A tisket, a tasket, a pretty sewing basket

Before I begin to 'charm' you with the tale of my pretty li'l sewing basket, let me first say thank you to everyone who conveyed such loving thoughts re my last post. I have felt your warm hugs all the way down here at the bottom of the world......indeed they have warmed my days!

A li'l over a year ago I unearthed this sewing basket at my favourite market with the intention of tarting it up some time in the future. Oh dear.......in the very distant future it seems.......but......I do get to these pretties..........eventually.

I have a penchant for collecting receptacles; baskets, boxes, vintage tins, crystal bowls etc in which to store ribbons, laces and all those bits and bobs that us needle workers hoard  stockpile in the name of all things stitching. I always stash away fragments from whatever I am working on. One just never knows when one will need a snippet of a doiley or a dash of lace in an exact colour when one is fashioning a pretty.

I adore sewing baskets from yesteryear. This basket with it's pastel coloured cane  just shouts ME........so there was never any doubt that this pretty would remain hidden in the corner of the market booth for all time eternal. And.........the lady was more than willing to part with it for a song, so she and me were both delirious with great joy!

The basket is in good condition so with a li'l fixer-uppering; the affixing of some pretty fabrics, a smidgen of trimmings and a li'l free hand machine sketch of a little girl quilting, me thinks my li'l basket will look quite spiffy.

Just a li'l machine sketching bordered with some pretties; with a touch of silk ribbon embroidery highlighting a trailing leaf trim, some ric rac (I lurve ric rac), some loop-de-loop cording and a whiff of pom pom trim.

Of course I had to, had to cover those rusty nails around the top of the basket, so I affixed a li'l ric rac. I just lurve ric rac....ooops......but  you knew that, didn't you!

As the interior was looking a bit ho hum I lined the bottom and sides with some pretty strawberry fabric. Soooo much snazzier than the colourless interior of before. This strawberry print is one of my favourite fabrics.

And....of course, me being me, I simply couldn't resist adding a li'l embellishment to the interior of the lid! See.....those snippets of past makeries do come in handy.

The tarting up of my pretty sewing basket didn't take very long.....not too long at all. Hallelujah! Oh I do love a quick stitching project. In this li'l corner of the world, a quick stitching project doesn't come around too often. A "quick stitching project" is not an oft-used phrase uttered in this li'l ole abode!

So another pretty to house some more of those stitching trappings that seem to escape all too often in my sewing room. I must say I lurve it!!

Now let me see......what other pretty can I stitch and while away an hour or two this weekend. I will get back to you.........shall I. Hoping you all have a wonderful weekend filled with some pretty stitching!

"In the book of life the answers aren't in the back." Charlie Brown

'Tis a pity really because sometimes I would dearly love to refer to the back of the book and be enlightened as to some of the answers.

It has been a li'l while since I have visited 'the land of blog'. Our family has experienced a very sad time with the passing of a dearly loved member of our family who fought valiantly the cancer which finally proved to be too powerful. My sister-in-law fought so hard and for so long that we were not prepared for the end. We hoped beyond hope that we still had more wonderful moments of time to share;  to soak in her optimism and loving heart but alas, such was not to be the case. My story is no different to so many others. It seems to me that each one of us,  has been touched by the sadness of cancer sometime throughout our lives; that we all know and love someone who is battling this insidious disease or some other terminal illness.

Though my heart feels hollow and aching I have kept my mind and hands busy with a li'l stitching. I have found a li'l solace stitching my scrappy postage quilt in my sunny sewing room which in an odd way seems to brighten my day. I have found the stitching of this pretty to have somehow cheered my days...........a little. It is a quilt that requires very little thought or concentration. All it requires is a hit-or-miss placement of itty bitty squares; stitching square by square, row by row; culminating in a higgledy piggledy, fun and pretty quilt.

I am thinking that this quilt will be a queen size quilt, so there is quite a way to go.

To soothe the soul, me and Miss Maisie, with the sound of the last frost crackling under our feet, have been taking many a lovely morning stroll  through the picturesque countryside; enjoying the warming Spring days as Spring begins to spring, as  the countryside slowly awakens with the effervescent sounds and scents of new life. The handiwork of my Heavenly Father's glorious creation before me is balm to my soul.

Lush, velvet green paddocks dotted with sweet, sweet itty bitty new born calves. Yes indeedy, Spring is a glorious season.

Ironically, my sister-in-law slipped quietly away on Daffodil Day which here in Australia is a day where the Cancer Council of Australia raises awareness of cancer and is a fundraising event to continue it's research into cancer. Daffodil Day helps grow hope for better treatments and more survivors. To the Cancer Council, the daffodil represents hope for a cancer-free future.

