I knew that knitting was popular with celebrities.

But flipping though my little girls “Princess” magazine,

I had no idea that Cinderella was part of the group.

On an unrelated topic ….

Over the last couple of days I have been trying to make a skirt.  I made a special trip to buy a pattern. I patiently traced out my size.  I cut the fabric.  These few steps have taken me a few precious child free sessions.  And then as I was about the sew it together, I realise that there was no way it was going to fit me.  I have cut the wrong size.  AGGGHHHHH.

And to add insult to injury.  I patiently put it away and started on a nightie for my little girl. When I got all the pattern pieces out, I noticed I had bought the wrong size (6,7,8 instead of 3,4,5)!!!  Stamped boldly on the front is “NO EXCHANGE OR REFUND”.

fcuk it. I should stick to quilts, bags and toys.  It doesn’t really matter if they don’t fit.

I am part of another chaletgirl swap – “Around the Block”.
I have always avoided pink fabric.  I have even been trying to ween my little girl off wearing pink clothes.

But when it comes to wanting to make her a quilt that I know she will love – it has to be pink.

I bought a few fat quarters from australian etsy shop freshfabric.

And a few half yards from another etsy seller fabricsupplies.

Basically for the swap you send fabric to all of the other swap members and they make you a block to your specifications.  I haven’t decided what type of block I want yet.  All I know is that it will be pink.

I have already received and sent back two sets so far.
These square blocks were for Kate

and my wonky house on a hill was for Helen.

I was a little worried about making the house.  I think the trick is to make sure that you cut the pieces straight. I had to do a few seams again because they were a little curved.

I made a practice block first which will eventually become a quilted placemat for my little girl,

and of course I had to make one for my little boy too.

This is what is sitting waiting for me to sew.

16 nine patch blocks for chaletgirls block party

an envelop of fabric to create 2 blocks for the around the block swap

1 robot in pieces ready to assemble

1 mailsack cut and ready to interface and sew

And today is the first of two days final training checks at work. I have been training for over 3 months for this new (to me) position. I would be lying if I said no pressure.

edit- just saw the weather and thunderstorms predicted!

I’d rather be sewing.

Another reason that I haven’t been blogging is that if I had 1/2 an hour to spare I prefered to sew than to be on the computer.

I have been making my boy this escaping bugs quilt by Piece by Number (on etsy).  Sheridan and Susie helped me with the bug fabrics and I ended up with a good assortment.

So when I had that little bit of free time, I would make one jar.

When I finished the jars I made a concentrated effort to do one of the critters every other night.

They are all paper pieced.  It was a huge challenge and a big learning curve but the outcome is spectacular.

Once the critters were done putting the quilt together was just using basic sashing and border techniques.

It is probably the most detailed quit that i have done.  It has embroidered embelishemnts and beads on it as well.  I will eventually quilt this myself.  Probably only very basically – like just the bookshelves.

I wasn’t sure if I have shown you these funky friends before. I have made quite a few now and it is hard to keep up.

This is the Mitch the monkey and Steve the crocodile.

As always they were made with polar fleece which is such a forgiving fabric and so very very cuddly.

They were fairly easy to make and Paulines patterns use the same techniques with concise directons.

As you can tell we are a huge fan of her patterns.

Just for buying some Chocolate I won a new quilting bed for my sewing machine. Well … sort of.

I won a $100 woolworths gift card for entering a Cadbury promotion that I was totally unaware of.

So, I figure I put the $100 towards my next weekly grocery shop. Then that gives me $100 to spend. Are you following so far.

Then I buy myself a quilting table attachment for my machine – worth approx $100.



So a new toy just because I wanted to make some caramel slice. Not too shabby.

I haven’t even made the slice yet. Must do that tonight.  My visitors tomorrow might appreciate it.

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 finished my Oh Fransson Mod Sampler as part of the quilt along.



I love the way it has turned out.



The linen/cotton sashing was something new for me. It was a little more difficult to sew as it can loose its shape quite easily. And it was a night mare to unpick if I made a mistake. I did make an error when putting the blocks together but it is no big deal so I left it.

This quilt does mean a lot to me. It kind of signifies my blog and the online community (with it being part of a quilt along). It is also special because it uses my first lot of “designer” fabrics and of course all of this reminds me of my mate Sheridan. Who by the way if anything happens to me has already requested that this quilt be left to her – oh and she wants my overlocker too.

There was no way that was going to try and quilt this myself. So I sent it down to Kim Bradley in Sydney to get it quilted.

I am going to keep practicing my free motion quilting and have even got myself into a workshop with Kim in early may. I have another quilt that I am willing to learn on, but not this one.

I went for something a little different. I choose a square continuous quilting design, where the lines cross (OMG!!). Kind of a tribute to Elizabeth and bah to all of those that have given her a hard time about her quilting techniques.

I also wanted to say thankyou to Elizabeth for creating this sampler quilt pattern and providing some great instructions. You have really helped me become more comfortable with my quilting and inspried me to try something new.

Normally I send my quilts off to Sydney to get them quilted by the fantastic Kim Bradley. But recently, finished quilt tops have been piling up in my project box. Maybe it is time that I learned to do this myself.

I already have two quilts that need to be quilted and at least two more that will be finished within the next few months. I am really hesitant with doing this part of the process because I will be most disappointed if I stuff it up after doing so much work on the tops.

Two of these quilts are very special to me and I think that I will still send them away.

I have tried to find a workshop locally but because of my shift work I am unable to commit to anything regular. So at this stage it looks like I am going to have to learn through books and tutorials and lots of trial and error.

As part of the Oh Frannson quilt along she has put up a great lot of instructions to do your own free motion quilting.

I also joined the material obsession dolly quilt club. I thought that the more little quilts that I can make and practice on the better I might get.

My first attempt was with my Jam Jar doll quilt. I made a simple backing and basted it with the basting spray. Using black cotton – I gave it a go.

From the front it doesn’t look too bad. You can see the areas that are quilted and the randomness of the pattern does hide most flaws.

But on the back, where you can see the stitching. It looks absolutely terrible.

I also had a little trouble of the thread underneath catching . I found it easier to do the pattern with the fabric traveling towards you, unlike normal sewing.

I think I will need to do a little more reseach and a lot more practice before I consider doing this to any of my quilts.

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.