On my clothesline...

So, I didn't get it done for Christmas, but here is Mr F's quilt done for New Year.  I couldn't wait for it to dry before posting some pictures!

I am really happy with it, despite it being far from perfect.  This is my third quilt ever, and the largest by far.  (The first was a doll quilt kit I made as a girl, and then I've done a very basic cot quilt in squares for Strawberry.)

It's single bed size, 10 x 16 of my quartered nine patch blocks (each measures 5.5 inches once pieced), which makes it a kind of long, narrow single bed quilt- fine as my son still has a safety rail on his bed.

Fabrics are the Minny Muu charm squares, and a heap of other stuff including old scraps, 'good quilting fabrics' from proper quilt shops, and inexpensive quilting and dress fabrics from Spotlight.




Backing and binding are both from Spotlight- the binding stripe is from the non-quilting range.  I love that every colour is there for my son to point out, and it's not a traditional 'boy' quilt- I left the pink charm squares in, although the prints are not really that girlie.




After quickly giving up on the idea of free motion quilting, I machine quilted straight lines in a windowpane pattern, cutting my blocks into quarters-  easy!  And a bit more interesting than stitching in the ditch, I thought.




So, there it is.  Can't wait to have my little man use it.  I left it on his bed last night to find when he woke up and he ran out of his room this morning having wrapped himself in it!

Hope you have a fantastic New Year- may 2010 bring health, happiness and all the creativity you wish for!

Merry Merry Christmas!

Didn't get to post as intended yesterday, so here I am on Christmas night, after all the festivities are over and my exhausted kids are fast asleep.

Some of my last minute attempts towards a bit more of a home-made Christmas this year-  bird ornament pattern from the Purl Bee here- easy, cute and well received by my extended family last night!



And my favourite cookies, made Christmassy with Craisins and white choc chips.

For anyone who may be swinging by, a very merry Christmas to you and your loved ones.

No time to stop!

I am really struggling to promptly take pictures of everything I've been making and doing- it seems I'd rather spend my time making more stuff!   I have been quite productive, although not quite on track with my (unrealistic?) goals of having a certain little boy's quilt done for Christmas and making ornaments for gifts.

What I have done...

- baby girl PJs





So this my little Strawberry in her first proper PJs.  I used the babushka fabric and a circa 1990 Burda baby magazine pattern- not actually pyjamas, but a tunic/dress and 3/4 pants- the closest I could find to what I wanted.  I always intended to make the top, as it looked cute and I thought bias binding trim made things easy.  Not so, in this case.  I had never used bias binding this way before- I used to just encase the fabric edge and sew one row of stitching, rather than opening it out like in this pattern.  But it does look cute.  Made my own binding out of a fat quarter I had in the stash.

The pattern was so confusing I actually cut off the shoulder seam allowance! And nearly cried.  And then grafted the fabric back together using Vilene like a strip of sticky tape and a tiny zigzag.  I then sewed a slightly larger seam allowance and did some topstitching to reinforce- still I have no idea if those shoulder seams are going to hold!  Next time I might just ignore the instructions.  


Back view





The waistline binding continues round the front.  Just modeling here, to be worn properly for the first time on Christmas Eve!



 Otherwise...

- made another pair of the Oliver + S shorts in denim (grubby already and in the wash), this time with flat-felled seams, and I managed to work out how to have the crotch seam perfectly centred.  Will show soon!

- Oliver + S swingset tunic in progress

- enjoyed visiting the great Asia Pacific Triennial at QAG/GOMA, still plan to visit again.

- saw the Wiggles on Sunday- Mr F paid close attention and stayed very still, and Strawberry clapped until she fell asleep!  A great show!

- saw Away We Go (first movie in ages, thank you visiting mother- in-law)and thought it was just lovely.

- really getting into Kasey Chambers, Poppa Bill and the Little Hillbillies at the moment- some of the songs make me cry they are so sentimental!  The kids however, are not into this album anywhere near as much as I am.


We are off to boiling Rockhampton for some pre Christmas family visiting this weekend, and then it's the mad rush to be ready for Christmas...

This week I...

