Jess's pincushion

Jess's pincushion, originally uploaded by Ansis68.

I made this pincushion for my friend Jess - it's such a fun thing to make and choosing the fabrics is even better. Oh and choosing the buttons too, it's just a satisfying process. And to top it all off it's such a quick and easy project to make. Maximum result for your time and effort. Made from the 'Last Minute Patchwork + Quilted Gifts' pattern I blogged about here (along with links to other pincushion patterns I like), and the fabric scraps here.

Washing basket

Washing basket, originally uploaded by Ansis68.

A lonely washing basket waiting (probably in vain) for the rain to clear and the blue sky to come back.

Oddly enough, this basket has appeared in two other blogs (here and here) in the last couple days - is there some sort of laundry basket 'in-crowd' that I've inadvertently joined? Please report any future blog sightings to me :)

Mid-Century Modern Memory Game

My friend Steph was given this Life on Earth game awhile ago and I absolutely fell in love with it when I first saw it - she left it here by accident today when she came for a play date (well Alex did technically) so I've taken the opportunity to blog it!



Now memory games are a dime-a-dozen but this one is special because not only are the tiles so lovely and thick and rounded on top, but the artwork is stunning. Several notches above the usual kiddie art or commercial dreck we're served up in fact.



The blurb on the box says that the artwork was inspired by Charley Harper's work and I can see that when you check out prints like this one available at Fabulous Frames). Or any at his official studio website Such cool stuff! And all from a little memory game...

Eeboo have some fabulous gear on their website, even the notebooks are great. I loved these 'tot towers'

Baaa...

Oh yes I'm a sheep and I've joined up Twitter. I actually signed up ages and ages ago but never used it because I couldn't figure out how to do it by phone here in NZ (does this make me an early adopter or not?) Turns out you still can't unless you want to pay for international texts and it won't send updates to my phone or anything - but upon consideration I figured that actually that's fine and I don't want a million texts coming in. I can use it to update my Facebook and have added a widget for this blog and that's fine. I might splash out occasionally and send something from my phone but I won't be tweeting compulsively. However, I can tell I'm going to be a "what I had for breakfast", "I'm making a cup of tea" tweeter, so if you do choose to follow me you have been duly warned :)

The redrafted bunny pattern

This is the first bunny from the pattern I drafted off Hazel's after I lost my original pattern (still hasn't shown up darn it, I guess it will when the redraft is perfect!). The colour-cast in this photo is dreadful, I need to redo the original - it has far too much red in it and the body fabric looks dreadful!



A few issues to resolve - the face is too long and the body is too wide. There's something up with the arms and legs too, although that may simply be a consequence of the body being a bit too big. They look spindly somehow. I've never been hugely happy with them and now I'm even less so. Perhaps I need a rethink on shape and proportion. The ears are pretty good though, better than the original. So I'll do the changes to the pattern and try again. I do need a different fabric for the face and paws though, the wool I've been using is too liable to fray and too hard to work with, despite the fact I like that it's wool and it's a lovely creamy white. I'm sure I can find something more suitable if I hunt around. Any suggestions from readers? The reason I like it is that it's slightly stretchy but not too much, so it stuffs well and holds its shape while being soft and squishy.

Another Wee Wonderfuls Olive completed

Finally finished the dolly today - she just needed her bow attached but it's amazing how long something like that can take to get around to! Now I'm behind on the monkey but I have some stats to run for a paper tonight so I'm afraid I'm going to be more behind by the time I make it to bed!



Today Olive is modeling a lovely pinafore made from Amy Butler's French Wallpaper fabric and a shirt made from Ginger Blossom by Sandi Henderson in Vintage Dot, as well as Lime Bouquet Toss for her sporty little bow*. She's undergone eye surgery to replace her original dark blue eyes the better to resemble her adoptive mummy Nicole.

As she sashays away, we see the sweet crossed straps of her pinafore and the splash of lime from her bow.



Bye bye Olive!

(One down, how many more projects to go?)


*Not sure of the shoe fabric, it was part of a scrap bag but I'm sure I've seen it somewhere so if anyone knows the pattern I'd love to give it credit!

