One Creative Journey

20 June 2011

2011-06-20T09:19:00.002+10:00

I realised a little while ago that I haven't yet knit anything for Mr O, so I had a look around Ravelry and I found the perfect hooded sweater for him, the Little Hoodlum jersey from the Little Rascals ebook by Julia Stanfield of Just One WIP. My favourite type of knitting - top down, seamless, knit in the round. Easy peasy.

waiting for sleeves

Mr O requested his favourite colour (red) with grey stripes. I played around with the stripes a little as I wanted something a bit different. He is very pleased with it :)

waiting for the hood

15 June 2011

2011-05-24T06:46:00.009+10:00

My first post in quite a while, I just haven't had any energy or the inspiration to blog anything. But I have taken to going for a walk every morning after I drop off the kids to school, and it turns out that exercise is good for the soul, who knew? ;)

I am so lucky to live in a beautiful area, and it is particularly beautiful in Autumn. Definitely the showiest season, I think that Autumn is my favourite, closely followed by Spring. And do you know, Summer is my least favourite! The only good thing about it is the fact that Christmas is smack in the middle of it - otherwise I detest the sweaty hot weather.

I have found that after walking every morning and looking at all these colours means that I arrive back home full of energy and just itching to do something creative. I am currently knitting a sweater for Mr O, drawing in my journal, and I'm about to sew up a dress. Plus I have the energy to actually reply to emails and comment on blogs, set up my flickr and pinterest accounts, sort through all the kids' old clothes, paint the kickboards and the cupboard handles in the kitchen... ;)

I took the kids on a much slower walk one weekend at the end of Autumn, and I took the opportunity to take photos as well. I'm so glad that I did as the trees have lost most of their leaves since then. Miss M is a great walker, but Mr O acts as though I've asked him to walk over hot coals - his idea of heaven is to stay firmly indoors with his toys. Although he can walk for hours around Westfield and Ikea - he is a boy after my own heart ;)

There is a nearby street with a few crab apple trees growing on the nature strip, and we collected the fallen apples and took them home with us because they are so lovely to look at.

I have lots of crafty photos to share, I just have to make it a priority to blog them.

03 March 2011

2011-03-02T12:58:00.006+11:00

The beginning of Autumn has me thinking of wool and winter fabric, and all the beautiful Autumn colours of one of my favourite seasons. It was a lovely cool day yesterday, although today is supposed to be hot again - Summer doesn't fade graciously in Sydney. I sewed the last button on a Summer shirt for Miss M, and now I'm looking through my fabric stash for something suitable with which to make her a coat.

I completed these toys last year for a little girl's first birthday. I might have to make a second set of the Matryoshka dolls for Miss M.

Big Mumma

all the way

down to

tiny baby.

I have made this little birdy before, nice and quick to knit up and so cute.

Here is an egg in a nest.

Here is a little birdy hatching out.

One wing out -

Ta da!

7 February 2011

2011-02-07T10:33:00.004+11:00

I have been working on a hexagon quilt - this is the first time I've made hexagons so I'm making it easy for myself by using charm squares and large sized papers. I think this will still take a reeeally long time though :)

The fabric is Rouenneries by French General.

4 February 2011

2011-02-04T10:07:00.006+11:00

What a long time it's been since my last entry, the summer has just been so busy. Miss M started back at school this week, which she is just loving, and Mr O begins in the 3-6 class next Friday, which he is denying :) My baby will have his first real time away from me, which will be strange for us both but once he gets used to it all he'll have a great time just like his sister does. It's a fantastic Montessori school, and every time I drop Miss M off I really wish I could spend the day in a grown up class there ;)

I am looking forward to taking photos of autumn trees, this summer heat is unbearable!

I've been making lots of soy candles - they burn more cleanly than regular parrafin wax, and they smell so good - I made mostly vanilla and coconut.

29 September

2010-09-29T10:56:00.003+10:00

We have had some beautiful spring days to start off the school holidays with, and Miss M has spent most of them outside playing with her friends. Mister O is more of an inside boy, but even he has been lured outside for a bit with the lovely weather. And to pick caterpillars off my vegies!

Yesterday he also sorted out these tiny shells we collected while visiting Grandma and Grandpa at Port Macquarie - we hardly ever get shells at the beaches near us (Northern Beaches) so the amount of shells lying around was a real treat.

22 September

2010-09-21T09:32:00.005+10:00

Last day of school today! I am so looking forward to spending some Spring days relaxing at home. But to be honest, we also love our school days - we are Montessorians and we have really embraced the whole Montessori philosophy at home as well.

My little people have learned to work independently as well as to cooperate (mostly) with each other. And they have such a love of learning - Miss M is curious about everything, and one of the great things about a Montessori classroom is that the children learn without realising it. They don't sit down at desks and learn lessons from the board by rote; they choose their own work and they feel such a sense of accomplishment when they complete it all by themselves. They do have a checklist of things they have to complete by the end of the day - for example, they have to select two pieces of maths work and two of literacy work, but it is up to them which pieces they choose and which order they do it in. They can't get away with coming to school and doing nothing except grate cheese all day long (apparently there was one child who began to do this - the teacher gently directed the child to other things once they got the daily cheese fix out of their system!). Miss M loves every minute of it - she is zooming ahead with her maths and her reading, and she loves the social aspect of it - the classes combine different age groups (she is currently in the 3-6 cycle) and she enjoys playing with younger children as well as her own peer group. When I pick her up I always ask her how her day was; she always answers "it was fantastic - 100 out of 10!"

Mister O only goes one day a week at the moment, and I accompany him. He has benefitted so much as well - he has always been very independent but now he has learned that there are steps to every task he completes, and that if he does them in a certain order he can complete them with much less frustration. He likes the routine of the tasks - setting them up, completing them, packing them away. He gets a lot of satisfaction from doing all this for himself, and he has become much more confident in what he does.

Wearing Dad's old glassless glasses ;)

I know that this post isn't directly craft related, but it is still all a part of my creative journey through life :)

21 September

2010-09-21T09:09:00.003+10:00

Tomorrow is the last day of school before the holidays start, and we are all looking forward to them. Miss M is definitely one for getting up late, and then spending the whole day playing outside with the neighbour's children. Mister O just loves having his sister home, and even though it is nice having him to myself all day it is also lovely to see him learn from her. He copies everything that she does, mostly with happy results :) Here are some old photos I found in my March folder of the two of them working together.

It's fun to see from these pictures how much my house has changed in just a few months - I have really allowed free reign to my Ikea love ;) Honestly, I would live in an Ikea store if they'd only let me.

7 September

2010-09-07T10:10:00.005+10:00

Here is one of my completed floor quilts - made using the Bricks and Stones quilt pattern by Red Pepper Quilts (thanks to Cherri Berri for mentioning this pattern on her blog :) The fabric is Oh Boy, such a great boy fabric.

This quilt was a commission, so I wanted it to be extra perfect. I hand quilted it when the machine quilting wasn't turning out, and I sewed on a name label for the little bub it's intended for.

My apologies for all the fluff and hairs sticking to it - I did give it a vacuum before I passed it on ;)

16 August

2010-08-16T13:29:00.005+10:00

I recently started work on another two baby floor quilts, using some of the Oh Boy range.

I also bought some custom made knitting markers from a great etsy seller, Sunneshine. She is so lovely and she made up lots of samples for me to choose my sets from. I wanted smaller ones for sock and lace knitting, and these ones are so light and delicate.

And Miss M and I have been busy making brooches - we have to make so many because we keep forgetting to take them off her clothes before they go in the wash...

22 June

2010-06-22T13:56:00.005+10:00

It has been pretty rainy in Sydney lately, so there have been a lot of indoor activities to photograph. I only hope that it fines up for the school holidays!

Lots of knitting going on - I finished the Icarus shawl, although I still haven't blocked it. I used a pretty Dream in Colour baby lace called Cloud Jungle. The soft colours reminded me of the colours in a pigeon's feathers, keeping in with the Icarus theme - in the myth Icarus flew too close to the sun with his wood, wax and feather wings; the wax melted and the feathers slid off, can you see that in the shawl?

Lots of tea drinking

snuggling up under the heater

playing with favourite toys

and taking photos of the wet world outside when we weren't allowed to go out into it :)

Spring Garden Tee

2010-06-13T13:35:00.002+10:00

I couldn't resist buying this beautiful pattern from Alana Dakos (Never Not Knitting) last year, and I finished it in time for Miss M to wear last summer. It is the Spring Garden Tee, and I knit it from Bendigo Cotton.

The cotton knit up lovely and soft, with very nice stitch definition, and I just wash it in the washing machine with no drastic effects ;)

The pattern was very well written, nice and clear and straighforward for a newbie garment knitter like myself. I will definitely be knitting more of these in different colours for Miss M. Alana has also just released an adult sized version of this pattern, which I will also be buying!

31 May - still here!

2010-05-31T15:25:00.007+10:00

It's been such a long time between posts for me, I have been so busy and the days are just flying by. I have a lot of photos from the last couple of months to share, although not as many crafty ones as I'd like.

My pincushions have been getting a work out lately with a couple of quilt projects I'm working on - photos of those later. The top pincushion is from Ruth :)

Since Miss M gave herself a haircut at school (!) we have been trying out new hairstyles. I must admit that it is easier to brush in the mornings now...

This drum kit was given to us by a mum who had had enough of it - shortly after these photos were taken we passed on the joy to yet another mum ;)

Woolly goodness - I'm not the only one who appreciates it!

I'm still not sure what I want this to be - I've cut pieces out and sewn bits together, and I just don't know. I love the colours though.