... was stupid enough to think I might master free motion quilting in one night,





... had fun choosing these goodies from Threads and More and Gardams ,





... failed to get a good picture of Mr F in the shorts I made him,





... have been ignoring my Christmas baking plans, despite this being left on the bench by my husband,





... have been lamenting my choice of a very confusing Burda pattern for baby's PJs,



... still have had a really happy week!

Christmas is coming, the geese are getting fat!

Okay, so I've never actually eaten goose at Christmas, but this was my sister's and my favourite Christmas carol to sing while putting up the tree.

I'm still amazed we managed to get our tree up on December 1st this year!  Or rather, my husband put it up and did the decorating while I whipped up a tree skirt.  The poor tree had a naked base for five Christmases until now.



Just a basic design from an old Simplicity pattern in Mum's stash- I did eight different segments in red and white prints with ricrac trim.  There are some pretty screenprinted Saffron Craig fabrics in there, bought here.

I almost can't believe I actually let my husband do the decorating- usually I am highly obsessional about this, and spend a lot of time rearranging ornaments throughout December.  But it was good to just let go- and he did a fantastic job!



I love that ornaments I would normally relegate to the back of the tree (such as ones I made as a kid), he has put right up front!  It's great to see what he thinks are the 'special' ones.

Projects Past

I've had a busy week catching up with lots of friends with kids. And cleaning- because I have actually had people at my house and didn't want them to be completely disgusted by my standard of living.

I've been plugging away at Mr F's quilt at night, and realising that I probably can't make all the squares meet up perfectly.  This really does bother me!  I have to keep telling myself, I'm not making it to be judged, it's just for a two year old who won't care.

The quilt will be my main project for a while it seems, so I'm going to have to post some of my past stuff.

I'm actually missing knitting at the moment.  Living in Queensland is it is just too hot to knit in the warmer months.  Which is most of the year.  It's particularly sad as knitting is probably the craft I enjoy most (big call, I know).  It's just so portable and something I can do at times during the day around the kids.  And baby things are really quick to make up.  Like this little set, done in April/ May...



The knitting of the cardigan pieces took me two days, just knitting when I had the chance during the day, and not staying up late at night. When I had a new baby who hardly slept during the day. It was just so satisfying to get something done!  Sewing in the middle of the night just does not seem as therapeutic.

The lovely baby quilt is by my Mum, featuring several fabrics used for dresses and skirts for me over the years. Actually, her squares seem to meet up very well!

For the Boy

It is definitely much more fun to sew for a little girl than a little boy- prettier fabrics and way cuter (and often easier) patterns available.  I decided however that I could manage some basic shorts for my son.  As Mr F is getting to the toilet training stage, elastic waists are suddenly highly desirable.








These are another pattern from Ottobre 3/2008.  Yes, that's the same fabric as baby girl's shorts from last post.  No, I don't plan to dress them in their matching shorts at the same time!  But, free fabric from Grandma making two pairs of shorts?  I won't complain.  Easy pattern made more special with topstitching.   This was the trickiest part as I had never used topstitching thread before and I followed advice not to backstitch but hand tie all ends underneath.  Which was a bit fiddly, but gave a nice result I think.  


Mr F himself isn't yet interested in fashion (apart from his plastic fireman's hat which he currently likes to wear even while sleeping).  He does however have a bit of interest in quilts, in that he likes to lie on our couch with a very old one draped over him and pretend he's in bed.  So, next project is a quilt for him, that he can have on the couch or use on his single bed.  The goal is to get it done for Christmas.  I had some charm squares in kiddie prints (Minny Muu by Lecien ) to use up, and I've just added basic prints and solids in bright colours, so now I have 360 squares to be sewn up.  





So far, I'm doing 9 patch blocks which I think I might then cut into quarters- Mum tells me there is a 'proper name' for this technique but neither of us can recall it.  I am definitely excited about doing this quilt in quite a random fashion, and just getting into it.  I just want it to be a cute quilt for my little boy, where he can point out colours, and teddy bears, and mice with cheese.  


Oh, and the soft dolly kit (by the red thread) is to be made up for baby girl for Christmas, bought from this cute girlie shop in lovely Bulimba.