So in remembrance of my sweet, sweet sister-in-law, who day by day wrapped every one of her family in the warmest of hugs, I have picked a sun-filled bunch of daffodils from our garden. Whenever I drink in the sunny daffodils in our garden, it brings to mind those of my beloved family and dear friends who have been afflicted with this disease. The cheery and sunny daffodils help me to reminisce the fun times and nostalgic memories spent with these loved ones.

Forgive me my melancholia.........I will endeavour to find my usual droll self, not before too long. As E.A. Bucchianeri once said........it's true, is it not, that when all is said and done, grief is the price we pay for love.

My goodness time flies.........

.....when you're having fun....and it seems even when you are not!! It's been a li'l while since I last put fingers to keyboard but I have been buried under this blasted floor to floor, queen size hexie quilt that I am stitching for someone. It's taken an age to put together and I fear I have oodles more to stitch. I hereby make a solemn pledge to never, never, NEVER make a quilt with LARGE hexies consisting of fabric other than 100% cotton and definitely, no, no, NO satin backing ever again. There it is........in writing....so I will have to abide by my affidavit now!!  I have signed it with blood from my pin-pricked, calloused finger!!

Of course, this oath doesn't include little hexie 100% cotton 'quilt as you go' quilts. I am chomping at the bit to start another little hexie quilt.....but not just yet...perhaps in another life!

Of course, if this hexie was the only 'pretty' that I had been stitching these last couple of weeks I would have gone quite simply, stark, raving mad. Coming up for air at intervals, I have for the sake of my sanity, filled small moments of time filled with bright, happy and fun stitching.

Last week, whilst out and about, I bought some Moda Playtime 30's itty bitty charm packs. I adore 1930's fabrics and I adore scrappy quilts where one doesn't have to give much cerebration into the design and stitching of these quilts. I love scrappy quilts where you randomly place itty bitty squares all together. I couldn't resist these sweet fabrics....love, love, LOVE!!

As well as the charm packs I decided to cut 2.5" squares from remnants of doilies from my dowry of cloth. I save every fragment of my embroidered lovelies as there is always some stitching project for them to prettify, as I skip down my yellow brick road of stitching. Of course I won't have enough of the 30's Playtime charm packs so I am adding oodles of scraps from my melange of fabric scraps to the mix.

I have stitched these pretties here and there to mix it up a little.

Though I admit that I am drawn to quilts that present a wee bit of a challenge, there are times when I love to stitch row after row of pretty fabrics with not much thought other than making sure that the corners align. It really is like child play and doesn't overwork the brain pan.

Square after square, row after row of sweet fabrics, my postage stamp quilt is flourishing into an assemblage of happy, bright colour. I haven't made up my mind as to the size....perhaps a throw, or perhaps a bed size quilt....either way I am having fun playing with this pretty quilt.

But for now......it's back to my giant hexi quilt.

A happy week to you, filled with oodles of stitching!

Kim.....beginning with the letter "K"

Setting up camp at the letterbox for the past couple of weeks has paid off quite nicely, thank you very much! Yes indeedy, today our friendly post lady delivered a package to me all the way from the USofA!! Thank goodness for that, as any more nights camping in sub zero temperatures would have been the undoing of me.

And.....what was in that package?? A collection of gorgeous pretties hand stitched by Capi of Chosen Sisters fame, as part of the needle book swap that has been circulating the globe during the month of June. Yes indeedy not only the most beautiful needle book but oodles of other pretties.

Lookity look at what fell out of the package.

An amazing needle book with the prettiest embroidered letter "K" on the front. Isn't it oh so pretty!!

Now I am fessing up, I am coming clean that I have been stalking the Flickr photos as the clever stitchers have been posting their photos and when I espied this needle book with my beady li'l eye, I did wonder if this sweet, sweet needle book could possibly be mine. There was quite a bit of discussion as to whom the lucky gal is, whose moniker starts with the letter K. Well..............'tis meeeeeee!! Yipee!!

Look at this beautiful doily that has been fashioned into another pin/needle hold-all; also fashioned with a beautifully embroidered 'K'. And...the sweet 'scrap' basket...not my label but Capi's. It is much too pretty to be called a scrap basket. So pretty!!

Now me thinks that Capi has been stalking my li'l ole blog because everything she sent me is soooooo me. As you know, I lurve pretty!! I am always in need of a pair of gorgeous vintage gloves, some pretty doilies, a pretty hankie, a pretty length of embroidered heirloom lace....oh my....such treasures!

Some pretty vintage Japanese farics and a pretty fabric filled with whimsy. This fabric has started the creative juices flowing.......me thinks a li'l machine sketching with a cute li'l girl stitching, is in the pipeline. Sorry, but it looks as if y'all, yet again, will be seeing some more machine sketching from li'l ole me!!

Such a serendipitous kinda of parcel that really, really tickles my fancy. Thank you Capi for sending such a lovely assortment of pretties!! You have put such a lot of thought and effort into your swap. I am so happy (intoxicated with joy...actually) that the gorgeous monogrammed "K" pretties were for li'l ole me!! Now I am off to inspect them all a li'l more!!

