Vintage Catwalk

I have been painting my patio in the stifling heat for the last week, and only have 3 days left of holidays. These last days are to be just for ME. (I tried telling this to the friends who invited themselves over for lunch on Wednesday, but they obviously weren't listening.)



So part of the ME time today was making my contribution to Loobylu's "A Month of Softies" for January. The theme was "Vintage Catwalk" and I only decided on what to do when I was tidying up my sewing area. I came across a Japanese book on making little tiny flat toys - so I used it's kitty pattern. I added a vintage Italian lace flower to her noggin. I'm quite pleased with the result - I have been dying to use the little packet of these lace flowers since I got them, and now the perfect project!









It is made out of wool felt, has glass bead eyes, vintage Italian lace and is stitched with cotton thread. Size is TINY, but not unmanageable.

Girls, girls, girls!

Have I ever mentioned my love of Blythe dolls? No?



Oh well, here it is - I love Blythe!! I have 5 girls - Estella, Aurora Australis (aka Rory), Gracie, Blue and Mango.



One of my favourite hobbies lately is making little Blythe outfits. I already make and sell a lot of stripey tights on the Blythe forum. I found a pattern for vintage Skipper "town togs", and decided to make one. Which became 3. With more on the way!



Here's a photo of Mango, Estella and Blue sporting their town togs, the latest thing to be seen in on the Canberra Blythe fashion scene!

Christmas hang up

We won't talk about my Christmas.... let's just say the food was fabulous! So here's my contribution to Loobylu's "A Month of Softies" for December.



I didn't design it - my clever friend Sylvia Frazer did, and I sewed it at one of her fabulous "Stitching by the Lake" days.







It is made out of wool felt, and is stitched with cotton thread. Size is about 24 sm x 14 cm.

A gift of blue

My Nana passed away in August 2003, but it still feels like only yesterday. She was my Dad's mum, and had 4 children. All 3 boys lived away from Brisbane, but her daughter, Marilyn, stayed in the same city. Eventually Nana sold her old Queenslander in Mitchelton and moved to the southside to be nearer her daughter.



I had bought some old 1930's style transfers of tea cups a the Sydney craft show in June 2004. I started embroidering quilt blocks with them straight away, with absolutely no purpose for any particular finished product. I was on block number 3 when I phoned my aunt one day. She told me that the biggest thing she missed about Nana was the cups of tea they would have every afternoon as Marilyn made her way home from work.



From then on I knew my quilt had a purpose. I surprised Marilyn with it earlier this week when I was in Brisbane. She cried and so did I. And she absolutely loved it. I called the quilt "Blue China Teacups".



Here are some photos. The first is of my Dad and Marilyn holding the quilt.







And this is a terribly blurry photo of a block. All the blocks were different with the exception of two.