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1. 1970’s and earlier Wool Kimono Fabrics from a must see store in Tasmania called Wafu Works at Kinsgton Beach (20mins south of Hobart). It is harf to believe these are wool, they are so light 🙂
2. Modern Japanese Quilting Cottons
3. Ultra Funky and Bright Wollen throw/snugle/picnic rug from the Waverly Woolen Mills outlet store in Launceston
4. Knitted blanket from the Glen Orchy Tip Shop/Recyling Centre – Perfect to felt
5. Little roll of Japanese wrapping paper from the 50’s or 60’s
6. Modern Japanese quilting cotton FQ picked up from the Salamanca Markets
7. Patons Alpaca Yarn – for a beanie of my very own
8. Panda Myth Mohair Blend, an utterly gorgeous colourway and weight which was reduced to clear at $2 was $8-10ish, I have… 14 rolls of the stuff to make a cardigan
9. Vintage Kimono Cotton, with the most gorgeous print on it 🙂
Other Loots
10. A bottle of South Country Cyder
11. The new Interweave Knits Crochet magazine
12. A copy of Yarns, a brand new Australain mainly knitting magazine but it does have a nice smattering of Crochet in 🙂
I think that is about all I picked up along the way, well other than all the gorgeous cherries that we were gorging on 🙂
Well Christmas is fast approaching and in exaclty one weeks time, Mum and I will be drawing close to Dubbo on our 2 day drive to Melbourne.
These are three styles of ornaments I have made so far, little plum puddings (which I need to find some tiny holly to add to the top), Christmas Trees and Stars inspired by Jenny at All Sorts.
You can click on the image to see the ornaments larger. The Christmas Tree is by far the easiest to make, just 2 roughly cut triangles for the tree and a thin folded strip of felt for the trunk. The tree which is shown here I have done little bullion stitches, which Mum says look like little gold grubs :), on another one I have done quite primitive cross stitches. The Plum Pudding probably takes the longest time due to the cutting and stitching on of the icing. I did not like cutting out the stars but they do look so cute especially as I reduced the pattern that Jenny provides so some of them measuere 2″ across instead of the usual 4″, so cute 🙂
That is ornament installment part 1, I have a couple more styles that I am working on currently and most of my present shopping is done 🙂
One day a few months ago on a craft blog crawl, I came across Crafting Japanese, a blog which collects details on Japanese craft books and the items that people have made from them. I looked and looked and picked the books I liked best and ordered three of them from YesAsia.com
After many days of thumbing the pages, to select what to make first, I decided on a bag from the book Machine Made Patchworks.
Most of the fabric is William Morris Prints by Rose and Hubble, maybe this will be a Christmas present for one of the girls …… or maybe I will keep it for msyelf 🙂
As some of you may know I have recently had no real interest in scrapbooking but yesterday I printed off some photos and then this evening I sat down to have a little play and popped out this one. As long as I don’t spend too much time chatting to people on Messenger I am a relatively quick scrapper, as an image will pop into my head fairly quickly after selecting photos and cardstock and finish most pages in about 30 minutes.
AS part of my anti-boredness campaign, I rented a few DVD’s out the other day, I picked up Kinsey(which was so not what I expected), Crazy/Beautiful (oh the Romeo and Juliet story line set in teen angst, really liked this movie, seemed so real, the turmoil that Carlos had between his family and Nicole, etc etc good stuff and well Jay Hernandez the actor playing Carlos is pretty nice looking), Beyond Borders (really liked how this movie spanned the three events over the period of ten years and well the scene in the beginning where Clive Owens comes barging in just sets the whole scene) and finally Napoleon Dynamite(I got this out after hearing so many people rave on about it but I have to say I didn’t really think it was much of a decent thing, sure it was different to most films but still so not what I felt it was cracked up to be).
The Patchwork Tree had a sale today so I popped on down to add to my stash, I picked up some Amy ButlerCharm fabrics as well as some more Japanese imports, oh I wish I could find that company’s website as I would be in heaven.
Christmas is coming and that means full steam ahead on all creations, the bummer is that most/all of the people I am making gifts for read this thing, so I can’t exactly post photos of them till they get them which isn’t for ages yet 🙁
However I can say that my back is sore from the amount of free motion machine quilting I have done in the last day or so, the person who gets this present is very lucky because if it wasn’t Christmas I would be keeping it myself! Full of blood, sweat and tears I tell you well actually full of 3 bobbins of thread! Thanks for Mum for showing me how to do free motion quilting.
Yesterday I also posted Jökull’s quilt so as long as the ship sails smoothly, he should see it in three to four months. I even wrote Jökull the Glacier Boy on the shipping label 🙂
Exams finished 1 week ago and I am already going stir crazy! Only 3 and a bit months left of summer holidays. ugg. I am already lined up to make Matthew three new pairs of pyjamas and to clean the kitchen and living room (paid work) so maybe it won’t be too bad. On Sunday I am going to see Ben Lee at the Zoo with Sam and Andrea 🙂 so that will be good, happy days. 🙂
I have been making a lot of little things recently but have put off posting about them as I have not taken photos, well now I have.
Made Cranberry Muffins again last night, but this time I used whole meal flour and raw sugar instead of the plain and white it calls for, didn’t end up adding rolled oats though – next time 🙂
Over a week ago I made Amy Butler’sNappy Bag, the fabric I used is Floral Song#2055 from Print Concepts. For the interfacing of the bag and one set of the pockets, I used iron-on wadding to give my camera extra protection when it is in the bag. I didn’t add the mobile phone or bottle pockets either.
When I make this bag again, which I will because I do like the style, the strap is going to be cut thinner as it is really wide on the pattern (10cmish) and longer as it doesn’t sit in the right place on my body. Also going to make the whole bag narrower and round the corners. Just a few changes 🙂
In the way of scrapbooking have done nothing for me in quite a while now, but did manage some layouts and cards for an upcoming thing. Speaking of that, my next challenge is up on the Scrapbook Creations website – the prize this month is great, go on and enter!
After seeing the Ramona Peep Dolls by Roxy at Etsy, I showed them to Mum and said I have to learn how to Crochet as I want to get the pattern and make one, yeah well I can make a standard chain all right and can do a couple of rows, but yeah going to take a while before I can attempt Ms Ramona 🙂
After seeing Hillary’s Shrinky pins on Wee Wonderfuls moons ago, I picked up a pack of Shrinky Dink Plastic whilst at a new scrap shop the other month. To make the shapes I used a spirograph (idea from Jodi) and the Owl Stamp from a ColorBox Stylus Moulding Mat, though most of the owls look more like cats to me.
But that is not all, I have started painting glass again in preparation for Christmas, all the ornaments I am working on at the moment are only partially completed so no photos yet.
The big thing is that I have discovered the wonderful joy of Needle or Dry Felting. It Rocks! I visited Gerry’s yesterday where I picked up some needles and two bags of wool tops in Grape Jelly and Bean Sprout, such yummy colours. On the Bus home, I made a die, which is about 1.25″ on the sides, it isn’t perfect but it gave me the hang of how to do it. I have made some more little things as well, one of which is a flower that I made based on a tutorial by Maitreya of Craftlog, I need to add a middle yet. After making and playing, I have ordered some more needles and a pack of primary bright wool from ebay. So many ideas, so much time 🙂
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Over a week ago I made 
After seeing Hillary’s