Toodles

Blog Hop Around the World......

Who am I……who, who, who, who……do you really wanna know??

The gorgeous Gilly from the lovely blog, Gilly Makes  asked me if I would like to share a li'l about myself and participate in the 'Blog Hop Around the World'. Gilly imparts a delicious sense of happiness with both her beautiful photos, her delightful personality and of course the gorgeous makes that she creates. You really, really must visit her blog......you will be delighted!!

So....make yourself a cuppa, perhaps a li'l treat or two..... because you might just need it by the time we get to the end.

So….let me begin at the begin…..

Most every day (and some evenings) I pirouette along my botanical inspired hallway and enter my happy sewing room in readiness for a li'l dreaming, designing, creating and fun, fun, fun!

What am I working on now?

Mmmm....now....let me see. How much time do we have!! Just kidding!! I am a gal that has many lovelies in the production line at any given time....a quilt or two, revamping an antiquated lampshade, recovering a chair that has definitely seen better days, tarting up some op shop article of clothing, a cushion or two,  etc etc... (I am always making something for our li'l ole abode, changing things around). But I will spare you the ho hum details and give you a li'l  bo peep at a few lovelies that are being stitched by my li'l  fingers. Excuse me.......that "thank goodness for that" sigh of relief escaping from your lips is just a li'l too loud....I can hear it all the way down here!!

Alas, yes.... I have more than one 'lovely' in various stages of assemblage. Naughty of me, I know, but is not variety the spice of life!! I have some lovelies that take an age, hence the need for these to be punctuated by other 'quickie'  li'l lovelies.

My first 'lovely' evolving is a cathedral window quilt. Window after window of scraps of pretty fabric peeking out from white frames. This quilt was always going to be a protracted affair just because of the very nature of it. A cathedral window quilt involves oodles of cutting, lining up seams and so, so many hours are spent in trying to attain perfect corners (yes....I am a tad persnickety) where the windows meet.....hence the desire to pick it up and put it down at intervals (very, very long intervals)!!

I would dearly love to see my cathedral window quilt, enriched with its lovely patterned and coloured window panes resting on our guest bed, singing a heavenly, hallelujah chorus with those cherubic beings joining in, but I'm guessing those angels' lips will be button closed for a li'l while longer! This quilt is going to take a while.

My second 'lovely' is a Japanese inspired quilt, made entirely from panels of gorgeous Japanese silks, sourced mainly from vintage kimonos with each panel being bordered by strips of dupion silk. I'm endeavouring to applique origami flowers and leaves and scatter them intermittently over the quilt top. The problem with this quilt, is not the origami flowers, which I thought would be a wee bit of a dilemma, but with the quilting. As this quilt is 100% silk I am not quite sure how I will approach this botheration. I am thinking that the patterns in the different fabrics cry out for sashiko quilting. Silk's genetic gene pool is just a li'l too slippery, squirming and shimmying all over the place and will not lay flat. I do wish it would behave itself...but me thinks this slippery varmint will win the battle! If there are any luminaries out there as to how I would solve this wee li'l problem....please do enlighten me.

 

Of course, me wouldn't be me if my fingers weren't 'clickity clacketing' feverishly away on a woolly garment of some kind or another. As I speak my "knit by the seat of my pants" jumper is well on it's way to completion!!! Soooooo excited!! Sorry for my exuberance...but....it's just that I am a wee bit excited as it  has been a herculean effort to arrive at the stage of interlacing all those colourful strands of wool into multitudinous patterns; resulting in an almost finished rainbow-filled jumper. It won't be long (fingers and everything else are crossed) till this gal will be kindling a li'l brightness to this wintry far rural outpost with a wee bit of colour and pattern as I step out in my gleeful jumper!! Yippee!!

Most school day mornings I am in the throes of designing and preparing a stitching project for the kiddos who visit my humble abode each afternoon and while away an hour or two with a li'l stitching. Yes indeedy, each afternoon, the school bus hurtles along our winding country road, screeches to a stop, ejects excited li'l earthlings in readiness for a fun afternoon of stitching, chatter and laughter. Here are some of the stitching lovelies that one li'l girl has created whilst she has been visiting "The Kim Sharman School of Stitching Excellence"....(my tongue is firmly fixed in my cheek!!). She's a clever li'l possum, is our Holly!!

Here are some of this week's projects in progress. You could say it has been a hoot hoot kinda week!! Sorry, lame I know.....but I simply could not resist!!

