tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17434917031405085422024-03-12T23:10:57.897+00:00threadspaceFiona-Gracehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01097485100561693868noreply@blogger.comBlogger52125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1743491703140508542.post-16411690109400149552013-09-21T04:13:00.000+01:002013-09-21T04:13:01.074+01:00Family slippersHere they are.
Pleasing pile of alpaca
Half of them at least.
Imagine this picture with 7 pairs. *sigh
And you have to trust me that the other half were delivered because I handed them over, and then remembered to photograph them.
In a bad case of Absolutely not Learning My Lesson About Furry Yarn, I tried to make myself a pair in this.
Moda Vera Flurry. Feels nice around my toes, Fiona-Gracehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01097485100561693868noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1743491703140508542.post-24646363215478116602013-09-20T02:59:00.000+01:002013-09-20T02:59:00.358+01:00Turns out i can(dle)Look what I made.
waxed faffage
Making christening candles is far out of my handmaking comfort zone, and frankly not anything I am the least bit interested in repeating (I don't think. However...)
It seems to me a bit odd and frankly a little grim to burn a picture of your loved one. But convention is as convention does, and I was darned if I was going to pay some other sucker to make the Fiona-Gracehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01097485100561693868noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1743491703140508542.post-34519660726493220192013-09-19T02:58:00.000+01:002013-09-19T02:58:36.144+01:00Simple little blanketWell, not as simple as it could have been. The rick rack was frankly a bit of a faff, and is discouragingly wonky.
Simple little flannel blanket. Hah!
Discouragingly wonky
But Boygoblin likes it, (more to do with the diggers than the handiwork, truth be told) and it keeps his splint safe, so, job done.
The racing boot. And a definite vehicle theme.
Fiona-Gracehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01097485100561693868noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1743491703140508542.post-74048299421399872182013-05-19T08:40:00.000+01:002013-05-19T08:40:48.474+01:00Too cute to surviveBecause really, who can resist a teeny tiny pincushion that has a tendency to roll away, and is extremely attractive to toddlers?
Boygoblin called this "Mummy's yellow car". Deeply unfair, because it is eerily similar to "'Goblin's yellow car."
Thats a strip of printed jersey rolled, handsewn and popped in the tray.
Babycrack. Right. there.
Too cute to live, and Boygoblin has car back Fiona-Gracehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01097485100561693868noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1743491703140508542.post-22676230672223342332013-05-19T03:03:00.000+01:002013-05-19T03:03:01.114+01:00You know those slippers...Well, there is progress being made, but these, these, have taken up more time that all of them put together.
Little doll slippers. Made of scraps of merino. And yes, that is knitters elastic you see worked into the top stitches...
... and treble crochet detail in thee instep. don't tell the cousins...
He looked cold, ok? With his little bare plastic feet and shortie onesie...Fiona-Gracehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01097485100561693868noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1743491703140508542.post-63094215970527970552013-05-17T14:44:00.000+01:002013-05-17T15:04:06.846+01:00soul eaten.The soul eater is finished.
Did I mention finished?
I made the final push this morning, as boy goblin and i were snuggled up on the couch with his snots.
Pretty, but tough going.
(The pattern is a good-un - its entirely my doing that its been such a long haul - see "soul eater" above.)
And this evening it was wrapped around the dear wife on the sofa.
Not this sofa,Fiona-Gracehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01097485100561693868noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1743491703140508542.post-7863338818434855022013-05-06T06:16:00.001+01:002013-05-17T15:05:30.770+01:00Domestic creativityRadio silence, because this is what has taken up much of my creative, as well as physical and mental energy.
Many, many packing boxes. Note they are all unpacked.
On the upside, the boxes revealed this:
I'm in here
Which contains this:
See?
and this:
And here?
This came through while we were on the move, so I'd not had a chance to properly dwell on it before.
Nothing like seeing Fiona-Gracehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01097485100561693868noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1743491703140508542.post-27650615813993529232013-03-10T08:08:00.000+00:002013-03-10T08:08:00.295+00:00Happy belated birthdayBoyGoblin turned two not long after The Big Move, and so it was time for another birthday badge. You can see last year's here (and there's a pdf tutorial too).
This year it was all about steam trains.
This works the same as the last one, with a magnet sewn into the frontspiece, and into a large plain felt circle worn inside the clothing.
