the last piece

Thank you so much to the lovely Sarah Fielke who posted my RickRack fabric on her wonderful blog The Last Piece. Sarah, a star of the international quilting world, co-wrote the fabulous Material Obsession books which have done so much to inspire beautiful contemporary quilting. Her new venture SEWN is a treasure trove of sewing happiness and I see that now is a good time to visit with ten days of giveaways!!! Just click the baubles at the top to enter.

And thanks too to Madeit who featured RickRack in their Christmas presents under $15 email. I've recently uploaded a few more items to my Madeit shop for those of you who want to shop in Aussie dollars and support a local site (as always I'm happy to take bank deposit if you want to shop Etsy too).

I had another trip to the post office yesterday, there are going to be lots of Flower Press goodies under Christmas trees this year. Flower Press has reached 420 sales on Etsy! As always I am so touched by the lovely messages I get from people telling me who they are buying for, including the person who asked me not to leave feedback because her sister looks at her Etsy site, hee hee. Aaah, sisters. I wish mine were a little closer, her Xmas parcel left for Vietnam yesterday. I wish I could have stowed away with it!! (or with the eight Flower Press tea towels off to Italy for Xmas :-)

rose cuttings

Have you ever tried to grow a rose from cuttings. I have and I've had quite a few successes (see below)! I thought I'd share my method for anyone who wants to try. Finding a beautiful rose is never part of my problem! I'm always lusting over the garden fence at deep reds, bright yellows, pretty pinks, little cottage climbers or in this case, heritage beauties with deep rose scent.

My neighbour May has a deep pink scented rose growing near her door. May's mother in law planted it before May lived in the house, over 60 years ago, May is 92 this year! I love this rose, I like its cupped shape, the heady scent and I love its history and that it reminds me of someone special.

I've struck it before so I know it takes easily. Unfortunately the little plant was lost in a heatwave last year, while we were away. But I know anyway that May wants another plant to give to her bingo bus driver! So this morning when I was deadheading her roses I kept a few stems.

The best cuttings are stems which have had a flower grow on the end, like in the picture. Cut them about 20 cms from the end, bring them inside and put them in a vase if you aren't ready to pot them. I've had roses strike like this, in a warm spot on the windowsill but just to be safe pot them up. Here is my method:

* Cut the stems just below a 'node' (the nobbly bit where the leaves come out.) This is where all the good hormones are. Cut off the dead flower head.

* Peel a thin sliver from the outer skin to expose the layer where all the good stuff is. If you aren't confident about this don't worry. Also optional is dipping the cut end in honey or rooting hormone which helps it strike.

* Pack a small pot with seed raising mix (I love this stuff and you can buy a small bag at the nursery). Alternatively mix a little sand with your potting mix. This makes it drain quickly so the stems don't sit around wet.

* Water the empty pot gently with a watering can. Firm the soil.

* Poke a few stems in together around the pot. Firm the soil so it is close against the stems. (I've probably put too many cuttings in this small pot).

* Cover with a plastic vegie bag, tuck it in around the bottom and put the pot in a shady but warm place.

* Check every so often. Some of the cuttings will die and rot and need to be removed. Same with some of the leaves will usually fall off. If the pot seems dry top up the water.

Some people think that roses grown on their own roots, rather than grafted, are stronger and more long lived. I haven't had mine long enought to comment.

tutu-torial

I surprised myself this week. I sewed this skirt without a pattern, and I'm really happy with the way it turned out.

My beautiful girl finishes primary school this year (!). For her graduation the theme is Fluoro (back in apparently!) A while ago at Spotlight buying something else we had a look around for fluoro material. It was pretty thin on the ground but we did find this netting material, on sale, and snapped up a couple of metres (I think you need at least 2 and a quarter). We had a vague idea of producing a fairy skirt copying a favourite pink version that has survived in the dressup box since she was tiny. The idea is to wear it over black with some other fluoro accessories.
Anyway, we're both really happy with our fluoro fairy skirt. And it was quick and easy too (took me an hour probably) so I thought I might post a rough pattern for anyone who's interested. I'm sure the clever ones of you could easily improve on it. My sewing skills are quite basic!
It would make a good Christmas present and if you don't count the tiny bits of elastic and interfacing I used, which were in the stash already, this cost about $6.


Anyway, here's the pattern, if you click the image I think it will show a larger size image, but I'm happy to email a pdf if anyone can't see it, or upload it to my Flickr. I might do that anyway.

The waistband was added to hide the elastic as the net is seethrough, the interfacing and doubling it over made it opaque. I ironed it on mid-heat which bonded the interfacing and didn't melt the net.

