TropicalSoup

Piglet...

I may be a little scarce this week - we have a wee boy who is decidedly unwell as of last night...symptoms and doctors are definitely pointing towards swine flu which has apparently been doing the rounds again in Rotovegas. Poor little sausage. And as of this afternoon I've come over poorly too, though at this stage the vomiting and extraordinary temps haven't hit me, so I am still holding out hope for a garden variety cold! Either way, I may be a little preoccupied for a bit - not least of all because trying to take the underarm temperature of a small child is not particularly easy when said small child is hallucinating from the fever and thinks the thermometer is biting him/trying to lay eggs in his armpit/ on fire! Well, that and apparently I spent a lot of time last night playing golf in the ensuite, and keeping fish in our spa pool!

i hope the rest of you are enjoying much better health!!!

The old bait 'n switch...

No cushions to see today (are you surprised? Relieved?) since I haven't progressed at all on those ones I gave you a glimpse of yesterday. in fact, I think they're still in that exact same spot on the ironing board...yep, still there (just checked!)

But hey! I have quilts to show you - ones I've actually finished and photographed and everything! Wanna see?

I have named this one Provence, since it evokes thoughts of long, languid, late Summer lunches outside in the French countryside, the heat of the afternoon radiating through the grapevines overhead and from the wooden bench seat to your bare shoulders. The occasional glint of sunlight on the deep azure - sometimes almost purple - of the Mediteranean Sea. The platter of fat black olives, succulent marinated artichoke hearts and eggplant, plum tomatoes so ripe they explode as you bite into them, hunks of crusty bread, wedges of creamy camembert and a stack of piquant emmentaler, accompanied by the most luxurious merlot**. Yum

Anyway, back to the quilt! A fun little thing. I'd seen some quilts around using a similar sort of pattern (ranging from very regimented and uniform blocks to decidedly haphazard and wonky) and really like the idea of it, but had no idea where the pattern came from. So, I had a little bit of a fiddle around, and figured out a way to make the blocks. And voila!

 

The back is some improv piecing, with a little white for light relief. I stippled those entire quilt with a lovely dusty blue, and hand bound it in a pieced strip. The quilt measures about 37" x 44" after washing, in all its crinkly goodness.

I'm planning on listing this in my Etsy shop. (as soon as I grown some balls and decide it's good enough. Big hairy balls.)

**This is a little odd, given that I have never been to Provence. And don't drink. And am not at all partial to olives. Then again, maybe it makes me think of late Summers in the Wairarapa. Yes, that's more like it - then everything reads perfectly. Well, maybe we need to swap the Pacific for the Mediterranean, but well, you get my drift!

My creative space is cushy

 

Today these are sitting patiently, waiting for me to finish work and make their backings. I'm quite pleased with them so far, and it was a lovely chance to try out the squiggly quilting. They'll be smallish rectangular cushions.

For some truly gorgeous creative spaces, visit Kirsty at Kootoyou

Button cushion

Okay, let's just start this by saying D is convinced I've been inhaling the glue a bit thinking a throw pillow heavily decorated with buttons is anything other than nuts...or an alternative for those super sexy beaded car seat covers! But I had this idea see, and well, just needed to see what it looked like in reality!

I was picturing this on a charcoal wool blanketing fabric - a modern, vaguely industrial chic if you will. But  (and there is almost always a but!) in an attempt to use only what I have already, I grabbed some old dark denim from the stash and used that instead. I spent hours sewing on those itty bitty buttons, but unfortunately, I think the denim-button combo has rendered the finished product a bit more Pearly Kings and Queens of the 80's than modern chic. What say you? Am I being over critical, or should I send it direct to London?

I don't think I have it in me to redo it on another fabric (I have since remembered - and subsequently dismembered! - an old grey woollen blanket that was in storage for future cushions!)

Good grief - where has this week gone? It's this weird mystery how some afternoons can positively drag, but weeks fly by so fast I'm genuinely surprised I don't have whiplash!

A little cushion action in the studio lately - I decided my first round of living room cushions needed a rethink - they were a little too matchy matchy, and whilst I've added to the collection little by little (just realised I haven't posted about those, oops) the blue/red mix has just been a bit too strict and not quite modern and funky enough for what I was going for (things always look so perfect in my head....). The *old* cushions are hanging out in the sitting room (and work quite well there!) while I work on the new ones.

