Bagging

My best friend Dace's gorgeous daughter asked me to make her a bag for her 21st birthday (tomorrow). A sort of red sort of a messenger bag sort of thing.
I was dead chuffed, and, of course, left everything until the last 48 hours before getting started. Just like last time.
Lily told me there was no point in making a messenger bag that wouldn't take a laptop, so after a bit of research and a lot of google images, I worked one out.I needed quite a bit of thinking and swearing time when it came to the gusset, and again with fitting and lining the flap ... but the closure idea came from pictures of an Amy Butler bag. There is a huge zip pocket on the outside back of the bag, pockets across the front, and an even bigger one right across the inside back, as well as custom-fitted pockets for iPhone, pens, camera and anything else.The wonderful hand-printed outer fabric, which I got from Materialise (click over there on the right -->) is a sturdy twill that I reinforced with very stiff iron-on interfacing. I had trouble trying to centre the pattern because it isn't exactly symmetrical. But once I'd realised that, I was okay.
I also had trouble banging in the press studs, and working out how the strap adjuster worked, given that this cryptic drawing was the only guidance the manufacturer, Birch, sees fit to provide (it's bloody useless). Fortunately, I was able to take everything over to Nick, who easily and efficiently fixed it all for me.
Dace had thrown me a curve ball by saying this bag had to be h-u-g-e, and by holding out her hands to show something vaguely the size of half a fridge. But my research in cyber-webby land all pointed to a bag that would fit a 14" (36 cm) laptop, so that's what I made.
Only dang is that I'll miss the party tomorrow night, or most of it, because I'll be at work. But I'll rock up on my way home for a piece of birthday cake and a hug.

Production line

Components of 10 Our Lady tea cosies, ready for assembly.And an early batch of ornaments getting their first coat of white paint, ready for decorating with paint and paper.It's busy round here.

Mint-Ohs

Still life with steam iron and scissors.

Felt like a break from the tea-cosies — though I do still love 'em a lot — but I was curious to try a cushion.

The green Os are appliqued and the front is random quilted.

It's stuffed with a feather insert imported this morning from Little Stockholm.

I was very brave and good this morning. I did a lightning trip into Spotto for zips and batting and Little Stockholm for cushion inserts and was home by 10.15.

The big wait

Taught myself free-motion quilting while I was waiting for the Independents to do the big reveal yesterday.

The citrus-sharp paisley is one of the Liberty Art Fabrics, classic prints by Liberty that have been re-worked and coloured by Kaffe Fassett. I got it from here.

And yes, this is yet another tea cosy. Sorry if you've had enough.

I'm making a whole mob for my Christmas shop, and I've already got a few orders — yay!

:: Off to work in a couple of hours ... just time to make another ...

Green tea?

I do love the virgin tea cosies — there've been two so far and more are on on the way — but I think this one is my favourite so far.

For high tea with Father Ted

Our Lady of the Immaculate Tea Strainer #1 (goes with last year's Our Lady of the Immaculate Kicthen aprons).

This is the reverse:

(I'm expecting to get struck by lightning any minute ...)

Domestic arrangement

... with steam iron

Cosy #1

For summer tea parties, I fancy.

Pink

One of our reporters, a lovely young Irish bloke who worked in London for the News of the World (eeeeeyew) and can't believe his luck to be working for us now, has had a baby daughter, Molly.

So this cot quilt, about 150cm square, is for Molly.

It has been one of my therapeutic projects — all straight lines, nothing complicated, the perfect way to unwind.

I've given it a wash and it's now in the dryer, so it'll be all crinkly and lovely when I hand it over tomorrow.

:: Will has just enrolled in second semester fine arts, doing painting, printmaking and illustration. The lucky doer. Wish I could go back ...

:: Lily completes her four-year liberal arts degree this month from her US college. Majoring in history, lit and politics. So proud of her for sticking with it, especially when the going got tough and she moved to another continent. And it's sad that she was unable to graduate and celebrate with all her college mates, many of whose photos are on the website if you look at "graduating year of 2010".

