He Who Hesitates!

Is lost! Big bugger. I ordered a piece of this off the internet before Christmas, not really knowing what to expect. When it arrived , I fell in love! It's sweet and pretty and oh so girly. The roses are blowsy, rose petal jammy. Half a metre was just not going to be enough and as it was super cheap, I thought it would be a great backing one day and that I needed more. As the computer showed that there was 109 units (1/2 a yard is a unit), I was in no hurry. What were my 8 units going to be in 109 - nothing! So last night when I went to order, I pulled up my wish list and zippo, no response, the code went to some other random fabric. After a frantic, "oh, no, this can't be" search, I sent and email. The response was a big negative. SOLD OUT!!!

I think I'll get over it, but I just hate it when I hesitate and I lose. I have to confess, this isn't the only time this has happened. The same happened for the gorgeous linen fabric below. It's a fabric from the 30's Collection by Atsuko Matsyama. She's one of my favourite fabric designers. She does cute but not too cute designs, ranging from birds to posies of flowers and those gorgeous ginghams that look like gingham cut on the bias. Sweet.

Mmmmm........ it's only fabric after all.

Mirabel Hearts

The other day I decided to make a Mirabel heart for Mike's. It's for the Mirabel Foundation. I made it from some of the new range Swell by Urban Chiks. Cute range. Hubby saw it the other night and said "that's pretty". It sounded funny coming from a bloke. I thought they didn't notice pretty!

Fruit Salad and Cream

I have a lengthy list of to do's. Today, I was able to tick one of those off. I have finished the top of the quilt I started last year for the Kaffe Fassett workshop. That was the top I finished, not the quilting or the binding! That will need to go on the To Do List! The quilt is the Morning Glory Quilt from Kaffe's book Kaleidoscope of Quilts. Kaffe came to Australia last year and Anna and I were lucky enough to attend here in Perth. At the end of the workshop, Kaffe walks around the room and positively critiques everyones work for the day. He described my quilt as fresh, lacey, fruit salad and cream! Mmmm.....I'm thinking of making it into a table cloth. Kidding! I don't mind lying under layers of food. I like good food.

The quilt, as in the book is a rather odd size, very long and narrow. At the persistence of my girlfriend Lindy, who likes useful quilts and not quilts that have been made with a "oooo, I need to make this larger I'll just add a border", I enlarged it by an extra panel. It took a little bit to convince me, but, yes Lindy, I'm glad I did! So, now to the next bit, I've decided to use Kaffe's Bekah - the orange/pink one for the backing. I'm hoping it won't be quilt overkill - could be you know! Anyway, that will be a while off yet. Big list that To Do List is!

Can you see any pineapples?

My Tricky Brain Strain!

I decided the other day to make a top for Phoebe. It was going to be quick and simple, using a vintage pattern. I decided to make some changes, just adding a liberty yoke instead of the plain one on the pattern. That was fine, it was adding the Peter Pan collar that caused me a mighty headache! It seems that the pattern piece for the collar is incorrect. It only goes half way around the yoke. So after some deliberation and discussion with Lynnie and Anthea at Calico and Ivy, I came away with some good ideas on how to fix my problem. So today is the day for fixing.

This is the yoke, waiting for the collar. So, off to Spotlight I must go for a slither of fabric to finish it.

Happy Anniversary Baby.....Got You On My Mind

Happy 12th wedding Anniversary Pete

Warning: Read at own risk, content may cause you to blush!

Last night we went out to celebrate our 12th Wedding Anniversary, that is actually today. We had a great meal at il lido in Cottesloe. Food was goooooood. Pete had a Osso Bucco cooked in white wine with green olives and polenta and I had Pappardelle with Beef Shin, rich and delicious, I could have eaten another bowl. We shared a salad of Rocket, Peach and Gorgonzola, yum. For dessert we had a pot of Tiramisu for two - best one I've ever eaten I think, not too coffeey, creamy, delicious. This place is funk all over. Wines are served in those cool Riedel O series glasses.

After dinner we headed to Kings Park to the Moonlight Open Air Cinema to see Atonement. Pete had booked the "Gold Grass" seats, beanbags and all! We almost sat on some friends before we realised they were there - funny! We loved the movie, Keira Knightley is lovely. James McAvoy is strong and dashing. I think I need to see it again. It was cute lying there with my love, glass of wine and the stars twinkling above. We had to schnuggle under my pashmina - it was chilly.

