I Don't Neglect My Children... Honest!

This morning, before school (naughty, naughty!) I finished this little picture that I started last night.  I haven't played with felt much in recent years.  There's so much fun to be had with the little coloured fabrics.   It's the perfect fabric for beginners to sewing.  I found the idea for this stitching here.

When you have a little three year old helper standing by you side, you end up doing funny things - like turning your house into a person!  I drew the line at giving it arms.  But maybe that would be cute!

This pile of yummy fabrics...

turned into this...

 

which ended up as a finished quilt top overnight.  I sewed it in an evening and a bit during the day while No.4 was at kindy.  Hubby was quite stunned just how fast it all went together!  But really there isn't much to squares is there?  Now it's all ready for pinning.  I would have done it already, but I didn't realise just how much fabric I would use for the sashing and didn't have enough for the backing as well.  And I bought four metres of it!!

 

And finally we have a quote on the wall hanging.  I did it freehand which probably wasn't the best idea.  But I generally just go for it and hope for the best.  It could have been better, but it's OK.  Can you tell I left the second 't' out of stitched?!!  Too funny!

It was a bit of fun, nothing serious. 

 

And lookie lookie.  Look at what is finally finished!!  Last weekend I tackled my string quilt again and didn't stop until it was finished.  I do love it.  All that lovely rainbow colour.

 

It was ironed, really!  Why don't things stay looking nice and flat?

 

And yesterday when the girls were busy playing racing car driving on the PS3 with their Daddy, I played with the fabrics.  A bit of applique and stippling later, and we have a pretty cushion to go with the rainbow quilt. 

I found the stippling strange after the rose quilting.  It's all over the show instead of planned of course.  I think I'll do the quilt the same way.  It's not my favourite to stitch, but I do like the look of it. 

So I have had a very lovely, productive week, even though I had to sell chocolate bars in the rain on Saturday morning.  The things we mothers have to do for school fundraisers.  Still it's nice to meet the neighbours once a year.  Those that have electric gates are lucky people I've decided! 

So what did you do in the weekend?  Something nice I hope.  Hope you had nicer weather than us.  Oh I've joined up for a lovely Christmassy swap too.  Selina is hosting a stocking swap that sounds just fabulous.  If you want to join in, just click on the stocking button in my side bar.  Right, see you!  xx

The Birth of a New Quilt

Thank you so much ladies for all your very sweet comments about my new quilt.  I really do appreciate them.  And yes I will be gifting it.  I've got over it and moved on.  See I did it!  Yep, I went to the cupboard and pulled all my fabrics out...

and then Daughter No.1 came home from school and I knew then it was time to make her quilt.  So we found all the red and aqua fabric we've been collecting over the months and boy was she a happy girl.

This quilt will have white borders around every square.  I love lots of white in quilts.  It will sit folded up at the end of her bed when she isn't using it.  I'm not quite up to making a queen sized quilt!  So single it will be, but oh so pretty too.

Now I will have to visit Spotlight yet again for white fabric.  Such a shame I know!!  It probably won't be today.  No.3 has been quite sick this week with fevers and sweats but she's much better today though.  Anyway it must be time for a cuppa, it's 10am.  Have a great day lovely people!

Roses

Hello, hello everyone!  I've been busy.  Too busy to blog even.  Yes for a change I actually made something - a quilt no less.  Let me introduce you to Roses, my third quilt, but first lap sized quilt...

Does she not look fine on No.3's bed?  Against that fabulous wall colour and freshly hung garland?  The fabrics in the garland are some of the ones I've used in the quilt.  Shame it's not destined for this bedroom really.  Still she's already got my first quilt, the nine patch, to keep her cosy.

I love the old fashioned fabrics around these days.  I also love some of the new styles too.  In this quilt I've cut two of each of my favourite fabrics in my stash.  My big girls both ironed and sewed some of the squares together so it was a nice family affair.

For this quilt I had to learn how to free motion quilt.  What fun that was!  It isn't as hard as it looks, really.  I also discovered that I prefer my bindings to be hand stitched.  I undid the first length of machine stitched binding and felt much happier with the look.

. 

I've made this quilt for someone else as a present.  But I'm really struggling with the idea of gifting it.  I don't think quilts are made to be given away I've decided.  Even though I've made the label and all.  No.2 told me to pull myself together and basically wrap it.  But she didn't spend the last two days quilting it with roses.

