A bit of a catch up

I haven't been sewing lately, the last thing I made was the iPad case. I've been feeling a bit run down, and also spending some more quality time with my youngest. There are so many things I should be sewing right now, but I just don't have the inclination to do so. I think my next job will be something to wear to my husbands work Christmas party at the track. I was thinking of wearing a beautiful Portmans lace dress I have and making a black clutch and 50's style Flappers fasinator to go with it. My hubby keeps talking about buying a safari suit to wear to it, I told him in that case we're not going together. However it has made me start to think geeky about it too. So now I'm thinking blue dress with subtle accents of Doctor who. However in Mother Dragon true fashion, this will make a ton of work for me in a short amount of time. I don't think I'll make the dress, because a) it's too much work and b) I haven't made one before. I'm thinking of scouring the charity shops and than altering one though. I'll keep you informed.

So youngest son and I are at the park again this morning. I mean to make this a weekly Monday ritual, as this part of the park, which is fenced in, is only accessible to the public on Mondays during the week. It's so nice to be able to sit in the morning sun, typing my thoughts down for you to read and watching my son have fun playing by himself or other children. We tend to arrive before anyone else, so we have a play together before anyone else shows up.

So this morning I thought I'd start to catch you up on what I have been sewing though the year. None of which will be in chronological order, just what ever takes my fancy as I scroll though the photos I have. I was so slack though the year that I was even bothered to take photos of some of my work, progress or completed.

To get to the main story, first off I'll show you what started it all.

I made one of my notebook covers to sell in my Etsy store. I also put photos on my Facebook page. One of my friends from school seen this and asked it I would make her a cover for her iPad. This was way back, when I thought I'd never have a use for an iPad. I quizzed her on what she wanted from the cover. She decided on a zipper pouch and told me she loved the colour purple and orange. Those where not two colours I would have ever thought to put together, I also knew I didn't work well with commissioned orders. However my school friend told me she loved creative, one of a kind things. I asked if she would like me to patchwork and quilt it, and she said yes and that I had free creative control. How could I say no to the perfect customer. It was great to be able to creative with it, and at the same time pushed to try new colours. As my husband said, I had to do it the hard way.

I think with this project, it was the first time I patch worked triangles. The design of the pouch was very simple, but the patch work was time consuming. However I love doing triangles now, even though they are difficult to get all the corners to meet. I like a challenge, if you haven't worked that out yet.

I set the triangles out to look like two starss (one frozen) in space. Although I don't expect anyone to be able to see that.

The front is of them far away and the back is the design close up, the triangles are bigger too.

I stippled quilted the back, using a template, I quilted it by hand. I changed the thread to match the colour of the fabric. With the front I used orange, purple (shiney) and blue to quilt organic swirls(by hand), to represent space. It was painful using the shiney purple thread, it kept knotting up and braking.

I told my friend, not to pay me until I was finished, this helped to push me along. I have done this again since, with a none sewing project, and it didn't work out so well, because she ended up pulling out. It was a shame, because I was enjoying it.

So back to the storey, my friend loved it and when she seen the iPad cover I made myself recently, she said she was jealous, but that she still loves the one I made her. Always good to hear, the bottom line for me when I sell something I make, is that the customer is happy with it.

P.S One of my sister in-laws bought the notebook cover for a present for someone.

Take care.

Mother Dragon

 

Posted with Blogsy

iPad Cover

I made my iPad cover last week and I've been using it for a little while now.

 

I used Tablet Case Tutorial | sew in harmony. I found it when I had the Transformer tablet, because this tutorial has sizes for many different tablets. I would have had to change quite a few things for the transformer as I wanted to include the keyboard. However I don't need to do that with the iPad as the keyboard I got for it has it's own cover and it can't be removed from it.

The tutorial worked out much better than I thought it would, as I was worried it wouldn't be safe enough. The tutorial called for two fabric corners and two elastic corners (I don't trust elastic), were I would have preferred four fabric corners or a surround for the tablet. However the cover has removable boards, so it wasn't really practicable. The fabric corners turned out really tiny, but sufficed to say, I have not lost my iPad out of it yet.

I might have been able to sew four fabric corners, as long as the board was added after the iPad and sewn into the corners to the pocket. If anyone decides to try that, please let me know.

The reasons I decided on using this pattern, other than it being a free (for personal use only) tutorial, is it has the board inside it, so you can prop up your iPad and view it better. The boards are removable, so I can wash the cover when it gets dirty. I say when, because I used yellow, white and light coloured fabrics, of course it will get dirty!

Before I made this it felt like my iPad was naked, exposed and fragile. Now it feels like its is safe and protected. I love that it's like a book, it feels great to carry around and secretly it fulfils a childhood wish of mine. When I was kid, I used to pretend my old hard cover book of Little Woman was a book with a computer inside. Just like the one Penny had in the cartoon Inspector Gadget :-)

I discovered too, that just having the friction of fabric on fabric (my pants) means I can sit on the couch with my legs up and prop it up on my legs :-) It is so multifunctional.

