendship bracelets

2011-10-29T06:00:00.000+08:00

I think I might have started a craze. I showed the girls how to do these last weekend and now the kids at school are doing them too. The concept has really tickled Elizabeths fancy and she is up to her 4th one!

We borrowed a book from the library, but there are literally hundreds of online tutorials and short films on youtube. Here is a good basic tutorial one to get you started.

{Blogtoberfest day 28} Bloggers quilt festival- a squishy quilt

2011-10-28T17:37:00.003+08:00

Wow I am combining two bloggy activities on the one post. For those who have arrived via the Bloggers Quilt Festival WELCOME!! This month I am also participating in Blogtoberfest hosted by Tinniegirl. The 'fest' is where I celebrate my blog by posting everyday in October. For a girl that normally only posts one or two times a week it has been quite a challenge to organise 31 consecutive posts!

Anyway onto my quilt. This quilt was made earlier this year and has the dubious honour of being the quickest quilt I've ever made. I took me 3 days. For reference, I am 5 months into my most current quilt project (and still have the quilting and binding to go). So yep, normally I like to take my time when I 'birth' a quilt.

This is my Innocent crush 'squishy' quilt. My son calls it the 'warmy' quilt. Its made of cotton velveteen, hence the references to squishiness and warmth.

The fabric line is by Anna Marie Horner and it's part of her Innocent Crush range. Some of these fabrics were released as Velveteens and I purchased a fat quarter pack to create this quilt.

As you can see its very simple in its layout. I simply cut 9" squares and joined them in a random arrangement (but taking care to get an even scatter of colours). The most difficult part of sewing the quilt top was making sure the pile in each square ran in the same direction.

This photo is of my son cuddling under the quilt soon after I made it. It nicely shows off the backing fabric, which is a regular cotton from the Innocent crush range. I quilted it with straight lines about a 1/4" each side of the block seams. The binding is a stripe from the innocent crush range.

I took the Squishy quilt out of the linen cupboard this morning in preparation for an up to date photo shoot for this post, but discovered this when I was finally ready with the camera. Awwwwwwww.

And see that small quilt under his chin (in both photo's)? That is his 'ruggy', a quilt I made for him in 2007. It was the subject of my 2009 Bloggers Quilt Festival Post.

Edited to add in: Thanks for all your wonderful comments. They have really made my day. There have been a couple of questions about what its like to sew with velveteen. I found it pretty straightforward to sew with- but I did purposefully stick with a simple layout so it wouldn't take too long to build the top. When you put two pieces of velveteen right sides together they want to slide off each other, but the pins and a little more care taken solves any issues. In fact a friend of mine, who had never quilted before (but is an excellent seamstress) made herself the exact same quilt after she saw photo's of mine on this blog. So it's definitely something a beginner could do.

{Blogtoberfest day 27} Nanoblocks

2011-10-27T06:00:00.001+08:00

Check out this cute tiny version of lego. They are called Nanoblocks. Here is the Australian distributer, although I am sure you might find kits cheaper on Amazon or even Ebay.

I found them in Singapore and bought some of the smaller kits for around Au$10. Elizabeth loves Lego so on the weekend I gave her one of the Nanoblock kit because I thought it might make a good blogtoberfest post!

It took Elizabeth about half an hour to put the giraffe together.

There were quite a few pieces left over, which lends itself to making alternate versions of things. The instructions only come with one version but I found this a nanoblock enthusiast who has come up with other design and posted instructions on his blog.

{Blogtoberfest day 26} Goop

2011-10-26T06:00:00.000+08:00

What school holidays are complete without a session of 'goop'.

There are heaps of recipes and tutorials on the internet- but the gist of it is that you take several packets of regular old cornflour and slowly add water until you get a nice goopy consistancy.

I suggested my kids add some food colouring, and the dopes just added a bit of each colour and ended up with this pukey gray colour.

George hates mess and refused to participate. Here is is looking on dubiously.

{Blogtoberfest day 25} Picture wall

2011-10-25T06:00:00.000+08:00

When we first moved into this house we had an unusual family photo shoot done in the pool. Actually in the pool and the photographer had a waterproof housing on her camera.

We picked out a whole heap of photographs and created this mural in our living area.

Arlene Bax did the shoot, she is a gorgeous and talented photographer if you're in Perth and looking for someone to do a shoot.

I picked out a larger photo of each child, which you can see below) and then picked out a series of smaller ones as well.

Ethereal Elizabeth

Happy George

Playful Matilda

I am embarrassed to say that it took about 3 years to actually get around to selecting the prints and framing them. By then we had bought the large fish print, and the space next to it was screaming out for something, so we decided to create the large mural from several photographs from Arlene's shoot. Arlene was fabulous and helped me pick out the prints and even printed them out the correct size for the Ribba range of picture frames from Ikea. I used Command removable hooks and velcro tape to fix the frames to the wall. I had to use a random and asymmetrical approach to placing the framed photographs on the wall. There is no way I could have got those lined up perfectly so I didn't even try.

{Blogtoberfest day 24} Homework

2011-10-24T06:00:00.000+08:00

Oh man... I have so much data entry to do for homework! David decided that with me starting as a completely novice book keeper he may as well swap over to a new book keeping system. So I have to enter alot of old paperwork onto the system. At least I am getting very familiar with the accounting software!

