Cute Pinafore Dress

Although I love to flick through copies of Ottobre magazine to find new things to make for Ollie and his little friends, I'm often put off by the choice of fabrics they use. I sometimes have difficulty seeing past a fabric that doesn't tickle my fancy - too floral, or perhaps too pink?

I was therefore absolutely delighted to see this gorgeous Ottobre creation by Leisl of Jorth. Inspired!

I rifled through my stash to find some stretchy black denim and red and white striped quilting cotton, and set to work making this little pinafore for our little soon-to-be 3 year old friend who spends two days a week with my Ollie.

She is a gorgeous girl who owns far too many pink clothes for my liking (all hand-me-downs, I'm assured), so I steered well clear of anything pink.
Ollie and I made a mad dash to Chadstone at 9am this morning to find her some red leggings and long sleeved tee to coordinate with her new dress. I was very happy to see her wearing the outfit this afternoon for her party!

Pattern: Pinafore Dress in size 92cm

Mag: Ottobre 1/2007

Catching up

After all the last minute sewing I did to get my sister's quilt finished in time for her birthday, I don't think I could even look at my machine for at least a week. Add in some girl-child drama's and some weekday work that sucked up all my child-free hours, and I'm feeling a little behind in all my quilting bees (four) and swaps (five).

Today I was very productive! I made triangle blocks for Angela from Busy Bees;

triangles for Angela

more triangles for Angela

I made boxy stars for Monika from the Australasian Bee;

boxy stars for Mon

and I made 6.5 inch nine patches for Kate from Busy Bees.

Kate's nine patches

This is my favourite little detail, taken from the selvedge of an Ink and Spindle fabric.

Remind me later to tell you all about a screen printing day I did a couple of weeks ago at the Ink and Spindle studios with Lara from Harvest Textiles. So much fun! (if you look closely you may find a pic of me in their flickr pics)

For now, though, I have some knitting to do (I'm knitting a blanket!) and last weeks episode of The Wire to watch.

It's done!

After many hours of sewing in the last week or two, I finished this quilt for my sisters birthday.

Many thanks to the ladies in my Australasian Quilting Bee, who made most of the blocks for the quilt. Thanks must also go to my mum, who is a super speedy binder! Seriously, she'd done nearly 2 sides by the time I finished one!
I ended up adding borders to all of the blocks to make them 14 inches square. The final measurements are something like 170cm by 200cm. All it needs is a wash and dry to bring out the crinkles.

I love it, and more importantly, my sister loves it!

At some stage in the next few days I'll write out a list of all the lovely helpers I had to give to my sister, so she knows who made which block. Thanks ladies!