A big hard-to-swallow felt circle for the Fiona-Gracehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01097485100561693868noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1743491703140508542.post-26526976307698582612013-03-09T05:29:00.000+00:002013-03-09T05:29:00.826+00:00Making timeMy Boygoblin is obsessed with clocks at the moment, and I fear that the decorative clocks in his room that seemed such a cute idea at the time is simply confusing him.
How do I know this? Because he comes out with breathless statements like "The big hand is on the castle and its half past the dragon and now its time to play trains!"
So we raided the craft box and made our own.
Fiona-Gracehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01097485100561693868noreply@blogger.com0Brisbane QLD, Australia-27.4709331 153.02350239999998-27.4991096 152.98316189999997 -27.4427566 153.0638429tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1743491703140508542.post-32642656629771545612013-03-05T04:22:00.000+00:002013-03-08T03:26:38.049+00:00WIP or UFOThis is a project that is inhabiting that limbo land between WIP and UFO. Which is it?
This is when I started having doubts.
Even Dearwife is finding it hard to stop laughing be encouraging, and she is usually extremely supportive of even my most misguided creative endeavours.
Its the beginnings of an elephant, and it was to be my first softie.
It looks less like a poo now i've Fiona-Gracehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01097485100561693868noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1743491703140508542.post-89034557657374490092013-03-04T03:41:00.000+00:002013-03-04T03:41:53.413+00:00Patient feetCosy alpaca toes for the littlest, who also astonished me with his forebearance, allowing mummy to slip his feet in and out of partly completed slippers throughout the hot afternoon. (I think he was actually more tolerant than his mumma.)
Not sure how long these will stay white when goblintoes inhabit them...
I bought a pattern for the applique alphabet, forgetting that as I'm Fiona-Gracehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01097485100561693868noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1743491703140508542.post-67094432208958729582013-03-02T02:21:00.000+00:002013-03-04T03:20:06.138+00:00Unseasonal slippersI must be looking forward to the cooler weather, as I've spent the last week or so as Ive broken up work on the soul eater with hooking up a series of slippers.
I've now got a long list of requests, so here's hoping the mood stays with me, otherwise this could get very tedious indeed.
First up a test pair for me, from the simple cable slipper pattern.
Cosy alpaca. Perfect for Fiona-Gracehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01097485100561693868noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1743491703140508542.post-59927115125079047232013-03-01T01:51:00.001+00:002013-03-01T01:51:21.095+00:00Soul eaterWith amazing timing and incredible self-knowledge, I began a large Wool eater blanket at the height of my first Brisbane summer. Apparently the hottest, most humid summer in quite some time.
Daunting pile of blanket
The horrendous, and perfectly obvious thing about blankets in the round is that the closer you get to completion, the longer each round takes. Its like a maths problem from school Fiona-Gracehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01097485100561693868noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1743491703140508542.post-77380651446982128262012-11-12T05:16:00.000+00:002012-11-12T05:16:15.616+00:00Eggspert floristry
I seem to be spending a lot of time covered in poster paints these days as boygoblin likes to make things and at just 2 years old, is not yet to be trusted with needles and hooks. (He does like his threading beads though, so there is hope for the wee thing yet.)
Pretty flowers
This week's project was a bunch of flowers for Dearwife - he misses her when she's as workFiona-Gracehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01097485100561693868noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1743491703140508542.post-64546869295772496052012-11-12T03:02:00.000+00:002012-11-12T03:02:26.952+00:00This was a cat-warming gift for a friend
Our should that be a housewarming gift for a cat? Not sure.
How is it that he looks smiley when I didn't give him a mouth?
It’s a simple little handsewn feltie, stuffed with crinkly plastic, and long jumpy legs of ribbon.
Looong legs
His toes and back ridges are embroidered in variegated thread (which I hardly ever see the point of, but it works well here.) and he has little Fiona-Gracehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01097485100561693868noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1743491703140508542.post-81665127814932019952012-09-27T01:17:00.002+01:002012-09-27T01:17:51.248+01:00Planning, and packing, and planning to pack.
Whoa! Life has been a little chaotic recently, in a good way, hence the radio silence.
Below is a post I never got around to posting. You'll see why...
We are looking down the barrel of a big, big move in a couple of weeks time, which will entail all of my beautiful Stuff being out of bounds for something like 3 months. Eep.
I've spent an unsatisfying few months not quite finishing Fiona-Gracehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01097485100561693868noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1743491703140508542.post-18834811003884488102012-08-08T10:52:00.000+01:002012-08-08T10:52:01.641+01:00Bobbin huggers
I use a plastic box to store my machine threads in, which means I end up with bucketloads of bobbins rolling around carrying identical looking white thread – that is not identical!
