I've been tagged

I have been tagged by the Stitching Surgeon to write seven random things about me. This is the first time I have been asked to do this particular meme, so I have taken the opportunity to tell you a few more things about me so we can get to *know* each other better...

1. I have the same model of sewing machine as my Mum - an Elna Air Electronic SU, circa 1978. I learnt to sew on her machine when I was about 4 or 5, and then when I was 8, I was given my own second-hand Elna Lotus machine – great for beginners as it only does straight stitch and zig-zag. A few years ago I decided it was time to buy a machine that had a few more functions and when I found a second-hand model of my Mum’s machine for sale, I knew that was the machine for me!


2. I am a vegetarian and have been so for just over two years. I am an animal lover and have always felt slightly uncomfortable about eating meat. On New Year’s Day 2004 my husband and I stopped eating red meat. Two years later we stopped eating all meat. We still eat free-range eggs and vegetarian cheese. The non-vegetarian food I miss the most is marshmallows.


3. I don’t like raw tomatoes. It is a texture and acidity thing. I will happily eat them if they are cooked (like in a pasta sauce), or raw but mushed up with other things (like in guacamole), but I cannot stand them in sliced up in salads or sandwiches and will pick them out. Luckily my husband loves tomatoes and is always willing to eat the tomatoes I have picked out of whatever I am eating.


4. I am currently reading Pride and Prejudice for the first time. I own the BBC series on DVD (Colin Firth is divine as Mr Darcy!) and have watched it many times, and read other Jane Austen novels, yet I have never read Pride and Prejudice. I wish I had done so years ago – so much is lost in the translation from text to small screen!


5. I am a cat person. Ever since I was quite little, I have had a pet cat. I like to give my cats “human names” – we have had Sam, Sally, Frank, Lucy, Molly. I think it makes them feel more like part of the family. Although you have to be really careful you don’t use up a name that you might want to use for a future child!


6. My favourite bird is the native New Zealand fantail (or Piwakawaka). I love the little “cheep cheep” noise they make and the way they follow you when you walk through the bush, dipping and diving, looking for bugs that you might have disturbed.


7. My breakfast of choice, regardless of the season, is a steaming hot bowl of porridge. I make my porridge in the microwave, sometimes with dates or berries cooked in with the oats. I like to mix in a little yoghurt once it’s cooked and top it with sliced banana. Yum yum.

Rules for tagging:
1. Link to the person that tagged you and post the rules on your blog.
2. Share 7 random and/or weird things about yourself.
3. Tag 7 random people at the end of your post and include links to their blogs.
4. Let each person know that they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.

I would like to tag the following kiwi craft blogs:

Ben and Lottie

Tales of the Red Haired Devil Child

Spinning A Yarn

Anemone

Lovestitches

Seven Stitches

Cherry Berry

I think your blogs are great and I try and check them most days. Some of you I have been reading for a while and others are relatively new discoveries for me, so I would love to find out more about you. I apologise if you have been tagged before. And I will not be at all offended if you don't participate!

And just so I can post a photo, here is a knitting WIP. Getting closer to having something to show you. Can you guess what it's going to be?

Patons Bazaar

Last year when I was visiting my Mum, she gave me a couple of knitting and crochet books that had belonged to my grandmother. She is now in her 80s and has failing eyesight which prevents her from crafting any more, but in her younger years she was a great crafter and I remember her sewing and knitting lots of clothes and toys for me when I was a child. She, along with my mother, also taught me to knit, which I am immensely grateful for.

Here are a few images from one of the books that used to belong to her. It is a Patons Bazaar book (#178), printed in Great Britain. It is not dated, but I assume from the pictures that it is from the 60s or 70s. The book is a collection of knitting and crochet patterns for things to make for fairs. Obviously when this was printed, fundraising fairs were a common enough occurrence to warrant a whole book of patterns dedicated to them.


There are an awful lot of patterns in here that I would never make, but there are also some gems, like this set of tea-cosies (I especially like the knitted windmill one):


And the crocheted black bag with the flowers on it on the back cover:



I also quite like the granny square hot-water bottle cover in this photo:

I only learnt to crochet last year, so my skills aren't up to crocheting a whole granny square afghan yet, but I think I could manage enough squares for a "hottie bottle" cover. Don't know about the green crochet tie just above it though...

If you are interested in some more vintage goodness, I have scanned all the colour pages from this book and put them on Flickr.

