Latest purchases

Here's my latest purchases. The patterns I got today wandering into the local Red Cross store. I love the Vogue dress at the front, but no real reason to make it yet. Obviously someone was a big fan of knit fabrics. There is a couple of patterns in the book with the girl in the daggy hat, so I might get to use all this jersey I bought.

The green spotted jersey I bought on a stressful shop with Elizabeth. I wanted some jersey with vague notions of making myelf a wrap dress, but was thinking more on the lines of blacks or grey. As I was browsing, Elizabeth decided to climb out of her stroller and run rampant. I couldn't think straight really, and ended up buying 2 and a half metres of this stuff! There are a few ideas I've got, but definitely not a dress in this green - not me at all, but a top is a good idea I think. The green circle satin will make great pajamas.

The flanellettes, grey star drill, and the patchwork was bought on Monday at Lincraft - a much better shopping experience. And the blue I bought from funky fabrix to make a bag for Mothers' Day. Well, that's the plan.

I have so many projects in my head, but have no idea when I'll get to them all!

Decorating on my mind

I will get this quilt finished eventually, but thought I should post to my progress so far. I have stalled a bit after having to unpick a whole row. I didn't realise the blocks were mixed up by a little munchkin (Louisa). The below pic is Louisa's room where the quilt will go. I quite like the room as is. I thought I was very clever leaving the navy feature wall and adding the red but pink is Louisa's 'favourite and my best', so the navy wall will soon be candy pink, I think.

The other room I'm looking at at the moment is Jake's (stepson - just turned 12 - visits in school hols). He's stuck with a purple feature wall at the moment, so I'm keen to redo that. Green has always been his favourite colour, so I'd love to transform this into something more 'Jake-like'. The bed base is actually a futon we had downstairs, but decided to swipe the single bedhead he had to put in Louisa's room for when Lizzie is old enough to share with her (it is the same shape as Louisa's but solid and needs some gloss white paint.

The colour in the photo below is kind of what I'm aiming for with Jake's room and I really like this bed linen:

http://www.boodalee.com/trees.html

Not sure if it's too 'young' for him though.

There are a lot more things I'd like to do around our house, but most of those are more costly and will take more time (redo kitchens, bathrooms, put a deck out the back, etc). These projects should keep me busy.

Swap questions

For the benefit of my EB sewing group 'swappee':
1. What colours are your kitchen? I have a daggy 80s kitchen with bones and browns, but a burgurdy feature wall the last owners did in an attempt to update it. I'd love a new kitchen, and it's on our list but a few other projects to do first.

2. What is your favourite appliance? Definitely my kettle. I'm a huge tea drinker and the kettle is in constant use all day. None of these fancy chai teas of anything, just plain old Dilmah usually.

3. What do you love cooking most? I love to cook sweet treats, but as I have a bit of a health nut for a husband, I don't bother much. Otherwise I'd eat it all myself! Muffins are a big hit with myself and the girls.

4. What item would you love the most from your swap partner?
Not fussy, really. I'll be happy with a nice surprise.

Here's a couple of pictures I have already. We've since bought a new dining setting and the cane table is now my sewing table in another room!

Bits and pieces

So yes, I've begun working on a quilt. The above is just a play around with the fabrics I've cut out so far. I was procrastinating terribly about it, looking into lessons, etc But I've just decided to 'have a go' and if it turns out terribly, I'll only have wasted a bit of fabric. One of my husband's favourite sayings : ' it's not brain surgery, if you stuff it up, noone's going to die'. Well, I may die of embarassment, but anyway. At least I'm feeling happy now that I've decided on a pattern and have actually started work. I 'm basically using the lotus brick path Amy Butler pattern, just doing a slightly smaller version. I don't like the lace print fabric I put in this picture, so I'll leave that out. I bought a few more fabrics today at Spotlight (all on sale of course) including the backing fabric, so hopefully the progress on this won't be too slow.

This is the bag I made for our little friend Charlee who had her birthday party yesterday. I gave her this along with the top I'd made previously from the same fabric. Although it's by no means perfect, I'm rather happy with it, given I'd never made one before and didn't use a pattern. The recipient loved it too! I guess 3 year olds don't mind a few flaws here and there. I'm now keen make myself a bag, properly with a pattern this time.

While my parents were staying with us, we did the shops in Redcliffe and Scarborough. I was surprised to find an op shop I'd never noticed before in Scarborough and even more surprised to find some great patterns. Who knows when I'[ll get around to using them, but I'm especially happy I was able to find a baby pattern. I wasn't sewing when either of my girls were babies, so missed out on making bibs and sleeping bags, etc. But now I'll be able to make gifts for any friends or relatives that have new additions.

Here's some play clothes for Lizzie. The top's from Target. The applique isn't the best, and I didn't line up the checks, but I'm not too worried as these are intended for messy visits to the park, beach, etc. and were made very quickly and easily.

Pink, pink and more pink...oh and some red too!

The youngest of the first crop of mums' group kids is having her 3rd birthday soon, and I decided to make something for her. She's completely obsessed with ponies, specifically My Little Ponies. I couldn't find any licensed material (didn't look too hard to be honest), but I thought this unicorn fabric would fit the bill. Even if it is very, um... pink! I can see that it wouldn't be to everyone's taste but I think Charlee will love it! I hadn't sewn the straps in when I took the photo, and I've actually decided to use some ribbon ties instead. It will be easier to fit, given that I won't have a chance to try it on her. I just hope I can find some ribbon in that right shade of pink.
I'd already made Louisa's kindy sheets just after Christmas, but needed to make her a bag for them. I was going to get all creative with using the butterflies for applique onto plain fabric.( this was actually part of the reason I chose the fabric), but ran out of time really. So a plain bag, but it'll certainly do the job.
And finally, my fabric arrived from reprodepot - my first ever online fabric purchase. My aim is to make a quilt for Louisa featuring both pink and red. Her room is currently decorated with a red theme, but unfortunately she's decided that pink is her favourite colour. (I think she's not alone there.) I've never made a quilt before, so I have a bit of thinking to do about the size, a design, whether I'll actually cheat and get it professionally machine quilted, etc. So don't expect to see a quilt anytime soon!

A cute top

Here's the top I made from the fabrics below. I'm pretty impressed with the fabric combination! (Just don't notice the wonky seam where the ruffle joins). I used Simplicity pattern 4252.,but added the ruffle on the bottom. I should have made it a bit 'rufflier' in hindsight, but I'm learning. I did a good job of finishing too, with french seams, etc. I feel like each thing I make I'm getting a bit more polished.

Now to make the dress - oh and DH's gym shorts.

A top and some fabric...

A not very exciting piece of sewing! The fabric is actually from a Tshirt of Daddy's, which I cut down. I intended to use it for winter for Elizabeth underneath the two pinafore dresses I'm yet to make. Unfortunately I had to unpick the shoulder at one point and the fabric was damaged so I think it will become pyjama top, maybe with pants made from the Hello Kitty fabric I have. I guess I should have waited until I'd done that to post a pic! But I'm still having annoying temperamental camera problems, so most things I'd like to post, I can't.

I've made a beautiful top for Louisa out of the quilting material I bought at my local fabric shop. I love how the fabric works together, so much so that I'm making a dress too. I'll just have to tease you with this picture. The skirt is made from the first two fabrics. The dress will have the border on the bottom. These were my purchases on Louisa's first day of kindy. Elizabeth was asleep in the stroller so I managed to browse quite a bit, even got to the op shop down the street and bought a couple of patterns. I really like the camisole top in one of them, there's an option with wider straps on the back so am keen to have a go at that for myself.