Townmouse

Crafter's block

I've been suffering from crafter's block.  All year really.  I don't know where my sewing mojo has gone. Maybe it's been sucked into the Pinterest abyss. Too much time spent looking at other people's creative output, leaving less time for my own creating.  I'm not sure what it is - the pressure to create something equally pretty; too many pretty things to choose from it's hard to know what project to choose.

When I look back at my industriousness of previous years I'm quite impressed. This year's mosaic won't be quite so large.  

Meanwhile, look at this pretty yarn.  It's a linen yarn from Quince and Co. It's quite dreamy to look at. I've been flicking through my Japanese crochet books for a little inspiration.

I came across this image.  Isn't this granny square blanket fabulous? I think it's the red that makes it so striking - a nice change from the white bordered ones.  I love the bobbly edging on it too.  It's from this book. Not sure how it helps me with my little ball of linen yarn though.  See, there I go, dithering. What to do, what to do?

Owl Halloween costume

As in previous years, the children and I got into the Halloween spirit.  I carved some pumpkins, put some orange balloons on our fence and got our bowl of treats ready on the hall table. Halloween is big in our neck of the woods, because our streets are full of young families.  And the children in those families aren't going to pass up the opportunity to amass a large quantity of free sweets.

I borrowed some inspiration from Pinterest.  As you can see, this costume idea is by no means my original design.  But I happened to have a pretty selection of owl coloured fabrics and I couldn't resist replicating it.

I made a little feather template that was 4 inches wide and 5 inches long.  I grabbed a handy Townmouse tee, set my machine to zigzag and got to work.  This little outfit took about 30 minutes to construct.  The owl eyes were cut out of my very handy patternmaking card and stuck to an old pair of sunglasses.

Teamed with some grey leggings, Adelaide was good to go.

Now I think it's time for a bowl of pumpkin soup!

Grosgrain lanyards

One of the lovely things about taking the family skiing is that the children have a lot of freedom at Mt Buller.  It's a safe place for them to get around without us having to escort them. The boys will walk to a friends lodge, ski in groups with their buddies after their lessons, and come and go on their own.

They each take a key to the apartment when they head out for the day.

Whenever Will comes home from a conference or event with one of those lanyards I keep the clip and throw away the cheap ribbon.

I've just rifled through my box of ribbons and made these up for the weekend.  The pink one is for me.  I figured there will always be a key for me if it's on a pink ribbon - the boys aren't going to wear that around their neck.

A year of crafting

The year just passed was a very busy one in our family.  There was less time for crafting than I'm used to.

There was more dressmaking than quilting.

Adelaide has been the main beneficiary of my sewing endeavours.  

Here's to a productive 2012 for us all.

Home made doll's clothes for Christmas

Henri was going round the house with his clipboard this morning, asking his siblings what they wanted for Christmas. (He must have raided Tom's stationery supplies for next year to find said clipboard.) Adelaide's response was "doll's clothes".

This sweet little doll is so lovely to cuddle because of her soft body.  The problem is she needs high necks and sleeves to cover her undergarments.

I drafted a pattern block for Amelie (dolly's name) - a simple bodice block with sleeve.  

I used a few scraps to replicate my most favourite of all Townmouse dresses.

This one fits the bill with its high neck and elbow length sleeves. 

Now I know that the pattern block is a good fit I can create a few more variations for Amelie.

I have a sweet little suitcase, purchased from Lark, that I can put Amelie's wardrobe into.

A quick trip to the local button shop is on my To Do list today to buy some simple press studs so Adelaide can easily dress and undress her doll.

I'll let you know how I go with the rest of Amelie's wardrobe. There might have to be a few matching dresses for Adelaide in the mix.

Quick crochet project

Have any other Aussie readers discovered ABC iView on the iPad?  It's catch-up TV from the Australian Broadcasting Commission in a handy iPad app.

Last night it was me with my crochet hook enjoying "The Hour", "Brideshead Revisited" and "Restoration Home".  And the best part: I was tucked up in bed.  Now that's what I call a great Saturday night in.

My first cloth doll

With Christmas coming up I had the idea that I'd like to make Adelaide a cloth doll with its own wardrobe of clothes.

Inspired by Fiona's fabulous Hop, Skip, Jump book, I pulled out some fabrics and set to work.

I used the Poppy doll pattern, which I received from Fiona a long time ago, but never got around to making up.  It's a lovely pattern with very easy instructions for the first time doll maker.  Next time, I think I'd like to try these pigtails.

Anyway, here's my first attempt.

I'm not sure what Adelaide is going to think of this miss.

To me she looks like she's just had a tooth extraction and is still sporting cotton wadding from the dentist.  I'll have to get out my long embroidery needle and work away at those lumps of stuffing in her face.

The doll's top is made from some Liberty scraps from a recent top I made for Adelaide.  I wonder what she'll think of matching outfits with her dolly.  This fabric looks ever so pretty with the little Jacadi hot pink cardigan that is also pictured.

