Asher's pirate vest and boy oh boy quilt

where has this week gone?
im not really sure to be honest, but i know i haven't done a lot of craft-ing...

i have nearly finished hubby's nephew's pirate vest - can't you tell..... :)

not a great piccie, but it is a very simple vest with the shoelace type cord to go in the eyelets in each side, like a lace up effect

i am CRAP at dressmaking, so it is a very rudimentary vest, but should get the job done for dress ups!

have also been working on the boy oh boy quilt for the homespun design comp - im getting the embroidery done slowly.  started thinking about how to quilt it too - think i will do some in the ditch and the some hand quilting of bigger perle cotton stitches....not sure yet

hope you are all finding time for some craftiness of your own

pugs and kisses
xx

FINISHED! Crafty Money Keeper

we all are living in tough-er times and so it is appropriate (if unwanted) that crafty money is more tightly controlled......i think :)

see, this is what happens when opposites attract - picture young crafty pug, full of energy, conversation and craziness, meets future hubby, down to earth, stable, good listener, financial conservative. they fall in love and get married

ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

anyhoo, as they say, you fall in love with the strengths, you go home with the problems :)  that sounds much more dire than it actually is :)  i love my husband and he is a wonderful husband, father and bloke!  but....

and one of the big differences in our lives is the way that hubby and i deal with money - me, free wheeling and spending - you need money, here have it! i want that pretty thing, yes please! fabric is on sale, better buy 4 times as much!

of course, little human comes along, im now at home and income is less.....so! budget time. mind you, we always had a budget of course - hubby looks after that! but apparently, he just let the crazy craft spending go! but now, we can't do that anymore....

this is good for me - discipline in your life is not something to be sneered at (the pile of UFO's in my sewing area is laughing at me).

so i now get cash in hand to purchase craft gear - this again is good for me, because if i don't have the cash, i don't buy the gear. (the 'out' clause for me in this is that we have a separate budget line for 'presents' and often my creations fall into that category - whew!).

i didn't want to carry around the crafty money in my normal purse, and so i created a crafty money keeper!

fabo prints charming fabric from my not-LQS (that was in my stash) and a wooden button that my mum brought me back from Tassie, made from some kind of tree that is purpose grown for buttons (or something).  they aren't washable, so limited in their use, but i thought a very appropriate addition to the money keeper.....a reminder that all things have a use for something (and i can picture my mother's stern 'telling off face' - argh!)

i just opened up a paper envelope and used it as a template...

i put the button hole off centre for the purse, but in the middle of the green-y semi-circle.  not sure if i am happy with that look, but you can't redo button holes!!!!

but the best part of all - i have managed to be disciplined for 2 whole pays now....so there is some crafty money in the crafty money keeper, being saved up to buy backing, sashing and batting to finish off my Birdie Quilt

any frugal tips to pass on?

pugs and kisses
xx

Leona's give away!

one of our fellow Block Swappers is having a give away - with some lovely things being given away!
this is the direct link to the post.
check it out - you've got to be in it to win it

pugs and kisses
xx

Friday night sew in August report!

hubby and i managed to get the little human into bed before 7pm - so that meant i was off to my sewing space then! lucky me!

i was very disciplined, bordering on boring, this FNSI - i restricted myself to UFO's only.

first i finished off my mother in law's blocks for her 60th birthday quilt.

then i got to work on my hubby's requested tv watching quilt. his challenge was to make it entirely from my stash (he is a bit of a tight-arse!) as then he would enjoy it more. i decided on a disappearing 9 patch some time ago, as it would hide my mismatched points more easily!

i had kind of just been going along cutting 3" squares and piecing them together, but i thought i should get organised with some colours etc, otherwise there wouldn't be a spread of the fabrics....

so i got all my colours out and started cutting....

then grouped them into piles of 9 separted by the insert from some flat fats i had...

then i pieced a few together....

getting some idea of what it will look like...

then i called it a night!

much fun - it is nice to put a whole night aside and be out by myself doing craft.  glad i have the excuse to do it once a month with FNSI!!!

pugs and kisses
xx

p.s. for those in Oz, don't forget to vote today!!!  despite what our Mark Latham might think, making your vote count is more important that protesting by donkey voting.  if you don't like what you are seeing in the major parties, consider a minor one or an independent.  but whatever you do, make it count!  people have fought and died for our right to choose our government

lucky me x 2!

today, i love my postman. not that i don't normally love him, he is very nice and regularly brings things that are too big to fit in my letterbox to my front door - very thoughtful. but today, two special reasons for love!

