Wendy the bird

Well the quilt is hung in emilys room and against purple walls it looks so much brighter too. She loves it. Its on a curtain rod with rings and clip, pegs on the end. I didn't want to sew loops into the back of it, with the scallop edges already i just could't do it. It covers so much of her wall, its a fantastic way to brighten a room.

I have to thank Janelle for her pattern and her pattern writing skills, its all super easy to follow and that in the end gives a product your happy with too. Emily has picked Janelles candy quilt for her bed as well, and im kind of pleased about that. I will get to that one shortly.

This is a wendy bird, the pattern to this softie is a free downloadable one from lollychops.com

Wendy is easy and quick. I strung the three of them together and then hung them off emilys 10 foot high ceiling. Its safe to say im never getting them down again! lol also should of taken pics before i put them up there. im not tall enough.
i have another wendy to share soon, this one will be on a bird swing. Emilys room is starting to take shape, obviously her bed quilt is yet to come, but i have a rug on my crocheting hook for the floor and some art for the other wall as well as some bunting to pop up somewhere. Some nice pink boxes for her toys as well. A few other bird type softies as well.

Little Blue Birds

I started this quilt in 2008! I even shared that very centre panel. And then i spent from then and until now, SLOWLY working on the hand stitched panels. They took me forever. and we had a few mishaps along the way, including my lovely children helping out by cutting up a piece of red spotted material for the corner stars. Needless to say the spots on two corners are different! And at one point my dear husband helped me tidy up the lounge room and placed a half complete hand stitched flowers panel in parts unknown? How do you lose a piece of material that long? I have no idea, but we did and I have never seen it again. Completely gone. I wasn't a happy camper when i had to stitch it again. It sparked this particular project being put away for quite some time.

This year my kids started swimming lessons, and lilly little athletics, and i spent hours bored to tears after the first few weeks, im bad i know, but you can only watch so many long jumps before you go insane, so i started taking my sewing with me, and because of those hours i finally finished all the hand stitching. After that it took no time at all to get this complete and good to go.
I used bamboo batting, its so lovely to work with. i was so worried about quilting this and seriously through about sending it out to be done, but didn't and while its not perfect only a quilter would noticed, and well we are pretty rough and ready around here so it fits right in. And im kind of glad that i did the whole thing.

Heres some of the details.

I think there is pretty much an even spread of hand and machine stitching to this quilt.

Anyway there you have it. This was a Janelle Wind block of the month quilt, that clearly I didn't do in the seven months or so that I was receive packets of material and patterns.

This is for Emilys room. Its leading the way in a room renovation for her all themed around this quilt. I will share the other bits as I get them up. Some im still in the middle of getting organised. And her bed quilt I haven't even started. But its coming...:)

Christmas 2010

From us to you, Merry Christmas

sorry about the dodgy video work, we're getting better at it, i promise!

Owl Pillow, is called snuggly owl and I found him on oneprettything.com, and on Make it, Love it, its a downloadable pattern and instruction set, I found him pretty easy to make, he is pretty big and takes a fair bit of stuffing. Emily loves him, she quite likes birds, her room its getting a make over based on the little blue birds quilt im making her, that i have been making her for a long time, its so almost finished its not funny! I can't wait to see all the little things i have altogether. Matts for the floor, bunting for the shelves, art work based on her quilt and a few table runners and things, very cute. Right now thinking about adding curtains as well. Don't know yet. But the nursery feel her room has had is on the way out, welcome the girl room..:) Sigh, no more babies here..:(

I hope everyone had a wonderful christmas, and has an even better new year.

christmas present glore

More sewing from Janelle winds book. It really is fantastic. I love this bag, it is so very cute. I made one for lillys friend earlier in the year and the girls totally fell in love with it, so here is emilys for christmas. Hers has a magnetic clasp. It will be good for the plane when we go and visit my mum after christmas.

I found this quilt on moda bake shop. (Picture frame or frame it or something of that nature, i would share the link but its stuck on my out of commission lap top) It was very easy, though i found the squares didn't quite match up, but within the overall effect you can't really pick it out. As said, it was easy and quite quick. Its also rather large! it should of had another round of large squares, but it was getting out of control for me. But i can so see it bigger and on a bed. Anyone this ones intention is for a picnic blanket. the owner of this quilt would of no need for warmth from it..:)

details, im still learning about free motion quilting. But i have discovered the lumpier the better for me..:) A wise lady also told me that it can't be wrong if i like it. Im going with that theory!...:)

