First Quilting Project

My Mum has been a quilter for a little while now but I had resisted the urge to join the dark side, until now... There does seem to be something about becoming a Mother yourself that does urge you to discover your creative side and make new and exciting things for your children...

After a trip to Spotlight after Christmas 2008 to pick up some discounted Christmas fabric I decided to make some Santa sacks for Christmas ahead. Before I get in trouble for being organised I would like to point out that I only did this early because:

1. Mum lives in Queensland but visited for a week so I had advice on hand
2. After baby number 2 arrives in August I may be a tad busy in the later half of the year :)


We now have two Santa sacks, one green and one red, using the same 16 block design and different fabric. I was really happy with how they turned out given that I did all the sewing and my old machine does not have a walking foot.

I am now in love with my rotary cutter and mat which was a new purchase in the latest Spotlight sale, how did I live without one this long?


I need to think up another few Christmas projects to sew as I was a bit enthusiastic with the Christmas material purchase and I have a couple of yards left to play with!

I thought I would add a photo of the recipient of one of the Santa sacks, the other recipient does not arrive until August so will have to wait for a photo until then...

EB Haberdashery Swap

Today is the parcel opening date for the EB Haberdashery swap. I have been excited about this for ages and it has been well worth the wait :) This morning I waited until DH was feeding Miss breakfast so I could take my time opening, and photographing my goodies.



I was reminded of the Sound of Music song:

........Brown paper packages, tied up with string, these are a few of my favourite things.......

Ok, so it's white paper, and I hope you also have that song stuck in your head now!




Imagine my amazement when so many beautifully colour coordinated items fell out of that one neatly wrapped package! I love the fabrics, all of them. I have not seen anything half as nice at my local store I am sure. I had no Ric Rac in my collection, until today, and the buttons and snaps will keep me busy for awhile to come.

All in all, I am too lucky to have had such a generous swap partner with such great taste :) I can't wait to think of the perfect project to be able to use these bits on.

I sent a haberdashery parcel here to Estherp and am happy that she seems to like the goodies I sent her way!

Handmade Help Part 2

Here they are, my family of Black Apple Dolls :) I had fun making these dolls, especially knowing they would be going to such a good cause in the Handmade help appeal.



I also made a few baby spit cloths with a material border to smarten them up a bit. I used a tutorial found here for this idea.


I wish I were not so sick at the moment or I could have done more than 5 dolls and 3 spit cloths. I know every little bit helps but I would love to be sending double the amount.... Maybe next week ;)

Handmade Help

I was not going to Blog my Black Apple Doll until I had painted on her little face, but I was sitting here in a cloud of Vick's and thought I may as well.

Miss Apples is heading (along with her siblings to come) to Mike's Handmade Help appeal.

Miss Apples is looking forward to meeting her new owner in the not to distant future and I will be sad to see her leave but can be happy knowing she will find a good home with someone who loves her even more than I do.

The Black Apple doll pattern is SUPER easy to follow so if you are looking for a softie to make as a gift or toy this one is good :) Happy sewing.

We have a toddler :)

It is official, we have a toddler in the house! I love the way she has to walk with both arms up for balance. She is already getting very quick and has a bad habit of moving items around the house so we can't find them...

I also love the way she smiles, with a very crinkly nose when she is very happy :) How very lucky we are to be blessed with such a happy and easygoing beautiful little girl.

Pincushions

I have made a few pincushions in readiness for the EB swap. The ones below are 'The funky Chicken' pincushions which are really simple and fun to make. Pattern here. Miss has been having a lot of fun playing with them so I am not sure if they will ever be used for their intended purpose :)

The stripe/gingham fabric chicken has been adopted by my brother who took a bit of a fancy to it. He has named it Chicken Chook as that was the name he gave to his pet Chicken back in our farm days :)

Maybe I should name the other two so they don't feel left out?

I have also made a Heather Bailey pincushion that was super easy as well. I would have put a picture of it up but Miss has been playing with it and it is missing in action. It is so hard to keep track of things now that she is walking about everywhere!

Birthday Baby and Holiday Happenings

It is so hard to believe that 12 months have already passed. It has been such a wonderful year and I am really looking forward to discovering what the next 12 months have in store for us all :)

Miss ate her first piece of cake, which she enjoyed, as the photo below shows. I kept the decorating pretty simple this year by trying to make some little 'butterflies' for the top of the cake. Not the best creative job ever but I figured I would not get any complaints from a 12 month old :)



In addition to a birthday, we also had Christmas. Most of my family came here and stayed for anything from a couple of days, to a couple of weeks. It was pretty busy!

We all went camping for a couple of days which was nice, we went up to Nowendoc which we all love. Our horses are up there as well so I even managed to fit in a quick ride, I wish the horses were closer so I could do more with them...

All in all it was a fairly relaxing holiday period, but I now have to tidy the house, pack away the last of the camping and holiday surplus that is still sitting about and look ahead to a new year. With a new baby due in August, and all the renovation plans in the pipeworks I think we will be fairly busy in 2009.