Material Magic by Shar

Sewing Weekend for my gadgets

2011-10-30T16:18:00.002+13:00

Yep I am a gadget girl, I even like looking at tools in the hardware shop - you never know what they can be used for I love it. Before I went on my awesome trip to Australia I went and treated myself to an IPad2 and a Kindle, (I already told you I love gadgets LOL) sooo this weekend I decided I needed a nice case for my IPad, one of a kind type of course. I found a tutorial online which looked pretty great and also had instructions for a zipper (my first time for a zipper OMG)

Yesterday I made the below and it was a great tutorial - I struggled with the pocket and inner lining when turning out and then after finishing found that I had the batting in where the pocket inner was OMG....so this morning it got unpicked and fixed. (am I not a good girl)

Unfortunately when I went to put my IPad into the cover it was just a wee bit too snug for me as I have the snap on lid (as above in a nice lime green) which made all the difference in fit. Sooooo I decided to make my own IPad cover and went ahead and made a pattern utilizing part of the zip tutorial from above as I understood that LOL..... but decided didn't want the hassle of the lining having to be sewn to the top and then pulled out etc so did it my way (isn't that a song)..

Below are my two covers - I have my kindle in the one I made yesterday a bit roomy for it but that's ok it works and its protected and also room for the USB cord, and on the right is my IPad cover which my IPad fits into just nicely with a tad of room for movement - which makes me feel more comfortable about no pressure on the screen, THESE THINGS ARE EXPENSIVE - Treat them with love and care he he...... can you tell I love mine ......

The zipper I had left at home was a large one with big teeth and my machine was not a happy puppy but heck this is prototype stuff it needs to get over it LOL...... I will change things a bit next time - refine it a bit - but am happy with the ease it went together especially with the zip pocket. I cant seem to get an accurate pic of the colours though I tried two cameras and the Ipad but the material just doesn't seem to want to photograph nicely. Its actually a gorgeous teal blue with lime green and yellow......

Holiday pics from Australia

2011-10-16T20:13:00.005+13:00

Hello everyone who might still be reading this LOL - anyways have been on holiday in Australia with the CRAFT girls and have a heap of pics to share of our fantastic time. I miss them so much already they are like sisters and we have the best time together, its like we have known each other all our lives. I spent the first night in Australia with Dan and Danielle and had a fantastic time and then off to meet the girls and head to Mt Alford for a few days, then to an apartment for an night and then off to Diana's for the rest of the trip, was wonderful. So here are a heap of pics of the trip hope they don't take too long to download.

cabin

kitchen and dining

lounge

bedroom and ensuite

Amanda, Sharon3

Amanda and Khris

Anita and Khris shopping

Anita

Girls with the big girls panties LOL we had a game where we all had to get in two teams and each one had to put the panties on and off and the winner was the one that got it done first

Diana, Amanda and Khris

Diana working on her quilt top

Diana, Me and Khris

The girls eating (again)

shopping at bargain box

shopping again LOL

Me, Diana and Amanda hard at work

Amanda giving Helena a head massage with a thing that looked like a medieval torture thing, but boy was it fantastic, if anyone knows where to get one I want one.

Anita and Lynda

Girls with their sewing

Not sure what Diana was doing here LOL

Anita, lois and Khris

Sharon and Khris in Bargara

Me taking pics LOL

The two sharons and Amanda and Lois

Girls eating again

Our lounge in the apartment we had for one nigth

Our host at Mt Alford jumping into our pic

sharon, khris and diana at Bargara

Sharon eating prawns at Dianas

Pudding LOL

Anita and Khriss Grandson the cute wee pixie

Khris and Ash relaxing

Ash, Diana and Sharon

Lois having a cuddle

Khris having a cuddle

1st Journal page for my drawings done

2011-07-03T15:01:00.000+12:00

I have started a journal to try and get better with the drawing/painting etc....... so here is the first one, I really suck at paints I can tell you all, I repainted the hair 3 times and now have given up LOL and decided to call it done for now, I obviously need a lot more practice using the paints and brush - it totally drove me to distraction....anyways will post them as I do them, hopefully it will encourage me to do better as I go back through my beginning attempts :o)))

Attempted a drawing

2011-06-12T10:43:00.000+12:00

Was a cold and rainy day here yesterday so sat down in the lounge with my pencils and started a drawing, I would like to learn how to paint properly so am going to start sketching stuff into a book, but this I had just grabbed a lined page and started sketching, not great but better than I expected LOL

Hello from my poor neglected blog

2011-06-05T13:54:00.000+12:00

Well its been a long time since I posted anything here. Actually its been a while since I have been creative at all unfortunately, you know sometimes we get a lot of lemons all at once which take a while to turn into lemonade, and I prefer to keep this blog a happy place. BUT its time to put on the "big girl panties" and get back into my creating, its the one thing that normally helps when the going gets tough. I do have some pictures of Craft Group stuff to show and a wee dabble in the clay which I have been attempting. Sooo the first pic is of a head I have been playing with, I made some eyes a while ago which really are not big enough for this poor guy but I did want to see how they baked up etc and if it was worthwhile me making some more, which it is as the price of eyes is horrendous. So this guy is just to test the eyes and give me some practice again, I'm still not very good at this clay stuff but do find it enjoyable - I always seem to get characters out of the clay, doubt you will ever see any pretty fairies here LOL LOL..... sorry about the pics today is overcast and not much light to difficult to get reasonable pics. I have to thank Jodie Creager for her awesome DVD on making heads which has helped me get a reasonable mouth going, mouths are my nemesis but I think after watching her fantastic DVD I might be able to get it right.

I had a dabble at making a softee type "something" LOL was a lot of fun but I still have to finish the final stuffing.

Next pic is of an awesome quilt one of the girls has made at Craft, I just love it and what a heap of work in it but perfect for a Granddaughter. I am seriously tempted to have a go at this myself, I have 5 Granddaughters, I wonder if they would like something like this, I do need to make all of them a quilt at some stage.

Next up - the girls have been making Jill Maas patterns again and here are a few of the characters.

Next up is a bag Berryl made - lots of work in this one

Getting ready for fishing/camping trip

2011-02-21T11:40:00.000+13:00

Thought I had better get some pics up finally LOL.......... grabbed a few of the guys getting ready to go on their fishing camping trip today. They are heading to the beach for 4 days or so, hope they catch some fish, the weather is perfect here and very hot. Unfortunately I have to head back to work tomorrow so Pete will take some pics at the beach.

Dan and Danielle


Pete and Danielle


Dog and her friend LOL

Discussing the fishing strategy I think LOL LOL

More outside work done today

2011-02-06T18:19:00.001+13:00

Phew more outside work done today only 2 weeks till hubbies son and his partner come for a holiday YIPEEE cant wait, but we are doing a wee tidy up which is long overdue around here. This old house needs a lot more done to it but we do it in small chunks as we can. - It had been pretty neglected for many years and was rented out so its an ongoing mission . Here is the work done today.............. not fantastic but for now it will be ok.....this area is where we will put the deck and the french doors out - in the below pic where the double window is (dining room) - french doors there ....but cant afford to do the deck as yet - I have the french doors though in the shed ready to go....but this will tidy it up a bit for now, sorry plants are a bit yuk but don't have any soil to repot them for now just placed them to tidy up a bit in the interim until we can get a trailer load of mix to repot some of the plants we have floating around the place.

and yep I know got to repaint the bloody windows outside again..........that can wait until the craft studio is painted then onto the repaint touch ups of the windows - have a heap of before pics to put up one day once the Craft Studio is finished on the outside.

Finally a wee bit of creating LOL

2011-02-05T16:30:00.001+13:00

Since Christmas break and over the break we have really been spending most of our free time on the house and doing things outside so not a lot of creative things happening around here. We have done a lot of tidy up around the back of the house and I am nearly ready to paint the craft studio on the outside as it really looks so sad now, but a good paint job will make a difference. I have been taking a lot of before photos etc and will show a screed of before and afters once we are finished.

BUT in the meantime I had Craft group today so took a canvas with me that I had drawn up a pic on and had a go at painting and shading with pencils........ I am going to do a few of them to hang up in my bathroom - very cost effective LOL........ meaning free really so it works for me..... so here are some pics of what I did today, not finished but about half way there, lots of shading etc still to do.

EDIT: eek just wanted to say this is not my original artwork, well it is as far as actually drawing it and painting etc but I got the idea from some pics I saw on the net a while ago, unfortunately I cant find where I got them now.......... just wanted to clarify that......


