Another Author, and her handbag

On Wednesday Clarry (from my book club) and I went to a literary morning tea with Paullina Simons. It was a slightly smaller crowd than the last event – 73 women & 2 men, compared to 248 women & 2 men for Diana Gabaldon!

Clarry, Paullina and Me

We had a delicious morning tea whilst we waited for the guest of honour to arrive. We chatted with the fabulous people at our table and discussed our favourite books. Apart from ‘The Bronze Horseman’ series/trilogy, the next favourite of Paullina's books was ‘The Girl in Times Square’ – which is now on my bedside table being devoured nightly :) The first things I noticed about Paullina when she arrived was her gorgeous hair and her gorgeous handbag (I have an inbuilt handbag radar) – a Valentino Rosier Taffeta Tote, I Googled it. You can buy one online at Neiman Marcus for $1,795 USD.

I think it’s just delicious, click in the link above for a better look – or if you want to buy one! She bought it especially to take on her book tour.

Out of the 18 bags I made for market, I have 3 left. I sold 10 & gave 5 away for presents & PIF’s (except for Dee, yours got sold so I am making yours today). I’d better get my act together for the next market in 3 weeks time – plus do Christmas shopping and make 50 library bags, with my friend Jenny, for playgroup end of year presents.

Before I sign off, I thought I’d give you a quick update on Smileykylie – she is alive and well (I spoke to her yesterday!) Katherine and her will be going away on a sewing weekend soon so hopefully we will get to see some of her creations – no pressure Kylie.

With Love

Crazy?… maybe…

I am almost there with the Christmas wreath – just need some red velvet ribbon to finish it off. Until then I’ve dug out another wool felt project. About three months ago I started making a  fairytale type toadstool house. I had done the basic cut out and started stitching on some details such as ivy, but that’s were it stopped.

 

Last night I decided it was time to dive in and finish it off. I was going to try wet felting the roof, but decided to needle felt it instead. But first I needed a base to felt it over. So out came the bread knife…





It’s a good thing that there is no one shape for a toadstool, because it was not that easy… my DH entered about this stage and looked at me and said, “Do I want to know?” I told him that my 4 years at uni were vey useful as I learnt that a good way to shape foam was with a bread knife. He said nothing…

I got the basic shape with the plain felt and then started needle felting the red fleece on.

I trimmed it down, added on some white dots,

 

I finished the little house off with a bell, door knob and a little bird on the window.

I had to make a little garden for it. Will add some felted bushes when I get some green fleece. Oh, and I thought the little people needed a clothes line “out the back”…

It was a fun project – my children are already discussing who it will be for. I might need to make a little gnome to live in it. So nice to have another UFO completed!

I hope your UFO’s are inspiring you as the year rolls on by.

Happy stitching to you all,

Katherine

Fresh from the Market

As in - I’ve just got back, fresh from the Inglewood Artisan Market. Kay and I had a very successful morning, I sold several bags/notebooks and key rings – My mother even bought a bag! (I will squirrel her money back to her, I can’t have my mother paying for a bag). I still have some bags for my Pay It Forward girls, they will be going in the post this week – and just in time too. I had a year to make & deliver my gifts from the 19th November 2008, talk about cutting it close. Here are some photos from this morning…

 

My Bags -  PVC Totes & Shoulder bags

Kay’s Bags & Kids Aprons

Fabric covered notebooks, key rings, purses, beaded bookmarks etc.

I had another point of JOY this week. On Wednesday morning some fabulous friends & I went to a literary morning tea with my FAVOURITE author of all time - Diana Gabaldon. She spoke about how the Outlander series came about, did an excerpt reading from ‘An Echo in the Bone’, had a Q & A time then signed books.

Me (with a ridiculous cheesy grin on my face) & Diana. I am wearing my ‘Fraser of Lovat’ kilt pin (from Mog) and some Fraser tartan ribbon. I also made her a wee gift – a bag (of course). It’s the black watch plaid tied up in white ribbon on the table.

To top it off, I’m off to another literary morning tea on Wednesday – this time with Paullina Simons. She is my 2nd Favourite author of my 2nd favourite series – The Bronze Horseman trilogy. I am going to get my birthday presents signed. I am currently reading her new novel ‘A Song in the Daylight’.

Hope you are having a fabulous weekend.

Much Love

in a cupboard…

Cleaning through the upstairs cupboard I happened across a quilt I began making for a friend’s wedding about 11 years ago. I think it may have been my first attempt at quilting (and it was queen size!!). Anyway it didn’t get made in time, and just got abandoned until this week. I was meant to be making curtains for a our new bedroom… BORING, so instead I decided to quilt it and put on the binding. I just did a simple diagonal across the blocks – enough to hold it all in place. It was a challenge to even do that much as it only just fitted in my machine…  Once the checked binding on the edge is sewn down, it is finished. 

It has a boring interesting choice of prints, checks and stripes… It’s a good thing experience and time has changed the way I choose fabrics!! Any way it’s done and I know a young family that might enjoy it for Christmas. It would make a fun picnic mat…

Speaking of Christmas, I am starting to get into preparations… I thought a hand stitched Christmas wreath might be in order, and the girls from my sewing group were keen too, so here is what I have so far…

I plan to stitch more detail onto the leaves and I think I’m going to need lots more of the felted red beads.  If your haven’t had a go, they are a lot of fun to make. Even my children have had a go at making them. Just roll red fleece in your palm until a ball forms, wet it with hot soapy water and keep rolling until it forms a hard felted ball. I’ll let you know how the wreath turns out.