1. my swap partner for this month, Cathy, 's block arrived!!! and it is lovely - such great piecing. and she included a fabo piece of fabric in the colours requested - can't wait to put this quilt together one day!

love it - and not only that, this beautiful card was included, that Cathy made herself!  what a clever crafty lady!  (please excuse my hand - holding it up was the only way i could stop the flash washing out the photo!)

2. the other reason to love the postie today was the arrival of a prize from Homespun!  lucky lucky me!  "dreaming of a white christmas" by kerry swain was my prize and it is a beautiful book full of recipes, craft and decorating tips for a tradition christmas.

off to bed now - hope you all had a great FNSI
will post update tomorrow morning with some sleep in me!

pugs and kisses
xx

FINISHED! Adeline's tagged blankie

a lovely young couple that we know have had a baby prem - but thankfully everything is going ok for mum and bubs

they have called the little girl Adeline - a name i love!!!

anyhoo, here is the tagged blanket i made here - her name is embroidered in the middle using the curly font on my sewing machine.

so easy to make - this was 1/2 hour total!

hopefully it brings some joy

pugs and kisses
xx

p.s. don't forget FNSI sign ups!!!

UPDATE! boy oh boy quilt

the top centre piecing is finished!! i am pretty happy with it i think - happy for my first attempt at designing something myself anyway :)

as you can see, it is 8 pieced 9 patch blocks around a centre, which will have embroidered words from the poem/nursery rhyme 'what are little boys made of?'

this is a close up of one of the corners - i totally cheated when putting on the setting triangles as i didn't know how to actually do it.  so i wasted HEAPS of material, but at least i got the look i wanted

and these are the threads im going to embroider the centre with

still have to think about an outer border and then binding. i definitely don't have enough left of my fat quarter bundle for a solid outer border, and i think that is what it needs to finish it off - not more busy-ness. so may have to have a trip out to Quiltaholics - not my LQS but the one that i know of that has the biggest range.  so i am thinking they may have a green to match in.  i tried to find more of the fabric online, but without success - must be an older line?


so overall a good weekends work! luckily for me, the little human has just discovered that hiding is so much fun, and so a big box in my sewing area has meant about 1 hour of happy play at a time - so able to do more in larger blocks, which always seems to achieve more than little bits of time here and there. but mind you, ill take anything!

pugs and kisses
xx

oooo august friday night sew in sign up!!!!

lucky i checked on Alex's blog tonight!  it is always a good read of course, but she reminded me about FNSI!!!!
so get signed up for next friday night and get ready to stitch, stitch, stitch

pugs and kisses
xx

what's in my letterbox?

don't you love arrivals in the post!

i went looking for some lovely fabric that i saw on Leanne's House Blog  - and found it through Earthgirl Fabrics.  it is various gorgeous little people in national costume!  can't wait for it to talk to me to tell me what to make it into :)

and of course, while i was there i clicked around the website to see what else was on sale - and there was this great ribbon!  this is a close up of what is repeated....

i just love it for boys toys and bags.  i am thinking of dreaming what the rest of the 'hero' might look like and then making him for the Toy Society drops - an inspirational message along with a free toy :)

and add to all that, when i got to the checkout of the website - i worked out that there is free postage within australia!!!! so i went back and bought another metre of the ribbon with the money i figured i saved on postage - very happy all round :)

pugs and kisses
xx

UPDATE! little monsters quilt

waiting at the doctors today to get the all clear from the aforementioned kidney infection (which i got - yay!) i finished the blanket stitch on the last little monster - whew!

i know ive posted him before, but he is completed, so i thought he deserved another showing :)

i think i will put them aside for a bit - need a break from all that blanket stitching!!!

time to get back on track with the butterfly garden quilt - i unpacked it from the spare room today, and had forgotten where i had got to - that means i have been away from it for too long!  hope to have something to show of it soon

pugs and kisses
xx

QUESTION! how do you store your blocks?

this is now a very important question for me because i have blocks to store! he he

i have the lovely ones from the block swap group, and the ones from the two buck block BOM

plus i have some UFO blocks just hanging around

so........i made this ages ago when i was making the little human's little macca's farm quilt which was a BOM too.

and opened out....

handy, because it rolls up quite small, but it also creases and bunches all the blocks up

how do you store yours? 