Penciled in and first lot of colour on


Bit of shading starting to happen and starting to paint the dress


Dress painted and starting to get some shading

Where I finished today still heaps to do but starting to shape up

A little tour of my outside area

2011-01-15T18:21:00.000+13:00

I decided today to give you all a glimpse of our outside area around the house, we live on 1 acre approx 12 Kilometres outside a town, but very handy as we have a dairy on the corner of our road, and also a garage, plus its only 10mins drive tops to work so I get to come home for lunch each day. We have no neighbours either side just paddocks and nothing out the front of us apart from the road and then down to a stream so its very quiet and peaceful here. We have large hedges to the front and down the driveway which we planted a few years ago, so we are totally private and cant be seen from the road.

Right I am taking you on a walk around the grounds LOL

This is to the left of my house coming around from the back door (we only use the back door)

Just around the corner from there coming to my front window - the wee fence you see there is our inner area which leads out to the rest of the section - we can close it off if necessary

same view from the side of the front of the house about to walk through the wee opening to the right

View from the gate opening to the edge of our frontage, where that large hedge is which has thousands of birds in it at the moment, as you walk over towards there - there is such a flurry of birds its quite amazing

View to the left where up against the fence is our driveway - as you can see its very very dry here at the moment we are normally very green even in the summer

Front taken from the left going around the section basically I am doing a semi circle walk around outside in the tree area

going down to the right hand side of the property all the trees you see to the right here are out inner border of trees next to the house

Another view walking to the other side of the property

View down the length of the right hand side from the front

Looking back from my back area out to the front hedge again - to the right there my husband has what I call the trifods, which is a huge pumpkin patch

Looking from the back of our property down the driveway out to the road

This is our fallen over plum tree, it fell over in high winds a few years ago and is a very old tree, by the summer of that year it had kept growing but with a sort of underpass under it and the roots all up in the air, so we decided to leave it as a feature and hubby will make a small garden around it, plus we get heaps of plums off it usually

So I hope you enjoyed the wee tour around the property, nice to get some insights into where people live etc methinks

Revamp of the worlds ugliest bathroom - picture heavy lots of pics

2011-01-15T09:14:00.001+13:00

As the title says - this is what I have been doing in my holidays.... apart from 4 days in bed with a nasty tummy bug. A whole lot of hard work and elbow grease. NOW before we go to the pics of the before and afters, we did not revamp our bathroom with new fittings etc no way could we afford to do that bathrooms are an expensive item indeed so it is a paint and color makeover to make it presentable and easier to keep clean. When we moved into this old place we did paint and pull up carpet etc in most of the rooms but the bathroom has forever remained in the too hard basket or "we ran out of steam" basket LOL. This old place was rented out for many many years, mainly to students - so you can imagine the state of most of the rooms when we brought it, some rooms they had stood back and flicked paint with a paint brush to get the effect that they wanted, psychedelic but in browns and yellows Eeeeeeeeeeek,.

So onto the bathroom, the before pics I have taken with no shame LOL........ messy as heck as we had already started to setup and sand and fill in there when I started taking photos, you will notice the polka dots on the walls, well this was a special paint to cover rust and other "things" that were on the wall that a painter friend gave to me, brilliant stuff but boy what a shit to cover up, a few coats of undercoat went on those ceilings and walls. Also the nasty lino on the floor is coming up but we left it there while we painted - I have managed to get about one third of it up so far but it will take a while to get it all lifted as it is well glued down - but nice wooden floorboards underneath.

Before - OMG ...... look at the polka dots LOL I went a bit berserk with this paint - as you do - the colour on the walls was that green/blue/teal colour they used to have in hospitals - I figure that the bathroom has never been touched before and was pretty original as I went down to bare walls when sanding at times - yes I know the vanity is ugly but it has to stay for now. This is actually quite a large room for a bathroom with lots of wall by the bath which will need some art or something to break it up a bit.

Next pics of the progress being made heaps of undercoat on walls already noticing a difference - lots of days of prep work involved before even getting to the painting stage as you can see from the above pics - ahh polka dots getting covered - that was a mission

In this photo you can see the floorboards - still some glue etc on the floor but I shall worry about getting that up later on will be a bit at a time job as its well glued

Starting to cut in the paint color ready to roll the main walls - YES IT IS COLOUR - this house needs colour its not a white or cream type of house being old and a bit bitsy piecy and colour hides a multitude of sins hehe

You will notice the handrails by the shower - we put these in when we had my mum living with us to help her get into the shower from the wheelchair - we decided to leave them there as who knows we may need them ourselves one day.

TA DA THE FINISH - There is still things to do like putting the towel rails back up and the walls need something - and of course I have not yet got all the lino up, but mostly done thank goodness

One final before and after pic together just for reference

My Friend Amanda is having a 100 post giveaway

2011-01-02T14:32:00.001+13:00

I must admit I don't normally do the link to giveaways thing very often but Amanda is pretty special -

so here is the link to go and sign up Amandas Blog

Holidays holidays holidays yipeeeeeeeee

2010-12-26T14:57:00.000+13:00

Wahoo second day of my holidays and I have been out and started tidying up the craft studio which I have not been in for weeks. While I was in there pottering about I suddenly found the urge to start sewing again and picked up a UFO that had been on the design wall a while back and started to sew - phew so glad that happened was thinking I had lost it LOL......

Next is to tidy up the mess of the sculpting table - Oh my goodness what a mess........ I sooo want to get in there and practice my sculpting again.

Funky quilt I will finish this week (fingers crossed and double crossed)


Messy messy messy LOL

Yes I know I am not supposed to be here, you come any closer and my paw will rip you to pieces (no kidding its totally capable of doing that, you should see the bruises on my leg from an altercation in the middle of the night)

Finally an UPDATE on the blog - Warning Picture Heavy LOL

2010-11-22T18:13:00.003+13:00

Hi everyone, yes finally an update to the blog its been a while, been busy at work of course really really busy the past few months and basically have been coming home and hitting the zzzzzzzzz's. BUT in amongst that I have been busy sewing but unfortunately have not been able to show what I was working on until today.

I belong to an online email group called CRAFT which has become an amazing bunch of friends from all over the world and as time goes on we are all getting opportunities to meet each other which is amazing. We have built some wonderful friendships in this group and the owner of the group is fantastic (and of course the moderators hehe )

The girls decided we needed to show Khris our appreciation for all that she does and so a quilt was born LOL....... I decided on a heart pattern that would work and sent it out to all the girls as a template so they could make a heart and send back to me to make up. Some were unable to make a heart so contributed some money to me to enable me to purchase some Frolic fabric for the quilt. (thanks girls)

Khris got her quilt yesterday so now I am going to show the in progress pics and the completed quilt - PLUS a fantastic bag that Pam made of the same fabric which is just incredible, I really wanted to keep it for myself. Ok here we go lots of pictures

Lovely Frolic fabric we brought and of course in the second picture the obligatory owl fabric LOL (for those that know Khris well)

Some of the hearts on their backgrounds awaiting borders etc, I tried to match each heart up with an appropriate fabric to make the most of each hearts colors etc

Ahhh heres Khris herself waiting to get her heels on LOL

Some hearts with borders on the design wall while I was pondering what to do next for the middle panel, I ended up designing this as I went basically to fit hearts and "Khris" into the middle and also to get the colors right for each block

Woohoo nearly there on the top, starting to get into shape now and Khris has her heels

Middle panel sorted took me a while to decide how best to break this up

A flimsy all ready to go...... waiting for backing and quilting - nice owl fabric borders

Some of the quilting up a bit closer - quilt is crinkly its been through the washing machine and dryer with my heart pounding the whole time too scared to open the washing machine EEEEEK

Another close up of the quilting and middle

Gorgeous bag that Pam made its fantastic and the zip well I really need to make a bag with a zip like this its perfectly done

Seee perfect zip I love it

Khris with her bag

KHRIS WITH THE QUILT

Which needs a good press after being in the dryer and in the post...... LOL

Feeling sorry for myself Waaaaaah

2010-09-17T10:50:00.000+12:00

Wahhhhhh the girls from CRAFT yahoo group are gathering in Adelaide (Australia) this year for their get together, (I went last year and it was a blast) and alas I was unable to go at the last minute - a lot to do with that damned money tree I planted which is taking longer than expected to come to bloom

BUT next year its going to be huge and no way am I missing out so will be looking for cheap fares straight after Christmas and grabbing them fast LOL.........

