My weekend in pictures... (again!)

My Sunday in Pictures.

Stamped with Love

I seem to have reached the age where friends and family around me are all falling pregnant are a rate that makes one question what is being put in Brisbane water.   Those who aren't getting pregnant are getting engaged and married.

I like to make cards - not because I think it's cheaper than buying one, although a nicely handmade card can work out cheaper -  but for the same reason I like to write letters.  The time taken to choose paper, write the letter, stamp it and slip it in a post-box is a gesture that shows that you care, that they are worth the time and effort taken.   A handmade card often means that the person made something unique, possibly with you in mind when they crafted it.   And that is a very heart-warming thought.

With that in mind, I've set myself to making cards for friends and coworkers who have caught the baby-bug.   Below are some of the ones I've made this week:

For Marika - a lovely coworker from my team.

For Naomi- a lovely coworker on the floor below my office.

For good friend and coworker - Tania.  (shhh... she hasn't received it yet!)

I've also made an engagement card for a friend however she reads this blog and it hasn't been sent to her yet.... so it will have to wait. :)

Oh Brother!

A dear and generous friend loaned me her backup sewing machine a long time ago. I recently decided it was well overdue the point where I should return it to her so I found at last I had sufficient justification to go and buy a new one.

The overhead bulb - brighter than the room lighting.

It sews.
It sews fancy stitches.
It lets me create my own fancy stitch designs and save them in the onboard computer.
It cuts the threads for me when I'm finished.
It threads the needle for me.
It tells me if I'm running out of bobbin thread.
It automatically winds the bobbin thread.
It has three different alphabet stitches.
If I buy an extra foot, it will cut the fabric as it overcasts... just like an overlocker.
It has a speed throttle that can be changed during sewing.
It is portable and light.



But wait! There's more!

The Brother Innovis 900. My new favourite toy.

It has an embroidery unit which is attached to do embroidery and appliques.
It has 70 onboard designs and a card slot.
It also can hook up to a computer so any designs purchased online can be used.

The first completed project of the machine - a small tea-time tablecloth for a friend.
It completed this design in less than 10 min.

I love it. I love it goooood.

The '3 Year Quilt' Coming Together

I am a sucker for a pretty craft project. Even more so when there are gorgeous colour combinations like pink, green and blue.

So when my boss (at the time) incited me to start a 'block of the month' quilt project at a craft fair 3 years ago I was keen. I even kept up with the block-per-month thing for the first two months.

The almost finished quilt on the line today (yes! blue skies!)

It was the embroidery that broke my progress. Each month had at least two blocks to embroider, some quite detailed. All that embroidery is what drew this project out from a 9 month project to a 3 year one.

The quilt design - Polka Dot Girls - by Bronwyn Hays of Red Brolly
I must admit I edited some of the embroidery blocks to suit my tastes.

However, at last there is an end in sight! Earlier this week I completed stitching the last embroidery panel and today sewed all the panels together. The sewing isn't wonderful - it's my first real attempt at patchwork and I learned a lot of things along the way - but it is complete and the colours and embroidery draw attention away from the mis-aligned seams.

Fuu inspects my work. The angle of her ears signals approval.

Next I have to put on the borders, buy batting and backing fabric then I (fool that I am) will be doing the quilting by hand with embroidery thread. If it has already taken me three years I might as well drag it out to three and a half and make it look exactly the way I want to!

Handmade Christmas

My home is rather bare when it comes to Christmas decorations this year.

With such limited space in a little house we have no room for a Christmas Tree. A small tree would quickly be toppled and nomed by two wee kittens. We have very few table-top surfaces to place things on. Also, my collection of Christmas decorations is small. Too small.

But the few things I do have are handmade with love and with more olde world charm than tinsel glitz.

For example, my front door sports a wreath, tarted up with pine cones, macadamia nuts and pretty feathers.


And my wrapping paper is tissue paper, hand stamped with a set of stamps I carved myself...


And across the top of a window in the living room there's a 'Merry Christmas' made of painted wooden letters attached to tartan ribbon...


So. Very sparse indeed...

But the other half of my handmade Christmas is that so many of the wonderful gifts I've received from generous friends have been handmade.

First I received a box of handmade goodies from Metanoia, including a gorgeous little cherry blossom shaped pouch, a patchwork purse and handmade chocolates in the shape of crowns all made by her clever self. You can see some of her patchworking adventures on her blog, The Quilted Hen.

Cute purse/pouch handmade for me by metanoia.
It was filled with handmade chocolates. How good is that?!

Then poisoned_kitty gave me a gift that included home-made cookies and a very sweet handmade card proving that she is a stamping-embossing genius.

On Sunday night Foogyah girl gave me a very unexpected gift of Sweet Dal packaged in a cute cookie jar. It was squishy deliciousness and I'm guilty of already eating half of the lot! She's written an entry about it on her blog, including a recipe.

Then night_child80 gave me a little gift pack that had some handmade soap and mineral eyeshadow (bought off etsy - supporting handmade Christmas gifts!)

Li gave me a box of Lush goodies - one of the few companies that still makes it's products by hand and supports environmentally friendly products and packaging.

The extra effort involved in making gifts or sourcing and supporting handmade ones is so very appreciated.

A satisfying kind of weekend

I've had a weekend that felt satisfying and productive but in a nice, lazy kind of way.

I knitted some more of my lap rug until I ran out of the colour I'm currently using.

I worked on a stitchery of cupcakes until I ran out of thread.

I then sewed up the 4th block of a block-of-the-month patchwork quilt I've been working on for the last 3 years.


I baked passionfruit melting moment biscuits.



Rhys' sister Lauren came over and we made Matcha (Japanese green tea) cupcakes with matcha butter-cream icing.

Our good friend Dan came over for dinner and Lauren shouted us all pizza and pasta for dinner.


I did 4 loads of washing.

I wrote a letter to a friend.

I sewed a dress from a pretty dusty gray-blue fabric I had bought a while ago for cheap - a project I started in the morning and finished in the evening.

A very productive weekend indeed!