What if the person receiving it doesn't love it as much as me?  I think I need to make another one really quickly!  This time I think I will make my squares smaller.  These ones are 17cm finished.  Perhaps 10cm squares will be nice. 

Honestly I'm silly sometimes.  It's just a quilt and of course it will be gratefully received.  It's just that it's freshly made and I still feel the attachment to it.  And it's stitched with loads of love too. 

You know what?  I'm going to go, right now, to my cupboard and pull the fabrics out.  Yes I am.  See you next time with a pile of freshly cut squares.

I'm A Winner!

I was very lucky to be the winner of a lovely giveaway at Whisker Graphics last week.  It's been ages since I won a giveaway so I was very excited indeed.  This sweet doll named Fru Marseth was handmade with love by the lovely Emily Moss from Ravenhill.  Well she arrived safely in my post box yesterday and has now been secretly hidden away until Christmas, sneaky sneaky!  Thank you so much ladies for such a wonderful gift.

She has a lovely stitched heart on her bottom.  I like doing this as well.  It gives a toy a little bit of love to go out with.

I wonder if she would like to be friends with rabbit?  I will have to give it serious consideration. 

And speaking of Christmas... yes there has been some talk of this day lately on a couple of blogs.  Well you can never start too early with preparations can you?  This stocking I've made from felt is another project for the school sewing lessons.  I went out and bought all the felt at Spotlight yesterday.  Oh all right, I actually bought way more than just felt!  There might have been a few fat quarters too, and perhaps some more quilting pins, and some fibrefill, and the day before there could have been some other purchases at the same store.  Oh sometimes I am sooo bad!!  But who cares!!

There are a couple of dresses I wouldn't mind getting some fabric for as well.  I'd like to make one for myself too actually.  I have a fancy wedding to go to soon and I have no idea what to wear.  It will be a warm weather wedding so a pretty dress would be nice.  I'd love one of these vintage frocks, but would that be suitable?  I'm into floral fabrics at the moment.  There are so many pretty ones out there. 

I'm off to the fruit and veggie shop in a min.  Hope you are having a good day/evening today.  Love to you all!!

Simple Sewing

Ok Ok, I'll use the soap!  But I still think they look nice all wrapped up.  I'm going to keep it for a little while longer before getting it all wet, but I still think it seems a shame.  I'd better not tell you about all the other dry soaps I have, had I?  Or the bath sachet I bought in Honolulu, oh... about 13 years ago!

Now just to prove to you all that I haven't stopped sewing altogether, I sat down yesterday and made a few goodies.  Remember I told you I was going to do a sewing class at the girls school?  Well that's coming up at the end of the month so I thought I should start organising some samples.  They need to be quite simple projects as they probably won't have a great deal of experience.

This little padded heart looks like something anyone could make look pretty reasonable.  Unfortunately I'll have to precut the felt as they won't have scissors sharp enough or pinking shears either.  But sew they will do.

This cute monster came out of the Softies book which I adore.  I quite like my colour combination and I think the eyes really give him character.  We have plenty of button sewing skills with these projects.  But we do love a good button or two.

 

Oh stop being such a silly monster!  I'll have to sew him up later today.  He needs a smile as well, or maybe a tongue.  Do you think the students will like the sort of projects I've chosen for them so far? 

I also managed to get behind my sewing machine, shock horror.  I've seen lots of bunting hangings lately and thought them rather sweet.  I am making this one for Daughter No.1 so it's in her favourite colours.  I am thinking about stitching a quote on it.  It looks a bit boring otherwise.  So I googled sewing quotes and found a lovely site with loads of nice ones.  Of course I'm looking for something short and sweet, we don't want to be stitching a book!

I have used my first antique French button dear Liz sent me.  I just love them.  They are the perfect red.

And I just thought I'd be a bit different and extend the bunting off the side of the hanging.  I love working with linen.  It's so natural and warm.  Well warm, mainly because of the amount of time you spend ironing it!  But I do think I could make many a tea towel with linen.  Maybe I just will.  

And just so you don't think I've discarded my newly found kitchen skills while I've been busy sewing, I made muesli for the first time yesterday.  And it was so easy!  We have received some hubby feedback this morning about the honey flavour and the lack of absorbency from the oats, but we can work on these problems. 

