sunnysidey

Gauge squirkle

2012-02-01T17:56:00.000+08:00

I got this great Amigurumi book yesterday.

The author recommends making a gauge circle in order to figure out your suitable hook size, before beginning any of the ridiculously cute projects in the book.

She suggested to start with a 3.5mm hook, so I grabbed my variety package of ten, only to discover that it contained no 3.5mm hooks, but two 3.75mm ones. The idea was that if your circle turned out bigger than 2 inches in diameter, you should use a smaller hook than the 3.5mm, and if it was smaller than 2 inches, you should use a larger hook.

Anyway, I made my first attempt at a circle (actually a spiral) from a magic ring using one of the 3.75mm hooks. It took me a few tries to get the hang of the magic ring, and then I followed what I think must be a fairly simple pattern - an increase every second stitch for five rounds. I am almost ashamed to show a picture, but here goes....

As you can see, it is not the most perfect of circles, and somehow I ended up with about 35 stitches on the last round (should have been 30). BUT it is almost exactly 2 inches!

I also learned a lot during the making of this cat's toy:
1. (a) I can't count up to two without getting distracted.
(b) Then I can't figure out whether I've already crocheted into that stitch.
2. I make such tight stitches that I sometimes struggle to get my hook in.
3. I'm getting more comfortable with my hand position.
4. Double crochet is single crochet if you are following a non UK or Aussie pattern.
5. It is best not to have a cat nearby during a crochet session.

The happy hooker

2012-01-30T18:27:00.002+08:00

Yay me! I've been teaching myself to crochet for about three weeks and I feel like I'm finally getting the hang of it. Although this little flower did take me several hours and it's not even finished yet!

This is what it looked like before it got rolled up into the rose shape.

The pattern is from PlanetJune who has some lovely amigurumi patterns and probably the best instructions for teaching yourself to crochet I've come across so far.

Off to practise some more!

Busy morning

2012-01-29T13:19:00.000+08:00

I forfeited my usual Sunday morning sleep-in to take advantage of the cool of the morning to get a few jobs done out the back. I managed to put up a trellis in front of the ugly fence and transplanted a passionfruit vine which has already taken a hold of it!

I got a little strawberry plant and whacked it in together with some marigolds. I put a marigold in with the tomato too, since they are supposed to be companions.

Aren't marigolds the cheeriest sight?

My little buddy

2012-01-28T16:24:00.001+08:00

Considering what happened the last time I raved over a few tomato flowers, I don't want to go overboard, but I would just like to announce the appearance of some buds on my new little Grosse Lisse. I'm pretty sure they weren't there yesterday.

I got a decent photo of the rainbow silverbeet which are growing very fast and look much longer & leaner than the squat little stunted ones out the front - probably a very good sign!

It's so exciting watching things grow!

Summer catches up

2012-01-27T20:53:00.002+08:00

After a fantastically cool start to the summer, for the past week or two Perth has been mercilessly wrenched back to January reality. Even a sudden thunderstorm last night didn't bring the temperature down to a comfortable level for sleeping. I'm lucky enough to have an air conditioner and ceiling fans, so I shouldn't complain. It has been serving me very well but I'm not looking forward to my next electric bill.

My poor garden. Something has gone horribly wrong. I don't know if it's the heat or some kind of disease - it's certainly not neglect, as I have been fussing and fretting over it every morning, feeding it with seasol and blood & bone every couple of weeks. And it's not lack of water. I've had maybe a dozen fruit from the pear tomato plant, and there are only two small fruits on the Black Russian. The others have had loads of flowers but refused to set fruit. The only surviving silverbeet is not even growing - it has remained exactly the same size for a month. The rocket, which were shaded by the tomato, have all curled up their toes.

So anyway. I started kinda thinking that it's a lost cause, and set up a few containers out the back which only get a couple of hours of direct sun a day. I got a few seedlings - tomato, basil and silverbeet (because my tummy has been waiting for them). And some chives. So far so good. They are doing well in Yates potting mix.

My silverbeet and rocket seeds have germinated after only three or four days and are benefiting from the shade until they get established (I took pics but you can barely see the little green shoots). I'm hoping that they'll do as well as the kitty herbal garden I planted about a year ago for my two little catnip fiends, which has gone totally wild.

Green shoots for the new year

2012-01-02T19:22:00.001+08:00

Apologies for the very poor photos. It was a little too dark really, but I wanted to record their first day above the earth.

Silverbeet

Rocket

So excited to see their little green heads pop up. I hope they do better than the economy.

Here's a friend of mine

And something that floated down onto the tomatoes

Tomato Wonderland

2011-12-29T19:23:00.000+08:00

The tomato plants are flourishing. I was so excited that I forgot to post about the first few grape tomatoes I harvested the other day. There are more on the way!

Then there are the new little flowers that have appeared on the Black Krim in the last couple of days:

And plenty of lush green growth on the others - no flowers yet though.

The sticks mark a few rainbow silverbeet seeds that I have just planted. I received them in my welcome pack from the Diggers Club. I let my old membership lapse two years ago, but joined up again in my flush of gardening enthusiasm a few weeks ago. I am stoked to get these seeds as I was planning to buy the exact same ones. Fingers crossed I will have better luck with them this time. It looks like the main thing is to not let them dry out, and apart from today and yesterday being very hot (high 30s) we seem to be having cooler weather than usual so far this summer.

Free range plants

2011-12-24T18:14:00.000+08:00

A very thoughtful gift from my friend Tess!

Emerging from the jungle

2011-12-22T20:10:00.000+08:00

How lovely to have a fresh start in the garden, thanks to my wonderful brother and sister-in-law. Unfortunately I didn't take a "before" picture but trust me, it was a mess. Here's Nic just after he pulled the grass jungle out of the raised bed:

If you look closely you can see the weeds still in the bed next to the fence; Nic pulled them out as well. I have since planted another bougainvillea which I hope will become as big and beautiful as the one further down.

I was so thrilled to have my raised bed back that I made myself a promise to maintain it carefully to prevent it from sliding back into buffalo overgrowth, and promptly whacked some tomato seedlings into it.

In two weeks, they have flourished, from this

to this

And today I rummaged around in my fridge and found some rocket seeds and tomato seeds I vaguely remember saving from a couple of years ago. I bunged them in with crossed fingers. No idea if they are still viable, but I'll give them a couple of weeks and if nothing comes up I'll try something else.

In the pics you can see my new compost tumbler - that's the black spherical objet d'art in the right hand corner just under the bougie flowers. It's making me nervous already, but it can't work out any worse than the ~~worm~~ cockroach farm or the "sniff-it-and-puke" bokashi bucket.

Oh yeah - I started a couple of jars of sprouts (mung and alfalfa). So I'll have some fresh crunchy goodness to add to my salads in a little over a week! Yay! Just in time for the hot weather.

Perth's forecast for the next week:

Forecast for Friday   
Sunny. Moderate S/SW winds, freshening during the afternoon.

Precis:      Sunny.                             
City:        Min 18     Max 30 
Mandurah:    Min 19     Max 28 

UV Alert:    8:00 am to 4:30 pm, UV Index predicted to reach 13 [Extreme]  
Fire Danger: Coastal Plain: LOW-MODERATE
             Hills:         LOW-MODERATE

Saturday     Sunny.                                 Min 18     Max 32
Sunday       Sunny.                                 Min 17     Max 31
Monday       Sunny.                                 Min 16     Max 32
Tuesday      Sunny.                                 Min 18     Max 33
Wednesday    Sunny.                                 Min 19     Max 34
Thursday     Sunny.                                 Min 21     Max 34

Blogging Hiatus

2010-07-14T12:46:00.000+08:00

My blog will be going off the air for a while as I attempt to cut back on my online activity. I've been really busy journalling, drawing and doodling though, so check out my flickr for latest pics - try as I might, I can't give that up!