{Blogtoberfest day 23} Snapshot Sunday- Merino knit

2011-10-23T14:04:00.001+08:00

Another trusty old Ottobre 303 t-shirt. This time I have used a lovely soft merino knit that I found at Spotlight last week. Is a really light-weight two-way stretch knit, and while the colour was described as black, I'd call it more of a charcoal.

I cut the neck slightly deeper than the pattern and bound the edges using more of the merino knit. I used a rolled hem on the sleeves.

At the waistband I added a 5" wide band of the merino knit. The t-shirt is now quite long, but I just let if gather at the waist.

Today I popped out to a farmers market at a local high school. I found it last week by accident and bought some great Romanian mushroom relish. I popped back today to buy some more, but sadly that stall holder wasnt there. I did pick up thse cute multicoloured carrots instead.

{Blogtoberfest day 22} A quilt or two cures all evil

2011-10-22T17:28:00.000+08:00

Remember this post from the other day; where I mentioned that the bookshelves got moved to a new space in the house? Well this is the new space. I'm morphing it into comfy and quiet reading room or chill-out zone. Its strictly a book/board game/old fashioned play area. No 'screens' allowed.

The makeover is going well; books are in place, couch picked out, toys/board games sorted and tidied. Its just that big ole ugly attic door that is causing me some irritation. Its sticks out like a sore thumb! I couldn't cover it with furniture and didn't really want to do anything too drastic and permanent. So I went to Ikea and picked up a Dignitet and strung it across the top of the wall. Ahhh, nothing like some quilts on display to warm the heart. They are easy to take down and swap the look over/wash when needed.

Be gone nasty old door.

PS... I've put the Dignitet to good use before here, and 2 years later its still looking good. I haven't lost a kids party invite or school notice since and its always full of gorgeous kindy artwork :)

{Blogtoberfest day 21} Dominoes

2011-10-21T13:52:00.000+08:00

When you are the youngest in the family its hard to be good at anything. There just always seems to be someone older that you who has mastered it before, probably before you even came along!

However, in this house, George is the undisputed champion at dominoes. Who knows whether its just dumb luck, sheer volume of games, or whether he has managed to work out some crafty strategies, but he almost always wins.

Its great to be the best at something!

PS... We play regular dominoes and also a slightly trickier version called Bendominoes, which is pictured above. He wins at both.

PPS... He normally shuns anything remotely girly, but for some reason accepts this hand-me-down pink dressing gown as perfectly acceptable.

{Blogtoberfest day 20} Design wall

2011-10-20T08:07:00.000+08:00

You know one of the unexpected pleasures of my kids getting a bit older. I get to instill in them my crazy need to constantly rearrange furniture!

I am not sure if you've noticed this, but in my house I tend to not fix things to walls. I don't like putting shelves up and try and hang pictures in a way that doesn't damage walls (love pictures rails for this reason). I also tend to avoid very room specific pieces of furniture or decoration. Why? Because I am always rearranging furniture and swapping rooms about.

As much as I love looking at design blogs that feature cute little corners and spaces with all sorts of wonderful bric-a-brac stuck up on the walls I just know it wouldn't work in my house because 6 months later I would be sick of it and want that little space gone!

The kids seem to have inherited my crazy love. And, well being spring and all, we impulsively decided one day in the holidays that we had to move the books/bookshelves from my sewing room to another space in the house. Another great thing about your kids getting older is that they are capable of doing some of the dirty work for you!

So with the shelves gone, my sewing room was looking suddenly bare and even echoed a bit. I thought a nice large design wall would fit the space perfectly. I acquired a 2.4m square piece of wadding and framed it with some polkadot fabric. There wasn't any reason to do that except that I wanted it to look like a giant picture on the wall, not a piece of wadding hanging off the picture rails.

I made an open-ended casing out of the polkadot fabric at the top and bottom of the frame and stitched 6 small loops of ribbon evenly across the top casing. To hang I inserted a 2.4m long piece of timber into each casing. The top piece of timber allows the wadding to hang straight, and the bottom piece of timber weighs it down and stops it flapping about in the breeze. I got the timber as a precut from a hardware store, about $3 each, and I picked that size because it (1) would fit in my car (2) was the rough size of the piece of wadding. I am lucky enough to have picture rails in my sewing room, so I used picture rail hooks to hang the design wall, hooking the ribbon loops over the picture rail hooks.

I miss the atmosphere that the books provided, but they look great in their new space.

The design wall will be much more useful in the sewing room than a stack of books!

{Blogtoberfest day 19} Tin whistle back in action.

2011-10-19T14:50:00.002+08:00

Tin whistle is now back in action after a 3 week holiday. I thought I might do a detailed post about my business. What I sell and where you can buy them.

I make and sell pram accessories. I used to also make and sell kids clothes, but for the moment its just the pram accessories.

I started making pram accessories out of need... I wanted something comfy and practical for my little guy to sit on in his pram. The idea of selling them grew from there. I am based entirely on line and have a little store here. Customers visit the store, where I carry a small amount of ready-to-post pram liners. If they want something custom made then can also purchase 'custom order' slot through the store. We correspond about fabric choices and pram liner styles and I complete the order in 2-4 weeks.

My pram liners cost $49 each, postage extra. I am happy to ship internationally.

I make liners that fit the Baby Jogger City Select pram (above).

All tin whistle liners are reversible and in the above photo I made a matched set of owl/polkadot liners and the customer has photographed the liners in the pram with each fabric on display. I make matched liner sets for $94, which represents a $2 discount off each liner.

