Dresses

New dresses for Amelia and Grace for their Uncle's wedding. I have made a few of these dresses this summer. I saw one similar in a picture from a Japanese craft book on a blog or flickr which of course I didn't bookmark and can't find now but it had a gathered section at the bottom so I added one to these dresses. I used Anna Maria Horner voile and it is lovely fabric to touch and the colours are beautiful.

I have started a Two Little Banshees flickr group. If you have made anything from one of my patterns I would love to see it.

Rabbits, Bags, Quilts and Crumble

We seem to have quite a few rabbits on our garden. They pop out at all hours of the day. There were 4 at lunch sitting on the lawn the other day. So far they have kept out of the vegie patch (lucky for them). They have inspired some rabbit sewing.
I was in the mood for a little bag sewing too this week.

The flower kisses quilt is still a WIP and I thought I would try the blocks a different way in a different colour combination.
It might not look that exciting, but this is the second time this week I have made peach and blackberry crumble. We are in peach heaven at the moment. The tree is full of them and I managed to get some blackberries off the bush that is growing in the middle of the rose bushes on top of an ant hole. I used the topping from Stephanie Alexander's The Cook's Companion. Delicious.

Library Bags

The last few weeks have been a transition to full time pre-primary and this week the girls go every day. So it is goodbye to slow mornings and hello to finding things to go in their lunch box they will eat and to getting their hair brushed and tied up without too many arguments.
A very exciting day today with their first library trip using their new bags they helped me make last week. Kind of helping - after choosing the fabrics they were bored and back playing with lego and I was in the sweatshop sewing them up.

Penguins

I think this honeycomb fabric from Kei is my favourite at the moment and somehow it seemed perfect for penguins. Slowly being listed in the shop.
I think the last time I sewed something with lining was for my sisters wedding 4 years ago. And it is slowly coming back to me how much lining tends to annoy me. Actually I think following patterns really annoys me, but I made a muslin yesterday and I just received some lovely silk/linen and some cotton lining in the mail from Tesutti and I'm crossing fingers that this will be quite wearable. The pattern is Butterick 5319 and people like me who live nowhere near a decent fabric shop - Tessuti will send samples! Easy fabric shopping from home.

A bit of this and a bit of that

I have fully come to terms with the fact I will never be a one project at a time person. I have tried. But my head would explode if I had to keep all of my ideas in there at once. It is better to let them out. So I have cast on some socks, a small cardigan. There are half made soft toys everywhere and I have started cutting out two more quilts.
I have finished one thing. There is one book less on the bedside table. A Prodigal Summer by Barbara Kingsolver. One of those books I didn't want to finish. I loved the characters and their journeys. I highly recommend it.

Voile

Chris's brother is getting married next month and the girls are very excited and have put in requests for new dresses. This beautiful voile arrived today which will be perfect. Really nice fabric - great colours and lovely to touch.
I go through phases of cutting out lots of toys to sew and I found quite a few little bundles of cut our toys when I was unpacking. Here is one pile sewn up and finished.

Quilt Photos

Wandering around the garden yesterday I found some great places to photograph quilts. The people who built the house and put in the garden built lots of places for roses to climb and little hidey places with seats. A couple are perfect for hanging quilts on. Photos are definitely not my strong point. Thank goodness for digital cameras so I can take many photos and hope one is ok.

This is the same pattern as the quilt above that is in Homespun this month except I made each block smaller to get a smaller, cot size quilt.

Finally finished the binding on this quilt which I love (what's not to love about green!). I have promised the girls new quilts for their beds and Grace wants one in this pattern and has chosen a jelly roll. So hopefully I will start that soon and write the pattern as I go.

From The Garden

We picked an amazing 54 passionfruit the other day. I have eaten so many, made lots of frozen passionfruit yoghurt and given little bags to everyone we see.
I have also frozen the pulp of quite a few in ice block containers and then popped them into bags in the freezer. They will be a nice treats in a couple of months.

The peaches are slowly ripening and the smell is amazing when you stand under the tree.I also found blackberries down the back of the garden. I know I shouldn't be excited about having this weed in the garden, but at the moment my taste buds are winning out over my brain.

Craft Hope for Haiti

Have you seen the Craft Hope for Haiti shop? All the proceeds go to help Doctors Without Borders for their work in Haiti. Lark has a new book called Pretty Little Mini Quilts coming out soon and some of the quilts from it are for sale in the Craft Hope for Haiti shop. My Spinning in Orbit quilt is available here.

Flower Kisses

Flower Kisses - a work in progress.

Homespun

Just received the latest copy of Homespun Magazine with my Tulip Wonderland quilt in it!

Should be in shops tomorrow.

Edited: It is Number 81 Vol 11 No 2

Sundays and Penguins

It is funny where Sunday can take you sometimes. One minute you are cutting out rabbits to sew and the next thing you know you have made a penguin.

Books and Beds

The books are unpacked and in bookcases. The book situation was getting out of control in the old house. Piles of them everywhere. So we bought a couple more bookshelves and there is kind of a reading library thing happening in one corner of the living room.

Up until now the big girls have been sleeping in a double bed, but tonight is the first night they will be in there very own bed. I think they might like the idea of there very own bed more than the reality. They wake upn quie upset if they can't find the other one in the middle of the night, So I imagine the beds will be pushed right together by the morning.

Perfect

You know it is a good day when
1. Your Mum (who know a lot about roses) visits and helps in the garden.
2. There are vases of roses from your garden in the house
3. There are only 3 boxes in the house left to unpack
4. You find a perfect Figgjo coffee pot in the local vintage shop for a very good price.
4. We finally own a kitchen table and chairs.
5. And a perfect red spotty table cloth (a few metres of laminate from a shop in Albany - perfect to protect a table and just wipe it off when it is dirty).

First day of school

The girls started pre-primary today. They were just a little bit excited!
This is how our living and dining rooms look at the moment. A table, chairs and lots of storage was delivered this morning. We managed to find everything we wanted at Early Settler and amazingly we found things we both liked. I'd really like to get it all sorted, but I just need to wait for some help to move it all around. Then I can unpack and sort the rest of the boxes.

Back Sewing Again

The sewing room is nearly unpacked. And probably as clean and as organised as it is going to be for the moment (which isn't very). Our old small dining table has become my cutting table and we are waiting for a new one to arrive (crossing fingers it will be tomorrow). This is how the cutting table looked this morning before I sent these softies to the Freo Arts Centre and I started sewing up some of those piles in the background.
One more sleep before the girls start pre-primary. They start with two days this week and then bild up a day each week until they are full time. To say they are excited is an understatement!