Stitchin' Skilly

My First Pattern Release!

2012-01-06T21:43:00.003+10:30

Yes, it's a small project (can be knitted in one night!) but I am chuffed, that I have finally built up the courage to hit the "activate" button on the first pattern in my Ravelry store!

You have to start somewhere, right?

You can download the pattern for FREE here

It is my Otis Baby Hat pattern, designed to compliment Georgie Hallam's Milo Vest. I designed this hat for two very special boys, almost a year ago and it received a lot of interest in Ravelry (probably because Georgie's Milo pattern is so popular - I have knitted 7 of them and I hardly ever knit something more than once!) so I decided to have a go at pattern writing and publish it for free.

Look out for baby, toddler and child sizes in the next couple of months.

Here is my final test of the newborn size, a new hat for Madelyn's baby doll Zoe.

And the girl is happy too

2012-01-03T08:28:00.003+10:30

Maddy couldn't wait another day for her Cat in The Hat jarmies, so I went my own way with her shorts. No fake fly, just a ruffled hem on a pair of one piece shorty bottoms I drafted myself, with plenty of growing room.

It's a shame the size 4 purchased tee is a little snug - luckily I have a tiny bit of fabric left so I can applique another for her when she outgrows it.

A just turned 3 year old isn't quite as co-operative as a just turned 6 year old, so the photo session was quick and snappy! And of course she had to pull a face, funny girl.

And here they are snuggled on the couch together in matching PJ's and bed hair. Aaaw....

Welcome to 2012

2012-01-02T08:35:00.008+10:30

Well, another year has flown by in a nano-second, and while I haven't blogged for almost a year, I am back... at least for now! Life gets in the way as most of you know, and I am looking to change things up a bit in the near future so that I can stress a little less and have more time for my kidlets. In the mean time, I know I have some busy times ahead, so I will try to update when I can this year, without making this blog become yet another thing that I am behind in.

The first day of the year has been our hottest this summer (I think!) so yesterday I was super appreciative of my DH who got up on the roof and replaced the pads on the air conditioner as soon as summer commenced. The house has never been this cool (except in winter of course!) and I loved being stuck indoors yesterday as I got a start on the kids' Cat in The Hat pyjamas that I promised them about a month ago.

I did have a few interruptions, as our new baby (an English Mastiff called Lewis) doesn't like the heat, and gets a bit silly when inside. We are slowly training him to stay on his mat but he is a stubborn boy, and likes to wander around and steal toys off the kids! He was also so hot yesterday that he decided the mat was too far away from his indoor water bucket, and instead laid right next to it with his tail in it, so you can imagine the shower we all got when he stood up and wagged it.

After a couple of swimming sessions in the pool though, the kids (and puppy) were out like a light and I set about finishing these pyjamas. I used the Louey Boxers pattern for Austy's pyjama bottoms for a change. I usually draft my own pattern for his bottoms, and the fishy pair that Maddy now wears, still fit him (in the bottoms) but I decided that it was time for some real boxers. I must admit, when I first downloaded this e-pattern, I was dissappointed and not sure if I would make them or draft my own as they don't have a back seam and I thought they would look silly. However, when I thought about it, I decided to give them a try since Austy doesn't like the feel of seams in his clothes and they'd be more comfortable for sleeping in.

They took a bit of effort to prepare the pieces (lots of pressing and folding) but the folding template that helps to fold over the correct seam allowances, is genius! Also I was impressed with the level of detail and how these are so similar to DH's purchased boxers. The buttons you see on the fly are not functional, but they very well could have been. I love that this pattern gives you the option to fake it or do a working fly. I was so tempted to make them with the working fly but I asked the man of the house, who said he never uses the fly on his as it's more fiddly to undo the button than pull them down, and figured it would be easier for Austy too. He also reminded me that Austy has a fascination for pants with a fly and they would end up needing washing more times than they were worn if I did the working fly! So I sighed (as I love the cuteness factor of them being just like Daddy's) and stitched the fly flaps together.

I am not sure that I will use this pattern for Madelyn's matching PJ's (I have the red Cat in The Hat fabric for hers), or whether I will draft a basic shorts pattern with a ruffle hem to girly them up a bit. I am out of underpants elastic and since the elastic is expopsed in the Louey Boxers, I wouldn't want to use anything else. So I guess it really depends if I want to wait until the shops are open again tomorrow to start making them!

Pattern Review

Pattern Name: Louey Boxers

Pattern by: Sis Boom http://www.sisboom.com/patterns/

Pros: So quick to purchase (downloadable PDF), beautifully detailed (just like Daddy's), excellent tutorial-like instructions with full colour photos for every step. Excellent size range - 6m to 12 years!

Cons: No seam at the rear (although I am not sure that is a con now - quicker to sew, more comfy to wear), 1/4" seams (I much prefer wider seam allowances so I can let my overlocker trim as it neatens rather than have the fabric sitting in away from the cutter).

Overall rating: 4.5 sewing reels!

And here's a pic of our own Lewey Bear cooling off inside yesterday.

Colourful evenings

2011-03-10T22:01:00.003+10:30

Our little Ravelry group hosted a "New Year's Colour Swap" that arrived just as I posted in here last, but my parcel (which was a little bit late) hadn't yet landed at it's destination. I picked "purple" and was once again spoilt by Celia (who also had me for the 100g challenge swap last year), who sent me some gorgeous Wollmiese sock yarn that she dyed herself, a cute little handknitted pouch containing some tiny gemstone knitting markers (great for sock needles!) and a pait of handknitted mitts. Then in my Ravelry library, I found her sock patterns, one for "Slippy Socks" a simple sock pattern, great for sock beginners like me, that ranges from toddler to adult, and a lpretty "Boiudior Booties" pattern. I have one pair of knitted socks that I made when Austy was about 14m old, and I love to wear them in winter under jeans, or just around the house at night when it's cold. It's amazing how much warmer they are, but that paior has seen better days. I decided I needed to make myself some more so Celia put this package together accordingly. Photos don't do the yarn justice - it is divine in every way, I have it handy and keep picking it up to ogle and touch it. These will be my "happy socks" I think as they will be like a little toe hug from myself.

Here's the parcel I put together, for Claire, who was the one who sent me a parcel in last year's colour swap. Her colour theme was "rainbow", so I made her little 1yr old boy some rainbow socks, dyed some rainbow Woolganics (shown in the blog post below), made some rainbow buttons, collected together a rainbow of Kool Aid I had in my stash for her to use in wool dyeing with the kids (it's much safer than acid dyeing for the little ones as there are no toxic fumes).

I found some fabric with knitting chickens on it, and had to have it to make her a little boxy bag to tuck the wool into. I was going to cover the journal with a Bloom Journal cover using denim and a rainbow strip, but I only got as far as making the strip so that will now become something else. At least the journal had a few colours on it already. I also made some clips for her three girls (yes there are only two sets here, but soon after I took the shot I realised there was another girl to make some for and got cracking!) and packaged them up with some rainbow coloured SPC "Chompioes" lollies, and tucked in a box of gormet, rainbow coloured jelly beans for Claire, along with some chocolate mudcake coffee satchels.

I also managed to FINALLY get around to making Austy's art smock for school to save me scrubbing out the t-shirt stains all night long, although the plastic on the front makes it horrid to photograph (at least it stops the paint seeping through and that tell-tale line across the front of his school tops where he has been leaning over the table).

It was just cheap fabric I had from Spotlight from a couple of years ago, once upon a time destined to be sandpit trousers (no pockets to catch the sand) for kindy/home but never made it to the sewing desk. I found a good use for it now though, and the embroidery machine is fabulous for making sure noone steals his things. I now have his name saved in the memory card in two sizes (large from the art smock and medium from the library bag) so I don't have to input one letter at a time onto the tiny screen again.

And seeing as I am finally getting around to things, I made a new night nappy for Madelyn last night. Her old ones need the elastic replaced, but I am too lazy to repair them and just made a new one instead. I was going to make more, but unfortunately I am out of bamboo and hemp fleece. Now considering whether I should buy more or repair the others. She is still a little way off training for nights so I think I might be safe to grab a couple more metres. I forgot how soft and squishy a new night nappy is...they don't look like this when they've been worn every third or fourth night for a year!

And a knitting WIP for my boy - green socks at his request, made with Celia's "Slippy Socks" pattern which I modified slightly, adding in a cable at either side. I dyed this baby wool I had stashed away from when he was born (it was meant to be a baby cardy for him). It was a very baby blue, so I dyed it to suit his colour request. He was dissapointed at first because he wanted a brighter green (I can't believe a 5yr old has preferences as to which SHADE of their favourite colour they liek best!) but he loves the texture and wouldn't take it off after the try on, wanting to rub the top of it (where the bumpy slipped stitches are) with his other foot until bath time. I don't think he will let this sock succumb to single sock syndrome - he will be on at me every klnight until the second sock magically appears!

Catching up with life

2011-02-18T20:15:00.005+10:30

Since school started, my feet have hardly touched the ground. Noone ever tells you how much it takes to get settled into the school routine, and even if they did, I probably wouldn't have taken much notice as being full time at work throws it all out anyway, and I am not doing the normal school runs that most school mums do.

However I am quickly learning that the new routine is going to take some serious getting used to. From experience when I was only a mum to one, I knew that adding just one extra work day to my week was going to be exhausting - especially as that was the last step to full time status, leaving me only the weekends to be with my precious little darlings. But add to that two extra stops on the way home from work (one stop was often needed to get something from the supermarket for dinner), with a childcare pick-up I didn't used to have to do with a nanny waiting at home with them , as well as an OSHC pickup for a totally exhausted boy who is bouncing off the walls and seems to have grown fluff in both his ears by the time I get him, and I just can't seem to be on schedule with the diunner bath, stories and bed routine. I think the earliest I have had them down is 8pm, but it's often extending out toward 8:30, when they are normally more than ready at 7:30, their standard bedtime.

So my challenge is set, and I would love to know any tips from working school mums out there to help me get home, spend a little time with them, get dinner on the table by 6, and them into the bath by 6:45 so that there is still plenty opf time for Austy to do his reader, and me to read them their bedtime story as we snuggle up on Austy's bed, in time for a 7:30 kiss goodnight and CD players switched on to send them on their much needed nightly visit to slumberland.

Of course, by the time I have done all that, I am more than ready to throw myself down for a much needed break, but I know if I stop, that is it for the night. So instead I run around clearing the turmoil that is left from rushing through cooking and from trying to get them off to bed and there's usually a load of washing to hang (I put it on to wash as soon as I walk in the door, when I get Austy changed out of his school uniform and go through his school bag to read notes and get it ready for the next day), dishes to unload from the dishwaher, toys to pack away, another load of washing to fold and put away as I generally hang one out in the morning before work too, as well as any general cleaning. I still have a list as long as my arm for craft projects I want to work on, but by the time all the "must do" stuff is over with, it's getting quite late and I have an alarm set to wake me up at 5:30 to do it all again the next day. If I do make time for what I actually WANT to do, it's at the price of sleeping hours, which I need too, so it's a bit of a balancing act, that's for sure! Then there are the nights where the kids just won't go to sleep as Austy wants Lotta to sleep in his bed, and Maddy, well she's just being Maddy, calling out for an hour or so after I say goodnight and needing me to go in every 5 minutes (I will add she is teething with those dreaded 2yr old molars, and she's not waking us up at night like her big brother did when they cut, so I won't be too harsh about that one!). Welcome to my world!

Austy's school didn't provide me with any kind of guideline about waht he needed this year, as they supply "everything", which is great as it does save me some time as I don't have books to cover and a million labels to apply to belongings, but I was a little embarassed when I mistook Austy's reader bag for a library bag and left it home since they didn't have library day for another week. When the teacher asked me why the reader bag wasn't in his school bag as it must come back every day, I told her that I thought it was his library bag, and she replied "No, you need to get him one of those yourself". So on the weekend between week 1 and 2, while Austy was out for a special night with Dad at the cricket for being such a big brave boy at school (he shed quite a few tears that first week so we had to make a big deal), I was sticthing up a cute library bag that he would recognise easily as his. He loves green and is very much into space and rockets, so I had set out to find green rocket fabric and actually found some without too much struggle. Being bought locally instead of online from the US, the fabric was nearly 3 times the price that I usually pay, so I just bought a little strip and then downloaded an embroidery design pack from bunnycup. Austy chose this rocket, and I picked the colours to match the rocket fabric at the top.

I also have been doing a bit of dyeing in the past couple of weeks that I have been neglecting my blog. First up I did this colourway, which was mean to be nice and bright like the shot below. It is gaywool dyes on a WOLLganics base, and I didn't know that you need vinegar with such soft, unprocessed wool. So half of teh colour washed out and left this suttle blend of colours. I wasn't happy at first, but after seeing a knitted swatch I think it will make a gorgeous unisex newborn project for one of the many babies that keep popping into the lives of those around me.

Then I had another go and got this. Exactly what I planned for the WOOLganics auction set that was won by Susan. Keep your eyes out for the finished set as it will be getting packaged to post in the next week or so.

The photo at the top of this post was also WOOLganics, dyed after learning my vinegar lesson with the "Dinosaurus" colourway for the auction set. THe purpose for that dye up will be revealed soon, as with the reason for this girly 4ply dye up on BWM Luxury.

While Austy was at school that first week I made three pairs of Tinkle Time Trainers for Miss Maddy, who is 2 going on 10, but nowhere near ready to toilet train. Andrew thought that he would like to give it a try while I was at work, since we are having warm weather and Austy was pretty much trained by now (only to regress when I started showing a bit of a baby bump with him at 2.5yrs and wanting to keep being my baby). Maddy's not doing too badly though, and we have found it wonderful to keep the disposables off her at childcare. They won't use cloth nappies there but they will use cloth trainers, and the disposables just don't get changed often enough (she's only there a few hours but she still needs a change!) so she was getting a rash. Now we put her in trainers, if she wets they notice, and put her in a disposable and I get it off the instant we get in the door. She even managed to stay dry the whole afternoon one day this week, and then I told Andrew and he said she had insisted she wear those trainers that morning, so she had actually gone the whole day!

And since I am now really getting along with my embroidery machine, when I had to come up with a baby shower present in a matter of days, I whipped out my embroidery hoop and appliqued this cute little monkey.

I thought it went beautifully with this super cute fabric I HAD to have when we were at Joann's in the US when Maddy was a baby. It wasn't really girly enough for me to use for her, since everyone kept calling my baldy baby a boy, so I held onto it, waiting for just the right project. This is it! Super cute and perfectly practical, the pattern is from Ottobre, and done in size 56cm, it should last the bub for at least 3 months. This little boy is going to be little brother to Madelyn's swimming friend Collin, so I think a little something for Collin with this monkey design is also on the cards.

I haven't forgotten Blockapalooza either - 6 blocks down and a lot more to go. Hopefully I will be back soon to show off my progress with my Central Park fabrics! Ooh, and a wonderful purple package that arrived today as part of a ravelry swap, especially for me. But for now I had better get back to that nagging housework to see if I can fit in some sewing before bed.

It's here!

2011-01-31T14:44:00.004+10:30

During that busy first week of school, Madelyn and I were verty excited to open a couple of fabric parcels - the first one, this adorable and impossiblyu pretty dress made by Naomi, for as a part of the Queensland Flood relief auctions. It was going far too cheaply, and I couldn't have that, so despite it only being a size 2 (Maddy normally wears a 3) I decided to chance it and place a bid.

So glad I did, as it's a very generous fit, so pretty and girly for our little princess, and what's more, she loves it to bits! The reason I couldn't capture a nioce modelled shot? She was far too busy twirling and dancing! Naomi has done such a fabulous job with this dress, such wonderful quality and the skirt even has a lining to help boof it out a bit. With an added bit of bling it was bound to be a winner with Madelyn and me!

And of course, I was very much anticipating the arrival of this precious bundle - a fat eights pack of Kate Spain's Central Park range so I could get started on Bloggers' Blocakpalooza quilt along! I cut into it straight away, as I was already two blocks behind. This is going to make a funky quilt for our family room for the winter. You know those chilly nights where you just want to snuggle up in front of the TV? One of my favourite moments in the cooler months, and this should be big enough for snuggling with the kids too.

My favourite prints are diefinitely the little animals, but I am too scraed to cut into those yet. This quilt aloing is turning out to be quite fun and liberating, as I have had to let go a little and ejoy the process since I don't know what is coming next. I normally fuss forever about what blocks to put where but this time I just have to trust the designers and go with the flow a little.

The big day - my baby boy is at SCHOOL!

2011-01-31T12:09:00.006+10:30

That's right! This little guy is now officially a school boy. (Excuse the smudge on his top - I hid the school logo for the blog for security reasons). After an early start to the day, we fed him up with as big a breakfast as we could get him to eat, packed his bag and delivered him to school with lots of hugs and kisses, including a special kiss from his baby sister as we left. While a little shy, he was very excited, and got stuck straight into the activity, drawing me a tree and an owl. At home he just draws scribbles so I was thrilled to see some detail in this one, I just love the way he did the leaves.

Of course, Madelyn thought she was a school kid too and had to steal a place at the desks (luckily there was a child absent this morning at Austy's table). I met the new head mistress, who asked me if Madelyn was 3, and as soon as I replied, "No, she's just turned 2", my little toddler tugged at my t-shirt saying "Excuse me Mummy, where is my dwink?" as she wanted to put it in the tub with all of the other school kids' drinks. I think we wiull be hearing that mistake a lot as she certainly talks like a 3 year old. Not long after she was threading tiny beads onto a string with the big kids, so I think she will be growing up fast enough!

In the meantime, I have been plugging away at a few little projects, including 3 pairs of training pants for Madelyn (no pics as they just keep getting snatched to be worn, and then promptly weed in!), my Quilts for Queensland blocks (one for the boys)...

...(and a test run for the Bloggers Blockapalooza)...

...and trying my hand at FMQ as I put together some potholders for the EB potholder sew, show, swap.

Here are my 4 different completed ones, with another one waiting to be quilted (it has cupcakes on it and Madelyn alreeady thinks it's hers, so I may have to do another to keep here!)

I am enjoying some time off from work while we settle our boy into school, so hope to get some quality sewing time in when Madelyn naps. Ah, the joy of being a SAHM (even if it is only for a week!).

He sews too!

2011-01-29T09:15:00.002+10:30

It seems this school holidays is the time to teach little boys to sew. I have one bored 5yr old here, who is desperate to learn new things (thank goodness he becomes a SCHOOL kid next week), and who for the last few months of kindy was grizzling "I don't want to go, it's boring, we always do the same stuff and it's too easy!". Keeping him entertained and stimulated has been a bit tricky lately but we know if we don't give him new things to do, his behaviour goes out the window.

He has always taken an interest in sewing (although sewing for him usually consits of sitting on my lap pressing the start/stop button on my "picture machine" (aka embroidery machine) or sitting on my lap pressing the scissors button when I am sewing (when I ask him too of course). He is amazed by how those machines just do their thing and loves to just watch the needle going up and down. When he was littler, I just could not sew when he was awake for fear of him wanting to "help" and making things take 100 times longer. Madelyn on the other hand isn't quite as fussed, and loses interest very quickly when she realises that she is only allowed to touch buttons when I say she can.

So on Sunday, as I finished off Madelyn's liuttle top and skirt set, he asked me to teach him to sew. Not press a couple of buttons, SEW! I had a quick think, and remebered Lotta is always in need of new toys as she is super playful and loses evertything under couches within 5 minutes (yes this new toy is temporarily missing too!) and remembered making one with Nanna when I was about 10 or 12. When Maddy went down for her nap, we set to work. I cut out a little denim scrap (from the skirt) and some polar fleece, layed them on top of each other and helped him sew around the edge. He couldn't quite reach the pedal and see the machine, without hanging on the edge of the desk, so he had a turn at both the feeding and the pedalling. He liked the feeding best, but is a little heavy handed and stopped it moving a few times. Lotta doesn't care and in fact the tiny stitches that resulted just make it stronger.

Knowing Lotta's love for bells and rattles, I took over and made the little elastic strip and hand stitched a bell to it, to stitch into one end, and while we were at it, I let Austy snip off a bit of selvedge from the polar fleece for another "dangly". Austy stuffed it, then I handstitched it close (completely forgetting the satchels of catnip I have in my sewing draw specifically for projects like these- arghhh!). Watching the delight in Austin's face as he handed her the new toy and she started playing straight away was priceless. It is her new favourite toy, which made the project even more thrilling for him. I see more sewing in his future despite the fact that his mean old Dad says sewing is for girls. I mean, seriously, how is it okay for ME to be a mechanical engineer, but not okay for his son to sew? As far as I am concerned, I will teach him, what ever he wants to learn (as long as I have the skills to do so.) Which reminds me, I had best get onto the hunt for a piano teacher, as he can't wait to learn that either and my ability in that area is nowhere near my sewing skills!

