growing.

My “want to make” list, that is! The delightful Miss Bee offered me up a couple of patterns that she didn’t need anymore, that I was glad to take off her hands – the two very cute Make It Perfect patterns shown above. First on my list is the Uptown Girl jacket, and I managed some window shopping yesterday over at Bloom for the perfect cord for the outer, and found a cute flannel for the lining, thinking it would make it nice and snuggly for cold winter days. Until Bee suggested I *cough* read the description *cough* and it’s actually reversible. So I’m still pondering options on that one, and thinking about maybe adding a layer of flannel sandwiched inbetween? The winds here can be absolutely bitter, especially when it snows nearby, so I want something pretty insulated. Any thoughts?

The bag pattern is TOTALLY Carmel’s fault. As I’ve mentioned before, I have designed a bag for the bag challenge (and may or may not have gotten any further than that), but then Carmel is posting about Duckcloth having a closing down sale and linking the Melly and Me Sleepover bag, and really, at $10, how could I resist? It’ll be perfect for a hospital bag. And AJ was going to get one too, so we could keep each other on track. Until she blogged HER pattern purchase, and realised she’d bought the Amy Butler Weekender. Us and our grand ideas!! I haven’t started selecting fabric for this one yet, I’ll have to have a bit of a surf around, I’m thinking maybe a funky twill or cord? Not sure.

Now, all I need to do is find the mojo to tidy my studio so I can get to my sewing machine, and then I can get busy!

Another challenge!

To be honest, I’m not sure who to blame for this one. I think it was Bec, in conjunction with Car (c’mon, like THAT surprises anyone). Apparently a few of us thought we wanted a new bag, and so the EQ Bag Challenge/Sewalong was born. No deadlines or rules – just make a bag and encourage each other along. And that seemed easy enough, so being the challenge tart sociable type, I joined in, since I have been wanting to make a bag for Bear to take to drama lessons.

 

His lessons are directly after school, so he needs to take some afternoon tea, and sometimes has scripts and stuff that need to go back and forth, so I thought a dedicated little bag might be the go. Last week I got the chance to sit down and sketch out the design I’d come up with.

 

A simple little messenger style bag – the main pocket to hold a drink bottle and small container of afternoon tea, a separate flat pocket to hold scripts, a little zip pocket to pop his fees in (it’s a pay-by-the-week system), and then an appliqued flap to hold everything in. So I have the design, I have the measurements, the cutting guide and assembly guide all prepared, now just to raid the stash, and get stuck in!

an impromptu sew-a-long.

So somehow I got sucked into this. Blame AJ. ALL HER FAULT. Never mind I’m almost as bad as Car when it comes to being unable to resist a challenge!

It started simply enough. AJ posted a link to the super cute dress pattern below. It was so pretty, and I thought the pleated skirt would make it a perfect addition to my winter wardrobe. So, when I was at the fabric shop buying supplies for a costume for Bear’s first dress up day of the school year, I grabbed the pattern, and them hit up two of my favourite Aussie fabric websites – Kelani and Bloom.

The Bodice :: Bella 100% Cotton in Steel
The Waistband :: Stella Solids in Deep Pink
The Skirt :: Stenzo jersey knit

And yes, I can hear the eye-rolling from here. I *know* it’s not a knit pattern. But I’m hoping with some careful sewing, it will still work. Then, between the knit fabric and the room with the pleats, there may just be enough room for my growing tummy this winter.

That’s the theory, anyway. Now, to just dig out the pattern pieces I need and work out how much of each fabric, ready to get hooked in. And yes, I’m allowed to get the pattern out, because AJ did it first. So it’s all her fault. (and no, mum, if AJ jumped off a cliff, I wouldn’t follow her. But opening a pattern can’t be THAT bad, right?)

i spy, with my little eye…

…a special gift for a special boy.

Sometimes, things happen that knock you sideways, and leave you breathless. A week before Christmas, I received such a message. I had to read it twice, and still, I struggled to make sense of a seemingly well little boy, one my children had played with not a week earlier, suddenly whisked away and ensconced in hospital. Then it sunk in, and the tears fell as I held my babies close. I wandered aimlessly through the house, full of urgent action, but feeling useless with nowhere to direct it. There was nothing to say, nothing to do, nothing that anyone could do to make this better. And so I decided to do the only thing I can. I decided to make something. I made up this little iSpy-style quilt one weekend while Mr Dove was at home on holidays. Nothing fancy, 4.5″ squares, white sashing, and a basic loop-the-loop all over quilting. But hopefully it will be a little piece of bright comfort in what is looking like a pretty long-term stay.

And this little finish is the first of 2013, which means it’s eligible for counting in:

Opening balance : +7
Out: 8 FQ in prints, maybe 3m for sashing/backing etc? Say 12FQ for the white, and maybe 2 for the binding
Current balance : -15FQ

That’s not a bad little negative balance there, really!

{linking up with the And Sew We Craft linky party for the first time in months, since, you know, I actually have something to share for the first time in months!}

Block of the Month. In theory.

