Tempus fugits (Part III)

It's a sad, sad indictment of my life that I seem to be only able to find time to post when I'm at home sick.. which I am.  Again.  Sore throat, dry wheezy cough, sore ears, sore eyes.  Yesterday I felt a little off, and somebody kindly pointed out that the usual colour in my cheeks had highlighted itself to be ugly blotches, and my eyes were red and watery.  Ick.  

What's been happening?  I had a very pleasant outing with MBF to the Church Point churchyard (yes, that's why it's called Church Point, because there used to be a church as well as a churchyard) to take some pictures with Miss N & Master H... it wasn't particularly atmospheric, but terribly overgrown.  Such a shame...

I've bought bits and piece of fabrics...

Some of these are old favourites, some are a new adventure.  All gorgeous though...

And in exciting family news, Mr Golightly's middle niece, Miss Emma, has given birth to her first baby, a boy named Isaac Phillip, - a fantastic name, given that Mr Golightly's actual given name is Phillip - apparently it's a tribute to Mr Golightly's awesome uncle-ness.  Nice.  I've ordered some fantastic baby burp cloths:

and I'm looking to make a cot quilt in similar colours - eventually... And I've been sussing out the knitting patterns for babies, but interestingly, most of them seem to be targeted at girls.  I don't know if it's just my imagination, but they just all seem a bit fluffy.  Anyway, I've started knitting a rib tube, which is pretty cute, and I'll post a picture when it's finished - it has surfaced before, looking like this:

Much as I find knitting rib boring, it does make a very cute hat... 

I'm making a doorstop for Mr Golightly's lovely Ma, cut out and pieced, but gone no further...

Phew.  I just ran out of energy.  Back to bed.  Ciao!

Sandflies, mosquitos and other minor irritants

So, Gentle Readers, last weekend we had some social stuff - I had to go & suffer through a free facial on Saturday, (oh, so difficult!), and on Sunday we all celebrated Miss Alex's birthday - she's a teenager now.  Her Aunty Cathy (Mr Golightly's sister) lives in Collaroy Plateau, just round the corner from where Mr Golightly and his sisters all grew up, and we rolled up on Sunday with my wonderful MIL in tow (always good for a quick getaway, bringing the MIL with you!)... but the sandflies!  OMG.  


I counted 15 bites on Sunday night, including one or two of which are the size of of a 50c piece - that's about 1 1/2 inches across, for those of you in other countries... they are so itchy that I was nearly driven out of my mind at School yesterday, combining itchy arms and legs with dust and hessian... not good.


Anyway, I stopped at the chemist/pharmacy yesterday on the way home & have been slathering cortisone cream all over myself, which, for the most part, has been quite effective , but... there is one on my wrist and one on my elbow which are huge, and are pressing on various nerves under the skin, making me ache.  Ow.  I want sympathy.  Although, I am sleeping better, because I'm taking two Polaramine before I go to bed, and they keep me out cold until about 3.30am, when I go to the loo, then go back to bed & sleep like the dead until 5.30am.  Bliss.

In other more cheerful news, my chair fabric arrived from here:

And this:

and this:

So I'm thinking that I should be able to make something fantastic out of these after the chair is done - maybe a cushion?

Upholstery school continues to delight me, and here for your edification is the progress on the child's chair:

Most of yesterday was spent wrestling with the calico at the corners at the bottom of the inside back, learning how to slice the fabric so you get a nice finish underneath.  Then we put the final fabric on the back, making nice pleats so it sits smoothly.

The we started building the seat - webbing (itchy!), hessian (itchier!), black plastic edging, foam, wadding, bigger foam... which is where I'm up to.  Thursday we're going to put the biggest layer of foam on the chair, which holds it all down, then the calico. then the fabric.  Then we do the border & border piping.  Then we do the back.  Then I have a drink! 

Anyway, more progress shots as we go along.


What else have I learnt so far?  Some people don't work well in teams - it wouldn't occur to some people to get off their arses and help out by doing things we need to do before we can go home, like sweeping the floor, cleaning off the benchtops, taking somebody else's tools to the storeroom, turning off the lights, fetching, carrying, ... Surprisingly, there's only one of these people, and interestingly, she's the youngest person on the course.  Co-incidence?  Hmmm.

