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!

Button it up, baby

I had a lovely day yesterday at My Best Friend's house, helping the kidlets with a school project - I cannot believe what they want 10 year olds to do these days - they have to come up with a product, write a marketing strategy, do a presentation to the board, design a logo, then make the products, cost and price them and them sell them at a profit... they're ten years old, forchrissakes.  Anyway, the Kidlets decided to make fridge magnets, using 1 7/8" buttons and some squares from my 5" stash - they had a lot of fun:

Then we had a bit of fun choosing a new collar for Elliot, and we had Mia to help us - 

Mia has a bit of a ribbon fetish... as do I!

I also found a new button supplier on Etsy, who has all the buttons I ever wanted, and who is here in Australia!  Yay!  I lurve being able to get things locally...

What else?  I bought a lovely book by Joel Dewberry, "Sewn Spaces", which had a lovely birdy pattern in it, and hooray!, you can sell them items made from the patterns!!  I'm going to make some birds & see how they go in the shop - maybe a set on ribbon?  We'll see.  I've got to finish the Christmas trees for Kerry first, but progress is being made - but not today - I'm feeling a bit crap today so I spent most of the day as a horizontal zombie - so nice!

Hunter Valley weekend...

So, we had our first visit to the Hunter Valley since Zeb.B.Dog went off to Doggie Heaven, and I have to say it was a bit hard... I kept looking for her every where I went, and of course, the house was lot quieter without her.  Poor Zoe Dog was also a shadow of her former self, off her food, drink, off her game, slinking around looking for Zeb everywhere she went...


Next time we're up there I will go & visit the spot where she's buried, but this time I couldn't face it.... give me a month or so.


In the interim, I made a couple of cushion covers for Kaz, who was looking to cheer up her living room a little.  I used up some of my nice Joel Dewberry Deer Valley from here:

and co-incidentally, I had a piece of Amy Butler Home Dec weight from here:

and the colours were amazingly in synch - needless to say Kaz was very happy with the cushions - and they were a nice easy birthday present - Happy Birthday Kaz!

Ch Ch Changes...

Well, this could be embarrassing... (how is it that focusing has one 's' and embarrassing has two?).  Oh yes, where was I?  Embarrassing.  I added a new widget to the bottom of my blog from a site called "BlogFrog" - with a name like that, how could I resist?  It's supposed to be a form of social networking for bloggers, which might be nice, for those of us who can't go to things like "BlogHer" (but, I have to say, why would you want to?  Isn't cybercontact enough, already?)  Ooops, I digress again... and of course it's supposed to show you when people have read your blog.  I could be sitting there waiting for the pot to boil for a long long time.  


No, I know there are a few hardy souls who read this drivel through thick & thin, which is encouraging...


Did you also note I'd changed the banner?  I think sometimes a new look is good, even though none of my gentle readers could tell me how to add a background to my blog... I found instructions, I read them, I tried, I really did.. but some things just elude me - it's like long division, algebra and programming in C++, you know, they just go in one end and out the other.   Mr Golightly was no help either, even though he's the compleat geek, he was too busy fixing his toilet.  That's a whole other story I'm not telling. 


Weather-wise, it was nice having a day of 40C/104F yesterday, because it reminds us all how lovely it is to have a day of 29C/84F.  I was out west yesterday, and ventured out only once, to buy lunch, then returned to the slightly overheated damp cave I work in... no wonder I feel a bit odd today.


Oh yes, did I mention?  I feel a bit odd today.  Sore throat, sore ears, glands are up, eyes feel very sticky, head feels very cotton-woolly.  It's 10.50AM & I'm still in my PJs.  Not at work, in case you were worried.  


And on the supplies side, these arrived yesterday:

And these:

I loved the red and blue so much I thought I'd give the turquoise and coral a burl - they are very nice, I must say.  What a talent that nice Mr Dewberry is.