A Perfect Day

Today was a public holiday in Wellington. The weather was fine and pretty hot – it reached 28deg C (82.4F), which is pretty rare for us. I had a near-perfect day: a sleep-in followed by a long run along the beach near our house, brunch (at Sweet Mother's Kitchen) and a movie (The Darjeeling Limited) with my love, and then an afternoon and evening of crafting accompanied by a glass or two of NZ Sauvignon Blanc. If only everyday could be as sweet.

Here’s a project that has been on the to-do list for a long time. I finally got around to it this afternoon:


So simple I almost feel guilty posting it. I stretched some Lara Cameron fabric over an artist canvas and secured it with a staple gun. It’s now hanging above the bed in the spare room. I like it so much I might have to move it to our bedroom instead…

I also got some knitting done on a WIP that is not quite ready to post yet. Maybe next week.

Backyard Bounty

The lovely hot weather we have been having over the past few weeks has had a great effect on our vege garden.

The runner beans have now taken over the flimsy trellis I built them, and I have had to attach wire netting to the fence behind them to allow them to grow even taller.


We have had a few good crops of beans off the plants now. There is nothing like stir-fry with beans straight out of your garden!


The roma tomato plants are starting to produce baby tomatoes. Let's hope I can keep the pests away long enough for them to ripen. Looking forward to fresh pasta sauce.


Damson plums on our tree, ready to be picked and made into jam and chutney and maybe even Damson Gin (I've never made the gin before so any tips would be welcome - I hear it is divine).


Lettuce plants conveniently located by the back-door for last-minute picking..

Dishcloths and another tote

I'm back at work this week and we're getting busy again, so I only have time for a quick post.
Here are a couple of finished projects, completed in the last week or two.


Two more knitted dishcloths. Made using Sirdar Just Bamboo. The front one is made using the Pear dishcloth pattern found here. The other one is another Grandmother’s Favorite dishcloth. The latter is made from two different colours of yarn because I ran out halfway through and the LYS didn’t have any of the same colour left when I went back. For future reference, one skein of the Just Bamboo made 2 ½ dishcloths so it pays to buy more than one skein! Apologies for the skewed shape of the Pear one. I didn’t block it and took the photo quickly because I wanted to start using it straight away.




This is another leafy tote, almost identical to one I made for a Christmas gift, except the newer tote has an internal pocket and shorter straps. The main body of the bag is black cotton drill with an accent of Japanese craft cotton. It is lined in a natural coloured homespun. The straps have a contrast lining of the leaf fabric. This one is a birthday gift for my sister-in-law to be (my brother-in-law proposed on Christmas Day!) who lives in Melbourne. They are getting married in November in Melbourne – I am already making a list of craft stores and markets to visit while I’m there!

Artsy Clutch

We went out last night to celebrate our 6th wedding anniversary and I decided the occasion warranted a new bag:





I used the Artsy Clutch pattern from Bend-the-Rules Sewing and more of the Kirinco "Red Riverstones" linen fabric I used on the Pleated Beauty bag I made my Mum for Christmas. I decided to use plain natural coloured linen for the lining because I didn't want to detract from the wonderful design of the outer fabric. Instead of the called-for elastic cording, I just made a short length of bias tape from the lining fabric. In hindsight, something stretchy would probably be better because when the bag is empty it has a tendency to pop open, but once it has a few things in it, it's fine. And hey, I'm not going to use it empty anyway. The button is actually two buttons sewed together.

I really love this bag. To be honest, the pattern didn't really grab me when I first looked through Amy Karol's book, but after seeing all the wonderful variations around blogland and in the BTRS flickr group, I realised how nice it was. It's such a simple, easy design that comes together really quickly, but it looks fantastic.

The bag will get its second outing today at a family lunch to celebrate my husband's grandfather's 80th birthday. I have a red skirt in exactly the same shade that I think will look great with it (ha ha, now I'm planning my outfit around the bag).

Recycling

I went back to work on Monday, but since it wasn't too busy, I decided to have another couple of days on leave, so yesterday and today I have been at home relaxing and crafting.

Yesterday I decided to finally do something with the used birthday and Christmas cards and old calendars I have been collecting to reuse. A lot of them I cut up into squares of various sizes to be used as gift tags; others will become bookmarks; and a few of them I turned into cards:

I'm quite pleased with how they turned out. They were really quick and easy to make - I just cut A4 white card in half, folded these pieces in half and glued on one of the squares I'd cut from a card or calendar page. I think they would also look really good made with black card.

On the bookmarks front - do any of you have any suggestions for how I could make them sturdier? I have just cut long rectangles from the old cards but I think they need a bit more substance to make them last. I'm not really a fan of laminating, but I was thinking maybe a couple of coats of clear glue (PVA) might work?

