Wednesday, November 24, 2010

im trying to get organised today


Today im trying to get organised to sew in a production line. 
Ive been putting everything on hold while I worked on the samples of bags, cushion cover choices,
etsy orders, a bit of research (otherwise known as shopping), market bookings,
opening a facebook page for Little Tree Kids (in the side listing if you want to 'follow me'), as well
as trying to keep up with the housework, which I failed to do.
My washing pile lives on the couch and hasnt been folded for around two weeks and I do between one and three loads a day, taking weekends off hopefully, so that makes roughly 20 loads im staring at. Yay for me.
MrTL came home from work yesterday and started folding it to be nice but 
I had to stop him cos I couldnt handle the guilt. I will do it. Folding washing is simply the
last thing on a very long list.

The first thing ive done today is finally place the cushions I made here in The Textured Leaf on etsy.
Ive discovered this frees up space, they are in the shop now and out of my head.
I hope to add some more before the end of the week for pure feel good factor, but we'll see.
This is a bit of a boring post, not many pictures just me clearing my thoughts, more like a journal entry,
 so apologies. Ive even mentioned washing! The shame.

The first two bags have homes so Ill need to sew the others now before the weekend.
Did I mention yesterday im doing two markets this weekend now?
MonetPaisley and DorothyBills will be there too so make sure you say hi if youre there on the day.
We'd love to meet you.

We'll be at the Mornington Twilight Market on saturday

 and of course the Mulgrave Makers Market sunday.




Tuesday, November 23, 2010

tweet

I think im gonna be okay. Here is the next nappy bag. This cloth was destined to be a bag.
Its a signature piece to me. It would have been even better if I had managed
not to cover up the bird with straps.  Im growing rather fond of it now that I see the shots of it and ive distanced myself from the studio. The fondness does not cover the fact that
ive sewn one of the straps on twisted.

I wasnt sure about the patchwork print 'going' but its nice and picks up
the tiny bits of green on the bird cloth.

I thought better than to place a pocket over the birds so ive added one inside.
These inner pockets are quick to do.

Well four pages of notes are staring me in the face now. Who needs a notice board when there are curtains? Theyll need to be re-written but its better than me thinking I can wing these bags. Pun fully intended.
I shouldnt have anything go wrong with the next one surely.

I guess ill keep you updated on that.

a first nappy bag


With all the babies seeming to happen in my life, (well two so far) ive decided to do some of these.
 Here is the first sample of my new range of nappy bags.
My daughter has done all the research for me. She had been searching for the perfect size bag,
shaped to fit under prams and well-pocketed.
She scored herself a vintage Samsonite bag at the op-shop a while back and it was a gem.
 Inside it has a separate pull out compartment which fits two nappies plus cream and baby wipes
so im drafting that too,
but making it a bit more roomy just in case.

Perfect for a quick trip to change babies nappy out and about without having to lug the whole bag
to mothers and babies
 as well as making it easy to search for.
They will have side pockets for often used items.

I had intended to have about five by the weekend but because I just booked into a second twilight market this weekend it will cut my production down by a day.
And honestly I dont feel like tackling another one, and I mean full body contact rugby style because
ive wrestled with this one in and out of the machine all morning now. Stupidly I joined the straps to the front and through the lining as well, before putting it together. I thought it would come together faster this way. It didnt. Instead of unpicking the straps ive done the sewers workout.
I wont give in so easily. I need to get these sorted.
Im going to do exactly the opposite to what I just did and see if that works.

something new


There will be something new on offer at the market this weekend.

A nice little pile of cut out and ready to go '..... - ...' is happening and I was up at
7 this morning still working on the sample. They are a bit tricky.

I might just have bitten off more that I can chew with this design ive drafted. 
Its based on something vintage, of course, and something already in use that is loved
 as well as practical to the enth degree. Ill leave you in suspense
(but youre all so clever youve worked it out anyway), as I hope to be back here in a couple of hours with
the big reveal.

Its a bugs life here. Literally. These were my findings for this week on the back windowsill.
Ive always wanted one of these dragonflies for our printers tray display of the weird and wonderful.

Catch you soon.

Monday, November 22, 2010

quilt tutorial: part four

Before we go any further take stock of all of your offcuts and make sure youll have enough to add in for the next two strips. If you dont have much left what you need to do is cut what you do have in half and add some extra fresh fabrics to the mix. Just a few small pieces will make all the difference. You dont want to get to the last strip to find you have to add in a colour that will look alone or odd as you have only used it once. If you take stock now, you can spread it around and if you have to you can add any fresh fabric to either end to make it 'belong'.

Were going to do another strip beginning how we have up until this point. Cut a slice of the base fabric the same width as your random patch if you have one. If you dont have one left find a large square piece of something you love and add it in, maybe putting a sliver of something alongside first.

