Secret Sewing = A Bag

This is the result of my secret sewing I mentioned a week or so ago. It is an across the body bag I made for my daughter's birthday. (Miss 20 is now Miss 21. Gosh time flies!!!) She doesn't have it yet, but it is on it's way so I thought I would show it to you.

I used about 5 or 6 pieces from a layer cake. (This is homecoming) I am really quite pleased with it.

I put the words on here because my daughter's hometown is printed on them. (See the "Adelaide" on the top row!)

This is the back and then the inside is below. A pocket for a mobile phone and a zipped pocket are essentials in every bag I make. I hope she likes it!

Affinity

It's interesting just how children have favourites, even amongst their families. Granddaughter is quite fond of her uncle, my Mr 10. This is them last weekend.

I had an early start to the day today which has put me in a contemplative mood I think. My world is very quiet at 5am on a Saturday morning. I managed to do some sewing which I really enjoyed. I didn't manage to finish anything today, but did manage to start something new. (How did that happen?) Maybe it's just because there are so many ideas in my head fighting to get out. Or maybe I'm really flighty and not that good at concentrating! Today I was working on putting my blue/green Tis the Season quilt top together, making a table runner with some of my red Tis the Season blocks, and I started some new half square triangles which I am not sure of right now, but which will end up going somewhere I am sure.

I also got some more fabric this morning. (Hooray! Just the one I was looking for!) And a charm pack. (Hence the new project!) After the lovely lot of sewing I did today I am looking forward to spending some time tomorrow sewing, but first I need to get some sleep!

Slow week

We have had a slow week here. My Bradley and I were discussing it last night. He believes it is the result of spending last weekend with so many of our awesome favourite people (our kids!) and then their departures back to their own lives and city. It could be that. It could also be the fact that every girl in this house had PMS this week. Or a bit of both. Maybe it was the migraines. Anyway, it was a slow week.

I managed to finish the stitching for my second TTS (Some are in the photo above with the fabric I am using.) and started to border the redwork squares. I promptly ran out of fabric (Not sure what I was thinking when I bought that fabric!) and so am hoping to find some more at Foothills Fabric and Threads this morning. (Cross your fingers for me!) Off to get ready and hit the fabric shop!

The middle of a long weekend...

... which makes this weekend sound boring and tedious, but it is anything but. We are celebrating the Queen's birthday this weekend with a public holiday Monday. Picklesticks decided to come to Melbourne for the long weekend with grandson and granddaughter. They arrived with Miss 24 on Thursday. Then the early hours of this morning saw Mr 22 and his bride arrive with Miss 19 along for the ride. So almost everyone is here visiting with us this weekend. I made pasties (Veggie pasties and lamb and carrot pasties) for dinner. Haven't made so many pasties for a long time!

A Great Day!

I have been playing with fabric today. Hometown by Sweet Water actually. I just love it. I have been making something hush, hush (can't show you cause she reads my blog!) which has to be finished tomorrow. We'll see!

I also found out today that several of our kids are road tripping it to our house this weekend. Two groups of them independent of each other! We will have a house full on the weekend, but will have a blast I'm sure! Off to bed now so that I can sew happily tomorrow!

Stitching!

I have been stitching! I packed my second Tis the Season up and took it to Adelaide in case I had some time in between playing with the grandchildren and the children. I traced it out months ago, but I think I was all TTSed out. I stitched a couple of these in Adelaide last week and I am in love with it all over again. Plus, it is cold and raining here so the attraction of the heater and my stitching is mighty strong. Not much else is happening here. I did stick some pins into my new pincushion. And wrote a list or two. And went out a lot to do the chores and errands that pile up when you go away for the week. Hopefully tomorrow I will have a day at home with my sewing machine!

Home again.

My boys and I drove home to Melbourne from Adelaide on Friday. I am getting to know that road really well. Most of the day was sunny, with a little rain around Bordertown SA. I spent yesterday recovering. I find there's nothing like sitting doing nothing in a car to make you tired!

