Kylie who?

Hi my name is Kylie, you may remember me?  My New Years Resolution will be to make more time for sewing and me time.  It’s been an interesting journey adjusting to going back to work this year, how does everyone else manage to fit to two together? So I’m here writing a blog post at 6.30 in the morning while eating my cereal and drinking my cup of tea…

Katherine and I had a wonderful weekend away, we sewed our little hearts out.  Just to prove we do it in style we took a photo of Saturday lunch, no 2 minute noodles for us!  We do indulge in plenty of extra curricular eating…..chocolate, licorice, gingerbread covered in chocolate, Christmas cake, fruit toast the list goes on…  This weekend was the first in a loooong time that we didn’t have any little ones with us, we kept listening out for the baby to wake up, but there wasn’t one! I must say, our DH’s are great in supporting our habit and keeping the troops clothed and fed while we are away, it’s always interesting to see what my children are wearing when I arrive home!



I have a very funny story that involves my DH, I am just in the process of establishing whether he reads the blog first before I can share it….this story caused Katherine and I to almost pee our pants on our sewing weekend, let’s just say it involves my DH and a patchwork shop.

I finished my nieces first birthday quilt, pity it was her birthday back in JULY!!! So now it may be her second birthday quilt…



Here’s the wee Princess receiving her certificate for grade 1 ballet exams and an award for most improved, what a star.



Well I’ve a big day ahead, wish me luck, hope you find time for your creative passion.

Aprons Galore

I went to my store Christmas party this afternoon with all the fabulous girls from work. Instead of buying/making each other presents, our manager Suzy gave us 1/2 metre of herringbone calico & a name of a recipient. We were to create an apron for our Secret Apron Swap partner. We gave out the aprons today and they all looked fabulous!

They are going to be displayed in-store at Midland Textile Traders till Christmas Eve if you want to take a closer look. Here are a few close ups of some of the aprons.

My apron made for & modeled by Kay - it has handbag material!

Emma wearing her apron made by Yvonne – look at the lips on that fish.

Me wearing my apron made by Eileen – it has Babushkas on the front.

Kay and I will be at the Inglewood Artisan Markets again this Saturday 12th December from 9am-1pm. If you’re in the area, please drop by and say Hi.

With Love

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