Blogging in Pink

I downloaded the free ebook Blogging in Pink from Scribbit last night and even though I'm only a couple chapters in I'm so impressed - it's a brilliant resource full of advice and tips.


I just wish I'd read it before I started blogging last year! Not that I'd have done much different I think, but even the section on how to choose a platform would have been great. I ended up here at Blogger sort of by default through having a gmail account, and I must admit to lingering doubts as to whether I should have gone with Typepad instead :P Plus she mentions that Blogger accounts get looked down on as being less professional - has anyone come across this? I was surprised to be honest because so many of my favourite blogs are on Blogger so how could it not be a cool place to be? Perhaps I'm the kind of dork who doesn't know they're a dork ;)

I also like the discussion on attribution and the importance of commenting and giving back to the community. I'm thinking particularly hard about the latter because I'm constantly bowled over by the generosity of other bloggers (such as this book!) and have so many free patterns and tutorials and images sitting on my hard drive it's like a treasure-trove.

Help for a metrically-minded gal

A couple of weeks ago I posted a moan about how I couldn't get my machine to sew an accurate 1/4" seam because it was resolutely metric. I should have known there was an easy solution to this problem and there is! Ladies and Gentlemen (probably not but I'll be gender-neutral to be on the safe side) I give you the 1/4" Quilting Foot!


1/4" quilting foot, originally uploaded by Ansis68.

I haven't used it yet but I'm really very excited and wishing I'd come across the mention of this accessory in my sewing machine manual before I started Amy's quilt. It was a happy co-incidence that Spotlight was having a 20% off all sewing machine feet sale in which I planned to get a walking foot (and did) so I got out the manual to look up part numbers (pointless, they're different now anyways) and discovered that such a thing existed. I think it's what they call a Eureka! moment.

The really brilliant thing about it is that it has these lines front and back (marked with red arrows) that show you where to start and stop sewing to leave 1/4" unsewn at either end if you need to attach more blocks. I don't need it for this quilt, but it would be so handy to have for other projects.

What I've been doing today (and last night)

Yesterday Liesl at Disdressed posted about getting the new J Peterman catalogue so with visions of Seinfeld and Elaine's boss Mr. Peterman dancing through my brain, I checked it out and promptly fell in love with this dress
It's not the kind of thing I usually wear, but I love the idea of it. I've been re-reading all my Agatha Christie books as my 'chapter before bed' and I can just picture wearing this dress in one of those stories. Of course I've discovered that the best thing about the Peterman catalogue is the descriptions of the clothes! There's a couple shirts I'd quite like too...


Curse the weak NZ dollar - not to mention I've been told by an equally excited friend here that they don't ship to NZ, only to Australia. Sheesh. So much for the company that adventures around the world and all that guff.

Tonight I got incredibly excited by this post at Sew Mama Sew and cleaned my sewing machine. I blame the music they played in the video, it made it all seem slightly James Bondish 007 sewing machine. Mat came in and danced even, although I noticed in the comments to the post that some people didn't like it (the music, not Mat dancing). Philistines! So I got out the tools and opened up the machine and took out enough lint to stuff a small bunny. My manual says not to oil so I didn't get to do that, but I'm hoping the machine will run a little better now. I think it still needs a professional tune-up though. I feel like I actually DID something tonight, it's a very satisfying feeling.

My day as a domestic goddess...

...was only moderately successful. Let's start with the success part, the Lamington cupcakes. So-called because like a real lamington they have chocolate icing and coconut sprinkled on top, but unlike them, these have a cakey interior which was very sweet and somehow wasn't quite right. Give me the real thing any day (homemade of course, the commercial ones can be quite heinous). Hazel did the coconut and the bowl licking.


Then we started on the jam. I decided to make blackberry apple because I hadn't picked quite enough blackberries off our bush before it stopped producing last week, plus I thought the apples might contribute more pectin for setting. Looks promising right?


And this was the result

Four jars of blackberry apple jam sauce. Sigh. I boiled and boiled and it just wouldn't set. I've been told that I might be able to reset it if I add some pectin, so I'll get some tomorrow and give it a go. The flavour wasn't as good as I'd be hoping for either, I think the recipe called for too much water during the boiling stage. Live and learn and it may yet come right! I did get the cellophane on marvellously though don't you think? And such a pretty colour. :)

Ok, back to Powerpoint and my lecture.

