keelysews... sometimes

A New Year means it's my blogiversary. Looking back over the past two years worth of posts shows how life has changed. I've gone from working part-time to studying at university full-time, finally graduated, and my kids have grown so much. Sewing has been put on the backburner more than I'd like as I concentrate on studying. Some days all I want to do is sew, others I'm too tired to do more than look through magazines. Hopefully this year I can squeeze out a bit more sewing time. 'Cos I'm going to be so much more organised this year. Snort, yeah right! :) A new year also means time for a new stash stats counter. I don't really make New Year's resolutions (well, not ones I keep anyway), but this time I've decided I really must do better on the whole buying vs sewing thing. In the last two years I've added 55.35 metres to my fabric stash. Whoops. Obviously this is proof that I don't actually have to be working in a fabric shop to add fabric. ...

I've been in a "kinda wanna do some sewing but really can't be bothered" funk for the last couple of days. (Curse those foreign cold/fluey bugs that my brothers bought from overseas.) Given that the sewing mojo seems only too keen to go on vacation at the most inopportune times, I thought I better engage in something sewing-related to try to keep the mojo interested. So I decided I'd be practical at the same time and organise all the patterns that had been stuffed into any available spot pulled out and stored for future use and actually file them. You know, with the other patterns, not just in the nearest available spot. Having done that, I felt it was only right to get really carried away and enter them into my Patternreview catalogue. Besides, it meant I could stay sitting down and given the case of the dizzies I had at the time, that was probably a good idea. The catalogue feature on Patternreview is great. Very useful. Admittedly, perhaps more useful if I...

Christmas shopping tends to bring out one of two sides to me. Some years, I'm giddy with excitement and relish the hustle and bustle of scores of like-minded shoppers chasing a bargain and that elusive perfect gift. Others, I'm not. Christmas Eve eve was a "not" sort of day. Having been lulled into a false sense of security by the civilised shopping pace in town only a few days before, I ventured back into town again on the 23rd. Apparently, everybody gets paid on the Weds before Christmas because they were all in town. If I hadn't known Judy was at home, I'd have said the entire local population was there. But I didn't start out in a state of Grinchiness. I swear I was relatively upbeat when the woman in the blue station-wagon stole my parking space. The one I'd been sitting waiting for with the indicators flashing while I held up traffic for several minutes. The perfect spot outside the store I needed to go to. But I let it go. Obviously. When I got ...

Thank you all so much for the kind comments. My father was a wonderfully kind and generous man who I'm proud to have called Dad. We all miss him terribly.

Wow. It's been a while since I posted. Christmas is nearly here and life is busy, busy, busy. I finished the Burda shirt dress finally and it has been worn a lot, so I guess it passed muster. The sleeves are normally folded up when DD wears it. DD also hasn't decided on where she wants the belt loops set, as she has worn the belt at both waist and hip level. They will probably never get done. :) After the shirtdress was out of the way, I turned my attention to a project for the junior classes at school. In the past, I have made quick calico stockings for the 5 and 6 year olds to decorate and fill as gifts for their parents. Usually I take the easy way out and straight stitch everything and turn through, with absolutely no inside finishing. This time, I decided to overlock/serge the edges instead. All those curves were interesting, to say the least. Thank goodness for Debbie's tip on serging inside corners. After the time put in, 60 stockings didn't seem to make a very ...