Partial sculpting pics

2010-09-11T16:02:00.001+12:00

Thought I would pop up some pics of works in progress...... I have roughed in a hand for the previous head I made (well my first head LOL ) which is now attached to an armature but not much else going on there. I made some eyes which I posted in a previous post so decided to make a head to test them out - now these eyes are not all the same size etc but I decided to test them anyways seeing as this is just learning for now...... so I made a head and mucked about with some pastels before it was baked. when it came out of the oven I didn't like it at all so am now adding clay and seeing if I can fix it up a wee bit, hence why it looks a bit weird with the clay bits stuck on it....... ( I redid the mouth and it looked really bad so smooched it all off again) Also my first clay body in progress, just the first rough of it nothing smoothed or sorted just getting the basics (I hope)

Its fun to play with this so really nothing lost if things don't turn out its all learning and playing - which is the way I manage to keep myself afloat at the end of the working week, nothing feels better than going out to the craft studio and just sitting, whether I do anything or not or just look, it always feels good and puts me in a better place.

The body is actually looking like a naked chicken

Quilt along

2010-09-05T17:57:00.001+12:00

Phew, I have worked all day on a quilt along with the girls from CRAFT group. We decided we would do strips to get rid of our bits and pieces and UGLY fabric LOL.. So I have sewn all day today and chatted with the girls by video conference, pretty cool to sit and sew and be able to see the other girls as they are sewing and also chat to them as if they are in the same room. These girls were from Australia and the USA today so pretty cool indeed, I love technology. So below are some pics of what I managed to get done today.

Box of scraps ready to go

Cat from hell who got told off for playing with the iron so decided to destroy some blocks

WHO ME ????

Blocks ready to be cut down to size think I did about 11 so far but need more

What the blocks will look like when sewn together

Free sewing accessories pattern by my friend Khris

2010-08-08T07:51:00.001+12:00

Pop on over to my friend Khris's Freebies for Crafters Blog or her personal Blog and see what the clever girl has been up to, she has designed the most gorgeous Sewing Accessories Set, but best of all....... the Australian Craft Magazine "HOMESPUN" has used her designs for this months Project on their Web page at Complete Craft.

Way to go Khris

Clay Eyes

2010-07-28T18:51:00.001+12:00

I decided to have another go at making some clay eyes for inserting into my sculpts, although these are just for practice at this point to perfect the process LOL......... so not perfect, but I shall bake them on the weekend a couple of times to see how they hold up to the baking process. I have used some UV Gel on them to make a dome to give dimension to the eyes so am interested to see how they hold up in the oven as they will need to be able to be baked a couple of times to go into a sculpt. (these are really tiny so had trouble getting a photo they are only a few millimeters across) I do not have a matched pair so maybe a cyclops sculpt may be in the future LOL LOL

The below pic I did on an angle to try and show the doming effect

Craft club day out

2010-07-27T18:26:00.000+12:00

Have been meaning to post these pics of our craft day out for the past few weeks and keep forgetting LOL will be our next meeting soon so though heck better get these up for show and tell LOL

I made some more eyes on the weekend and they didn't turn out too bad, I will take some photos of them when I can get some good light as they are very small - I want to bake them a couple of times to see how they hold up to the heat as I used a UV gel to make a dome over the iris.... fingers crossed...... Am also working on some hands and feet for the Yoda head that I posted a few posts ago - have an armature on him ready for the hands and feet - just not sure how I am going to pose him yet.....

Black Bean Brownie/Cake

2010-07-04T17:19:00.000+12:00

For those of you who don't know, I normally try to keep to a diet of a fairly low carbohydrate food, not super restricted but I do try not to have potatoes, pasta, rice or bread on a regular basis. I still splurge once a week or so and enjoy whatever I feel like but try to do low carb at least 70% of the time which seems to work for me in regards to weight management and health. I still enjoy my wee treats for dessert etc but am trying to make them low carb types of things and now its winter here we do enjoy a hot pudding and full cream ice-cream for dessert some nights for a treat.

I saw a recipe and heard a lot of comments in regard to a brownie/cake made from Black Beans instead of flour, which sounds awful to me LOL BUT in the interests of giving things a go I made one this afternoon and to my surprise it came out as a cake which actually tasted pretty good hot (when I took just a wee bit of the side for a sneaky taste) the instructions said it is better after being in the fridge for a few hours etc but of course I had to have a wee taste being a non believer and all. It tasted rather yummy so I sure will be interested to see how it fares tonight with some passion fruit ice-cream with it (it looks a bit funky cause I used baking paper inside the container and didn't bother smoothing it out - I am an instant cook fast and easy for me LOL)

My First Try At Sculpting

2010-07-03T17:36:00.001+12:00

Hi here I am again, sorry for being away so long, will try harder to post more regularly. I didn't really have anything to share for a while there but am back on track again and have a few things I am playing with. I decided to have a try at sculpting the oven bake clay, which was a lot harder than I originally thought it would be. Finally I have a wee face that came out of the clay that actually went in the oven and got baked and then painted and I am reasonably happy with him for a first try. Will now try and make the rest of him and have started some hands today so thats going to be interesting indeed.

So heres a few pics of my first one

Doll Club - Heaps of Pictures

2010-05-01T16:35:00.002+12:00

Today was Doll Club day, mind I think we need to change the name to CRAFT club as we are all doing so many different things nowadays. I took some clay to play with and am quite pleased with what I have done so far but wont show it unless it works out after some refining ....... I have heaps of pictures to share today which is great, had lots of show and tell and we had a really great day out, lots of fun and its neat to see what the other girls have been making. Beryl brought in 3 quilts she has made, just fantastic, the last one is not quite finished but its going to be fantastic.

Beryl and Margarets naughty fairies

Gorgeous cross stitch that a lady did for Rose

Margarets Gollies she is making on canvas

Margarets daughter brought in the below houses she has been making from Canvas, they were pretty extraordinary

Bag Finished

2010-04-23T16:15:00.001+12:00

Well here it is all finished, not happy with the shitty flower I put on it LOL will make a better one another day.....great pattern and really easy to make up - I added pockets inside on both sides and both sides of the outer as well. Thanks Khris was a great one to make and I enjoyed it and a good size bag as well. (please excuse the inside it needs a wee bit of an iron LOL)

Quick peek of what I am making today

2010-04-23T14:01:00.001+12:00

I loved the Pattern that Khris gave the free tutorial on which I featured in my last post so thought I would make a start and get one done, so here it is half way done - fingers crossed by this evening it will be all finished and ready for a photo.

Free Tote Bag Pattern at Sew Prim Khris blog

2010-04-19T18:01:00.000+12:00

My friend Khris has put up a free tutorial for the below tote bag - its really lovely and I cant wait to make it, hop on over to her blog and get it.

Whats on my design wall

2010-04-18T16:00:00.001+12:00

Well its been a while again LOL but there you go that's what happens when you work full time. Today I have been sewing - Yayyyy - feels great as well. My good friend Khris made a quilt recently and it really appealed to me as it looked so nice and crisp, well Khris has decided to make a pattern out of it and she is letting me test the pattern so I made a start on it today. I have broken out my jelly roll and charm squares I got for my birthday and they are so nice and bright I love this range. Hope you like it so far I sure do.

Sewing People Clothes

2010-03-28T10:05:00.000+13:00

I have been sewing what I call " people clothes" LOL....... meaning for myself which is something that never seems to work out for me....... but I needed some warm tops for the winter for wearing over comfy tights at home and couldn't find anything the right length etc in the shops so decided to make something for myself. So yesterday I made two tops which will do nicely to keep me warm and comfy with winter soon to make an appearance here. Sorry for the quality of the pics but my bedroom is extremely dark and the only place with a mirror that would work LOL

A Surprise Parcel - yipeeeeee

2010-03-16T13:33:00.000+13:00

Yipeee I got a parcel in the mail yesterday and waited till this morning to unwrap so I could take pictures of the goodies, Naomi says it is a belated Xmas and birthday pressie, how cool to get something unexpected in the mail. I have been really busy at work and getting home late at night so this was a great feel good boost, I love it all.

Parcel hehe

All beautifully wrapped in lime green how cool is that

Lovely decoration its purple (of course)

and look at this lot the wee purse is just awesome and I have wanted the marking pencils for a long time but cant get them here

THANKS SO MUCH NAOMI IT IS AWESOME

Really Really Bad Eyeballs

2010-03-14T17:24:00.001+13:00

So great title eh....... I have been mucking about with some clay eyeballs today and decided to paint them, well the below tells the sorry story, I nearly didn't post them but heck got to show warts and all and these are really bad...... but was fun

Might actually make a goblin type thingy from clay and have opposing eyes just for fun........hehe.........

