Sunday, May 30, 2010

A Thank You, A Bee, and a little bit of me :)


First up, This is Kellie's Bee block for May in the Australasian Bee, She sent out a 10" square of batting with a Heather Ross piece spray basted to the centre, and a whole bunch of strips, With a request to follow the instructions from the Sew Take a Hike, Quilt as you go, Quilt along. But to do a 'riot of colour' and a little wonkiness would be great. So I did, I loved making this, the fabrics were beautiful and the colours so much fun!


I would love to use this method for a wall hanging or cushion, (just added it to my super list!)


Secondly, A Thank You!!!!! to Jess from JK Creations!! I was lucky enough to win a runners up prize in her May Day Give Away, Jess sent along the beautiful Blossom hair clips for my girls so they wouldn't take off with my new purse!! So far it is working :) 


Next up, In continuation of my marathon sewing efforts the last week or so, I whipped up a pair of cords for Miss Charlotte, using my go to kids pants pattern Burda 9706, this pair have an elastic back with flat front waistband, as, at almost 9 Miss C is getting a little old for the full elastic treatment! 


The pants were crazy busy, so I added a little scotty dog applique to the bottom of one leg. Of course now that they are "doggy pants" Charlotte doesn't want to take them off!!
There has been a couple of other sewing finishes here this week, including a winter coat for Charlotte, which I will do a post about when I finish the other 3! and a cute little winter dress for Miss Jocie, which I just need to get a pic of her in before I post!


One last thing, Mark's second round of our little Dessert War's, resulted in these absolutely delicious Jam Doughnut Muffin's (Don't tell him I said so, but I think he is winning!! )

Saturday, May 22, 2010

What an Awesome Day!


To start, We went to my favorite Op-shop, where I scored not one but three (3!), beautifully hand knitted Jumpers, the first one, I'm pretty sure is a 100% wool, I doubt it has been washed more than once!, it has amazing detail in it (if you click the above pic it should show an even larger one) with the sweetest little fake wood buttons, it fits Miss Charlie (approx size 7 to 8), well sort of, it's a touch big, but it will see her through two maybe even three winters, the most amazing part is that it only cost $4! can you even get a skein of wool for that price? let alone the hours and hours that some one put into this! Well I can tell you it will be loved and worn and cared for in this house!!


Next up was this lovely little jumper, Im not sure about the fibre content of this one, but it is lovely and soft, and Im fairly certain, brand new! Can you believe someone donated this?! This one will go to Miss Laura (approx size 5) and once again, the workmanship is well appreciated in this house, and well I just have a *thing* for cream wool knit jumpers, I think it is because my Mum had a friend of hers make me one for my 10th birthday and I love it, I still have it and get it out occasionally, the girls will get to wear it when they are older!


Ta DA! is what this one says to me everytime I look at it! It will fit Miss Jocie, but definitely on the big side, its probably a largish size 2, I love the green stripes. Again not sure on the fibre content of this one, though its most likely an acrylic of some sort, hopefully it will be fairly easy to wash though! I also picked up a cute long sleeved blouse for Charlotte and a pair of lovely girly green cords for Laura, plus they got a book each, all up $17 BARGAIN!!! It's just a shame there was nothing for Imogene today, oh well next time!


Not done yet, we headed into town, to my local quilt shop, I honestly was just picking up some more leads for my sewline pencil (love that thing!), but of course, there happened to be a sale on *sigh* so I had to pick up a couple of fat quarters of wonderland dots, which were only $3.50 each! Then I saw the the hunky dory fat quarter, that blue is just lovely, this one was full price $6 but ah well you know!! Then I spotted the piece of good folks in the remnant bin, $12 for .8m Bargain!! so it came home with me too!


Then Mark went to get this! I think I must be a bad influence on him, because this is his first tattoo too! and yes it was his (late) birthday present (mine was an early birthday present!) So your probably wondering why he got a barcode? Basically a barcode is exactly that, a code, this one is actually the first initial of my name plus all of the girls names so, K, C, I, L, A, J.  He debated about getting the initials underneath, but at the end of the day, he can have them added later if he wants to, but to get them removed if he didnt like them would be mega painful! I think he will get a pacman next!


Ok then, This evening I got to work, First I finished off the outer shell for Imogene's winter coat, (a whole post or two will be dedicated to the 4 winter coats Im sewing for the girls soon) So while I was in sewing mode, I quickly patched 2 pairs of Charlotte's PJ pants, these ones were really really bad.


But these ones were more upsetting, they are "mummy make" Pj's! Anyway its an absolute pain to sew patches on to pants without ripping a side seam first, but i managed a dodgy job, and charlotte has been told in no uncertain terms to stop walking around the house on her knee's! (and I still have a pair of jeans of hers to go *sob*)

One last thing! I whipped up this skirt for Charlotte tonight too, it was most recently a drop waisted pinafore dress with pleats on the skirt. It looked down right awful on every single one of my girls! I had originally made it for Charlie so figured she should be the one to benefit from the recon!, I just cut it off at the end of the back zip, added a elastic waist and bingo new winter skirt, the material is so soft and pretty, it has a pink stripe through it too. Oh and I salvaged the buttons and the zip from the original which I intend to use again soon. 

Ok folks that was my day today, How was yours? anyone had any good op shop scores? or have any tips for patching pants? I love it when I get comments, so please feel free to say Hi!

Wednesday, May 12, 2010

Happy Birthday Mark!


Happy Birthday Mark!!
I'm so glad you enjoyed my very first attempt at a Pavlova, I whole heartedly agree, It was perfect, wasn't it?!

Please excuse my blatant bragging, It seems we have entered a new phase of our marriage, henceforth to be known as "Dessert Wars"!!
(this just managed to top his choc tart!)

Monday, May 10, 2010

Progress on Fanciful Flowers.


Five down nine to go! The one above is my very very favorite (so far), My applique skills are slowly improving, I still need to work on my tension though as its a bit tight I think.


I have only squared up a couple of the blocks so far, and they really could of used a good pressing before I took the pics, but better creased than never!


I'm really enjoying this quilt, and I am hoping to quilt it by hand with perle cotton and big stitches, at this stage I'll be really happy If I can get it on our bed by the end of the year! But realistically I probably won't have it finished till next winter (as in 2011) lol!

I love the swirly bit on this one.

Happy Mother's Day for yesterday to all my mummy readers! It was a fairly typical day here, with the addition of some very sweet gifts from my girls, a pair of earrings, a fake tattoo (!!lol!!) a new pair of slippers and lots and lots of handmade cards telling me how much they love me! We also went to see my Mum, and Mark's mum. All in all a nice day! I hope you all had a lovely day too!

Tuesday, May 4, 2010

27 and the Tart that Mark made.


So yesterday I turned 27, Ouch, each year hurts a little more, this year the pain was taken away when my wonderful Hubby Mark, decided that he was going to make me a cake, all. by. himself! Now the man has many talents, he plays quite a few different Instruments, and is well known for his computer nerdery (his profession) he also has a way with mdf, he is not shy when it comes to housework or general cooking duties, and of course he is a wonderful involved parent. However up until now, the extent of his "making dessert" involved putting a pie in the oven or serving ice cream, certainly nothing close to this masterpiece, which by the way is a "Bitter Chocolate Meringue Tart" from Seasons by Donna Hay, It was AMAZING!!!!!  and there is some left for tonight too!! Now I'm left to plot and plan and make him something equally as awesome for his birthday which is next week, any one have any suggestions?