We had a mighty giggle when Gina Mckee (Forsyte Saga) appears as Sister Drummond. Nearly three years ago, we watched The Forsyte Saga together, loved it. It is a story that is full of irony, humour, sexual tension and pathos, the vicissitudes of the leading members of the upper-middle-class Forsyte family(like those big words?). Loved it so much..........well, let's just say that when Pete saw her on film last night, he said, she's the reason for little Phoebe! Not, Gina Mckee, but the spirit that that mini series invoked in us, Pete and me. Oh, Irene, Bossiney, Soames, Jolyon. Aghh, you'd love it if you haven't seen it!

Such a great night together, thanks babe!

Always check out the bargains!

Went Friday night shopping tonight. It was hard to leave the household still all up and breakdancing on the floor. Daddy and Phoebe included. But it was easier to do so tonight than on the weekend. And boy was I glad. In Borders, I always have a look at the bargain books they have. I've never found anything before, but that was probably because it was all being saved up for tonights expedition. I found this Debbie Bliss book at the bargain basement price of $3.95!!! Hello, I thought, you are meant to be mine. Later, when I was downstairs looking at the craft books, I found another copy for $49.95. I can't tell you how much I love a bargain. Problem is, I don't knit. But my Mum does. So, Mum, what do you think?

Whilst in the crafty sewing section, where I usually hang out, there or the international mags section, anyway, back to the craft section, I found this divine book. Thrift to Fantasy by Rosemary McLeod, is an amazing collection of New Zealand textile handicrafts spanning from the 1930's to the 1950's. Not only are there some great pictures of beautiful things, but there is so much interesting stuff to read about.

So, it was a good night. A stroll through DJ's perfume section. I love that different perfumes remind me of different times of my life. I smelt Lou Lou - that's School to me; Byzance (just for a laugh) - reminds me of a dodgy resident at a hotel I worked for, who's parents owned a Duty free shop and we, the receptionists, used to buy the testers of perfume off him; Dune - working at Hyatt Regency Coolum, hot summer nights, crazy times, Anna; Agent Provocateur - Al; Issey Miyake - chicken schnitzel sandwiches 14 years ago with Lindy.......aggghhh I could go on....but it's late and I need to get some sleep. I have another project on the go at the moment which requires brain concentration - is there any other kind? Hopefully I will blog about it in the next day or two, provided it doesn't go pear shaped, which is very possible, as I've taken something quite simple and decided to make it tricky. Silly me.

A bit of blue

Often I make things for others. Today, I decided to start on something for me. I'm currently loving a bit of blue in my fabric life. So, I've made a start on a crochet hook roll. The weather, for the moment anyway, has cooled down a little, which has inspired me to:-

1. Start a bit more sewing
2. Pull out my unfinished crochet projects from last year ( I think there are 3)

So, all being well, I hope to turn this into............





..............this.

This was one I prepared earlier! Actually, it was a part of my sisters birthday present last year.
Maybe when I'm finished, it might inspire me to finish the unfinished.

Yee ha!

Here is Henry's quilt. The top is so close to finished that I thought it was blogable! Why did this take me 18 months to complete? Nothing takes me 18mths to complete, except perhaps the handquilting of my hubby's quilt. But we won't talk about that. Anyway, he loves it so much that I heard him offer it to his brother for $40. No, he reallly does love it and really does not like waiting to be able to use it. So, I'm on the hunt for some type of red backing. I think it needs some more red.

Here is a close up of the block. It was quite a fun quilt to make. Sometimes my head would spin as I worked out my block sizes and measurements. Then I would doubt myself, go away for a couple of months and then come back, think bugger it and just cut into my fabrics. My measurements were fine but when you are working with triangular blocks, wooooo. And I quite like to iron the life out of my blocks, which is not too good for a triangle. Oh and working in sixteenths of an inch is tricky too. But i got there, triangles, iron, sixteenths and all! And that's only the top.

More Dolly

The time bomb is ticking, Phoebe's about to wake, the boys will need to be picked up from school, but, I have to post the dolly progress. I embroidered her face last night, such a tricky job. She's looking o.k., a little snooty, and I'm going to unpick her eyelashes later. Her hair needs to be sewn in place and she needs a top to go with her skirt. But, here she is in the mean time.

I'll be tweaking this girl today and tomorrow. Then I'll name her. It'll have to be something posh don't you think?

As promised

Here are some more shots of Alex's quilt that I didn't add the other day. Sorry, but I have no full shot.

Voodoo Doll?

I'm thinking this looks a little voodoo doll like, with all those pins on Miss Dolly's soon to be body. Nahh. Hopefully it's going to be a loved cloth dolly that I started this afternoon. I love making a fresh cut into a big piece of fabric. Tonight I plan to embroider her face, which brings about a multitude of questions. Eye shape, lip shape, eyelashes or not, what colour cheeks? Details, details, details. But these are important decisions to make on behalf of a dolly. It's a fine line between good and bad. I'm hoping to err on the side of good. And then when I see her, I'll give her a fine name and some fancy clothes.

