With only three days to go until ‘Christmas in July’, I thought I’d share with you a special series I made last year for Christmas called 12 Days of Christmas Crafts.
Some of you out there may be looking for some quick little crafts to make to mark the occasion OR are looking for an early dose of inspiration before December 25th comes around!
Here’s a preview of all the things I made in the series…
And here’s the link for the playlist if you’re interested in watching more…
Feel free to share this amongst friends who you know are searching for some last-minute Chrissie crafts!
I’m hoping to create another series for Christmas 2014 – all depending on how well I can organise my life between now and then! Christmas is busy, busy, busy!
I might be a little early to the party – so to speak – but if you have any suggestions of any Christmas type craft you would like me to demonstrate making, let me know! Comment below or send me an email at 3and3quarters@gmail.com!
Well, it’s only Tuesday and I’ve already got a whole lot of sewing under my belt this week! Whoop!!! Stay tuned at the end of the week and I’ll let you know (and see!) everything!!
For today’s post, I’m harking back to my earlier days of blog writing and am just going to write about everything that’s been happening in my little sewing world!
Sound good?
Excellent!
Right, let’s start with a WIP!
January this year, I uploaded this video. Here I chatted about my intended intentions (say that ten times fast!) of getting all of my WIPs finished this year!
I was keen and ready to jump in!
And seven months later, I’ve finally decided to begin honoring this New Year Resolution! (As you do!)
Monday night I felt restless and itchy to get my mind and hands stuck into some sewing. So instead of starting something new like I always do, I reached out for one of my WIPs.
And it was this one I chose…
Paper Pieced Union Jacks
I only had two more paper-pieced blocks to make until I could begin piecing the quilt top together. So that’s what I set out to do.
At about 9.30pm (which is pretty late for me to be sewing), I dug out a pretty floral and some sweet pastel fabrics from The Stash and begun piecing together.
About an hour later I had made this…
Out of all 11 blocks I’ve made, this is my favourite! Uber chic and girly – LOVE IT!!!
This afternoon/evening, I hope to tackle the last block for this quilt. I’m still umming-and-ahhing over fabric choices but I have a fair idea what I want this block to look like.
Bring on my wild Saturday night! Whoo!!!
Speaking of fabric, I took advantage of a great End of Financial Year Sale at Kelani Fabric Obsession during the week and treated my self to some b-e-a-utiful fabrics!
Here’s a list of the fabrics I bought…
#one
Cherry Dot on Blossom Pink | Oh Deer! By MoMo for Moda Fabrics
#two
Memoir in Zest | Alchemy Quilting Collection by Amy Butler for Rowan
#three
Pineapple Slices | Acacia by Tula Pink for Free Spirit
(My first ever cut of Tula Pink fabric!)
#four
Vivienne Stripe in Blush | By Alexander Henry
#five
Toyland Twinkle in Orange & Blue | By Alexander Henry
I can’t wait to get stuck in and use these little beauties… I don’t know what for yet… But a day will come when I was glad I spent a small fortune on a lovely array of fabric!
And lastly, although it was uploaded this time last week, I wanted to share with you my latest Weekly Vlog.
I didn’t get to film much of the show due to copyright etc but I did manage to capture some awesome footage of the Harbour Bridge, the Sydney Opera House and the city!
We also celebrated my Dad’s 68th birthday! It was wonderful!
So I think that’s about it at the moment.
A WIP is on its way to be completed (sorta) and I’ve soothed my fabric lust for just a few days!
Hopefully I’ll act get my act together and show you a finished quilt top in my next post…
Whenever I walk into a craft store, it’s inevitable that I’ll walk out having spent a ton of money on supplies that I really didn’t need but just had to have!
Surely, I’m not the only one?? (C’mon ladies, speak the truth…)
So over the weekend, I ventured into a local Spotlight store and got a little carried away…
To be honest, there were a few things I specifically wanted to buy (the Fat Quarters and Hobby Fill) but the rest were bought on a whim and the thought of ‘Oh, why not?’
Here are the deets of what I got:
Wooden Craft Keepers (Hedge Hog & Owl) by The Red Thread
DMC Stranded Thread/Floss in colours: 913, 959, 993 & 3812
Assorted Pastel Brads 60 pack by Francheville
‘Hello Sunshine’ Die Cut shapes by Kaiser Craft
Assorted Birthday stickers by Artwrap
Kraft & Cork stickers by Francheville
Saffron Craig ‘Bees’ Fat Flats | http://saffroncraig.com
Prints Charming ‘Spring Swing’ Fat Flats in Pink/Orange & Blue/Green | http://www.printscharming.com.au/home.htm
Elements Grey Stripe & Simple Green Triangles Fat Flats
Hobby Fill, 500g
So there’s just a little share of what I’ve recently bought.
