I have had a “thing” for butterflies for a while. More recently it has turned to dandelions.

I am so consumed by these two things that I have had a tattoo designed that includes both images.  It is just sitting waiting for the right time to get it done, but that is another story.

I have been wanting to do an emroidery picture since I saw Hillary (from wee wonderfuls) display her stitchettes in simple hoops.

Scouring the net I have found some great dandelion inspiration.

WooHoo cross stictch sell this pattern on etsy.

Hare and Drum have these beautiful completed pieces of wall art too.

Wrapables has a whole range of dandelion products like linens, bags and pillows.

And these dandelion wall decals are just awesome.

Badass custom decals

rm67

lewasdesigns

daydreamer

Anyway, this is how my picture turned out.

It is hanging on the side of our bookcase as you walk into our room.

I wasn’t going to do anything else tonight until I finished mailout 3 for Chaletgirls block party. OK, so it is only 9pm, but it is almost my bedtime …. and I am finding it hard to tear myself away from my new Lee Child novel – Gone Tomorrow.

I had lots of fun this round.

I have met Bianca before and when I got her fabric I knew I could use some of my fun scraps.



And finding matches for Bekkas fabric in my stash was a dream.

I am really enjoying this little swap.

My little boy’s favourite Disney movie has been Dumbo for quite a while.

So I recently set about finding some elephant patterns.

I started with the Audrey and Maude Edward pattern and some fabric from Amite that I picked up at the latest Brisbane Creative Living craft fair.

He turned out very cute. Susie played a big role in the fabric choice.



But even before I made him, I ran into Pauline from Funky Friends Factory (at the craft show too). Now I have made a heap of her patterns. And all of them have been great.  I still have a few more dinosaurs to make that have been on the “to do” list for years.



So I got one of her elephant patterns – Ellie. Ellie was going to be perfect for my little boy.

So Edward turned into Ella and is now owned by my little girl.

The thing that I like about the funky friends factory toys is that they are designed to be made with polar fleece. It is such a forgiving fabric and I am always happy with the results.

This is “elphun”.

He is so soft and cuddly.
I won’t say that he was difficult to make, but I think that having a basic idea about toy construction definitely helps.

So this was my evening/afternoon of sewing elephants.

I have always envied Kellie’s quilts and appliqué creations from don’t look now. The motion of colour really appeals to me. She has some fantastic tutorials and the rocket ship pillow is on my to do list.

She has just created a pattern for 4 beautiful pillows and I am dying to make them. My little girl would love one of these (actually all of these) on her bed. I was thinking that I could use some fabrics from the last quilt I made her so they would match.

There is a giveaway of these awesome cushions on her blog.

She also has a beautiful quilt in the latest Australian homespun – called Megs Garden. It really appeals to me and I could see me making it in autumn colours. I best be off to the newsagent today (edit – next week) to pick up a copy.

Lucky me is on holidays (for another 4 days).  We went to Alexandra Headlands for a week, which is just over an hours drive. It was nice to get away to the beach and we enjoyed some sunny days.

We had a great time.

And after a visit to Eumundi Markets and our favourite costume stall …. ballet lessons are now a new priority.

ANYWAY back to my craftjunk …. While away I was reading blogs. Chaletgirl couldn’t stop going on and on about beautiful fabric and discussing the oh-franson quilt along. I couldn’t help myself. I had to be involved.

Soon as we got home (within a few hours) I dove into my stash to find 6 fat quarters. Inspired my Sheridans prints and solids I was looking for 6 favourite prints.  The plan was to match them with some cheap homespun/quilters cotton solids – thus reducing the financial outlay for yet ANOTHER quilt. I did it for a smidgen under $20.

The 6 that I picked were from my treasured Amy Butler Collection. They are from her ginger bliss range.

I bought the prints as a fat quarter pack years ago; with my friend Sheridan. This is probably the first lot of designer fabric that I bought and it certainly was my first introduction to Amy. We got them at the first real craft show that we went to together in Sydney (I don’t count the Rosehill one). So this group of fabric is very special to me and has lots of memories. And now I have cut it.

I am looking forward to doing the sampler quilt. It looks like it will be a great pattern and there was no way that I could not be involved. I haven’t bought the sashing or backing yet as I thought I would wait until I get the blocks together to see how they look.



I also noticed that the first lot of sewing instructions is up today. Bring it on.

I have just joined an Aussie swap on ravelry that involves making a project bag. I promised that I would dig up some suitable tutorials and links.

U-handbag (UK) is a great resource for making bags and it has a great post on bagmaking for newbies.

Nicole Mallalieu is an Australian designer that focuses on hand made bags. Her site has lots of great patterns and supplies and her blog is full of tips, techniques and tutorials. Another good Aussie selling hand bag supplies is tall poppy craft.

Here are 5 of my favourite free patterns that I think would be suitable.

From all people quilt the grab bag pattern (pdf file)

I have made a few of these and they fit a one skein or sock project very comfortably.

Patchyapple has an excellent free tutorial for a boxy bag. It think these fit a small or sock project perfectly.

