Work in progress

Here's my latest work in progress.  A quilt!

The Japanese floral will be the backing, with a two-tone herringbone front.

As I don't have a long-arm sewing machine, I'm going to have to hand-quilt this one.  Eeek.  That's a LOT of work.

Hopefully it'll be ready in 3 weeks.............  But I'm sure the person it's destined for won't mind if it's a little late :)

A quilt to take my mind off things

Well, here she is.  All finished.  I'm amazed I actually got it done before the baby arrived.  Often I start projects with the best of intentions and then get distracted by something else that's taken my fancy.  It's been good to have something to do to keep busy while I wait for the little one to arrive.

This is the second quilt I've made.  And boy, was it a steep learning curve!  The last quilt I made, I pieced it, but palmed it off to a lady from church to do the hard work - the quilting.  It was a bed-size quilt and there was no way I was going to be able to do it on my little domestic sewing machine.  It was also a gift, so I didn't want to stuff it up.  Particularly considering it took me about three years to finish it.  No joke.

This one was much more manageable though.  It's only about 33 inches x 45, or so.  I'm really pleased with the colours.  One of the quilting books I borrowed from my local library recently talked about 'stretching' the colours, and not just sticking to one type of red or yellow or whatever the theme is.  I don't know whether I achieved this to the author's standard, but I felt I gave it a good go.

And it's entirely made from what I had in my fabric stash and scraps container.  The backing is a leaf patterned batik quilting cotton given to me by my mum or sister.  Not really my style normally, but the colours matched so it was good to be able to use it up.  Waste not, want not!

It wasn't my intention, but the colours match perfectly with some cushions I bought from Country Road recently.  Which has made me decide to make a little pile of quilts for the TV room that can be used when the weather is cool, or for baby blankets for the floor.  I'm sure there's plenty of ways they'll be useful.  Even if it's just to keep Rosie amused, unfolding them and 'repositioning' them all over the room :)

And I've always loved the idea of being able to go to my cupboards and choose from a selection of home-made quilts to give to a guest needing an extra blanket.  I do believe my love of quilting has been reignited (or perhaps lit for the first time...?).

 As I said, it was a steep learning curve, because I like to dive in the deep end before I actually know how to swim properly, if you know what I mean ;)  There was a little bit of learning on the fly, but hey, who would ever do anything if you always had to know exactly how to do it perfectly before you even started??  Where's the fun in that?  It does sound less stressful though.

I love how it's all crinkly and worn looking already.  Homely.  That's how quilts should be, I reckon.  Sometimes our lack of capacity in things can add depth and texture to what we do.  I'll just keep telling myself that anyway :)

And I already know what my next project is.  But first, I need to go and clean up my sewing room.  It seriously looks like a bomb has hit it.

My "eclectic, modern, vintage, retro, a dash of shabby-chic, french provincial and whatever else I happen to like" style

I don't know if you could say I have a 'style' as such.  I just like what I like.  So, maybe that means I have an eclectic style?  Which, according to Dictionary.com (my go-to), means:

ec·lec·tic

   [ih-klek-tik] 

adjective

1.

selecting or choosing from various sources.

2.

made up of what is selected from different sources.

3.

not following any one system, as of philosophy, medicine,etc., but selecting and using what are considered the best elements of all systems.

4.

noting or pertaining to works of architecture, decoration,landscaping, etc., produced by a certain person or during a certain period, that derive from a wide range of historic styles, the style in each instance often being chosen for its fancied appropriateness to local tradition, local geography,the purpose to be served, or the cultural background of the client.

Yeah, that's probably me then.  Although, if you looked at my house at the moment, you would say I had an 'early to mid 90s feature wall on EVERY wall' kind of style, with a little bit of DIY mosaicing, for added effect :(

If you're not sure what I mean, my husband likes to say that there are only two walls that meet up in our house that are actually painted the same colour.  Now, that may be a slight exaggeration, but he's not far off.

Yep, we're not lacking in colour, that's for sure.  We've got mustard, red, brown, custard cream, beige and, if we hadn't renovated a quarter of the house by now, we'd still have aubergine (yes, the colour of eggplants) and khaki.  Those last two colours were the walls and ceilings, respectively, of the second, third and fourth bedrooms.  Oh, and don't forget the texturing, just to make renovating life a little more difficult.

Hey, don't look at me, we bought it like that! :)  

Just for a treat, here's a current photo of our main toilet.

Don't you just love the pink grout teamed with the clever use of fish tank pebbles and smashed floor tiles?

My husband is itching to do something temporary with this toilet, purely out of embarrassment, but I'm pushing to wait until we do up the bathroom and toilets properly.  I guess I must use the toilet so much I don't even really see how horrible it is anymore :)  I'd be happy just to put up a sign requesting frequenters to not judge us or our choices by this toilet - ha!

Anyway, I don't know why I've been thinking about my style.  Maybe because I've been sewing clothes for other people's children and you get to see a little bit about them in the fabrics and styles they choose?  Or, maybe because we've been talking about the next renovating stages in our house (exciting!!!!).

