Ugh, Ruffles!!

I know I've mentioned it before, probably more than once, but I really love hanging out with my brother's family. My SIL and I are pretty close in age and our daughters love playing together, so I go and see her every couple of weeks and we catch up for the day. It's always lovely and today was no exception. However, a fortnight ago while I was there we pulled out a skirt that had been cut out and started by somebody else and left with SIL to complete. One of her UFOs. The picture was so sweet, a very frilly layered skirt, perfect for my niece. We started to get it all together, but we ran out of time, so today we pulled it back out again. I took my sewing machine over today and got straight onto stitching ruffles (SIL did all the gathering, thankfully) to the in between-y strips. After we had joined together 4 of the 6 layers, the skirt was only down to my niece's bottom, not very modest! After much studying of the cutting instructions etc, we agreed that the pattern was incorrect and it couldn't have been any better than it was given the size of each piece. It took AGES to get to the point we were at and we really wanted to get it done today. We were both a bit over it but were also totally disappointed with how it turned out. So we decided to lengthen each of the in between-y strips, then left off the bottom ruffle and after another couple of hours of stress and frustration...

TADA!!

One cute-as ruffle-y skirt.

Never again!

Mind you, both SIL and I were tempted to try it again just to see whether or not we could improve it.

oh yeah, and isn't my niece gorgeous!

Now, talking about UFOs, yesterday I pulled out one of mine, a panel that was given to me when my daughter was born. I had added some decorative stitching to highlight the details on the panel. I had also added a peeper and border. Yesterday I sandwiched it with wadding and backing and used the bagging technique to join them. The I quilted around some of the features on the panel, but not much.

I realised 2 things while completing this project:

1. I LOVE my walking foot!

2. I really don't like working with cheap puffy polyester wadding.

I'm not a huge fan pf panels usually, but my assistant totally deserves this quilt!

Last night, having finished something, I was on a craft high, so I used the motivation to dive into my stash and make another skirt for my assistant. She has been eyeing off this yellow printed vintage replica fat quarter that I've had for years, so I decided to use it to make the new skirt. I paired it with some striped cotton voile which I bought at the very start of my stash building. I used it to make a skirt for myself about 9 years ago and since have only used tiny pieces at a time. It had the perfect colours to match with the other fabric and I knew it was meant to be.

I really love the way it turned out.  I know, gathering, but this was way easy and way less gathering than today's insane ruffles.

I also love these little try-hard smiles! I know I have the most adorable little assistant though.

Anyway, I should go and sleep...

Sweet dreams! xo

Sewtember Day Twenty-Nine - Sleepy Saturday

B-man had the biggest sleep today! It might be related to his new tooth. He slept for close to 3 hours over lunch time, but then had a nap this afternoon for an hour or so too. I hope he sleeps tonight.

While he was sleeping my assistant was out helping Daddy in the garage, so I was left to get on with some sewing. My current project is coming along pretty well. I like it. Hubby thinks it's ok too, so it can't be too bad. Even getting a comment out of him is usually hard, so that's a good sign.

I can't really show you much from my work today though.

I hope you are having a great weekend! I can't believe there's only one more day of Sewtember. I'll need to  look back and see what I have actually achieved this month.

I'll see you tomorrow for a quick wrap up.

Sweet Dreams!

Sewtember Day Nineteen - Spring has most definitely Sprung

It was most definitely Spring today, and I've decided that Spring is best spent at Great Nana's house. Her garden has the most beautiful aroma! I could have just stood there in her backyard breathing it all in for the whole afternoon. As it turned out, we played Scrabble in the sun room so we were still surrounded by the awesomeness of her garden, and the fragrance. It makes me want to sing "Indescribable" by Chris Tomlin, "...From the colours of Fall to the fragrance of Spring..."  I love it! (The song and Spring, that is.)