Project 52 - A Flutterby Moment

2011-01-28T21:26:00.002+10:30

A gentle bushwalk with my best bud, yielded this image as we both played with our new cameras.

ETA: I couldn't choose this week so I threw them both in. Originally I thought the bottom one was better but I like the way I captured the open wings in the top one.

A little bit of country style

2011-01-23T13:33:00.002+10:30

I have learned my lesson: Never judge a fabric at first glance! This fabric, which is simply gorgeous on my little girl, was a freebie Liberty Print ("Pepper") that my mother in law gave me when she was cleaning out her fabrics. She hasn't really done a lot of sewing since her children were little and what she had was mostly small cuts, suitable for children only. She handed me this fabric saying "You might be able to use that for your quilting". I took one look and screwed my nose up (she was telling me to be honest as she didn't want to give me fabric I wouldn't use!). I couldn't imagine it as a quilt at all. But as we continued to go through the fabrics, I started thinking that it would make a cute little top for my girl.

It definitely does! A bit Country Road style, I think. This has to be one of my favourite little outfits I have made. It suits her perfectly. It isn't pink (yay!) but she loves it anyway as it still has enough prettiness to it - yes, she is such a little princess and loves lace, ribbon, frills and PINK!

The top is on the front cover of Ottobre 3/2007. I have loved the design ever since I got that issue, but wasn't ready to tackle shirring then, and besides, at that time of my life I was only looking at boy patterns. Good thing I picked it up again as the biggest size for this top is 92cm - which is equivalent to a size 2. She only just fits the pattern now and even then, I did it with the rolled hem as in the pattern to begin with and it was far too short. Not to worry, this lace/broderie englaise combo trim was just perfect to give it 1.5" extra in length and adds to the prettiness. I could easily upsize this pattern now if I needed to but I don't like to muck around too much on my first go.

This wonderful soft denim was also a freebie from my generous mother-in-law. I love soft denim and use it alot, so I grabbed it for my pile the second she showed me. While it was there on the bed with my other "to keep" fabrics, I spotted it next to the Liberty print and then I just had to have the print to go with it, as they team together beautifully. It's amazing how envisioning the right project for a fabric can change your whole wiew of it. As soon as I pictured the top and denim skirt I actually started to love the print I hadn't much liked at first glance.

And, I have also found a use for the gorgeous tapes I won from LillaLotta's blog during Blogtoberfest a couple of years ago. I have been stashing them away for something special, but they really need to be used so people can see them, so I got brave and snipped this label off. The perfect little finishing touch. Why do I make clothes for my darlings? Because I love them.

If you want to make a skirt just like this one, go to From An Igloo, where you will find an excellent free tutorial. The best thing about this pattern - what you can't see in the photos is that under the first ruffle, I have used the Liberty print. So when she dances, twirls or just plays around the garden, you can see a flash of matching fabric, to tie the two items together into a matching set. Love it! What a fabulous idea.

Project 52 - The Natural World

2011-01-21T16:13:00.004+10:30

I don't think I have mentioned yet, but in December, this little sweetheart came into our lives. You may recall that we haven't had a good run with our fur-babies lately, with my Siamese cat Gryffin leaving us in 2009 after 11 years of being my living hot water bottle, then a very short run with our adorable little Cornish boy, Milo, who died of Feline Peritonitis at only 8 months old. Milo's breeder promised us a new baby, and so we welcomed Lotta, just before Christmas. She is a black smoke/tortie Cornish Rex, who is a little vocal and stubborn, but loves to play all the same, and we are finding lots of room for her in our hearts. She does love to snuggle, and is very smoochy, but so far it seems I am her favourite cuddle toy!

That brings me to Project 52! Since I now have a DSLR in my hot little hands, I have decided to join in on this, which will see me publish a Project photograph for each week of the year that follows my selected theme "The Natural World". When I selected this theme I was trying not to limit myself too much but also try to challenge myself a little to expand my photography beyond photos of my children. That said, I do love taking photos of their gorgeous chubby, smiley faces, so they will pop up from time to time, but hopefully not every week. Since I am a tad late in starting, I will end up with 50 photos at the end of the year, that while technically may be far from perfect, should show my skills developing and me learning exactly what my camera can do!

I have started the project with this shot: Frolic. Lotta was rolling around enjoying the warmth of the sun (despite the hot summer day!). It was my first photo in manual mode after I worked out how to change the aperture and shutter speed. You can tell from the thin slits in her eyes that the sun was quite harsh, so it was a challenge to get the right exposure.

I have since played a little more, testing out how shallow my depth of field will go with the 50mm lens. That's pretty shallow!

And this one, just because it shows her playful nature. Little Lotta is slowly learning to tolerate the children wanting to pat her and cart her around all the time. I miss the bond that Milo had with Madelyn, but hope that the bond with Lotta and all of us will blossom as the weeks go by. We all hope that Lotta is our family pet for a very long time!

On the home front, now my baby girl has caught the dreaded virus that Austy and I had last week. For her it has been a little worse as the fever is causing her to throw up (hence the singlet and nappy!) Luckily she is a very easy going little girl, and easily distracted with some home-made playdough. Pink, of course!

Craft wise, I will soon have some SHOPPING to show off, as the quilt bug has hit again, and I hope to churn out some beauitiful quilts in 2011 and finally brave free motion quilting. With us being sick the last week or so, I realised that I have nothing to snuggle with on the lounge, and even though we are in the midst of summer here, when you have a fever like that, you still want something to snuggle under. This year there will DEFINITELY be a couch quilt for me!

The Christmas Dress - Full Reveal

2011-01-18T20:21:00.003+10:30

As I mentioned in my last post, I have quite a backlog of projects to blog, and this is one of my favourites! When I saw the main fabric for this dress (by Riley Blake - my favourite designer!) I just KNEW it had to become Madelyn's Christmas dress. I had no idea what to team it with but I had the other fabric ( a spotlight cheapie) laid out across the lounge room floor for backing my advent calendar, and thought I could "get away with it". But as soon as I put the two together I knew they were meant to be together!

Project Name: Madelyn's Christmas Dress

Pattern Name: "In the Garden Shirred Twirly dress" FREE Tutorial here

Size: 3yrs (actually, made to measure)

Pro's: Easy! Delightful! Super full! Super Twirly! Big smiles from the little girl!

Con's: None, unless you count the tears when I tell Maddy it's in the wash!

This was my first go at shirring a dress, which lead me to the sundress in my previous post. I... just... love... shirring! Super easy and gives a fantastic fit that will last for ages, and comfy for my little girl to wear.

I also made a ruffled headband to match this dress and together the set looks divine. She was so adorable on Christmas day, but alas I was too busy in the kitchen to get a good shot of her in the whole ensemble, and now the headband has gone astray.

As you can tell, I am already in love with my new camera, even though I have a long way to go ion learning how to use it. If only my precious daughter was more of a model. I mean, of course she is gorgeous enough (those pretty blonde locks and cuddle me eyes!) but she just won't keep STILL! She just wanted to run and hide from me, but I guess I didn't do too badly considering I have been at work all day and she didn't have her nap.

First project for 2011

2011-01-17T15:54:00.004+10:30

I have a bit of a project backlog for the blog, as I haven't been keeping up to date. So here is the first one I finished in the first week of January, and has been worn several times since as it's just so easy to throw on.

Project Name: Sunny Days dress

Made For: Madelyn (24m)

Size: 3-4yrs

Pattern Name: Ava Tie Top (Dress version) by Izzy and Ivy

Pro's: No patterns to trace, quick and easy! Great fit.

Cons: Ran out of thread to do the pin ticks with the overlocker as I had used a whole reel of yellow by the time I'd done all the shirring and topstitching. I ended up turning under the rolled edge on the bottom as it wouldn't look right with folded pin tucks, and used a slightly different shade of yellow to do the pin tucks. Yes I could have gone and bought more... if it wasn't a public holiday. I am impatient! This was my pattern tester dress anyway and I have more fabric set aside for another.

And another block whipped up for the Quilts For Queensland project. I did the centre as a paperpieced block to remember how to do it, (yes it has been that long!) and it was meant to be used to make a potholder for the EB Sew-Show-Swap that I am involved in. But it just cried out to become a 12" block for a boy's quilt. And so it became one with the addition of some complimentary borders.

I am almost back to my normal self now, so back to work for me tomorrow (the Dr said I will no longer be contagious after 5 days of the antibiotics so no chance of giving anyone else this horrid respiratory flu and bronchitis and Austy is sounding a lot better now too). Glad to not be coughing so much and to have the energy back to do the things I love.

Quilts for Queensland: Block #1

2011-01-16T16:30:00.003+10:30

I am loving how the blogging and crafting world is pulling together for this cause! Corrie from Retromummy has started the Quilts For Queensland project, where we can contribute as little as a single block made up from a few scraps, up to a completed quilt whioch she will organise to have donated to those effected by the floods. Many of these people have lost everything so a comfy handmade quilt to snuggle under would be sure to help bring back a smile or two.

Corrie is after 12" finished blocks (12.5" unfinished) so that she can put together some quilts for boys, girls, mums, dads - anyone! So I decided to make my first block a boy block, as the boys sometimes get forgotten when pretty fabrics are there for the using. (Please excuse the stray bit of cotton that I didn't see until after uploading the photo!)

I plan to make at least a couple more, as they will help make a dent in my scrap pile, get me back into quilt making mode, and also get turned into beautiful quilts. If you can sew a straight line, and have some spare cotton fabric, then why not join in? For more info, click on the button in my sidebar.

My birthday wish came true!

2011-01-15T14:05:00.006+10:30

I have wanted a DSLR for ages. And now I have one! I did have to do a bit of prodding to get it, but here it is in my hot little hands. I have been warned not to mention the words "new" and "camera" in the same sentence for the next 20 years unless I am talking about this one, but I think I will be fine... for a little while anyway ;)

I have a lot of reading, playing and learning to do for now, but hopefully I can show you some of the things that this baby can do, here on my blog soon , so watch this space! You are bound to see more FO pics, pics of the kids, (and furkid!) over the weeks to come so you have now been warned that this blog could become picture heavy!

For now though I have some recovery to do. Austy and I have been unwell - poor Austy for longer than I have as the doctor said he was fine after a week of 39 degree fever and a horrid cough that would not go away. I was given antibiotics for bronchitis but nothing to help Austin. When I went in for a second opinion for him I was told we both had either whooping cough or a bad strain of the flu, perhaps even swine flu and to stay housebound until we heard back from our swabs or until we finish the strong antibiotics he put us both on. Luckily we were both given the all clear for whooping cough and swine flu, but it still hit us hard. We were planning to go out for a birthday dinner together tonight as DH and I were both meant to be working on my birthday and no real chance for a meal together to have a cake. However we have postponed again as I can hardly eat a nibble at the moment (apparently that is the antibiotics that make us both feel a bit gross when we eat), so have decided the cake can wait until we can all enjoy it!

I have had a little play with my new toy though, and I look forward to being well enough to be giving it a real workout!

Edited to add a couple of shots I took today on it - I have a long way to go I know, but this was all I could get from my uncooperative (and black -eyed from a sleep-bump the other night) 2 year old, (who told me not to take her photo!) and my still recovering 5 year old. Got to have a starting point, right? Time for me to get back and read the manual some more!

Queensland Flood Relief Auctions

2011-01-13T21:33:00.005+10:30

I don't really need to mention too much about the Queensland Floods for people to know what I am talking about - it's all across the news, all across the world, the impact is huge. Toni from Make It Perfect (click button in sidebar for details) has come up with a great idea for the crafting world to raise money to help them all get back onto their feet. The least I can do is take part.

Toni will be listing a master list of all auctions from all crafting bloggers on Monday 17th January, with all auctions closing on midnight EST on 24th January.

I am unwell this week so haven't been able to pull my finger out and get making, however I thought I could still play along, offering up a semi custom soaker or shorties set that I will make once the auction concludes.

The shorties/soaker (winning bidder's choice) will be hand-knitted from lush Woolganics 12ply, dyed by me in a girl/ boy/ gender neutral handpainted colourway using professional Gaywool acid dyes. My dyeing style (a little bit of this and a little bit of that) does not lend itself to repeatable colourways, but you may suggest a colour theme for me to follow. I will create a unique colourway just for you. A matching purchased t-shirt will be embroidered by me to go with the soaker/shorties with a machine embroidered applique design and name of the child (name is optional). If a size small is chosen, there is the additional option of the shorties/soaker being longies instead - I will dye up 100g of wool with 50g of semisolid trim, and 100g will make longies in size small. Similarly, you can choose capris if you are after a size medium.

You choose:

Colour preference (girl/boy/ gender neutral) and may offer suggestions of 1 or 2 colours to include in the varigated handpainted yarn. I will choose the other colours based on what dyes I have and will create a colouraway of 4 or 5 colours.

Soaker or shorties (for large size), soaker, shorties or capris (for medium size), soaker, shorties, capris or longies (for small size).

Woollies size - small (NB-3m), medium( 3m- 9m) or large (9m -2yrs) Sizes in brackets are age estimates only as all babies grow at different rates.

T-shirt size and style (short or long sleeved, and size 000-2) I will choose colour based on availability and what will go with the woollies

Applique design (I will give you a few to choose from - designs that I have already purchased)

Font for name if personalisation is requested (again, I will give you a few fonts to choose from based on what I have)

Here is how it works:

1. Bidding will start at $30 (Australian)

2. Bids are placed by leaving a comment on this post with your bid amount and email. Please make sure your bid is higher than the previous bidder.

3. You must bid in whole dollar increments

4.Overseas residents will be charged actual shipping costs, however postage is free for Australian residents

5. The auction begins NOW and wil close at midnight EST on 24th January

6. At the close of the auction I will contact the winner to find out your preferences for soaker/shorties, colour preferences (boy/girl/gender neutral), long sleeved or short sleeve t-shirt, size and whether you want the child's name embroidered on the t-shirt (and the name).

7. Please make your payment of the winning amnount directly to the Premiers Flood Relief fund and send proof of payment to me.

8. Once proof of payment is received I will make and send the set to you within 3 weeks of receipt.

Thank you so much for taking part. Happy bidding!

ETA: At the request of my first bidder I will also update my facebook account with bid changes. (Great idea Susan!)

Photos are both sets that I have made previously from my own hand dyed wool, and appliqued t-shirts to match (the photographed t-shirts were also hand made by me, but this auction will use a PURCHASED t-shirt with my applique).

2011!

2011-01-09T14:35:00.002+10:30

Just a short post to wish my readers a wonderful year ahead.

There are some changes going on in here, as I normally do at the start of the new year - as you can see I have been playing around with my blog design, and I can promise you it won't stay this way. I don't like it much but had to do something to test out sizes etc. and since I have a widescreen monitor now, I still don't know if it works. The colours are a bit too pink for me, so I will have a rehash when I can. Since this is a new computer, I only had the papers I downloaded for Madelyn's birthday invitations to play with. It was either pink and girly, or rockets and space (from Austy's invitations)!

I am working on a number of projects at the moment, and have some to upload from the end of last year (a couple of sundresses and test knits). I am going to try to set up a new proforma for publishing my projects, to keep it brief, easy to read and send people in the right direction for pattern links etc.

Last year, I worked on feeling less guilty for spending time for me. This year I aim to take this further by scheduling set times for my craft projects and making sure I get it. I am slowly learning that time for me makes me a better mother, not a worse one, and it is just as important as everytthing else I do for the kids. Hopefully I will be able to get more involved in swaps and blog events this year and feel connected with my online crafty friends again.

Stay tuned!

Pageant Day!

2010-11-13T17:27:00.003+10:30

After a trip to kmart yeilded only a t-shirt for Madelyn and nothing for Austin, I pulled an all nighter sewing his from scratch. When I saw all the Ben10/spiderman rubbish in the boys section and not a single plain t-shirt that wasn't black, I remembered why I had bought his from the girls' section last year when I made their appliqued Christmas pyjama sets. Unfortunately this year all the girls' tops had puffy sleeves which kind of gave away that they weren't meant for the boys.

To add to my frustrations, I went to the sewing shop to get more stabiliser yesterday morning, and came away with a heap of tear-away, only to realise it was the cut-away that I had run out of, and the one I needed for knits. I decided to give it a go anyway while Madelyn had her nap and Austin was happy to sit on my lap pressing the start button. Unfortunately I discovered the hard way thast tear-away is no substitute for cut-away when it comes to knits. The hat and the lollies looked like something Madelyn had coloured in, with the colours way off the outlines. So I rushed back to the sewing shop when she woke up for the right stabiliser, and still had to do both designs and make the t-shirt after they were tucked up in bed for the night.

The looks on their faces in the morning were worth the heavy eyelids though when they saw the tops layed out for them on the couch this morning. We fed and dressed them and got down to the bus stop hoping to stay out of the rain, where they sat still for a brief moment for me to take a picture or two. (We didn't catch the bus in the end - we got there early but it just didn't come so we had some tears from a very bus-happy boy!). The shorts and skirt were in their wardrobes from last summer, and the clip I made for Madelyn yesterday morning. They looked very cute, all Christmassy and loved the pageant, Madelyn pointing out all the butterfly floats and anything pink, and Austin very excited when the jolly man in red arrived.

Austin's t-shirt is the same pattern I used for the EB clothing swap earlier this year (simply because I already had the pattern trtaced out in his size). It is the "Sulo" t-shirt from Ottobre 3/2010.

Swap set revealed

2010-10-15T21:23:00.003+10:30

Here is the little summer set I sent over for 4yr old car loving Tom, the son of Anna, creator of TillyTom Designs. I must admit, sewing for a WAHM who makes and sells gorgeous kids clothes was a little daunting at first, but I just pretended I was sewing for Austy so my nerves dissappeared, which was easy given that our boys are both 4yrs old and similar in sizing.
I think the t-shirt was my favourite part of the set - I am just such a sucker for a raglan, and I do like blue on little boys. I nearly used the pale blue as the main colour, but I know how grubby my boy gets and decided that the navy was more practical.

The shorts took a little longer than I expected - all that topstitch detail, and lots of pockets (those gusseted ones on the sides were a little fiddly, but I think the effort was worth it. I tried them on Austin but he wasn't thrilled, telling me "You forgot the bit that keeps my ankles warm - I will get cold!" I think he was happy when I told them they weren't for him, mind you, we were having some very chilly days before I left for the US, and until today, I thought I had brought the glorious Michigan weather home with me.

The trim fabrics used for the applique on both the shorts and top, and for the front pocket inserts and side pocket gussets is some wonderful new Riley Blake stuff. So great to see his fabulous boy prints, and I stocked a little up to do something fun for Austy.

Please don't be disheartened by my long time between posts - I am working on projects, I promise. However our computer has held on longer than it should have (just) and really needs to get ditched for a new one. That's right, my laptop died ages ago, and now the main PC has had it, and reboots itself every few minutes making posting rather frustrating. Now I just have to get my miser of a husband to agree to getting a new one... I am STILL waiting for my new laptop! (He has Scottish blood - need I say more ;))

EB Sewer's Kids Clothing Swap

2010-09-07T21:35:00.001+09:30

Moday was opening day fro this swap, where I sent this:

Okay, so that doesn't show you much, but I will blog it properly when it has been received. I sooo wanted to keep the t-shirt for Austy, so another is on the cards especially for him this time!

Here is what I received from Tina, for Madelyn. She read my notes on Madelyn very carefully and knew anything with cupcakes would go down well, and teamed it with a very sweet handmade clip to match.

The clip was being clutched by an eeensy meensy little panda bear that I haven't been able to photograph - it's a new favourite for Maddy! I opened the parcel whilst giving her the bedtime feed last night. It wasn't enough to make her stop feeding (she is a little milk mad!) but she started giggling and clutched him to her chest as soon as I showed her.

It is VERY hard to get decent pictures of her these days (and at the moment it is especially difficult since she is unwell) but I managed to capture her "dancing" in her new dress. Not a brilliant picture, but you can at least get an idea of how it looks on her.

Please excuse Penelope on in the background while I got the back shot - it was the only way she would stand still! The dress looks so cute on her, just a tad tight and short (she is a bit bigger than the average 20 month old and quickly catching up to her brother). It seems the warm weather is a while away yet though, so hopefully that will give me a chance to modify the waistband to include buttons (there were some tears getting it on and off) and move the buttons down on the bodice so it adds a little more length as it only just clears the nappy. I hope you don't mind Tina - I just don't think it will get worn how it is as it is just too hard to get on and off.