A decision

Thank you everyone who voted! I've decided that I'm going to make a skirt as Highway Cottage and Chef Messy suggested, and it was a real "d'oh!" moment when I read that suggestion as of course there is a pattern for a little pinafore for these dolls and I've made some already! Here I was contemplating all these complicated solutions when there was a very simple one staring me in the face. I think this will make everyone happy - I'm not redoing the doll and taking the majority of the voters at their word that it's not immediately obvious she has fallopian tubes (Mats's still laughing over that one) but satisfying myself and a couple other voters that it IS vaguely dodgy and could be minimised with a bit more work. I will be happy to send her off modestly clothed instead of anatomically correct :) And if some perv lifts up her skirt they will get what they deserve.

I've got an hour and half lecture to give tomorrow afternoon so today I need to devote myself to getting that ready and being a domestic goddess in the kitchen. Hazel wants to make Lamington muffins and I want to make blackberry jam. Or maybe blackberry and apple jam. Or blackberry and plum jam. Can't decide!

Voting time!

Ok, here's the dolly so far - she still needs a collar and a bow. I've put a poll over on the right sidebar -----> for your opinions on how the pattern on the fabric goes - I really do need your opinions! Feed readers will need to click over.

Oh dear...

The dolly is coming together beautifully, I'm quite impressed with myself except...well it's awkward but I think I may have really screwed up the placement of the pattern of the fabric. I don't know what to do. I'll sleep on it and then post a picture tomorrow and see what you all think but let's put it this way - Mat didn't notice it when I showed him the unstuffed body but when I pointed it out he demanded I take it out of the house immediately. :-/

The problem with real life is you can't Photoshop out unwanted details.

Nicole's Dahwee in progress

Nicole's Dahwee in progress, originally uploaded by Ansis68.

Feeling much better and back at it! I've been working on Nicole's replacement Dahwee and really enjoying working with this pure wool felt. I was a bit worried about it when it arrived because it was so much thicker than the synthetic blend felt I'd used for the other dolls, but it's really a dream to sew - very malleable and soft. The felt is a bit paler than I would have liked, but I think once she's sewn up she's going to be gorgeous!

A small feminist rant

As per my profiley thing on the right there, I've just finished my PhD and although I haven't had my graduation ceremony yet (4th May) I have the piece of paper that tells me that my degree has been awarded and that means I can call myself Dr. I'm still a bit funny about calling myself Dr. C, it feels weird and pretentious and since my dad is also Dr. C, it also feels like I'm calling myself by my dad's name :) But all those things aside, I'm quite entitled to circle the Dr. option when I'm filling out forms, instead of Ms. like I used to. I'm not a Mrs. because I haven't taken Mat's last name despite being married for 12 years now. So this is what my rant is about - this afternoon I went to a new dentist and filled out the requisite new patient form. Feeling daring and slightly schoolgirlish, I chose Dr. as my title on the form. The receptionist came out to talk to me about my exciting career and how fun it must be and I was feeling quite pleased with myself. So what did the dentist call out when he came to get me? "Mrs. C". Should I have said something? It would seem a bit petty but the whole thing with Mrs. C bugs me and it's not just him.

My name is in the phone book and so what do sales people call me when they ring? Mrs. C, because obviously since I'm an adult woman answering the phone I must be married to Mr. C, whose name is in the book because he's the man right? Same if I'm in a waiting room and they want to call me. Must be married, must be her husband's last name, must be Mrs. I'm sorry but where does this reasoning come from? Where? It seems to be very widespread. I can sort of understand if they see me in person because I wear a wedding ring - but on the phone? How many unmarried women are these people insulting inadvertently I wonder? Not to mention all the married ones! Men don't have this problem, their marital status is in no way involved with their title. They pretty much start out as Mr., unless the get called Master when they're very little, and they stay Mr. Girls start out as Miss, they're Miss for years and years and years until they either get married or become a radical feminist and call themselves Ms. So Miss Hazel at 3.5 uses the same title as Hazel at 20. Bizarre. Even using Ms. is telling the world something about yourself. Then we get to call ourselves Mrs., even when we've specifically told someone we're not. It drives me bats**t insane. Now I get to add Dr. to the list of titles people can ignore.

