Crazy birthday month

We all have them. Ours is July... we have no less than 13 birthdays and had a few kids party invites thrown in there too.

So you can guess what I've been up to.

Always trying something new I decided to do vinyl covered pencil cases for the girls, I've never sewn vinyl before. And the boys got peek a boo toy sacks after I found THIS cute pin on Pintrest.

I bought the cute Sprout turtle fabric after Dman spotted it while I was buying fabric online. But of course how do you use white fabric for a boy? So it became the lining of his toy sack and I've made sure you can see a whole turtle through the front peek hole.

Now it's August, I'm working through my unfinished projects. You know I have a quilt that I made for Fox last year and all it needs is binding. I'm guessing it will be done in time for Father's Day :)

My first attempt at patchwork

My very good friend has just had a baby boy and so I have decided to make a baby size patchwork quilt for him.

I will make 9 blocks i think and back with flannelet. I have seen others do patchwork in strips but I have opted for blocks because I don't trust that I could make the patches line up. Maybe when I have more confidence this will be the easier option.

I think choosing colours is probably the hardest part of making patchwork and I'm always amazed at how well different colour combos go together. Cross fingers my fabric choices work out as a whole.

We'll see soon enough :)

Craft book challenge April

Here is my April edition of the Craft Book Challenge. It's another gorgeous little creation from Scandinavian Stitches. It's a zippered pouch that is around double the depth of a coin pouch. Thought it would be perfect size for a tween birthday girl to put her treasures in. I think it would make a gorgeous 'just in case' pouch actually.

I made a couple of crochet flower clips to go with. Needless to say the birthday girl was happy and her mum wants to know where she can buy my stuff... I hear you loud and clear people and I'm working on it! promise :)

Ever feel like you're chasing your tail?

 I do, I feel like I've been doing it for a good few months now, well since the start of the year. And now it's time to stop the crazy and to start 'moving forward'... as our prime minister keeps saying.

So I'm doing just that. I hope to have my little etsy / made it shop up and running within the month. It's going to have a mix of  baby stuff like crocheted cardies and hair clips and little nappy covers and maybe dresses (not sure yet) along with some of these gorgeous pillowcases...

Are you chasing your tail? What's stopping you from moving forward? At the moment its the silly little banner needed at the top of the shop and wait for it...  time. I'm sure i can get one done if i could just spend some time sorting it out. Simple as that and I'm ready to get it all happening.

Have a lovely week xox

Craft book challenge - March

I joined the craft book challenge to give me a push to get into all those craft books i have collected.

This month's project was from Meet Me at Mikes first craft book and was made just this morning.

Eldest son gets a phone call from his friend late yesterday and organises to go over to his place  today. No worries. Then later last night he tells me ... well actually it's his friends little brother's birthday and his friend was allowed to choose a friend to come over. OHHH Right... So mum can you make him something out of that camo material that you have and can you put his name on it too... That camo material is jersey and i can't really make a pencil case or bag out of it. Don't worry I'll sort something out in the morning.

 Looking for something super quick to whip up that was suitable for a 10 year old boy and pow... make a little pouch, the mmam's one would be perfect.

So after only a few hours from start to finish the gift was ready. We put some Australia postcards inside along with pencils and International post stamps. My son's friends have been posted here from America.

I was pleased as punch when I went to collect my son this afternoon and the birthday boy was well impressed that I had made him this bag. He had questions about how it was made and really was thankful.

Now that's what it's all about hey!

Scandinavian Stitches

Finished my Finnish herring 'silakka' pillow.









Totally in love with my new craft book Scandinavian Stitches made by Syko, it has the sweetest little projects.

I made this pillow as a present but after completion I really really want to make one for myself. Or keep it even.

I picked up a few new techniques making it. The first was pulling the top thread through to the back and tying off. It really does make the top look neater rather than reverse sewing back and forth etc. And the second technique is using an embroidery thread to top stitch around applique. I didn't realise how much it would affect the look of the appliqued fish.

This pillow has been entered into Stitched in Color's Bloggers Pillow Party.

Wish me luck.

For the mermaid lover

I made this mermaid pencil case using denim & appliquing the mermaid on first using The same pattern as Dman's Pirate Quilt. And ofcourse I had to use the fish fabric for lining.








The birthday girl seemed impressed.



This arrived in the mail today from Bendigo Woolen Mills and I couldn't be more excited. I've been using Lion brand cotton yarn, which is nice but too thick for the project I'm about to start. I love that they sent me colour charts too with actual yarn samples. Big toothy grins all round.

Now to create...

An eventful weekend

After cleaning up my stash I thought I'd give this sweet tute a go and polish up my zip skills at the same time and Meeka snapped it up as soon as she came home from school :)

Then on Friday my big boy received a rugby injury and ended up getting carted off in an ambulance. I met him at the hospital and was shocked to see a golf ball sized egg above his eye. He's fine but now it's a very black & purple shiner. So I won't put any pictures up as it is quite shocking and this is the reason I haven't put too many birthday photos up. Not a good look.





So, Dman celebrated his 4th Birthday yesterday, we made cupcakes and opened pressies, his favourite was the buzz light year lazer gun that has a zurg he can shoot. He played all day and was not impressed when we had to leave home to go to the shops. his daddy is away at the moment so we'll have a real cake & a party when he comes home.

today while Con was making himself a Lego movie using still shots on my camera I made him a little guitar pick & string pouch.





And when I gave it to him he immediately scrunched it up and threw it in his guitar bag... ahhh boys... got to love them .


Hoping your weekend was much less eventful than mine xox

Adam's Birthday blanket

I played around with the embroidery stitches on my machine and made a little name tag. I'm not really a big fan of machine embroidery and that's probably why I haven't given it a go until now, but Fox is really on my case about making labels and thinks I should make my own too. So bossy!

