Gadgets ...

... and other ways to wile away your Friday evening ;) 

Cool tool #1: If you were a fan of Picnik, and like me, you were a bit lost when this photo editing tool disappeared from cyberspace, then get excited! PicMonkey has emerged, bigger and so much better than Picnik ever was. Quick and intuitive, there are many cool effects you can apply to your images.

 And mosaic making is a cinch.

Cool tool #2: Chip It! is a handy, and addictive palette generator. Simply drag the Chip It! tool to your tool bar, click on any internet image and Chip It! will come up with matching colours.

Admittedly, the colour names are US paint colours, but this could be really useful if you are planning a quilt and are a bit stuck to know what colours to pull from your stash. 

Or if you are struggling to know what colours to incorporate in a border fabric, this tool might give you somewhere to start.

How cool would it be if the colours generated were DMC floss numbers or Kona solid names?! Be warned, you could waste invest many hours with this little tool! 

Cool tool #3: Are you a jam maker or preserver and do you have a plethora of unlabelled jars of indistinguishable condiments in the back of the pantry? "Hey Mum, is this edible"? Well, this gadget is for you. The Jam Labeliser generates wonderfully professional labels with your own personalised details.

Simply print your labels, cut out with scissors and glue to your jars with a humble old glue stick.  Noice!

Have a great weekend, Queen's Birthday long weekend for many of us Aussies. Don't waste too much of it with my cute gadgets :) Bloom x

Daybook entry #13

Outside my window ... it is freezing cold, windy and most significantly - cloudy! No sighting of the transit of Venus for us today. 

From my picture journal ... the lovely Delbard rose, Paris 2000. 

 

I am thankful for ... my daughter's first full day back at school in five weeks. She has been suffering significant pain from a bowel complaint, and is still not out of the woods, but I think we have turned a corner.

I am feeling ... somehow melancholy, perhaps not helped by the weather, or the following:

I keep watching ... this film clip by Goyte - visually engaging and haunting at once.

I am listening to ... Pink Floyd's 'Wish You Were Here'. Not really a fix for melancholia :) 

My ironing DVD this week was ... 'Romulus, My Father'. Oh my! A beautifully shot Australian film about the unconditional love between a young boy and his father. One of those films I feel privileged to have seen for its beauty, but not sure I could watch again for the anguish! 

Hopefully my next post will be a little more cheery. If you'd like to share how you lift a bad mood, all suggestions will be grudgingly thankfully received!

P.S. Guy Sebastian's 'Like it Like That' just played automatically on my iTunes. Things are already on the up :)

Clay tag tutorial

Thank you for your interest in my tutorial. The tutorial has moved and is available in its entirety at this link. Best wishes, Bloom.

'Aster Manor' pillow workshop

There is not much fun to blog about just at the moment. We are into the fifth week off school for my sick daughter. Thanks to my Mum visiting, I did get a day out of the house last week to teach a workshop at Marally Craft. We had a great day stitching up versions of my 'Aster Manor' pillow.

Judy made up an elegant version in French red and taupe using Rouenneries Deux fabrics. Judy did a fabulous job considering her limited experience with a rotary cutter.

As it happened, there were two Jackies in the class. Jackie #1 tested out her brand spanking new Bernina by whipping up her pillow in Aster Manor by 3 Sisters. She found perfectly matching buttons and discovered the magic of the #10 Bernina edgestitch foot!

Jackie #2 chose the always fresh combination of blue and cream for her version. Again, her choice of buttons was lovely!

 

Wendy survived my first workshop and bravely returned for my second :) The fabrics for her pillow were chosen to match her recently upholstered bedhead - a sublime combination of soft blues in Bunny Hill's Oooh La La range.

Deidre planned her pillow specifically as a gift for a friend's golden wedding anniversary. It was a beautifully subtle combination of cream fabrics with gold accents. A very thoughtful gift which I'm sure will be happily received.

Thank you girls for a great day of stitching and chatting. It was a much needed break from the worry of nursing a sick child. If you'd like to make up your own version of this pillow, you can find the free tutorial over at Moda Bakeshop.

Happy Mother's Day

To mothers everywhere, a very happy Mother's Day. Mine was spent employed in the most unlikely of activities ... mothering :) My littlest bloss remains unwell & in need of nursing. And The Boy required some coaxing to get him through a Latin assignment on 'The Journey of Aeneas', due tomorrow. How is your Roman mythology?!

My Sweetness is a firm unbeliever in Mother's Day. Over the years, we I have come to an arrangement - I tend to treat myself! So after a busy day of mothering (and admittedly some Thai takeaway for dinner organised by Sweetness!), I am settling in with my treats:

Something special from T2 ,

and a gorgeous new book by Joanna @ FigTree Quilts. 

Hee hee, happy Mother's Day to me!

Mesenteric adenitis anyone?

My ten-year-old daughter has had constant abdominal pain for the last 7 days. It is not relieved by paracetamol, ibuprofen or naproxen. It is a recurring pain and keeps her away from school.

Yesterday, we were given a diagnosis of mesenteric adenitis which is a inflammation of lymph glands in the abdomen. Evidently, it is common in children. If you have any experience of this condition and advice to offer, please feel free to give it!

For the fabric tragics

The latest & perhaps loveliest marketing ploy to entice us all to buy more fabric ...

... lusciously shot, imaginative and clever films on YouTube ...

... by Art Gallery Fabrics. Tempted? Ooooh, yeah!