Another baby gift

2010-09-05T09:56:00.002+09:30

Finished just in the nick of time (and gifted still damp!) for a relative's baby shower yesterday, was this "Small Things Romper" in my hand dyed Appletree colourway (with BWM "Stone" trim). Super snuggly, and quick to knit, this is fast becoming one of my favourite baby patterns, and knitting with a hand painted yarn always makes it more interesting.

If I had more time, I was contemplating making apple tree themed fimo buttons but alas time is something I can never seem to find much of (perhaps it is my poor time management, or perhs I just get a little too ambitious sometimes!). Nevertheless I think these buttons I foiund at my local sewing store fit the bill perfectly, and keep the garment unisex. I am thinking to make a little teddy bear or bunny "blankie"with the animal head done from the contrast and the blankie part done with the left over hand painted wool. I will be making up the pattern as I go, but have a month before the baby is due, and some long hours in planes and airport terminals that I should be able to fill with knitting now that they have decided that knitting needles are unlikely weapons!

I am off to Michigan again, thistime on my own for work as I did when Austy was 2. It's going to be harder to be away from my little cubs this time though, since there are 2 of them now, I have never left Madelyn over night and have ALWAYS fed her to sleep at night (yes, still going with the breastfeeding). However a rushed decsion at work last week had me booked to fly out next Saturday, and no time to wean her, so the poor little princess is going to have to deal with me gone and no more breastfeeding to sleep all at once. I will be back by the end of the month, but arriving home oin a Sunday afternoon and expected to show up at work at 7:30am on the Monday morning, so I can't even take a day to "reconnect". Luckily I haven't gotten around to putting in my form to go back to work on Tuesdays, so I will keep that Tuesday as my last Tuesday off work before I have to start going back to full time work.

I also finished this little apricot wrap jumper for Madelyn from one of my favourite knitting books. It is a bit big and falls off her shoulders a bit (hoping next winter it will be perfect for her) but other than that I love the effect of the cables and lace. Unfortunately the little Miss has not been too well lately - an ear infection and cold the last two weeks and just as she finished her antibiotics for the ear, the coughing started and she now has MORE antibioitics for acute bronchitis, so I decided not to bug her with sitting still for a photo this time.

Why do batteries go flat at the wrong time?!

2010-08-27T22:30:00.004+09:30

I finished three little baby sets (2 in size 3-6m for the on-time babies and 1 in 0-3 for the tiny premmie) for my mother's group babies to give them all at this week's catch up on Tuesday. The last one, for the premmie, was finished at around 1am on the tuesday morning, so the only photo op I had for them was just bere we were about to go. Unfortunately, this is not the best time for photos as Madelyn LOVES to go to "baby gwoop" and can't get out the door fast enough. Couple that with the light on my camera flashing to say the battery is low, and the result is some very average rushed shots of only 2 f the said outfits! My favourite - the little dinosaur themed set for the littlest baby missed out on getting captured s the camera switched off and we had to go. I wonder if I can get the proud mum to snap a shot for me of the cutie modelling them. Hmmmm... Please excuse the poor photo quality and colour.

Here is the girlie set for the first bub that arrived for our group's second generation of babies, Rosie. Madelyn loved this, and while it looks like a pair of shorts, they are light weight trousers in a very soft light denim. I had to lay this set out about three times before snapping this shot just in time for Madelyn to grab them again. She picked them up, held them against her and said "Madewyn's baby girl cwoves". I told her that they were too small for her, and for a tiny baby instead. She replied "Too small for Maddy. Madewyn grewed" Clever chook, isn't she? At 20 months she now indulges in many a conversation and is a fashionista. Today I had to pull out three sets of clothes because she couldn't make up her mind which set she wanted to wear, and the set I had put out for her was apparrently no good! Where on earth did this come from!? She doesn't get it from me, that's for sure.

Here is the second set for or biggest 2nd group baby, Archie. I made this set first, so the pocket is a little high (my own pattern being tested out as baby gifts).

As you probably know by now, Madelyn is a girlie girl at heart, and loves all things pretty. She now has enough hair for hair clips! And it's even getting a little curl to it which is soooo cute. I had bought a couple but when they kept getting lost and Madelyn kept insisting on wearing them, I decided to buy a bulk lot of supplies and make my own. Here are my first trial clips and I have since made several more. I plan on selling the excess along ith some sets like the ones pictured above either on etsy, or perhaps doing some market stalls. While I don't get a lot of sewing time for myself, the Dad in the house has promised to give me kid free time to sew or make clips if it's for markets, so we'll see how that goes! I'd like to also sell some of my Mei Tai's but they take a lot longer to make so I figured I needed some quick and easy items to make a good stall/online shop.

Of course, I am still plagued by the wool dyeing bug,and have another skein over the airer as I type. Here are the little test pieces all set and dried, and hopefully the h the colours will come out on the skein. I have decided to call the colourway "Climb up my apple tree" that cool kids' Target ad was on TV as I dyed it and I found myself singing along to it and realising that it fitted the colourway really well. This was supposed to be for a unisex newborn gift but I am not sure if I want to keep it for myself now. I really like it!

I'm still here... really...

2010-08-08T16:00:00.003+09:30

So many cute little newborns have been showing up in my life recently, with the birth of 3 little second borns into Madelyn's mum and baby group, and a new little niece for us.

While I haven't had a lot of crafting time lately (things are just very busy with an active toddler, an exuberant boy, a house to keep and a job to hold down), I have managed a couple of little things. While our new niece Evie Rose was promised more handmade goodness when I eventually get to it, I did deliver this little outfit to the hospital. When Carina Spencer's baby rompers (both the Small Things romper and Gift Wrap romper) [rav link]started popping up all over ravely, I just NEEDED to knit one of them. It was a tough decision but I decided to go with "Small Things" for ease of putting on and off a tiny newborn, and I thought it looked a bit more girly (knowing my sister was having another little daughter). I dyed up the wool myself, using the colours that reminded me of sweet sugary cupcakes, with swirly butter frosting (there are hints of strawberry, vanilla, lemon, and some blue and green for sprinkles) served with a tasty cappuccino (hence the coffee colour). Madleyn has a serious thing for cupcake adorned clothing, and so for me, I think baby girl = cupcakes! I was going to embellish the back of the romper with a little cupcake embroidery but ran out of time and decided it was pretty cute as it was anyway. Instead of adding the embellishment, I cast on a matching little aviatrix hat [rav link] - a very clever and practical pattern for a newborn noggin! I just love this pattern and really should get one done for Madelyn as she insists on going out on the "wing wings" (swings) when I get home form work and the cool evening air is settling in for the night. Austy would look cute in one too, but DH has decided that he is too old for a beanie (given that it does not get super cold here in Adelaide like it does in other parts) and reminded me that it's a struggle to get him to even wear a jumper some days.

I loved working on the romper, and was really happy with the cupcake inspired wool, even though at first I thought there was too much cream in it. So when Madelyn asked for pyjamas for baby Stella I knew exactly what to do:

I made up the pattern as I went, and it could probably use a couple of short rows in the backside area, however it does the trick and I am quite pleased with myself for managing to develop my own knitting pattern, even if the design is rather plagiarised! The size and shaping is very different from a real baby, so I pretty much had to go alone, with the naked doll on my lap to try it on every now and then as I made shaping changes.

I also participated in another Ravelry swap, this time a colour swap. I was going to make a knitted hat in a semisolid blue, and then add blue things as that was my recipient's favourite colour, however she mentioned that she'd like to try a chocolate/pistachio colourway, so that set the theme. After dyeing up the wool (lovely squishy & soft woolganics 10ply) I scoured her favourites list and found a frog pattern that looked fun to create. Using the pretty green wool from The Dyepot that came as a sweetener for a lost parcel (much appreciated, although totally not necessary - I was extra spoilt there), I came up with Larry. And so the frog theme continued with a froggy appliqued drawstring bag to deliver it all in, and a few freddo frogs. Again, I was running behind my crafting schedule so didn't get a chance to snap any photographs before I hand delivered it to Mel's place. Lucky for me, Mel takes wonderful photographs so I can share.

The sewing machine has seen some action lately too, although I was a bit miffed with my sewing after making a pair of robot embroidered cords for Austy and finding them miles too big (note to self: Austy is certainly not a size 5 in pants!). They were a pain to put together with lots of piecing and curved sewing, but at least they are too big and not too small, so have been relegated to the WIP pile to finish next year (I just need to do the hems so will do that when I know how long his legs will be for next winter). To give me that push back into sewing that I needed, I made this little pinnie for Madelyn from Ottobre (nothing like sewing a pretty little dress to lift the sewing spirits). The pattern may look familiar - it's the same one used by Little Munchkins when she made us a newborn gift for our baby girl. Much simpler to make than those pants, and a pleasing result (although I still need to add a press stud to the ribbon area to line it all up - it closes with hidden resin snaps a little higher than the ribbon).

There has been other progress here too - if you check out the photo above you'll notice that our walls are whiter and the skirting is no longer unpainted wood! That's right - the 70's look (wood panelled walls) has totally gone from our family room (YAY!!!). Thanks to my wonderful DH who had decided I'd nagged him enough about the paint that had been picked, bought and sat in our shed for 2 years. I love it - so much fresher now. I'm still working on him to let me change the curtains (he's worried about the cost, even though I will do them myself).

Also, I have to share my latest dye up. I just love this colour which is slowly turning into a dress for my adorable little girl (who is now as chatty as her big brother - where did my little baby go?!)

And finally, I finished that cute little Ottobre top off with the buttonholes and buttons it was waiting on, and made my favourite "easy pants" for her with some cord that was on sale at Spotlight. Super snuggly and warm, and the size 2 is the perfect fit. This is a boys pattern that I have made several times before, but it seems to have more nappy room than any of my girl's patterns so I think she needs some more. Fantastic quick gratification, and very practical for my very own "Dirt Girl". Her little stockings all have worn patches in the knees - I think these pants are seriously Maddy proof with the double fabric in the knees, and more stainproof than baby pink!

Purple People Eater

2010-06-26T11:44:00.002+09:30

I made this little jacket back in January but because it was so huge, therre was no hurry to find buttons. I took my time and found these gorgeous flower buttons and now it fits better and it's cool enough to wear it. I love it with this set as it makes the purple butterflies stan out on her pants and top.

This cardy is called "In Threes", a pattern available in ravelry. Unfortunately it wasn't tested well prior to pattern release and lots of people found that the sizing was off. This is the 12m size, but much closer to 2yrs (Maddy is in everything size 2 now as she's so tall - 87cm and growig like a weed!). The pattern is now at V5 which should have fixed the sizing but I was one o the earlier knitters who made the first version.

It gapes a biunder the armpits as you can see in the pic at the piano with her brother. The good thing is I should get two winters out of it unless she grows out of it lengthwise.

I have started giving Austy piano lessons which should have him well prepar for a proper teacher when he gets to school. He has always loved music and I have always wanted for him to learn piano - perhaps I am living through him, giving him opportunities I never had as a kid (I love the sound of the piano). I had lessons when I was at uni, doing two levels before I moved to Adeliade and had a horrible teacher who had no time for me - I think she preferred teaching kids - she was very strict with me since I was an adult and took a lot of enjoyment out of it for me. Never the less I played what I could when Austy was a baby, often setting him up beside the piano in his rocker, bassinette or high chair and just getting him used to the sounds. Yesterday he watched intently as the tuner did his work and was humming along when he stuck each note. I was amazed at how close he sang the notes as most kids his age sing quite monotone.

So far he knows about where the high notes are, where the low notes are, can identify going up/going down, knows about half steps and full steps, knows his finger numbers and is practicing moving them independently, and has been introduced to notes and rests (reading music). He knows about beats, and can tell me how many beats you need to play for each type of note. Next I will start to teach him the letter names of each of the keys. Not so long ago I thought that because I couldn't play piano well, I couldn't teach him a thing, but I have since learned otherwise. He is a fantastic student listens intently and concentrates very well when I ask him to do things. I am so glad I am able to encourage is love for music at such an early age.

Youtube has been invaluable with giving me great teaching tips and ideas, and giving him videos of concerts to watch and real pianists playing beautiful music. He loved i at the end of the tuning session yesterday when the tuner played a few songs (very beautifully might I add) to test if the tune would hold, and gave a hearty applause when he had finished! The tuner was delighted with his audience.

Little Hoot, Big Hoot

2010-06-23T21:47:00.003+09:30

Here is a pair of Milo vests fresh off the needles. DH won't let me put Austy's on him - says it's too girly, so I snuck in a photo op at the park late this afternoon. It would look better with a navy top under it or a collared shirt but with my haste I had to go with what he had on.

Madelyn's is made from that gorgeous gradient that Celia gifted me with in the last ravelry swap. Everything about it is perfect. The wool for Austy's was dyed by Cela too, and I love the colours, it's just DH that doesn't! No wonder everything in Austy's wardrobe is brown, red or navy. It's too hard to judge what DH might think otherwise!

I also made a coupe of newborn vests as "tide me over" pressies when their quilts weren't finished in time. I must get my finger out and finish those quilts but I just don't feel good enough about my sewing right now. I am in the middle of a pair of Ottobre pants for Austy which were turning out well ntil I did the fly, and now they are screwed up in the corner of my sewing desk as it just didn't go quite right. I should have done it my normalway but I followed the Ottobre instructions - never again! When I know how to do something next time, I am doing it my way.

I am still going with my decluttering a little bit at a time, and we will soon have a lounge room that is useable, and my sewing corner will be more organised and pleasurable to work in :) Keeping up with the washing and housework and having it all done with time to spae for decluttering is taking up more time than I thought and therefore eating a chunk out of my craft time, but I am getting there and it's nice having a house that people can "drop in" on without feeling like the worst wife/motherhousekeeper in the world. I am also making sure I spend time on me - something I have neglected in a long time, doing thngs like spa baths, baking my favourite treats, home fascials, manicures etc. and knitting in front of my favourite TV shows. I am trying to keep away those guilty thoughts of things unfinished and just working on things when I have the time to enjoy them. Hopefully my new routnes and decluttered home will find me some more time for the sewing machine too!

Retro sewing book give way

2010-05-10T22:35:00.002+09:30

To the first person to comment with "I'll take them!" (in Australia only)

The pink children's clothes book contains drafting information as well as some very retro patterns. Maybe there is someone out there who could use them to create their own modern take on them.

The Simplicity book on the right has fasion tips (fabric selections and design elements to suit your build), measurements (including standard measurements tables) and alteration instructions, along with lots of techniques.

I am decluttering my home in an effort to get on top of things again and find more time for the things I love. I nearly threw these out but thought someone else might get something out of them. Back to the decluttering.

How I am spending Mother's Day

2010-05-09T10:55:00.003+09:30

Up to a beautiful sunny morning, hugs from the kidlets, a little playdough playing, swinging time, and then MUMMY TIME! Andrew is out at the park with my babies right now, and I am QUILTING! Ahhhh... bliss. Singing along to the Foo Fighters as I go. I am determined to fill the day with my favourite things.

Plans for an afternoon tea with Mum and Nanna, and then out for dinner with the inlaws. Then home for a nice relaxing evening with hubby.

Hopefuly your Mother's day is filled with equally blissful moments. To all the Mums out there, wishing you a wonderful day.

It's a swap... I mean wrap!

2010-04-17T21:15:00.003+09:30

My mailman has been super delightful this past week:
I got my Family Roots Coop yarn (yummy First Beach and Emily colourways), a 10ball pack of Patons Serenity DK cotton/bamboo that I got off ebay for a song to make something for ME for next Summer (knowing my pace with big things I thought better to start sooner than later plus I couldn't pass up this great deal), and a WONDERFUL swap package from Celia for the 100g Challenge swap. I got TWO scarves as gorgeous as each other, both wonderfully soft, plus a skein of her scrummy gradient yarn, and some stitchmarkers. For Madelyn she sent this super duper cute hat, and Austy was thrilled with a book about the movie Monsters Inc (his favourite!!) She did some FABULOUS stalking!

For the Ravelry 100g challenge swap, I sent this little bag of goodies over to Kelly.

This is my prototype project bag, that I am thinking of making some to sell on etsy or madeit. They close with snaps rather than a zip because if you are working with straight needles you might need to poke them out the top corner of the bag. These little bags are designed more to keep multiple WIPs seperate in a larger knitting bag (thought up when I recently had to detangle three projects from each other after one of the kids threw my knitting bag to the floor!). A better solution would be to finish one WIP before starting another, but you know I could never do that! I thought there might be others out there like me.

I lined the bag with a contrast fabric and put a second contrast in as a pocket that can be seen through the window when the bag is empty. I made this bag with sew in interfacing to stiffen it, but I think I would much prefer to use an iron on medium weight interfacing (but I used all that up on Austy's bag so I didn't have it on hand). The finished bag isn't much different but it would be a heck of a lot easier to sew! Especially with that PVC window.

Here is the shawl that you can see in the window of the first bag shot. My first ever knitted shawl, and I even tried out beads for teh first time. I didn't do so well on the 100g part of the challenge as I still had a bit left after adding extra repeats in the body of the pattern. I planned to add an extra border repeat to get more beads involved and use up more of the skein but after Milo attacked it, and I had to start the border again, I couldn't risk continuing past the pattern's border length with a deadline fast approaching. Nor did I think I could face frogging again - and I think Milo was drawn to the sparkle of the beads so the quicker it was off the needle the better!!!

This picture shows how I have placed 6 beads on each of the points.

And as I showed you last post, I was working on a pink swap too. This is my last sneak peak of the pink stuff.

And a reveal of the bag itself (since I don't think my swappee is checking my blog). I have included extra gooodies like lollies, pink sticky notes (with roses on them) a smiggles pen,and the knitted washcloth and pink beaded row counter I showed you earlier.

Retro baby

2010-04-08T20:28:00.002+09:30

According to DH, this outfit makes Maddy look very retro. I finally got around to finishing those pants, that despite being quick and easy, sat at my sewing desk unfinished for a couple of weeks. I hate doing ruffles but love the finished look.

They are a little long at the moment as I added length so they would last my little sunflower more than a week or two. She just keeps zooming up and is already 86cm tall - the size of an average 2yo girl, despite being only 15m. Unfortunately there are no decent pics due to it raining outside and my camera needing things to sit still for more than a split second when I take photos indoors.

I dyed up some more wool too, this time to be given away as a part of the ravelry pink swap. (But I must admit I dyed extra to make something for Maddy, which... ummm... errr... is already on the needles along with half a dozen other projects - woops).

This skein of handpainted wool will join this facecloth and row counter in a package to my swap partner next week.

I just need to turn this little owl into a bag to send it all in first.

Conquering curves

2010-03-28T14:55:00.003+10:30

So here's my first curvy block, a circle piece for a baby quilt I am working on. As you can see it's rather unisex as we don't know the sex of the baby on the way.

However I think I will have something girly in the works again soon as my sister (who is celebrating her 30th birthday today - Happy birthday sis!), is very excited to be expecting her second daughter and sixth baby in July/August this year. That's right, I have a lot of nephews! My oldest niece (my sister's first child) spent the weekend with me last weekend and I used Aunty privaledges, keeping her up late to teach her how to sew (she is 8yrs old). I showed her how to use the embroidery machine and how to change colours etc. so under my guidance, she was able to do most of the design herself. We embroidered an owl onto some brown canvas, which we then turned into a little book bag with some owly lining from Spotlight. I didn't have time for a photo before she took it home but she was mighty proud of it. I am guilty of using the quality time with her to test out a design for a ravelry swap item though, so a similar bag will be churned out again shortly and I'll post pics this time!

Warning: Kitten photo!

2010-03-26T21:25:00.001+10:30

Milo 5 months, originally uploaded by austysmum.

Okay, so it's not at all sewing, quilting or knitting related but I couldn't help but add another photo of my littlest baby to the blog. He is starting to look more like the Cornish Rex he is, now that his fur is finally growing. For a while there he looked half Sphynx, but now his fur is getting longer, thicker and starting to curl up like those adorable frizzy whiskers!

I never liked that strange stripe down his nose, I'd prefer it if it weren't there at all, or if it were more solid, like it was actually meant to be there. However now that I know his personality, it really does suit him - he's all perfectly sweet and cuddly, but has a mischievious streak, just like that messy little white streak down his nose! My hand has several holes to prove it but for some reason he only gets really rough with me, despite the fact I.m the one who saves him from Austy and that I'm the one he likes to snuggle up with. Hmmm go figure!

We had a rough few wekks with him last month with him vomiting all the time and then I thought that perhaps it was due to me switching dry foods from his usual Hills Science Diet to a supermarket variety when I couldn't get to the vets or pet shop to buy more of the Hills stuff. I switched back to Hills, and our carpets have been safe since, so now I know we won't be making that mistake again. He is fed mainly a raw meat diet but has the biscuits to nibble on the rest of the time as we clear away the meat after meal times so it doesn't get too germy (or smelly). I am suspecting some kind of grain/cereal allergy as those supermarket foods tend to be much higher in grains and cereals and many actually have them listed as their top ingredient even though cats are primarily carnivores, unlike dogs who will do well with some vegetable matter in their diet.