Poetry in Stitching

2010-06-12T14:58:00.002+08:00

I'm so overwhelmed I can hardly contain myself.

Look what Jackson sent me!!!!!!

Isn't it amazing!!!! I wish I were a better photographer. I am looking forward to seeing her photos of this fabulous piece. Everything about it just blows me away, from the way she has perfectly captured the atmosphere of the scene, to the incredible detail of the hair on both The Dude and Maude, to the subtle shading in the metallic dress and on the horns, to the beaded highlights. I am absolutely in awe of you, Jackson! I can't believe you could bring yourself to give this away, either! :-)

Among the other gifts she sent was another brilliant embroidery plus fabric and rick-rack to make a pillow, which I couldn't resist whipping up straight away:

Fight Club is near the top of my list of favourite movies.

This swap made me very happy indeed! Jackson, I can't thank you enough! You are a legend :-)

Teaser for Jackson! :-)

2010-05-25T21:39:00.000+08:00

Hee hee! I've been working on a private embroidery swap with the awesome Mafiosagrrl, and since she tried to torture me with a teaser pic of her embroidery, I think it's only fair that I return the favour :-)

It looks pretty obvious to me :-)

A short update

2010-05-10T20:13:00.000+08:00

I haven't been posting lately - trying to give my eyes a rest from the computer screen while the quacks try and figure out why I've had a headache for over a month. It's not enough to stop me from crafting though :-) - I'll be back with photos as soon as I can, I promise!

A fun little skull

2010-04-30T20:48:00.000+08:00

I whipped up this little thing this evening. I'm not sure what it is - I guess it could have a magnet or a brooch back attached to it, or a little hook to hang it up or something. It's done in white DMC glow-in-the-dark thread (I love that thread!).

Embroidered book finished!

2010-04-26T17:29:00.003+08:00

I finally finished my embroidered book! It seems like embroidery is all I've been doing this long weekend. I took photos, but they didn't come out that well. Here are some scans, which still look a bit different from the real thing.

This is the cover, opened out. I used metallic thread (couched), which is really sparkly in real life, for the front and plain perle cotton for the list on the back page (again more shiny in real life). I was going to embroider another fish on the back but then I thought it would be fun to make the list, since all the creatures I did include have such cool names.

The second and third pages are the humpback angler fish and the umbrella mouth gulper, which both have bioluminescent extremities (done in glow in the dark thread, which unfortunately looks quite unspectacular in daylight).

The middle page is the vampire squid from hell, which again is done with the bioluminescent spots in white DMC glow in the dark floss (much nicer to work with than the other GITD thread). Also, the back tentacles are done in pale pink backstitch and french knots, which you can't quite tell in the scan.

Pages 6 and 7 are the dumbo octopus and chimaera. This is the first time I've used split stitch as a filling stitch and it was surprisingly quick and easy. I felt like they needed something to unify them on the page, so I did some waves in blue variegeted floss. The colours look slightly washed out in the scan.

I put the book together, mini-zine style, after first completing the embroidery on the sheet of linen. I had to trim the edges of the middle pages a bit to get the page widths even. Then I went along each edge with a small machine zig zag stitch. The finished book is about the size of a postcard.

And that's it. I have to admit I'm not 100 percent happy with it - it seems quite insubstantial for something I spent so long to make. I didn't enjoy working with the black linen so much - I had to give it a good going-over with sticky tape to get rid of all the cat hair! I prefer a finer grained fabric, and brighter colours, but I did choose this subject partly because the colours would be more muted (my swap partner prefers a much less vivid palette than I do). But I did enjoy doing the embroidery and it was a fun experiment. I already have something in mind for my next one.......

My Creative Space

2010-04-22T17:36:00.000+08:00

This week I've been doing a bit of stamp carving. I feel like I'm slowly improving - the key word here is slow, which is how you have to do it - v e r y s l o w l y. I'm not quite happy with the carving block I'm using so I ordered some Staedtler Mastercarve (from Dick Blick in the USA because you can't get it here. Grrr.)

So here's a little Ninja guy, and a skull based on images in the Mexican codices.

For more Creative Spaces, go here.

Next page in the embroidered book

2010-04-17T23:19:00.000+08:00

This creature is also real. The Dumbo Octopus is another cephalopod, related to the nautilus and squid, which lives deep in the oceans. I'm not sure if this little guy is finished - his suckers look like they are floating, but it's late so I'll have a look at him again tomorrow.

For the embroidered book.....

2010-04-14T20:52:00.000+08:00

It's a Vampire Squid from Hell! Honestly, it's a real deep sea creature, and it has bioluminescent spots that it flashes on and off to confuse predators when they attack. I used glow-in-the-dark white thread for the spots and eye, and I wish I could get a pic of it in the dark to show how good it looks when the lights are out!

Sad panda

2010-04-13T22:25:00.001+08:00

Still haven't quite got the hang of stamp carving yet.....I do really enjoy it, but unlike most other crafts in which mistakes are easily repairable or can be covered up, with stamp carving, one slip of the cutter and it's ruined!

Fabric book

2010-04-12T19:42:00.001+08:00

I made a little fabric book yesterday, for an Art*o*mat swap I'm in. It is made of scraps from recent projects, ironed onto interfacing and then machine stippled. I cut the finished sheet down to 8"x6", then added some random bits of selvedges plus a button and loop. I used the mini-zine method to make it into a little eight-page booklet which fits snugly into its little box. Finished size is about 3"x2".

Embroidered buttons

2010-04-10T18:37:00.001+08:00

Last month I participated in the Feeling Stitchy embroidered button swap. My partner has now received her package, so I can finally show a photo of what I sent. My partner lives in the USA, so for something a little different, I went with an Aussie animal theme and also included some Cadbury chocolate, silk and cotton floss piled into a little pouch.

Chamomeleon

2010-04-07T21:29:00.000+08:00

I finally finished the embroidery project I've been working on for the past several days! To look at it you would not believe how many hours it took me!

Day 2/4

2010-04-03T17:45:00.001+08:00

I finished making a patchwork bag (using Pink Penguin's great tute) and need to find some cord for the drawstring. Here's a pic of the front and back, and another pic of the pincushion. It's annoying how it is usually too dark to take a decent photo by the time I've finished making my thing of the day. Hmm, guess I should start earlier :-)

Day 1/4

2010-04-02T19:46:00.000+08:00

I spent quite a while tidying up my craft room today and consequently didn't have time to complete the patchwork bag I'm making, although I did cut all the pieces out ready for piecing tomorrow. In the meantime, I used some of the off-cuts to make another little pincushion.

Easter craft blitz

2010-04-01T17:27:00.000+08:00

I'm going to do the thing-a-day blitz over Easter, which has started early for me, since the chocolate consumption commenced this morning. Got a big long list of swaps and stuff to make, starting with this chamomeleon which I hope to finish off tonight ......

And I finally made a little bracelet - this is maybe my fifth attempt? I don't think jewellery is really my forte.

A little sewing

2010-03-28T20:44:00.000+08:00

Finished off a couple of small scrappy things today: a pouch and a pincushion. I'm on a pink and green kick at the moment, so I really enjoyed the matchbox swap.

Here's the matchbox I made:

Busy

2010-03-24T20:40:00.000+08:00

I've had a busy few days, with my brother visiting from interstate. It was so lovely to see him! On Monday I took the day off work so that we could go up to visit our mum. Whilst the three of us were out driving, there was a sudden wild storm and my car got pelted with hail. Thankfully we and the car suffered no damage, but it was a bit frightening and all the traffic came to a standstill. My electricity was off for almost 24 hours.

So I haven't had a chance to do much embroidery except for a bit this evening. Last Saturday morning I made another of Pink Penguin's fabric baskets. I love pink and lime green together.

I bought a new TV on Monday, and I can't believe that we now have no less than eleven free to air stations now that digital TV is here. I really only got the TV so that I could watch DVDs on a big screen instead of my laptop, but maybe I'll check out a few of the shows. I haven't owned a TV for a few years so who knows?

