Onwards and upwards...

I'm working on some changes over here at Telltale Thread, starting with an online address change.  I hope you'll follow me over to my new hangout:  http://www.telltalethread.com/

I'll be working on the site slowly and getting it prettified and organized, plus adding my shop to make life easier.  Exciting times!

Copyright 2013. Please do not use any images or words from my work without first asking and being granted approval. Thank you.

That didn't take long...

Just over a month since my last post and while I have no 'after' photos of my craft space for you (it's still a mess), I can tell you that we found a house!

We have a bit of work to do before we can move in so we probably won't be living there until some time in September (oh, and I guess we should wait for our closing date at the end of August).  We have lots of plans already for both the inside and the outside spaces - we're going to have to pace ourselves.

There's a small sun-room at the back of the house that I think will become my new craft space.  Almost the same as what I'm currently using but slightly bigger.  Right now it's painted a very bright blue, which I don't mind, but will probably change so that I can really put my own stamp on it.

Hopefully, you won't mind if I ramble on about home decor and DIY's in the coming months.  I've been waiting a long time to get the chance to decorate a space that is truly my own - I am beyond excited!

BUT, in equally exciting, yet more rapidly approaching news, my baby girl is going to be ONE on Sunday.  How the hell....where did the time go??  We're having a small, casual gathering of people - a bbq, some beer and a cake for the Kid to smoosh around as she pleases.  The weather has been great so hopefully it hangs in there for another few days.  Having recently returned to work, I've failed miserably in the crafty mum stakes.  I'm going to try to get a couple of things made for Sunday.  If I'm successful, photos will follow.  If not, well...I'll find some pictures of cats to post instead.

Copyright 2013. Please do not use any images or words from my work without first asking and being granted approval. Thank you.

No Sewing Machine = Trying to Keep Myself Busy

I decided it was about time I took my poor Pfaff in for a service.  She'll be gone about a week and my craft table is looking rather bare.  Since there's a little more space for a bit, I decided maybe I should try and get things organised and give you a peek at my creative space.

 Here we have the beginnings of getting organised - fabric piles, paper piles, stack of thread boxes, snaps everywhere.  Off to the right Tiny Donnie watches over all.  He's not much help though.

Even my chair is in a state of disarray, covered with a half finished quilt.

Underneath the desk, behind the chair, is a stack of batting in bags - 4 different bags, all with differing amounts of batting.  Usually my yarn bag is under there, too but it's currently residing in the living room.

Chaos!

The madness continues to the left.  Piles of fabric and two new boxes to house my jewellery findings, brooch backings, etc and all of my oven-bake clay and molds.

We won't discuss what's happening in the blue drawers.  At least it's contained.

More chaos!

Okay, this next section isn't so bad - it's almost neat!  Fabric is folded or wrapped around comic book backing boards (super easy and cheap way to keep any yardage you have under control), books are on the bottom (over-sized books stacked on top), and my Game of Thrones figurines are watching over everything.  The white boxes with coloured labels in the bottom right corner are where I keep all of my fabric scraps.

Under control!

Outside of this small sun room, I do have use of a hutch for storage as well.  Oh, and there is a wheeled wire rack that houses some fabric - not sure how it managed to escape being in the photos.  Oops.

While getting organised will help make things a little smoother when I'm working on a project, for now the purpose is mainly to make things easier when this all gets packed up and moved.  We're about to start looking for a house of our own (Eek!  First time home buyer excitement!) so, I'll be figuring out a new creative space some time in the next few months.  Really looking forward to that because it will be the first time I'll be able to paint and decorate without having to consider ease of reverting everything back to it's original state when we move.  Can't wait!

Copyright 2013. Please do not use any images or words from my work without first asking and being granted approval. Thank you.

Good News for the Crafters of Victoria!

The other day I found myself in need of some more white Kona cotton (seriously - I should just break down and buy that shizz by the bolt) and batting so, The Boy, The Kid and I trekked down to one of the best stores in Victoria - Capital Iron.

Like an old time-y General Store but with new stuff!

Up on the third floor is the home decor and fabric department, which I had kind of forgotten about until I wandered in there a few months back.  I had been looking for some blackout lining for curtains for The Kid's room, and they didn't disappoint.  Since then, I've gone back a couple of times to restock on the aforementioned white Kona, and to pick up some laminated cotton.  They have a pretty decent selection of quilting cottons, some nice big bolts of cotton and cotton/bamboo batting, and a whole bunch of home decor weight fabrics, vinyls, chalkboard cloth, etc.