Anyway, Gentle Readers, I am going to put my lovely new fabric into the washing machine, then hang out some of Mr Golightly's socks.  Such excitement.  Enjoy your day!

Ciao!

5.04pm Edited to say:  I can't believe nobody noticed I'd spelt 'sandflies' wrong.  Ouch!

News from nowhere

So, Gentle Readers, what have I been doing?


Learning to use an industrial sewing machine:

Did you know these things go like the clappers?  3,000 stitches/minute.  That's 50 a second.  Fifty stitches a second.  OMG.  That'll go right through your finger before you can say 'Ouch'.

Learning to make a webbed footstool, and these are the same techniques we'll apply to our child's chair:

  

Images copyright Lora Jones*

Watching with amazement as Madam Late turns up variously at 8.45, 8.45 and 8.50, when the rest of us manage to get there for 8.00am; 

Wondering how my back is going to cope with all the standing up, and find that it's actually not so bad as long as I sit down between bouts of working and the demonstrations...

Discovering that Stanley knives are really sharp and will slice your finger open at the drop of hat (it was just a shallow cut, more of a scratch really.  What a baby!)

Wondering how the canteen can display one price for toast and vegemite, then charge an extra 20c to actually toast the bread.  Hmm.  Still trying to work that one out.

Enjoying myself mightily.  It's so nice to spend the whole day using my hands to make something!

Finding out I can bear the feel of Hessian as long as I don't have to rub it on my skin.  Yuck.

In other news, 'm going to start taking my compact camera to school with me, so I can document all the stages of the footrest - webbing, hessian, foam, wadding, foam, foam, calico, fabric.  

I'm going to cover my child's chair in this:

which has a dark brown background & MGF Kaz is going to buy it from me for her niece, who is currently expecting her second bub.  I think it'll be spectacular!

The footrest?  Haven't decided yet.  Maybe some of my Joel Dewberry blue & brown stuff, so maybe this:

And now, I must away to visit My Best Friend and the Kidlets, one of whom is, like Mr Golightly,a bit under the weather.  

Ciao for now!

Confession time...

Beware, Gentle Readers, for 'tis confession time.  I hope you're sitting down, and not in my favourite chair, either.


I have never looked at the stats for my blog before.  I must admit (and don't I do a lot of admitting here, hmmm?) that I love it when people comment, so I know you're out there, and I also admit that the sole reason I got that feedjit thingy at the bottom of the blog was to feed my ego, but for some reason, I hadn't looked at the stats.


But today, I did.  I was adding the updated Treasury to the page, and saw the tab, and a little light bulb went on.  Gentle Readers, there are more of you than I ever suspected.  Indonesia, The Netherlands, the US of A, the UK, here, of course... how gratifyingly international.  (Did any of you ever see that film with Queen Latifah, Last Holiday, where she says "Make me... international"?  Check it out, people).  


In other news, it's just started to rain.  Yippee!  If I needed an excuse to have a nothing day, that's it.  I love it when it rains in the middle of summer.  Everything smells so... summery.  Especially when the southerlies come through on a hot afternoon and cool everything down - the roads smell, the grass smells.. it's a real Sydney thing... 


In other not quite so cheery news, whilst searching for the name of that Queen Latifah movie, I saw in Wikipedia that Pete Postlethwaite and Gerry Rafferty have both shuffled off this mortal coil... I loved Postlethwaite, his cheekbones always came into the room about 3 feet ahead of the rest of him, and he was magnificent in The Usual Suspects, which, Gentle Readers, if you haven't seen, you absolutely should.  


Gerry Rafferty had a huge hit here in 1978 with an album called City to City, and the single from that album, 'Baker Street', had a fantastic saxophone solo - when I was a melancholy, moody teenager, that song, played with Jackson Browne's 'The Pretender' and Al Stewart's 'Year of the Cat', was musical heaven for me.  No pun intended.  RIP, Ger.


