easter sunday for us today

Ages ago I bought some japanese masking tape and I've used some to decorate a gift tag for my beautiful nephew's easter basket (tin). He's only 16 months old, so just a couple of little easter eggs at this stage and did I say he's beautiful. I also had a thing for stamp sets a while back, I have 2 alphabet sets - the one I used here are quite small and a little fiddly to use, but they came in a little wodden box which is so cute, so I had to have it. I like to make my own cards, I can't justify spending $5 - $6 on a card when with a little thought and creativity you can make them yourself.

Our family can't all meet up next Sunday so we are doing Easter Sunday today at Mum & Dad's, should be lovely.

a new doll for bells

This pattern was given to me as a gift, it's the poppy doll from hop skip jump. Rather than wool flannel which the pattern suggests I have used a cotton/linen blend in a neutral color. The reason for that is I didn't have wool flannel on hand - I had the cotton/linen blend. Wool felt is suggested for the hair, I have used wool of some sort - I had pink and green in my stash and the choice was rather simple for bells. The doll and dress took around 3 hours yesterday, the pattern was very easy to follow and I was happy with the result and so was someone else....


The head/neck section is set into the body and hand stitched in last, I've never made a doll in that way before - it gives a nice result I think. The material for the dress was chosen - it was to be a dress not a top as instructed by madam bells and no pants!

Late last night I wanted to make the pants, I found a little denim and there you have it - jeans for the new doll. I put them on her last night and when bells woke this morning she said "take them off, I don't like pants, she is wearing a dress!". Who am I to argue, maybe one day she'll get cold and she'll feel the need to wear jeans....

Tinkerbell, as she has been named has received lots of cuddles and has been part of group gatherings along with other select softies.

pink skirt

Perhaps there has been a slight break in the drought, I've had this material sitting around for quite some time, felt like sewing something so thought I'd do a simple little skirt for bells. Nothing too difficult, just some elastic in the top of some pretty japanese fabric. It took a little convincing for bells to put it on but once she did it didn't come off for days.

(*excuse the hole in the leggings, I could have cropped that out but didn't notice until the photo was uploaded and then it was too late.....)

hand quilting job no.2 complete

Here is the 2nd hand quilting job complete for my friend Kylie, I've quite enjoyed the hand quilting, mostly due to the fact (as explained previously) - I'm just not feeling it lately. The creative juices are not flowing. I even went to a 20% - 50% off sale recently at Amitie and only purchased 1 fabric, some beautiful japanese printed linen which I'll share at some other point in time. I thought this would be nice for a library bag for Bells when she starts school next year. Usually this type of sale results in big dollars going down, lots of ideas and lots of excitement. Oh well - I guess I saved money.

I'm pretty sure that my stumbling block is a quilt I'm trying to finish off for Mum, I don't seem to be able to find fabrics to go with it. I suppose I'm finding it very, very difficult as they aren't my colours.

hand quilting

Whilst I still haven't found my sewing groove I have another quilt from my good friend Kylie to 1. add a border 2. put the back together 3. baste 4. hand quilt & 5. add the binding which I'm more than happy to do. So far I can tick off 1. 2. & 3. and a little of 4. I love the fabrics Kylie has chosen, a couple I've used myself and I always love a touch of liberty (the little cars below) in a quilt.



*** Hope you're happy with the progress good friend....

it's been so long :(

It's been such a long time since my last post, I feel really really slack. The main reason I guess is that I haven't been doing a whole lot lately. One project I can cross off, is doing a little basting, hand quilting and binding for a good friend of mine. She lovingly made the top and back and got a little stuck/frustrated/whatever you want to call it with the basting & quilting (correct me if I got it wrong good friend). Anyway here it is all complete, I hope you like it.
It is straight line quilting using 3 different colors of perle cotton although you can't really see that in the pics, the lines are approximately 2" apart (don't get your rulers out).

I am hoping the passion comes back for a little sewing in the very near future (please please please).

advent calendar

The advent calendar was finished in time, hubbie made me a beautiful french inspired bread board from some baltic pine we found at a second hand timber yard for $9.00 how cheap is that! I saw an antique one in a shop in Hawthorn for $220 which was a little out of my price range. A little sanding a quick coat of tung oil and it was complete and beautiful.

I found some vintage brass laundry pins, and it just so happens that they are numbered B1 through to B24 - it was meant to be.

Day 1 has already passed, christmas chocies have been consumed by the kiddies.

This calendar was fun to make (& time consuming with the embroidered numbers), hopefully we'll use it for years to come, it's filled with a chocolate for flip & bells each day and some days there's a little ornament they can hang on the tree.

I still have a fair bit of linen left, what to do, what to do... I've been wanting to sew, then not knowing what to sew, so not much is getting done. I feel like I haven't got the time lately, then on the off chance I get a couple of hours to myself I stress out about what to make and again nothing gets done. What's going on????? Sometimes I think I'm driving myself crazy :o