Running Melbourne

I have challenged myself beyond my boundaries, and I would like you to consider supporting me.

I am an unfit person, and I have been recently working on improving that. My current fitness goal is to run a 10km fun run. I have chosen Run Melbourne, which is in a few weeks time on the 28th of June. I am not a natural runner, so I assure you I will not do it fast. But my aim is just to complete it without walking.

I am working hard to make this possible. I am doing specific personal training sessions aimed at improving my running, and they are seriously awful. Last week our task was to run alternating fast and slow laps for 60 minutes. And then we did interval sprints. And yes, I am paying for this.

As an added bonus to this experience, I can dedicate my run to a particular charity and ask friends and family to support me. I have chosen Breast Cancer research. I have treated a lot of patients with breast cancer, and I know small advances in treatments will help a lot of people. If you feel like helping support this cause, please head over to my fundraising page. Donations close on the 28th of June, when the run is over.

End marketing drive.

DrCris’ Fundraising Page

(Crossposted at Scalpel’s Edge)

Popping Purse

I recently won a fabric pack from Chaletgirl, and I had to find something appropriate to make with it. I bought a square frame purse kit from Nicole Mallalieu Designs, and it seemed appropriate.

This took me the whole afternoon. Although it is not difficult, and the instructions are clear, it is fiddly and made me feel clever when I had finished it. Need a bit more practice with these, but I have mostly managed to hide the bits I wasn’t happy with.

I was trying to use the coordinating fabric for the interior, but I found this rich purple from a thrifted tablecloth, and it just made the lining pop (!) so I had not choice.

Of course, I still have heaps of the fabric left, so I need to figure out my next project…

Lurid Embellishment

I received an exciting parcel from Amitie, full of ribbons and trims, and the challenge to “embellish something.”

Now, this is unlike anything I have ever tried to do before. So I decided on a small project, a pincushion for myself. I used stash fabric to (cough) complement the ribbons, which were reds and oranges. The outcome was a bit brighter than I expected.

I have even included the wonky purple side, because it would look strange if I only showed you three sides, right?

Grannies for my daughter

I shared some Granny Squares I made for MrJ’s blanket. I am also making one for MissZ. She loooovess pink, and I do not. So I am trying to make it make about a little bit of pink rather than a lot, and emphasizing purple and other girly colours. Here is my pile of grannies to date:

Pathetic, isn’t it? I’m guessing there will be a whole lot of girly squares to do at the end…

Grannies everywhere

Inspired by Pip, I have started crocheting granny squares.

I can’t crochet. I have never really wanted to, except for the making of granny squares. We have no one skilled in the art in our family, so I tried to teach myself without success. But now, I have managed it. I went away for Easter and hooked all the way in the car and back. According to my photos, I have finished 9, in 20 days, so it is not really a granny a day. But I will keep adding them to the Flickr pool, and here occasionally, because I am pretty happy with them!

These are my first four (published) squares. Sometime I will learn to not make mistakes, but for the moment I am coping. I am choosing sea-colours for the moment, for a cuddle-blanket for MrJ.

Here are some more:

Granny 5

Granny6

Granny7

Not really sure what I should be doing with those ends. The thought of sewing them all in makes me a bit nervous. If I knew someone with skills, I could ask…

Mittens for little hands

A family tradition has us travelling to the family farm every easter, to relax with our interstate relatives, who we don’t see often. Our farm is on the Murray river, and it has the extremes of country weather - frost and zero temps in the morning, and sunny, bright weather in the afternoon.

This trip I realised that I only have pink, girly mittens. I actually have few of them, as apparently they make good dress-ups. So in the passenger seat, I knitted these mittens from a guessed pattern. I had to knit the first one twice, as my son’s hands are much bigger than I realised, and his thumbs are freakishly short.

Of course, it was totally warm and gorgeous, and the mittens were never needed. It took me the last few weeks to get around to knitting up the thumbs and finishing off the ends. I was planning to make three of these to anticipate lost mittens, but they only get worn once a year, and that’s not for another 12 months, so I can’t be bothered now.

The wool is 8ply from Bendigo Woollen Mills. My mum bought it from the bargain room and couldn’t figure out anything to make with it. I am a bit the same. It is lovely and soft, but the colours just aren’t placid. I have tried to use this many times with not a lot of success. I like the way these turned out, but I don’t have to tell you that one pair of toddler mittens has not used up that much.

Stash enhancement

After getting involved in Chaletgirl’s vintage sheet swap, I started having a bit of a Ebay fabric frenzy. I regretted it when it came time to individually pay out 20 amounts of less than $8, but the fabric has been arriving….

These vintage sheets and yardage. I need to start thinking about what I want to make from vintage sheets. Sleepwear seems an obvious choice, but these are small pieces.

Some hand marbled fabric. This is quite thick, like cotton drill. I might make a cover for something from it. Not sure how sturdy the paint job will be, though.

And I got some patchwork pieces, ranging from 6 inch charms to multipacks of 2.5 inch squares. I have been coveting this Sugarcube Pincushion tutorial, so I spent some time picking out some squares this afternoon.

Brights:

Blues:

Moody blues:

And mutes:

How many pincushions can one girl have? Doesn’t matter, I know some crafters. I am looking forward to paper piecing again, which I haven’t done since primary school.

Found vintage

I had to share my great op shop trip this afternoon. (yes, I am working really hard - this was my lunch break).

I found this fabulous, wool, fully reversible cloak. OMG. It has pockets, all buttons present and original. It was way more than I normally pay for clothing, but a lot less than I would pay for retail ($25). I am so happy with it. Here is the front, sky blue with chocolate contrast:

And here is the other side, chocolate with sky blue trim. Excuse the colour. This is my only full length mirror and the light is awful.

And for the astute, yes, it is slightly small across the shoulders. But nevertheless, gorgeous. Which just means I have to lose weight before winter. From my deltoids.

Also found some other things including this big tin of buttons:

I have picked some of the interesting things out of the tin. I love that little red plastic horse. And what are the sticky numbers? And imagine what I can do with that buckle. Very exciting.

Excited about vintage sheets

I spent the weekend preening and packing up new fat quarters, created from old sheets. This vintage sheet swap is hosted by chaletgirl, and I am very excited. My package of 40 FQ’s is packaged and ready, and I naturally sealed the package before I remembered to take a photo.

A a certain point in the op-shop-raiding, washing, ironing and cutting, I realised I needed something to do with these fabrics. Oops. I have never been a patchworker, but I have lots of scraps. So I have spent the week searching the intarwebs for some great projects. And I finally committed to cutting out some men’s business shirts for a scrap quilt. Can I do this? Maybe. Let’s see, shall we?

Keeping the shorts in the family

My husband once bought some very expensive shorts in a fit of extravagance. It was a little bit of a joke for a while, until he wore them virtually every day. After about ten years, they started to disintegrate. I repaired them once, and at that stage, his mother started hating them, and telling him not to wear them.

So his shorts finally died (see picture).

Mainly in order to torment his mother, but also to make hubby happy, I refashioned them into some long pants for MrJ, using a pair of his pants as a pattern.

It was a very easy refashion, except that I managed to make the waist too narrow, and had to add a crotch gusset. I don’t mind the look of that in the end, as it works well.

My favourite bit of these shorts in the features that have been kept from the original shorts. The cuff is worn, the badge is still there. I used the back pocket to reinforce the knee (the fabric is really soft and fragile in places). The front pockets are in the anatomically correct space, although they are sewed up. And there is a nice contrast between the faded and unfaded portions of the old shorts.

And is my son wearing pink stripy socks? Yes. Any problems?