I'm not at all against being a Mrs., if people want to call me Mrs. C— then that's fine, if Mat's elderly aunts want to call me Mrs. Matthew...— then I'll laugh and be amused. But calling me Mrs. C is just rude and presumptuous and it makes me angry. Typically, it's useful for Mat because if someone calls up and asks if he's Mr. C then he knows they're a telemarketer and hangs up on them. If I get the Mrs. C it's a 50/50 proposition whether it's a telemarketer or some idiot who actually does know me.

/rant over - and it wasn't small either so I do apologise for the misleading title.

Duck blanket

More from the archives, I still feel under the weather.

I made this blanket for my friend Steph's second baby, who turned out to be a little boy named Isaac. He's heading towards two now, yikes!


Embroidered wool blanket, originally uploaded by Ansis68.

It was a surprisingly easy pattern to do - looks daunting but just takes time more than anything. The bees were the hardest because I get really nervous about doing things that require multiple steps because I'm convinced I'll screw up the final step and ruin the whole thing! Amazingly no bees were harmed in this process. Actually I lie, the hardest part was getting the eyes right, I had to rip those things out about 4 times until I got an expression that didn't contain pure evil. Seriously, the first attempt it looked like the most malevolent duck ever, holding the flower and thinking "I'm going to rip your throat out in a second". This one just looks a bit malicious but by then I'd given up caring about low-level evil. Overall I was quite pleased with the whole thing.



The binding is so wide because I dyed the blanket myself and ooops! it shrank from being just big enough to not quite big enough. The colour was absolutely perfect though. The pattern is from "The world's most beautiful embroidered blankets" by Inspirations Books. Australian I think.

Fabric-lovers should head over to Bunte Fabrics for her most amazing fabric give-away, and how perfect for me heading into winter too! Not that I ever win these things but what the heck, I love those printed corduroys and knits, we just don't see them down here in that kind of quality!

Past glories

A Wonderful trio, originally uploaded by Ansis68.

I got nothing fresh for you internets, nothing. So I've decided to take a quick stroll through the archives at Hazelnut central* and pull out a few of my favourites.

This little trio are from the Wee Wonderful's Olive and Archie pattern which has proved to be a good investment as I've made eight all-up. If you're interested there are more dollies if you click through to the Flickr set. The ones on the left are Hazel's pair, the Archie on the right was for her friend Luca who has brown hair and blue eyes. It's kind of fun customising the hair and eyes to match the kid. Unfortunately I used a wool blend felt that I was assured wouldn't pill but of course does, and it stretches too. So all that hard work with a fabric that doesn't stand up. That still annoys me. I need to make another to replace Nicole's Olive who has been worn out through sheer love, and I've bought some proper 100% wool felt in a decent weight this time. No half measures! Nicole has chosen some great fabric for her second 'Dahwee' as she calls her, I'm looking forward to making her up.

I'm such a huge fan of the Wee Wonderfuls patterns, they have this great retro-yet-very-modern appeal. No doubt there will be more gracing this blog in the future :) And check her 'freebies' page as well!

*MacBook Pro on the desk in the spare room

Easter egg cups

Easter egg cups, originally uploaded by Ansis68.

Happy Easter to you all and may judicious amounts of chocolate be consumed with no ill-effects :)

Am feeling somewhat better and fever is gone but still coughing and feeling tired. I did manage to tidy my half of the bedroom though, which is no mean feat! I was so exhausted I had to have a lie down afterwards.

Warning, quilting can be hazardous to your health

What, fingers cut off by rotary cutter? Stabbing with pins? Cutting with scissors? No, not yet. Late nights, late nights'll kill you. I stayed up late on Tuesday night doing blocks for Amy's quilt ("I'll just finish this one and get to bed), couple that with going off daylight savings and therefore an hour later even than the clock said and bingo! the cold that has been lingering around our house got me good and proper. I spent Tuesday night alternately shivering and sweating, and Wednesday comatose in bed (luckily Hazel was a daycare). Made a recovery only to be laid low again this morning with a 38.5 C temperature and no energy. Spent the day in bed with Hazel hovering around being concerned and trying to cheer me up with drawings of rainbows and sad fish crying because it's morning and they want to go back to sleep. Oh I do sympathise fishy! After much drama and tears we've got her to sleep and I plan to follow soon. I've promised her I'll be better tomorrow and I do want to keep that promise! I remember how discombobulated I used to feel when my mum was sick. The world wasn't right until she was back on her feet. Funny to be on the other side of the equation. So my life has come to a screeching halt in all regards until I beat this lurgy.

