Introducing Miss Scarlet

Inspired by the gorgeous Misses Buttons that Novy has been making recently, I had to go straight out (well onto the net) and buy a copy of the pattern.

This is Miss Scarlet Buttons she is now wrapped warmly in the butterfly doll quilt I made earlier in the year (a doll has to have a quilt!) and inside the santa sack that I made last week, ready for the big day.



Miss Scarlet buttons loves singing and playing and would really like to learn to play the guitar, her favourite colour it, you guessed it, RED! She is looking forward to having a real little girl to play with. Despite her name, this particular Miss Buttons is buttonless. Maybe once B is older we can add a button.

She is leaning against the now rather full Santa sack that I made. We haven't even wrapped the present from us yet!

Scrapping scraps

I used these foam letters to make my daughter's name (twice) but I have no further use for them. I think you can see what letters are remaining, if not please ask me. The small letters (e.g e, a, x etc.) are 2.5cm and the taller ones and the numbers are 3.5cm high.
If you would like them let me know. First in best dressed.

Bags of fun

These really are great little bags to make from the Last Minute Patchwork and Quilted Gifts book, they don't take more than an hour to make (well, not counting settling the baby, waiting for her to go to sleep, cooking dinner etc. etc.).

I ended up making three, I loved the contrast of the dark denim against the prints, so I cut as many as I could out of my piece (which was $5 in the bargin bin with a second piece of fabric at Spotlight) and made them up with different prints.



I was very happy with the result, two will be gifts, and the third one (not decided which one I want to keep yet) might even be for me!!!

Santa came early...

I opened my gift from my 'secret' santa from the EB Newbie Quilters swap a couple of days ago, I was spoilt by Meika with some yummy body goodies, some really cute fat quarters and a dinky little mobile phone cosy (how cute).



I sent a package to Kirsty, but I forgot to take pictures (oops).

It was a great fun swap to be involved in to finish of a lovely year of virtual quilting, chatting and general support. Thanks Ladies.

Free Motion Sleeping Bag

Been practicing my Free Motion Quilting, on a sleeping bag for B.

It turned out a funny shape for some reason, probably because I just borrowed on off someone else and drew round it. But it works well and I know what I need to change for the next one (like remembering to add seam allowances, and making the neck lower at the front.







Not sure how much you can see but I did some little stars and some funky type of flowers and things, just playing about really.

Nappy time

I finally managed to make up some nappies.

Two of the red ladybird covers for night times because B is reacting to the foldover elastic on her other covers. Made from the honeyboy pattern in a size medium.



And an AIO for Christmas (plus an extra not pictured here because it's not staying with us).

Oh and I sorted my nappies by colour earlier, looks so pretty .... should have taken a picture of that too.

One night only

Made and blogged in one night, it's a miracle.

This set is for one of the babies in my mother's group, for a secret santa.





She'll be 8 months at Christmas and she's only a little person, but I've made size 12-18m since the red cord, although rather lovely, is very much a winter fabric, so isn't likely to get much use for a few months anyway. The pattern for the trousers is Simplicity 9911, it's a basic elastic waist pattern and I've added a contrast cuff which can be rolled up or down to make the trousers shorter/longer. The top is a Bonds size 1 long sleeve stretchie t-shirt.

I have another pair of the trousers cut out for Beth, which knowing her luck won't get sewn up before she's grown out of them!!

Christmas Table Runner

Here are a couple of pictures of the Table Runner I sent to Kaysha for the EB newbie quilters TR swap. I was worried it might not fit in her 'keep it simple' request, but she seems to like it. Hurray.

It was such fun to make, I really enjoy the applique, I really must make a pieced one next time! And these smaller projects are fantastic to practice a bit of FMQ.



The Christmas Tree was my favourite.



And the whole thing (almost anyway)

Gratitude Wraps

I made four wraps based on the Soule Mama Gratitude Wrap.



One done with Bias Binding, as in the pattern



One bound Heather Bailey Style



and two quick and dirty turned and topstitched.

I need to make some ties for them and find some co-ordinating note pads and cards to go in them. Then I just need to work out who to give each one too.

Another Versatile Wrap Skirt

this one's a christmas present for my sister in law

One down, just all the others to go now ;)

Ooh, Christmas is a month today!