At craft today I was helping my Aunty to put together hexies for a quilt that she is working on. It needs to be done by Christmas and it's a slow process when the only time it gets done is at craft and that's hard because my kids demand a lot of her attention. So I was helping her and it was a really nice change from my applique. I always wonder why I choose those tedious projects, I guess it's worth it in the end, but it's annoying in the process and I shouldn't start them anymore.

When we got home tonight there was a big change to the new wall.

There is a wall the whole way along...not long now 'til it's done...eeeeee!

Our landscaper must have had a much better day, weather-wise, he got a lot done. It's looking really good and I think He's hoping to have the posts for the fence in over the next day or so. How exciting!!

Oh, here is a sneak peek at my project for tomorrow...I know at least one of you knows what it will be, but for those of you who don't, just wait and you'll soon see. I'm so totally pumped about it!!! I hope it works out in real life like it does in my head. My test one was pretty close, so with a couple of minor adjustments I think the real one will be so amazingly awesome...

I'd better get to bed. My energy tank is almost empty and I do have a huge pile of work to get done in the next day or two.

Thanks for reading along!

I'll see you all tomorrow. Goodnight!

Sewtember Day Eleven - Some sad news.

Ok, so I got news today that my great Uncle died this morning. So sad! I'm over people dying. It's a tad depressing. And makes it hard to focus on something good to write for the blog...

"He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away." ~Revelation 21:4

Our wall is coming along nicely.

While this was being done I was inside sewing again...this time something for someone's Christmas gift which I can't show you...only because they may see.

I have also paired the place-mats with wadding now so I'm hoping to get onto those as soon as I can, probably Thursday. Then I'll be able to show you again, maybe nearly finished!

I actually hung my quilt tops out today to freshen them up a little bit. After so much wet weather in the last year I'm finding things all around our house with a musty smell and unfortunately my quilt tops had it. Most of them are fine, but the Heather Bailey one still smells a bit. I've just decided to hang it inside for a few more days to see if it helps.

Anyway, sorry for the brief entry tonight. I'm so not in the right frame of mind to write any more. See you tomorrow.

Sewtember Day Ten - Out with the old. Pattern Schmattern.

We had our old fence removed today and the landscaper has done heaps of work today to get ready to build a new retaining wall and fence tomorrow and the following few days. It's exciting to see it actually happening. We've been trying to work out this fence for months now so it's a big relief that we can see something being done.

This is what the fence and wall were like.

 The wall is almost non-existent.

This is the progress so far.

Oh, I almost forgot, the tipper truck that brought the sand and aggregate was a big hit with my assistant too.

So was the realisation that she could easily access the neighbours yard and swings while there is no fence or dog.

The fence will be replaced slightly higher and a new retaining wall below it will hold the neighbours land from falling into our yard.

And while all the work was being done outside, I was inside doing some of my own work. Firstly I was making up a quote for someone's order and then I got to do some sewing! Woo!

I made a little blouse for one of the dolls. I think it's pretty cute, but doesn't necessarily match the skirt, so I might pair it with a different skirt and make another one in different fabric to go with the purple skirt.

One thing I thought about while I was making it was that it might have been a tad simpler if I'd used some kind of pattern, but oh well, now I have my own and I think it looks fine! I don't think the 2 or 4 year old who receives it will complain about it. My assistant told me today that the skirt is beautiful, so that was pretty encouraging, I don't think she's really seen the top yet.

Tonight Hubby will be watching his show on tele so I'm hoping to get a move on with the place-mats, then maybe tomorrow I might be able to quilt them...but who knows? Kids seem to stop most things from happening when I imagine they should these days, so I don't like to pressure myself too much.

Having said that, I really should get onto them now, so I'll see you all tomorrow.

Night!

Sewtember Day Nine - The skirt

I made a skirt for one of the dolls tonight.

So simple it only took about 10 minutes, including choosing the fabric. Hopefully tomorrow I can make a little blouse or something to go with it. I'm thinking mini floral print fabric with puffy sleeves. But we'll have to wait until tomorrow to see how it turns out.