Slice into the base fabric again to make a gap for another piece.
Ill be slicing where my scissors show here.

Ive added in a small sliver and even though it is very thin it still breaks
 the base fabric expanse up nicely I think.

I love this fabric and when I added it in I decided to sew the base fabric right side down, so its reversed as in the picture. If you have something that looks good on the reverse side and can do this,
 I recommend it to add interest.

Before you know it youll be doing the next strip. The same deal again.
Im sure youve got the hang of it by now. Keep going, youre nearly finished your random quilt top.

Ive top and tailed this strip to fill in the last corner.

Add a big slice in, not a smaller one this time if you did a small one last time, as you want to finish 'strong' at the final strip to balance your quilt. If you dont have strong edges my opinion is that the eye flows away from
the middle and off the quilt. Im going to cut here where ive placed the scissors on my base fabric.

Heres my choice. There is a bit of cream in my piece
 to blend in with the cream I used already towards the other end.
Here is how mine is looking but I still have more pieces I can sneak in, plus I dont think its quite done yet.
How does yours look?
Do you think it needs that bit of extra tweaking?

I sliced up my last square.

I added a piece to the top left hand corner to fill it in. Cutting down the base fabric first with a rough measure.

Here I added in a piece to the largest expanse of base fabric under the skinny sliver
 I did earlier in this post.

I still have more bits and pieces left so now im checking the overall size of the quilt top to see it hasnt gone skew and ill add some more to the ends to even it up so that it measures equally, within an inch or two, on both sides and ends.

It looked pretty good so I guess these will become the jumping off point of my next quilt.
 Heres the best bit. You can now sew them all together. If youre the really observant type,
which apparently im not, I have sewn the first two rows I did around the wrong way. But luckily, because overall it was balanced in placement it turned out looking fine, if not better. Maybe have a go at switching yours around if youre feeling brave. If not take pictures in between and play with your strips anyway.
I love happy accidents. I have to as they happen often around here at Textured Leaf Central.


I hope youve enjoyed the process so far. Ill be posting the finishing quilting and backing soon. It will be really easy, no basting, just five or ten minutes of pinning and off we go. Promise.

Sunday, November 21, 2010

weekend







Were spending time with family this weekend.
Cooking the snapper Mr TL caught a couple of weekends ago. Fennel and spices accompanied by corn on the cob and greek salad with big chunks of feta.



P.S. He nearly caught on fire while cooking it and all of us were inside and missed it.
 The flames went up his arm. The fish was fine.

Hope your having an eventful weekend wherever you are.

Saturday, November 20, 2010

shop update

These are an update for my etsy shop as well as being custom orders for a customer.
 She asked for three items but I have six to offer.

When I recieve an order in a certain sizing I like to go that bit extra and offer a multiple choice of fabrics and looks even though they are still true to my style.

She asked for some things in boys size 7

and girls size 3-4. Its a great way of increasing my stock at the same time.

I do half sizing too as its so tricky trying to get the right fit while the seasons last,
even though I hope they will fit throughout the year ahead.
This linen mix above is so fluid and lovely to the touch.

I hope she likes them. The little tree embellishments are a nice surprise.
I realised today ive been unwittingly placing little tree imagery on my makings.
I was meant to explore this in life.

Friday, November 19, 2010

whats on your wall?

Ive framed my lady and put her in the kitchen to greet me every morning
while I make my first cup of tea for the day.

So whats on your wall for this week?



Thursday, November 18, 2010

3:34 tuesday

This is how we do afterschool time here. This was 3:34 Tuesday afternoon and counting...
he had already put on a suit and the formal is not for a week yet

around 5:23 the dressing up really began

so the evening was turning into a bit of an end of year formal wear preview

tries getting his hair to have a 1920's flavour

  then he tried on a ski camp balaclava ala Textured Leaf Design

6:12 and it was back to the couch, and thermals 

Wednesday 3:45 and back to thermals.

Maybe a foray into teenage thermals would bring some rewards
 cos my guys seem to like wearing them everyday.

Sorry for the disjointed post if youve visited earlier today. I kept writing it in different tense as id started writing this post on tuesday and then only stuck it up last night. I think I have it right now.




my creative space

In my creative space for the week I have a long overdue (read five years)
project I dream of finishing very soon.

Ive collected these rugs over the years but now the kids are older I dont need to use them for my babies anymore and they have been sitting in the linen cupboard. Im going to crochet them all together in black wool and then use them for the bed on cooler nights.


They seem to make a lovely caleidoscope jigsaw. I love where they meet right here at this corner.

In other news DorothyBills is coming to sew for the day.
Check back in later for tonights post to see what we got up to.
Be sure to check out Kootoyoo for the other spacers.
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