Enjoy your Easter weekend everyone! I'm off to plant the easter egg hunt clues for tomorrow and then collapse into bed to listen to the radio and sweat and shiver. TMI? I just want lots of sympathy :)

Handmade clothes

I've been thinking about handmade clothes a bit in the last couple days, mostly as a result of mentioning a couple posts ago how much I hated having to wear them when I was a kid and Chef Messy's comment that she felt the same too. It's not the first time I've pondered this odd change in my life that I want to inflict handmade on my daughter after being so traumatised when I was young! So what was the problem with the clothes that my mum made? I've decided it was that they looked different to what my friends were wearing - the style was different, the fabrics were different, I looked different when I wore them and sometimes comments were made. Nothing too awful, but when you're 8 most kids exist to be part of the pack, standing out too much may leave you vulnerable to worse things. I also have very good memories of making clothes and enjoying wearing them - but that was when I was older and had some input into the pattern and fabric. There was one time when I loved an outfit in a shop but couldn't afford to buy it, so Mum came with me and we took it into the change room and took a pattern off it. I still can't quite believe she did that actually, she's the most law-abiding person I know! I wore that top and skirt heaps, and it really opened my eyes to the possibilities that being able to make your own clothes open up.

Perhaps I'm luckier than my mum was when it comes to making Hazel clothes - the styles at the moment lend themselves to being replicated or made at home, little crafty details are in, great fabrics are easier to source, and I think most importantly I have a very keenly developed sense of what it feels like to want to belong, to not stick out and be marked as different. Mum was a New Zealander in Canada in the 70s, she was attracted to the hippy-ish style, she was emminently practical and non-consumerist. I'm not necessarily any of those things, or at least...well I might have tendencies (not the hippy thing though) but I still remember how much I longed for a pinky, frilly party dress from this kids store in Edmonton, and how I was never going to get it because Mum just didn't buy or make clothes like that. Hazel got a Barbie tshirt in a bag of second-hand clothes I got her for going to daycare and she was so over the moon about it. I felt bad because it's so not the kind of thing I would ever buy her new, but I could see how much it meant to her. Same as the 'Ballerina Kitty' tshirt she got as a handmedown from Nicole. So I'm thinking that the trick to making clothes for kids that they actually like is to make them for them, to pay attention to what they want and to not insist on your own style preferences. But on the other hand why should I fork out for Dora the Explorer tshirts or duvet covers or Barbie sunglasses when I abhor that kind of merchandising? It's my money, I'm the parent! I want to teach her that buying that kind of thing is just doing that company's advertising for free and strips you of any vestige of individuality you have. I can see it's a fine line, maybe if we both end up being unhappy at various times it means I'm keeping an even keel on the subject. Though I most certainly will draw the line at themed duvet covers and beds. Yuck yuck yuck! But a tshirt occaisionally won't kill me.

Uninterupted free time...

...such a luxury! I spent the first part of the morning collecting all the application forms and guidelines to apply for a post-doctoral grant from the Wenner-Gren Foundation, but retired defeated at the thought of compiling an itemised budget for a project that is still mostly in my head! Deadline of 1st May though, so I can't put it off forever. Only 10-12% of the applications are funded, but I had one from them for my doctoral work so I'm feeling a little positive anyways.

After that I blasted through some more pleasureable projects :) Mat was bugging me to start sewing the quilt blocks last night, so I did up 5 of them. Harder than I thought, particularly because my sewing machine is definitely a metric one, so despite my ease of dealing with imperial (hem hem), my machine is not interested At. All. It has no way of reliably sewing a 1/4" seam, even if I put bits of tape all over the place to mark it. It's just about the most awkward measurement to try for because it falls about half way across the right presser foot prong. I tried putting tape in various places and nothing was particularly satisfactory. Neither were my seams. I think it'll all even out in the end, especially if I square up the blocks before sewing the strips between them.



