Taylor Street

Fair weather blogger

There's not been so much going on of a blogworthy nature, but I have been chucking out a lot of stuff which for me is a BIG thing.  There has been some stuff made, like this:

 

I made it for my niece, but she didn't want it so I kept it.  That was probably quite petulant of me given I am 30 years older than her and she was tired and grumpy when I asked her if she liked it and wanted it.  It wasn't like that really, but it never quite made it into her mums bag when she left. 

I've been making a quilt for my own son-to-be as well which I'm pretty pleased with, and I'll take some progress photos this weekend when we may have some light. 

There's a pile of bound waffle weave, muslin and flannel for my boy now as well (and callus' on my fingers to show for it), and 1 and a half pairs of the LMKG denim pants in the two smallest sizes for him as well.  14 weeks to go officially, and I'm starting to realise just how fast that time will go....

Production lines

I'm absolutely itching to get stuck in to a couple of quilts for you can guess who, but want to get some more tedious sewing I feel compelled to do out of the way first.  Binding muslin, waffle weave, and flannel are the order of the day (or many days) at the moment.  I'm developing a blister on one of my fingers from the hand sewing, and have finally discovered the joys of the thimble.  Why didn't I use them before?  Probably because hand work was not something I indulge in much, and must confess I'm not a huge fan really.  Good for in front of the TV I guess.

Anyway, here are the first round, bindings all ready to go.  These are now all machined on one side at the very least, and some are complete.   I'm thinking you can never have too many wraps/spit rags/pram drapeover things/playmats/general fabric bound in colourful prints to put over, around and or under things, right mothers? 

I also became 33 on Wednesday.  All grown up now...  Birthdays are really very good, but I wan't really as excited about this one as it really snuck up on me despite the fact that I ordered my birthday present about 3 months before the actual day.  There was chocolate cake involved, which generally means a good day generally, and H made my favourite stodgy meal and spoiled me generally.  I made the most of it.

All systems go

Despite a lack of posting, there's actually been a bit of action around here.  I found out a few weeks ago we're having a boy, so it's been good to get a little bit of direction.  18 weeks to go, and I have a feeling they will fly by.

The night we found out "it" is a "he" was cast on some Koigu Kersti (K4000 is the colour - a lovely dark olivey green) from the stash and make this:

He'll be nice and warm next winter.  It's been so cold here this year it's difficult to think about preparing for a summer baby.  This is of course the Placket Sweater from Last Minute Knitted Gifts, and only took three evenings from start to finish.  The Koigu Kersti is gorgeous, and 3 skeins was plenty for the 6-12 month size and that was with some generosity in the length of body and arms given his long limbed father.  I know one shouldn't make assumptions about the physiology of your unborn child, but I'll be very surprised if this isn't a tall kid.  I reckon there could be a second one of these (there's more Koigu in the stash!).

Hooray for re-discovered motivation

I'm not sure what has happened, but all of a sudden I'm in a frenzy of finishing.  As my fellow southern hemisphere peeps will appreciate, photography after work is somewhat challenging these days, but I did manage to get some pics of a baby quilt I finished last weekend.  The top has been complete and waiting in a pile for such a long time, and finally I decided how to back and quilt it (that would be quickly and easily!).  The fabric was the stuff I printed on the screen printing day at Prints Charming, and the quilt top is a blatant copy of one of Kristens quilts that is in the shop.  I popped in there the other day (the Prints Charming shop) and I see the original is now for sale - worth considering if you are in the market for a gender neutral childs quilt.  It's acqua and red with their gorgeous rocket print on the back in red on white.  Here is my version:

Who is it for you may well ask?  I'm not sure.  We shall see next week, as this is clearly a girls quilt.

I've not been here, but now I'm back

So I've been away.  Not for a whole month, but part of it at least.  Where have we been you may well ask?  I'll give you a clue:

Yes, perhaps predictably we've been in Bali.  And it was wonderful.  What's not to love about spectacular food, balmy weather, lux hotels, friendly locals, and daily massages?  And buttons.  I found a button shop called JJ Bali Buttons on JL Gunung Tangkuban Perahu in Kerobokan.  Anyone of the sewing and knitting persuasion heading to Bali should take themselves to this place as their range is amazing, and the prices are outrageously cheap. 

And that's only half the shop.  Needless to say, the range is significantly larger than what appears on their website.  There were literally thousands of jars, all with different buttons of every size, shape, colour, material you could imagine. 

