Portraits

I have discovered that it is quite hard to take a decent self portrait of yourself in business mode. Especially when guys like Spartacus and Vincent want to be in on the action.

My space

Etsy has just added a new feature to their site, a page to allow your shop to share a bit about themselves, the owners, and their creative space. At first I was a little shy to share photos of me and my studio, but of course that was silly and I have taken some snaps of my little space. I thought I would share them here to show you a bit of my very modest set up!

Shipping and supplies area.

All essential bits and pieces close at hand. My favourite is the little ceramic donkey that dispenses my striped string!

A fraction of my fabric stash.

Drawers and shelves and cupboards, oh my!

My handy red drawers stashing plain cotton fabric in colour order!

I hope you liked that little peek into my studio. What is your creative space like? Do share!

A bit of a catch-up

Finally, NeverEver is getting back into the swing of things. The wedding has been and gone, the honeymoon has finished, and we're back to normal operations around here.

I wanted to share a couple of things with you that have been happening around here, but first, in today's post, I think a small photo recap is the order of the day.

Remember how I wanted to make some cushions to decorate the indoor seating area of our wedding reception? Here's how they turned out. 

I think perhaps 3 people used the seating area over the entire course of the reception, as it turned out to be the most perfect weather imaginable and most people wanted to be outside in the gardens. And really, who could blame them?

We honeymooned in Mexico (amongst other places, to be recapped in another post...) and we bought this delicious bedspread. It is embroidered by hand. I love it. And it is the perfect backdrop for our sudden ownership of eight bright cushions!

And so, we are married. I am a Mrs. It was an amazing day.

Remember I was worried about not being able to get dahlias due to the rain? Mum and I went to the markets on Friday, and there were buckets of dahlias in EXACTLY the colour I had imagined. It was meant to be. 

The wedding day. What can I say. The weather was balmy and perfect. Not brilliant blue skies, but the temperature was a perfect 27 degrees and stayed warm well into the night. And, best of all, not a drop of rain! It meant our vision of our guests enjoying the gardens really did come true.

There were so many highlights from the day, but one of the best ones was the dessert table. Really, what more could a bride want at 9.30pm on her wedding day, than a table full of desserts and not having to pick one? Nothing, I say. One of each, please.

Tune in next time for some honeymoon snaps (taken with our amazing whizz bang camera given to us as a wedding present... such a fantastic present) - and then we'll be back in business!


Cushion and bedspread photos taken by me. Wedding photos all by Jonas Peterson. Please do not reproduce.

Rainy days

It has been raining solidly for 4 days. The little hint of summer that we had here in Sydney last week has been convincingly washed away. In some ways this makes me very nervous - our wedding reception is outdoors - and it also makes me sad because it means the dahlia season for Sydney will be delayed, and dahlias were my number one choice for wedding flowers (which I am doing myself).


However, I am trying to find a positive outlook on all this rain, and I didn't have to look very far:

 My zucchini plants are going absolutely beserk. Would you believe I paid $2 for a tiny punnet of seedlings from Bunnings two weeks ago?

Hello, delicious zucchini flower. You will soon be stuffed with fetta and fried, and on my plate for dinner.


Maybe the rain can be forgiven just this once.

Cushion project

We have an area at our upcoming wedding reception that needs some colour. It is a plain space, with white couches and a couple of coffee tables. I saw the photo above months ago (and I don't have a credit for it, sorry!) and was really inspired by the colours and textures used in this little collection of cushions. 


Off I went to IKEA and, 2 hours and a $1 hotdog later, I emerged with a stash of 8 cushion inserts ($1.99 each! You can't beat that!) and a mission to make a lounge area full of colour.


We don't really have a colour scheme. We have Mexican influenced decorations, which includes a bold emerald green, magenta, midnight blue and royal purple. I have decided to make cushions in solid colours using some interesting textural techniques, like the ones above. I particularly like the woven yellow and the circular pale blue with the pleats coming to the centre. I can't quite work out what's going on with the circular pink one, but it looks cool too.


Stay tuned for the results of my cushion sewing project!

It's been a long time.

Is anybody out there? *tap tap* Is this thing on? Hello?

Oh HI! It's me, Emma! I'm back and I do apologise for the silence. What have I been doing?

Well, planning a wedding. I get married in 3 weeks, you guys. THREE WEEKS!! That's pretty soon. 

