inspiration

On a drizzly Saturday evening, inspiration arrived. For a while now, I have had colours and fabrics and fittings swirling around my head, coalescing at the strangest moments into the perfect vision of “home”. We are planning a renovation, you see. Of epic proportions. We currently have a cute, but small, 1950′s bungalow in a great location. However, with baby #3 on the way, our two-bed-lounge-kitchen-sleepout/office little house is bursting at the seams.

So we dreamed. We doodled. We spent hundreds of dollars on copies of House & Garden magazines. And countless hours poring over it’s pages, stopping at each floor-plan, seeing if the original house matched ours. If the finished house was “us”. And finally, we found it. Extravagantly large but wonderfully off-beat.  But large. Huge. Bordering on massive. So I did what any other creative-type mama would do. I pulled out the scissors and the glue! With a bit of fiddling, and checking back at the photos to ensure I wasn’t cutting out the features that excited me, our house took shape.

And I was in love. It was perfect. It was traditional, yet quirky. It was different. It had fun shapes and interesting angles. It had a walk-in pantry. A toyroom with a door. An inside laundry. Bliss on a stick. Or a sheet of A3 paper.

Four months later, I am still waiting for my house. I waited for the finished design. I waited for the engineer. We pegged out or back yard and built castles in the air. And we waited. The pegs came down. We picked the kitchen. The bathroom. Flooring, carpet. And we waited. We laid out the gardens, and dreamed of lazy Sundays on the patio. And now we enter the minefield of council red-tape, and we wait.

I’m a dreamer. So as I wait, I plan. I dream of paint colours, of upholstery. Of bespoke furniture & custom art, melding with vintage finds. Most rooms came together easily. I have even started designing quilts for the boys’ new bedroom. And yet, our bedroom remained a mystery. Nothing felt quite right. I wanted something moody and dramatic. Something completely different from our current shabby-chic-compelte-with-pink-feature-wall. Last night. It struck me. A combination of inspirations. Firstly, the author of a blog I love, has recently married. With an orange and grey theme. It slowly grew on me. And then, yesterday, the final inspiration came from, of all places, Pumpkin Patch. Yes, the children’s clothing store. We went shopping for the children, and bought them each a lovely thick winter jacket. The outside was a rich charcoal grey. The inside, soft fleece, burnt orange in colour. And I was smitten.

I put it to the “board” this morning. Dove grey walls. Mid-grey trims. A feature wall of textured wallpaper and a reading nook with a funky chair & light fittings. Orange accessories. Maybe a hint of lime green as well. Or maybe swtich out the orange/lime green accents and go with mustard yellow. The only comment from the board – “I don’t do wallpaper”. It wasn’t a flat-out no. It wasn’t “I think that’s look ick”. It was a minor detail, that I can work on. I think we have a go-er!

My little house of dreams is almost complete in my mind. I just hope it comes together as easily in real-life.

oh yeah…

Just one of those lovely days at home. One HST quilt top done. Another with the blocks joined & ready for slicing. PLaydough, paint, swings and sandpit. Clean house. Washing done. Little moments with little boys and lots of giggles. Exciting projects running in the background. Happiness, joy, love. The perfect kind of Thursday. Oh Yeah…

a piece of cake…

Layer Cake that is! I had big plans for today. The children were angels all morning. The house was clean. The fabric came out, and I started sorting. And pinning. And as the children slept, I started to sew, only the thunk of my needle hitting fabric disturbing the silence.

And then life happened. Technology happened. Five hundred spanners in the works. But a couple of work-arounds, and more than a liberal dose of finger-crossing, and we should be good to go. The day started brilliant, went to pot, and is looking up again… Two little snuggly quilts are in my sights. Two days til the weekend, can’t wait! Let’s do this!

The Island of Sodor :: the quilty version

There’s a very special little boy a few hours north of here, that holds a very special place in my heart. A sweet, chubby cheeked little boy, who, just like my boys, loves to play trains.

It was his birthday recently. Ok. It was his 1st birthday at the beginning of the year. You may remember my laments about FMQing back then. We were off for a visit, and wanted to give it to him in person. I busted my chops, got it quilted, binding attached, and hand-stitched for three hours in the car. But failed.

So back home came the quilt. With four inches of binding to be stitched down. But the more I looked at it, the less I liked the look of the quilting. Or the 5000 ends that needed stitching in. So with a bit of help & advice from Emma, I unpicked & re-did the quilting. Not as fancy as what I’d planned, but more in keeping with my level of “skill”.

And so, it’s done. My first bargello quilt. I was aiming for a “Bay of Sodor” feel, with the green meadows for the trains to play, and a beach, for Toby the Tram to ferry his passengers to and fro. I’m reasonably happy with the results. With more time (and fabric!), I would do the strips thinner for more “natural” looking curves, but I was limited in the number of seams I could do, and still produce a reasonable sized play-lap quilt from a single width of fabric.

Today, we’ve been shopping. There’s a layer cake calling my name. An urgent work project keeping me away. Some housework to do. A cubby house has taken over my loungeroom. Plans and dreams have taken over my head space. And time, what’s that? Five minutes more would be nice. Or maybe just a cup of coffee and some of that orange cake we baked yesterday. Mmmm…. coffee…. Short week Wednesday, love the possibilities. Let’s do this!

