Next stop...Kent

I told you it was birthday season here.

Tomorrow is not only my own boy's birthday, but two years and a few minutes later a good friend of mine had her own son.  This red t-shirt with big red bus applique is heading his way.  There is a strong family connection to the UK so the double decker bus will not be lost on his Mum and Dad either.

I have to say a big thanks to Sarah from Cotton Kiwi and Gret from A Little Red Ribbon for their assistance with all things t-shirt applique.  After a lot of trembling and trepidation on my behalf they gave me all the tips and encouragement and in the end it worked out beautifully.

Slowly but surely

Little Sofia was born over in the UK a few weeks ago and she has been patiently waiting for me to send her a welcome gift.  A quilt for her has been slowly coming along in the background of all my other sewing projects.  In the bargain I got to do a little stash busting for the quilt top, but I now have 3.5 metres of hand stitching to do to complete the edge binding.  Hello couch and lots of cups of tea!

Alphabet Tuesday: U is for Umbrella

A very big black one.  With a very pointy spike on top.

This is very apt for this week here as it has been bucketing down rain for a few days now.  Everything is verging on U for Underwater.  I hope it clears up soon as I have party plans for the local park this coming weekend, thank you very much Mr Weather! 

If it doesn't get sunny soon I may as well be pulling out the wet weather boots too.  Cross your fingers for me, will you?

Tickled pink

We went to a party on the weekend for a little four year old girl who "likes anything pink".  Although this probably describes most four year old girls I took the suggestion seriously and used a Little Bird pattern for an A-line skirt, to sew up a pink polka dot skirt for her.

With a bit of ric rac trim for good measure!

It was the kind of pattern with the helpful instructions to measure the child's waist and subtract 2cm for the waist elastic length.  Now if I was running around daycare measuring waist lines I would probably be getting myself arrested in the bargain, so I took the punt that if the waist was about the same as a pair of size 4 boys tracksuit pants then I am probably not far off the mark. Hopefully I will get the pleasure of seeing her wearing it, um, being a perfect fit, of course.

Know me, know my books - part 2

 

Mm, this post is a little behind in time to what my intentions were.  Life has been pretty hectic here, lots of sewing going on (its birthday party season), and when I get down time I seem to be napping on the couch. 

But because a promise is a promise, I am going to finally show you my second frame of Penguin book covers.

• The Great Gatsby - F. Scott Fitzgerald again, this one really is a great book though.  I read it a long time ago but I don't think we actually own a copy, must order one some day.
• Penguin Plays by Oscar Wilde - I just love the titles of two of these plays: "A Woman of No Importance" and "An Ideal Husband" - neither of which are relevant to us... 
• Nineteen Eighty-Four - well this is a classic book isn't it so how could I leave it out?  I have to admit I am not sure if I have actually read it from start to finish.  All I know is that in 1984 I was in Grade 3 at school...
• Scootering - my husband has a motorbike licence and would love a scooter, I won't let him....yet
• The Buildings of England - he's an architect, and I am half British so this is a nice little merger of the two of us
• Lady Chatterley's Lover - again I haven't actually read it, would like to one day I think, but isn't the cover artwork sublime!
• Flying Dutchman - without having an actual drop of Dutch blood in the family my husband and my little boy are Dutch nationals (long story).  My husband loves to travel, so this book cover sums him up perfectly
• Plats du Jour or Foreign Food: A Penguin Handbook - we are lucky to have a lot of different food influences in our household - Australian and eastern and western European. I love the idea of a "handbook" for foreign food, I wonder what was written between the covers of this book.
• The Garden Party - living in Brisbane means that all good parties are outdoors!
• John Lennon - my husband is a huge Beatles fan, and I think they are pretty alright too
• Aircraft Recognition - no we are not plane spotters but we do a lot of travelling in planes courtesy of having interstate and international relatives, and our little boy loves the airport and talking about and playing with planes.  We are plane people you could say.
• Together - because we are

Don't forget, if you want to make your own book cover display you can purchase the Postcards from Penguin here, and read the tutorial on how to frame them here.

Alphabet Tuesday: T is for Toadstool

I had a few guesses for what the picture for T might be: a turtle? a tomato?

No, a toadstool.  I have been waiting with anticipation to get around to sewing this toadstool - oh so much fun.  I made this one out of felt, I wanted a tactile toadstool.  It certainly looks cute, but definitely not edible.

My Creative Space: Pocket, or not?

Today in my creative space I am going to be basically sitting back and considering adding a pocket to this top that I made on Monday. 

I made the pocket, pinned it on ready to sew...then took it off and wore the top pocket-less yesterday.  Still thinking about if I like the pocket idea or not.  Does it look too much like a little girls' top with the pocket? 

My other idea instead of the pocket is to add a  narrow trim to the lower edge in the floral fabric.  I have managed to identify the fabric as Amy Butler Morning Glory and I found a few websites where I can get more of it.  A trim would be a more conservative addition to the top.  You can tell I am a bit on the conservative side as I am hestitating about the pocket...

