Kimono No More

I am a bit excited because my son has just gone to Japan and with him is a printout of lots of fabrics I love and some cash. I really am hoping that he will bring me back something new to create from.
Meanwhile, a few months ago I went to Kazari and bought an old blue kimono and a roll of blue fabric swatches.

I forgot to photograph them first, but in the space of 4 hours I had unpicked the kimono and pieced the fabric pieces into strips and then a quilt top.

There were about 10 colours and I had a few blues that I added in to make the top.

Most of the quilt back was from the front and back of the kimono. The collar and sleeves, once unpicked, were stitched into some of the quilt top and along the sides of this piece to make it larger.

I just fell in love with the bold lines on this kimono and it was only $20!

At least now some of my guilt has been assuaged as I have made more room for my new incoming Japanese treasures.

Some of the Things I Bought

I have been dreamily passing the days since I have come home. Domestic chores, exercise, taxi driving my children, reading, doing crosswords - really anything except sewing. I am not sure if it's because I am still feeling too relaxed or if I just had so much stimulation from being away that my mind is at peace.
When I am working at school, I am so tired and so time poor that sewing is like an indulgence that I snatch greedily when given the slimmest opportunity. Now I have so much time but am frittering it away on seemingly useless projects.
So I have very little to show or tell except that I did buy some things with a textile flavour whilst away.
A lot of the places we went to were total tourist traps and consequently all the stores sold mostly the same thing. We picked up the expression 'same same' as we wandered through the old city in Hanoi. They were even printing t-shirts that said 'same same' on them.
When I would accidentally find a store that sold things that were different I would get really excited. If that store sold anything mildly crafty I would buy it, not really visualising how it would translate to everyday Melbourne usage. So here is some of what I bought.

Button Necklace and crochet bracelet with buttons

Woollen top with crochet flowers

This is a hand bag. It is ridiculously kitch. It has way too many bling bits, buttons, beads, crochet and trimmings. The colours are blah altogether. It's leather, handmade, and the inside has all sorts of pockets and special places sewn into it. The photos don't make it look any better but it is really quite wild in the flesh and I think if I wear it with very plain clothes I may have some fun using it. I just couldn't resist.

Home

After three and a half wonderful weeks I am home again.
It was just long enough for the 4 men in my life to actually miss me.
Did the house fall down? No, but it sure is a minor disaster.
All worth it.
I have so many photos I don't know where to start.
I think maybe I will just load it all on to Flickr.

We saw gorgeous houses.

New types of flowers

Free range chooks

Stunning scenery

Puppets

Shrines

Food Markets

Boats

Motor Bikes

Wild mosaics

Ate breakfast with a view

Saw moats

Climbed thousands of stairs

Saw fabulous 1000 year old carvings

Nature taking over

And sometimes we relaxed

Up, Up and Away

Tomorrow I'm off to Vietnam and Cambodia.
The last few weeks have been mad. I've had end of year parties, finishing up the term with my gorgeous students, cleaning and shifting classrooms, professional development sessions for the new National Curriculum, writing Maths activities for next year, birthdays, going to Sydney last weekend for a family celebration.
I am exhausted!

View from my cousin's balcony in Sydney

So now I'm packing, cleaning - because I know no one will do anything while I'm gone and doing my usual panic.

We've got friends coming tomorrow from Perth in a campervan and I am going to miss them. They have been driving all over Australia for a couple of months. Really sad not to see them.

I haven't sewn anything serious for weeks but I have packed a couple of Staring Girl embroideries that I hope I can work on whilst flying. As long as they don't deem my sewing needle too dangerous.

Anyway I will try to keep up with what everyone is doing in Blog land but I probably won't be posting for nearly a month. I don't know how I will cope but I hear Vietnam has cheap internet access so maybe...

Fabric Shack to the Rescue

40 days ago I ordered some fabric from a very well know internet retailer of quilting fabric. Unfortunately the fabric did not arrive in the usual swift manner. I emailed the seller and although several emails were exchanged, it seemed that the seller was not prepared to resend the fabric and simply advised me to sit tight!
Normally, I think I could have been patient but the fabric was required for a commission and my time was running out as I am going overseas in 10 days.
The seller-who-must-not-be-named was getting less and less inclined to believe me or offer a satisfactory outcome so I decided to reorder the fabric from The Fabric Shack. 11 days later my new order arrived.

Today the quilt was finished. I didn't even use all the fabric. The Urban Circus is really lovely and soft too.
Meanwhile.... my other parcel is still lost and the seller-who-must-not-be-named is not being nice to me. It's not my fault the parcel is missing.
Whilst I was fretting and worrying, I just had to order more fabric because it makes me happy and I ordered some from Fabricworm
Their parcel arrived in 5 days on a Sunday!
I made this with it but that was the day before the Urban Circus fabric arrived so I had to leave it.

So this is the finished quilt. Ready to be shipped overseas to a new baby boy.

Its not much but at least its something

Last weekend was a sad attempt to sell some of my cot quilts. I had a stall at a school market but despite lots of advertising the event was really down on numbers. Melbourne has had ridiculous amounts of rain and that Sunday was really cold and really wet. The few that came were not my kind of customers. I did sell a few toys though.

Good bye Super Boy

I also had some fun starting a little embroidery project because I need something to take overseas with me that is not too bulky but keeps the fingers busy.

This is 'Staring Girl'

She is a creation of Tim Burton.

I love his drawings and his poetry is hilarious and brilliant.

There are a few drawings of Staring Girl in his book and I hope to make a series of them.

So last week was rain, rain,rain and this weekend its boiling!

GJ's advertised a 25% off sale. They are a good hour's drive from home and I was cursing the heat and time in the car but it was great once I got there. They had stacks of fabric I had not been able to buy in Melbourne and although I am trying to be really frugal with my fabric buying, I picked up these bits and pieces.

 Love, love love!

Endings and New Beginnings

The kids used up all our internet allowance about a week early so using the internet was very difficult. They just can't control themselves and seem to watch every you tube video, sport results video, Skype with friends, Facebook and download music so I couldn't really do much blogging. It was a finishing off week for sewing and all 4 Dick and Janes are finished now. They were quilted and had their bindings done.

The final part of the binding was put on this

A few more pot mitts were quilted

And then I got stuck into a new project.

I am a Bruce Springsteen tragic and my brother dropped in a couple of his DVDs to watch. I never really get much time to watch anything but somehow, yesterday I found myself with the house all to myself.

On went the DVD and out came the sewing machine.

I didn't really watch, so much as listen to the DVD but the music was turned up really loud and I started this quilt top.

It was finished today, but with a few hiccups. My measuring wasn't all that good and a few seams ended up being 1/8th to lengthen a few sides - oops. I guess that's why it's known as 'patchwork.'

It was inspired by this