Summer is in the air...

Hi all! Isn't this a crazy time of the year?

I've been busy with end of the year school and sport things and of course getting ready for Christmas.

The only sewing I've done is an apron for a part of the Secret Santa swap my online quilting group runs.

It is from the same pattern as I made for this apron here

We have also had a birthday for our littlest. One Jay from Ninjago cake as requested...

Looking forward to school finishing and everything winding down for the year and looking forward to hanging out with the kids. Think I better get in a few games of Basketball with my 9 year old before he gets too good!

Have a great week!

Winner and creativity of a different kind...

Well, I blinked and a month went past...scary!!

To start off with, the winner of the purple fabrics are Wendy. Congrats! I hope to get some more giveaways going soon.

Unfortunatley, I haven't had much time to sew lately but I thought I would show you some of the arty stuff my kids have come home with.

1) A cute clay fish 2) A portrait of a boogie boarder...don't you love his expression!

In an attempt to broaden my horizons , I've recently been going to a digital photography course. All those buttons on my camera actually have uses...who'd have thought it! ;-)

This is one photo I took of the sunsets over my town...they've been beautiful lately.

Hope you've had a good week!

Giveaway!!

To celebrate my 157th post...smile...I am giving away some things I have found buried in my craft room.

To begin with, here are a pile of decent sized fabric pieces in purple..most would be nearly a fat quarter...

To enter, please make a comment.

Now back to the piles...

Have a good week!

Finish-a-Long - 4th Quarter

After a momentous finish of ONE thing from my list from last quarter - London Calling- here I go again...here's my list with no real expectation I will finish anything in the busiest part of the year!

1. One baby quilt to be quilted and bound.

2.My travelling circle bee quilt needs borders, quilting and to be bound.

3.Another baby quilt that needs quilting and to be bound.

4.These blocks need to be joined together in some fashion and then made into a quilt.

5.And these blocks too..

That's a hilariously long list but wanted to be positive! :-)

Hope you are having a good week!

2013 Finish-A-Long Q3 - A Finish!

Well, I actually got one of the things on my list finished. Woo hoo!
This top...

Is now quilted and bound!!

Sorry about the quality of the photo but I wanted to make the deadline! I will take better pictures in sunlight tomorrow.

I also wanted to show you a couple of things that made me smile in the last couple of weeks. I got this artwork painted for Gorgeous Girl for her birthday....

I sent the artist photos of our girl and her two furry friends and she incorporated them into the painting...

And a couple of months ago on the Sweetwater Blog they asked for addresses to incorporate into their new line of fabric, Road 15. I left mine in the comments and was kind of tickled to see my address on fabric! I won't point it out but believe me, it's there!

Now I will have to make a quilt with a big arrow pointing to my address! :-)

Hope you are having a good week!

Spring, birthdays, crochet...

Wow, spring has hit with a vengeance! Between sniffing and rubbing my eyes, I've enjoyed watching the flowers bloom.

I pretty much finished my first ever crocheted blanket...if you don't look at all the starts and ends I need to weave in!.....

It's made from a merino/alpaca wool..so heavy and warm! (just in time for summer...typical!)

And I've been trying my hand at jam making with some surplus strawberries. Any hints on getting it to set more and not have the fruit float to the top??

The smell of it cooking was divine...worth all the mess!

We've also had another birthday in our family and so here's Gorgeous Girl's cake...

It's Sheldon from the Big Bang Theory in a ball pit (a famous episode for the those who don't watch the show!) We managed to survive having eight 12/13 year olds for a sleepover....thank goodness!

Have a great week!

And there goes another week!

What a week! After battling a yuck flu thingo myself for the last 2 weeks, little J then started a gastro bug on Sunday night which has just persisted and persisted. It has meant a lot of time sitting on the couch watching kid's shows - as he wanted me nearby most of the time. (Personally I think Postman Pat should consider a new career with the amount of parcels he misplaces!!)So ignoring the housework and washing, I did a fair bit of crocheting on my first ever blanket...

I also did a wee bit of online shopping..

( a new mixing bowl and a leadlight star from Etsy)
And of course there was some fabric! Hopefully, in the next couple of days, I will get to work with these fabrics to make a present for a special person...

