It's done!

Yay - the final stitch went into my son's dragon quilt not 10 minutes ago.  Put the binding on yesterday, unpicked the stay stitches that the quilter put around the edges and added a simple label this afternoon. Even managed to get a pic before the rain hits.

My Blessings to everyone over this festive seaon.

New Syndrome

I decided last night that I have discovered a new syndrome.  One that is known to many but, I don't think, ever named.

It's called: MSNP Syndrome.

And I have it.

So what's MSNP I hear you ask?  Well that stands for Must Start New Project.  and that's what I was doing when I came up with the name - starting a new project.

Never mind the few I have in progress - actually that's probably lots in progress.  I got the idea to make a felt table runner in the Penny Rug style and just had to do it.  Today!  No stopping me, it had to be started.

Here is a sneak peak.

That's just 1 end of it - it's around 90cm x 40cm and will have tongues on the short sides with pennies on the tongues.  I got all the light globes stitched down and started on the bulb ends and electric wire and went - mmmm, had enough now.

I intend on making it reversible.  The other side will be white with....... - yeah don't know yet.

But here is a pic of something that I have finished - today - and under 1/4 an hour.  My mantle over the fire place.

I used the panorama feature on my camera - hence the out of whack photo frame at the top.

Latest Creations

As part of - or rather because of - being part of the 12 socks in 2012 Challenge, I had to finish off the pair I had on the needles.  They are a blue self stripe in a wool blend.

They sit around mid calf and have shaping down the calf to the ankle.  This is an attempt to stop them from bunching around my ankles.

I also finally got around to sewing up a Sulphur Crested Cockatoo.  This guy I have had cut out for over a year just sitting in a bag waiting.  He's a Funky Friends pattern.

I did not like the way the pattern had his tail so I made one myself using the wings pattern.  The original did not have a tail as such, it just stopped at the end of the body.

I think he looks much nicer with my tail.  Now to make a flock of cockatoos, galahs, etc....

New Challenge Joined

After doing a random search of things crafty, I came across a challenge to knit 1 pair of socks each month in 2012.  I think this is something I can acheive for a number of reasons.
1. I like to knit socks.
2. I have lots of socky yarn.
3. I find they knit up fairly quickly.
4. I like to knit socks - or did I already say that?



So you can find the link over on my sidebar, if you too want to join this challenge.

Blessings,

Busy Beaver

I have been busy making things recently.  Making up for lost time during the year I spose.

Some fabric ATC's - there was 3 more but they have already been given away:

Some Christmas Ornaments for my niece and nephew:

Some more ornaments for some friends:

Also made 2 Christmas stockings, 1 for my Sister and another for a friend, plus the friend's hubby got a knitted willy warmer.  Sorry guys - no pics of these.....

I had lots of fun making all of these shut away in my Craft Room.  I have to shut the door otherwise I get help from Neo.  Here he is sitting on the ironing board not impressed that I won't let him sit on my knee or what I was working on at the time.  He often helps me type things too......

New Purse

Ok, so It's not really a new purse, but I was tired of the outer layer of my purse flaking off.

See the discoloured bit in the middle - that's where the vinyl came off.  It was horrible.  The stuff would end up all over my hand.  So after 1 hour of cutting, stitching and glueing I now have a 'new' purse.

Isn't it pretty?  No more flaking stuff.  It's been like this a ciuple of weeks now and so far it is holding up quite well.  I wanted to sew on the fabric all around, but the vinyl was gumming up my needle too much - I ended up gluing half of it to the original bit.

Here is some little cross stitches I did for my eldest daughters cali team members.  They did bugs for one of their items.

newest quilt

Ok, so the other day I had read about a technique on speed sewing a quilt top using nothing but a jelly roll - I think it was called jelly roll 1600.  This had me intrigued so I went to my LFS to get a jelly roll.  I found 1 that I liked, but it had been 'broken into' and did not have all the lengths it should have had.  So I went to the sales table and lo and behold, I found 13 coordinating fabrics.  This really rare for me, never mind the sales table.  They were all from differnt ranges too, which I think made it better.  Since I found this many I decided that fate was playing a hand and I bought 1m of 12 of them.