I did make a change to the closer. The tutorial calls for a button and elastic to keep it closed, I decided on sewing a piece of elastic into the seam at the back of the case, that went from the top to the bottom. It closes so easily by wrapping the elastic around the front of the cover and to open I just wrap it around to the back.

As you can see, I went with a patchwork for the front cover. I used a lot of Joel Drewberry's Herringbone in Pond, Pat Bravo's Oval Elements in Papaya Orange, Lizzy House Outfoxed Foxglove in Pink, Amy Butler's Full Moon Polka Dot in Lime, my favourite Tula Pink's Parisville Cameo in Sky and lastly Dena Fishbein's Taza Tarika in Yellow.

It wouldn't matter too much if you used a pattern material that had no direction, but when it came time for me to sew the spacing for the board pockets, I realised that, the iPad really needed to go on the right side, so when I open and close it, I wouldn't be picking up the iPad up with the cover and plonking it down. I'm just so used to closing a book so it's cover is facing up, that I would be all messed up if I put the iPad on the left side. However I had the problem of the cameo print that I used in the front of the cover. With the two pockets being on the front cover, this meant I had to sew though the middle of the print! So I decided to camouflage the stitches, by stitching more! I faux quilted the front cover. I had been undecided whither or not to add some batting to the front. There is some batting inside the cover, and in the end I decided not to add more, as I had already cut my fabric and it probably would have thrown the calculations out.

So overall, I'm really happy with how it turned out. I might add something later, like a little pocket to put a cloth to wipe the screen with, or I could just put it behind the the tablet. I'll see how I go.

Till next time

Mother Dragon

P.S I'm still loving blogging on my iPad with Blogsy, I really can't recommend it enough.

 

Posted with Blogsy

Blogging made easy

I know I only just posted last night, but I just had to blog again about the iPad App I used to blog with. I was so happy with the app that I gave them a review on the App Store and emailed them a love letter! Lol. I was going insane trying to blog, trying everything I could. The apps either didn't work or the main issue was editing once it was uploaded to the site.

The app I bought has fulfilled all my blogging needs. You can drop photos in from your camera roll or albums, Flickr, Picasa, Instagram, Facebook, web browser, etc. You can link, block quote, formate, change photo size and orientation. You can post as a draft, publish online, and edit what is online (published or draft)!

What is it called? It's called Blogsy and I can't recommend it enough. It has made the process of blogging so easy and enjoyable, like it should have always been. I can blog now, even when I'm offline. So when I'm at McCafe having a Mocca and feel like looking like a Tech savvy snob, I can type my blog up and publish it when I get home, because we all know Macca's free wifi is useless and you can't do anything on it. Or I can be really tricky and use my iPhone's hotspot and upload it then and there. So as I said in my last post, I have no more excuses for not blogging. Well not at the moment anyway :-)




Mother Dragon

 

Posted with Blogsy

No more excuses

No more excuses now for not blogging, things will probably come up now and than, but it's a lot easier now. I got a NEW iPad last week, it's a early Wedding Anniversary/Christmas from my husband :-). I originally got a ASUS Transformer, but after five days, I discovered I couldn't blog with it. Which is why I wanted a tablet with a keyboard to begin with. So I exchanged it, I miss the Transformer, it was pretty, the live wall papers were fun and it had it's good points, but I think Google needs to do some more work on there OS.The iPad is great and works well with our Mac and my iphone. I have been having all kinds of hell trying to blog this post for about a week. I have found a App that I have purchased and am using at the moment. It looks wonderful and has great video tutorials on how to use it. Fingers crossed it works. I'll let you know how it goes.Enough about tech stuff. What have I been sewing lately? Well I started a cover for the Trasformer, lol. Then i followed a free tutorial online to make one for an iPad, but I wont go into that much now. I'll post about that next time.I've made a couple of presents lately for my friends daughters. Here is a picture of one of them.

This was for her one year old. So cute hey? It looked great on.

Before this I recovered a computer chair we bought from a garage sale for $5. Here is the before.

Ugly! I stripped it apart with the help of my wonderful husband.

I had to use Tula Pin k's Parisville Cameo for the back of the chair, because it is my all time favorite design! I know I used cotton fabric instead of upholstery fabric, but I figured as this chair is for my sewing and I don't usally sit back in it, it should be ok. It has a layer of thicker white fabric between the foam of the seat and the top layer of fabric.

It was SO painful stapling it to the back of the seat as it was plastic and not wood. I think I used every foul word I could think of, oops.

I was very happy with the results though.

I pulled a bunch of fabric that complemented the Cameo colour scheme. I used the middle one of the white and black text print and rejected the other two. I know there isn't any black in the Cameo, but I wanted someething a little more interesting than just white or white on white. I don't think it will show the dirt as bad either.

This is the work in progress on my design wall, just ignore the ironing board and my other project in the works at the top.