Embroidered book swap

2010-03-20T13:51:00.000+08:00

A few weeks ago, I set up a swap with three other people for an embroidered book, and this week I got started on mine. I've been debating whether to blog about it in case my partner sees, but I have now given her a heads-up not to read my blog until after she receives it.

I recently treated myself to the David Attenborough series Planet Earth on DVD. What an amazing set this is - well worth watching if you haven't seen it before. It contains the most fabulous film of many different habitats and the creatures that inhabit them. I was absolutely spellbound at the episode where they went deep under the sea and filmed some of the strangest creatures I've ever seen. I thought to myself what great embroidery subjects they would make, and that I could make use of my glow-in-the-dark threads for their bioluminescent parts. They have brilliant names, too - the vampire squid from hell; hatchet fish; umbrella mouth gulper eel. I'm not making them up, honestly!

Since my partner in the swap listed ocean things as one of her themes, I decided to embroider some of these deep sea creatures onto black linen. Then I will fold the linen like a mini-zine to make a little book. I'm very much winging it, and keeping my fingers crossed that it will work out, although I've allowed plenty of time until the swap is due to be sent.

So here are some pictures thus far.

Page 2 shows an anglerfish, one of the angriest looking creatures around, with scary fanged jaws and a bioluminescent photophore (that's that thing sticking out of its head) which it waves around as a lure to attract its prey. I've wrapped the end of the photophore in glow-in-the-dark thread. I'm not quite happy with the teeth and will probably fix them up later. The body is made of Colour Catcher appliqued to the linen.

Next up is the umbrella mouth gulper eel whose jaws are twice the size of the rest of its body. I originally did just the outline but the result was kind of underwhelming.

So I filled it in with variegated pink/red thread. This eel has a bioluminescent lure on the end of its tail to attract prey, which I will do when I can get hold of some reddish-pink GITD thread.

That's all the embroidery I've done so far. The next one will be my star attraction, the vampire squid from hell, which will be the centrespread of the book. I've drawn him in chalk pencil and will start embroidering later, using pale pink and white GITD, so stay tuned!

Shells

2010-03-16T19:56:00.000+08:00

I've been raving about A Rainbow of Stitches ever since I got it. Here's another little project I stitched up last week using shell patterns from the book. Two table napkins for mummysidey's birthday, which we celebrated a day early yesterday with a trip to see Alice in Wonderland (which was fantastic).

I kind of like the back, too.

Seven things

2010-03-14T13:41:00.003+08:00

My blogging buddy, the awesome MafiosaGrrl, tagged me a few days ago to think of seven random things about myself, and pick seven other people to play.

So here we go.

1. My ideal day of leisure consists of the following: sleeping in, coffee, soft poached eggs (yolks only), asparagus and mushrooms on toast, pottering around, having a long bubble bath, coffee, browsing the interwebs, doing a bit of embroidery, coffee, reading, doing a puzzle or crossword or playing online scrabble, sewing, coffee, daydreaming, watching a DVD, enjoying some music, coffee, smoked salmon, trying to wake up Eddie and Rufus for a game of ping pong, going for a walk by the river, gazing at my garden filled with flowering bulbs, hot chocolate, more reading or crafting or web browsing, journaling, or writing a letter, not thinking of work, drifting off to sleep with music in the background, dreaming pleasantly. My ideal day of leisure is devoid of real-life social interaction, strenuous physical activity, and any kind of housework.

2. The thought of pregnancy, childbirth, babies, and small children fills me with fear and revulsion. I’m relieved to have made it to the safety zone of my mid forties without having had first hand experience in any of them. On the other hand, if human women could give birth to kittens, I might have been the mother of many.

3. I am sort of a failed greenie. I love the idea of an organic garden, but it’s not quite working for me. My bokashi bucket makes me sick to my stomach every time I open it up, and the liquid that drains out of it is evil. Last week I accidentally spilled a tiny drop of it onto my hand, and even after immediately soaking in a bath and using copious amounts of soap I could not get rid of the putrid smell on my skin. I’m going to take the bucket back to the eco-shop and see if I can trade it in for a compost bin. It’s definitely going the way of my worm farm (a.k.a. cockroach farm) which I ended up giving away to a friend. Also, I traded in my pathetic water-saving shower head for a proper one after a few days of trying to do my ablutions under a tiny trickle. But I am conscientious about recycling and I always carry morsbags for my groceries instead of using plastic bags. I can’t eliminate plastic bags entirely, otherwise how would I get rid of the used cat litter?

4. I have the following shoes: sandshoes painted by mummysidey, sandshoes painted by me, new trainers, old trainers (promoted to gardening shoes when new trainers bought), Mary Janes for work, Doc Marten MJs, one pair of extremely uncomfortable court shoes for emergency social events and job interviews (not worn for three years), and my old suede desert boots. I have wide, flat feet and must wear orthotics, so nearly all my shoes are comfy, functional or fun.

5. I think the fashion and beauty industries are having a great big laugh.

6. I’m old school. I love my CDs. I love the smell of books. I love browsing in real bookshops, especially the ones where you can have a cup of coffee and linger in the easy chairs.

7. I should eat more of a variety of foods. I choose healthy foods and cook pretty much everything from scratch. But I tend to eat the same things day in, day out, especially breakfast (porridge with fruit in winter, wholewheat cereal with milk in summer, occasionally eggs and mushrooms on toast at the weekend) and lunch (tuna and avocado on wholemeal toast). I tend not to add sugar or salt to my food. For someone who is so sensitive to smells, I am quite a low taster, and being very much a creature of habit, I know the tastes I like and stick to them. I love a good curry but tend to make them all the same. My basic home made sauce is variations on a theme of coconut, ginger, coriander, chilli, black pepper, lime or lemon juice, which goes equally well with vegetables, fish, chicken or beef.

I think that's it!

I would love the following people to play along:

Angie in Yanchep
RR
Rebekah from dontcallmebecky
chick chick
Andy
Misti
JLMack

Mixtec spinner

2010-03-10T19:25:00.000+08:00

I finished off my little embroidery of the Mixtec spinner this evening.

I like the effect of embroidering onto print fabric and want to do some more. I'm also really interested in learning more about the manuscripts where these types of images come from. The book that I borrowed from the library has some good references which I am following up. I've also ordered the book that MafiosaGrrl recommended to me yesterday because it looks as if it will be full of fabulous images just like this one.

Arts & Crafts of Mexico experimental WIP

2010-03-09T20:50:00.001+08:00

I got this great book out of the library the other day, Arts & Crafts of Mexico by Chloe Sayer. As well as fabulous photos of Mexican textiles, pottery, jewellery and other beautiful objects, it contains a few line drawings that I thought would translate well into embroidery. I've been wanting to experiment with embroidering onto printed fabrics for a while, so I started doing this Mixtec spinner this evening. The image is scanned and the colours have come out a bit weird, but it's turning out quite interesting.

Secret project and happy mail

2010-03-05T19:44:00.000+08:00

I've been working for the past few days on a little project for a certain family member whose birthday is coming up in the middle of March. Everyone except for that family member is allowed to click here to see it!

I got a lovely parcel in the mail today from Rebekah. A while ago I entered a giveaway on her blog and was lucky enough to receive the gorgeous tote bag in the picture plus some Sublime Stitching patterns, a sweet set of kawaii stationery and the prettiest pen I've ever seen! Thank you, Rebekah, for such generous gifts!

A tiny embroidery

2010-03-02T18:43:00.001+08:00

I'm loving the flower heads and seed pods in my new book, and today I embroidered one of the flowers and made it into a little card.

After work, I took my sewing machine to be serviced, but alas, the man at the shop told me that servicing my machine would probably not fix the problems that it has been having, which he thinks are electrical/computer related. I will have to dig out my warranty and check whether it is still valid and then sort out repairs with the manufacturer.

