Thursday 26 May 2011

Did I mention...

That in the middle of all of this good fun, the three Upholstery Musketeers (Natalie, Caroline and me!) went off to Burnt Street Upholstery on Tuesday morning for an outing of sheer unbridled fabric porn?  


Caroline was looking for the perfect combination of pattern, stripe and plain for her Slipper chair's front, back & piping, and I was looking for some plain cornflower blue to match the Amy Butler Temple Doors, to use as piping... and also some aqua to go with the Joel Dewberry for the sprung footstool. That's why I walked away with 30 metres of powder blue cotton damask, at only $10/metre.  





And why, I hear you ask, do you want 30 metres of curtain material, when you're supposed to be buying fabric for a fracking chair???  Many years ago, when Mr Golightly and I first moved into this house, my lovely Ma and I went to a [much missed] shop called Hart St Fabric House, and bought metres of beautiful camel coloured cotton damask, in a very subtle print, which she made into curtains to hang in the guest bedroom.  They look fabulous, classic, subtle, expensive (but they werent'!).  So, I could barely believe my eyes when I spotted the very same pattern, but in a blue!  


Gentle Readers, the back of our house faces north, which is, of course, ideal in the Southern Hemisphere.  We get lots of lovely warm sun in the winter, and good shade in the summer because of the angle of the trees in the back yard.  But at night, when the sun is gone (oh dear, did I just say that?), it gets cold.  All that glass, you see.  So, we have curtains.  Lined curtains at that, which I made, this time.  


I confess that I bought the original living room curtain material in Spotlight, after spending more quality fabric porn time with Miss Cathy at KA International.  I had found my dream fabric there for the living room curtains, but it was $178/metre.  Ouch.  Given that we need about 24 metres, it was going to be mega-expensive.  So I bought this other stuff instead, cheap, from that store whose name starts with S and ends in ...light, and I have always regretted it.  It's the colour of cocoa, with a tiny little woven blue square in it.  Even with the lining, all you see is the lines of the blue weaving, so it looks like a horizontal stripe.  Icky.  Also, I didn't buy enough, and the curtains are not wide enough.  Curtains need to be at least three times the width of the window to look any good.  Having two drops just doesn't cut it.   





Note:  not my house!


Anyway, I squealed like a girl when I saw this powder blue Damask, and the nice lady gave it to me for $10/metre.  There's enough to make the curtains, nicely full, and have some over for cushions or whatever.  Which is just as well, because I think I'm going to have to sell off some of the more expensive soft furnishings in the house to cover it.





Anyway, it's 10.37pm now, I've been up since 4.15am (the coughing thing again, don't ask), and I'm pooped.  Off to bed, hopefully to sleep through until 5.30am, when I get up and do it all again.  I've got pics, tomorrow, of the progress on the chair, too, so stay tuned.  Same bat time, same bat channel.  (How old does that make me????)


Ciao!



Wednesday 25 May 2011

Oh yes, where was I?

Before I was so rudely interrupted by the need to schlep off to Upholstery School, and, I might add, even with getting up at 0415 I was still three minutes late out the door for Miss Natalie...,I was explaining why we went to Pearls on the Beach on Saturday?  Because my lovely Bro, my DSB* is turning 50 in June, and this was the only day we all had free to celebrate.  


A few words about the Bro.  I don't have a brother.  If I had had a brother, he'd be what I want.  He's the middle child, so of course he's incredibly well adjusted.  He's funny, he's smart and he's got about the biggest hands I've ever seen.  Plus, he's a redhead and he's married to one of the tallest women I know, so that means he's even more incredibly well adjusted.  I just made that up, there's no scientific basis at all to that assertion.  But it must be true, because I said so.


Here's a pic of him showing proper reverence for the fabulous wine we bought him for his birthday (and those huge hands!):




Happy Birthday Bro!