THE EYEBALLS FROM HELL

Doll Club

2010-03-14T08:57:00.002+13:00

Last weekend was our monthly meeting, I didnt attend the last one and didnt really have much to take to do this time but took some crocheting that I am attempting. I also decided to take the laptop to show the ladies the blog and a few sites of interest etc as most dont have broadband internet etc.

Here we are setting up - I cut up a whole heap of 5 inch charm squares ready to help one of the ladies make a bag next month - so we picked colours and showed her how to cut with the rotary cutter and get everything square etc

My friend doing some cross-stitch

Rose was doing a long stitch embroidery

A panel that made up into a book

Dont remember what these two were laughing about but its a good picture LOL

Pets

2010-03-14T08:48:00.000+13:00

A couple of pics of the pets of the household. The innocent looking "cat from hell" in the below photo is not showing her true nature LOL..... Part of the reason for having little sleep is that this cat keeps bringing in her "catches" late at night and eating them under my bed which results in me getting up to dispose of the leftovers in the early hours of the morning - you would think after being chased regularly with the broom she would get the idea..... and then of course there's our wee doggie who is nearly 15 years old now and having a few neurological problems but still pretty sprightly and still loving chasing the ball, as you can see there's a wee ball tucked into the picture, they are never far from her sight.

Wii Fit results

2010-02-21T16:15:00.002+13:00

Well managed to get the wii fit plus setup up and got through the start MY AGE ON THEIR WAS 57 OMG mind could have been worse could have been 70 eh........ROFLMAO

MY BMI was in the high ideal range so interesting indeed.

Now all is setup I need to decide on a personal training thing....... will look at that later and decide which things I want to do. This is going to be very interesting indeed but looks fun and doesn't look like it will be as boring as riding a stationary bike etc............

Hi out there sorry to not post for a while

2010-02-21T15:24:00.003+13:00

Yep this is going to have to be my motto at this time

Hi, sorry for not posting for a bit, life gets in the way every now and again - sod it LOL

I NEED SLEEP is my new saying for this month LOL - Seems since I hit the big 50 a month or so ago EEEEEEKKK that my body decided - OK you are 50 now so lets get some serious life stuff going on here. So unfortunate us women have to go through this nasty menopause shite thing - but we all have to deal with it at some stage no getting away from it at all. (apart from my 73 year old neighbor who tells me all the time she didn't have anything and glided through. She actually smiles when she tells me that, boy if she only knew how good I am getting at the boxing game on the wii he-he)

I have started a granny square which I think I will just keep adding to, something to do while sitting in the lounge at night and it is crafting at least LOL...... am hoping that a few nights sleep will get me all sorted again and raring to get out in that craft room of mine and finish my quilt and start new stuff.

I did go and buy a wii this weekend so am hoping that the wii fit thingy will give me some enjoyable exercise which cant hurt can it LOL........ I'm not really a great exerciser, mind I do get plenty in my job as I am up and down stairs all day so get a reasonable workout during the week.

OK of to have a play with this wii thingy and see if I can sort it out.......... I know it gives you your real age at the beginning when it scans you - I think I might be horrified at what that will be LOL but I shall update with what it says..........

New Material and Table Runner

2010-02-07T16:37:00.001+13:00

Phew had some busy times the last couple of weeks - a bit of family stuff that took a bit of time and of course my full time job. I wanted to show some pictures of material that has arrived here for me recently, some really yummy stuff which I am dying to get into. BUT BUT ........ still have the quilt to finish before I can go wild with these so best get stuck into it again shortly.

This lot of material I actually brought back in November from an Etsy seller and it never arrived, I was a bit gutted as I wanted it to finish the wallhanging that I have started. I contacted the seller after Christmas to advise that it still hadnt turned up so thought someone else had a nice Christmas present on me the sods. Anyways the nice lady sent me some more fabric and this arrived in 7 days so I was really really stoked to get it.

Now this lovely lovely lot below is my birthday present from the girls at CRAFT group, man I always wanted a jelly roll, now I have two of them to play with, I can see a quilt for my bed out of these in my future.

And finally today I made up a quick table runner for the dining room, I have changed things in there to make it a second sort of sitting room which is handy. We had visitors at our place last Wednesday night and I notice they all ended up sitting in the dining room on the couches chatting while I was making coffee etc, was really cosy. Sorry not great pics as the room is a bit hard to take pics in, its not a dark room so not sure what happens there but there you go LOL

Fabric Flower Tutorial Link

2010-01-30T08:56:00.001+13:00

Khris has made a great tutorial over on her sew prim khris blog, might have to make a few of these myself for bag decorations etc.

Weekend

2010-01-23T17:37:00.001+13:00

Its the weekend after being back at work again, wasn't too bad I suppose LOL ...... anyways we are demolishing the shed this weekend into a skip bin so we can rebuild again. I am not helping as much as I should as I had a wee health blip yesterday and have been ordered to rest until next week when further tests will be done. I feel fine and look fine so its pretty hard to actually feel sick that's for sure but there you go, I am taking the docs orders as they were very firm and indeed a bit scary as to the consequences of overdoing things in the next few days. Hopefully I will get to take some pics tomorrow or the next day, was pretty hard today as its been raining all day, but we still got a lot done and have two more days to go with the bin so no stress.

Last Day of Holidays Eeeeeeek

2010-01-17T14:46:00.001+13:00

LOL - well this is the last day of my holidays and back to work tomorrow so have been getting a few things sorted ready for the awful reality of getting up at 6.00am tomorrow morning and leaving the building....... BUT I felt like mucking about this afternoon so got out a pattern and had a play with a wee head, a nice easy one with just a bit of sculpting - something to have a bit of fun and whimsy with by Jill Maas. Hopefully I will make the whole thing up but maybe not today - we shall see, I just popped the head in amongst some hair to take a photo of it...........Very hard to get decent photos of the material used for these dolls and the last one as it seems to reflect of the camera - doesn't seem to matter whether the flash is on or off you still get a weird distortion.

And then I was snapping pics and took this one of a doll I had made a long time ago with my wee pixie which I just love.

No pics again OMG.......

2010-01-15T18:48:00.001+13:00

And the above is exactly how I looked and felt today when I realised I had sewn up a few panels then stood back and realised something had gone horribly wrong...... No amount of squinting and lying to myself helped the situation at all (unfortunately) I tried hard to convince myself all was ok no one would notice............. My coin stack panels when sewn together with the plain panel in between were all uneven........OMG..... they were out by heaps so out came the unpicker and I start again, this time being very careful how things line up and lots and lots of pinning, I DO NOT WANT TO UNPICK AGAIN......these are large long panels LOL

Some Quilt update pics at last

2010-01-13T15:08:00.003+13:00

Ok sooo not finished yet but have quilted the 5 panels with one more to go, then can put this initial part together and then onto the borders etc (hopefully) still not sure what I am going to do there but will get this together and then wing it from there as I normally do...........he he........cant help myself but heck this is for my bed so it doesn't matter as long as the materials look pretty.......

Remember this is all just pinned to the design wall ( tablecloth ). so nothing looks straight at the moment, I have just done this to take some pics to show how its coming together.

No Pics yet LOL

2010-01-11T19:11:00.001+13:00

Yep am still here just wasn't well for a few days so decided to take it easy but back to the sewing machine tomorrow so hope to have some pics of the quilt with more progress going on, nearly got the panels done now, 4 more to quilt and then I can sew them together. Not sure what I am going to use for a small border next cant find a dark brown which is what I think it needs to break it, anyways will stash dive and find something, this quilt is for me so its not the end of the world, luckily as I decided to try some loopy loops in the quilting on the panels and they are certainly loopedy loopedy nasty looking things, but hey its learning LOL

Captain Caveman and the Bird House

2010-01-05T10:57:00.003+13:00

Captain Caveman was asked to build a birdhouse for a friends birthday so hes now been back into crafty mode - very scary indeed LOL...... Dont think he will make another one he prefers the wallhangings much better and really really wants to come to Spotlight to look (spend) LOL Anyways he wants me to include his crafting forays on the blog so below is his new invention for his friends birthday.

Seat Finished

2010-01-03T14:59:00.002+13:00

I have spent most of the day getting the seat done, so now I am all set and all colour coordinated as well so everything is spiffy indeed in the craft rooms........NOW to actually get back in there and do some sewing. I presume most would know what colour I would paint the seat LOL only because I have lime green walls and I had some fabric that matched for the seat of course hehe............

