Nothing to see here, folks...

Just a lot of photos you've seen before. Around these-here parts, it's all about the Show, the book, the new pattern...


...the champagne swilling shindig for Sew it Together... (must stop calling it that and start calling it a soiree or something)

...thoughts about what I can possibly take to Sewjourn that will help me meet my book deadline... (without taking my computer?)

...sick parents and a new baby niece and a 4-year-old who continues to love and need me (despite my apparent loss of parenting skills) and a man I occasionally meet in the kitchen to discuss the local primary schools we should have sussed by now to have said-4-year-old enrolled for next year and oh-my-goodness I forgot to pay the car registration and the kindergarten fees and I haven't seen the inside of a supermarket for weeks.....

...and I'm thinking about a holiday in June while refusing to think about laundry or dusting.

When this is all over ("this" meaning "the month of May"... and the holiday) I have plans for some fresh new patterns. What would you like to see in my pattern range...?

Kah-shhhhhhhhhh..... secret bloggers business.

My sewing buddy arrived with a brand-spanking new industrial iron yesterday (to replace the one she brought over from the UK recently, which only lasted a few weeks before it died of a Brighton-water-related disease). We're splitting the cost but it gets to live in my studio. Yippeee!

That elastic looking thing is holding on a solid teflon plate (seriously non-stick!) and that big red button releases a high-pressure Kah-shhhhhhhhh of steam.... which gets sucked through the vaccuum board and makes everything FLAT FLAT FLAT. Love it.

And the tank.... it only needs to be filled up about once a week. As a high-temperature-and-super-steam-loving gal, when it comes to irons, that feature means a LOT to me! (A pet hate of mine is filling the iron every five minutes).

The domestic steam station I bought (on Ebay) last year hasn't really cut the mustard. It spits water rather than steam, and right now is shooting more steam through the end of the handle than through the plate. A good brand but I think I bought a dud. We live and learn.


And you know, I love Blogland. I love that I can devote a whole post to writing about an iron and expect that more than a few people will find it interesting, and might even have something to share on the subject.

That's why I'm looking forward to the Sew It Together convention. The chance to hang out with a bunch of other people who can wax lyrical about the joys of a teflon plate and get excited about the blissfull sound of high-pressure steam through fabric.... well, let's just say its got me a bit skippy-hoppy-happy.

I was in Ikea yesterday, stocking up on display items for the Stitches and Craft Show (and, ahem... other assorted handy things that I never knew I needed) and I bought a few boxes of cheap champagne flutes for the little Friday Night Shindig on the 14th May. It occurred to me that I should organise some sort of formal RSVP thing so I can be in some way prepared.

We've relocated to the downstairs boardroom at the Brunswick Business Incubator from 5pm, but when everyone is in we can have a tour upstairs to the studio (so you can visit my new iron).

If I know how many folks will be there, I could quite possibly cater adequately with enough drinks for everyone and a plate or two of eatables. I'd also really appreciate it if a few locals could bring a plate of something to share - if you can do food (edited to add: don't worry about drinks - that's my shout) please let me or Sheridan know - by Monday 10th May if at all possible.

Sneaky-peek shots of a work in progress....

... are a great excuse...

... to play with a macro setting on a camera.

There will be a new pattern finished (by hook or by crook) for the Stitches and Craft Show. I'll be launching it there with a special deal... but it's a secret, ok?

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PS. On a not-so-separate matter.... Can anyone please help me out with a conversion chart from millimeters to FRACTIONS (not decimals) of inches? All the online conversions I've tried just give me decimals... and who works in three decimal places of an inch?! I cannot get my head around fractions of inches, but it seems that a lot of you quite like them.

My Creative Space

Tables are filling up.... Getting ready for the Show.

Patterns and kits galore.

I also started a new purse pattern for the show (...am I mad?) and have been cooking up lots of ideas for super-specials to have for customers who visit us there.

Oh... I forgot to mention in yesterdays post, that there are also 40mm antique brass rings going out at 20%off - until they're all gone.

Check out what's going on around the global village of creative spaces over at Kirst's....

Special Clearance

We have a finite quantity of these lovely 50mm "antique brass" o-rings in stock, so we're running them out at 20% off the usual price. See them HERE.

They're made with sturdy 4mm wire and are versatile rings for all sizes of bag. Get in quick before they're gone!

Child's Play

The wee girl convinced me to spend about $7 on a "Fuzzy Felt-esque" set at Officeworks yesterday. The fun lasted as long as it took her to separate all the half-stamped-out shapes from the squares of felt and pile them onto the board.

I thought perhaps she needed a bigger ocean, so gave her a large piece of acrylic felt (bought off the roll at Spotlight) and my felt scraps.

She designed a night-time scene of houses by a river (with a whale... of course) and an apple tree. She then insisted that I help, and together we built the rocket and space ships.