I also have recently added a quilted bassinet sheet, designed to fit the City Select bassinet mattress (above). These are also reversible.

The quilted bassinet sheets are $35 each.

I recently decided to design a pram liner specifically for the Baby Jogger City mini pram. This liner is also $49. It has stay up loops so that it cannot slide out of the pram and I have added special slots so that the fold strap can be fed through the liner.

That covers the specific pram liners, but I also make a Universal pram liner that fits many makes and models. This liner is also $49. In the above photograph you can see it modelled in a Bugaboo Bee (it also fits the newer Bee+).

Here it is in a Mountain Buggy Urban. It fits all Mountain buggy prams.

In a Bugaboo Cameleon.

I don't have photographs, but it also fits in the Steelcraft Strider, Quinny Zapp and Buzz and many umbrella fold strollers.

The final accessory I make is a Stowable blanket. This item must be bought as an optioan extra with a tin whistle pram liner, and as a set costs $94. It can be be bought as an accessory to either the universal, City Mini or City Select pram liner.

The blanket generously covers the child, and can fold down into a built in pocket at the base of the liner. When the blanket is in use the pocket serves as a cosy footwell for the child, and when folded away the blanket is unobtrusive and out of the way.

The blanket snaps onto the bottom of the liner so it cannot be lost.

{Blogtoberfest day 18} Number crunching

2011-10-18T09:38:00.002+08:00

Today the kids go back to school and I am starting my new 'job'. Its nothing hugely exciting, but I am looking forward to the change. I will be doing some book keeping for Davids business while is regular book keeper/PA is on maternity leave. Only problem is that I have absolutely NO experience with book keeping. I have a book keeping 'teacher' about to arrive so I can learn what to do! I expect that my new job will take about 5-10 hours a week of my time- although the accountant thinks that there is probably ebnough work for a full time book keeper! I'll just start with the basics and add more tasks in if it is managable. I'm not sure where I am going to fit tin whistle sewing (let alone my personal sewing) in amongst all that. Its going to be a hectic term!

{Blogtoberfest day 17} Fail quilts

2011-10-17T07:45:00.001+08:00

What do you do with quilts that you have made in the past and no longer like?

Here is my little stack of 'fail quilts'.

The top one is A dinosaur raggy cot quilt that I finished in November 2007. Back then I loved it, but I haven't really used it since George went into a big bed in early 2010. The thing that most annoys me is that the seams haven't ragged up properly. George still likes this quilt and asks for it occasionally so I guess it can stay around for a while longer.

The second quilt down is Matilda's electric guitar quilt which was (reluctantly) made in August 2007. Even at the time I admitted to it being the worlds ugliest quilt! Its also a weird size- too small for a bed quilt and way too ugly to go on the couch as a lap quilt. It has such a funny story behind it though, and those fabrics are still very 'Matilda' so I think it will have to stay.

The quilt that is second from the bottom is a scrappy diamond quilt I made for Matilda in July 2009. I didn't like it back then and positively hate it now. At the very best this quilt is going to go into the 'cubbyhouse building/dog bed/picnics in the middle of the bush' pile but I am slowly working up the courage to actually get rid of it all together. Even though I hate it, its hard to actually chuck something away that you spent ages of time making!

The last quilt is my Boring beige quilt. This was only the 4th quilt I ever made.Since I only learnt to quilt when I was heavily pregnant with George and I recall sewing during really hot weather and also being very tired so I think it would have been around Feb/March 2007 when George was a little baby. That's kind of impressive really! I still chuckle at myself for spending $500 on a beige quilt, but I was right- its quite useful BECAUSE its so plain. This one can stay because she is so plain and goes with anything.

{Blogtoberfest day 16} Snapshot Sunday- quilt back

2011-10-16T13:30:00.001+08:00

I feel like I am on the home run with this quilt.

During the week Jill and I went to pick out some bed sheeting to use as the quilt back. I thought we'd end up with something fairly neutral, like black or grey, but we both ended up loving this lilac colour. There is just enough purple in the main quilt fabrics to have them pop out a bit and create a totally different feel to the fabrics. I have spent part of my Sunday piecing together the left over strips from the quilt top and I am going to insert it as a horizontal row in the lower portion of the quilt back. If it all goes according to plan this row should cover the foot of the bed and look somewhat like a bed runner.

{Blogtoberfest day 15) More teddy clothes

2011-10-15T18:07:00.001+08:00

We've made some more clothes for the teddy bears. This time I drafted a very simple knit t-shirt- I wanted something they could sew without any help from me. Well apart from general supervision anyway. So I struck upon the idea of using thrifted t-shirts so they wouldn't have to hem anything. The next dilemma was working out a simple way to finish off the neck. I decided that an envelope neck would be best as the kids could finish the neck edge before they started on the garment seams. As you can see we went really basic and just over locked the neck edges! It hides under teddy's chin so you cant see the edging anyway.

{Blogtoberfest day 14} Where I pay homage to a global giant

2011-10-14T15:30:00.000+08:00

My sister and I planned a trip to idea because we wanted to do this.

We spent about 2 hours wandering around the store marvelling over things named 'Throg' or 'Vahla'. Things that until moments before we never knew existed, but knew hence forth we just couldnt live without.

Ummmm those magnetic strips are in here somewhere....

Lucky for us we had hired a baby sitter and taken all the car seats out of the car... just in case.

