Sunday Stash

Sunday Stash

Join Tamara's SS for lots of lovely piccies; here is my first - a bit late for a Sunday, but I'm sure there are plenty of bloggers blogging away as I type!

This is one of my few Liberty fabrics (from ebay) - a most beautifully soft and fine corduroy of the most rad colours and pattern - some of it I have put in a quilting hoop for the wall - just gotta find the right spot!

It is so great for find more crafty bloggers in Melbourne! Melbourne girls rock! (I'm including you too Sharon!)

oops - forgot we have great guys too! Thinking of you Simon!

This is....

Thanks to Sharon - Handmaiden, this is....my favourite kitchen tool

My Reamer - birthday pressie from Hubbie- he wasn't too sure if it was a good present but I just love it - love the wooden feel - love the sharpish edges and the curvy sides - love what it does to the many citrus we eat at the moment - grapefruit, meyer lemons (so sweet for a lemon and oh so pretty), tangelos, mandarins, navel oranges, limes.

Please excuse the pulp - just made a sweet lemon drink for breakie!

Stash Show No. 2

Ooh I'm on a roll! -Just trying to catch up with everyone else (actually trying to avoid going downstairs to start breakfast and then vacumming momentous amount of animal fur)

Others show one or two pieces of stash - I'm greedy (or a showoff, you pick) so I'll give you a few

Probably, most likely, I think it is true - my truly duly cross my fingers and hope to die if I tell a lie Most Favourite Piece Of Fabric I Own is.......

this one - one of my first purchases when I started to sew quilts and I cherish it!  I love the pattern - like those marbled papers; I love the colours, there are so many tiny fragments of my favourite colours ( raspberries, aqua, creams, golds) that it goes with EVERYTHING!  So I use it sparingly because I know I will use it with just about anything and one day, sob, it will be gone.  

The next two I also have had for a long time - Cecily Mary Barker's Fairies  - have lots of stash of them and a very sweet flower fabric which I just adore - again goes with everything!

 (I can't seem to cut this photo out of the post - so here it is for you once more) Not throwing any love  at  Google Chrome at the moment!

These and others are in my 'Fairies in the window' quilt (scroll down a little)

and also in my 'Fairies in my garden' quilt (click on the photos for a better view)

Showing my stash

Trying to get back into the swing of things - bloggy wise - and join in with the numerous 'show and tell's happening around the traps, so,

Show Your Stash, from Mikes, is my first go.

This one was not easy to start - I looked at my groaning tubs of fabric and thought - but you guys have seen it all - I am a bit of a trend-junkie when it comes to the newest wave of beautiful quilt fabrics - but I do have some faves!

Laurel Burch fabrics are ones that I will probably never use - just keep and keep and keep and keep.  Why? I think they are unique and the style, colour, and whimsical nature could only be her. Now that she is gone - I feel that they are kind of historical - and so here are just a few of my collection.

   Acch! I can't move this photo to the right spot -

 so here is D1 loving her Mythical Horses Quilt (see below for explanation!)

  '

Mythical Horses' is one of my daughter's favourites - have a look at her quilt (way above!) - I have just realised I haven't got a finished photo of it - off I trot!

Our beautiful Spring Cymbidian Orchid blooms - we inherited these with the house when we bought it - and they have never let us down - these and the front gate where probably the clincher for me when we were first looking through the inspection when it was for sale - OMG the house was a mess - I should hunt out some old photos to show 'then' and 'now'.  

The favourite part of the house (neighbours tell us, as they sneaky peaked through during inspection times) was the bathroom - literally 2 metres wide and about 10 meters long with BLACK shag pile carpet on the floor and UP THE BATH and a BLACK ceiling!  HMMM scrumptious!

  This one is a Dendrobian orchid - Aussie native - a surprise present from a client when I was a receptionist in Sydney - eons ago!
  

A little self-sown pansy - don't you love it when they do their own thing!

DQS DQS DQS DQS DQS

Doll Quilt Swap No. 5 is up and running - get in quick - huge no. of max. 150 participants - but that will go super quick!

Already I can't wait for the photo shoots!

Check out 'Film in the Fridge' - Very Lovely Blog with great sewing - so many more projects that inspire me to do more - OMG  - blogging is bogging me down with ideas!

Ashley has also used the Midwest Modern fabrics strips to make a fab bag!  I love it!

Photo used with permission

One week is not enough

A little holiday down the coast - 

our own little beach, 

our own sand, 

our own waves, 

our own shells and jellyfish and sunshine and wind and rain and birds and dogs and crabs 

and family and love.

Oh the possibilities

Love this idea -you know when a range of designs come out and there are just far too many to choose your favourite??? Especially when you 'have' to buy 1/2 yards just to get it in the home?

 Well, what a great idea is this;  A Sampler of Amy Butler's Midwest Modern fabrics

 - ALL of them in fat 1/8's! 

