STAY FOR A CUPPA TEA AND..........

We are starting to get to know each other now, you have seen my bare feet and listened to my waffle conversations, so lets imagine you have been invited in for a cuppa tea.

We start with the "how are you"?s, we talk about the weather, very dry and no rain to speak of for weeks now! Other parts of Australia in dire flood crisis.

Then you politely say, "thats a nice pin cushion"...as someone posted in my comments lately...( I love comments so thank you for the lovely bloggers who leave them)

Uh Oh, because that is all the encouragement I need to reply, 
"Sit there, I will make you a cuppa" and I race off to bring you all my pin cushions to show.....( think large enthusiastic puppy)

 This is my everyday favourite, made from a Better Homes and Garden pattern many years ago. Really plump and filled with wool roving. I find wool holds the pins in unlike synthetic toy stuffing. Once you try you will understand the difference.

 This is a design by Helen Daftner, I bought it as a kit, hand dyed velvets, its all yummy and barely a pin has been put in it..purely decoration this one. Also deceptively simple to make.

These also are kits by Annie Downs of Hatched and Patched, I have given some of these as gifts and this year a stitching friend suprised me with one as a gift!! Hers is the doggie and she used her own wool fabric.

Made this at a craft show workshop....very cute.

Made this for number one daughter, and she now sews so its in good hands.

Bought this a while back, designed by Elanor Peace Bailey, note the thimble necklace and safety pin earrings. Very quirky, but she has lost the feathers from her hat...must replace them.

This is a reminder of my childhood, a friends mother had a pin cushion like this and I must have spent hours playing with the pony tails and loving the colours and the way they hug the pin cushion....I know very strange child!! But lovely memories of a lovely family.

Ebay find.

I made this from a kit by Gail Wilson, she stands quite tall...and no pins in her either. Love this one.

Another Ebay purchase, I hope none of you find this offensive, I think she is beautiful and I love her expressions, sometimes she looks exasperated and sometimes wistful. I have given her a comfy shelf.

Started this in a class and its designed by Helen ?????? I have so forgotten her name... she is famous for her thread painting....aaargggh dont you hate that? 

It will come to me and I will rectify that gap in my knowledge.

Have you dozed off yet?

Here is a little scrap pin cushion I made after seeing similar on the internet at Life under Quilts
This is its polite side.

......and this is its prickly side! 

Well I laughed.

Just as you were looking for the nearest escape route from my home, the kids arrived and as per usual were asking,

 "Whats to eat around here?"

So my daughter (she is the one in polka dots) has very kindly whipped you up a Victoria sponge.

I hope you enjoyed you tea and cake, visit again soon.....

AHHHHH SUMMER TIME........

and the living is easy, so easy in fact that time gets away from you and before you know it another day has passed.

I have been reading blogs but just not motivated to add to mine until now that is.

Those blogs I do follow came up with some interesting facts over the festive season.....I appears that those blogs and bloggers I find most interesting and resonate with me....wait for this spooky occurrance.....it appears we all....you'll never believe this , we all have ....BIRTHDAYS around Christmas.........we are a majority of hard headed Capricorns!!!.......I KNOW...SPOOKY!!!!

Well here is a big hello to all you fellow festive birthday babies.

This is a project that has bubbled along, I have appliqued hearts slowly over the year and it appears I am getting close to a finish here.
The pattern is by Sandy Klop from American Jane and her book, 
"Quilts for all seasons...and some for no reason"
I love this book and have my eye on several other projects in her book to put on the list.

This is another I have been itching to start and this is the year I venture into its complexity.

It is from Material Obsession two by Kathy Doughty and Sarah Fielke.

I love the whole scrappy thing going on there, so in that spirit I dove into my scraps and started to sort and prepare.

And I am using the bench my wonderful husband built over the air conditioning duct......its been awesome.

This new year has also seen me sort out a lot of my materials and try very hard to reduce and take some direction.
I have over the years boarded on "hoarding" in the true sense of the word, I struggled to relinquish those scraps that really were not going in the direction I wanted, and they were holding me back.