So there it is one seat/storage piece.......... was a pretty horrible piece of furniture but now it can serve a purpose of being storage and a seat, and also a better colour of course LOL - for the princely sum of about 16.00 I have a reasonably cost effective piece of furniture for the craft room, Its not perfect but will do the job very well for me.

Painting

2010-01-03T10:41:00.000+13:00

Started painting the seat / storage box this morning......... phew wonder if anyone can guess what colour its going to be hehe

Pictures later on today

New Sewing Bench

2010-01-02T12:06:00.001+13:00

Captain Caveman decided yesterday was the day that he would build me the sewing bench in my kitchen area of the craft rooms (2 rooms - as it was originally a small 2 room living accommodation) Sooo a lot of mess was made as I moved sewing machines and a couch and piles of paper which had been hiding on the couch LOL - and I spent the whole morning this morning cleaning and tidying up the 2 rooms, so all is really tidy and cleaned benchs now plus vaccuumed....... phew.......

Captain Caveman hard at work, some pics had to be deleted as he had builders crack OMG

Sewing Machines setup

Some cool stuff for me to look at while sewing, the wall hanging was made for me by Anita and its just perfect

This is an old Glory/Blanket box that I had and I store my wool in it, it also has a wee top shelf that sits just below the lid which is perfect for knitting needles etc, I am going to spray paint it and put a nice padded seat on it, (which cant be done today as its windy so cant spray paint - :( ) am dying to get out there and finish it and spray some paint around hehe

This is my light box which I am showing as had just been having a conversation in CRAFT group regarding light boxes

Other room all nice and tidy now with a nice view out the windows

First Room (kitchen) well bench with a tap for water LOL and design wall

Necessity and Invention

2009-12-31T16:40:00.000+13:00

Great title eh, its hard to think up titles you know. Today I decided to change the sewing table I was having difficulties with the height of the bench in the sewing area so have moved the sewing machine (the pfaff quilter) into the other room. I decided that I could make a bench on the arms of the couch that is in there with some panels I had in the outbuildings which would be the right height..........and they are perfect - the right height and can use the knee lift etc......its making the sewing go a lot quicker. This is not perfect of course BUT as soon as I can get rid of this couch and the two chairs that go with it that reside in my bedroom at the moment LOL Hubby will build me a proper bench to this height in the corner of the room so I can put both machines there ready to go which will be great as the light in there is really good the windows are behind and let in heaps of light midday.

Am getting along with the strips for the quilt now, have cut out the next three batting strips and backing so its all ready to go and am now sewing up all the strips - fingers crossed I can get these first 5 panels done in the next few days and can then move onto the straight panels which are once colour and will be quilted maybe in some sort of loopy loop quilting - I will try and see how I go

First Panel done on the quilt

2009-12-30T13:59:00.000+13:00

I have modified this a bit as I found the "sew, flip and iron" method was just not working for me and was slow, so I have sewn the panel together and then put it together by stitching in the ditch on the seams of the coins. I would rather stipple than stitch in the ditch I have to say but now I have started the coin panels like this I will continue for the rest and do a design or stipple in the plain panels in between the coin ones. Got to say my stitch in the ditch is pretty bad, but hey this is for me on my bed so I am not unpicking (which I normally would do)........ Hard to get good pics of the whole length as this is going to be super queen size OMG....hehe

Busy Busy Busy LOL

2009-12-29T18:04:00.001+13:00

Well I have been super busy today - first time I have got out to the sewing room for a bit and I was really hanging out to spend some time playing. Yesterday I downloaded some really cool Quilt as you go patterns for quilts from Joy at Joypatch which looked really interesting as I have been wanting to do a quilt for my bed. These are done with Jellyrolls which unfortunately are just far too expensive to buy here in NZ they are approx 75 - 85 dollars which is just too much. Soooooooo I thought heck make my own so have been cutting up 2.5 lengths of material all afternoon....... some from fat quarters which I have on hand just because I wanted to LOL and some from some fabric I had in the sewing room as I decided to use what I have for this quilt - Its just for my bed so it doesn't matter if its a bit scrappy to test out this technique. I also cut out 5 inch squares and 4 inch squares as well as I was going along to add to the stash (cardboard box) which I intend to fill up eventually for making scrap quilts and runners and bags. So all in all a really busy day but productive.

Smallish pile for the quilt

Pile getting a bit bigger LOL

All Done and ready to go

Some fat quarters cut up

Box which I intend to fill up as I go with all the fat quarters which have been just sitting in the room for ages

First panel with the backing and batting together ready to add the 2.5 lengths to - don't look too hard at the backing - I got half a bolt at Spotlight a while ago for 2.00 so am using up what I have for the backing as it will take a bit and I am using what I have in the sewing room for this one- I used basting spray for the first time so will be interesting to see how that goes.

Hubby (AKA Captain Caveman - AKA Crafter)

2009-12-27T12:38:00.004+13:00

My Hubby (affectionately known as Captain Caveman) is the poster NZ man who wears the black stubbie shorts, black singlet and gumboots who also fishes every weekend he can get away with it LOL.......

Yesterday he disappears out the back of the house for the afternoon saying he had things to do - he popped in side to ask me if I had any bits and bobs that were of a rustic nature in the "shop" (AKA craft room) LOL...

So after that comment I thought I had better go and see what he was up to....... and here below is what he was making for a friend to hang on the front of her house at the beach. Very surprising as he is not known for patience - actually has no patience normally at all - things fly about in the air when he is fixing something LOL.........

Not bad for someone with no patience LOL.......mind am not sure about this new crafty side to him, there has been mention of a trip to Spotlight to have a look - I am not sure I want to share the crafting money two ways LOL LOL

Weekend Doings

2009-11-22T17:30:00.001+13:00

Hi there, things are really busy around here at the moment but have manged to do a wee bit of pottering about in the Craft Room this weekend, the weather has been awful and we still seem to be missing summer - am hoping it will appear sooner than later. On Thursday evening I NEEDED to go to the supermarket to get our wee doggie some dog roll that only this one supermarket has.......(spoilt thing) BUT how fortunate that it is right next to SPOTLIGHT hehe........and the below fabric just happened to jump into my arms .........

Of course its purple and green - what can I say it spoke to me, well yelled really "take me home, take me home" hehe well thats my story and I am sticking to it.

Yesterday I tidied up the craft room LOL really tidied it up, ready to make another mess and of course thats what happened today ROFLMAO.......

So here is the start of something new, a blank piece of fabric on the design wall first thing this morning and a whole bunch of "stuff" all over the cutting table.

then the mess really started to happen Oh My and what a mess it is in now there is material and paper all over the place - but a satisfying afternoon indeed, auditioning fabrics and cutting out and standing back to see how it looks - A very enjoyable afternoon.

Now the below pics of the design wall with the fussy cut flowers on it is just sort of being interviewed at this stage have used steam a seam so can reposition them wherever or whenever I want has been fun but I think I need more fabric hehe .....not going to have enough of the one I want to use as I brought it in Australia and cant get it here in NZ so a wee buy overseas this week might be in order.....

Update on the Fantasy Horse Thingy LOL............

2009-11-07T16:17:00.000+13:00

Ok not sure exactly what this is going to be yet but am slogging on with it............... today I managed to break 5 needles one into my leg eeeeeeek.......now that smarted big time........not a pretty site at all but had to keep my composure in front of the other ladies at doll club......... Mind you they were rolling around laughing really really hard at the time (must have been my blood curdling scream methinks) .....so here are some progress pics of getting this covered up, got a ways to go yet and then will need to add bits here and there to build up some muscles I think. Needlefelting and me are still in the early stages of veering between hatred and acceptance at this point LOL LOL

Hooves on the horse/unicorn or whatever its going to be LOL

2009-11-04T19:47:00.000+13:00

Ok have done the hooves now not a fantastic job I got to say - it seems clay and me are not best buddies yet, things take time so it seems LOL.........anyways here is the next stage ready for the needlefelting next, which as happens seems we are also not the bestest of buddies either ................ hopefully we can become a wee bit closer as my fingers bleed ROFLMAO..........