In news of the Upholstery School kind, I finally finished the arm exercises on Monday - I have to say that inserting decorative tacks into vinyl in a straight line, perfectly aligned, is an incredible pain in the arm, and if I never have to do another one, I'll be happy, but then I'll never create a fantastic piece like this:







Oh well.  The head teacher is currently joking about what we will actually be doing in our shops when we've finished, and we've eliminated stripes, velvet, checks, pleats, skirts, vinyl and possibly leather.  So far we're offering cushions and buttons, and church pews.  Lots of upholstery on these...






And here's a picture of Miss Natalie starting work on her slipper chair.  This is a chair which sits on a box, then the box becomes a secret compartment (you can't see the box for the skirt when it's finished)... 


Here's a kind of similar finished version:



Mine's going to be covered with this:



Amy Butler Soul Blossom Temple Doors Floe Blue HOME DEC fabric by the yard

which should be a very interesting exercise in pattern placement - the pattern is huge, and the inside back of the chair (the bit of the back that faces you when you look at the chair) is actually three pieces - lots of fun & games, careful cutting and some bad language, methinks.  I'll keep you posted.

Anyway, my hands are cold, I haven't had breakfast, and I need to go & do my cutting out plan for this chair.  Ah, back to the heavenly salt mines.  

Ciao!

*Defacto Step Brother - my mother's partner's son.  Got it?

Monday 23 May 2011

Up with the lark...

Or, more accurately, up with the cold.  Danger, Will Robinson, Danger!  TMI Moment approaching!  I woke up with that horrible sensation of something needing to remove itself from my lungs, and rather than wake the soundly-sleeping Mr G, I (being completely awake, you understand), decided to get up.


So, it's now 5.01am.  I've put all the pictures on both cameras into Picasa, and I'm about to make a food collage for MGF* Kaz, who kindly sent me the pictures she took yesterday.  So, I hear you ask, where did you go yesterday?  Well, Gentle Readers, MBF* Deb kindly took Mr G & I up to Palm Beach, where we got on the ferry to Patonga, a little community which is  reachable by car, but is a very long hour and 41 minutes away... whereas via the ferry?  30 minutes.  Hard to resist, especially with views like this along the way:




And we were then picked up by the excellent folk at Pearls on the Beach, a lovely restaurant set in an old weatherboard building, on the edge of the water, where we ate and drank mightily, and I have to say not being constrained by the obligation to drive was extremely pleasant...


And now, sadly, it's 5.30am, and I have to get up - small, very small, joke there - but I will share the picture of the beautiful food with you, before I rush off to make a very ordinary ham & avocado sandwich for lunch and throw myself into Upholstery School today:




As to the occasion?  More, later.  I promise!


Ciao!

Thursday 19 May 2011

Today I... wagged school

That's a uniquely Aussie expression for 'didn't go to school' - the nice doctor peered down my throat yesterday, reeled back in horror at what she saw and immediately climbed into the lead-lined suit in case she picked it up herself.


Anyway, I spent an extremely lazy day today sleeping, knitting, reading (just started Hanging Hill, by Mo Hayder, one of my favourite authors - got it via Amazon/Kindle for US$7.95, a tiny bit cheaper than A$39.99 at the local bookstore) and ignoring the 'Present that cannot be named', which is now waiting for its b********.  


Yesterday I spent a pleasant day with MBF before frightening the doctor, and on the way home from Town on Tuesday, where I had a quasi-farewell lunch with Miss Mary, who is off to the UK for an undefined period, I bought some this:





Sugar Pop - Mod Buds In Brown cotton quilting fabric by Liz Scott for Moda Fabrics - 1 yard
and some of this:



Beige and Brown Stripes - Japanese fabric (0.5 yard)


One of which will go on the 'Present that cannot be named" and one of which won't.  Sorry, no prizes.


I also made discreet inquiries of Miss Mary regarding her car, which is somewhat larger than the Silver Flash, and a stationwagon, or estate car to boot (no pun intended), or whatever they're called where you live - and she's offering it up for a very good price, so some kind of trade may be made.  I did offer up Mr Golightly, but she demurred gently, saying she couldn't fit him in the luggage.  Shame, that.


It's the ideal size for picking up furniture, a practice I am going to go into RSN.  Miss Rosie from School has told me about a Secret Squirrel warehouse way out west where bargains may be had, all of which need love and attention of the upholstery kind.  Our garage is about to overflow...


