Ta-da!

My first-ever, completed quilt! The boys love it - so much to look at!

Quilt Almost Finished!

I managed to get my quilt to the point of having binding machine stitched and pinned ready for hand-stitching by the time mum got back.

Since taking these pictures yesterday, I have finished stitching on the label, (my blanket stitch leaves a little to be desired, however) and stitched about a third of the way around the binding. I think I need to spend a little time on the couch to finish it off.

Happy Birthday, Noah!

Noah turned two on Thursday. Noah's birthday cake was chocolate, and featured strawberries and cream. Given the option, Noah would happily live on strawberries (dorbees), bananas (nah-nahs) and Smarties (marties).

Cake = yummy!

I'm actually Quilting!

My mum is attending the ASG convention in Ballarat this week and her overlocker has not been performing it's best, so I told her to borrow mine. Mum was a bit concerned that I would be without an overlocker for a week (?) - so I told her not to worry, I will do some quilting! I've never actually completed a quilt, so a good challenge for me. I decided to finish this quilt.

I used this tutorial to make the quilt sandwich. Elizabeth Hartman has some really great tips and tutorials on her site. I remember using her tutorial to make the Margaret bag, once or twice. She also has a book coming very soon that I think I might like to get my hands on.

Things were going really well until I ran out of thread on Tuesday night, and all the shops around here that sell the colour I needed were closed, or nearly closed. I ran out at 5:15pm and the shop up the road closes at 5pm, Spotlight, 20 minutes away closes at 5:30 and Kmart does in fact sell Guttermann, but only 100m spools in six colours - none of which are yellow.


Yesterday I had an appointment with my OB, and then grocery shopping, so didn't really have much time for quilting, although I did manage to get the necessary thread.... hopefully we will be back on track really soon. My plan is to finish this quilt (including binding) before mum gets back.

Stripey T-shirts

Here are my beautiful boys wearing their new t-shirts that I made before we went away. They are fresh from their Saturday morning swimming lessons here, so please forgive the hair-dos.

I used the Kwik-Sew Sewing for Toddlers t-shirt pattern and just extended the sleeve a little since I wasn't putting band on the ends. I also made the t-shirts a bit longer, as the kids are a little bit long and skinny in the body. I used some of the fabric from the stripes to make the neckband so the colours would match.

My Creative Space goes portable

We have just returned from a lovely holiday, visiting family. Since taking the sewing machine was never going to work out, I took along Liam's jumper to finish.

For more Creative Spaces, visit Kirsty at Kootoyoo.

Pincushion Pass - What I Sent

This is the pincushion that I sent to Anna of Noodlehead, as part of the Pincushion Pass that I joined on Flickr. You can see what Anna sent me here.

I used this tutorial, although rather than adding to the tutorial, I simplified it as I wanted to make a feature of the beautiful fabric. The fabric is called Bonsai Forest, and was hand-printed in Melbourne by the lovely girls at Ink & Spindle who I was lucky to meet earlier this year.

I hand painted the stand using some of our (haha - mostly his) model paints. I had to mix a couple of colours together to get the right shade. The finished pincushion stands almost 40cm tall.

The pincushion is currently finding it's way to Anna, hopefully it should arrive in the next couple of days. I hope she likes it.

Lucky, Lucky, Lucky Me!

Look at the lovely dish of pincushions that I received in the Pincushion Pass. My Swap partner, Anna of Noodlehead was my partner and I think I was really lucky to be paired with her.

I like that I will be able to drag the individual pincushions around to where-ever I am using them, but now I have a lovely place to put them back in when I am finished with them.

This one has some lovely piecing. I love the way that Anna has fussy cut the flower. The same fabric has been used on the bottom of the pincushion too.

 

I really like the pair of buttons placed in the centre of this pincushion - especially the clear, pink one. I am also particularly impressed with the shape.

This one is really nice too.Again, the two buttons are lovely, and really compliment the fabric used. The pink ribbon is also lovely. I'm guessing that the side bit was really tricky.

Thank you Anna, for being a really great swap partner, I hope you enjoy the pincushion I have sent to you.

My Creative Space

My creative space today involves turning this fabric into t-shirts for the boys. The stripes are quite thick, about 7cm. I got it from Spotlight. The only thing is that when I pre-washed, the bright colours have slightly tinted the white. Luckily, I did them separately! Any tips on getting my white white again? Or possibly avoiding this (slight) catastrophe in the future?

Hopefully I will be back soon to show off the results!

For more creative spaces, visit Kirsty at Kootoyoo.