Still Alive.

Hi everybody. I just wanted to let you know that I'm not dead. Nor have I joined the circus, or a cult, or the French Foreign Legion. Nor, contrary to what you may have heard, do I have a new boyfriend, and, especially, I have not gotten back together with my ex boyfriend. Really.

Actually, the reason that I haven't been posting anything is because, quite simply, I haven't been sewing anything. Until before a couple of nights ago, my sewing for the last month or so had consisted entirely of me hemming jeans and adding ribbons to kids sized shirts to be waist ties. Kids sized shirts aren't that flattering to the waistline.

A couple of nights ago though I remembered that it was only a couple of days till christmas, and more to the point I realised that, even after buying pretty much every single red and green checked fabric in the Mount, that I at no point had bought the right one to make myself a replica of the stocking from the the season 3 Community christmas episode, but then I realised that that it didn't matter because the pink and green on-point-check from the DS range (I think) before last that was chilling in my stash was kinda perfect in every way except that it was pink instead if red, but whatever, no-one cares. So I made a couple of stockings in the fandom-y spirit.

Not that anyone really gets it. But for those who do, yes, they are big enough to wear as a hat.

And then, of course, yesterday, I realised that I knew exactly what to make a couple of my friends for christmas, but, in pretty much the story of my life, I had like 5 hours to make them all.

First up I made another stocking for EmmStaff. It's ever so slightly smaller than the green ones, and she forgot to come in and get it in time for christmas, so Annalise and Hamish held it up tonight after work while I took a photo after work. But it's made with some Birds Of Norway fabric (it's a Kaufman from a few years ago) and it's one of the most innately cool fabrics I've ever bought, without at any point giving away the fact that it knows it's an innately cool fabric. Which pretty much sums up Emm => very cool, doesn't realise it yet, and cause it's not actually a christmas fabric, and because she turns 18 in eight days, she's gunna use it as a birthday stocking.

And then I also made some tumblr things into plushies. And didn't take photos. Annalise took a photo of hers though: a pair of plusies comprising the message icon and the notification icon.

I made two of the other girls plushies too, I just need to wait for them to put them on the internets. In th meantime, happy christmas everyone, from me and the 6 ciders I drank earlier.

Life choices: Validated.

My mum said to me a few weeks ago (I think it was when I was churning out the adorbs halloween animal ears) "why can't you and your father use your powers for good instead of evil?"

However, all my life choices were validated when ABC local radio's Stan Thompson said that he was particularly impressed by my dinosaur dog costume, as worn by Graham in the local Christmas Pageant on Saturday.

Admittedly, in all the photos it looks like there's a stuffed toy dinosaur trying to hump him. I'm gunna say that it's my retaliation for all those times when he's humped my leg. Powers For Evil!

Anyway, The Bedrock Kids float won the "encouragement award" and made it into the paper. There were 5 copies of The Border Watch in our kitchen tonight when I got home... one on each of the 4 tables, and one in my hand as I walked in.

Honestly, encouraging us isn't that good of an idea. With no encouragement at all my father built a four-bike-powered Flintstones car on a whim and I managed to design, draft and construct a perfect doggie-dino costume in an evening. Admittedly, I did need a bit of encouragement to help with the kids costumes, but that was because mum assembled them and then wanted me to sew the spots and triangles on them. And she always wanted me to do it in the mid-morning, instead of at 2am like I normally would.

And she's got the nerve to call me evil. I think it's not only my father that I get that from...

He can't bite your finger - he's go no mouth.

I just spent the last hour sitting on the loo, playing jawbreaker on my palm pilot.

I might be willing, for one night only, to admit that the people who think I'm wasting my life, may just have a point.

Thankfully, one wasted hour does not a wasted day make. Instead, in one day I made:

 Charlie

Ellanor

And Alan.

And then, after tea, I made these.

Which is handy, since I've lost the one I took up to Adelaide. It's probably out in the car. Please note the Jim Beam can isn't mine, it's just all that was in the fridge.

I love the idea of selvedge stubby holders so much better than just about anything else made of selvedges. For a start, you need so little - the blue one, where I've shown some fabric as well, used 11 bits of 10cm selvedge, as well as the backing fabric with selvedge attached to be one binding and a coloured selvedge as the other binding. But better than that, it's so much more out-there than a selvedge quilt or a cushion. Because lets face it, anyone who's in your house to see it probably knows you're a quilter anyway, whereas a stubby holder, getting out there in the real world, will let you be recognised as a quilter by other quilters. People you may have known for ages but neither of you knew the truth about the other. It's like a secret symbol.

I make mine velcro up, because it's easier than trying to sew around or closed. Except I get most of it done and can never find my bit of velcro. I need to go buy some more tomorrow before work, so I can go make Kelsey's.

I need to get some fabric too, now that I've tested my new dinosaur/dragon pattern (perfect in every way, except I need to not stuff the arms so much and make sure my feet are at the same height) so that I can make a proper version for Kelsey. Charlie will probably stay living with me and Ellanor (whose design needs a bit of work - she has very bad cellulite) and Alan, who I think will maybe be my first ever toy pattern put online, since he seems pretty perfect too. I'm gunna suggest though - don't do him like I did, interfacing batting to his fabrics and sewing him with it attached so there'd be enough padding in his tail, spending 45 minutes slowly turning him right way out, then hand sewing his lines on and stuffing his head. Use felt, and sew him right side out. It will be about a million billion times easier. Even with the hand sewing.