MGF Kaz just rang me to say they've been in the beautiful Hunter Valley 17 years today, so 
I may have to make a tribute Treasury & put it on the blog... stay tuned.  And that's it for me, Gentle Readers.  I have to go now & cook dinner for Mr G, who is going to come thumping up the steps any minute, catching me wasting my time once again.  Tote that barge, lift that bail, hey?  Back to upholstery school to bang in the nail.  Love it!


Ciao!

Sunday 15 May 2011

The Daily Nag

So, Gentle Readers, the lovely and erudite Peppermint Penguin (aka AJ, aka The Thick as a Plank One) wasn't kidding when she said she was going to remind me every single day to get off my slowly shrinking butt (7 kilos since Christmas, but who's counting?) and do something about getting a job with a real upholsterer .. which is fine, but really, AJ, Sundays???  I don't know any upholsterers {and this sentence could stop right there} who work on Sundays!


Anyway, I can't do any more about it until Tuesday, when I'm free again (Monday being a School day), but I will make a list today of Upholsterers in the district, and on Tuesday I will start making calls.  


Yesterday I took a couple of pictures of my nice dining room to share with you, just so you can share the joy of upholstery:





Not so nice, really.  Fabric everywhere, supplies everywhere, a half-finished drop-in seat and a half-finished footstool... I need a workshop!  Whilst on the way to School on Thursday morning, Miss Natalie had a brilliant idea about people with sheds... and I know one.  


Mr Golightly's lovely sister Miss Cathy has what we in Australia half-jokingly call a 'granny flat'* in her backyard.  It's got two rooms, a teeny tiny kitchen, a bathroom and a double carport out the front.  It's got "My New Upholstery Workshop" written all over it, only she doesn't know it yet. 


There's a small problem in that her Number One child and his partner are currently living in it (If you work for Warringah Council, forget you read this!), but I know they're going to move closer to lovely Miss L's work very soon, and then!  Shazam!   The makeover magic begins...and she has two chairs she wants recovering, so I think I could even do some kind of contra deal on the rent!  Maybe.  Maybe??


Anyway, I have to go & get dressed, partly because it's 0937, partly because I need coffee for my hangover, and partly because it's only 10°C/50°F and I'm freezing [read:  still in pyjamas], and I've got to get on with the present for He Who Cannot be Named... so, more, later!


Ciao!




*Small dwelling detached from the main house with the locks on the outside (just kidding).

Saturday 14 May 2011

Hypothetically speaking..

I started to write a post detailing the joys of having Little Miss Sulky in the classroom, and how she's managing to infuriate some of us with her antics, but then I thought that perhaps it might be too close to slanderous, and decided against it. Suffice it to say, I have not worked with somebody quite so ... special... for a very long time.





But, Gentle Readers, I'm not letting her bother me. I'm still having a good time cutting, stapling, nailing (whoo hoo, yesterday we got the big guns out to use on our Slipper Chairs), pulling said nails out, band-sawing, sanding and, yes, even sweeping the floor. Pretty exciting stuff. Although I was a bit frustrated with our lovely teacher Mr G because although I told him I already knew how to use a band-saw and a belt sander, he still took away one half of my bits [so to speak] and did them himself to demonstrate what I already knew. I guess I need to be more forceful when explaining to him that I learnt how to use those tools in our garage, when I was somewhere between 12 & 17.


Anyway, the back of the chair now has rails, I still have all my fingers, and I'm not too bothered by the fact that I got the positioning of the rails completely wrong and had to remove the nails with two huge screwdrivers (used for leverage) and re-do it. Hah!