Craft-wise, there are bits and pieces on the go as always, but no major works have been undertaken for some time mainly due to another side project I've got going on at the moment which has included making eyebrows and arms and legs and brains and hearts and stuff like that.  I am pregnant and still struggling to believe it's true, except my bra size has increased 4 cup sizes and my waist by 4 inches.  Yes you read that correctly, 4 sizes which I think is rather impressive.  And vaguely horrifying.  I reckon I can now say am officially no longer flat chested.  I was wondering why my undergarments had been getting so uncomfortable.  So all going well, by the end of October we'll be welcoming a mini amalgam of H & me.

Happy days.

Easter, study, lack of mojo, and the whole crazy thing

So yet another long and unplanned break which makes me think that perhaps I'm not cut out for this sort of thing.  I will persist though, as there may be a time when this gets the sort of attention I would like to give it.

I have been suffering from acute lack of craft mojo lately, so felt I had little to post.  I have made a ton of baby wraps, but there's only so many pics you can take of white or red pieces of flannel/waffle weave cotton with various print bindings you can take.  Some of them I was really pleased with.  One particularly - a scarlet red flannel wrap with a leopard print trim.  And yes, it was as gaudy as it sounds but at the same time fabulous.  That one went to my newest niece, and was inspired by my brothers oft voiced desire for leopard print satin sheets.  His wife is not leopard inclined.  It was kind of made as a joke, but both parents actually love it.  I sent along some more age appropriate efforts as well.  Other babes have been born, and my pile of loot I had ready for babies is almost depleted.

And then I caught up with three lovely ladies last weekend, and that plus the cooler weather inspired me to get the needles out.  I wanted a quick and easy project I could start and finish in an evening to kick start my mojo, so decided to do some booties for my lovely next door neighbours with a newborn son, who were off to NZ for a wedding.  And this is not just any wedding, it is the daughter of a former All Blacks coach, and the father of the baby (ie my next door neighbour) is a mad rugby fan.  So I made these:

Dreadful photo, but it's not like I haven't made about 15 pairs of these already and I still love them.  Happily they were very well received.

And whilst I mention lovely ladies (see above), how cool is this?  Very.

Remember me?

Hello internet people.  There's not been much making going on around here, and once again I have been foiled by flat camera batteries and the inability to remember to buy new ones.  I've finally checked my comments and see that there are some issues with this blog and the bloglines feed - some celebrity gossip crap is coming up.  So if anyone is out there still subscribing to the feed I apologise and thank you for persisting, and have sent bloglines a message for some help in sorting it out.  I have no idea where to start...  If anyone else has had this happen to them and knows what to do I'd appreciate some guidance.

And just because I feel compelled to post a photo, this is something I get to see every day on my way home.  Not bad hey.  This pic was actually taken with my phone.

String theory

Well, not exactly string theory as this is incredibly simple.  This string embellished black linen has been waiting to be morphed into a loose summer "throw on over the swimmers" type of shift for months, but Sydney never quite put on any swimming weather this summer so it hadn't happened.  A beach holiday is not so far off, so with that as motivation (and time disappearing) I finally made this incredibly simple and easy shift from Sewing Talk.

This is dress c from the book, and I added 1/2 and inch to the side seams of the largest size but this dress is plenty roomy enough and I probably needn't have bothered.  It was always intended as a schlep dress, so a bit of extra room doesn't hurt.  The fabric is a lovely black linen/cotton blend from Tessuti with string embellishment and I have a feeling this will be my dress of choice in the tropics.

Chilli tomato risotto

And there's more than a little chilli.  This is what came out of the kitchen the other night. 

Recipe can be found here.  I keep thinking about it which is a good sign it'll become a bit of a staple.

More stockpiling

Maybe I should open a shop.  Feels like that at the moment with my growing stash of baby related gifts.

These are the first of the flannel baby blankets a la Last Minute Patchwork and Quilted Gifts.  Flannel from Spotlight (and it's beautifully soft and fluffy), and the trim fabric is a 20's repro.  I wonder which will be most useful, waffle cotton or flannel?

Other than that, 2008 continues to fly by and I'm already counting the weeks until our next holiday (10).  And we bought a new car.  A new second hand car, but much newer than my old car.  And I still feel a little bit of a pang of loss from trading in my old car, probably because that was my car, and this one will be much more H's car given he drives it every day (as always) but it was never my car first.  And I'm scared of smashing the new one.  Not that I'm prone to smashing cars, but these things happen.