The beanbag that’s not a beanbag creative space

Finally it’s finished – the beanbag that’s not a beanbag. It took a lot longer to make than I had expected. That seems to be a very familiar story with me. I start things expecting to whip ‘em up in a couple of hours and when I don’t finish them they get put away for another day hence the millions of half started projects everywhere and hence the WIP challenge. Speaking of which, this is another WIP down – only one more to go!

So anyway back to the beanbag that’s not a beanbag. I love how it has turned out. I love that the kids love it. Although I really have to keep an eye on Maya when she’s in it!
I love that the kid’s friends and cousins love it. I love that I have inspired a friend to try making one herself.

All I did was sew up a beanbag using denim and upholstery fabric with some extra strong upholstery thread, hammer in some eyelets at the top (that bit was fun!), cut a door in the side, place a hoop inside the bottom of the beanbag to help keep its shape, put some cushions and blankets inside, hang it from the eyelets on a hook and voila, a fun swinging hideaway for the kids!
It looks so fun and comfy that I want to get in there myself, but I think I’ll leave the fun to the kids. I don’t want to break it! My Creative Space is a little bit later than usual this week. I’ve seen a bit too much of the bathroom in the last 12-24 hours, after eating a bad batch of food at the food court at work yesterday. Lets just say I won’t be eating any of that impossibly red sweet and sour pork again anytime soon!

My Creative Space...

... involves opped denim and upholstery fabric, extra strength upholstery thread, some "inspiration" from a well known Swedish homewares store catalogue, a child's plastic hoop and a beanbag pattern ... but I'm not making a beanbag. My brain is getting a work out (good preparation for my return to work in two weeks) and my newly serviced green machine is also getting a good work out with this project.I love this bedspread crocheted by my grandmother, but it has absolutely nothing to do with my beanbag that is not a beanbag. I just didn't want a photoless creative space. More on the "beanbag" when it's finished. Hopefully it is strong enough and works out okay!

For some inspiring Creative Spaces head over to Kootoyoo.

My Creative Space Full of Discoveries

I’ve discovered a few things this week:

1. My zygo cactus plants have started flowering. 2. The granny rug I fixed last week looks fantastic on Khye’s bed.
3. I can crochet while breastfeeding Maya.
4. The balls of yarn I got from the op shop for her dress were different dyelots.Can you tell? The left looks more blue and the right looks more yellow. Bugger.
5. I discovered I missed 2 rows of crocheting but I’ve ignored it and I don’t think you can tell.
6. Even though my sewing space is tiny, it can be a beautiful place to work in the early mornings.
Unfortunately this gorgeous patch of sunshine only lasted a couple of minutes.

7. If you actually stop blogging and put the crocheting away, you can get lots of sewing and stuffing and handstitching done. There are stacks of softies slowly coming to life for the Sugar & Spice Children’s Market.

Discover more Creative Spaces over at Kootoyoo.

My Creative Space

Remember my little piles of scraps from last week? Well they got sewn up, then unstitched, matched with more scraps, resorted into little piles again and resewn.

I had to unstitch them ‘cos I had droopy petals.
Backing the petals with floral cotton scraps helped to strengthen them,
and helped make them look prettier than before.What do you think?
I am just loving the bursts of colour!

More creative spaces over at Kootoyoo.

Flea Market Finds

I have had some luck recently finding textiles books (here and here) at the oppies and this week was no exception.A lovely hardcover needlework book first published in 1950, this book is the “Fourth Impression 1972”. And with these clear step by step instructions on how to crochet, hopefully I will be joining the “crochet club” soon.
This book, while not exactly a Flea Market Find, was very cheap – only $4.50. I found it at Lincraft!

This week I have been inspired by my find last week and by Kate’s gorgeous dress making, and have been flicking through all the patterns at the oppies. I found these. These illustrations of elongated models always make clothes look so good don’t they? But I love the dress pattern on the left. Not sure if it would suit me but I can only give it a go. Now to choose some fabric…

Oh and one of them came with the pattern cut out of an old 1975 newspaper. Just look at those house and land prices back then!

Visit Sophie at Her Library Adventures for more Flea Market Finds.

Sewing Shadow Shot Sunday

Some beautiful shadows this week between all the sewing that’s been happening around here.

For more shadowy shots visit Hey Harriet.

My (slightly sidetracked) Creative Space

Sidetracked ‘cos I had planned to get lots of sewing done for the Sugar & Spice Market in June. Sidetracked ‘cos I found a Meh Tai baby carrier at the op shop and it needed a bit of “work” for us to use. It’s such a simple design being just a square with the straps sewn to the corners. But this one was such a boring plain blue (unfortunately I forgot to take a before photo). So after a bit of shaping (the edges of the square were cutting into Maya’s thighs) a bit of colour and the addition of some vintage fabric, this is how it looks now. What do you think? I’m much happier with it now. And Maya’s much happier in it!

