Who needs

the old boy network, when you've got the old-girl network happening? My lovely friend rose w's fabulously talented daughter, Clare, whose gorgeous work actually inspired me to get my act into gear & onto Etsy, has been kind enough to mention my (aw shucks) little blog & shop on her fabulously well connected blog (see what I mean about that old-girl network?)... along with a picture of gorgeous Petronella posing in my sewing basket, and, even better, she said nice things about me! Whew! I'm not excited enough to burn ginger biscuits, but I was excited enough to interrupt MWH whilst he was watching Star Trek (the original series, can you believe it?) on TV, to tell him. That takes some cojones, let me tell you. Good thing they're disguised as pin cushions in Amy Butler fabric!

Speaking of nice fabric, I'm about to put the first box pouch up for sale on my shop. Now that I'm kinda famous, we'll see if they take off... but in the meantime, I am so delighted about Clare & her blog that I can't stop grinning like a loon. There's nothing like a little mutual backslapping to get you in the mood for the office. Ooooh. Nasty.

And, finally, before I go off to bed, I forgot to mention the absolutely most exciting thing of all, I sold those two gorgeous toilette bags to a nice lady in Hawaii. Man, that's so neat (I think she was taken by my explanation about the "T" word...). Off, pillow, doona, sleep, sleep...

Happy Birthday Deb!

Thursday was the birthday of my oldest friend in this country; we met when we were about 9, and my family moved to the small town where hers had lived for generations.... we weren't always friends, and we haven't always been friends since, but I like to think people move in & out of your life as you need them. She has two gorgeous children who I like very much (and that's saying a lot for me, as some of you may know...), and her friendship is very important to me, so I wanted to make her something, rather than buying her something. Anybody can buy stuff, but very special people make things. Or so I'm told by people who know - I just read a magazine article about Amy Butler where she says how fantastic it is that people don't look down on handmade stuff anymore - and I think so too. I love it that people appreciate how wonderful it is to be given something somebody spent time making, especially these days when we're all so time poor... my favourite quote is by Sharon Lee and Steve Miller, who have absolutely nothing to do with sewing, but instead write some rather fabulous science fiction - they talk of "the precious irregularities of hand sewing", like it was rubies and diamonds, rather than the slightly off-perpendicular corners of a (beautifully lined) box pouch...

Anyway, enough burbling. Pictures of the gorgeous (IMHO!) froggie, pouch and lavender pyramids here...

Happy Birthday Deb!

He's baaaaack...

I went to visit Rusty at his foster home this weekend (we had an extra day off to celebrate the arrival of the first load of convicts from Britain in 1788) and guess what? His foster mother has returned him to my care, in exchange for a new and more beautiful child. I think some conversations with DOCS (our equivalent of Social Services or DHSS) might be in order here. Anway, I'm very happy to have him home & gracing my sewing room once again - and here he is, waving happily!

I'm also thinking of making an froggie tribute to the US Presidential family, and I had some fun on the weekend picking out the fabrics - bit of an off-beat challenge there. I hope our friends in the US don't think it's offensive... are there laws in the States against that kind of thing? Oh well, we'll see if they sell, or if I get a nasty letter from the White House.

I also picked up orders for three more frogs, birthday gifts all, so I'm going to be busy sewing over the next few nights. I also had a major breakthrough with the lined box pouches, figuring out that if you cut the corners whilst it's all inside out, you can also stitch the corners & when you turn it all right sides out, it all looks fine. I made two, one after the other which prove this theory, one of which I will post as soon as I go & pay some bills, and order a pizza, which consititutes healthy eating today. It was about 35C in the Hunter Valley, that's 95F & it was sticky, so the motivation to cook is zero. Plus the cricket is on TV, and it's an Australian tradition to spend Australia Day eating junk & watching the cricket, so that's it for me!

Sometimes...

having a full blown obsession is a pain. Other times it's great. I've been banging on about making these great box pouches (from a tutorial I found here amongst others - this one had a great tip about the corners, remember my great perpendicular moment from yesterday? Of course you do.) & I finally got a look inside one on Etsy, where the seller was kind enough to show that all she did with her raw edges was finish them with some bias tape. Well, we've got bias tape coming out the wazoo, of course, but did I use that? Noooooo, on the first one I used expensive ribbon from Singapore, and on the second one, even worse, I had to make my own 1 1/2" bias tape (and so I couldn't use my spiffy bias-binding maker yada yada {tune out here to avoid off topic sewing equipment moment}...which was one of the goodies from the Lincraft closing down sale) because it's only 1" yada yada...) from very expensive fabric from the States. What am I, nuts? Yep. Probably.

