My repurposed pantry cupboard

The other day I was reading a friend's blog here and she was talking about moving back into her new sewing room and the number of plastic tubs/drawers she has for organising her fabric.  I sent her a message telling about my purchase some years ago of a free-standing pantry cupboard with louvre doors. The doors are great because they keep out the dust and the light but still allow air to circulate. She asked if I could post a photo.  I did post a number of years ago about my room organisation, but will show this part again, so if you have already seen it, please close your eyes now.

Here is the cupboard closed - note the louvres are also good for hanging things on. Some more tubs at the side with more 'organised' scraps, i.e. 2" stips, 4" and 5" plus some strings.

 Now with the doors open.

I keep all my Fat 1/4s in here sort of organised by colour on the top two shelves, then on the next is 1/2 yd pieces; 1 yard pieces and others up to 2 yard pieces.  On the lower shelf are a couple of my tubs with some of my scrap stash.  Anything larger than the 2 yard pieces (mainly for backings etc) are in another repurposed cupboard - actually an antique gentleman's wardrobe.  I also have tubs under my cutting table and sewing table with specific materials; such as reproduction; batiks; hand dyed etc.

This beauty is the gentleman's wardrobe, not big because it is only supposed to hold shirts and jackets.

You can see the 'hanging rod' for the coats and shirts.

I love using old pieces of furniture for something other than their original purpose. I never sand and paint - just repolish and sometimes restain.

Isn't this beautiful???

I thought I would share this beautiful photo with you.  It's been a couple of years since our handsome Jack Russell cross left us - he had been with us for 19.5 years, but sadly old age took him.  Some people can get another dog/animal straight away but I just felt it was something I wasn't as yet prepared for.

Last month I decided to sponsor a Guide Dog Puppy through their first 12 months of training. I have just received my pack with all the information and this absolutely delightful photo. It is mum Trudy and her litter of puppies, not sure which one is mine, but have been told his name is 'Jackson'.  There are 5 boys and 1 girl in the litter.  At regular intervals the Guide Dog Association send out information and photos on how your particular puppy is progressing.  I will share these with you.

Don't you think she looks a loving mum.  So calm and serene with those puppies around her.  Ooh I just want to pick one up and have a cuddle.  

Fibre Arts Australia

On Tuesday a friend, Jenni, and myself travelled up to Ballarat (in Victoria) to have a look at the Fibre Arts School for 2013.  This is held in the Ballarat Grammar School over 6 days.  When you enrol you choose a class and work with that teacher/tutor for the whole week.  You stay on site and all meals are provided.  A great way to spend a week, don't you think.

Sorry, I don't have photos, but if you wish to see some of the examples and read about the different tutors go to this link. While there have a look at the other art schools on offer around the country.

I can't wait for July when Jenni, another friend Jeann and myself go to the Winter School in Ballarat.  So looking forward to this - I will be working with Caroline Sharkey, an amazing artist and quilter.  You can see some of her work here on her website.

What all quilters need!!!!

I subscribe to Alex Anderson's and Ricky Tims' 'The Quilt Show' and love watching their videos.

Well do I have a beauty for you - this is something all us quilters need. I'm posting with 'tongue in cheek' so please don't blame me, but I think it is fabulous!!  If you go to this link you can watch it on Youtube.

I will say no more, it speaks for itself.....

A finish and a WIP

Working through my collection of Japanese fabrics I discovered quite a few 3" squares, and wanting something to do which didn't stretch my brain too much, sewed them into squares and then sashed and bordered them with a navy blue.  I tried black but it was a tad harsh.

 Still had a lot of squares left, so decided to cut them in half and make a 'Japanese Coin' quilt. Had enough of the blue to sash in between the rows, but not enough for a border, thankfully, as I didn't want to same look.  Now I have to decide what to do for borders - will probably keep it on my design wall for the time being and audition different types as I decide what is the best.  Apologies for the shadow on the photo but I use the wall just outside the room where I sew and have to take a photo looking from side.

Still have heaps of fabric left, plenty of Fat 1/4s and half yards.  As it's not my style or choice now thinking EBay may be a good option.

Scatterdays No.6 - 'D'

Well Scatterdays No.6 is now upon us - this time we have the letter 'D' - and the categories are:
Humorous;  Feet;  Furniture;  and the quilty one Display.

I think this one is the hardest we've had to date.  I thought a couple of the earlier ones were hard, but oh boy! this one, I really had to Dig Down the bottom of the barrel.

Here goes -
  

Humorous: My favourite funny person(?) of all time - Donald Duck. I have loved this character all my life, even more than Mickey Mouse or Goofy, and where would you find these characters - in Disneyland!!  

This is a photo of the bus that picked us up from our hotel to take you there - Donald and his nephews are on the side. Taken in 2010 when I was lucky to go there with the family.







Feet - what does one do and where does one find a photo of feet starting with the letter 'D'.  I'm a lover of crosswords and one of the most prolific clues is 'Digit';  and the answer is nearly always toes or fingers - my toes are digits.  

Sorry for the ugly photo, but feet are not the most glamorous of things are they?

Furniture - not a lot to choose from here either - we have  divans; desks, but I chose to take a photo of my Display Cabinet. 

In my mother's day this piece of furniture was called a Crystal Cabinet to Display one's crystal pieces.