Coquetterie

I have something a bit special to show you today. Months ago, I made this cosmetic wallet for Australian Homespun's 'Girls' Club' issue. I was especially happy with how this project turned out, as it incorporates some of my favourite things: linen, embroidery, 3 Sisters fabric, a vintage buckle and 'un peu de la France'!

I very much had some blogging friends in France in mind when I designed this project. I have long been inspired by Shannon @ Petits Détails and her ethereal photography of antique French fabrics and found objects. I was keen to emulate vintage monogrammed French linen with this project. 

Moda's fabric line 'Etchings' by 3 Sisters was released at the perfect time for me. The range had just the right mix of subdued blues, greys and touches of deep red. There are botanical motifs, wonderful French architectural drawings and prints reminiscent of antique parchments. Just perfect for what I had in mind! Serendipity ... or even divine intervention :)

The wallet unfolds and hangs up for convenience. Below are the external and internal views:

Inside, there are lots of different pockets and compartments for storing cosmetics. There are zippered clear vinyl pockets (below) ...

... elasticised pockets for storing compacts ...

 

... narrow individaul pockets for cosmetic brushes, with a protective felt overlay ...

 

... and an elasticised lipstick keep.

There are many elements to this project, but none are difficult. The wallet closes with a tab and a vintage red buckle that I found in my travels.

When I named this project, I decided to call it 'Coquetterie' for this 1911 painting of the same name by Félix Vallotton (source) which shows a woman dressing and readying herself for the day before her mirror.

The other blogging friend I had in mind when I designed this project was Kirsty @ You Had Me at Bonjour. Kirsty is a fellow Aussie, living in Provence. I am constantly inspired by her beautiful photography of French countryside, and laughing at her quick-witted posts.

While I studied French at school, I am by no means fluent these days, and I have a nagging doubt that my 'Coquetterie' name for this project might have an offensive French connotation. Kirsty, please tell me if it does! I would be mortified to offend!

The tone and meaning I was hoping to convey with 'Coquetterie' was variously: ‘vanity; concern for one’s appearance; a knack for fashion; flirty; playful behaviour'.

This project is in the current issue of Australian Homespun #107, available in Australian newsagents or for worldwide digital purchase at Zinio. The pattern will also be available in a month or two as a PDF download in my shop.

A tova top & a case for a fabric hoarding gene

My grandmother always cautioned my mother and me that, when she died, we were to get to her house quickly and remove her fabric stash before Grandpa found it!

With the online popularity of the Wiksten Tova top, I decided I'd dust off my all-but-retired garment-making skills. I asked Mum if there was a suitably soft cotton in the stash inherited from Grandma. Sure enough, we found this very pretty cotton - all 8.5 metres of it! The Boy calculated we could make two-thirds of a tennis net, but we opted for a Tova top (or four)!

The Tova top looks universally flattering in the many photos on the web, albeit most are worn by stick-thin, tall and young beauties. Undeterred, we printed out the extra-large and got sewing!

I am an Australian Size 12 (inching closer to a 14 every day it would seem) - the extra large Tova pattern fits me perfectly, without alteration. It is super comfortable, and conveniently disguises a multitude of sins around my midriff. It unfortunately doesn't help with the thunder-thigh issue lower down, but that is surely beyond the capability of a single pattern. 


The only thing that I'm still coming to terms with (other than having to cut out an XL) is the neckline. I had hoped the collar would stand pertly rather than flop open. My dressmaking mother is hovering, eyes glinting, quick-unpick at the ready with a view to redrafting the collar. But I've decided life's too short for that.

I hate having my photo taken because it forces me to acknowledge the form my body is taking with age. But in the interests of confronting my pride, here I am, the best of apparently hundreds of takes :) Admittedly, I resorted to hiding behind tree trunks to obscure the thunder thighs, but there you have it.

I will definitely make this pattern up again. It is well written, and very achievable. The yoke inset is the trickiest bit. It is conveniently available as a PDF download here.

I have no idea what Grandma was intending when she bought 8.5 metres of this pretty print. But I think she would be very happy that it is seeing the light of day, and being used at last.

Seeking beauty

The first week of the Easter break has flown by for us in a flurry of travelling and spending time with family, thereby causing a blog hiatus - apologies! We've spent the last few days at the farm, and there has again been some solace in the garden for me.

The garden is not at its best after a very wet summer. We have lost plants to fungal diseases, the roses are covered in blackspot, and the pests and bugs are having a grand old time! So I have to work a bit harder to see the beauty!

In the garden's 'ugly' phases, it's time to appreciate contrast in form and colour, such as a shock of pink against the bronze, velvety seed heads of fountain grass ...

... the contrast of sweet purple & white 'Geisha Girl' duranta against a background of box elder foliage, turning deeply golden in the autumn sun ...

... more brilliant pink, 'Sophy's Rose' in contrast with the aging bronze flower heads of Sedum 'Autumn Joy' ...

Beauty can be at its strongest as plants age, passing from exuberant and flamboyant, to promise of future fertility and regeneration. Rose hips form and swell ...

... the albizia is laden with pods, crackling in the breeze ...

 ... fragile papery flower heads of agapanthus, 

burst with new seeds ...

 ... and perhaps the most spectacular post-flowering display, the seed head of my cardoon, 

architectural and breathtaking ...

The roses are fighting valiantly 

against fungal foe and waves of aphid. 

There are still occasional treasures to be found, 

such as the pristine 'Winchester Cathedral' ...

and the penultimate performer, 'Graham Thomas' ...

And of course, when nature throws up a bout of humidity and warm weather, an ideal breeding ground for bugs and disease, it also breeds beauty like this:

Beauty is surely everywhere if you look closely!