I also started on something new (like I don’t have enough projects to work on!).

I’ve been sorting and resorting little bits of scraps into piles. More later!

And I started cutting up this fabric to make my winter skirt. I'm not very good at dressmaking, but hopefully it turns out okay and hopefully it will fit me.

Have you been sidetracked this week? I’m heading over to Kootoyoo now to check out your creative spaces.

New things I’ve been having fun making lately…

…a penguin softie – an order for a work collegue. I designed him from scratch and I am actually amazed at how well he turned out!
…a beautifully soft angora wool cot blanket – an order for a friend for her soon to be grandson.

…another soft wool cot blanket – available for sale.

…a fabric rocking horse for Khye. This is a sneak peek as I haven’t finished him yet. I am making him from a pattern from a 1970’s magazine that Mum collected when we were kids.

…a soft fabric portable house/garage/barn/building for Khye. Again a sneak peek as I haven’t finished it yet. Here is the tutorial from UK Lass in US.

More on the horse and the house later when they are finished.

What new things have you been making lately?

New Life

On top of all the things that have been happening in the last crazy couple of months, I have been struggling with morning sickness. Yep I’m pregnant and due to give birth to our second child in September! Here is one of the first pics.

(Sorry its a bit of a blurry photo of a grainy ultrasound scan)

I have been starting to feel a lot better in the last couple of weeks and now have a lot more energy, time and motivation to blog and sew. I didn’t go to the March market ‘cos I wasn’t feeling well, but I did go as a visitor. It was cold and wet and a good market not to got to! The April market went well though – it was warm in the sun and no rain. I will be at the May market, the last market of the summer season and my last market till after the baby is born. But I won’t be far away as I intend to open an online store soon – so stay tuned!

Callignee is experiencing some new life now too. The birds are starting to return, Mum’s garden is looking green and I have been told there are even some flowers coming out now!

Mum and Dad kept this bank of garden really wet in the lead up to the fire and although all the plants were either burnt or cooked in the heat, the roots were kept damp in the soil which meant the plants were able to regenerate quite quickly. The mint was one of the first plants to grow back amongst the molten metal “sculptures” from the burnt out cars.

The trees around them though have been slow to reshoot. Some have a few new green shoots but there are also many that aren’t showing any signs of life yet. Eucalypts are usually pretty quick to reshoot after a bushfire –goes to show just how intense the fire must have been. Dad was outside as the fire front passed through and he recalls that as it came up over the hill it was a wall of flame from the ground to the top of the trees and the flame then curled over the top of the house by another tree length! Very scary. Here is a photo of Mount Tassie, just a few kilometres up the road from Callignee.

The TV towers you can see, supply Gippsland with TV reception and were damaged by the fire. In the foreground is a pine plantation which the fire ripped through very, very quickly.

Now I do tell a small lie when I say I haven’t been doing any sewing lately. I have done a little bit of sewing bringing new life to fabrics in my stash and creating gifts for Khye’s cousins who recently turned one. The first is a soft, pretty dolly. She is my own design with a bit of inspiration from the More Softies book.

Khye’s cousin looked at her for a bit after she was unwrapped, then gave her a big cuddle and chewed her cheek! I guess she liked her new dolly.

I made for Khye’s other cousin a Humpty Dumpty. He again is my own design with a bit of inspiration from the Play School Humpty.
Khye’s cousin was more interested in the curling ribbon around the present than in Humpty himself! Hopefully with a bit of time he will like Humpty and have some fun with him.

Holiday fun

Here’s a collection of images and sound from our holidays.

This was a last minute burst of sewing before christmas for Khye’s toys – it’s a bag that opens flat on the floor.

Some christmas pressies - how lucky am I?

Daddy’s little helper

The leather owl I made as a gift for mum

Khye ready to go “nunnel” (aka tunnel) hunting

nunnel hunting with Grandma

“more more nunnel”

Grandma’s garden is looking beautiful at the moment.

a fantastic op shop fabric find – a zebra just had to be made!

Sean has been very busy doing a wonderful job to transform our pink kitchen into a white kitchen.

This is the last thing I saw before leaving for work this morning.

And lastly I was going to post the most beautiful rendition of twinkle little star, but I had issues (we don’t have a USB2 port to download stuff from my mp3 player – stay tuned though, I will post it as soon as I can!)

Happy new year!