Sunday 30 January 2011

"Miss Prudence" and my new resident

here is a couple of photos of my latest softie, i still need to make her clothes but i couldn't resist posting some nudie photos!!  the pattern is - "Miss Prudence" from Australian Homespun Vol.11 no.8
  


and her cute little tail....

for a few weeks now i have been hearing noises in my wall (and i was pretty sure that it was a possum), i finally managed to convince my Dad to remove a weatherboard from the house... here is what we found at the bottom of the wall cavity
 
yep, that's a brush-tail possum.  i have set a trap and hope to catch it soon.  it is a sad fact that possums cannot be relocated (they are very territorial), so this one will be going on a one way trip to the vet - it makes me sad that this is my only option and this is not something that i am happy about doing but this possum has already caused damage to my house and i am worried that it will nibble on a wire up in the roof (which could possibly cause a fire).

let me be clear that i am not anti-possum... i also have a resident possum in a disused chimney at my place (the fireplace was removed and the chimney was plastered over a long time ago).  my chimney-possum hasn't caused any damage (other than eating some of the garden) and cannot access the house (just the chimney) which means that he and i have lived in harmony for many years - i am actually quite fond of him


Thursday 27 January 2011

Long time, no blog...

it has been such a long time since i have blogged, oops!  sadly there hasn't been much sewing going on here - the past couple of weekends have been spent painting my house (doing the fiddly finishing up jobs that didn't get done last year) but i am pleased to say that it is nearly finished and it is looking pretty nice!

this weekend i have plans to finish a Christmas gift for a friend's daughter - they live several hours away from me and i will be visiting them in a couple of weeks.

i hope everyone had a WONDERFUL Australia day yesterday, i thoroughly enjoyed my day off!!

for your dining pleasure here are some links to a few of my favorite Aussie recipes...


Friday 7 January 2011

2011 Handmade Pay It Forward

i have just signed up for a handmade pay it forward (PIF)over at Turtle and Roo. Here is how it works:

I promise to send something handmade to the FIRST 5 people who leave a comment here. 
However, to be eligible, you must repost this message, offering something handmade to 5 other people. 
The rules are that it must be handmade by you, and it must be sent to your 5 giftees sometime in 2011. 
Ready, set, GO!

ok, who wants a handmade gift from me??  remember you need to be willing to pay it forward.

if you are interested please leave a comment on this post- please make sure that your email isn't set to @noreplyblogger (or please leave an email address that i can contact you at)
 
i will email you to ask a few little questions (eg. what colors do you like?) and to get your mailing address


Sunday 2 January 2011

NYE mystery - backing

and here is the back for my quilt.

i wanted to finish up some of these fabrics (so i didn't have to put them back in the draw!) i also used up a couple of extra blocks that i made.  the only fabric that is going back in the draw is about 1m of the white dot

i tried going outside to get a nice photo, but our cloudy day is refusing to let me take a nice photo

NYE mystery - quilt top

the top is all together, the binding is ready and i am in the process of making the back.  i like to get the binding and backing ready so that when i bag this quilt up (to go in my "quilting" pile) it is all ready to go - all i need to add is wadding and thread... this helps to stop me procrastinating! 

i add a row to the top and bottom of the quilt to finish off the pattern and to make it rectangular.   i decided against adding a row to each of the sides because i didn't want the quilt to be too big (and it would have been wider than the fabrics that i want to use as the backing (i will post a photo of the backing later today)

let me apologise in advance for my poor photography skills - the quilt is bright and cheerful in person (not as drab as the photo makes it seem) and the yellow fabric has glitter in it.

Saturday 1 January 2011

NYE mystery - blocks finished

all 9 of my blocks are done, aren't they cute?? now i just need to assemble them into a top (it will be baby quilt size)

NYE mystery - clue #7

NYE mystery - clue #6

it's looking cute!!

NYE mystery - clue #5

NYE mystery - clue #4

NYE mystery - clue #3

NYE mystery - clue #2

NYE mystery - clue #1

another day, another mystery!! this time it is from Ann at fabricaholicsanonymous.  i posted my fabric choices here

clue #1 is finished: