Townmouse

Townmouse t-shirt and bodysuit clearance sale

Here's an offer just for my lovely blog readers at present.

I'm clearing out our garage and want to get rid of my remaining stock of t-shirts and bodysuits.  I've created a little Big Cartel store.

So if you want to pick up some lovely quality, pure cotton tees or onesies, now is your chance. I don't have a huge amount of stock left in certain sizes so grab them while you can.

The more you buy, the cheaper they get, and I'm shipping anywhere in the world.

Adelaide wears a tee to bed every night as a pyjama top, as well as on most days.  For those of you handy with fabric (as a lot of my blog readers are) you may like to add your own embellishment to these tees and onesies.  I've called my Big Cartel store The Blank Canvas - because these tees and onesies make a perfect blank canvas.

So think Christmas stocking fillers, affordable gifts for your children's friends, pyjamas.

And the Townmouse bodysuits make gorgeous gifts for newborn babies.  Stock up and keep a few in your sewing room for when your friends have bubs.  I have many, many customers who use my bodysuits as their go-to gift for friends' bubs.

This offer will be sent to my mailing list later in the week, so I expect the stock will diminish quickly at that point.  Quick, go, follow this link.

Down Under Doll Quilt has been sent

On Friday I bundled my doll quilt into the post.

Continuing with my obsession with flying geese, I pulled some happy fabrics from my stash and got to work.

I then played with the layout.  Once I have blocks where I want them I take a photo.  It's the easiest way to remember which bits belong where.

I did a little free motion quilting.  

This red hoop is called a Quilt Halo.  It's rubbery, so grips the fabric.  There's no need for quilting gloves.  You can pick one up here.  I haven't had the chance to try it on a larger quilt, so can't say yet whether I love it or not.  I will aim to give it another try soon.

I couldn't resist including a couple of matching t-shirts for the little girls in my swap partner's home, who are the true recipients of the doll quilt.  Well that narrows the field a bit if you're trying to guess who my swap partner is, doesn't it?  I suspect my parcel arrived today so the game is up anyway.

Scooter rides, ice-cream and fabric

Yesterday was Max's twelfth birthday.  In the morning we took a scooter ride to get ice-cream at the local Trampoline.

We take the backstreets, as these four tearing along on their scooters can be a little intimidating to a tentative octogenarian out buying groceries.  (When we get to the shopping strip they have to go at a walking pace in a straight line.)

While the children sit outside the store eating their ice-creams, I duck next door to a conveniently located fabric store.  

Last time I visited this fabric treasure trove the owner said as I walked in the door, "I knew I'd see you today."  "What do you mean?"  "I just knew this morning that I was going to see you today."  This was somewhat curious because it had been several months since I'd last visited, and even I didn't know I was going to visit until I walked past the door and went in on impulse.  I love this sort of stuff.  A conversation involving ghost sightings and intuitive friends ensued.  Intriguing.

Happily this time they had a recent shipment of beautiful Italian cotton shirtings - my favourite kind of fabric.  This is what I came away with.

Shirtdress number two is already cut out and ready to be sewn.

Lisette Traveler Dress

Recently my much loved industrial sewing machine died on me.  I bought it second-hand when I was pregnant with Max. It served me unfailingly for 12 fabulous years.  I cannot imagine how many thousands of kilometres it has sewed.

Industrial sewing machines are simple beasts - they take two men to move them around, are very ugly and only do a straight stitch.  Despite these limitations they are brilliant to work on and I really couldn't be without one in my life.  So after determining that my old machine was perfectly fine mechanically, but new technology in motors had rendered it useless, I traded it in for a newer second-hand model.

Inspired by my new toy I did some sewing for myself.  I love Liesl's Oliver + S patterns and was keen to try one of her women's patterns under the Sew Lisette brand.

One of my favourite daytime outfits in the summer is a shirtdress.  I have several in my wardrobe and they seem to suit my shape.  So the Traveler Dress it had to be.

The fabric is a navy and white shirting cotton I had in my stash.

I made a few modifications to the pattern.

I made the collar as a two piece collar. Just because I like playing with collars and my patternmaking skills need a bit of brushing up on.

I made it sleeveless for a more streamlined look.  I bound the armhole with some bias fabric.

And my favourite modification: I added hidden pockets in the skirt side seams.  You can just see the top stitching I put there to keep the pocket lining in place.

I love this pattern.  It's a great fit and cut.  I'm very happy with it, as I suspected I would be, knowing Liesl's work.

Now that I have this garment as a guide, I've made some adjustments to the pattern. I always trace my tissue, store bought patterns onto patterncard for greater accuracy.  Now I'm ready to make the next one (in a fabric that looks a little less like a girl's school uniform).

Crochet flower hair ties

I must make some more of these.

I have an idea to make a collection of these for when Adelaide has a birthday party.  They could secure the lolly bags that are given out at the end of the party.  Wouldn't that be a cute idea?  Little cellophane bags full of cute lollies with crochet flower hair ties to match.

There's more info on the pattern here.

Beautiful storage jars

Don't you love beautiful storage options?

