A Christmas close to my Hearty

This blog is a shout out to my wonderful friend that I have had the pleasure of knowing for over 20 years.  I'm a full and happy monkey thanks to my closest mate Tegan.  This girl pulled off the incredible today, with the best and most delicious christmas feast I have ever eaten.
I really can't put into words how much this girl means to me.
What a wonderful wonderful day.
 VERY happy.

Animusic - Resonant Chamber

Merry Christmas!  Here is a beautiful animated music video from the incredible folks over at Animusic.
Please go over and enjoy the rest, but for now Please enjoy my favorite right now.

The Resonant Chamber

We No Speak Americano ft. Cleary & Harding

This is for you Mum!

Standing Bird

This standing bird would be great in so many projects.  It's very adaptable to textures too.  Make a flock to sit on your mantlepeice!  The tutorial has been provided by Nellies Needles and is available here
Happy Stitching!

A new bracelet and earrings

Here is a bracelet I just made with the backs of the snaps fasteners and some more earrings made with just one snap.  I love how the bracelet looks sort of chainmailish. It's closure is another snap facing the other way.  It's quite neat!  I want to buy more of these little beauties maybe in brass and silver.

Cute little mini bloomers

These little mini bloomers are so cute!  The pattern is multi sized from xs to xlarge so you can make the pattern according to your own measurements.  The lovely company Collette Patterns has offered this  Downloadable pattern that is available here.  Happy Stitching!

Made some new earrings!

Just made some new earrings from some snap fastners.  VERY VERY SIMPLE.  You need some earring hooks some jump rings and some snap fastners.  Some jewellery making pliers help.
I like them very much.  Do you?

I made a Baby Blanket!

I got a call from a good friend the other night that had a baby recently.  Payton was premature and had been staying at the hospital.  With the good news that she was coming home next weekend, I  suddenly decided I was going to make a quilt. I went right to it with materials I had already.  I used some aqua fleece and some quilting scraps for the hearts.  The binding I had was exactly the right amount and I gave mitred corners a go with some sucess!  I've never made a quilt before and I had no batting.  So what I ended up with was more like an applicaed fleece blanket but here it is.  I love it and hope Prue does too.

Some creative earing ideas.

No tutorial.. just some pictures for inspiration, but they look very easy to work out.  Some basic materials like superglue and jewellery findings and the gorgeous everyday items you want to feature should do you for these projects.
(Although some like the light bulb earrings look like they used a soldering iron.)

 you will need diamond strength jewellery glue for this one

 A soldering iron was used the the creation of these earrings.  I LOVE THEM!

 A small drill piece was used to make the hole in the power buttons

 Diamond strength glue and an earring back is needed for the computer chip earrings.

 A drill piece, small anvil, a mallet and a drill piece designed to drill through silver should be used for the cutlery earrings. 

 The pencil earrings need some some paint (for the eraser end) a awl for the hole and some jewellery findings.

Have fun!

knitted jumper/sweater to skirt and socks set

How's this for a refashion?  You take a old knitted opshop or winter wardrobe find and make a gorgeous skirt and sock set.  A photo tutorial by flickr user Isn't that wild shows you exactly how to do it.  Tutorial here.  Happy Stitching!

full skirt to bubble skirt.

Want a bubble skirt?  I never thought I would, but after seeing some well done example, I thought I might give it a go.  A tutorial at lovemaegan explains how to make a full skirt into a convertible bubble skirt.  (this could even be adapted for any dresses you own or scrounge up from the opshop.)  Handy for mood and whimsy! The tutorial is here.  Happy stitching!

A floppy hat pattern

I was a child of the 80's.  Don't get me wrong I loved hypercolour, rainbow brite and leg warmers... but I dreamed different.  I dreamed of tie die, of maxi dresses and bare feet.  I dreamed of floppy hats.
Wandering around the net the other night I found this.  And had to share.    It's not quite the felt hat of my dreams but it evoked the same feeling.  Our mates at Burdastyle have this pattern in their repository and I am very pleased for it.  All you need for this is a yard of fabric and some fusable interfacing.  Pattern and instructions here.  Happy Stitching!