Adams blanket is fleecy one side and flannel the other with cotton binding. and I quilted the two sides together with a large square pattern. It's funny how something that looks so simple to make can actually take a whole day to complete.

Anyway, I'm so glad I got this done yesterday because Adam's little brother Toby was born yesterday & I'm no where near finished on his crochet baby blanket. Time to get the hook out and go for it. Oh & it's my sister's birthday on Thursday, so I'm hoping to fit all three pressies in the one post parcel. Express of course!

Thanks for dropping by, hope you had a lovely weekend!

My creative space

My eldest sister is having her birthday next week so I decided to make her a Cosmetic purse using Nicole Mallalieu Design's Kit. And a matching little tote with Jennie McClelland's cute pattern out of the Meet me at Mikes book.



And now I'm off to a friends birthday lunch... hope you have a lovely day and keep warm down there in the southern reigons of Australia. It's a bit cold here too in Townsville...lol no really I have a cardi & jeans on :)

Pop on over to Kootoyoo and see what other crafty types are up to.

Edit - My husband keeps telling me (nagging) i need to put my own label onto the gifts i create, but i have no clue where to look for them, any hints on where i could pick up some cotton tape labels? thank you, trying to keep the man happy, you know x

Simple simplicity

Built by Wendy Simplicity 3835

Finally finished this Cream top for SSS. I had to put down the hook for a bit & I'm happy I did. There's nothing like the feeling you get when you finish a garment especially when it's for yourself :)

Modeled by my daughter, who really really likes it.

Guess I'll be making a lot more items from this pattern range.

Finally something for me

while i do enjoy making stuff for all the lovely people in my life i thought it high time i make something for myself. And finally it's done. It only took 2 weeks to complete so it didn't take that long really. I just had a crash course in getting to know my new machine better after it ate a side seam and was determined not to let go of it I read the instruction manual and performed some maintenance. To my horror the little oil bottle that came with the machine had never been opened. So after a quick clean out and a bit of lube she was ready to purr again.

I should now mention that before I resorted to the manual I got my old faithful Janome out and could not figure out how to turn her on. I felt like I had betrayed her after she had been so faithful to me over the years. She helped me make my wedding dress for goodness sakes, how could I forget. But something worse had happened. It seems like out jealousy she has given up. Yes my old Janome is broken. Sob. I wanted to give her to Meeks so she could learn to sew on it but I'm not convinced she has fully given up though, I think she just needs her electrical cord checked so I'm crossing fingers it's not over between us.

I originally wanted to make it all out of the patterned fabric but it's very thin and snags easily so when I cam across the tshirt material in a matching colour from the oppy for $1 I knew it was a sign.



So needless to say i'm pretty impressed with myself and keen to get some more me made garments happening. Just not sure what to do with the meter and or so of pattern fabric that i'm not really impressed with. I bought it from spotlight and it was not cheap so i'm annoyed that the quality was not a reflection of the price. Nevermind, i'm sure I'll think of something.

Hope you have a super weekend. We're doing a big house clean, you know the one where you end up cleaning out the kids rooms because you can't stand what their version of clean is any longer. See you later... if I make it out alive! xox

My creative space

After watching a documentary on the throw away fashion industry and getting an insight on how the sweat shop workers live I really want to cut back on feeding this beast.

I don't really trust my skills to be able to grab an op shop dress and turn it into something beautiful just yet. So Iv'e bought a pattern with a few different styles so I can make some mix n match clothing. It's always summer here so this pattern will be perfect I think.

I'm making bathers for my big girl & a top for me. The bather's pattern I made myself using an old bevknits master pattern for bikini briefs and just kind of put a top on it, we'll see soon enough if it works out or not. wish me luck!

Find more creative spaces at Kootoyoo

Shorts from shirts

I saw this done somewhere and thought it was brilliant so I gave it a try when I found 3 long sleeve shirts in brand new condition at the oppy. Please if you know who's blog I saw this on let me know so I can thank her. Iv'e been trying to find her blog again since first seeing it probably a year ago with no luck. Our PC crashed & I lost all my bookmarks.



With Kwik Sew pattern 3398 I cut out the pattern using the shirt pocket on the back of the shorts.



Ready to get started. I don't bother with pockets on these short. really they are just for getting around in for play or daycare.



This is all that was left of the shirts.



Almost there, just need to hem & put the elastic in.



All done, and dman loves his new shorts.wearing RM Williams here.



Country Road shirt shorts



And Pierre Cardin !

The Crocheted Pillow Case

After a month of following along with You Go Girl's Crochet a Long I have finally made my first ever pillowcase and put a pretty crocheted edging on to make it a look a little posh.


The fabric


Pillowcase done


And finally the pretty edge.



And Here is some of what the other clever "On the Edge" peeps created. Now that i've done the first one, there will be a few more of these made I think. They just look so pretty.

One for you... two for me

I have been eyeing off this gorgeous Bloom Journal Cover tutorial for a while now and yesterday I had some time to fling one (or two) together. My first attempt (not shown) was a dismal failure so I think next time I try to get fancy and convert inches to centimeters I really should write the measurements down... duh. But this one fits my craft notebook well.





And today saw time to make a pin cushion. Yes Iv'e signed up to Fox's Lane pincushion swap!!
... seeing as Iv'e never made one before I thought it be best to practice first so as to be kind to my swap partner.
I think it's sweet and it was quickly swept away by my 3 year old pretending to have cups of tea. Will somehow steal it back when he's not looking.
It was also my first attempt at Amigurumi, so look out kids, mumma's going to making a few more cute little crochet creations.



Hope you all had a lovely weekend x