I'm also planning on sewing the place-mats together in the next couple of days. They'll be like mini quilts. I think I'll do them like a bagged quilt, with the wadding then the front fabric then the back fabric to make the "sandwich", stitch all around the edges leaving a small opening, turn through the opening, top-stitch all around and quilt any details. Sounds like a very quick process when you put it like that...it won't be that quick when I actually do it, I'm sure.

Anyway, I've had a big weekend, physically, and I feel totally run down now, so I'll catch up with you tomorrow.

Sweet dreams!!

Monday Monday

Sorry I didn't get back with the photo of my dad's present. We had a lot of wind over the last couple of days (some snow too) and the internet wasn't particularly reliable. However, I do have some pics for you. First, the cake. This is the cake before I did anything to it:

And this is how it turned out afterwards:

(It's a Tardis from the show Dr Who, just in case you don't recognise it.)

I didn't want to go out too much with my sick kids last week, so I had to use the usual liquid food colouring and this is the darkest I could get the colour. A bit annoying but it was Dad's favourite cake (sorry Annelise, I thought your Jenolan Caves cake was awesome!) so as long as he was happy, that's all that matters really.

Ok, and then there's his present.

I think this turned out really well and given that I haven't watched Dr who for a really long time (about 20 years), I think it's pretty good. My Dad is so hard to give presents to because he has everything and buys anything else that he wants, plus, I don't really have spare money, so I had to make something and this was the best thing I could think of. I guess there's no risk of someone else giving him the same thing.

What do you think?

It was going to be a "Mug Rug", but it's really more like a mini quilt. I don't think he'll use it as a mug rug. I might put a little sleeve on the back so that he can hang it up, but that's up to him. What would you do with a mini quilt like this? I think I would have to hang it somewhere otherwise it would be damaged, my kids would probably take it as a dolly quilt or something, in which case it could possibly be dragged through dirt and other things.

Anyway, I can pop up the details of how I made it if anyone's interested (just leave me a comment), otherwise I'll see you soon with more things I've done, hopefully. I have such a long list of projects to complete, both for me and for other people's orders and presents. I love how blogging can make you more accountable...

See you soon!

May Challenge Day Thirty

Woo! Wednesday...and it was strange today because I had to be home earlier than usual to talk to someone about my house renos. I haven't done that very often before...

I went to craft this morning like normal, late, and we made more quilts to send to Tanzania which is great! I love spending time with "the ladies" and chatting about all the different lives we have.

Now, with both kidlets in bed at the same time, I'm off to do some stitching, and maybe some tea...Decaf of course.

For those of you who read my blog, I only have 1 day left of my May Challenge, so I might need to find a different kind of challenge for June. Let me know if you have any ideas...

Goodnight!

May Challenge Day Twenty-Nine

Happy Birthday Nana!! (Just thought I'd get that in there...) I love you very much!!

I had a really good day with my kids today, behaviour-wise, I mean. Both were actually well behaved and even helpful. I finished the tea cosy and took a photo to upload.

I think it's cute enough, I might make some more...

I also managed a bit of stitching on the flowers for my quilt, but I'm not putting a photo of that because you can't really see what I've done anyway.

Tomorrow is me day again, but at craft in the morning we'll be making quilts for MAG (Mission Aid Group) which will be sent to Tanzania. Cool! I love doing them because everyone helps to do something good together, not just our own projects. I think it helps to unite the group.

Yay!

Anyway, I'd better get to bed...oh, maybe a few more stitches first...goodnight!

May Challenge Day Twenty-Eight

Monday Monday....

Usually the day for visiting with friends, but not today. Today we stayed home and I worked on the tea cosy. I don't think I've ever made one before, but it's pretty much done, and it's really cute. Anyway, I'm actually going to go now and stitch some more of my quilt before it gets too late. I might try and post a pic of the owl tomorrow.

Goodnight!

