Keeping Resolutions

Last New Year, I resolved to spend more time sewing in 2008. One of my Christmas Presents was a book called Bags with Style by Stephanie Kimura and I determined to have a go at making some handbags for myself. It's the last day of the year and yes, you're right, I still hadn't made any of the bags! So, I sat down and made one, after finding some rather nice upholstery fabric in an after-Christmas sale. I learnt a lot along the way, but it wasn't nearly as difficult as I had convinced myself it would be...so here it is...



Resolution kept! And I've already started a project based on the books from this Christmas - books about beading by Robin Atkins. Very inspiring!

Delicious Patterns

The Christmas preparations are on track. There's been lots of cooking done over the weekend, so still no time for playing with fabric and thread. That will come in the days after Christmas when we can all relax.
The Sourdough Rolls are made and in the freezer. They'll go extra well with the ham made from Free Range Pork, which is sitting in its calico bag in the fridge, smelling delicious and calling to me. Good thing there's a strict rule in this house that not a skerrick of it can be consumed before Christmas lunch!
These are the rolls looking pale and interesting as they rose.


And here they are the rolls looking tanned, healthy and good enough to eat. Yum!!

They smell wonderful, too!

Christmas Preparations

I haven't managed to play with fabric and thread very much in the last few weeks, but Christmas preparations in our house are well on track. The house has had its Christmas clean (the boring bit),the Christmas biscuits are made (that's more fun), and the Christmas tree and decorations are up (and that's the best bit by far!)


My first Christmas out of Australia was when I was 22. It was spent with my husband's parents and brothers in Denmark, and what a life changing experience that was! It wasn't only the ice and snow, but the food and the decorations were all so different. The Danish red and white flag lends itself so well to the Christmas theme, and hundreds of tiny Danish flags on strings decorate the Christmas trees. The other decorations were carefully crafted and many were hand embroidered. At least half a dozen different types of Christmas biscuits were made in each home, and served with hot spiced wine for supper, or with coffee at afternoon tea time. Back in Australia, we took our favourites from each of our Christmas traditions, and made Christmas a special family celebration. On Christmas Day, we have the cold meats - ham, roast pork and chicken, and salads that I grew up with. This year, instead of the cold prawns that we usually have, we'll do some extra spicy prawns on the barbecue for our new daughter-in-law who was born in the Philippines and just loves her chili hit! So a new tradition may be born.
For dessert, we have the Danish Ris a l'Amande - a cold vanilla-flavoured rice pudding mixed with whipped cream and chopped almonds, served with a hot cherry sauce, that is much better suited to the Australian heat than the heavy British-style Christmas Pudding that I had never really liked anyway. And instead of fruit cake, I make as many of the Danish Christmas biscuits as I can get done in the weeks before Christmas. This year, we've had a wonderfully cool lead up to Christmas, so I've done lots of baking. The tins are bursting with Brunkager, Pebernodder, Aeggeblommekager, Kanelstjerner and my version of Rutebiler.
I love decorating the tree, because it's so full of memories. The little cross-stitched 'pillows' that my Mum made 30 years ago, using patterns from a Danish cross-stitch book that she'd found, still look as fresh as the day she gave them to me as a surprise. Then there's the tiny knitted angels that my mother-in-law made and posted from Denmark all those years ago, and the angels that I have embroidered. Of course, the strings of flags that we bought in Denmark add the finishing touch, and even though it's a plastic tree, because we can't get anything like the real thing here, and we can't light those candles, it still looks pretty special to us.

Another Book Cover

I needed a gift for a Christmas Present Swap next week. How do you choose a gift when you don't know who the recipient will be? I came up with all sorts of ideas, which I rejected one by one. Although they're all female, the age ranges from 30 to nearly 60, includes two with food allergies, two who don't drink alcohol and one that I hardly know! So, I started searching the stash of sewing experiments that have been put aside, because I didn't know what to do with them at the time. I found the piece with threads and ribbons that I wove together. I couldn't remember when I made it, so checked the blog. September 2007! It's past time I did something with it. So I made a book cover, and matched it up with a gorgeous pen that I found in an Oxfam shop.
This is the back -

The book has occasional pages of purple batik paper, just to add some interest -

I hope the recipient likes it. I'm going to include a list of ideas for using the book. Here's what I have so far...

A diary (so you always have something sensational to read)
A place to write down that wonderful quote you just read (you just know you'll lose the scrap of paper)
A Gratitude Journal (write down three things each day that you are grateful for)
A place for your "To Do" lists
An Observation Journal (for that novel you've always wanted to write)
A sketchbook
A notebook (to write down the details of that great idea you just saw or heard about)

What would you use it for?

Eucalyptus Rhodantha

The rain that we had at the beginning of spring has triggered the flowering of some eucalypts in my Dad's garden. This is my favourite. It's such a scrappy looking tree normally, but when it flowers - Wow! The blossoms are huge, too. I've realised that I have no photos that show the scale, or the tree that they're attached to, so maybe that's an assignment for this weekend -


And this is how the blossom looks as it's emerging from under its cap...

Silk scraps

I've been working on this, on and off, for a while now. It's a good project to take to a Saturday embroidery meeting, because I can sit and chat without having to think too hard about what I'm doing. So I pulled it out last Saturday, when a free Saturday of mine coincided with a local group meeting. It's based on an Effie Mitrofanis project in Stitch magazine, although I've really only used that as a starting point. The silk is from a samples card that I picked up in a sale bin at a curtain shop years ago. I knew I'd use it one day...

It's a bit like these ribbons, which I've either bought at various times, or rescued from Christmas parcels over the years. I'm trying to find inspiration for this years' Christmas cards, because I really should get started on them. I have a couple of ideas about how I'd like to use them. Now I just have to play a bit to find out whether my vague ideas will translate into something achievable!

Indian Inspiration

A recent trip to Sydney to attend a conference resulted in catching an end of season cold that turned into an infection. That's why the blog has been neglected for the last few weeks.

However, I'm quite recovered now and thought I'd share my Sydney purchase with you. These quilts, made from old Indian embroideries which have been cut up and joined together have become fairly common, I know. However, I've looked at lots and thought they were either uninspiring, too expensive or that the colours just weren't appealing. This one, however, caught my eye. The price was right, I loved the colours (yes, it's mostly blue!), and I keep finding bits of inspiration in the many tiny pieces of embroidery.

I still need to find a good way to hang it, so couldn't get a photo of the whole quilt. However, it's the detail that appealed to me, and that's what I wanted to share. So, here it is -