a rose by any other name?

A few months back i hade a frenzy, do you know the kind?

In love with the shape, fabrics the form.

So anyway, a frenzy and a day later lots of circles appeared.

Interfaced and quilted...

Put to the side they have stayed clipped together waiting....to be transformed into big squishy pincushions.

But now i cant decide.

Pincushions or wee pillows for little heads?

Love fi xoxo 

ps, happy birthday to my hopefully soon to be sister in law Yatta (no pressure Chris ;)

pausing....

to enjoy...

:: fury friends

::mild temperatures

:: red food coloring

::being together, being thankful, remembering.

love fi oxxo

Scrap covered clipboard.....a tutorial:)

I get asked a lot, 'wow you must be super organised'.. etc etc...um no quite the opposite in fact.

We sort of muddle through freestyle going with the flow.
And quite frankly as good as that sounds it doesn't really work.

Well no more!


Clipboards for everyone in the vain attempt to stay on top of all the shedules notes and other ephemera that defines a school week.

And here's how i did it!

Supplies
Scraps lots of them, bits of any size and shape.

ModPodge (man i love this stuff:) and black board paint.

Blank clipboards, paintbrushes and white paint.

Give the boards a light sand and a coat of white paint.(optional)
This will help the background colour from coming through the fabric. You could also glue some scrap booking paper underneath as well.



Start adding!place a layer of ModPodge down add the fabric and cover again with the paste.

I found it easy to line up my boards and do them all at the same time. I went random but you could make a design stick with a color palette or theme.

Continue filling until there are no more gaps left. Xavier insisted on doing it his way!

Give a final coat to seal everything in.Allow to dry.

When the base is dry, pop o piece of paper under the clip to protect the board and paint on the blackboard paint.
Read the directions but i found 3 coats was enough.
When that's dry using some chalk name each board.



Hang somewhere handy and in theory* never lose another invitation, phone number or notice again.

love fi xoxo

*please note this is in no way a guarantee!

I fear this is a crafty challenged space at present.
Not through lack of stitching, no sir.


Lots going on behind the scenes their stories aren't mine to tell, well not yet anyway.

I promise there are things afoot or is that at hand?

Including lashings of denial...not just a river in Egypt you know;)

love fi xoxo

mother earth...

I have for years scratched out space to grow tomatoes and the occasional failed crop of pumpkins.
This summer it was time to get serious.


Investing in some infrastructure that hopefully will see us knee deep in organic homegrown goodness. 3 large red gum raised beds with plans for more down the track.


Just about any other vessel is fair game for some planting action too:)


The kids have all chosen a plant of their own to look after. Corn, pumpkin, strawberries, cucumber, salad greens, squash, kiwi fruit, tree tomatoes, spring onions, peppers, potatoes, zucchinis,beans, peas and watermelon

Number one priority was to make things safe from large blond puppies who like to 'help' by digging holes.


Second?Finding ways to support our growing plants.Tomato tripods tied up with what else? vintage aqua rickrack.




Thirdly finding everyone a job.Tall towers growing from tiny seeds, watched over by a small fury foreman.

Its been a lot of work but the feeling that i am providing together with mother earth for my family is well pretty darn fantastic.

The next step waiting to welcome 4000 worms to do their composty kitchen scraps conversion green goodness oh and to watch the plants grow!

love fi xoxoxo

oh sweet Jan......

In the last few weeks we have celebrated the new year arriving, turned a year and lord hope a year wiser, actively participated in lots of sleeping in and jammie days.

What is it about the dawn of a new year that evokes such hope, renewed vigour and enthusiasm?


Amidst the planning and drawing is lounging and not having to be anywhereness.

And also a return to my first love quilts...
Its seems like an age since i made one, but the planets have been telling me its time...





Ah sweet January so glad your here:)
love fi xox

***I plan to endeavour to respond to all your lovely comments, in the comments and via email.
To make this possible make sure your comment settings include your email, nothing worse that getting silenced by nocommentreply@blogger.:)

a year in stitches...

I have spent the last few days, taking stock cleaning up and out and looking back.
What a year 2009 and has been.

Full of fabric, firsts, frustrations,felt, fur and fun! {Click on the mosiac's for a closer look}





A heartfelt thankyou to everyone who stops by this wee space, your comments and your emails:)

Who knows what 2010 has in store, its going to be fun finding out:)
love fi ox

found...

....one Christmas spirit.

Beginning to wonder where it had gone.

Presents and obligations, those asked for an those thrust upon have been getting me all grinchy.

Today i realised that it is the table, the day, not the crazy that seems to start earlier and earlier each year that is Christmas too me.

The mint slices help me remember that, oh and the honey and pine nut shortbread, that helped too.

The berries that formed the top layer of my ice cream cake, they helped.


The faithful 'assistants' hovering for a dropped morsel, they helped too.

The Spanish guacamole and the Asian noodle salad they will remind me again in the morning.

Remind me that the gathering of family from near and far, the breaking of bread and wine and the connection to something bigger than the Lay-By queue at Target.

Family, friends and food:)

So from my family to yours, in what ever configuration that holds.
Merry Christmas,
love fi xoxo

**Oh and hoping that the egg nog with remind me to stay awake at midnight church tonight;)

a sea of green...

....or is that a forest?
:: Fixin to make a tree or three with my trusty assistant.

::i made a few custom changes instead of interfacing i visoflixed some spotty red cotton to the backs of the trees.






::stitched right sides together and turned the cones inside out,and wonkly scalloped the edges of the 'branches'

A lovely quick happy project, thanks Sarah:)

love fi xoo

home again home again....

the lady at the post office asked me this morning if we had a good break on our holiday.....um well that's not the word i would use....

It was lovely and warm and filled with fantastic memories but relaxing isn't a word i would use.

It was full of sand and saltwater and sunburn, but relaxing is not a word i would use..





Celebrating Ami turning 3 and Jackson turning 10, perfect is the word i would use:)


glad to be home,
love fi xo