how i get stuff done

again and again, i get asked how i find the time to sew so much with a baby. no, i don't have a nanny. yes, i do have a very untidy house. i choose to spend mae's nap times sewing rather than cleaning, usually. i have a large playpen set up, taking up over half of my sewing room, full of toys that mae is happy to play with for half an hour here, twenty minutes there. i use every minute i can to sew because i genuinely love it (unless i need to take a nap, which has happened more and more at the 3pm mae nap time lately). i'll usually spend an hour or so sewing in the evenings after mae has gone to bed, after dinner is finished and i've caught up on the day with shane. he goes to bed pretty early too as he gets up at 5am so i don't feel too much guilt at being squirreled away in my own little room, watching tv on my laptop and playing with fabric. and i think i'm just a speedy sewer. i used to be called the fastest graphic designer around. when i'm inspired by something, i'm excited and i just want to get it done, to see it finished. not to say that there aren't times when i'm not inspired, when i flip through japanese craft books aimlessly, when i pull fabric off the shelf only to put it right back. having lots of projects on the go helps with this because there is always something i can work on. and if all else fails, i can always cut out oobees for the christmas rush.



plus baby clothes are small and quick to sew up. these pants took me a couple of hours, spread out over a couple of days last week. it's a pattern i drew up by looking at another pair of mae's pants and i adjusted it to add the gathering in the back for this pair. they are lined with flannel so perfect for crawling around on our chilly floors.

now i have a cold and mae has yet another cold. she is sleeping, i'm going to pour myself another cup of coffee, pop a couple of cold tablets and hit the sewing machine : )

winners + one more

alrighty, the trusty random number generator has come through - the recipient of the simplicity dress pattern is lin and the built by wendy shirt pattern will be going to bianca jae! email me your addresses, lucky ladies, and i'll send those out to you next week. thanks for playing everybody, i got to peek into some fun new-to-me blogs from the comments.

so a couple of hours after i wrote my last post, i opened a drawer in my sewing room to shove something in and unearthed these...



vintage sheeting scraps that i had started to piece together for a quilt top, i wasn't completely happy with the way it was coming together so i put it away. that would bring my current quilt in progress total to seven. SEVEN. my sewing room looks like a fabric bomb went off in it. seriously.

i love it : )

wips

okay folks, brace yourselves, here is a list of my current works in progress (and lets' be happy that so many of them are quilts because i just ordered a 27 meter roll of 2.4 meter wide organic cotton batting!):

1:: the never ending quilt that i've shown here a couple of times before in the YEAR or so that it's been in the works. i screwed up the basting, ripped out hours of quilting and have now decided that the backing i was going to use isn't right so this one won't be done until i find something suitable for the back. and struggle through all that quilting. again.



2:: this one i intended as a backing for the above quilt but, as it started to come together, i knew it was far too beautiful to be relegated to the back. i dyed cotton and linen scraps and vintage embroidered handkerchiefs two shades of blue (dylon moon blue and french navy) and am piecing them together freeform, whatever shape fits with whatever shape. i think it looks like the farmer's fields of the canadian prairies as you look down from a plane so i've called this one "blue fields".





3:: here are some blocks for a quilt i'm going to be offering as a pattern. i call it "two bits", small cotton patterns framed with a natural cotton/linen blend. i like it.




4:: the scrap quilt, which i've also shown here before. it's a long term project - i save up all my super wee scraps in a drawer and piece them together randomly whenever i feel like it. in theory this is going to form a single size quilt top for mae's first real bed but we'll see if i get it done by then (still more than a year away).



5:: i don't really have a name for this one yet so let's call it "pink messy squares". pink cotton prints framed on three sides with a ridiculously soft pale pink on cream striped cotton. this one will be a cot quilt for the christmas markets. methinks.



6: this is my fabric selection for a custom queen sized quilt, it's not quite a wip yet but it will be when i start piecing bits during today's naptime. the client wants very muted colours with a lot of pale prints on white, which is right up my alley - i think it is going to be stunning.



7:: a quilted sleep sack for mae that i haven't photographed and really should get done soon before she grows out of the size i'm making.

8:: a dark grey cotton canvas gum drop pillow from the amy butler pattern. i've put a bloody TON of stuffing into this thing and it's still not enough. and it's all lopsided. and, in classic form, i didn't read the instructions through after i cut the pattern pieces, just went for it and left the wrong part open for stuffing so i'm not too sure how i'm actually going to close the thing. boo.


plus, you know, odds and ends of family clothing that need mending or have been put aside for altering and the 12 or so other projects that are swirling around my brain at any given moment. lots. lots going on in there.

