Hurrah!

Craft books and a new old shelf

 Hurrah!

I am finally feeling a bit more organised.  Our builder entered our house after the renovation in the Housing Industry Awards and the judging was yesterday.  It was a bit weird because while it is our house, they were judging the builder's work so our builder tunrned up before the judges then showed the judges through our house, pointing out the features, while we kind of hung around.  All a bit odd.  I only got the first names of the judges so I don't know what their background is but gees would I love their job.  How cool to check out houses and point out your favourite things about them!!  Anyway, the judging was a great motivator to finish unpacking and sort out the house before they came and as a result I'm feeling way more organised and tidy and clean - nothing like people coming to rate your home to motivate you to tidy it up!  Today, I stumbled upon this old shelf and it's just what I needed in my quest for organisation...

Simple but useful.  Yeeha.  I'm sure it will be full and bulging with stuff in no time...  I made the pin-up board above it a couple of years ago using an old picture frame painted white and cork tiles from Bunnings - was cheap and fun to make and it's useful too!!

During my sorting I realised I have a lot of craft books I've gathered over the years and I thought I might preview some of my favourites from time to time in case anyone out there is also addicted to craft books???  (I did work in a bookstore for seven years so that's one of my excuses...).  I'll try to preview books I've actually made something from but I might include some others too as there's some nice ones that inspire even if I haven't actually made any of their projects...  First up is a recent acquisition - Last-Minute Fabric Gifts by Cynthia Treen.

 The book is relatively new (published 2006), has a great range of projects and is divvied up into crafts that take between less than an hour and more than three hours to make.  The instructions are easy to follow and there's some fabulous tips on fabric selection and sewing basics (types of needles, how to cut bias strips easily etc).  One drawback is the measurements, which are only in yards and inches (eh?) which we Aussies have to convert (unless you're a whiz and can think in both measurements??  I'm not!) but there's some different crafty projects that make up for it (felt rocks and a bunny play mat complete with a vegie patch are two of my favourites!).  The book also has a section on Wrapping Fabric Gifts and there's instructions for a gorgeous bias blossom present decoration, which was perfect for my sister's recent birthday...

(one of her pressies was a pocket mirror from belle & boo who sent the cute sticker in the package).

So, Last-Minute Fabric Gifts is a pretty good crafty book and I will award it four of my crafty stars out of five.  ISBN is 9781584794851

Now all this organisation has made me a bit weary so I'm off to hang out with Matilda and devour another book or two (I've discovered a few I didn't know I had...hrm).  Hope your weekend is relaxing.

 

Dean's Rag Books and what to do?

 

For some reason (perhaps I was reading about it somewhere or dreamt it or it just popped into my head - can't really recall..) I remembered Dean's Rag Books from when I was little.  I think I might have had one or two of these wonderful fabric books - often the first type of book little bubs ever encounter - and soooo precious as an introduction to a lifetime of loving books! 

I'm not sure if any of my own survived (I have a lot of my childhood toys but I think books like these may have disintegrated through being loved so much or were passed on to younger siblings).  This one was a recent eBay buy and travelled to Australia from Great Britain (how I wish it were that easy sometimes for people to pop into envelopes and travel all snuggly across the world instead of in snug (read not so comfy) economy seating on long-haul flights! ).   Anyway, this little book arrived and it's lovely but I have to confess that I am thinking of chopping it up!!  Eep!  Sounds so drastic but I was thinking it would make lovely quilt blocks and as it is kind of old - it might enjoy living out its remaining days in a different form?  Each page is so lovely it would be nice to showcase each in a quilt....but chopping up a book - and a baby book at that??  What to do...

Perhaps I read too much into the preciousness of things (yup - got in a pun...) and I'm all for recycling fabrics... hmmm....

Time

Who couldn't do with more?  I seem to be running out of time lately even though everyone has the same amount!  And February even had an extra day this year - apparently five or seven (?) babies were born in Perth on February 29th.  How odd to only have a birthday every four years - although it would be really really special.