13 March

2010-03-13T10:32:00.003+11:00

I still haven't had a chance to do anything particularly crafty, except to take lots of photos with my lovely new camera :) So here are a few photos from my week.

New cotton yarn, one of my favourite colours:

Photos from my kitchen windowsill:

Flowers in Oma's garden:

Have a great Saturday!

Lucky lucky me!

2010-03-08T11:22:00.008+11:00

I was very lucky last year in a few blog competitions, and there are still two wins that I have to blog about.

The first one was via the fantastic podcast Never Not Knitting, one of my favourite podcasts to listen to. The competition was to win a signed copy of Susan B Anderson's 'Itty Bitty Toys', and my name was picked out of nearly 500 comments :) This is the cutest toy book ever, I could really knit all of the toys in here, but my favourites are the reversible toys. Miss M immediately requested the little reversible bird, and I found it a nice quick knit, and the instructions were very easy to follow.

Here are some other of the cute toys in this book:

Aren't they lovely?

The other win was via the podcast Craftsanity, another fantastic crafty podcast. In fact, this podcast was the main inspiration for me to branch out and try all the different crafts that I enjoy doing so much. I was lucky enough to win the book 'Design-It-Yourself Clothes Patternmaking Simplified' by Cal Patch, and this is one fabulous book! I just love every single garment in here, and I have read it from cover to cover and I find it very well explained and inspiring. Here are some of the great clothes you can make:

Unfortunately, I haven't had any time to make anything from these books this year, since this little person has decided that he doesn't need a daytime sleep. After a full day with him I am too tired at night to make anything!

Ta Da!!! - Linen Messenger Bag

2010-02-17T16:56:00.004+11:00

After dragging my poor old messenger bag around for two years (and watching it get grubbier and grubbier, not to mention the horrors that my fingers would touch if I ever dug down to the bottom of the bag) I have put it out to pasture and made myself another one. The beautiful linens that I bought recently were perfect and I just love it :)

I used my favourite Sew Liberated Messenger Bag pattern - this must be the sixth one I've made. This time however I added an extra side pocket and also a separate zippered compartment in the middle of the bag - I can actually find things now!

I added some of the linen tape I bought, and I even used the lace tape that the etsy store owner wrapped my fabric with :)

That is one of my new year's crafty goals down - I haven't given myself too many this year so I won't be under so much pressure to get things done!

In the Mail - Lovely Linens

2010-02-13T21:21:00.004+11:00

For the first time ever I bought myself some linen fabric - some plain linen from the US and some Japanese cotton/linen from etsy. The plain linen is lovely - a soft grey colour and, once washed and tumble dried, really quite soft for a fabric I've heard can be scratchy. It was also a bargain - I bought it from Fabrics Store and it was on sale for $5.87. The postage from the US was $34, so I went all out and bought 8 yards just to make the postage worthwhile :) And it was delivered the next week! So all up it cost less than half the price than it would in Australia, postage included. And now I have enough linen to last me for a long time, although I have a lot of projects in mind now that I have seen how nice it is.

The etsy store I used was Apples and Eggs - I would definitely recommend her as she was so accomodating and friendly, and super quick to post to me. She wrapped the package beautifully with linen tape (which I have actually used in my first sewing project!) and even included a little set of buttons and the 'handmade' tape for free. She has some beautiful fabric there and it was difficult to narrow down my choices - I will be back ;)

Working on...

2010-01-25T14:38:00.004+11:00

Icarus shawl by Miriam L Felton. Icarus was a silly ancient Greek lad whose father made him a pair of wings out of wood, wax and feathers. He didn't listen to his dad and he flew too close to the sun, and the wax on his wings melted and all the feathers fell off, and poor Icarus fell into the sea and drowned. That cheerful story is behind the design of this shawl - the pattern looks like feathers slipping off the melted wax.

I thought the lovely colours in the yarn (Dream in Color baby lace in Cloud Jungle) looked a lot like the colours in pigeon feathers.

I'm also working on turning an old shirt of my husband's into a dress for Miss M. I've cut it apart, and I'm just working out how I'm going to put it back together again.

Ta Da!!! - Ginger Blossom Lap Quilt

2010-01-16T14:08:00.004+11:00

After I had finished the Ginger Blossom baby quilt, I still had half a pack of fat quarters to use, this time from the green colourway. I needed a quick and easy Christmas present, so I whipped up another disappearing 9-patch and backed it with a lovely soft pale green minky fleece.

The designs in this colourway are much busier than those in the pink colourway, so I kept all the sashing, the outer border and the binding in the same chocolate brown so it didn't become overwhelming. I didn't end up quilting it because the minky fleece looked much nicer when it didn't have any other sewing on it. Luckily the fleece fabric sticks to the quilt top so it won't be shifting around too much.

In all, even though I thought that I would love the pink quilt more, I really did like this one when it was finished. And even though it does have flowers on it, it isn't too girly. Luckily I have another Ginger Blossom fat quarter pack set aside for myself! :)

Ta Da!!! - Ginger Blossom Baby Quilt

2010-01-10T10:59:00.006+11:00

This is going to be a picture heavy post I'm afraid :) As I mentioned in an earlier post, I completed and gifted this quilt back in early December, but I made sure to take a lot of photos.

It is just a simple disappearing 9-patch design, which I like to use when I want to feature the fabric rather than the design itself. I also machine quilted it, which I've never done before. I thought that machine quilting would be more suitable for a baby quilt since it would hold up better to machine washing, and it was so fast to do - it was all quilted in a day! It wasn't done properly as I didn't bother to hide the ends of the threads, I just sewed back and forwards at the beginning and end of each square, but it does the job :)

Pattern: Disappearing 9-Patch
Fabric: Ginger Blossom by Sandi Henderson (the 9 FQs of the pink colourway); brown fabric from Spotlight
Batting: Matilda's Own wool/poly blend.

Working on - D9P baby quilt

2009-12-19T10:14:00.003+11:00

This quilt is actually finished and gifted already, but I am so behind on my blogging that we have to pretend that it is still in the works ;)

Here the top is almost done, just the final outer border to go. The fabric is the lovely Ginger Blossom by Sandi Henderson, in the pink colourway.

Advent Day one-two-miss-a-few-19 - Christmas Socks!

2009-12-19T10:06:00.004+11:00

Who was I kidding? I was never going to blog for 24 days straight ;)

One pair of Christmas socks finished, one pair to go.

The pattern is the fabulous Thuja, as always!

Advent Day 6 - Letter from Santa

2009-12-06T21:37:00.003+11:00

Miss M wrote Santa a lovely letter this year telling him what she wanted most for Christmas (a red scooter and a golden dragon), and last week we received his reply in the mail. Miss M was so excited :)

It's such a lovely thing that Australia Post runs each year, there is even a link to a youtube movie showing Santa receiving his letters :)

In the Mail - Oh Boy!

2009-12-05T22:12:00.002+11:00

I just couldn't resist this fabric from the Fat Quarter Shop - it is so very cute :) I'm planning on using it for a quilt for Mr O, for when he moves into a big bed - although at the moment he seems ready to stay in his cot forever *sigh*

This is the fabric I bought for the backing, there was only 3/4 of a yard left but I bought it anyway, it is my favourite piece.

Advent Day 5 - Working on: Round Robin Block Swap

2009-12-05T21:56:00.003+11:00

This is sort of Christmas related :)

I have been participating in a round robin quilt block swap with a fantastic group of ladies, and last week I sent off the final blocks. We will be getting our blocks back this month (in time for Christmas - see, it is Christmas related!) in order to make them into a quilt, and I can't wait to see what everyone has made out of my fabric!

Some months it has been difficult to find the time to make the blocks - because I'm so picky I have been taking about 4.5 hours to sew one block, which I'm sure is quite ridiculous. Now that it's all over though I can see the benefits of all that pickiness - my measuring, cutting, piecing and sewing is now much more accurate, in fact I hadn't realised how inaccurate it was before. I have also figured out how to iron properly so that the pieces don't get pulled out of shape.

So all in all I'm so glad that I was part of this swap, my very first one. The EB Newbie Quilters who also participated are all so helpful and understanding, all the stress of the swap is non existent, once I had come to terms with cutting into someone else's fabric that is ;)

Advent Day 4 - In the Mail - more fabric!

2009-12-04T22:15:00.003+11:00

OK, so this isn't a Christmas post. I do actually have some Christmas related photos on my camera. Which is in another room. It's been a long day.

This is some of my favourite fabric, Sandi Henderson's Ginger Blossom range. I was delighted to see the fat quarter bundle on sale at the Fat Quarter Shop, down to $31.80! I ended up getting two bundles, one of which is being used in the d9p baby quilt I'm working on at the moment.

I also got some Rouenneries charm squares, 6 in all. I do love this fabric, it's not my usual style but I love the colours of the linen and the red together.

Advent Day 3 - Working on: Christmas Socks

2009-12-03T20:50:00.003+11:00

I can't tell you how many pairs of these Thuja socks I've made, but I never get tired of knitting them. It helps that I now know the pattern off by heart and I can finish a sock in two days :)

My dad loves these socks, so I always have a pair on the needles for him. I thought that instead of the usual plain ones I give him that I would make some Christmassy ones instead.

As always with my Thujas, I'm using superwash wool, this time it's Lincraft brand.

2009 Advent Blog-a-Long

2009-12-02T06:57:00.005+11:00

Since the Christmas season is my favourite time of year, I have decided to fit in as many Christmassy things as possible. And since I have already blogged for December 1st, it seemed to be a perfect time to join in Car's Advent blog-a-long. I only hope that I can find enough Christmas themed things to blog about!