Milo is fitting in perfectly with our little family, he and Madelyn are a delight to watch as they have formed such a strong bond and play together so beautifully. Somehow Milo knows she is a baby and is ever so gentle with her. The funniest moments are when he waits in ambush mode and pounces on her as soon as she toddles past, and she squeals with delight. Austin still smothers him a bit but Milo has now become a part of his bedtime routine. We hop up onto his bed (Austin, Madelyn and I) to read a bedtime story and Milo will jump up and snuggle on the quilt while we read. When I take Madelyn out, Milo stays and when I come back to check on Austy after putting Maddy to bed, there is Milo snuggled under Austy's tight little grip - he has his stuffed monkey Montgomery in one arm, Milo in the other. Milo takes my precense as his cue that it's safe to climb out of bed without being pinned down again.

And onto crafty stuff, I have a couple of knitting swaps on the go still, almost near completion, and lots of babies on the way in our little circle of friends. Tonight I am tackling curved piecing for a baby quilt, so I promise to have some quilty stuff to show off soon, along with twin newborn knits.... aaaawww.

On the go

2010-03-23T13:45:00.002+10:30

That could be said about many things in my life at the moment - my daughter (she never sits still for asecond these days!), me (all that running around chasing her and her big brother) or all the projects I am working on. I think I have a problem - I can't stick to just one thing! Of course, this means I haven't had anything finished to show here for quite a while, as nothing IS finished!
So to avoid dissapearing off the face of blogland, I give you some WIPs. First a little ruffled bolero for Maddy. This just needs some more seaming and the ruffled band all around. It is made from the super soft and sheeny Sirdar baby bamboo which is a wool/bamboo blend and I love it! It will give a little warmth without making her sweat when we have those strange Autumn days which aren't really warm, but not cool either.
Next up I have a secrect swap project. This little bit of lace knitting is for the Ravelry MCN Mummies 100g challenge swap, finally knitting up that knittery 4ply merino that has been sitting in my stash for a few years waiting to be turned into something special.

Next we have some longies for Maddy, now named the "Odd Leg Longies". I was planning to make shorties but got carried away as I liked how it was knitting up, then of course I ran out of wool. I did the green band thinking I could work an embellishment all the way around and make them look like they were supposed to be done that way, but now I am considering ripping them back and turning them into shorties after all. The thing is, she doesn't have any longies for the coming winter and these have a bit of extra length in them, so I kind of like them as longies, I just need to learn to live with that strange look... This one has been relegated to the "don't know what to do with" pile.

Here's the wool as I reskiened it after dyeing - I think it's one of my favourite dye jobs yet.

And I am still plugging away at this little top, hopefully she will get some wear out of it before the weather crisps up. It's so pretty, and when I have finished my 100g swap I am sure this will seam easy in comparison. The problem isn't so much the lace pattern but that the knitting pattern just says to "keep working in pattern" while decreasing for the armholes which is really hard to do when you can't work out whether to start with a k2tog, or a Sl1 or a K or a whatever! I am up to the armhole shaping on the front and have one more sleeve to go. I am not sure what to do with the neck shaping just yet as I am trying to modernise it and make it look "normal" as the pattern is from my antique patons collection with a button either side of the neck... just weird.

And some prettiness that arrived in my mailbox today. I bought the stitch markers thinking I might pop them in with my 100g swap parcel, but now they are in my hands I think I like them too much! I do have something else planned for my swap partner though. The bracelet looking things are actually row counters. The purple one is for me (I love amethysts) and the pink one for my Ravelry Pink Swap partner. The fancy bead on the pink one is divine! Madelyn helped me try it on before her nap - I wish I got a photo of that, I had the purple one on and she had the pink one and thought it was wonderful. Gosh I love having a little girl to appreciate the pretty things.

And onto some sewing - Madelyn has become quite a houdini at getting out of her nappies. I think she will be easy to toilet train as she already points to her nappy and says "wees" or "pohs" or "tinky napay" (stinky nappy) as soon as it's soiled. I decided to do her some more AIO's for naps with snaps instead of velcro to keep the cot clean, but the other day I found she had taken THIS one off and left it all pooey and yucko on the family room rug and went and sat down with a book - eeeeeEEEEEEEEEEWWWWW!!! Luckily she didn't get too far before I noticed and cleaned everything up but my gosh! Now what am I supposed to do? Austy could never get out of snap nappies!

And finally a little top for Madelyn from Ottobre again. It is part of a set I am making - the ruffled jeans to match are still on the ironing board awaiting a wasit band though. Excuse the discusting backyard - it will all be lawn after Easter (I have been promised) but for now it is a dust bowl with retaining bricks lying about the place. Not that it worries Madelyn who seems to be attracted to dirt.

Woops, the colour of this little top (and the white pants!) is not really condusive to mud pie baking!

Got their backsides covered

2010-02-18T21:20:00.004+10:30

Austy needed some stretchy shorts for Little Athletics so I whipped these up and let him press the start button as we embroidered some running shoes on the front leg (so he knows which way to put them on). He thinks he made them, because he pushed the start button a few times. In reality, I did most of the embroidery as it turned out to be an annoying one with only 4 colours but 20 thread changes! Reeeediculous. If only I could design my own embroideries... I forgot to take a closeup of the design so will try to do that in time for snap shot Sunday. These are called his "run fast shorts" as apparently they make him run fast, and do long long jumps. :)

I got Maddy's butt covered too with a very girly, princessy nappy for my very girly girl. I need to make quite a few more but the nanny hunt is taking up most of my energy at the moment with calls and interviews but still no nanny. I am exhausted by the end of the day and even the knitting has taken a back seat to going to bed early this week.

Oh and just look at HOW girly this precious princess is:

The kitten seems not to mind her feeding him her water (saying "Nigh-no... aaaaahhh"), or having books plonked on his head as she says "taaaaa", and he will happily knick off with her soft toys if she tries to share with him. I can just see her a little bit down the track dressing him in dolls clothes and pushing him around in her pram. I wonder where she gets that from.... (I have vague memories of taking our baby guinea pigs for rides in my trike when I was about two, and remember grease stained doll clothes from when the cat ran under the car to get away from me waving a bottle at him...)

Madelyn has been totally amazing us with her language skills of late. Just last week Austin and I were counting to ten as he was playing hide and seek with his Dad. We paused after 5, and Madelyn filled in 6, we said 7, then she said 8! We thought it was a fluke, but she happily repeated it and then had her grandmother shocked today when she went to pick her up and said one... two... then Madelyn finished "feeeeeeee"! She can also say arm, eye, ear, nose, and point to them on people (and kittens!), and she sounds so cute when she drops something and says "woopseee". She says "apple" a hundred times a day (the girl loves to eat and since apple and pear are the only fruit she can eat that has become a favourite word), and she tries "pear" occasionally. Tonight she was telling Austin "EAT Atty, eat, eat". She knows he never eats dinner so was saving me having to say it. Clever little girl, hard to remember she's only 14 months (tomorrow!) sometimes.

I nearly forgot- GIVE AWAY WINNER!!

2010-02-14T07:39:00.003+10:30

The winner of my babyknit give away is.....

BECKY

who wrote:

What a wonderful giveaway, too generous really.I would love this set for my
friend who has just had a prem baby boy. She always said she would love to learn
to knit as she has fond memories of her gran knitting for her when she was a
child.

It was a close call really between Becky and Jodes - I nearly gave it to Jodes as her cousin and his wife are obviously wonderful people to be helping out with their nephew like they are, but as I wanted to make sure it went to someone who appreciates knitting, Becky's comment got the prize. I also have fond memories of knitting with my own grandmother. She is still around lucky for me, but I just don't get to knit with her much now as she won't drive to me, and her little unit isn't very child friendly so there is no time for knitting when i am keeping my kidlets out of trouble. I still remember beaming with excitement every time a soft squishy woolly parcel arrived from her when we were kids.

Becky since you are on both Rav and EB, probably best to PM me there - SkillySkally on Rav, jgal on EB. I hope your friend likes the set.

A very overdue blog post!

2010-02-13T00:10:00.004+10:30

I know I haven't been blogging lately, but I have had an extra distraction. We picked up the teeny tiny Milo, just under 2w ago, and while he has us all completely besotted with him, he is also a little bit of a handful. Take a normal kitten, imagine how playful they are, then times that by 100, and that will give you some idea of what a cornish rex kitten is like!

Here he is the day we got him home. We treated him very gently as he was terrified for the first two or three days and wouldn't come out of the box we brought him home in.

I have been knitting though - I finished Madelyn's "In Threes" top all bar the buttons because with the weather we have been having lately it will be a while before we need warm woollies, and I hate sewing on buttons, so it will probably sit like this until it's cooler and I need to pick buttons. I was meant to finish the little tulip lace cotton top for her last month, but this was quicker and more suitable for tired eyes whilst getting back into a good rhythm starting back at work.

I also learned to crochet (thanks Mum) and Milo got my first couple of finished objects (seeing as I'm still learning and he really couldn't care less about how it looks). Here is a little mouse that started out as one of those jingle ball thingos but I crocheted a cover, added a tail, ears, eyes and nose and now it's a mouse.

I finally finished Madelyn's flirty skirty (which needed elastic, leg cuffs and blocking) - here it is blocking. I created the "cats paw" lace edge as I went, and did a ribbed elastic waistband because maddy pulls drawstrings undone but the rest is to pattern.

Oh and here is my first crocheted item ever, a door hanger cat toy, which is great for hooking over your wrist and flinging around since Milo is too little to reach it on our high door handles just yet.

I also tried out a baby sock pattern from "Boho Baby Knits". I love the look of it in the book but the sock itself is a little weird as it has a very pointy toe and heel. For some reason toddler sock patterns are like this (I have a couple of single socks from when Austy was this age because I didn't like the shape so they never got a pair made). However I do like the cute anklet style, so maybe there will be anothere one in time for cool autumn breezes.

I also dyed up more wool, some leftovers from some longies I made Austy years ago, and turned it into a curly purly soaker to be auctioned off to raise funds for Juvenile Diabetes Research over at Woolly Butts in March.

I made another in purple (leftover from the "In Threes" top) in a size small, but this one was my own pattern as I was too eager to cast on and couldn't wait for permission from Marnie (the curly purly designer) so figured if I designed my own I could do what I liked with it. When Marnie gave me permission to use her pattern I decided the boy one was in order. I will also sew up some matching tops to go with these.

I have been keeping busy with the kidlets on my days off, taking them to the zoo and local attractions, getting them out of the house. Oh and look at this - NO HANDS! Not the most flattering photo, but the only one I have managed to catch of Maddy walking so far. She's up and at 'em, walking as of Tuesday last week. (Keeping us on our toes!)

Not that this pic has anything to do with crafting, but my boy is certainly getting more spunky every day! He started kindy a couple of weeks ago and is totally loving it.

More cuteness here in the form of kitty pics - I did warn you they were coming!

He's settled in a lot better now, and plays with the kids, even coming up to snuggle with Madelyn and I while I feed her ready for bed. He's a mischevious little fellow though, stealing paper, small toys, dressmaking pins (eeep - straight out of the pincushion - so scared he'll swallow one or leave them somewhere for Maddy to get!), and even my embroidery scissors have been seen hanging from his mouth as he runs away!

He puts up with Austy smothering him with cuddles although isn't always happy about it, he watches curiously beside Maddy as she plays and he sleeps in our bed most of the time (except when his 2am antics get him locked in the ensuite for the night!)

(Please accept my apologies for the bittiness of this blog post - blogger wasn't in a good mood so I had to write it three times over and lost the flow...)

Baby shoes

2010-01-21T19:04:00.003+10:30

I was so thrilled with these last night when I finished them - I was so tired yet I pushed myself to get to the sewing desk and make them anyway. I asked Andrew to try them on her this morning as she was asleep when I left for work, and he told me they didn't fit, that they were too small. I had been all geared up to make a matching outfit, when he gave me the sad news.

I got home and found them grubby from the nanny finding them left out on the bench and using them in the backyard (I was planning on keeping them brand new until I had the complte outfit and then using them when I went out somewhere with her, not for the backyard!). They actually do fit, quite nicely in fact, but I soaked them now to get the dirt off and the brown suede has run into the fabric. So they were pretty much ruined before I got to even try them on her (sob).

So no fancy photo of a finished object I was thrilled with, just a soggy shot of a project that makes me feel a bit blurgh now to look at them. I was planning all sorts of shoes and outfit sets but for now, I've lost my motivation.

****ETA**** I took another look at them and after they dried (photos above had them still soggy and wet) they were REVOLTING!

I remembered that this is my year for trying to become more positive, so I picked my chin up off the floor and got to work. Problem solved:

SURFACE SPOT CLEAN ONLY!!!! (Anyone know where I can get some NATURAL/UNDYED suede? This brown stuff was a freebie which does the trick, but you can't get it wet)

Sunday Snapshot #2

2010-01-17T12:30:00.002+10:30

I finally made a decision on the "pastel princess" colourway. While it would look sweet on Maddy, I didn't like the yarn carrying look on the front button band (shown here) and because the skeins were so different I had to alternate skeins.

So I ripped and reskeined:

Overdyed and hung out to dry (excuse the yard work going on in the background - we will have a new lawned play area there soon):

Still drying, this is what it looks like now:

No sewing this week, just getting back into the swing of things as I returned to work and celebrated a birthday on Wednesday, went out Thursday night and needed to wind down with some knitting on Friday. Madelyn's little tulip top is coming along nicely - the back is all done, and it's going to look very sweet I think.

Baby knit give away #1

2010-01-12T18:59:00.002+10:30

As I have been a knitter long before I had kids, and always knit baby things for the instant gratification, there are quite a few things in my cupboard that never got worn since my babies were both too big and born in the middle of a hot Adelaide summer. Since there are no more babies planned for us, it's time to let these go. I was saving them for baby gifts when friends had babies but every time I give a hand knit as a baby gift I just don't feel it gets appreciated, or the person gets a million hand knit things from grandparents and older relatives I feel they just get tossed aside and added to the pile.

So I have decided to give them away here instead, scattered throughout the year. First up is this little cotton jumper and matching socks in lavender and blue, both 0-3m. Knitted about 5yrs ago but stored carefully and never worn. To win just leave a comment here explaining why you'd love a handknit for your baby (or friend/relative's baby). Winner to be announced on the last day of the month.

Snuggle bubbies!

2010-01-12T18:27:00.003+10:30

Last night I was a little too hot and bothered to deal with the lace on Madelyn's little tulip top so pulled out the little Lutin doll I was working on back in November. It was made within a few nights when I started it but was thrown in the WIP pile when I was so tired with work and no sleep, just needing a hat. So I made the hat and finished him off.

Technically this project is not complete as I want to make a set of three "snuggle bubbies" - one for the car, one for the pram and one for the cot. He was pretty quick to make had I not stopped and shoved him in a bag for a couple of months... but I'm not too good at making the second sock to a pair, let alone three things the same. A great little project for in between bigger things.
It's also time to confess... I broke my own rules and started something new - something simple for when I'm not in the headspace for lace. This is supposed to be a little top for Madelyn for the Autumn/Winter but I'm not sure on the colourway now it's knitted up. I'm wondering if I should unpull it and overdye it as a semisolid green or purple - something a little brighter. Hmm.... It's a difficult one because once I do it there is no turning back. What do you think... keep or rip?

Sunday Snapshot #1

2010-01-10T09:03:00.003+10:30

I had to intterrupt my January sewing schedule to increase the nappy stash with some more basic pocket nappies. I used only these nappies for Austy until he was around 6m old and needed a night nappy, but for Maddy pocket nappies just didn't handle going through her three hour newborn naps and I got into liking fitteds with covers, with the odd AIO to make things easier for her Daddy. With the warm weather upon us, the AIOs are a bit too warm I think with all that minky and fleece, and we've had a few incidents with the nanny not putting a cover on over fitteds. We have decided it's best to put the fitted nappies away in a different spot so as not to confuse the poor girl, but that meant I needed more "easy" nappies to take their place. I just love it when I snap the last snap and stack them all up - nothing like a fresh stack of soft brand new nappies!

I did get a start on my January knitting project though - the little tulip tee is coming along nicely although a little slow as my head doesn't seem to be in the right place for lace knitting at the moment (too much relaxing in the pool!) even for this simple but pretty pattern. I hate knitting backwards so I only do it when the house is quiet and I can concentrate. Love the feel of the cotton though.

Cutting out those nappies made me want to do more with pastels, so out came this soft squishy Pear Tree Merino (undyed Pandora from Jolly Jumbuck) and the dye pots. I love the skeined one, the balled one ended up with more green than the other colours so I will have to alternate balls as I knit. This stuff is destined for a pretty top for Madelyn in a size 2 so that it will still fit when the weather cools off.

While I am showing you my dyeing attempts, I thought I'd also add a close up of the two skeins I sent as part of the favourite colour swap Don't know why the photos are so huge but there you have it. They are both more red than the pictures show too. Red has a habit of looking pink in photos.

Milo's new ride

2010-01-07T16:55:00.002+10:30

Our breeder sent us a few more photos of our new kitten on New Years Day and asked for his microchip details. It's starting to get exciting as he should be living with us by the end of the month. The exact date we are not sure on - she told us he would have to be 12w old but that would put it into February but she said mid-January so really it could be time to pick him up really soon!

SO Austy and I went out and bought a new cat carrier today. Our old one had been in use for over 10 years, had been weakened in the sun and cracked across the top. In addition it was huge (as I used to use it on a weekly basis to take two cats to shows) and Gryffin hated floating around in it. I figured Milo won't get much bigger than our Gryffin was so it was best to buy him a new smaller one to keep him feeling safe and secure. While at the pet shop Austin picked out this wibbly wobbly toy for him (nice that the colour matched!) and while I was paying, the man that worked there took him to go and choose a ball for free.

When we got home, Austy was having some quiet time and I put Maddy to bed for a much needed sleep after her 12m immunisations (which she acyually SMILED about as the needle went in rather than cried!) and I decided to pull this baby blanket out of the WIP pile. When I started knitting it, I was just using up scraps and making a pram blanket but decided it was too scratchy for a real baby (Bendigo Classic) and did it the perfect size for Gryffin's old basket, to spruce it up a little for the new kitten. It has sat in the WIP pile for over 2m, just needing the ends darned in, so I decided to get to it, and pop it in the cat box ready for Milo's home coming. Be warned, when we get him, I hope to get some MUCH cuter photos than the ones we have been sent and will DEFINITELY be blogging them! So if you hate cats, look away now LOL.

Milk & Cookies baby quilt

2010-01-06T14:34:00.005+10:30

It's a finish! TWO in fact! So now I can start my 2010 completed list.

"Milk & Cookies" is finally completed and ready to post off to it's new owner today (along with our late Christmas card which was waiting to be sent with the quilt...). This quilt used up a lot of the scraps from Madelyn's (yet to be quilted) quilt with the blues instead of the deep reds I used for hers, and I was picky with the fabrics not to include any florals.

I love the colour combo - it was quite soothing to create. I wanted to get it finished quickly (even though it didn't happen as fast as I would have liked due to very few pockets of time over busy December!) so decided to just quilt straight across the quilt. I was going tgo do a diamond pattern but once these lines were done I decided this was enough, as quilting in the other direction would make it too stiff. My quilting lines are 30mm apart - next time I will try for at least 50mm (2") to create a diamond pattern. Hopefully it doesn't look like I forgot the other lines! They are a tad wonky, just as everything is about this quilt, but being a wonky log cabin quilt I think I can get away with it ;)

Even the pieced backing is slightly wonky! I loved this fabric although it's hard to see here. It is a beige/cream with white toys sitting on shelves which is just perfect for a baby quilt. The name was done in soft pinwale cord (the tiny leftover pieces from Madelyn's oilily pinafore from last year) and appliqued with a varigated blue cotton thread using my machine's buttonhole stitch. I quilted aropund each letter which makes them pop up a bit and they add a bit of texture for him to feel as he has tummy time on the quilt.

The same pinwale cord was used to create the matching giraffe friend. His eyes and ears are embroidered by hand - he would have had button eyes but I decided to leave them off for safety reasons. I love his notted ear horns and tail - Jake will probably love them too - especially good for soggifying when he is teething!