I would sort them, and stroke them and sigh, not knowing what I could do with such a mish mash of styles. I wanted to do scrappy but didn't have the time. I didn't want to "waste" good fabric that I had spent dollars on, but they no longer sang to me and if truth be told I often bought them in a frenzy because they were a bargain.

So I got organised.... and let go......it was a great feeling.

Now I can see what direction I want to go, what makes me happy and doesn't hold me a state of guilt and "must do"....I have come to realise that I have the right to do what makes me happy. 

My load and stash is lighter, I am tired but not pressured to use those uninspiring fabrics just because they are there.
It is a conundrum because so many of you are finding uses for the vintage hoards that others kept.....but as they say one mans treasure .....

My feelings about hoarding are well known by my family, but I have a parent who hoards and I can see how she makes do with broken and worn out items, how she holds herself prisoner by stuff that she deems valuable.
I vow not to be held back by things and only to have items that make ME smile, that I use and want to look at every day.

Dont get me wrong, I am no minimalist, I adore the cluttered look of so many inspiring blogs and photos that are shown....but I have decided to develop a place that I am happy in, and it is only having to satisfy me.

Phew that was a huge download and confession! If you are still here, Thank you for listening!

See pretty things that make me smile

FINDING THE RIGHT BALANCE.....

Yep, its that time of year when we all take stock of what has been and what may become.

For us in the land down under, this festive season coincides with our end of school year and the long hot holidays, a time where the weather forces you to slow down, it is just not the time to rush when temperatures soar.

And it is the time of year when my husband takes time off his 12 hours a day job and rediscovers the insides of his eyelids, the dog is optional but he makes sure the place is secure.

It is a time when I rediscover the pleasure of my husbands company  and try to imagine a time when he can retire and we can again be a couple.

A time to stick your toe in the water..... ( being ultra lazy and waiting for the tide to reach me) and re assess simple pleasures.

"And the day came when the risk to remain tight in a bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom"

I hope to continue to blossom and watch my children do so as well, but this does not signal frantic over achieving but for me a slow and steady unfurling and before you know it something else has been achieved.

It is this philosophy that saw me do away with lists and promises, resolutions and musts.......now I am gentle on myself, a little here and there, a lot of what makes me smile and enables me to be true to myself.......no more "shoulds".....just "I would prefers" but if it is not to be then that is OK too.

I have met lovely bloggers here and continue to be inspired by their particular talents and energy, I hope to continue to use this blog to learn more about others and myself.

The best of the new year to you all!

T'WAS THE WEEK BEFORE CHRISTMAS.......

and all through the house........lots of creatures stirring!

Well not really but we have been a little busy putting in air conditioning....what luxury!

We have denied ourselves for twenty odd years in this house, and we dreaded each run of hot weather. In Melbourne we get north winds that heat up over the desert inland and blast all moisture from the air, hot hot hotter.......then a cool change arrives as the winds turn south and come in over the sea from Antarctica....temps can drop 20 degrees C in 20 mins. We love talking weather in Melbourne because we really can have four seasons in one day.

But what that has meant for me is a little disruption in my scared space, the sewing room

The duct needed to go through the room as we didnt have roof space, lucky the room was extra long. Anyway my creative and wonderful husband suggested we made the cover high enough for me to use as a cutting table.....hooray.....I am very happy about this.

So there he is cleaning up and doing manly things....I love a man that can set his mind to practical pursuits. 

So when its finished I will have MORE ROOM .....hehe....actually I plan to take over one day, but gently gently.....and I know that I have a lot more space than a lot of you out there, but then again not as much as others....so lets not get despondent just keep dreaming of the day you will all have all you need and desire.

So in the meantime, I have been concentrating on small projects, which I think I love more than large quilts. Working in miniature has always fascinated me, I have loved dolls houses, and dolls and dolls clothes since forever but strangely never fell into that craft.

Ta Dahhhh.........1/2 inch hexagons, all scraps and I love it!!
A lot of the scraps were donated by a good friend, and her fabrics really enhanced my stash.......another friend was admiring the purse, and every piece she loved was one donated....my friends all have good taste...which why I am their friend....read that whichever way you like.;-)

The inside.....now I initially glued the purse into the frame, then stitched it on. The ribbon serves to cover the stitches.