And sadly this will have to be my Christmassy blog of today, since I don't want to run out of topics ;)

Happy December 1st :)

2009-12-01T20:58:00.002+11:00

We put up our Christmas tree today, it was the first time that Mr O was really able to join in and he was just entranced by it all, although I think that the chocolate advent calendar may have won out :)

Fabulous Mood!

2009-12-01T20:47:00.004+11:00

One of my sisters recently went on a holiday to the US. While she was in New York she hunted the streets until she found Mood, the fabulous fabric store patronised by the contestants on the US Project Runway. She bought 3 yards of a lovely sheer fabric for me - I'm not sure what I'm going to do with it yet but I just love it.

The bag is so familiar to me, I've seen so many seasons worth of PR contestants carrying them around :)

In the Mail - More Sandi Henderson fabric!

2009-11-24T15:49:00.003+11:00

I recently bought some beautiful (and nice and cheap) fabric from this fantastic etsy store: Sewlovefabrics. It arrived quickly and with some bonus charm squares thrown in :)

I'm going to use the dots for the binding on the Ginger Blossom baby quilt, and the cherries and the apples on a quilt I'm still thinking up for myself. I just can't resist that Farmers Market fabric :)

Giveaway at Retromummy!

2009-11-24T15:39:00.003+11:00

I don't usually blog about giveaways, but I couldn't go past this one at Retromummy - such lovely fabric and such a generous prize by Corrie :)

Working on... a baby quilt

2009-11-23T20:58:00.003+11:00

Ok, so I suddenly found myself with some free time tonight, and it occurred to me that it would be a good idea to post on my blog before the new year! So here is the first post in a new series: Working on. That way I can post snippets of my WIPs without feeling that I have to actually finish something before I can reveal it :)

And my first WIP is a baby quilt that I'm working on for a friend's baby girl. I am using Ginger Blossom by Sandi Henderson - how I love her fabric *sigh*. It is going to be yet another Disappearing 9 Patch, simple but pretty, which is perfect for a quick baby quilt.

Very bad blogger!

2009-10-22T11:30:00.003+11:00

Ok so it's been a few months since my last blog entry, but it's been so hectic around here that I've had neither time to blog nor time to do anything to actually blog about. Things have calmed down somewhat so I'm starting to get crafty again, mostly knitting, although I have just bought some fabric for another couple of quilts. So hopefully I'll have something to show before too long!

A nice light scarf

2009-07-28T18:21:00.003+10:00

Gosh I have trouble thinking up blog titles. I can only hope that most people are like me and just barely glance at the title before going on to read the blog entry.

I just love Japanese sewing and craft, and one of my favourite blogs is Mairuru - she makes the cutest things, and I get the impression that they're all hand sewn, something I can't even imagine having the time or the patience (or the skill, for that matter) to do.

One of the projects she's blogged is a cotton scarf, and I loved it so much that I had to make one of my own. Of course mine was machine sewn :) I bought the two very thin and fine cottons from Spotlight. I designed it and cut out the patchwork pieces from paper first, and I've kept the pattern pieces because I'm thinking of making another one sometime.

The scarf is warm and soft to wear, and not prickly like wool scarves can be. I am so glad I made it, thanks for the inspiration Mairuru :)

Soiree is done

2009-07-26T22:53:00.005+10:00

I finally completed my Soiree quilt - it was very difficult to get hold of enough white homespun to finish the top, and then I discovered that since I had enlarged the top the backing was no longer large enough. A day of fussing and measuring and sewing later, and it was all done.

The backing is a lovely soft coral minky fleece. I didn't use anything in the middle, so there are just the top and bottom layers. It will be just right for a summer weight quilt.

It has also been used as a lounge quilt, but the combination of two children and two cats with all that white makes me think that it will be staying on our bed from now on.

Banana bread

2009-07-21T20:45:00.003+10:00

I love the recipes that Retromummy has shared on her blog, especially this one for melt and mix banana bread. I thought I'd give it a go, since I'm all for not-much-effort cooking - the only cake we ever make around here is a similar type of recipe, where you put everything into one bowl, stir it up and then pop it into the oven. No creaming butter & sugar or any of that fussy business.

The original recipe calls for 125g melted butter. I had no butter so I thought I'd try olive oil instead, since that's what I use in my chocolate cake with great success. And it worked out in this recipe as well, so delicious! And surely just a teensy bit more healthy? I always try to remind myself that olive oil is a 'good' fat since I use so much of it :)

I also found that I had no baking powder, so I googled a substitute combining cream of tartar and bicarb. Worked out so well that I used it again the next time instead of buying baking powder.

Yummo!

Another softie

2009-07-21T20:38:00.004+10:00

I do like making softies, especially because Miss M thinks that they are wonderful, so much better than store bought toys since she gets to see them being 'born'. This time she chose a kangaroo and her joey.

She has named them Rosie and Taylor.

Round robin quilt swap

2009-07-17T21:47:00.004+10:00

I am participating in my very first online swap, and it is both scary and exciting :) In this swap I had to buy my own fabric, cut it up and send it out to be sewn into 11 different blocks by the other participants. In the meantime I get 2 lots of their fabric a month to make into the block that I've chosen, which I then send back. At the end of 6 months I get back 11 blocks from my own fabric, along with the one I've sewn from my own as well, and I can make a quilt. It's a great way to do the round robin, because we have chosen our own fabric - it is also scary because we have to cut up and sew someone else's precious fabric. I can't tell you how nerve wracking that was!

This is the fabric I've chosen for my quilt - very bright but I just love it.

And this is the fabric I received to make my first swappee block - of course I posted it back without thinking to take a sneak peek of the finished block.

And here is a sneak peek of my finished block.

More wonderful things

2009-07-10T23:13:00.003+10:00

I have been so lucky lately - I won another fabulous blog giveaway, this time on the Sew Busy Mama blog. Anna is so talented, and she sells her creations on Etsy and Madeit. She sent me a little coin purse, two hair clips and one hair tie, some quilted coasters, and an Amy Butler bag pattern. Her handmade gifts are so well made, and the care that has gone into making them is impressive.

Here is the whole collection that she sent me - her business name is Tillytom Designs:

The coin purse, in some of my favourite Wonderland fabric on the outside, and a lovely surprise inside of a very different and pretty fabric:

The coasters, in another favourite fabric of mine, Soiree. I'm a bit scared to use these because they are so pretty :)

I didn't take a separate photo of the hair clips and tie because they have been claimed by Miss M and she's currently wearing them :) That's saying a lot because she never wears anything in her hair! She has also claimed the coin purse and she's put some precious little toys in there to keep them safe from her brother.

Thanks so much Anna, I just love everything you've sent me!

Wonderful things

2009-07-09T15:55:00.004+10:00

This week I received a package in the mail - some lovely fabric from the Retromummy shop, which I had been lucky enough to win on the Retromummy blog. To add to the loveliness, Corrie had included a pile of fabric scraps as well, which I'm going to put aside to use in a scrap quilt.

Even the envelope had some cuteness on it:

And the inside of the envelope was even better :)

Here are the beautiful fat quarters - they are so pretty, and my photos just don't do them justice:

And the fabric scraps:

Thanks so much Corrie, you are so generous :)

And to top it off this arrived as well:

How to give a boy a haircut

2009-07-07T16:57:00.005+10:00

Take one boy with too much hair.

Confine him in a highchair with a decent amount of hundreds and thousands.

While he's occupied picking them up one by one, cut away.

Tada!

(and another photo of his finished block masterpiece - he can make the most impossibly balanced towers - like the buildings in Dr Seuss books)

My children have so much hair! This never ceases to amaze me because I've always had such fine hair that takes aaaages to grow.

Lucky them!

Birthdays in June

2009-07-07T16:41:00.004+10:00

Goodness, is it July already? I can't believe that this year is already half over!

This means that my two children have had their birthdays - both in late June, one day apart! Mr O is now two, and Miss M is now five. And I discovered, while looking through Miss M's baby photos for her school show and tell, that five years ago I looked ten years younger *sigh*

I had to send in a birthday snack to Miss M's school class, and since I've never cooked cupcakes (no really, I never have!) I didn't want to use her class as my test subjects. I decided to make the white chocolate rocky road from Retromummy's blog, since that looked so easy. And it was!

Very few ingredients were needed, and not much effort (except for cutting up those rasberries!).

After I took this photo I thought better of it and cut each one in half, they were so sweet that I'm sure the teachers would not have appreciated the sugar high they would have given the children :)

Soiree quilt progress

2009-06-21T11:55:00.003+10:00

I just had to add another quilt to the WIP pile! I cut up one of my Soiree FQ bundles (the blue one) and played around with it for a while, before deciding on zigzags. It's all sewn together and just needs the backing, which is going to be a white minky polar fleece, lovely and soft.

Such pretty colours, and the white fabric really makes them pop.

Ottobre sewing

2009-06-07T15:07:00.007+10:00

Let's get this out of the way:

I have quite a few Ottobre magazines, which I purchase through the fantastic Crafty Mamas shop. The clothes in them are just beautiful, not your usual run of the mill stuff you buy in department stores. But the patterns are so scary!

They print all the patterns in the magazine on a couple of huge pieces of paper, all one on top of the other, and when I first saw a pattern sheet I shut the magazine firmly and put it back on my shelf. But still my collection of Otto mags grew and grew, and I realised that it was rather silly not to actually make something from them. I've only ever made a couple of items of clothing, very basic things with, at most, 4 or so pattern pieces to fit together. So basically my garment sewing skills are somewhat lacking. And what did I choose to make from the Otto magazine with those complicated patterns and the rather technical sewing instructions? A lined jacket of course!

