Slow going

There hasn't been as much crafting happening around here as I'd like, but that's kind of what happens when the sleep dwindles. My baby girl is now halfway through her first year, with two bottom teeth and munching down solids, but for some reason, she's still sleeping terribly. We can't see any more teeth on the way yet, but suspect it is perhaps the result of starting solids and getting used to that (Austy slept well until the solids started) or maybe the result of the 6m immunisations and rotavirus vaccine. Who knows, I just know that lately she has slept much worse than a newborn at night, often waking 2-3hrly, or (gulp) ONE hourly during some parts of the night. At least Austy forewarned me with a similar great sleeping habit in the first 6 months only to be spoiled in the second half of his first year.

I've also had limited computer time too, so it's hard to update the blog - my laptop screen decided it's lived long enough!

Anyway, I did manage this cute little 3pc set, that would have had booties as well but I used every last skerric of fabric on the rest of the set. Terrible photos, due to the very wet and cloudy weather we've had here lately and a bub due for a sleep who was squirming everywhere. It looks way better in real life, I just adore the "Baby Nay" fabric I used for the top, that I found over at Crafty Mamas.

And a little knitted ballerina wrap cardy, finished last week:

Fairy pants

Since the weather has turned cooler and it's much easier to get 5 minutes of knitting time in here and there rather than wait for Andrew to give me some free sewing time (he's always at the golf club when he's not at work). Madelyn is in need of warmer clothes so the knitting needles have started clacking around here. I started on a wrap cardigan using 4ply (I still have that snuggly DK sitting around but needed to feel some wool between my fingers before knitting that again). The cardigan is just using the leftover cleckheaton cocoon I used to make this newborn cardigan around this time last year.

Then the dyeing bug hit with the need for some new longies for Madelyn, so I dyed up some soft and thick Blue Faced Liescter aran for the purpose. I called the colourway "Chocolate fairy" as it sort of reminded me of little girls dressed in fairy dresses smeared with chocolate birthday cake. As with all hand dyed wool, I couldn't resist the urge to knit it up straight away. Unfortunately the longies didn't eventuate as I didn't dye up enough wool. I just managed these shorties, using all but around 20cm of wool after grafting. They have some growing room in them so hopefully will still fit when the weather warms up again. At the moment they are more like capris than shorties. Back to the wrap cardy now and the knitting seems so slow after knitting with big needles.

Warmth for winter

With two teeth bothering the little Miss for the past few weeks, I haven't been getting a whole lot of sleep. As a result my craftiness has been confined to the couch for a little while after the kids are in bed, where I have been madly knitting away at this little hoodie for Austy. I needed it off the needles to get a start on something warm for poor Maddy who has next to no winter woollies in her wardrobe, due to her growing out of everything way too quickly.

I normally knit in 100% wool (or cotton for spring/summer) as I am a natural fibres girl. I love the warmth and I love the feel. But this time I decided top use the nylon stuff that the pattern was designed for. Personally I think it would have been nicer in wool and now I'm not so sure I want to knit up the stuff I bought for Maddy, but I have bought it now so really should use it. The yarn is Sirdar Snuggly - it is soft and snuggly as the name suggests, easily washed and probably good for the amount of upchucks that Maddy has been doing with those teeth coming along (the second one cut through completely last night while she slept... or rather didn't sleep). And for Austy, it's a bit more dirt and food resistant.

The pattern came from Sirdar Baby Knits (316), Pattern I - Hooded Sweater with Stripes, knitted in size 3-4. Love the book - especially for boy babies and toddlers, and love how Sirdar cater for such a size range (so I can still use it for Austy for next year too). Just not too keen on the weight and drape of Snuggly DK. Not sure about the drop sleeves - I'm a raglan lover, but unfortunately all the raglan patterns were in 4ply which would take forever to knit up in his size (I'm still plodding away at the cable vest in 4ply for him!). Now to decide what to knit for Maddy. I am thinking the cabled hoodie jacket on the far left, second row in the pic above using a ruby colur and hope to get a few unbroken nights of sleep again now those two tiny teeth have arrived.