She's writing a Mills & Boon novel (Harlequin Romance for US folk). She emailed me the summary last night and I have to share ...

"Ruby resolves not to let him know about her medicine degree, focusing instead on her modelling career.

"Chuck resolves to convince her he is a dead-beat surfer-dude who only cares about riding waves..."

But ... after I explain that Ruby and Chuck share a deep admiration for Sir David Attenborough and his Planet Earth nature documentary series ... this is my real favourite bit:

"They buy heaps of candy and give themselves sugar rushes and watch Planet Earth at the Imax, which Chuck has rented exclusively for the purpose ..."

I think Lily has perfectly captured the essence of pulp romance, don't you?

Finished

Binding finished during a few nail-biting Docker games.

Now on to the next ...

Stitchin'

Don't have much time or eyesight to do a lot in my lovely room at the mo.

The DLBs are all quietly slumbering on the bookshelf and waiting for faces.

So, too, is the doll; though truth be told, in a sort of perverse existentialist affectation, she actually revels in the identity-lessness.

Diabolical bunny (above) is still in limbo while we try to decide if a bit of trans-species surgery (ie, cutting his long bunny ears to short round ones) would meet his inner need to be a bear and help him with his issues.

Granny rug is assuming that one day she will be bigger than a hand-towel so she can be truly useful and keep something warm.

The papercuts are filed in the flat and the dark, where the cow is perpetually jumping over the moon and wants to complain but can't because I haven't cut up to her yet.

So while I've been working at the paper, I've turned my back on all these loud, needy creatures and got on with a quilt. Peace and quiet.

It's a whole-cloth cot quilt. Very manageable size. No piecing or fiddling required. Just occasional mindless sewing up and down with the walking foot on the mighty Bernina.

The top is a Japanese Kokka cotton in bright cheery stripes, the other side a fabulous polka-dot cotton in a goes-with-anything ochre-yellow that I found for two bucks a metre in Albany's brand-new and huge Spotto store.

I'm sewing on the binding while I watch the footy on the telly (you bewdy, Dockers!)

I couldn't find anywhere on the interwebs that would make me the sort of sew-in labels I was looking for, so I've sewn my own.

:: David came home on Friday, a day early, and all is again right with the world. I'm cooking a big bold chicken curry in the slow-cooker to take to David's mum's for dinner tonight, and shortly all my kids will descend on me to make me lunch.

Happy day to all you mothers.

Love from me

X

Doll number one

She has the most enormous thumbs and her arms are upside down.

She has no features, and her legs are twisted.

Poor dolly.

I do like her frock, though.

:: My best friend Jane rang me a while ago to say that the shop where we hope to sell our baby goods and make an absolute ripsnorting fortune has sold one of her quilts. Yee ha!

Why my week whizzed

I've been cutting and gardening and cleaning (just a bit) (not that you'd notice) and seeing friends and sewing.

This is a cot-sized quilt top that is on its way to the extremely talented Tracey in FNQ, who is going to quilt it for me. I'm very excited about this, as her quilting is a work of art ... though knowing of her expertise did make me very conscious of my wonky piecing and slapdash sewing ... and did I iron all the bits the right way? Oops.

I just can't wait to see the result!

The quilt is a multinational project. I started the piecing in December last year in San Diego, using fabrics I'd bought there and in Chicago. Finished the sashing yesterday here in Perth. Now it's all in Queensland, or on its way at least, and when I get it back and finish the binding, it will be posted off to Sam and Tom in Brighton, UK, whose baby is due in January. It was their gorgeous country wedding I went to last July with Lily.

Sam is the daughter of my cousin, Kathleen, and in 1996, when Sam was just out of her teens, she came and lived with us in Subiaco for eight months. We had a ball with her, and the kids still adore her.

:: My parents had their 59th — that's fifty-ninth — wedding anniversary yesterday, so in a short while I'm driving south to spend the weekend with them and catch up with my brother. Yay!