This felt creation engaged her for at least an hour or two, and I was sorry for having been sucked in by the quick fix Officeworks packet.

I wish I had the time to put into working with my girl to make a few things for "Mini-Me Handmade" at the Stitches and Craft Show. It's the opportunity for little crafters sell their handmade wares for a few hours at the show (with help from a parent).

I know the wee girl would LOVE it, and adults ALWAYS buy the things little kids make.... but I'm a bad Mummy who has other fish to fry right now.

I remember the support my Mum gave me at little markets and the local craft shop, when I was a 7-year-old with a small craft business**.... making dolls clothes and cushion covers (badly), making reasonably good soft toys (I've examned a few of them recently), sticking split peas on gift cards and drawing in the spider legs, wrapping soap in various textile creations..... My Mum patiently drove me hither and thither, bought my materials, did long days as a volunteer in the local community craft shop and always gave me confidence in what I was doing. I wish I was a bit more like her.

**I actually made all my pocket money from craft until I was about 16 (when I was too focused on sewing clothes for myself and being a girly-swot at school to bother with anything else). As you can see from the photo below (taken when I was 12) that my sewing skills far surpassed my photography skills.

In case you haven't yet downloaded the show guide to see all the goings-on at the show, here are the details for Mini Me Handmade.

Mini Me Handmade runs 10.00 am – 12.00pm on the Saturday of the Show.

The cost is $10 - inc. GST - per stall and includes entry to The Stitches & Craft Show for one child and one parent.

All items must be handmade and created by the child participating or their helpful sibling(s).
A table and chair will be provided. To assist with supervision, money handling, bathroom breaks and encouragement, every child must be accompanied by an adult.

Applications are open to children 10 years and younger.
BYO cameras.

For more information: T: 1800 770 222 E:

exhibiting@stitchesandcraft.com.au

Beginnings and endings and things in between....

I love these (fairly new to me) photos of my Mum and her sister, enjoying being new mothers.

And my Mum was BORN to be a mother. Such a stretch of life and possibilities ahead....

Today I just need a reminder of her like this. I think she was beautiful.

Edited to add: The baby isn't me. It's my eldest brother.

My Creative Space

Hasn't been tidied since last week.......or was that two weeks before that?

It's all going on, and the clock is ticking too fast. I'd be lost without Cam and Leah (holding the fort in the office and stock control) right now, and my super team of secret-squirrel pattern testers. THANKS, TEAM!

I've been working dayshifts and nightshifts on the book. Not much else.

*My apologies for the lack of bloggable craft on several of your favourite blogs lately. Blame me. I swore them to secrecy.

The only non-rummaged-through fabric in the place is this new bundle that arrived yesterday. I'm still at the stroking tenderly stage with it.

I had to find more of the green Rhapsody floral fabric (to go with the orange one I was looking for) and while I was there I also stocked up on some bits from the Blush range by Basic Grey for Moda and some sweet American Jane florals. Gotta love a daisy.

(I found the orange fabric at another shop but wasn't super-happy with the service - so no linky blog post for that one!! The Quilt Shoppe were great, though.)

Also on my desk by mid-morning today was the new SEW DARN CUTE book that I won on Chunky Chooky's blog giveaway YESTERDAY. Now THAT's service!!

I have a feeling this one will be much-used in the great indoctrination plan . Lots of very appealing projects for beginners - and I think a fantastic resource for Mummy-and-wee-one sewing ideas.

And Stitches & Craft Show preparations...? Well - we're getting organised (I hope). And the organisers? They've been doing LOTS of organising, too! You can DOWNLOAD THE SHOW GUIDE from here.

Jodie's been getting organised, too.... three new patterns and a talk about blogging. Sheesh. I'd best get my skates on....

See all the other creative spaces on show over at Kirst's place. They're probably tidier than mine.

A shortcut within a shortcut inside a shortcut...

I discovered years ago, that freezer paper was useful not only for cutting repeat shapes of fiddly applique designs, but also for cutting out small pattern pieces for bags and purses (and it's MAGIC with small bag bits on slippery lining fabrics).

For the uninitiated, freezer paper has a shiny side and a dull side. When you iron the shiny side to the surface of fabric, it sticks. The magic bit is that you can then peel it off and RE-USE the freezer paper quite a few more times. It'll eventually lose its stickiness, but it kicks on for longer than you'd think.
I love a shortcut.... so when faced with the prospect of tracing Tania's HOT FROG pattern pieces onto freezer paper (a fiddly pattern piece always has me reaching for the freezer paper), I thought of yet ANOTHER shortcut.


1. Cut the freezer paper to size and feed it through the inkjet printer (dull side as print side) to print out the downloadable pdf. (If you're using a paper pattern, you could photocopy it onto the freezer paper with a multi-function inkjet printer ). Why hadn't I thought of THAT one before...?