Table Runner Swap

Here are some pictures of the beautiful table runner that Selina sent me as part of the EB Newbie Sewers Table Runner Swap. Thanks Selina, I love it.


Here's a close up of some of the detail. The holly leaves are beautifully HAND appliqued and all the quilting has been done by HAND too. I wish I had the patience to do a hand quilting project, maybe one day...



The spotty backing fabric is so pretty, and the package came wrapped with this cute little angel doll. And see Selina's labels, they look so professional, I want some!



p.s. if you're out browsing the net check out The Selina Bellarina shop

Versatile Wrap Skirt

I have seen this skirt made a number of times on other people's blogs and always fancied having a go at it.

This is the pattern and I bought it from here.

Excuse the terrible me in the mirror photo,



It's pretty simple to make, the instructions are reasonably thorought, and it's very comfortable to wear.

Have a go!

This has to be be the easiest skirt in the world... ever...

I made this in less than an hour, no pattern required, it goes something like this.



The easy peasy lemon squeasy skirt...

Requirements:

Roughly 1/2m of fabric
Shirring elastic
Matching thread
1 1/2m or 3m of bias binding (optional)

Take 1/2m of fabric, hem or bind the long edges (I was lazy and just overlocked the top edge, but I bound the bottom edge.)

Fold the fabric in half right sides together selvege to selvege and stitch the edges together so you have a tube of fabric ready hemmed.

Wind the shirring elastic nice and tight onto your bobbin and pop it into the machine. Decide which is the top of your skirt. Starting about 1.5-2cm from the top of your skirt, sew round and round the 'waistband' in lines about 1-1.5cm apart until you run out of shirring elastic or your 'waistband' is at least 5-7cm deep (mine was 6 lines of shirring). Don't worry if the lines are neat or not, you won't notice once it's all ruffled up by the elastic. Tie off the lose ends.

And that's it. A skirt... Anyone come across any easier ones?

Vintage Fat Quarter Swap...

Another rather late post, I joined in with the vintage sheet swap on Meika's blog back in August, and I've only just got around to blogging what I recieved from her in the post. All in my requested colours of yellows (to go with what I sent).



I have recently started a beginners quilting course at Amitie and am using some of these for the blocks that I am making in the course, hopefully I'll be able to join them all together into a little quilt when I've finished the course!

Music in my life

Well, some of you know, my man is, besides being an IT geek, a bit of a muso. He spent the last weeks of my pregnancy (and the first weeks of our little one's life!!!) in the studio recording his album.

You can see the finished product, and listen to the songs here...

www.sampollard.info

Please buy a copy... oh well, at least have a listen, but if you like it then do buy a copy, they are just starting to sell now and he would be very excited...

The purchasing is via paypal so is nice and secure, but if you'd prefer the MP3's should be up on i-tunes in the next couple of weeks, I will let you know when.

Any feedback on the music, and ideas on how/where to market it would be appreciated. Hope you enjoy it!

Esther.

Emergency Chair Cover

The starting of solids has necessitated some babyfood proofing!!!

I made a quick, rather slapdash, but highly effective chair cover to put the little ones booster seat on and protect the chair.

Just a strip of fabric, a strip of plastic table cloth (about 1.5m x 0.5m) and two short seams. It's working pretty well!



Now if only she would go to sleep so I could finish my blog posting!

Christmas Table Runner Sneak Peak

Here it is, just a label to go and then in the post later today...

Very late cupcake swap post..

I'm a bad blogger, slap,

here are the gorgeous goodies that Suzie sent me in the cupcake swap, so sorry I didn't get them blogged earlier! Thankyou so much Suzie.

My Girl

A couple of recent pictures of my girl, not so much a baby any more,

A Favourite Toy


Tumbling Blocks


At almost 6 months she is sitting unaided, rolling both ways and really starting to get into her food - as long as she is allowed to hold the spoon her self lol! I should put some pictures of that up too, very very messy....

Wedding Quilt Completed

Here are a couple of pics of the completed wedding quilt that I was working on before I went away.

Full of Beans

I made something, completed in a weekend and filled with beans...

modeled by the gorgeous Beth is our new BEANBAG...



And very comfy it is too, I'm sure some of you will recognise the yummy Sandi Henderson farmer's market fabric...

The pattern is from Michael Miller.