I think my favourite thing is the two Wooden Craft Keepers.
Finally I’ve got my act together and have produced a brand new Quilty Tutorial for you all!
I first came across this block at a Sew Saturday event last year (?) at my local Spotlight.
It was super-sweet and insanely easy to piece together!
No measurements.
No restrictions.
It’s just simply dive-in and start cutting and piecing!
Like many of the other Block Tutorials I’ve shown you, this little beauty is perfect to be made up out of your scrap fabrics. If like me and you’ve already got lots of scrappy-strippy bits of fabric, half of of the work is already done for you as this block requires a lot of strippy bits of fabric!
If you’re going to give this block a go, let me know!
Send me an email (3and3quarters@gmail.com) or tag me on instagram or twitter with your finished block!
I would love to see your own interpretation of this block!
I’m still creating tutorials and the like but I’ve also begun uploading weekly vlogs (and sometimes daily vlogs too!), in an attempt to have you, my viewer and reader, get to know me more.
I want to continue to post and share my Weekly Vlogs with you here on my blog, bravely welcoming you into my life behind my sewing, my writing, my filming – the whole lot!
If you’re not the kind to watch vlogs or are solely uninterested in watching – then that’s cool. I promise I won’t be offended. 🙂
So here is the first of many (I hope!) Weekly Vlogs!
So what made me want to film the things happening in my life and share them all over the internet? Good question! Here are my answers…
1. I love watching daily/weekly vlogs. I think it’s very common to be naturally curious about how other people live their lives, about what happens to them, the experiences they face on a daily basis and the fun that they have with others. Simply, vlogs easily allow me to relate with other people, roughly the same age as me, in what they’re doing. And by that, I feel a little less lost and useless in this crazy world!
2. I like the creativeness of vlogging. Filming and editing footage is a new platform for me and I’m still learning the ins-and-outs of the biz. Vlogging gives me the outlet to experiment and become more relax in front of the camera as well as give me confidence in translating what’s in my brain into a video that’s a few minutes long. Editing footage also gives me the chance to be creative with most of my senses: sight, touch, hearing/listening, emotive, worth etc. and that pleases me.
3. I’ve received some awesome encouragement from friends, readers and viewers to get on the ‘Vlogging Bandwagon’ so to speak and I’ve taken that encouragement to heart! To receive comments from strangers (essentially) who are genuinely interested in my day-to-day life is extraordinary and completely blows my mind! I think it comes back to the whole ‘relating to what other people do’ shiz.
4. In all honesty, I worry that the content I put on my YouTube channel is so far out of the ‘mainstream box’ and isn’t ‘personal’ enough that I need to plump it up a bit with more videos about myself. Perhaps that’s my ego or my endless self-doubt creeping in but that’s just how I feel. Don’t get me wrong, I’m super-proud of the content I have my channel (each video is obsessed over time and time again before it’s uploaded). I wouldn’t change the main goal/idea of what I want the channel to be, but I just want to make it a little bit more relatable to those who aren’t quite into the quilty/crafty/diy scene.
Okay, so I’m a little brave in sharing with you my deep and honest thoughts (my panic & anxiety is through the roof!) and I don’t know why I feel the need to justify the reasons why I’ve started to vlog my life… But it’s happening and I’m super-excited about it!
And…while we’re talking about videos and the like, I’m currently in the middle of editing another Quilt Block Tutorial! Yay! I haven’t filmed/uploaded one for over three weeks!!! (My bad…) Here’s a sneaky!
(PS. You can see the whole block on my instagram!)
Happy Sewing Friends!
xx
One last thing: Here are links to some of my favourite vloggers…
Life as I had known was put on hold last week as I had a full first week at work. (Yay! I survived it!)
This week, I have the next five days to myself! *happy dance* But this, unfortunately, is the cruel sting of casual retail work! Lots of hours one week, none the next!
So what else is there to do in my down time but to do some sewing! I’ve been longing for the day when I would be reunited with my sweet sewing machine!
The first thing I want to get stuck into is the DIY Craft series I want to film for my YouTube channel and the first project I want to launch the series with has something to do with these guys…
This is Finn and Jake from one of my all-time favourite tv shows, Adventure Time!
I’ve still have a few things I need to plan and finalise but I’m pretty confident my little craft idea with these guys will be ‘mathematical‘! (HIGH-FIVE to you if you get that reference!)
I will update you with more information very, very soon!
I feel as though I’ve been a little mysterious of late…
Lots of big changes and ideas have been happening on this side of the monitor and I feel as though I need to write them all down, just so I can get my head to process it all!
So, shall we start?
(I have a fresh cup of tea to my right, notes in front of my keyboard and a gentle rain falling outside. I think the timing is perfect!)