I came home from Adelaide with a new pincushion. A Bliss pincushion in fact that picklesticks made for me. It is heavenly. Number one because I just love Bliss. Number two because she always makes such pretty things. And number three because I didn't have one! Miss 24 went to Adelaide to visit under her own steam and when picklesticks professed a desire to make a pincushion Miss 24 encouraged her to make one for me because I keep knocking my pin tin off the table! (I know! Who knew I was so clumsy, but I am!) I don't know whether I will continually knock the pincushion off the table, but I know if I do it will be a lot easier to pick up!

Yesterday at the Patchwork Apple (It's June!)

Yesterday was my first trip to the new (old) Patchwork Apple. Living in Melbourne now would have something to do with that. Jane shut her shop in Woodside in February and has moved it to her home on Tiers Road Lenswood where she is open two days a week, Tuesday and Wednesday, from 9:30am to 6pm. The path above is the path to her shop. This is where the Patchwork Apple started out 17 years ago and where I used to visit Jane regularly all that time ago! Jane and I marvelled that it was so long ago! The first time I walked this path I was carrying my tiny little son (now 6'4") and yesterday I carried my tiny little granddaughter. Then, just as we were leaving, Jane's tiny little granddaughter arrived with her Mummy! Gosh time flies.

This is the door of the new shop. Jane (and her able-bodied helpers) has built a new shop on the side of her house. In true Jane style it is very pretty. (She has such a talent for making everything look beautiful!) Lots of windows too - light is so important!

A peek into the shop. Picklesticks and I managed to have a lovely time looking at all Jane's fabrics and even managed to buy some to take home with us!

Oh. And it's June. Ready or not, it's June. Goals for this month? To sew clothes and finish off a couple of quilts. And I want to stitch. Do-able? I think so!

Going for a drive

Everytime we go for a drive through Melbourne we see hot air balloons. This time we were ready for them and managed to capture them just before they were out of sight.

And this is what was waiting for us at the end of our drive. Picklesticks with granddaughter(s).

And Grandson with Jane's birdbath in the front garden of the "new" Patchwork Apple at Lenswood. It was such a pretty day today and we had so much fun!

Done

Done. Finally done. A bigger version of the wrap around cardigan for granddaughter. Same yarn as the one I made for the new baby so the sisters can be matchy matchy. I did a different edging on this one. And now I am off for a drive to deliver this to my sweet granddaughter.

Melbourne

Miss 14's concert was in the city. We have lived here in Melbourne for some four months now, but haven't ventured into the city much. It was all quite pretty on a dark and rainy Thursday night and I couldn't resist taking some photos. Those are my men in the last photo. Mr 17, Mr 10, and my Bradley. Miss 14 was already in the concert building being nervous while we got to have a look around.

Thursday night excitement.

I meant to post this yesterday (Friday), not sure what got in the way. The last couple of weeks have been full of clarinet playing, rehearsals and sound checks for Miss 14. She had the opportunity to play in the Eastern Region Youth Concert. For some reason it completely clashed with her exams, but she participated anyway and had a wonderful time. She played in the 88 strong Concert Band and they sounded great. She has never done anything like this before so it was a special experience. Oh. She is the one in the blue beret. What can I say? She's an individual. It was a fantastic night. There were over 700 people performing from 53 schools. Awesome.

This was interval and a bored Mr 10 and Mr 17. Lucky we have phones! We got home at 11:45pm and I was tired on Friday morning. Miss 14 however got herself up, readied herself for school and said goodbye to me on her way across the road to her ride for school. She did crash when she got home though. She was fast asleep by 6:30pm. (Well she had had two catchup exams that day.) So what was the final outcome? Miss 14 had a wonderful time, a new experience and developed a clarinet callous.

It's the little things in life that make all the difference.

This is the baby's coat I have been working on. It is from one of Simplicity Patterns' vintage range. I love that they have introduced a vintage range. This is from a layette pattern which includes a dress, petticoat, and booties. I am all about dressing babies in a vintage manner. I love that babies all used to wear "nighties" no matter their sex for the first few months. It seems infinitely sensible to me and something I did for babies number 6, 7 and 8. Long live nighties! The coat is a soft green, but not quite as pale as my photo would have you believe.

