Back to work

Well, I suppose holidays are not meant to last, or they wouldn't be holidays, would they? 

 

I've been back at work for the last couple of weeks, and so busy that until now, I haven't had time to blog the final wrap-up of the holiday projects...

 

This is the quilt that began life as a small panel for a Day Bag, way back in April. 

 

It's made from scraps of my favourite fabrics by Australian designers.  I'm lucky to know and love a lot of these gals in real life, so it's an extra buzz when I use their fabrics.  If you look closely, you'll see treasures by Pippijoe, Kristen Doran, Curlypops, Ink&Spindle, Veritas, Surface Art, Saffron Craig, Yardage, Auntie Cookie et al.

 

It's a snuggle quilt for the couch - not a single-sided bed quilt - so I tried to make the back a bit interesting as well.... without putting too much work into it.  This took a few hours, in stark contrast to the months spent working on the front.

 

 

I finished it on New Year's eve .... and celebrated with fireworks over the city of Melbourne. 

 

(Ok, so maybe someone else put on the fireworks.  I drank fancy champagne with friends on a hill just outside the city, watching fireworks and cheering in the new year.)

 

 

The ongoing saga of the couch overhaul has become.... well... an ongoing saga.  In all my re-upholstery projects, I have never seen so many staples (somebody had an awful lot of fun with a staple gun!).  The cushion covering bit was a breeze and the removal of the old coverings has become a zen practice, that I come back to from time to time. 

 ...and in the meantime, the lounge room looks like an upholstery workshop.  I don't have much time for The Zen of Staple Removal during the average working week.  It's slow-going.

We have been harvesting a lot of home-grown vegetables and herbs over the last few weeks, and looking forward to a lot more.

 

The satisfaction of sitting down to a home-grown meal never seems to wear off, and it's even nicer when it's a picnic. We plan to make time for more picnics during the working week... we picnic close to the back door.

 

I'm  not complaining about being back at work.  Last week, despite whining incessantly about the ridiculously long heatwave we had in Melbourne (temps in the low-to-mid 40's - that's hovering around 110 for you Americans - and me without air conditioning), I really enjoyed a 3-day bag-making masterclass at Kimono House.

 

You can read Kylie's post about her experience here.  And if you think you'd like to do a 2-day workshop, you can book in here.

 

The class schedule is booking up.  I have dates booked for Canberra, Healesville, CAE (Melb city), and of course, Kimono House.  I'm also running my own Zippers For Bags class in Brunswick, which you can book into here.  There is also Grampians Texture, which I'm super-excited about.... can you imagine a whole week of textile indulgence?  Heaven!  I'm teaching a 2-day Bag-Making workshop and a 4-day Pattern-Free Garment workshop. 

The next few weeks will see me writing lots of class plans and doing lots of sewing of step-by-step examples of technical processes.  I will also be throwing great swathes of fabric about the place and whipping up a new pattern-free wardrobe for myself and a few friends. ... and occasionally removing a few more inches of staples from the couch.

 

It's a family affair... or at least a family project.

It all began with a grubby old 2-seater couch, which the man of the house decided to cut down and use to construct a comfy reading chair.... He thought at first that perhaps if he turned the old covers inside-out that it might have some sort of "recycled" charm...

I thought "NOT".

The wee girl and I made a Thursday evening trip to the Ikea fabric department. It took so long for me to choose and cut fabrics that the poor out-past-bedtime child requested the trolley to sit in as she played the touch-screen computer games (Spotlight could learn a thing or two there, I think...). I just kept stacking up the fabric cushion she was sitting on.

Last weekend we did a trial run on the wee one's mini armchair (which was beyond embarrassing with its toddler grub and god-only-knows-what stains....and it was mauve - not really our girl at all!). I sewed, he stapled. Team-work.

It fits right in with her colourful corner of the studio.... and all the other Ikea furniture, tents and toy-boxes...

Lessons were learned on this project........particularly about taking care with directional prints.

And a start was made on the big chair.

While the man of the house watched the big football game on Saturday, the girl and I went to the studio and made the covers. Today we stapled (the man of house is usually chief staple-gunner but did something to his back which meant that I had to take over).

So it's a little bit wonky in parts... a bit puckered in others. I won't be asking any opinions from furniture-making friends. But it's cheerful.

And it does the job perfectly.

Now I want to paint the walls.