A Quilting We Will Go.....

I don't often talk about my adventures into sewing.  I think I may have mentioned it in an earlier post some time ago, here maybe.  It was part of my crafting journey with both my Nans.....Apart from sewing labels onto dover & madden hats, I don't get the sewing machine out much, if at all.  Although my foray into sewing did claim a little glory.  This little retro type sun bonnet I made around 4 summers ago made it into Frankie Magazine .

I never got the opportunity to see it in print, but I was pretty chuffed when I  found out....but alas I decided to stick with knitting, and the sewing machine got relegated to the back of the closet.

That's going to change....I'm making the Ollaliebery Ice Cream Quilt by Alicia Paulson.  Some of you may know her from Posie Gets Cozy Blog.  I purchased the pattern around 6 months ago but never had the urge to make it till now.  I just thought it was a great project to do over the Christmas and New Year break.

After much debating, I'm going with this colour palette.

A soft turquoise base with lots of patterning....I'm all for a good pattern!  Lots of light and dark....but what looks good online, maybe different when the fabric arrives from Fabric.com.....we'll see, but suffice to say I'm itching to do a spot of sewing, but don't worry none of my sewing attempts will be making it to d&m....this quilt is a personal item....because I'm now officially to lazy to crochet something for myself!!

Anyway I'll wait with great excitement for the fabric to arrive, and then I'll have to go out and purchase all the other bits and bobs that go with making a quilt....cutting board, roller cutter, special quilting pins, a walking foot for my sewing machine, cotton batting, calico backing.....the list goes on.....lets hope I end up with a great quilt, because this could become a very expensive WIP!!


Thanks for stopping by....and I'm open to any quilting hints and tips, any guidance would be appreciated.




Vic x  

Time Keeps On Slipping.....

Yes indeed....where has the time gone!!  Sorry I've been missing again for a week or so, but I have had masses of work to do, knit wise and pattern design wise. My casual job has also been requesting my presence for a large part of every day so there really hasn't been much spare time at all.

Here are a few things that I finished this past week....and a new little hat pattern I'm messing around with and some beautiful grey and cream alpaca for some babies that are arriving in March 2013.....just don't know quite what to do with it yet.....and another pair of booties!!

Hope you're getting into the festive mood, and for those that celebrate.....It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!!  Enjoy your week.

Oh and one final thing I forgot....a new piece of Pyrex from Vancouver Canada.....my collection is slowly growing!!

Vic x

Late Spring Cleaning.....

Just a quick pop by to say hi and let you know that I've started to clear away some elements here on my blog in anticipation of some tutorials, patterns and woolly business!!

I've decided to keep it about me rather that others now, so I've removed several banners of other businesses, I've streamlined the archives, added a tutorial banner and I'm probably not finished entirely yet....might cull some other items as I go along.

I'm busy toing and froing with the template for the pattern layout, I think it's pretty much done....all my patterns will be identical in layout,

a: because I like things to look streamlined, and

b: because I know nothing about Powerpoint, so my good friends that are helping me are trying to make my life easier so if I should ever muck one of the patterns up.....I may just be able to fix it myself!

I'll be putting a banner up for each pattern release, and all my little hints, tips, extra instructions will be there, in that one place for that hat including....fingers crossed some video....it's all very exciting, and hopefully by this time next week, I should be starting to knit, write and photograph the step by step instructions.

Anyway here is a little look at the front page of my pattern as it stands, I don't think the front page will change, if at all.  I will have several versions of the same pattern for this hat with different photos on the front cover, some girl images, some for a boy, maybe a newborn image but the patten instruction will be identical in all versions....and there will be a pink version of the pattern as well as the teal blue, nothing like a bit of variety. Also there won't be a grey banner around the page, I just popped it there so you could see the pattern against the white background....but you get the idea I hope.  What do you think?

Any way must fly, loads to do, enjoy your weekend everyone.

Vicki x

And it was all yellow.....

Loving yellow right about now.


