mothers day 2012

I slowly peeled one eye open as a little hand tapped on my arm. “mummy!” came the stage whisper, “are you AWAKE yet?”. I think I must have been conscious enough to nod, because two little pairs of feet were flying up the hallway, and I could hear chairs being dragged, plates rattled and glasses pulled from drawers. Husband rolled out of bed with a groan, and I heard hurried consultations, and then the small feet whizzed past again, returned with a bag of gifts wrapped in hand drawn paper, followed by a reluctantly-drawn-from-bed little brother. All three small people perched on my bed as I opened their gifts. A new tin of pencils from Bear “because you’re the best drawer, mummy”, a stainless steel drink bottle from Bubba Boy “so you don’t get thirsty”, and a ball of wool from Butterfly, which can only be described as interesting, as you would expect from letting an 18 month old loose in the yarn aisle. With gifts duly admired and placed safely on the bedside table, breakfast was produced, complete with a pretty little flower, and coffee, nectar of the gods. Bear also thought I might get a bit bored, so very kindly went and brought me back a book. All in all, I was very spoilt by my beautiful family!

 

My mind is running in a million different directions at the minute, after a busy day yesterday going to mummy groups and getting swap parcels in the mail and working for the afternoon, and no time for craftiness and creating. I have two new fabric collections on the run. I have spent this morning getting my etsy shop up and running to my satisfaction. A 3am inspiration strike is slowly taking shape. Admin and housework are calling, having been ignored all morning in favour of hanging with my small people, reading stories in the sun, and baking vegemite scrolls. I’d kill for a coffee, but we are out of milk and I’m not sure I can be faffed going to the shops. I’m hoping to race through some must-do jobs now the children are finally asleep, so I can get stuck into some want-to-do jobs before they awake. This afternoon I’ve promised a boy some digger craft, so I feel a recycling pile raid coming on. Maybe some painting in the sun for them and for me. A quick tidy of my desk so I can squeeze in a moment of two of sewing as the afternoon progresses. A girl can dream! Going to keep rolling while the mojo’s hot and the to-do list is shrinking. Hello Wednesday, let’s do this!

coffee break

I came across this tutorial via Car’s blog a while back. My sister has a pretty decent coffee addiction, so I made her a coffee sleeve to match the study portfolio I made for her a while back.

Just a random little “just because” type gift. It’s Saturday, and we are all systems go around here. Husband is busy with power-tool-related tasks. Boys are happily playing outside. A little girl is just about to go back to bed. A studio that needs cleaning, a dress that needs sewing, a crochet birdie that needs finishing. A big pile of scrapping to catch up on. Swings to push, games to play, stories to read. Busy in the best kind of way. Have a great weekend everyone!

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!

so this sucks.

Right now, there are two things that suck. The first is my FMQ ability, or lack there of. The second is unpicking said FMQ.

I have 24 hours before this quilt needs to be done. Yikes. I should probably be unpicking rather than posting about how sucky the unpicking is, shouldn’t I? Ok. Deep Breath. Let’s do this.

#quiltinaday

I’m always quite envious of those annoying productive types who seem to punch out a king-sized foundation peiced quilt, then FMQ’d in various colours & layers of complicated designs, and get it all done in the blink of a toddlers nap time.  Plus blog it. With mulitple perfectly staged photos. You know who you are.

But yesterday, I made a decision. To make a quilt in a day. If my little project was going to find it’s intended purpose with it’s intended recipient, it needed to be finished by 1pm today. So started the “quiltinaday” project.

After a moderately quick stop at the fabric store (well, quick by fabric-store-standards!), the children were fed, watered and put to bed, the air-con in the studio turned to “Arctic” (hey, it’s was very flippin’ hot here yesterday, then add in the iron, plus me working up a sweat churning out this quilt…), and it was time to get cracking.

The key to success in this project was simplicity. I decided on a simple 3-fabric disappearing nine patch, which I could strip piece. And, so, that is how I managed to go from:

1.42pm Monday

to this:

12.38pm Tuesday:

It’s not a masterpiece, but it is already well-loved. Quilting is just straight lines, rather than the FMQ that I think would really bring this design to life. It is only a small lap quilt, around 42″ across, with very nice bamboo batting. So lovely & soft, that stuff is. The little cream border between the green inner border and pink outer border is actually a flange sandwiched in the seam, inspired by the very talented Emma.

