SATURDAY
Went to Prints Charming at Lillyfield on Saturday. The girls there had a book launch for the Blog book - Crafters Companion. The book is so much more than directions on craft, it has some wonderful insights into these wonderful ladies from around the world and their lives, their approach to handmade and the projects are great too! I met Alison from 6.5 stitches briefly and she had some wonderful words to say about the blog/craft/handmade community. I also saw some of her work first hand, it was great and very well executed. I bought a whole pile of fabrics from the Prints Charming girls for Sweatpeas and Rocketmans new quilts. As I had no children I also popped over to Tesutti for some great notions (buttons, elastic etc) and some lovely cottons for shirting for me!
INSERT PICTURE HERE OF GREAT NOTIONS - sorry yet to come
Here are some skirts I made before Christmas for myself. Cut on the Bias they fit like a glove and are very slimming. The fabrics are from IKEA, Prints Charming, Material Obsessions, Bargain upholstery fabrics (it has a strip of brown fabric that was cut on the bias and has two different thread thickness and colour that unravel giving a different effect every wash).

This is my sons tooth monster, the tooth fairy came to our house a couple of weeks ago for the first time, a little disconcerting for Rocketman at the time. Rocketman didn't want a simple pillow, so I came up with something from Zaka meets the creatures from 'Where The Wild Things Are'- one of our favourite books. The tooth goes in his little bag. We discovered he has a counter effect in scaring under the bed monsters away. The fabric is the same from the IKEA skirt above and the rest was from many sketches and pattern drafts.

INSPRATION
I have finally found the images from the camera of a few sewing projects that I have drawn inspiration from the blogs, articles etc I have seen over the past few months. There will be more to come soon.

These two Santa sacks I made for my two children 'Sweetpea' and 'Rocketman' just before Christmas. I made a trip to Lillyfield to the Prints Charming girls and bought some fab fabrics, should have bought more as I didn't consider lining the sacks for contrast at the time, although the local store had something I could manage with. They are 55 x 100 cm and edged with a wide binding at the top (Rocketmans is green, but you can't see it - the photo was taken late on Christmas eve hence the quality), I made my first squares and appliquéd them on. I don't like the commercial Christmas. Why is Santa's coat red? It was a marketing ploy that worked too well be a soft drink company many years ago. Living in Australia where it is summer for Christmas I find the traditional Northern hemisphere experience very inappropriate, especially in 35 degree heat, so I opted for a summery blast of colour, light and fun.

Debut

Welcome to my very first post. I am a mother of two, living in the beautiful lower Blue Mountains, an hour out of Sydney. I have been peeping for the last couple of months at other blog sites (thanks to my sister who introduced me to this world) - feeling the warmth of the community and the inspiration flow. It has been a wonderful experience and I thank you all. I thought I should finally enter into the light, hopefully sharing and inspiring others as I have been.