The coat itself is finished and I am just working on embellishing it with a little embroidery. I was having a chat with Miss 24 the other day and we were discussing how it is the little extras in life that make all the difference. Nice to have a coat, even nicer to have an embellished one. What are the little things that make a difference in your life?

My Interest?

Mother's day Roses courtesy of Katie

Has been completely captured by pinterest. It's really just a place on the web to keep all those photos you love best in groups. You can also look at what others love best and group together. It is a visual feast and I love it.

I was having a bit of a slow ho hum kind of day today and this afternoon after realising that I haven't accomplished anything today I figured I would just spend the rest of the day pinning things on pinterest. If I haven't done anything worthwhile I might as well have a lovely time, right? I spent a couple of hours doing just that. (The first time I had ever heard of pinterest it was a comment from someone who claimed it was a time thief. This is true. For me it equates to playing simcity, a game I love but rarely play because it vapourises time before your very eyes. I remember having a new baby, feeding the baby, playing ten minutes or so of simcity and the baby being ravenous again. I wondered what was wrong with the baby and then realised that the ten minutes was actually four hours and ravenous was exactly right. Since that epiphany I have rarely played simcity, but I don't have babies now so I figured pinterest might be a bit of fun!) Then I had to do some chores (picking up the daughter from school, picking up the car from the mechanics, you know the sort of things) and now it's not working! So much for my time waster! Maybe I might just get the old simcity out.......

A cutting table.

See the really annoying thing about not having your furniture is not having your furniture really. We miss our couches all the time. (We love to be comfy!) This last week though I have really been missing my tables. I have had cutting out to do and no table to do it at. Okay. I do have a card table, but it's just not the same. (Why are card tables always concave? Is it so that you won't lose anything off of it whilst camping?) So today the frustration boiled over and ended in a trip to Bunnings. (Hardware store) I was all set to buy a trestle table. Fifty dollars. I took my Bradley with me (He's so good in hardware stores, it's cruel to go to one without taking him along.) and after we had checked out the trestle tables he decided we should look at the other options. This option cost just $88 and resulted in a 90cm high bench that is just perfect for cutting out. Even better is the fact that it takes just moments to slot together and moments again to come apart. It is from the storage area of the store and is intended for use in a garage or workshop I think. Nevertheless it is perfect for my sewing room! It is also adjustable, so if I wanted a standard 75cm high desk to sit and sew at it can do that too.

And yes, I cut something out. Just one thing though. Haven't really justified it's $88 price tag yet. I'm sure that before the week is out though I will have cut out lots of things!

The sewing of the knitting.

Two cotton cardigans that picklesticks has knitted and I have sewn up.. The blue/green one is interesting because it is knitted in one piece! The white one had quite a big gaping neckline so I added some crochet to it.

Sewing Result

I did get some sewing done today. This is a nightie for our new granddaughter. I also managed to finish crocheting the cardigan for the old granddaughter, but haven't started to put it together yet. I will have to get busy because Miss 24 is planning a drive to Adelaide soon and she can do a delivery for me!

This jumper is the work of Mrs 26 (picklesticks.) She is a wonderful knitter, but really dislikes sewing up her creations. So, the last time I was in Adelaide I grabbed a bunch to sew up and finish off for her. I'm not much on the knitting, but I quite like sewing knitting up! (Call me weird!) I think tomorrow will be another day of sewing here. I'm looking forward to it!

Sewing update.

new stretch fabric

Well, I had all sorts of plans for this week, but so far none have come to fruition. Tonight I read a very interesting post by Shay here, in which she details a breakdown of the 168 hours she had last week and what she did with them. I wasn't even aware that there were 168 hours in a week. (Had to use the calculator to make sure that was the right number. And I thought the double maths I did in high school would never be of any use to me in my life!) But her post (funny and thought provoking all at the same time) has made me think. I have 168 hours a week! That's a lot! I might see if I can harness some of them for good.