Here they are.

I Sunday I sat down to make me a speed quilt.  I cut 3 2.5" strips from each of the fabrics, dumped them all on the floor and randomly picked up 2 to sew them end to end.  I kept going until all 36 strips were used up.  The only rule I had was to not put 2 of the same fabric together.  I did diagonal seams for interest.  Once together I got the two ends and then sewed down the length - I went from a pieced strip 1512" long to one that was 2 strips wide and 756" long - had to cut the strip in half when I got to the end (middle??). 

Here's the pile that seaming made.

Then I found the ends again and sewed the 2 strip sets together along the length, cut the end and repeated it twice more, until I had a finished quilt top.

All in all it took only a couple of hours from start (cutting the strips) to finish.  I picked up the strips randomly, so what surprised me was that twice, when doing the first long seam, I had the same fabrics being sewn together and then on the next long seam they ended up near one another.

I showed it my youngest and she thought it was quite nice.  I haven't measured it yet, but it is a nice large lap size.  It has inspired me to make another one from the same fabrics since I still have 80cm of it left.  I'm thinking this one will be more ordered with some sashing and some plain borders.

Cross Stitch

Thought my readers - that's if there are any - might like to know of a website for cross stitch that I frequently visit.  It has lots of lovely patterns and a new freeebie is added every day.  If you go there through the following link, and join up for their free newsletters, you will get some points so you too can download their cross stitch files.

http://cross-stitchers-club.com/?code_avantage=mfjbku

 

Hope you enjoy the site.

BOM

Just found a new Block of the Month program on the Canton Village Quilt Works blog.  It has only just started, so I am going to keep track of it over the coming year . Well that's the plan anyway. 

You can see them on the link

http://cvquiltworks.blogspot.com/2011/09/bloggers-bom-quilt-along.html

I tried to pick up the button link too - but it appears I am not that tech savvy.

Now to actually take part.......

Next Blog

Every so often - usually after I post something - I view my blog and then click on the 'next blog' link at the top of the page, just to see where it gets me.

I find it very strange that every day there is a different series of blogs that I end up linking to, all with a similar vein/thread.  Just now I did this and was 'rewarded', if you can call it that, with a series of blogs that had religious overtones - not my cup of tea at all!!  Some days they are all about quilts, others crochet, some in spanish.  NOw if todays were about a wicca journey - i might read those.

I did find a really interesting one once - the writer was an avid rennaisance faire goer.  She even made her clothing in the way of the time - hand sewn and embroidered, etc and tired to base them on patterns from the time.  Some nice pics too.  I like to embroider, but would never go to that extreme.

Comfort Doll

I was on the Comfort Doll Project website just now (http://comfortdollproject.blogspot.com/) and I saw that they have an Australian contact who will organise the distribution of these dolls.  That's great news. 

I had thought of making some of these and sending them off, but the thought of them going to the US was a bit daunting considering the postage rates.  Now I can make as many as I like and send them to an Aussie lady and they will go to other Aussie ladies in need.

Knitting again

Yesterday was youngest daughters 1st comp for the year.  We had to get to the practice hall early to have hair and makeup done.  Since I can't be bothered standing around talking to (or rather being ignored by) the other parents, I sat in the car knitting.

I managed to get 1 and a half Soul Slippers done I was there for that long.  I even did a few rows before the comp started. 

Since I like knitting and these are fairly quick and easy to make (takes approx 3 hours to make 1 pair) I may make each of the girls in the team a pair in team colours - black with a green and yellow stripe.  Sounds like a plan.  Now to work how much yarn I need in the black and find out how many girls in the team......

Etsy Shop

Checked my Esty store just now.  Rather disappointing that I have only sold 1 item.  There are currently 8 items for sale.  I think I won't add any more and call this venture a complete waste of time.  The items left will finish in a month.

Maybe I will put them on ebay.....

Recent Creations

here's what i have made over the past week and a bit.  I have decided to have 1 day all to myself and not do any calisthenic stuff at all.  first there's a witchy doll finished....