New Project

2009-11-01T15:44:00.002+13:00

Well its been a few weeks again cripes got to get with the programme, mind have been working hard since getting back from Australia (in my full time job) so not much crafting time at all. Today I decided to have a go at a horse tutorial that my friend Sharon2 is giving away for free on her blog. Sharon is a master needlefelter so not sure how I will go with this LOL Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeek... but am giving it a go JUST FOR HER hehe.........so here are some progress pics, must say that as I said to her Hell will need to freeze over before I will sew this again hehe.

All sewn up ready to stuff OMG the size of those legs are tiny

and here he/she is the headless stuffed horse, unicorn or whatever LOL

Rough Weekend

2009-10-11T20:50:00.000+13:00

Well what a weekend after coming back from Hot Australia - we have had weather sooo cold its unbelievable when we had early spring before I went. We had a really bad storm on Friday night and the power went out and the winds were incredible really scary. Got up on Saturday morning to quite a lot of devastation with our old three bay shed demilished basically by the wind and the worst thing the iron from the roof had attacked my car so the roof is all dented and the monsoon on the drivers side has been ripped off and shattered not to mention the pile of scratchs etc all along the drivers side of the vehicle.......... eeeeeeeeek Mind we have been looking after a wee lamb who was out in the other sideof the shed so was more worried about that poor wee thing, BUT all was well and that area was well protected and she was fine.......

Hubby feeding the wee lamb

Immm Back and got heaps of posts to make

2009-10-11T19:26:00.000+13:00

Imm back from an awesome trip to Australia, well actually been back a week but just too tired with being back at work etc to post until now - firstly I want to show a quilt I made that hasnt made it to the blog before, and also a couple of owls I made as well.

Now some pics of the girls - we had a ball and did some shopping and learnt how to crochet and generally yakked our heads off thats for sure. Some of the pics I have pinched of the girls as I didnt take as many as I thought - mind you there were plenty being taken. I need to take some more pics during the week of my secret sister gift from Anita which is now hanging in my Craft Room.

Khris and Naomi

Anita Helena and Diana

My bed below - It was a waterbed wooohoooo

Lounge area

Jeanette and Helena outside our cabin

Helena pretending to sew right at the end of our weekend LOL

In the pool - what a relief for my poor swollen legs in the heat I could have lived in there

Me, Khris and Diana

Girls working (sort of)

Getting ready to shop

Shopping hehe

OFF TO AUSTRALIA IN THE MORNING

2009-09-21T13:08:00.000+12:00

Soooo I am off to Australia in the morning for two weeks.........OMG I hate flying but I will soldier on LOL

Have not been able to post my sewing recently as its going with me to Australia but expect a power of pictures to be put up when I can get to a computer or when I get home. I am going to meet up with my internet friends for the first time and it is going to be an absolute blast I can tell already - see you when I get back or if I can get to a computer I will show you the fun............hehe

Doll Club

2009-09-05T16:36:00.002+12:00

My monthly club meeting was today, its always been called a "cloth doll club" but really we all do all sorts of crafts, from cloth dolls, quilting, embroidery and lace making. We always have a really fun time and lots of laughs, food and coffee LOL........ so below are some pics of the show and tell from today, I cant show mine as its secret stuff LOL.......

Some pincushions Pam made, they are really lovely and are cross stitched and then made, I cant remember the name of the pincushion but its all funny angles when finished and really different.

heres the ladies deep in conversation, we were all discussing doll faces here as a new lady thought you just brought the faces already done so we were explaining that nope you have to make em yourself.

Jill Mas pattern Beryl had made up and brought in to show

Two gollies that Margaret our resident gollie lady made, shes now making a golly teacosy

A gorgeous quilt that Beryl has made for her grandaughter - its just so pretty and parts of the border are done with a sparkly material so its just perfect for a wee girl.

Pressies - yipeeeeee

2009-08-29T17:51:00.004+12:00

Some of you might know that I am off for a big adventure in three weeks - I am off to Australia for approx 10 days and am going to meet some of the girls from my yahoo group CRAFT , its so exciting but also very scary as I hate - hate - hate flying so its a big deal for me to do this LOL..

Yesterday I opened my mailbox and there was a parcel in there from Australia, from my friend Naomi, and below is what was in it, it was like she read my mind or similar LOL, I have borrowed a lovely big suitcase from my friends which is black and was pondering how the heck I would find my one in amongst all the others - just a small stress LOL.... and low and behold I now have the most gorgeous luggage tags in the world which no one else will have so no problem at all identifying which bag is mine.. hehe also in my parcel was the wee pouch which is what the tags were in and a neat bag which can go across my body, this has so many pockets in it its not funny - I just love it, I love the whole lot, not to mention the colours are just me to a tee, and the sewing on these is simply superb I have to tell you - they look much better up close and personal than in the photos I can promise you. I feel so very lucky to have received this - THANKS SO MUCH NAOMI - see you in three weeks my girl LOL

And heres another photo of my wee giraffe - everyone though it was blue and green, NO WAY this baby is purple and green - hehe.........

Baby Giraffe

2009-08-09T12:15:00.004+12:00

I have been working on some "secret" sewing which cant be revealed for a while yet, but I have been sewing I can assure you all. Yesterday I decided to take a break from what I had been doing and run up one of these Giraffes which are easy and very cute. I reduced this pattern down to just under 50% so the wee horns are about as thick as two toothpicks put together LOL, I found a way to get them turned and attached after much @@@**** etc LOL (must admit the eyes need adjusting, I think in hindsight doing it this small I would have not used felt for the eyes and would have drawn them on, anyways it was a fun project to do and very cute.) size of baby giraffe would be approx 8.5 - 9 inches tall.

Pics from Doll Club

2009-08-09T11:37:00.008+12:00

Last month I was really tired and didnt go to Doll Club but went this month and have a few pics for you, still working on the needlecase, have the pattern drawn out nicely on the computer now so need to make another one up from the pattern - I am a slow poke, mainly because working full time cramps my style sometimes - mind the weather is starting to pick up here so that always lifts the spirits somewhat and also gives more creating daylight after work, after hunkering down in the cold winter months.

Mother of the bride - Jill Maas

I went and brought this pattern after seeing this doll made up, must have a go at it as its pretty funky LOL

Wee teddy bear one of the girls was making

All working hard, hmm looks like a lot of reading going on hehe

One of the members is hand appliquing this quilt, its wonderful and she is doing an awesome job of it - its got fantails in the border and they look really great

Promise - I will be back soon LOL

2009-07-12T19:34:00.002+12:00

Things have taken a bit of time to settle down after the visit and with heaps going on at work at the moment, we are full on. I have been playing a bit today to try and get back into the sewing groove again and will have a small needlecase tutorial to put up as soon as I can get it to a decent standard.

Anyone interested in a needlecase tutorial albiet a small one, but a good size to pop into a handbag etc

Biggest Surprise Ever

2009-06-22T20:18:00.002+12:00

Its been a week of big things happening for us, had the MIL’s 80th and knew all the family were coming from overseas and all over New Zealand to catch up with her (further pictures in the post below)

BUT……… last Monday evening just as we were going to have an early night (phew lucky we didn't) we had a knock on our door and nearly had a heart attack there and then – these two below were at our door and had come all the way from Australia to surprise their Dad…… who had not seen them in years…….. to say he's the happiest Dad in the world would be the biggest understatement of the year LOL…… Its been the best time and we have another week yet so expect a few photos to go up on the blog, I think there might be many tears when they head out on their plane next weekend (me included) its been awesome…….

Daniel and Amy with their Nana who cried buckets when she saw them for the first time in a very long time, was the perfect birthday present for her.

I call this picture The Happiest Dad in the world……….

Pictures of MIL’s 80th Birthday

2009-06-22T17:59:00.002+12:00

Sorry to be away from the blog for so long, but the quilt I was making was for my MIL’s 80th birthday and I needed to spend every bit of time after work to get it finished in time. Below are some pictures of the finished quilt and of her opening the parcel at her birthday bash… not a great pic of the quilt as it was a very sunny day when I took it and it got washed out, will take some more of it on her bed when I go up and see her at the home.

Quilt finished and washed and dried in the dryer

This was a classic she opened the parcel and opened her mouth then closed the parcel up again LOL….in shock

Parcel opened and quilt being held up to show everyone

Me with MIL and the quilt, was bending way down here for the photo LOL as she was sitting in a wheelchair

Nearly an update to come LOL

2009-06-06T19:08:00.001+12:00

Sorry everyone, been so busy at work the past few weeks and needing to work on the quilt in any spare time there has been little time to update the blog.

I have been to my monthly doll club meeting today though so look for some pictures tomorrow, also am nearly finished the quilt just need to do the hand sewing on the binding and all good to go. THEN.......... I shall continue with the faces and get those up for you and back into doll making...........

