sewing again

I finally go the machine out and starting sewing again. This time another Baby quilt, we are about to have our own little baby boom here in town, so i thought i had better get started.

This is for a little girl due at the end of march, a sister for isabella, the grgeous recipient of the Bella bambina quilt. There is more blue in it than i had orginially planned but i think it still looks very gentle and feminine.

I am making progress

so i haven't blogged for a while. things have been busy. But i have been sewing. I promise.

here's a brief update - no photos today, sorry.

*MIL's quilt sandwhiched and Quilting has begun. Hoping to be finished this part by sunday and trim it off monday night.

*5 wheat bags, 3 for mothers day and one each for the kids. Kids love theirs - they got to choose the fabric and help put in the wheat. The nights are getting much colder so they both heat them up and snuggle in at night.

ok, so it's not heaps, but i lost a sewing day monday as i got called into work. Oh well. more money to spend on material. :)

Further Progress.

I made moe progress on MIL's Quilt today, pressing the seams on the rows and laying them out - this pic was the first layout, but i found there was a cery obvious group of the white in the bottom left hand corner, so i rearranged it a little.

I couldn't take anymore pics as i needed to download some pics off the camera as it was full. YEP apparantly the card in my camera will only take a measly 326 pics! LOL.

I hope to start sewing the rows together this week and then get the wadding and backing in the holidays and pin it in the second week of the hols after our trip. XfingersX.

I am a little closer to reaching the deadline of June 24th.

slow progress. Thats why it's called a WISP!

well, i have finally put the strips together for MIL's quilt. There are 26 long pieces consisting of 15 and 17 rectangles.
and there you have my first mistake. Both row 1 and row 2 have an odd number of rectangles, instead of one even, one odd. Oh well. My plan is to lay it out and then just take a rectangle off each of the 17 long strips. XfingersX that will work.

I hope to press the seams tonight if i can get the kids into bed at a reasonable hour, and then lay it out on the loungeroom floor. I'll do pics then.

Anyway, just wanted to let you know that i have been sewing. it has only taken me 9 months to get this far. 3 months until desired deliery date - and still the strips need to be sewn together, it needs to be sandwhiched and pinned then quilted and binded. Still think this timeline might be a little ambitious.

A little Bag.

Well more sewing yesterday - all with a sick little girl at home. Although she was happy once we whipped up a skirt for her with some fabirc she chose from SL. It wasn't very good, being my first attempt at a skirt, and not using a pattern. I made soem VERY obvious mistakes, but thats ok. She loves it and that is all that maters. It's just a play skirt anyway. ave found some nice easy tutorials so will have a go at another one maybe tomorrow for her.

I did put together one of the bags that was on my WIP list. I am just now trying to decide whether to give it as a b'day pressie on Thursday or make another for her. I found this gorgeous black fabric with small red and gold flowers on it which would make a divine bag, so might whip that up tonight and then decide.



This was the first bag i have attempted that has soemthing other than fabric handles. I was pleased, although had some difficulty trying to sew with the handle in place. This one was made easier by the fact i could take the handles off as they just hook in to the fabric loops, but i think for my next one i will just make the fabric loops a little longer to make it easier to sew.

I also have to put a satchel together for the same bday on thursday. Thursday then means i have 12 months to complete the special Quilt for my bestie for her 35th. I am going to try and hand quilt it too, so I plan to peice it as soon as MIL's quilt is pieced.

Speaking of MIL's quilt. It is finally cut!! 425 peices!! Wow. That just took so long, as it was hard to get motivated to cut 425 rectangles. I think it will come together nicely and i also managed to get the rows together in piles yesterday. 12 x Row 1 (14 rectangles) and 12 x Row 2 (15 rectangles). It is the same rnadom pattern that i used for the earlier baby quilts (like Molly and Jacks) but just in full size. I hope to get it pieced this week as it will take forever to pin and then quilt. I suspect June might come quickly.

OK, off to get ready for work...dropping sick Miss to Dh at lunchtime so I can teach this arvo.

I got my SEW-JO back!!

Well, after a few days of rearranging the house, Master 4 moving into the larger room and my sewing room "downsizing" i have finally had the urge to get the machine going again!