What do you think?  Fun pocket, or serious trim?  I would love to hear your opinions.

Head on over to Kootoyoo for all the fun of Creative Space.

Know me, know my books - part 1

I am the first to admit that I keep the amount of personal information on this blog fairly minimal.  I started it out as strictly a crafting blog, but I have come to realise that doesn't mean you can't or shouldn't talk about your life and the folks and events that make it special.  Some of the blogs I love to read the most have perfected the balance between crafting fun and personal stories - I have been moved to tears by stories I have read, equally moved with joy by other stories, and of course endlessly inspired by the creativity out there.  Now I have been writing here for over a year I think I feel comfortable to relax a bit and talk more about me (hey, I'm a Cancarian, tough outer shell and all that...)

I have finished my book art project and seeing as I selected book titles that were relevant to our lives and/or meant something to me I thought I would share them with you.  Maybe you like some of these too!  So without further ado, here are the titles that are contained in the first frame.

• Sailing - my husband loves to sail, and he nearly sailed out of my life not long after I met him, lucky he came back.
• The Catcher in the Rye - one of my husbands favourite books
• Modern Architecture - one of us is an architect
• Our Man in Havana - I love spy novels, and we would love to travel to Cuba one day (obviously not as spies though)
• Creativity in Industry - I love the cover art of the squiggly smoke stacks
• The Penguin Knitting Book - in homage to my crafty ways
• The Big Sleep - we both love Raymond Chandler novels, and I am a champion sleeper
• New Biology - one of us is a biologist/science teacher
• The Body in the Library - you can't go past a good Agatha Christie mystery
• Tender is the Night - this book has a nice title, which is why I chose it, but I think the novel itself by F. Scott Fitzgerald is fairly bleak.
• Thinking to Some Purpose - way too much thinking is done around this house, sometimes I wish I could turn my brain down a notch
• As You Like It - a good old Shakespeare play - we are lucky to have a life pretty much "as we like it"

Stay tuned, there is one more frame to show you.

Alphabet Tuesday : S is for Sailor

Attention! Alphabet Tuesday is back with a salute from this little sailor man.

There's a Dick Bruna book all about him - he goes on a voyage in his smart new ship, ends up in the Arctic where the Eskimos live, has fish stew with them in their igloo, has a snooze and then heads off home again.

If only it was that easy, he doesn't even take a pair of gloves, or a change of underwear...

OK, seven letters left to go, I am slightly afraid of V and really not sure how I am going to do Z, but the next one for T is easy.  Can you guess what it is?

My Creative Space: Party!

My delicious, gorgeous, funny little boy is "getting four" really soon.  So party time is my creative space for today.  We are making plans, writing lists...and making party hats.  Late yesterday we both pulled a pile of materials from the cupboard and I did a test run last night, both teddy and the boy were suitably impressed with the results this morning (although the party boy wants his made from rocket fabric...)


So thats one hat down, about ten to go. My other (grown up) half asked me while I was still half asleep this morning if I was seriously going to make ten hats - "Let's see" I vaguely replied. I should have bounced up out of bed saying "HELL YES! I'm gonna do it."

First: buy a mother load of interfacing....

Thanks to the lovely Curlypops for the awesome idea and tutorial.

Head on over to Kootoyoo for the festival of creative space!

Crafty musings

Hold onto your hats, a strange thing happened to me yesterday.  I went to the fabric store and bought nothing.  I wandered around looking at this and that, even contemplated some new pillows for the bedroom, but couldn't decided on those either (too much choice, surely a Western consumerist affliction).  I left empty handed, it felt strange.

I was actually looking for a match for the fabric at the bottom of the above photo.  Its a difficult grey/blue/green colour and it looks good with navy blue, but coming into summer I wasn't sure I wanted to make navy blue anything.  Then there was navy blue, and navy blue.  I have a large piece of "navy blue" broadcloth at home (labeled as such when I bought it), but its the wrong navy, not dark enough and verging towards a dark royal blue.  But the "lighter" shade does go well with a bit of kimono fabric I have...a skirt panel instead perhaps?

So to move away from my issues with shades of blue I started to make a pink summer top.  I cut out the front panel from some pink fabric I picked up from the op shop, but when I ironed it I realised that it was a bit old and there were a few marks on the fabric. It was really suited to a skirt lining or a softie, not the front of a new shirt. 

I spent some time making these two-tone sleeves from fabric remnants in my stash.  I like the combination very much.  After rejecting the pink shirt option I pulled out a large piece of cream homespun from the cupboard.  Not a bad match with the pink sleeves, but it needed a pre-wash so I was really going nowhere fast with the shirt making...

I then decided I really wanted to put a band of the floral fabric around the bottom edge of the shirt-to-be, but I had used it all up.  I spent some time on the internet tracking down the shop where I bought the scrap of fabric a few weeks ago...I am still in communications with them as to what it might have been called.  Has anyone seen that fabric anywhere?  As you can tell I am not in a hurry for an answer considering the go-slow zone around here.