The shopping tote from Janelle wind again, gotta use these pattern books up as much as possible..:) it goes with the picnic quilt.

five sleeps till the man in red....eeeek, we are so not organised, the only thing stashed in my cupboard is an xbox and kinect kit, dear me

updating the pillows

i shared the link to this quilt ages ago, heres my quilt. i first found this blog of janelle winds blog and let me just tell you cluck cluck sew is a fantastic blog full of tutorials to create things, all sorts of things. its all easy to follow. i loved the scrappy ness of this quilt. we use this mainly at little athletics on a friday night. its our picnic blanket. it gets quite the few comments too, i've led many to the tutorial. i knocked it all up over a few days. i did add an additional boarder to mine.
http://www.cluckclucksew.com/2008/09/petal-pillow-tutorial.html

heres the pillow tutorial. i've been looking in a few stores at pillows, ours were in desperate need of replacing. I saw very very similar pillows to this one in designer stores starting at thirty dollars. just between you and me this didn't cost me that at all, and it was quick and very easy to sew and has given me all sorts of ideas for the other pillows. The felt is by the metre and it was very nice to work with, softer than the craft variety. Lincraft i found by the metre felt, but i bet its in spot light as well, somewhere. I used a demin for the base of the pillow.
My girls are totally in love with it, so i can see a few more of these in my future, i would probably make a slightly smaller base next time, esp for the girls beds.

Currently working on an xmas present quilt, i finished the quilting part yesterday, just the binding to go, will share shortly..:)

sewing sewing

so its been a week of sewing, of finishing things off and in some cases starting things. Much of my sewing came from Janelle winds book. Its fantastic, everything is funky and easy to follow and a pleasure to sew. The iphone pouch is for Jen Emilys hand therapist, emily and jen play with her iphone while Jen does her stretches. A part of therapy emily hates, so we found this to be a fitting present..:)

Lilly has two teachers this year, and this is what they got. I also followed a pattern from Janelles book, however there should be eight stars and I went for four as a middle of the table runner. I love these stars. I want one for my house too..:)

in the middle of a bag and quilt and some other bits, will share later

its a barbies life

what to do what to do, three nude barbies, one unhappy four year old.

collect one scrapbag of material for her to look at, and maybe 20 cents worth of elastic, 30 minutes of my time at the machine and we have barbie fashion happening.

seeing something that excites her as much as my minimal effort with the clothes was pretty priceless i have to say.


this poor barbie, is Attitude Barbie. Nice tats...hehe...she had to have trashy clothes to match...seeing as we can't get the pen off.

Do your kids barbie hair look like this too? i wish they would find something bettter to make barbie hair out of

pleated strip skirt

i found this on moda bake shop, its very sweet.
http://www.modabakeshop.com/2010/08/strip-pieced-pleated-skirt.html

its a pattern for a jelly roll, but strips of fabric do the trick. most of this material was made up of letf over bits and pieces and a fat quarter here and there. i had two 14 strip panels with six pleats in each, made for lilly who is seven and not a small seven.

it was easy stitching. and a great way to use up left over strips of material. its one i will make again.

i love moda bake shop, lots of patterns for all sorts of things. its a great blog.

sewing again

so i've been sewing again. a whole quilt which i had my first go at free motion quilting. and while its not perfect, it looks like. i found th epattern i used on janelle winds blog first. a link she shared. the quilt is easy and i love the scrappy look of it. heres the link. http://www.cluckclucksew.com/2009/12/raw-edge-circle-quilt-tutorial.html
i will share pics of mine later, its not a nice day here for pics today. i did add a boarder to mine. but i found the whole thing easy and quick. i had it complete in less than a week to use. its currently the rug we take to little athletics on a friday night.


today i woke with the urge to sew clothes. god knows why. i came across the link to this dress on one pretty thing. http://indietutes.blogspot.com/2010/08/solar-dress-free-pattern.html
the dress is easy to sew and i had it in less than an hour. way less. and emily loves it, it gives good twirl, very important in four year old world. the pattern has multi sizes and im thinking it would also look great as a top, which i think i will make for lilly so their clothes are just a little different.

the back, emily is in the four/five size of the pattern. its a little big on her, but i hope she gets to wear it next year as well.

and this one is just cause she is so damn cute..:)

Some making

Well thats what emily calls it..:)

I have had the softies book forever. And this is the first and only thing I have made. Polly. For my niece. She is so soft. And i love that amy butler fabric.

Next is a change mat with pocket, that i found on one pretty thing. The pattern was easy and the whole thing was done in a matter of an hour. It to went in the baby present..:) Ps i really had to talk myself out of buying the Amy butler baby book...oh my god, its so nice!