{Blogtoberfest Day 13} When I sew

2011-10-13T15:19:00.000+08:00

I share my sewing room this this cute little guy. My mum knitted him a long time ago. Isn't he gorgeous?

I thought that today I would discuss my sewing routine. Often I read discussions online about when and how to fit sewing in around kids. Sewing is a pretty selfish hobby.

"Huh?" I hear you say. I get that most of the time sewists are usually creating something to give away to somebody else (kids, the house, as presents etc). I mean selfish in the sense that when you sew you need to concentrate only on that task. For example you cant sew and, play dominoes with a child. In fact, when you are sewing its best if children are no where to be seen. All those pins, and scissors and needles. Not to mention sticky fingers leaving marks on expensive fabric!

So when you have kids, its actually pretty hard to find a period of child free time, where you are also in a state of mind where you feel like concentrating on something. For a long time when my kids were little, I would put nap times to good use. I would plan out several projects and then spend one nap time cutting out all the fabric. Once a project is cut out I could usually manage to sew it up in the next available nap time. This method also works well if you don't have a dedicated sewing area an have to pack up every time you finish that session of sewing. Fortunately, I have my very own spacious sewing room and can just walk out and shut the door when I am finished for the day.

Once my tin whistle business came along I had to start sewing in the evenings. George was only 18 months old and nap time wasn't nearly enough sewing time for the amount of business I was getting. I cant say I really enjoyed sewing in the evenings. I found it harder to concentrate because of tiredness, and the lighting wasn't very good, but most of all I just found myself staying up really late finishing things off while I had the chance. !

The night/nap time sewing routine lasted until about 18 months ago, and then George started going to kindy 2 days a week. From that time on I became quite strict about using his school time as my work time (tin whistle). It works out to be around 10 hours a week that I have to solidly sew- and boy do I use it! I also use those hours to visit fabric stores child-free if I needed to. This year we added in a 3rd day of kindy, but only on alternate weeks. So now I get to sew every second Wednesday as well.

This is only for 'tin whistle' work sewing mind you. All my personal projects (clothes, quilts etc) get squeezed in at other times. Usually I get to spend half a day on the weekend to myself and so I disappear into the sewing room to work on a quilt or some clothes.

Next year it will all change again, as George will go to school full time. I imagine I will keep tin whistle sewing about the same (2 school days a week) and then have one day to do my own personal sewing. However, I have also just started a book keeping job (for my husbands business) and I am not sure how many hours/days a week that will take up.

{Blogtoberfest day 12} Swamp mud

2011-10-12T19:00:00.000+08:00

Yep... I've finally got to the point where I'm posting about food! And its food prepared using a dreaded thermomix, no less. I wont wax lyrical about mine, because quite frankly there are enough blogs, forums, review sites etc that sing their praises. Lets just say that I've had mine for 4 years and it is a well used work horse in my house. If mine broke tomorrow I'd go straight out and buy another one.

This week I have made (amongst other things) Swamp mud in my Thermomix. Swamp mud is my affectionate term for the vegetable stock concentrate (from the Everday Cookbook). I highly recomend Swamp mud as an alternative to store bought stock powders or liquids. Swamp mud is a nice subtle vegetable flavour with a nice tang of salt. When making up my Swamp mud I use half the salt recomended in the recipe. The more salt you add the longer the stock will last before going off, which is great if you need a shelf life of 6 months. But mine is generally used up within 3 months, so I halve the salt to get more of the vegetable flavour coming through.

The recipe doesnt really stipulate what ratio to dilute the swamp mud in water. I guess its a matter of taste, but I tend to use about 1 tablespoon per cup of water. That is for the salt-reduced version, if you choose to use the full-salt version you may only want to put 1 tablespoon per half litre.

{Blogtoberfest day 11} Vinyl

2011-10-11T16:17:00.003+08:00

For Davids birthday (today!) we bought him a compact turntable with built in speakers and then dragged out is dusty and forgotten collection of LP's. I thought he would like to go back down memory lane and play some of his favourite records from the 70's and 80's but its the KIDS who have had the most fun! They really dig the big plastic records, and I think just marvel at the pernickityness of it all; getting that needle just in the right place, not being able to 'skip' to the next song, that there is an 'A' side and a 'b' side! George especially loves the 'chipmunk switch'.

For the record... I am old enough to to play and dance along to Mum and Dads records, but never actually owned any. By the time I was old enough to get into music it was casette tapes all the way :)

Tin whistle Sept 2011

2011-10-10T16:44:00.001+08:00

September was a huge big month for tin whistle. I made lots and lots of pram liners. I've also just added a liner for the Babyjogger City Mini to my range and have been gettign heaps of requests for them.

Pirate universal liners. I made two of these for seperate cusomters.

Reverse side; jungle animals

New City Mini liner (you can tell because there are slots in the seat area for the fold strap)

Reverse of the above liner

A universal liner. I have decided to update the shape of the universal liner and part way through the month I officially made the change. The dimensions are still the same I jsut added a couple of inches of length to the footwell and 'rounded' off the edges a bit more.

Reverse of the above liner. Both these great fabrics are Spotlight finds. In the dressmaking section not the quilting section.

Another City Min liner

And now we move on to the liner/stowable blanket sets. This one is for a City Select. The stowable liner can be matched with any of my pram liners shapes.

I think this might be for a City Mini. Shucks I just cant remember!

I also had a couple of requests for some girls pinny's. This is a one-off custom order.