Angel?

Would you think that this little angel could get up to the mischief of 10 little children? It is a daily occurence that Phoebe gets into some kind of mischief right under my nose. And she is quick! This girl cannot be left alone for even a minute - that's all it takes. This week, whilst I was running between the school lunches and the ironing board, Phoebe managed to get a 500gm block of butter, a jar of vegemite and a butter knife off the kitchen bench and into her bedroom. Sensing her absence from the lounge room, I checked her bedroom, only to find her buttering a book and adding some vegemite to her Fisher Price bus. Fisher Price buses require vegemite you know! Agghhh, this girl could make me scream. And on the odd occassion where I have raised my voice, she looks at me with this bewildered but slightly amused look and says "Mumma? Mumma?" Yes, monkey, I'm still your Mumma, but sometimes I wish I wasn't the Mumma that always has to clean up the mess!

This is the time she got into my handbag and opened up my makeup bag, found a lipstick, Guerlain of course, and put it on......everywhere! I love the way that it's extra chucky on the side of her face. This was followed a week later by mascara ground into the carpet in not one, but two areas of our home. Mmmmm.....I wasn't at home for that one. We've been to the home of some friends, where she has found the kitchen pantry, found the sugar and poured it all over the kitchen floor. I cleaned it up, sat back down to dinner and was told later that she'd done it again. Perhaps she enjoyed watching about five kids licking it up from the floor like dogs! Awwww..baby, you sure are cute, but you're a real trick.

And that feather boa, that was a pacifier at Spotlight recently. She spotted it on the bargain table and pointed to it, it was $2.00 and has provided hours of delight. Better than a chocolate and bought me some extra browsing time.

Emptier Nest

Anna and Oskar went home yesterday. It's quiet. Very quiet. And I'm sad that they've gone. We had a great two weeks, going about daily life together. We've sewn together, sat together, shopped together, eaten and drank together and generally had a whole lot of sisterly togetherness. It was good.

The kids had fun together too. With the weather being as hot as it has it's been bathtime outside. All spare buckets and Ikea storage boxes were recruited until we got a little more clever and found the old baby bath in the shed later in the week. I love the fact that this activity brings so much fun and will no doubt be firmly planted into the memories of the older boys. Ahhh, this is what Summer and childhood memories are all about.

Here's Oliver kicking back on his lonesome. Loving it!

Anna and I had a few trips to Calico and Ivy whilst she was over. This is a happy snap of the gorgeous bits that Anna picked up there. I kept walking past this bag full of yummy, so I took a photo when she wasn't looking! Yum.

Thrifting

On Monday, Anna and I went up to the Op shop around the corner from my place and picked up a bootie for a bargain. The shop is full of goodies after being closed for 8 weeks and the ladies are so generous giving you most things for a dollar or two. I got two embroidery hoops, a fishbowl vase, some gorgeous doilies and a great find, an Irish linen tablecloth, ready to be embroidered. All that was about $6.00. Love that. One of those hoops has a Beatrix Potter crossstitch in it, mmm......I have two sisters and they both start with A. Mmmmm.... I think they would both think it would be a joke if I gave it to them. They aren't really the cross-stitch type. That is if it even is cross-stitch, I'm many things, but not a cross-stitcher!

Al's Quilt

For Christmas, I made my younger sister Alex this quilt. It's made up of lots of pretty rectangles from my 30's collection with quilter's muslin in between. It is backed in a pretty purple floral 1930's fabric from Material Obsession in Hunters Hill, picked over the phone by Sheena and Kathy! I went a little quirky with the binding and used one of Kaffe Fassett's lateset lovelies - the aqua with pink shadow print. I quilted this with a white coloured Perle thread. I have to say it is probably one of my most favourite quilts. I know it's gone to a very loving home! I'm having trouble uploading some more photos (little boys playing internet games for unusually large amounts of time - used up all of Mummy's monthly usage) , so I will post some more photos of this quilt in a couple of days.

Busy, busy, busy....

Happy 9th Birthday Hem!

Tis busy over here. Anna and Oskar arrived last Thursday, big boys back to school yesterday, playgroup started today, Henry's birthday today, made cheesecake for Birthday dinner, chocolate cake for afternoon Birthday cake.........haven't even bought dinner yet! Henry has opted for a "Backyard Bucket" from KFC. He's never had KFC, but he tell's me it's going to be delicious. I'm not up for KFC - so he's having it on his own. But, hey, who's to argue, he's the Birthday boy!

Anyway, have decided to stop procrastinating and get moving on Henry's quilt. Her are some photos of my stacks. Maybe I might finish the top soon, maybe.