When it comes to kids clothes though, I think I tend more towards the modern vintage styles, which is probably why I love sewing with Oliver + S patterns.  I just finished the Oliver + S Family Reunion Dress for the Rosebud and I LOVE IT and can't wait to see her wear it.  She even has some shoes that will match it.  A-MAZ-ING.

This dress has some lovely features.  Like pin-tucked pleats on the front and back of the dress, a button tab, capped sleeves and an exposed neck facing.  Which all combine to create a dress that looks like it stepped out of that movie "The Help" (Which is probably one of the best movies ever.  Even my husband like it, and that's saying something.)

I am totally amazed at how neatly and beautifully finished the dress is.  Admittedly, it took me a whole day to make because the elements are quite involved and fiddly, but in making this dress I have expanded my repertoire of sewing techniques, which is fantastic.  I feel like a better sew-er now, just from making this one dress!

It doesn't matter what angle you look at this dress from, there's something special to see.

I didn't want to buy buttons for this dress so I scrounged through my button stash and managed (just) to find five similar size buttons for the back placket, and four for the front button tab.  I decided to do a bit of mis-matching again (my signature) and went with buttons that are the same colour, but each look a bit different.  The top one is my favourite, but together they look pretty cute.

I've had my eye on the fabric for a while now, so when it came on sale I grabbed some.  It's perfect for this dress.  Another watercolour-style print.

Another addition to the Rosebud's Spring/Summer collection (la-di-dah!).   We're getting there.  

The Wall.

My entry into Shwin&Shwin's Link Party  sponsored by Appliances Online.

So, we've got this wall in our house.

What??  A WALL, you say??

Yes, several actually.  But there's this one wall.

A wall that vexed me for many a month.

I have often wondered what to do with this wall.  You know.  Late at night, when sleep is evading me.  Or when I'm in the 'thinking room' (aka the toilet).

One thought was to remove it.  But no, couldn't do that because there's a fireplace on the other side.

Another thought was to put a cupboard or shelves on it.  But no, couldn't do that either because there's a door at one end of it that would be partially blocked.

And I didn't want to just put a picture on it like so many other walls in this world.

And so you see my conundrum.

And finally, one day, while Pinteresting, or surfing the net, or reading a home decorating magazine, or something along those lines, I had a brainwave.

A GIANT BLACKBOARD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Being one of those people that don't like things stuck to the fridge I have often wondered what I was going to do when my children began presenting me with their artistic creations, expecting them to take pride of place on the fridge, like in many other homes.  And so the giant blackboard gradually morphed into a giant, MAGNETISED blackboard.  Solutions all round!  

So I filed the idea away in my head several months ago, quietly waiting until I had the time and inclination to actually make good on it.  And finally I have.  Of course, there's no better time than just before hosting a major event in your home.  I find that there is nothing more motivating than a good deadline.

And my lovely husband humoured me :)  The conversation went something like this...

Me, on the phone to my husband: "I'm going to paint that wall into a giant, magnetised blackboard."
Husband: "So you mean I'LL end up painting that wall into a giant, magnetised blackboard?"

In the end it was a combined effort.  So, both the husband AND the wife made this one.  The husband did the bits that the pregnant wife couldn't (usually involving extremely smelly paint).

And I couldn't be happier with it.

I used it for the first time to show the menu of the dinner party my husband and I hosted last night.  And the Rosebud gave it a work out this morning as well :)

I have a retro-look metal clock from Ikea especially for the new wall, and I've got a few ideas to put some photos on it, but for now I like it just as it is.  A reminder of the delicious food we devoured last night.

It was quite simple to do, and a 'relatively' (because cost is extremely relative, as I'm sure you know) budget-friendly project (approximately $120, but we already had paintbrushes and rollers so the price will jump up a bit if you have to invest in these items as well.  This was just for the primers and paint).

To start with, I removed any hooks or nails that were in the wall.  Then, using one of these thingies (a palette knife, I think??  I should know this, my Dad is a plasterer after all!)...

I scraped off any chunky bits to make sure it was as smooth a finish as possible (my Dad taught me that bit!).  Then, I bogged up any holes left behind from the nails, or dints or any imperfections I wanted covered up, using Polyfilla (not sure what the generic name is for this type of product... hole-filler-upper-er?).

The wall took on a dalmatian-esque look for a little while...

Then, (here's where the husband stepped in), the wall got a really good sanding, with some fairly fine sandpaper, just to get it even smoother and the first coats of primer were applied.  I say coats plural because to make the wall magnetised you use a specific magnetic primer.  We applied three thin coats of magnetic primer to the bottom half of the wall, and the top right quarter.  The top left was left unmagnetised (at $40/L I was on rations!) and primed using a normal one-coat-only primer.  The priming stage was done over a day, to allow for drying time between coats.

Next, using a roller, we applied three coats of chalkboard paint.  Only two is necessary, but I wasn't happy with the rills that I had left behind from using the roller, so I did another coat.  And, after leaving for 48 hours to harden, you're done! A giant, magnetised chalkboard wall.  Ready to use.

It's a great little feature to have in the home.  It's something that I can see will be well-used by my little family.  And I can also see the need to make sure Rosie understands it's only ok to draw on ONE wall in the house!