Awesome corsage bag

Check out this chic corsage bag that is designed to go on the wrist.  the varying of colours delights me! The folk over at bagntell have offered this tutorial which can be made with:

• 1 closed zipper, 5 ½” [14 cm] long
• ½ yd. [0.5 m] of fashion fabric, 45” [115 cm] wide **
• ¼ yd. [0.25 m] of lining fabric, 45” [115 cm] wide
• ¼ yd. [0.25 m] of fusible interfacing, 45” [115 cm] wide
• ¼ yd. [0.25 m] of nylon netting, 18” [45 cm] wide
• 1 package of piping, ¼ ” [6 mm] wide
• ⅓ yd. [0.30 m] of belting, 1” [25 mm] wide
• coordinating thread
• craft paper 

Or some neckties.... Isn't it just begging to be made from neckties?
anyway the tutorial can be found here
Happy Stitching!

Dino Mittens!

These dino Mittens are adorable and could be made adaptable by using different teeth shapes.  You only need some fleece, some white rubber or felt for the teeth and some buttons. Mme Zsazsa has been generous enough to provide a one page tutorial here. The whole thing will take you about 15 mintues. 
Happy Stitching!

A rant about Australia's "favorite" fabric chain store

First some background information.

 Ruben Fried and his brother Morry Fraid (they say the different surnames was the result of a teacher's spelling mistake during their school years) started out selling fabric at Melbourne's Queen Victoria Market before opening their first store in the suburb of Malvern in 1973.

Over the next three decades the chain expanded quickly, branching out from its haberdashery heritage to become a sort of do-it-yourself destination for craft lovers. Manchester, soft furnishings and party supplies have also been added to the range.

The company has more than 100 stores across Australia, New Zealand and in Singapore and Hong Kong, and annual revenue of around $800 million. Freid and Fraid were valued at $695 million on BRW's Rich 200 list in 2008.

But what this chain has effectively done in such a quick takeover of the craft market is push the smaller stores with the knowledgeable, friendly and unrushed staff out into the cold and out of business.  

Although there is only two of these stores now operating on the gold coast, their presence has greatly reduced the amount of smaller stores that could offer you the personalized help a lot of home sewers need and enjoy.  

Imagine if you will a warehouse full of fabric with plenty of staff wandering about to help you.  You're amazed by the pure size of the building and what looks like masses of choices before you.  Sounds good right?  Ok ok Well as you get closer to the rolls of textiles you realize something is wrong.  There is one or two feature fabrics in each section and then the rest actually looks like filler.
There is rows and rows of horrible garish colours and nothing anything like the colour you need.
And then it happens.. you lower your standards and or have to alter your vision right there in the store. 

You give up on the fabric and take you butt over to the bag making station.  Again they do not have what you need even though a large amount of their customer base makes bags from their quilting stock.  Do they have bag feet?  Do they have bag bottoms?  Nope and nope.  Okay...

Off to get some ribbon and bobbins.   AGAIN with the garish primary colours..no range to speak of.   Dropped my standards again.  Off to get bobbins.  STILL OUT OF STOCK!!!!! WHAT guys! it's been two months! TWO MONTHS! you think just cause there are plenty of janome bobbins on the shelf then people with brother machines can just wait I suppose... I asked and they were like yeah, we don't have any in stock......." like it's a big mystery..They've been saying the same thing for months now.

You start to wonder about the people that make these stock lists.  are they writing them on scrap paper out the back.. do they actually know ANYTHING ABOUT SEWING OR COLOUR???

Which brings me to my next point.  Spotlight is not a fabric shop.   Spotlight is a supermarket that happens to sell fabric and craft supplies.  Asking a person working at spotlight for sewing advice is like asking a check out chick for advice about Cooking.  They have no idea. the extent of their training is to cut fabric, retrieve patterns from a filing system and work a register.  You should of seen the woman's face when I asked for some help understanding pattern drafting..She looked at me like I was suggesting she know quantum physics.  It's SO frustrating to get that response..People that owned sewing and fabric stores USUALLY DO SO BECAUSE THEY LOVE TO SEW!!!  These people act like either they have no idea or they couldn't care less.

Sewing is a social craft, a sharing craft a craft for people to discuss and inspire. This mega chain has swallowed everything and still has not the decency to offer the sewing community an adequate service by stocking properly and hiring people that actually have a knowledge base in the goods they are selling.  A lot of hardworking people have lot their livelihoods to them.
They are the people I need to help me. It's sad.