miss mae monkey moo

this baby. this sweet baby girl. she just keep getting better. better and cuter and smarter. more clever, more fun, more entertaining and better company, every. single. day. she's interested in everything, an inquisitive explorer of nooks, crannies, corners and drawers. she crawls at top speed, chasing the dog around the living room, laughing her head off the whole time. she reaches tentatively towards things she knows she is not supposed to touch and looks at us, waiting for the no. she waves her arms to music or if i sing and do a silly dance for her. she walks along the furniture to get what she wants - the remote, the phone, baxter's tail. she'll head towards me if i have any food to get her sample and reaches for my glass to have a her gulps of my water. she has ticklish armpits and loves to be twirled around but only if you hold her very close to you and never never not ever facing outwards. she makes so many sounds, so much baby chatter, the cutest noises you could ever possibly hear. she claps her hands on cue and if you're very, very lucky, you will get a wave returned to you by a sweet flapping baby hand. i am lucky.

whoopsy

didn't really mean to disappear for a whole week, in fact i meant to post many times, about many things. yet another case of too much to say/write and it seems like too much work. i did do a lot of work this week anyway, on monday i declared this "get shit done week". i ran errands, washed and folded what felt like a ton of laundry, vacuumed, mopped, dyed fabric, patched jeans, fixed a couple of slightly botched sewing projects, worked on some baby oobee sets for a shop update early next week (see pic above), fit in a visit to ink & spindle, answered emails (i still have many to go) and spent plenty of quality time with the most charming baby girl around (that would be mae). oh and started about three quilts. yep. that would bring my work in progress total to about eight projects, of which about six of those are quilts. i think i might need to photograph and document these works in progress to keep track of them, maybe my next post?

and i mentioned a couple of weeks ago that i scored a bunch of patterns and was going to give a couple of them away? finally getting around to that...

i have up for grabs a built be wendy shirt pattern in US sizes 12-20 (aussie sizes 16 - 24ish), i bought this pattern in my size as well but have yet to tackle it (i had to buy 10 patterns for $20 and i couldn't find anymore for me or mae so bought this one specifically to give away). the second is a dress pattern is US sizes 6-12 (aussie sizes 10-16ish), i bought two of these by accident so i have this one as well. if i can get past the terrible fabric choices shown on the cover, i may just attempt it soon.

so if you think you'd like to give one of these a try, leave a comment with your preference of "shirt" or "dress" and i'll draw a couple of names next friday. anywhere in the world, peeps.


and here's a bit of mae cuteness on a saturday morning. this is post nap and pretty typical of what greets me when she wakes up these days. so. ridiculously. cute.

thank you

just wanted to say thanks so much for all the sweet and supportive comments on my clothes and quilt making endeavours (and really, all your comments ever)! i feel like i've been just lurking around blogland, twitter and flickr lately - mae is more interactive and i have less computer time and once she's gone to bed i'm usually too tired to do much besides flit around the internet mindlessly. your comments remind me that i'm part of a community and it's one that i get so much out of every. single. day. it's the reason for so much inspiration, kindness and the fact that i have more people that i want to spend more time with in real life than i could possibly count.

also thought i'd answer a few of the questions that were asked about the last post (since blogger can't get it's act together and provide a useful comment/reply system). jhoanna asked where i found ottobre - i was lucky enough to have all of sooz's copies available to me for the weekend. she has had a subsription for a few years now so there was plenty to choose from. she subscribes from an aussie distributor, craftymamas, but i had a look at the ottobre site and ended up subscribing directly through them for a little bit less money PLUS you get a free back issue of your choice for being a new subcriber. i would've loved to support craftymamas but, you know, i love a deal even more. and christine asked about the copious amount of quilting on my most recnt quilt - i do all of my quilting on a regular machine. it's a four year old janome, not entry level but definitely not super fancy (too lazy to go into my sewing room and get the model number but i will if anyone really wants the info). i've promised myself a new sewing machine for my 35th birthday (next year. yikes.) and i'll probably be looking at some long arm models then.

ps. christine has an etsy shop full of vintage children's books that are ABSOLUTE GOLD.

new skills

i'm having a hard time getting into the blogging lately. i've been making lots and even photographing lots but the words, or sometimes, the energy to create the words, seem in short supply lately. and there is so much to write about! i went away on another craft weekend and a three day on this time which was so lovely. gorgeous company, amazing food, and so many new sewing skills picked up thanks to an ever patient and knowledgeable sooz. she helped me create my first ever successful garments from commercial patterns and introduced me to the world of ottobre for which i will be forever grateful. i ended up making three tops for me (which i hope to photograph soon) and tons of stuff for mae:


a little top i made her from an ottobre pattern. i cheated and used the front of a country road shirt i picked up at the lancefield op shop that morning so it has these lovely pintucks and i didn't have to do extra hemming plus buttons!



two little skirts using a basic skirt shape from ottobre (the pattern in the book had extra bits and embellishment that i didn't use). these were so simple and fun to make, i foresee LOTS of skirts in mae's future.



a reversible pinafore made of lecien cotton/linen with vintage floral trim and pale blue/grey polka dotted cotton on reverse. pattern from this japanese craft book, borrowed from ellen.