However, yesterday was not quite so much fun. probably the worst day I've had so far... and it's all to do with flock. Flock is defined as "A soft material for stuffing cushions, quilts, and other soft furnishings, made of wool refuse or torn-up cloth". Yes, well, it is. But it also has the very annoying quality of being huge. Here's a picture of how we started out, after finishing off the stringing of the springs:




These wicker baskets are about a metre/3.28 feet long, and about 50cm/1.6 feet wide.  They're not particularly heavy, but they hold heaps of flock... and half a basket of this stuff goes into each footstool:


And then you have to pound it down, and pound it, and pound it, and stretch the calico (and remember! Calico has no stretch!), and pound it, and I could go on and on, but I won't - my hands are still sore from all the stretching, and my elbows are sore from the pulling, but this is what the almost finished thing looks like:




See all the holes in the calico?  That's from the constant undoing of the staples as you restretch it.  Gah.  When this was taken, all I had left to do is the corners.  Once I'd done those, it became ready for covering, which I'm hoping to do on Monday.  I've chosen this:



because I've decided to keep it.  I wasn't going to keep it at all, but then I thought... there's so much more work in this one than there was in the foam-topped one (for work, read "sweat, tears and swearing"), I should cover it in something nice & keep it.   The other one is going off to a good home at Mr Golightly's younger sister's house.

And now, Gentle Readers, I must get clean, dressed, respectable.  We're off to the 21st Birthday (barefoot bowls, whoohoo!) this afternoon of the son of one of Mr Golightly's oldest friends, and I have made a commitment to the Peppermint Penguin that I will go & see the man at Pittwater Upholstery to talk about job options... and on that front, Miss Natalie had a brainwave, but I need to talk to Miss Cathy about that first.

Secret Squirrel and more, then, later!

Ciao!


Wednesday 11 May 2011

Questions, questions

So, Gentle Readers, the very lovely and erudite AJ, aka Peppermint Penguin, has raised the thorny question about what I'm going to do when I finish this course, and, for that matter, when the course actually finishes.  It's a bit complicated, so if your eyes glaze over when people start talking about the multi-verse theory, or the parallel universe theory, it's time to go & get a cup of tea.





The Upholstery course I'm doing has the same content as a first year Apprenticeship course.  I'm not actually an Apprentice.  You have to sign away your life, a kidney, your first born and several year's wages to be one of those, (I believe the Guvnmnt has just offered up a $5500 bonus for those hard working souls who actually finish one, finally recognising that unless we train more plumbers and electricians, our toilets are going to go fizzpop and our lights will back up [or something])... and I don't have that much time.  So, this course goes for six months, or one academic semester, three days a week, and at the end of it, I will have learnt the same as an Apprentice who has turned up one day a week for a year.  And perhaps even more, but that's a whole 'nother topic.





Then, (and this is where it gets complicated...) I can either sign up to do Third Year next year [that's 2012), one day a week for the whole year, and then, in 2013, I can do Second Year, which is one day a week for six months (got that?), or, next semester, I can do second year (ditto), and then, in 2012, I can do the previously mentioned Third Year.    My preferred option would be to do Second Year next semester, and then Third Year in 2012, but of course, many things depend on this actually happening.


What are these things, I hear you say?  Well, seeing as you asked so nicely... Firstly, I have to find a job of some kind for four days a week so I can ease Mr Golightly's mind about the impending-ness of Debtor's Prison [probability?  zero]... but also I want to work using the skills I have so painfully just acquired - why wouldn't I?    So, the options are:


A) Work four days a week in Upholstery
B) Work four days a week in IT, doing some contract work until the end of 2012...
C) Work four days at week at the August Institution,
D) Start my own business 
E) Win the Lottery.


Obviously Option E) is really my first choice, but it's at the bottom because I don't want you to think I've completely lost touch with reality, Gentle Readers.


So, of course I either need to find somebody to take me on, preferably for four days a week, or two somebodies to take me on, two days or a week, or some combination that makes four... and because I have to notify the August Institution of my intentions by the end of May, that means I have to extract the digit PDQ.  Ouch.  Reality bites.


The other option, Starting my Own Business, sits there largely ignored. All those lovely souls who've offered up their old & lumpy furniture for me to work on have the absolutely right intent, but I think the outlay for the basic equipment to start myself off in business would be about 10,000 shekels.  I could probably sell the other kidney to raise it, but you did note, I trust, that this was not high on the list of options.


