What a difference a day makes...

24 little hours...


I just finished my 3 1/2 month stint at Parramatta, and said goodbye to some really nice people.  I can't believe the difference in my send-off compared to the last thing I worked on - I'm sad to leave them, I've made some great new friends (isn't it nice to be able to make new friends at my extended age!!!) - and I've enjoyed the culture and the atmosphere.  Shame about the travel, but hey, it's done now...


I just got this in the mail:

How cute is he?  Or is it a she?    I'm thinking the lipstick could be used as an indicator of gender in some cultures, but I don't want to pass any judgements here...  Also, another need for names has now arisen - any suggestions?  Small prize for the best suggestion -and of course my fabulous DSSIL* can join in this one! 

Going, going, gone...

So, my three and a half months in outer mongolia are up tomorrow, and I have holidays to look forward to, a week at home by myself (with a huge list of chores) and then MWH* & I have a week off together... which should be lovely - Monday we've got two doctor's appointments and a visit to the accountant, Tuesday & Wednesday we're going to Melbourne to see this - Fashion in the time of Jane Austen - at the National Gallery of Victoria - I can't wait!

Thursday is my wonderful Mother-in-Law's birthday, and Melbourne presents the ideal opportunity to get her a gift she'll really like - (she loves art) ... and then Friday we're going to spend time up here:

Can't wait.  Pictures to follow, as achievements register themselves on my horizons!

Sometimes I'm sooooo lucky!

Lucky for me I was able to dredge up just enough of the 'Modern Vine' lining for Carmen's 5 X 3 X 2, which was the sticking point - if I'd just made it in the wrong colour, it wouldn't really have mattered because I could have just made it again - but I didn't think I had enough to line it - quelle horreur - and then I had another look - it was only 1/8" out, and with the fabulous spreadsheet calculator made by MWH*, I was able to fudge it... and here it is!

Anyway, the lovely Carmen was gracious enough to say "yes, thanks, you are an idiot but I'll take it", which is extremely nice of her - there's been lots of to-ing and fro-ing between us to get these pouches sorted out, and she's going to put a spreadsheet of her own together to keep track of it all. So long as we don't go to a normalised relational database, we're going to be okay!

Also I spent some time today making this for my WMIL*:

I made her one in black & white a while back, and now she's brought me orders from three girlfriends. I've had this gorgeous fabric for a while, not quite knowing what to do with it - but when my WMIL said one request was for 'autumn colours', well! what else could this be! Two more tomorrow, one in Erin McMorris's Park Slope, that gorgeous turquoise Leaf Dot, and the equally gorgeous orange swirl, and the Leaf Dot in Orange.

More, later!

Sometimes I'm sooooooooooo stoooooooooooopid

And other times I'm just brilliant, but yesterday wasn't one of those days! After more consulting with MWH* about the size calculator, I made up the second 5 X 3 x 2 Pouch for my lovely customer Carmen, and it was perfect! Size, shape, everything. Then, last night, I posted it up for sale here, only to have a note from Carmen this morning saying I'd made it in entirely the wrong colour. Damn, damn, damn.

So, of course, now I don't have enough of the lining fabric to make it in the right colour, and as is still the case referred to so fleetingly in my last, somewhat tired and emotional, post, I am waiting for the ship to come in, with my supplies!


Lucky for me Carmen is very kind and understanding, and seems to be holding off on sending round the men with baseball bats, but boy! I am so irritated with myself it's the most I can do to be in the same room. I've also made her a small surprise, but I can't show you pictures because I know she reads this!


On a happier note, my WMIL* has procured orders for me to make not one, not two, but three, yes, count them, three, spectacle cases a la the one I made for her - colours designated but fabrics of my choice! Nice!


Did I mention the size calculator? I'm sure I didn't. MWH has put an excel spreadsheet together which will work out the perfect size fabric to cut for a given finished size of box pouch - so if you want a 5 X 3 X 2, put in those numbers, and it will calculate exactly what size to cut. It also allows you to change the size of your seams, so if you're doing 1/8" seams but want to make really sure of something by doing some zigzag over the stitching, for which you might need a bit more room, you can change the seam size to 1/4", and it recalculates.


Anyway, I made another one of these yesterday, as a bit of an escape from box pouches, and it came out nicely. Next thing will be a handle, I think, or a d-ring, or even a lobster claw? Or both? Whoo, lets go really overboard.

Those Erin McMorris 'Wildwood' fabrics are really versatile - they all seem to go together so nicely. She's pretty clever, isn't she? I must go & check if there's a flickr group for this fabric & I'll let you know if I post anything.


Ciao!
*Wonderful Mother-In-Law
*My Wonderful Husband

Big big order!

Well, I just posted off my biggest order to date, to the very lovely Carmen in California - and I'm so pooped!  I've been sewing almost non-stop in every spare minute, I even had to give up domestic chores in order to sew, and that is just so sad :-)...


Anyway, I'm really pleased with how it all came out, but sometimes I get a bit frustrated by the tyranny of distance we suffer from down here - it's really slow (10 days-2 weeks) to get supplies from the States, and I can't get some of that stuff here, so I'm at the mercy of the postal services - and it impacts on the service I can provide my customers... 
but they've gone, and I really hope she likes them!

I also made one of these tonight - it's a pyramid pouch, lined - very cute & easy to make - I'm going to post a blog entry on how to do it on the weekend & I'm going to make some for sale here ...

This is a really terrible photo - I'll post a better one after I've made a couple more.  Cute, huh?

And also...

Not forgetting Hogan, who got a First on his Jazz & Pop exam.  Whoda thunk my friend Deb would have such talented children?  Why, me, of course!  Anyway, to help Mr Hogan celebrate, I made him this, but I'm so cross with myself I could just spit - I wanted to make him a pencil case, so I cut 10" X 5", thinking the average pencil is only 6" or 7", then I made 3/4" cut-outs for the boxing, and bam!  The pencil case is too short.  Damn, damn, damn.  And of course I painstakingly hand-appliqued his initials onto the damn thing as well, and of course I did fancy stitching on the bottom, and of course it's turned out perfect.  It's just too short for pencils.  Maybe he could put something else in it?


Anyway, here 'tis.

  

"A" is for Aster

which means, in case you didn't know, Star.  This is for Miss Nellie, who just got an "A" on her flute exam, which impresses the bewhoosis of out me - so I made her a little someone (yes, you read it right) to say "Well Done".  And here she is:

Note she has a "A" instead of a heart.  I kind of made up patchwork, I had a bunch of 5" squares from the beautiful "Butterfly fling" collection from MoMo & just stitched them together, then cut out the frog at an angle to get the best of several colours.  Oh, you want to see the whole thing?  Okay:

I'm pretty sure I broke a significant number of quilting rules to do this, but hey, I'm sure nobody's going to come after me.  Yet.  

Enjoy, Nellie.