Oh my goodness what a series of dramas that was! I cut out the lining from pink flannelette and the shell from corduroy. I was doing really well up until I had to join the shell and the lining together. Well, I just had no idea what the instructions were saying, it was like they were in a different language. I did what I thought they meant and sewed and turned it right side out, and then thought that the seam was really bulky so I'd better cut away the excess... oh yes you did just read that! I hacked away happily with my scissors, and then after a while I realised that something just wasn't right. I had to unpick a whole section I'd just sewn, and sure enough when I put it together the way it should have gone, there were four large holes in the front of it where I'd cut it. I did consider shoving it under the bed and pretending it never existed, but in the end I patched the holes up with interfacing and scraps of fabric. Seriously, every single seam I sewed I ended up having to unpick for some reason or other, is there anything sadder than spending ages unpicking something that took you ages to sew? And finally, the buttonholes. I did those tonight, and first of all the automatic buttonhole foot objected to the corduroy and wanted to continue to sew on the spot instead of moving down to make the buttonhole. And then when I was cutting out the holes with the stitch ripper, I got bored of putting the pin in to stop myself cutting beyond the stitching, so of course I cut beyond the stitching. Anyway it's done.

Although I must say that for a perfectionist like myself, it's a travesty of sewing sitting there on the chair staring at me hatefully. And the sad part is, I'm not sure that I actually learned anything useful, other than knowing that I'll never do that horrible coat again. But Miss M likes it, and it keeps her warm at school in the cold mornings.

The next bit of Ottobre sewing that I did was to have a go at making some long sleeved t-shirts for Miss M. These were very simple - there are 5 pieces of fabric that you have to sew together, not too difficult even for me! The challenge for me here was sewing knit fabric for the first time, although I did prepare myself beforehand by purchasing a walking foot. I have made 5 tops now, 4 with nice knit fabric from Crafty Mamas, and one with fabric from Spotlight called something like 'snuggle knit'. It certainly is soft and snuggly, but rather a bugger to sew (pardon my french!). It slipped and slid all over the place, and had a tendency to want to hide down underneath the plate thingo that the bobbin sits under, and where fabric is not supposed to enter. And then when Miss M had been wearing it for a while I noticed that it had red stripes all down the sleeves, although this turned out to be due to the fact that she decided for some reason known only to herself to decorate the sleeves with her red lollypop.

Drawing and painting (and reading)

2009-05-23T21:41:00.006+10:00

I used to do a lot of drawing and painting when I was little, then I took up art at school and being obliged to make art killed the desire to do so. I find the same thing happens when I have to sew or knit something on a deadline, all the fun of the project is gone and it becomes a chore!

For some reason all of a sudden the need to draw and paint has returned, and I'm really enjoying it. It gives me yet another outlet for my creative energy when I don't feel like knitting or sewing.

I don't have to look far for inspiration:

This tiger is destined to be painted:

Drawing children is hard because they just don't sit still, and they find it hilarious to be stared at intently - unless they are zoned out on tv ;)

And just to add a completely unrelated topic, here are some books Miss M and I are reading at the moment:

Things we both love: dinosaurs, history and fairies! I can't tell you how much I enjoy having someone to share some of my interests with, we went to the museum last weekend and it was so much fun. But she also shares many interests with my husband that are completely over my head - children are awesome :)

Happy birthday to me!

2009-05-20T23:19:00.005+10:00

It was my birthday late last month, and I received some lovely things - here are a few of them!

The beautiful Soiree blue and green fat quarter packs - I've already cut out and started to piece together a quilt top from the blue pack.

Some lovely cups - I'd been eyeing these off for ages so I'm really happy to finally have these :)

A jelly roll and a jelly roll pattern - the fabric is Pack Your Bags by Arrin Turnmire. (There really is only one roll here - I've just taken lots of pics to try to show all the different fabric)

And two honey buns, in the Sultry range by Basic Grey - not sure what I'll do with these yet, I'm thinking that it will include some log cabins though.

I bought a few other things with the birthday money I received, but those things haven't arrived yet... more pics when they do :)

Amazing colours

2009-05-15T16:10:00.010+10:00

I've been taking a lot of photos lately of colourful things, which isn't a difficult task in Autumn. My husband was rather alarmed the other night when he was looking through my photos and noticed that some of them were taken from a position that could only be while I was driving - I promise you I was extra careful and there were no other cars near me, and most of them were taken when I came to a complete stop! But there are so many beautiful red and orange and yellow trees around my neighbourhood that I can't resist taking my camera out with me.

I also find colours in the garden.

And in this lovely wool I bought - it just glows in the light.

And in my bead collection - I'm going through a green phase at the moment ;) And is this not a beautiful copper bowl that they're sitting in?

And in my collection of polished stones.

I'm pleased to see that Miss M has a love for these things as well, she takes her camera with her on our walks and our drives, and she loves to sort my beads and buttons into different piles, and to hold and admire the polished stones. It makes me stop and take notice of things around me more as I reconsider the world through her eyes.

Bags, bags, bags

2009-05-15T15:52:00.006+10:00

I really enjoy making [basic and simple!] bags now - I understand the basic construction of them, and they are a great way to show off some pretty fabric. Miss M finished up at her preschool last term, and I wanted to make her two teachers a bag each as a thank you and goodbye present. The outside of the bags are very plain, just dark blue denim, but I embroidered on a rectangle of fabric to sew on the inside so that they would be a little more special. They were both great teachers, and we were so sad to leave the school.

As usual I thought about taking the photos just before I was about to wrap them the night before gifting them, hence the dark and gloomy photos!

(I'm not sure what the rules are for names on the internet, so I've painted out the names just to be safe)

Over the school holidays I recieved a beautiful card from one of the teachers (G) telling me how much she was enjoying her bag and how much she would miss us, and she included a lovely photo of Miss M as well. It feels lovely to make things for people, but so wonderful to know that they are enjoying them!

To finish off the bags post, I made a library bag for Miss M for her new school (a Montessori school, which she just fits into so well!). I used fabric from Spotlight - don't I always?

Lucky me - again!

2009-05-12T07:10:00.003+10:00

First of all:

Ok then.

Now I'm not a person that usually wins competitions - in fact I seem to be more likely to win something if I don't enter than if I do. Last year I entered a couple of blog competitions because the bloggers were giving away something lovely, and to my utter astonishment I actually won some beautiful fabric, from the fabulous blog of Chaletgirl, which I've since used in Miss M's dinosaur quilt. This spurred me on to enter more and more competitions, none of which I won until last month, when I got an email to say I'd won some lovely fabric - from Chaletgirl! What are the odds? Thanks so much Chaletgirl, it will be as well used as the last lot was :) Here is the fabric, beautifully packaged - I just love that linen tape and I'll be using that for something as well!

A Winter Hat

2009-04-13T15:50:00.004+10:00

I have been knitting a lot more since the weather turned cooler, and I found a beautiful hat pattern, for the Selbu Modern hat. It was my first hat, and my first attempt at colourwork, but it was a lovely easy knit and I didn't have any problems at all with it. The yarn was just some merino wool from Spotlight, in a bright red and a charcoal grey (the photos make it look much lighter than it really is). Sadly though on me it looks like a baker's hat - it needs long hair to carry it off well, so I've given it to my youngest sister as a birthday present :) I did find a long haired model for the photos though!

As she started to get the hang of modelling, she began to set up some shots for me.

At first they were more simple poses:

Then they began to be more ambitious - perhaps a couple of shots of her blowing some grass seed out of her fingers?

Or maybe a shot of her eating a leaf?

After that it got silly very quickly so I haven't included any of those ones ;)

Hand quilting

2009-04-10T13:14:00.003+10:00

I love the process of hand quilting, it is such a lovely personal and intimate way to finish a quilt, that in this case was so fast to piece together. It makes me slow down and familiarise myself with each of the fabrics in the quilt, and the way the pattern fits together. It is another project that I enjoy doing in Autumn - having my lap covered in a quilt in summer is not my idea of a relaxing craft! I'm using a perle cotton this time, and it took a bit of trial and error to figure out which needle was best to use with it - too small a needle was almost impossible to thread, and then even more impossible to pull through the fabric with the thick cotton behind, and then it snapped!

The colour of the thread stands out beautifully against the colours of the fabric - red and blue together are one of my favourite colour combinations.

Because the thread is thicker, it means that the stitches are larger, and hopefully it will be all finished in time for Winter.

April

2009-04-09T13:37:00.004+10:00

April is becoming lovely and crisp and cold - I really do welcome the cool of autumn after the dreadfully hot summer we have had.

Autumn is a time for long walks, visiting the zoo, tidying up the garden, knitting and quilting - all those things that I find unpleasant to do in the summer.

This April I am taking Miss Mia to the Royal Easter Show for the first time. I haven't been since before she was born. When I was little, I would stay at my best friend's house for the Easter long weekend, and her parents would take us to the Show. We absolutely loved it all - the rides, the animals, the showbags, the 3-day sleepover with all the showbag lollies to eat :) As a parent myself now I'm sure it must have been exhausting for the adults who had to drag us around for that very long day, but they are some of my favourite childhood memories so I'm very grateful to them :)

My garden is a bit of a mess at the moment, we had a lot of rain a couple of weeks ago, and all the weeds have sprung up everywhere. I try to grow lots of herbs and easy fruits such as these alpine strawberries, as the children love to be able to pick their own snacks in the garden. In this picture you can also see some Greek basil, it's doing well after all the rain. The alpine strawbs are fabulous plants, they don't take over like regular strawbs do, and they continuously fruit the whole year round (in Sydney at least). The fruit is small and very sweet.

