the off button

Sorry but no picture today (I haven't worked out how to successfully include photos on an open access computer...) so you will just have to use your imagination.
I'm 6 days in on the 'rest cure' and I haven't managed to find the 'off button'. That's not to say I haven't been taking it easy but I have found it difficult to not feel guilty for just sitting staring into space. I was brought up with few holidays and those that we did have (as I have written about before) mainly involved long drives and then more long drives. It is now at a genetic level, I feel that I have to be constantly moving and/or looking at stuff.
So I have been meditating (so to speak) on slowing down and trying to not climb the wall when sitting still. Trying to activate the 'off button' is actually really really hard.
Stop laughing.
It takes a lot of energy to do very little.
I have been checking in on the interweb thingy (how I hate thee iPhone) and checking my emails and generally still being mentally on the other side of the Strait which probably hasn't helped! I did wake up this morning to Lucy's fabulous Design Files Father's Day Giveaway, one of our fabulous Forage bow ties is up for grabs with a whole pile of other great prizes. I think you have until this evening to get your entry in. See I just can't help myself!
I'm back in the car tomorrow. If I'm lucky I might even get to see a little bit of snow.
Anyway, better dash, there's a couch and a book waiting for me.

daffodilly

It's been a crazy forty eight hours.
I've driven 800 kilometres, I've met with my favourite Northern Queens of Craft -and boy do we have some stunning Afghan rugs and tea cosies!- then back to Melbourne, raced off to Ikea, measured walls, ruled lines, drilled holes, been to the hardware store twice in 15 minutes this morning, put up shelves, unpacked new display domes, priced all the new NQ of C stock, emailed people, looked at the pile of bills to be paid, gulped in fear, done a load of washing........

There is still a mountain to be scaled before I officially Bugger Off tonight.
I'd be writing a list if I was that sort of person.
The daffodil patch by the blue house was a sight to see and when I met up with Queen Ann she pulled out a whole batch of tea cosies covered in daffodils and pansies and one seriously OTT one that is laden with flowers and insects- it's fabulous! Of course I've had no time to snap any of them.

When I got home late yesterday there was this beautiful face waiting for me at the bedroom window.
(Queen Marnie asked for more pictures of Jethro when I saw her yesterday.)

Last night's dash to Ikea was to pick up shelves, same as the ones in the kitchen, for the shop. Well worth the panic to get them, I'd checked on the interweb thingy but they were no longer listed in white but there they were and best of all half price, yay! OK I bought two......
So the shelves are up and the first batch of domes are out, not all have arrived yet and there are different styles coming. I am now obsessed with finding things to put under glass...... I have a stash of taxidermy birds but they aren't going out until the big cloches arrive.
Better get another bucket of tea into me and find something to eat before I collapse in a heap and pay the wrong bills.

a right little cinders

Yes.
Alright.
It was my fault the laundry/bathroom/kitchen got flooded last night.
Jethro had nothing to do with it.
Mind you if he hadn't been asleep on the gold leather pouffé upstairs I am sure he would have noticed and come and got me.
As it is I spent an hour and a half on my hands and knees mopping the floor (thank you heaven for a concrete slab of a floor) with every single towel I owned (thank you heaven for that obsession I had about patterned towels from Savers).
So last night I felt like a right little Cinderella. Jethro took on the role of Buttons late in the piece when he decided soggy towels and hands were a newly invented game.
Now I am trying to get a few extra pots of glove dyeing squeezed in before I hit the road to visit the Northern Queens of Craft. It will be a flying visit and I'll be rushing back to sort out piles of stuff before I officially bugger off.

the return of the round bottomed granny

In the flurry of making this week I managed to get a whole batch of round bottomed grannies- purses that is-  made up. All in our beautiful furnishing linens. We've been really really low on them for quite a while now and at last we have a whole tray full.

And if you have ever thought that perhaps the Cottage was a cushion shop.... then you'd be right. We seem to have been taken over by cushions at the moment! I made up a new run of Welsh tapestry blanket cushions, more quilted blanket cushions (we sold out of the last lot) and as the Swedish linen we use for the back of some cushions and the gingerbread hearts had arrived I made up some new patchwork cushions.

I love the vintage patchwork quilt tops that I have had fabric-to-fabric quilted (that's one of the rolls that nearly killed me last Friday that I lugged up the stairs to the studio). When Dell popped into the studio during the week we spent some time just staring at the all the different fabrics in the quilts, little pieces the size of a fifty cent piece, ohhing and ahhing over the prints. Most of this batch is made from feed sack fabrics  (which I will write about in a couple of weeks) and occasionally you find fabrics that are very very old, tiny pieces that have been saved and have finally made their way into being used.