May Challenge Day Twenty-Seven

I can't believe it's day 27 already! Woah! I feel like I'm losing time or something...

Today was great! I went to church, had lunch with my church family and then came home to some craft. Yay! I got onto making the prize for my facebook competition winner...an owl tea cosy...so cute. I also got my quilt panel ironed.

Oh!! Janelle Wind replied to my comment on facebook today....I'm totally star-struck! I immediately got the giggles and all my worries went away...hahaha. How funny is that! Most exciting thing to happen to me in a while obviously.

Anyway, tomorrow is Monday and there's always a list of things to do on Mondays, so I'd better get to bed so I can "get up out of bed, have a yawn and scratch my head and say Thank you, it's a brand new day..." Sorry, the song popped into my head. I'm off to bed, nighty night!

May Challenge Day Twenty-Six

It's so late! I can hardly remember today. I got so caught up in a movie, The Green Mile. I hadn't seen it before tonight and it was really good. It was sad though. And it went forever. I think there was an ad break about every 3 minutes by the end of the movie, so it was on tv for 4 hours...Good time for stitching flowers. I've finished 2 big ones and 2 small ones. Still a long way to go, but it's a good feeling finishing that small amount.

This morning Mum and I went to the local Salvation Army Quilt Show. It was great! We bought more fabrics and patterns than intended. The quilts were beautiful, as usual. I didn't even think about getting out my camera though, so I can't show you any pics. Oh well. I love local quilt shows because they are full of locally made items and it's nice to know they were made by regular people, not just professional quilters.

Anyway, it's really late, so I'd better get to bed.

May Challenge Day Twenty-Five/Friday Fun One-5

Yay, Friday Fun One!

Took the kids to my brother's today. We always have a good time, tiring for the kids, but a good break for me. I think different toys and books is helpful. We always talk about family and friends and the memories we've made with them. I love catching up with them and I hope we can keep doing it for a while yet.

I'm sorry for yet another short post, but it's already getting late and I'm almost finished stitching another of the flowers, so I really want to get it done tonight. I'm off to another local quilt show tomorrow, so I'm sure I'll come home and do some more. Yay!

May Challenge Day Nineteen

I know I'm writing these posts earlier, but it's in an effort to get to bed earlier and therefore get up earlier each morning, slightly less grumpy.

So, being that my most productive time tends to be just before bed, I haven't actually done all that much yet today. I have finished appliqueing around one of the large flowers on the quilt and also one of the smaller ones (I'd post a photo, but it doesn't really look any different to the one I posted yesterday or whenever), but I would have liked to get a bit more done today. Like always, it will just have to wait until tomorrow or Monday.

Tonight while Hubby is working on one of his cars I'm going to be making some wrist warmers for an order. Yay! They're very specific though, thin enough, but warm enough, one seam on the outer side of the wrist...and so on. So I really should make a start on them now and hopefully have a pair ready to give to my customer tomorrow.

Goodnight everyone. I hope the rest of your weekend is lovely!

May Challenge Day Eighteen/Friday Fun One - 4

So we started the quilt yesterday - my 2 year old daughter and I - and we finished it today.

We sat at the machine and she joined on the final 2 strips, then I ironed it for her (sewing and ironing are very different kinds of dangerous). Then when I asked her what fabric she wanted to use on the back she said pink and fluffy. Best answer she could have said! I got out pink polar fleece and we sewed it onto the right side of her patchwork then flipped it like a pillowcase and stitched around the whole edge again to close it up. I didn't bother with wadding because the fleece is soft enough. With the quilting part of it we just used the stitch-in-the-ditch method and the walking foot and worked around the center square and then moved to the next square out. Pretty simple, but she's only 2 and it's really cute!

Hopefully tonight I'll get back to working on my own quilt.

May Challenge Day Seventeen

Well, what a Thursday! I should not ask my 2 year old what she wants to do each day...this is what I might end up with...