Button Fun

Wow, this past week has gone by really fast. Most of it was spent outside working on the house (treating borer in the wooden weatherboards, touching up paintwork) and in the garden (weeding, preparing a garden for bark, pruning trees), so I don't have many interesting photos to show you.

I spent yesterday afternoon trying to sort out my craft stuff, but got distracted when I was sorting through my buttons and made this:

The bright red buttons are cheering me up on this otherwise dull day (not helped by the fact that I am back at work today when I really feel I should still be on holiday).

Happy New Year

Happy New Year! I drafted this post yesterday afternoon, wanting to get in one last post for 2007, but just as I was about to upload the photos, our computer randomly crashed for no apparent reason (ahh, Windows Vista, how I love thee).

We arrived back in Welly on Saturday afternoon after a lovely Christmas at my Mum's house in Rotorua, followed by a road trip back home via the East Cape. I'd never been to that part of the country before and loved driving past beautiful beaches and tents full of families on their Christmas beach holiday. We were a bit worried that we might not be able to stay in Gisborne after the big earthquake they had on the 20th, but our motel was still standing and they assured us it was structurally sound, despite the cracks in the plaster on some of the walls! We also called in to see a friend in Whakatane and had cuddles with her gorgeous 4 week-old daughter Greta (the recipient of the cross stitch sampler).

I hope you all had a lovely (and hopefully crafty) Christmas. This week we are planning on attacking some of the outside garden tasks we have been putting off for a while, so I might not get much crafting done. I'll check in occasionally though and might post a couple of pictures of our progress.

In the meantime, here are a couple of photos of the beanie I knitted for my brother Richard for Christmas. I finished it in the car driving up to my Mum's house on Dec 22nd. I managed to persuade him to model it for me on Christmas day - he is doing his best Zoolander Blue Steel face! He does a lot of snowboarding so I think the beanie will come in handy - he also told me it is very similar in design to a favourite boarding hat he used to wear all the time.










I used the ski beanie pattern from the new Stitch and Bitch for men book. The version of the pattern I used was actually a freebie from the CraftSanity podcast website to promote the book, but based on how well this pattern has turned out, I think I might have to look out for the book in the library and check out the rest of the patterns. The yarn I used is a NZ brand called Naturally Merino et Soie 8ply, which is 70% merino, 30% silk, so the beanie turned out nice and soft. The pattern called for two balls of the main colour and one of the contrasting colour but I ended up using just under one ball of the main colour. Alex is hinting for me to knit him an identical beanie with the remainder of the yarn.

Right, I really must go outside and attack the garden. Thanks for all the bag love on my last post. The recipients all loved their presents. And I'm loving my new Wasp bag. It was great on the road trip - large enough to fit all my handbag contents plus a bottle of water (essential - it was very hot in the car driving back) and my digital SLR (normally I have to carry my camera separately).

Bags (and photos) galore

A couple of weeks ago, making almost half of our Christmas gifts seemed like a good idea. Last night at 10pm, when I had just finished the last sewed gift (one more knitted one to complete) and still had to pack to go away this morning and wrap all the presents, I wondered what I was thinking. We are driving out of town today to spend Christmas with my mother so the deadline was last night for everything except for the knitted beanie for my brother, which I hope I can do in the car (or complete secretly at my Mum's place).

Most of the female rellies we buy for are getting a bag of some sort this year. My original plan was makeup bags, but I got a bit sick of those after I'd made 8 of them, so I switched to larger bags.

Here is the bag I made for my Mum, following the Pleated Beauty Handbag pattern in Bend-the-Rules Sewing:

The main part of the bag is black cotton drill to give it a bit of weight. I also used a piece of timtex in the bottom to help it keep its shape. The pleats and inner straps are made from Kirinco fabric designed by Lara Cameron. There is a large pocket inside made from the accent fabric. I'm really pleased with how this turned out. I wanted a bag that would be big enough for taking stuff to the beach or taking to the supermarket, but not too unwieldy. I also wanted it to look nice :)

Here is a tote I made for my brother's new English girlfriend who has joined him on his visit out to NZ to meet the family:

This again is made from black cotton drill. The accent leaf fabric is a Japanese cotton from Spotlight.

Here are a couple of the makeup bags

These are both made from Kirinco fabric again (see the other two fabric designs I used in my earlier post here) and follow the same tutorial I used for the earlier bags.

And then, just because I am a sucker for punishment, I decided I needed a bag to take on summer holiday with me. So I made this:

I followed the popular Wasp Bag pattern and used (there is a theme to this post) Kirinco fabric. The straps are the same black cotton drill. I added a little fabric self-covered button to each strap. Inside is a small pocket. I bought this fabric to make myself a bag several months ago and it has been sitting waiting in my fabric stash while I found the perfect pattern. I really love how it turned out and have already up-ended my numerous handbag contents into it ready to go away today.

