Posted by kidneurotic on May 5th, 2008 — Posted in sewing, etsy, fabric
I am taking a big crafting break to concentrate on accounting study, but it is so depressing that I am thinking of having a few months of university break.
The etsy Melbourne meetup on Sunday was great. It was lovely to meet such a nice group of people, and to see some wonderful etsy goods. There is a big pool of talent in Melbourne, and it was a non-confrontational way to meet the faces behind the screen. Meetups are less threatening than going to meetings of established communities, IMHO, as everyone is a new person. Kind of a nervousness level playing field.
Moreover, sometimes it is nice to verbally talk with people about things liek how to use the site, rather than through the fora. Although there is an element of personification and the internet, being able to percieve tone in people’s voices and to appreciate a dialogue adds a sparkle to the interaction.
I made this here cushion for my boss’ birthday. It is a combination of vintage and Japanese fabrics with a corduroy back. I am thinking of making them for the etsy shop, but I would prefer to have everything right before I start doing things in batches. The lines don’t all seem right. This quibbles tho, are all overshadowed by the sheer joy of playing with fabric, and having a pretty end result.
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Posted by kidneurotic on March 21st, 2008 — Posted in swap, etsy, fabric
I have hit a posting slump of late, mostly because I have been doing a stack of swaps, and I have finally started to do something with my etsy shop.
I am just selling excess bits of fabric [of which my maps drawers are amply supplied], but I am having terrible trouble - my camera and I don’t see eye to eye on its role in my life. My camera asserts that it is an electronic device that (with practice, careful use and consideration to composition of the picture) can be used to take pictures that will please the eye.
I am convinced that the pixies inside it are gradually becoming corrupted by modern life - AND THE WONDROUS WORKS OF ART THAT ARE SUPPOSED TO EMERGE INTO THE FOLDER ON MY DESKTOP ARE BEING RUINED BY THEIR THOUGHTLESS FRAMING AND BLURRED FOCUS. [It has made the correlation between high readership blogs and good photos more salient tho. I think that there is a sociology thesis in there somewhere.]
Masterpieces like this:
or this work that Ansell Adams would have been proud of
So I will keep trying, but I think all this arty stuff is trying to access a different part of my brain that I have let atrophy. Even the okish ones you will be able to see in my etsy widget to your right are a bit lacklustre.
These are instructions on how to meddle with your camera to take nicer photos from the prodigiously posting modish
These designs are very cute - I love the dog. Ottobre Designs
Emily has made a fantastic list of stitch dictionaries from the floss box
How to miter/mitre a quilt Instructions that I didn’t follow properly and thus have wonky mitres …
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Posted by kidneurotic on February 25th, 2008 — Posted in blogging, challenge, Take It Further
I have been thinking about the Take It Further challenge for this month, about what I can remember. Also vascillating about the video game nostalgia - as demonstrated so well in Sprite Stitch, I thought about something a little closer to home.
In 1983, the Ash Wednesday fires swept through south eastern Australia - I was a tiny tot, but I still remember flying from my grandparents house in the north to home in Melbourne during this. It just seemed a bit grey to me, but I remember how concerned my mum was. [It was the first time I had ever been on a plane, so that was what made it memorable!] Fire is such a defining part of Australian summer, and in the last few years we have had some terrible ones.
When I have charged my camera, I will put up my pictures.
In other parts of the web:
Resource Revival makes clever things from bike parts - I have seen this before, but like their bowl very much.
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Posted by kidneurotic on February 20th, 2008 — Posted in blogging
I don’t know whether it is appropriate to post picture of my sewing room after I realised that my map cupboard would be a better place for my cutting mat than my desk currently is. As a woman who is vowing to ‘Take Study Seriously, This time for sure TM’, I seem to be engaging in a lot of time consuming, ultimately useless activities. I have been doing crafty things - btu the battery on my camera is jiggered. Along with my sewing machine. And my mobile phone. Gah …
Here are some people who are doing something productive:
This is a link to a Japanese site that produces software to make custom 3d patterns aimed specifically at making plushies. It is curious to watch the process, and looks easy - but the end result is that I want to investigate teh other 3d pattern making software out there. Link
Applique in the freezer paper & starch vein - from Sew Create It
A free pdf with blocks created by Kim McLean. I just love her work and her new Lollipop Tree quilt has me drooling. QNM
The cutest little bag! From Linques.