I made a few errors along the way, but I never expect my prototypes to be perfection. The next one will be just that bit better and then I will be motoring along by my 100th.

I also whipped this up in my spare time.

I had some let over large plastic buttons from a coat project with my daughter, and just got to playing with them one day. I layered the large buttons with my vintage buttons and this was the result.
I like it, what do you think?

And this I finished last night, it is from the latest booklet from Anni Downs called The Simple Life. I fell for this little pincushion, and was smitten by the hexagon construction.
It is quite clever the way hexagons, pentagons and half hexagons are sewn together to get this dome shape. It was not too complex, and the instructions in the booklet were very easy to follow.

Turtle on his back....the fabric again was donated by my friend, she has great taste , I think I may have mentioned that.
So I have been a busy person of late, but not frantic, refusing to do frantic at my age, it just sucks all the fun out of the air does frantic.

So busy blog friends until next time, dont do frantic OK?

SORRY, SORRY, SORRY

Ohhh, I do seem to be saying this a lot lately! Am I really sorry, well not as sorry as I would have been if I had spilt your drink but sorry in the fact that I seem to be rushing from one thing to another and being ever so slightly late in arriving.......and I pride myself on being on time........usually.

So sorry that these pictures from The Houston Show are only now being revealed. ( do you hate people making excuses?...sorry...see I said it again)

This could be a picture heavy post, so I will try and edit and show the quilts that I thought made the most impact.
Seriously this is stunning, both my children liked this also, another one to put on my to do list.....which is possibly bigger than Santa's naughty list....or not.

This time I also tried to remember to capture any interesting story behind the quilts. I dont know this method but isnt it effective?

This was a winner in a group project category, a picture or photo was taken and then cut into pieces, each member of the group was then given a piece of the picture to go away and work on as they saw fit. Then the patches were reassembled back into the picture. I like this idea and the ideas are endless, internet project with like minded quilters maybe?

This was only one block of the farmyard quilt but I was fascinated by the glow of the lamb due to the choice of fabrics used, a lot of Kaffe Fassett, and it was very realistic as a whole.

This was a long quilt that needed two shots to fit in.

I loved the design, almost surrealistic...maybe...Salvidor Daliesque?...perhaps?

Anyway as I was admiring it, a lady behind me exclaimed, "that looks like a crazy Australian quilt" in her American accent, I couldnt resist, I turned to her and replied, "What makes you say that?"..in my Aussie accent...
She laughed and explained it reminded her of our famous desert scapes and Ayers Rock, or Uluru, which is its native name.
Yeah I will give her that....but we aint crazy!!! :-) 

No this isnt me without makeup, it was a little doll, the kids think it was a little spooky, but I thought it was really adorable, I do have trouble threading my needles and I dont think it is going to get any better.

The winner!

Her quilt!!

I was blown away by the thought and effort and precision in this quilt, I did listen to her explanation as to the symbolism in the design but as I am very ignorant about the US and its history I forgot a lot of what she said. But apparently the number of stars and points and swags and crystals all added up to significant numbers in US history.
My friend and I laughed softly when we first saw the quilt and speculated that this was obviously done by an older lady with no children at home and a very supportive spouse.....ding dong...so wrong...young, pretty, three young children, sewed in the hours of the evening after children were in bed..10.30 until 1.00ish most nights.
It was also all done on a domestic machine , all of it, including the perfect quilting. SIGH....some people have a lot of talent and tenacity. A deserved winner, she was very sweet and quite emotional about the quilt, and I could understand that.

Well this catching up is all I can manage right now, running off to the next thing, slightly late.
But as you know I love animals, and couldnt resist taking a photo of this gorgeous creature....and the horse was quite good looking too!

This was what greeted us at the Bank Of America in downtown Houston....they better not rob that place cos they will be hunted down by the sheriff. I love it.
Well if you can stand it I will post some more pics soon, may as well drag out my trip, if I am clever i could keep this up until the next time I visit the US......NO come back only joking..