Cupcakes

My cupcake swap is completed, and here, for my swap partner Suzie, is a little sneak peak.




something is coming my way - I'm excited already...

Suzie, thank you for being my swap partner, hope you enjoy my offering, this has been my first swap, it's been great fun, looking forward to the next one.

Bibs and Bobs

I dyed the bamboo terry and fleece that I boughht through the EB nappy co-op a couple of months ago, the results were mixed, I didn't think the 'scarlet' was very scarlet, but the yellow came out nice and strong.

Most of it is for nappy making, but I used a couple of bits to make some bibs for the dribbly one. I thought the red and yellows would also be particularly useful for those first foods - you know, carrots, sweet potato, pumpkin...

They are loosely based on the nested pattern, but I think that I was supposed to enlarge the pattern before printing because it looked tiny and I ran out of ink so I freehand drew a similar shape. Instead of binding the top of the pockets I folded a piece of fabric in half, and put a piece of interfacing in between to make it stiffer. I turned and topstitched the top halves of the bibs, but not the pockets so that the bibs can be reversible.




I also made up a batch of nappy free time mats. One cheapo shower curtain and a scraps bag of fleece and flanelette from Spotlight. Total 11 dollars for 3 mats. They're not totally waterproof but better than wetting the carpet everytime.

Pram Liner

I have been hankering after Milly's Tin Whistle Pram Liners for a while, but no pennies at the moment, I've been spending too much, so I thought I'd have a see what I could do myself. I traced around the seat, before putting it on the pram (we've had the bassinet on so far) and sewed together the fabric, a cheap towel and a layer of polyester wadding. I was pretty pleased with the result. No where near as professional as Milly's but not too bad for a couple of hours work. I think I will be making a couple more so I can have one in the wash and one on the pram at least.

Thanks Milly for the inspiration.

A Cupcake Swap

I have signed up for another swap.

http://hmmdesigns.blogspot.com/2008/09/cupcake-swap.html

I'm quite excited about it actually.

hehe...

check it out if that's your kind of thing.

Red Dress

So, I'm going to a wedding, and this dress has to be finished before we fly, I'm reasonably happy with how it is coming together so far but have a couple of questions.

I really fancied wearing a dress and I couldn't find anything I liked in the shops that I would be able to breastfeed in, so I decided I would make something myself and have constructed this around a nursing bra so that the clips are in place already.

The top is pleated, so I have sewed the pleats down (wider in the middle, narrow at the back to allow for the curve of my boobs (which are not inconsiderable at the moment). There are darts under the bra cups which almost give it some shape - I think it will hang a bit better once it is all sewn in place as the top is just pinned at the moment.

I'm thinking that I need to put some darts in under the arms as well, but worried that if I make it too tight under there I won't be able to unclip the cups.

The skirt is just a tube of fabric and I elasticated the top and sewed it straight to the bra. I might be better unpicking some of it and putting darts in there as well though as I look a bit still pregnant in it, any thoughts?

and then there's the question of length. I liked the idea of a long dress, but I'm not sure I like how it hangs at the bottom. I have enough length to double the fabric up and sew what is currently the hem into the waist band (as in the short dress pic) making a kind of grown up version of the bubble dress... Or I could just chop in and hem it, might be neater.

This is the detail of the pleating on the top

The top fabric is a Robert Kaufman Asian print and the red is a poly crepe from Spotlight (which incidentally I have to go back and pay for because they didn't charge me for it. It's probably cost me about $35 for the dress (when I pay for the fabric) plus the bra of course.

I'd love to hear your thoughts?

Quilty Success - First completed quilt project

So I've finished my first quilt. OK, so it's only a little one, but we all have to start somewhere.

The design is all my own and I'm pretty pleased with the result.









The butterfly and binding fabrics were some of my loot recieved in the Pink Themed EB Newbies Quilters FQ swap for July.

The Backing is from Sandi Henderson's Farmers' Market Range.

It was basically a chance for me to have a go at different machine quilting techniques with my new machine which is fabulous.

I used the great Heather Bailey binding tutorial as recommneded by the EB quilting girls and I learnt lots of things including the fact that you need to add at least 10cm per corner plus an extra 10cm for the join when calculating the length of your binding (you'll notice my binding changes colour part way around).