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.