Round scrappy cushions

As with any person who like to sew, I have become a chronic horder.

This was underlined by my dear friend who - when I mentioned I might try and get to the next fabricabrac sale to buy up some great deals - pointed out we should be setting up a stall and selling fabric stashes rather than buying more. Yes ok ... perhaps she has a point. Thanks V.

So I took the pattern for the sprocket pillow from cluckclucksew.com and put it to good use with the load of scraps and bits of fabric I have stashed in a big metal pot.



The results are very cute and effective, and for the price of the stuffing only, are a wonderful way to put those scraps of this and that to good use.









I am thinking of making some much larger versions with beanbag filling for floor cushions. Might be fun. With a coated cotton base they could be for outdoor use too.

 

A calm and moody moment on the coast before the southerly blasted in yesterday

Kitch Nirvana

When I visited my brother recently in San Diego I stumbled across a place called the Antique Centre in Ocean Beach.  It was like a Nirvana of fun-ness. 

It was the last store on my list and I had given myself 5 minutes to wander round until the next bus back into town.  It didn't take long to decide that I wasn't going to make the bus. 

I could have pitched a tent and lived in this place.  It was a massive shop with individual sellers having an area each to display their wares.  Some of the displays were fantastic and the sheer amount of goods was just astonishing. 

From little old New Zealand where just one of these booths would have made the coolest store on the block, I just wanted to get a shipping container and fill it up.  This will be the first place I visit next time I'm in town.

Lolly wrappers

Cape Gooseberries are like little sweeties, individually wrapped for easy consumption.

What I like the most is when the case has been left on the ground and becomes skeletal.  It still retains its shape and is so intricate.

Enough - feet up - faccio niente

So yay that's it. That's my sewing room pretty much done. Here are my before and after shots.

Before

After



Before



After



Before



After



I think I can put my feet up and get back to something a little bit more fun.

I visited my brother in San Diego a few weeks ago and I was watching Eat Pray Love again on the plane (for want of anything better to pass the hours).  It reminded me of the phrase they stress in the Italian section "la dolce far niente" - the sweetness of doing nothing. 

The idea really resonates - to be calm and do little. I am such a fidget britches and have such a long list of things I want to do, to try, or to finish, that the thought of spending time not doing anything, and not trying to accomplish something, is much more difficult than it sounds. Well it sounds grand, but then I think "oh, I could start that...." or "I could try to do a little bit of that....". For example, I get the Saturday paper delivered because I like the idea of sitting and sipping coffee and leisurely reading the paper.  I never manage to get through more than one section and then it just gets used under the weedmat in the garden.

So this is my new aim. To allocate some time every weekend to not have to achieve an outcome - read a book, or snooze in the sun. That's my pledge.



The One-Yard-Too-Little Curtains

The cream/fawn curtains that were already in place in the room were relatively inoffensive but were too plain and made the room look very drab. I really wanted to make some blinds but with the width and construction of the windows it was going to be impossible. So, I opted just to replace the curtains with something with a bit more pep.

I bought this fabric at ikea when I was visiting my brother in San Diego. It ties in with the designs that I had chosen for the other 2 bedrooms but has a bit more pattern, which I thought was necessary.

However, as is of course the way (especially when you have no opportunity to go back to the shop and buy some more), I bought about a yard too little. (Likely to be the difference between yards I was cutting and metres in my head.  sigh)  Ahhhh, the frustration (enough to say, not good words were said)!

I tried calculating the measurements of the fabric again and again, but lets face it - you can't magic up threads from nowhere.

So, I was forced to adopt that age-old tradition ...... tack a bit of some other fabric on the end!

I bought some sturdy satin-finished material and have made a large bottom border and a sash from this material. I made the linings from just natural calico. In hindsight I wonder if the black material shouldn't have been at the top, but I don't mind how they turned out. It took quite a long time to get these all done given the extra hemming and the lining and the sashes, but pleased to have these completed finally.  Thoroughly sick of curtains for the time being.

And, in a fit of productivity I made a final tribute to the old wallpaper.  Whilst the migraine of the truck wallpaper was too much to live with, it was worthy of a tribute and has therefore been immortalised by framing a piece and giving it a well deserved place on the wall. 

Shades of grey being very in this season

No, I haven't read the books.  I have them on loan from a friend but couldn't get past the trash writing to the interesting parts.  Anyway - that's not what this is about. 

I opted for one wall to be a different colour.  I knew I wanted grey but again, had a few test pot disappointments.  In the end I bought a can of Quarter Sidewinder on the misguided view that it would simply be a lighter shade of its cousin, Half Sidewinder.  That's right - I never learn - another whoopsie.

However, after some grovelling and a lot of work from the girls at the local paint store, they tinted it up as much as possible and it has turned out to be what I was looking for.  A warm grey.  Phew.

I have finally got to hang all those picture frames I'd been hording for the past year.  Some are from ikea and the rest are from the local dump shop and painted white.  I love how the frames look against the grey.