It’s all yellow

 

 

I’ve got the week off work to study for an exam next Monday, but I’ve already got cabin fever.  I decided to visit some 2nd hand shops and a fabric shop so I could get out of the house for a while.

 

First stop scored me the piece of yellow wool blanketing for $2.  Next stop was East Coast Fabrics to see what they had to offer.  The ducks just appealed to me, and I spied another lady buying the dotty fabric as I walked in and made sure I got a bit too.  The happy elephant piece was on the remnant table for $1.

 

 

I also bought a bit of this – the colour is actually a pale pink but it’s not a good day for pics today.  But look at the selvedge – tears every 5 cm or so, and into the fabric not just the selvedge.  Lucky it was cheap, because I’m going to lose a bit of width from that piece. 

Another find at the Salvo’s – a kit to make a toddler’s pinafore.  I don’t actually know any little girls, so I’ll hang on to it for now.  Looks pretty easy to make up.

 

 

And this – a kit to make a felt fox. It’s doesn’t look like any fox I’ve ever seen (I thought it was a cat, but what would I know?).  Not opened, so all the bits are there.

 

Back to reading Life Span Human Development. 

long time no blog....

been busy - work, uni, stuff. I've still been sewing, just not keeping a record. Here are a couple of things I have on the go.

First - a car mat that I made based on this free pattern from Fiskars. I don't have any little boys at my house, so this is for the Toy Society.

For the last couple of weeks when I am driving to work, I see a man and a little boy sitting on a low wall at the end of my street. I saw them in the same spot, just sitting and watching the early morning traffic. I imagine the little boy likes cars and trucks - one morning I did notice the grandfather doing the horn tooting arm signal at a truck that was going past, so I think that is the reason they are sitting there. I left this on the wall where they sit - someone else might pick it up, but I really hope that little boy found it.
I dropped this off last night - trying not to be seen by the passing cars. This morning as I drove past I saw the man and little boy sitting on the wall, not far from where I had left this. They hadn't seen it yet as it was still where I had left it. I stopped to check this afternoon and it was gone. Maybe I'll find out who found it. Maybe I won't.

See that little red hotwheels car? I was doing the grocery shopping and they had a basket of them in the middle of the aisle, so I picked one and put it in the trolley. My son - 20, and way too old to play with (toy) cars - was with me. He unpacked the groceries onto the counter for me and held up the car wanting to know why I was buying it. I told him it was for a project. Being used to my "projects" this answer was enough for him. As the shopping was being scanned, the checkout lady held it up and asked if the car was for him. I told her he was being a very good boy that day :-)



Very fast quilt project in progress. I made a ton of hourglass miracle blocks - they are so easy I don't know why I didn't know about it before. I think the deserve their own post. I swapped a bunch of 5inch squares with friends and we are all making a version. I am way ahead on this one because I was so obsessed with sewing the blocks. Plus I love white in quilts at the moment - I've never really used much white so this is a big change for me. I'm looking forward to quilting it because the quilting will be so visible (I've done a lot of the ditch sewing already, just need to work out the border bits).

This is an oddly wonderful scarf that a friend of mine was given. You can't see the best bit in this picture - a fringe of green pom poms. It also has the weirdest colour combination: lime, rust, a teal green/blue and lavender. Yes, Lavender (you can see a bit at the top). Odd, but strangely appealing. I took this pic with the ambition of creating my own version, which I have started but haven't got any pics of yet.

Day off tomorrow. yay!

2010

I found Christmas very overwhelming - so am very glad it's done with now. I try to keep my participation to a minimum because I find it so stressful, and while it helps, I cannot avoid presents/lunches with colleagues/Secret Santas/shopping etc completely. But I gave it a really good try - I have bought less this year than I ever have and do not have a huge credit card bill to look forward to (well, no huge-er than usual).

I also decided to make gifts this year instead of buying. I don't seem to have any pictures of the goods, though. I made tea towels (waffle weave with a band of fabric across) and pot holders in co-ordinating fabrics. Hundreds of them, it seemed. All given away, along with a selection of cranberry and white chocolate shortbread, gingerbread trees and cowboy cookies. Of which I did take pictures.



