Some time away!

Yes, I am still here.  It has been busy in my household these past few weeks due to school holidays and some family trips away which has meant that Tied with a Ribbon also was on holidays!!!!

I spent some time in Melbourne with my sister and had a great time.  Much to her disgust the first stop on our trip was to a fabric shop!  I have not been to Gee-Jays in Melbourne before but fond some wonderful fabrics.  I picked out several fabrics and until pointed out by the lovely ladies there had not realised that I must have a thing for spots!

Some bright new colours that I have already cut into to make some treasures that have been in my head for a while waiting to be trialled and made.

So with some new fabrics and plenty of ideas I started about making this - can you guess what is on my mind?

There have been some other custom orders on the table this week with the start of a personalised cushion in these colours

So armed with some hand stitching to complete and Season 1 of Gossip Girl (don't judge!!!!) I have some work to do and pondering of a youth long since gone!!!



Look what arrived in the mail!

I was expecting a special parcel to arrive at any time this week and today when the doorbell rang I knew exactly what was going to be on the other side.   

This package came from Under the Mulberry Tree.  Living in WA it is somewhat of a shame to miss out on special events that get held interstate.  So when I heard about the "Immerse yourself in Stitching Retreat" being held in Melbourne over the past weekend I was disappointed not to be able to attend.  So that's when I thought I would ask if the retreat could come to me.  With Melly and Me, Rosalie Quinlan and Leanne I am very jealous not to have been there as I love these ladies work.  They always have something inspirational to look at on their blogs and I have made many of their creations. I can't wait to get started on these projects. By the way I already ate the chocolates!!!!

Many posts ago I showed you some red and white Christmas Fabrics that were going to be turned into a Table Runner.  Well as I knew that the Table Runner was going to be  given as a gift I have not shown the finished pictures so here it is. 

Back into the swing of things.

After the events of last week life is going back to normal - well except for this stupid head cold I seem to have inherited!.  Thanks to everyone for the wishes and flowers and kind words.

Sunday was Upmarket day and silly me forgot my camera so I don't have any photos to show you from the day but it all went well.  It was wonderful to see lots of familiar faces from all my different paths.  I was most especially touched by one lady and her daughter.  They came up to me and said that they had purchased on of my Notebook Keeper Patterns and Kits from the June Upmarket.  She wanted to let me know that they had a great time making it together and found the instructions easy to read and they have since made some more.  That really made my day.  Lots of people wanted to know which felt character was next in the works for a kit so I will put them on the "To Do List." 

This is the next stage in my secret sewing project.  All the squares have now been cut and re-arranged and sewn back together.  I was amazed at how quickly it all came together.  This is called a "Disappearing 9 Patch".  If you google disappearing 9 patch tutorial there are a whole heap of tutorials around.

This big pile of Ribbon arrived earlier this week and just in case you didn't know, I just love ribbon.  I am not sure it is possible to have to much of it.  Mine is all stored on a hanging system called "Ribbon Ring".  While it takes a while to sort them all out I just love how all the colours are organised (mine by colour) and don't tangle because they are hanging up.



Saturday is Stitching Day again so I will remember my camera and look forward to a fun filled day of stitching and laughter.

A week to reflect

With the death of a close family member this week there has been alot of thinking and reflecting - about family and life.   So this week I have some snippets of things in the works for family and friends.

Because those recipients are likely to read this post I can only show little bits with little explanation!!!  (Not that helpful really I guess)

These are some Kaffe fabrics (plus a couple of others) which are being turned into a birthday present.  I must admit that my love of Kaffe fabrics has taken a long time.  I never really got how to put them together.  All the beautiful colours confused me as I can work with a few colours at a time but all the colours in these fabrics just used to send me round the bend.  Now I just love them and have been waiting to use them for this special project.

This is the start of a quilt for a new arrival - can't show you a bigger picture yet but I will keep up with the tease over the next couple of weeks.

My two girls went into my fabric stash several weeks ago and asked for some new tops for summer.  This is the result - they have perfectly picked fabrics that suit them and now we just need the weather to warm up for them to wear them.

Well I hope to see you on Sunday at the Upmarket and I will be back next week hopefully in a brighter place with a round up of the Market.

Shopping on Etsy

I love shopping!  I feel it could almost be my part time job!  Since starting Tied with a Ribbon I have not done of much of it as I used to - well not actually going to the shops as such.  I now buy lots of things off Etsy.  This week I treated my girls to these beautiful place mats from Pilli Pilli.

I love receiving parcels of goodness in the post.  And already they are showing signs of appreciation with some spaghetti sauce.

This week things have been quieter on the stitching front and busy on the preparing side.  I have had a chance to catch up on some bookwork,  have some new flyers printed and some activities organised for later in the year. 

These flyers along with some samples of my personalised items have now found their way to a beautiful Children's Boutique in Mount Lawley - Little Horrors.   

Along with flyers being sent to the printers so was a new pattern.  After several requests for these fellows introducing - Plum Puddings.

Lots of packing, sticking, cutting and counting mean that these are now available.  These are one of my most popular Christmas Felt Characters and now you can make them yourself with the Pattern, Instructions and supplies to make them for your own tree.

They will be coming along with me to the Perth Upmarket  which is on September 12th at U.W.A.  Book the date in your diary and come along and say hello.  I will have several other new items with me on the day.  

It looks like Christmas

Most of what I have been working on this week has a Christmas flavour about it.  All those Christmas Fabrics that I showed you in my last post now look like this

Lovely Christmas Aprons - some of which have already gone to be tucked away as Christmas Gifts.

I have also been working with these fabrics which are going to be turned into a Christmas Table Runner to match its new owners Christmas Scheme. 

And after all the Christmas Sacks that I have been making for others my two girls wanted to know where theirs were.  So after discussions about which colour and characters each wanted I have been working on completing one for them each. 

Love Birds

Well I finally got to take the picture of the Machine cover that I had made a couple of weeks ago at Sunday Stitching.  This sits on my mum's sewing machine, well one of her machine any how as a few months after making her the first one, mum upgraded her sewing machine only to suggest that she would also need a cover for her new machine!!!

The revamp has continued in my sewing room.  Many, many months ago I bought this big white frame from Ikea, always with the intention to fill it with some sort of birds to go with the birds in my Babushka Quilt hanging on my sewing room wall.  After the clean out I knew it was time to finally put something in the frame instead of continuing to trip over it.  So this is what I put together (mostly with the inspiration from Claire!).  The birds are simply machine stitched onto the fabric with a decorative stitch just inside from the edge and then I free hand quited the white background.  I love that my sewing room is now coming together as I had imagined it.

These Matryoshka Dolls are from Kristen Doran. I was lucky enough to meet this very talented lady earlier this year in Melbourne.  We share a love for variegated DMC thread and these dolls. 

Under construction this week is this pile of Christmas Fabrics which just arrived in the mail.  They are destined to be turned into an order for Christmas Aprons.