A giveaway not to miss!

When I saw this fantastic giveaway over at Jet Designs I knew I just HAD to be in it. You can win a book and two patterns (in Australia) or just the patterns if you're an international blogger. All you have to do is check out her store, pick your faves, comment on her blog and link it on yours. Easy! I have my name down for a contemporary quilting book and some fun Amy Butler Patterns. So cool. Fingers crossed tightly now... Talking of giveaways, I am a bad, bad blogger. My 100th post past ages ago, as did my blogiversary. The blogiversary fell both times when my life was fairly hectic and I was unable to host a giveaway. So I have decided to do an unblogiversary giveaway instead! But before I do, I will have to make a couple of things especially for the occasion otherwise I will feel a tad pressured to make something after the event. So in the next few weeks I will get crafty and put three handcrafted items up for grabs. I just have to have a think about what sorts of things would make good giveaways. At this stage they will be baby/toddler related gifts, perhaps a baby block, a pair of baby shoes or a softie. If you have any other suggestions for things that are quick to make and fun to receive feel free to drop me a hint, and then keep your eyes peeled for my own giveaway.

Refreshed, graduated, ready to sew!

We arrived home from the US on Saturday lunch time, and while I was quite happy to return with a bag full of fabric and a freshly serviced sewing machine, I was equally delighted to find to special parcels sitting on the dining table.

The first one was a very generous gift from AJ, who made it in appreciation for the nappy bag pattern and newborn clothes I sent her in anticipation of the birth of her very special and much awaited "Russell". A fantastic nappy stacker to make accessing those nappies a lot easier. Currently I pull them out of the top drawer as I did for Austin, but since Madelyn has more fitteds than pockets, they are a lot bulkier and jam up the drawer when they are all washed and in the right place. The nappy stacker was made especially to go with this quilt from my EB Quilters friends, which AJ also contributed. The pic here is sans nappies as we are running a little low on supply now because I didn't get a chance to make as many mediums before we left as I would have liked and her legs seem to have tripled in diameter so that the few smalls (ie. the magicalls and my homemade aio's) that still fitted when we left are now ready to sell off to new owners. With all the unpacking washing to do, nappies have had to wait and are therefore all hanging on the line.

The second parcel was an adorable little quilt from Eden - my quilter for the flickr DQS6. Since I am not allowed to put quilts on the walls (at least until I get a sewing room again which will be several years down the track when we are ready to rebuild or rennovate), I was hoping for something Madelyn can use with her dolls as she grows older, but also something that I could pinch back when my sewing room came along so that I could hang in front of my desk. This little beauty is perfect for both, so pretty and classic looking with a contemporary feel to the composition and placement of circles. If you look closely you can see the beautiful fabrics she chose for the circles, but from a distance they blend nicely. And of course I love a wrinkly stippled quilt and admire anyone who can do it because I can't! And to make the return even more enjoyable I had the latest issue of Ottobre Design waiting for me to peruse! What more could a girl want? I was almost tempted to trace something out and get started last night after I managed to hold the little ones up until 7pm (they had been droppping like flies the two previous afternoons and then thinking 3am was a good time to start the day - at least we could show Austin that the sun wasn't up yet so he laid quietly in bed but it didn't quite work for Madelyn!) Instead I decided I was too tired to trace and would probably stuff it up so made a dalmation all in one nappy that I cut out before we left. (Check out Miss parachuter! She is super strong in the abs now and does tummy crunches ALL the time as she hates to lay down). Oh and I nearly forgot, here is the DQS6 quilt I made, and sent to John, who was also one of the swap mamas (& papa!) who did an awesome job making sure the swap ran smoothly and everyone got a quilt. Having never sewn for a bloke before, I was a little overwhelmed at first, but John left several hints on his blog and in flickr. I soon learned that he was a fan of Tula Pink fabrics, hourglass quilts, solid fabric in quilts, embroidery and loved the lime/charcoal colour scheme. With this information I tossed my original ideas and hunted down fabric. When I saw the Neptune range by Tula Pink, with it's rich lime, charcoal, seaspray and coral colours I just KNEW it was the fabric for John. I kind of let the quilt make itself, the mermaid springing to mind when the word Neptune conjured up images of old wooden ships with mermaids carved on the front. Unfortunately the quilt is small so those hourglasses are tiny. I normally love tiny blocks on little quilts but was a bit sad about cutting into those charms as it obscures the turtles and fish and sea creatures that you would notice on bigger pieces. It took a long time to tie in all those ends and get to stitching the binding down so this little quilt came on tour with me to LA, MI,NY and then LA again before it got sent to John's place. The plan was to finish it in those first few nights of sitting in the hotel while the kids slept, but one of those kids (the bigger one) decided it was not bed time, probably mucked around by the time difference and wouldn't sleep. It was affecting his behaviour and making it hard to drag him out of bed in time for breakfast so we did the only thing that worked which was to sit in silence and darkness in our shared hotel room until he finally nodded off, which isn't a very good environment for stitching binding down. So a little late, but better than never, I give you "Jewel of the Sea":

