And we go a bunting

I have been eyeing off bunting for some time now. I just think it looks gorgeous, and can be used in so many ways. My trial run bunting turned out to be for the twins bedroom, as I had a very large blank wall that I really wanted to do something with to tie it in with everything else in their room. Blues, burnt oranges and greens were featured in their robot curtains and decals, so I just went with the colours and created this.

The looks on their faces were priceless. Archer wanted to pull it down and play with it, but Darcy just stood there with surprised eyes and the widest open mouth you've ever seen.

You can never have too many bibs with twins

I am finding this out. My twins just drool constantly (my other two kids only ever wore bibs at meal times!). And being winter, I just don't want them having a wet chest throughout the day. So I went into bib mode. Cut them all out one evening, and then had to wait for the perfect chance to sew them all up. I made 16 bibs all up, so I'm hoping that will last us awhile now. And at least I might be able to throw all the girlie ones out now, and give the twins their own boyish style.

Taggies

After stumbling across a ribbon website and falling in love with hundreds of designs, I just had to order some. So of course, the next question was, what to do with them?! I thought I'd give some taggy blankets a go. They all have minkee on the back (which I do not enjoy sewing with, as it has soooo much stretch in it and wanders all over the place), but they are just so adorably soft. I now have another project lined up which uses some ribbons, but more on that when I actually start!!

Pants for the boys

Loved this fabric, and though it'd look great in some long pants and shorts for the twins. Hopefully they get a little bit of wear out of them now that winter is nearly over!

Turtle softie

I must admit, I have never really had a passion for softie toys, but when I saw this little fella, I changed my mind and just had to make one for our house. I enjoyed it so much, that I'm brainstorming other creations to make now :)

OK, where to start...

It has been awhile since I last blogged...no other reason than I've been busy with the kids and going back to work. And somehow trying to fit a little bit of craft in here and there. I have had a lot of strange looks on the train, as I sew the binding on a quilt, or re-teach myself how to knit. But you know what, I don't really care. I love doing it, and it helps me keep my sanity in tact.

So I have finished off a lot in the last week or so, so let the blogs begin...

Peg bag

We recently had some friends over and she commented on how she loved my peg bag (mine is actually about 10 years old and is showing its age!). So I thought I would see if I could knock one up with some old curtain material I've got lying around. Not only did it take me a whole of 5 minutes to make, but I can now use up some leftover material, and make something useful to give to some friends and family. I've just got to finish it off by getting some dowel and a hook for the top so it can hang on the line (or anywhere really), but hopefully that will be in the next couple of weeks.

So much cuter than terry squares

Google is an evil thing. Why oh why are there so many gorgeous things out there to make?! I REALLY have enough on my "to do" list, without adding anything else! But I just thought these burp cloths were so cute and would be great to give as baby shower presents or new baby presents. So of course, I quickly had to knock one up to see how it would turn out. I think it looks great, and it would be so much easier to throw over your shoulder than a terry square.

Don't you just love...

the arrival of new fabric?!?!?! It gets the heart racing, the mind working overdrive and the creativity bursting! Here's a few parcels that have arrived recently -

My Minds Eye in Love Birds and Deena Rutter's Happier














Michael Miller's Paisley Spree and Melly & Me's Little Menagerie














Ready Set Go Organic by Anne Kelle

The old school fair

Gee, it has been years since I've been to an old school fair. I remember going when we were kids, but until you are involved in the schooling community with your own kids, I suppose it isn't something that really occurred to me. With my first born in Prep, I really want to be involved in his education, and to help out wherever possible (given that I have 3 younger children). So our school is having 'donation weeks'. And a couple of weeks ago it was craft week. I didn't get a lot of guidance from the ladies running the stall, and being totally clueless on what actually sells at these things, I thought I'd just make up a few different bits and pieces and see how they go (at least I'll know for next year!). I've made some wheat packs, some i-phone pouches and some i-pod pouches. I need to make a few more of each, but at least I've made a start.