Today was a day of beautiful sunshine here, so hopefully with a bit of warmer weather we will get back to a healthier household

And I can get onto that pile of washing...sigh....
Hope you're having a great week!

Scrap Reduction Project

I belong to an online quilting group and we decided to have a 10" fabric square swap. So whilst digging through my rather mortifyingly extensive fabric stash, I came across a whole pile of pastelly fabrics that I've been moving from one place to another for a long time. So I thought I would be organised and at least sort them out and iron them, rather than having them stuffed in a green bag. And then I had the bright idea to run them through my Go Baby Cutter and cut them all into tumbler shapes..because that way they would be more organised and smaller to store. And then, because I hadn't ever sewn anything using the tumbler shapes, I thought I might just sew a few rows together.... And then I started to think about what would be a good size for the quilt to end up...and realised I didn't have enough fabrics in those colours. So then I went and bought more fabric....

And it all began with a fabric reduction exercise...

Hmmmmm.....??!!

So this is what I have so far...

I like how the tumbler shape fits together so easily.

My latest knitting finish is this beanie...made for me but stolen by Gorgeous Girl!

And a little story..
The other day I went out and Little J, who had been painting outside, had painted a heart on the wall. 'Are you allowed to paint anywhere but on the paper?", I asked him. "No.", he replied. "So why did you?" I asked him. "So that everyone who visits, knows we love each other!"

How can you get cross with that? :-)

Hope you have a good week..

August???

Hi all!

Aren't the weeks flying past? It seems I turn around and another month has gone past!

In the last month we have had a birthday for Sunshine Boy - for which I created one beanie...

..and one Oshawott (a Pokémon character) birthday cake. If you haven't had a 7-10 year old in the last 10 years these will be completely foreign names but believe me, it's a big passion for my two oldest! And not one completely understood by their parents!

He was quite impressed and I was impressed that we managed to take 10 ten-year-olds to Laser Tag and had no injuries or fatalities!

And for my friend, Mel, an earwarmer in orange... a favourite colour of hers. Made from Quince and Co wool, which is quickly becoming a favourite!

I've already made a third edition of this earwarmer...so easy to make and popular with my girl.

Anyway must keep going. So much to do, so little time!
Have a great week.

Knitting to pass the time away...

There has been a lot of watching of sports in the wee hours of the night at our house lately. Between Wimbledon, the Ashes and the Tour de France, I've enjoyed a lot of night time knitting.

My latest finishes are...

A beanie for Boo! He chose those crazy colours!

An infinity scarf for Gorgeous Girl.

And my hopefully soonish project is with these lovely yarns

From Jellywares, I am going to have a go at crocheting. Now if I only remember how Grandma taught me to do it!

List for Finish a Long Q3. -Deja Vu?

With NO finishes last quarter..shocking effort...my list remains pretty static for this Quarter.

So here's my list for the 3rd Quarter...



1. Spiked Wheel Quilt..still needs borders and to be quilted and bound..


2. Flannel Quilt from Material Obsession. It's currently only cut out, with a few hexagons made,but here's a photo of it when finished (as I haven't had a chance to take a picture of my hexagons)


3. My London Calling Quilt. Needs to be quilted and bound


4. Figure out these blocks and join them together somehow...

Wish me luck!

Anyone else a bit chilly??

With a sudden dip in temperature, it's been perfect weather to sit in front of the heater knitting. I finished off my scarf for hubby, and he's now requested a beanie. Because this is a step up from my straight scarf knitting, I bought this book at the local Post Office. It's a great book for a newbie knitter like me. Lots of pictures and help with stitches and abbreviations in knitting patterns.

So with book in lap for reference, Ipad on couch for the pattern, I made a headband/earwarmer from the wool I got at the Craft show for Gorgeous Girl. The pattern is free from here

Unfortunately I didn't have the equivalent book for crochet as those skills are a bit (as in very)rusty!
Gorgeous Girl must have liked it though as she wore it to school today.(only true sign that a near teenager likes something!)
Hope you're having a good week! I hope to get some quilting done this week but I've just been presented with two balls of wool from Little J, with the words 'Can you make me a scarf tonight, Mum?' . So we will see....