Ohhhhh...Post Title!

You never stop learning it seems.....who would have thought there was a post title in this blogger thingy. LOL.

I have been on a wee bit of a roll it seems here and in my work. It is coming up 12 months since I had to take on extra hours and it has been a change and it has been a juggling act, but you know what, I am still learning. 

Learning what I am capable of and what I can cope with and learning how to keep up with technology too...I do amaze myself sometimes!! 

And this little critter was a project I was itching to get going.....eeekkk! It is the cutest mouse in a matchbox that you ever did see. Its designed by Simone Gooding of Mayblossoms.

She comes with a full bed , a little pillow and a little blanket. I had the bestest time playing as I once did as a child. Picking scraps of fabric for the bedding..(vintage sheets no less) and making her comfy and pretty.










This is her posing with the blanket...
I may bore you with the photoshoot but it was so much fun.

Phew, a collage to the rescue.

But dear friends that is not the only small doll I have made, this is the teeniest tiniest little doll I have ever managed and it was a mite tricky.

Here she is posing next to her teeny tiny quilt. Not impressed yet?

Here she is standing next to my mobile phone...huh,huh? Impressed much? 

This is a Gail Wilson design and she is the BEST at instructions and kits for doll making. I would do more but then I would be a crazy lady in a house stuffed full of dolls.....meaning I have a few where would I put them all? 

 This is the tiny doll with the other doll, what I do need to do at some stage is make her some clothes but she is sweet in her cami. Oh yes there is more and many accessories for this doll, I have made a few more things.

I made the rug, chair and the teeny Amish quilt.

And this is how they live on display.

And my mouse has now joined the family.

Think its beddybye time for little mousies now.

Young things are so exhausting!

I also received a lovely parcel from my pal Joy at Joyjinks, and having been reassured that is was safe to proceed...I popped that bubble wrap open....

, 

Inside was a sweet card and heart and .........

This gorgeous fabric basket!!!! I was very happy as I had been researching fabric baskets and pondering on how to make my own. 
This basket now holds my bits and bobs nicely on the table and stops them roaming around getting in the way.
Thank You Joy!!

Does anyone else do this? I have placed a list of things I really do want to complete this lifetime, it is a slow burner list and may be dug up one day on an archaeology site because the list is not being ticked off at any fast rate. But I have made some small progress, I HAVE A LIST!!

That's my paparazzi at work again, capturing me at work.....umm on a project that is not on the list...

OH WELL.......but at least I have the list..right?

MY DAY OFF........

Yesssssss, I thought yippee, midweek break, well earned and now for "me" time. First I will have a quiet cuppa.............

 Then I will head to my sewing room to crack on with the many and varied projects I have to complete..........

 Yup, its gonna be great!!!

Well, I did have a little snack with said cuppa tea, a little smack of bread, jam and cream. Gasp! I hear you say? Don't knock it until you try it, its my weakness and I find it keeps me well fuelled for the day. Well as I said a wee snack and a cuppa and I was set to go.
I started well, I got chopping into my scrap pile, I downloaded photos, swapped an old cutting mat......and that's when my day became a little unravelled.

You move things at your peril in the sewing room in mi casa, it exposes dust, and once you move a pile 'o dust you have to keep going. So it was downstairs to get the duster....dust around sewing area....not bad.....OK...NOW to start sewing!

Hmmm snack has digested a little and cuppa has done its work, I think I may just pop to the loo before I start.....nah just been downstairs so I will use the kids bathroom upstairs. (the kids are 21 and 25)
 NOT A GOOD IDEA!!!! IT WAS FILTHY!!!!

So then it was downstairs to get the cleaning bucket and hours later I am exhausted, the bathrooms clean but I am exhausted. And you know what, they will hardly notice, hubby will come home and ask how my day off was?.....and what did I get done?..because he doesn't really notice either......aaaaarrrrrrggghhhhhhh!!!!!!

Thank goodness I have sewing to calm me down and I will get some done later..............just as soon as I have a cuppa and a snack..........

This is the said scrap basket and I am determined to empty it. That is my current top of my list project.

 And these are some more of the blocks I need to complete. So the scrap basket has been well mined for fabric there. This quilt has quite a history. I bought the pattern in 2008 and worked sporadically on it. At one stage my daughter did a block as a distraction when she was having bully problems at school.

The quilt will be finished now I have made it my mission to clear old projects before starting any new ones ......this year.......maybe....we will see! The block my daughter did is the top left hand one of the angel and house. She did a great job but decided that quilting wasn't really her thing. She now sews her own clothing and cons me into taking her to the local fabric store just as a girly thing and of course I end up buying the poor university student any amount of cloth she needs to create an outfit.

And the scrap basket has been mined for these blocks.