Sewing for Maddy

I found some lovely cord fabric at Spotlight awhile ago, which will be fantastic for winter clothes for Maddy. A lovely bright blue (not pink for once!) skirt, a little big for her, but it'll fit fine in a bit. This skirt was the quickest I've made yet...started it when my alarm went off to do the school run in the afternoon, and finished it 20 minutes lates when I actually had to leave.
















This red cord fabric looks great as a dress, and I can picture Maddy wearing it with leggies and a long sleeve shirt under it in winter. I think she'll need some nice red shoes to go with it though! The buttons we used don't exactly match, but Madison picked them out. Isn't that half the fun of making your own things...adding a personal touch. And she just loved the princess tiara and wand on the buttons, so why not use them.

Fearghus' Quilt

I made a quilt for Fearghus' sister awhile ago, and it has taken me longer than I'd hoped to get one made for Fearghus as well. This quilt actually took quilt awhile to make, it was probably the most lengthy quilting I've done thus far. Turning the quilt every 5 inches or so by 90 degrees was very tedious, but the effect of it is great. Just in time for winter...

Border Dress

I just loved this material and bought it, without realising it is basically a border fabric. But that's okay, border fabric is perfect for a dress. It is so summery and fresh with all the bright colours. I hope Madison likes it as much as I do :) I think it is going to be quite long on her, but it should last her for a little while at least.

Ready to Party

I saw this "party" skirt in a quilting/handmade magazine a fair while ago now, and haven't been able to get it out of my mind. So after waiting for the right fabric to appear to me, I gave it a go. The pattern was easy enough. I didn't have any troubles with any part of it, and it was even my first go at using lace around the bottom. I've very happy with the way it has turned out. Now I just have to wait until morning when my daughter wakes up so she can try it on.

Having a go at making all these bits and pieces of clothing, I really want to buy an overlocker now!!

The kids

Time for an update on the kids I think. Darcy (L) and Archer are well on their way to walking now, and they are getting very brave walking between objects and letting go for a millisecond.

Here is my eldest boy Lucas at his daycare graduation. The caps were very cute, and he'd lost his first tooth a few weeks beforehand.















And at my hubby's work Christmas Party, Madison was thrilled to meet Diego and Dora in person. She was completely mesmerised, and probably appears in a lot of other people's photo's as well, because she was always hovering around checking them out!

Bibs and more bibs

One night while watching tv months ago, I cut out all of these bibs out of scraps of material. Then of course, life got in the way and I didn't finish them off. So, ta da...they are now finished. They are simply quilters cotton on the front, and flannalette on the back. I have a few for the boys that I made up for Christmas and I really like them compared to all the others I have.

Cute little singlets

There appears to be a baby boy boom at the moment...all of our friends have had boys apart from one little girl. To give as a little something extra (in exchange for newborn cuddles!), I decided to jazz up these boring singlets with a little picture on each.

I love the "Spot" one so much I'm going to do some for the twins (just have to dig out the old singlets from Lucas). Might even make a pair of shorts to match! Hmmm, maybe this could be one of the outfits for their birthday, depending on how hot and humid it is on the day.

Ruffled Skirt

While I was searching for something on the internet (for a baby boy), I came across this ruffled skirt that I loved the look of. The pattern actually had 3 layers, but I thought I'd give it a go with two layers first. It was REALLY quick to make, and looks great.

The bonus is, I asked for a metre of both of these fabrics the other day (at just $5 a metre), and the woman was very giving and actually cut me off about 1.7 metres of each. Yay!!! Off now to search through my stash for some other coordinating fabrics to make some more.

Picnic time

When I was rummaging around in my fabric boxes I came across this quilt top that I must have done when I was just starting out quilting. So I thought I would make it into a picnic rug for Madison to take to daycare next week. She can sit on it with her friends and pretend to have little tea parties. The turtle fabric is pretty cute.

Please excuse the unironed state!

Fluffy Mail

The postie's been and look what she brought me... The best kind of mail a girl can get (in my opinion!). This is just over half of what I ordered, can't wait til the rest arrives. It is a bit of a mish mash of materials as I've got a number of projects in the pipeline. Dresses, skirts, shorts and quilts will be made out of these materials, as well as topping up my stash.

