A little revenge sewing

Louise, if you are reading this you are heading STRAIGHT FOR THE TEMPLE YOUNG LADY!
I have a finish which I sent to my friend Louise in Sydney. It hasn't got there yet and she promised she wouldn't look at my blog, but I decided to remove the post anyway, and show you a little revenge sewing...

Since I got this little monster, she has eaten 5 pairs of shoes, including my flip-flops

 and my favourite work shoes..

 She's also eaten a charm pack and her 'puppy and beginner dog training notes'. Sigh. Enfant terrible.

And of course, who could forget the glitter? 

Well, the weather is getting colder here and Scarlett's coat is still fairly thin, so she needed a winter coat. I had some green fleece that I bought to make a dragon softy with (it didn't happen) but... well, an idea popped into my head for a little revenge... Meet my monster...

Hahahaha, I laugh every time I see her in it. She glared at me balefully for about half an hour then seemed to forget about it. Well, it amuses me and keeps her warm - win-win!!!


Linking up with TGIFF which is on at MsMidge's.

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How simply Ghastly dah-ling!

Here is what I had been waiting to show you.... Sara of SewSweetness's Lillium laptop bag. I am SOOOO in love with this bag and this pattern and I have to say, it's created a sensation everywhere I have taken it. Three people have tried to steal it. No, I am not exaggerating.

Do you like it dah-ling?


What I can't show you is how this feels. I used several new fabrics to me. Essex linen that I picked up in Quiltique near Vegas with Katy in October (love love love), some Michael Miller Fairy Frost in silver that I picked up locally, a silver and black FQ (not sure what line) and Annie's Soft 'n' Stable which is a foam-like interfacing. It is lovely to sew through, despite its thickness, and the feel of the linen over the soft and stable is amazing. It gives the bag a really solid and professional feel.
Oh, and of course, there are some Alexander Henry Ghastlies characters thrown in.

Here's a look at the back.

There is a zipper pocket in the back of the bag. It's the first time I've put in a zipper this way, but Sara's instructions made it so easy. That's what I love about her patterns. I always learn something. Or several things. For example, putting in sliders for strap extension. 

 And the nifty trick for doing those rounded corners. I was blown away.

The inside has a padded divider and the front, back and bottom have foam inserts sewn into the lining to protect the contents of the bag. The small size fit my Macbook pro 13"in, with the charger, plus my ipad and Kindle. What more could a girl want?!

After doing this, I immediately hit Sara's pattern site for her camera bag which I missed out on pattern testing, but it's definitely going to happen!

You can find the pattern here.

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Claiming

For goodness sake... Why does all this technology stuff keep changing? Google reader going, I tried Feedly without much success so over to Blogloving it is... But they make you do this silly claiming thing. So ignore this post but Follow my blog with Bloglovin

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Traversing some Terrain

Isn't it satisfying when you go from this:

 to this ...

 To this...

And you can START to see what the finished product will look like?

I have shamelessly borrowed some of the quilting design from Green Fairy Quilts but other bits I have dreamed up (or am still dreaming up) myself. I'm quilting my little heart out. It's not going to win any awards, but I love it, and it's going to be my best to date... It's just WORKING. :)

In non-sewing news, a bottle of glitter fell off the shelf in my sewing room, unnoticed by me... Scarlett has been renamed Sparkles and is passing disco-balls.

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Abdicating...

Like Queen Beatrice of the Netherlands, I am abdicating my rule of TGIFF this week to my good buddy McKenna, over at Textile Diva. I actually do have a finish. But I can't - no, I WON'T - show you. "WHY won't you show us Laura?!" I hear you cry plaintively.

1) It's so freaking fantabulously amazing that you will immediately throw down your rotary cutter and bawl into your pins, because you will despair of ever producing anything quite this fantastic. And I don't want you to do that today.

2) Sara at SewSweetness is not QUITE ready to release the pattern that I have been testing that has resulted in this awe-inspiring piece of quilted brilliance. She did say I could show it, but on the off-chance that 1) above doesn't happen, or that you get over your despair and decide that YES, you WILL attempt to emulate my sheer brilliance, you will want to buy the pattern IMMEDIATELY and will plunge back into despair if you can't, and I don't want to be responsible for the consequences. 

Plus Sara is trying to make her living selling her lovely patterns and it's better for her if I wait, so waiting I am.

Now head on over to Textile Diva and check out McKenna's finish to link up to TGIFF or check out the other finishes!

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Spanish WIPS

I made good progress on several projects on retreat. As we were having tapas Saturday night, I kinda went with a Spanish theme - well, Kate Spain fabrics at least!

I finished the Terrain top - it just required borders. I decided to go with a dark blue tone-on-tone border - it really makes the rest of the quilt pop!

I tackled my long-neglected Good Fortune blocks

and came up with half a top... I have a bit of an idea where this is going but you will have to wait and see...

I had some time to get into Elizabeth Hartman's Craftsy class and put together a low volume mini quilt top from layer cake squares, including some Good Fortune.

 Let me tell you, putting together the puzzle pieces after a few drinks... was quite time consuming to say the least!

I am not sure what this is going to become. It's a bit small and an awkward size, so I will have to have a think... It may turn into a wall hanging if I don't come up with a better plan. Any thoughts?? Maybe two nice cushion covers?

And this is NOT Kate Spain themed, but I have my Mondrian top basted and under the machine - finally!

Linking up with WIP Wednesday at Freshly Pieced - gosh it feels good to have made some progress!

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A BOM for a special friend...

I'm linking up with Lyn's BOM's Away. I don't often do (or blog) a single block but I'm pretty darn impressed with this one. Janine of This Quilty Life asked for a wonky star as her Modern Block of the Month for our Perth Modern Quilt Guild quiltalong. Janine is my go-to-girl for all things quilt guildy and honestly, I couldn't do the job I do as President without her as a sounding board and general runaround person. She's become one of my dearest friends. And now I'm going to insult and or embarrass her. 
I chose this fabric because the cat reminded me of Janine. Janine is a cat person. The first time I met her, I thought she was a little bit stand-offish, like a lot of cats are, but it was a very wrong first impression. Janine is amazing and will put her hand to anything and befriend anyone. The hat stands for the innate elegance that is Janine and the cocktail with bubbles... well, we've had a drink or two together. Or three. Or four... I shared a room with Janine on quilt retreat and that cat's fur is rather like what Janine's hair looks like in the morning... And she has such a good-natured sense of humour that I am sure she will take all this in the spirit in which it is intended and roar with laughter. (Fingers crossed). 

The central fabric is, as you probably know, from Alexander Henry's Ghastlies range. There's some black sketch, some shiny sparkly Michael Miller Fairy Frost and the raspberry pink is, of course, Madrona Road. Now, I'm off to make a phone call and see if Janine is still talking to me!

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