little pieces or fabric favourites

Just for something to do...
I have started sewing on little pieces of favourite fabrics onto this linen placemat I got for a couple of dollars last year sometime. What is it for? I do not know but I do like to look at it and it's fun to do. There are Liberty fabrics approaching from the right - just a couple more of those to go, and linens etc. from the left.


I'm using a mix of these linen threads:-



p.s. I have finished the scrappy quilt, just haven't taken any pics of it yet - will share soon.

new shoes

Ordinarily I wouldn't post about new shoes but I love these so much. I had decided to buy some boots last week, anyway after trying on around 10 pairs I came to the realisation that boots look silly on me, ridiculous in fact. I walked out of the boot shop and saw these - I couldn't walk past them.


If you were to look in my current shoe box you would see that they are all black, black, black - even my thongs, I have finally branched out with a little colour - I may just wear these everywhere. (For anyone interested they are Footprints by Birkenstock - Boavista).

a visit to tessuti

Thursday & Friday last week I was in the city for some training for work at the Spencer Street end on Collins Street. Friday I thought I must go and have a look in Tessuti which is up the other end of town in Flinders Lane. I was very limited for time so I jumped on a tram and had a very quick browse, some beautiful fabrics can be found there. I bought a little of the fabric below and some bias binding in the green with white dots. I was thinking this could be a nice skirt for bells, with the trim around the bottom of the hem.


I used just a little and added it to bells' jeans, just to pretty them up a little around the cuff/hem.

I had seen online that Tessuti sold quite a range of Japanese pettern books, it wasn't until later that night that I remembered, I didn't see them while I was there, but then again I wasn't looking for them either - oh well next time... I felt so pressured for time that there was no time for a relaxed browse. I have to go back next week for 3 more days of training, so maybe then I'll get the chance - maybe the instructor will give us an extended lunch......I doubt it.

old treasures

About a month ago hubby's uncle passed away at 99, a grand old age. Hubby was offered to come to the house and take some old tools that belonged to his uncle. Along with those he also got a bunch of old tins that were filled with nails and screws, I have cleaned up a few and they now house string, bits & pieces and other bits & pieces.


There were also a few old wooden rulers and a retractable tape measure in inches which is now in my sewing desk.


and these old cases that have bits & pieces in them, including some great old locks, I was thinking they could be set into some wooden furniture.....

binding is on

The binding is on, it's from the Rounneries by French General range - lots of lovely fabric in the range. Still a bit of quilting to go, once it's all finished I'll take a pic of the whole quilt. I wanted to use the same binding as I used on the previous scrappy quilt but I wasn't able to obtain anymore from either of my locals (no surprise really, that was a while ago). I have a little left in my stash, I'll save it for another special project.

time for an update

I know it's been a very long time since my last post. So what's been happening...? I started another scrappy quilt, I was hoping to have it finished for a market I did a couple of weeks ago for my Dad's goods but that wasn't to be. I really wanted to have it finished, sitting to the side and if anyone was interested I would have sold it. Some other time perhaps. Only a couple of new fabrics were purchased for this one, the rest were already in the stash. There's still quite a bit of hand quilting to go and I've almost finished sewing on the binding.

A few weekends ago I went away with my good friend Kylie for a little time away sewing, relaxing and shopping. We did some sewing, we did some shopping but not a whole lot of relaxing due to the mice situation at the house we were staying at. We set off on a saturday morning, stopped off at T'Gallant for a woodfired pizza which was delicious, bought a few bottles of Grace Pino Grigio 2008 which I would highly recommend - beautiful beautiful wine. (I'm no wine aficianado but I know what tastes nice). We covered all shops in Sorrento, some lovely homey shops with lovely things unfortunately the price tags weren't so lovely, they were rather steep. Nice to look anyway and get some great ideas. Goats cheese, olives, dip, lavosh, avocado, tomatoes, brie, bread & a vanilla slice was purchased for our dinner - what else do you need...

While we were sewing, eating & sipping the mice activity commenced, I don't know how many there were, but I'm guessing there were quite a few. One would come out of a kitchen cupboard, run behind the fridge then run into the laundry, then run back into the cupboard, then 2 mice would come out together and repeat, repeat, repeat, repeat. There were a few bottles of wine enjoyed between us, we were hoping the alcohol would numb the worry of the mice. It was just after midnight when the mice started to run from the kitchen, past us, to the lounge room that we thought it's time to go to bed - cheeky little ...............'s. The good news was that there weren't any signs of mice downstairs where the bedrooms were so we were able to sleep. We packed up in the morning rather speedily and had a really nice big breakfast in Blairgowrie. On the drive home we went along the coast (bay side) which was a nice change, I hadn't been that way in ages, it's usually the freeway. It was so nice to have a little break.

I've hardly bought any fabric lately, I guess I look at what I have and think 'I should use what I have first', feeling a little guilty. Below however, is some fabric that I couldn't resist, it's Nani Iro Fuwari Linen 2010 in natural from Matatabi. I just love it, I don't know if I'll be able to cut it.

Hopefully not too much time will pass before my next post.

easter sunday for us today

Ages ago I bought some japanese masking tape and I've used some to decorate a gift tag for my beautiful nephew's easter basket (tin). He's only 16 months old, so just a couple of little easter eggs at this stage and did I say he's beautiful. I also had a thing for stamp sets a while back, I have 2 alphabet sets - the one I used here are quite small and a little fiddly to use, but they came in a little wodden box which is so cute, so I had to have it. I like to make my own cards, I can't justify spending $5 - $6 on a card when with a little thought and creativity you can make them yourself.

Our family can't all meet up next Sunday so we are doing Easter Sunday today at Mum & Dad's, should be lovely.