spelling mistakes

Now what sort of image does this listing from eBay conjure up for you?

SHABBY SHIEK IRON SCREEN/ROOM DIVIDER WITH CANE WEAVING

All I can see there is a rather tatty Arab...

Still huntin' the four poster bed. But am working my way through Christmas presents for all the Smellies and their loves...

EBay is SO much fun!!!

eBay Delights!

Since I bought the John Watts quilting frame etc back in June I have been slowly getting the hang of eBay.
Watching LOTS of stuff, and even bidding on a couple of things. Usually at the very last moment - I have been to enough auctions to know not to push up prices half way through an auction...

Recently, I bought ten Barbie dolls for $26 (woohoo- after spending $4,000 of Noela's money on the John Watts frame etc that was a good way to get the hang of a second auction!).
I have been making clothes for them from the Enid Gilchrist Teen and Fashion Dolls book and they will be for all the great nieces, and Moo the GK for Christmas pressies.
They are all gorgeous, and the seller had washed AND SHAMPOOED their hair and their clothes were all clean and a couple of them even had shoes (tho Trevor ate one I later discovered. Naughty Barbie thing must have kicked it off while I was taking the photo out in the garden...)

Next, I got a pair of the most delightful little Japanese dolls for $10.

They came from Tasmania near Noela's place so she picked them up for me.
While I was waiting for her to organise collection with the seller I bought a great stack of Lego blocks for Noela to hand on to her grandies as well. That was about 250 pieces for $20.

Aren't the dollies gorgeous? I have yet to touch them but Noela said they are really lovely. I thought they would be lovely toys to have when (future) grand kids come to visit. (There were special toys at Nana's for us to play with - a Mammy Doll with gold hoop ear rings, and a topsy turvy Red Riding Hood and Wolf, a long legged clown and an elephant. Nana had made them all.).


Last night I bought two quilt tops...
When I got the notice from eBay I realised I "knew" the seller. She is an Axe Murderer quilter who wrote to congratulate me on buying the John Watts.

This is the link to her blog with photos of the tops she sold last night. I haven't met her except here on the Net.

I got the lovely square one with yellow stars on purple and print which has coffee cups all over it; and the red Hunter's Stars on green background. As she says in her post last night that it wouldn'tbe possible to make them for the price they all sold for.

I rather wanted the autumnal coloured pineapple - for The Sweetheart's Dad for his summer quilt. It would match the flannel one I made him when he first moved in to Happy Paddocks Retirement Village. However, it went very high - as much as I paid for the first two tops.

She says she has 50 more to quilt. I don't feel so bad about the 13-ish WIPs I have here... And I want her to send me a label so I can acknowledge her creativity when I quilt the tops.

I have got such bargains. I will have to sell something, but I really can't see what is going to make me any money when things are so cheap!!!! There ARE lots of quilty books that I have outgrown so they really may be the first things I flog off...

Mum's ball gown

Our Mum made a ball gown to wear to a Highland Ball - 6 weeks after she had her 6th baby. I wrote about it here where there is a photo of my sister Noela wearing it.
Mum was so slender she wore under it the full circle taffeta petticoat she had worn when she was a bridesmaid for her sister. When she was 16...

Mum made this gown on the Singer treadlie, it is blue crystal organza with embroidered silver sprays on it

The original pattern is long gone. I have spent years looking for one. I think I have found it!!!!

It is Butterick 6810 and looks VERY like Mum's gown. Mum made a gathered skirt rather than the circle - the organza was so fine that it fitted the waist just fine without bunching out. Mum had to sew the seams with tissue paper over them to stop it scrunching and dragging and making life hell under the presser foot. It is 22' feet around the hem...

Mum actually was (is) about as skinny as the drawing of the model - she is nearly 6' tall. I remember how gorgeous she looked in her ball gown. Hector was in his full kilt regalia - MacDonald tartan of course.



I just found it on eBay - an envelope that didn't look very healthy, and I found it with only minutes to spare in America so there wasn't time to ask the seller if the pattern was complete etc.
So I didn't actually buy it. There have been a couple for sale - mostly around $US65 - 100. Ouch.

So I shall just keep looking. If anyone has this pattern in a useable condition please let me know - I could swap something Aussie and worthwhile for it.
Though how does one put a price on nostalgia?

Squishy Day!!!!!

Today I got armfuls of lovely squishies at the post office!!!



First, 36 (but two of each) more Sister's Choice blocks from Trish.
18 of them are for my Best Sister - because over the last two years we have each made about 100 blocks for each other.
So we will, in theory, have identical quilts. But of course we wont because we have been playing with them as well as whipping up Sister's Choice quilts for our other sisters and sister in law for their birthdays last year.


Here is Trevor checking out the blocks that I just got - laid them out on the bed, went downstairs for my camera and came back to find the Self-Appointed Quilt Expert making himself at home!!!

I have about 100 blocks now, I think - they are real Magic Pudding blocks cos I seem to have far more than I made!




And then there were the ten Barbie dolls I got for cheap as chips on eBay to make more clothes for and give away as Christmas presents to various younger members of the family...


One has some weirdness happening round her back. It may well be normal but then - I am not aBarbie expert at all!!!
Apart from a weird hypo-thermic look to much of her skin, she has a screw in panel on her back that maybe contains a battery but I haven't yet looked. Her hypo-thermic skin is also rather translucent and she seems to have some robot wires in there. (If she is a little alien thing I hope she knows how to do ironing...).


And then a big bundle of material from Miss Vikki Frou Frou who was having a stern clean-out of stuff she didn't think she would use. And I thought I could.
I think Mum's Christmas present is in here...


And I had to get the Mary Engelbright jelly roll for two very good reasons.
Firstly, I haven't ever bought a jelly roll before, and secondly I have a sad old ME t-shirt I bought in Ann Arbour when I was there in 1990 which is falling to bits so I need to replace it...
Actually THIRDLY - they were so cheap it would be rude not to help Miss Vikki out!


I took a photo of the lake that is the septic tank, but I wont post it today either...

The rest of the day was too lovely!!! Lots of material to fondle!