Ready to fly!

The one project I really NEEDED to get done to use on our trip to the US was a new mei tai carrier, as Austy's old blue one made me feel daggy, and when worn with the apron tie it wasn't tall enough to support a sleeping Maddy as well as I'd like. I used to wear it non-apron tie with Austy (less educated on baby wearing back then!) when he was about 6 months old, and by the time I worked out that the bottom was meant to fold under for better support he was old enough to support himself well and not sleep in it anyway. But for Maddy, at only just 4 months she needs good support and coverage for sleeping. So a marathon sewing day (between feeds of course) and I had a new, girly baby carrier!

I used Sandi Henderson Ginger Blossom tiles as the feature fabric as it's just so pretty (and definitely girly), this is the side I will most likely have showing alot of the time. I was going to line it with aqua minky but decided against it due to it not being cold here for very long and made it reversible instead, using a Sandy Gervais solid panel in the centre, aqua of course! The strap fabric (and hidden internal stabiliser) is dark chocolate canvas from good old Spotlight which rang up as just $5/m when I got to the counter - bonus!

This time I added a hood, but Andrew tells me the hood looks like we follow some weird religious cult or think we're celebraties trying to sheild our baby from public view. Sigh.... I will still use it though as Madelyn has never liked the sun in her eyes and while she tolerates it better now, sun in her face when she's asleep is bound to wake her. I can also wear the hood folded down as a bit more neck support and padding as both the hood and body are padded with fusible fleece (pellon).

I was going to make up my own pattern from scratch again, having done that with Austin's and knowing where I wanted the changes to be made, but when doing my research to work out what features I wanted and didn't want, I found this fantastic tutorial, which had almost exactly what I wanted. I altered it slightly to suit the dimensions I wanted and went for a standard shaped padded hood, rather than the rounded hood to headrest on the tute. It seemed silly to reinvent the wheel when someone else had already done an excellent job of it.

Madelyn loves her new mode of transport and actually cried when I took her out of it after an early evening stroll last night. I think she wanted to go to sleep in it. Don't worry, she'll get plenty of chances for that soon! We are taking a stroller but will just use it for meal times so I have somewhere to put her while I eat so I don't get hot food on her. So much easier to see things when you don't have a pram, and I don't have a pram that lets her see me now that she has outrgrown the bassinette. Please ignore the fact that I accidentally strapped her arms down (woops) - normally I pull them up so she can move them about and suck on her fingers but I was just getting it on and off quickly for a photo or two.