Ok, so i didn't do much, but with a sick Miss 2.5 I thought i did ok. I finally edged the patchwrk playmat for day care which has been sitting begging to be done for weeks now. It was one of those projects that always seemed "too hard" so i kept putting it off. But ayway, file it away as it is now done. It was just squares of old thermal line curtain material sewn together. They plan to use it when the ground might be still dewy and they want to head out into the "fairy garden" for morning tea.

I also made VERY QUICK AND EASY door stop. It was in the latest BHG as "No damn slam" ad is supposed to be decorate to be a pear. But i decided i would just try the basic shape, as pears don't really suit our house yet. ONce we get the whole country theme going it might be different, but that is still awhile off. Although the new furniture arriving next weekend will be a good start.

Anyway, it was nice a simple, and Master 4 was even able to help with the tracing and enlarging of the picture.

So here is the finished product:

Anwyay, will have Miss 2.5 home with me tomorrow so not sure how much will get done but this are my current WIP's and WISP's....

WIP:

*Bushfire quilt

*2 handbags

*1 satchel

*1 fat quater handbag

WISP:

*MIL's quilt. Must be completed by June 24th.

Currently still cutting!!!!

i'll be back to update how much gets done tomorrow.

on track for a crafty 09!

Well I am off to a great start, and the lst two days have been actually really good. Yesterday the kids were at daycare, so I had a whole day to sew which was fantastic. The frist part of the day was spent carpetting the luxurious dolls house in which Miss 2.5's dolls are lucky enough to reside. Yep, 2 story, fine furniture and now with lovely dep burgundy, velvet carpet!

Mum Finally got her Chrissy present, in Jan!! Slight late although she had seen it as a WIP. So here is the finished product, although on my dinner table not heres. She has used it for her coffee table.

I have also finished the quilt for the newest arrival to A & T's family, Isabella. It's called "Bella Bambina" and is a simple randon rectangle design. I haven't taken any photos of the quilt binded, but I will label it tomorrow and take some pics before dropping it off on monday.

My Cousins littlest one AShley, 7months is in hospital at the moment, the poor little man caught some kind of infectio and it has affected his kidneys. he is in hospital for a while and the family has moved into Ronald McDonald house. So i thought i would make a Quilt to brighten up his hospital cot. Called it "spots and stars". I initially had 3 different types of 4 square blcoks but one had red it in and seems to get lostwhen all put together, so I whipped up a couple more of the other 2 blocks and these look much fresher. Definately cheery, which was the intent. Will pin this tonight and hopefully quilt tomorrow. X through the 4 square blocks and either an X or a star in the larger red blocks.

Dh had been asking for a satchel type bag big enough for his laptop for a while now. I found the fabric a while ago, brown homespun, coupled with a funky brown and white jungle print, i just hadn't found the pattern. Anyway, found it on the web, and this is the result. Dh is very impressed, as is using it for either laptop, or if he is going out without computer, it holds his diary and pens, walle and phone. It's a MANBAG!! LOL. anyway, i was pleased with the overall reults, although made a few small mistakes. His is lined with left over cotton qilt batting.

Of course, the kids, being such mini me's, decided that the must both have a bag the same as Daddy. They both insisted on purple, not sure why, but so found a contrasting floral for little miss, and a rainbow pirate fabric for master 4. This time I used iron on interfacing rather than the batting, which made it much easie rto work with. Althoguh this time I tried to go from memory, thiking as I only made the other yesterday, i couldn't have possibly forgotten, but i had to unpick 3 stages as I had forgotten simple steps, like putting the straps on the worng way, and forgetting to lin gthe flap at the top. Oh well, a good learning experience, and the kids were happy with the finished product. Please excuse Little Miss' lack of clothing, we are in the midst of Toilet training, and guess what she is now keeping in her bag? yep Knickers!! LOL.

Okay, so thats it from me today, a long one I know, but i have been so productive!! I will pin the quilt tonight, hopefully quilt tomorrow, and then I just have the WISP, a quilt (double bed size) for MIL, which i would like to at least have cut out before I go back to work!

Oh, I almost forgot, we went garage saling this morning and I stubled across a tub of old quilting and patchworl, and homemade mags. Picked out a few went to pay and the lvoely lady said, oh love, they're free, i'm just giving them away!! well, i marched straight back and got my self a clean 20 or so!!!! wow. These are $8 mags, all in tip top nic, with patterns that don't really date. I am so impressed, and hoping that there is some inspiration amongst my garage sale bargain!!

Love and Stiches,

Sharyn