First of all, I’m not sure whether you’re aware of the fact that for almost two years I’ve been ‘unemployed’. Although I’ve been studying here, there and everywhere and I’ve been writing my blog, creating quilts and making YouTube videos, I haven’t been in a paying job for almost 24 months. And it hasn’t been for a lack of trying either! For the past year or so, I’ve been actively job searching/applying and being actively passed over, rejected and/or ignored.
So where is this all leading to, you may ask…?
I got a job! I finally, finally, FINALLY bagged myself a job!
Now, it’s nothing fancy, permanent or local (40 minute train trip into the city!)… It’s a simple casual retail job (my only type of work experience) at one of the big department stores we have here in Australia. Although it may seem simple-ish to some, it’s a huge deal for me, especially after searching for any type of employment for more than 12 months!
I start tomorrow (induction and store orientation) and then I start sharing my ‘happy retail face’ to the world again!
There’s something quite nice and strangely normal about finally having a job… It’s a calming peace-of-mind feeling that you’re contributing to society just that tiny bit more again and that you, as a whole, and your skills have some sort of worth.
I now also have peace-of-mind in building up my Savings again! Boy, has that taken a hit over the past few months!
(Luckily I still live with my parents! They truly are the best parents this girly could ever ask for!)
Next, is new University units! This semester, I’ve opted to study online at home so I could have the flexibility to work (see above!) as well as to concentrate on creating better content for my blog and YouTube channel.
I’m still on a Fine Arts Degree kind of track, concentrating more on Art History as well as Theory and Practical Arts along with Web Media and Communication.
I started two units last week, the same week I received my new job invitation, and am loving the flexibility it gives me to work at my own pace and when my mind is up to the task! (Plus it allows me to save money on travel AND I can sleep-in! No early classes for me thank you!)
So moving on from that, I’ve also been brainstorming some new ideas in reference to the content I want to create and share with you here and on YouTube.
I still want to continue with my Quilt Block Tutorial series as they are the most popular and most loved by my viewers. But I’ve also been contemplating on perhaps creating a crafting/DIY-ing type of series where I show you how to make nifty little projects, knick-knacks and thingys.
I would also like to start, maybe, filming/uploading weekly vlogs, but I’m feeling a little shy and self-conscious about that idea at the moment. Naturally, I’m a pretty quite person (introvert alert!) and I lead a pretty boring, non-dramatic and sheltered kind of life, so I can’t really envisage what exactly I would vlog about.
So I think I’m still in the very, very early planning stages on that one, but my little crafting/DIY series has a very promising future to it!
(Side note: Do you have any ideas/contributions of what I could make or would like to see me make? Tell me! Comment below or email me at 3and3quarters@gmail.com)
And lastly, I actually put a little bit of interest in my life last week (I admit, I’m not totally boring and yawn-ish all the time!) and went to see the Vivid Sydney Light Festival!
(Last week was a week of lots of things just happening!)
I made a little vlog of the night in semi-preparation for my maybe/maybe-not weekly vlog idea (which at the moment is border-lining the ‘maybe-not’) and I want to share it with you just in case you’re not really into the ‘YouTube Scene’.
Here’s a little story: The last time I went to this was 2012 and we went on a Saturday night, which was a BIG mistake! The quay-side was absolutely packed, I felt like a human salmon, swimming against the stream! I like to think that I’m a very patient person in all aspects of life BUT, when it comes to being trapped in a crowd of people, my patience deserts me and I get very irate and annoyed very quickly! Then you have to deal with people on the train home…
This is the third tutorial I’ve posted in row here on my blog – it’s as though I do nothing else!
Anywho – requests came through for me to demonstrate this block after the quilt I made this block with received a prized ribbon at the Sydney Royal Easter Show in April!
This new video has been a labour of love and pure patience!
For over two weeks I umm-and-ahhed and stalled and procrastinated over filming this block…
(Who honestly knows why!?)
But I finally got over myself and just did it!
And here’s where the ‘patience’ part comes in…
At the very same time it came to uploading this tutorial, it was also the perfect time for our internet to decide to run at an excruciatingly glacial pace!
(i.e. we had reached our maximum data usage! Boo!)
So, like any silly impatient Gen Y-er, I endured a 35hour upload time, slowly watching my video process…
One. Percent. At. A. Time.
**SNORE**
Eventually my video, which I started to upload on Thursday afternoon, was finally ready to publish onto YouTube Saturday morning.
Lesson learnt: be patient and never-ever continue through with an upload that has over 2000 minutes waiting time! NEVER!
Enjoy!!
Cheerio
&
Happy Sewing!!
xx
PS. Do you have any suggestions for future Quilt Block Tutorials?
Let me know in the comments below and I’ll add them to the list! x
3and3quarters 