They are for a quilt by Sarah Fielke from the book "Material Obsession Two"  Maple Leaf Rag.

I am having a blast using scraps and creating this odd fabric. It is liberating not having to be accurate. Like colouring outside the lines, in fact its like scribbling and paying no attention to any lines.

Then when you have thrown together a piece of cloth you cut it according to the template and like magic it looks amazing.

I have 128 of these little suckers to finish. 

So that is a little of what happens on a  so called day "off"

I blame the coming of spring for my cleaning frenzy too, have you noticed that as the sun shines through the dirty windows it exposes the dust bunnies just that bit more..........Love the sun, don't love dust. 

Well bye for now...remind me to tell you about this woman I knew and her three daughters and her way of dealing with bad bathrooms.Oh well may as well tell you now.

You see I used to go to this woman's house for a sewing night. She was a single mum and had three lovely girls.....but they were feisty and teenagers to boot. They had two bathrooms, the girls sharing one and mum having her own. This woman was quite strict, as you have to be as a single parent and three girls. So there we all were sewing quietly, when one child comes in and asks if she could get the key to mums bathroom as she didn't want to wait for her sister to finish. Mum replied "No, you didn't keep your bathroom clean and you are not using mine"

We kept our eyes on our work pretending we didn't hear the exchange of mutterings from the thwarted child.....but then it was ON!!! 

For the rest of the evening we were visited by any and all combinations of the three girls pleading, acting and wheedling and crying and collapsing spectacularily on the floor,

PLEEEEEESSSSE we don't want to wait for her to finish can we use your bathroom!!

This woman had nerves of steel and she didn't give in......

Yeah great story, glad I waited around for that......says the little daog

 HELLO THERE!!.....

Yes I am being brave and showing you my good self in a snap taken by my daughter. I was quite proud of this pinny type dress as I had drafted it from an old dress that had seen better days. I quite liked that dress so I took it apart and used it as a pattern to make another.
The fabric is a Denyse Schmidt feedsack type. Unfortunately it has not photographed well in the bright winter sun. I kid you not we do get bright winter sun at times. I also dont think it the most flattering on me as I do actually have a shape! These floaty dresses do well when you have thin arms and legs....but I love it because behind a desk in my office its damn compfy....yes compfy!...i just made that word up and I like it.

 Hahhahaha this is me trying to look serious model like...and that is not my hair but a concrete lion framed just behind my head...sigh you just cannot get good paparazzi these days.

 So I called a stop to all this madness and stomped off.... to complain to my agent....

 These were some recent purchases from a market called "Finders Keepers" that my daughter persuaded me to accompany her to. Luck we got there early, it was way more crowded that a regular craft show, full of hipsters and fashionable young folk, and I must say I was impressed by some of the stalls there. Needless to say I gravitated to the vintage stalls and these precious pieces just had to come home. My daughter was a little surprised that I paid over the odds for them. But sometimes you know you will be hard pushed to source these things yourself so you pay premium to someone who works hard to pick these things out. 

 They look so good together dont they?

 And in the interests of keeping it real.....this is a behind the scenes look at how I set up my backdrop.....ahhh the glamorous world I live in.

And some more little op shop treasures just to show you I too can source little imexpensive vintage too.

This is my latest tiny crochet that I am working on, following on from the previous scarf I had just finished.
It uses DMC 8 perle cotton and a ripple stitch pattern. 
I am loving how this is turning out.

1.5 mm hook

This monster project is one I have set my daughter to continue. She was always nagging coaxing me to make her a granny square blanket, and well my concentration waxes and wanes a lot so I wasnt going to get it done anytime soon. So I saw and purchased this kit from Better Homes and Gardens, its acrylic yarn, inexpensive and might colourful. I sat down one evening and taught her the basics and AWAY SHE WENT!!!!!!

She has her own basket of colourful yarn and she is loving it. We have been watching the Commonwealth Games most evenings and she is storming along with the project. I will assist when and if she needs me, but I think she will be so proud if she sticks it out and completes it all by herself. She always was a girl who would stick it out until she could master a skill. I think I may be assisting with all those sewing in of ends though......I personally dont think she has left enough of a tail to sew in but she thinks otherwise......time will tell and like a good mum I will resist the retort..."I told you so"...(wont stop me thinking it but I wont say it )

I am finishing this, just appliqueing on the last hexagons. Its from Rosalie Quinlan and her book "A stitch in Time"

Made this up from a kit from the latest Mollie Makes...wearing it now..love it.

Got heaps more to tell you but I will stop it there so you can go make a cuppa tea and have a rest. And I can go and join the family to watch Australia trounce New Zealand in the Netball final at the Commonwealth Games....because New Zealand always beat us in the rugby.

Talk soon dear blog friends