These jars seem wonderfully old fashioned to me.  My mother has a whole set of jars very similar to this that came from her mother's pantry.  Original and stunning jars with bakelite lids from decades past.  I think these jars are in homage to those.

I was very excited to find these online a while back.  I ordered lots of them and they sit two deep in my pantry.  We don't have a large pantry in our current kitchen - just a cupboard.

I dream of having something like this in our next house:

So I'll be at the ready with my set of lovely jars in our next house (I have a few more jars in storage in the garage waiting for a bigger kitchen - call me crazy).  On top of my wish list for our next house is a blow your mind pantry and laundry.

But for now, opening my little pantry at home and seeing these jars makes me happy.

(Above photo from my Kitchen Pinterest board - image source located there.)

Best quilting rulers

A few posts back I mentioned quilting rulers and what an improvement they have made to my piecing.

Lately I've been a little fixated with flying geese.  An obsession traced back to this quilt.

I had a play around with a few blocks myself.

And then got sidetracked by the blue and white shirting quilt. These two blocks are draped over my airing rack and will possibly be added to when the urge strikes.

As well as a classic flying geese ruler for cutting the triangles, I invested in possibly my favourite ruler to date - the Wing Clipper.  This ruler is used to trim down the little geese blocks after you've stitched them.

It works a treat and I love the perfect little blocks I end up with. They are much more satisfying to put together when they're this accurate.

I wish I'd known about these tools when I was inpsired to make this quilt years back.  Unfortunately it hasn't progressed.  I pulled out all the blocks to trim them down and they were a mess of odd sizes.  As a result I'm not sure this quilt will make it any further.

Pickle dish quilt progress

These little arcs of colour make me inordinately happy.

They come together really quickly. The most time consuming part is cutting around the templates.  Once that is done the sewing is a snap.  I now have nearly 100 of these arcs - enough to make a quilt of 4 x 5 circles.

At the time of purchase, I didn't realise I need an accompanying set of templates for all the joining blocks. They've been ordered and I'm eagerly looking out my studio window while I sew to see if there's a nice looking parcel in our letterbox. Hopefully today.

Until then, I will just have to satisfy myself with laying these blocks out on our bed.

Pickle dish quilt

Last week I dropped by the Quilt and Craft Fair that came to Melbourne.  As well as seeing the amazing quilts on display, I went hunting for quilting supplies.

Specialty rulers and templates were a bit of a revelation to me.  I'd never used one before I made my kaleidoscope quilt. When I discovered the difference they can make to accurate piecing I was hooked. So I'm now on the lookout for other nifty rulers and devices that make my quilting better.

One of my purchases at the fair was a set of pickle dish templates.  These are fun!  And I love sewing pieces that have the corners trimmed.  It makes for quick and easy alignment.

Look at these little piles of loveliness.  I pulled all the happy fabrics from my stash.  Clear and bright fabrics that look fresh and cheery against the white.

Yum.  Now I'm off to join them together.

My house is a mess.  There are little snippets of fabric all over the carpet.  I'm covered in threads and I haven't eaten lunch. But I'm happy as a lark while I potter in my studio for the day, playing with fabric and listening to Pandora.  Life is sweet.

What's your favourite quilting tool?  I've got a few.  I'll share with you my other purchases in a future post soon.

Down Under Doll Quilt Swap Round 3

Round three of the Down Under Doll Quilt Swap is on.  And a doll sized quilt is perfect for me right now, as term 3 is a busy time for us.

Here is my inspiration mosaic - to give my partner an idea of what I like.  No real common theme here, so probably not that helpful for her.  But in reality, anything would be divine.

So I'm off to study my partner's blog and flickr feed and faves to get some ideas forming for what I might make.  Fun, fun.

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 'very me' quilt

I'm blogging from the snow.  We are here for 17 days and I didn't bring any sewing or craft with me.  I am missing the stitching and handling of fabric.  There is a lot of down time here.  All the children are occupied in lessons each day. (Adelaide came home from her lesson today with a "Level 2" badge she is very proud of.  She has graduated from her beginner class which means she has mastered the snow plough. She gave the badge a little kiss as she snuggled into bed for her day sleep.)

We adults generally ski in the mornings and then come indoors at lunchtime.  The family is benefitting from my lack of craft distractions with yummy dinners every night.  Tonight it's roast pork with crackling - perfect winter fare. I managed to do a 15 day menu plan and bring everything I needed from Melbourne, which means I don't have to rely on the limited choice here on the mountain. 

In fact our family has been eating very well since I discovered Bill Granger's cookbooks.  All the recipes are tasty and simple and I've put him up there ahead of Jamie Oliver for tasty family recipes.

These are photos of a little quilting project I started working on a few weeks ago.  I was inspired by this image, and suddenly I just had to replicate it.

I rumaged in my box of shirting fabrics and pulled out all of these that shared the same pretty blue tone.  Many of these are from Townmouse production, and some are from a local shirting maker who I have been known to visit from time to time to beg for scraps.

I will look forward to progressing this some more when we are back into term time.