Anyway, I have decided in my infinite wisdom that if I am keeping the pouch to use in my handbag, and not to make my fortune (thus enabling me to give up my lucrative but oh so boring career in IT), then I don't actually have to do anything with the raw seams except pink them. Who, I ask you, who, is going to say "show us your raw edges then"? Nobody. Absolutely nobody. I even put a label in it. Really. Talk about effort disproportionate to reward.

Anyway, they do look nice, but boy, that four hours went by pretty quick.

On the upside, one of my favorite bloggers is back in the land downunder after her holiday visiting the Queen, amongst others. Just kidding. She went to see Alix, who is, after all, much more important than the Queen! Welcome back Lulu Carter.

Busy, busy

I took advantage of the cooler weather to go back to bed for a bit this morning, that's the other thing I hate about summer, I don't sleep well & so I'm perpetually cranky. What's that? I'm always cranky?! Well, how rude. I'm just particular, that's all.

Enough about me, more about the work in progress. I found a great site here & she suggested using a quilting ruler (of which there are a few in the house, even though I don't quilt) to cut squares out of each corner (mine were 1"/2.54cm) & then lining up the seams. Boy, what a great tip! My perpendiculars are pretty perped, let me tell you - anyway, I was so thrilled I made two bags & some lavender pyramids & put the lot up on Etsy for the bargain basement price of $25. US, that is. Anyway, we'll see. There are lots of people out there doing pouches, boxy or otherwise, but only mine has the added bonus!

The only other thing was that I haven't seen any method of making a lined boxy pouch without having a raw or overlocked (that's 'sergered', to those of you in the US of A) seam showing & I don't want that. I want it to be really nice! I did have a bit of a brainwave about how to do it, but when it came to practical application, I couldn't figure out how to do it. I need my mother for this, she's a genius at that stuff! Mum! Get on a plane!

Summer, blah

So, it's about 20C today, lovely. I hate summer. It's hot, it's sticky, my hair goes frizzy, I get cranky. I was going to meet up with mwh after my sojourn out in the golden west yesterday, and waded my way through the humanity heading into the station as I was attempting to head out, man, that was fun... sadly, the nice bar where we go for drinks etc on the occasional evening was closed! Orrore!

Anyway, the lovely southerly buster came through with a vengeance last night & has cooled things down so I can wear real clothes again (sitting here in grey trackies & a pink cardie as we speak...) and more importantly, I can think. I hate how the heat melts by mrain. See!

Enough whining. Here's the pictures I couldn't post yesterday of Protea and the pouch I finished last night. I found a set of instructions for a lined boxy pouch which basically said "make two & then stitch one inside the other'. Hmmm. I may try it that way but there's got to be a "make them both at the same time" method, I just need to find it. An Etsy pattern may be the way to go, methinks.

Happy Birthday Kaz!

Well, the birthday parcel has arrived in the beautiful HV, so I can now share the pictures with you. I'm getting better at the pouches, too, I just made another one with the squared up corners but I still can't work out how to get the angles right - I'm still sewing them a little bit off the perpendicular. Hmm. Maybe I need to get the set square out? Also, Blogger is being a bit tempramental tonight & I can't get the other image of Kaz's gift to appear the right way round, you'll just have to imagine a large-ish bag with drawstrings, in the same lovely lime green & orange as the pouch. I'm working on fixing this. Most annoying!

In the meantime, I've also given the lovely Protea froggie some new eyes, I wasn't very happy with the ones he had before, too pink (he looked a bit like a rabbit with mixo) but the camera battery needs recharging, so tomorrow it is. I also bought some new cards from here, and put my own photos on them - what a great idea this is - you can have a different photo on every card - if you're a keen photographer looking to advertise, this is a nice cheap way to do it - $19.95US for 100 cards - can't beat that - & they're great quality... anyway, here's one of my photos for you to feast your eyes on.