And a fully lined daisy version

And lets finish off with some dungarees!

{Blogtoberfest day 10} Smoko

2011-10-10T14:39:00.000+08:00

During the holidays, and on weekends, the kids and I religiously sit down for morning and afternoon tea. I have this cute little Tupperware server thingo which is the perfect size for snacks. I fill each one up with something different and then we all sit down for 15 minutes and have a chat. This day we had crackers and cheese, strawberry and pineapple pieces and some little face biscuits the kids had made earlier in the day.

Here are the kids making the face biscuits => milk arrowroot biscuit, spread with icing and lollies on top.

{Blogtoberfest day 9} Snapshot sunday- Finished... again

2011-10-09T18:38:00.001+08:00

Today I was head down, tails up working on Jill's giant Japanese quilt. I worked diligently in several 1 hour stretches and before I knew it I had finished the quilt top. Above is a picture of me stitching up the very last seam. Being a generous king size quilt (120" x 100") it was quite a job to wrestle it around the sewing machine.

Bunched up on the ironing board while I pressed the final seam.

I had a bit of a job trying to photograph it. First I tried the front steps, but it kept sliding down.

Then I tried the front gate, but it was too windy.

Finally I just jumped in the car and raced over to Dad and Jill's place and tried it out on their bed.

It feels fantastic to have got this quilt top together finally (and for the second time!). Next week Jill and I will go shopping for backing fabric. We are going to go the king size flat bed sheet route, just to make things nice and simple.

{Blogtoberfest day 8} Henna

2011-10-08T11:30:00.000+08:00

One of the things we did in Singapore was to go to the Little India district. They had a big street bazaar running and we stumbled across a lady doing henna tattoo's (We got chatting and turns out Beyonce had her henna done by this lady during a world tour during 2008?).

Matilda was the first to have a go. Here she is having the henna paste put on her hand. The henna lady was doing a free hand design.

George was next and he asked for a elephant. Elizabeth is watching.

And now here is Elizabeth, also getting a free hand design.

Here are Matilda, Elizabeth and I showing off out henna designs. The pasta dries on and after an hour or so you let it flake off and you are left with a brown stain on your skin.

Georges elephant design.

This is the next day after all the henna paste has been washed off. The design had a yellow brown colouring to it.

By the next day, the colour had developed even more and took on a rich red-brown tone.

This was my hand about 6 days after the henna had been applied. The lady had said it would last about a week, up to two weeks if you were able to avoid washing your hand.

The henna lady also sold us our own little supply of Henna (in the blue cone) so before the designs had disappeared completely I went over them again with the new henna.

This time George asked for a frowning man with a beard. Weird kid!

Henna is purely a decoration and has no religiouss purpose. It commonly is worn during Indian weddings, by both men and women (but more often women).

{Blogtoberfest day 7} First swim of the (barely there) summer

2011-10-07T13:29:00.001+08:00

Technically it's still spring, but I had the pool cover off to see the state of the pool after winter and the kids thought it was warm enough to swim.

Oh oh look at my skinny white arse! I've just lost 8kg and that photo makes me feel great! (Elizabeth snapped the pic).

George has only *just* learnt how to swim and was feeling a bit nervous because the pool was so cold!

Check out those Kangaroo paws in the garden behind George! those flower spikes are about 1-1.5m tall!

Matilda is a FISH. She loves water and is a really good swimmer. She lasted the longest in the pool today.

{Blogtoberfest day 6} WIP stocktake

2011-10-06T14:33:00.000+08:00

Good afternoon! Today I thought I would do a little visual stock take of all my current Work's in progress. All but one are quilt projects. Most of these are current and out in my sewing room in little piles. One has been put away with no definite finish time. The last few projects are still in their infancy, which means I have an idea in my head an I am slowly collecting fabric for them or waiting for one of my other projects to be completed before I will allow myself to start them.

First up is some summer shorts for George. I've already made him 4 pairs, discussed here, and have 3 remaining left to sew. I really want to sew up the crab ones. George already has heaps of shorts so I'm not too fussed if I don't get around to the others. On the other hand, once I load up the machine with blue thread I may as well do all 3 pairs!

This is my Hexie quilt, which I last talked about here. I have been hand piecing 22 hexagons into a large hexagon block. I need 15 of these to sew together a single bed sized quilt. So far I have 6 large hexagon blocks, so while to go before I can put the quilt top together. The quilt is probably ending up a little more juvenile than I intended. This is because most of the hexagons are being made from scraps left over from tin whistle pram liners. However, I have 3 kids so one extra bed cover wont hurt!

Ahhh the bane of my life! Jills giant Japanese quilt. I started this back in May and then I got to here and discovered that I needed more fabric... none of which was available in large quantities! After a little pondering I decided I had to unpick everything and work in new fabric. So that's where I am at with this quilt. My deadline for this quilt is Christmas time, not because its a Christmas present, but just because I want it done and that is a near enough major event to make me rattle my dags. I

The quilt top for the aqua pop quilt is done. I have also planned out the backing and bought the fabric. This quilt is for Matilda, and she often comes into the sewing room and looks longingly at the 'pop pile'. Poor girl, it will have to collect dust for a while longer while I focus on the Japanese quilt.

Earlier in the year Elizabeth made a denim raggy quilt from old jeans cut into 5" charms. I really love this quilt, and it is in regular rotation on our couch. I have been slowly amassing another pile of denim charms in preparation for another quilt... down the track...one day.

