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.
12 April, 2009
Easter egg cups
11 April, 2009
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 :)
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 :)
08 April, 2009
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.
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.
06 April, 2009
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.
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.
05 April, 2009
tulips
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.
04 April, 2009
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?
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?
01 April, 2009
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)
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)
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