That little blue tongue is still hanging around, and we do have an awful lot of spiders. I don't mind any of them except for the redbacks, which we have in abundance unfortunately - they love to hide in the childrens' sandpit toys and under the rims of potplants right where I like to stick my fingers.

My Wollemi pine is preparing for an ice age - apparently this cap of waxy gum that develops on the new buds is one way that they survived the ice ages. My little fellow has had a struggle with caterpillars this summer - a far cry from stegosaurs :) I just love dinosaurs so to have a tree that the dinosaurs would have eaten is fascinating for me! My dad and stepmum gave it to me for my birthday last year, what a wonderful and imaginative present!

I bought some Midyim plants last year, they are an Australian native berry that are apparently delicious. I've been watching the ripening berries for months - not an exaggeration! And suddenly today I noticed that some of them have ripened - not at all what I was expecting them to look like, they are grey and speckled like tiny birds eggs. I haven't tasted one yet, I'm waiting for Miss Mia to get home from preschool to try them with me :)

Speaking of birthdays, my birthday month is April! I've put away quite a few goodies for myself, what excuse will I use for the rest of the year when I want to buy fabric etc? I guess Mother's day and Christmas come in handy for that too ;)

My first swap!

2009-03-25T12:20:00.005+11:00

Thanks to the lovely Ruth, I really enjoyed my first swap. We decided on a pincushion swap, surely there can't be too much that can go wrong there ;) And what a beautiful pincushion Ruth sent me! Some of my favourite colours are aqua and teal, so it was just perfect. Her sewing is great too, and the pincushion has already been well used!

Ruth was also kind enough to get some fabric packs from Amitie for me while she was on a trip to Melbourne, she picked me some fabulous packs :)

Ruth's lovely wrapping - this button has joined my button collection :)

The beautiful pincushion:

Ruth also included a packet of quilting pins, which I don't have - they have already come in handy when I was basting my d9p quilt together.

Miss M was most impressed by the pins, she loved how they all had different shapes.

And here are some pictures of the fabric packs Ruth sent to me.

So cute!

And what a beautiful mix of colours!

Thank you again Ruth for such a wonderful swap experience, I can't tell you how much fun it was to open your package! And I had a great time choosing fabric and buttons and ribbon for your pincushion, all the time not having to worry about whether I was getting in over my head in a scary swap LOL. I'm really looking forward to doing another swap with you :)

Crafty goodness in the mail!

2009-03-21T13:05:00.003+11:00

I have a wonderful crafty blogging friend, Ruth. We met through the EssentialBaby forums, and I liked her straight away - she is such a lovely, kind and generous person, and she is a very clever sewer, something I aspire to :) We have similar tastes in fabric and quilting styles, and it is so much fun to be able to share progress with someone! She took pity on my great fear of craft swaps and offered to do a little swap with me - a pincushion swap. I'd never been in a swap before, having heard so many horror stories and not having all that much confidence in my ability to send something that wouldn't disappoint my swap partner, but since I was pretty sure that Ruth wouldn't mind too much what I sent her ;) I wasn't too stressed. I bought a couple of fat quarters of my favourite Heather Bailey Freshcut and some ribbon and buttons and ummed and aahhed for ages over what on earth I was going to do with it all - I wanted it to be perfect so I didn't want to do anything that I wasn't sure I could pull off, and I wanted to highlight the lovely fabric as well. So in the end I did something very simple, and hoped that it wasn't just me that liked this fabric!

I will do a separate post for the lovely lovely pincushion Ruth sent to me :)

What, it's March already?

2009-03-21T13:00:00.003+11:00

Ok, so it's becoming a habit to put up a calendar picture when the month is almost over. But my excuse this time is that I've been hoping that I'd have time to work out how to make my photos look prettier before I put any more of them up. Obviously I didn't have time, so here is one of my ordinary dull old photos! I did manage to get a photo of a butterfly in the background - looking for some tasty veges to lay eggs on no doubt.

It's in the bag

2009-02-27T14:16:00.003+11:00

Last week Miss M's preschool teacher mentioned that it was becoming difficult to stuff all her lunchboxes, jumpers, spare clothes, drink cups, artworks etc into her old backpack. "I'm sure you could whip up a new bag in no time" said she. Well after that the challenge was on ;) I chose some dark blue denim from Spotlight, and a bright pink zipper. I wasn't sure exactly what sort of bag I was going to make, but at the last minute I thought I'd put in a lining and I went through my stash and found some more Spotlight fabric that was left over from covering a corkboard - luckily this actually matched the zipper colour. I drafted up a pattern on some butchers paper, estimating the size of the bag by using the length of the zipper. I've made a few bags now so the basic design was easy, but the zipper was a real challenge - I've never sewn in a zipper that I couldn't access both sides of while I was sewing, and then when I did sew it in I found that it was skewed about 1cm on each side - being somewhat of a perfectionist I was hardly going to settle for that so I picked it out and did it again! The only real mistake I made was to show Miss M, because actually I think I would have liked it for myself ;)

Seraphim

2009-02-22T21:16:00.005+11:00

My lovely Seraphim shawl is finished, and I couldn't be more happy with it. It took me under a month, and it was a nice easy knit once I got the hang of reading the charts. It is the largest thing I've ever knit, as I've only ever actually finished scarves and socks in the past. I just love it, and I'm rather sad that I'm giving it away.

It still needs to be blocked to make the lace pattern stand out, but I can already see a resemblance to feathers :)

Crayon recycling

2009-02-14T21:38:00.003+11:00

After two children playing with them, our collection of crayons was a sorry sight! Small grubby pieces, not a paper wrapper to be seen, lots of toothmarks... Using an idea from the CraftSanity blog, I decided to melt them all together and make larger not-so-breakable crayons.

I put them into paper patty pans, in a muffin tin, and into the oven on 250 degrees C. They only took 10-15 minutes to melt, and then I put them outside to cool (they were pretty stinky!). Then I peeled off the patty pans and gave them to the kids. They immediately got covered in toothmarks, but I think that's a given in our house. Miss M loves to sort them into piles of like colours, and Master O likes to steal them and hide them... somewhere I have yet to discover.

Knitting weather

2009-02-14T21:25:00.003+11:00

After disgustingly hot weather for the last few weeks, we're getting some lovely cold, rainy weather - I never thought I'd put 'lovely' together with 'cold' and 'rainy', but I'm never going to complain about the cold again, bring it on!

One good thing about cold and rainy weather is that it makes me want to cuddle up inside with lots of crafty projects, especially quilting and knitting. I try to fit in at least a couple of rows of knitting every day, but lately I've really been working on a lot of different projects at once. I'm always knitting socks, and they are really handy for when I'm travelling. I also have a lovely shawl on the needles - the Seraphim shawl. I'm knitting it from Bendigo baby wool in cream, it's lovely and soft and not at all scratchy. I'm over the halfway mark for the knitting so hopefully it won't take me too much longer before I can wear my angel wings ;)

I also ordered some balls of Bendigo cotton, in honeydew, inferno and denim. Very soft and lightweight, they will be perfect for the blanket I'm slowly turning them into.

Bendigo Woollen Mills are great, they have large 200g balls and the postage is free (in Australia) once you spend $30. The wool I've bought has been lovely quality and I can highly recommend them.

More fabric purchases...

2009-02-14T21:14:00.003+11:00

I have been resisting the urge to pop into Spotlight lately, because I have so many WIPs and way too many crafty supplies already :) But I had some time to kill the other morning, and suddenly I found myself in the fabric section of Spotlight - it was completely empty except for me and Master O and I felt so sorry for the poor bored girls who work there that I had to get some fabric to give them something to do.

I bought some more red and white polkadot fabric for my dinosaur d9p quilt, and also some cream and red pinwhale corduroy - such lovely colours, I think I'll make something for Miss M from one of my Ottobre mags. I also picked up some lovely wool blend fabric, very light and drapey - it was $18.99/m down to $4.99/m, how could I resist that!

And then I got a delivery of some beautiful quilt fabric, Soiree by Lila Tueller. I haven't taken it out of the wrapping yet because I'm putting it away for my birthday.

I got the aqua and the green fat quarter packs, there is enough there to make a full queen sized quilt if I want - I'm thinking I might back it in a nice minky type fabric so it's lovely and cuddly.

Not too bad, but this is going to have to be my last big purchase for a while, as we're looking to enrol Miss M into a local Montessori school, and that isn't cheap!

It's nearly half over

2009-02-10T19:46:00.003+11:00

But I had to take a photo of the picture for February on my little town calendar.

This also arrived in the mail for me last week, four lovely fat quarters. Two are from the Sandi Henderson Ginger Blossom range, and the other two are from the Fresh Cut range by Heather Bailey. These are two of my favourite fabric lines, and I've been wanting an excuse to buy a bit of them for ages :)

We've also been having a heatwave in Australia, and now there are terrible bushfires in Victoria, with so many people being tragically killed, and so many others losing all they own. My thoughts and prayers are with them and their families.

One Cute Calendar

2009-01-29T22:04:00.005+11:00

How cute is this calendar? It is a free download from the Canon website, and it is the sweetest calendar I've ever owned. I do like calendars, I can't resist buying several each year. I've bought some lovely scrapbook paper to make my own calendar for next year, as I need to have a big one to write all my appointments etc on. But these tiny calendars scattered around the house are helpful and irresistable...