Phew! I really am ready for a holiday now. I'll be taking a bit of a blogging break for a week or so. Best wishes to all of you for a wonderful Christmas and New Year.

Birth Sampler

I'm getting closer to finishing my Christmas crafting and should have something to show you later tomorrow. In the meantime, here is a photo of the cross-stitch birth sampler I mentioned a couple of weeks ago. It has taken me a while to frame it. Apologies for the bad photo quality. This was again photographed late at night before it was wrapped to be delivered the next day. Must plan my photo-taking for earlier in the day when the light is better.

I used a free pattern from the DMC website for the bear and an alphabet out of one of my cross stitch books for the name and date. I think the next one of these I make will be on linen - I've decided I much prefer the look of embroidery on linen rather than aida and it means I'm not restricted to just crosses - I can try out other stitches too.

Baby bibs

I don't know what was special about the last week of November, but 3 couples we know had babies that week. I showed you the other two baby presents last week. Here is the third one - four bibs I made for baby Jude:



They are again made following the excellent pattern in Bend The Rules Sewing. The fabric is craft cotton from Spotlight, except for the navy gingham which I picked up at a thrift store. They are all backed with white flannel. I love this pattern. The method of construction is really simple and they sew up really fast. I think I completed these in about an hour.

Digger Cake

My baby brother turned 21 on Saturday. Most of our family gathered in Rotorua to celebrate. He wanted a low-key affair - barbeque and beer on his deck - but he did agree to having a cake, which Mum and I volunteered to make. My brother works as an apprentice for a big company that manufactures and services construction equipment, so there was really only one option for a cake for him - a digger (I think this one is technically called a scoop loader...):



I'd found a few pictures of other digger cakes on flickr, but in the end we sort of made it up as we went along. The icing was yellow buttercream. I used two sizes of chocolate biscuits for the wheels. The arms attaching the scoop to the main part of the digger are licorice logs, as is the exhaust. The windows are made from an icecream container, cut to size and then outlined with black icing. The dirt/rocks in front are chocolate covered raisins.

Here's the chocolate cake shapes, prior to icing.

And here is the icing, fresh from the Kenwood mixer. We used a ridiculous amount of colouring to get the yellow we needed. Luckily the buttercream was so sweet that most people only ate the cake and not the icing so I'm not feeling too guilty about poisoning everyone with artifical colouring.

More Christmas Crafting

Here are a couple of makeup/cosmetic bags I made for Christmas presents - the mushroom one is for my 12 year old cousin and the bird one is for my aunt. Sorry about the quality of the photos. They were hurriedly taken at 11pm last night, just after I'd finished the bags and before they were wrapped up to be delivered today.

I loosely followed a tutorial on Craftster but changed the dimensions from the original to match my favourite makeup bag. I'm planning to make another 6 for female relatives. If I get sick of making these before then, I may switch to tote bags.

The mushroom fabric is a Japanese craft cotton from Spotlight. The yummy linen bird print fabric is some I bought on Etsy from Lara Cameron of Kirinco. They are lined with a red polyester. I also interfaced them with plain flannel (a la Amy Karol) - the first one I made wasn't interfaced and was a bit floppy. The flannel gives them just enough structure to allow them to stand up by themselves without the crunchiness that you get from heavy iron-on interfacing.

Christmas Stocking

I hope you are enjoying your pre-Christmas rituals. Over the weekend I got to do my favourite pre-Christmas task - putting up the tree. Over the last few years I have collected or been given a lot of lovely ornaments and I love upwrapping them and remembering where I got them from. This year I hung up for the first time the paper mache bells I bought in India last Christmas and the cloisonne balls I bought in Hong Kong in January.

Once the tree was up, I hung our stockings on the mantlepiece. Here is my much-loved stocking that my Mum sewed for me when I was about 2 or 3 (very early 1980s), along with a matching (but more "boyish") one for my younger brother.


It's designed to look like a house, with the hanging loop being the chimney and the yellow and white stripes being the steps up to the house. Most of the appliqued shapes are cotton, but the tree trunk is chocolate brown corduroy. We were living in the Pacific at the time and a lot of goods like fabric were hard to come by. I suspect she was sent some of these from NZ and delved into her extensive fabric stash she took with her to make these.

Here is some detail of the girl and the window behind her:

My favourite piece of fabric used in the stocking is that one on the window right behind the girl - the orange and blue flowers make me happy.