Apr 26, 2009

Shadow Shot Sunday

I've just come across the most wonderful list of crafty people in Brisbane via the BrisStyle website. This made me very excited because in all the blogging and reading I've been doing I've only come across one other Brisbane based blog. But BrisStyle is full of them!


And one of the clever BrisStylers is Harriet who hosts this Shadow Shot Sunday, now I only really have one shadow shot to speak of so I probably won't be making regular appearances - but this is a shot I'm pretty happy with. It was taken in late 2007 when my husband and I had our annual trip to Melbourne. I was about 7 months pregnant and I think I gained more weight the week that we were in Melbourne than I did in the whole rest of my pregnancy. This was taken late one afternoon in the Yarra Valley, relaxing in the gardens of a vineyard having an antipasto platter.

Apr 25, 2009

Paris fabric

For those of you who loved the Paris fabric that I bought from Japan a few weeks ago - I've just noticed that Cotton blue has some similar available. You can view the fabric here as well as this cute one as well.

Apr 22, 2009

I'm still alive!

Thank you to those of you who were concerned for my welfare after my last post! I'm still alive and kicking. Our house is mostly packed up and we've already had one massive weekend of working on getting it up to scratch for sale, with this weekend coming to be the final touches. It'll be on the market next week (fingers crossed).

The new house is due to go unconditional tomorrow and that looks like it's all on track.

Anyway I'll let you know how the sale goes - here's hoping for a quick sale at a reasonable price!


Apr 8, 2009

Oh man what have we done?

Oh man what have we done? We just bought a house! Well another house, now we have to sell the one we've already got! I'm just sitting here, some packing boxes have just arrived from the hire company, and I have noooooooo idea where to start.

Our house looks like organised chaos at the best of times, now I need to pack it up and declutter so that we can get it on the market. Then we have to try and sell it before the new house settles. And then we have to move into the new house, not before we rip up the carpet and polish the floors, put in a new kitchen and refence the yard. That sounds fussy I know but there are some things that are just easier to do when the house is devoid of furniture. And the boys need nice secure fencing.

But the new house is in a great location, almost as good as this house and that's saying something. It has a huge yard (good for dogs and little boys), 4 bedrooms and a nice big lounge room. We currently have only 3 bedrooms and a tiny little lounge which is covered wall to wall in toys.

Oh well I'll just breathe, start filling the garbage bin and go one step at a time.

Any other suggestions??????

Apr 6, 2009

I've been a busy Quilter

I've been a busy little Quilting Bee. I didn't really mean to start a new quilt, let alone 2, but a friend from work introduced me one day to the "Stack and Slash" method. You first of all have to decide what size your finished quilt will be and cut your fabrics into squares or rectangles that are all the same size. So my first quilt was the size of 6 fat quarters and I had 6 different shades of red.

Then you stack the fabrics on on top of another, pin a number (in this case from 1 - 6) on them and safety pin them all together in the top left hand corner. Then using your cutter and ruler, cut through the six layers. It doesn't really matter where you cut, I usually make a cut leaving me with a largeish triangle in the bottom right hand corner. Then take the loose triangles and move the bottom triangle to the top of the pile. So you still have 6 squares of fabric but each square is now made of 2 different fabrics. Sew each square back together. Pile them back up (this is where the numbers come in handy so you get them back in the right order) and make another cut through the 6 layers (in a different spot). I usually make 3 or 4 cuts in total, moving a piece from the bottom to the top and sewing them back together after each cut. Once you are happy with the variety of fabric and the shapes you have you can sew your squares or rectangles together. Your edges will end up a bit raggedy, especially if your pieces aren't exactly the same size to start with, but you can always trim them at the end before you bind your quilt up.

This method is really simple (probably doesn't seem so from my instructions) and it takes about an hour to make a whole quilt top. Another thing you can do is put small strips of a black fabric in between the pieces before you sew them back up - giving you a stained glass effect.


The first one I did was with 6 fat quarters of red fabrics, it's almost the size of a single bed quilt. Then I put a border on in a red spot which really made it look good. I made 3 cuts to these squares and the pieces are quite uneven in size, I could have made another cut but then again I like the really random nature of the sizes. This one is for me to keep and it'll be a throw rug for our couch.


The second one was with 4 fat quarters and I put a border between them, rather than around the outside. I made 4 cuts in these squares to make the pieces a bit more even in size, all this does is mean that your fabrics are repeated in each square. This quilt is for my friend's daughter, it will double as a play mat and cot quilt.


Nex time I do one of these I'll take some more photos and make up a proper tutorial. Now all I've got to do is figure out how to quilt them!

the Sunday Stash (on Monday)

I'm sure it's still Sunday somewhere in the world! :)

I've been at it again, buying fabric from Japan! But it's j
ust so cute I can't help myself!

Some more Babushka dolls

And some cute horses

And what I think is destined to become my favourite fabric of all time - Paris.

And it came delightfully packaged with a little handmade gift! Thanks Mayumi!
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