ETA: I dug out the paperwork and luckily I purchased an extended warranty which is good for another six months. It looks as if I need to take the machine back to the shop where I bought it, so I'll have to take a drive out to Midland tomorrow.

Day Twenty-Nine

2010-03-01T16:42:00.001+08:00

I got bored of housework and distracted when I started tidying up... so the house is still a bit (a lot) untidy, but I made a couple more things. Much more fun than vacuuming!

The embroidery is from a beautiful and very inspiring new book that I got this week, A Rainbow of Stitches. The colour palette of the seed pods that I did this afternoon is a little restrained for me, and I am looking forward to stitching some of the others up using a bit more brightness.

I also made a little pincushion with my poor sick sewing machine. It's making such a racket.

Day Twenty-Eight

2010-02-28T17:34:00.001+08:00

Since my sewing machine is out of action and it's still a bit too warm for embroidery, I made more mail art.

February is almost over, and so is Thing-A-Day. It's been very enjoyable having an excuse not to do housework, and every work day I've felt excited about rushing straight home to create something. There are dust bunnies and piles of stuff everywhere, so I am going to spend the rest of the day tidying up, and enjoy a relaxing day off (Labour Day) tomorrow. I won't quit making something every day, although I will find time for stuff that has been squeezed out during February, such as reading and writing letters.

On another note, I see from my new widget that I always have a visitor from Kirribilli reading my blog. Hmmmmm. Perhaps the PM gets a bit bored.

Day Twenty-Seven

2010-02-27T19:41:00.000+08:00

I did make something today, but it's for the embroidered button swap and there's a pic of it here. My sewing machine is ready to go to the shop, it's really playing up, making a bad noise and the stitch length keeps changing in the middle of sewing.

A few months ago, I sent off an apron on an embroidery round robin, and I received it back today, beautifully completed with some lovely work by some of my good friends on Swap-bot. Isn't it fabulous?

Day Twenty-Six

2010-02-26T19:04:00.002+08:00

I received a wonderful piece of mail art during the week from Bifidus Jones. Sorry if that link doesn't work (I suspect you might need to be a member of IUOMA to view it) - I can't find him on flickr or anywhere in the blogosphere. Anyhow, this one is being sent to him in return:

Day Twenty-Five

2010-02-25T20:37:00.000+08:00

I had fun with collage tonight. I got all gluey and then had to have a shower. I've had one of those days - this morning I discovered that I'd forgotten to bring my glasses to work and had to go back home to pick them up. I also spilled water all down the front of my shirt (luckily I managed to drink my coffee with no further mishaps). And while I was in the shower trying to get the dregs of my shower gel out of the container, I squeezed it a bit too hard and it flew out of my hand and straight into my eye. Now I have a tiny cut and bruise on my cheek. I'd better get to bed before anything else happens.

Day Twenty-Four

2010-02-24T20:26:00.000+08:00

I made some embroidered buttons, but I don't want to post pictures here at the moment in case my swap partner is reading this. If you want to see them, go here - except for you, Leigh!

Oh my goodness it's hot. Tomorrow is expected to be 42C (107.6F) with a thunderstorm in the afternoon. No relief in sight on the long range forecast either. But Monday is Labour Day here so I have a long weekend to look forward to with a great excuse to not leave the house. :-)

Day Twenty-Three

2010-02-23T21:18:00.001+08:00

I still had some Kaffe scraps left so another pincushion was born. I love the look of Kaffe fabrics with bright, clashing solids, in this case orange, pink and red: although the contrasts aren't as obvious in these photos.

And yay! The self covered button kits I ordered last week arrived in my mailbox today, complete with plastic templates, so I was able to start sketching out my plans for the embroidered button swap. I'm glad I got the templates as I think it will help me to centre the embroidery on each button more accurately. I hope so anyway.

Day Twenty-Two

2010-02-22T18:10:00.000+08:00

Today was a pincushion day -- I used up some small scraps from the basket I made yesterday.

Day Twenty-One

2010-02-21T19:28:00.001+08:00

I needed a new basket to store letters and cards from penpals while they wait for a reply, so had a little rummage through my stash today and found some Kaffe Fassett scraps to make it with. I used the tutorial on Pink Penguin's blog (well worth a visit), but increased each of the patchwork squares a quarter-inch to make it slightly bigger.

Days Seventeen to Twenty

2010-02-20T14:15:00.001+08:00

It has taken me quite a few hours to embroider this tea towel, but it's finally ready to be gift wrapped and given to my friend when she pops around in a little while.

In case you're wondering why the crystal ball looks a little different, I have used glow in the dark thread. And it really does glow in the dark! The rest of it was done in Madeira silk and DMC cotton floss on linen. I really enjoyed this project; it was a nice chance to wind down each evening after quite a stressful few days at work.
I was lucky enough to win the Sew Lovely Embroidery Mad Ink transfers, which includes the fortune teller pictured here and many other beautiful designs, in Mafiosagrrl's fabulous giveaway last month.

And I am continuing my blog giveaway winning streak! Putting idea books to use is a wonderful challenge from Rebekah of dontcallmebecky. She invites people to participate in the challenge of making a project from a book, and posting a pic of it in her flickr group or blog link. Right up my street. Check out all the awesome things people have been making, and think about joining us, as it's an ongoing challenge. Thanks so much, Rebekah!

My Thing-A-Day for today is not started yet, nor even decided upon. I've had a busy day and won't be able to start anything until later this evening. But plenty of things are running around my head!

Day Seventeen

2010-02-17T20:39:00.002+08:00

Secret project. Will post pics later.

Day Sixteen

2010-02-16T18:16:00.001+08:00

This is cockatutu. I doodled her last night onto some scrap fabric and finished stitching her up this evening.

I got an awesome package in my mailbox today from my blogging friend MafiosaGrrl. I used something from the package in Cockatutu :-) We traded ATCs and I am now the proud owner of this lovely card. Thank you, MG!

Day Fifteen

2010-02-15T19:19:00.000+08:00

After a tiring day at work, all I could do this evening was make a couple of embroidered buttons/magnets. I am finding it a bit of a challenge to get the design in the centre of the button.

The first one is an ancient alchemy symbol for horse dung. I am quite interested in signs and symbols and I think they make great embroidery subjects. The second one is just some freehand lazy daisies done in metallic thread.

Day Fourteen

2010-02-14T17:21:00.000+08:00

Today I discovered that I'm sharing some of my tomatoes with grubs. Luckily they haven't gotten to my favourite yellow pear or cherry tomoatoes (yet). I don't know what they are; perhaps some kind of wasp larvae? Oh well. I guess I have been fortunate to have a reasonable harvest until now, using no pesticides or artificial fertilisers.

I made the last of my ATCs and will be sending them off to Canada tomorrow for the Vancouver 2010 ATC Exhibition. Fingers crossed they get there in time.

Day Thirteen

2010-02-13T17:57:00.003+08:00

Another ATC. I'm almost there!

Also, here are some pics of a wallet I made - not today, but it has now been received by my swap partner so I will past pics. It may be the most complicated thing I've ever made, not helped by the fact that the instructions contained two errors. I had to unpick the whole thing at one point because one of the pieces was upside down. But it's a nicely designed pattern anyway, and I got to use some cute new fabrics. It is from "Zakka Sewing", one of my favourite books.

Day Twelve

2010-02-12T20:46:00.000+08:00

For a friend who is going to an Eighties fancy dress party :-)

Day Eleven

2010-02-11T20:27:00.002+08:00

The only way for me to fly today. I'm now looking for alternatives to chiropractic which just does not seem to be working for me any more.

Between doses and snoozes I managed to get an ATC done with my new LePlume II markers, and I got a better picture of the ATC I completed last night.

Day Ten

2010-02-10T18:31:00.000+08:00

I need to get busy with my ATCs for the Vancouver Exhibition. This one is needle felted using my embellishing machine, with some French knots and straight stitches added. The knitting was done by mummysidey.