If I had time, I would add a cuckoo clock to the wall in the Dormouse House.  As it is, the rescheduled birthday party is this Saturday (poor Amelie was sick on the original date and the party had to be postponed - baby animal zoo, pony rides and all...) and I'm still stitching away at tiny coffee tables and tiny mice.  I am actually looking forward to finishing it so I can get back to some other crafty things I'm itching to get moving on.  For Christmas, I made Amelie a book bag and filled it with board books.  She really liked the buttons.

The fabrics were from Superbuzzy and I used self-cover buttons, which were very fun to make.  There's a pocket on the back for a library card - even though she just turned one she already has a library card, yay!

Time now to re-arrange yet another room in the last few weeks of our renovation.  I've got no idea where we're going to put everything when the boards get sanded - including ourselves...

I've just signed on for Earth Hour 2008.  Must remember 8pm 29 March.  No doubt it'll come around quickly...

Bookclub Tuesday

Yes, that's right, it's Friday!  Thank goodness!!!!   I had bookclub this week on a Thursday and I'm writing about it on a Friday, so I decided to stick with the 'Bookclub Tuesday' title.... kind of makes sense considering our book is a classic book of nonsense...

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll.

Where do I begin to talk about a classic?  There are reasons why classics are classics - universal, timeless appeal, mass audience appeal, brilliantly written, original etc etc.  Alice is a classic.  It was actually a bit funny reading this as I had so much prior knowledge about it but had never actually read the whole book, its sequel and the original text before it was expanded.  It was lovely to read the first book.  Through the Looking Glass wasn't as wonderful for me - although so many well-known favourites appear in that rather than Alice - Humpty Dumpty, Tweedle-Dum and Tweedle-Dee, the Jabberwocky poem...  My copy had a lot of annotations and an extensive introduction, which I read last as it didn't really paint a great picture of the author.  The books certainly beat the Disney version anyway and the original illustrations by John Tenniel are absolutely wonderful and are as much part of the Alice story as the text.

Wonderful.  Hope your weekend is wonderful too.  It's a long weekend for WA - Hurrah!

small (furry) coincidences (that sleep in teapots...)

 

Have you ever thought of something - an image, a new idea to try, something you'd like to have a go at or a new technique to master - then once you've thought of it, you notice the same sort of thing elsewhere, or something related to it or something someone else has done before you got to try it or the thing you thought of suddenly pops up in a few different places and you wonder if it's a coincidence or if these things were going to be there anyway and you just weren't looking for them before...

This is the case for me with this little guy and now I am thoroughly obsessed.

It started with an old craft book I have (and one that I LOVE - Jean Greenhowe's "Favourite Dolls and Toys" - she does wonderful knitting patterns too if you are after beautiful toy patterns to knit).  The book has a section on toy houses and in there is a Dormouse House - made totally of fabric and made to look like a tree stump.  The house has a zip running down the centre and it unzips into a loungeroom and a bedroom.  There's cozy lounge chairs and a log fire and a patchwork quilt on the bed and a family of dormice live there...

   

I loved the little dormouse house the minute I saw it and it's my only (so far!) niece's first birthday next month so I am making her a dormouse house.  She will be a bit little to play with it yet but another one of my obsessions is making her gifts rather than buying her things - we have a large family and there's a few grandkids on her Dad's side too so she has oodles of things already and will no doubt be spoilt for her first birthday (secretly anyway I'm not sure who will enjoy the dormouse house more - Amelie or me!!).

 

I haven't made the little dormice yet and there's heaps more to do but I am absolutely loving making it so far (although it's been really challenging and fiddley - miniature curtain ties are not easy to tie - it reminded me of trying to tie bows on my Strawberry Shortcake dolls' clothes when I was little...)

I haven't really thought much about dormice before (funny that..) but when I Googled them I discovered they like to hibernate, live in France, eat berries and they're soooo cute...