And a card to go with the gift..:)

sorry about the pics, camera needs new batteries so its just an iphone in this house atm.

Later

Jacqui

sewing

this is made from a mccalls pattern
has 6 different things to make up.
this is for lilly, im going to put it away from christmas. but im happy with how it turned out
tonight i hope to sew her a few more things. another set in a different style and a dress. then i will work on some emily things

scrapping and sewing

round 4!
this week we had to use rubons, tape, write on a photo and use bright colours. very collagey look this week. gauze up the side that i inked pink before i stuck it on. i had little to no plan when i started this, it just sort of happened as i scrapped.

are these not the cutest little baskets. i made two...super easy and quick heres the tutorial i found here http://ayumills.blogspot.com/2008/05/tutorial-fabric-basket.html

i plan to mess with the measurements and make bigger ones for storage in the girls room.

i made this dress for emily. its my first attempt at following a pattern on my own. its just a basic spotlight get creative pattern. it was very easy to follow.
http://www.oliverands.com/blog/2008/08/lazy-days-skirt-free-pattern.html

this is the easiest skirt in the world i think there r only three lines of sewing! and one cut. doesnt take much material either. both my girls got one. i did pretty well out of $10 material. 2 skirts and a dress! cant beat that.

the funny thing with all the sewing ive been doing, when we left brisbane i gave away my fabric stores. it was all very country looking. im not a country decorator and i really thought i would leave sewing behind....so not! the materials that are around at the moment r fantastic. i love the colours...i could just go silly!

mermaid tales!

shocking pic...the sun is so sunny here this morning! and i love it its very nice after winter! well here it is a finished mermaid outfit. forgive the serious pic, i was interrupting her fav morning show lol. im quite happy with the final product. it took forever this week, every spare moment i had was sewing scales and then stitching them to the tail, but lilly loves it, is currently giving it a cuddle!!??!! the material has a shimmery shine that changes the colour as u move too. it has an elastic waste and the back seam is completely unstitched so that she can walk around. hopefully it will grow with her for a while!!!.
some of the details...yes stuipd i know but i did hand stitch seed beads on as well, u can just make them out! the things u do for your children!....:) the top i made like an apron, it just ties over her clothes to complete the look! lol i wanted more than a bra type top. emilys tale is next on the list. i want to make hers quite a bit shorter so the flipper doesnt touch the floor, she trips over enough now! the girls r both getting some dress ups for christmas. im going to make them. which means i can throw out more of the old old dress ups lilly has had since she was emilys age. sadly mine are way better quality (but cost the same?) i hope that means they will outlast my little dress up girl.

does anyone watch heuys cooking adventures....on tuesday or wednesday this last week (cant remember which)my dh was cooking with heuy. pretty cool for dan....:)

some information for those interested
lemon cordial
i first found a cordial recipe here
http://crazy-mumma.blogspot.com/2008/07/homemade-fruit-cordials-nablopomo-10.html
its all to easy and is made in a few minutes (not worth buying really)
for my lemon we
used 500g sugar
500ml water
pop both ingredients in a pot, heat until sugar has melted + plus a minute or two after that - thickens the sugar syrup just a little.
u should have about a litre of sugar syrup
generally cordial is then equal parts fresh squeezed fruit juice and the sugar syrup.
we didnt use equal parts lemon juice. i used about 800mls ish maybe less in the sugar syrup i didnt want it to be too tart for the kids. its perfect for us. its lemony for me and sweet enough for the kids.
homemade cordial tastes different to store bought. the taste is refreshing and reminds me of expensive flavoured waters u can buy. but i know only the best fruit was used to make it.
we do add citric acid about a teaspoon a litre i think helps it to last a little longer.

the lavash bread biscuits i found here
http://simple-living-simple-cooking.blogspot.com/2007/03/lavash-bread.html
i use alot of things from this simple little record blog. lots of base cooking ideas that r helping us to cut out even more preservatives and fake food

how dare you

did i even tell u all i joined the team over there...link in the side bar.

this months theme was everyday...we werent required to add to the theme but it had so many opportunities so i just had too!!!

this is what i did. printed lilly onto some printable fabric photo paper

followed sort of a tutorial here http://www.craftbits.com/viewProject.do?projectID=1098 and went with some fabric scrapbooking ideas from doona downeys book (i love that book)

i added some quilt wadding for insulation and then some lining, including a plastic layer so that condensation doesnt leak everywhere.

