flower sugar giveaway by retromummy

have you met Corrie ? she is this super mum with 4 children who has her own fabric online store. she stocks very gorgeous prints and is quite an inspiration. if you have not met her now is the time. she is giving away 2 fat quarter packs containing 20 fat quarters of the new flower sugar range.

check it out!

okay back to sewing, currently making a kitchenaid cover for our houseguests parents in germany - thats right, I am going INTERNATIONAL.

2010 tribute for karsha (aka teemoo)

As most of you would know, we lost our beloved doggie Karsha in July this year. She became a part of our family in 1997, when I was in the middle of my university degree. Karsha came with me everywhere and in 1999 when I started dating my husband, she would come for daily visits to his house and visit her second family.

Karsha was adorable. She was black and white, a Staffy x Kelpie. She was small enough to fit into a shoebox when I first brought her home at 8 weeks, a few weeks before Christmas time. She grew up in Perth, moved to Sydney and lived in a terrace house in the inner west with us for a number of years. There was many an adventure for Karsha, hundreds of late evening walks through the grounds of Sydney University (behind where we were living), a few park runs out the front of Star City Casino. There was the weekend visit to relatives to Katoomba in the year where the bushfires burnt across the rail tracks, my uncle G declared her to be a "redfern dog" and after being stuck up their late one evening we were driven back to Sydney. Husband to be and I in backseat, Karsha in the passenger seat - being patted by Uncle G all the way home.

Karsha was a teddy bear. She was cuddled, kissed, fed and loved by so many people. She had many a nickname - meatface, rachel, teemoo and karsh'. Losing her this year was losing a family member. It was hard. It was hard for her bestfriend Marsba (our brown doggie) because he doesnt have here here anymore and you can feel his loss. It was hard for our son to know that Karsha was gone (he is 2 in January). It brings smiles to our faces when he sees her photo (we have her all around our home) and knows thats KarKa.

So this year, in memory of Karka - my inspiration behind the label name created last year, I am going to have some christmas cards printed up with her on the front. In 1999 I took a series of photos of Karsha wearing tinsel and a christmas hat. She looks like a tree. I will have to post these another time - maybe :-) I will be making these with Shutterfly. They have so many designs to choose from and fantastic layouts. They also have a deal worth mentioning for fellow bloggers where you can get 50 free christmas cards. Simply visit here!


Karsha, we will miss you this christmas but will never ever forget how you touched ours and so many other peoples hearts xxx

my sewing hiatus - cupboard restoration project

allright, so i have not been sewing. mainly because i was going to repaint Samuels cupboard and then found another cupboard on gumtree that was so cute, and decided to work on that one instead. i had to sand, undercoat and give her a good couple of top coats in antique white. i think she turned out quite pretty. what do you think?

front view - closed up tight

with the mirror pushed up and the hutch opened up (samuel enjoying rice crackers)

the paper lined drawers - birds of paradise in pistachio from the wrapping paper company

poor Samuel has his clothes still on a rack upstairs, his cupboard half pulled apart in the upstairs hallway. oh well. i spent this morning putting my lovely fabric collection into her. doesn't she look content ?

my collection of printed woven fabrics, at THIS point in time, fabrics to be worked on at front.

plain woven fabrics.

a drawer filled with nice blue cotton shirts, for upcycled clothing

so now i have a CLEAN drawing board, cutting area, TIDY table for overlocking and neat sewing area (nearly).

daisy doodle range by michael miller fabrics

how can i not write about this amazing chance to win something amazing! 7 lovely sewable fat quarters of fabric from the new daisy doodle range by michael miller fabrics.

yes i can only imagine what teeny jnr quillo combinations i could make with these gorgeous prints.

http://www.roseroomquilts.com/

Back to School Lunch Bag

i saw these today which are adorable

the tutorial is here.

i think a few of these will be made in the next few weeks.

kitchen aid mixer cover

i finished my kitchenaids 'day wear' yesterday... doesn't she look like a princess ?

fabric - liberty print, white on pink

kitchen aid mixer cover + oven mitt

its my little (26 years young) sisters birthday today and so i made her a cover for her kitchen aid mixer plus a matching oven mitt. its amazing what you can find online now!

i got the kitchen aid mixer cover pattern here :

http://sewing.about.com/library/weekly/aa011801b.htm

and the oven mitt pattern here :

http://thelongestyear.typepad.com/my_weblog/2007/03/oven_mitt_tutor.html

fabric - robert kaufman screenprint + white cotton lined
detailing - a pocket on the front which holds the mixer attachments - whisk, beater blade, dough hook. edging with white bias binding.

so what do you think? next up - one for my lovely kitchen aid mixer of course! and possibly a cover for my overlocker ?? i think she liked it!!

quillo's for the little princesses in our lives

i have been enjoying making these quillo's - is it a quilt?, a pillow? can i use it as a rug ? something to snuggle up with on the couch ? well - you can use it for all these things. i was give two when Samuel was born. we used them on picnics, as a tummy time rug and they are currently in his huggies animal tents to make them more snuggly. i have made him his own which is on his bed (they fit a boori sized cot just right) using some ikea fabric.

here are some that i have made :

i have been playing with ruffles - this is my first attempt. needlesstosay - more photos to come!

mmmmm almond lemon cake with roasted plums

okay so i'm feeling inspired and motivated - after all Gran just turned 88 and we are having her birthday lunch tomorrow (public holiday for everyone in WA). i am a baker and put my hand up to make her birthday cake.

after much contemplation i decided on trying this recipe from gourmet traveller magazine - almond lemon cake with roasted plums.

an interesting recipe calling for polenta, ricotta, almond meal and lemons plus the usual cake ingredients. honey and ricotta
going into the oven it looks GOOD and check out the zest from my best friend ... zester.

finished product photos to continue . . .

my first sales!

Baby is asleep so just quickly - am excited as I've had my first two sales for the above reversible overall's! Very exciting...

overalls overalls overalls

Ahhhhhh 5 minutes to myself - finally the baby is asleep! This mornings nap was a 'nap' indeed - 30 minutes. Hopefully this afternoon's nap is a tad longer, although I'll plan for a 30 minute break just in case.




I've been busy and finished 8 sets of reversible overalls. They all utilise recycled cotton shirting and have a teemoo badge on the back waist.



Speaking of which - all 300 dozen teemoo badges arrived in the post last week from Hong Kong. It was SO EXCITING.


My favourite overalls are grey locomotive print with green farage shirt on the reverse. Such a pretty shirt. See -


















My next sewing adverture ? 100% cotton robes for baby boys. Stay tuned.