A4 Art Folder

Another little Christmas finish....

I'd been looking for an Art folder pattern/tutorial but hadn't been able to find what I was after. I wanted the folder to hold an A4 art diary as well as have pockets for 12 coloured pencils, a lead pencil and somewhere for an eraser and sharpener.....it seems I'm too fussy so I had to come up with my own design.

 This is the result 

The outside has a plastic covering - not sure that you can tell in the photo.

I'm very happy with how it turned out and can't wait to give it to my little niece for Christmas!

When I make my next one I'll change the strip on the front to white and applique the recipients name onto it to make it a little bit extra special.... I didn't want to go to the bother first time around in case it all ended up in the bin (it has been known to happen).

I've already written the tutorial....and would love for someone to attempt making one using my instructions before I post it on my blog. I'm not overly confident in my abilities when it comes to written instructions and any feedback/suggestions would be greatly appreciated.  Please let me know if you'd like to give it a go!

** Note: My instructions are written with the assumption that you already have a reasonable amount of sewing skill and that you are capable using a zipper foot on your machine, binding with mitred corners etc.

Until next time...

Thimbelina

Another Christmas pressie finished

I've been making some more progress on my Christmas list.... with a little Dolly Carrier for a special little niece of ours.  I've made this pattern up before and I must say that it seemed to take a lot less effort this time round.

What Dolly bed would be complete without a matching mattress, pillow & quilt??

I even managed to find a doll that fit perfectly!

Awww

The pattern was from an old Country Threads magazine - Annual Kids Special (Vol.9 No.11)

Cheers

Thimbelina



Christmas Sewing

Well, my Christmas sewing is now underway and I can cross the first item off my list!

A Christmas stocking for our newest Nephew.... Lewis!

A used Hooley Dooley Artworks pattern by Suzanne Gray but the applique design is my own as I had already made 3 of the 4 designs by Suzanne for Lewis' siblings and I thought her Angel one was a little girly.

I sent this one off early so it can be used for the first time this year!

Until next time....

Bragging about my girl!

Early last month we had our local show...... I have been patiently waiting since then for Miss 13 to show off her creations on her own blog 'Little Miss Thimble' so that I can then share them with you. Seems that's not going to happen any time soon, so here goes!

Cute heart cushion made from scraps leftover from the quilt I made for her room:

She saw a similar one on pinterest that came from 'U Create' and just made it up as she went along to match the size of the cushion insert that we already had.

Then there's the cute little owl cushion to match..... 

This one is From the 'Hootie Hoo Family' by Natalie Ross

Owl shoulder bag, made from linen.....

Own design, after seeing several similar ones online

(She has had lots of comments on this one so there could be a tutorial coming up soon

if anyone is interested)

First attempt at grub roses..... clever girl!

And..... a monster pencil case!

I'm pleased to say that all her sewing items were first place winners in their various categories....

Then there was her cooking, for which she received several first places as well as a second and a third.

Unfortunately, the photo I took of her novelty cake seems to have disappeared from my phone so I can't share that one with you but she decorated a giant cupcake-shaped cake and it turned out fantastic.

She took home the Over-all junior Champion ribbon for her efforts and was very pleased with herfself!

Will share Master 10's creations with you soon too!

Until then...



I actually sewed something!!!!

I have actually gotten a little sewing done recently in amongst all the other crazy stuff going on around here..... not quite finished yet as you can probably tell, I haven't yet snipped all the seams or removed my marking lines from the squares but just had to share....

I think the range is 'Ruby' by Bonnie & Camille and being flannel it's just so lovely and cosy.

It's already beng fought over and it's not even finished! (Even hubby commented on how nice it was)

Not very exciting, but I also got this little project done.......

Our recyling used to be picked up in white recyling bags but we now have large bins instead..... I didn't want to throw away the old frame that the bags fit in so I thought I'd make a new bag .... I lined it in ripstop nylon so that it doesn't drip water from the washed containers on Master 10 when he empties it (you'd think it was acid the way he went on, lol).... no more complaining, Yay!

I hope you've all been a lot more productive than I have.

Cheers



Upsized Charm Square baby Quilt instructions

I've had a few queries about my Upsized Charm square baby quilt's that I made here, here, here and here, so I thought I'd blog about the changes I made rather than detailing the instructions in emails to individuals.

This is the link to the original Sew Mama Sew pattern: http://www.sewmamasew.com/store/media/blog/SMSCharmSquaresBabyQuilt.pdf

To make mine a little larger, I used 1.5 charm square packs (63 squares).... so with two packs it meant I had enough squares to be choosy about which ones I used.

You will need

42 x 5" squares

21 x 5" squares cut in half to make 42x  5x2.5" rectangles

6 x 2.5" strips of white sashing (39.5" each)

2 x 6.5" strips of white sashing for the top and bottom

You can then make 7 rows, each with six 5" squares and six 5x2.5" rectangles alternating between starting the row with the 5" square or the 5x2.5" rectangle

If you want to add a name etc to the borders, just make templates from a word font to applique.

This one is definately my favourite so far.... I just loved the colours:

I hope this helps.

Cheers

Thimbelina

Sock Monkey

I've often looked at the various different sock monkey tutorials around and I finally decided to have a go at making one myself. I chose the Tutorial by Craft Passion which you can find here.... I thought hers were cuter than most of the ones I'd seen.

I took the instructions along to our last Club Quilt day and Jo & I both managed to get one almost finished... Paula made hers a couple of days later so I will try to get a couple of photo's of theirs to share with you too.

I'm very happy with how mine turned out.... it was super easy and I'm looking at socks very differently now!

I couldn't help adding a little pink tu-tu and a rosette.... she is for my little niece after all!