My sentimental T -Shirt Quilt

Here it is. Finished at last!

I have wanted to do this for ages and have FINALLY DONE IT! Hooray!!

We give most of our outgrown and outdated clothes away to friends or charity, but over the years I’ve held on to some t-shirts that were special…..and I have finally joined them together to make this fun quilt.

This was done completely freestyle with no forward planning. It’s one of those "please admire from afar but don't get up close and look" type quilts, because it's been sewn quite badly, and is all a bit higglety pigglety and crooked.

Having said that, I’m pretty pleased with myself. This is a bit of Coleman family history, right here. And the higglety pigglety-ness of it all kind of reminds me of our completely quirky little family. With a non nuero-typical 6 year old, artists for parents and an extremely funky little 2 year old, things get a bit messy and crooked in our family. This quilt represents us perfectly.

Some of my favourite moments (probably not the right word) in this quilt are the Steve Carrel/Anchorman "I love Lamp" square, the Beatle's "Let it be" square, Thomas the Tank and the cute owl, the Taiwanese Salvation Army Square (random, I know), Scooby Doo, and the Dunder Mifflin Company Picnic square (any fans of the US "Office" will get it!)

This quilt is backed with a green Op Shopped woolen blanket, and some fat white bias binding can hide a multitude of mistakes, don't you think??

Mezz x

I've been at it again!!

The crochet hook has made an appearance once again! It seems to come out either in cold weather, or when I feel a bit couch bound. As I have recently been unwell, crochet became the only type of craft I had energy for. I could do it while lounging around and it didn't require too much thought! As you can see, I am still a beginner, and I can't really crochet anything other then granny squares at the moment, but I'd like to learn a few more stitches and give something else a go soon! (I've got my eye on a few Mollie Makes crochet patterns.)

The other night I accidentally crocheted one of these little circles, and they were so cute and easy I just kept on making them!!! Now I have all these pastel little things and I'm not sure what to do with them all! I am after suggestions on how to best use them, so feel free to offer any ideas!!

This large square will become a cushion or seat cover….

And here are my newest granny squares.

The problem with getting better at any type of craft is that you can often look back at your earlier work and be pretty unhappy with it. I made a whole bunch of colourful granny squares using acrylic wool last year, in the hope that I'd join them all to make a blanket. But the problem is, I now look at them and they are completely unusable! Dropped stitches, wonky shapes...and I never thought I’d be a snob about this kind of thing but the acrylic wool just feels pretty nasty too. So I've "started again" and will be making a whole bunch of these random squares to hopefully turn into a big wooly blanket for our bed by winter time. (That gives me 3 months!!!!)


What crafting do you like to do on the couch!!??

Mezz xoxo

Some new (old) stuff!!

Hiya.

Thought I'd share this week's Op Shop finds.

I found this cute sun dress at the local Salvo Store in the dress up clothes section!

Works for me though!



This beautiful old sheet will be a great addition to my fabric stash.

Ok, I know I should stop buying vintage bathers everytime I see them!

But it's very hard to walk past $5 of awesomeness and not get in on the action!

A new shirt..I'm digging this for some reason.

Cute little mini fry pan for Miss Coleman's "kitchen."

Just what everybody needs...a Nurse Bubooshka doll...or not!!!??

a lovely old wrap around skirt.

Mr. Coleman found this one.

He's been wanting an old school type clock for ages! Tick that off the list at last.

And to top it all off, I came home from work yesterday to recieve this lovely Wedding Anniversary gift from Mr. Coleman which he found in an Op shop (along with some old records.) He knew I'd been wanting a stove top kettle with a great whistle. It really is making our cups of tea all the more wonderful.

Anyway, thanks for popping by, oh, and welcome to my new followers by the way! I'm so glad you've joined me over here! I've been quite unwell the past 2 weeks, but the lovely comments I've been getting, and seeing I had some new followers for this little blog has warmed my heart. You are all lovely.

MEZZ 

xxx

PS- Don't forget you can like me on facebook now, and keep up to date with my world.

I heart Mr. Coleman

Who needs IKEA when you have milk crates, cable ties, and a CLEVER HUBBY!!?

Introducing our newest piece of upcycled milk crate furniture put together by Mr. Coleman.

Happy 9th Wedding Anniversary to my clever, upcycling, funny, icecream making, clothes washing, creative, op shopping, thrifty and thoughtful husband, Mr. Coleman!! I've never once regretted getting married at 19 years old, as young as I now think that was. I've had the best fun growing up together and figuring out with you how to be an adult!! We might have done it a bit differently to most of our friends, but that's ok, coz we like being a bit different....and never a day goes by when I don't think myself very blessed to be your lady.

Mezz xx

RINGO!!!!

There have not been many times in my life when I could literally say that a dream was coming true.

But a dream I’ve been dreaming since I was a little girl actually did come true last Saturday night. I SAW, (AND WAS TECHNICALLY IN THE SAME ROOM AS) A BEATLE!!!!!!

Ringo might not have been as mysterious as George, as talented as Paul or as cool as John, but he was the charming, funny, and downright perfect drummer for the Beatles, and without him it just wouldn’t have worked. There was something just so wonderfully right about the four of them. I was 17 when my favourite Beatle, George Harrison sadly passed away, and I remember saying to my older brother John.... “ok, let's just deal with the reality, WE WERE BORN IN THE WRONG ERA….. we’re never going to see a Beatle!!” and while I was fine with that, there was always this little spark of hope that one day I might.

John. Paul. George. Ringo. These four guys will never ever know who I am, and will never know what a significant impact their music, movies, personalities and everythingness had on me growing up. Not one other artist in any other medium will ever come close to meaning as much to me as the Beatles do.

So, anyway, on Saturday night Me, Mr. Coleman, my brother John and his wife (and my best bud) Ash, went to Festival Hall in and saw a legend.

What can I say? He is 72. Fit as a fiddle. Funny. Energetic. He sang the crowd favourites. I cried.

What a guy.

Mezz

xx

PS Sorry picture quality isn't awesome, but how could I not share!!!???

Using up scrap fabric!!

What do you do with all the little bits of scrap fabric that you get left over from sewing projects?

This is what we do!!

We tie them all together and weave them through the bed heads!!

It adds a bit more colour to our bedroom, and is quite cute and thrify I think.

What do you do with all your little fabric scraps? I'm sure there's plenty of ideas out there....feel free to share.

Mezz xx

Australiana Vintage!!

As you know, I love old things. Call it vintage, retro, or just plain old old, I don't really care! I especially love old Australian things. I think they add a bit of history in our house, and acknowledge that no matter how bizarre and stuffed up this country we find ourselves in is, it's home. I find these sorts of gems are quite rare in Op shops, but get pretty excited when I see things like Snugglepot and Cuddlepie, Skippy, and old footy stuff.. (although my brother gets more excited by that stuff, so we end up giving it to him!!) My Sister in law, Nic, who writes the blog make sew bake grow sent us a lovely vintage set of thimbles for Christmas, each with a different Australian native flower. So precious.

So you can imagine how happy I was when I found this light shade the other day for $3 at an Op Shop.

Blinky Bill! Yes!

This will go in the kids room, (once we get round to it.)

Do you like getting a bit nationalistic with your vintage finds? I'd love to know about your little treasures that tell a bit about where you're from!

Mezz x

PS There's more then a touch of British in me too, and I must say I found quite a lot of lovely British bits and pieces in Charity Shops while in the UK last year!! Perhaps I'll share in another post.