Sew it Together

Foolish creature that I am, I have almost missed the boat on posting about my amazing time at Sew It Together on the weekend! The lovely Sheridan was an organiser extraordinaire and suffice to say, a fantastic time was had by all.

I took narry a photo, so have photographed the sum total of craft work I got done -

50 or so French Knots were all I managed to achieve! Andi made a whole quilt, for pity's sake and this was all I could eke out!!! I think my Form 4 Geography teacher may have got it right when he said in my end of year report...

"This is a surprising result due to the amount of talking that Tanya does. She must learn to control her tongue."


These lovely things were in our goodie bag...such gorgeousness!

Thanks so much  to everyone involved - It was fantastic to meet you all and I had a most excellent time both at the crafting session and the dinner. Definitely be in for next year!

Stitches and Craft Loot and Pics

Went Wednesday with Little Man and two of my Crafty Gym Buddies, Tori and Sniff

Thanks for providing the best entertainment ever, Tania. He spent ages making the sandwiches then "eating" them (so if you had any dribbly, manky ones at the end, you know who to blame).

Bought the Ink and Spindle fabric for this...

and the trim for this...

Admired this...

On Saturday I had booked into the Ink and Spindle screen printing course, so went a bit earlier, of course, and bought this from Earthgirl....

and this from Pear Tree yarns....

and this from Crayon Chick.

and this was one of the tea towels I printed at the most excellent course! The other one was raindrops and an umbrella that I gave away to a friend that night at a baby shower.

Had such a good time! Thanks to all the team at Ink and Spindle and Lara from Harvest Textiles, who taught us.

The Fame

We have a slightly famous neighbour - that's if you follow the AFL, which we don't, really, that is until the little big man took up Auskick. He has become an ardent Hawks supporter. He even knows what "barack" means, previously a foreign and slightly sneered at Australian term.

We are from New Zealand, after all, where rugby is King and shall remain so for all eternity. Go, the Mighty Blacks! (I might add here that I am not a sports fan, as such. My husband is a huge sports fan, however. I tolerate this. He tolerates my overspending)

Anyway, back to said neighbour...I am in the bath, the doorbell rings. Dom says it is him from next door!
Alas, Alack, I must greet him in my dressing gown and Ugg boots!
He wants to borrow the kids to take photos for his new cooking with kids show.

Many photos were taken. Shirt was signed. Cooking utensils were wielded. Little Big Man got to cuddle up to his new hero - I'm surprised he didn't plant a kiss on his cheek! Littlest Man made himself at home on his couch.

Tv stardom beckons! I will become a "Stage Mom"! Let me know if autographs are required. I have Pay Pal (snort!)

Skirt fever!

I've madly been making winter skirts, having seen some gorgeous fabrics around and feeling that, since I can sew in a zip (sort of) , I could actually make a simple pattern into something fantastic. 

First one was made with Ink and Spindle Birch fabric in two colourways, Black on Charcoal and Red on Cream.

I kept the selvedge on instead of making a hem at the front.

Second was from Prints Charming fabric. I saw a great photo of a similar one on their blog and felt that, seeing imitation is the most sincere form of flattery, that I would do my best to imitate it!

 Lots of lovely trim on the bottom.

Bonne Fete, Maman!

This is the greeting I awoke to on Mother's Day from my little Francophile!

Had a great day - started with the Mother's Day Classic 4 km walk around the Botanical Gardens (aka "The Tan") in Melbourne, with all the boys, them back home on the train and off for a spot of lunch at Giorgio's in Malvern. The afternoon was spent buying a freezer from The Good Guys and finally relaxing the evening away with Masterchef on the telly and me not having to cook!

Here is my big pressie. Love it. Bought at Canterbury Art Exhibition a couple of weeks ago. Thanks darling!

Flowers from the boysies. I'm trying not to count the freezer....

PQS3

PQS3 placemat for Caryn, originally uploaded by partitoymonito.

Here's the latest creation - a placemat for Caryn in the US.

I love the way it's turned out and have decided Placemats are the new Quilts! ...Quick and easy to finish and no guilt about it sitting there for months untouched.

Nice to do in this hot weather we've been having. Hand quilting is a nice winter TV watching activity for me as it warms me up as well as stop me eating! Too hot in the summer though!

Embroidery used to be my thing before the lure of the machine overtook, so it was nice to get back into that again after a short break.

I bought the binding ready made from Spotlight ages ago and like the way it looks. I just machine sewed it on, no hand sewing this time which was a nice change.

It's snoozin' in the sun with my Pretty One. I tried to get her to look up and show off the baby blues, but she was having none of it!

Lucas and Barnaby Bunny

Lucas and Barnaby Bunny, originally uploaded by partitoymonito.

I've never felt the inclination to make a softie before, which is surprising considering the boys are both big soft toy fans.

These were and impromptu Easter pressie for them - Dom adores Lucas - Charlie is ambievelant about Barnaby..maybe it's the name!

They chose their own tummy adornments - Dom was hell-pressed on having the leaf despite my protestations about it not being very Easter-y. Ho hum!