Camera Bags

I've had an exhausting week so far.... with working extra long days, Birthday baking and organising, Miss 11's school social, Master 7's Karate and the Easter hat Parade etc etc..... and it's only Wednesday! *sigh*

So.... this will be a very brief post tonight, to show you the camera bag I made for Miss 11's birthday as promised yesterday.

The first one was a little large (actually that's the second one....I'm not showing you the first disaster LOL) and the second one (actually the 3rd) fits beautifully. Both were made using Michael Miller fabrics.

I'm hoping to make a couple more fancier versions of these over the next few days now that I have all my measurements sorted out.... and thought I might do a short tutorial on how I made them.
Please let me know if you're interested? 

Hope you all have a wonderful Easter.....
Hugs

Miss 10 turns 11

Today my little girl turned 11.......So this is what I was doing at 6.30 this morning before heading off to work:

Icing 30 x Vanilla/Strawberry swirl cupcakes for her to share with her classmates... don't they look cute?

I think it might take a while for me to get used to her being Miss 11.... she's growing up so fast. I really don't know where the years have gone!

We gave her a digital camera for her birthday and I made her a little camera bag for her new camera which I'll show you tomorrow.

Until next time

Busy Little Miss

My Miss 10, (Little Miss Thimble) has been extremely busy lately making all sorts of lovely things that I just had to share with you. She's becoming so clever with all her craft projects.... I can't imagine what she'll be making by the time she's grown!

Here she is sewing the binding on her first quilt:

This is the 3rd parcel she has sent off for the "Little Stitches" Birthday fat quarter swap.....she forgot to take pics of the previous ones she sent:

A lovely little Stitchery:

Made into an even lovlier journal cover for the "Little Stitches" journal cover swap:

And lastly..... some covered button Magnets, rings and earrings

(the source of my grief in my earlier post here):

Until Next Time

What a lovely day

Peg from Happy in Quilting invited me along to join the lovely ladies at Club Quilt today...... and what a lovely day it was. There was lots of show-and-tell from everyone and a constant flow of chatter, coffee & yummy goodies. I even managed to get a bit of stitching done on this little stitchery that has been sitting in my cupboard unfinished for quite some time. The pattern is called "Follow your Heart" by Picaninni Patchwork.

The writing that goes in the centre reads "Angels Watching over Me"

Miss 10 also came along and got a good bit of hand-stitching done on the bind of her first quilt.... I think she was a bit anxious about doing the bind but once she started there was no stopping her. She even continued when we got home and is doing a lovely job.

I didn't take my camera along.... but if you pop over to Club Quilt you can check out all the gorgeous show-and-tell that Peg will post over the next few days. Thanks for a great day ladies!

And when I got home I even had time to make some little rosebuds and leaves out of icing for Miss 10's birthday cupcakes I'm sending to school with her Tuesday. I've never attempted these before, but used the tutorial from The Frosted Cake and Cookie and they turned out pretty good.... Miss 10 was impressed!

My Hubby just informed me that I have "too much time on my hands"....nice!

Until next time

I love it!

Well I've finished my new runner for our sideboard...... and I think you'll agree it's just lovely (at least I think it is, which is what counts, right?).  It's now sitting on our sideboard covering up Miss 10's little mishap nicely, which means that I now don't get that furrow between my eyebrows every time I look at it (or Miss 10 a case of the guilts every time she looks at it) . So everyone's happy :)

I used the Moda Bakeshop tutorial here, but because I needed my runner to be a little larger, I used honey bun strips and cut them at 7" lengths instead of 5" and it fits perfectly. Finished size is 11" x 42.5".

I also used the No-snit binding tutorial from You Go Girl ...... which is fantastic. It was nice to be able to complete the binding quickly with no hand sewing at all and it gave me just the look I was after.

Until next time

Mishaps & Mahem!

Recently Miss 10 has been making lots of covered buttons and using them to make bookmarks, rings, earings & Magnets. I made sure she had plenty of newspaper spread out under her while glueing the pieces together and told her repeatedly to be careful with the super-glue..... and she WAS very careful.... that is until it came to finding a safe place for the finished items to dry! I admit, I did do a bit of ranting and Miss 10 was so upset with herself... she will be no doubt horrified that I've posted about it.

This picure is of my very favourite table runner, (given to me years ago by my Mother-in-law) which i've always used on top of our sideboard..... I love the look of white-on-white embroidery!

The missing piece of fabric.......superglued to my sideboard!

My now naked sideboard:

This lovely old sideboard is also a favourite of mine.... can you believe it had once been painted? My Father-in-law painstakingly sanded it all back and restored it for me. He spent so much time getting every scrap of paint out of the beautiful carved doors. He must LOVE me!

Our home is only quite small with no extra rooms for sewing so I usually just take over the dining table right beside the sideboard...... which led to me recently converting the sideboard into my new sewing cupboard. I love having all my goodies right beside me....so much easier!