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Posted by kidneurotic on February 12th, 2008 — Posted in swap
Hi Everyone from the swapbot homepage - I hope you like my blog.
At the side of my blog is a list of a stack of other blogs I enjoy reading - along with some links to craft resources [Japanese fabric sites are my favourite]. Happy browsing!
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Posted by kidneurotic on February 3rd, 2008 — Posted in stitching, sewing, swap, Take It Further
The new job is going well - but I am having trouble adjusting to new things to remember. Like - the Take It Further Challenge which I had entirely forgotten until the last week of January. And then forgot to update until now …
Here is my needlebook, made as part of a swap. It is a take on the colour scheme - although it is an object lesson in remembering to bring the colour chart you have printed out with you, when you are purchasing the floss.It is a series of French knots along the outline of an ‘H’ - so I guess it is a monogrammed needlebook. [The swap the needlebook went into was for a wrist cuff, which I made on the green felt of my previous post, and which was [IMHO] rather fetching. I have neglected to get a picture of this too. Sometimes I feel like my memory is on the fritz. ]
For the Feb challenge, I think I will take the ‘what you are old enough to remember’ route. I have been picking other people’s brains about what has changed in our lifetimes and I was a little surprised how much computers figured into it. Perhaps I could do something in that line.
It has been quite an embroidered month, with some embroidered bookmarks. One was included in a swap, and one was just an experiment. When I finished, it said ‘Experiment’, both as a reflection of what it was, and to encourage me to be a little more diverse in what I do.
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Posted by kidneurotic on January 21st, 2008 — Posted in felting, swap
It is ironic that in the northern hemisphere, January is the dead of winter. In a lot of Australia, a case could equally be made for the dead of summer. Except that having ruminated and stored a whole lot of bile about how abhorrent the heat is - M Town is suddenly a bit grey. There was a little bit of rain last night. I wished I had worn something more substantial than a summer dress to work … Perhaps the key to defeating global warming is to think miserable thoughts about summer?
To give my friend Sam a little advice about felting [and anyone else who wants to write an outraged letter to the paper about young folk on their lawn and how much wool shrinks in the felting process]:
These are great comparison shots I know [the whole apples vs apples in scale is a wonderful and mysterious phenomenon to me] but the numbers suggest that my knitting shrank by about half. I didn’t bother to put a sideways scale because I only lost about 5% in width.
Swaps
A pincushion brooch with kanzashi petals and a measuring tape for a back, for the sewing notion swap. Modelled by the last of the brooch wearing husbands of mine …
and a novelty button swap.
Links
Clever web app for making cross stitch patterns - Dark Lilac
Apparently, Taronga Park Zoo wants knitted pouches for their orphaned animals - according to the wool craft page of Vision Australia.
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Posted by kidneurotic on January 16th, 2008 — Posted in News, challenge
Only a little on the craft front - a very unconvincing abutilon, which is made less terrible as it wasn’t supposed to be one.
[Also in finding that wiki link I realised, with not a small amount of horror, I have been incorrectly calling it an ‘abuluton’ for many many years.]
As my husband is a marvellous man and more than just a genius with dowel, he took me out to have devonshire tea today in the Dandenongs. I have a great weakness for a really nice jam/cream/scone combo and if the tea is decent, you just can’t beat it. Raspberry jam with a good kick in its tail, and thick cream that promises to stay with you in your arteries until your third bypass is such an important element - but the most important is that the scone is not too sweet, and just baked. There is a famous tearoom in Olinda [who maybe named after a sleuthing old woman] that has great condiments - but the scones are too cakey. They are sweet and it seems like they are baked in a pan and sliced into squarish shapes.
At the place we go to the scones are almost perfect.
Almost except that in a fit of some perversion, they layer the top of the scones with icing sugar! Although I have known people to have a dust of flour on top, putting icing sugar on top of scones invariably results in yorur author looking like she has gone toe to toe with Tony Montana about distribution rights through Miami.