I've been collecting Ispy charms for ages too. I've made a few Ispy quilts in the past. I like the idea of them, but often they don't turn out well. Too busy or something. I keep hold of my charms in the vain hope that I will find the perfect classy and modern yet still fun Ispy quilt. The Hexie quilt (way above) comes close to what I have in mind... but I want to use the 5" charms in their entirety and not cut them up into hexagons.

And this is my latest, and somewhat impulsive acquisition; a set of 100ish vintage sheet charms. I love the look of vintage sheet quilts, but I knew I would never be bothered to collect 100 different vintage sheets! So I bought this when I saw it pop up on someones etsy shop.

And last but not least, here is a completed quilt top I finished in January. Gosh I didn't realise it was so long ago! My intention was to finish it off and gift it to the next person knew to have a baby. Ummm lets just say that this year no one has had a baby that I thought would like such a bright, scrappy quilt, so its just sat in a draw in my sewing room.

{Blogtoberfest day 5} Teddy clothes

2011-10-05T07:30:00.000+08:00

In Singapore we walked past a bear making shop and somehow I was convinced that each kid should be able to make a bear and dress it. The store bought clothes were really expensive, so I suggested we only buy a few things and then make some when we got home.

I had barely unpacked the bags when the kids started pestering...

George's 'Rex' checking out some new shorts

We kept telling Matilda's 'Zoey' she was too close to the sewing machine. But she just wouldn't listen!
Elizabeth sewing up a skirt. Her 'Lucy' was too shy to come on camera.

{Blogtoberfest day 4} Q and A

2011-10-03T20:28:00.000+08:00

This post is a call out for questions and photo requests. Yep, day 4 and I am doing a pathetic post asking for help with 'festy' posts!

FYI, I have compiled a list of 25 'festy' post topics already- I wrote it up out of boredom on the plane. So this post isn't really as pathetic as it seems, but a genuine request for all you sticky beaks to ask those burning questions that pop into your head when ever you visit my blog.

For examples of things you could ask, recently I participated in a "mum of the week" bit of fun on an Internet forum I belong to. Forum members are allowed to ask the MOTW to photograph seemingly random things in their house. I had requests for pictures of my pantry, my fridge (!), favourite outfit, favourite shoes, backyard, artwork on the walls and just about every room in the house. I also recall one photograph of me holding my PhD thesis and attempting to look profoundly in thought (see above)- I cant remember what the request was to result in that photo!

{Blogtoberfest day 3} Home sweet home

2011-10-03T18:32:00.000+08:00

This is what I am doing at 6pm on Monday... unpacking bags.
This is what I was doing at 6pm yesterday... enjoying a Singapore Sling by the pool.

PS... that is a henna tattoo on my hand. There will be a post dedicated to that adventure later in the month!

PPS... I haven't done a heap of travel with kids, but here is my tip... when you pack to come home dedicate one of the suitcases to dirty laundry. Use packing cells- one for each family member and maybe a couple of spares. Remaining clean clothes and personal items get packed into each persons 'cell' and packed into remaining suitcases. The spare cells can contain things like swim gear/goggles etc or toys or coats etc. When you get home you deposit each 'cell' into the appropriate bedroom/cupboard and unpack in a methodical way later on. Within an hour or so of being home the living room will be clear of suitcases, washing machine is on already and you may even have got around to unpacking all the cells.

{Blogtoberfest day 2} Reactions...

2011-10-02T15:41:00.000+08:00

Welcome to my blog if you have arrived from the blogtoberfest linky page. Normally this blog is about sewing and quilting. I post once, sometimes twice a week. It's going to be very interesting posting about something new, and hopefully, interesting every day.

As I mentioned in my last two posts, I am traveling at the moment. I am in Singapore at the moment, with my husband and 3 kids. Two of my kids hadnt been oversea's before and so we thought Singapore was a good starting destination. It is an amazing blend of several major cultures, but at the same time very westernized. Happily, it also in the same time zone as Perth and only a 5 hour flight.

I will introduce my 3 kids to you by describing their reactions and behaviour in a new country.

My eldest is Elizabeth. She is eleven. She is fascinated by how things work; she enjoys things, but then always wants to understand why it is the way it is. It has been fun watching her watch a new culture, the language, how people dress and their mannerisms. What she HASN'T enjoyed is trying new food. I call her my 'carb girl', give her spuds, pasta and rice and she is happy. On the same plate at the same time and she is in heaven. This week in Singapore, when she couldn't convince us that she should order from the western section of the menu, she has ordered fried rice!

Matilda is our middle child (what ever that means... I am also a middle child, and Matilda and I are as different as could be). Matilda is eight. She lives in the moment, a laugh a minute and pretty much up for anything, she never really considers the consequences. It can be both a good and bad trait. For example we took the kids to a restaurant in china town for lunch and picked food at random from the menu, not really knowing what was in it apart from the main ingredient. Matilda tried each dish with gusto until, inevitably, we struck one with a lot of chilli in it. For the next 15 minutes we had to contend with profuse whinging, jiggling on seat, guzzling of water. Meanwhile, Elizabeth quietly waited and watched the reactions of everyone else first, then chose the rice. In Australia, Matilda is the 'sporty' and 'sassy' child, but here in Singapore Matilda has had attention for being blonde and pretty etc etc (she isn't even that blonde). She has been very chuffed to get lots of pats and smiles and comments about being so sweet and pretty.