I did it. I made a quilt in 24 hours.Proof that dreaming big actually works. Just don’t ask about the state of my house… So, this afternoon, instead of painting, or drawing, or sewing, or any other variety of creating to make messes in my nice clean studio, I am playing catch-ups. And nursing a ruptured eardrum. Ouch. Maybe I’ll just pass out in front of the air-con and watch a movie with the boys. Thanks for playing nice, Monday. That was a fun project. Let’s do it again sometime.

To market, to market…

but first, I’ll need a bag! More than once, I’ve had my basket/pram/toddler laden with items at the hops, only to come to the checkout to find that store has gone “bagless”. No biggie, one of the benefits of a tandem pram is oodles of room. But, thinking of my mum & sister, not every has an excessively large pram with which to transport their latest sacrifice to the gods of conspicuous consumption. And so, with a tenuous link, and not a small amount of looking for a sewing project, I decided to make them each a shopping bag (tutorial here).

 

And to make life easy, it folds up on itself so it fits in a handbag

 

SO today is all about finishing unfinished things. A bag for my sister. A Thomas quilt for the toddler. Some flowers to embellish some crochet mittens. Some paperwork for year end, five hundred loads of washing, and plenty of fun. I’m rockin’ this Monday – let’s do this!

Success

With my little helpers tagging along, I managed to swing by the fabric store this morning, and chose a couple of fabrics for a little project I have in mind.

These gorgeous fabrics are destined for a couple of little “just because” gifts for my mum & sister. Both appeal to me in different ways. The bright blues & cheery flower pattern of the bottom two remind me of spring, of warming days & coffee in the sun & green grass & flowers bursting forth in joyful colour. The top two are much more muted, but I love the funky retro feel to the purple & green pattern. I’m going to have fun with these!

 

So that’s my afternoon planned. Pattern making, cutting, sewing, revelling in the chance to do something fun. Maybe a bit of scrapping if I can swing the time. A small boy is asking for a sewing machine of his own, so I can see some toddler craft coming up – pity the recycling has only recently been collected. I’ve got some old classics blasting from the iPod, so there will be some bad singing & dodgy dancing accompanying my efforts. Sing like no-one is listening, dance like no-one is watching, live like it’s heaven on earth. Life is good, and I am going to sing and dance and create and sew and love and LIVE! Let’s do this!

Exam wallet

My dear sister is preparing to sit her first uni exam, and I wanted to give her a little something to say “good luck”. When she mentioned she was allowed to take a limited number of notes in with her, inspiration struck, and after a busy day in the studio on Friday, I came up with the “exam wallet”.

A4 sized, it is designed to hold her notes, as well as her pens and other essentials in a little zippered pocket inside.

 

I also finished a little smock over the weekend, but forgot to take a photo before I passed it on to it’s new owner.

 

I’m spending some quality time in my studio this afternoon, but, unfortunately, not doing anything crafty. It’s clean up time. Reorganising fabric boxes, toddler craft boxes, stationery draws. Reboxing paints, reshelving books. Dusting, cobwebbing, vacuuming. And maybe a sneaky little sketch book left open on the desk to doodle in as I work. The sooner I get it clean, the sooner I can get crafting. Let’s do this!

Time flies…

…when you’re having fun! Friday has snuck up and caught me completely unawares this week. It only seems a day or two ago that I was pondering the potential of a new week, and here we are, week over, and with it, a chance to reflect on my plans, and a desire to do better next week. (Or maybe the one after… I am a terrible procrastinator!). My surprise at how quick this week has gone is nothing, though, compared to my shock when I looked at the calendar this morning, and realised it was the end of February! Two months down already – how did that happen?

 

To wrap up the week, I thought I might post a couple of cards I made yesterday. One is to go with the change mat I posted yesterday, and the other is for my SIL for her birthday (another post on that later).

 

I didn’t get a chance to cut that fabric, by the time I did some stuff that had to get done, ignored the housework for a bit and made these cards, the boys were awake, and wanting to play. Maybe today. They’ve both just gone down, so I plan to sample some new TimTam mint crush bikkies that somehow fell into my trolley at the supermarket this morning (I swear, a bogeyman follows me in the shops, and dumps all manner of yummy treats crap in my trolley. Like I would pick up a packet of decadent TimTams on my own accord. Really.) and then I might get stuck in. My desk is somewhat clean (I won’t go so far as to say I’ve cleaned the studio, more than I’ve pushed layers of leftover projects to one side to clear enough space to make The Cards), so I might do up a couple of recipes I need for a kitchen tea on the weekend, and then get cutting!

 

Which won’t get done while I’m sitting here, so let’s do this! Happy Friday everyone!