So here's the start - in terms of colour, we have a beige (!) living room, with a cardinal red (or pohutukawa for those of you in Aotearoa!) wall, and similarly rich red drapes on 2 of the walls (the 3rd wall - a bank of windows - has a massive roller blind in a dark neutral - dark mushroom/taupe kinda thing). With the black leather sectional and ottoman, and red armchair, there needs to be something that works with red, but hopefully still a little wriggle room for something a bit more funky and colourful. I saw a tea towel on the online Anthro store (more about that later) that gave me the inspiration for the change, and the canvas Wonderland print seemed to have a little of everything I was looking for - and happily already in my stash! So, first up, a straightforward envelope closure cushion. I used a burnt orange polka dot cotton/linen blend for part of the back to add a little interest (and to save a decent remnant of the print since I have other plans for it!). Excuse the wrinkles - D had thoroughly road tested it the night before, and I decided I didn't have time to iron and take photos before the light went!

...and since I've just seen what time it is and what I still need to do before bed, I'll be back in the morning with the next lot. (I know, trying to build suspense with throw pillows....I can barely believe it either!)

Lavender cushion

Our adored Nana Chris (technically D's grandmother, though I have been honoured to lay claim to her as well for the 16 years she and I have known each other!) suffered a bad fall recently and broke her femur. Ouch. And being that she is only a few short months from her 102nd birthday (!!!) we were a little worried about the toll that any treatment and therapy might take on her. We should have known better - nothing keeps Nana Chris down! She sailed through the operation, now has some snazzy new internal hardware, and is well on the road to recovery. Hooray! Still, I thought a little sweet smelling something would not go astray - Nana C loves pansies (hence the fabric - I hold her entirely to blame for getting me hooked on those little blooms!) and lavender, with which I have stuffed the cushion. A little folded fabric rose with felt leaves finishes it off. It's small enough to go under her pillow or in her wardrobe, but still big enough to pack a powerful scent.

Hopefully this package, complete with plenty of kids' artwork, letters and Nana's particular elixir of youth (the woman swears by Old Gold Dark chocolate!), will be a little fun to receive.

Get well Nana, we'll see you soon!

My creative space

Yesterday started out well but ended up one of those days...you know what I mean? The small-child-spreadeagled-on-the-super-market-floor type days (my first of this type - no yelling or screaming, just lying on the floor complaining! First and hopefully my last. I really thought we were out of the woods with that by 4! Tired, over excited small boy = no fun), and by their bed time, I needed a little quiet time in my bed too! ha! I'm happy to report that today is a new day with new smiles and so here I am, with my better-late-than-never-I-hope weekly Creative Space, as hosted by the lovely Kirsty of Kootoyou, who has the most gorgeous pincushion!

 

I was making a fabric flower the other day for something else (will show you that in a bit), and thought they'd probably be the perfect size for on an alice band for Imogen...gussied up alice bands seem to be all the rage at the moment in the blog and etsy world. And well, it's not like my small girl to turn down an accessory! So I took the laptop into the studio, caught up on a missed episode of The Mentalist (I heart tv on demand!), and made this with a plain band I found in Immy's stash. I was a bit pleased with myself, a feeling that was more than somewhat amplified when I took a few photos of it in situ on her head this morning. As I took the camera away from my face, she said *mama, are you sure you have enough photos to show how fabulous this is?* That girl has a way with words!!!

...and whilst we were playing fashion model, Cole and the kittens catlings (the 4 year old experts have declared that the official terms for cats that *are not tiny kittens and not grown ups yet either!*) were having a rather hysterical game of creep-up-on-each-other-then-pounce. I used to talk the kids out of that particular game, worried that they were terrorising the catlings, but I think the furry ones enjoy the game at least as much as their human counterparts do, given how often they'll initiate it!

Here's to finding fun every which where...

Photoshop has me in a headlock. Back when I have subdued it. Or something.

* I was *this close to titling this *having fun on a pole*...and then my inner 11 year old fell over from laughing so hard.

Quilt as you go

Sew Take a Hike has a great quilt-as-you-go tutorial (and a fully fledged quiltalong using this method to make a bed quilt as well, though I'm a bit behind with broadcasting that!) and I thought it was worth a go. I used some scraps from my Anna Maria Big Ass quilt to muck around and make a cushion. I'm really pleased with how it came out, though will be more pleased when I finally find or make a cushion inner that fits!

I love straight line quilting, but this style would have driven me absolutely spare with all the thread tails to bury at the start and end of each line. That's where the magic really happens with quilt-as-you-go as far as I'm concerned - the ends are nicely encased by the next fabric. Yay! I like my quilts quite heavily quilted, and since this style doesn't seem to allow for the back to be as densely quilted I probably wouldn't make a bed or lap quilt, but cushions are just perfect! And having said that, I did have a thought on one way this idea would make a brilliant bed quilt...will tell you more once I've found the necessary from my trawls of the local opshops!

Thank goodness for expert assistance with the photography...

...now if Mahe would only help me figure out how Photoshop works, then we'd be in businessb!