Also, mucking around in the kitchen.

Clockwise from top left: Raspberry and vanilla buttercake with cream cheese icing (a version of this); corn fritters with avocado, bacon and coriander; raspberry scones; and spinach, bean and chorizo soup.

And a bit of fancy dress, of course! This was for a friend's 30th Safari themed party.

So what's happening with NeverEver? Why did I abandon it for so long? Why so quiet? To be honest, I felt a bit over it. I was starting to not enjoy making all my handmade cuties on demand. I like to make things at my own pace sometimes, you know? And I found that I was feeling resentful every time a sale came through, instead of jumping off my chair with joy as I did when I first started making sales. I needed a little break, to step away from Etsy, and I am glad I did.

But now (and it does seem a strange time to feel this, in the middle of crazy wedding stuff and just before Christmas), I do feel like I would like to jump back in again - with a bit of a twist. I am going to sell mainly one-off pieces out of gorgeous fabrics from my stash. Classic denim and my bib range will stay, but everything else will be an as-I-feel-like-it production line. I have a huge exciting cupboard overflowing with bits and pieces, and I can't wait to use them.

How to Make a Patchwork Baby Quilt: Part Two

Last week I wrote half a how-to on making a patchwork baby quilt. Today I am going to write the rest, so you can finish off your creation, stand back, admire it, and wait for all the compliments.
We left off last week after cutting out all our squares, working out colour placement, and having all our measurements (with seam allowances!) correct and ready to go. Now it's time to sew them all together.
Do one row at a time, pinning square to square with the right sides together, until you have a long line of squares. Repeat for all your other rows. Press open the seams as you go. The aim is to get these squares sitting as flat as possible.

When you have done all your rows, move on to the columns. Pin the rows together at the join in the seam, making sure you keep the seam allowances opened out flat, like this:

Once you have pinned all the way down the column, stitch it together carefully, again being aware of the open seam allowances and keeping them flat.


Repeat for the remaining columns. When you have done them all, press the seam allowances open and flat again, and then press the whole thing so everything is lying the right way.

Cut your border fabric pieces. I decided to have the top and bottom horizontal pieces go right to the edge, and the verticals to meet the top and bottom border. Make sure you are quite careful with measurements here. Allow seam allowance for one side only, as the other edge will be bound with bias tape.

Stitch your border pieces on, and again press the seams open and flat.
Now we are going to mount the backing fabric onto the batting. Make sure they are of the same measurement, and Lay your batting out completely flat. Lay the backing fabric on top, and then loosely hand stitch a tacking stitch through both layers in wide diagonal lines. This will assist you when it comes to sewing the patchworked layer on: if you don't do it, you will find that the backing fabric will move around, bunch up, and look generally ugly.

Now, turn your backing and batting piece over so the batting is up. Lay your patchworked piece on top, right side up. It will look too small. Be assured that it is NOT, it just needs a bit of cajoling. Stitching together so many squares has made the fabric tighter, and we need to give it a bit of a stretch out. This is good, though: if it were loose, the fabric would bunch up when you sew it, and that is a nightmare you don't want to have.

This is where you will need a LOT of pins. You need to pin every side of every square. Start with the edge, where the bias tape will go, gently pulling and manipulating the patchworking so the fabric gives a little and meets the edge. It's ok if it is a few mm off. You can trim when you are finished.
Work your way in from the edge, pinning each square. Make sure your lines stay straight and don't get warped by your fabric manipulation.


This is what you want it to look like all pinned.

Ok - now you are ready to sew all the layers together. Starting from the middle, ditch stitch along all rows and columns. This is stitching in the seam, so your work will be almost invisible.

Sew around the very edge of the quilt. This stitching line will be hidden by bias tape. Trim any excess batting or backing fabric, so you have a neat straight edge.
Pin your bias tape evenly, half underneath and half on top. If you are worried about the underneath slipping whilst stitching, you could hand tack this part; but I was in a bit of a rush and so just pinned it quite heavily.


Stitch 1mm out from the inside edge of the bias tape, enclosing the three layers in a bias tape sandwich. You can mitre the corners if you like, as I did, or you can fold them another way.

Give the quilt a really good press, especially the bias tape edge.

You are finished! What do you think? I gave mine to my friend last weekend for her baby shower and she loved it. Nothing like a handmade gift!