Day Nine

2010-02-09T18:17:00.000+08:00

I made the hexagon thing into a postcard which will be jetting off somewhere tomorrow.

Tonight I need to have a major tidy-up, get ready to make more ATCs, and then have a bit of a read in bed with my new books.

and

Day Eight

2010-02-08T21:25:00.001+08:00

I made another bird last night, along with two little hearts on a string, and took the whole ensemble in to work this morning. I am pleased to report that they were happily received by the person I made them for. They looked quite sweet in their little cage, but didn't photograph as well in the cage as they did hanging freely:

Today I received a couple of packages of things I'd ordered last week: some ATC supplies, a set of watercolour markers, a thing to make fabric yo-yos with, some plain coloured cotton fabric (for starting a paintbox quilt), and a set of plastic hexagon templates.

I got onto the hexagons right away, but found it strangely stressful! I can't explain why - I am more than happy to sit and embroider for the whole evening, but sewing these little shapes together was nowhere near as enjoyable. Anyway, I made eight of them and joined them together into a flower shape, then stitched them onto a piece of linen (that part was not so bad). I think I'll call it a night, and see what I can make of it tomorrow.

Day Seven

2010-02-07T15:00:00.000+08:00

For today's Thing-A-Day I made this cute embroidered felt bird. I was going to make another one, but it's for a lady at my work who is getting married, and I want to make sure she is happy with the girl bird before I make the boy one :-) He will be similar but with blue wings (of course). I just noticed that the wings on each side don't line up. Oh well.

I had planned on each seventh day of Thing-A-Day to make a mini-zine about the previous week's Things. I'm struggling a bit with the computer at the moment. My shoulder is still quite sore and I can't sit for too long at one task, and I know being on the computer will not make it any better. So I'll see how I go. I think I need to take a walk to try and loosen myself up a bit.

I just signed up to participate in this embroidered button swap. I love embroidered buttons!

Day Six

2010-02-06T18:03:00.001+08:00

Last night I had a strange dream. I was in a bookshop, and feeling frustrated because I wanted to get a particular book off the shelf to look at it, but there was a woman standing in the way. She kept on moving in front of me as I tried to grab the book. Finally, she grabbed the book and bought it. I was really upset because it was a handmade journal, and it was unique, and I desperately wanted it. I tried to talk her into letting me buy it but she just ignored me and marched out. I asked the cashier if I could order a copy of my own, knowing that I wouldn't be able to, because it was a unique one-off book. The cashier handed me a pen and started telling me to write all these things down. She told me to write on the floor, which I did, and then I saw that I had written on the floor and started crying because I had messed up the beautiful shiny floorboards.

I woke up with a fair bit of pain in my left shoulder and had to make an emergency appointment with the chiropractor. I had put my neck out again. Maybe because I'm all tensed up trying to get used to my new glasses? Anyway I had a nice long walk and a warm shower and the pain has eased up a lot.

This afternoon I managed to get some embroidery done on an ATC for the Vancouver exhibition. It's the first embroidery I've done for a couple of weeks and it was lovely to get back to stitching again. The ground fabric is homespun with a pattern of circles that I prepared yesterday using freezer paper stencils with crayon.

Tonight I am going to take it easy, maybe watch a DVD, and get a few things ready for making some felt birds tomorrow. I might even go offline - it looks as though there might be a thunderstorm. I hope so!

Day Five

2010-02-05T21:18:00.002+08:00

I posted about Day Five here.

My Creative Space

2010-02-05T18:07:00.004+08:00

I recently took part in a couple of string block swaps in which each participant listed their preferred colours and styles so that the other swappers could tailor a block for them. I made four horizontal and four sideways blocks for each set of partners. I messed about with photos of my blocks in flickr toys' mosaic maker and although each block is quite different they still look pretty good together.

I must say I enjoyed the two swaps very much and am looking forward to making more string blocks for myself. I feel a quilt coming on. So quick and easy to make!

For more creative spaces, go here!

Day Four

2010-02-04T19:40:00.001+08:00

This is the last little thing for my swap with Mim. I started making it last night and finished it off after work today. It's a bag with a really clever design. It's a little bit like a Morsbag, except with boxed corners and a 6" square pocket inside.

But here's the clever bit: the bag folds up into the pocket and is neatly fastened with the button!

I made it with linen and cute Little Red Riding Hood cotton from Japan. I covered the button with the same red polka dot fabric that I used for the handles and the loop.

The pattern is from one of my favourite books:

Finally, here's another couple of bags:

Shocking. I hope I get used to my new glasses soon. People have been telling me I look tired :-(

Day Three

2010-02-03T21:21:00.000+08:00

A matchbox for Mim. She has promised not to look so I can show pics.

The panda is so cute he might make you gag, but he seems to like the red polka dot fabric he is appliqued to.

Underneath is a worm who has his eye on an apple.

I'm struggling a bit today. I picked up my new glasses and thought my headache would disappear, but instead it got worse. My new glasses feel very different and I think I might need some more time to get used to them. There is a much narrower field of vision, because the lenses are smaller than my last pair. Maybe one day, eighties style frames a la Tootsie might come back, and make graduated lens glasses more comfortable for all the old, blind, crabby people like me!

Day Two

2010-02-02T21:06:00.002+08:00

I made two things today, one of which is for my swap with Mim. Hopefully she will not look at this post. Mim, if you are reading this please go and study!!!!

Read about and see a picture of the first thing - a worry doll - here.

Since we are also swapping a Japan themed matchbox, I decided to make Mim a kokeshi style worry doll when the first one didn't work out. This one is made from shrinky dink coloured with Sharpies, with a scrap of blue fabric for the kimono.

It turned out nice and simple and small enough to fit into a matchbox.

I received my swap from Mim today, and among the beautiful things she sent me, there was a fantastic tiny kokeshi style worry doll! Great minds think alike :-) I'm sure she won't mind me giving her a kokeshi worry doll as well. They are both quite different in character and materials used.

Day One

2010-02-01T20:00:00.000+08:00

Today I made another fabric tray; this one is for my lovely and talented friend chick chick, who helped me with the pattern. It's a bit bigger than the one I made last weekend. I found out from chick chick that Japanese patterns don't include seam allowances in the pictures, which at the time was all I had to go on. So each 5cm square that I cut out should have been 5.7cm. That is such a handy fact to know, as I have quite a few patterns in my Japanese craft books that I would like to try. As you will know if you are a sewer, the seam allowance is a rather vital piece of information.

I also posted about this on the Unofficial-Thing-A-Day blog over at WordPress where a whole bunch of us (mostly Swap-botters) are about to wow the world with our creations over the next month. I can't wait to see how Day One went for the others!

Also, today I managed to capture a photo of a bee doing its thing in my sunflower. I wanted another pic showing the gorgeous blue sky against the yellow of the flower, and there it was, buzzing around.

Day Zero

2010-01-31T17:39:00.001+08:00

So, Thing-A-Day starts tomorrow, and I think I have pretty much everything ready. I am going to cheat a bit and start on tomorrow's project tonight. It's a thankyou gift to a new blogging friend who very sweetly helped me with a challenge yesterday. I also found time today to write to a pen-pal and make a quilted postcard as well as getting a load of chores done so that I don't have to spend as much time on housework over the next week. My evenings will be completely taken up by making stuff and I won't have time to clean or vacuum.

I should give a garden update. Today I pulled out the beans which were almost dead and the lettuce which had gone to seed. I still have some tomatoes doing well, four different varieties, and the basil and very stunted silverbeet. Plus two sunflowers, one of which is flowering gloriously. I also have a gardening helper who is going to get me a trailer load of manure and mulch to help the fruit trees along. The soil in Perth is so poor and turns to sand, so we have to keep on enriching it.

Made it!

2010-01-30T09:22:00.000+08:00

I decided to challenge myself and see if I could make the tray based on the pictures in my book. I wish I had made it a little bit bigger. It matches quite nicely with the basket I made the other day.