JANUARY

Before I sign off for the day, I think it's about time I add my January list (can you believe we are almost a whole week in already?!). To keep things realistic, I am going to list just one thing in each craft to work on. If I get a finish that's a bonus, but the promise I am making to myself is to make some significant progress on each project even if I don't finish (trying to see how long I can keep the pressure off myself!). I will try to work on just these projects and not start something new unless a) the listed project for a particular craft is complete or b) a new month begins when I can list another three projects (or continue on one of these). The only out I get is to finish off an old WIP if the current projects list isn't inspiring me on a given day. Each Sunday I will try to give a progress update on the listed projects (pinching Milly's idea of Snapshot Sunday!). Hopefully this will keep me from having 100 projects on the go and not finishing a single one!

Janurary is a very much Madelyn focussed month - she is growing so quickly and if I don 't hurry up she will outgrow many of the patterns I have collected over the years for baby girls, and since we aren't planning anymore babies, that would be a sad thing for me if I don't get to make up at least a few of my favourites.

Knitting: Madelyn's little lace top from my favourite knitting pattern book that I haven't managed to make much from (and she's outgrown all but a few of the patterns already!)

Sewing: This dress for Madelyn that has been an unopened pattern now for a whole year! If I finish this before the end of the month, she desperately needs new soft shoes (I have suede for non slip bottoms - an essential since she TOOK TWO STEPS TODAY!) or some headbands (now that she is finally showing a bit of blonde fluff on her head!)

Quilting: My aim for January was to get Milk & Cookies done and sent. It weent in the post today so I am free to pick something else. I think I'll go with Madelyn's quilt. She's not using blankets and sheets any more due to the quest for more sleep and the wonder of the baby sleeping bag ;) but I would like to get this one finished so it can go in her room at least and then it will be ready for her when she's ready to give up the sleeping bags again.

I'd also like to sign up for Chaletgirl's "One Per Month Challenge". I did something like this last year and managed to average about a project complete per week, despite not getting much sleep, so figured I'd go for it again. My version not only includes craft books but also paper patterns I have had for ages (like the Simplicity one above).

I'll leave you with this picture of Madelyn - the finger in the mouth and the drool says it all. Yes that's right, those pesky molars are trying to cut. Still it didn't stop her wanting to play Little People with her big brother. Love it when they play together.

Ravelry favourite colour swap photos

2010-01-05T20:14:00.004+10:30

As mentioned in my first post for the year, I participated in the Ravelry favourite colour swap just before Christmas. Of course I chose aqua, and here is what I received, all the way from Finland.

3 skeins of aqua bamboo yarn *(4 or 5ply)
1 skein of wool (think it's an 8ply)
Aqua fiskars general purpose scissors
Packet of chewing gum
Muumin phone charm (Muumi is a Finnish cartoon character and whilst I was in Finland when I was 17 I knitted him into a cotton jumper for a baby friend in our family).
Little birch key charm
Wooden Chistmas decoration (in Finland these types of decorations are hung in windows so the sun goes through them)
3 postcards and a Finnish magazine (but I can hardly remember much Finnish these days from lack of use!)

Thanks Katu!

Here's what I sent - I forgot to get a picture before it left here so Kait has done it for me. I made the plastic covered zip pouch (fully lined too) and dyed the yarn myself. The top one is a machine washable 4ply I called "Rusty Red Gate" and the bottom one a reddish pink semisolid 5ply bamboo/silk/wool, both originally undyed yarns from Jolly Jumbuck. I used thre different shades on the 4ply and dyed this first, then selected the bright red to do the 5ply but because it isn't 100% wool it didn't take the colour as deeply and is more pink than red (more red than shown here, but not quite red). I nearly kept it thinking it wasn't red enough since I was supposed to send RED, and added it to my list of things top knit up for Maddy (was thinking a Debbie Bliss vest as the yarn is the perfect sub for baby cashmerino). But My stash and list is big enough so I figured Kait could find a use for it even though it's technically not red. I also included the little kimono doll that jumped out at me one day when I was keeping my eyes open for red things, and the cute little Christmas decoration because it has a knitted hat and dress. Hopefully the cherry ripe didn't get too melted on the way!

New Years Resolutions

2010-01-04T21:35:00.002+10:30

This year is all about trying to be more "guilt free". I have spent far too much time beating myself up over what I should have, could have would have done, and the mountain of things I'd like to have made but never get around to. So most of all I aim to let my creativity become fun again, rather than just another thing I need to get to along with the dishes, the washing, the floors... You get the picture.

I spend a lot of my time with my kids. They will always be top priority for me and come above anything quilty, stitchy, knitty, cooky. Everything I make is generally for them. I can't really sew or knit when they are awake, especially now that Madelyn is starting to turn into a little tornado around the house just like her big brother, and with working three full days a week, meals to cook and a house to keep reasonable the reality is there is not a lot of time left in the day. Once I get Austin into bed anywhere between 7:30 and 8, then Maddy into bed somewhere between 8:30 and 9:30 (depending how long she takes to feed and how long her protest screams last while I pat, shush and sing to her and convince her that laying her head down would be a fantastic idea!) and then tidy up the dishes, wipe down the table and bench, pack up the toys for the next day and the obligatory load of washing or two I am generally buggered. Sometimes I will then hit the sewing machine and go for it while the time is ripe, or put teh TV on and curl up on the couch with some knitting needles. Those nights I feel good - I get to relax AND be productive. But other nights there is simply nothing left of me and I might browse the net for a bit and then hit the hay, especially with an early start at work the next day. Those days I feel guilty. Like I have achieved nothing and haven't had a chance to wind down properly. So this has got to stop. There is nothing to feel guilty for if the kids are happy, fed and fast asleep by bed time, and the house is in a reasonable order so we all stay healthy. The kids will only be little for a little while and there will be plenty more time as they become more independent, less likely to tangle my yarn and less insistant on sitting on my lap while I sew.

SO time for those resolutions:
1. Make a SMALL list of things I'd LIKE to make for each month. I need to start keeping a written list so it doesn't end up longer than my arm when it sits unseen in my memory bank. Keeping it visible should hopefully also keep it realistic.

2. Stop feeling guilty for non-productive relaxation (the new Wii and Wii Fit should help that as can set aside at least one night a week to just play with that and know that I don't have to be making something in order to have me time).

3. Try to complete 6 WIP or long term planned (and therefore fabric/yarn already in stash waiting) projects this year.

4. Make something for me.

So there you have it. I'm being a bit more selfish this year but I think I need to. I need to smile a bit more and let some weight off my shoulders, not expect too much of myself and enjoy life a little more. I need to start feeling proud of the achievenments I do make, and guilty for the pile of things I expected to get to but didn't.

Righto, off to do some yoga on the Wii before I stitch down a little bit of quilt binding.

Another year over...

2009-12-30T22:44:00.007+10:30

I haven't been very good at keeping up my blog lately, in fact I haven't kept up very well with ANYTHING lately. The past couple of months have been very busy as I dealt with going back to work three full days a week with only about 4hrs average sleep each night, my gorgeous boy turned four (FOUR! Can you believe that? Seems like I only had him yesterday!), my darling girl clocked up her first year and of course there was Christmas to prepare for as well. Those that know me know I don't like to do things in half measures, so did my best to plan both birthday parties, and bake two birthday cakes and of course I planned to do way more home made than I had time for and then felt guilty when I couldn't pull everything off.

On the upside we think we finally have found the reason for the sleepless nights - the poor baby was having tummy pains that could last up to three hours straight, right when we should have all been sleeping, due to eating too healthily! Yep that's right - too many fruits and vegetables! She seems to be intolerant to salicylates, a naturally occuring chemical in just about all of her favourite fruits and vegetables. So a strict ban on things like strawberries, watermelon, rockmelon, grapes, broccoli and her beloved "nanas" (sultanas in Maddy talk) was in order and we have now managed to get her to sleep through occasionally in the past few weeks and only waking once or twice the rest of the time, taking less than half an hour to resettle. We are yet to confirm with her peadiatrician, but will be asking for a referral to see him next time we see the GP for her 12m immunisations. The GP was a little less than helpful when she told us her diagnosis, telling me to look up the list of high salicylate foods on the internet. I am feeling quite challenged in the kitchen lately with a coeliac to cater for as well as a little girl with a salicylate intolerance, and need a little more guidance on how to prepare nutricious and varied meals for everyone so am hoping the pead can be a little more useful with his advice.

Now that the sleep issue seems to finally be coming to an end (or at least a significant improvement) I am feeling a whole lot happier, more "normal" and even finding a bit more time in the day where I don't just feel overwhelmed by everything that needs to be done. Coinciding with the New Year, I guess it's a good time to revamp my blog, get crafty again and rejoin the internet craft world by way of blog hopping for inspiration, posting my projecst again and maybe even finding time to chat to my forum friends again without feeling like an outsider wishing she had time to sew like everyone else. I am currently on holiday from work too, so when I start again in a couple of weeks I hope to give it a "second go" and be better able to fit myself into a routine that works for everyone, without letting the housework and guilt pile up again. Here's to a guilt free year ahead!

To tie up some loose ends from 2009, here are the projects that missed out on being blogged as they were completed in those last two busy months:

1. Michael Miller Daisy Ruffle bloomers for Madelyn

I was going to make a matching top with the aqua dots used for the ruffle however the elastic was a little loose on the legs and needs tightening so I wasn't overly happy with them. They'd be cute if I could get around to fixing them. They have cute pink daisy metal snaps at the crotch for easy nappy changes (although I think that was a bit of a waste since it's easier to pull up pants on a baby that crawls away rather than snapping them up) and I worked out how to do the rolled hem with my overlocker to create the ruffle on the bottom. A side note: Madelyn was with me at a cafe wearing these once (paired with the pink lacey singlet top) and someone asked if "it" was a boy or a girl. When I said, Madelyn is most certainly a girl, the woman replied, "Oh, I should have known looking at those pants!"

2. Madelyn's Christmas Outfit

This escaped blogging because I wanted to do a shirt for Austin too, so they both had a handmade Christmas outfit for the Christmas cards, pageant day, and other pre-Christmas events. Madelyn was going to get a pretty dress to wear for Christmas day, but because I never managed to even cut out Austin's green checked shirt (yes, I have the fabric and he pattern all ready!) I couldn't make another outfit for her wihout that Mummy guilt hitting me, so she wore this on Christmas day too. Actually I am sure she was quite thrilled with that since she's still nowhere near walking and would have got tangled crawling through presents and wrapping in a dress!

3. Madelyn's "Little Princess" sleeping bag

Part of our journey towards more sleep included putting Maddy in sleeping bags instead of under covers. We recorded her one night while she slept (we have a night vision camera over her cot - one of our SIDS police installations!) and discovered her crawling in her sleep, much like Austy did at around 7m old, bumping her head on the cot before screaming and waking us all up. So when she wasn't waking with tummy pains, she was waking cold and with a headache. The sleeping bag helped eliminate those wake-ups at least. I have planned to make some more to help out with having to wash this one all the time. This one is probably about a 1.5tog, quilted (on the inside) with cotton/bamboo wadding in between a cotton outer and soft cotton voille inner. I have had the pattern for a while but was reluctant to make one as I had no idea where to get treated cotton fabric - you know how all sleepwear patterns say not to use 100% cotton for the fire risk? Well I pulled out one of Austin's old sleeping bags only to see the red fire danger tag on it, and that was made by a well known and SIDS approved sleeping bag company, with polyester (ew!) batting between the two cotton layers and I figured my sleeping bag would be fine made with 100% cotton. She'd be wearing cotton PJ's under cotton sheets and blankets anyway and it's not like she'll be parading around near an open flame with her sleeping bag on. (Although the government did send us out a high risk fire danger area residents kit a few weeks ago...)

4. 1st birthday bib

It was obvious by the 17th that there was no way I was going to be able to make Madelyn a birthday dress, so I did the next best thing and whipped her up a 1st birthday bib that night, knowing that on the 18th I'd be busy decorating her cake. I used this tutorial that has been sitting in my file of pdf patterns ever since Austy was little... I finally got to make one up, even though it was a little rushed. I covered the front with a layer of plastic, in preparation for quite a bit of cake mess. My little girl surprised me though and actually ate like a little princess for a change. We were all waiting with cameras at the ready to catch those cake smears all over her but they just never happened, with my Maddy breaking off bite sized peices with her thumb and forefinger and placing them delicately in her mouth!

5. Ravelry favourite colour swap

I dyed up some wool/silk and some wool for this in red and red tones, as well as made a plastic covered zip pouch to store knitter's knick knacks in, and collected the rest of the red items for the swap. Unfortunately in my hurry to post it I forgot to take photos, but I did receive a great parcel all the way from Finland, containing lots of aqua things for me.

6. Matching Christmas PJ's for the kidlets

One day whilst browsing etsy I came across a fun Christmas print that came in two colourways - an aqua and a raspberry. Immediately I thought of matching Christmas pyjamas for my babies, using boyish boxer style shorts for Austy and cute ruffle legged bloomers for Maddy. I was even planning to make the t-shirts at that stage and bought the fabric as well as some matching ribbing for the neck and arm bands on white appliqued tees. In the end the deadline got too close so I raced out to Target on Christmas Eve to buy plain white t-shirts to finish the kids' pyjamas in time to wear to bed. Unfortunately there was only a size 6 left in white for Austy, so we wandered over to the girlswear to look for a white t-shirt there. We found the girly style I was looking for, for her but still no white in the size 4 for him. Instead we came across the perfectly matching "celery green" which seemed exactly the same size and shape as the darker green t-shirt I had picked up in the boys section as a last resort. I quickly swapped the boy's tee for the girls as the girl's is a much better match, and Austy was none the wiser. He loves his Christmas PJ's and only switched to a clean pair tonight since he wet through his night nappy last night. I was glad I got these done as it was so cute to see them matching as they opened up their presents on Christmas morning!

I didn't manage to make the Christmas table runner, or the Christmas tree box cover, or Madelyn's Santa sack (to match Austy's with baby's fiorst Christmas photo on the front) like I had planned, but have decided a "Christmas in July Sew-up" is in order for 2010 which should take care of that for next year without causing me undue stress right when I am dealing with two birthday parties and Christmas shopping once again. I DID manage to bake my Finnish Christmas biscuits (an annual tradition since I spent my 17th Christmas in Finland on Rotary Youth Exchange) and two batches of rocky road (yum!).

A belated Merry Christmas to all my blog readers, and a Happy (and crafty) New Year as well. Next post: My 2010 New Years Resolutions!

Buying handmade

2009-12-05T17:21:00.003+10:30

I recently discovered this gorgeous romper and hat set on etsy (at ChewChews Closet), and just had to have it! I was actually looking for romper patterns as it seems here in Australia rompers only go up to size 0 and same for our sewing patterns for baby things. Apparently Madelyn is too big to wear baby rompers and only dresses seem to come in her size, but she still hates wearing dresses since she can't walk and they get right in the way of her turbo crawling.

The photos are rather dodgy as it's so hard taking photos of TurboBaby, and she has now decided that backdrops are for pulling down. Wish me luck on my Christmas card photo - I have decided not to use a backdrop for that but get the kids outside in teh garden instead.

You can see the goregous romper and hat, although these blurry photos do them no justice. Darcy did the most wonderful job making them for my Maddy and there is still plenty of room for growth. (I just wish I could keep the straps done up as she is just TOOO active at the moment).

Meet Mr Milo

2009-11-27T18:35:00.001+10:30

Excuse the blurry photos. This tiny little guy was a bit wriggly as he really didn't want to be away from his Mum just yet, at only 2w old. Guess who's coming to our house in the New Year! We can't wait to have Milo curled up on our laps, or snuggled up in bed, or especially so in Austy and Maddy's case, running and jumping as we chase and play with him. I have a blanket that just needs darning ends made especially for him, and a couple of kitty toys in the planning. Today I had my very first cuddle - the start of what we hope will be a long and happy friendship of the feline kind! Austin chose his name, and then we chose the kitten to suit ;). I think he was the cutest of th bunch anyway, as the others were black and white (except for one that was more like a dalmation - white with black spots). He is more of a caramel colour rather than the grey he looks in these photos, and is still waiting for his curly fur to grow. Can you tell what he is? I reckon those ears and wrinkly skin gives away his breed, even though his tell-tale fur isn't quite there yet.

He is pweeedy small... just big enough to fit into the palm of my hand with a barrel like belly weighing him down!

Please... no more cancer to take away our beloved pets. We'd like to keep this one for more than the short decade we had our Rottweiler dog Astertyx, and Siamese cat Gryffin - each one lost to different forms of cancer following the birth of each of my two legged babies. DH thinks the solution is simple - no more people babies and the fur babies will stay with us. Hmmmm...

Baby quilt WIP

2009-11-22T08:52:00.003+10:30

Snapped just before Seek and Destroy came to totally mess up the shot! You can see a little hand in the corner. I saw her on the way at her superfast pace so had to hurry and press the button before my quilt top was no longer looking like a quilt. The quilt top just needs a name appliqued in the centre and some borders before it can be sandwiched and quilted and sent in the post along with the matching giraffe (made from the Audrey and Maude pattern Helen sent me with the DQS) for a new baby boy.

I surprised myself. I'm the slowest sewer arond. But when I got the chance to sew all night, I didn't mess around! I made 1.5 blocks during the day withkid interruptions and the rest last night. I love the colours in this quilt - the white, creams, naturals and chocolates are left over from Maddy's quilt (still unbordered & unquilted....) and the blue is the perfect cornflower shade. This one will be called "Milk and Cookies" as the blue and white together reminds me of those milk jugs striped with blue that you see in adverts, and the chocolate and natural - choc chip bickies of course!

More detailed shots of Gilbert Giraffe to come when the gift is all ready to send.

I have a kindy boy!

2009-11-14T17:08:00.003+10:30

Austin started pre-entry kindy just over a week ago (so has now been to two Friday morning sessions). He absolutely loves it, and listens intently to the teachers (we wish he could do this at home a little more...) and both times has been having too much fun to leave, staying for the playgroup session that follows pre-entry. He has been going to playgroup there all year which we believe has helped the transition into kindy, and isn't too fussed about having us leave.
So what has this got to do with my crafty blog? Remember the MadeByRae backpack giveaway I crossed my fingers to win a little while ago? Well I didn't win, but the cuteness factor of that backpack had me kind of obsessed. I blogged my supplies here, and now can show you the final result.

I used medium weight canvas from kokka called Toyland as I thought this would be good at hiding the dirt that kindy boys seem to attract. The contrast is just a plain lime green drill. I couldn't find any piping to go with the fabric, so made my own (a first for me) which wasn't as difficult as I'd expected it to be, especailly using a zipper foot to stitch nice and close to the cord.

The straps are made with cotton webbing rather than the nylon stuff prescribed in the pattern as I am anti-plasticky fake stuff when kids have to wear it! I also interfaced all the pieces (except the handle) with a light weight fusible interfacing to ensure the bag had shape. I wasn't too worried about the extra thickness, as I knew my machine could hack it with a new denim needle and quilting foot in use.

I decided to embroider his name onto a name label so that the bag could be identified by kindy staff (although somehow they couldn't help him find his bag at fruit time on Friday so I have since showed them...) without being able to give strangers his name as he walks around with the bag on his back. The cute little plane embroidery was one of the standard Janome ones that came witgh my sewing machine, but how perfectly does it go with the fabric?! I just HAD to use it.

The bag is so cute with everything in small scale - those straps are just over an inch wide, and the chair used in the top picture is a tiny toddler chair. I see one of these cute bags in the future for Madelyn too. Not that she could wear it yet, but I'm sure it won't be long as she copies everything Austin does, even trying to put on his goggles at swimming this morning! As she grows older, I will need to carry less with me, and this bag would easily fit a spare cloth nappy, wipes, changemat, change of clothes and a toy or two for short trips out. I put all of Austy's kindy things in there (a change of clothes, small lunchbox, hat and cup) and there was still surprisingly plenty of spare room.

I have to say this was one of the most enjoyable projects I have made all year. The last step was a little fiddly (going around those corners with the piping in place) but the rest of it was fun as I could see the cuteness being created before my eyes! I can't rave enough about this bag pattern, and recommend it to all sewers with a child under 5.

The handmade dress giveaway

2009-11-10T14:47:00.002+10:30

How could I not miss out on this one?! I have been eyeing off a couple of these patterns for a while, particularly the Miss Madeleine dress and Miss Lily dress. Too cute!

Madelyn's new dolly quilt!

2009-11-09T21:12:00.005+10:30

A quilty little parcel arrived on my doorstep yesterday. I excitedly ripped it open to reveal Madelyn's new dolly quilt!! Made by the very talented Helen in some suitably girly pink and red prints on white, with the most swirly and fun daisies quilted into it, this quilt has made Madelyn one very lucky girl!

Here she is playing "Where's Maddy?" with it this afternoon. We are planning on buying her this cute doll's pram to use it in with a soft cloth doll for her first birthday. Won't it go perfectly with the bright pink dots?