It was a dark and cloudy day, and the camera flash, which usually washes everything out with blinding light, decided that twilight was perfectly adequate this time. And yes, I did make an (extremely half hearted) effort at setting up the photos by putting down a white sheet and a white piece of paper in the background. That piece of paper just makes all the difference, don't you think? So much more professional looking!

Dinosaur D9P progress

2009-01-27T12:44:00.003+11:00

I love disappearing 9 patch quilts - they are so quick to sew up, and the different ways you can arrange the 9 patches are endless. This time I tried for a much less random pattern, you can see some of the options I tried out. In the end Miss M chose the star one rather than the straight lines, it is for her bed after all as she pointed out to me :)

I have still to sew on a border (or two) and then I'm going to hand quilt it as usual, it takes ages but I do like the look that hand quilting gives a quilt.

I like the colours together, they are not at all girly but then neither is my girl :) At night she cuddles up to 3 fire breathing dragons, one dinosaur, a cow and a pig; most of her games involve dragons and volcanoes erupting and her little brother being eaten by lions. I did get invited to a my little pony party last week but that ended abruptly when dragons gatecrashed and carnage ensued *sigh*.

Another messenger bag finished

2009-01-20T21:07:00.006+11:00

This messenger bag is a birthday gift for a friend - her birthday was only in September so I'm not too late ;) All the fabric was purchased from Spotlight.

Dinosaur D9P progress

2009-01-20T20:46:00.002+11:00

I've made a good start on my next quilt, using a D9P pattern yet again and some nice cotton fabric from Spotlight. I like the colours in this quilt, nothing particularly bright but I think they all work well together.

Some more crafty photos

2009-01-13T23:45:00.006+11:00

Ok so I haven't actually accomplished terribly much so far this year, but I've been enjoying myself immensly with no actual crafty obligations to work on.

I've made some socks, which were a gift for a friend.

I've made some experimental jam, where I threw every type of fruit we had lying around into a pot with some water and a little sugar. I think I put in apricots, nectarines, granny smiths, passionfruit and a banana. I boiled it up and put it into jars to freeze. It tastes pretty much like apricot jam, which isn't surprising considering the amount of apricots I put in. Not too bad at all.

I have repeatedly popped into Spotlight and Lincraft, both in a shopping centre near me. Here are a few of my purchases.

And I've spent some time in the garden, where I saved this baby blue tongue from a stormwater drain. He has been living in a garden bed since where I see him every day, usually trying to swallow enormous snails!

I've also cut out the fabric for my next quilt, which after much agonising and drawing and planning is just going to be another disappearing 9 patch :) No pictures of this yet as I have yet to find time to actually sew the blocks together.

I hope you are all having a crafty January :)

A New Year of Craft!

2009-01-06T08:28:00.005+11:00

Happy New Year! I hope everyone is feeling refreshed and ready for a new year of crafty goodness :)

As much as I love Christmas, I'm very happy that it's over for another year and that a whole new year has begun. After all the rush and stress of trying to get ready for Christmas and to finish all my handmade presents I'm loving just having no deadlines for anything, and just pottering around doing a little bit of knitting, and dabbling in any other crafty project that takes my fancy. I feel very relaxed and rejuvenated, and I have lots of crafty plans for 2009. I have also learned a few things in the last year - don't take on too many projects at once; don't agree to make lots of things for different people, because the stress of all the obligations ruins the fun of crafting; plan out birthday and Christmas presents well in advance (read: now!) so as to be able to enjoy making them and to know I've done a good job; make more things for myself; keep any non-birthday presents a surprise from the recipient so that they don't wait around expectantly for something that might not be finished for a year or two ;)

I have several things planned for January - I'm knitting more socks for my dad, since he loved his father's day socks so much. I'm working on my Hemlock Throw, which is a very straightforward knit now that I'm past all the lace. I'm in the process of painting some wooden letters for my son's bedroom door - he always seems to miss out on these sorts of things since he's a second child so 2009 is going to be the year when he gets all the things his sister gets (eg. a quilt, a birthday cake etc). I'm also planning out a bed quilt for each of my kids - Miss M has just moved into a big king single bed so she needs a quilt that fits (double bed sized), and as I mentioned before, Mr O still needs a quilt so I'm going to make him one as well. I'm thinking of a d9p for Mr O, and this pattern for Miss M. Both quilts will use the same fabric, the dinosaur/animal fabric I bought from Spotlight last year. And finally, I have my Farmers Market quilt to make, which I'm so looking forward to! I have put all my fabric, wool and craft supplies in our bedroom (oh for a sewing room!) and I can lie in bed and gaze at that lovely, delicious Farmers Market fabric in its crate :)

Ready Steady Go!

Handmade Christmas presents

2008-12-19T17:26:00.005+11:00

Well I've been very busy making my own Christmas cards and some Christmas presents, and of course I've been giving them away without actually taking any photos of the finished items! So here are some photos of work in progress.

This is the first Christmas that I've ever done anything crafty, and I'm really enjoying it. I'm not sure why I'm in such a crafty mood this Christmas, but I'm making the most of it while I still have the energy :) Today I posted off my handmade cards - I bought my very first set of stamps and scrapbook paper to make these (I've drooled at beautiful scrapbook supplies for ages but I've never had any reason to buy them before!) and I used a straight pen and ink of my grandmother's to write in them with, just to make them extra special.

I made my daughter's preschool teachers a handknit scarf each, and wrapped them up with some lavender bags and some lovely cold pressed soap that my mother in law made. All the other mums were putting money into a Myer gift voucher, but I had already knitted these scarves (and they took me ages as well!) so I hope they like them.

And the little lizard cuties are for my daughter's best friend at preschool - they are from the Softies book and from the same pattern as the lizard I made for my daughter a while ago. I had forgotten what a trial it is to turn the tiny feet inside out, you have to use tweezers and a stick and a lot of patience and sore fingers, but it is worth it once it's all finished!

I love the special feeling I get when I give someone a handmade present, knowing the time and effort I've put into it, and having made it specially with this person in mind. I have lots of plans for birthday presents for next year, although I'll try to time things better!

Beautiful Buttons

2008-12-18T08:52:00.004+11:00

My grandmother had an amazing collection of things in her house, but one of my favourites was her collection of buttons. This is just one small selection of them - there are some lovely vintage buttons in there.

Christmas Craft: gingerbread house

2008-12-17T13:08:00.003+11:00

I've always wanted to make one of these, ever since I was little and had a real addiction to fairy tales, and this year I got the chance! I was rather minimalist with it after I saw lots of people piling up their houses with icing and lollies, and then having them cave under all the weight (believe me, it is minimalist compared to what other people were doing :) . It was a rainy, hot and humid evening in Sydney and the icing didn't set as fast as it is supposed to. Many people took home a nicely wrapped pile of gingerbread rather than a house LOL

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I'm saving this for Christmas day, so my poor daughter just gazes longingly at it through the plastic :)

Christmas Craft: gingerbread playdough

2008-12-10T09:02:00.006+11:00

Ok, so this is a terrible photo. Does dumping a reindeer in the middle really make it look Christmassy?

Anyway, I got the idea for this Christmas playdough from this fantastic blog. It smells absolutely divine - I made a basic cooked playdough recipe and added decaf coffee (I'm not that much of a sucker for punishment!), ground cloves, ground cinnamon, ground ginger and mixed spice. It really does smell like gingerbread!

This playdough lasts for ages, I usually make up one batch and store it in a tupperware container and I have had it last for over a year. I find that it is softer and less crumbly than store bought playdough, and considerably cheaper :) The recipe I use is as follows:

2 cups plain flour
4 tablespoons cream of tartar
2 tablespoons cooking oil
1 cup salt
food colouring
2 cups of water

Mix the above ingredients in a saucepan, and stir over medium heat for 3-5 minutes, until the mixture congeals.

My sewing machine is 1 year old!

2008-12-07T13:08:00.005+11:00

And this is the latest thing I've made on it :)

I whipped this up in one day for a wedding we went to last month, it is the same pattern I used here. It is very easy to make, especially the second time around, and I just love it. So does my daughter - it is great for twirling in :)

She danced all night long, first with the other kids and then with the adults. She was very sad that we had to leave to put her brother to bed, she has more stamina than I do!

Another future quilt

2008-10-19T12:39:00.004+11:00

Farmers Market by Sandi Henderson:

Now this would have to be my absolute favourite quilt fabric, I am so glad that I bought it :) It's definitely going to be a quilt for ME! Although my daughter pointed out that since I have so much I might be a nice person and share some with her. I'm thinking that I'm actually a mean person ;)

The colours are stunning, so bright and summery and juicy! I especially love the vintage cherries, they are going to be the backing for the quilt.

I just can't stop stroking and admiring and loving these fabrics LOL.

My daughter finds them irresistable as well.

I'm not sure what I'm going to do with this quilt. I want to show off the fabric as much as possible, so no little tiny bits. And I would like to incorporate some panels of plain fabric that I can embroider on as well. I'm really enjoying planning this quilt, every day I am inspired by something that I think I must include in the quilt. I think I'll let this one simmer away in my brain until after Christmas.

Another quilt at last!

2008-10-16T23:40:00.003+11:00

Well almost ;)

I've bought some great fabric to make another quilt, a D9P of course! I really like the patterns and colours on these, they are just ordinary cotton fabric from Spotlight, but that just means that I could buy more of it :) They are not the bright colours I usually go for, but they are all interesting and - I think - still cheerful looking.

I think this quilt will be for my son, since I haven't made anything for him yet. Although my daughter is convinced that it is perfect for her as well, she just loves dinosaurs. Good thing I have lots of fabric!