Next year we'll be giving Old Betty Windsor a nudge to send M&D an anniversary greeting for their diamond wedding. I think you have to pay for it these days — typical.

Before I go, I'm making a CD of MP3s to play on the drive down. Hooray for MP3 players in cars. One CD will hold about 110 songs. Brilliant. Stick it in, press 'random', and that's me all set.

See you later.

Bag #1

I didn't mean this one to be anything more than an experiment. I wanted to try metallic thread and play around with my sewing machine tension. So I just started playing on a piece of old felt, doing zig-zags and applique with some squares cut from a fabric selvedge.

But then I thought I might as well finish it.

It's just a bit bigger than a paperback book; the sort of bag you'd take with you if you were going out for the night and wanted a small bag with just enough room for your mobile phone, keys, lipstick and cash.

The front's made from bits and pieces from things like a Thai cushion and an old kimono, and the back panel is just one rectangle of black silk from the lining of an old obi.

I lined it with two pieces of cotton from my stash, and put in a phone pocket on one side:

and a zippered pocket on the other.

The pocket lining is weird, huh? I like my zippered pockets to have a little surprise inside, as you can tell from this one:

When it was finished, I showed it to Will (my style counsel) who examined it closely and didn't like it at all. The felt was cheap-looking, the machine embroidery too irregular, the silver metallic thread too sparkly, the whole thing too wonky. Sigh ... he's right! But he liked the inside. And: "You've made better, Mum. Much better."

I enjoyed playing around with it, though, and making it has given me lots of ideas for bag #2 and #3.

Papercut today.

:: Just bragging. I got 140 points for this word, 'bleaters', in Scrabble (the facebook app one)!

Two triples and a seven-letter bingo with a 50-point bonus! However, my opponent, Yagya, from India, is still beating me in this game. She is GOOD!

In stitches

My best mate Jane invited me over to play with her and her brand-new quilting machine today.

Oh yay!

We had hours of fun quilting a cute little lap quilt that Jane had made earlier. I even had a go — very exciting!

Jane is a fantastic softie-maker

and a fab quilter, and has a confident eye when it comes to colour and design.

I love that she uses chenille in some of them — so homely and comforting.

All her quilts — which she keeps one on top of the other on the bed in a spare room — are absolutely gorgeous, and she has over 20 of them. I tell her she should sell them or at least show them, but she's way too modest.

So far, they've all been quilted in the ditch, or close to the borders of the component pieces, but now she can go mad!

I was amazed at how easy her new machine makes it to stipple quilt, which is something I simply cannot get my head and hands round when I'm using my own machine at home.

Jane also has this beautiful old wedding ring quilt, made probably in the 1930s. I love its gentle muted colours and red ties.

I've brought it home with me to restore, as some of the pieces are disintegrating.

I can't wait to get started — this is the sort of project that I really love.

:: That note I've added about the V&A quilt show over there on the right is a link to a fascinating blog all about this huge show that will be on from next March. Take a look!

BaggyI didn't want to take my Kelly Bag to New York (too OTT), so I made this much more practical one.
I used fabrics I already had, re-cycled the inside pockets from an older bag I'd made (whose handles never quite worked), pinched the handles off another one, and was quite happy with the result.

Look familiar?How'd you like this black widow? She was in our garage this arvo — same untidy web as the redback, same beautiful body shape, same shiny black, and look ...
... the red flash is underneath, on her belly. It also seemed a little bigger than the redback.
I hope you're impressed with how close I got. David was watching proceedings and said, "I hope they don't jump!" At which point I got up in a hurry.

:: Here's a shot Will took of himself, with big fat smug smile, leaning on the stage at the Dandy Warhols' concert in San Francisco at the weekend. We saw them here in San Diego a few nights before Will did, and they were bloody fantastic.

:: We're waiting for the US version of Kath and Kim, which starts tonight in just over half an hour. I've seen a trailer, which looked okay, but the review in this morning's LA Times was not too hot, while very complimentary about the Australian original.