The best way to describe George is the boy with 3 mummies! He is 5 next month. He is cautious about new things but once he has accepted something as ok (which might take 10minutes or 3months) he embraces it and then is a happy, joyful and contented kid. Case in point is our arrival in Singapore. George and I stepped off the plane, something he had done before so he was cool with planes, and made our way towards the arrivals hall. However, in the eyes of George, the airport and all the people in it apparently just didn't look right. As I walked with him I could sense him putting his (figurative) brakes on. Eventually, just short of the immigration check point he baulked. It took me about 10 minutes to convince him that there was no reason to be scared and there was no other way out of the airport. Even then I had to resort to the 'man handle' to get him through immigration. Five minutes later, he had apparently accepted Singapore as 'great' and was happily chatting with the Chinese fellow who was driving us to the hotel.

Well that's it for post number 2. Please drop by again tomorrow!

{Blogtoberfest day 1} where i post using dodgy hotel internet connection....

2011-10-01T17:15:00.000+08:00

I lie! It's actually a a very fast and FREE Internet connection, supplied buy the hotel. I have spontaneously decided to join this years blogtoberfest, and that meant posting TODAY!

My first couple of posts will be without pictures, as I am writing from my iPad (v1... No built in camera, and even though I have my camera here there is not USB drive on ipad to load up the pictures).

Today's post is about our delayed start to the holidays. The night before we were due to leave George woke up with a (suspected) ear infection. After spending an hour or two trying to see a locum GP we finally came to the decision that he would not be able to fly in the morning and that one of us should travel as planned with the two older kids. The other had stay home with George, get him on antibiotics ASAP and join the rest of the family as soon as they could. I drew the short straw and ended up at home with George! He got the all clear 48 hours later and we were able to join the other three in Singapore.

Thank goodness for travel insurance!

Family time

2011-09-25T13:22:00.000+08:00

Tomorrow morning, I am off to explore Singapore for a week with David and the kids. This is a picture of the pool at the resort we are going to stay in- they are more excited about the water slides than anything else we have planned!

I have shut down my store until I get back. I'll see you all in a week.

Skirt take 2

2011-09-24T17:41:00.001+08:00

Here is skirt #2, made using a gorgeous lightweight cotton. I think this one looks lovely, but hey, who doesnt look great in black! The polkadots lend it the right bit of quirkiness, as well as being totally fashionable right now.

I still really love the other skirt, but i just dont think I'm brave enough to wear it.

I constructed the skirt a little bit differently this time. I made 5 tiers, instead of 3 in the other one (as an aside... I knew immediately that 3 tiers was wrong, which is why I added the extra frills to break up the large blocks of fabric. The frills make it too flamboyant for me to wear, but I dont like the skirt without the frills). Back to the polkadot skirt --->Notice also that there isn't any gathering in the first tier. A little trick I thought up to help the skirt hug the hips and be a little more flattering.

If you are about a size 12-14 and want to use my measurements the top (and second tier) are 46" in circumference, 3rd tier is 62" in circ, 4th tier is 75" and the bottom tier is 90" (ie double the circ of the top tier). Each tier is 8" wide (a number I stuck on because it was my waist-ankle measurement divided by 5).

With (non-matching!) tshirt in place.

Is it TOO much?

2011-09-20T12:32:00.000+08:00

Ok So I made this maxi-skirt and I need HONEST opinions. Is it TOO much. This sort of style is everywhere in the shops... and vintage is 'in'. And so is sunny yellow. Is the combination of all three too much?

I keep thinking it is 'Little house on the prarie dress up' rather than ‘quirky vintage maxi-skirt’. What is it that makes it too much? Is it the yellow vintage/granny fabric, the frills, or is it the actual pattern?

Am I just unsure because I dont tend to wear much yellow? or really girly things? or it it just plain ugly? LOL.

I think maybe it’s the fabric… in which case I will try again with come BLACK POLKADOT fabric I have here.

Tin whistle 30% off sale

2011-09-18T07:17:00.000+08:00

I'm going to Singapore next week for a family holiday.

To celebrate and get some more spending money (!) I thought I'd take 30% off all tin whistle in stock pram accessories.

Please use the code 'HOLIDAY" at checkout to redeem your discount.

Sale ends 25th September and excludes custom orders.

www.tinwhistle.bigcartel.com

Boy has he grown.

2011-09-17T16:40:00.001+08:00

As I published my last post (of George in his new shorts) I realised that many blog readers will have watched George grow from a tiny baby into a big school-aged boy. I know I enjoy watching children grow in the blogs I have been reading for a long time- so I assume its the same for people who read this blog! I went back through my blog to see when he was 'introduced' and was surprised to find that my first blog entry was about something I made for him. That was in July 2007, which means I have clocked up 4 years blogging!

This is the photo of George in my first blog entry. He is 5 months old and sporting some pants that I knitted him. I loved those pants so much and he wore them a lot. They have been put away in his special box of baby things.

And just for a direct comparison I have stuck in the picture of George I used in my last blog post. In this photo he is 4 years and 10 months old, sporting a pair of shorts that was his favourite :)

While I am on the subject of photo's and not really talking about crafty projects. You will notice that I almost always take photo's with the kids standing or sitting on my dining table. This is because its a big table, so there is usually a clean spot on it, and the lighting is good in this part of the house. In the background you can usually see two black and white portraits. The top one is of Matilda and the bottom is of Elizabeth, both aged 2 years old. There is a similar portrait of George (aged 2) on a different part of the same wall. Each child had a professional photo shoot when they were two and I picked ONE photo (that was hard) and had it framed. When I blog surf I always perve at the background in photographs looking at furnishings and other decorator stuff, so again, I assuming my readers do that too I have decided to explain the background for you!

