I see leopards....

There's a bit of sewing and non-sewing going on over here. I want to try and participate in 'Me Made May' this year, where I can wear 'handmade by me' for the month of May, so I'm trying at fill the gaps in my wardrobe! More on that later though, I'll show you what I've been doing for everyone else...

I gave the girl free choice of fabrics at Spotlight to make an outfit for her bestie's birthday party. (We'd actually bought a long sleeve denim dress from Target she'd had her eye on, but was too hot and uncomfortable!) This light top (not sure the fabric, but a pain to sew and heaps of thread pulls, grrrr!) suited the day much better! I used a pattern, but ended up taking it in and adjusting so much, I may as well have cut a rectangle with a whole for the head!

I made the leggings too, from a tried and true pattern. It's a ponte stretch (from Spotlight as well) and she adores them! They have the gathered elastic bit on the outer leg, gives em an extra bit of cute. Hmmm, something about this outfit makes me think in about 20yrs I'll hear 'How could you let me go out in THAT?? It's pretty out there!

We ended up buying a denim jacket, as the fussiness and umming and ahhing over styles, fabrics etc was doing my head in! Gone are the days when I can whip something up and she wears it regardless- I have a pile on non-worn handmade stuff to prove it! I made the leggings again, though, she's pretty mad on leopard print at the moment.

I also made some bags for a happy customer, she chose some great fabrics, definitely not my colour schemes, but a real pleasure to sew with. Another fave pattern by You Sew Girl (but unfortunately discontinued)

 A little extra pillow for her son...is that the cutest pillowcase you've seen? I joked that they would all have names within a day!

We had a lazy long weekend a few weeks ago, and we joined Cam for another basketball game- and another Tigers win! We're officially fans!

  

We had a great long day out, with dinner and a play at the park on the way home. The perfect weather made it easy to chill out!

I finally dug into my wee Liberty stash and ran up this pattern, which I'd printed forever ago and hadn't made up! I'd also been after a cute pincushion, similar to these.

 

I also cut up some scraps and made a bigger one, gosh, it is sooo cute! 

I've been carrying the bigger one around all week, despite not having a minute in the workday to do any knitting at the moment. It makes me smile!

Hope your last few weeks have been stitchy and smiley too!

Back soon to show you some clothes.

Keeping Out Of Trouble Part 1

Spring is in the air! I was a bit tired of the old winter wardrobe, and the beautiful week of spring weather recently spurred me to update the wardrobe a bit. I dove into the stash and found some nice medium weight denim, and 2 hours later....

a skirt! Pattern by this chickie, and you can buy it from here. I'm lucky (or unlucky, depends how you look at it!) to be the same size as I was the last time I made it, so I had the pattern all ready, and have made a few now so  it was a great quick make.

The top is another Alma blouse, the seersucker gingham *sigh* was bought specially for it- a few weeks prior! I love this fabric....I cheated this time and didn't put a zip in, as it fits easily over my head, and I could have taken a bit in the shoulders so the tight cardi doesn't sit a bit funny- but I'm hoping for less need for the cardi in a few weeks!

The warmer weather has (temporarily) altered the need for the knitted cowls; I threw together a quick 'infinity' style scarf, a long tube twisted and stitched together. I used some lawn from Spotlight as a practice, trying to get the guts to cut up some Liberty lawn!

Remember the Triple Zip swap I mentioned a few posts ago? Mine was very well received, with a wonderful blog post about it over here. I also received a gorgeous pouch, from manybooks4u (on flickr).

It was full of yummy goodies, I've never seen coloured magnetic snaps, and have fallen in love Glamping now I have a mini charm pack!

 And last update- the scrappy zig zag is pieced and ready to go....when I get to the Spotlight sale and pick up some batting!

This one's a keeper, that's for sure!

             Stayed tuned for part 2 where I reveal a special little job I was asked to do....

Nothing like a bit of healthy competition!

So I saw over on Facebook a link to this blog, and got a bit excited about a challenge like this! A $200 voucher is COMPLETELY unnecessary for me, but i thought is was a good way to try out different fabrics that aren't usually in my stash. A bit like if someone offered me a gardening challenge. Er. No, I wouldn't be up for that one actually!

So I jumped onto the shop and saw the scrap packs. (Bugger, I just looked again and there are heaps of PINK!) Dammit....)

I am in love with the shrooms though. I cant remember all the sizes, but folded it looked like this;

 and unfolded like this. Almost a fat quarter of the green.

I'd seen this a few days ago, and like the style, and the fact it was a free tutorial! I'm in!

The inside is a Spotlight fat quarter;

here's the old knitting bag (one of my first bags I ever made!)

and TA-DA! My new knitting bag!

I added medium weight interfacing, and some iron on pellon (tips learnt from my bag guru, of course. ooh, look, what a coincidence, a workshop just on that haha)

I wanted structure;

  

but also can squash it in another bag to take to work etc. The fabric was perfect for this project.

And it fits all this!

I had so much fun making this!

Finished Made In Cherry!

So I've finally finished the quilting and binding on the Quilt a Long I joined.

I went with blue, with a stripe.

Finito!

I love the triangle quilting the best!

And it's found a great spot to be shown off, instead of folded in the cupboard.

There's more pics of mine and lots more over here,

and thanks heaps to Chelsea for hosting the 'a long'!

Somebody stop me...

 Well, no, you don't have to stop me, now I've decided to do it I can't wait!

I was making a little belated Xmas present last night, and lamenting on the amount of blue scraps I've got!

See? bursting out of the box. Plus the blue folded fabric that's too big for the scrap box.

So I've gone and printed the pattern and am joining along with Chelsea and a few other friends in the quilt a long. Of course, using my favorite quilter's pattern may have been the clincher.....

Crafty catch up Pt 2

On Wednesday night I headed out to NCB too see some crafty peeps, and give over my end of the bargain....

and phew, she liked it!

It was filled up and used straight away, a lovely compliment!

Karen was making some cool little chicks, that Brianna was sneakily trying to coax into her hexie tin...

they were pecking away, not noticing the yummy cakes being devoured around them!

and to all those peeps who think I buy a lot of fabric- this was given to me from the naughty Cindy; I gave her some pink chenille (which I also have coming out of my ears) and was given some 'scraps', all of which are usable!

oh, I did manage a bit of crafting in too....

I got busy with those scraps over the weekend.....

 

and one for my little sis

PS The pink one for the kid may be up for grabs....she doesn't like some of the fabrics! Doh!