So today..... I've now calmed down enough to start making my new runner using these pretty Verna fabrics... I hope I like it as much as my old one:

Until next time

Bagalicious... No.2

When I returned from holiday, this is what was waiting for me at the post office:

My second parcel from Quilt Fabric Delights, Bagalicious Club..... aren't the fabrics gorgeous? They're "South Hampton" by Franchelle Contreras for Henry Glass Frabrics. And a cute bag pattern designed by the very talented Natalie Ross of Natalie Ross in Stitches.

So last night, with Hubby and Miss 10 at a school camp and Master 7 sound asleep..... what else was there to do but indulge in some relaxing sewing time:

The only thing I did differently was to add the covered buttons on the pockets instead of the appliqued flowers.... and I love it!

Hmmm.... now, what to make today??

Another Top

I've managed to get the top to my Stacked Coins quilt finished and ready for quilting and I'm delighted with how it has turned out. I think the little person I have in mind for it will love it too, although maybe her Mummy wont....given how much white is in it! ;)

You can find the pattern for this one here, although when making mine I did make my coins 1" wider and used more in each row to make it bigger. The fabric I used was "Sent with Love" by Deb Strain for Moda.

So as soon as I get a chance to grab some backing this one will be off to the quilter.

Until Next Time

Holiday mode

Unfortunately you probably wont be seeing any sewing posts from me this week as i'm enjoying the week relaxing on the coast with my family and my dear friend Cath and her family. With seven children between us, you would wonder how on earth it could be relaxing..... but surprising it really is. The kids are having such a ball doing all the activities in the park and spending so much time in the pool that here we are day three and there hasn't even been a blew!

On the way to our holiday destination, we managed to swing by the Craft Expo at Homebush in Sydney, where Miss 10 and I spent the whole day browsing spending while hubby and Master 7 went off and did other things. Here's a pic of my little pile of purchases:

You would think that with the amount of money I spent, that my pile would be a little bigger???

Here's a closer pic of the lovely fabrics I found...... some lovely Sandi Henderson Fat Quarters, A Verna Honey bun and a couple of cute Timeless Treasures prints:

I already have a project in mind for the honey bun..... you can check it out here.

Until Next Time

Happy Birthday Kal!

Last weekend was my friend Kal's birthday, so I just had to whip up another one of these cute little Buttercup Bags for her.....I really enjoy making these bags using the pattern from "Made By Rae" which you can find here and they hardly take any time to make. Once again, I enlarged the pattern to 140% like I did when making Nic's bag and I used the Calico lining again to make it nice and sturdy..... a girls gotta carry lots of "stuff". I also tried my hand at adding a little bit of piping on this one, which I'd never done before...not so sure I'll do it again... but it turned out nice, just a bit fiddly!

Here it is being modelled by my Miss 10 (Little Miss Thimble)

And a close up of the "Feeling Groovy" and "Roundabout" fabrics by Michael Miller

And best of all.....Kal loved it!

Until Next Time....

A Winner!

Just a quick post to let you all know that my little giveaway will be making it's way over to Lena from LeKaQuilt in Norway, after Miss 10 drew her name out of the hat (with all of three names in it...lol).
Glad someone will be putting these fabrics to good use, and since Lena is planning to make care quilts with the panels I'm throwing in a couple of fat quarters too!

Lena.... if you email me with your snail-mail address I'll pop them in the post for you!

Until Next Time

Stacked Coins + A small Giveaway

I was soooo delighted with Miss 10's first quilt "here"..... that I just had to start a Stacked Coin quilt myself last weekend (instead of stitching the bind on my Angel quilt like I was meant to be). I've used the delightful "Sent With Love" range by Deb Strain for Moda, although I did take out the reds in the range which I thought were a bit harsh for the little girl I have in mind for this quilt.

I now have all the strips together and ready just to sew the white strips in-between.

The fabric bundle that I bought from the "Fat Quarter Shop" also came with two panels that I not so sure I'll use....... if you're interested in them please leave a comment by Thursday 12th March and I'll choose someone to send them to, otherwise they'll probably just sit in my stash forever!

This picture shows both panels folded in half.

Until Next Time......

Angel's Story..... Done and Dusted!

I finally stopped procrastinating and made a start on the hand-stitching of my Angel's Story quilt binding last night...... and finished it off this morning! Isn't it lovely........

I'm so pleased with how this one has turned out and it didn't take nearly as long to complete as I thought it would..... really don't know why I'd put it off so long!

Not a bad first OPAM finish for March either!

Tomorrow I'll show you what I started while putting off stitching the bind on this one.

Until next time........

He loves me! (still)

My hubby and I celebrated our 15th wedding anniversary on Thursday...... we didn't do anything special like we usually do as we've just been too busy these last few weeks. And I'm not going to bore you with any old and dated wedding pics of me in my big puffy dress or my hubby with a lot more hair, but I did receive these beautiful red roses that were delivered to me at at work.

It's nice to be spoilt every now and then....aren't they lovely?

Until next time.....