Recycled cashmere bunny

Finally I make something out of the considerable stash of old jumpers I have been saving.  I love the idea of making stuff out of old and otherwise unusable stuff, but I can't say my craft habit really means much for the environment- often it just means I hold onto stuff I may never use.  Anyway, this was an easy gift for my cousin's baby.  It ended up wonderfully soft and charmingly imperfect, I think!

Pattern from Martha here.

I used my Mum's favourite cashmere cardy that got eaten- machine washed and dried to be extra fluffy.
Plus a scrap of old Liberty for the inner ears.



Did a Dick Bruna inspired face, and had to add a tail.



Can I now get through my old jumper stash by making one of these for every baby that comes along?

The new one.

This is what has kept me so busy for the past twelve weeks!  Miss D here has been wonderful of course, as a fourth child in under five years must.    Some days I really feel on top of this parenting/running a household thing, others I can just manage the bare minimum to get by.  But how lucky we are- four beautiful little souls now in our home, getting in each other's way all the time, but then so happy to have one another.

Bunny girl

This dolly is the last thing I needed to make, but of late I have been impulsively cutting out various projects in the middle of the night and then I have to make them.  I just get excited thinking if I cut it out it will be done soon!  I had ambitions of this being Miss S's Easter present (like she needs another doll, and how much do kids really need at Easter anyway?), but there was no way I could have actually made her in time.  So now complete, she is just hiding in my study awaiting a purpose- next Easter seems a long wait though!




Pattern (with face panel) is Roxy Longsocks from The Red Thread, with my addition of bunny ears and tail.  Made entirely from stash materials in what seemed to be perfect Easter colours.  I was particularly glad to make use of the yellow floral -beautiful Italian pique left over from one of my favourite dresses made years ago, and this old blue floral again.




Like the other Red Thread stuff, a lovely, fairly simple project.  It took me a few nights though, mainly due to some hours of stuffing difficulties (those crazy ears did not help).


I am such a sucker for these cute dolly projects, particularly those with freckles, and have spent far too much time admiring this one!

Stracciatella!

Since mastering my custard technique (and we got an ice cream maker) I have moved on to ice cream. And despite some other great flavours so far (vanilla, chocolate, burnt caramel, and a not so great coffee), I think I'm most thrilled with this, my first attempt at one of my favourite gelato flavours.

Recipe is Nigella's vanilla ice cream from How To Eat with a block of Lindt 70% melted and drizzled in in the final stages of churning- which gave the lovely chocolate shards I was hoping for! Yum!

'Baby' quilt for the 19 month old

I finished this a month or two ago; baby boy even then couldn't really be considered a baby, but he will be in the cot a little while longer.




I'm really happy now with the tumbler blocks, although I think I spent more time cutting them out than anything else which was pretty miserable.  I took Mum's advice and starched all the fabrics before cutting to help keep shape, as I was a little apprehensive doing my first piecing involving something other than squares or rectangles.

Fabrics are my usual mix but in a slightly less multicoloured palette- I wanted a clean boyish-looking quilt in brights and navy.  There are quilting cottons including several from the previous kids' quilts, and the Spots and Stripes poplin from Spotlight.  I keep using Spots and Stripes because it is cheap (often on sale), lovely as a binding, and has not faded in my other kids' quilts (unlike some far more posh fabrics).






Quilted by machine 1/4" from all seams.




Backing was from East Coast Fabrics at Lawnton; navy stripe (Spotlight Spots and Stripes) for binding.




This is typical of my life at the moment- I am back at home, trying to do lots at once but there is always at least one little someone plus a big baby bump getting in the way.  Happy chaos!

Worm love

A great quick fix made as a gift for a lovely friend...



This is Evelyn Inchworm from Wee Wonderfuls.  Fun to make, although I found it a little tricky to get the bumps lined up evenly- at one point she was very twisted looking.  Though here she is now, looking nice and stable.



Love her! And can't wait to make more cute toys.   

Happy 2012!

A few of the many things I meant to post in the last year...



Cat from Stitch magazine (Spring 2009) made for a baby gift,




April Showers scarf from the Purl Bee,




and an Oliver + S popover sundress for dolly.

More to come...