Victoria has a couple of other fabric stores (which I'll review and tell you about later) but in general, we're pretty hurting in locally available modern or new prints.  Plus, prices can be a little high.  While I love the thought, and try as often as I can, to support local businesses, the selection I find and the prices (even with shipping) while shopping online are hard to beat.

BUT!  The fabric gods have smiled on the quilters and crafters of Victoria!  On my last trip to Capital Iron, I got some great news.  There has been a lot of action going on up on the third floor - at first, I was afraid they were downsizing or phasing out the fabric department.  Luckily, I was wrong and as the lovely lady who was cutting my fabric informed me, they are actually rearranging everything because their selection will be expanding!  Come June they will have an even bigger range of quilting cottons, including Moda and Kaffe Fassett.  Exciting!  I will definitely be going back in a few weeks to see how things are coming along.

Also, and I didn't know this until my last visit, Capital Iron has a Sew n' Save card that you can get ($5.00 annual fee) that gives you 20% off fabrics, notions and some other items that have fallen out of my brain (excludes: sale items, drapery panels and hardware, blinds, foam and patterns).  Since I was purchasing a few meters of batting and Kona, my card paid for itself in one trip.  With that discount, CI is now more than competitive with online shopping, with the added bonus of not having to wait for things to come in the mail AND supporting a local business.  Hooray!

P.S. Sorry to everyone who doesn't live in, or near, Victoria (or Sidney)!  Please also note, this post is in no way sponsored by Capital Iron.  I just wanted to share the info and show support for one of my favourite shops in Victoria :)

Copyright 2013. Please do not use any images or words from my work without first asking and being granted approval. Thank you.

New Quilt for a Silent Auction Fundraiser!

 Next Saturday this event is taking place to raise money for the family of little Owen (pictured above).  Owen is currently undergoing treatment for Acute Lymphocytic Leukemia (and responding really well!  Yay!).  Unfortunately, the treatments, for the first month and periodically thereafter, take place in Vancouver.  Now, that's not a huge distance from Victoria but the cost of accommodation, travel, food, etc all add up.  Not to mention all of the other bills the family has.  Too bad there's no 'pause' button on all of those!

I'm donating a small baby quilt to the silent auction.  I've made one for the auction and I'm finishing up an almost identical one for Owen.  The only difference will be on the back, which will have a strip of the car print.  I have it on good authority that wee Owen likes cars :)

Front (wrinkly due to washing but so soft!)

Back

I quilted it with a light blue Aurifil 50wt in a grid pattern about a 1/4 inch from the blocks along the sashing, and used a fun rainbow stripe for the binding.  I wanted to make the quilts bright and colourful to bring a little happiness to Owen and whoever the lucky recipient of the auction quilt will be.

If you're in the Victoria area, or will be on the 18th, please keep this in mind if you're looking for something to do and would like to help support a good cause.  There will be fun activities for the kids and there are a LOT of really great items up for auction.  Hope to see you there!

Copyright 2013. Please do not use any images or words from my work without first asking and being granted approval. Thank you.

Giveaway winner and a whole lotta binding!

<a href="http://www.bloglovin.com/blog/7172551/?claim=9ehybnbe6wm">Follow my blog with Bloglovin</a>     (Sorry about this junk...housekeeping stuff)

Wow.  You guys....my giveaway post had 280 page views and 99 lovely people left a comment telling me what kind of crafts they enjoy.  My blog is brand new and has never seen anything near that kind of action before!  Hahaha!  It's so great that so many people participated, and I hope maybe some who visited here liked it enough to start following along.  I know I found a boat load of new, gorgeous blogs to follow and read.  Thanks Sew Mama Sew for hosting - I can't wait to take part in the next one.  Perhaps something a little homemade as a giveaway next?  Hmmmm....

BUT, let's get to the good stuff.  I used a highly technical process to determine a winner - I yelled at The Boy to pick a number between 1 and 99 and he looked at me blankly and said '72?'  So, drumroll.....bbbbrrrrrdddrrrrbbbrrrrdddrrrrching!  (is that a drumroll sound?  I don't know) the lucky winner is Jaimie (who commented on May 9, in case there is more than one Jaimie!).  Congrats, Jaimie!  I'll be emailing you as soon as I'm done this post.  Thanks again to everyone who stopped by and who left a comment.  You are all the bomb!

In less exciting news, here are two photos of what 24+ feet of rainbow striped quilt binding looks like (pardon the crappy photos - I used my phone and just uploaded them directly with no editing.  Sacrilege!):

Ooooohhhh

Aaaaahhhh

And now I have to go finish attaching some of that binding to the first quilt so that it's ready in time for a soon to be happening silent auction.  I'll post some more about that tomorrow!


