For anyone who loves Amy Butler there is a fabulous giveaway at The Fabric Shopper - check it out and try your luck!
It's the beautiful Dew Drop Sling by Amy Butler - great for all your craft projects (or I'm thinking it'd make a lovely nappy bag!!).

Cardie Knitted!

Well the five bits of the cardigan I'm knitting for Kelvin are finally finished so hopefully I'll get a chance to sew it together before the weekend and hopefully it'll fit my massive son!!
The pattern is sized for 9 months and Kelvin isn't yet 9 months but he's a big boy so it may not work - I'll wait and see and post pictures if I strike it lucky!

I've just finished my second week back at work - enjoying the unaccompanied toilet breaks and hot cups of tea and the mental challenge of work! But there's not much time left in the week for crafting but we can still dream!!

Acquisitions & Back to Work

I'm back to work tomorrow after 9 months at home with Kelvin (and Matilda). I'm looking forward to it and look forward to drink a cuppa while it's still hot (probably with Jo) and going to the toilet when the urge strikes (and going by myself)! I needed some new clothes for work so that was my project for last week - clothes shopping, which I detest. I managed to find some great stuff and am happy about my new work wardrobe.

I have been reading the Wardrobe Refashion blog of late but can't quite bring myself to sign up just yet - especially since I will be having my lunch hours free to wander the shops and have precious little time to sew. But I do find myself looking at my existing wardrobe differently and have found myself wandering around Op Shops more than I used to. I bought some stuff during the week...

From left to right (top then bottom) - a doona cover and pillow cases (to be resized for a single bed), some pretty girly fabric (envisage a floaty empire-ish summer dress for Matilda), some very bright floral fabric (no plan in mind), a pillowcase with fun tropical fabric (maybe a summer top for me or a shirt for Kelvin), a cute vintage sheet in pink and green (not sure about it's final reincarnation), a couple of fabrics that I just liked (wil no plans) and some stripey trousers (to be restyled as trousers for Matilda and maybe a skirt too). Not sure how successful I'll be in achieveing these things but I can always dream!

Also, my jelly roll arrived from QuiltQua - some lovely primary colours so I'll have to decide on what they will become. This was a giveaway win -lucky me!

I'd recommend you head over to QuiltQua to check out their site - they have a great giveaway's page!

We've also been visiting family on the North West Coast. We spent an afternoon at Tasmazia with my Grandma. I managed to snap this cute picture of Matilda and Trev - Tilds is wearing my scarf and her new birthday coat, a very stylish child!

Happy Birthday Matilda!

Matilda turned three today - doesn't time fly!


She has gone from this...
to this...She had a fabulous day with lots of mail, lots of phone calls and then a party with some friends. We braved the grey day and had the party at the playground around the corner. One of her friends came home and they played together all afternoon.She wore her new "Mum-built" skirt for her party (in the photo above). I made it from this tutorial and think it works reall well in corduroy for winter - toasty warm over stockings or leggings! And they ate "Mum-built" cake at the party - a giraffe chocolate cake (from the original Women's Weekly Birthday Cake Cookbook).



As for the tutu I made her - she happily unwrapped it and said "oh wow, another one"! Amazing the workings of a 3 year old mind.

A Fabulous Giveaway!

I've just stumbled upon a very generous fabric giveaway at The Fabric Shopper.

They have teamed up with Whipstitch Fabrics and they want you to design your own fat quarter bundle! Choose up to 12 fabrics from the shop with a unifying element or theme to tie them together. There will be 2 winners! Each winner will receive her (or his) designer bundle. One winner will be chosen randomly and the other winner will be chosen by Deborah of Whipstitch Fabrics! The one chosen by Deborah will have her (or his) bundle put in the shop for sale as well!

So hop over there and have a go at designing you're own collection of great fabrics (although that will lessen my chance of winning but I'm happy to share the love)! Good luck.

Birthday Presents FOUND!

You've got to hand it to the curious Matilda - she found her birthday tutu yesterday (in my sewing room whilst I was pulling weeds in the garden and Trev was on the phone). I'd made them using the fabulous tutorial here (and the tulle is much, much nicer to work with than the nylon netting I've used before)!
I was really disappointed but she was ecstatic!


She also found the tutu I'd made for her Cabbage Patch Doll so they were both wearing these around the house for most of the afternoon.

Needless to say, they have been put away again (in a much better hiding place this time) until Saturday when she will have to unwrap them and pretend to be surprised!

SEWN giveaway drawn...

Well, 139 possible winners and the random number generator came up with the number 40.
Who's that you ask? Congrats to Laurie who will have a Prints Charming knocking on her door very soon!


Thanks to everyonoe who entered and to those who have joined up as a follower of my blog! I have just finished a tutu for my daughter for her birthday on Saturday, with a matching one for her Cabbage Patch Doll so will post about that when I get a chance. Dissapointingly she found them in my sewing room this morning and couldn't wait until Saturday so there will be photos!