In other news, completely unrelated news, and in what Mr Golightly refers to as 'a quantum leap', I had a brainwave in the night about Momo's French General "Lumiere De Noel" fabric, (which I bought last year as a charm pack to make the Christmas bunting for My Best Friend) - I love those fabrics so much I'm going to make it into a quilt - using the pattern that I made for Miss Nelly - so now I need to go off & buy a metre of one of those beautiful fabrics to make the strips and a layer cake.  Oh, joy.  More fabric :-)


And now, the sun is coming out.  That means it going to be bad Sydney today, where it's sticky, humid, yucky, and I have lost my excuse to do nothing.... so it's back to the sewing room, and goodbye to Lydiard Millicent.  No, not somebody with a weird, backward sounding name, but a visitor from that nice little village just outside Swindon (where, completely co-incidentally, I lived as a child, no, no, Swindon, not Lydiard Millicent, but I did live in Latton for a while, are you totally confused yet?)


Me too.  Ciao!

Just for the Peppermint Penguin

This is what the seam in the lining of the boot bags looks like when finished:

Not too shabby, methinks.  You can't even tell where the turning hole was, and I guess that's all good!

It's Sunday morning, Mr G is wrestling with the washing machine (our 17 yo Hoover Electra 540) & I'm still in my PJ's, trying to find some inspiration.  I've been through all the whiz-bang new sewing books I own (you know, '999 reasons to sew again', 'I've reinvented the spinning wheel and you should all be grateful', and my all time favourite, '300 ugly and useless things to make with little or no fabric' and I can't find anything I really want to make.  

I've knitted scarfs, gloves, jumpers, cardigans, lace, beanies, neckwarmers and suits for dolls. I've embroidered tray cloths, cushions, samplers, collars and Christmas decorations.  I've cross-stitched samplers, bell-pulls, nifty little bags, pin cushions, hand-towels and bibs for babies.  I've mastered the fully lined box pouch, the zippered flat pouch, the boxed bottom make-up bag and the pencil case, I've made felt dogs and fabric dogs galore, I've made birds from that lovely and oft-stolen pattern from Spool Sewing, boot bags, shoe bags, lingerie bags and lavender bags, aforementioned Christmas decorations and far too many frogs to even discuss, and I want a challenge!   

Suggestions?

Twenty down...

Forty to go.  I couldn't get any more Momo Wonderland, it's like Hens Teeth, despite the valiant efforts of Miss Scurvy at the Craft show on Friday - but anyway, my lovely customer has kindly agreed to let me use up the last bits that I had, and I'm making pairs of complementary colours, which makes it easy:

I'm a bit sad that this is the last of the Wonderland fabric, it was very pretty - I understand why manufacturers stop making stuff, I really do, but why does it have to be stuff I like?  Why is it nice stuff, when you can still buy hideous crap like this?

and I'm very disappointed to say that I absolutely hate this stuff from Erin McMorris!

 

what was she thinking?

Oh well.. I'm going to re-read Lois McMaster Bujold's "Komarr" tonight, Mr Golightly is in his PJ's already & listening to the football on his beanbag - his beloved Manly Warringah Sea Eagles are playing just now, here's hoping they win this week.  I couldn't stand another loss, the renting of garments, tearing of hair, gnashing of teeth and wailing is all a bit hard to bear... 

Ciao!

Busman's holiday

Blogspot seems to have made it a lot easier for non-nerdy* types like me to make changes to the appearance of their blogs, so I did.  I'm using this as an excuse to give Rusty a bit of time off, and to give Miss Petronella a bit of an outing.  I'm not entirely sure about the colour scheme, but I do love Miss Petronella.  She's a big show-off, so it's nice for her to be able to strut her funky plastic-and-lavender filled stuff occasionally:

I have to say that this is one of my all-time favourite fabrics, and I would never part with Miss Petronella simply because she's too gorgeous.

I bought some great fabric when I was in Perth, very simple cotton, but vibrant and colourful, and super cheap.  I love the designer fabrics (surprise!) but when you find something good for $7.99/m, you just have to go for it.  Also, my friend AJ sent me a link to eQuilter.com, which really fired up my post-holiday fabric buying gland.  You know the one, it sits dormant for a while and then goes 'wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee, must have fabric'.  

I popped into here, where the lovely ladies are always happy to see you, and picked up some fabulous stuff - and a nice book, too:

  

which has some gorgeous projects I'm looking for happy recipients for... and I also made these little cuties:

Anyway, this is a truly terrible photo of the birdies I made with said super-cheap fabric, each slightly larger than the other, and all stuffed with lavender, with hand-sewn buttons for eyes and a hanging ribbon.  Anybody think they're sellable?  I'm thinking of adapting the pattern to make a bird head doorstop, too.  Somehow or other...