A couple of (very late) WIPs

2008-10-11T22:07:00.005+11:00

I've been trying to make things for family and friends' birthdays this year, and as a result I'm really far behind! I've had to let go of the idea of making lots of Christmas presents, because I'll end up handing them out at Easter. It's such a shame because I think that receiving a handmade present is so lovely and I always love to give the things I make, but it just takes so much longer and there is the temptation of sticking a gift voucher in a card. Here are a couple of my WIP gifts:

Socks, and a couple of scarves.

Another messenger bag.

I also have to make more socks, another bag and some other crafty things that I have yet to finalise. I hope that the recipients like them and don't mind too much that their birthday presents are a few months late!

One other problem with having a large list of presents to make, is that I feel guilty whenever I make something for myself. I'm always buying fabric or other crafty materials but I haven't had a chance to do anything with them - I keep thinking "I'll do that after Christmas!" but then I realise that the birthday cycle will be starting again AAAHH!

Quick, before someone catches you!

2008-10-10T21:56:00.005+11:00

I recently bought a great book for my 4yo daughter, The Doodle Book, by Taro Gomi. Oh please, it's a book about drawing! ;)

It has activities on each page to allow the child to express their own creativity and imagination, here are a few examples of the activities:

My daughter has been intrigued by this page:

And I am intrigued by this one! Look at that suspicious character lurking around the corner. I just love the "Quick, before someone catches you!" - children have to learn the dangers of graffitiing at a young age I guess ;)

It has kept my daughter happily occupied during the school holidays (the book that is, not graffiti!)

I am so lucky!

2008-09-26T12:25:00.003+10:00

I was lucky enough to win some cute fabric in a give away that Chaletgirl was doing on her blog. It arrived yesterday, beautifully wrapped, and with another little present inside - a lovely little tissue holder made from the sweetest bird fabric. It's the first give away that I've ever won, and I've entered a lot! It's actually the first crafty thing I've ever had in the post (that I haven't ordered online) since I'm not brave enough to participate in a swap - I have actually had a nightmare involving a quilt swap :) So this is my first experience of the incredible generosity that is out there in the online crafty world!

Thank you so much Chaletgirl, you absolutely made my day!

Quick apron sewing

2008-09-21T22:04:00.003+10:00

Ok, so I have decided that I love aprons, it's all part and parcel of my love for all things vintage. Not to mention that I really need something with pockets that can also handle being covered in chewed up food from my son. The pockets are essential for my ipod (I listen to audio books and craft and writing podcasts while I do housework) and for all those little things that I have to remove from my son's reach as I move around the house.

I found a lovely apron pattern from Sew Liberated - the same lady who made the messenger bag pattern that I used for my messenger bags. Her patterns are very easy to read and there is no guesswork involved - she clearly spells out every step for you. She has a really pretty (and probably the best known) apron pattern called Emmeline, but I ended up choosing the Lola apron because it included a pattern for a child's apron, and I wanted to make something for my daughter to use when she's crafting. There is a growing fashion to wear aprons as part of your every day clothes - if the aprons can look this fashionable I don't see why this couldn't be a great look. When I was little people wouldn't be caught dead outside in their slippers, but now ugg boots are apparently outdoor wear, something I still can't get my head around :) Why not aprons as well?

Anyway I made my Lola apron the other day, having purchased the pattern from the fantastic Crafty Mamas shop. I made it from the same chocolate brown voile that I made my daughter's Felix dress from, it has the benefit of being extremely light and cool, and quick drying. I really just wanted it made NOW so I did a really quick and dirty version - I rushed through it and as a result there is a mistake in the decoration (can you spot it? I'm damned if I'm pointing it out ;). The sewing is sound but not exactly meticulous, but it looks good on and it does the job. I have more fabric for another couple of aprons, but I'm actually tempted to buy the Emmeline this time and make that one as well.

I must apologise for the fingermarks all over the mirror in my daughter's room - my kids love to stand pressing their noses to their reflections and banging their hands on the glass!

Hairclips for Spring

2008-09-16T13:04:00.003+10:00

I've had a go at decorating some hairclips with felt - at least I've made the decorations, I have yet to find the best way of sticking them to the hairclips :)

Feliz - Spanish for happy

2008-09-16T12:54:00.007+10:00

This is the first version of the Feliz dress that I've made for my daughter. I have never made clothing before so this was a bit scary, but it didn't have any really complicated bits, just trying to get my head around the pattern terminology :) The underdress is made from a chocolate brown voile so it's very light and cool for summer.

My daughter loves it and insisted on wearing it to preschool this morning. I took a couple of photos before it gets covered in paint and dirt - she's not really a girly girl and usually comes home quite grubby!

I really like the look of this apron style dress. My husband thinks that it looks as though it comes from the Sound of Music, but I don't necessarily think that's a bad thing :) And I'm also into layering which is why she's got on her jeans as well.

Now for some more of these dresses - I'm going to make her one for a wedding we're going to in November, hopefully that will give me enough time to work out how to sew ruffles...

Patterns for Spring and Summer

2008-09-16T12:45:00.004+10:00

Now that spring is here I've put aside my knitting in favour of some warmer weather projects - sewing summer clothes for my daughter. I've bought some great patterns from the Crafty Mamas shop, have a look at some of my favourite pages from the Ottobre pattern magazines I bought:

And this beautiful dress - I plan on making several versions of this in different fabrics.

I'm really into aprons at the moment :)

Mushrooms!

2008-09-05T11:56:00.003+10:00

I'm not really a great fan of mushrooms, but a few weeks ago I bought a mushroom growing kit because I thought that it would be fun for my daughter to water it each day and pick the mushrooms. I took a couple of pictures of the first mushrooms coming up, and then I forgot to take any more after that, but they grew so big that they were lifting the top of the box off. My daughter picks them and I cook them up with a little butter and garlic, which makes them quite yummy. We are certainly getting a lot of mushrooms, and they grow satsifyingly quickly, making way for the next crop. The mushroom straw is meant to be a good mulch for the garden once all the mushrooms have come up.

New socks started

2008-08-27T13:26:00.002+10:00

I started these new socks last night, it feels very comfortable to be knitting again. I guess I knitted myself out and needed a bit of a break, but now I'm ready to go again :)

This is a pattern from the book Knitting Vintage Socks. I'm using some merino cashmere wool from the Knittery, it's in the colour water lilies.

Finished Pincushion and Spring

2008-08-26T11:53:00.004+10:00

It seems rather an unproductive couple of weeks, but it's such an effort to have to get my sewing machine and ironing board out and put them away again every time I want to sew something that I've been making things that don't require machine sewing. I've finished my felt pincushion, and I think that next I'm going to do some more knitting - I've certainly got enough projects to be getting on with there. I'm also going to buy some lovely fat quarters to make myself a quilt, I've no idea of the design yet but I just love the fabric so I'll buy it first and decide on the quilt later.

It's been feeling very spring-like over the last few days, there are lots of blossoms out and some of my spring flowers have come up. I've taken some photos on our walks because I find nature very inspiring.

I like the shape of these ferns, we always called them fish ferns although I have no idea if that is the correct name or not. They do look like fish bones don't they?

WIP - pincushion

2008-08-23T21:54:00.004+10:00

All my pincushions are far too small to be really useful - I usually end up using lots and lots of pins so that my seams turn out really straight and the little ones I get in Woolworths etc just can't keep up. So last weekend I bought a nice pile of felt and a box of assorted buttons from Woolies and I've been sewing up a nice big square pincushion for myself. This is the first time I've sewn with felt and I've discovered a few things.

1. Felt comes in some really beautiful colours that in themselves are very inspiring.
2. Sewing with felt is great because you don't have to worry about unravelling edges etc.
3. Designing with felt is great because all the little pieces stick onto each other and don't need pinning. Although, see point 4:
4. I have rougher hands than I realised - all the little pieces preferred to snag on my hands instead of staying on the fabric.
5. I really suck at blanket stitch!

When I've finished this pincushion, I'm going to make another one - it was really fun moving all the pieces around to find a design I liked. And it's one craft that is really quite cheap, so that should keep my husband happy :) (Although he's a bit like, "you're making what now?")

Tagged!

2008-08-23T21:00:00.003+10:00

I've been tagged by the lovely Ruth, she has an amazing crafty blog: For The Love of It.

Here are the rules:

I have to write either 6 random things about myself or if I have been tagged previously 6 things that make me happy.
Then I have to link the person who tagged me and tag 6 more people you know (and let them know you have tagged them in a comment on their blog).

1. I have many many many crafty works in progress, and I've only ever finished a handful of them.
2. I studied ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs at uni (not so much practical use for that in Sydney ;).
3. My favourite flower is jasmine, I'm just ecstatic every year when it finally flowers.
4. Like Ruth, I enjoy reading historical romances - my favourites are by Georgette Heyer.
5. I've only ever had one real boyfriend, and I ended up marrying him :)
6. I am very short, 5'1 - I have come to terms with this over the years ;) (Except when my 6'2 husband puts essential kitchen items on the top shelf of the pantry and I have to stand on a chair to get them down again LOL)

Now I'm supposed to tag 6 people, but just about every bloggy person that I know has already been tagged so I might just tag 4.