What got started last weekend

2009-05-15T22:01:00.002+12:00

Well sorry girls, no doll face updates so far, have a sewing job I need to concentrate on for the next wee bit, a bit of pressure to get this done as a gift so am winging another quilt LOL.... nearly got the top finished just need to get the final borders on this weekend and then backing and wadding - phew...........fingers crossed I can get it to that stage so I can start the quilting as that takes me a bit of time indeed. Above is the progress so far.

Update on faces will be coming soon LOL

2009-05-07T18:20:00.006+12:00

I am hoping to get some more pics of the faces nearly done over the weekend, I have sealed two of them so can continue on - just have to do some housework tomorrow...........ewwwwwwwwww nasty I know but then I have a couple of days to myself to craft (fingers crossed)....... I went to town today to get my mug shot taken for a passport as I am heading to Australia for a retreat in September so its all go from here on in. (Well in my head its a go, my body is still frozen in fear of those planes I kid you not, I shall be a blithering jelly boarding the plane)

Pay it Forward

2009-05-05T06:48:00.000+12:00

I was visiting my friend Pams blog today and noticed she had a "pay it forward" going on there. So in I went to make my comment LOL and now I am in the "game" so to speak.

Sooooooo heres the rules girls and boys..........

PAY IT FORWARD CHALLENGE
is an act of kindness done with no expectation of anything in return but the hope that the recipient of the gift will continue the challenge.....
I start by promising to make and send (3) gifts for the first(3) FRIENDS who post a comment to this post....I hope you will promise to post the challenge announcement on your blogs and carry forth the promise to gift (3) friends with a gift each!

MY PROMISE
I will send out the (3) gifts within 365 days! You will not know when....please don't forget to leave your email so that I can answer your post! lol..

Update on drawing faces

2009-05-02T18:04:00.003+12:00

Ok so here we go again, hope I am not boring you lot with all this as I have taken a heap of photos today, below is the other two faces pencilled in and just the start of colouring them

Below is the face I started in the previous posts, as you can see I have done a bit on both eyes now and also started shading the nose area, amazing what a bit of white dabbed here and there does to the dimension, starts to take it from flat to a 3D look, pencil used for that is a white pastel pencil very soft and easy to blend with. Also used an off flesh toned one on either side of the nose. The eyes on this one are a bit murky as I have played with them too much, but I will be spraying this later on with a fixative and then redoing some of the colours over the top again.

A bit more colour on this face and the one further below

Starting to put some colour on the lips

Now on one of the faces I am not happy with the iris placement so am going to attempt to fix it, in the below pictures the iris on the left is places way to far inside the outline of the eye so I am using a white gel pen to try and blot it out and then once its dry (this will take a few applications) I will try and get some more green over the top and then make the iris line further out – fingers crossed it works

the below pictures the iris on the left is places way to far inside the outline of the eye so I am using a white gel pen to try and blot it out and then once its dry (this will take a few applications) I will try and get some more green over the top and then make the iris line further out – fingers crossed it works

First layer laid down and its very see through, just let it dry and then in the next picture pop a bit more over to start to make it disappear.

Smal Update no pics

2009-05-01T18:58:00.003+12:00

Just sending this by email, so convenient to be able to do this on the fly, well lets hope so when this hits the blog.

Just finished stuffing the other two faces which I will take to my doll club tomorrow and carry on with the faces, so there should be quite a lot of pictures to go up on Sunday ( all going well)

Now just another tip I thought of to tell you all as I was stuffing these flat heads. The trick to getting a nice smooth finish on the edges is to spritz them with water as you stuff them - (because I had drawn the face on already I just spritzed the back of the head and not the front) you can even run an iron (hot of course) over the seam line to help dry it if you want and this then contracts the cotton back on the stuffing. Before doing that take your sewing needle and pop it into the face just a wee bit from the seam and then pull the stuffing forward with your needle until its all nicely sitting in the chin or face edge. - you can do this from the back, although if you make little holes in the cotton with your needle doing this, just run your fingernail over the wee hole and it will disapear- Last tip, DONT over stuff these flat heads they just need enough to fill them out not make them hard as rocks........I roll them with my hand as well once stuffed to distrubute the stuffing about and get them all nicely shaped.

Hope these tips help someone............

Next installment of face pictures

2009-04-29T18:46:00.003+12:00

Hello again, well I managed to get a wee bit more done of the doll face, I have just started one eye so you can see the difference adding a bit here and there makes. Now in showing this process - things happen and this face may not work out yet - as often happens, of course this will be just my luck to happen when I decide to show how I do them......... of course LOL..... I have two more which I will stuff and start as well so fingers crossed one of em will work out. This one has very oversize eyes but with hair etc and a small body this can make a bit of a statement, (well that's just my opinion and of course I am covering my bum in case it goes wrong he he)

Anyways this next picture shows the start of putting a bit of extra oomph on to the eye area, I am never finished until its finished I can change things all the time and colours until I am happier with it, although a lot of times I am not happy with the finished product as most doll makers would attest, we are all our own worst critics.

In this picture below you can see more black has been added to the eye and the iris and some shading under the eye

Next one below, I have added some wispy eyelashes (I hate doing eyelashes and most times don't do them on dolls, certainly not on the upper eye, usually just do a very dark thick eyeliner effect, but every now and again I attempt bottom lashes)

And just a closer look at the eye, my gosh really putting myself out here Eeek LOL anyways gives a good look at the penciled in eyes and mouth as well, I also struggle with mouths so we shall see how this one goes. This face also has to have shading done as well and of course both eyes need to be done so as soon as I have more time I will continue on and take more pictures, hopefully with the other two faces as well.

On a roll today

2009-04-26T18:40:00.003+12:00

After finishing the quilt today I thought I had better get going and do some doll faces again, use it or lose it as the saying goes and its the same with drawing the faces. So I thought seeing as I am practicing I would give you all a glimpse into the process I do when doing a flat face.

You will notice at the top of the faces there is a sort of "onion top" LOL..... sorry just looked at it and thought my gosh .......hehe....... basically I always do a tab instead of just leaving an opening for stuffing then as you stuff that tab folds inside and you have a nice edge to sew up plus no fraying as you stuff. The hair of course will hide this once its on and having this at the top of the head means you get a really nice finish at the chin area.

I also like to draw my faces on lightly with pencil prior to stuffing, I find it easier to get the face right by doing this. (just my preference)

This is only the start of the layering process just getting some colour on there and will build it up as I go, well hopefully, as its been a while since Ive done any faces.

FINALLY the quilt is finished

2009-04-26T09:37:00.003+12:00

I finally found some time this weekend and sat up late last night and hand sewed all the binding onto the quilt. Pheww what a learning experience this has been – but I have enjoyed it and am quite proud of my first quilt mistakes and all LOL……. I stippled it all over as well which took me a lot of time as I learnt as I went, cant wait to wash it now and get it all soft and ready to use for the winter to cuddle under.

I had a heck of a time getting these pictures so excuse the rough piccies, my clothes line isn't high enough so had to peg it over a couple of lines and its too dark inside to take any of it, but anyways you get the idea.

Its not wavy at all in the border and binding just the way its hanging on the line – promise LOL

Second test from email

2009-04-17T19:18:00.002+12:00

Ok am going to try and send a picture this time from the email..........fingers crossed it comes through onto the blog ok...

Edit: yep as long as its attached in it comes yipeeeeeeeee very cool

A Test

2009-04-17T11:43:00.003+12:00

Hmm I saw a new way to send quick blog updates by email so thought what the heck will test this and see what happens, dont have any pictures with me at the moment as am at work so will need to test that out as well................

So here goes sending this from email - whoooooooooooosh

Edit:

Well what do you know it works fine nearly instant - now to find a picture to send and see how that works....... wow I might actually be updating a bit more often hehe............

Doll Club day out

2009-04-04T16:48:00.002+13:00

Today was our monthly day out, none of us had much show and tell this time things have been a bit slow on the crafting front but we still had a good day – lots of talking and eating and drinking of coffee and tea LOL.. I took my crochet along, one of the ladies brought some knitting and the other ladies were making teddy bears so a real mixture this time.

This is the bottom of my bag, nearly there to start going up to make the sides so can hardly wait to see how its going to look

Here are some bears Elaina (sorry not sure how to spell this) has made, she is a fantastic bear maker and honestly they feel real in your hand when you pick them up, they are just weighted beautifully

Here's one that was being made on the day and Rose nearly got it finished but didn't have the right size eyes with her to do the face.