Here's something I want to make:

2010-01-28T17:23:00.000+08:00

I would like to make a couple of these lovely fabric trays to store all the bits and pieces of projects I'm working on. The only problem is, the instructions are in Japanese, which I have no clue about. I am going to try and work it out from the pictures, but if anyone would care to help me with the translation, I promise to make a tray and send it to them, as part of my Thing-A-Day for February. Please leave a comment if you can help, and I'll email you a copy of the instructions.

It's a beautiful book which I bought recently from This & That From Japan on Etsy.

Basket case

2010-01-23T12:37:00.001+08:00

I finished making a basket this morning, following the tutorial on Pink Penguin's blog. I'm planning on filling it with all the little bits and pieces that I will make during February for Thing-a-day 2010. I have lots of things on my list so I might need to make another one, and if I do, I'll make it a bit bigger.

I used some linen that I bought the other day for the bottom of the basket although the colourful patches kind of overshadow it. The linen is beautiful and makes a nice contrast to my other fabrics. I am learning to appreciate neutrals mixed with bright colours thanks to all the inspiring Japanese zakka items I've been looking at lately.

Off to forage for lunch and then make a start on my next fabric project, which I can't tell about just yet, because the person I'm making it for knows about this blog :-)

2010-01-22T18:11:00.000+08:00

2010-01-21T17:44:00.000+08:00

2010-01-20T19:06:00.001+08:00

Walls

2010-01-19T18:20:00.004+08:00

I received a very cool card from Andy today, made up of two half postcards of Bosham Church cleverly stuck together to make a whole. It's like an international jigsaw puzzle - and I am itching to continue the tradition he has started, so watch this space! If you click on the pic to see the big version, Andy's card is in the middle just below the untidy tangled section of blue threads. And at the bottom left corner, below Eddie Izzard, is a sweet sunflower quiltie that I received from one of my lovely Swap-bot friends. Thanks Dana, and thanks Andy!

Something new

2010-01-18T17:12:00.000+08:00

I received an invitation to participate in the Vancouver 2010 ATCs project, and I'm hoping that all my blogging friends who make ATCs will join me! I already have several ideas turning over in my head and I am eager to get started, after initially thinking that it might be beyond my reach. Let's do it!

String blocks finished

2010-01-17T12:42:00.006+08:00

Apologies for the size of the pictures but I don't want to totally give the game away to the others participating in the string quilt block swaps here and here, should they happen to be reading this blog. Anyone else can click on the images to biggify. Each pic contains four separate blocks, one for each partner, which I made look like a quilt using a mosaic maker. Even though they are quite different, because they were made with the preferences of each partner in mind, the symmetry of the block placement gives them a nice unity. They were such fun to make, especially since I hadn't really looked through my stash for a while. It was good getting reacquainted with some fabric I'd forgotten about! Now I want to make a quilt. I think when I receive my partners' blocks I will make a couple of cushion covers, since there will be four of them in each swap.

While sewing I've been listening to a CD that I bought the other day. It's a brilliant mix and really takes me back to the old days (now I am realising just how long ago).....Here's a youtube excerpt with several of my favourite tunes mashed up together.

A little bit of kitchen wall

2010-01-17T11:07:00.000+08:00

Inspired by Mafiosagrrl's recent blog post, I give you....a little bit of my kitchen wall.....it's looking a little bit bare in places so maybe I should attack it with a Sharpie!

New fabrics and threads

2010-01-16T11:55:00.000+08:00

Some nice packages arrived this week: some fabric and books from Japan, and a couple of sets of embroidery thread from Sublime Stitching. I can't wait to try my new metallic and glow in the dark threads. I'm not doing a lot of embroidery or close up work though, until I get my new glasses. Thankfully the tests I had yesterday revealed no retina problems, although the pressure is on the high side. I have to repeat the tests in six months and go back immediately in the meantime if the flickering comes back.

This weekend I'll be making a few more string blocks for a swap, and generally taking it easy as the temperatures forecast are in the high 30s/low 40s C range. A good time to drink iced coffee.

Couldn't keep away!

2010-01-13T19:21:00.001+08:00

So much for having a little break. Not being on the computer is like having both your legs cut off and your arms pinned around your head. At least it is for me.

I just remembered that I forgot to put up pics of the pincushions I made a couple of weeks ago. I did put them on flickr but here they are if you missed them:

They are based on the lovely pincushions on the Purl Bee blog here. I was experimenting at the time with foundation piecing so I made them on a base fabric of homespun which helped them keep their shape. The foundation pieced blocks I made are for a swap so I'll try and remember to post a pic when it's finished. I'm looking forward to that swap and want to make a cushion when I receive my blocks.

Oh yeah, and I think I also forgot to post a pic of the little woven guy I made! He is called Edgar the Oddball and he is my friend.

Oh, and another little embroidery that I did recently, inspired by my first day back at work after the New Year break:

Last but definitely not least, congratulations to my friend mafiosagrrl on her cool blog award. Go check out her awesome blog! I've been reading it for a while now and I love hearing (and seeing) what she's up to, she's so creative, funny and clever :-)

Squinting

2010-01-12T16:46:00.001+08:00

I'm taking a little break from the computer for a while until I get my eyes sorted out. On Friday I will be having some dye squirted into my peepers so the eye guy can take a look at my retinas to see what the problem might be. And I'm getting new glasses soon since my short sightedness has grown worse. I have a fearsome headache right now because I've been on the computer all day at work, thinking and writing a policy at the same time. My brain hurts.

Vegetableness

2010-01-06T21:01:00.002+08:00

Just a few pics today, since I've spent most of this evening chatting on skype and then struggling to transfer a pattern on to a waffle weave tea towel (very frustrating) for a round robin I'm in. This lettuce is delicious, and I hope the tomotoes are going to be okay. I have three different types, although not many of each type, as most of the flowers fell off before the fruit set :-(

Back to reality

2010-01-04T20:00:00.000+08:00

First day back at work after the 3-day new year break and it was hard....but has inspired me to draw a new design for my next stitch book page. It's already almost 8pm and that's all I've really done, apart from going for a walk at 5am and getting doused by the sprinklers, going to work, going to the vet to get the special cat food, an emergency visit from the plumber to fix the toilet, and a visit from the handyman who will be building a new letterbox for the strata because our old one is about to collapse. Feeling slightly frazzled but I'm sure the week will get better. It would be nice to be Eddie or Rufus for a day.

Good morning

2010-01-03T08:58:00.001+08:00

Perth is in for a very hot day today so I got up and out for my walk just after 5. The moon was still out and there was a nice coolish Easterly.

It was already about 25C when I got home. Gave the ungrateful buggers in the vegie patch a bit of extra water and some Seasol, pleaded with them to get their act together and then came inside for the day and closed all the curtains.

Yesterday's stitch book page was a bit of an effort to complete. I daubed a bit of paint onto some cream coloured homespun but I forgot to take a picture of the piece before I started embroidering. Then I used these threads:

and just did running stitches plus a few little french knots. I'm not wild about how it came out but the texture of the stitching is quite interesting. I purposely did all the stitches randomly but I will try doing them evenly another time. I should really start trying out a new stitch or two: after all, that is really what the book is supposed to be about! Not crazy about the House of Embroidery pearl cotton - I have quite a few skeins of it and will probably use it in a weaving project that I'm thinking about doing. It hasn't got enough sheen for me to be able to enjoy it in embroidery, but the colours are nice, especially the variegated ones which will probably look really good in a little woven pouch.

First stitch book page finished

2010-01-02T16:04:00.004+08:00

I think I'll consider this first page for my stitch book finished, but I would love to do some further exploration of the same theme, colours and shapes for another piece I have in my head, entitled "Branching Out". (Exactly how I'm going to fit this in when I'm doing a new page for my book each day is something I will have to figure out.) But I enjoyed painting and working with the Colour Catcher and I think the piece would have been quite different if I'd used a woven fabric. I will have to give it a try on homespun and see how it turns out. The embroidery was done freehand and there are some awkward looking areas. If I want my spirals to be more perfect I think I will have to draw lines to guide my stitches first.