I can't believe she wanted to do this or had the patience to sit with me and actually do the sewing on the machine! What you can see here is her work. She was so excited to do it and was sewing for a fair while, then she fell asleep with her foot on the pedal...eek!!! Thankfully I was right there with her and noticed her head start to flop a little, so what could have been a major disaster was avoided. But otherwise I think she did pretty well. She picked out the fabrics and helped to arrange them (mini me!) and like I said she was sewing at the machine. I was actually a little relieved when she fell asleep because it was time to get dinner ready but she hadn't wanted to stop. Oh well, maybe we'll do the rest of the top tomorrow, there are only 2 seems to go...

Now for a photo of my quilt (this one's for you, Beth). It's going to take a long time to get through all the applique, but hopefully it'll be done in the not-to-distant-future.

Anyway, I'm trying to get to bed a little earlier than usual so I'll see how we go tomorrow and let you know of any progress on either project in tomorrows post! Night!!

May Challenge Day Sixteen

Wednesday already! I feel like I'm losing time or something. It feels like I was only just writing about Wednesday yesterday...

Today was really good, I was up early, went to craft, started stitching the flowers and saw 2 great Nanas. Like I said it was really good. I feel like I'm finally getting somewhere now and it's motivating me to keep working and get the rest done. It's a good feeling.

I also got to help with a new craft friend's quilt today. It's a beautiful quilt with different shades of pink made up into blocks and borders and a yellow backing with appliqued butterflies. My friend is in a wheel chair a lot of the time and has trouble getting down on all fours and also cannot reach around tables quite well enough to lay her quilt out, so I helped her along with my Aunty and we pinned the layers together for her to sew around at home. It's a beautiful quilt, quite girly, but beautiful and she didn't even use a pattern! My friend is not very confident and being able to help her and give her advice is great. It is helping me to really value my life as it is and the time and means I have available to me for craft and other things that other people may not have. 

Enough with the warm fuzzies now though, I need to get to bed so I'm ready for a new day and more stitching tomorrow.

Goodnight!

May Challenge Day Fifteen

Yay! I totally ironed on the flowers today and I'm hoping to start stitching them on tomorrow...

I'm excited now because it's real. I mean the quilt has started to come together and isn't just a picture on paper or in my head anymore...

Anyway, that's exciting and I don't know what else to write, so goodnight!

May Challenge Day Fourteen

I know I shouldn't be starting anything new, but I couldn't resist trying out the Tunisian crochet I mentioned last week. It is cool because I never really enjoy knitting as much as crochet, but the end result of this technique looks fairly similar to knitting, so it's a bit of a win win for me...Anyway, I gave it a go tonight instead of the quilt and it was good. I know how to cast on and off and use the simple (afghan) stitch, and I also worked out how to turn corners, increase and decrease, so that is pretty cool. I really need to get a move on with the quilt, but like I said, I couldn't resist trying something new, I think I just needed a little lift and working it out gave me just that. Maybe I'll get to the quilt tomorrow.

Oh, and I almost forgot to mention that I gave my hair a trim today, by myself...it's still half my height in length, so no-one can tell...

May Challenge Day Thirteen

Happy Mother's Day!

I was out for the majority of today so didn't get into craft so much, but I spent a lot of time this evening chilling out (or warming up in front of the heater) reading craft magazines. I'm so inspired! I love seeing different styles of craft and the way different people complete different projects of theirs. I love it, but I lose a lot of time when I get into them, so I have to limit myself to 5 or 6 magazines each time, which doesn't really mean anything if I get a particularly special one out.

On another note, I just looked at the amount of space for the flowers to fit into and it's huge compared to the size I had them laid out in the photos, so I'm going to re look at them tomorrow and work out whether to reduce the backing, have white space around them or something else. I like the idea of having some extra white though, I'm very attracted to full-on contrasts, so it might end up being the way I go.

It seems too hard sometimes to get this done! I'm way too picky and I tend to over-think some of these elements, but hopefully it will look as good as a quilt as it does in my head.