What else?  Oh yes, I start the new job tomorrow, and had to ring my new colleague to find out if I was out at the Ars*e end of nowhere or in town - as luck would have it, we're back at the AEON, (and I'm sure it'll seem like an eon), but I can cope.  I'm tonka, as Mr Golightly always says.  That's "Tonka Tough", for those of you who didn't get that advertising campaign when you were five, or six, or whatever.

And finally, thanks, Mrs Mountbatten-Windsor, for the day off.  Even though it's not actually your birthday, even us diehard Republicans** still enjoyed it, and the vision of two of my old favourites, Rampaging Roy Slaven & HG Nelson (A man simply called "bald"), getting a gong in the QBHL***... was a wonderful one, and all because too much sport is barely enough!

Ciao!

*I'm a geek, not a nerd.  There's a big difference, y'know.

**That's "people who don't want to be ruled by a queen", rather than "Not Democrats"

***Queen's Birthday Honours List (she gives us medals to make us feel better about being a dumping ground for ignorant sunburnt backpackers.  Or something.)

There's nothing like a few days off...

to make you feel better... so I'm off visit my Ma & lovely Hank for the long weekend we didn't even know we were having (it's actually next weekend, where we live, but this weekend where they live)... we got nice cheap flights, and I'm very happy not to be going into the office until next week now...


And the good news is that I've managed to find myself another job, working for the same monolithic megacorporation... but *voice squeaking in excitement* in town!!!


I'm finishing at the arse-end of nowhere on Friday 11th, and will be starting my new job after the 'real' long weekend, so I have three weeks in a row with less than 5 days (and hopefully less than 50 hours) in it!


All so exciting.  Not quite as exciting as lovely Felicity's adventures in Broome, but still enough to make the tunnel, and its associated light, a little closer!


And in the meantime...

I'm thinking about these... some of my favourite colours... nice combos, very tempting... being strong.  For now.

Have a great weekend, back soon!

And now I'm really annoyed

So... for a while now at the August Institution that employs me, I have spent the nanosecond that is laughingly referred to as a "Lunch Break" by reading some blogs I follow, and some I don't .. it's a harmless way to waste a bit of time, and I have even, on the odd occasion, posted a note here from the office.  There's no harm in it, as far as I can see... however...


They have now blocked access to blogs, particularly those which are hosted by Typepad, Blogspot, Blogger, LiveJournal or MySpace.  OK, so I understand about the social networking sites, I really do.  But the blogs?  What possible harm can there be from reading about Felicity & her ongoing adventure in the Kimberley?  What damage can Sharon Lee & Steve Miller possibly do to a huge filthy rich multi-national August Institution?   I'm cross, gentle readers, very cross.


Of course, my cross-ness may have something to do with the 51 hours I worked there last week, but then again, perhaps not.  I might just be a cross person who's found something new to whinge about, but I don't think so.  I like to think I'm generally upbeat & cheerful, but I'll admit to being quite vocal if I'm unhappy about something.  I am not like a lot of Aussies who will suffer stoically, internalising all rage and taking it all out on the cat/dog/child/spouse/ colleagues/opposition leader/football referees.  Really.  No, really.


Anyway, on a happier note, these were waiting for me when I got home - I love to come home to a parcel of fabric on the doorstep!

And the second best thing about buying from Japan?  6 days turnaround.  Fabulous!  When I've made something gorgeous with this, I'll post some pictures.  Honest.

And now, gentle reader, I am going off to the Small But Perfectly Formed room to finish the pouches for my WMIL*.

And I have news, exciting news, but I can't tell you yet.  Although, given that where I work has blocked access to blogs, maybe I can**!

*Wonderful Mother-In-Law

**I'm moving to work in the City!  Shhhh!

Yipeee!

It's raining!  That means... sewing tomorrow!


I've got some orders, two flat pouches for my lovely WMIL*, and my friend Yvette wants a pouch for her young friend Jerry, as in "Tom and...", with her name on it - she's seven, and apparently much absorbed by co-ordinating her little seven-year-old wardrobe - so much pink and black has been called for, with loud and lairy lining.


So... I'm going to dig into the stash, and see what I can find.  Shouldn't be too hard... remember this?  I bought it just before we went away...

or...

or...

and for Miss Jerry...

 or   ??????