Rather than risk the Dark Forces of Mechanical Wrath that ensue when the wrong thread is loaded into my usually sweet tempered sewing machine, I have spent a lot of time unwinding bobbins, and wasting Fiona-Gracehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01097485100561693868noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1743491703140508542.post-4182054830057559722012-07-26T17:00:00.000+01:002012-07-26T17:00:01.447+01:00Revising a rewritten fond memory
So, you know when I said I had cracked it – a crochet motif that would make up into a cosy and lacy blanket?
These feel to me like currency when I stack them like this.
Turns out I hadn’t. When I laid them out, they didn’t pass muster. too small and bitty looking, but more importantly, DearWife thought they were too solid.
What seemed to be a promising start, wasnt...
Fiona-Gracehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01097485100561693868noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1743491703140508542.post-21154878577815518042012-07-23T22:34:00.000+01:002012-07-23T22:34:00.359+01:00Boys don't wash
Not much time for sewing around here at the moment, not least because we’ve been away on holiday.
And every time we go, I’m astonished at how vast our family toiletry / first aid bag is. There are only three of us, one is less than three foot tall, and neither of his mamas are lotions and potions sorts of gals. But we routinely fill a large nappy bag with soap, shampoos, moisturisers, Fiona-Gracehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01097485100561693868noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1743491703140508542.post-409144980867589432012-07-20T17:28:00.000+01:002012-07-20T17:28:00.507+01:00The end of the rainbow...
I finally finished it. Goodness me.
Juicy colours, made with love, sweat and tears.
I can’t tell you how painful the freemotion quilting was. I’m clearly not a natural (hence the deliberately off-centre swirls) and I had all sorts of issues with my tension (both the thread, and my shoulders.)
Charming wobbly spirals - the much contested limit of my freemotion prowess.
There are Fiona-Gracehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01097485100561693868noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1743491703140508542.post-25618953492369807792012-07-19T21:40:00.001+01:002012-07-19T21:40:59.561+01:00Vintage Summer
I think I’ve mentioned before that in my stash are some bits and pieces that I inherited from my grandmother. Among her estate were a number of old womens magazines, and tucked in the pages of some of these were vintage, unused embroidery transfers. Most of them still with the giveaway threads attached.
They seem particularly timely just now, with the Summer of Nostalgia we all seem to be Fiona-Gracehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01097485100561693868noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1743491703140508542.post-75150794704527513312012-05-26T17:19:00.000+01:002012-05-26T17:19:00.101+01:00I'm not a papercrafter but...
…I am a thrifty stitcher, which is where the inspiration for this came from.
Sturdy baby bath box about to be repurposed
This was a box of baby samples. It was a free offer, and comes with an inner tray that makes it perfect as a sewing box.
Now, not being a papercrafter (did I mention that) I used some fairly basic materials to spruce it up a bit
The paper was scrap from Fiona-Gracehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01097485100561693868noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1743491703140508542.post-54359871474770415332012-05-25T14:19:00.000+01:002012-05-25T17:20:14.120+01:00Chasing rainbows
For the past four weeks my sewing studio has been out of bounds – first filled with houseguests, and then packed up for the painters, (neither DearWife nor me being the sort of domestic goddesses who relish redecorating, our response to chipped walls being “get the little men in!”) and finally carefully dressed and posed for sales viewings.
Well, the men have been and gone, as have the Fiona-Gracehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01097485100561693868noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1743491703140508542.post-34956103715447291302012-05-24T16:55:00.002+01:002012-05-24T16:57:59.135+01:00Something from the archives
This must be one of the first thing I ever stitched, so it must be about 25 years old.
Well worn
I think this is supposed to be flower, possibly as tulip? Snowdrop? I’m not sure whether I got the pattern wrong, or used weird colours (possibly both) but I don’t remember a time when I thought it looked pretty.
Not convinced about the red trim either.
Delighfully wonky red stitching
Fiona-Gracehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01097485100561693868noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1743491703140508542.post-91087163329539448852012-05-05T17:54:00.000+01:002012-05-05T17:54:00.684+01:00Lesson learned!Remember that slippy organza?
And my first failed french seam?
Well it's all come together in a "Sewing Solutions" article for Korbond.
Korbond are creating a sewing resource for the tips and techniques that loads of pattern-writers take for granted.
Trimming the seam allowance - lesson learned!
Like, or instance, sewing a french seam.Fiona-Gracehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01097485100561693868noreply@blogger.com0