Monday, October 31, 2011
Sunday, October 23, 2011
My Gorgeous, Crafty, Blogging GURU...
Sharing this AMAZING blog with you all this morning. It's always at the top of my blog reading list, just because she is soooo amazing. Send strength, courage, love and light your way Ashley and the LBB family. xxx
www.littleblueboo.com
Friday, October 21, 2011
Shout Out Time for...
My Favourite Little Coffee Shop.
When I'm stranded in town in between appointments I can often be found working away in my fave little coffee shop in Ballarat "The Upholstery Gallery" 528 Mair Street, Ballarat. I love it in here!
So eclectic, colourful and friendly. Owner, the lovely Liz Green has put the store though it's paces again and undergone just one more renovation expanding the shop by another third! Making so much more room for coffee tables and scrumptious decorative, textural delights. I just adore that the floor boards are all original sloped and that there are hidden details around every corner like the original window that was uncovered during renovations and had been walled in for about 40 years and is now an included feature in the new renovation. There are so many great stories the girls could tell you about some of the fixtures here too. Liz's interior decorator eye for detail is just right for my taste, stocking brands such as Jasper Organic Coffee, T2, Mesop, Body, Designed in Brunswick, Cloth. Now if ONLY I could just pick up the whole store and plonk it in my home. Here are some photo's to tempt and tease you. Open Tuesday to Friday 10am-5 pm and Saturdays 10am- 4pm. Ph: 03 53314192
Love the boxes on the wall...
and the rest of the store...
When I'm stranded in town in between appointments I can often be found working away in my fave little coffee shop in Ballarat "The Upholstery Gallery" 528 Mair Street, Ballarat. I love it in here!
So eclectic, colourful and friendly. Owner, the lovely Liz Green has put the store though it's paces again and undergone just one more renovation expanding the shop by another third! Making so much more room for coffee tables and scrumptious decorative, textural delights. I just adore that the floor boards are all original sloped and that there are hidden details around every corner like the original window that was uncovered during renovations and had been walled in for about 40 years and is now an included feature in the new renovation. There are so many great stories the girls could tell you about some of the fixtures here too. Liz's interior decorator eye for detail is just right for my taste, stocking brands such as Jasper Organic Coffee, T2, Mesop, Body, Designed in Brunswick, Cloth. Now if ONLY I could just pick up the whole store and plonk it in my home. Here are some photo's to tempt and tease you. Open Tuesday to Friday 10am-5 pm and Saturdays 10am- 4pm. Ph: 03 53314192
Ta Daa! The new renovation is open...
Love the boxes on the wall...
Some of the great looking designed in Brunswick products...
and the rest of the store...
just gorgeous....
Saturday, October 15, 2011
Sew Selfish? A new project just for me.
Is it possible? Oh yes it is!
Phrase: SEW SELFISH
Definition: To sew exclusively for ones own indulgent pleasure when there are so many other tasks to be done.
This is where I introduce my new personal project. You'll need to use your imagination a lttle bit for the start of this introduction, It's BIG! well it's big for me anyway. So with out further due, imaginations in the ON position please, and cue music...
SPACE ODYSSEY THEME begins to roll in building up the atmosphere...
Bom BOM bom BOM bom BOM etc, etc....
I have started a quilt! yes ME!!!! BAM BAAAAAAA....... Music continues
It may seem a little strange that in all these years that I have been sewing I have never, and I mean NEVER attempted a quilt.
THEY SCARE THE CRAP OUT OF ME!
Crazy right? all that sewing of pretty little dresses and I break out in a cold sweat at the thought of the task of putting a quilt together. It's all those little pieces, the absolute accuracy of cutting perfectly straight and even lines the 1/4 inch seams, and the time it takes- OH my the hours and days and months and even sometime years ( I hear the ladies chatting at the quilting store of the many months and years they can put into one quilt I imagine my self rocking quietly in the corner dribbling slightly with a half done quilt at my feet after a week!) I mean it does my head in. So what on earth was I thinking? I don' know to be honest, maybe it was the cute little picture on the pattern packet maybe it was the embroidered little red riding hood on the lovey linen pillow on the top of the quilt in the photo. The pattern "Poppet" by the lady from http://www.averyfinehouse09.blogspot.com/ (sorry can't remember her name right now) And so it begins one fine Thursday morning during my local shops regular sit and sew with my faithful sewing girlfriend at my side...
And oh no, I don't just want to make the pattern exact, pfft no way! I want a BIG one for my daughters bed a 210 x210cm. Ooh another great idea to use the vintage sheets and other collected scraps 38 different colours in all. At no point at all did my little inner voice of common sense scream out "NOOOOOOO"
I hadn't really used a rotary cutter before or a one of those big see through ruler thingies (which I happen to now own- they are unreal to use) Cutting out hundreds of tiny squares and rectangles, cutting and cutting and more cutting stop briefly to count 60, 70, 90... ARE WE THERE YET? I'm over this cutting already only 300 and something to go- UGGGHHH!
So after 2 days of working away at cutting out and piecing a 'random' pattern together I have learned that there is no such thing as 'random' in quilting. To make it look really random and spaced out you really have to deliberately place pieces in a certain order. So here it is so far...
Phrase: SEW SELFISH
Definition: To sew exclusively for ones own indulgent pleasure when there are so many other tasks to be done.
This is where I introduce my new personal project. You'll need to use your imagination a lttle bit for the start of this introduction, It's BIG! well it's big for me anyway. So with out further due, imaginations in the ON position please, and cue music...
SPACE ODYSSEY THEME begins to roll in building up the atmosphere...
Bom BOM bom BOM bom BOM etc, etc....
I have started a quilt! yes ME!!!! BAM BAAAAAAA....... Music continues
It may seem a little strange that in all these years that I have been sewing I have never, and I mean NEVER attempted a quilt.
THEY SCARE THE CRAP OUT OF ME!
Crazy right? all that sewing of pretty little dresses and I break out in a cold sweat at the thought of the task of putting a quilt together. It's all those little pieces, the absolute accuracy of cutting perfectly straight and even lines the 1/4 inch seams, and the time it takes- OH my the hours and days and months and even sometime years ( I hear the ladies chatting at the quilting store of the many months and years they can put into one quilt I imagine my self rocking quietly in the corner dribbling slightly with a half done quilt at my feet after a week!) I mean it does my head in. So what on earth was I thinking? I don' know to be honest, maybe it was the cute little picture on the pattern packet maybe it was the embroidered little red riding hood on the lovey linen pillow on the top of the quilt in the photo. The pattern "Poppet" by the lady from http://www.averyfinehouse09.blogspot.com/ (sorry can't remember her name right now) And so it begins one fine Thursday morning during my local shops regular sit and sew with my faithful sewing girlfriend at my side...
And oh no, I don't just want to make the pattern exact, pfft no way! I want a BIG one for my daughters bed a 210 x210cm. Ooh another great idea to use the vintage sheets and other collected scraps 38 different colours in all. At no point at all did my little inner voice of common sense scream out "NOOOOOOO"
I hadn't really used a rotary cutter before or a one of those big see through ruler thingies (which I happen to now own- they are unreal to use) Cutting out hundreds of tiny squares and rectangles, cutting and cutting and more cutting stop briefly to count 60, 70, 90... ARE WE THERE YET? I'm over this cutting already only 300 and something to go- UGGGHHH!
So after 2 days of working away at cutting out and piecing a 'random' pattern together I have learned that there is no such thing as 'random' in quilting. To make it look really random and spaced out you really have to deliberately place pieces in a certain order. So here it is so far...
 |
8 rows of 17 laid out ready for pinning. |
Friday, October 7, 2011
Dying to share with you...
A RAINBOW OF COLOUR
We are now at the end of our school holidays here and boy am I going to miss not having to rush around in the morning and be out the door by 8am. I needed to have a break from the sewing so Miss 15 and I decided to have a play with the dye I have had sitting in he cupboard. I overcame the chance of a major dye disaster and bit the bullet! Methodically and carefully we dug out every single large coffee jar we had laying around the house, measured out exactly 1 litre and 1 Tbs salt in each and every single one of them.
We also thought that it would be a great idea to have a few samples of every colour in varying intensity...so over the next 4 hours this id the beautiful rainbow of sample colours we have created along with a few custom mixes, with each and every formula being recorded with a hope that we might be able to recreate it for a future Myrtle & Grace collection... I did say I HOPE!
I use syringes to measure out the dye to the exact millilitre just because the dye looked amazing in them all grouped together I though I wold take a photo of that too!
We are now at the end of our school holidays here and boy am I going to miss not having to rush around in the morning and be out the door by 8am. I needed to have a break from the sewing so Miss 15 and I decided to have a play with the dye I have had sitting in he cupboard. I overcame the chance of a major dye disaster and bit the bullet! Methodically and carefully we dug out every single large coffee jar we had laying around the house, measured out exactly 1 litre and 1 Tbs salt in each and every single one of them.
We also thought that it would be a great idea to have a few samples of every colour in varying intensity...so over the next 4 hours this id the beautiful rainbow of sample colours we have created along with a few custom mixes, with each and every formula being recorded with a hope that we might be able to recreate it for a future Myrtle & Grace collection... I did say I HOPE!
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