Are these a bit too crafty for my feet?

The lovely people at Campers tempted me with these sewing measuring tape strappy sandals. 

Question is, should I use a black texta and fill in the notches and numbers? 

What do you think?

I'm a 2012 Favorite on FaveQuilts

I am rather excited by this award! My Sixteen Patch Baby Quilt Tutorial has received a lot of traffic over the last year and FaveQuilts.com have sent me an award *gush*

I am one of 100 popular "free" quilt patterns on their site and they have listed them all on a handy page.

I do find it humorous, that although I had some days with 400+ hits on this page on my blog, not one comment! What has changed is that rather than comments, people would Pin the page onto Pinterest and comment there!

So if you have made this quilt, I would love to hear from you (really I would).

Great minds think alike!

The post christmas, new year frenzie has left me with a gap in my day. What else is there to do than Pinterest!

I found that someone had made the advent calendar idea that I blogged about back in October. I don't profess to own this idea, but I was very excited to see what the finished product looks like.

image via Oh Happy Day

How cool does this look? Chiara has also written a brief tutorial on how she did it, including buying the die cut numbers and circles from etsy.

It looks great!

Embracing 2013 with a new kitten

I have moved through 2012 so fast last year, I have hardly had time to catch my breath.

I look forward to connecting with myself in again in 2013. I've been re-thinking the direction of Konstant Kaos and what I want to achieve in this space and I have lots of exciting ideas.

2013 will be a year of stability for the family. Nicholas is starting to talk a lot better since his ear operation and since we removed his dummy a week ago, he has vocalisation has started to develop a lot more.

The arrival of another furry freeloader "Mishka" into our household has brought out behaviours in my 2 year old that I could not anticipate. So here are some cute kitten pictures to make you smile, a very vocal and adventurous 14 week old female Russian Blue.

The quintessential Russian Blue picture ...

Gazing into the distance

Rolling around on the carpet, sun-seeking. She is an Obanya Russian Blue, re-housed from a couple who got her two weeks ago but needed to find a home for her quickly because of changing personal circumstances.

Both Vladamir and Natasha are keeping her in check. Vladdy doesn't really care much about another cat, but Natasha is hell bent on showing her who "top cat" is.

We didn't end 2012 wanting another cat, but I saw the add on gumtree and felt that the family (and Nicholas) would benefit.

Happy New Year!!!

I love my vintage electric appliance ...

I came across this lovely group that aggregates all the vintage appliance advertising on Flickr.  I love old advertising and how they portray the values of the era in which they were made.

via vintage advertising Flickr pool

We have the "body" of our old canon 35mm camera in a box upstairs, we haven't touched it since we converted over to a DSLR many many years ago. Prior to our DSLR, we ran around with a Sony Mavica and I have a box of Floppy Disc's to prove it!

How technology has changed in such a short amount of time. The majority of the pictures that I take for my blog now are on my iPhone. The only time that I use the DSLR is if I am taking professional shots for etsy (and my online shop has been in vacation mode for far too long!).

      enjoy!

Quilter's Brain

Is your brain like this? I love the fact that "more fabric" appears more than once!

 

I came across this on pinterest and upon trying to find the source (there are multiple blogs showing the image but no source indicated!), I found it in a cafepress shop by Quilter Bee.

I am going to presume that it is their original image, if not please let me know! 

How do you decorate your sewing or craft space?

Crafty Hexy necklaces

A while back I spotted this necklace by House of Harlow. A "hexy" necklace, rather lovely I thought.

 

via FashionFinder

House of Harlow have brought out another "Hexy" necklace ... probably a bit big for my physique .. but otherwise gorgeous.

 

via OhSoBoho  .. A bargain at 189 pounds!

If you like the idea of this, then here are some crafty or fabric alternatives ...

 

via notquiteright

 

via Harold and Winnie

via Madz Has Runway which can be found at Gleaners in East Brunswick.

via Kelly Christie Design

Have you made anything like this before?

Thirty Six Officers Quilt Top Tutorial

Another idea taken from the mathematics fact book (of which I should really find the actual name so that I can link to it), is the "Thirty-Six Officers Problem". My last one was the Penrose Tile post.

Wikipedia states:

"The thirty-six officers problem is a mathematical puzzle proposed by Leonhard Euler in 1782.

The problem asks if it is possible to arrange 6 regiments consisting of 6 officers each of different ranks in a 6 × 6 square so that no rank or regiment will be repeated in any row or column. Such an arrangement would form a Graeco-Latin square."

Can't you see how this would be an ideal pattern for a quilt? 
I just love the mathematics of quilting!

So I started playing around with the idea as a basis for a larger project. In the original problem, you would have 6 squares of each colour displayed in a way that looks random, but isn't really.

Using a jelly Roll, you would need 15 inches (plus slack) for each colour for a block finish size of 12 inches x 12 inches (plus 1/2 inch each side seam allowance).

Nine blocks would make a good cot quilt, 35 squares a good single bed, 80 a good double or queen size, then add sashing and surrounds.

Using a Charm Pack you would need 6 squares (5 inches x 5 inches) for each colour for finished block of 27 inches x 27 inches + seam. 36 charm pieces are needed for the entire pattern (most charm packs are 42 squares worth, with two squares the same).  So buying a few packs of the same design would work wonderfully.

Using a layer cake, you would need 6 squares at (10 inches x 10 inches) for each colour. Each block would be 57 inches plus seam allowance.

It would look quite effective as an Autumn Colour Scheme.

And equally as nice as a monochromatic version.

Assembling the blocks:

What type of patchworker are you? If you are precise I would sew this quilt row by row. If not, sew four squares together to make a small block, measure and trim. Then sew another 4 together, and so on.  

But if you are not a quilter, this pattern could work equally well as a crochet blanket.

If you end up making one of these quilts based on these ideas, please leave a comment and let me know!

Enjoy!

Margaret  

Meow!

Here's hoping this gets your Monday groovin'

Here is the link

1876 Ellen Harding Baker's "Solar System" Quilt

Boing Boing posted this great link to this astronomy quilt. Isn't she gorgeous.

Poking around the internet, I found this one as well.

 

I have a week left of teaching and then I have to go like hell to get my Uni essay in before Christmas. Then, and only then, can I sit back and commence some serious craft ...