the napkin dress

it started a few months ago. i was busy, really busy, with a list a mile long of things that must be done. it was the weekend before i was heading off on our 5 week overseas holiday. and i found myself in a fabric shop, (legitimately, i had to buy wool to take with me) and, well looking at some clearance fabric (much less legitimately). 

see i had been inspired by the textured leaf's creative space dress. i too have a summer dress i am very fond of, that i had always thought would be really simple to make. and i had some fabulous napkins left that i won in clutterpunk's giveaway some time ago. all of which resulted in me standing and contemplating clearance fabric. i had the beginnings of a plan. and such a good plan at that. take some clearance fabric, some napkins, a bit of fabric stash lace, a bit of ribbon, and afternoon, and...well... after a few hours, things fell apart a little.

the problem was that, as always, i had a higher view of my sewing ability than actual ability. and by the end of the afternoon, i had a frustratingly almost-but-not-quite finished dress and still a long list of things to organise before i went away. 

fast forward to the past few weeks, and i have given the dress a second chance. unpicked and re-sewn a seam or two, tweaked a bit here and there and now am happy to say, the dress is finished!

and i already have plans (and i'll admit it, the fabric) for the next one!

two quick things

neither of which i made, but i just wanted to share: 

firstly, this knitted bike lock cosy, on the bike i was parking my bike next to this week. isn't it cute!

and secondly, this baby cauliflower, growing in our garden! i'm not the gardener around here, so i can't take any credit, but still, its so cute, and soon to be so yummy!

hope you are having a great saturday!

ok, ok...

...i admit it. i really do have to stop going into op-shops. i know. i do.

but if i did that, well, i wouldn't have found this:

a round table cloth - how cute!

or this:

fitted sheet - what fun!

or this!

square tablecloth - isn't it fabulous!

the best part is that i bought them for a specific project, which means they won't just get added to my stash. *coughs* except for the bit where i actually bought all of them for the same project. and i only need one. so i am pretty sure the square tablecloth is the winner- oh well. they really are lovely though, aren't they...

opshops and buttons

this weekend has involved a nice bit of opshopping. love it. i found lots of fun things, and was proud of my restraint a couple of times. but mainly i wanted to talk to you about this...

 

see i bought these great pants that someone had thrown out, just because they were missing a button. so this afternoon, out came one of the jars from my button collection. spilled all over the bed and poured though, until i found the perfect one. 

love it!

quilting

this quilting thing really seems to be taking hold. after the success i have been having with the quilt i am making for my new nephew-on-the-way, i thought i'd have another go at a simpler quilt.

basically the idea stems comes from the fact that my friend has wooden floors and wanted something a bit soft to be able put her bub down on. a floor quilt. i whipped this one up in an less than two hours. using two pillowcases and some of an old quilted dressing gown as the wadding. i am pretty happy with the outcome:

i learnt a lot about machine quilting in this (given i had no idea before i started, it was easy to learn a lot) and in retrospect i think doing the quilting in a mix of brown thread / yellow bobbin would have added to the finished look. (truth be told, i did think of it at the time, but was too lazy to run upstairs to get the brown thread and don't actually own any yellow). the next one i make however, will have feature colour machine quilting. and i am thinking i will possibly make it a little bigger (this one was limited by the scrap of dressing gown i had).

oh dear, see i used the term "the next one"... it seems like i'm planning it already. i tell you what if i get addicted to quilting i'm going to blame gina (check out her fabulous green quilt, and this one here the one that started me on this whole quilting venture). i really don't know if my life can fit in another addiction or another obsession...

my creative space

i'm tired tonight. work has been really crazy recently, i'm only two days into my working week, and i have already done an extra half a day, and i can't see it calming down anytime soon. so i really don't have much in the way of words, but i still did want to share a few pics of what's been going on in my creative space over the last week. lots of creating...

 sewing the binding on this project
 

 making some mini grannies for this project

 

and a brand new project! i got a jug cover pattern book for my birthday, and so i popped out to spotlight to get some proper crochet cotton and a mini crochet hook. and it's good fun, but the only problem is that i can't talk and follow patterns, so this is a no-one else around kinda project. 

how are your creative space projects going?

the (late) last owl

i somehow forgot to post this poor little guy. so it's a bit late, but here 'tis, all done!.