I searched for them on Etsy to see if anyone there shared my obsession but only a couple of things popped up.  I started to think about drawing my own dormouse pattern and then I met up with my bookclub on the weekend to see The Kite Runner (which was last month's book) and we couldn't locate copies of this month's chosen book so decided to go with the second option - Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (which surprisingly none of us have ever read except for bits and some of the poems - Beware the Jabberwock my son! - and we'd all seen the Disney version) and who should appear in Chapter Seven: A Mad Tea Party but.....

The Dormouse. 

I am now dreaming of dormice and obsessing over patterns for small mice living in little teapots...maybe one day I'll make a little dormouse teapot house.

Yup.  Obsessed.

Thank you for your lovely comments about Shem and inspiration.  It's nice to know there's people out there - and such inspiring people too :)

Bookclub Tuesday

Yup, it's Friday - the end of a VERY LONG week.  Always the way when you return to work from holidays.  At least I had bookclub this week, which, as always, was wonderful :)  Our book for the month was The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini, which may sound familiar if you haven't read it already because it's just been released as a film.  I love reading a book before I see the film - if I get around to it! - except not all films are as great as the book but that's ok as they're different and they're meant to be that way (yeah - although I was very dissapointed with the second Bridget Jones movie after reading the book...).  Anyway, this book grew on me and I ended up loving it.  At first it didn't really grab me - it was a bit slow and the main character really annoyed me but I discovered that was because he was a bit too close to being 'real' for me and I identified with his perspective.  I ended up really appreciating the development of the character (from childhood and into adulthood) and I appreciated the ending too - I didn't 'love' the conclusion but I was very happy with the way it ended - sorry this is a bunch of waffle for anyone who hasn't read it!  If you are after a good book, give it a go - even to learn a bit about Afghanistan and the story will stay with you - if you have too much on and will probably never get round to reading it, then definately try and see the film to get a piece of this story.  Our bookclub are off to see the film version next weekend, will let you know what we think.  Our next book is still being debated...  Andrea hosted this week's meeting and she based dinner on the food featured in the book, which was so nice of her and it was delicious!

And, if you can, please sign the WSPA petition for a Universal Declaration on Animal Welfare.  The Declaration will be an agreement between people and nations around the world to recognise that animals have feelings and to respect their welfare needs and bring an end to animal cruelty.  The World Society for the Protection of Animals (WSPA) are seeking 10 million signatures - please add yours now.  The petition can be found by following the link on the WSPA homepage here.

Thanks so much!  Hope your weekend is happy.  Hurrah for Friday!  :D

Soft Turtle Buddy

Soft turtle buddy for my friend's baby boy Thomas (T is for turtle and T is for Thomas!).  The pattern for the turtle is from Amy Karol's wonderful book Bend-the-rules Sewing.  I have mentioned this book before but the more I read and use it, the more I LOVE it.  There is a Bend-the-Rules Sewing group on Flickr and people have made the most gorgeous things from the book.  Amy is a star!  She offers tips and advice through the Flickr group on her patterns, fabrics and the book, and is always there to help out.  I love her Angry Chicken blog too.

I used a cheap acrylic felt for the turtle's body only because I loved the bright, spotty pattern.  His legs, head and tail are cotton and he has French knots for eyes.  I sewed a couple of bells into a tiny cotton pouch in his tummy to transform him into a rattle.  He was quick and easy to make and he was fun to make too - turning him inside out and having his legs and head pop out of his shell was like watching a baby turtle hatch (kind of...).  I like patterns when they're easy to follow and fun to make.  Thanks Amy!

 

I also appliqued a couple of baby singlets for Thomas and packaged them up with his turtle.  I haven't sent them off yet but I hope he likes them :D

An Owl and a Pussy Cat (and a ghost...)

My lovely sister Verity is in Japan - she sent this beautiful book to me for Christmas (wrapped of course in Hello Kitty wrapping paper!) - Kimono: Japanese Designs giftwraps by artists:

The book features 12 full-colour patterns from Japanese kimonos dating from the 18th and 19th centuries.  The patterns in the designs are wonderful:

Unfortunately, it's too hot to go outside and take decent photos so these pictures don't do the designs any justice but they are beautiful.  Last time Verity came back from Japan, she gave me this little guy:

 

Yes, I think it's a ghost on his head?  I think Verity told me what that meant and what the writing on the ghost says but I can't remember now...  The little cat and his ghost friend sit on a shelf with this little owl I made using the Moonstitches tutowlrial - a beautiful blog and a lovely tutorial :D  I used vintage Japanese kimono fabrics from a store in Perth that specialises in importing beautiful Japanese wares.

