Dr Seuss Kiddie door pockets

Another finish from the retreat ... and they look darling dangling from my kids' door handles!

Bunting Mug Rug

Made by Anna of Something Sewn
Brilliant!

Easter Decorations: Paper Balls

It doesn't happen very often that I sit down with my girls and do a spot of crafting, sadly, because we all enjoy it very much. Strangely, Easter seems to bring out the Crafty Mum in me ... so we sat down and made paper balls ... good fun was had by all.

For reference, this was last year's craft: Happy Easter 2010

2011 calendar tea towels

Last year, Spoonflower wasn't only doing a calendar tea towel competition (my gran used to have these calendar tea towels when I grew up and my mum still uses a few of those from the 1970ies - insta memories), they were also doing a "few shipping" deal, even internationally.

Of course I couldn't resist. But then I spend the money saved in time and petrol, having to go to the main customs office two days before Christmas to pay customs / VAT in order to get my shipment.

9 of those 12 are now finished and will be packed for sending to my nearest and dearest this weekend.

Rafe's Flag

My friend's third son arrived this August and I wanted to make something for him as well. His initials were initially reported to be R - G - L which I found maritime alphabet flag for. Only when the wall hanging was 95% finished did I find out that an extra A had been smuggled in. No way was I going to take it apart again and therefore changed the plan for embellishments, thereby adding the missing letter:



Previous gifts include: Harrison's Friendly Dragon Quilt, Caroline's Objects and Theo's Planes, a cushion cover.

Happy Advent!

This is this year's "Advent Wreath" - I was ill the days running up to First Advent Sunday and couldn't get a green wreath to decorate. When I was well enough again to venture out, obviously they were all sold out .... so none of this this year:

Getting ready for Christmas ...

Originally, these towels were meant to go into a Christmas charity raffle but there are so many items already that I am just giving them away as gifts. Because I was having fun with them and a lot of cat-themed Christmas fabric, I made some kitty Christmas towels for my friend Caroline:

And now, finally, for me, me, me:
I found the pattern on Ravelry and I can tell you that Rowan Lima is delicious, soft and wonderful to work with!

Mug Rugs ...

As you may be able to tell ... I am bored at work, not because I don't have a lot on ... but because it leaves me a bit uninspired at the moment ... I'd rather be making mug rugs ...

Finally finished!

These have been hiding at the bottom of my must-mend bin for 22 (!) months now and this year they are the first Christmas items to be finished.

I have a plan or two for this year and we will see what comes of them. But having finished those feels very good ...

First Gift Idea for Christmas: Candle Mat

Via the Quilting Gallery, I stumbled across this adorable Candle Mat by Sandi Andersen, which comes in a two-part tutorial: part 1 and part 2.


I volunteered to make a goodie for the charity auction at my club's International Brunch in December and I think this might just fit the bill!

Kids Project: Butterfly lanterns

Check out this great lantern tutorial by Jan of Bemused - click on image to be taken to it. That's definitely something I will make with my girls this summer!

Finished table runner

I'm making good progress on a number of smaller projects and this is one of them. The table runner is for my best friend and it matches the tray as well as her oil cloth and patio chair cushions.

I hope she'll like it.

As for a "critique": After much fretting and indecisiveness, I tried to go for a buzzing bee sort of look, which IMO looks fine on the front. The back's another story because of the contrasting thread and no logical explanation for where the stitches are. Next time I'll use a complementary colour.

The binding caused some worry too because I thought I have skimped too much by only allowing 1cm (3/8 inch) of width. But I think it looks nice and I am getting much better at simply machining it on.

Oh, the fretting one can do ...

over what was meant to be a quick project! Things have ground to a halt because I realised that my cunning plan for quilting will actually not work with the design.

I meant to free-form doodle a circle around the larger blooms but that will probably look very weird with so little actual background ... so now I'm thinking I might free-form trace the smaller blossoms to accentuate their shape.

All about the process, no?

Q&D Birthday pressie

Wonder what Q&D stands for? Simple: quick & dirty ... well, hopefully not all that dirty ...

This will be a table runner, made from Sandi Henderson's Ginger Blossom range with cream coloured backing, minimal quilting and stripey binding to match the tray shown and the recipient's cushion set. It needs to be finished by Friday morning ... yes, yikes!

So off I rush!