The difficulties I had in this one were the usual ones when working with metallic thread: mainly how to start and end a line. In this case I just tucked the ends on the back into the couching thread and made several knots as I went. This is maybe okay for my book if it's not handled too much, probably okay for mounting in a frame, but not exactly durable for everyday use. Colour catcher is fine to stitch on without using a hoop - always my preference.

Stitch Book

2010-01-01T19:36:00.004+08:00

I made a start on my textile project this afternoon by doing some simple straight stitches and couching. Whilst I sat stitching I thought a little bit more about the little book I am going to make.

I think it will be more of a book of experiments than anything else. It might contain a lot of unfinished pieces but ones which will let me see the kind of stitching that I want to take further into a bigger projects. Then I won't have the pressure of trying to produce something "artistic" each time, but rather have the freedom to see what I like, what I don't like, what works well, what doesn't, and hopefully get some feedback from people here and on flickr.

So anyway, this was done on a ground of Colour Catcher (according to the website this is a "a dense 3D-polymer matrix" - it doesn't seem to be woven or knitted so it's pretty easy to stitch on although it tends to leave a little hole when pierced with a needle). I painted the sheet with a mix of Setacolor and Jacquard fabric paints. I particularly like the shimmery purple one.

I only used 3 threads: yellow and orange DMC cotton floss, and green DMC Light Effects floss. The Light Effects floss is great for couching, less wonderful for stitching, but I love the look of it either way.

Blue sky and blue water

2010-01-01T16:07:00.002+08:00

Blue skies, and blue water. I should really get back into my habit of a daily walk - it seems a crime not to, when I can exercise in such a beautiful area, with the river, the bird sanctuary, city views and sometimes horses on the track across the water. I've let life get in the way a bit, because there's always something else to do.

I did a little colouring today with fabric paints onto a Colour Catcher. For those who don't know, Colour Catchers are small sheets that you put in the wash which are supposed to absorb the dyes that come out of your clothes and keep them looking brighter. Therefore they are ideal for fabric painting since they take colour really well.

Today I'm going to start a new textile project which will allow me to explore both fabric and embroidery more deeply. At the moment it's just a fuzzy idea in my head, which will develop as I go along, but the basic idea is to take a small piece of fabric about four inches square and embroider on it. I want to learn some new stitches, and I thought about doing a stitch a day, but that might be a bit much, so I'm going to just do each stitch until I feel comfortable with it, and then move on to the next one. I would also like to try different fabric paints, dyes and other fabric treatments, but again, I will leave it to whatever floats my boat on the day. At the end of the project I will choose some of the pieces and make them up into a little book.

I've looked at a few different fabric books on the internet, and I've been wanting to start making one of my own for a while now. And there's nothing like the start of a new year to get motivated! Happy new year, everyone!

P.S. I am loving the new Blogger interface - so much easier for adding pictures!

Peacock bag - finished at last

2009-12-19T15:24:00.007+08:00

I finally finished the bag I've been embroidering for the past couple of weeks. I wanted to use metallic threads to give a shimmery effect to the peacocks, but when I started I had no idea how difficult they would be to work with.

I had a false start when the knots at the back started to unravel after I had cut them off too short to re-tie (five hours' work down the drain and I had to start over). I sought the advice of my swap-bot girls and one of their tips was to use a bit of Fray Stoppa. It worked a lot better for keeping the knots intact, but made them super stiff. This, along with the general unco-operativeness of the thread ends, which refused to stay put when I tried to weave them into the backs of my stitches, forced me to spend quite a while neatening the back of the embroidery with plain thread:

What are they?

2009-12-13T17:09:00.004+08:00

Today I got out my fabric paints, a few left over bits of fabric, felt and embroidery floss ends and messed around with the button kit I bought a few weeks ago. I didn't want to make buttons so I pulled out the shanks and will shortly be supergluing magnets to the backs. I figured they can be either fridge magnets or worn as a brooch with another magnet on the other side of the clothing.

I kinda like the painted ones which were just improvised on the spot with the bits of metallic embroidery floss that I've been using these past few days.

Garden growth

2009-12-06T18:38:00.008+08:00

Here's a view of the garden as it looks now from the same spot as this post. I've just realised what a bad position I chose for my comparison photos (I take the same shot every Sunday evening) because the tomatoes get lost in the greenery of the tree in the background. However, during the week I did discover a nifty website called Nearmap.com ("View high resolution PhotoMaps from multiple angles and observe changes to the environment over time. We have captured these PhotoMaps to feed your curiosity and encourage you to add to the site") on which I will be able to chart the progress of my garden without having to take my own photos.

Amazingly, these tomoatoes were all planted on the same day. It just goes to show how random gardening is for me. The larger ones will soon need to be staked to wire which I'll run between the two pickets. Perhaps a job for next weekend. The two little plants towards the centre of the bed are basil, and they have just grown their second pair of leaves.

A couple of the beans have really taken off. They are almost at the top of their trellis - where will they go now?

The strawberries are slowly growing under their net. I caught a white moth in there the other day, but I can't find any sign of grubs so fingers crossed it was just flying through.

Two of the eight to ten cos lettuce seeds I originally planted have come up and only one is looking any good. I put a few more seeds in last week but nothing has come up just yet.

In the meantime the rocket is doing well and a few have gone to seed which is good. Rocket seems to be the only thing that is foolproof for me, and even then I have to plant lots as it tends to bolt very quickly. Same with coriander and spinach - for me it's just not worth putting them in, although I love them dearly.

Stamp carving

2009-11-28T21:20:00.004+08:00

I've been messing around with stamp carving on and off for a while now, but I've never made a stamp I'm really pleased with. Recently I joined an interesting postal letterboxing swap for which I need to carve two stamps and make a couple of little booklets to imprint other people's stamps. The four that I came up with this morning left a lot to be desired: the eye was probably the only useable one, and I think this will become my "signature stamp". The one in the top right hand corner is a megaphone but looks very much like an axe head.

I really liked the idea of the "snail mail" stamp, but the first one I made looked more like a squirrel peeking out after I accidentally cut off some material next to the snail's shell. So I decided to have another go at making a snail on a mailbox, and this one came out a little better.

This evening I made one of the booklets. The cover is made of paint chips - I was going to make the whole booklet out of paint chips, but when I tried stamping onto one of them, it was not only very easy to smudge, but the ink took way too long to dry. I guess they are not absorbent enough. So I just have ordinary paper inside the booklet. Ho-hum, I would have liked something a bit different, but it was not to be.

That's pretty much all I've done today, apart from get a haircut and do some washing. I did sleep in this morning though - my next door neighbours were having a noisy party and I think the last (very drunk) guests left about 3am!

Groovy gifts

2009-11-25T18:02:00.007+08:00

One of my sewing friends often gives me bags of offcut fabric (yay), and occasionally she includes little surprises, such as this wonderful relic of the past:

It's a booklet included with the November 22, 1972 issue of the Australian Women's Weekly. Inside are patterns for many groovy handmade items, such as crocheted slippers, a tea cosy, bookmarks, and my favourite, novel coat-hangers.

Interestingly, this publication uses American spellings rather than British. I wonder when it changed?

Teeny Weeny Ziney

2009-11-21T19:48:00.011+08:00

I intended to update my blog during the week but ended up spending most evenings selecting, drawing and embroidering little things for my latest project. It's for the Stocking Filler Matchbox swap on Swap-bot. If you are one of my three partners in this swap, don't read on, otherwise it will spoil the surprise!