There's an Owly Love group on Flickr where beautiful owls gather together.

Some fabulous things Part One

Cat brooches from alliratee... don't worry, they're just saying hello to the bird...  These are Australian made by a fabulous designer who donates 10% of her sales to the Save-A-Dog Scheme.  Yay!

This fabulous book - Material World: Home Decor Projects for the Fabric Obsessed by Cat Wei has some excellent projects.  Apparently, Cat Wei is a co-host on a show called Material Girls - I don't have pay TV so have never seen this show but the book features some fabulous ideas by 20 designers from around the world and many of the ideas are original - nice to see something new.  I like these projects:

For the candy-coloured toile bench (above) the designer has used a classic toile textile design and has embroidered sections of the design with candy-coloured tapestry wools then painted the bottom of the stoll to match - funky toile!  The book also features some interesting facts about textiles and very handy tips for each project - there's a 'tomato floor pillow' I'm dieing to make and a a natty idea for vintage button pillows.  Great book.

And....

...this Endangered Species Chocolate is AMAZING.  I have nearly polished off a block of the Dark and White Chocolate Blend...mmmm...fabulous.

and they donate 10% of their net profits to 'help support species, habitat and humanity' apparently.  What could be better then eating chocolate that helps out animals :D 

Bookclub Tuesday

I had bookclub on Tuesday night and this was our book:

White Teeth by Zadie Smith.  I really enjoyed some of the language, the characters and most of the plot but (here's the 'but'!), she didn't develop as much depth in the characters as I would have liked, I found the book a chore to read and the ending was rushed and a bit sad really - after reading the whole book, the quick ending just didn't do it justice, although it was nice to wrap up the whole story as it turned into a dribble halfway through the book anyway.  Apparently Zadie Smith's other book On Beauty is much better and if I can be bothered, I will give that a go one day.  White Teeth would make a great film with the right producer/director, it's almost like she wrote it for film - it's quite colourful and visual.  For now though it's onto our next pick - The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini.

Joining a bookclub was on my list of things to do as I approached turning 30 last year - I had a semi-mid-life-crisis-thing at 29 feeling like I hadn't done all the things I wanted to do - though these change all the time anyway and I've kind of accepted that I'll never live in Africa or Europe and perhaps not speak fluent French (although I did buy a $10 French CD last November at a dodgey book sale just to tick that one off my list and have listened to it once...).  Anyway, I discovered my bookclub through Gumtree, which I had never heard of before I decided to google bookclubs in Perth.  To cut a long story short, it turned out a few other women in Perth were googling the same thing around the same time and we formed a bookclub and it's been wonderful ever since.  A year and a half later and we're still going strong, meet once a month and still reminisce on how lucky we were to find each other and how much we enjoy our bookclub.  Thankfully, we all seem to have similar taste in books and bizarrely enough, all live North of the river (it's very much a Perth thing to talk North/South - and don't worry anyone from Perth reading this, I grew up South and now I'm North so I'm very neutral on which is best!!).  Anyway...enough babble (yup, first day of three weeks' off work so I have time to babble now!) - we did Christmas presents at bookclub this year and I made everyone a set of coasters:

For two of the sets, I used Amy Karol's 'Clever Coasters' pattern from her fabulous book Bend-the-rules Sewing.  (Visit Amy at her blog angrychicken for more fabulous things).

And for the other two sets, I made up my own pattern, which included sewing bias binding around the edges:

This worked out better for me as I was in a rush and didn't stitch too well on the ones without the binding on the edges!  Ah well, we consume just as much red wine as we do books at our bookclub (if not more..) so I'm sure the coasters will come to good use and the stitching won't be noticed...that was the plan anyway :)