Then there was a pink towlling teddy...

and then lastly there are some appliques blocks.....



And for something cute - here is one of our cats playing king of the castle..

Knitting over Easter

I found 2 more balls of yarn in the right colour - dye lot is slightly different, but i am not sure I will need them.  If i do I will have to use 2 rows of the original and 2 rows of the new ones to phase in the new dye lot.

My jumper is now in bits and waiting on being remade.

Knitting

We went away over the easter break - had a whole week away in the lovely country town of Bright at the foot of the Victorian Alps.  I was going to take a heap of things to do with me but decided on a cross stitch I have been doing for 2 years now (japanese ladies on a bell pull) and a jumper to knit for myself.  The yarn is think and soft.

The pattern stated I needed 12 balls of yarn, but was short sleeve.  Having already owned 2 short sleeve jumper/tops I decided to make it long sleeve, so I bought 2 more balls of yarn.  I will admit to procrastinating on knitting this as the yarn is $5 per ball - not my usual thing to buy.  Decided to anyway as the yarn is soooo soft.

Imagine my surprise when I got half way thru the back before I had even finished 1 ball of yarn.  Double checked that I read correctly the quantities needed - yep correct.  Then something jumped at me from off the page.  The pattern states that the balls are 50g - guess what, they are actually 100g balls.  So I have bought twice as much as I needed due to incorrect printing!!

Finished my jumper with 5 balls to spare - youngest daughter really liked the colour and is into chunky handknits at the moment.  So she is getting a jumper too.  Luckily she is quite small for an 18yo.

My jumper is a disaster though.  Sleeves are 13cm too long, and there is this horrible puffy sleeve thing happening at the top of them too.  So I have unpicked the sleeves and will frog the yarn to redo them.  The left over can go into daughters jumper.  I may have to try and get 2 more balls just to be on the safe side - I would rather have left overs that be scrounging for yarn to sew it up with.  With left overs you can make a hat.

Quilt for Melb Gang Show

So, after managing to get information from my son about the theme to this years Melbourne Gang Show, I did some research on said theme and found some applique shapes that are pre-cut and ready to attach.  I also found a pattern that looks easy enough to do in the time I have to make a quilt.  I have doctored the pattern slightly to fit my idea of what it should look like.

Next I got hold of a ticket booking form for Gang Show - copied the dragon from it - did I forget to mention it is about a dragon??  I enlarged the dragon onto A3 paper and printed it out.  This gave the basis for the main applique in the centre.

The quilt will look like a number of picture frames hanging in 3 rows, with each row on the same ribbon.  The ribbon goes from the top of the quilt to the bottom of the quilt to anchor them.  There are 4 pictures in the end 2 rows and 3 in the centre row.

So I fused the pre-cut shapes to their background fabrics and then to work on the main dragon.  Once he was fused in place and I started to do the zigzag stitch around him I got to thinking.  Do I really want to donate this to Gang Show for them to do whatever with it?  What if they aren't doing a raffle this year?  The idea was for them to make some money out of it.  If it became a silent auction prize it could sell for way less than what I have paid for it in materials, never mind time.  What to do????

I decided to show my son and talk to him about it.  At this point I beginning to think that I could give it to him - after all he is now a patrol leader for the first time - this would be a sort of congratulatory quilt.

I talked him through the design of it, showed him the pre-cut images all fused down, then showed him the centre piece.  His reaction was amazing.  I forget how many times he said "oh wow!".  But the decision has been made - it's now going to be his.

After sitting there for a couple of weeks now untouched, today I cut the sashing to go around the images - the frames if you will.  Sundays are now officially "JOY" days - days for me to do what ever I like that gives me JOY.  Now all I have to do is convince everyone else in the house of this and to let me be to enJOY them.

Craft Room cleanup

OMG.  I found another 2 boxes of knitting yarn and a jumper I started about 2 years ago (only half the back is done).  There was a lot less rubbish than I thought there would be. 

I have now grouped things into seperate large bags - hopefully it will stay that way.