thats a 600ml bottle and its alot bigger than the bottle. i bought lilly and emily new thermos water bottles this morning and it should fit those i hope nicely. it will also protect these bottles from some damage...they were not cheap!

cooking and sewing

recently i was left with a what will i do about crackers, savory biscuits and the like. full of preservatives and children that eat packets of them a week. i had no idea when i came across a few ideas. we turn our day old homemade bread into crackers by drying them out in the oven to eat with cheese or philly spread or homemade dips, then i found a recipe for lavash bread biscuits. totally yum!!! easy to do esp when u can roll out the dough with the pasta machine we bought dan for fathers day! we have made them twice, they last a few days and r so hard to STOP eating just ask dan! hehe
yesterday i made them with my little helper. she was putting the cooled ones in the box before the new tray came out of the oven. im sure my little helper ate half of every tray that came out of the oven..she didnt eat much dinner last night lol.

her fav job everyday is to help me out in the kitchen. she pulls up the chair to the bench and says help help until i give her something to do lol.

my newest sewing project!! its for lilly's dress up box. she loves playing dress up and is finally steping away from dressing up as a fairy! I am however upset by the quality of bought dress up clothes, they r not sewn well and cost a bomb...so this time i decided i would do the sewing and from my own design too lol can u guess what it will be??

ive managed another two rows this afternoon. the base is calico. and ive cut out another two rows but they r still being prepared

i will show some more of the project tomorrow.

some stitching

I decided last month that i would take on a quilting project..the first one in a number of years. I picked a block of the month quilt...called little blue birds by Janelle wind .
so far i have worked throught two months of it. Im LOVING IT...didnt she just pick beautiful fabrics!

some close ups, i wouldnt say im perfect at patchwork, actually a long way from perfect, but im happy with it so far.

This was last months block, all hand stitching. it took me ages to do, and again its not perfect but its looking good from a distance.
This weekend ive been making frilly aprons for the market store (see the link in side bar)
I was playing with my new machine, and working on the finishings of something that is for sale. i wanted to hide the messy seams and stuff and the overlocker type stitch was great lessing the problem too. This is about a size 2 so probably good for a 12 months to 3 year old i would guess. or thats what im hoping as emily has one too. i listed the smaller apron for $18..:)

anyway im loving stitching atm, there are some inspiring people out there in sewing land thats for sure! i have so many ideas that i want to try now! and i would love to go to tafe and actually learn about sewing and making your own patterns and stuff. one day!

FINALLY

well yesterday was a sewing day...a few clothes for the kids and this, my gratitude wrap for the swap im in organised by mel goodsell. BUT, after many months of know my sewing machine was dieing...it kicked the bucket! ive been putting money away for a while generally from my card publications to put towards my machine and i was still a little short. My loving dh told me to get a new one anyway. woohoo!

im in love right now with the stitching work of janelle winds journal covers with belts and mardi's pattern test ones. so i decorated my wrap with something similiar. (i know i will be buyiing that pattern when its released! THAT bag is just beautiful)
the inside, and i beg of my swap partner to not look closely a the stitching, this is what i was in the middle of stitching when the said machine started the kick the bucket!, im still thinking of stitching it again, but will have to think about time frame before that. the belt i stitched today on my brand new wonderful machine!
And this is it my beautiful new machine. i went the breast cancer release machine, it was good value for money and a good next step for me after 11 years of a very very basic machine. and it came with all the quilting foots i need and generally meets my needs. its just so lovely to stitch with, it doesnt thump along, or move the table when i really get it going. and just because i didnt want to stitch paper as a first project here is a felt food tutorial that was promised before said machine started to really die on me..: )

Biscuit felt Tutorial - jam drops.

(machine stitched version)

brown felt

red felt

hobby fill

machine.

Roughly cut two large brown circles and a small red one to act as the jam.
Stitch the jam circle to one of the brown circles.
Stitch the brown circles together. I used my new overlocker type stitch, more because i wanted to see what it was like ... :)
leave a small section not stitched

and add hobby fill. stitch closed.
to add a bit of feature, stitch around the red circle once more through all the layers of the biscuit. (like quilting really)
And there u go finished biscuits.
My first lot of biscuits i made i used blanket stitch on the edges and to attach the red circle. it was also easy to do it this way.

FINALLY A RAK
i promised this weeks ago and then got sick.
so here it is, if you would like to start your felt food collection i have some strawberries and todays biscuits to give away, but also added to the rak is one of my knited dishcloths. if you want to try one leave me a comment on this post and i will get lilly to draw a comment in a few days.