And with new dolls comes a new blog!

Please pop over and see my new wee blog!

https://catanddogdolls.blogspot.com.au

B.

Four Years Later... !

Eeek... ! Four and a bit years on and I'm not sure if anyone will read this thing anymore, but I do enjoy reading updates that pop up on long abandoned blogs.

We have two babies now, not really babies at all, our Elka is 6!!! ?! And Ari is 3. And we lasted almost 3 years in Richmond before fleeing to the Blue Mountains- turns out we weren't as tough as we thought we were... but also turns out that we love it here and life is better, although we do miss the coast, it's just objectively nice, but not really THAT far away if we get desperate.

But anyway, 6 and a half years of mothering, and my head does still work. And I feel like I've made that journey from complete and utter exhaustion, bombardment and confusion- that is becoming a parent- and I've survived, and the making in me survived too. I have less time, but I'm more patient than I used to be and I have a completely different perspective.

And I've worked out how to make the dolls I always wanted to make, but didn't have the time to learn to make. Market after market every weekend meant that I just had to turn out as much as I could- and I look at those blinkies and dew drop dolls, and they are cute and sweet and well sewn, and I'm a little shocked to see the faces that I managed to embroider- I'm not quite back to that level of skill yet- but I was always dreaming of different dolls, and drawing them but I wasn't able to sit down and have the time to fail a hundred time before getting to the place I needed to be. With Elka at school, and my chilled out buddy Ari at home, I somehow have muddled through that over the past 18 months. From ugly, terrible, wonky things to sweet dolls in clothes (yay!) and woollen hair.

The mere though of sewing clothes used to boggle my brain. I remember the first time I looked consciously at a quilt my Grandmother had made and it dawned on me that she had cut each little piece out and sewn them, bit by bit into a piece of fabric that was as big as my bed. Madness, I thought! Then I did it and it all made sense, bit by bit. And now I'm feeling that way about these new dolls, bit by bit, piece by piece, they come together. And it feels good.

So anyway, that's where I'm at.

A post shared by rebecca lander (@beecah) on Mar 10, 2017 at 2:10am PST

Slowly, Slowly.

Ridiculously slowly actually! But I managed to get my prints out and into the mail, albeit a bit late. I received all of  my swap partners' efforts before I managed to get mine out. Of course, Elka came down with a fever, then me, and then the long weekend and guests, and gradually I got my spare room back and managed to get organised enough to get it done. And stamping this print, two triangles at a time was SLOW.


I went with plain pink triangles just because of the colour preferences of some of my swap buddies, but I really like the black on white, and I'm doing some overprinting with pink and yellow. I've really enjoyed this swap, and one day soon (hopefully!) I will post pictures of my swap bounty.

These are some of my favourites from the Handprinted Fabric Group:
1. layered scollops
2. simple overprinting
3. scissors

B.

So Far.

This is what I have managed so far. I have been playing around with colours and shapes, and actually managed to take a photo! :) I'm hoping to print 'the good ones' on the weekend.

This is the flickr group if you want to see some more.

B.

Inspiration for #3.

I signed up to do the Handprinted fabric swap again, and I'm thinking this is great motivation to unpack everything that is still boxed up. I went down to Spotlight- turns out our local Spotlight here is ENORMOUS, and bought some cotton to muck around on, and some linen to do the good stuff on. This is what I have been eyeing off on Pinterest.

From here.

From here.

From here.

From here.

From here.

Now to start some actual doing!

B.

Oh Yer.

It happened again little blog! I forgot you. We moved house, town, lives, jobs and things just got hectic there for a couple of months.

We no longer live near the ocean, we now live on the very far outskirts of Sydney, in a place that may as well be a country town! It is a country town, it is just very close to some very big things. And it sure is different. We've really only just arrived and the dust is still settling. I hope it all settles nicely...

x

New Kits

I was sorting through some bits and pieces on my desk a while back and found some almost finished Blinky Kits filed away in a magazine rack. They had been sitting there since before Elka was born! She is almost 2! I also found all of the supplies required to make more kits, including 3 different types of paper, embroidery thread, plastic bags and little sticky dots to attach a small sample piece of fabric to the front of each kit... It seemed like too good an opportunity not make some more up in time for Christmas. It's not often that things are so easily accessible around here...

So, I finished up the three almost done, and made another 10, and took them down to Emma-Lee's shop all ready for Christmas presents. They are $20 each, and they are half boyish/unisex fabrics, and half girly fabrics. and I'm in the midst of making another 10, and hoping to put 5 in my Etsy Shop soon, so stay tuned... or email me if you NEED them sooner than later, because things happen around here, things that prevent other things from getting done... But fingers crossed!





Hope you're making headway with Christmas on the horizon!
B.