New Fabric Stockist

Today I checked out one of the lovely blogs I follow:

http://beachvintage.blogspot.com/

& they have a special offer on. A free grab bag of fabric, all I had to do was visit their new website & choose my fave fabric & blog about it. Easier said than done!!!! I ended up with about half a dozen fabrics on my short list & managed to narrow it down to these:

http://www.fabrictraders.com.au/shop/tres-chic-by-waverly-327

I love anything French & this also has a vintage look to it, so win, win!!

http://www.fabrictraders.com.au/shop/garden-patchwork-blue-368

This print would make a very yummy bag &

http://www.fabrictraders.com.au/shop/soul-blossoms-chartreuse-by-amy-butler-62

very art nouveau!!!!

This is the website, they have some beautiful fabrics & the most importantly the prices are good.

http://www.fabrictraders.com.au/shop/

October Books

Quite a lot of reading in October, adding up to quite a lot of late nights.

I’ve read the “Doctor’ books quite a few times over the years & they never fail to make me laugh. I had to do a book review when I was at school & whereas the others were reviewing children’s books, I chose Doctor in the House. I read out a section that in retrospect probably was not overly appropriate, but when I read it out to dad, he roared laughing so that was good enough for me.

Mum loved watching Peyton Place so my sister & I had to be in bed before it started. I always wondered what it was about so when I saw the book in my fave vintage shop I knew I had to read it. I really enjoyed it & I’d like to see the original movie rather than the series.

dot.homme was about the new trend of internet dating & was a good fun book with some serious issues too.

I really enjoyed A Crowded Marriage, there were some very funny bits. I woke dh up several times as I burst out laughing as I read it.

My ‘Tis the Season’ top is together!

I’d hoped/planned to be all finished by the end of October, but I didn’t take into account it was Mum’s birthday on the 27th. This year I set myself a challenge to make everyone’s birthday gifts, so that was my priority.

I did get my top finished & I will be layering it today, unless I decide to change a little stitching.  Using different colours has been tricky, as some don’t show up very well. So I’ll be taking a long, hard look, to see if I should use stronger colours on a few things.

I haven’t decided yet how I will be quilting it. It will most likely be a combination of hand & machine quilting. I can’t sit for long at the machine, so I might just machine quilt the edge of the white stitchery squares & then do some big stitch quilting on the borders.

I will be binding it with a red print & I’ll make the binding wider than usual so it becomes a thicker ‘frame.’

Halloween Mantle

Boo!!!

Happy Halloween everyone. It’s very quiet here as usual, Halloween just hasn’t caught on in Oz, although the shops are stocking more & more Halloween things each year. I think it would be great fun to get dressed up & just enjoy seeing others in their costumes. Two years ago we had our first Halloween party, Harry Potter themed of course & it was great fun. Of course since then we’ve moved & our friends are too far away for a party.

You can see pics of our party here:

http://mollys-meanderings.blogspot.com/2010_10_01_archive.html

Luckily we have friends in The US, & family & friends in Canada, so we enjoy hearing about their Halloween fun.

We got into the mood decorating our mantle for the occasion. I’ll leave it there until it’s time to decorate for Xmas.

A baby Mandrake.

A little floo powder in case we decide to visit friends later.

Mum’s Birthday Pressies

Mum loves fuschias & I’d had this pattern tucked away for years. I wasn’t sure what to use it on, but as I’d already made Mum a couple of wall hangings,  I decided to make a cushion.

I’d bought the fabrics a couple of years ago with Mum in mind so I finally had a project for them.

I traced the pattern then chose crayons to match the fabrics.

I think she’ll like it.

Mum also likes dolls so I made this one.

Now it’s time to start thinking about making Christmas pressies.

Spring Mantle

I’m afraid I’ve very late with my Spring mantle!!! But I’ll go with my belief, ‘better late than never.’

I’ve been  feeling more fatigued than normal the past month or 2 & when my heart kept racing like I’d run a marathon I knew it was time to get it checked. 3 trips to the Dr this past week, for a cardiogram & blood tests, it seems my iron levels are down again so it’s back on the iron tablets with some Deralin to slow my heart. Oh well hopefully in a month or 2 I’ll be back to my normal fatigue, lol.

My sewing room makeover has taken a back seat this week as I just haven’t been in the zone, physically or mentally, but I did make a little doll yesterday, for Mum’s birthday in a couple of weeks. She just needs some hair & I’ll show you how she turns out. I bought a yummy book this week too, as seen at Attic 24. It has a ripple cushion in it I’d also like to make for Mum. I bought the wool today & will give it a burl!!!

This is the cute book, it has some lovely projects in it I’d like to try. I don’t usually crochet from patterns, I usually just faff about until it looks ok, but these patterns actually look like I could follow them. We shall see.

September Books

Three books this month.

Pride & Prejudice, again. ‘grin’ Sometimes you just need a Mr Darcy fix.

The Lovely Bones, I’ve never read anything like this, I really enjoyed it.

Cloudstreet, loved it. A true Aussie story of two families, warts & all. It’s set in the 40’s, 50’s & early 60’s. Sad, strange, funny, everything a good book needs.

A big change to my books this month, we moved our Harry Potter shelves from the loungeroom, upstairs to our Harry Potter area.

I brought my cube shelves out of my sewing room to where the HOP shelves were, & packed all my novels into them.

They are two books deep & when we get the time, & energy, we will build platforms to go at the back of each cube to set the back row up higher.

Of course Zaphod had to help with the move.

Bringing the shelves out of the sewing room meant I had to reorganise all the stuff that was in them. Truth is, the sewing room wasn’t working for me, it was just too packed & driving me batty, so I used this as a chance to rethink & reorganise the whole room.

I’ll tell that story with before & after pics in my next post.