Monday 29 July 2013

Buttons and More Buttons

I stumbled across this wonderful button shop in the rocks area of Sydney yesterday.
So many buttons and such cool ones!







Their website doesn't work unfortunately.  They really need to sort that out so people can order them online!

Friday 26 July 2013

Trying to Finish Things

I really thought I would get my hexagon log cabins quilt finished at long last this week but it wasn't to be.
I've got the binding machine sewed on but am in the process of hand sewing it onto the back.  This always takes longer than you think in my experience.
I was halfway through machine sewing the binding on when my sewing machine needle bent.  I didn't have another because this is the second sewing machine needle I have bent in the 23 years I have owned my machine.  Does anyone think that is good going or just plain weird?  or normal??  I have read that you should change the needle after every project and I cannot for the life of me work out why.  That needle didn't appear to be incredibly blunt or adversely affect what I was sewing or my experience of using the machine.
I have borrowed two needles from my good friend Suzy from rugrat rodeos,  the star.  This allowed me to at least get the binding on yesterday.
So as I will have to show you that another week I thought I would show you the pirate blanket I made for my little boy.  He loves it and it is currently being used as the floor for our latest 'den', which is some large sheets of cardboard taped together.  He uses it a lot for different things which is very cute.
I hand sewed the blocks and machine sewed them together using the black sashing.  Then machine quilted in the ditch but only on each side of the sashing so it doesn't have much quilting.  The binding is scrappy and a mix of all the fabrics used in the quilt.  I bought far too much of these fabrics so the backing is thick stripes of about 5 of the fabrics used.
When I made this quilt with eight 16 patch blocks I did not know how fast you could machine sew this block!  This quilt is a much loved one so I am so happy with it.

Wednesday 24 July 2013

Tablet Case WIP

My dad has requested a tablet case because he just got a new samsung tablet.  He specified he didn't want girlie colours.  Well, I have tried my hardest there.  My stash is mostly pink and girlie!
He has the same tablet as I do so I am using my case as a rough template for size.
The fabric squares are from avalon from moda and they came from a charm pack.
I sewed them into 5 strips and then ironed them so the seams alternated from one side to the other for each strip.  This meant the seams nested together.  It was very quick to get these sewn up.
Then I found the fabric above for the lining.  I have quite a lot of it.  It is vintage and I don't know much about it except I don't think it is 100% cotton.  Then I cut out some batting, made a quilt sandwich and machine quilted it 0.25" away from all the seams.  This is so much easier than sewing in the ditch!  I am in the process of quilting a quilt in the ditch and it is so unforgiving!
The lining and batting need to be larger than the pieced top.
This picture shows clearly why the lining and batting are larger than the pieced top!  The lining has skewed and it they were exactly the same size you would have to unpick or try to add more to the lining.  As it is this doesn't matter and I can just trim off the extra lining.
So now I just need to make the other side in the same way, bind the top edges, sew together and bind around the edge.
I'll show you when it is finished.
I hope you are having a great week! 

Friday 19 July 2013

Finished Fabric Basket

I got around to finishing the fabric basket today and it is bigger than I thought.
 It is 20 inches or 50cm in diameter.It is pretty big and as I suspected it does not stand up on its own despite all the pieces of plastic milk bottle I used.  It has lots and lots but they are all short so this is why it won't stand up.  It doesn't need to anyway as once it is full it stays upright.
These are what I used to stiffen it. 
This was girls dress ups before...
and girls dress ups after
Boys dress ups before....
and after.
Now I have a spare drawer!
I think it turned out ok but I will make a smaller one next time. 