and a pair of jersey pj pants and some super cute bloomers that i haven't had a chance to photograph yet. i love this clothes sewing thing. it's been a goal of mine for so long now, seriously YEARS, and it's completely satisfying to finally feel like i can make things that are tidy, pretty and actually fit.

i also finished off a new quilt for our couch to sit on and under. this one has been planned for months now and, after about 8 - 10 hours of quilting, i was supremely happy to sew the binding on and then throw it into the washer and dryer when i got home.



it was hard to photograph but hopefully you can see the good randomness of it. i used a bunch of cotton and linen that i had dyed grey and blue a couple of years ago and added the odd accent cotton pattern and a bit of linen that i gocco printed ages ago.



i quilted it more heavily than anything i've done in the past (LOVE the cushy, wrinkliness of it) and it's backed with dark grey kona cotton. happy with this one : )

awesomeness

last week the always lovely (and quite funny. cute, too!) ladies of ink & spindle tagged me as one of the blogs they love in their "awe-summmm" meme. the rules are that i have to list seven things that make me awesome and then tag seven blogs that i think are awesome. awesome.

1:: i wore my favourite pair of pre-pregancy jeans last friday FOR THE FIRST TIME since becoming all round. so happy. so, SO happy! still have a bit o' chub to loose around the hips but at least i can stop kicking myself for all those cheeseburgers i ate while pregnant.

2:: i have a dachshund. weiner dog to the canadians, sausage dog to the aussies. he's good stuff.

3:: i'm really, really good at finding bargains. i like bargains. today mae and i stopped at spotlight and discovered a bin of patterns, $5 each or 10 for $20. i bought ten, of course.

4:: i'm going to give away two of the patterns i bought later this week. check back to enter!

5:: i think i'm getting better at this mothering thing. better every day. or mae's getting easier. whichever, it's certainly good fun around here lately, aside from the odd anti-nap day.

6:: my baby oobees were featured on ohdeedoh the other day!

7:: i finally updated my shop, for the first time in AGES! there is a little bit of everything on offer, except quilts. i still need to work out a way to show the quilts and photographing them in this winter light is an extra challenge. i'll get back to you on that one, in the meantime, go check out the new stuff! (ps. the aussie dollar has climbed back a bit so the prices shown in my shop now translate to almost exactly the same amount that i charge in aussie dollars so go forth and order online)




now, onto listing seven blogs that i think are awesome. this is always the hard part - i read so many blogs (or skim them now that computer time is a bit limited. sorry for my lack of comments, folks) and love each of them for their humour or inspiration or spirit. i'm just going to blurt out a quick list of real life and twitter peeps to make it easier:

beingbold

flip & bells

acoustitch

my poppet

jelly baby

pigeon pair

pottymouthmama

h&b

kootoyou


dudes, you're awesome. and you're it. (and yes, i blurted out eight.)

comment who hah

so you may have noticed that i changed my comment area? and now have changed it back? kirsty put me onto js kit comments, a widget that is supposed to make blogger comments formatted more like the ones in typepad - you know, able to reply to specific commenters and all that. well, i'm sorry to say that i've had nothing but annoyance from this widget and have had to get rid of it. my aplologies if you got random replies showing up in your mailbox from my comments lately (won't happen again) and i'm extra sorry that i have lost everyone's comments from my last post! i did get to read them, through the js kit moderation page (even though comments were supposed to show up automatically and not have me approve each one but whatever) but when i approved them, they just disappeared into the ether. bah, js kit comments! i shake my fist at you.

i know there were some questions about the fabrics i showed in my last post, one about where i buy my fabric that i can answer - i included a list of places online and in melbourne where i usually shop in a post awhile back, you can find it here. but there were also a couple wanting to know what specific designs were and i can't remember which ones - can you drop me another comment and i'll let you know. thank you!!

to dos

been meaning to write a market round up all week but my to do list is ridiculously long this week - how can that be? oh right. i put everything off for market prep the last couple of weeks and now it's all caught up with me. i have passports to apply for (for mae), a market to organise (more on that soon), quilts to work on (including the red and pink one above - yay!), stock to photograph and add to my etsy shop by june 1. busy, busy, busy.

anyway, magnolia square was good fun. thursday and friday were a bit slow but it picked up on saturday. may is a weird shopping time, i think. no special occasions in sight, chilly weather, economic crisis. whatever the reason, i had plenty of time to get to know my lovely stall neighbours and catch up with all my buddies who came by for a visit. and i sold some quilts so that's always a good thing. it means i can make MORE! oh and the scarves, the scarves were a hit. i'll definitely be making more of those (hear that, ink & spindle ladies? keep saving that selvedge for me! xox) i have three custom quilt orders to finish up, all of which i'm looking forward to, and then a quilt pattern i want to draft up. and then, then i can work through all the quilty ideas i have brewing in my mind and make up a bunch for the christmas shows. ah, so good...

so many plans. to dos.