There is another option, which has been bandied around by the Three Musketeers at School (Nat, Caro and myself), which is to go into business together... any thoughts on that?  I have never worked for myself.  Mr Golightly has many, many sad and bitter thoughts to share on this topic (some other time, honest), and I'm wondering if (l'orrore) I might be [shudder] a bit too old to venture into self-employment?  I can't believe I just said that.


Anyway, that's where it's at.  And now, I'm off to have dinner and some quality televsion (joke).  Ciao!



Tuesday 10 May 2011

It's the weather, you see

So, there's no excuse now, except for the slightly pathetic one that it's too cold in the study, where my big laptop lives, and it's too hard in the living room/loungeroom, because the keyboard on the small laptop is so small I can't type properly.  Oh, life is so hard.


Also, a busy few days had me rendered immobile by Saturday night (Sydney traffic, yum cha, Archibald Prize, more Sydney traffic, bed by 8.30pm)... Sunday was Mother's Day and we had a delicious lunch at Mr Golightly's elder sister's house, along with the nieces and nephews... Miss Cathy did try to talk us into a cat, but Mr Golightly demurred, saying they didn't really have enough flesh on them to warrant eating... I'm not sure if she believed she'd heard him correctly, but needless to say we didn't come home with a cat.


Upholstery continues apace.  Yesterday I got stuck in to stripping a drop-in seat which Miss Cathy had - I counted 60 old tacks, three lots of webbing, some very nasty looking flock and coconut fibre and some dodgy fabric... the frame is actually quite nice, with a lovely bevelled edge, but it needed an application of new glue, and I had a good time taking to the frame with the wire brush, redrilling  the holes and getting it into a stonking big clamp to leave until Thursday, when I intend to take to it with elastic webbing, vinyl, foam, linters and that evil of evils, calico (remember?  Calico has no stretch!), and finally, some fantastic fabric from KA International, which Miss Cathy has had tucked away in her magic storeroom for about five years - no pictures yet, but soon, I promise...


And speaking of other fabric:




I confess to buying 2 metres of the last fabric here - the other two did not quite meet the 'PrettyDog Test for Redness', which it needed to pass to be considered for the footstool I'm going to make for Az - however, the two fabrics I bought on Etsy also have failed the test, one is the same red as tomato soup with a can of half milk & half water in it (the usual Golightly tomato soup recipe), and the other one is just raspberry pink...


Reserved for Isabella Golightly Reversible Upholstery weight Fabric with Bird Motif

Cotton Upholstery Fabric, Paisley Deep Rose Pink Fabric, 2 Yards

So I'm still looking...

What else - I'm learning more about what a pain in the arm vinyl is to work with, having made absolutely no progress on this from last week:


and how much fun traditional method upholstery is - a sprung footstool, with coconut fibre and flock - very dusty, prickly, irritating, but very satisfying...


And the class is shrinking, we had a whole five people on Monday, considerably down from our original 11.   Madam Late is apparently quite unwell with previously undiagnosed gall stones.  Having had my own gallbladder out some five or so years ago, I don't quite understand how you can have them and not know - I only had to look at a piece of blue cheese for mine to start howling from the rooftops, but then... 

In other news of unparalleled excitement, the doorstop man didn't leave any feedback on Etsy to say he'd got it - hopefully it turned up OK.  The postage on a 900g/1.9lb doorstop was, surprisingly, $10.00 - is this good, do you think?  Oh yes, and I'm making good progress on the surprise (for he who cannot be named), but more on that later.

And now, Gentle Readers (and hello to the lovely Peppermint Penguin, who has escaped the tangles of Ravelry to catch up on the ultra-thrilling world of the Golightly household, and also to my other new followers - I'm very happy to see you on my list, hope you're not too disappointed by the reality of it all...) I'm going to bed.  I've got a lot happening tomorrow, but more on that... later!  Yes, you guessed it.  Later.

Ciao!  

Wednesday 4 May 2011

Where was I?