So, there hasn't been a lot of sewing so far this week, but I have done plenty of other things. I have shopped for fabric and haberdashery which is essential and quite fun! Shopped for food. (It's strange I know, but my children really need to eat every day and expect food in the house.) I have taken my ten year old to a homeschool activity and homeschooled him as well. I have done my visiting teaching. (You can read about visiting teaching here if you'd like to know more.) I have transported my 14 year old to and from rehearsals for the concert she will be in next week. I have prepared food and cleaned the kitchen. (Isn't that a job that needs doing over and over again!) And transported my 24 year old to and from various medical professionals. That's pretty well done considering it's only Wednesday! Of course I have also slept, watched tv and spent time on the computer. I'm not denying those things, just not dwelling on them!!!

The next two days are earmarked for sewing and I have the opportunity to stay home! I love to stay home. It is a wonderful place! I hope your Thursday is as fun as mine will be!!!

Dinner last night.

A pot of stock bubbling along on the stove makes your house smell wonderful. Yesterday I had bacon bones boiling to create my famous bacon and vegetable soup. It turned out to be lovely soup. I used bacon bones, carrot, celery, onion, and water to make the stock. Drain. Then put sweet potato, potato, carrot, zucchini and broccoli into the stock and cook till tender. Then zshush. Yum. My Bradley helped me prepare the vegetables and then had a great idea. Scones to go with it. I wasn't too keen until I worked out that he meant to make them. They were delicious and every kid demanded an encore! So hopefully he will be making some scones tonight to go with some jam and cream we just happen to have.

Sewing list this week (are you a list maker?)

I have done quite a bit of sewing here since I got my new table. I am working on some baby clothes for the new grandchild. That has been interspersed with some crocheting on the cardigan I am making (One sleeve left to go!) It has been a fun week! Not many finishes though. I am about to write a list for next week. Are you a list maker? I always used to be a hardcore list maker, but they have gone by the by here of late. Hmm... the first list for a long time. Let's see if that makes a difference!

Two quilt tops in the making.

Some of you may remember that I am to become a grandmother again later this year. We know the sex of the baby and I picked up an appropriate charm pack from Hettie's Patch a couple of visits to Adelaide ago. I think it is Pom Pom de something? By French General. Anyway, when I was in Foothill Fabric and Threads more recently I saw that they had some of the same range so I bought some to go with my charm pack. Then I thought about it. I decided to make half square triangles and had a layout in my head, but didn't like that once I placed it on the floor. Tonight I arranged this layout and I think this is the one I will go with. I'm still deciding if I want borders. I will probably go with borders because I don't think this quilt will be big enough otherwise.
These are my finished Tis the Season blocks. They are put together like this in Natalie Bird's book. I am thinking sashing and corner stones and maybe some flying geese borders? Lol! Can you tell I have fabric left? I did go to Spotlight yesterday to get some homespun, but they didn't have any! Well, ok. They had brown. This so is not a brown quilt!!! Anyway. I'm still thinking about it. More sewing tomorrow I think. Sweet dreams!

I sewed!

So, proof that my new table is really good. I finished three more "Tis the Season" blocks tonight and cut the borders for the last six. It was so much fun and I can see this quilt being finished in the next month or so.

Woven fabric and a place to sit.

This woven fabric is something I was working on in February I'm pretty sure. I got it out today because I needed some pins and there were a lot stuck in here.

I finished sewing it together and took the pins out. The fabric feels great! I love quilt tops. Partly because piecing is my favourite bit I think. But even though I am a topper of some renown, I must admit that there is nothing like the feeling you get when you get all three layers of a quilt together. They don't even have to be quilted to feel wonderful. Basting will do it. That's how this fabric feels. It is destined to become a bag. Still not close, but I have had a real block with sewing of late. Hand stitching, no problem, but machine sewing just never seemed to happen unless it "had to". I think this was because I just had a camp chair and table for my sewing. (Still no furniture here. We are all missing our stuff so much!) That was, until I went to Ikea.

