Meet Me at the Comfort Cafe...

Here is another little project I have been working on, some Comfort Cafe quilted placemats....because I love, love the fabric (which is by Stampin' Up!) and wanted to have some of it around the house!

Isn't it pretty?

These are my quilted placemats, I've made two so far (the hand stitching of the binding on the underside took a while)...

I think I have enough fabric leftover for a small, matching table runner too (I bought three packets of the fabric), so that'll be the next project.

I was scared of the mitred corners (it's been a looong time since I did Textiles and Design in high school, where I first learned how) but I used a super simple tutorial by Heather Bailey for continuous quilt binding, and after that it was a piece of cake! Thanks Heather.

Now it's about time I went and ate those tempura prawn sushi rolls. Yummy!

Blogged to: Hard Rock Cafe - Carole King, Rozanne - The Police, Bitter Sweet Symphony - The Verve and Bad Romance - Lady Gaga.

Black Zipper Orchid...

...not to be confused with a Slipper Orchid ;-)! I made another zipper flower today while the little guy was taking some Zzzzzzzs (I am in packing denial).

I got myself a thimble, and even though it was obviously made for bridezilla and kept falling off my finger (and I'm no small person) it made the job MUCH, much more pleasant. I also tried sewing the flower onto the felt circle. That worked well too....but I ended up applying a second, larger felt circle over the back once I was done...just to hide the really messy stitching.

I left the slider on this one, as a bit of a 'feature'. I also applied a button in the centre....which was SO much easier than sewing in the twirled up zipper end, although possibly not quite as nice looking...I'm undecided.

Now it's time I went foraging in the fridge for some dinner! Wish me luck...

Have a good one,

Blogged to: 100% Pure Love - Crystal Waters, I Drove All Night - Cyndi Lauper, Don't Bring Me Down - Electric Light Orchestra and Bridge to Your Heart - Wax.

Zipper Flower Brooch...

Recently one of the other mum's at school wore an amazing orange zipper flower brooch to school on her coat. I was amazed, totally! What a fabulous idea!!

So this morning while I was out and about I stopped and picked up some 26 inch YKK zippers with metal teeth and did a bit of deconstruction and reconstruction. I trimmed the ends off the zipper (to release the slider and reduce bulk). I looped and stitched one half of the zipper into four petals and with the second half I made one more petal and rolled the remainder into a flower centre (I did trim off a little because it was too long) and then stitched it all down.

I covered the back with a circle of red felt (stitched on in a rather haphazard fashion) and then stitched on the brooch pin (don't mind the mess...this is the back after all ;-)...

I know people like tutorials, but I really didn't feel like making one (sorry)...so I took a bit of a look online and found this one...which is pretty much what I did (except that I didn't start with the felt circle...but that's a really good idea!!).

I gave this brooch to another school mum this afternoon because she liked the original a lot, and I think it'll look really nice on her too. I'll have to make another one for me later. Note to self: BUY A THIMBLE! There are lots of layers to this brooch, and pushing that little needle through with no thimble HURT.

Still recuperating here. The face is slowly returning to normal...wish I could say the same about life in general...but that won't happen until this move is all done and dusted. Still a few weeks to go.

Thanks for visiting,

Blogged to: The Block 2012.

Blog Candy Winner

Hi everyone,

I hope that you all had a lovely Easter long weekend. We did, It was very relaxing.

I am sorry for the delay in announcing my Beady blog candy winner. Its been a bit busy here. Anyhoo...I managed to visit Random.org today and this is what they said:

The seventh person to comment was Susy:

susy said...

Sam, what a gorgeous giveaway, your bracelets rock. We've had quite a few memorable holidays over the years both good and bad, fortunately more good than bad, but a long weekend we had in Tasmania would probably be one of the best ones. Such a beautiful spot we hope to get back to one day.

17 March 2010 9:26 PM

...so Susy, I'll be in touch for your preferred bracelet size!

Thank you to everyone who took the time to comment. It was fun reading about your favourite holidays (commemorative or vacation)!

While I'm here...I also wanted to show you another wee pic of THE library bag...where I have added some Floral Fusion felt to cover the handle stitching. I was very pleased with myself for thinking of that...:-)

Have a great week.

(Blogged to: Parlez vous Francais? - Art vs. Science).

Ooooooooh - Pretty Fabrics!

Today, I was feeling like doing something a bit different, and I was out at the shops with Mr Almost 4 and we spotted some VERY, VERY PRETTY quilting fabrics. This was the dawn of the world's most expensive library bag!

I wandered in to the shop...and was even more overcome with the prettiness! I quickly succumbed, and ended up procuring the smallest quantity of each allowable....20 cm.

The fabrics are from the My Happy Garden collection by Cloud9 Fabrics:

How gorgeous are they? The colours are pretty much exactly Baja Breeze, Soft Sky, Kiwi Kiss and Chocolate Chip! YUMMY!!

So I came home and dug out the sewing machine. Ten points for me for knowing where the darn thing was! Twenty points for the machine for starting up first go (I have owned this machine since I was a teenager and it hadn't been started up in about 4 years)! Mr Almost-three was standing watching me with boggling eyes...going 'WOW...what is that machine mum?...It goes fast'!

With much umming and ahhing on my part...and some concerted harking back to my Textile and Design class days in high school...this is what I made:

I was pretty stoked with how it turned out...EVEN if you can see the checked lining fabric from the outside (I didn't have any plain fabric to hand to line it with)...deep breaths Sam...it is afterall, just a library bag! But NO...this is no ordinary library bag. This bag set me back a pretty hefty sum....I am going to be like 'WHERE is the library bag...WHERE IS THE LIBRARY BAG?'....and 'YIKES, what is that MARK on THE library bag' for the rest of my days ;-).

I hope it a very durable library bag, because as one friend pointed out...it is going to have to last until Miss Almost 6 graduates...in order for it to be a cost-effective library bag! It is made from 100% Certified Organic Cotton though...so I guess that helps. It is an environmentally friendly library bag!!

Seriously though...it was fun to make. Every year I go see the quilting exhibition here and stand drooling over those wonderous works of art. I think I might do some more quilting soon :-).

See you!

(Blogged to: Babooshka - Kate Bush and Bizarre Love Triangle - New Order).