Oh yes, back to reality.  The very funny Antonia, from "Yetanotherbloomingblogspot", or 'Whoopee', has joined Facebook.  She swears, so if you suffer from delicate ears, be warned.  I have actually snorted coffee through my nose reading posts on her blog, and am extremely jealous that I am not as funny, erudite, rude or clever as she is.  But I know how to hammer in tacks, and she doesn't, so there.


Speaking of tacks, the very lovely Kate from Rapt! Upholstery, is in the the third year of the course I'm doing, and has her own blog, which is well worth a look - she's done some amazing things with furniture that was on its last legs.  We only see each other once a week, on a Monday, when the third years venture in with these huge bits of furniture they're all working on - enormous chaise lounges, wing chairs, whole Parker sofas - incredible, really.  Hopefully when my turn comes around next year I'll be able to find something equally fab to work on.


My Monday at Upholstery School was spent wrestling with red vinyl, and I managed to stab myself under the fingernail with a staple.  I swore like a navvy, it bled like a stuck pig, and of course the only comment that's made, by anybody, is "Don't get blood on the work".  Good thing I'm not the sensitive wilting flower some of us are, isn't it?


Anyway, here's some pictures of what I was trying to achieve, which was:


All the pleats in one direction;
All the pleats point towards the centre point;
All the pleats are the same size;
The start point for each pleat must be on the front, not on the top, of the arm.


Not sure if I succeeded:






Much soreness of fingers, after this lot.  Vinyl is a real pain to work with... nice for stool tops, but thank the Upholstery Gods that nobody wants their lounges covered in it!


Last night I made a doorstop for a nice man who bought it through my Etsy shop - I used the beautiful Echino linen, and it went just fine, but the problems I had filling it have resulted in sand all over the sewing room floor, and the bathroom floor.  Why the bathroom floor, I hear you ask?  I had a brainwave about drying out the sand using the hairdryer.  Aha, I hear you say.  Yes, Gentle Readers, Miss Incredibly-stupid Isabella got the hairdryer a bit too close to the sand and it flew everywhere.  Sadly, the finished result didn't even make a bit of difference to the bulk of the sand & it's still damp.  Next time I send the boys off to the hardware store for a bag of sand, remind me to specify I want the dry stuff.







And that, Gentle Readers, could be it for me today.  I have done the first slices into the Birthday quilt top, so I need to sew some sashing strips together so I can stitch the quilt top back up... I may emulate yesterday's effort by having a mid-afternoon nap, but my final set of Lumiere de Noel layer cake blocks arrived from Texas this morning, so I may be spending nap time thinking about how to make a double sided quilt...  Inspirational ideas welcome, of course!


Ciao!



Tuesday 3 May 2011

Royal Wedding Fun

My lovely neighbours, Lyn & Eric, went to a Royal Wedding Party.   Whoever was giving the party had a great sense of humour, because everybody had a title, and everybody had to come in character.  Lyn was the Arch-Duchess, Eric was the Admiral.  Lots of inspiration, and Lyn found the perfect dress, which was bottle green something, maybe rayon? with a velvet bodice - this is the closest approximation of the style I could find:



80's White Lace and Green Crushed Velvet Prom Dress by Dave and Johnny Size 8






Except the bodice on Lyn's dress was velvet... and a bit tight.  Lyn is.. quite well endowed... shall we say, in that department?  Anyway, she popped around for inspiration on how to get the dress to fit a bit better (read:  looser), so I set to with the seam ripper on the lining, and gave her another couple of centimetres.  Then I had a stroke of inspiration, and whipped out the two lovely rhinestone brooches I just bought (I've fallen in love with Rhinestones, did I tell you that (although if you look up Etsy Treasuries made by me, you'll figure it out pretty quick!)?

So, the Rhinestone brooches were going on the dress as decorations, a la other Royal occasions:

Royal Family Order of Queen Elizabeth II






 
Stunning Light Blue Vintage Rhinestone Brooch
They look so similar, don't they?  Then there's this one:

 Vintage Blue and Green Rhinestone Pin - 1967

Emeralds, Sapphires.. Rhinestones.  I think the finished result was like this - not sure she could borrow the tiara though!