It seemed like a good idea. Every month I’d get a pretty packet, and make up a block. How hard could it be to do one block in a month?

Yeah, famous last words. I now have 8 pretty packets sitting in my BOM drawer. At least, four of them, I have opened.

When I first signed up for the BOM, someone asked who was joining the Flickr group, and someone else (Becky, I think), asked what the point of a group of the same blocks would be. And I agreed. And then thought to myself, that I wanted my quilt to be a bit less formulaic, and a bit more me. The first block arrived, I looked at it, and I pondered. Should I reverse some colors? Or would that screw with the balance of the whole quilt. Block two arrived, and still no idea, and it was tucked away with block one. Then block three. I liked the block, but I most confess, as much as I love Vintage Modern as a whole, the large florals are my less favourite. And Block Three had a lot of those florals. And it was very red. I got to wondering, what would a small green flange around the middle look like?

And like that, I was set. A small addition, an embellishment to each block. Still the same blocks and same colors, just with a touch of “me” added. A couple of weeks after that, around the time block four arrived, I had an afternoon spare, so I pulled out the four packets, and cut all the pieces for all four blocks. And then put them back in the packet. I ended up taking them to camp, and got the first one finished there, and this last week, have managed another two.

Block One, at camp. Small green off-centre ruffle added to centre diamond.

Block Three, this week just gone. The one that started it all, with a 1/4″ flange around the centre.

Block Four, this past week also. I added corners to the centre block in Red Snickerdoodle, and at the last minute, also reversed the direction of the green flying geese so they were pointing in instead of out. And so glad I did. Love love love this block!

Three down, five to go. Block two will be next, as it’s cut out, and then we’ll see how the mojo goes. At least I know I’m not the only one behind on the blocks!

 

{flogging my blogging today over at With Some Grace for FYBF}

pocket money {+ tutorial}

Our little boys both get pocket money. We don’t link it to chores (at this age), and they get a set amount per week. We are trying to teach them how to wisely deal with money. We require that some goes into their piggy bank (pay yourself first!), some goes as their givings for Sunday School (give back what He has given to us), the big boy has an amount to go to school banking (long term savings/rainy day funds) and a certain portion is discretionary spending. They can choose if they put it in their money box and save up for something big, or they can have it for during the week. Most of the time, it goes in the money box, and they have both managed to save a decent amount and buy themselves some Lego. It’s so sweet seeing the pride and excitement on their face as they clutch the box to their chest, pass it up for scanning, and slowly pull the money from their pocket and pass it over, and then carry it home themselves.

But even with most of the discretionary amount in the money box, that still leaves some coins loose until Sunday school time. I’ve been meaning to make them up a little something for ages. I thought, as well, if they were going to be looking after their money, maybe they could have their library cards in the little wallet as well. (DISCLAIMER – they don’t cart the wallets everywhere, nor are they for play. They hold money and live in their bedside table until they need to take it somewhere). And so I whipped up a pair of little wallets, with a small coin pouch, and a spot for a library card, or maybe even a gift card. They are velcroed shut for security, while still being easy for small hands to open.

{tutorial for PERSONAL USE ONLY. Please do not use this tutorial to make products to sell}

REQUIREMENTS:

Piece of fabric – 15.5″ x 4.5″

Velcro – 3.5″

Zipper – I used a 5″, but anything longer than 4.5″ works just as well.

METHOD:
Cut 2.5″ off on short end. If you have a preference to which part of your strip is the outside, and which is the inside (for example, if you have pieced your strip), this is from the end that will become the inside.

Sew in your zip, and top stitch in place, making sure both pieces of fabric line up at the sides.

Fold the newly zip-inclusive strip in half, wrong sides together. Taking the folded edge, fold it again to form a 1.5″ ‘pocket’, and pin through all but the bottom layer.

Unfold the long strip (leaving the short pinned fold in place. Attach one side of the velcro, approx. 5″ from other end (I used the fuzzy part of the Velcro for this part).

Open the zip halfway {IMPORTANT}, then fold the whole thing in half, right sides together. The fold should line up roughly with the previously pinned short fold. Pin as you prefer, and sew all three sides. For mine, I chose to pin top, middle, bottom, plus on the opening side of the zip, pinned the zip tape in place. I wanted to be sure those layers and that zip weren’t moving anywhere!

Clip all four corners, open the zip the rest of way, and turn inside out through the open zip, poking the corners to get them nice and crisp. Pin both sides together about half way between the top of the fold, and the zip, to hold everything flat and in place.

Stitch a line 2 3/8″ from the folded edge (the left in the photo above). This line will become the fold line of your wallet. Pin above the zip in the same way, and stitch 2 3/8″ from the previously stitched line. Pin the other half of the velcro above the second row of stitching – on the far right of the photo above – and on the same side at the zip & fold. Sew in place.

And that, as they say, is that! The perfect size for a few coins, and a library card. The small boys are very impressed, and feel very grown up with their new wallets. I hope you’ve found this tutorial useful, and if you use it, I’d love it if you link here in the comments so I can come check out your creations!