Neatly folded, showing the cute little wonky log cabin on the back:

And all the extra goodies Helen packed in to spoil me!

Some heart shaped buttons, little pink tape measure (probably in one of the kids' hands for this photo), rick rack, shirring elastic (someone has been reading my blog very carefully!) and a cute Audrey & Maude softy pattern to make giraffes for the kidlets. See? Thoroughly spoilt!

I'm not allowed to hang quilts in the house (in fact our walls are COMPLETELY bare!) so shhhhh... here it is hung on our family room feature wall for a brief moment in all it's glory!

And my happy kidlets enjoying the opening:

Thanks sooo much Helen! It's perfect for us.

Party pooper...

2009-11-08T16:19:00.002+10:30

Here's my little princess, totally flaked at this morning's birthday party in her new cherry outfit. Check out the leg and arm rolls - her 2kgs lost the other week are most certainly back!

Straight after James' 4th birthday in the park we went for a birthday luncheon for my Mum where she was a little energiser bunny - her and Austy both went into overdrive then so no chance for more photos.

Revealling the Crazy Shrooms (DQS3)

2009-11-07T22:49:00.003+10:30

Cass has reported that she has received and opened her little mini quilt I made her, named "Crazy Shrooms". Inspred by her flickr favourites, filled with mushroom quilts, fresh bright colours and randomly pieced blocks, I kind of let the quilt design itself. And this is what it became.

I snuck in a few of my favourite cherry fabrics - some from the cherry oh range, and one very pretty blue and metallic one that I have something special planned for Madelyn (with an ADORABLE set arriving from an etsy seller hopefully this week from the very same fabric).

So when I saw that bright, fun and cherry filled fabric in the same colour scheme as the quilt I just KNEW it was destined to be the backing. I normally like to piece a DQ back as it's cute and scrappy, but this stuff was too pretty to cut up.

The mushroom house has a pieced background and is appliqued after sandwiching by stitching twice around each shape so that the design is noticeable from the back. I used a natural thread for the quilting for the main part with a varigated green for the hilly greens, and aqua on the back. I was going to do some FMQ swirls in the sky or add a butterfly but ran out of time and worried I might ruin the quilt(not very experienced in FMQ!!!)... I think it works like this though. Not too busy.

Oh Cherry Baby!

2009-11-07T13:07:00.004+10:30

I finally cut into my "Oh Cherry Oh" layer cake that I bought in the US. I love the fabrics so much it was hard to decide what to use them for. While I had originally planned a small quilt, perhaps for Maddy's pram, I never did get around to it, and decided to just get stuck into it and make a cute little outfit fir her instead!

I also used a little bit (a very little bit - I have been HOARDING this stuff!) on my doll quilt swap, sent to Cass, in time for the big reveal today (however the one my secret partner made for Maddy is still in transit so I haven't one to show off today). So you might spy a little there.

This cute little outfit was perfect for my "me time" yesterday as I took Madelyn around the Adelaide quilt show with Emma and her Gran, but I decided to put a different dress on her instead (making the most of her being able to wear skirts and dresses while she is strapped in her pram rather than getting tangled up as she crawls) since the wind was a little blowy here this morning before it fined up into a rather warm day. Oh well, it's still clean and fresh for her to wear to a couple of birthday parties on tomorrow (with a pair of shorts or bloomers packed for when the skirt gets too bothersome).

The skirt was my own pattern, I kind of made it up as I went along - it made me realise how easy girl sewing can be, skirts are so much easier (and FASTER!) than shorts with pockets, buttons and flies! It's just a simple elastic waisted number with a contrast waist band, quite full gathering and a little broderie englaise edging for girlie cuteness. I was amazed at how big it came out - it fits her now (albeit slightly roomy) but also fitted my nearly 4yr old next door neighbour. On the almost 4yr old it was a tad short though so by the time Maddy is her height it would be best donned with short leggings. Austy is still wearing a pair of shorts I made him at 2yrs old, but to have something last from 10m to 4yrs is quite impressive! I'll probably be sick of it by then, but it will be okay for home as I can imagine it could be quite grubby after 3yrs use. The top was made using a pattern from Ottobre 1/07. I love the top all except the narrow neck opening. As it was I had to cut off my neck binding and redo it while the garment was half constructed when I realised it was going to be uncomfortabley high on her neck. Frustrating! So next time I make it (and definitely will be doing it again) I will adjust the neck openings on the pattern pieces so as not to have this trouble again, and make it looser than this one turned out. The sleeves look a bit odd in the photographs here, and yes, they are , just slightly as I used the stretch as you sew method of getting the right elastic length rather than my normal pre-cut and pin evenly method, to save time. You can't tell when she is wearing it, but I will go back to my more time consuming method, I think as I like things to be perfect.

A call out to my winners

2009-11-05T09:25:00.003+10:30

Unfortunately it seems neither of my blogtoberfest winners have a blog, and neither left a way of contacting them in their comments. (amummy I accidentally thought you were RomiJade by clicking on one of the blogs you followed - your web address in your profile doesn't work). I was hoping to check the winners blog to pick a suitable surprise to go inside the bags. So if you are amummy or mama llama I would love to hear from you so I can package up your bags and get them on their way.

I'll have to redraw if I don't hear anything by the 14th November.

Shabby Apple Dare to Design Giveaway

2009-11-04T09:24:00.001+10:30

Ooh I'd love to win this dress - perfect for Christmas parties!
http://grosgrainfabulous.blogspot.com/2009/11/shabby-apple-dare-to-design-lawn-frock.html

Blogtoberfest 31: It's official!

2009-10-31T18:15:00.004+10:30

... that I'm a blogtoberfest drop out!

But I do have some blogtoberfest winners to congratulate.

As promised, a draw was conducted at 5pm today, by my boy, who eagerly pulled out amummy to win the birdy bag I made, followed by ...mama llama (sorry can't find your blog - please leave a comment with a way of contacting you)for second prize - my baby boxy.
Congrats to the both of you and thanks to everyone who entered!

Instead of many crafty things I've been working on getting more of this happening (again) after a tummy bug and her 2kg weight loss (in just 3w) made me have to start again with sleep training.

I've also been working on this for the EB Doll Quilt Swap (to be revealed very soon!):

Helped Austy with this:

Made Madelyn this (still needs leg cuffs, elastic and blocking):

And have been keeping cool with the kids:

Blogtoberfest Day 22: Must... keep... blogging!

2009-10-22T20:42:00.003+10:30

Okay, so maybe you noticed that missed day over the weekend... maybe you didn't - but now I've made it obvious!!! I am starting to struggle with the blog every day thing, especially as I haven't had a lot of crafty time lately.

DH is home this week and so evenings are spent on the couch with him as he gets a bit jealous of the sewing machine. But that means I have done a good part of the Baby Chalice blanket to help settle the Madster in her pram on cooler days (I have a cotton blanket but nothing warm since Maddy put a hole in her handknit shawl, except for a crochet rug that Nanna mad Austin, who isn't willing to share). The colours looked kind of pretty on the skein but remind me of a certain upchuck on the rug last year after Austy ate red jelly at a birthday party. Oh well... I shall knit on and perhaps overdye it when I'm done.

Finally the shaggy, fuzzy, sheddy milo vest is off the needles too, ready for the cooler weather we are expecting next week. Hopefully a good wash will remove the majority of the fluff so it doesn't end up as after lunch snacks for Madelyn (who can eat until the cows come home if we'd let her!).

Blogtoberfest Day 21: Off the desk

2009-10-21T18:38:00.002+10:30

It was about time I got this lonely nappy off the sewing desk. I normally do them in batches of 3-5 but somehow this one was all cut out and embroidered but sat there until last night, waiting for me to get some motivation to make it. It's hard to see in these awful photos (note to self: it is not a good time to take photos of babies who like to dance, when playschool is on!) but the embroidery says "Princess in Training" - oh so Madelyn!
Aqua blue minky outer with pink metallic quilters cotton tabs for the velcro opening and fully lined with very soft white microfleece. I was going to go with deep purple velour for the inner, but thought that was a bit too "girly overload". The white is just fine.

And at a more still moment, here she is in her Alicia dress and pants set. Sorry the photo is no better...

I was actually impressed with the fit - having made this a size 74cm, and tried it on when I made it (sans buttons) I was sure she was an 80. But this is perfect, much nicer fit for now than the Oilily dress I did in the 80. Glad we have finally got some warm weather to make use of it.

Now the desk is clear (almost - one DQS to finish) for Austy's bag.

Blogtoberfest Day 20: Supplies

2009-10-20T15:28:00.003+10:30

Destined for a lounge set (shorts and tee) for my nephew's first birthday, and a t-shirt (perhaps shorts if there's enough) for Austy:

Ready to whip up a kindy bag for Austy:

ETA: The fabrics are all from Kelani Fabrics (minus the lime drill from my local sewing store). From top left - Kokka linen -chocolate, Hoffman "In the wild"Animal Land Blue, Hoffman "In the wild" Animal Dots Chocolate, Kokka Linen Toys on Blue.

Blogtoberfest Day 19: Nothing crafty

2009-10-19T17:45:00.002+10:30

But look who's 10m old today! AND slept through the night. YAY!!!!!

Blogtoberfest Day 17: Drama Queen take two

2009-10-17T13:55:00.002+10:30

Here's my new wool all dry and one balled (a bit messy because Austin wanted to help)

Blogtoberfest Day 16: Drama Queen!

2009-10-17T00:47:00.004+10:30

Okay, so technically I'm late for today's post since it's past midnight. But I haven't gone to bed yet, so in my rules it's still Friday night ;)

It's way past my bedtime so I'll keep it short. Had a fun day today catching up with my quilty friend Emma, and meeting another quilter Adds, who I've chatted to online for a few years now. The kids went crazy (as they do), bothe were exhausted and ended up going to bed later than usual as I was a bit behind schedule with getting the dinner, bath, bed thing done and the littlest one fell asleep in the car on the way home from getting take away so decided to be wide eyed at 9pm wanting to play.

I was determined to get something crafty done, silly I know, when I have to keep going in and resettling her several times at the moment with "sleep training". It's still wet, but I'm calling it a night, so I give you my latest wool dyeing effort, "Drama Queen". I was going to call it Precious Princess (our nickname for Madelyn, just as Austy was always our "Precious Prince" as a babe), but that pink... wow. I had second thoughts once I saw how vibrant it came out on the BWM 10ply (it's the same pink I used on these shorties but took so differently!) I wished for a moment I'd used the purple I had originally planned to use, but at least this way people will know my baby is a girl when they see this knitted into a pram blanket and draped over her. So, since the pink kind of yelled out and made a fuss, Drama Queen it is!

Shades of pale celery, pale pink, turquoise, deep pink and a touch of cream (and a few lavender bits where the colours blended). The colours should be a bit lighter and prettier when it dries tomorrow and I'll give you another looksie with a daylight photo or two.

Time for bed while all is quiet in the house... for now!

Blogtoberfest Day 15: Giveaway Day!

2009-10-15T13:51:00.005+10:30

Here it is - finally - very late for my blogiversary, and even later for my 100th post (currently the tally is at 194...oops!). But here it is anyway, in time for blogtoberfest. Since I am sooooo overdue for this I am giving away TWO handmade items so you get two chances to win a prize.

For second prize, I decided to whip up a boxy bag from the fantastic tutorial over at patchyapple. The only problem was, with kids in bed I only had what was in my sewing box to rummage through for materials. And so the Baby Boxy was born! Made with a 7" zip instead of the 14" one, it really is a little zippered pouch. However small doesn't necessarily mean it can't be useful. I can imagine it being a coin pouch or lippy pouch in someone's handbag, or a knitting gadgets (like stitch markers) pouch in a knitting bag, or hold some handy little sewing things for the sewers and quilters out there. This, I thought would cater nicely to everyone that reads my blog. I did, at one stage, think I was crazy doing my first one so small as it was a bit fiddly getting the zip in, but it seemed to work out okay. The handle is the same size as it would be for a full sized version as I figured that your fingers still need to fit through!

The first prize is this cute little buttercup bag - perfect for spring for those on this side of the hemisphere, or to brighten those dark gloomy winter days on the other side of the world. With Christmas just around the corner too, it would make a neat little gift for a friend if it's not your style. This was the first time I inserted a magnetic snap but it was no trouble at all with the very detailed instructions that came with them from Nicole Mallaleui.

The bag is lined with a pretty blue contrast that follows on with the leafy filigree that is on the cute yellow birdie outer.

I also decided to add ric-rack as suggested by the bag designer herself, Rae over at MadeByRae. And the final touch was my first flower yoyo using a clover yoyo maker. I accidentally pushed the centre of the flower to the back rather than the front, but I think it looks even better with a cute little covered button centre anyway - I wasn't too sure about poking the wrong side of the fabric through the centre. If you don't win, or would prefer to make one yourself, you can find the free pattern here. Luckily, it was pretty quick to make as I have had my hands full with the littlest one of late, teaching her to sleep better.

To enter, just leave a comment by 5pm SA time on th 31st October, with a way of contacting you if you don't have a blog and I'll get the boy to draw a couple of names to send these little bags to. An additional small surprise will be hiding inside each bag. Good luck!

Blogtober Day 14: One more sleep

2009-10-14T16:18:00.004+10:30

Today's post will be relatively short - not really skipping a day as I did a mammoth post over here to make up for it. We have been having some major sleep issues with Madelyn so I decided that today I would post on the kids' blog rather than the craft one. I will be doing some simple knitting at night for a week or so while we get this new routine to work as I'm going to have to do something to keep my mind off the crying.

For now, let me share a sneak peak of what you can win here from tomorrow (it's 2 separate giveaways).

Blogtoberfest Day 13: Sew, sew inspired!

2009-10-13T17:38:00.002+10:30

If you haven't ever stoped by MadeByRae's blog, and you love sewing, I have to say, stop hesitating... it's only a click away!

Remember this backpack? The one I lusted after and crissed and crossed my fingers to win it for Austy who starts pre-entry kindy, just a week away? Well unfortunately I can't win everything I dare to enter and I am already lucky enough to win those gorgeous sewing tapes this week (got to share the handmade love around!). However, I feel like I've had a win of sorts by finding her blog in the first place. I now have my hot little hands on the pattern, and with another rainy day here, what is a girl to do but internet shopping?! So an order over at Kelani later for some cute, durable and dirt hiding boy fabric, (and of course some others while I was there!), and an order over at Nicole Mallalieu's bag supply store for some webbed strap and buckles to make Austy's bag look professionally done, I think I'd better let the credit card recover!

Postie, you will now be officially STALKED so I can get started on the cutest little backpack in the world! In the mean time I shall be drooling here.

Blogtoberfest Day 12: Rainy Monday

2009-10-12T19:21:00.004+10:30

After three hours trying to get the littlest one to go to sleep without having to be attached to me (in practise for my return to work in the not too distant future), I gave up and let her taste some watermellon for teh first time. She seemed to like it!

Then, to keep the bigger one happy despite being penned indoors, we counted, sorted, stacked and played "Woosh!" with these blocks - part of a Jenga style game I bought pre-mummy time for when the nephews came to stay.

Then they became a zoo...

Don't you love versitile toys?

Having played with Austy for a bit I decided it was time the little Miss DID have a nap, and got a bit more forceful with the issue, rocking her for half an hour and then she finally dozed off. I took the time to vaccuum and mop but also had to stop a few times to sing "Happy Birthday", blow up balloons and pretend to bake a cake - apparently it was his toy Montgomery Monkey's birthday.

After all that I thought I'd sit down for a moment and perhaps cast on for this (in the hope of sunnier spring days to come):

But I got distracted and had to take photos of Austy's knitting attempts. Got to start them early you see!

ETA: Thanks Emma for fixing my photo issues!! From now on ALL my photos will be enlargeable at the click of a mouse. I have changed my order of doing things - upload photos, THEN write the blog post in between the pics. It saves all those annoying line deletions and doesn't stuff up my photos. Amazing! Why didn't I think of that before?!

Blogtoberfest Day 11: Sunday Sickie

2009-10-11T19:46:00.002+10:30

That's right - I'm chucking a sickie today...

No, I don't have a sick note from my doctor or my mum, but I'm nursing two sick kids and a head cold myself. While I did think of being the life of the festival and blog hopping a bit to share some inspirational snippets from othe festival goers, I simply can't be bothered today. Sorry people. I am too snuffly and tired to do the clicking.

But I am happy to announce I am already a blogtoiberfest winner, thanks to a fantastic giveaway over at Sweet Tidings. So in the true spirit of things, I will finally make a decision on what I will give away on my blog, and you will be able to enter next Thursday, Blogtoberfest 15. Details will be posted then.

Blogtoberfest Day 10: Frills and flounce

2009-10-10T10:38:00.004+10:30

Okay so this could be classed as cheating - talk about a project one day and show it the next! But I am struggling to play Mum and be crafty every day so this will have to do for today.

This little dress is a touch big on Madelyn as you can see, but at least I know she won't grow out of it in the blink of an eye like she does everything else, and if it really bothered me, I could shift the buttons to make the bodice more snug for now.

Poor Madelyn has a nasty cold (and horrendous cough) so I wasn't going to push her to sit nicely and pose especially after the night we had, but here are some action shots of her in her new dress. As she tried to crawl off, she got her knee caught on it and face-planted... I have also promised her I won't make her any more dresses now until she can walk, unless they are the shorter type of dress that she can wear with little bloomer pants and won't hinder her crawling. She is trying to pull herself up already and the few times I have held her hands her little feet race off in a march, so somehow I don't think she will take as long as her big brother to master that.

PS. Does anyone know why I can never get my pictures to enlarge at the click of the mouse? I used to have it working a long time ago and thought the trick was to not have the photos too large but now that isn't even working...hmmmmm.... any ideas?

Blogtoberfest Day 9: Glad you said blue!

2009-10-09T23:13:00.002+10:30

Just scraping in for today's post before bed (no help from a certain little kitty who nearly got her paw stitched to my baby dress!....oh Jane, she's fine really!). That's right, today I have finally made the baby dress I have been longing to see on my baby girl ever since that edition of the Ottobre magazine landed in my letterbox. I've had the fabric for months.

The main fabric is an oilily reprint I bought from etsy, a slightly indulgent but must have purchase! The contrast is a good quality fine cord I bought to matchat a local dressmaking shop, however when I got it home and sat the two fabrics together for a few days I wasn't so sure they "went". Then I dug the pink out of my stash, something I bought from Spotlight aaaaaages ago for my niece's doll clothes and thought for a moment that it went better, but I hadn't really wanted an all pink dress. It turns out that my first choice (and yours) was right. For one thing the quality matches that of the main fabric (sorry Spotlight lovers, but the quality of that pink stuff was not really up to scratch), and it really pops at the back where the ruffles are.

Sorry I don't have a photo to show as yet. It's buttonhole day tomorrow, and hopefully it will then be ready for some modelling action. My pintucks aren't as neat as I'd hoped but I am using the excuse that it was my first go at them and the busy fabric hid my markings. I still think it will look super cute on, and I did the next size up this time (since this dress only just fit around her chest despite it supposedly being the perfect measurement for her) so this one should last until we are blessed with summery weather.

Blogtoberfest Day 8: Furry visitors!

2009-10-08T22:22:00.007+10:30

I have been saving this topic for a rather non-crafty day like today when I really don't have much to show. All I did today was go to mothers group, do some washing, wash the biggest furry visitor with Austy, do some food shopping, make baby food and cook dinner (as well as feed a teething baby a hundred times since she won't eat her solids with those sharp little canines trying to push their way through her tender gums).

I also worked on that mochalicious zest blanket but it would be rather boring if I just showed you pictures of that with a few more rows added each day, so I'll save that for when there's a lot more done. So far I'm about a quarter of teh way through. I like the way my pattern is knitting up, I love the chocolate colour, but the wool is horrid. Okay maybe that's an exaggeration but it's certainly not as soft as some of the lovely stuff I have been knitting with lately. As a result I am thinking that it will most likely end up as a pretty blanket for our future kitten's hideyhole, and I have the perefect sewing pattern to make a matching cat tent for it to go in. It should go nicely in our living room and give our newest family member soemwhere to escape to when the kidlets are having their roudiest moments. Our smallest furry visitor has shown us that hideyholes are very imporant for little kittens trapped in a room with two young children!