How does my work differ from others of this genre?
Each one of us has our own uniqueness;  our own ability to impart our own personality, our own flair into whatever it is we create. That is the joy of creating. As for me, I love to create what makes my heart smile. I love to design and though at times I enjoy following a pattern, for the most part I like to design, expand and create my own original idea. My style is quirky, pretty (I lurve pretty), colourful, creative, meandering, embellished..... and I hope a li'l inventive....and of course always evolving. My skipping along the yellow brick road of creativity is a li'l different today  than it was a year or two ago. It is a road where I learn something every day.

Why do I write/create what I do?
I adore creating and I adore writing. It's deep within the psyche of  me. I cannot imagine a day without some form of creativity being enjoyed. I am happiest when stitching a lovely or putting fingers to keyboard and penning a written piece. I love to design and to create, and I love to stitch! It really is play. It's who I am. The arty farty gene is deep within me. Creativity is the essence of me. I love to learn. It doesn't matter what I have made, I always glean some tid bit of knowledge and file it away for another day. I love the written word. I love the interplay between words, filled with nuances; how they can be expressed in a gazillion ways. As far as the east is from the west the essence of words is limitless. Words can inspire.......uplift, they can cause one to laugh, to cry, to visualise, to ponder, to meditate, to dream, to cause one to read between the lines, to create glorious mind pictures.....aahh yes, words are limitless, there are no boundaries. So for me, the designing, stitching and making; and the writing of a blog is a perfect fit.

How does my writing/creating process work?

So much in life inspires me. Life inspires me to create and to write. Everywhere I look there is a rich array of joyous inspiration. From the majesty of God's handiwork around me, (if I live to be 100 I will never not be inspired by the gorgeous vignettes that abound), music...love, love, love music...love soundtracks to movies...so many genres of music. I always have music playing softly or blasting (quite often the bovine...the four-legged ones....bellow along; providing their own uniquely curious harmonies), whilst creating in my sewing room. Gorgeous blogs  that people write inspire me; others' creativity, a beautiful fabric, a lovely painting, a tiny button, a piece of vintage lace, something that I have read, a little girl's ideas on what she next wants to create, people's stories, always the gorgeous, gorgeous flowers..........I could write a tome from whence my inspiration emanates.

When I sit at my keyboard and  begin to type, words seem to spill out of me. I will have a tiny thought and think about how I can develop that thought, how can I make it interesting, different and enjoyable for the reader. How can I write the words that I want to say in an entertaining way. I am always thinking how best to present my thoughts in my addled brainpan.  I write for me and hopefully out there, there are a few who enjoy what I have written. More often than not my tongue is fixed firmly in my cheek, I fear I can be a bit droll...yes indeedy I must admit I see the funny side of life all too often. So, so many things in life make me giggle. After all, one cannot take oneself too seriously when one waxes lyrical about what one has made! I mean really....

Mostly writing is the easiest thing for me.....but there are other times when there is not a single idea....my fog-like brainpan just won't get into gear; but then, the fog clears and I am on my bumbling way again. I am a gal that drafts a piece, always thinking how can I make what I am trying to convey a li'l more fun. I am afraid that even when I detonate the publish button, there will always be an inkling of a thought...."oh I should have said it this way or that way. Sad....but true.

When creating a stitching 'lovely' I ask myself, how can I make this to be a li'l different, a li'l original? How can I impart 'me' into it. The design process always starts with a whisper of an idea, then the dreaming, then the plotting, then the creating. I am always amazed how a smidgen of an idea, a thought; develops into the finished creation before me. More often than not there are lots of twists and turns in that yellow brick road before reaching the destination. I often divert to explore other li'l paths along the way. My design and creative process can be both a long process or a very quick process. Sometimes it is complete inspiration....but sometimes it is all perspiration.

So.........there you have it. As you see I am not a gal with few words (how's that cuppa going?). If you have stuck around till the end many congrats and a very big thank you! The powers that be should never have given me so many questions to answer. Alas, I am a wee bit wordy but that is me, that is who I am. It would be a rather banal world if we were all the same. There has be the odd one or two of us that waffle on and on and on!! That is the fascinating and exciting thing about this blogging caper, we each have our own spin on what we create and what we write....and we just........do!

But.....enough of me.....(thank goodness for that).....I am handing all these questions over to my very dear friend, Vicki of A Quilter's Mission, who lives in the USofA. Though we have never met, I feel that we are kindred souls, and if perchance we ever should meet, there would be many a cuppa and much nattering going on. I am ever so thankful that we two collided in cyberspace! Vicki has the most beautiful spirit and generous soul. She has alchemistic fingers, performing magic with lemons and magically turns the lemons into  sweet, sweet lemonade; changing peoples lives and wrapping them up with her beautiful quilts, in a warm hug filled with much love. Do visit Vicki's  blog and be certain to visit her next Monday when she tells us all a li'l about her sweet, lovely self!

Toodlepips for now. Thank you so much for hopping down to this li'l isle, at the bottom of the world; it has been a pleasure to have you visit!  I don't know about you, but I need a breather!!