Wandering around quaintsy, twee, touristy places with streaks of [what looks to the world like] Bolivian Marching Powder through my hair, down my pants and ALL OVER MY SHIRT makes me look like I got the wrong directions to a bail bondsman. The other impediment to me eating dev tea every day is that it is a 1.5 hour drive to get there [admittedly through some lovely winding roads].
I throw down a challenge to all who know Melbourne - tell me where to find good dev tea, within 20 minutes drive of the CBD, and under 15 bucks a head. There will be some sort of prize for the person who can point me in the direction of somewhere worthwhile. Here are some places to NOT suggest:
* Werribee Mansion - while the scones/cream/tea are good there was a choice of marmalade and fig jam. While concievably, fig jam is perhaps some kind of maverick approach from an afternoon tea heretic within the kitchen, marmalade is just an amusing word for an inedible substance. WHEN YOU EAT ORANGES YOU THROW THE PEEL AWAY!
* Park Hyatt - has the daintest little high tea arrangements I have ever seen. For enough money to buy the daintiest Faberge egg I have ever seen.
* Hopetoun tearooms - before I was old enough to use the kettle to make my mum coffee - I used to use the hot water tap. This is what their tea tastes like.
* Botanic Gardens tearooms - jam comes in a squeezable plastic packet … nuff said.
Ok - challenge is there - get to it!
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Posted by kidneurotic on January 14th, 2008 — Posted in News, woodworking
I think I just made that word up - but I passed auditing. After 3 years, and a bajillion temper tantrums, I have finally passed this component of my accounting degree! I can’t tell you how thrilled I am! I feel like I am top of some kind of compliance based, bureaucratically underpinned world! However, my pass is a P - which is 50%-60%. This confirms that although I worked like a slave to pass the subject, my inability not to get paper bag breathingly nervous at exams remains intact.
In much nicer events, from an old drawer I found in the alleyway next to my house, my virtous husband has made me a thread holder.
Its inherent loveliness is perhaps better displayed when not drowned in camera flash, but it is so convenient and means that I can see the colours I have to hand very quickly.
Linkies:
I am so in love with the ribbons in Sydney - the argyle ones on sale will be mine, oh yes! Ribbons Galore.
Toni from the fabulous FatchickCrafts pointed me in the direction of two wonderful things - Colonial Crafts pure wool felt in wonderful range of colours [ I know I am not the only one who has failed to find it locally in exciting colours] and Soy Luster [I feel so terrible spelling it with the ‘er’ rather than the ‘re’ - but I suppose that thread manufacturers can be as appalling as they want, because the thrall of needlepoint blinds people to dialect spelling …].
These rings are SUPER cute - Twisted Twee’s knitted rings, but I am mostly interested in how they are assembled …
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Posted by kidneurotic on January 12th, 2008 — Posted in sewing, swap
The heat is starting to really get to me. Like - CAPITALISATION STYLE GET TO ME. I keep having crazy notions like attempting my best doggy paddle to Launceston where it doesn’t get to 40 degrees. Moreover, my usually placid demeanour is being subsumed by a crazy sweating woman who sees impetus for fights everywhere! I was seconds away from shouting some kind of gangster rap imprecation at a tiny grey haired lady I thought was eyeballing me at Spotlight - however, in the seconds before my mouth had formed the question about whether the diminutive woman was performing acts [prohibited by both statute and common law] with a chld rearing woman - I realised that I was in the way of the quilting thread she was looking at . I am starting to feel like Mickey Rouke …
In less adrenalin charged news, I have finished up my parcels fo my heart block swaps.
is for boatingbelle. The angled patchworky thing is a bookmark and it is about the closest thing to a Freudian craft projection that I will admit to. I have NO BOOKMARKS. It is SO easy to make them, and yet I don’t. I use bits of paper, hair ties, lollipop sticks, bills, anything but a bookmark. No reciept from my handbag, nor catalogue from the mailbox is safe if I have realised that I cannot keep reading.
for SewFun.
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