When I look around the Cottage at the moment we seem to have gone from lacking in stock to bursting at the seams. There are still quite a few things I need to finish but I am feeling that that little spirt of making has helped. We have all sorts of new things arriving and we have nowhere to put it all....... and before I forget there are new vintage standard lamp bases in as well.

Oh! People don't forget it's Anna, Nicky and Cass's HUGE garage/moving/open studio sale today at Carlow House in the city! Check over here and here for the details. So upset I have to work today.........

top shelf

Sorry for the lack of posts.
It's been a bit busy here, TV off, music on and working my way through all those procrastinated jobs that have been sitting taunting me. Of course they are taking much less time in reality than they had blown out to in my imagination- there must be a mathematical formula for that- and, as so often happens both here and at the studio, horizontal surfaces are appearing as I tick off each project. Last night it was printing and bagging greeting cards, tonight making clocks. There is still a lot to get through but it is a little liberating.
Also my barely three month old camera carked it this morning. There was much beating of chest, pulling of hair and gnashing of teeth. Canon was no help, the people at the Camera Clinic were lovely and JBHifi came to the party and are swapping the camera. I have to say that buying something like this from a large chain of stores has actually had dividends this time, they are getting the camera transferred over from another store and exchanging mine for one that works. That part made my head spin from how accommodating they have been. (Positive comment for camera ends here.)
My desk here was spanking clean a week and a half ago (mainly because I had to swap tables and I swept everything onto the floor) but slowly there are piles of paperwork accumulating once again. Somehow I need to get some sort of order happening with the amount of paperwork in/filed.
We've got new cushions in stock and more waiting for the stuffing to arrive. I've been piecing granny purses together. There is a new bundle of bunting hanging around. I'm slowly chopping into the patchwork quilt tops. And best of all- next week I'm buggering off for a break.

the garden of quiltly delights

By the end of yesterday I don't think there was a part of my body that didn't hurt.
If you were out and about you may have seen a little white hatchback tearing across the northern suburbs with a huge roll of quilted fabric strapped to its roof and another one jammed in the back. I then had to lug the buggers upstairs to the studio. One roll was the equivalent of 20 woollen blankets, 25 metres of calico, 5 metres of Dell denim and about 3 kilos of wadding. The other roll was made from 50 metres of 1.8 metre wide calico and 50 metres of vintage quilt tops. No I didn't ring for help.

Once it was all in the studio I started the cutting, trimming, binding, finishing, pressing.
Nine new quilts.
Then I loaded the car back up again and dragged it all into the shop.

Where Dell then helped my photograph them all.
I stood holding the quilts and Dell tried to trick me into peeking out from behind the quilts and calling out 'have you taken the photo yet?' so she can get a silly picture of looking like Foo over the top of a quilt.

sold

Then we folded them all up and hung a new one on the wall near the counter.

The quilts are in new combinations and are extraordinarily pretty.

The paler colours make the checks all hazy.

I even managed to make a couple of new cushions.

cushions sold

Then I went to the city to hunt some linen fabric down (shop closed), get some dinner (Sushi Ten unexpectedly closed) and buy a new pair of hiking boots. I was so tired on the way home I could have cried from exhaustion. I think Jethro picked up on my weariness and stayed snuggled up against me all night in bed rather than hang with his mouse pals downstairs.
I'll be the one in the shop today walking like a hunched over old crone but sporting an exceedingly comfortable pair of new hiking boots.

And as usual if you like any of the quilts you can call the shop or email me. You know the drill, just
drag-and-drop the one you like into an email and we will get back to you. They are no problem to mail.

attack of the killer cramp

Sadly the quilter didn't come through with the goods yesterday. To fill my day in though I cut up the last of the last batch and made bags and hot water bottle covers. The nights are still cold. Fingers crossed I get the call today to say I can come and pick up the giant rolls of quilt-y goodness.
I was in a strange mood yesterday as I had a killer cramp down the side of my thigh that was impossible to stretch away and every time I sat at the sewing machine and pressed the foot pedal I would jump up screaming 'ouchfuckouchfuckouch'. It was one of those times where one is stuck between excruciating pain and hilarity at the situation. It made sewing very hard for a while there and I did actually throw a cushion cover across the room in annoyance (no anger just frustration). Whilst I was getting rid of a pile of fabric by making it in to stock, I was building a pile of rubbish next to the cutting table, avoiding putting it in the big rubbish sack and just making a huge mess in the process. Like I said, funny mood. Tossing crap about is sometimes quite cathartic.