Cushion

The motivation behind my #quiltinaday wasn’t to challenge myself. It had a purpose. Someone close to me was off to hospital for some pretty massive, life-changing type surgery. With two little boys to care for, and the operation happening 5 hours away, it wasn’t all that practical, or possible, for me to be there. So I wanted a special gift, to show my love & support. The idea sprouted in my mind, around 2am one morning, as I lay waiting for sleep to arrive. By lunchtime that day I was purchasing fabric, wondering out load if I was crazy, inspired, motivated, or a combination of all three. Mainly crazy. But with some fore-thought and a kick up the old mojo, 24 hours later, the quilt was done.

And now, surgery round three is coming up. Big, long, mega-ouchy surgery. Once again, due to small children, pregnancy, and a super-dooper-massive-exictement holiday a week or two later, I can’t be there. So on went the thinking cap. And due to the nature of the surgery, a cushion was just about the perfect solution.

Today, it’s the last day of a long weekend. The boys are asleep. The house is clean. The washing is (somewhat) up to date. And I have a quilt on the go. Almost finished. And two on the design board. Some plotting and planning and juggling to do. Swings and lego and boardgames. Some quiet time, just a cup of tea, husband and I. Mondayitis is in remission, a short week is coming up, and life is rosy (and a wee bit chilly!). Lots exciting happening this week. Let’s do this!

#quiltinaday challenge

My #quiltinaday needed a matching cushion. With Bear safely accounted for at preschool, Chubba Bubba and I laid seige to the fabric shop. The pink. Found. The teal. Found. The cream. Bugger. Sold out. I love my fabric shop, but one thing that can be a pain, is once they’ve sold out of a bolt of fabric, that’s it. They don’t get it again. I looked, and pondered. One fabric seemed kind of close. As the design wasn’t an exact match, I went with the close-enough-is-good-enough theory.

We trundled up to the counter, and as we waited our turn, I had a glance over the jelly-rolls. And next to them, a lovely stack of layer-cakes. The top one caught my eye. A soft, dirty blue, some browns and creams. Perfect for two little boys in need of little cuddle quilts.

As I stitched & pressed my way through the afternoon, as small boys woke and chattered at my elbow, as they sat on my lap and helped me sew, the kernel of an idea took root in my mind. It was fun the last time. Why not spread the love?

And so, I propose the inaugural 2010 #quiltinaday stitch-along. The idea:

* to make a small lap quilt (approx 42″) in 24 hours

* preferably a new project, not an in-progress, unfinished WIP (though WIP’s are still welcome)

* any manner of quilt/wallhanging/bed-covering welcome.

* fabric may be either newly purchased (you know you wanted an excuse to buy more!), or from your stash.

* fabric may not be cut, fiddled, laid out, or in anyway manipulated before the challenge aside from washing if desired.

* the design may be finalised before the beggining of the challenge.

* have fun, and twitter/blog progress and/or final result.

Who’s interested? I was thinking the challenge would run from midday next Thursday to midday next Friday. If you want to quilt along with me, leave a comment with a link to your blog and I’ll add a link in this post so we can all see who is joining in. I’ll also be twittering as I sew, so feel free to leave a twitter link too.

The cushion referenced above is just about finished. All it needs is the insert to be altered and then the cover stitched together. The children are sleeping after a morning of trains and lego and books and dancing. Some freshly baked bikkies. Husband is home sick, tucked up in bed, with a tummy full of chicken soup. The house is clean and quite. My fingers itch, and the creative spirit stirs my soul. A long weekend beckons, but for now, just five minutes in my studio will see me through. It’s Friday, it’s cold, it’s perfect hide-in-the-studio-and-sew weather. Happy Friday everyone, let’s do this!

tap-tap-tap… the connected generation.

When pregnant with both the boys, I craved sweet things. It was nothing unusual for me to burn through a packet of smarties in a day. Yes. The family sized one. Seriously. I’m talking major addiction. This time, though, the thought of chocolate has made me want to run to the nearest bucket. My cravings have been much more towards the savoury end of the scale. I went through a brief party-pie phase, where lunch everyday would be 6 party pies, cooked two at a time to be piping-burn-the-roof-of-my-mouth hot. After two or three weeks, the party-pies gave way to bacon and eggs. Big time. Two eggs, two short-cut rashers of bacon (sans fat), and two golden pieces of toast every morning. In two serves, so it was nice and hot. Often some for lunch as well. And bacon and eggs for afternoon tea wasn’t an uncommon occurance.

Which means we are up to our ears in egg cartons. Some have been sent to my parents’, hopefully to return full of yummy farm-fresh eggs. Some have made it to the recycling bin.

And some have been turned into computer keyboards for little boys…

It’s been a lovely homey day today. Cardboard computers, sandpits, swings. Finding my mojo and finally back in the groove. Some sewing. Some unpicking. A bit of work. Planning. Dreaming. Waiting. Looking forward and looking up. Hello groove, nice to see you again, let’s do this!

hello? anyone there?

I do have a valid excuse, I swear. I never meant to be away this long, but there’s something about living with your head in a bucket that kind of interferes with blogging, crafting, or just about anything, really.  But never fear, I am back! After a full four months of disappearing off the cyber-webs, I’m back, slightly rounder, ready to craft and blog my way through the next 18 weeks. Huh? Yep, as I sit here and blog to you all, baby number 3 is busy kicking me in the ribs! Life is going to get a lot more hectic come October!

Lots of fun crafty things planned, so consider this official notice that it’s time I resume my regularly scheduled programming!