Thursday 18 July 2013

Wooden Bed Makeover

I needed a new bed for visitors and then my little girl who is going to be leaving her cot behind.  So I wanted a wooden one and one I could paint.  I missed out on one or two and then found and bought one I love so much more than the others!  I love it when that happens!
I got this bed on ebay for only $36 and it wasn't far away either.  It has deep wooden sides and a slatted base. Just what I was looking for and I absolutely love panelling.  I was pretty happy. 
Maybe I should have painted it a colour other than white.  I thought about this for about 5 minutes but that stayed in the 'too hard' category.
  Here it is finished and I absolutely love it.  I have it in my son's room for now as we have visitors coming next week and we need two extra beds in there.  He is so excited that he will have his cousins in with him for over a week.  None of us can wait for my sister and her family to visit!
Just love it white.  It was so very orangey before.
I might be using my granny squares quilt with it when the guests are here.  Hopefully it won't be cold enough.
I love how this room looks. It used to be the loft and so has the old chimneys going through it.
I am still working on quilting my hexagon log cabin quilt.  I am quilting in the ditch as I think it is busy enough and I will do some hand quilting around the hexagons.
The trouble is my sewing area is in disarray because we are sorting out the french window in there and also getting our spare room ready for the honoured guests.  I'll share it soon.



Friday 12 July 2013

Na na na na Batman!

Holy haberdashery, Batman! I finished it!
 Batman is completed and I would like to point out he is my first proper attempt at amigurumi crochet.  I think he is ok as he does look like batman but there is room for improvement.
The cape took several attempts as did the feet.  I made four feet as they just kept getting smaller.  I felt they needed to at least match.
My son said the bat motive on the front does not look like a bat.  I didn't have any black felt for that so made it with yarn.  I do want to try more of these as I think they are excellent for my crochet skills.
And look we have bulbs coming up!   Spring must be coming.
It has been the school holidays here so I have not done much blogging as I have been trying (and failing) to keep my children entertained.  They are very little so I have years to perfect this.  I haven't done too much crafting but I am very excited because I bought a bed on ebay and I will get it today!  I will be painting it immediately and will share it soon. 
And remember, Whatever is fair in love and war is also fair in crimefighting. - Batman

Friday 5 July 2013

Backing for Hexie Log Cabins Quilt

I am working on finishing off my hexie log cabins quilt.  I have decided I want to use the family tree panel I received with the fat quarter set as part of the backing.  But as it isn't very large I am going to need to piece some of the rest of the backing.
I am going to use an ikea fabric in large panels on either side and a lot of my remaining scraps from the children at play line. I am just going to do patchwork squares with width of the panel.

 I will just have a small area of squares below the panel and they will be laid out something like this.  I really want to get this quilt finished soon!
Have a wonderful weekend!

Thursday 4 July 2013

New (to me) Chairs

It is the school holiday here and so I am busy entertaining the children so have not had time for much craft or blogging. I have also had a terrible cold for a week so that stopped me from doing much craft, and we couldn't go and see our friends in Newcastle, so we are going this weekend. It has finally stopped raining after we had 315mm in June here in Sydney! And that was only the wettest June for 6 years. Everything is now slowly drying out and everyone is really enjoying and appreciating the beautiful clear dry days we are now getting. I have not finished batman but he is nearly done so I will show him soon. He does not look as good as I wanted, but that happens a lot I guess. I thought I would show you some chairs I overhauled a while ago.
 
I have looked and looked for a before picture as I am sure I must have taken one but cannot find anything. This was a great excuse to look back at photos of the children which was great though.
So back to the chairs.  I got these on freecycle. The previous owner had planned to refurbish them but she hadn't done it in several years so decided it wasn't going to happen and gave them away.  They were pretty local so I got them and then I too kept them for quite a few months while I got around to doing them.  They were brown wood with horrible seat covers.  I bought a hand held stapler to do the job.   It was ok but really doesn't have enough power.  Lots of staples fail to go in properly and have to be removed which is a pain.  I now have a pneumatic stapler which I love, but it is over kill if you are only going to tackle small projects.  So I bought the fabric in the fabulous Burnt Street shop in Seaforth.
I wanted something a bit shabby chic which I think this is.  
Then I painted them.  I used water based primer and water based semigloss.  One I did turquoise by mixing the white with some dulux green buoy which is my favourite paint colour.
I love the shape of these chairs and they are so comfortable.  I love a cushioned chair and you just cannot beat them for comfort.  If they get marked I will just change the fabric.  I love that the turquoise chair picks out a little bit of turquoise in the fabric.  We use these all the time and I love to have chairs that don't match.  Some people hate this but not me.  And they were recycled which I love. 
Now because it is another glorious day in paradise, I think we will take the ferry over to the city.  Have a great day!