A new look!

You might have noticed that I have changed the look of my blog! Finally the dragon has arrived. I didn't even realise that that was what he was going to look like!

I have always wanted a dragon of my very own, for nearly as long as I can remember. I even named my blog with that in mind. I have almost no drawing skills (except stick people and stick animals; you want stick people, I'm your woman! :D) so this magnificent dragon comes as a complete surprise, even to me!

Gabi wanted a new applique for her plain doona cover. So we talked about what she could have and she wanted a dragon, a butterfly and a bow and feathers for the pillows. So I designed what I thought the dragon should look like. And I was surprised by how good my tiny sketch looked. Gabi liked it, so I scaled it up and cut it out of paper.

We gave him a precious orb to hold on to, but he didn't look quite finished. Gabi suggested a nimbus for him to sit on, so he got one and looked like this:

Now, we were down to the tricky parts: fabric selection and then the sewing. We riffled through my fabric stash and Gabi chose the materials that appealed to her the most. When that was done we had this:

Then I ironed the pieces onto some iron-on adhesive and steadied my nerves for the sewing ahead. I was so scared that my good-looking dragon would come out crooked or warped! I tested my stitching on lots of scrap pieces to get the tension and stitch width right and then I committed!

I was so glad in the end! I think he looks fantastic and I am so proud of myself! :D (Don't worry, this is most likely a fluke and I may never do this well again! :D) But here, take a look for yourself and tell me what you think in the comments!

Crafty

stuff. I've been finding heaps of it lately!

First of all there's CraftGossip(http://craftgossip.com/) which has loads of awesome stuff on it. Heaps of freebies and links to tutorials to stuff I'd have never thought of doing at home! Okay, I mostly just watch the tutorials, or flick through the pretty, pretty pictures, but if I ever wanted to do any of them, now I know where to go!

Thanks to CraftGossip, I have found the blog of an inspiring woman. She's 82, and loves to sew and quilt. You can find a link to her blog in the blogs I follow. Her blog name is Funoldhag. She's got some amazing projects up there. Check her out. Please.

On the topic of crafty stuff, my husband made me a light box! Now I can trace patterns without having to hold them up to a window. Way cool! Thanks, honey!

Cross Stitching

At the moment I have several UFOs (unfinished objects) hanging around my house. I am working on a dragon design from the creator of the Dragon Musings blog (she creates wonderful designs, some of which she lets you download for free!) in blue for my daughter. I am also working on an embroidery of a cat in a garden called The Cat nature's beauty and I have a Tatty bear design to finish as well. (The Tatty bear came as a kit with a magazine.) I have also just ended up with some 11 kits from Spotlight (see my last post) that I would love to do and a Sorceress chart that I will have to buy the material and floss for that I really, really want to do, but it will take me ages to get it done, because it's just so detailed.

I love doing it though. I like seeing a project come together, and having something that I made to share with others. *Passes out warm fuzzies for everyone* I will have to post some photos soon...

I love Spotlight

Hey! Long time no blog, I know! In my defense I have been busy, being a mum and doing the odd bit of temping and research...but I just have to tell you about the Spotlight store in Sale. It was having a sale! It had two big clearance tables out the front, and when I visited Sale yesterday, I gave them the go over. Found loads of stuff that I would have liked to buy, but it was still too expensive...so I went in to have a browse...and while I was in the store they announced that if you went and got a bag from the staff member out the front who would write $8 on it, then you could have as much stuff from the clearance tables as would fit in your bag, without overflowing or breaking the bag! Well, did I have fun! I ended up with twelve cross stitch kits and at least eight charts/books, two copies of a DMC programme to convert photos to charts, a mini scrapping tote, an organiser bag, several expandable folding wallets and more stuff than even I could poke a stick at! (I later added up the price tags on the items and found I had bought about $200 worth of stuff, at sale prices, for $8!) It was amazing... *sigh* I may even post photos of my haul later...