All the best with starting your Christmas sewing and finishing all your closet projects…

Katherine

Surprise, Surprise!

I was looking through this  months Homespun magazine (Vol 10.11) when I discovered this:

I wasn’t sure that my email had even reached them as I hadn’t reduced the file size of the photo and it seemed to take a long time to send. That was a lovely surprise. There’s a couple of lovely quilts in this month’s edition that I might try too. Maybe I’ll use some of this fabric that arrived in the mail today…


I thought we needed a holiday quilt – I can imagine holiday photos and memories being built with such a quilt as a common thread!… And I couldn’t resist the HAPPY CAMPERS range by American Jane. I’ve never sewn with a Turnover, so of course I had to give it a go. I’ll let you know how it goes. This might come away on the sewing weekend that Kylie and I are due to have in a few weeks time. Along with how many others?… I found some fabric for my “Spring” Quilt…

My seven year old thinks it would be a lovely quilt for her. Unfortunately for her there isn’t enough fabric there. The roll is a ‘honey bun’ – I’ve never sewn with one of those either, so it will be fun to give it a go. This will be a very pretty quilt and quite different to anything else I’ve sewn lately…

The other thing I’ve been trying to find is the right range of fabric to make my DH a quilt with for his 40th. I have a little time up my sleeve still as it’s not until 2011, but “Authentic” by Sweetwater for moda was the range I’d been looking for. I’m very excited, but will try not to touch this fabric for a year or so, to avoid it being discovered. Here’s a peek (he’s unlikely to read the blog – I HOPE).

 

Now to find more time for sewing…

 

Happy  stitching to you all,

Katherine

Threads on the floor, on my clothes, in my hair…

My DH says my craft room currently looks like the Fabric Fairy has thrown up in it. It is a wee bit messy and re-arranged, but for a good reason. My friend Kaye and I are having a bag stall at:

The Inglewood Artisans Market

Which is held on the 2nd Saturday on the Month (not THIS Saturday, like in the ad above). The next Market will be in 2 weeks time – on 14th November. I have been sewing PVC covered bags all day today, here are a few examples.

I shall be giving my lovely Pay It Forward girls (no, I haven’t forgotten you!) their presents from any of the bags that don’t sell. I will also put one up as my part of the giveaway when we eventually celebrate our 100th blog post (Oops!).

I also FINALLY finished another Pleated Beauty Bag for my friend Steph, who has been patiently waiting for it for awhile. She chose denim with brown and aqua pleats.

Oh, BTW, I managed to travel to NSW and back last week for a MOPS (Mothers of Preschoolers) Field Staff Training Seminar. I had a excellent time away with some wise, loving, encouraging and courageous women – and lots of laughs too. Many thanks to my beloved DH for holding down the fort.

Best get back sewing (& blogging).

With Love

To market, to market…

I return to the world with a little more brain space after weeks of preparation for my children’s annual Spring Fair which was last Saturday. It was a perfect day and my 9 year son and I shared a stall. (Sorry – no photos as I left the camera at home) He had made boats from pine, which he cut out, sanded and oiled. I made the sails from lots of bright scraps. He laid them out on a blue cloth and they looked great. He sold all 18 and was very pleased with his fundraising efforts (going to his lego fund and NOT the school!) I had made some tops, covered notebooks, sock monkeys, hairclips and made a little money to help pay for these….

When my DH came home and told me how great the Australian dollar was doing against the $ U.S., two weeks ago, I knew that was his way of telling me that it was time to make some fabric purchases! I’ve been trying to balance out my fabric collection by buying some light fabrics and I couldn’t resist these pink yellow and browns from the Fabric Bee. I love that we live in such a connected and well serviced world. A week after ordering them they were in my letterbox. They have now been placed in my new fat quarter storage unit…

Yes, another antique suitcase, but in slightly better condition that the hat box. It really lends itself to the pinks and browns and reproduction prints, but I’ll put my brights in there too to keep up with the times. I need to refold them all to fit three rows in… may not happen!

TODAY… as I was sitting in my from room attempting to drink a cup of teas while it was still hot, the postman came to my door. With a parcel from the U.S. which had “VARIOUS CUTS OF COTTON FABRIC” on the packing slip. OHHHHH…. AAHHH!!

Put down tea……

Clear space on still cluttered table recovering from Spring Fair….

Breathe….

Hold breath while ripping……

 

 

 

I thought I’d buy myself a Christmas present for someone to give me (my DH has told me that if I don’t come up with an idea, I may not got one) as I want to make a quilt for ME! And when I saw Moda’s 1974 by Urban Chik’s, I decided that could be it. I was born in 1974 and I loved the green/blue tones in this range. I was very thankful when I saw Quiltersbiz had the fabrics at such a good price. So a jelly roll, some green for backing, red for binding, yellow just because… and a charm pack from elsewhere will hopefully add up to a new quilt some time soon! Do I have to wait until Christmas… after such a successful stall at the Fair I might have to keep these out for now… Oh dear….

 

A could always order some more for Christmas – I hear the exchange rate is still quite good!!

 

Happy Stitching to you all!!

 

Katherine