Also, it's time to reveal Dinosaur Roar V2 - Austy's set. Remember Scott's little set from the EB clothing swap? I promised to make Austy his own dinosaur set and he loves it.

My cute little baby bears

It's been a while since I last blogged, but I promise I've been doing stuff. I finished this cute little hat for Maddy a few weeks ago but never got around to photogaphing it until now. I made one for Austy too, after having made the full hat/bootie/mitten set for his older cousin Corey, and hooded teddy bear sleeping bags for their older cousin Alyssa, and Andrew's cousin Harry. My kids get just the hat as I have lots of other things on my to do list these days. Here's Austy in his at around 7 months old, from my first ever blog post in this blog. Where has the time gone?!

I have completed the Dinosaur Roar outfit (version 2 - for Austy this time) but it is hanging on the line so you will have to wait until it's bloggable.

So I will just leave you with this photo of Madelyn checking out her new shoes, and let you salivate a little over the rocky road I made for Easter!

ETA: The baby bear hat comes from a booklet by Patons, called "Baby Bears". I've had it for about 10 years.

More cherry love

It's time to get back to making some baby essentials as Madelyn has grown out of most of her small nappies. So as a break from nappy making I made this wrap, using some cute cherry fabric I had to bind a piece of muslin. She needed some new extra wide wraps as she is a bit more of a houdini than Austy ever was, but still likes to be wrapped tightly to sleep.

And another sneak peak from DQS6...

WIP Wednesday: Late night sewing and curtain hems

This morning was a very busy one, and this afternoon wasn't very accommodating for sewing as my darling girl seems to be teething (yes, already!) so wasn't happy to be put down, and only managed a half hour nap this morning during my fitness class, and then little spots of sleep here and there in my arms.

However a late night last night (which ended well into this morning) helped me finish the backdrop for the Doll Quilt Swap 6 mini quilt. I am yet to do the applique, but other than that, the quilt top is complete. Golf ball for size reference.

Then today, miracle of miracles, I hemmed one of the curtains in Maddy's room. I planned to do them all while Madelyn wasn't in her cot asleep, and Austy was out, but the little miss had other plans. At least I got one done, and am now not as afraid to attempt the other two. For some reason, no matter how carefully you measure and cut, the hemline on curtains seems to want to be wonky, and it bothered me because I am a perfectionist and would rather sew straight!

And another miracle was that DH finally got around to painting the feature wall in our family room. It has had two test patches on it for months now, and he's had lots of time off work due to the poor car market at present. He thought painting it might get me off his back, but he didn't realise it's that horrid 70's woodwork that I've been whinging about. We have the paint in the shed as we got it when we got the paint for the kids' rooms, but apparently it will be another year before he gets to that bit, and he won't let me do it. Oh well, a girl can try. The holes in the wall are for our TV which is now back on the wall (he did that as soon as it was dry, of course!).

Shoe fenatic!

Sandals, originally uploaded by WendysWTN.

I have to confess that while I am not so excited about shoes for myself, I absolutely adore baby shoes, and now that I have a beautiful little baby again, my obsession has been reignited. I saw these absolutely adorable aqua sandals on flickr one day (browsing through one of the many baby shoe groups I have joined, of course!) and when I realised she was selling them, I quickly flickr-mailed Wendy and asked for a pair to be made especially for Madelyn. They are crocheted and whi;le I can do lots of different things crafty, Ican't crochet for the life of me. I managed a few granny squares as a teenager, but couldn't even do that when I tried again as an adult. Choosing the colours was the hardest part. You all know how much I love aqua, and I was never much of a "pink person" until Madelyn came along. However I am really fond of pink on her - it's kind of celebration of the fact I have a daughter I guess, and she has the most adorable little dress with pink flowers and mint trim so I thought these colours would go with the dress perfectly. I can't wait to get them now, they are just so beautiful! I will be stalking the postie over the next two weeks I think, and they will be here for us to take all the way back to the US for my graduation day, to wear with that pretty dress.