Works in Progress

I have decided to make Matilda a twirly corduroy skirt to wear over the winter. I have been oggling this dress at Pumpkin Patch (and have been oggling at the price tag too!!)......then along came this tutorial and a combination of stash fabric and some co-ordinating plains and I'm hoping to have it finished by the weekend (just need to hem it and put in the elastic).

I have also decided to make a stacked coin cot quilt for a friends baby using the tutorial at The Moda Bakeshop. I have bought my fabrics and cut the coins and hope to spend tomorrow evening at my sewing machine joining these together. I'm using a mix of Prints Charming, Amy Butler, 3 Sisters and Anna Griffin fabrics which I'm loving since I couldn't get hold of any charm packs that I really, really liked. These fabrics are feminine without being to cute so I'm hoping the discerning mother-to-be will like the quilt. Decided to make a smaller quilt to practice my machine quilting before attempting my massive first quilt!! And Sarah has challenged me to a "Stacked Coins" quilt-off - just the motivation I need!

Thanks to everyone who has put their names in the hat for my SEWN giveaway (see previous post) - please remember to leave a means of contact so that I can let you know if/when you win!

The SEWN Launch Party

OK, this is my first giveaway since I started blogging a few months ago. I feel like I need to join in the generosity that is floating about out there in blog land and to help celebrate the launch of SEWN on 8 June 2009!




I will be giving away one fat eight's bundle - the winner will get to chose between an Amy Butler pack or a Prints Charming pack. I'm pretty new to quilting but I have fallen in love with both of these ranges and am about to start a "stacked coin quilt" that uses these fabrics, along with some Moda Aviary fabrics.





All you need to do to be in the running is comment on this post before the 8 June. Tell me a little something about yourself and also which of the two bundles you'd prefer! Happy to post overseas so the more the merrier!! Also, since I have precious few followers - join up and follow my slightly mundane blog and you'll get an extra chance to win!

Lucky Duck

Yippee - I have just won my first blogging giveaway! I went a bit crazy last week, blog surfing after discovering the SewMamaSew May Giveaway Day. I've won a Moda Jellyroll from QuiltQua!! I'm very excited!

I have also been pretty interested in the SEWN Launch Party Giveaways at this link so maybe I'll have a bit of a lucky run?? I'm actually thinking about having my own giveaway as part of this and will think about that tomorrow when I head into my quilt shop of choice and pick fabric for the back of my quilt!

Yippee! Lucky me!!

Quilt Top Finished!!

I'd said I was going to be kept warm by my quilt by winter (which is only 2 days away) . I'm going to miss my self-imposed deadline but I have finished piecing the quilt top.

I'm pretty excited about going to the quilt shop to learn what needs to happen next!!

My sewing / craft space is finally getting organised thanks to some shelves bought by Trev last weekend so I'm keen to get into some more sewing and scrapbooking done over the next few weeks before I head back to work in mid-June.

How to Wrap a Tutu?

Matilda is going to a friend's 3rd Birthday Party tomorrow and I decided to partially make the gift for her friend - inspired by this tutorial! Here's the result...


I'm not really sure about it but I think a 3 year old would love it!


I made it with nylon netting rather than tulle since there was a bigger colour range (and it was half the price of tulle), but then the knot with netting was too bulky so I had to resort to using some white ribbon in my stash.


We're also putting in some hair accesories so a bit of a girlie girl present - hope you like it Carys! Now I just have to work out how to wrap a tutu!!

Carbon Copy Kiddos!

Just had to share these two photos...

Matilda at about 7 months (February 2007).

And Kelvin at 7 months (taken a few minutes ago, May 2009)!

We're Back!

Well we're back from our week in the sun! Trev and I have been married for 10 years now and we decided to use our frequent flyer points to book ourselves a holiday to Far North Queensland. We took the kids so it wasn't the most relaxing holiday but we had a lovely time together seeing all that this part of the world has to offer.

Matilda enjoyed having a swimming pool at the hotel and enjoyed dressing up as a diver on the Great Barrier Reef even if she wasn't brave enough to get into the water with her Dad.
I remembered to take a picture of Kelvin on his 7 month birthday - he's looking big and now has 2 teeth peeking through his bottom gums. He hasn't had much opportunity to practice his moving with being strapped into a plane seat, a car seat, a baby carrier or the pram but he'll make up for it this week I'm sure - it won't be long before this curious little man is on the move!

I did do some crafting before we headed off but will blog about it later - I have another hundred loads of washing to do, and my house already looks like a chinese laundry!

Dress Shirt to Shirt Dress

Well, I have finally finished "building" a dress for Matilda (converted from a men's shirt). I used the tutorial from here. I think it looks pretty cute and is my first attempt at up-cycling.



I decided to put the shirt pocket back on and re-used the medium (M) label so that it's Matilda's dress! Also, the waist band needed to go right where a button was so I took it off and sewed it back on over the waistband!

All in all a pretty successful project. It has inspired me to get onto the sewing machine again!