Quilty Display - starting with 'D'.  This one had me stumped for quite a long time until I started to fiddle with some of my photos and then 'the light globe' turned on - a Digital Display of a collage of some of my quilts.

A couple of small things

Now that we have just finished having a record stretch of hot days for March - 10 days in a row over 30 degC with nights not going below 20 degC - it has at long last cooled down, well to 27degC today.

Not a lot of sewing got done in these days - I don't have aircon where I sew.  But I did have time to do a couple of small things - the first was putting together this material book for my little GS who will be a year old in May.

I also finished off this cushion cover - an applique pattern that I bought while over in the US in 2009.  Originally I was going to put this as the centre of a quilt, but decided my lounge needed some updating - the cushions that are there now look a bit worse for wear.  I worked out they are over 15 years old - been washed numerous times and a tad faded.  Will make another one but will reverse the colours - green where the red is and red where the green is.

Scatterdays No.5 - 'I'

 Here we are again - the next installment of our Scatterdays challenge.  This week is the letter 'I'.  Our subjects for this letter are: Money;  Tools;  Metal;  and from the sewing room Inchies.  Another tough one.  But I think I have conquered it!!

Money - International Bank Notes.  One needs to have plenty of these when you travel, otherwise you have to use your card and I, for one, am very reluctant to use mine following my first trip to the USA in 2009 when my CC was compromised.

Tools - my father's cast Iron Shoe last - this will probably bring back memories for some of you.  I salvaged this from my father's 'man cave' after he passed away and we were cleaning it out.  I always remember him mending my brother's and my school shoes. I actually now use it for a pot plant stand, but this is a photo without the plant.

Metal - my son's muscle-building Iron weights - I thought about using these for 'Tools' and was going to swap the Shoe Last for these.  There was a time when he had them in his bedroom, until I stubbed my toe while vacuuming - then they were relegated to the shed.  This was before he came back home to live while looking for a new place - BUT they have never come back inside the house!

Inchies from the Sewing Room - my unfinished Postage Stamp Quilt - made with 1.5" squares, sewn to finish at 1".  The black is also cut and sewn to finish at 1".  A big project and is near the top of my UFO list to be finished this year.  Only needs a border and then quilting and binding.  I have no idea how to quilt this one - so any ideas would be most acceptable (as long as they are easy.....I will be doing this on my domestic Pfaff).

There we have it for another fortnight.  Please remember to visit Cinzia's blog - link on right hand side to see everyone else's postings.

Till next time,
Thank you for visiting and take care,

Joy

An update on something sweet

At long last I have finished putting all the hexagons together for my Candied Hexagon project.  Just have to sew on the half and quarter hexagons for the borders so it will have a straight edge on which to add a couple of further borders to bring it to the size I want.  Please excuse the wrinkles as I haven't ironed it yet....

If you wish to see some of the hexagons before they were joined click on the link 'candied hexagons' under Labels in the right hand column.

I'm loving the way it looks.  Hope you do too.

Scatterdays - No.4 T

Well, here we are again.  This week's letter is 'T' and the subjects are Tasty;  Tiny;  Terrifying and lastly from  our quilting room - Threads.

At first I thought, great a letter that should be easy to work with.  No such thing.  I actually found it hard to correlate this with the subjects and the letter T.  A few things came to mind, but I thought they were really dull.  I needed to get the thinking cap on.

Tasty - this should be easy shouldn't it?  I ended up going back to my childhood and one of the most delectable and tasty things I was only allowed on special occasions was the 'Toffee Apple". It was a special treat when we went to the Melbourne Agricultural Show.






And who could resist these decadent ones - with chocolate nuts and Smarties.   Yum.









Tiny - I was going to show you my Thimble collection, but, they're small not tiny. I even had a photo, then remembered I posted one on the blog a couple of years ago.





Getting the grey matter in my head to work and stepping outside the square once again, I've gone with........ta da.......Tiny Tim.  An icon of music in the 70s & 80s.













Terrifying - there are a number of things I find frightening like a tornedo, tarantula spider, huge trucks that tailgate you on the highway, frightening but not necessarily terrifying.  But there is one specimen on our planet that I truly find terrifying - snakes - and one of the most deadly, and is common in my state Victoria, is the Tiger Snake.  These snakes love to hide in your wood pile or any other type of rubbish pile you might have on your property.  They are also found in the suburbs as they are attracted to the family chook pen and also the backyard pond, especially if you have frogs.

This is the most least frightening pic I could find of a Tiger Snake.  Some specimens like the one above - a King Island Tiger Snake - don't actually have distinctive stripes and can be mistaken for the Common Brown snake which is also venomous.



Lastly, Threads.  Threads come in all sorts of colours and types - but a thread that starts with 'T'.  Umm.

So here is a photo of a collection of Threads - my Trash.  Yes, my stash of trash!  Ever since I started to dabble in a bit of art quilting and making ATCs and Postcards I have collected my stash that I cut off after sewing.  I know, you think I'm a tad mad but when these are sewn down onto a wash-away stabiliser you can actually make some beautiful lacy fabric and use it to embellish you work with.

Dear readers, that is it for another fortnight, please go to Cinzia's blog and check out the other Scatterdayers.  I hope you are all enjoying this 'Thread' of interesting postings.  Why, didn't I think of this before typing, but how would I find a photo.......

Till next time, take care,

Joy