:: I spied this rubbish on a table in the living room soon after Will got home from college yesterday ... ... and was about to yell to him to chuck it in the bin when I noticed the contents.It's fun having a sculptor in the house!

:: We're off to Albuquerque and Santa Fe tomorrow. It'll be cool and dry, cold even, with autumn colour ... mmm! I'll be back in a little over a week — see ya!

Added slightly later: Forget to say — Bloglines isn't very reliable is it? It seems very haphazard about showing new posts, so I've probably missed quite a few. Kind of ruins the point really.
Also — I finally posted Larissa's quilt off to her this afternoon! All finished, quilted and bound, ends sewn in ... yay!

Granny Goes to Hollywood, part 2
Well, despite the lovely comments and emails supporting me in my bid to be the best-dressed home-made munchkin at Oz in LA next Saturday * — thank you! — I'm going to have to go shopping.
The shimmery, floaty, kimono-inspired creation has not turned out at all well. No fault of the pattern, which was easy-peasy and a joy to put together. But working in devore velvet, no matter how gorgeous it may be, is an unbelievable pain. It shifts when you're sewing right sides — nap sides — together, and it shreds if you so much as look at it.
So I'd struggle to keep the edges together accurately to sew a seam , and then, while ironing it open, the seam would start to come undone.
I did not swear, though.
Well, yes I did.
The result, daahlings, was a disappointment in brown. And, it has to be said, frumpy to boot.
To make matters worse, I've found out that this do is actually A Big Deal. And on the formal side of formal.
I went to dinner at the Bondi on Friday with Leah and Damien, some of our other Australian friends who live here and have been to three of these Hollywood galahs**. Leah, who is funny and gorgeous and writes music for movies (and is a voting member of The Academy — as in The Academy) leaned over during dinner and said, 'Have you got your frock for nest weekend yet?' And when I told her I'd been trying to make something to wear, she looked at me a bit weird. Then she explained that at this do, there was a real red carpet. And limousines. And paparazzi.
'So,' I said, 'my notion of dressing in something comfy and dark and sitting inconspicuously up the back — unrealistic?'
'Well,' she replied, grinning at my obvious Perth naivete, 'we may well be sitting up the back, but, Les, you need a frock!' So Fashion Valley here I come. I'll keep you posted.
* Incidentally, if you click on the link at the beginning of this, you'll see how excited Our Kylie is about Saturday night.
** I know gala is spelled gala, not galah. But my mates and I always called these posh, overdressed stuffy affairs galah affairs, in honour of our most common Australian parrot, the (pink and grey) galah (pronounced with the stress on the second syllable, gu'lah). A galah is also Australian slang for an idiot.

Slumming it
So we're off to Los Angeles the weekend after next, to go to this gala dinner celebrating Australians in film. Ruby table. Black tie, bien sur.
So we all know what stick insects and social X-rays wear to these big Hollywood events. But what about the ample of bosom, belly and chins?
Well, in this neck of the woods, we could spend many hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars, very easily and quickly in any of the fabulous stores from Bloomingdales upwards.
And then again, we could also buy a fifteen-dollar pattern for something beautifully flowing and floating and Japanese in style, and a further forty dollars on four yards of stunning silk devore velvet, in a rich, warm chocolate brown with shimmery eau-de-nil details.
And we could spend a few pleasant afternoons listening to Pandora and sewing.
And then, when we've pulled it off, we could see about spending perhaps some of the money we were so very clever to have saved ... on the perfect pair of shoes.
What do you reckon?

Some needlework
Enjoying, as always, the feel of needle, thread and soft cotton in my hand, I just made these two little somethings. I'm leaning heavily on English textile artist Janet Bolton's technique and example, I admit. There's something really satisfying in making these little pictures that are small enough to do in a couple of hours, and I've got a few more in mind before the attention wanders on to the next project. Some of them may find themselves in Christmas packages, too.