Bottlebrushes

Don't ya just love bottlebrushes? I do. I love the colours! I spent this morning cleaning the kitchen. We had guests for breakfast, lunch, and dinner on Christmas day and every meal was cooked. I do clean as I go, but the kitchen ended up trashed! This afternoon I started drawing. Planning for my silkscreening. Drawing is so much fun! I haven't drawn for such a long time. I plan to draw for the rest of the week!

Moving towards the New Year

Every night for the last week I have thought that if only I had a photo, I would post here on my blog. I mean, it's Christmas! Why wouldn't I have a photo of some description waiting to be uploaded from my camera? Turns out there were over 200 waiting on my camera tonight when I got around to it. This photo was taken last Sunday night at my sister-in-law's house at the Paton family Christmas celebration. I love to take photos in other people's gardens. I'm sure they think their garden is ordinary and boring, but when I see their garden through the lens everything seems new, exciting and beautiful! Like this ornamental plum tree with the setting sun's rays on it.

Christmas is over for another year and the official start to the New Year is less than a week away. Always at this time of year my thoughts turn to goals and plans for the New Year. For Christmas my Bradley gave me everything I need to silk screen and block print fabric. I was so surprised, (I had no clue!) and thrilled, and scared! Now I have to actually get involved in surface design, instead of just thinking about it. So, there are lots of things to think about planning for the New Year. Hopefully this week there will be some screen printing to show!

Sewing and a headache.

I have had a headache all week. Every day I wake up with it and every day it is a little worse than the previous day. Last night it was impossible to sleep so I did a lot of tossing and turning and wandered around quite a bit. Today I got up and sat in front of the sewing machine for a couple of hours before giving up and going back to bed. Then I slept and slept and now at midnight I am quite awake. My head still hurts, but not like last night so hopefully tomorrow will be a better day! I came out to the sewing machine again at 9pm this evening and had a lovely time playing with theses squares. They are in the improvisational style of Malka Dubrawsky of A stitch in Dye. I love her work! And it was so fun to do. No measuring. Just the fabric, a pair of scissors and a sewing machine! I have something in mind for these, but will keep it to myself until I see if it works.

Yesterday I sewed this glasses case. I have struggled to get anything done during the week of the headache and this just came to my mind as I searched my scrap box for the brights I needed for the improvisational piecing. Using up my scraps has been a lot of fun!

A pair of rompers I managed to finish this week for granddaughter. Rompers must be a terribly old-fashioned item of clothing because none of my kids could make out what I was sewing when I worked on these.

Me: They're rompers.
Them: Right.
Me: For a baby.
Them: Right. (long silence) So who are they for?
Me: Granddaughter.
Them: Right. (long silence) So will they fit her?
Me: Yes, I measured her.
Them: Right. (long silence) So does her Mum want you to make them?

So, here they are finished. And yes they do fit her and will be a great thing to wear on a hot, hot day. Which we have't had many of so far this summer (She said whilst listening to rain on her roof. Most unusual for us. Adelaide doesn't usually do summer rain. One day at the beginning of the month we had our entire month's average in one afternoon!), but I'm sure those hot, hot days will come.

Remember this? I finally worked out a closure for this honeybun bag. The pattern used velcro with a button on the front for decoration. I'm not a huge fan of velcro. I used the snap machine to put a couple of snaps on the front. The idea came to me as I was putting snaps on the rompers. Anyway, I must get some sleep! Don't want to tempt the headache into returning with a vengance!

Not sure.....

.....what I have been doing this past week or so, but I definitely haven't been sewing. I also haven't finished the Christmas shopping, decorating or baking. (But I did notice that some of you have!) My Bradley's computer has been moved into our room and I have done more than just notice what you have been doing. Did you guys know that Pip (blog shown above) has an awesome photo around her posts? All of your blogs are just so pretty! I usually do all of my surfing on an Asus Eee pc. You know, the one with a 7" screen, so I don't see that much. Actually I don't think I have been doing any more blog surfing than usual, but I also haven't done any sewing either. Maybe this week?

Juggle!

Mr 16 is still working on perfecting his juggling. He can juggle three balls pretty well now. The new challenge? Four balls! And after that rings, clubs, knives... It's full on here!

Sewing with oliver + s

I sewed an oliver + s pattern this week. A blouse for granddaughter. The fabrics I used were from American Jane's Punctuation range. If I made it again I think I would make it be a dress instead of a blouse and I don't think I would put the ties around the neck on it because they serve no useful purpose. You can't even do them up. The pattern was pretty straightforward, but I do have quite a bit of clothes sewing experience. Possibly if I had been a beginner I would have been a bit lost because there were not diagrams of every step. I have yet to see it on my granddaughter but I think it will be pretty cute and I will probably make some more!

It's December!

It's December and it's nearly Christmas! It was Mr 21's birthday and we had a party. (It never seems that Christmas is near until after his birthday) This is Mr 22 with his sister Miss 18. His darling wife was interstate for work so we had the pleasure of his company for his birthday. (She is a hard working woman!) Mrs 26 (picklesticks) baked two triple ginger ginger cakes which were delicious! This year has really flown by and here we are at the end of it already!