And would you like to have a little peek at my babies?  Just look how well they are growing, the little poppets.  The Nasturtiums took about ten days to sprout but they have such strong little stalks and are growing in front of my eyes.  I'm hoping for a fine weekend to put them all out into the garden.  The peas are doing very well outside so I'm sure the others will be just fine too.

Right now.  I think it may be time to get a wriggle on and start on the kitchen.  My little one has a cough at the moment and the others are starting to catch it.  I just hate coughs.  Luckily they slept well last night.  Ok then, I'll catch up with you all later.  Hope you are all fine and enjoying a little craft time, if that's your thing.  Bye!!

A Parcel for Little 0ld Me!

It's a funny sort of day today.  It started off foggy, then it rained off and on, and now it's got a bit colder.  But all is good because today my big girls are going to walk their little sister home from school, so I can pick up No.4 from kindy a little later than usual.  It's going to be a regular thing on kindy days.  Well that is if they don't all arrive home in tears after fighting all the way home.  It's only up the road, so there isn't much time for arguments at least. 

Look what I found in my post box today... 

mmm... sounds interesting doesn't it?  It's come from Luisa in Australia.  Check out the inside of the card.  I wonder if she made the paper herself.  I love homemade papers.

And wow just look at what she has made for me!  Two linen fresheners with her own mix of lavender, cloves and huon pine (an Aussie thing) and they smell just heavenly.  I can't wait to use them.  My drawers don't have anything pretty smelling (or awful smelling either thank you!) in them, so these will come in handy indeed.

There is also a very beautifully wrapped soap that I'll keep for years probably before using, because I do struggle with using such nice things.  Silly isn't it?  I love the red corrugated card around the soap.

What do you think about her choice of fabrics?  Pretty perfect for me aren't they?  As soon as I unwrapped them I laughed out loud (which was a bit embarrassing really as I was on my own) as they were so perfectly me.  Thank you so much for your thoughtful gift Luisa. You must pop on over and visit her blog when you get a chance.  She'd be very happy to see you I'm sure.

And now back to reality.  There are dishes in the sink but at least they look cheerful.  Piles of folded washing to put away in drawers.  Bit of games and toys scattered all over the house.  Paper and pens galore all over the coffee table.  More washing to fold.  And of course a nice hot cuppa and a rest before kindy pick up.  Well I'm hoping there will still be time for that.

Tonight we are having a lovely roast chicken for dinner.  I love roasts very much so I don't mind cooking for a change.  I really don't like the peeling vegetable stage very much. Perhaps when I'm peeling my own homegrown veggies it will be more fun.  One can only hope.  Have yourselves a wonderful day and thank you so much for visiting me.

Shiny Red Gumboots

Yesterday it rained.  Last night it poured.  Today I got to jump in puddles with No.4!  How cool is that?  Lucky for us I bought some lovely shiny gumboots on Saturday.  A serious gardener has to have a pair of boots after all. 

Don't our boots look lovely all lined up?  Daughters 1 and 2 share a pair as they don't often need them.  I'd rather have the cute pair on the left, but plain red is the next best thing. 

It was a grand day on Saturday so we made the most of it.  Some of the seedlings were transplanted into their new homes.  My bench was getting a little overcrowded.  It still is with the addition of another couple of seed packets.  The rain sure has made them grow.

I had a secret little helper too.  Look what I found No.3 doing.  Picking up all the fallen leaves.  She has a lot of interest in the garden and is great at weeding.

She picked up a whole wheelbarrow load by herself!  And when I asked her if she enjoyed doing it, she said "No not really". She just saw that it needed doing and thought she'd help out.  What a little sweetie, and she's only five too.  They are now in my compost heap and under the broccoli plants for mulch.

Look, Spring is here!  Isn't she a beauty?  No.4 is very pleased it's outside her bedroom window.  When she's looking at the stars at night, she can see her flower too.

My mother gave me another big bag of lemons.  Well of course I just had to make a double batch of lemon curd and two packets of lemon cordial to freeze.  And did you know that I've been making bread ever since I told you I was going to?  That must be at least two weeks or more.  Go me!  It's so easy and there is nothing nicer than serving up a tray of freshly made bread and homemade jams in the weekend.  Oh and watching Mamma Mia at the same time!

We had a lovely weekend.  I hope you did too.  The sun is back shining brightly, for the whole week I hope.  I really must get back to sewing one of these days.  I've been spring cleaning the kitchen cupboards instead.  See I told you it was Spring!!