If you wanted I think you could make it longer or add another layer. You could edge the skirt too but it doesn't fray. A couple of sequins might be a nice touch too!


I'd love to hear from you if you make one yourself.

what's hot and not

Every week I mean to join in on loobylu's hot and not but get a bit distracted, I always love reading other people's lists.

So here at last is a hot and not from me.

HOT

* Definitely a highlight this week has been all the fabulous entries, comments, feedback from my giveaway.

* Finally buying new couches at Ikea yesterday. With spare washable covers to keep that new couch feeling a little longer. I don't know how anyone (with kids) survives without them!

* Finishing the front of our house. Painted a month ago and now old ugly brick fence has been knocked down (and didn't the male contingent of the family love doing that!) and new picket fence going in Monday! Driveway repaved with paving that you can grow stuff through.

*Etsy purchases. I love being an Etsy seller but I buy a lot too. Saw these cups and could not resist. And these bookmarks from Elsita will be perfect for all my lovely sister in laws who I'm not meant to be buying for.

NOT

A short one, I'm feeling pretty good about the world this week :-)

* Christmas shopping. (I love giving presents but I manage to stress myself out each year worrying if I've bought the right things).

* Tony Abbott

winner!

Wow! What a fantastic response to my RickRack giveaway! In the end I had 123 comments!! You all left such lovely comments too! I was blown away by all the lovely, thoughtful and enthusiastic words about my first fabric design RickRack. Thank you all so much.

I used the good old Random Number picker to choose a winner, lucky number 23 - Kylie - who said "Fabulous giveaway! Your yardage is just gorgeous :) K"
Thanks Kylie, I'll be in touch to get your address.

I really wish I could send you all a piece of RickRack. As the next best thing I'd like to offer everyone a special Blog Discount of $8 a fat quarter (not including postage) for the Strawberry RickRack fat quarter pack. All blog readers can use the code line BLOG at checkout and I will refund your discount straight away through PayPal. This deal will be open till December 4th so I can send in time for Xmas. Click here to go to the shop.

A lot of you came from Rita's RedPepperQuilts blog. As most of you know Rita is the quilting queen! She makes the most beautiful quilts and her blog was one of the main inspirations behind my first quilt. I'm sure I'm not alone! I sent Rita some pieces of RickRack to thank her for the invaluable advice she gave so generously this year when I was struggling with my own first quilt.

So I felt really honoured when she included my fabric in her regular Sunday Stash post! Thanks Rita :-)

yellow

A while ago I introduced you to some of the new colours I had printed in my tea towel range, teal (a happy accident), black on white Filigree and the Blossom design in purple (sold out!).
I haven't got round to showing you these two yet, mostly because they are so hard to photograph, something about the yellow means the photos don't do justice to this lovely sunny colour.
The other day I had another attempt to capture them and I am much happier this time with the outcome. So please welcome Yellow Filigree on White and Yellow Filigree on Unbleached Linen to the Flower Press shop.
Unfortunately I can't print all the colours all the time, so if you like these grab them now as there are only a few of each.

Thank you to everyone who has entered the RickRack sample giveaway already (below), I've been really touched by all the lovely comments about my new design. Its open till Monday so still time to enter.

p.s. I wouldn't mind if this box still held mangoes, but I'm pretty happy its filled with all these Flower Press orders, especially knowing that a lot of them are destined for Christmas parcels. I love that! (Makes me think I should get to my Xmas shopping soon!) Happy weekend everyone.

2nd and 3rd birthday giveaway!

Reading today on the always inspiring meetmeatmikes blog about Pip's third blogging birthday reminded me that I somehow missed celebrating my second etsyversary and blogoversary this month!
I've been a bit distracted by the excitement of producing my first yardage print. So to celebrate I'm offering up a RickRack sample pack, with a fat eighth of each colour Aqua and Strawberry.
The giveaway is open to everyone near and far.
And don't forget to visit meetmeatmikes to enter all the other fab giveaways, my it seems like Christmas!
Leave a comment below and I'll draw a name out on Monday next week.
Thanks :-)

the first cut

How amazing to have bolts of fabric, my very own fabric!
It was quite intimidating though standing there, getting ready to make that first cut. I got my two best pairs of scissors out, and thought a bit. I got my rotary cutter and quilting ruler and thought a bit more! Finally I found my cutting mat, a tape measure and I was ready to go. I took a big breath and cut...

Slowly but surely I got the hang of it...

Fat quarters and fat eighths sample packs in the shop now.