And then I lent The Admiral a sash, so he could pin his own decorations and medals (purchased from the Warriewood Two Dollar Shop) onto his uniform.  I'm sure he looked just like this:


Except for the chair, of course.


I, personally, hopped into my jammies & put the electric blanket on, then watched it from my lovely warm bed.  Mr G was out on the town celebrating the impending wedding of one of his boys (as we call the poor sods who slave under him in the IT mines all day), so I had no reason to hide my desire to watch it.  I loved her dress, classic, simple, chic.  

So, you see, it is possible to enjoy Royalty - but only until the Revolution!

Ciao!

Too much of nothing happening...

And yet, not.  I feel very guilty that I haven't written anything for your delectation since the 26th April... I haven't really been doing anything much except a spot of socialising, a smidgen of sewing, a crumb or two of craft, a something of upholstery... nothing to keep me from writing another thrilling post about it all... but, as I get started, I realise I could have written three posts - one about the Royal Wedding Party my lovely neighbour Lyn went to, one about Upholstery School, and one about the rest of this rubbish...


So, let's see.


I finished Kaz's dressing gown & she sent me a picture - I think she was happy with it, apparently she wore it to a Royal Wedding party:




There was nothing particularly hard about it, the sleeves were a bit tedious because I was trying to do a piped cuff, but my brain would not go where I wanted it to, so I ended up just sewing the bands straight on.  I think it looks OK.  I also cheated a bit & used fabric glue to stick the mitred corners of the hem down, next time I'm up in the Hunter I'll stitch them in place, but I wanted to make sure it got to Kaz by Friday, and if I stitched them, it wouldn't have.  I did do a fabulous blind hem, so I'm sure the transgression of fabric glue will be forgiven.  Don't want anything to hold up my beatification...


I made a cushion for Kaz on Sunday to go with Archie's chair - I found some sew-in piping I've had for a few years, tucked in a drawer - I dragged the drawer out when my lovely neighbour Lyn came by seeking aid for her Royal Wedding Party outfit (but more on that in the second post for today!) - and thought to myself, as you do, you know, "Oh!  Cushion!"... anyway, Kaz wanted brown birds on one side & green spots on the other, so here 'tis:




I think the brown piping just finishes it nicely.  And I worked out how to put the zip in at the top, with the piping.  Quite easy, really [quick tute:  sew the piping all the way round one side first.  Then put the zip in as normal, using the sandwich method, then, before you sew up the side seams, make the flap - about 1/2 centimetre (5 ml/.1968"), pin it into place & top stitch it down.  Then sew up the side & bottom seams.  Easy!  Drop me a line if you get stuck, isabellagolightly[at]gmail.com]...




If I was making another one, I'd also top-stitch the green side, just to make sure it didn't flop open, but as it's going to have the bejezus stretched out of it by a cushion insert, I don't think it'll matter.


What else?  I made pencil cases for my colleagues at Upholstery School, did I mention those previously?  Yes, I think I did.  Actually, I've just checked and I didn't.  Here's some pics:






Brown for me, green for Caro, white for Nat.  


What else?  I started on the quilt for somebody I can't mention, and I'm doing the same pattern as the one I did for Nelly, the Cathedral Window one:




The fabrics are really nice, gender neutral, (I think), but I've had a bit of a headache putting them together in pleasing combinations - unlike the blocks above, there are only five colours for 36 blocks (cream, white, blue, coffee & brown), so it's been very tricky to make a 6 X 6 pattern which doesn't duplicate any of the pattern/colour combinations - and although I've stitched all the blocks together in 1 X 6 strips, I'm not sure I've got it right:



That's my task for today, to get the quilt top made.  Dinner is sorted (last night's lamb curry, good thing Mr Golightly loves leftovers), the washing will get done in dribs & drabs, my upholstery school assignments are up to date (but more on that in the third & final post for today), so, in theory, nothing will stop me.  


So, Gentle Readers, I must go away now & put a load of washing on, then I can come back with a semi-clear conscience to tell you all about Isabella Golightly's Adventures at the Royal Wedding.  Betcha can't wait!!


Ciao!