A $49 chair from "as-is" and a $39 table. Sewing today has been sooooo much easier! That camping table was waaaaay too low!

I also got some "shelves" to store the ever-growing amount of sewing stuff I am accumulating. I am trying not to buy things, but I need stuff! (You know. Scissors, pins, tape measure, thread..... just the basics.) So, I am back in sewing mode having improved my environment. Back to the sewing.

My Granddaughter's cardigan and some Mother's day musings.

Not that it would keep her very warm at the moment. It's a little sparse. For those regular, observant readers, yes! This is the same yarn and pattern I used for the new baby's cardigan. These two sisters will be "matchy matchy". I love that and so does their Mum (picklesticks) so it's all good! Crocheting this matchy matchy cardigan has made me think about my Mum and being a new Mum myself. Appropriate, because it's Mother's day this weekend.

An eon or two ago my Mum made matchy matchy outfits for me and picklesticks, and then for my oldest girls and then for the middle girls. It seems so very long ago now! My sister, brother and I grew up with Mum making most of our clothes. I loved it because I loved the clothes she made for me and also because I loved to sit and watch her create. I spent hours watching her sew. I remember the rooms her sewing desk was in with fondness. I also remember watching her knit for us. Mum's knitting seemed to herald winter for me. I love winter. (You can keep that disgusting HOT weather! I love the cooler months.) Just the word winter conjures up visions of a gas heater, rain on the windows, and my Mum knitting. I think that my Mother definitely had an effect on my own creating. However, if you didn't spend hours watching your Mum sew whilst growing up it doesn't mean you won't be able to sew! (Just watching doesn't do it. You have to practice, practice, practise!) I watched my Mum knit and I am not a knitter!

Which brings me back to the cardigan. I am a crocheter and I am really enjoying this pattern. It's from this cute as book which I picked up at Lincraft. Anyway, back to the making!

Do you mend/alter clothes?

I do. It seems to be the only way to get anything that fits! This is a school skirt belonging to the girl across the road. (Yes! We know our neighbours here and actually interact with them! Well, ok. Just the ones across the road.) Her Mum bought it secondhand and it needed the hem down and taking in. The hem was easy to do. (That's all her sister's skirt needed so I did that skirt before I went to Adelaide.) The taking in required much reverse sewing on my part, but it's done now! This was all good practice for me because Miss 14 will get her new skirt this week and it will need altering too! When the skirts come new they are very long, but just about every girl wears them short, short, short! Why is this? This is the winter uniform too. A longer skirt would keep you warm. A mini skirt? Not so much. Common sense just isn't what it used to be.

So, do you mend or alter clothes at your house?

Meaning Through Making (It's May!)

It's May! I finished up April with a visit to Adelaide. It was a short, sharp, shiny visit. Two days driving (there and back) and two days visiting (staying with picklesticks). It takes me 9 hours driving to get from here to there, if I really concentrate. Longer if I don't. I don't mind the drive really. It's an opportunity to think. Of course, I do like to distract myself with a talking book or music, but there are times when that gets old and I think. This trip I pondered my last post and the comments I received. You know, expectations of what you will achieve and then the reality. And what was the outcome of all that thinking? Well, despite the fact that I say that finishes are the important part of all this making I do, they're actually not.

Miss 14 making.

For me it is the process. I want the outcome, and I like the outcome, but the process is really what gives me joy. So, as long as I am involved in a part of the process daily, I am happy. And really, that's what it's all about for me. I craft because it makes me happy. The meaning I find through making is happiness. Now that I have worked this out why am I telling you? Well, of late the focus of my blog has been finishes. I want to blog more often. Mostly for me. I love to read myself - vain obviously - it helps me to make sense of things I think, but I just don't have enough finishes to warrant an increase in posts. So my blog's focus has to change. I think my new focus will be making. Just letting you know. Got to get back to my making!