firstly, there is this quilt to be finished…. i’m giving it to my mum who is going to raffle it off to raise money for the ‘Banish the Black Dog’ bike ride. This ride is an excellant initiative, coordinated by Rotary Club to raise money to promote awareness and research around mental health. (please excuse the very poor quality of this photo)

and next there is the wedding dress. i really do not profess to hold many, if any dressmaking skills beyond sewing a straight seam- a curvy seam if lucky. but in the spirit of having a handmade wedding, i thought i would try going the old fashioned style of making my dress. i had tried the whole buying a wedding dress concept, but the whole process felt artificial and horribly wrong somehow. there is so much symbolism around wedding dresses, and it is supposed to be an incredibly exciting part of the preperations, so i decided that this would be the most meaningful way to go…. 

it has progressed a little futher than this picture but is still in calico stages. next mission is to make a dress form… i have just bought the plaster strips and plan to make over the next week or so, using instructions from this website- http://www.threadsmagazine.com/item/3665/molded-papier-mch-form. there is going to be a fair amount of fitting required for the dress, and i think a dress form will be particularily handy to help with drapping to create a bit of a bustle for the skirt.

this is mr stockings, a simplified version made by my little sister.  i am pretty proud of her sewing efforts. it takes her a fair bit of concentration to follow through with an activity i have prepared. then she likes to cut loose on some of my scraps and spontaneously sews little sleeping bags, pillows and bags for her toys. they are ruff little creations, often with the seam on the outside, but she loves the instant gratification of sewing this way. watching her excitement whipping up these little bits has been a good reminder that making is purely about fun and it is often the fairly simple stuff that is the most effective and gives me the best kick. perfectionist traits sometimes make me forget how fun making things should be.

on eastery things, this is a little chick, which i’m planning is going to be part of a set of little creatures to be tucked into a quilt…

and lastly, i started irrationaly doubting that maybe maybe this wouldn’t happen, because it seemed too good to be true (another annoying trait of being a bit of a perfectionist perhaps?), but i made it to print. quilt will be published in may edition.

I wonder how long it is acceptable to use that line when the average length between blogs is around six months or so?

Despite my slackness with blogging, I have been pottering away on several little projects…

This was made for http://quiltsister.wordpress.com/ ’s  beautiful little  lady (still figuring out linkages…). In fact, I have been developing a bit of a love for  softies in general… any excuse really. This mummy whale and little tuck are an addition to an order, quilted beautifully by Tracey Peterson, of http://peppermintpatcher.wordpress.com/.

 Until next time

and huray!! i have moved on up in the world of peg holders. i have progressed from a sad plastic takeaway container that has taken a few too many hits from the lawn mower to really be decently functional, to this gorgeous peg apron, made by the very clever Kirsty of two lime leaves. Kirsty also has a very funky etsy store - well worth a vissit for the savy shopper (heh hem- shameless promotion i know- but well deserved!).  thankyou Kirsty!!

the little girl recruited to wear this suit the previous weekend was rushed to hospital with heat exhaustion, as she failed to wear the cooling vest.  the outfit smelt as if it hadn’t been washed in several months. needless to say, it was not the most thrilling experiences. nonetheless, we are all granted our 15 seconds of fame in one form or another.

fortunately for him, this was not it. he is a local legend as a long distance runner around the town. honestly, i’m not a biased sister, at all!!

I attended the wedding of a dear friend yesterday. She had travelled a very tough and rocky path to get to this day. It was one of the most stunningly beautiful weddings i have been to. Many tears were shed by all, in happiness and also at the loss of a special person who could not be there.

And thank goodness the days of shared house living are long gone!! Upon reflection of domestic life these days, perhaps not….  Sometimes living with a partner can be worse- no need for covert cues, even direct cueing doesn’t work sometimes. And what happens when that doesn’t work? Well, lets say arsenic in the tea may not be the most subtle means of fixing the situation, but it does deffinately seem appealing at times…..

Has anyone read ’he died with a felafal in his hands’? i read this book after a horrible experience of living in a share house with randoms- it was very comforting and hilarious. i would definately recomend, for anyone who has had joyous experience of share house living while at uni!! 

Recent dying pics and our stall at the x-mas in july markets

 well, this little quilt was sent to it’s rightful owner last week after some minor agony. it has been sent to a very loving home and a beautiful little baby. for a breif point in time,  there appeared to be an issue with mailing it, when my friend reported that she had not received it in the post- what a scary feeling!!

on other quilting matters, tracey and i made our first public appearance as ‘peek-a-boo baby blankies’ at the local ‘christmas in july’ markets. it was a triumphant sense having just made it and setting up stall!!  Around about 10ish, though we had not sold a single quilt, despite lots of lovely comments.  i was feeling incredibly frustrated- this was enhanced with the increasing volume of poor taste of music, blaring from the local radio stations van.  however by the end of the day, we had suceeded in selling five quilts. this was a huge sense of relief, having recovered the expense of attending the market and leaving us with a little extra money to play with. this left us pondering future business moves from here…

 based on feedback from the markets, it seems that the next logical step is to market to a wider, more specific audience- ie to baby boutiques etc. as tracey mentioned, it is hard to look credible as a specialty stall when the equivelant of toilet dollies etc are being sold in the stall next door. the current price of our quilts was determined with no real acknowledgement to the hours of labour (although thourougly enjoyable!!). in particular i had not felt confident about raising the price any higher given the population we were selling to and was concerned that we may be considered pretentious. after yesterday, it seems clearer that this may be the only way of justifying the product that we are so proud of creating. it is going to require some gutsy decission making

 this devine photoe was taken by tracey (and also taken from her blog  and is a sneak peek of some of the quilts

onto other news. one of my brothers made a long journey to vissit my mum for her birthday. it was such a joy having him around. we often reflect on our childhood, now we’re all ever so ‘grown-up’. As kids, we seemed to fight constantly. now there is a little distance from this time, we all really enjoy each others company. it is one of the most heart warming things to have arrived at this time in our lives where we have fun relationships with each other. For the past few years, we have had anual camping trips together, which amount in the highest degree of silliness and amusement. this was our camping trip last year…

apologies for the long absence and thank you for your supportive comments guys 

well, the extreme cold (by north queensland standards) has continued. it is almost enough to tip us all into S.A.D (seasonal affective dissorders). Mike and i feel that we are ill-equipt to handle this prolonged cold … we have resorted to breaking into the ’emergency chocholate’ (which by the way tastes disgusting- there would be trouble if this was a real emotional crisis) and mike has resorted to internal heating via cigars and even drinking cups of tea (highly unusual behaviour!!).  This blurr of a figure is mike attempting to heat himself over candle flames- hmmmm.

 the first week of the new job is over- i cannot believe how fantastic the change has been. another nice factor has been increased time spent with mike, who is also an ot, and works at the same location, …. as does his dad. while having nice familiar elements, this has also lead to other issues- ie frequently being the butt of all office jokes.  after seeing the new addition to the family, a coworker told mike she thought that i looked good with a baby in the arms….. which was followed by mike publically requesting a breif half hour impromptu lunch break in which he wanted to take me home to rectify the situation-grr!  as you can see, we are absolutely besotted with the little dear

the next few weeks are also likely to be a little crazy. i have just realised that there are only a few weeks left till the christmas in july markets that tracey and i are to  sell our baby blankies at (which can be seen on tracey’s sight- peppermint patcher) much work to be done and so little time!!