Saturday, July 25, 2009

Just starting out


I'm new to this blogging affair so when I set this up I just ambled on about the first fabric related thing that popped into my head. It never occured to me to write something vaguely introductory, in part because I don't really expect anybody else to read this and I was completely surprised when my link below was noticed - I didn't know that would happen! Anyway, I haven't sewn for about 6 years but have recently been inspired to start again by all of the incredibly beautiful fabrics available these days. My previous projects were mainly made with op-shop fabrics, with the occasional really good sheet or tablecloth find but nothing that compares to the lovely things that are just a click away now. I started by buying two small pieces of liberty and a tiny stash of echino as a birthday present for myself earlier this month but then placed two or three more orders over the next couple of weeks. I now have quite a nice little stash of my own and am waiting on 6 (!) metres of Anna Maria Horner fabric for bedroom curtains. I'm also sitting on my maxed-out credit card trying not to order up a whole passel of Amy Butler - I'm trying to convince myself that I need to stop ordering random fat quarters and actually plan some projects. I have made a few things, the first being the bird above, made with some Amy Butler faves from the pattern at Spool - it has some rough bits (like the tail) but I love it and it was fun to make. I also whipped up this little ipod holder & hiding next to it a little travel tissue cover.



I made a couple of silly mistakes and there's some ugly stitching that I'd like to fix but it's not too bad. I'm now 1/2 way through a knitting needle roll for a friend's birthday and my next challenge is getting up the courage to rotary cut some of my fabric into coins for my first ever machine quilting project.

Monday, July 20, 2009

What to do with Mr Owl?


I've got a fat quarter of Echino's Tiger on the Flower in natural with one complete owl (plus 3/4 of an owl, a tiger, a grey bird and a bee) that I'm still trying to decide what to do with. He's sitting on my mantle piece at the very front of my stash and is the last thing I see at night. I bought a red zipper at the markets for 50c to turn it into a nice big pencil case with room for lots of coloured pens and post-its etc but I also like the look of the Bend the Rules Sewing Artsy Clutch. This one with the Echino leopard looks amazing.
Still waiting for the book to arrive from the library so I guess I'll decide then - until then it's Mr. Owl looking at me from the mantle - I think I'll miss him when he's gone.