So now, let me introduce our furry visitors. First up, the big one, who I have featured here a few times before as we love to look after her when her people are exploring the countryside. Meet Lulu, a very playful, very friendly and quite huggable retriever. She loves kids, and Austy always has a ball with her. She's not too fond of baths though, depspite the fact I wash her in a toddler pool filled with lovely warm water and rinse of with fresh buckets of equally warm water. She is always excited to see me bring out the towels and waits for me to tell her "All free" as I unleash her and watch her run madly abnout the back yard and roll on the lawn. She doesn't complain though - I think that she has worked out that she always gets more cuddles after her bath. Once she is dry, I spend ages brushing her (and today I had to use a tiny cat brush as I forgot to ask her people for her own brush when they dropped her off with us) and then she looks like a big fluffy bear with silkn fur that I can't resist wrapping my arms around her and giving her a good squeeze and a pat. She really is a lovely dog.

And this is the littlest one - a new member of the Virgo family, Maggie. She's very quiet, quite timid, but loveable all the same. We haven't seen a lot of her (hence the rushed photo!).

The first day she spent hidden behind the washing machine until I prized her out and stuffed the gap with an old blanket to stop her hiding in there again. Since then she has been in hiding a lot - behind the washing basket, under the shoe rack, under Austy's desk, behind thre different curtains, under the computer desk... We onder where else she might hide tomorrow. Austy gave us a fright this morning as he exclaimed "Maggie's gone outside! I let her out and she's disappeared." as I came back from my shower with Madelyn. We all had a good look, calling her and wondering if we'd even hear her since she has the quietest cry (and the loudest pur to match!) but she wasn't anywhere to be found. Then Andrew saw her, hiding under Austin's desk trying to blend into the wall. She gets brave occasionally and lets Austin play with her, but then he gets a bit too much for her and she has a bit too much carrying around and retreats to a new place to hide. Since our own cat has died, I have been reading Austin "Goodbye Mog". Mog gets old and dies, but her ghost stays to watch over the family when a new kitten arrives. That kitten is a lot like Maggie. Mog calls the kitten a "stupid kind of kitten" because it's so afraid of the family but in the end Mog helps the kitten learn that the family are okay, kind of like how Maggie is adapting to having little children around. Although it did sound a little strange when Austy referred to Maggie as a stupid kind of kitten.... Seriously - who writes "stupid" in a book for preschoolers?!!

Tonight I was reminded what it is like to knit with a kitten in the house as she jumped on my lap, stole my wool, nibbled my needles and chewed on my knee - all in good fun! I kept losing my place and packed the knitting away to give her some cuddles instead. It will be so nice to have a kitten again, I'd love another dog too but Andrew isn't as sold on that one yet as puppies take a bit more time to train and we'd like to take it to obedience training like our last one so we need to wait until the kidlets are a bit older.

Blogtobefest Day 7: Get your scraps out!

2009-10-07T16:41:00.003+10:30

After deciding to use up some scrap wool last night, I finally made a start on my EBDQS3! Horaaaahhh! A month of the making time has already vanished into whatever black hole the rest of the year went down, so it was about time I made a start. I knew I wanted to try a bit of a scrappy style as I haven't done that before and a doll quilt is the perfect size to try something new. Those that know me, know I like to plan and control... well... everything, so scrapiness is a little weird for me but I'm enjoying it so far.

Plus, with the minute amount of sleep I've been getting lately (thanks to an adorable but sleepless little girl) scrapiness is probably about the only thing I can handle right now. We think there are more teeth on the way (yes, I KNOW!!! She already has 8 and she is only 9 months old, it's CRAZY!) and these are the worst ever as she is even off her food. Don't worry, she certainly won't fade away to a shadow - the amount of milk she is demanding from me will make sure of it, I just hope I can keep my sanity in the meantime. Last night I had both of them screaming, tring to outdo each other, and it took me ages to have both of them asleep, running backwards and forwards between the two of them, and even that was short lived as the littlest one was awake four mour times before I eventually got the courage to go to bed myself (knowing I'd be woken again as oon as I found that elusive dreamy land).

Anyway enough of my overtired drivel, I have no idea where this little quilt is heading. I sketched up three different plans and kept changing my mind, so hopefully if I pack it up for the night it will have some new directions for me tomorrow. I think all I can manage tonight is to curl up on the couch with one of our fluffy visitors and knit away on my trial baby blanket - Mochalicious Zest, using up those wool left overs I spoke of last night. A friend has a boy on the way so if it turns out okay, he will have it as part of his welcome to the world gift. If not, my next baby (the four legged variety - due to move in just after my birthday) will get it for his basket.

Blogtoberfest Day 6: Dyeing for hot cocoa!

2009-10-06T21:53:00.003+10:30

I decided to use up some leftover yarn. It wasn't the right colour. So I changed it. Keep an eye out for more news on hot cocoa in blogtoberfest posts to come.

Edited for Susuan:

I use Gaywool Dyes, and a couple of Landape dyes I bought ages ago in a sample pack. This method shown here is the kettle dyeing method, which I use for semisolids only as I have a fear of ugly colours forming when they mix (or perhaps I need more practice :P). This is a fairly easy method, you boil up the wool from cold, turn it down to a simmer and pour on some dye solution in random spots. Don't stir it unless you want even colour. And don't turn it for abou 10 mins as the dye will mostly take in the first 5 mins. Simmer gently for half an hour, rinse, wash, dry and reskein. Enjoy!

Blogtoberfest Day 5: Did you know?

2009-10-05T22:13:00.003+10:30

For those who trace out patterns that need the seam allowances added on, like those from my favourite magazine Ottobre, did you know that your index finger is the perfect width for a seam allowance? I just trace the pattern off then lay my finger next to the traced line and draw along the edge of my finger to get nice even seam allowances all around.

Sorry for the short post - we had a family day today with it being a public holiday here and therefore no craftiness to show, so I thought I'd share my favourite dressmaking tip.

Blogtoberfest Day 4: Happy Birthday Nanna!

2009-10-04T16:50:00.004+10:30

Yesterday was my Nanna's 77th birthday so of course I packed the kids up and took them to her place with a homemade afternoon tea. I didn't give her anything I had made this year, but I tried to take a photo of the first quilt I ever made that was her 70th birthday present, all hand stitched (piecing and quilting). I often refer to this one as my first ever quilt as every memory of that 70th quilt was painful as handstitching really ISN'T my thing and I used the wrong batting which meant that even with a leather thimble, I still managed to stab holes in my thumb doing the hand quilting. Austy's little baby quilt was the first one I did "right" and used teh machine for. I try to forget the painful holes in my thumb!

Unfortunately in her gloomy spare room (it was quite cloudy yesterday) and with a wriggly baby in my arms the photos came out quite blurry so I deleted them when I got home and will have to try again another day. I did catch a shot of this one though - my one and only blackwork (or should it be BLUE work?) that I did for her kitchen one Christmas (about 10yrs ago) as she has lots of blue and white china in there.

And like Nanna always does, she sent me home with a little something for one of the kids, this time a sweet little jumper for Madelyn. It's a Bendigo Woollen Mills 8ply pattern she did with some yarn leftovers someone gave her, and embroidered by her sister.

Instead of getting crafty today, Austy and I made slime... blue slime.... remind me next time to make it white as we both are now sporting lovely SMURF hands!

Blogtoberfest Day 3: The elusive buttons

2009-10-03T10:48:00.004+09:30

I decided to finally finish off the Alicia Dress (Ottobre 3/2009) that I made for Madelyn when DH told me I could keep on sewing if I wanted to after I finished off the page boy suit for Matt & Jazz's wedding. I got it all done from tracing to finishing in just one afternoon, but then procrastinated on putting the buttons on as I have a morbid fear of ruining things when I add buttonholes. Crazy really as my sewing machine does a beautiful job of an automatic buttonhole... and since I now know I can use my sewing machine to actually stitch the buttons on, the most arduous task of all can be done by machine.

So last night I pulled it out and do you think I could find those supercute little daisy buttons I spent time picking out for this dress? Of course not. I gave up after an hour of searching and made some little bloomers instead (Eyelet Bloomers Ottobre 3/2007). I didn't really follow the instructions here, just used the pattern piece (got to love a single piece pattern!!!) and added some length to the hem so that I could do a ruffled casing instead of shiring elastic on the legs. I don't have shirring elastic and don't know if I'm game enough to try it yet so I copied an idea I saw on some cute baby leisure pants at Seed the other day (and for less than half the price!!!). These pants have to be the quickest baby pants ever. I will certainly be making more for spring/summer as she can get away with shorter dresses (so as not to get all tangled up when crawling) with a pair of bloomers underneath. Occationally I will let her just wear a cloth nappy butt in all it's glory, but I don't have a gazzillion nappies in every colour and not too keen on things that don't match (call it obsessive compulsive but I like colour coordination!), so only if the nappy matches she can go bloomer-free. (I am a little less anal about the whole nappy matching thing these days but I vaguely recall having a go at DH when Austy was a fewe months old because he used a lime green pocket nappy under a white bodysuit which poked out through the leg holes - I told him only skin colour under white.... now I am just happy that my baby has cloth on most of the time as DH will go for a disposable when he can.)

When the bloomers were done, I forced myself back to the knitting. I say "forced" because I'm not too sure I like this thing in all it's fuzzy wuzzy glory, but I have started it so I should get it off the needles one way or another. I think it'd be cute if it weren't for all the shedding. It's Lincraft Angora Plus, hand dyed by me a while back. It was cheap and I thought it was soft and sheeny (it is) and it passed the cheek test (where I rub it against my cheek and decide if I would want it next to my skin let alone a baby's), but oh the shedding!!! Sadly I don't ghave a cat anymore (you can read about Gryffin here) but my lap was oh so much fluffier than when he was around. I'd better get used to it I guess, we have a cornish rex on the way, and while his fur will be delightfully soft and pattable, I know from experience that it will be fine and hard to get off clothes.

And of course I found the buttons this morning but don't know if I'll make it to the sewing machine with my two kidlets awake.

Blogtoberfest? Should I? Could I?

2009-10-02T11:51:00.003+09:30

Now we all know how I have never managed a blog a day for a whole week, so could I manage a whole month? Really? Probably not, but what the hey, I'll give it a shot.

It's my last full month of maternity leave (sob) so probably the only chance I'll get. Hopefully I'll pull out some WIPs (we all know I have a few!) and show you on the dull days, and maybe even reinspire myself to finish them. You know how something just doesn't work out exactly as you'd planned, you toss it in the cupboard never to be seen again, then one day you happen across it and think, "Hey, what is wrong with this?" and actually finish it off. Okay, one can dream...

Hopefully I'll have something crafty to talk about each day and don't get caught up in the "must blog" hype and bore you all with mindless drivell. I'll try to offer a photo a day, and maybe this giveaway I've been promising for months, might actually eventuate!

To join in the fun, find out who else is in, or find out more, you can read about Blogtoberfest here

I'm off to a slow start, having missed the first day, but as TinnieGirl says wagging is allowed (just not preferred!). I look forward to finding inspiration where I never thought possible and "meeting" new friends along the way. Welcome to the festival!

Today's crafty task is to cut the loose buttons off this cotton cardy I made for Austin and restitch them as it's now a perfect fit for Madelyn (got to love pistachio green for it's unisex style!). This cardy has a little story - I was making a striped hat and jacket for Austin from the cotton in the final weeks of my pregnancy. I didn't get too far but took it into the hospital to keep me busy in the evenings once visiting hours were over. Well, any mum would know that when those visiting hours have ended all you want to do is SLEEP! So I think I only managed a couple more rows and then Austin grew out of it before I could finish. So at 4m old, I decided he needed me to make another one, I bought a new pattern (this one is by Sirdar) and started again (and actually FINISHED!) It was my first finished project as a new mum as he didn't really sleep much during the day and I was still getting used to things.

The hat didn't happen and I still had plenty of cotton left over. Then when I had a week before my induction date with Madelyn I decided to make some booties and a hat with it. Again, I took it to hospital with me to do while I waited for labour to start. But I also had a quilt that needed binding and that got preferential treatment. The hat got almost finished, and one bootie was made but that's where it ended. If only I had left the hat half finished from having Austy and I would probably have had a stripey newborn hat for one of my babies! Oh well, they both get to wear this cute soft cardigan which is now the perfect weight for spring and just goes to show that Madelyn IS smaller than Austin was (even though she is still a giant baby and bigger than most 12-14m olds I know!) as he had grown out of it by 10m and it's still a little roomy for her. It's a gorgeous shade of green and looks great on her, a nice change from pink. However I might have to team it with pink pants or something to avoid those "he's such a cute little boy" comments. I never had anyone assume Austy was a girl, so I feel a bit odd when pewople think my pretty princess is a boy, hence my need to put her in one of my least favourite colours all the time.

More newborn gifts

2009-09-30T19:46:00.005+09:30

Today I spent the afternoon with my best friend and her newest family member, little Scarlett Eve, only 4 days old! She is soooooo tiny and petite in every way, but simply adorable all the same. She felt like a feather after holding my 11kg girl!

Both her and her hubby loved the baby sling I made them:

There was a small cosmetic flaw in the canvas I used on the waist strap, which I only noticed AFTER I'd finished stitching it on. So I improvised and covered it with a quick tag with Scarlett's name and birthdate. It sits just past the knot when you tie the sling on (Maddy modelled it for them while Scarlett slept).

Love a neatly folded sling shot!

And there were a few ooohs and aahs over this little set:

My friend couldn't stop patting this super soft milo vest made from Sirdar Juicy DK, a luxurious bamboo/cotton mix:

Welcome to the world little Scarlett!

Spring blossoms of the crafty kind

2009-09-28T15:55:00.004+09:30

I have finally finished Madelyn's "Little Blossom" dress, which I had been making for her to wear to Matt & Jasmine's wedding a couple of weeks ago. Unfortunately due to the sewing I had to do for Austy's suit, it didn't quite make it but she looked cute in the dress she wore anyway and the weather hasn't been warm enough for this since that day so nothing is lost.

It still needs blocking and snaps at the back. If I did it again I would do buttonholes as it's a bit silly to put snaps on knitting I think as they always pull the work and it's in an area of strain here at the back of the neck. I still have to find the right colour grosgrain ribbon to stabilise the opening before I attach the snaps so it's not "technically finished" but it is off the needles. Madelyn was a bit too grumpy to try it on today and ready for bed almost as soon as she woke up, plus it's a little chilly so I'll wait until she's in a better mood to try it on.

The pattern is Rana, and I have used Bendigo Woollen Mills "Luxury" in the Baby Blossom colour. Quite a pretty and babyish pink. Normally I don't "do" pink but I do like babies to look like babies and since mine is so big, she needs baby colours to help her out a bit! I did the smallest size, which is meant to be a size 1, however since my gauge was a little tighter with this yarn (I think it's meant to be an 8ply or something but knitted on small needles), I used slightly larger needles and added extra rounds for the length, which makes it a little slimmer fitting than design. From the test fit I did of the bodice, it should be fine though, as long as the weather warms up before another growth spurt!

I have also been busy making things for my best friend Georgina's new baby. We didn't know the sex and George told me "anything pastel". I know she loves blues and turquoise as much as I do, and she did the nursery in a "Finding Nemo" theme so I went with that and decided to applique a sea turtle baby on the baby carrier I am making her. I have used Amy Butler's "Happy Dots" as the feature fabric, a complimenting solid homespun and cream canvas for the straps and body stabilising. I still have to finish this one off with the waist strap and triple stitching reinforcement but you can see how it's coming along.

I thought the turtle was a nice touch as I helped her paint the turtle in the nursery, and her hubby used to own turtles (I have one too) so we'd often chat about turtles in their pre-baby days. So every time she uses this she'll be sure to think of me.

I also cast on a milo vest for her new bundle, using a very soft DK bamboo/cotton by Sirdar. Unfortunately the newborn size which is meant to take only 100y decided to use up the whole 104y and still have a bit to go. With the beautiful Scarlett Eve being born on Saturday morning at 12:30am, I was unable to get more yarn to finish it until today so I know that I will be busy tonight finishing off both of these baby gifts ready to go and spend the whole day with her on Wednesday when she comes home from hospital.

My yarn, fabric and nappy stash also got a boost in the past few days with this gorgeous custom dyed wool arriving last week from Wooltopia:

Then two very funky itti bitti d'lish nappies arrived (no photos yet but I got the strawberry fields and moo moo) and made a few more pocket nappies to get through the wet weather without running out of nappies. The fabric mail came today but I've been slack and not yet photographed it. My favourite was this one for Austy. I could just about buy everything in that range!

Shown up again, another fabulous give away!

2009-09-26T20:20:00.002+09:30

Novy, over at Little Munchkins has another fantabulous giveaway on. I tried to restrain myself from entering as I have a pang of guilt every time I put my name down for these things and have yet to think up something good to give away myself, but that top is so pretty, my wardrobe could use a freshen up!

Could I be so lucky?

2009-09-21T23:02:00.000+09:30

Made by Rae Jackpack Backpack GUEST GIVEAWAY!!!!

Ohhhhhhh..... please let me win this one!!! Perfect for Austy who's about to start his pre-entry at kindy next term. Gorgeous!!

Decisions, decisions

2009-09-19T16:42:00.003+09:30

Okay, here's Maddy's quilt again, this time using the carpet as sashing. Hmmm... I think that perhaps those of you who made comments were right - better stick with the original pattern without the sashing.

Now to make it cot size, I have made an extra row of blocks (making it 4 x 5 blocks) and now need an extra 10 inches all round. So I thought instead of doing the binding straight against the pieced border as per the pattern, I was thinking about perhaps adding an extra 5" border of the cream (it's a silky soft kona solid...mmmmmmm.....). This will make the pieced border kind of float, and then I'll need to be creative or corageous with the quilting in order to make it snazzy.

Then, for the binding, I might just pick one of the dark chocholate fabrics, or even use just the darks (reds and browns) to do a scrappy binding. I do like the brown with red spots piured, but that depends on whether I can get more as that piece is just a fat quarter I bought for my squares.

And onto baby sewing, I have wand to make this dress for Madelyn for a while, but haven't gotten around to it. I have been holding onto the floral micro cord especially for it.

Now to team it with pink?

Or blue?

WIP Wednesday... on Thurdsday

2009-09-17T22:02:00.004+09:30

Okay, okay, so I would never be able to keep up with a weekly blog post, but hey, let's pretend that I am a regular WIP Wednesday-er!

Tonight I am fiddling with some fabric suares I cut for Maddy's quilt, creating more blocks and testing them out together. I decided to take a photo to get an overall look of how they will look together and trying to decide if I should put sashing between them to make it less busy. The pattern has no sashing, but that doesn't matter. Last time I looked at them I thought they looked a bit cluttered, however tonight I think it's okay. Undecided. I shall keep making blocks and see how I feel when it gets to the point of joining them all together. What do you think? Sashing? Or not?

Excuse the dodgy flash photography and thread bits! Austy was running off with my blocks when I tried to take the photo in daylight...

The blocks look wonky, but I swear it's just the way they are laid out on the carpet. I have just randomly placed them too, but we all know I am fussy about placement and will probably take a few hours arranging and rearranging them before I number them all and put them together once I have enough for a quilt.

And while I am here, I thought I should mention two great giveaways that are on this week. The generous Corrie is at it again here, with her fabulous patterns and AuntyC is giving away some fabulous bibs - some that I had promised myself I'd make when I had another bub, but she's now almost 9 months old and I haven't made a single one! Woops. And I still haven't gotten around to making something to give aay on my own blog... please bear with me it WILL happen eventually!

Something Special

2009-09-15T20:58:00.005+09:30

When I was told that my future sister in-law wanted Austy to be her page boy, I was very excited to be able to make him his suit, so I set to work on a tailored shirt made from silky soft bamboo, a vest with satin detailing, suit pants with double pleat front and hidden side pockets just like Daddy's, and a pink tie, using a scrap of the flower girl dress that my mother in-law was making for our niece Elizabeth. Austy was sutably excited to get "wedding clothes" and at each step of the way he tried each garment on, asking when the next one would be finished. On Friday we completed the outfit with a trip to Big-W for some inexpensive (he'll probably only wear them once or twice) but smart looking "wedding shoes".

I think he was a darn cute page boy, but I am a little biassed! I'll let you be the judge! He wasn't the stillest model to capture though, and I almost missed the two 2 and 3/4 year olds as they skipped and ran own the isle. Good thing I got some shots while we waited for the bride. In this top one, Lizzie was so excited to show Austy her new shoes, her necklace, her dress, and Austy was saying "Yeah, I got new shoes too!" Forget all the hard work I put in with the outfit!

But I kind of caught them torturing a butterfly that was being released in memory of those that were unable to be there to watch the proceedings...

... and watched as a bridesmaid tried to save the poor thing from two wicked children.

Madelyn was meant to be dressed in handmade attire too, but unfortunately the dress I was knitting her did not get finished in time. Luckily, Grandma had recently gifted her the perfect dress for a wedding (also dubbed the powder-puff dress as it has the cutest tulle underskirt that helps turn her into a little baby powderpuff!). She put on her pretty frock, counted her fingers...

