its finished!

Malis quilt is finally finished. The hand stitched binding took me almost three hours to sew on.

In fact I took it along to the market last weekend as a back drop and had a few enquiries about custom orders. Now, that would be a challenge!

P.S. theres a tutorial coming as soon as I get a moment to breathe.

my creative space

In order to sew for the market last weekend with a clear head I needed to completely clear the decks. One minute this table was full of mending in neat little piles ready to be attacked, then the next it had one single pile of kids clothes waiting to be overlocked. BUT to the side of this table against the wall is a MASSIVE pile of everything imaginable including my quilts, power tools, the biggest bag of scraps youve ever seen, unused fabrics cos I got distracted halfway through something, all of these are thrown atop another piece of unpainted furniture (arggh) still waiting for its legs to be screwed on.

Meanwhile in the dining room I set up a separate work station with Nannas machine for all the straight stitching. 

Here is a great tip:

When you have a lot of fast sewing to accomplish put a blanket under your sewing machine and use it as a pincushion.

It kept my head clear and focused as it was great to have two clearly defined spaces for this final day before we hit the market. I ended up almost running from room to room in the end but I was trying to complete around twenty items all at once in various stages.

stage 1

It still looks like this today minus the clothing because I FINISHED THE PILE FOR THE MARKET! YAY!

I wish I was in my creative space today but ive been off to work at a new job every day this week.

 

As soon as the weekend hits ill be back in there sorting out that massive pile.

Make sure you check out Kootoyoo if you havent just come from there.

My favourite creative space is here.

inspiration board

My inspiration board with some family photos and mementoes.

See the playing card? That was Navarh and Adelins wedding invite designed by her mother, Jill.

She drew the faces to resemble them. Pretty cool huh?

sewing with dorothybills

Last week Eleesa and I sewed together for the Rosebubs Market held at Rosebud. We had been invited by our good friend Elisha of MonetPaisley. (check out our stall here)

We worked on a couple of baby quilts. Mine was in the early stages (I started that day) and hers was already well on its way to being completed and she finished it while chatting over cups of tea.

Did you know she used to run a cafe? Thats the poster for it in the background. What a lovely reminder. Cafe Tootsies it was called.  Shes a wonderful hostess, so with my pot of homemade chai on hand we sewed and chatted and had a productive day.

Heres what we did.

I looked in my BIG scrap bag for blue things, an old shirt with a gorgeous etching print and off-cuts from a summer skirt a couple of years back (middle),

yellow rose tablecloth left over from this day(okay.. so yellow isnt blue),

and some gorgeous linen im making pants from for this summer on the left hand side (pants making post coming later if you like), and if you can spy the small piece of blue and white stripe? well thats from the first quilt cover I made EVER. 25 years ago!

For when we were first married. As soon as we got back from honeymoon I fell pregnant with Zjahlii (runs in the family right?) and started home making. Lucky it was an extended overseas honeymoon of nearly nine months. No wonder I felt like setting up home, hey?

And it will be no surprise to you all that it had about 50 doileys on it, including 5 or 6 my nanna had embroidered herself.

I think I have been fascinated with embroidery my whole life.

I lay them all out, made sure there were darks and lights evenly across the rows (doesnt matter about mediums), asked Eleesa's opinion during this because she has the most incredible eye for all things stylish and I started stitching. Really soon I had three nice rows.

The circle print is from my sons favourite pyjamas top (he only really wore the bottoms) and the pink floral is an off-cut from my scarf cushion covers. To be honest I only finished them the other week after starting them way back here, oh ...the shame

This is the full quilt top but this is how it stayed. I didnt get it finished for the market. I dont mind though instead I was pleased to get my mountain of unfinished childrens clothes completed apart from 3 or 4 things that were fiddly.

Mr TL had the audacity to ask me to turn my overhead lighting off because it was hurting his eyes while he watched the rugby. I sewed late into the night by lamplight until my eyes started flickering. I might have a mild case of Tourettes developing.

This is a sneak peek at Eleesas beautiful quilt, (for her big reveal pop over to her blog soon).

 She effortlessly finished this green number 

 and then started on another with these great retro fabrics. Her stash is to die for!

I adore the black and white stripe floral, dont you?  She lists these in her MadeIt store if you want to look in detail.

And the market was superfun!!!!!!

Im happy to say I have a couple of orders from some lovely mums in addition to what I sold on the day.

elsie marley: kids clothes week challenge

I have news!

The fabulously inspiring Elsie Marley has once again given us what we have all been asking for.

Yes its finally arrived!

Our much anticipated Kids Clothes Week Challenge is happening throughout the land of blog.

It doesnt seem that long ago we were merrily, if not frantically, sewing our little brains out.

 As if things arent crazy/frantic enough around here....what, with the new baby announcement and lots of production for a kids market on the weekend (sorry no time to blog about that one - maybe later), my new job I started today, heck I had only just started to put the feelers out a fortnight ago!, art classes with the mr....need I go on? Thats why she calls it a challenge I guess.

breathe...just breathe* says to self

 Well! Im in once again. How about you? Check out the gorgeous things on Flickr everyone made last time and hey,  I dare you to say no. 

Ill be at the Rosebubs Market down at Rosebud this Sunday with Monetpaisley and Dorothybills.