Copyright 2013. Please do not use any images or words from my work without first asking and being granted approval. Thank you.

Giveaway Day!

 Happy May 6th and welcome to Telltale Thread's giveaway!

I've been a crafter for a looonnngg time and over the years I have amassed many, many crafting items.  Some things I bought because they were pretty, other things I bought because they seemed useful, other things I just. had. to. have. for no good reason.  I know I'm not the only craft supply hoarder out there.  Raise your hand and let me stop feeling like a weirdo!

Anyway, the silver lining to the cloud of my overspending is that I know I will never get around to using most some of what I have crowding my craft space, so I offer some of it to one lucky reader.  My current focus is on quilts, clothing and toys for my Etsy shop so I've culled a few things from the cupboards to get someone else started on their own hoarding crafting experience.

All of the things!

I've tried my hand at a number of different kinds of crafts over the years and I'm offering a little range of different kits and supplies for projects that you may not have given a go before. We've got: from Spikey Designs, a Kookaburra quilt pattern (baby size quilt); a flower fairy cross stitch from Janlynn; a Make Your Own paper bird kit that I bought at the Red Hill Market outside Melbourne, Australia; a fat quarter (18x22) of beautiful floral batik; and an alphabet mini-stamp set.

All you have to do for a chance to win is leave a comment (make sure there is an email attached in some way so that I can contact you!) telling me what your favourite craft is, or what craft you would like to try.  You have until 5pm PST on May 10th to enter.  International readers are welcome to enter, too! 

Don't forget to visit Sew Mama Sew for all of the other great giveaways - so many chances to win!

Copyright 2013. Please do not use any images or words from my work without first asking and being granted approval. Thank you.

Quilting for a good cause...

 Happy Star Wars Day!  Because, you know, it's May the Fourth.  If I have to explain that to you...well, let's just say 'this is not the blog you're looking for'.  Geek jokes!

On this gorgeous, feels-more-like-summer, spring day, I have managed to steal enough time at the sewing machine to finish up a second quilt top using most of what you see below.

A whole lotta colour!

I've made both quilts the same, although one may get a little extra in the way of applique but we'll see if time allows.  One of the quilts is for a little guy who is currently being treated for Acute lymphocitic leukemia.  Owen is very young and I was told that he likes cars so I found a cute little organic cotton car print and put it together with a lot of bright colours.  Hopefully it will put a smile on his little face.  If you want to help out too, click here to donate.

As I said, I've made two of the same quilt and the second one will be donated for a silent auction that will be happening in the near future to raise more funds for Owen and his family.  The details of when and where that will be happening are still being hammered out, but I will be sure to update once I have information.

I should be able to finish up the quilts over the next couple of days, at which point pictures will be posted! 

Copyright 2013. Please do not use any images or words from my work without first asking and being granted approval. Thank you.

A little knitting...

 My cousin's wedding is coming up this Saturday (fingers crossed for weather as nice as today's!) and I think I kind of know what I'll be wearing.  If the sun comes out, I may get the chance to bust out a pair of open toed shoes - feels like forever since I've done that.

More importantly, I've got Sadie's outfit sorted.  I picked up a really cute navy and white dress when I was in Seattle in March.  Because April in Victoria can be a fickle time of year weather-wise, I tried my hand at some knitting and made a little shrug sweater for the Kid to wear over her dress.

Cuddly cozy!

 Now, don't look too closely at the stitches and avoid looking at the seams altogether.  The front is doing a little bit of weird bubble thing but since this is only the 3rd knitted item I've ever completed (first and second being a chunky wool cowl and wrist warmers, both of which were just rectangles), I'm fairly pleased with it.

Someone is going to be better dressed than her mother.

The pattern came from Simply Baby by Debbie Bliss and was relatively easy to follow.  I'm a complete newb when it comes to knitting and entirely self taught.  I'm sure anyone with a modicum of knitting know-how would sail right through this pattern.

I'm keen to try knitting myself a sweater or cardigan.  If you know of any easy patterns that might suit a beginner, please leave a comment and let me know!  I do have a Ravelry account so if you know of any on there, even better.


Copyright 2013. Please do not use any images or words from my work without first asking and being granted approval. Thank you.

I have some good news and some bad news.  Which would you prefer first?  The bad news?  Okay.  It's not terrible, it's just that the full reveal of my comiccon shirt has been put on hold as has the recap of my weekend in Seattle.  I will get to it though.  Promise!