...practiced her waving (her newest trick along with her princess clap which she is equally proud of!)...

...then bowled me over for a pre-wedding drink.

I made a little shrug to go with her dress using wool I managed to score from a ravelry destash that matched perfectly. She didn't need the shrug until the mozzies came out though and wore it only for a short time before it was pyjama time at the reception, so no action shots unfortunately.

And finally, here's a family shot for good measure (excuse the sunnies!).

The bright baby gift reveal!

2009-09-01T20:38:00.004+09:30

When AJ had her much awaited baby just on a month ago, after several years of wishing and hoping and waiting, I just knew I had to make her some longies. She has always been one of the first people to comment on my baby knits, and I knew she was planning on cloth nappying so as soon as I knew whether the baby was a boy or a girl, I got to work. I had planned to dye up some fresh wool for her but since I still had this in my stash (stuff I hand dyed with koolaid), too pretty to sit there doing nothing but not enough for most things, as soon as Aden's birth was anounced I just knew what to use. The denim trim was leftover from the twin jackets I made earlier this year.

Then, to make it a set, I made a t-shirt from the latest Ottobre mag (just used the basic pattern)and appliqued it with a hand drawn rocketship, cutting into some of my brights that I had bought during my work trip to the US about 18m ago, and had been planning to use for a quilt for Austin. Since the tee was so little, I figured pinching a bit for a tiny applique wasn't going to hurt so I had a fun evening designing and creating a cute little applique to match the wool in the pants. Alas, even downsizing the Ottobre pattern (which was for a 3m old) didn't make the t-shirt small enough to go with the pants, and when I sized it up against Madelyn's too small clothes (in the ebay box if I ever get around to it!) it was a perfect match for the Pumpkin Patch 3-6m stuff. So it's a good thing I made it short sleeved (figuring that since the baby lives in QLD there will not be much use for long sleeved things) as it will probably fit him best right in the height of summer.

To complete the gift I found a flanellete piece I had overlocked and intended to use as a bunny rug for Austin but never got around to hemming it (we had plenty already and I figured I'd save it for PJ's or something further down the track). When I looked into the wrapping cupboard to find only a couple of girly "happy birthday" papers, I decided a bunny rug would make a perfect wrapping paper as you could see on the sneak peak in my last post. Eco-friendly AND useful!

I am currently working on a longies set for Madelyn too - the longies are done and the fabric picked for the t-shirt but I still have to get onto that part. Hers will have a long sleeved top since here in Adelaide we seem to be one of the last places in Australia to get summer! Often I have had little shirt and short sets picked out for Austin to wear on Christmas day, only to have to run around hunting for something a little warmer on Christmas Eve. She has also outgrown most of her winter clothes and with it now being Spring there isn't much out there to buy that is warm enough for now - ah the beauty of being able to make something myself! Here's a sneak peak at her set - a progress shot of the longies (as I have been too slack to take a photo of the finished product!) The wool is "Muddy Gems" from Wooltopia on BFL Aran (soft and squishy without an ounce of scratchiness...) and I have used the Picky Pants pattern with a new cuff design of my own. Ravelers can find my cuff pattern here.

I have also signed up for the EB Quilters annual doll quilt swap for 2009 - although I certainly feel for my partner as it's going to be hard to top the cutest little quilt I have ever seen, that we were lucky enough to score last year from Lily! I have already done some blog and flickr stalking to inspire my quilt and have come up with a rough sketch already but I am keeping that under wraps for now. All I am saying is that there will be applique... lots of it!

Dawn of a new quilt

2009-08-30T10:45:00.008+09:30

I have been working on a page boy outfit for Austin to wear in a couple of weeks time at his uncle's wedding, where he knows his special job is to hold his cousin's hand and take her to her Dad for the wedding. The set consists of a pair of black dress pants with double pleat front, fly and hidden side pockets just like Daddy's, a black vest with satin covered buttons and satin pocket welts and back tie. a pink silk neck tie, and a white bamboo/cotton blend collared shirt. So far the pants and the vest are done (well, all but the hand sewing finishing bits). I'll wait until the whole outfit is complete to show photos.

In the meantime, partly a procrastination from starting the shirt (I hate doing collars and sleeve plackets!) and partly because the fabrics beckoned me, I started a new quilt for Madelyn's cot. Yes, her cot! I think I am laxing my SIDS police rules a little, figuring that a REAL quilt is little more than a wool blanket covered with cotton, not the smothering fluffy doona things that SIDS for kids tell you not to use. For those that don't know, my nephew Aden died of SIDS at 7 months old, so I have a huge fear of it now that I actuallly know a baby that was taken suddenly with no real explanation. I think with both my children my fears have peaked at around the seven month mark, and I remeber holding Aden, limp and cold in my arms and thinking "He's almost a little boy, he's so big, how on earth could this happen?" So as a result, Maddy sleeps with a breathing monitor (and I wish she had the camera that Austy had at the old house) and we only use 100% naturl fibres on the bed to avoid the risk of overheating. I think as a result, part of Madelyn's poor sleeping habit come from her being a cold sleeper like me, and I am a little scared to rug her up too warm, knowing that most of SIDS deaths happen in the winter when parents put too many layers on - and my biggest enemy is polar fleece and synthetic quilt fillings.

I have started using this quilt made by my EB quilter buddies, on the cot a couple of times when the weather has been super cool because I don't like leaving a heater on in her room unnattended unless I really have to, and because it's always draped over the rocking chair for our night feeds so it's easy to grab. It's not really the right size for a cot though and I can't tuck it in. I figured she'd be a wriggler like Austy and propper bedding would only last a few months before resorting to sleeping bags, but thankfully she's more like me, and keeps nice and snug under the covers. Therefore, a cot quilt is in order!

With this in mind, the last few fabric purchases have included a small piece of beige, cream, white, brown or cranberry fabric getting ready for this quilt. On their own, the colours don't look like much, but together Ithink they create a warm, calming feel. I had originally thought I'd do her cot quilt with some of this gorgeous stuff but my creativity juice isn't flowing and I'm not quite sure how to use it, so I just went for the simple but effective "Four Corners" pattern, gifted to me by Eden with the beautiful DQ6 quilt she sent me. I love the pattern - just the thing to showcase pretty fabrics, letting the fabrics speak rather than the design. And when I started preparing the pieces I loved it even more. It uses mostly charms and a little yardage for borders and backing, so it's the perfect thing for using up charm packs. Instead though, I am using yardage, cut into charms and hope to make it bigger than the pattern says by adding extra blocks and wider borders, so it tucks in just nicely around her mattress.

I am also happy to report that I FINALLY finished my border on Emma's Round Robin quilt!! Yah!!! It took me about 9 months (insert VERY embarrased smiley here!) so I was glad to hand it over in the end, so I could move on and work on something else. When I agreed todo the round robin, I was expecting that the whole thing would be finished before Madelyn came along, however this quilt took a little extra time to get to me, and I was panicking to try and get it done in my final weeks of my pregnancy. The first cut I did was the wrong way (blaming tiredness and pregnancy hormones) so my fabric was no longer long enough to stretch across the whole quilt for the solid border I had planned to start with. I was going to do a plain border with appliqued snowflakes all around but it didn't go to plan. So I rattled my brains and decided to paper piece the main border with "mountains" in the middle to make my mistakenly cut fabric stretch far enough for the border.

(photo pinched from Emma's blog as I had no time to photograph before the playschool concert where we did the hand over)

But even that wasn't without issues - every time I tried to create one of the 8 paper pieced blocks (which I later realised could have been done in 4!) I'd cut my pieces slightly too small so that once sewn they didn't quite cover the space! I put it away with a week to go, and concentrated on getting Madelyn's play quilt finished (which I was still binding in the hospital waiting for my induction to start). Then when Maddy came, there was the first weeks of colic when she cried ost of the night and left me little time for sleep. Then there was Austy's bad behaviour for a bit that took some energy to curb, then our trip, then Maddy's string of illness... It seemed I was never going to finish just one little border! After several mistakes with Emma's quilt early on, I didn't want to touch it while my head was foggy. It just took this long for me to get back into the swing of things. But I did. And she has it. My border is the final one from the thin light blue strip outwards. I recommended Emma do a plain wide border using the same dark navy leaves that are used throughout the quilt as I think it would finish it nicely. I's up to her though - she may have some other spectacular idea - she always does!

The snowflakes are machine appliqued with metallic silver gutterman thread. I finally worked out that the buttonhole stitch on my machine can be adjusted to my liking and I am really enjoying machine applique now. I wish I could show you a close up of one of the snowflakes, but unfortunately I didn't get one photo before hand-over. The thread was easy to work with it didn't snap once, and all I had to do was adjust the tension slightly so that there was no chance the white bottom thread would show at the top.

And I can't wait to show you hat's in this little parcel - just waiting for the recipient to get home from her holiday and pick it up from the post office.

As an added blogging question: Does anyone know how I can stop blogger from adding in a thousand empty lines between my paragraphs every time a picture is inserted? If I knew how to stop this, blogging with pictures would be so much easier and I'd be inclined to put more in, but at the moment i takes almost as long to move pictures and delete empty lines as it does to write the blog entry.

Swimming time

2009-08-14T17:43:00.003+09:30

Again, with the squirming baby on my lap (she has bronchiolitis nd just won't be detached from me for a moment without tears but with some prednisilone last night slept better than she has in AAAAAGES - Yipee), please excuse the typos as my hair gets ripped out and keyboard lashed at.

Austy needed a new bag for swimming. He's needed one for a while since hisThomas shopping bag style one tore at the handles, but since he was no longer going to childcare, we just used his childcare bag for swimming. However I also use that one for his library bag when we head down to story and craft time every Wednesday and since it really is more approrate for storybooks (it has Linley Dodd's Slinki Malinki all over it - from his favourite ever book) it was time to make a swimming bag rather than get into trouble every time his goggles went missing in the switch to use the bag as a library bag.

So I took Austy to spotlight, picked up a few bolts of fabric and asked him which one he wanted for his swimming bag. He looked across to the shelf and picked one that I wasn't really that keen on, ignoring what I had in my hands. Then as I started looking for something to match it with, he picked up some blue dots and was determined that I buy both the road signs and dots for his swimming bag. I didn't think they went together all that well, but hey, it was going to be HIS bag after all, so I just went along with his selections. I got home and was uninspired, especially when Austy's Dad exclaimed "Those two fabrics aren't for the same bag are they?!" with a look that told me he disapproved. So I rummaged through my stash and we decided that the rainbow dots went better (I would have loved an orange or red with it but had nothing big enough) and I just snuck the blue dots on the internal pockets to keep the boy happy.

The internal zip pocket was something I'd never tried before, but it was very easy, especially with this excellent tutorial. So any budding bag makers out there - I definitely recommend you give it a try! It keeps his swimming pass and change to buy marshmallows (his bribary for swimming without floats) nice and safe and easy to find. I also added a patch pocket to hold his jocks, goggles and brush rather than having to dig around at the bottom of the bag.

What's snuggly, warm and purple?

2009-08-13T14:47:00.003+09:30

Just a quick post this time - Madelyn is sick again , overtired, not sleeping and squirming on my lap with a dr appointment in a few minutes, but I had to drop in and post some pictures of her in her new hand-dyed and hand-knit cardigan. Here she is in all her squishiness modeling "Helena", knitted in super soft Treliske, an organic merino from New Zealand (one of my favourite yarns to knit with) hand dyed by me with some of my growing stash of gaywool dyes.

And a sneak peak on something else (get the sunnies out!) I finished today that will soon be in the mail:

A delicious giveaway

2009-08-11T18:53:00.001+09:30

How cool is this little basket of felt food? I love the cakes too, just as I know the kidlets would. I have always been in awe of all the felt food makers, so fingers crossed that I win this one ;)

Sweetie Pie Bakery Felt Cake GUEST GIVEAWAY!!!!

Maddy's favourite toy

2009-08-10T13:31:00.008+09:30

With all the illnesses in the family lately (mostly Maddy) and lack of sleep, I have been feeling like I can't keep up. I was almost ready to toss in the blog as it sometimes seems to be just another pressure, nagging me to get things under control so that I can get crafty again. It often seems that noone reads it anyway so I sometimes wonder if it's worth the effort.

I have so many plans to make this and that, but never actually get to do it, and it often seems too hard. I don't know how so many other Mum's do it, but I will openly admit here and now, that I am certainly no supermum! Keeping up with a busy (but adorable) 3.5yr old, who is very much a "play with me" kind of boy and a beautiful baby girl who'sbeen under the weather and needing a lot more cuddle time lately has kept me fairly occupied. That and the multitude of activities - playgroup, swimming lessons, story time at the library for Austy, baby chat at the library for Maddy, mothers group and the usual park trecks, game playing, train track building, crafting time and teaching Austy his letters and how to read (his latst request and it's gorgeous watching him try to read books by himself). However they are only little once so I plan to enjoy this time, even if it feels like I get nothing done.

But the blog stays. Instead of aiming big, I am tackling small projects, like this taggy block I made for Madelyn yesterday. Things I can achieve. And the blog will remain as a reminder of what I DO get done. I must stop comparing myself with other bloggers who seem to get a million things finished in the space of a week or a few rather large projects done as if they were nothing too time consuming at all (and I know they are). I don't know at all how they do it.

And a big thanks goes out to Ashley - you really made my day yesterday when you bumped into me at the craft market I was perusing to tell me that you knew me from my blog. It made me smile to think that hey, people do read this thing and I am not just jabbering on to myself.

So I give you the taggy block, this week's small project. Made from 5" charm squares and a scrap of minky and suede cloth left over from her dalmation nappy for some tactile stimulation, and randomly placed ribbons and rickrack scraps for her amusement. I planned to make this ages ago which is why it's just black, red and white - perfect for a first baby toy, but she loves it anyway, even if it is months overdue, and the ribbons make it great to fling around and poke your fingers through. I was going to make some smaller ones to stach on top but since it's filled with pollyfil and not a foam block it's not really flat sided so I thougt it might be difficult for stacking. There is a bell inside for a little bit of a rattle, but boo to Spotlight where I bought the pack of 5 large "jingle bells" to find that only 2 of them acually jingled.

And not crafty at all, but since I am focussing on what I do get done, rather than what I don't, I do do a lot of baking. Cupcakes, biscuits, scones and the like with Austin as he loves to bake and it teaches him things like following instructions and measuring (and he loves to sift and stir), and lots of different new tastes for Madelyn who is really taking well to solids when she's not been unwell. Today's baking was these rice cereal and pear baby biscuits after Maddy got very excited watching me eat my pumpkin scones the other day but they were perhaps a little unsafe, crumbling in her mouth and potentially making her choke. So these will be a bit safer for her (perhaps not the stars and people shapes with bits that could break off, but hey, they make it interesting). I made them up as I went along so will document the recie here for future use, and to share with my readers who also have babies.

Pear and rice cereal baby biscuits (egg & sugar free)

2/3 cup rice cereal (plain rather than flavoured)
2/3 cup SR flour
30g butter (could substitute for vegetable oil if your baby is intolerant of dairy)
1 pear, peeled, cooked and mashed

Sift the flour into a bowl and mix in the rice cereal. Rub in the butter. Make a well in the centre and add the mashed pear and mix well into a soft dough. Knead on a floured surface and roll out thin - be sure the dough is only a couple of mm thick as it will rise with cooking and could become cakelike and crumbly if the dough is too thick. Cut into shapes (round shapes are best so that bits don't break off, or cut into fingers with a blunt knife. Cook at 200 deg C (or 180 if you have a decent fan-forced oven unlike me) for 10-15 mins until golden but not brown.

YUM!

One little bunny pillow for my little bunny

2009-08-05T14:09:00.003+09:30

Things have been rather slow on the crafting front due to so much illness in the house (you can read about where the last month has gone here if you are really that interested, so I won't go on about it again). But with all the recent rocking through the night I decided it was time to drop everything and finally get onto that lumbar support cushion I needed for my rocking chair. I found that if I sat in it cross legged I could sit right back and it was fine, but then I'd get up to put Madelyn in her cot and my legs would be asleep (like te rest of me wanted to be!). And if I sat like a normal person, the small gap at my lower back meant my back would hurt after an hour of rocking. I had this same chair with Austy but bought a cute little animal pillow to use with it, which he now sleeps with so I couldn't be so mean as to nab it for me! Instead I made the perfect little lumbar cushion to match her room.

A quick little project to help get my sewjo happening again and back into quilting. Just the perfect size project to tackle between the multiple wake-ups after Maddy was down for the night, without having to stay up till midnight to do it (not a good thing when you're only getting an hour or two sleep at a time...).

For those who haven't seen Madelyn's room, her bedding and decor is mostly natural tones with white and chocolate and she has a cranberry/burgandy coloured feature wall as I thought it brightened up the classic naturals look a bit. Her cot is adorned with a cream wool blanket in the winter and white and cream sheets, and in the summer we used the "babychino" coloured cellular blankets All around the white walls (not the feature wall) are the "Guess How Much I Love You" wall stickers as I loved the book when Austy was a bub and thought they "baby-ed up" the older looking colour scheme. I had been looking for some traditional looking teddy bears to border the room with but only saw very modern and bright bears that weren't really my style and I really wanted to stick to the neutral colours without pink or blue. Then I came across the perfect cot set that had both a bunny and a bear embroidered on it and thought, why don't I do both?! So I still have this teddybear mobile in my WIP pile:

I am blogging it again now as I need to motivate myself to get it finished! Madelyn is at the age now where dangly things are all the rage - you should have seen her giggling her little head off at playgroup as we walked under some paper snakes that the kindy kids had made and hung from a net at the ceiling. So as soon as her "Helena" knitted jacket is finished (only a half a sleeve to go and a button band and ties) to keep her warm in this cool weather those bears take next priority in the knitting department! I only have to knit one more bear and it's been like that for ages, but I just hate doing the stitching up so was trying to force myself to stitch a bear before making the next so I didn't have too much stitching to do all at once so it wouldn't end up on the WIP pile forever. Well that didn't work did it? I just dropped the project! So getting them all out to photograph is meant to spur me back into action. I hand dyed the wool especially to match her room as it was so hard to find anything but pastel baby wool. I still haven't photographed her room as it is waiting on this mobile and perhaps some bunting - the poor kid will be a teenager before her nursery is finished at this rate!

On a sad note, the lovely Jennifer who I knitted for as my part in the ravelry baby swap, gave birth to her beautiful twins too early. Annie Blythe and James Edward were born at just 22 and a half weeks gestation. Darling little people they were, so tiny and with so much love, each lived for just a half an hour before leaving this world. I have sent on the knitted garments anyway, as Jennifer has said that she'd still love to receive them and put them aside with the other keepsakes they have for their twins. I made them each a kimono and hat from "Natural Knits for Babies and Mums" (borrowed from the library) using some soft 8ply 100% wool that I hand dyed (except for the solid lavender - that's how it came and I only thought to hand dye some when it came to the embellishment of that jacket). The package was mostly for the babies, including some preemie gowns as there was always a risk of them being early, but will be followed up shortly with something else I have planned to make for Jennifer and her husband in their memory.

A magical parcel

2009-07-22T16:40:00.003+09:30

Now I am feeling a tad guilty because I still haven't shipped off the package I have put together for my swap partner in the ravelry Summer Baby Swap (as it's still waiting on one more item that I need to hit the sewing machine for as soon as I have energy again and two hands free). But look what came my way today!

A wonderful, wonderful package from Janis at Marshmallow Magic. Enough to brighten anyone's day, and the way we have all been feeling lately a little day brightening is very much needed!

So much stuff! My favourites are the little bobble two-strap booties, they are so funky and they stay on really well. Excuse the socks - I don't think they are meant to be worn with those but I excitedly tried everything on, without worrying about how it went with what she aleady had on (or clearing up the toys for that matter!!).

Also included for Maddy are a cute little personalised headband (which goes quite well with the top she has on today), a hairclip for when she grows some and a snuggly warm earflap hat.

For me, some super cute handmade stitch markers, passionberry lip balm in it's own cute little crochet holder, pretty blue buttons,some New Zealand merino wool yarn and some pinky bars (they look super sweet so I'll save a taste for after dinner). And last but not least a book which I think is for Austy (or perhaps both kids).

I think I scored!

The only thing I have made over the past few days (other than finishing touches to the parcel I will be sending very shortly) is a very boring doll's cloth nappy. I got sick of Austy raiding Maddy's nappy stash for a way too big nappy for his "baby" everytime he decided that the other one I made his doll had been soiled. So I sat him on my lap yesterday when I had finally gotten Madelyn down for a nap (no such luck today - she's still so congested and coughing too much to sleep laying down) and together we made his baby a nappy. A minky nappy at that, with cute little grip tabs that Austy selected from my scraps bag.