thanks!!!
pugs and kisses
xx

sneak peak! boy oh boy quilt (aka Homespun's design competition entry)

ive renamed this quilt to be more user friendly :) it will henceforth be known as The Boy Oh Boy quilt

ive started some actual stitching on my entry in the homespun's design competition!

this will be the top border

but still more blocks to stitch

it seems to be coming together ok i think - ive never really done anything like this before! so just on feel :)

pugs and kisses
xx

FINISHED! August two buck block, Jan's garden and Morgan's pillow

so in my absence from the blogging world, i have been crafting!

this is august's two buck block - i like the design very much, but am not at all fussed with the pink material....never mind!

this is Jan (my mother in law)'s birthday present!  my dad framed the embroidery for me in a frame i found at our local shops on sale!  lovely and a bargain - winner!

and this is a pillow i made for the little human's friend morgan.  not for any reason, other than the fact that she is a little champ, and a good friend to the little human.  she has a lovely gentle spirit and is a great example of sharing, caring and love.

pugs and kisses
xx

we're baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaack!

i know you're saying, where did you go!

well, it just FEELS like i've been away - in a lovely place called The Land of Illness
actually, its not very nice, i wouldn't recommend it :)

the little human has had a re-occurrence of his ear infection, ive had a kidney infection and hubby has had tonsillitis! we are all very much on the improve, but it hasn't been until today that the little human has gotten back into the hang of having his day time sleeps. apparently with an ear infection it really hurts to lie down, and so he got into a little habit of not wanting to do this (understandably). but now that he is better and running around like a crazy person again, he is getting tired, not sleeping, so getting more tired, so not sleeping.....ARGH!

but today - all is well. a very nice morning sleep, and he is sleeping now quietly and peacefully. ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

i took this photo of him to remind me that i love him when he is driving me around the bend

ahh, he's so cute!

anyhoo, ill post some more about the craft things i have been up to in the meantime

pugs and kisses! (don't worry, im not contagious anymore!!!)
xx

RE-FINISHED! August Block Swap

with my new found confidence of creating 12.5" blocks, i thought i would remake Cathy's block from this month too.

she requested any block in reds, blacks and whites - so i made a Arkansas Cross Roads Block, measuring a very happy 12.5" :)

hope my swappers can find something to do with their 12" blocks - pillows perhaps? :)

pugs and kisses
xx

RE-FINISHED! August Block Swap II

now that i know how to sew a 1/4" seam (see last post!) i remade a block for Paola

as you may remember, she requested any block in country colours, and so i made the following "Fair and Square" block (and yes, it measures 12.5"!)

whew! can put it in the post now :)

pugs and kisses
xx

project "let's get to the bottom of this 1/4" thing"

a clumsy title, but accurate - unlike my piecing!

so possible issues that could be leading to my problems....
1. my 1/4" foot is not true

2. my rulers for rotary cutting are not true







3. there is a problem with the patterns at the website

4. i am crap at piecing

item number 3 seems to be not the case - the lovely Alex had a look at the maths and says it looks good for a 12" block. so.....

1. my 1/4" foot is not true

2. my rulers for rotary cutting are not true

3. there is a problem with the patterns at the website 

4. i am crap at piecing

first things first, tape measure onto the rulers, and the mat - they are all the same.  and i figure it can't be this, or that i am totally rubbish at cutting, otherwise none of my edges would ever match up..... so......

1. my 1/4" foot is not true

2. my rulers for rotary cutting are not true

3. there is a problem with the patterns at the website 

4. i am crap at piecing

a quick measure of my 1/4" foot has a devestating result.....

it's WAY bigger than 1/4"!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  what's that about!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

so im quite sad.....i loved that foot - he was awesome.

so a big WHEW! that point 4 wasn't the case :)  thanks for the comments about inaccurate machine feet and measurements etc.  who would have thought that those extra little bits could throw a block out by a whole 1/2"!

so i put the regular foot on, and used the 1/4" mark on the throat plate (which seemed to measure 1/4" on my tape measure too).  and remade the Chain block that i made for Paola, but in scraps

and would you look at that!  it measures 12.5"!!! yay!!

im so sorry to Marcia at the Quilter's Cache for even SUGGESTING that it could have been anyone's problem other than mine!!!

i guess we are at the bottom of this 1/4" thing - Mr. 1/4" foot is in the bin :(

pugs and kisses
xx

p.s. if anyone wants the above block, just let me know! its ready to be posted :)