The idea for these is from Bakerella. I did try a batch with M&M's, but I didin't like the way they looked when I cooked them - the M&M's melted and looked too "messy". Plus, you can't get the only pink packs in Australia. I had to make a couple of test batches (because the US measurements are different to here) and make adjustments to make sure they would work. Luckily, I have a boy (and his mates) to eat all the test runs. I used walnuts instead of pecans, and added more chocolate chips.



I'm still going with the Joseph's Coat quilt, but I want to see how the blocks are joined together before I do much more. Not terribly happy with how this is going together, it doesn't seem to fit very well and I'm not sure if it's my drafting or sewing that is the problem. Seriously thinking of changing to machine applique instead. We'll see.



I have been home from work for a week, and still have another week to go. I'd been planning in my head a new quilt project (something with hand applique, so it's portable). Started it, got bored, moved onto something else. ( I'll get back to it when sewing starts up again and I need something to take with me)


Underneath all that fur is my new project - pinwheel blocks in 4 sizes. I just wanted to do a lot of machine piecing, and a pinwheel border on a quilt caught my eye. Easy, mindless sewing of triangles. And I want to use stuff I already have and not buy more fabric.

Coco is going in to be clipped on Monday - her coat is getting matted and she won't let me near her with a grooming implement of any sort. She looks like a shorn sheep when all the hair comes off. A shorn sheep with fur boots on.

ps - this position perfectly blocks the lower third of the TV from my line of sight when I am in my recliner. Coincidence? I think not.

Notes to Self

Read the Instructions. All of them.

Do not make assumptions re block assembly and finishing.


Because if I had read all of the instructions properly, I would have known to not sew down the outside of the petals. No great loss - this can be my practice block.

Anyway..... I'm not sure of what's going wrong here - I think my templates might be too big because they are not fitting together very well. I'm also having a problem with the pointy ends not being very pointy, which makes it hard to fit things together. Think I'll have to try drafting another template that makes allowance for the fabric bulk that you get where the fabric folds over.

Joseph's Coat

I'm joining Kelli and 185 others (so far) for the Joseph's Coat Quilt Along. I've been gathering fabrics together, and got the rest of the requirements together as well. I didn't think I had a lot of pink/red fabrics, so I started buying, then I looked through stuff I already had and found plenty more. I guess it won't go to waste. I hoping to get some quilting friends to start one as well, so maybe we will be able to swap fabrics.


I don't usually applique by hand, so this will be a nice change of pace. I had most of the sewing supplies, except for a sandpaper board for tracing fabric on. I've seen the Clover ones. They're very expensive!! I figured I could make one for myself without too much effort. Here's mine - a sheet of fine sandpaper, an MDF placemat, some thermal batting, and a bit of fabric and felt. I glued the thermal fleece on the back, so it can be used for ironing, and then covered it with fabric, glued the sandpaper down and added a piece of felt that covers the sandpaper when its not being used. (The peg is holding the corner down while the glue dries a bit more)



I'm pretty happy with the result. I think some quilting friends will be getting these for Christmas.

Cake = Fail

The Plan:

A Dolly Varden birthday cake for a friend's birthday. Easy enough - I have the tin for the cake, and I have made one before, so this should be no problem.

Then it gets complicated. I decide that instead of butter cake, I will make white chocolate mud cake. I look at the packet mixes, decide that the ingredients are cheaper to buy and go with that option. 3 blocks of white chocolate, much butter and flour and eggs are melted, mixed and poured into waiting tins.

The Result:



Ugh.

I hadn't used this recipe before, so obviously it is not a good one. The batter was very runny, and just exploded over the top of the tin (thank goodness I had it on another tray, or it all would have ended up on the bottom of the oven. I had to throw the tray out). Still, it might have been OK when I turned it out.

Nope. It disintegrated. It tasted alright, but couldn't be salvaged. Bugger.


So, onto a new cake. With time running short, I forgot about the fancy ideas and went with a basic butter cake. To make it even easier, I bought packet mixes.

Result No 2:



It's all good - didn't over flow the tin, turned out in one piece, decorated and ready for the birthday girl.

Lessons Learnt:

ALWAYS make a practice cake, especially for untried recipes. I usually do this, and teenage boys eat the excess cake for me. (They also eat all the leftover decorations, they're considerate like that). They actually ate the failed cake, too, so it wasn't a complete waste.

Jacaranda

Everywhere I look - Jacarandas in full bloom. A bit early this year because of the warm temperatures and lack of rain, apparently.

This one is outside the Regatta Hotel on Coro drive.