new fabric...

Spotlight is a dangerous shop for my bank balance, especially with my new addiction to fabric. I managed to contain it a little by only buying three different fabrics, but that was largely due to having Mr. Sew-Funky with me at the time!

Please excuse the quality of the pictures, I really must get photography lessons...

CRAYON BOX - Japanese fabric

I think this fabric would be great to make crayon roll's with... at least that's the plan!

FLORAL KITTY'S

I couldn't resist buying this super cute kitty fabric... I don't know if I've said this on the sew-funky blog before or not, but if it wasn't for Mr. Sew-Funky I believe they'd be calling me the crazy cat lady!!! ;)

CIRCUS BANANZA

Hmmm! When I spotted this on Silly Gilly's blog and then at Spotlight all on the same day, I knew I had to have some of this fabric. She say's she doesn't like the clowns, but I do! :D

Curlypops aprons...

I am LOVING these aprons made out of vintage teatowels that Curlypops has been making! I think I'm gonna have to get out some of my old vintage teatowels and make some for me too!!

craft score...

Today was a great day for cardmaking!


I discovered that the warehouse was selling these (see pic above!) boxes of 50 blank cards/envelopes for 75% off making them $3.25 each!! I couldn't help but buy 10 boxes of them, so now I have 500 cards to play around with - yay! So, if you live in NZ and like to make your own cards, like me - head on down to your local red shack and see if you can score some for yourself... :D

Cloth of the month | January 2009

Mr Sew-Funky has come up with a brilliant idea for me to design a cloth for every month of 2009. I think it's very achievable and have decided to grab his idea and run with it!

Please let me know if you make it, I love seeing my cloths popping up all over the internet... :)

And so, without further ado, I present to you the January 2009 Cloth!

January 2009

Using 6mm needles and 100% worsted weight cotton yarn, cast on 16 stitches.

Row 1: K1, *YO, K2tog, repeat from * until last stitch, K1.
Row 2: K2, *YO, K2tog, repeat from * until last 2 stitches, K1, turn.
Row 3: K2, *YO, K2tog, repeat from * until last stitch, K1.
Row 4: K2, *YO, K2tog, repeat from * until last 2 stitches, turn.
Row 5: K1, *YO, K2tog, repeat from * until last stitch, K1.
Row 6: K2, *YO, K2tog, repeat from * until last 4 stitches, K1, turn.
Row 7: K2, *YO, K2tog, repeat from * until last stitch, K1.
Row 8: K2, *YO, K2tog, repeat from * until last 4 stitches, turn.
Row 9: K1, *YO, K2tog, repeat from * until last stitch, K1.
Row 10: K2, *YO, K2tog, repeat from * until last 6 stitches, K1, turn.
Row 11: K2, *YO, K2tog, repeat from * until last stitch, K1.
Row 12: K2, *YO, K2tog, repeat from * until last 6 stitches, turn.
Row 13: K1, *YO, K2tog, repeat from * until last stitch, K1.
Row 14: K2, *YO, K2tog, repeat from * until last 8 stitches, K1, turn.
Row 15: K2, *YO, K2tog, repeat from * until last stitch, K1.
Row 16: K2, *YO, K2tog, repeat from * until last 8 stitches, turn.
Row 17: K1, *YO, K2tog, repeat from * until last stitch, K1.
Row 18: K2, *YO, K2tog, repeat from * until last 10 stitches, K1, turn.
Row 19: K2, *YO, K2tog, repeat from * until last stitch, K1.
Row 20: K2, *YO, K2tog, repeat from * until last 10 stitches, turn.
Row 21: K1, *YO, K2tog, repeat from * until last stitch, K1.
Row 22: Knit across row.

This cloth is made up of around 8 wedges, exactly the same. On the last wedge, you can either cast off on Row 23 or using kitchener stitch knit the last row and the cast on row together, making sure you have the right sides together. Then sew up the circle in the middle, sew in the loose threads and you're done! :)

You can find a printable version of this pattern here: Free Dishcloth Patterns from sew-funky.blogspot.com.

© SewFunky 2009
http://sew-funky.blogspot.com
etsy store: sewfunkynz.etsy.com

Thanks Jodz!

My good friend, Jodz, never ceases to amaze me with her generosity and little kindnesses! Look at what she gave us all for Christmas!

cute little apron (handmade by Jodz) and a box of pancake mix
- I know what Hope is making us for breakie tomorrow!

Jodz knows just what to get for my girls... A Ben 10 pack for the Aimster!

A neat press-out model book for Bree - she wanted to make it straight away but unfortunately for her we got home after bedtime...