Martha Stewart has a tote bag using bias binding to hold it all together.

This is the one I made from that pattern. It is good because it can easily fit a magazine or pattern sheets in the side pockets. It is a little tricky to get a hang of using the bias binding though.

This pyramid purse is a free pattern at Living Creatively. It is quite small but I think it could be sized up to make a decent sock project bag. This is very similar to the ever popular sunny-boy project bag.

For a good tutorial for a standard lined tote bag not so fancy nancy has a tutorial for a beach/market bag.

This could easily be made to any size and it has great step by step photos.  The steps to make this bag are fairly simple and is an excellent starting point to make any type of tote – eg add pockets or shorten the handle, or make two handles.

And if you want a tutorial to make absolutely anything go to oneprettything.com. She has a list of tutorials of things to make for crafters and it includes pin cushions, needle rolls, sewing machine covers, post office bags (great for an etsy seller), covered tape measures and cloth labels. Well worth a look.

I hope this helps.

I am thinking about making a friend a scarf for next winter.  I am getting in early so I have enough time AND Bendigo Woolen Mills are having a sale.  The sale isn’t particularly advertised, just the prices are a couple of dollars less per ball than normal.  Apparently it ends on Dec 5 and their prices will increase after that.

So the problem is that I am not sure what colour I should use.  I have been trying to figure out what “season” she is and go from there.  I think she might be a winter or spring.

The season colour analysis is based on a persons skin’s basic colour tone.  Hair colour and eye colour can be taken into account too. Here is a really basic online evaluation.

Have you ever had your colours done?  I haven’t but know that I am a typical autumn.   My wardrobe is full of shades of brown and I am always attracted to browns, burnt orange and lime greens.

But even knowing what palate she is doesn’t help me because I still can’t decide what colour to buy.

I am a big fan of Bendigo Woolen Mills yarn. You can buy it online, it is cheap, they have a great fiber range and lots of colours to choose from. Their service is excellent, the wool is of the highest quality and did I mention that it is so reasonably priced (CHEAP).

I have a couple of big projects on my wish list. I am dying to make Hamper – a crochet motif afghan from Rowan Classic Summer Book 11.

And I would also love to make a February Ladies Sweater, which is an adult version of Elizabeth Zimmermann’s Baby Sweater on Two Needles (or known as February Baby Sweater from her knitters almanac). Flink Knits has done a wonderful job rewriting this pattern and it has a huge following on ravelry.

My problem is that I dislike the idea of making a huge yarn purchase online and not liking it when it arrived.

Anyway I am a regular on the Bendigo Yarn Lovers group on ravelry. From this group two lovely ladies offered to, and sent me some of their left over yarn to try out and see if it suits my projects. They had nothing to gain from this lovely act and even paid for the postage without hesitating. I know that it wasn’t much but I really appreciated their kindness.

It was great to have the yarn, feel it, knit a swatch and check out the colour. I want to make the cardigan using black alpacca but I was concerned about it being a little grey and not the right weight.

So I made these lovely ladies some project bags in thanks for their kindness.

The bags are inspired by my knitting project bag that Sheridan made for me.



I even went and bought some more of the knitting fabric from Auntie Cookie just in case I need to make more of these when more kind knitters cross my path.

I have a friend at work that I recently discovered is a keen sewer. She makes some awesome handbags and is on a sewing binge at the moment to sell them at a local market.

I was lucky enough to get one from her and it is now my new favourite. It is so much better than the ones I have made for myself.

It is just the little touches like the silk bias binding on the pockets. And she uses silk dupioni on the inside so it catches the light and you can actually see the contents easily. … and the fantastic handle. I love it and use it every day.

She has not fully discovered the world of online crafting and I am slowly introducing (enabling) her to some of my favourite blogs and supplies.

One of my latest finds is fabric supplies on etsy that sells designer fabrics CHEAP. They have great postage rates to AUS too.

From a few FQs that I got from there I made her a mini patchfolio in thanks for my beaut bag!

It all happened pretty quickly.  Doll Quilt Swap 3 is already up and running.  I was lucky enough to get my name in the bag and already have my swap partner.  Tanaya is doing a great job organising.  I pretty much know what I am going to make and just have to get started.
The rules are the same – make a high quality doll quilt and send it off before the end of the month.  I am on there as craftjunk which is my flickr/ravelry username.

I was involved in Doll Quilt Swap 2 and received a beautiful quilt from JoAnna from Banana River Quilts.

I sent my quilt off to my recipient but I don’t think she liked it all that much.  I got a thankyou, but she never blogged about it.

I am currently working on a doll quilt at the moment to swap with Sheridan. We decided to have a swap oursleves (before swap 3 was announced- DOH!) to keep us busy before we start our next joint quilt project. for Shenry – Hopefully I will be ordering the fabric before the end of the week.

Also researching other joint projects and I found eight by eight. It is between two friends (glittergoods and wisecraft) who mail each other an 8″x8″ box of materials to make an 8″x8″ inch piece every month. It is a very cool idea.  Have you come across any other joint projects that are a little different?