I decided to do a triangle patchwork on the bottom part of the chair (seat). Again it's just cotton fabric, but I thought if I quilted it with Batting and backing fabric, it might hold together ok.

I was a bit lazy not measuring it all out, so I just quilted as I went. Do you like my sewing machine? Isn't she beautiful!

I just quilted along each edge of each seam. It's not going anywhere!

So this is the end result. It was much easier to staple this one on, as the base was wood. I'm SO pleased with it.

I sould be back soon with another post, untill than, please fee

One Year!

Oh wow! I knew it had been a very, very long time since I posted, but a Year!
We have been without the internet on our home computer for almost a year. It is only recently that we had broadband put on. With Telstra, I hate Telstra! Unfortunately there is no other option where we live, if we want broadband. It's also more expensive here and not as fast as it is in other places. I have thought many times about starting to blog again, but with internet only on my iPhone, it made it all a bit daunting.

A lot has happened in a year. A lot of wonderful things, such as our eldest starting school. He is doing really well. It still amazing me that he is reading little books!

Our youngest is coming out of his shell. He has started talking over the year. He is still very stubborn and will only try new words when he wants to.

Recently my husband ran for local council. It was amazing being on the other side of the electoral process. He was truthful and stood up for what he believed in, he didn't shy away from the hard questions and a lot of people, including other candidates, could see that and respected him for it. At this time it doesn't look like he will get into council this year. I am so proud that he wanted to serve his community and make this place, a better place, for them and our family. We have learnt so much from this time and next time we know we can do better in getting his message heard by the public.

In October last year, my good friend gave birth to her third child. A beautiful baby girl! She is such a gorgeous bright eyed little girl, with a fierce grip! lol.

Shortly after I became pregnant with our third child, which unfortunately was not meant to be, as I had a missed miscarriage not long after finding out I was pregnant. It was hard, but as the pregnancy was not very far along, there was no heart yet, which for me, made it easier.

We got pregnant again a month later. It's scary being pregnant after having a miscarriage, you question every little thing, but miscarriage like pregnancy is not the same every time, it is not until after it is over do you see the warning signs. After three months of being pregnant I had another missed miscarriage. This was, in short, devastating!


To help me with my grieving I got a tattoo on my forearm of a baby dragon in a egg, to represent our baby we lost. We don't know what sex of the child would have been, so we called the baby/tattoo Willow. Willow's due date would have been at the end of this month, in the year of the Dragon.


We also lost my Pop in between all this. He had cancer, as well as dementia for awhile. He had such a long full life, and to see him wasting away in a bed was heart breaking. Truth be told he probably should have died a number of time in his long life. Firstly he was not well as a baby and the doctor thought he wouldn't live, but he was a fighter and that stayed the same though his whole life. Sometimes that meant fighting with fists, being a small guy, he had to show people he couldn't be pushed around. When he was older he worked; in mines, around uranium, and got a little too close to chainsaws on a couple of occasions. One time he fell out of the tree......with a chainsaw, he ended up with stitches on his forehead, he looked liked Frankenstein's monster! Another time he got he chainsaw caught on the fence wire, his jeans got caught by the chainsaw and he sawed part of his leg. In the past couple of years he had a few car accidents, one involving a tree and another one he flipped. He spent a long time recouping at my Mother's house with a broken neck and leg. We made sure he didn't drive again after that, which was hard, he was a stubborn man that loved his independence. However we knew by then he had dementia and it was not safe for him to be on the road. He went on to heal from his accident and then was diagnosed with Cancer. In the end it was a blessing that he passed on, I know I personally wouldn't want to be lingering on like that. Wasting away (a nice, undescriptive way of how bad he was), always confused, unable to hold a conversation or even know who you were talking to from one minute to the next. He was a amazing man and is missed by all who knew him.  

My husband also lost his Uncle to cancer around the same time as my Pop. Looking back, there has been far to much death for us this year.

I wondered about sharing all this with you all. My thinking is this is my blog, ideally it's dedicated to my sewing, but sewing is a part of me and my life and therefore my life is apart of my sewing.
After reading what I have written above, it does look heavy on the bad side of things. Although we have been though a lot this past year, these have been the life changing events. We have also had a huge amount of fun, laughter, wonderful weekends, school events, children's one liners, birthdays, parties, and so much more. I'm thankful for those moments, and I'm thankful for my wonderful Family, who I love and cherish.

So, I'm still generally a positive thinking person. I have my moments, but such is life, you have to move on, because the world wont stop for you. Sometime I think you must stop and think about the past, talk about it and sometimes you have to put it away (so to speak). Although it's good to get this all out, it's also emotionally draining and leaves me with a painful lump in my throat.

My hope is I will now continue to blog, and the next one I plan to catch you up on some of my sewing over the year. It wont be all of it though, as I tend to only think of taking a photo after I gave it away, and the last year was largely gift orientated sewing.