An Owlish Pillow of Inspiration...

I've found some lovely, fun, cushion-y inspiration in blog-land lately...in particular from Lucy of Attic 24 and a much older post by Jen of In Color Order. So when Miss 8 told me she had a party to go to, I jumped at the chance to run with the cushion theme. I visited Lincraft and picked up some cute fabrics with a bird theme (the party invitation was in the shape of a flamingo, and the party girl an avid bird fan)...

I also picked up some beautiful cotton batting and some fine cotton muslin (all of which I washed before use). I made my first quilted pillow front without using an easy-feed/walking foot, and you could tell! The bottom layer came up short, and the top layer got a bit dragged around. So I had to make an emergency dash to the shops later in the week and pick up an easy-feed foot for my 1984 model Janome sewing machine! Do you know what? It is still possible to find parts that work with a 1984 Janome sewing machine! How cool is that?

Anyhoo, never having installed or used an easy-feed foot before, I got a quick tutorial in the store and also found a comprehensive photo tutorial online by Liesl of Hoppo Bumpo.

And this is my finished product:

I made up the front of the cushion with ten fabric pieces. I then put this panel over a piece of the cotton batting and both layers over a piece of muslin. I quilted the cushion front using wiggly, vertical lines, as per Jen's mug rug. The back of the cushion is just finished with a simple envelope close. I was too tired to bother with a zipper.

Last, but not least, this morning I made a simple card to go with our gift (which also included a copy of Fantastic Beasts And Where To Find Them by J.K. Rowling....the birthday girl being another HP fan). For this card I cracked out my little stash of gorgeous Stampin' Up! seam bindings, and also used some beautiful patterned papers from the A Walk in the Park collection by Echo Park Paper Co.

Woah! What with The Block, Masterchef and now Touch...this post has been pieced together over the last three hours. Now I am pooped. If there are any boo boos, they're going to have to wait until tomorrow. Night, night!

Long time no post...again!

I know, you've heard it all before...suffice to say I am a slack blogger! We have a wee project underfoot here, and it is taking up pretty much all of our time (it even has its own blog...and I've been spending a fair amount of time there....even hubby is in on that gig, and he has never blogged a day in his life).

I do want to thank and apologise to all of those wonderful blogging buddies who commented on my last post, and to whom I have not responded. Also, big thanks to Jocelyn and Karen for the blog awards too. I am very honoured to have received these!

I have had very little crafting time here...but have managed to get a few projects done over time. Here is another lampwork bracelet that I recently made. These magnificent glass focal beads are also by Sari of Gaialai on Etsy - love them to bits Sari!

The beads remind me of fabulous pieces of smooth marble encrusted with pods of turquoise (not that that would happen in real life). I studied Geology at uni so rocks and gems are never very far from my mind...even though I am not involved in anything remotely geological any more. The large blue crystal charm is a Swarovski Cosmic crystal in a very groovy blue called Indicolite...which happens to match the focal beads perfectly. If I'd had some more, smaller ones I would have used them as spacers too.

I've also been doing a bit of cake making....this one was a custom order for Miss just-turned-six!

It is straight from the Woman's Weekly kids party cake book...but I had to downsize and cut it out freehand because I didn't need a cake for seven thousand (their cakes are ginormous...and I always end up throwing some out because we just can't finish them). Master about-to-turn-four has put in an order for a Tiger. Hope that one is as easy as this one was!

Last, but not least, I was moved to try my hand at quilting again. I bought a simple quilt kit from my local quilting store, addictedtofabric and gave it a go. It looks very nice on the front, but is a bit wrinkly on the back (so I won't show you that side ;-)...

FYI: The focal panel, with the individual print frames is a single piece of fabric...my quilting skills do not stretch to that level just yet ;-).

Anyway, I hope you will forgive my blog neglect. I've also had a bit on my mind of late. I have decided to give up being a Stampin' Up! demo. I was not very happy about the changes introduced in the IDA last year, and finally decided that it was best if I quit. I miss it, but think it was the best thing to do for me.

Hope you are all well, and enjoying some Autumn sun! :-)

(Blogged to: Love Generation - Bob Sinclair and Gary Pine and School's Out - Alice Cooper).

PS. I also mean't to show you a pic of the bracelet that I made for Susy for her blog candy win:

It ended up almost exactly the same as mine...I still love how it reminds me of the surf.

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).