Drowning in Denim

My sewing room (and perhaps even my life) has been overtaken by denim. It is stacked high in the cupboards and gradually being transformed into curtains for the youngest son's bedroom. After thinking and talking about it for ages I'm finally doing it and have finished two of the three curtains that he needs. They are larger than a king size quilt so take some making but I'm well into the swing of it now. With two hung his room is feeling noticeably warmer and best of all he loves them. I think what he has loved most of all is working out which small animal should go in which pocket!
However I think I'm becoming a victim of my own success as my other two children love the curtains and have decided that they too need them. Thank goodness they only have one window each in their rooms. So I will be very intimately acquainted with the handling of denim by the time I get through these.

In rare moments I have escaped the call of the denim and had a couple of dalliances with another favourite - linen. The pile of tea towels was calling and one morning I decided that I could no longer live without a new peg bag. After all, my peg apron is purely for show! Far to beautiful to put pegs in - besides I like scaring the children by threatening to wear it out of the house.... The friend who had given me the pile of old tea towels (including the Union Jack I used for the bag) thought it was hilarious and politely declined my offer to make her one. What should I take from that?? This my other linen piece - from a fabulous large piece I found at the Salvation Army in Johnsonville for only $4. Can't go past a linen bargain! As you will have guessed its another of my wavey lines...the obsession is no where near abated.But its a beautiful day here today so I must away for some time in the sun, even if the temperature is low! Happy stitching, or strolling - whatever you have planned for the day for the long weekend.

Take Two Tea Towels

The best advice I can think of right now is to take two tea towels and then completely ignore the dishes waiting in the sink... Instead they could be put to better use as a fuller reversible bag which can be whipped up in the time it takes to play through one CD. I've been making bags from souvenir tea towels for a while (it really wasn't true when I said I only make flat things) but on the weekend came up with the idea of making them reversible. This one was made for the birthday of a friend who was having a significant birthday but who issued invites stressing there were to be no presents.She became a NZ Citizen last year, having migrated here from the UK about 5 years ago. So it seemed to me that the perfect solution was a bag to deliver the wine in which had NZ on the outside and the Union Jack on the inside (for those times she needs to let her true colours show - like when the Brits are beating NZ in the sport of the day!)
It was received with great excitement and I have the feeling this could be the first of a bit of a series....I'll just have to start sourcing some more interesting tea towels! Shame the photos weren't the best but of course the bag is now gone to its new home so these will have to suffice.

And working on another theme - I've started playing with those beautiful curves again....this one resulted from the class with Cheryl Comfort. There will be more, I have no doubts...

But before then, the task for this week is to finish the jean curtains - it is getting cold here now and they really need to be up for the boy. One down - two to go...

What a destination!

Well that was longer than I intended...plague house hung around for a while....infact much longer than desirable by any measure! And no sooner was that over and our guests had left that I was off and away for 4 fantastic days at Parallel 41 - a quilting extravaganza hosted by Picton Quilters. This is the fabulous advertising slogan for the Cook Strait Ferry - the Interislander. It made me laugh so hard it just had to be photographed for the blog...

Picton is the most beautiful place - I'd never realised having only ever dashed through there on the way to somewhere else
Had wonderful early morning walks each day just soaking in the sights...
This was my favourite, I think - I went looking for it after being told there was a fresh water spring not far from us that had a car sitting over it, with a tree growing through the middle. I felt that the goat just set it off a treat! Apparently in the early 1800s local Maori were badly ill with diseases bought by European new to the area. One of the local chiefs is credited with saving his tribe by bringing them water from this fresh water spring rather than the sources being used by those already ill. What better way to mark the spot than with an abandoned car?
And then there was the quilting...fabulous tutors - Cheryl Comfort was so great to work with for the first two days that I threw caution to the wind, stayed on and did another two days with her. So much fun, so much learning and so much laughter. What more could you ask for. Lots of work still in progress but here's a little something.

Because I hadn't planned to stay for the second class - Cross Sections - I just had to use fabric I had to hand....I was so pleased I'm thinking of abandoning any future attempts to actually prepare for future classes! More to come