2. Rough-cut around the freezer paper pattern pieces out and iron them onto the fabric.

3. Cut the pieces out.

(I cut the double layer of fabric under the one stuck-on pattern until it all got a bit too much like hard work. I then finished cutting the top layer, repositioned the freezer paper on the other piece and finished cutting the fiddly bit on that one, too... another shortcut).

4. Peel off the pattern pieces and press them onto the next piece of fabric.

5. The pattern piece will stay in place even when you're cutting around little curvy bits.

Now the pattern pieces are all nicely cut out and the freezer paper patterns can be used again for another frog or two.

As you can probably tell by the number of shortcuts I was taking, I really don't have time to make the hot frog at the moment! The cut pieces are now in a ziplock bag with the instructions - all ready for when the wee frog-obsessed girl remembers that she was nagging about making one of these.

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In case you missed the link at the top of the post, Liesl did a bit of research into Freezer paper a while ago and complied this list of Aussie suppliers. She also wrote a tutorial for freezer paper stencils.

My Weekend

...was spent looking after Swappy* (rhymes with HAPPY).

A star-tipped swizzle stick was waved and I was declared SUPER Mummy.

My charge was this lovely Two Little Banshees caterpillar who "is just a little baby" and needed feeding, burping and carrying around all day.

Apparently Swappy didn't need as many naps as I suggested he might, and he wasn't comfortable near the computer.

What does a Super-Mummy do when she has a looming deadline...? Burp and feed a soft toy caterpillar, make a batch of cupcakes with the four-year-old (Swappy was napping), do the weekly grocery shopping and umpteen loads of washing.... and try to remember to breathe.

Cest le vie.

*I think the wee one spends too much time in Ikea. Her toys all have names like Swappy, Flakker, Sippo...

My Creative Space

Is all systems go.

Getting stock ready for the Stitches and Craft Show in (eek!) a few weeks. Super-trouper Cam has it all under control (right, Cam...?). I'm looking forward to catching up with old friends at the show... and proudly seeing how very far the indie scene has come since that very first show in Melbourne and that first trip up to Sydney...when Angela and her team took us under their wings and gave us a platform (literally*) to reach a broader audience.

*We spent a lot of time on a stage at the first show.

A gorgeous bundle of felt arrived from Winterwood today, and I immediately hacked into it before I thought to take a photo. I'm saving even the tiniest scraps for appliqué, because it's just TOO beautiful a fabric to put in the kindergarten scrap bag (and it holds its shape even when it's a teeny-tiny scrap).

There was also a bit of embroidery floss action today.... but I'm afraid you'll have to wait a bit longer to see what I made.

Leah was busy in the office, too... but I didn't get a photo of her (she moves too fast).

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Drop in to visit Kirsty and see who else is sharing their creative space today.

Impromptu sewing project and a quick how-to...

My prioritised to-do list is a little on the top-heavy side at the moment. One thing that jumped the queue today was this rather fetching new belt....

You're right - that outfit was not crying out for a belt - but my nerve-twanging lower back was SCREAMING LOUDLY for it after a morning at the chiropractor.

The belt holds a wheat bag - heated in the microwave and held snugly to soothe and relax tramatised muscles.

I've been thinking about making this since I hurt my back* two weeks ago, and now I'm wishing I'd made it two weeks ago.

*I was just walking across a room.... Lara was witness to it if you don't believe me!

The process is quite simple.

1. Take a scrap of any stretchy fabric (something soft and fluffy would be nice, but I only had cotton-lycra jersey) and sew a tube shape about 20-25cm wide and long enough to go around your waist and tie.

You might have noticed that I overlocked mine in black thread. This wasn't a design feature - just sheer laziness on my part.

2. Fold one end in thirds, overlapping and threading it through two large o-rings.

3. I then overlocked the end (in black again...) through all layers of the folded end and stitched it.....

...right through all layers of fabric to the front of the belt. You might choose a different finish - but it has to hold two rings.

4. Whip up a quick wheat bag - about 40cm x 15cm - sew, turn through, fill with wheat grains and machine stitch closed.

If you need a more detailed tutorial for a basic wheat bag, I'm sure there'll be one somewhere online. Most of you should be able to work it out, though,... won't you?

5. Pop the wheatbag in the microwave for a couple of minutes.

6. Fold back the tube of the belt so that you can put the wheatbag close to the buckle end. Roll the belt over the top of the wheat bag.


7. Wrap it around your hip/waist/shoulders and do up the belt. Adjust the wheatbag to cover the aching/nerve-twanging bits and ....

Yes - you should sit and relax, or have a little lie down.

I sat at a sewing machine and got on with the rest of the to-do list.... ummmmm....which I think is why my back is still sore after two weeks.

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PS. Special thanks to Cam for being fashion photographer and for putting up with my whining about pinched nerve pains.

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Oh - and don't forget that if you wanted to take advantage of our MOTHER'S DAY SPECIAL, you have two days left. We're giving a free frame away with most of our purse kits. See here for details.