The whole purpose of the cleanup was so sort thru the stuff (no I am NOT a hoarder) and make it easier to access things.  With it all now in large bags, if i need to get into the cupboard or drawers it won't be such an effort/pain in the butt to do so.

Would LOVE LOVE LOVE to have a proper storage facility for it all.....  Wonder if I can get hubby to make me some shelves; hmmm......

Kitchen Update

Nearly done.  I have floor tiles and wall tiles, a working stove top.  Only needs to be painted and get the doors on.....

Knitting

I have found most of my kntting yarn and catalogued it (rather anal I know).  Found that I have a LOT of yarn in single ball quantities.

Went shopping today and bought some more.  A nice purpley colour to make myself a jumper.  Once I start it, that will be project #6 on the go.

There's a cream shrug half done, a blue blanket half done, a blue crocheted baby jacket about quarter done, a pink and white blanket in crochet only 1 eighth done and a thick knobby hat half done.  Plus there are quite a few projects I want to do too - a koala, a kangaroo, a couple of bags, etc.

I really should work on something each night whilst watching tv.......

Birds

Yesterday I bought a book on making cloth birds - OGM.  It is fantastic.  I have already scanned off some patterns and I can't wait to make them.  They seem so simple, even if small.  I think I will start with the Quail - no legs to contend with.

The lady where I got the book told me to send some pics of what I make from it so they can put them on their store's blog.  May do this too.

note:  4 weeks later and I have 'lost' the book.   grrrrrr

Clean out

Went through my clothes this morning and have bagged up for charity quite a bit.  A number of skirts and dresses are going, as well as some tops.  I even found lurking in the wardrobe a few craft projects that haven't seen the light of day for ages - they are going too.  As is the bag of 'winter' clothes that I had stored in one of those shrinky/vacuum space saver bags - not too sure what's in it, but they can go.

I would love to tackle hubby's clothes too - he has a ski jacket he doesn't fit into anymore as well as some thick heavy wool work jackets.  Somehow I think he would be most upset if did though.  Men!

Kitchen Update

Some pics of the kitchen as it now stands.

 And the tradey levelling out the floor before the tiler starts to lay the tiles.

Do I really need all this?

Each year when we go away for 3 weeks over Xmas I think to myself "Do I really need all these clothes/dishes/etc?"  Today I was thinking how much clothing is enough to have.  I am ashamed to admit that I probably could go 2, maybe even 3, weeks without washing my clothes and still would have something to wear. 
Is that too much?  My wardrobe is full - no more hangers available so I am now folding things onto shelves.  I have 2 x 3 foot rails for short hanging things and 1 x 3 foot rail for longer hanging things.

Here's a list of what I 'think' I need.....

3 pairs shorts, 3 pairs long pants/leggings (should that be 2 pair jeans + 2 pair leggings) (what about on those really cold days when I wear trackys?),
5 short sleeve or sleeveless tops (incl singlet tops?), 5 long sleeve tops
4 singlet tops - for really hot days as well as under my long sleeve tops on really cold days
4 dresses
1 light colored cardi/jacket, 1 dark one, 2 jumpers, 1 coat (not that I really wear a coat - never cold enough)
7 undies/knickers, 3 bras, 7 pair socks

Then comes the question, if I go with this list, of what do I get rid of?  Do I start with the things that are a bit older yet still in good condition?  Do I remove the items that are more fashionable and therefore soon to be out of fashion?

What do you think?

Could you reduce the amount in your wardrobe?

Kitchen Update

Update.....Update....Update

I now have a stone bench and some tiles on the floor.  We also have the tiles for the splashback - but they won't be put on the wall for a while yet.  Once hubby orgaises a gas plumber to fit off the stove top I will have a functional kitchen again.  Once tiles are in all I have to wait for is the cupboard doors.  They got a bit WET waiting to be remade by the manufacturer.

Etsy Store Open!!

Yay!!  I finally got around opening an Etsy store.  So roll in the sales!!

I currently have 4 items for sale - 1 stump doll and 3 owl softies.  Will be interesting to see how long they take to sell - if they do at all.