Have a great one, Gentle Readers...

*Wonderful Mother-In-Law

Oh, all right then...

The lovely AJ who frequently comments on my blog (so nice to know somebody else is out there...) as "A Peppermint Penguin" has begged, nay, implored me, to reveal what I actually bought in the fabulous Bassetti Tessuti shop in Rome... as she is a discerning woman of some refinement, how could I refuse?


Just a word of warning - if you aren't a fabric maven, or have even a slight interest in fabric, you might want to go away and come back another day...


So, here goes...


The gorgeous lilac silk jersey, next to an envelope so you can see the colour - I just realised it's exactly the colour of my kitchen cupboards!

A large remnant of shirting, 100% cotton, with gorgeous pique stripes and a tiny weeny darker stripe on either side, just to give the white stripes some oooomph...

The palest of pale lilac shirting, in a really fine pique.  Very soft.

A kind of weird choice, really, neither vibrant nor traditional... but I liked the colours - it's a sort of rough cotton, I don't really know what the name of it is.  Just enough for crafty things, I think.  I don't think I'd be seen dead wearing it!

And then, shirting in a really pale pink herringbone, excuse the shadow in the bottom of the picture...

Also a crafty choice - it had such a '60's look I couldn't resist - I'm sure my mother had a dress made of this in about 1964...

And then, a lovely crisp cotton, a bit heavier than shirting, with a sort of Japanese-y feel to it... I have no idea what I'm going to do with this!

And then, just a tad more shirting, in a pale pink, with a nice white square (is that, strictly speaking, a check?  I need to check my Fairchild's Dictionary of Fashion, I think.

And finally, the piece de resistance, or 'piatta forte', which Babelfish tells me is the correct interpretation of the French, the Houndstooth silk:

You can see from this that it's actually black and cream, not black and white - but it is still gorgeous!


Sadly, that's it.  If I'd only had more time, a shipping crate, another ten credit cards and a more willing husband, then I could have bought more, so some of you are probably quite pleased I had none of those things.  


Me, I'm already thinking about my next trip, and how I can survive a month in Europe with only 2 days worth of clothes to make extra room in my suitcase!!! 

Living treasures... made of paper

Have you seen this?

Amazingly clever.

Today, gentle reader, I sally forth to purchase innumerable paper serviettes, plastic forks (although I will hold out for bamboo if I can find them), paper plates (the sturdy kind), Stock, onions, spices, and a whole other bunch of non-perishable stuff for The Big Event, which is MWH's 50th birthday BBQ, on Saturday. He's so funny, he doesn't want "a party", so no cake, balloons or streamer-like decorations, just 40 good friends and lots of beautiful food cooked by this clever man, seen here doing things with our amazing early Christless Dinner, which he cooked, in its entirety, on the BBQ!

And then I'm going to make something with these:

which I originally bought to make this:

but instead used red dress making weight linen, from the SWICTBTWBBHNYBCAS*, and lined it with this (gotta love that Deer Valley!):

Excuse my fingers. I had to take this in the office (note the Eclipse mints tin on the desk waiting to be recycled) because, although I got up at 5.00am to finish it, I forgot to take a picture of it before I left home. And, I hear you say, why did you have your camera in the office? Doesn't everybody carry their camera around all the time? No, actually. I had it with me because we were going off to yet our office Christmas lunch on Friday, and I wanted to take photographs of the other side of where we were going to be on Saturday!

Beautiful.

*Stash Which Is Claimed To Be The World's Biggest But Has Not Yet Been Confirmed As Such

Tasmania, so Beautiful

(How green your gardens are... is it some kind of blasphemy, do you think, to co-opt the tune of a slightly known number by Samuel A Ward...?

Tasmania is lovely, all green rolling hills, amazing mountains and fantastic gardens:

Does anybody know what these are? They grow into a bush, all purple & blue, like a big blueberry in the garden.

This somewhat large tree was in the Churchyard at Deloraine, with a rather interesting bunch of cast-iron frames around the graves...

We made some new friends:

And yes, the liver-coloured lovely is peeing. Talk about timing...

And we saw some beautiful flowers, and the occasional insect!

And we spent time looking at this (my personal favourite):

Oh yes, and there was craft:

And while I was away, these arrived:

Ah, joy. Holidays and fabric. Bliss.