Simply Sweet Blouse

I was a bit excited when Marina recently asked me to test the Simply Sweet Tunic Top and Blouse for her. I made a long sleeved version for Eva with some lightweight fabric from Spotlight. The only change I made was to omit the ties at the top at Eva's request. Amelia was looking at the pattern as I was making it and fell in love with the sleeveless version for summer and has fabric picked out so I can make some later in the year. It was a very enjoyable pattern to make. It went together quickly and the instructions are very clear and I love that there was not too many pieces to print, cut out and tape together. I also love that it goes up to size 8 so I will be able to use it for quite a few years.

Toys

These little guys and a few more of their friends are now at Found at the Fremantle Arts Centre.

Quilting

Getting there slowly. Just grabbing 10 minutes here and there to do a few more meandering lines.

Soft Toys

It feels like ages since I made some soft toys. I pulled out a pile of fabrics when I was tidying up on the weekend and now I have a pile of tails, ears and pieces waiting to be sewn.

Red Cardigan

I made a great grey cardigan for Eva last year which she wore and wore. Unfortunately it disappeared at the end of last year. I have searched everywhere but it seems to have vanished.

She asked for a new one in red. It is such an easy pattern and really didn't take too long to make. I made the size 5 and added about 1 1/2" in length to make sure it will fit for a while. More details on ravelry.

Cross Quilt Top

The top is finished! Putting it together was like doing a giant jigsaw puzzle, but with a lot of cheating as I added strips of fabric when needed and trimmed when needed. I'm not sure when I will get around to quilting, but I think I will just do lots of vertical straight lines as there is so much going on in this quilt.

Cross Blocks

I pulled out all my blocks from the Around the Block quilting bee a few months ago and was overwhelmed. I had no idea how I would put them together and no idea what I wanted the quilt for when I finished. So I put it all away. I found it again when I was cleaning my fabric on the weekend and thought I would try again. I decided to not overthink it. Just lay it out and start putting it together.

 I realised I would need a few more blocks. So I grabbed scraps and started sewing, not worrying about sizes.

 I lay them all out again.

 Swapped a few things around.

 Used more scraps to make long scraps to join everything together.

And now I nearly have a finished top. Just a couple of things to fix and I should have pictures tomorrow.

Fabric Sorting

Cleaning and sorting my quilting fabric seemed like a really good idea at the time. Then once it was all out it needed to be sorted and put back. I can't say it is any neater, but I have culled the fabrics I will never use and it is all sorted by colour. A small improvement. There will be no pictures though, you can all pretend it looks like those gorgeous pictures you see of fabric neatly folded in shelves when it pretty much looks like the picture below, but in a shelves.

Uptown Hat

When I noticed that Heidi and Finn needed some pattern testers for their new Uptown Hat Pattern I signed up fast - I knew my girls would love them. I wasn't wrong. They have been attached to their heads since I finished them a few days ago. I made the first one out of a nice medium weight corduroy. It is fully lined and interfaced with fusible fleece and it holds its shape really well. It is a great size to fit All of Amelia's hair in.

 You have the option to add elastic to the back of the hat and I did this with both of them.

 The second was out of some heavier weight denim for Grace. I didn't have enough fusible fleece left for this one, but as it is quite heavy denim it holds its shape and doesn't need it.

 I made my own binding for both of the hats so it matched the lining.

 The only embellishment that both of them wanted on the hat was a button on top which we covered in the same fabric as the lining and binding.

This is a great pattern. Their are lots of photos to show you what to do and it is all very clearly explained. I am sure I will be making a few more of these.

Sock Yarn

A few new colours of sock yarn listed on Etsy.

Baby Quilt #4

The last of the baby quilts I quilted last week. The top is made from half a layer cake and is made from different sized crosses. I love the colours in this one and love the aqua spots I found for the backing and binding.

I have listed it on Etsy, but am very tempted to keep this one.

What I'm Reading

I do love a long Weekend and we just had a great one in Albany. It was really nice to get away and despite the rain, colds and other sickness we all had a great time. We spent the day in the Porongurups with my sister's family which my girls loved and Chris and I both had birthdays. I have used mine the last few weeks as an excuse to get a few quilting books I have been wanting so I thought I would share what is on my bedside table.

• I finished the Hunger Games for bookclub. I didn't love it, but I am pretty sure I would of as a teenager.
• I am loving the Omnivore's Dilemma - lots to think about.
• The Pilates Pregnancy is great when it is raining and I can't get out for a walk.
• Modern Minimal and the new Denyse Schmidt - so much inspiration

•  Sunday Morning Quilts and Quilting Modern - more inspiration. I am really loving the different quilting in all of these quilts and it is inspiring me to try some different quilting. I am also cleaning out my scraps and sorting them.

 A little stack of new fabric, which I am pondering what to do with.

Baby Quilt 3

Baby Quilt 3 - made from whatever long strips of fabric I could find in the stash. The binding is made from left over binding from other quilts and left over bits of jelly rolls. I think this would have looked better with rounded corners and bias binding, but I wanted to use up what I had and not make more binding. Each strips was free motion quilted with loops.