Saturday and I have some pictures to post

2009-03-28T19:23:00.001+13:00

Well its Saturday evening here now, cleaned up my house this morning and then felt a bit “off” for the rest of the afternoon so just lolled about reading some of the wonderful blogs out there. Just made myself a lovely pumpkin quiche and had it with scotch fillet steak – so needless to say I am feeling a whole lot better hehe…..

Yum isn't this so yummy….tastes sooo good

I went to the Spotlight sale last week as well and picked up some nice material (must take a piccie of that) and also got some nice upholstery fabric which was reduced from 26.00 a metre to 6.40….. how could I go past it – IT WAS GREEN AND PURPLE……….it called to me and called to me so home it came and I made a couple of couch covers out of it – well just couch throws LOL covers sounds a bit fancy dancy, and also a matching fabric which I made some pillow cases from .

I have been following a blog recently called Attic24 it is the most colourful and cheerful blog and I try and visit it every day, I fell in love with her gorgeous crocheted blankets and bags so decided to give it a whirl and teach myself to crochet.

Here is the first effort, pretty sad as I couldn't get my tension correct, but now I have taken my hook (whoops nearly said needle) size down a tad or two and things are shaping up much better. The wee round one is my better effort and is the one I will be continuing with, sorry the pic is a bit blurry but will take a better one tomorrow to show progress on it, I love the colours so bright and cheerful……The middle of that wee circle is lime green and its awesome then bright pink then purple and then orange hehe doesn't show up so good in this pic but I promise its bright.

Rainbow Quiz

2009-03-16T08:17:00.004+13:00

Your rainbow is strongly shaded violet.

What is says about you: You are a creative person. You appreciate beauty and craftsmanship. You are patient and will keep trying to understand something until you've mastered it.

Find the colors of your rainbow at spacefem.com.

Things I've made this weekend

2009-03-15T18:50:00.003+13:00

I've had a couple of days off this week so did a massive tidy up of the bedrooms and moved a bit of furniture about, which of course showed all the nasty bits in behind which was unfortunate cause then I had to clean the mess. This also created a bit of washing as I removed covers etc from couches due to a doggie using them for a sleeping arrangement, (washed doggie as well LOL) While I was in this house cleaning mode I decided to make some new covers for the pillows and do a spot of painting. So below are some pictures of two wee side tables I painted up to spruce em up a wee bit, and then made a couple of wee coaster type things for putting drinks on so as not to muck up my nice painting and some cushion covers….
ALSO…… a picture of my new toy (on lend to me from a friend down the road who had brought it but never taken it out of its box) Its a Pfaff Grandquilter with a 9 inch throat on it, so am having fun using it to stipple the quilt with. This beastie is heavy and doesn't move at all when stippling.

She's a big beastie but works a treat

Cushions for the two seater in the dining room

Wee table and cover for the dining room (we don't have a table LOL)

Another wee table painted for the lounge

Wee coaster to stop it getting marked

Pillow case for lounge pillows (two of them done)

And this got a coat of paint as I had some left so decided to use it LOL…

Hi Hello I am back

2009-03-08T11:32:00.004+13:00

Hello here I am again, sorry have had so much going on in the “real” world that my poor crafting has taken a back seat a wee bit. BUT had doll club yesterday so managed to take the quilt with me and did some stitching. I stitched in the ditch all around and then had a go at stippling it……….EEEKKK. I sat there with it all ready to go for quite a while as the fear of mucking it up was very real LOL….then I just thought what the heck lets just go for it…….
Well it was fun and although I am not finished I am reasonably happy with my effort so far for a first go so below are some pictures from doll club and of the quilt.

My lovely friend from down the road having her picture taken LOL

Some of the girls getting sorted

Me just finishing of the ditch stitching

Me saying take the camera away LOL…

Stippling……………….

First Border on Mystery Quilt

2009-02-06T15:13:00.002+13:00

I have got the first border on the quilt today, so now just waiting for the next bit, this has been a lot of fun and I think my quilt is looking quite nice so far. I have Doll Club tomorrow so will take it along for “show and tell”… hope the girls like it. Will be interesting to see what the girls have been up to over xmas as we have not met for two months now, will be taking the camera so fingers crossed will have a heap of pictures to share with you all tomorrow evening. (by the way it really is not wavy its hanging of the design wall again, was the easiest way to take a picture)

Pinwheel Blocks

2009-02-01T17:44:00.001+13:00

Woohoo two posts, well that's amazing eh. While I was in the quilting mindset I thought I would have a go at a couple of blocks for a cushion cover (mine will prob be a wall hanging of some sort) from the Teddy Club at Cathron Country Designs – so here is a couple of pics of my wee start on these - only two blocks but its tea time here now and work tomorrow so best get some things sorted for both of them, didn't win the lottery this week so back to work LOL

Mystery Quilt Top Nearly Finished

2009-02-01T14:57:00.002+13:00

Phew I have had a slow start this week, had to have a tooth out on Monday after suffering through my birthday last weekend. I have to say the aftermath of having the tooth out was much worse than the initial toothache…. Mind you it had to be bad to send me scurrying off to a Dentist, I have never forgotten the old time drill machine we used to have at school years ago, maybe that’s why my generation are so terrified of Dentists…… BUT I was determined to get on and keep up with the mystery quilt this weekend so have sewed all afternoon and have finished the top ready for the Borders which I understand will be the next step in this quilting process.

I have learnt soo much these past few weeks from doing this step by step quilt – I now understand about using a pin for placement to get the seams to match up and also how to get perfect points (well nearly perfect LOL) still think I have done ok for my first try……. So I would like to thank Helen for being generous enough to give this away and to give us newbie's step by step instructions to get us started in this quilting lark ………..Soo without further ado here is my quilt top – it is not wavy by the way – I hung it on my “design wall” to take the picture and only pinned it at the top, also the colours really pop out at you, I have taken this late afternoon and the light is not soo good.

Mystery Quilt Update

2009-01-25T19:10:00.002+13:00

Phew just in case you thought I was totally lazy today (which I was a bit) mind you I have awful toothache – go figure its always the weekend when they decide to play up LOL, BUT I couldn't help myself so had to at least do a bit of the mystery quilt, not quite finished the last step yet but will try and get that done in the next few nights after work. Soooo here is where I am at………. Looky at those points ladies, see em and weep ROFLMAO……….

Happy Birthday To Me ………… LOL

2009-01-25T18:16:00.002+13:00

I'm a birthday girl today and no not telling age – have had a great day and lots of presents. I belong to an amazing online group called CRAFT and we do a birthday swap of fabric and today I got to open them all. I had a great time and made a huge mess, and so without further ado I will show you all the gorgeous materials and extras I got in my parcels… AM I LUCKY OR WHAT……….

Mystery Quilt Part Three

2009-01-18T16:48:00.002+13:00

Phew have nearly got all the 16 blocks finished in part three. I have made a couple of shall we say “tactical errors” LOL in my cutting and have run out of the deep red colour with 4 blocks to go…….Eeeek………. My fingers, toes and every other body part is now crossed that there is some of this material left at the material shop when I driver (very fast) in tomorrow to get some more. The picture below could become a before picture otherwise…….. Before I got some more material and had to unpick all these blocks and start again…………… OMG………. (red looking material is actually not as bright as looks in the picture)

Fancy Dancy Block Holder Thingy

2009-01-18T12:49:00.001+13:00

Helen has put up the next instalment of the mystery quilt so that is what I shall be working on this afternoon, (pictures later). When reading the instructions she mentions using a Clover Sandpaper board which I don't have. Hmm I do have some sandpaper though, bit of crafty thinking popping up here, so off I go to make my own. Not happy with just some sandpaper on a board - I thought – heck I am a crafter I need this to look pretty LOL so grabbed some glue and got gluing. So here is my Fancy Dancy Block Holder Thingy I made this morning to put my wee pieces on to hold them in place whilst marking the diagonal lines. Front has the sandpaper with a pretty embellishment framing it and the back has some funky material I have with some more ribbon LOL ahhhh much happier now……….

Step Two of Mystery Quilt Completed

2009-01-17T14:38:00.003+13:00

qPhew got step two done now and finished the blocks from the first step. Only had to unpick a couple of pieces I sewed on back to front LOL got carried away with this “chain piecing” lark…….got a bit gung ho LOL……. so all ready now for the next bit so am managing to keep up so far.