And in other news just to hand, I've been invited by my lovely friend Fluid Pudding to join her Flickr Group "Tide Whiff Wise", which is another way of saying 2010 is "The Year During Which I Finish What I’ve Started (TYDWIFWIS).  As the proud owner of many UFO's*, I'm determined to finish the lace scarf I started for my lovely SIL** two (at least) years ago, before her birthday.  When is that, I hear you saying?  Oh, if you must know, it's in October.  But that doesn't mean it'll be done in time - I just can't knit in summer because it's too hot, we're away for all of April, May, June, July & August are prime sewing months because its cool, so it'll have to be September.  Don't expect to hear from me then!

And now, back to bed.  I've exhausted myself with all this typing and I need to rest.  I'm so precious :-)

*Un-Finished Object

**Sister-in-Law

Ouch!

So, in the wars this afternoon, or what? MWH* has been very busy making me a return for my sewing table in the small but perfectly formed room, and I very carelessly caught my knuckle right on the bone on the stainless steel ruler than is set into the desk, on the edge.. ouch ouch ouch, a small cut but it bled mightily. Then, as part of investigation into how the new return for my desk was attached to the desk, I landed the tip of my middle finger right onto the sticky-outy stainless steel runner bit, drawing more blood. Man, what's going to be third?

I believe these things do come along in threes, probably because the first time you're careless, the second time you're in shock from the first time and the third time you're distracted by the pain & shock of the first two!

Anyway, here's a terrible picture of the new return:

My very clever WH is going to make another piece which still stand on rubber feet to sit on the top of the return, to bring it level with the top of my sewing table - and making it an ideal place to lose store flat items, like the cutting out boards, which seem to be proliferating at an alarming rate...

Also, I made a shoe bag for my lovely friend Lulu Carter's sister, who lives in London - her birthday is tomorrow (or is it today, oops!) - last year I made her this:

so this year I wanted to make her something different - and given that shoe bags are the flavour of the day, this seemed like a good way to go:

and I used more of that beautiful Joel Dewberry Deer Valley to line it, and hand-appliqued the name of the bag ('shoes') on the bag - that is so time-consuming, but it does look nice, I think:

Whereas yesterday I just added the word to the bag I made for Cathy's birthday:

She did seem to enjoy the humour. Eh by gum...

Uncle...

Does anybody except me and the lovely Yumptatious remember the Nigel Molesworth books by Ronald Searle?  They were fabulously funny, in a very english way, and were great reading when I was 9, 10, 11... her post about finding a copy of one of these also made me think of the Uncle books, by J. P. Martin, which are apparently now quite rare - they were illustrated by the fabulously talented Quentin Blake, who is famous, quite rightly, for illustrating the Roald Dahl books, but who has done many many other fantastic things:

My local library had both in abundant supply, along with all of the Sue Barton Nurse novels (except one, which I've never found), and of course, Swallows and Amazons...  

Is it a sign of impending old age when you start to want to repurchase and re-read all the books from your childhood?  I bought a reprint of "Little Black Sambo" by Helen Bannerman - it's a gorgeous story, just ignore the people who tell you it's racist because of the name - it's about a brave little kid who outwits four hungry tigers... and I'm on the lookout for the Ladybird Cinderella, which was in the "Well Loved Tales" series - mine was exactly the same as this, and I had "The Princess and the Pea" too. Also, "Shopping with Mother" and "The Nurse"  - I just saw it for sale for 28 pounds sterling.  Wow.  I'm pretty sure it was about 2/6 when I had it.  Should have kept them, huh?


And this arrived in the mail:

Too gorgeous for words.  Need to stop buying & start making, methinks.  Need more hours in the day!

Oh yes, I almost forgot - the bunting:

Carefully taken down, folded & taken home for the bride by the chief bridesmaid.  I think it's a keeper!

and we're still counting...

My lovely friend Kaz in the HV just sent me the most gorgeous photo of some snowdrops & daffodils from her garden, elegantly draped around the bag I made her on the weekend:

Isn't that gorgeous?


Also, I got these last week, and shamefully neglected to show you!

Aren't they beautiful?  Home Decorator (or furnishing fabrics in this hemisphere) weight & perfect to make pencil cases & other boy kind of stuff - my lovely DSSIL* asked me to make her a pencil case & sketchbook bag for her nephew, & I'm wondering if these might do, hmm, Miss Mandy?