And now that all my Townmouse stock is nearly sold I have moved Adelaide's wardrobe into the armoire in my studio.  I'd much rather look at this pretty selection than the remains of the Townmouse stock, as I've been looking at that since last summer.  We can use the extra storage space in the children's bedrooms these days, so the armoire is a handy alternative.

When I tidy out and straighten up the whole armoire, I'll show you a wider view.

Lovely softie book

I was very excited to receive my copy of Fiona Dalton's new book, "Hop, Skip, Jump".

This book is fabulous.  I absolutely love it.  Fiona is a such a talented toy maker, and the little outfits she makes for her softies are so clever.

Look at the cute little vest this chap is wearing.  See more in her amazing Flickr stream, or on her blog, Hop, Skip, Jump.

I can't wait to find some time to make up one of the patterns in the book.

But it seems I'm not the only family member who likes to make soft toys.

This is 6 year old Henri's creation that he made in art.  It made it onto the School Library display wall.

Henri was very proud when I bought my camera into the library especially to photograph it.

Doing the laundry

Some laundry bags have recently left the studio.

The fun part about making these is using my favourite fabric pieces and putting them all together.

A bit of Strawberry Fields and Bliss made it in to these couple.

Where I sew

Do you love peeking into other people's sewing spaces?  I definitely do.  Pink Chalk Studio is sharing the eye candy you crave, with a month long look at people's sewing spaces.

Kathy is profiling different well known bloggers and giving you a tour of their sewing studios.  You can join in by adding a link to your sewing space.  Pop on over and take a peek.  There are some lovely creative spaces featured there.

Most readers of this blog have probably seen the photos of my sewing studio.  But for the fun of it, I'll share them again here.

I was lucky enough to score one of the two largest rooms in our house for my sewing space.  The other large room, on the sunny side of the house, is our master bedroom.

If I didn't sew, this room would make the perfect formal dining room I suppose.  Which means it would never get used, as no-one entertains formally these days.  I love this space.  As you would expect, it's my favourite room in the house, and where I spend of lot of time (when I can).

You can't quite see the full setup in the photo above, but I have three tables laid out in a "U" shape that contain my laptop, my industrial sewing machine, and my domestic machine and overlocker on the third side.  This makes sewing efficient.  I can check orders as they come in, and move from sewing buttonholes or applique stitch on my domestic machine to straight stitch on my industrial machine. Ideally I'd have another surface with a mini ironing board and iron setup so I wouldn't have to leave my chair to press seams. Then I'd really be humming along.

This is my favourite piece of furniture in our house.  It's an old oak shop counter from France.  I was told it was from a Parisian haberdashery shop.  It provides fabulous storage space for my stock - 16 drawers in total!

When you stand outside our front door, this is what you see through the sewing room window.  I had this armoire custom made many years ago to store my quilt collection.  It has proven to be perfect for this space, and for displaying the current Townmouse range.  Again, it offers wonderful storage. The top drawer contains t-shirts and bodysuits ready for applique, and the bottom drawer stores my stock of pyjamas. This means I'm not always running to the garage to pull stock to fill orders.

This set of pigeon holes is the perfect height to sit under the sash windows on the south side of the room.  At the moment it stores my fabric stash.  My favourite craft books sit on top.

So there you have it, that's my sewing studio.  I consider myself very lucky to have the space to spread out my craft mess, and to be able to leave it there until the next sewing session.  It's one of the reasons I don't want to move house in a hurry.  I know I won't be so lucky in our next house.  There are more photos of my sewing studio on flickr.

Who can resist?

It seems that every quilt blogger is caught up in the Farmer's Wife Quiltalong that is sweeping the globe.  And I'm happy to say that I am no exception.

While I wait for my copy of the book to arrive from Amazon I've jumped right in and started with simple blocks that can be rotary cut and whipped up lickety-split.  

These blocks are all on a 4 x 4 grid (is that 16 patch?) so the little triangles and squares all share the same measurements.  

When my book arrives I'll tackle some of the trickier blocks.  

Without the book I've been getting along just fine by using some of the great resources on the Yahoo group for this quilt. If you are making this quilt and haven't joined you should.

You can see what other quilters have in progress over at Freshly Pieced. Maybe next week I'll be brave enough to post a full inventory of all those half completed projects.

You can also see the myriad of other blocks that have been made for the Farmer's Wife Sampler Quilt on Flickr.

Sewing with linen

The massive laundry project continues today.  Thank goodness it's a heavenly autumn day here and I can dry all the washing outside.

In between all the unpacking, laundry, and sewing nametags on winter uniforms, yesterday I managed a quick sewing project with scraps from my tide pool quilt.  The quilt has not progressed at all, but these scraps were put to use for a little hot water bottle cover.  I love sewing these hottie covers. They are quick, don't use much fabric and are a good creative outlet.  If I have the inclination to make a few more, I might list them on my website for winter.

More creative spaces at Kootoyou.