1. Tracey at Cross stitch, quilts and life, she has recently started quilting and is buying lot of lovely fabric
2. Belinda at *~Bee~*, she makes some great quilts and other sewing projects
3. Corrie at Retro Mummy, I'm sure she's too busy with her beautiful new twins to be tagged, but anyway she has a fabulous blog and she also contributes to Japan Craft Journal - I am absolutely in love with Japanese craft and fabrics so this is very inspiring!
4. Emma at Sampaguita Quilts, she is an amazingly talented quilter and it was actually one of her quilts (her Owl and the Pussycat quilt) that inspired me to start quilting, which began all the rest of the crafting - I'm sure my husband is very grateful Emma ;)

Blog name change

2008-08-19T21:40:00.003+10:00

When I started blogging I couldn't for the life of me think of a good name for my blog. Now I have :)

Another messenger bag

2008-08-19T12:11:00.000+10:00

I asked my sister to choose some fabrics from my stash so that I could make her a messenger bag as well. She chose some lovely corduroy fabric which I matched to some ribbon and thread etc, and I chose a cute elephant button for it as she likes elephants. I was much quicker at cutting it out and sewing it up this time, now I just need to find someone else who would actually use a messenger bag so that I can perfect the technique :)

Softies

2008-08-11T21:51:00.000+10:00

I remember that months ago when I first read about softies I just didn't get the whole softie-love thing. After having seen many beautiful examples on different blogs I now think that they're the cutest things ever :) I picked up this softies book and my daughter and I read it together - she fell in love with this lizard, and I got her to pick 2 fabrics from my stash. Today I finished her off, and presented my DD with her when I picked her up from preschool. She hasn't put her down since and has named her Rosie Kellie.

DD isn't your typical girlie girl - some of her favourite toys are her plastic dinosaurs, snakes, sharks and frogs. Rosie Kellie is now the best friend of a rubber komodo dragon, and they spent the evening spitting venom at some lions. DD has now requested that I make the crocheted Jack Sparrow pirate from the softies book (a little advanced for me just yet!). He is very cute though :)

A tiny bit of quilting

2008-08-09T18:19:00.000+10:00

And I have done some quilting, a lone autumn leaf. I love the bee fabric, and the individual fabrics are so beautiful. But all together, it's quite LOUD. So I did one leaf, hid it for a while, and then decided that I'd share it with the world. Maybe it's not so bad after all...

Fabric makes me happy

2008-08-09T18:09:00.001+10:00

I am going to make my daughter some clothes from the Ottobre magazines, so when Lincraft had a 50% off fabric sale this week I bought some great corduroys.

And then today I went to Spotlight and bought some lovely summer cotton fabrics, I am in fabric heaven!

The camera really hasn't done all the colours justice, they are so much richer in real life. I'm also eyeing off some of them for making more bags. But really I just want to wrap myself in them and love them because they are so beautiful! :)

I love messenger bags

2008-08-09T17:58:00.001+10:00

I often have my 13 month old son on my hip in a sling when I go out, which makes it difficult to balance a handbag on the other side. Even when I don't have him I find it difficult to carry a handbag - it keeps wanting to slide off my shoulder and sometimes I just want to use both hands for whatever I'm doing and not for holding a handbag. So I love messenger bags, you know the kind with a big strap that goes over your head and across your body and the actual bag part sits next to your hip? Anyway, I found a great pattern, the Mischievous Gnome Messenger Bag. I'm really a novice sewer, I've only ever done my couple of quilts and a couple of nappies for my son, nothing more difficult than straight stitch. So if I can do this then anyone can! The pattern instructions are incredibly easy to follow, I ended up with a bag that looks really professional, I love the little details like the inside of the pocket and the square on the front. And it's been so useful, I've been carrying it everywhere.

Knitting in the deep end

2008-08-09T17:20:00.000+10:00

Ok, so I have about 15 projects that I'm knitting all at the same time. Here are a few of them.

First there is my Central Park Hoodie. It's turning out really well, I love the colour of the wool and it knits up nice and quickly.

Then there is scarf number one, which I'm knitting for myself using the Falling Water pattern available on Ravelry. I'm using a baby wool and it's lovely and soft and warm. It's not such a quick knit, but it's one that I can do while watching tv etc so not much concentration needed.

Then comes scarf number two, which I'm knitting for my sister using the Persephone pattern. It is definitely not a quick knit, all those cables take time and concentration. I did end up miscrossing one of the cables and I had to frog it back almost to the beginning, but I'm getting the hang of it now.

Then we have some socks that I have actually finished! :) I made them for my mum for mother's day, the pattern is Primavera (available on Ravelry) and the wool is some lovely marino cashmere from the Knittery, called waterlilies.

Next up are a pair of knee socks that I'm making for my sister, they are a bit hard to see in this photo as they are in black wool, but they do have cables.

I started some Clessidra socks just to practice cables for the first time, talk about jumping in at the deep end! These are serious cables, 110% concentration and focus needed :) They also take aaaaages so they may just not get finished. They are really beautiful but I just don't have the time at the moment.

Then comes the pair of pants I'm knitting for my son, I'm using bamboo/cotton yarn from Lincraft which is lovely and silky. I've almost finished these, I just need to put in some elastic and finish off a couple of hems.

And lastly (at least, this is all I could find in my knitting box) is the hemlock throw I'm knitting for myself. This is a seriously beautiful piece of knitting, but my goodness it's doing my head in! It would not be an exaggeration to say that I end up unravelling every single row that I do and having to redo it about 3 times. I have since discovered that it's lace knitting, and that lace is tricky :) Anyway I love love love the colour and shine and softness of the yarn (Panda Magnum), and I couldn't think of a nicer thing to snuggle under on the lounge - at this rate I'll have it finished in time for the next ice age so that will work out well.

So lots of WIP's here, I guess that I should really try to focus on one thing at a time and finish things off, but my point of view is that, firstly, if I have lots of things on the go I will never get bored because I can switch around to different projects. Second, because I'm basically a beginning knitter this is like knitting school for me, so I'm doing lots of different projects to try out different techniques. And I'm getting much more confident and quicker with my knitting as a result - sometimes it's a good thing to jump in at the deep end :)

I'm still here...

2008-08-06T22:40:00.000+10:00

I know it's been a squillion years since my last post, but I just haven't had anything worth putting on here! I've started so many things and I haven't actually finished anything much, I didn't really want to put works in progress pics up since that reminds me of how many wip's I have :) I've also started work again which has seriously interfered with my crafting time...

I have taken some photos of some knitting I've finished, and also a lovely messenger bag that I'm very proud of. I've just started a new quilt - actually it's an old one that I've just started sewing on after having cut out all the pieces months ago. I've discovered that my fabric tastes have changed considerably since buying the fabric for this quilt, but the design is so pretty that I'm going to persevere. I've also discovered that my sewing skills are improving and I'm much happier with how my seams match up etc. I'm now looking at some Ottobre patterns for my kids, as I just love their designs so much better than the average pattern you can buy in Spotlight etc. I also want to make some more bags, and buy some quilt fabric to make a throw quilt for myself.

Did I say I already had lots of wip's??????

Second quilt finished!!!

2008-05-20T10:54:00.000+10:00

Finally I have finished all the hand quilting on my sister's birthday quilt, and I finished hand sewing down the binding last night. So it is only 2 months late :) Sorry about the squillions of photos, but I was so excited about finally completing it that I got a little carried away!

More socky goodness

2008-05-08T09:39:00.000+10:00

Here is a picture of the sock that I made for DH, it fits him perfectly. Unfortunately he has to wait for the next one because I got a delivery of some beautiful wool from the Knittery :) I got waterlilies, bloody mary and orange blossom. So lovely and soft!

Sock Heaven

2008-05-04T13:21:00.000+10:00

This is my first ever completed knitting project, and I'm pretty proud of it. So far it is only one sock :) but the second sock is almost done, just half of the foot and the toe to go. My daughter really wanted my first pair of socks to be for her, luckily they turned out to fit her perfectly! Then I have more socks lined up, as I got some fabulous books for my birthday: Vintage Socks, Favourite Socks, Getting Started Knitting Socks, and Sensational Knitted Socks. I got them from the Book Depository, which has great prices, and also free delivery. I also ordered Colorful Stitchery and the New Crewel. And then I had to get myself some wool from the Knittery because the colours are so beautiful :) I am having so much fun knitting, socks are very rewarding because they can be finished so quickly. My first one took a week, the second one was started yesterday and is almost finished now that I know what I'm doing. I spent some time looking up stitches on the internet and watching knitting tutorials on youtube to figure out each stage, the books have also helped a lot. I never thought I'd be so excited by sock knitting lol :) I must be getting old!

Sock tower

2008-04-22T22:19:00.000+10:00

This is my first sock attempt. I'm using the Thuja sock pattern which is a nice easy one to start with. I thought that I'd use wool I had lying around to practice on, and I grabbed some 4mm dpns. After a bit of a struggle with the dpns (the first part is pretty messy, don't look too closely!) I finally got the hang of how to hold them and now I have made a sock tower. The wool is quite thick and I've been knitting it quite tightly, so it stands up by itself!

I'm really enjoying the whole thing though, and I have bought some more wool to try different socks after this one. Socks are probably a good way to learn different knitting techniques such as cables while actually finishing something :)

Bamboo scarf

2008-04-19T16:02:00.000+10:00

This is what I've been knitting with some of my bamboo yarn. It is the first knitting project I've ever done, and I'm pleased with how it's turning out. Unfortunately Lincraft only had 2 balls of the yarn and the ball in the photo is all I have left, so it's going to be a very short scarf, unless Lincraft get more yarn in! The scarf is called the April Showers Scarf.

I'm really enjoying knitting, I've got a few things I want to try, next I'm going to have a go at knitting socks. I've also just been invited to Ravelry, so I'm going to spend some time poking around on there :)

I'm also trying to decide on a quilt pattern for a new queen sized quilt. I know the fabric I want, I just have to find a design that will show it off nicely. I'm afraid it may end up slightly resembling a d9p...