Heart to Heart

And yet another applique job by me. I *think* the two hearts overlapping looks okay.





















I might machine stitch this one tonight and see how it turns out.

Plain T-shirts

I had a dig around in Madison's drawers and found a couple of plain shirts in there. Yay for me....a blank canvas to applique!

I found this butterfly template, and finally chose some material to go with it.

I just love the way it has turned out. I think it is the shape along with the colours that does it for me.
















Now I just have to decide if I'm going to hand stitch it, or do a stitch on the machine...

Comfort Quilts

My eldest is due to start school (prep) on Monday (eeeek!!!), effectively leaving Madison at daycare all on her lonesome for the few days a week she still goes. My oldest two are very close, and we are anticipating a few challenges with Madison. So to try and make the transition a little easier for her, I have told her she can take some little dolly quilts along to keep at daycare. I've quickly knocked these two up ready for her to take next week when Lucas starts school.




















Madison of course helped pick out the fabric....Dora!!!

I am a Robot

Once the twins were born and I found out they were both boys (I was expecting one of each), I set my mind to what quilts I would make them, primarily for their cots. I came across some robot bedroom stuff (a lamp, wall stickers and curtains) on sale at K-Mart one day, and that put the Robot theme of their room into action. So then I went hunting for some robot material to match, and came across the "Beep Bots" collection from Hoffman Fabrics.

Now that I had all this fantastic fabric, what was I going to do with it? I umm'd and ahh'd for so long without getting anywhere, that I eventually put a call out to see what other people would do with it. The fabulous Emma How of Sampaguita Quilts came to my rescue and developed these two designs for me, very similar but just different enough (the same as Darcy and Archer nearly!). So I've been working away at these for close to 4 months, a bit of time here, a bit of time there. This week I managed to finish them both off, and I'm very happy that they got finished before their 1st birthday!

I haven't decided who gets which one yet, but I don't think they will mind which one they get. The older two kids might have something to say about which twin should get which quilt though!

I would like to give a huge THANK YOU to Emma for helping me out. She is truly inspirational with her quilting (and was the reason I got into it!!)....go check out her blog and you'll be blown away.

Crayon Roll

Crayon rolls are something that have been staring at me for awhile on the net, so I decided to grab some material and give it a go. I found a few tutorials on the web for them, and then just customised it a little for what I wanted. I was originally making this for my son, and then realised the only ribbon I had was bright pink, and I really wanted to get it finished so just went with it. So this is my 'prototype', and I am happy to say that it was easy enough to make, and was extremely quick. My kind of sewing. And best of all, my daughter LOVES it. Now to make some more!!!

Trial run for applique

I've seen a lot of clothing appliqued with such beautiful things that I finally got up the courage to have a go (the theme for my sewing this year is "have a go"!). I dug around in my daughter's drawer and found an old t-shirt that she wears to daycare that is covered in paint. What better piece of clothing to practice on, seen as it really didn't matter how it turned out as it will just get covered in paint again probably!

We went through the fabric stash and she picked out a Dora piece (of course!!), so I did a straight circle applique and used the satin stitch on my very basic machine. It turned out okay, nothing a bit of practice won't fix. Regardless of what my sewing skill is, my daughter loves it!!!

New Year's Resolutions

Happy New Year....well, a bit late, but better late than never!

So apart from all the same resolutions that are made every year, like eat better, exercise more, yadda yadda, I started thinking about what I wanted to do that I loved and that would ultimately make me a happier mummy and wife. And so sewing it is!!! So I've come up with the goal of doing some sort of sewing each and every day, even if it is just doodling a design for a quilt, or buying some ribbon. Doesn't matter how small, as with 4 young kids and a hubby that take priority, time is pretty much non-existent some days.

I'm off to a good start, with finishing off 2 quilts, attempting a new baby dress pattern that turned out completely wrong, doing a crayon roll and having my first crack at applique on a t-shirt. And a friend and I are about to enrol in a beginner sewing class.

Happy sewing to all for 2011!!!

Rocking Horses

Another quick quilt I did for a baby girl. I've had it sitting awaiting binding for about 3 months now, and finally sewed it down last night at midnight when the house was all quiet.