Thats 38 delicious skinny pieces - all lovely, all interesting, all alluring...from Quilt Home

 (I have just clicked on the site - and this Sampler is gone! Not surprised!,,,But they have others

....mmmmmm Ginseng Mulberry looks yum.....)

  This is the pile after I rummaged through them with glee:

This is the pile once I calmed down and started to arrange and fold, and caress (the fabric is really divine to touch!)

First, I thought, easy peasy quilt - just sew the lengths together - too simple!  Maybe a post rail design - again, very easy and effective with so many coordinating colours (kind of like her new pattern)

Then, after looking at my stash of overflowing  quilt projects, I thought - layers for a skirt or two!

Then, after talking to Sharon re placemats (and the inspiration of her own fave Midwest Modern delights)  - Chrissie gifts of placemats and napkins.

Thing is - I could do all three!!  Because there are so many possiblities... how can I fit it all in?

Big Sigh!

She'll be apples

Remember I mentioned 'dogS' in my last post; well, this is our second bundle of joy (fur) for 5 weeks, as neighbours travel around the world (sending us cruel emails about french pastries)

Gemma

A great big bundle of soft black fur, power-walking -arm-dislocating, hungry-as-a-hippo, cat-staring, guinea-pig cage herding, hand-pushing-want-a-pat, lovely dog.

Her owners gave us 'happy' pills to give her for the first few days of home-sickness - I am happy to say that she is now a fully recovering addict and has stopped sighing and moping around the house.  Her funniest trick so far has been 'apple-bobbing'; a stray piece of dry dog food ends up in her water bowl and she 'bobs' to get it out! She snorts and coughs, but keeps at it, until Score! Classic!

Get a long bit of this.....

with a touch of that......

add some whimsy.......

and you get a ........

Very Simple Pressie for someone to sling across their back as they wander down the shops - love its vintage roots.  Hubbie thinks it's my best one yet.  I might just agree.

Swaps and sickness

I have been 'told' by hubbie that Google Chrome will be my saviour, replacing Firefox for all my internet needs, but I don't know - little things are starting to annoy me - like when I upload pictures into blogger, I can't cut and paste them!  ARRRgg! So, a little out of order (I wanted my Swap pressies first in the post, as they should be, but you guys get this instead....)

More pre-loved furniture (well, thrown out - we don't want you - you suck kind of furniture) -   Hard rubbish collection treasure hunting score - needs a bit of TLC (don't we all!)  Very cheaply put together, but a lick of paint will do it some good!

My DQS4 arrived!! Very cheery and fun little quilt made by Artsy Momma - Thanks Stefanie!! She mentioned that life is a bit hard at the moment, so to whip out a doll quilt for someone over the other side of the world would have been an effort -  It would easy to ignore such little things as swaps with people you are never going to meet or even have to speak to, so I appreciate your commitment and thought!

Great mags and fabric too!  I had never read American Quilting and Patchwork before - I have heard many Americans love our Aussie mags, but I really enjoyed this one! Not too many ads, interesting designs and interviews, simple speak - I like!  The Adorn mag was great too.

The back:

The 'sickness' thing is getting bad...........

IT IS I tell you - the malady of OOS (Obsessive Op-Shopping) - I felt the need yesterday, despite numerous other jobs I had to do in my precious 3 and a bit hours between school start time and work.  I hadn't been to Animal Liberation Op-shop (1355 Toorak Road ) in Burwood before; so off I trundle (said sorry to my dogs (we are 'dog-sitting' a neighbour's dog for 5 weeks, but that will be another post) walkies will be later, only to find that it opens 50 mins after I get there. Well, the need was still there and growing!

So, where to get my next 'hit' - RSPCA op-shops (yes TWO next to each other) in Burwood East (in the funny little quadrangle of shops opposite the RSPCA)  Drive like a mad woman, because time is running out - I'm only giving myself 45 mins - Guess What?  Everything Half Price!!! OMG - an op-shop at even less than ridiculous prices - it could not be true!

let me show you what I got..........

Some deliciousness for Vintage Sheet Swap

Couldn't resist this really interesting vase - in fabulous condition - does anyone know the label?

(the background is another sheet which is my favourite Spring tablecloth at the moment)

This Was my handbag for many a year (another op-shop score), but it is time for retirement - (my own take on handbag accroutements)

This is the new sportier model: more of a sling-over your shoulder, swan down the street, feeling fine kind of gal:

Great books for kiddleys over next school hols:

Mmmmmmmmmm - ice-cream - say no more:

Favourite pillowcase

How much you ask?.....All that... yes ALL THAT (plus a quilting hoop!!!) for 20 bucks!! that included a donation!!

The lady behind the counter was soooo lovely - what a joy to meet people who enjoy serving others - perhaps other (not so joyful) op-shop ladies could take note and smile once in a while?