1. View from the roof top where I work
2. My new bicycle....well I will be getting this when they're back in stock.  Image and bike from Reid Cycles
3. Little BEAR hat by dover & madden.  Pattern coming soon.
4. Tiny cupcakes given to me by a lovely work colleague during the week.  Cakes from Little Cupcakes
5. New blanket on the go...Mustard, lemon and grey, black and white....Pattern here
6. The gorgeous little Josephine from On the First Day of Marriage sporting her mustard CLOVER hat.
    Photo courtesy of Nell.
7. Warm enough this week to dig out the gold Saltwaters....Yeah for warmer weather.
8. Going to Coldplay tonight at Etihad Stadium in Melbourne....can't wait.


Vic x

Patterns To Go.....

I touched on this topic briefly yesterday.......I have lost count of the number of times I get a convo or a message through Etsy, Madeit or FB asking if I sold my patterns.  It used to bother me that people were not interested in buying one of my hats but they wanted my patterns instead....over time I've come to realise that I should be flattered, and now I see it, and I am.

I've hummed and harred about this for a while, and I've tried to work out a better way of running dover & madden, but reality is my business is too big for me to continue knitting like I do....my time is no longer my own and I want to reclaim it back....I don't want to get to the stage where I'm resentful and lose my passion for knitting and what I've built up with dover & madden, so I had to look at alternatives.

I guess people don't realise how much time I spend on each little hat....it's a lot.  Most of my hats from start to finish take me around 4 hrs to make, and I work fast.....I have to.  So when it comes to evenings I was trying to get at least one hat finished sometimes one and a half, and coming home from day work then working dover & madden was just getting too much.

I did think about employing people to knit for me, but being the perfectionist that I am, I just found this a little too scary.  Yes there are good knitters out there, but they're hard to find, and then paying wages starts to become complicated....you get it....all seemed too hard and it went into the too hard basket where it stayed!!

So writing up my patterns to sell as PDF formats to knit at home seemed like the logical thing to do.  I've created quite a few patterns over the last 12 months and I've got a bunch more waiting to be played with, so with much angst and fear and dread, I've started writing up my notes for my first pattern release....I'm sure with time it will become easier, but there is a lot to be done.....My scribbly notes are just that, scribble!!  I understand what I'm on about but will anyone else....Anyway it's happening.

Little CASH will be my first hat....it's an easy one for those who just know purl and plain knitting and it's my first ever hat I designed so it seems fitting that this will happen first....So stay tuned.  There will be a 5 ply version, which is the current one I use, and then an 8 ply version a little later on.

I have a couple more orders to complete, a couple of things for friends who are having bubs, then I'm knitting some little CASH hats for photographers so I have some new images to insert into the pattern when I'm writing them up.....so hopefully I can have this pattern ready before Christmas....if not January 2013, we'll see how I go....but with a bit of time off my casual job over Christmas, I may just have the time.

Anyway I feel like a weight has been lifted off me....and I still will do the odd piece of knitting for my Etsy shop, and one thing I've always wanted to do but was never able is to hold a market at a craft fair or the like....it might just become a reality.....I have enough yarn here to open my own yarn shop!!

Vicki

Missing in Action....

Hi All, sorry I've let things slide here for a week or so, I always try and post once a week, but it hasn't been the best couple of weeks.

My dear Aunt Anne died....I won't go into why or how, but suffice to say, I feel like I've been on a roller coaster for the last 12 days or so.....its emotionally thrown me for six and add in a second bout of flu that came on a few days ago, I look and feel like a mess really.  Some good food and a little exercise might just make a bit of sense right about now.

I've been finishing off some bootie orders, don't forget you can make your own, you'll find the pattern here....You can also check out my Ravelry page here and some of the projects I've completed, and feel free to become a friend on Ravelry, I do forget about that part of Raverly all the time.

Some exciting news that I'm going to share with you....I'm going to be selling my knitting patterns....I've decided that it is long overdue, and I do get asked again and again if I would be willing to sell them....so I'm slowly working on the first hat to sell.  I'll be selling them on Etsy and Ravelry, and this blog will probably become more of a tutorial type thing, as I slowly turn away from the knitting side and go to the design side of things.  It's going to be a slow process, but in the end a satisfying one....I'll keep you updated.

So let me know....Would you buy a dover & madden hat pattern and make your own?

Vic x