Come and say hi if youre there!

my creative space

I dont know why, but ive been going a bit cushion crazy.
I thought id give you a mini-tute on how to recycle your old flat pillows into two really plump modern ones. I have a trick up my sleeve when stuffings are lumpy and have 'had it'. Youll soon see why I have so many cushions around. I never throw old pillows away.

stuffing number one

stuffing number two

step 1. Take two tired pillows and ignore the fact if they have different stuffing.

            Cut them open after washing and throw the old covers away.

step 2.    Tear open the flat pillow from the inside out to expose the fresh inner. Feel for lumps and pull and stretch until its double the size as you want two cushions, not one and a half.

(if you get tired of step 2 just go faster)

You should end up with about half a dining table size piece of wadding

step 3.   Get your favourite cushion size cover to use as a template and cut two linings for two cushions.

I used scraps of white thrifted tablecloths that I had saved for a rainy day. It measures 35cm by 55cm and I love how it looks like a miniature pillow.

step 4.    Place the linings in single layers over the wadding to see if you have stretched it large enough. You may have to just tweek it at this stage to make it go the distance. Cut out around them so you end up with the same amount of lining size to wadding. (I cut two long pieces of lining and folded them each in half to make one cushion per piece. I did the same for the wadding.)

step 5.   Sew the linings together to make your cushions

and stuff the wadding into each side so you end up with a hole in the middle. The bad side of the wadding faces inwards and the good should be on the outside closest to your fabric.

Step 6.     Place stuffing number two into the middle to plump it out nicely until youre happy. I fit nearly half of the old pillow into each of mine. If you are doing large 60 cm cushions you will use half for each definitely.

step 7.    Stitch the ends together while folding the hem inwards to make a neat edge and youre done!   Unless you did one at a time like me and you still have one to go.

Make the other one quickly so you can do the fun bit now ... covers.

I took my inspiration from here

I used recycled blankets for backs and a striped weave I have been coveting for way too long.

I had bought the stripe as scraps and the pieces had to be joined together down the centre.

I like the happy accident of the seam though. In fact I love it!

OOps, I almost forgot to say thanks to Kirsty at Kootoyoo for hosting another inspiring day!

I love the dress Elisha at MonetPaisley made from fat quarters. Check it out, and all the other inspiring Gals over on Kootoyoos blog.

distracting

I know this is meant to be a craft blog. Well at least I thought it was...

 Okay, okay..... ill sneak craft in somewhere.

 I simply cant help, in between creative endeavours these last couple of days, to stop and wonder if my new grandchild is going to be as wonderful and crazy and spontaneous and loving and hilarious and interesting and entertaining and theatrical and individual and musical and goodnatured as his father is.

Even if soon-to-be-dad is a bit dazed at the moment.

Hope you have an exciting weekend.

With a bit of craft.

my creative space

Moda Plume

In my creative space today im researching fabrics for some more quilts I want to start. Yes im going to start two more but thats only because I deserve to. Ive been good.

I have been sewing lots of different things this week and have surprised myself how good it feels to be putting the finishing touches on lots of things.

One of these things is Mali's quilt! Yay! Im on to hand stitching the binding on.

So this is what ill be tackling today on and off, and hopefully finishing by tonight! 

I had really been dragging my feet with the quilting. I found that I didnt like it until I was finished..... I wasnt completely liking the stitch I was doing (mostly because it was hard on my shoulders and arms) and then I saw the light at the end of the tunnel as it 'filled up'. Does this happen to anyone else? I suppose it helps if you follow a more traditional approach. Not alot of forethought or knowledge went into mine. Ive only finished one quilt to date, remember.

Im not up with proper quilting terminology and dont know how to explain what I did in the end other than to admit that is was totally randomly stitched in big swirls to finish it off. Ill have some pics up soon as I still have the upload problem. Ive been faithfully taking lots for you. Then later on ill try to do my best to explain the entire process from start to finish in one post.

In other groundbreaking news Ive been informed that im going to be a grandmother again!

Remember the wedding I went to recently?

Yes, thats the one. Well, they have found out they are expecting! Somehow we are not surprised as these two have had their kids names chosen from early on.

Mr TL and I are elated and

we keep walking around smiling at each other.

Anyway thats enough from me for now.

Grab your cup of tea and head over to Kootoyoo

( mines a byron bay chai, thanks for asking)

villa renovation part four

Another instalment in the villa renovation series. This time its the main bedroom and ensuite. This room was two and we knocked out a middle wall to create one large bedroom. The two existing rooms were small and dark and barely fit anything in them, trust me. Or simply scroll down..

We added glass leadlight doors to make the most of the available light throughout the house.

Plus im a bit obsessed with glass doors. These happened to match (there is one at either end of the room, we didnt block one door in when we took out the wall). Plus the bonus was that they werent see through, the glass was mottled.

The wall was taken out here in the middle of where the bedhead now sits.

The windows were painted a very chocolatey black. Thanks to the kids for taking these photos or id have none to show you. Sorry about the child being in the way of the architecture!

This gives a good indication of 1. how crazy/funny my daughter is and 2. how dark and gloomy the room was even when the fluoro light was on. You can spot the original central wall here to the left. Again about the wall, but the rooms were tiny!

same room, some brickwork in the background, same window

and another. Yes, I let the kids have full decorating rights pre the reno.

This is the other room on the other side of the wall. This room was the larger one of the two.

The central wall again is the one with the posters on.

I hope this gives you a glimpse of what we started and finished with.

Anyone else doing a renovation project please leave me a link in the comments.

Id love to take a peek