It has been a good week.
-- I got four new shirts (the first time in years that I have bought brand-new clothes instead of op shop clothes. In preferred colour order, they are turquoise, cerise, black/white striped and purple/white striped respectively.)
-- I had some really nice feedback on some swaps that I recently sent out.
-- we had lots of rain.
-- the garden is growing. :-)
-- and today I received a flickr mail tag inviting me to participate in an artists' exchange which should be so exciting! The lady I am to send to is someone I have swapped with before and she is a very talented artist, so the pressure is on to come up with something lovely for her.

Anyhow, back to the project at hand. Since the zine I'm making is so tiny (to fit inside a decorated matchbox), and I wanted to include different sized embroidered images, I am going to make it concertina style. It will be very simple but I hope effective and different. There are a few words to go along with the pictures:

I haven't chosen which pictures will go along with the words yet, and I still need to embroider one or two more.

Lovely day

2009-11-14T13:30:00.009+08:00

Today is a perfect day, not too warm, with a nice light breeze and fluffy white clouds. I gave all the plants some Seasol to celebrate. The only things really going crazy in the garden are the strawberries (little fruits already) and the gazanias (probably my favourite flower).

There are also a couple of baby blood oranges which I hope I will eventually be eating. The tree itself is still tiny.

I managed to get a nice shot of the kangaroo paws at work yesterday.

I spent most of yesterday evening upgrading my computer to Windows 7 in between bits of embroidery and reading. It went without a hitch and only took a few hours. So far so good: all my files are still there and everything works. I need to complete my entry in a journal round robin and do some more work on a swap this weekend so might be a bit busy to get on the computer very much to check it out.

Embroidery and flowers

2009-11-12T20:05:00.005+08:00

I've been working on this for a while now and it's not getting any easier. The thread is made of rayon and it's really slippery and tricky to stitch with. But so beautiful and shiny!

Today I wanted to take a photo for rr of the kangaroo paws at work, but it was raining. But then I remembered taking photos and posting them on my blog quite a while ago. Here are some I took of my kalanchoe and pentunias last weekend:

And one of downtown Bayswater:

Garden, Rufus and tooth update

2009-11-11T18:38:00.004+08:00

See? Not much different from the last garden pic I posted.

Pet-wise, all has returned to normal in the Sunnysidey household - Rufus just had his final check-up from the vet who gave him the all clear to remove the collar. Now he had better stop waking me up every day for a 4am feed. To be on the safe side I am going to give away all my indoor plants, just in case the claw problems have been caused by Rufus nibbling or scratching on any of them, as he is wont to do.

Today I saw the oral surgeon who will be doing my implant. The good news is that he can do the extraction and install the post at the same time. Even better news is that I don't have to have another impression taken for my temporary denture, since my dentist kept the last one that she took for my other implant. That is a load off my mind -- believe it or not, the impression casting was the thing I was dreading the most out of the whole procedure.

I have finally found a hay fever tablet that works and doesn't make me too drowsy, and now that I have a little more time to spare (through not having to pamper Rufus) I feel like getting back to my daily walking habit.

Oh, and my Windows 7 DVD is expected to be delivered to me at work tomorrow.

Life is good.

Little patchwork bags

2009-11-08T19:40:00.007+08:00

I've been spending a large part of my crafting time the past week or so making these little patchwork drawstring bags, mostly to give away, but I might keep one for myself. They're really easy to make - by far the most effort is in cutting the squares.

I also made a few little felt Christmas decorations. Not for me, of course! I am quite bah humbug about stuff like that. But I thought one of my swap partners might like them.

It's been a bit of a funny week, with antibiotics, pain killers and allergy medication making me feel a bit vacant. The news that I have to have another implant dampened my spirits a bit, after all the pain, hassle and expense of the root canal a few months ago. Oh well, at least this one should be easier and faster than the last one.

News just in as I write this, is that one of the photos I took while I was in Queensland is being featured in an online tourist brochure. Check out the widget below. (I think some of the others I took are a lot better -- this one, of the view of Coolangatta Beach from my hotel balcony, is kind of mediocre).

My photo is here.

Being patient.....

2009-11-02T17:03:00.008+08:00

...isn't my strong point. But the garden (apart from the beans) isn't coming along as quickly as I had hoped it would. I'm not sure if it's just me being impatient, or spring isn't quite with us yet so the plants are sleeping in until it gets here.

Maybe I need to plant some impatiens in my garden :-)

This is what it looks like three weeks from planting. The beans are the only seedlings visible from this distance.

If you get up a bit closer you can see the tomatoes coming up:

And here is my best beanstalk. I pulled out the one whose leaves had gone missing and put in a new seed to replace him yesterday.

The strawberries in the two tubs are coming along well - no flowers yet though - as is the rocket under the kaffir lime tree.

Fat quarters and shiny floss

2009-10-29T17:00:00.002+08:00

I stopped by Spotlight yesterday and found a few things that I never knew I needed until I got there. I also got some more felt, because you can never have too much (or is it enough?) felt.

Beanz Meanz Photoz

2009-10-26T17:34:00.008+08:00

Curiously, the beans have arranged themselves in a row of shortest to tallest in height. The middle one - the stunted second subject of yesterday's blog - was the first to emerge and has slowed his growth to fit into the line. Hopefully he won't become a has-bean.

Amazing nature

2009-10-25T16:40:00.005+08:00

The two leaves on this beanstalk weren't there this morning! This is not the one I photographed yesterday but another one which has overtaken the first one in size and vigour.

Yesterday's one is a little stunted, and I'm wondering if an insect might have nibbled on its leaves.

New shoots and a new computer

2009-10-24T18:27:00.004+08:00

I got a new laptop today! But I still have to wait awhile for Windows 7.:-(

A couple of seeds have come up, and we had a little bit of thunder and a light shower of rain this afternoon so I'm expecting even more to pop up tomorrow.

Here is Baby Beanstalk:

Sowing and sewing

2009-10-21T17:56:00.007+08:00

I finally got the rest of my seeds from Digger's Club and put them in this evening. So now the plot looks like this:

So I have four different types of tomatoes (Black Russian, Yellow Pear, Costoluto Genovese and Sweetie), rainbow chard (a.k.a. silverbeet), climbing beans, cos lettuce and basil. There is room for a bit more, the gap in the middle is for asparagus as soon as I can lay my hands on some crowns. The weather has not really warmed up much, aside from that freakish day last Saturday. I'm sitting here in trackies and a long sleeved fleece top which is usually unheard of for late October.

Here is another little pouch that I whipped up last night:

Reversible patchwork bags

2009-10-18T09:53:00.007+08:00

I found a really nice tutorial for a reversible patchwork bag this week on Pink Penguin's blog, and couldn't wait to make one as my Friday night project. Here are some pics of the first one:

It turned out so well that I thought I'd whip up another one using some batiks that I've had for a while. I think it looks lovely in batiks, and would work well with stripes and polka dots too. I feel like making another one!

Poor boy

2009-10-13T18:59:00.005+08:00

I should say poor boys, as Eddie is feeling a little left out while Rufus gets all the attention. Rufie has to go back to the vet tomorrow for x-rays on his feet. Two of his claw sheaths are infected again. Apart from that, he is healthy and content to be hand fed for a couple of weeks while he wears the Elizabethan collar. I think he secretly enjoys the extra love and smooching on demand.

Tonight I have a journal to work on for a round robin so I hope the boys won't be too demanding and keep sitting on it while I try to write and draw. I need to illustrate a cookie recipe, and write a bit about myself, which I always find kind of tricky to do in someone else's journal. Then I need to think about some swaps that I have signed up for. They are a little bit different from the ones I have done so far, involving stamp carving and making some micro-zines (which have to fit into a matchbox!). It will be nice to have some new challenges.

Garden update: the poo crisis of the other day was averted by digging the top layer in with a spade. Simple really. Ha. Now I am keeping the bed watered while I wait for the seeds to arrive. My strawberries are still alive. We have a few warm days forecast for the end of this week, but then it looks like temps are heading south again! Very strange. I still can't get asparagus crowns because we are about a month behind spring!