Too many shorts

2011-09-17T16:27:00.001+08:00

I let George go through my stash and pick out fabric for summer shorts. I cut out 8 pairs, which is a bit crazy considering there are only 7 days of the week. Here are the first 4 pairs all sewn up and ready for some warm weather.

Summer singlet

2011-09-17T13:33:00.000+08:00

Another Ottobre 303 tshirt. This time sleveless. I cut it the length indicated in the pattern and then added a wide tube to the bottom to finsh the waist edge and add some length to it. I grabed this fabric at a local store where is was on sale for $10/m! Bargain.

More tiedye

2011-09-17T08:19:00.000+08:00

Eeek I haven't blogged in almost 2 weeks. Not sure what happened but I just got busy and never found time to download, sort, edit, and blog my photo's. Anyway here are a bunch of catch up posts. I thought about doing one mega catch up post, but there are a few different projects to blog about and I like to put them in separate posts.

First up, last weekend we had a little friend over for a sleepover with the promise that we would do some more tiedying. Ever since the last time I've wanted to do it again and so have the kids. They love their tiedye shirts.

This time we had only 4 kids tshirts (one for each kid) and were hoping for lots of really intense colour because we didn't have to make the dye go so far. At the last minute I grabbed a yard of quilters cotton and a bought a pair of cotton boxer shorts.

Elizabeth (above) and her friend went for the classic spiral tiedye pattern and they were really happy.

This is what I did with the yard of white quilters cotton. I tried out a pleated pattern. I didn't take enough care to keep the colours separate in this project and it ended up a bit too murky and muted for my taste.

This is Georges tshirt. I'm a bit partial to the classic bulls eye pattern using a simple 'rainbow' order for the colours.

Matilda decide to try out a mirror image pleat. It worked out well, bu probably is my least favourite 'style' of tiedye.

Here is DH's new undies! Sorry ladies, no modelled shots of these LOL. I also did a mirror image pleat tie on these, but stuck with simple rainbow stripes.

Funny story... the day after we finished the tidying DH took his new jocks in his sports bag to soccer. Matilda went along too and during the game, proudly took out the undies to show all the other kids the tiedying we had done! I suppose putting pictures of them up on this blog isnt much better!

Pirates?

2011-09-05T14:01:00.000+08:00

I really shouldn't be thinking about another quilt, let along actually playing around with piecing one. Now that I am a substantial way through Matilda's quilt, George is starting to ask when I will begin making his. Apparently he wants a pirate quilt. Only problem is that most pirate fabric doesn't really appeal to me. Its all a bit too dark and gloomy. I want bright colours not black and brown!

So that got me thinking... What sort of quilt do I want to make? What do I want to try out? What patterns out there have tickled my fancy? Can I combine that with a pirate theme?

In May this year I participated in a group quilt called Houses for Helen. The quilt was gifted to the lovely Helen for her 40th birthday. Here is the quilt top to give you an idea of what the quilt was all about. Participants had to make small wonky houses on white homespun and send them to Helen's sister, who pulled it all together to create a fabulous modern 'village' quilt.

Here are some of the wonky houses (and tree's) that I made for Helen's quilt. I figured I may as well put them in this post since I have never blogged them!

I LOVED making the improv wonky houses and really like the simplicity and starkness of the quilt. Ever since then I've wanted to make my own wonky houses or 'village' quilt, as they are sometimes called.

So can I pull of a improv/wonky pirate ocean quilt? I'm thinking lots and lots of wonky pirate ships (like below), islands with palm tree's, a sea monster or two, a shark? Maybe some soldiers? I think I would have to build it on a solid blue fabric, rather than white... but having played around today and made this wonky pirate ship I think it can be done and it will look GREAT!

PS... I got inspiration for this block from here

Aqua pop top done

2011-09-04T14:49:00.001+08:00

I've just loaded the second book in the Outlander series onto my Ipod (as an audibook obviously) and spent the first 4 hours of the story finishing off Matilda's aqua pop quilt top.

Loving the way my points matched up nicely (although with a simple patch quilt I wouldnt expect any less) and with my little trusty chart I didnt have any problems keeping the blocks in order as I sewed them together.

The audiobook for Dragonfly in Amber is about 36hours long! so I have plenty of sewing pleasures left before I have to hunt around for another book.

Polkadots...

2011-08-29T14:43:00.001+08:00

I love red and white polkadots. Lucky for me you can see them everywhere at the shops right now. My kids just roll their eyes when I point out yet another cute cofee mug, mouse pad or pair of socks in red polkadots! Oh well at least they wont have any trouble shopping for my birthday.

If you share my love and you are also looking for a pram liner for your pram then head over to my shop and buy this little baby. There are plenty of other liners to choose from if polkadots arent your thing.

Snapshot Sunday- I had grand plans...

2011-08-29T14:40:00.001+08:00

To finish off the quilt top for Jills japanese quilt (again) but George had a request for a monster he saw in a magazine. He only took about half an hour to make, but then the beautiful weather called and I never got around to me other sewing plans.

Apparently the monster is called "Milly". Hmpffffffff.