The good news, and something that I'm really excited about, is that I'm currently taking part in an online course - Set Up Shop.  It's being run by the lovely and talented Jess Van Den of Create & Thrive and Epheriell Designs fame.

In a nutshell, the course is taking myself and 50+ (!) other talented gals step by step through the process of creating, beautifying and opening our online shops and social media pages.  Jess has 'been there, done that' when it comes to creating and selling her beautiful jewellery and is so very generously offering her knowledge to others.  No more muddling around in the dark trying to figure it all out - Jess has flipped on the light switch!

We're into our second week (of four) and it has been eye-opening and inspiring.  I don't want to give too much away but I can say, wholeheartedly, if you are thinking of opening up an online shop this course will save you so much time and frustration.  Plus, you'll meet a host of other talented, helpful creative types.  I don't know for sure when the course will next be opened for registration, but I will most certainly be updating and letting people know.

So, for the next few weeks I will be throwing all of my spare time into readying my shop and making, making, making.  I know Telltale Thread hasn't been super exciting yet, but please bear with me.  There is so much more to come!

P.S. What do you think of my new banner?


Copyright 2013. Please do not use any images or words from my work without first asking and being granted approval. Thank you.

Seattle, here I come!

Tomorrow my friend, Miss A, and I are hopping on the Clipper and heading to Seattle.  It's my first trip away since having Sadie and, apart from a little guilt at leaving for three days, I'm super excited!

This isn't just any old girls weekend - this is a GEEK girls getaway!  We're off to the Emerald City Comicon and I don't think either of us could be more excited.  If you've never been to a comicon, that's just sad.  They are a huge amount of fun - from the amazing artists selling seriously awesome pieces, to the many and varied panels, the gaming areas, and all of the cool costumes that can be seen, not to mention the celebrity guests.  If you get the chance, and you're a geek, I highly recommend you go to one in your area.

Last year's draw for us was Wil Wheaton, who you might remember from Stand By Me, or his role as Wesley Crusher on Star Trek: The Next Generation (TNG to us fans).  Wil is appearing again this year and I'm really looking forward to Paul and Storm VS. Wil Wheaton on Saturday morning.

This year, Sir Patrick Stewart (eek!) will be appearing!  I'm pretty much beside myself at the thought of meeting Captain Picard - if I miss out, I'll probably have a tantrum back at my hotel room.  

So, for the occasion, my crafting efforts over the last two days have been to finish up my shirt for this year.  It looks a little something like this:

And also a little bit like this:

The full reveal will have to wait until after this weekend.  I'm pretty pleased with it, though.  Hopefully I don't forget to pack it.

Apart from the comicon, I'm also looking forward to paying another visit to Stitches.  It's a great little fabric store in Seattle and I try to stop by every time I go there.  Since we'll most likely go to the Pike Place Brewery at least once, I'll probably be popping in to Undercover Quilts at some point, too.  Comicon, beer and fabric stores - what more could a girl want?

Apparently we get free wi-fi in our hotel room, so I may do a couple of posts about the fun times at Emerald City and around Seattle while I'm away....unless I'm having way too much fun :)

Oh, and just quickly - I got this bit of awesome in the mail yesterday:

A thank you from the kids at Desert Bus for Hope, including a sweet Desert Bus Crafter badge.  To learn more about why I found this in my mail box, see this post at my old blog.

Copyright 2013. Please do not use any images or words from my work without first asking and being granted approval. Thank you.

Welcome

Welcome to my new blog!  If you've followed me over here from The Happy Ranter or Pro-Craft-Inate, thanks for making the move and if you're new to any of my blogs, old or new, it's nice to have you here.

At some point I will be moving all of my previous posts over from those old blogs and archiving them here.  Before that happens, I'll be leaving them active so if you like, feel free to pop over and have a read.

Why the new blog?  It had been quite awhile since I last updated those blogs and quite a bit changed in my life over the past year and a half or so.  After trying for years, my husband and I were lucky to welcome our daughter into our family and we moved back home after spending a couple of years in Vancouver (longer for my husband).  Those were the most outwardly noticeable changes but a lot has also changed within and I just feel like it's time for a fresh platform to express myself.

With this new space I want to create something a little more cohesive and all encompassing, rather than splitting myself between two blogs.  I'm starting to find a little more direction for myself and want a clean slate to focus my energy.  So, Telltale Thread is born!

This space will be mostly craft oriented but there will be plenty of other aspects of my life thrown in, not forgetting a good rant every now and then (wouldn't want to deprive anyone of that!).  I hope you'll come back and that you enjoy what you find here.

Carolyn

Copyright 2013. Please do not use any images or words from my work without first asking and being granted approval. Thank you.