{linked with The Rustic Pig for Creatively Tuesdays, Ninth St Notions FOR I Made It! Monday, and Skip to My Lou for Made by You Monday}

kindling

It seems that I can be subtle as a sledgehammer at times. “Hey Kylie, do you have a kindle? I’m thinking of getting one…”, I asked, oh so innocently on Facebook. And she was kind enough to give me a lovely well thought out answer. Then a little message appeared in my inbox. “Hey, are you really thinking of a kindle, or are you being secret squirrel?”. Yes. Indeed. It appears Car knows me too well! Thankfully, Kylie was none the wiser, and with a day or two left before camp, I got cracking on a kindle cover, using this tutorial. I found myself topstitching it the night before camp while chatting to Bee, and ended up handwheeling the corners, with 6 layers of interfacing, two layers of batting and 6 layers of fabric, my poor little machine was struggling!!

 

I think the topstitching wasn’t as close to the edge as it should be, because the interior pocket is just a fraction too small for the kindle to fit in, but Kylie was very forgiving, and said she likely wouldn’t take it out of the little triangle holders anyway!

 

First day of holidays here today, and we are all systems slow. Pancakes for breakfast. A jammie day for the smalls. A movie. A bit of craft. Some baking, and a spot of sewing for mama. Just whata  holiday should be. Five days until the big jolly man arrives and I am far from organised. But today I am taking time out and celebrating my babies being here with me, happy and healthy. Too many mamas this week can’t say the same. Counting my blessings and cherishing moments that count.

how many quilts can a quilter quilt, when the quilter needs to quilt?

It was one of those “oh drats” moments, really. A last minute invitation to afternoon tea saw me adding “make a mug rug” to my Friday to-do list, and somehow it was 2.15 before I reached that part of my list. With 45 minutes until I needed to leave, I grabbed some fabric and started cutting. 35 minutes later, I had a mug rug.

{please excuse the instagram photo, that’s how much of a rush I was in!}

I did simple echo quilting inside the pink pinwheels, and then FMQed feathers down each side panel, before machining down a fold over binding. Which, admittedly, had far more puckers in it than I would normally allow through, but I’m hoping my grandmother appreciated the thought more than the accuracy (or lack thereof).

Monday is poking me in the ribs, and pushing me onwards to get more done. The last full week of school sees a full diary and a long to-do list. Hopefully a night of relaxing and crafting tonight before the real storm of the second half of the week hits. The sooner these holidays come the better! Have a lovely Monday everyone.

EQDQS2012 :: the reveal.

I have to say, this time, I’ve been quite impressed by Australia Post. I’ve been burnt BADLY by them in the past, but on Friday, I popped into my local, rural Northern NSW post office to entrust our national carrier of hard copy information with a little quilt that I’d been working on, and despite being told that even with express post, it wouldn’t get to it’s Victorian destination for three business days, today, ONE business day after sending it regular post, it has arrived safe and sound. IMPRESSED, MR POSTIE. VERY VERY IMPRESSED.

Anyway. The quilt. I was making for Anna, of TillyTom fame. A quick cruise of her Pinterest board confirmed my initial design hunch. Modern, minimal, lots of negative space, feature hand quilting. I also knew she is a bit of a chevron fan, and straight up, I hit on the idea of a wonky chevron, based around this book cover:

(inspiration via the lovely Red In Oz).

And I also knew pretty well straight away I wanted to do a raindrop quilting that I’d seen via Anna’s Pinterest, created by the talented Katie at Sew Katie Did.

Then it was just a matter of assembling a collection of fabrics and threads, printing foundations, and stealing five minutes where I could to get it done. Except I was almost finished the quilting when I realised I’d trimmed one piece of the foundationed chevrons too tight, and had an exposed edge. So some careful unpicking, replacing and a wee bit of handstitching, I was back on track. I then raced like mad to get the binding attached before I went on holidays, so I could take it with me and finish off – except I forgot my scissors to trim the excess batting/binding! But in the end, it got in the post, and only four days past posting date!

Honourable mention must also go to AJ for hosting this years swap! Hopefully AP will be as fast with my quilt, and I’ll have something pretty to show off soon!

(apologies for the bad photos – I finished literally five minutes before I had to race to the post office, and a yucky rainy day gave me limited options for styled shoots and nice light!)

(added over at Creatively Tuesday at The Rustic Pig)

If I had an aeroplane…

I’m surrounded by sick babies and piles of washing, so I’m flying through very quickly to show you this hat (and a very truculent Bear) that I made, technically as part of Carmel’s sewalong. Which ended a month ago, but anyway. Please ignore the dodgy topstitching, I was in a hurry and machined the crown in place, which left me with a less than perfect line. And Bear loves that it is reversible, and despite grumping his way through the whole 30 seconds I was taking photos, insisted on turning it inside out and showing off the reverse side too!

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I can hear a washing machine calling my name…