We've been friends ever since my autistic daughter and her aspie daughter found themselves in the same class five years ago.

Don't think she forgot us either... She gave us a movie night pack, including microwave popcorn, reduced cream and onion soup (for the quintessential kiwi dip), potato chips and coke!! If you know us personally, you'd know that movie reviews etc are Mr Sew-Funky's special interest, so it was a very apt gift!


But that is not all, oh no that is not all (sounding a little Dr.Seussish...). She popped in a little pressie just for me! A Bracelet (made from buttons, she knows me so well) and my favourite chocolates, Turkish Delights!!!


Thanks so much for these cool pressies, Jodz! You put my A Dark Knight DVD and non-descript chocolates to shame!

I especially like the apron she made for Hope, I spied it on her blog and had hoped wistfully that she'd made one for her! Thanks for all the thought that went into the gifts. I'll really have to pull my finger out and plan better for next years Christmas... It just seemed to jump at me out of nowhere!

Favourite things Friday...

One of my favourite band's of all time would have to be, embarrassingly, ABBA! Don't laugh, they're great for zoning out to. I remember singing along to them when I was small, and now my children are having fun singing their songs on singstar - weird...

Last year, one of the best experiences I had was going to see Mama Mia at Sylvia Park with my good friend Lianne and our two daughters. I am sure I hadn't laughed so hard in a long time. :) If you haven't seen it yet, get it out on DVD!!

So, in honour of, this, my embarrassing band love, and because I've been having lots of fun singing to ABBA singstar on the PS2, I give you:

the year that was...

2008

I have been blogging a wee while, since February 18, 2006. Back then my blog was called wotsitgonnabe, and I had no clue what it was going to become. It began as a way of figuring out what was going on in my life at the time. I was homeschooling my eldest and youngest daughter's at the time and was about to hit rock-bottom. You know when you give and give and give and there's not much left to give any more. I really enjoyed homeschooling my girls but after the schoolwork was done, I realised I wasn't doing anything I loved to do anymore. I hadn't found crafting yet, that came after I made the decision to quit homeschooling and was left with the decision of what to do with my time. It was a very difficult time. I wasn't sure who I was anymore, and did I still want to be a stay-at-home mum. I really felt the pressure to conform to the world's standards and go back to work, yet I still wanted to be available for my kids. 2008 was the year I really moved past that into enjoying the freedom that being a stay at home mum brings. I have enjoyed learning new craft techniques.

Around this time last year I decided to venture out into the world of craft blogging. Mr Sew-Funky had come up with a great new name for my blog and nothing was going to hold me back! :) I've really enjoyed making and showing off some of my creations which in turn has encouraged a whole new creativity in me. I am doing stuff now that I never thought I could do in 2007. It's awesome!!

Some little known facts about my blog:

I am up to post 361.

The blog has had 43,225 hits and almost 100,000 page views!!!! Wow, who'd have thought that there'd be so many people wanting to look at my creations!!! :D

I've designed 14 original knitted dishcloths. Some have been chosen to be used in knit-alongs on the internet and one was chosen to be in a dishcloth calendar for 2009! I made money from that one, and boy was I excited about that!!

I have made 9 of my own tutorials - see the sidebar. My most popular, being the bib and the pajama/lounge pant tute!

I've been involved in a couple of international swaps and one kiwi swap (handmade Christmas ornament swap) which I've loved. Also done a couple of pay-it-forward swaps, don't worry CurlyPops I haven't forgotten about that one! ;)

I have even had a couple of giveaways on the blog. The best I've been involved in would have to be the one world|one heart giveaway extravaganza, which I hope to participate in again this year. See the link in the sidebar.

I became more addicted to op shops than I ever have before. I am decidedly in love with Mr BoJumbles here in Manukau. Very annoyed that the prices are increasing in my local sallies... GRRRR! Hardly go there now!!

My knitting has improved astronomically and I finally learnt how to knit in the round using double pointed needles! YAY! Crochet is still a struggle and I understand now why the word crochet is so close to crochety, because it makes me feel, well... frustrated!

I began a new addiction to buying fabric! Especially fat quarters, of course I intend to use some of it in the coming year, but at present it's a cluttered mess!

I purchase a brand new sewing Janome machine, which I promptly fell in love with! Yes, I still think it's awesome!

I made my first ever quilt! YAY!

My big plans for 2009, are:

* to learn how to crochet properly
* to buy an overlocker
* to do the big tidy of the craft room, and get better at giving stuff away. No, Mrs Sew-Funky, you won't use that "one day"!
* to start an etsy store or something similar and sell some of my creations!
* to have more fun! ;)

I hope you all have a great 2009!