Quilt while you're ahead

a rethorical question

Have you ever started a project and subsequently abandoned it for whatever reason (including boredom, lazyness, life, stupidity etc.) and then when you started it again you finished in no time at all?

And wandered what was all the fuss (and boredom, lazyness, life, stupidity etc.) all about?

Today I finished covering my kitchen chairs cushions.  All 4 of them. Yeah I know, huge number.  Four.

I didn't have to make the cushions, cheap IKEA ones who were supposed to washable.  Well they 'are' washable allright, the stains just didn't wash off... or maybe it's my children that produce particularly resiliant stains... either way, they were disgusting and needed covering.

Enter lovely-piece-of-bark cloth-which-looks-perfect-against-the-wall found at the local car boot sale... in May.  Yes, May. 

One chair got covered fairly swiftly, still drunk with excitment and enthusiam.

As I said before the last one was done this morning.  In 15 minutes (don't look too closely and the craftmanship). One five.

Doh.

Guess who feels like a wally.
 
 

there's something magical about yellow and grey

I've joined a gym - applause please.

I've been going to classes twice a week for three weeks - standing ovation please.

The gym is less than a mile from my home and so I don't bother showering there anymore.  I've been carrying less and less each time.  I'm down to a bottle of water, car keys and phone, and the membership card.

Card that I'm terrified of losing by the way.  Because I lose things.  It's what I do best.

Enter Mr Grey Wool and Miss Yellow Scrap,

joint in perfect bliss to form a little 'pouchette' for that pesky card and the ridiculously small and thin booking slips.

Will I ever tire of that combination? Not in the foreseable future.

 

which one...

do...

you...

like...

best?

If any?

summer blouse

I did it. 

On a wing and a prayer... but I did it.

I read as much as I could find on this pattern.  The good and the bad.  The lovely and the ugly.

And there was a lot of both out there.

 

So, this is what I did:

- cut the front neckline deeper

- omitted the button and loop from the top

- sewn/cut the placket only half way down.  couldn't understand the point of cutting it really deep only to hand sew it back up later....

- lengthen the hemline by a few inches

I'm so immensely pleased with it!!  I love the length of the sleeves, I love the floatiness and the way it hangs. It's very comfortable... it's just the sort of thing I'd buy...

But I made it.  Do you have any idea of how that feels??

Me and my new top have had a lovely day together today.

(Fabric by Liberty)

what's your trick?

 I was sitting at my desk earlier, staring at the wall and pondering what to do next.  Mr M and the boys had left for the day and the empty hours stretched endlessly and ahead of me (irony, people, smell the irony...).

What to do? how to get started? The wall stared back as I sat drinking green tea in my 'drama queen' mug. (Drama queen? Moi?)

Working on a WIP? nah.  Too virtuous.  Today was a day dedicated to shameless me time and self indulgence; finishing a WIP sounded too much like 'work'.  I was having an ill timed case of sewing-block.

Pants.

So I folded some laundry - which was completely way and above the call of duty and helped sweaping away the last crumble of guilt at having so much time on my hands - and then I sat down at my computer and 'surfed'.

I find reading craft blogs a double edged sword... there's so much talent out there that it can be kind of crippling and self-destroing to look at it all.  Today though, it worked. 

I grabbed my box of scraps, turned my machine on and just went for it. The top and the bottom come from an old 'cutter' top I got off ebay; they're stained and have holes, they're crooked and faded, but they deserve love too and as long as they'll last they're going to get it - all be it under a very hot dish, love hurts after all.

 

The scrappy border is just that... scraps.

So how do you get out of a creative schlump? How do get back on the saddle again? How do you ride it out?

(Today my inspiration came from http://ayumills.blogspot.com/)

stock 1

I hadn't quite realised how depleted my 'stock pile' (grand name for a couple boxes of stuff which is most of the time a 'present pile') was till I look this morning.  Oh dear.

Let the work begin.

 

Surprise suprise.  A bag.  How original of me.

But how girlie is the fabric?  Don't you want to run through a field of barley with a straw hat and a long flowy skirt?

No? Just me then.

Fair enough.

agenda

1) Thank you all for the birthday wishes.  Some of you for presents too.  You're too kind.  I've discovered two more people who share my birthday... that brings the total to 6.  Don't know why but it feels weird.  I know it shouldn't, after all there are more than 365 people in the world so it shouldn't come to a surprise... but still...

2) I've re-discovered blueberries and banana milkshakes (actually I use natural yoghurt instead, as suggested by my wise sister in law)

 

The colour on its own is divine.

 

And it goes so well with the handblown glass... it's the small things, people, that make me happy.

3.  I've been making 'thingies'.  I've got a table at a friend's school's fete in a couple of weeks and I wanted something small that kids can buy with their own money/that might attract kids attention.

 

What do you think... will they work?

 

Just... "don't get them wet, and never feed them after midnight"...

(name that movie!!)

extreme makeover - rabbit edition

This is Stu.

Actually his full name is 'rabbit stu'... Mr M and I named him on a 'drunk-through-lack-of-sleep-night' approx. 8yrs ago, we thought we were being very witty and hilarious but little did we knew how important 'Stu' would become for No 1.  Mercifully he still hasn't realised  the implications of the name.  The double entendre.  The cruelty of his meat eating parents.  Let's just say that in order to spare our son any heartache we're calling him simply 'Stu', or at worse 'Stu rabbit'.

Mum's the word.

Stu has had a tough life.  Love hurts, we all know that, and Stu has been virtually loved to death:

 

Torn clothes from too much rough and tumble and squeezy hugs, and torn ears from too  much rubbing 

 

Help was needed and fast if Stu was to carry on in his humanitarian mission to bring happiness and joy to No 1 son.

Stu spent hours under the 'needle'.  A double ear transplant, mild rhinoplastic surgery, a skin graft and a full fashion make-over later... he emerged stronger and better than ever.

 

No 1 chose the fabric for the clothes and was very specific in wanting to keep the 'high-waisted' look.

Love might hurt.  But it hurts even more when it's not there.

camera strap

I've been wanting one of these for ages.

 

And now that my 'baby' is back home the camera hospital (it was diagnosed with serious impact damage... yeah, I know, a leather football/a fall/a wooden floor...), I thought it deserved a treat.

 

I think it likes it.

 

grateful

This is me.

 

I'm smiling.

I'm smiling because I'm good at doing puzzles.  I'm smiling because I'm wearing a sparkling necklace and matching earrings (even if they are slightly high on my head...).

I'm smiling because I've had such a wonderful day yesterday, surrounded as I was by so much love and cards and presents.

 

And I'm grateful... oh so very grateful.   For the hand picked flowers,

 

for the gorgeous lunch cooked by Mr M (who also washed up and put everything away, hurray!!).

For everything.