After that I re-drafted my bunny pattern (Bunny 3.0 now). I have no idea how similar it will turn out to the original from which I took the pattern! I should probably do a test bunny to see...



And lastly I drafted up the pattern for an actual iPhone cozy using Shelly's emailed tracing of hers after making up one for me as a trial last month. I've located an iPhone to try the cozy on before sending it off thank goodness, so she can be assured of something that fits! I suppose I could attach some pencils to mine to make it wider and a bit taller too... I've also cut out the fabric but I'll leave that so that she can have a bit of a surprise when it gets to her.

tulips

tulips, originally uploaded by Ansis68.

The quilt proceeds apace, with 5 central squares cut and surrounding borders. I'm so struggling with inches though, it's just so clunky and difficult to remember compared to metric! Luckily my cutting mat is also in inches or I'd be going even more mental. I suppose I could convert everything but it gave me something to swear at instead of the tv while I watched Miss Marple being butchered in some dreadful remake of 'Nemesis'. What's wrong with the original story that they had to hack it around like that, completely change it, introduce new characters, and change Miss Marple's way of doing things? It really doesn't make sense and it makes me sooooo mad. Now she's just the same as any other old detective, she's not unique, she's not a fluffy old pussy anymore, she's a gimlet-eyed, prune-faced old bat. Sigh. But of course I watched it all the way through to the end just to really get myself good and ticked off. :P

These tulips were given to me by a friend on Thursday and and this morning they just glowed in the sun pouring into the kitchen. I took this as I ate my breakfast in blissful solitude after being gifted a sleep-in by Mat and Hazel.

Making a start

So after much thinking about it, pondering and planning I've finally started making a cot quilt for baby Amy, my friend Jess's newest girl. This is all seat-of-the-pants kind of stuff, I've never made a quilt before, never taken a class or read a book. Lots of blogs yes but nothing too technical! So experienced quilters, please do not cringe at my methods but most certainly feel free to offer advice but don't shriek "stop!" too loudly or I might get scared :)

I'm making Amy Butler's "Pink Bliss" but using all sorts of different fabrics so goodness knows how it will turn out. I'm trusting that having similar colours will mean it will be ok in the end, but I'm getting quite nervous about how well the various fabrics actually go together. Totally second-guessing myself here! Oh well, too late now, I refuse to start looking for new fabrics. :P The quilt is based around blocks seperated by multiple strips of fabric so I'm starting with the centres of the blocks and slowly working out block by block, adjusting fabrics as I go. I want to use the most striking fabrics as the centres of the blocks (mostly florals) and surround them with polkadots and mostly geometrics. Since there are 14 blocks and I only have 9 centre fabrics I've had to duplicate a few.



The fabrics are a mix of Amy Butler and 'Botanica' by Art Gallery Fabrics and I think they go quite well. The only one I'm both nervous of, and tentatively excited about, is the larger pink flowered Amy Butler (sorry don't know the pattern off-hand). It will either look great or totally out of place. I'm such a newbie at this that I'm not sure how using differently-scaled patterns works, and even if it's a matter of personal taste I have no idea what mine is on the subject! I know what I don't like in quilts, but pinning down what I do like is harder.

The most striking thing I've come across so far is in the fabric quality - the Amy Butler is streets ahead of the Art Gallery, which is thinner, not as well printed and the pattern isn't always printed with the grain which leads to such a dilemma, cut with the pattern or the grain?

Scrappy goodness

I still haven't found my bunny pattern but I spent an enjoyable hour up in the attic with my newly organised stash, pulling out scraps for a couple projects.



In finally putting all my fabrics together and sorting them by colour I discovered that I did indeed have blues, but still very few oranges or yellows. But at least now I know :)



Ah look at those dead and antiqued hydrangeas in the background - autumn is definitely coming. Aside from a few flowers, the garden is looking tired and scruffy and in need of a tidy-up and a rest. I noticed some of the bulbs already poking their heads up ready to go in a couple months, so I can look forward to primulas, poppies, bulbs and spring roses in the not too distant future (there are some benefits to not having a real winter!).


Metrosideros 'Tahiti Sunrise' (or sunset, I forget)