Teacher gifts

I'm slowly making a few pencil rolls for the teachers for Christmas gifts this year. Yes, that's more of that alphabet fabric you can see!

I've modified it slightly but I am using the Pink Chalk Studio pencil roll pattern from the Last Minute Patchwork and Quilted Gifts book. It's such a gorgeous book, I want to make everything.

At the beach

There's nothing better than getting some sand between your toes on a hot weekend.

Supersize

Dear Santa,
I'll have one of these, please.
I'd appreciate it if you could make it too big to fit on the back of my hand.
Cheers,
Duyvken.

In the Shop

I added another stroller quilt (65cm x 76cm) to my etsy shop today. It's made using a moda authentic charm pack and the colours and typography prints are just gorgeous. I hand quilted diagonal lines using cream perle thread and it is backed with another alphabet print.

I love the backing fabric and am glad I bought quite a bit of it when I saw it at Spotlight.

Answering Questions

I've had a couple of questions lately but some of the commenters have no-reply emails so I'll answer them here. I hope that if you asked me something you'll find the answer here!

CC's comment:
I love the tractor fabric and the animals in the last post. Where do you find such lovely fabric?
Hi CC! Clearly, you have excellent taste. I am sure that I have mentioned before that sewing is little more than a pleasant diversion for me and, as such, I make slow progress with many of my projects. I bought the animal fabric (Alexander Henry 2d zoo) a few years ago from Quilt Fabric Delights. They don't seem to have it in stock at the moment but I did find it here and here.
I found the tractor fabric at the Craft Depot but I can't find it on the website and I used it all so I don't know what it was called.
Some of the places I like to buy fabric are Spotlight, Retromummy and Fat Quarter Shop.
Lynn's comment:
Are you guys officially vegetarian?
Hi Lynn! I know that is just a yes or no question but I am sure you are dying for details (haha) so the answer is 'yes' but there's a little more to it than that. We've been vegetarian for a long time (12 or 15 years?) with a few bouts of veganism but I like honey and I wear leather so I can't commit completely to that although I do admire people who do. Our pantry is full of legumes and the fridge is full of soy milk, we eat vegie meals here at home but Mr Duyvken eats meat and fish from time to time when he goes out (particularly for work functions) and has done so for 3 or 4 years.

Success

6 happy hearts hanging in the shade of the crepe myrtle.
Soundtrack: G, J and C jumping and laughing on the trampoline, JW sitting at my feet crunching leaves between her fingers and the kids over the back fence playing in the pool. All the sounds of a noisy, boisterous, early summer afternoon.

Looking for signs

You know it's time to put the sewing away when -
a) you stitch your ornament together with one of the fabrics the wrong way around, b) you try again and get the fabrics right but this time put the ribbon in the wrong way

c) you try yet again and get the fabrics right and the ribbon in the right way but the ribbon placement is a few mm's off and won't hang properly.

I am going to pay attention to all these portents, pack everything away and try again tonight.

Wish me luck!

Stitching

Handquilting J's throw. Sewing triangles to make a pinwheel cot quilt.

Adding circles to the far far away cot quilt top.

November

This week we are:

*enjoying the view of our neighbour's jacaranda from over the back fence.

* Seeing signs of summer everywhere, in the cicada shedding it's skin on the cubby house,* and the angophoras shedding their bark in the yard,and on the trampoline. But we just keep jumping because that's how we roll.

WIP

This is what I have been working on today. The far far away fabrics are so lovely to work with, I am really enjoying putting them together. I see that Heather Ross has a new collection coming out based on the owl and the pussycat story. I'm looking forward to seeing that one when it hits the shops!

First Communion

G's big day went beautifully. She, and all the other kids, were so wonderful last night at mass and then she thoroughly enjoyed herself this afternoon with all her cousins and family around her.

You'll notice that she's not wearing a flower on her sash. I couldn't get the aerosol fray stop and the liquid stuff just didn't work for me. I am sure that someone else would have mastered it but we just couldn't get it to work for us. We still want to try those lovely flowers so we'll order some of the spray online and let you know how it works out. G was very lucky to wear a marcasite brooch that belonged to my great aunt. To be honest, I think she liked it even more than the flower we'd been aiming for :-)

Dinner tonight

There is nothing that cannot be improved by the addition of poppy seeds. This is a proven fact. So when making soy sausages wrapped in puff pastry with a side of vegetables and tomato sauce for dinner I couldn't resist dipping into my black pearl stash.

Thanks to Lynn for the idea!

Merry Christmas

Is it just me or does that poor raccoon look like he's been lynched?

The Mooch

One of my nephews is having a tractor themed 4th party this weekend so we picked some fabric and made him a floor cushion (with an envelope back) for mooching around on. It wasn't easy finding tractor fabric that I liked even though there were quite a few available. Why are some of those novelty fabrics so awful? I do like the chicken wire fabric though, something about that really appeals to me. Hopefully, my nephew will feel the same way!

Alexander Henry 2d zoo

Basted and ready to hand quilt.

Etsy

I opened my little etsy shop today to much fanfare. We even had a ribbon cutting ceremony. Then we cracked open the asti, got busy serving nibblies and forgot to take pictures. You'll just have to imagine how much fun we had at 'the launch'.
Here are the first three quilts in the shop. A cot sized quilt using odyssea fabrics, a stroller quilt handquilted using odyssea fabrics,

and a stroller quilt handquilted using hushabye fabrics.

There will be more quilts added over the coming weeks.

Thanks for all your advice regarding selling online, it was interesting to read your experiences and definitely helped me decide which online service to use.

Now, back to my stitching.

Inspired by..,

I love the combination of blues, greens and browns. I am always drawn to it so I wasn't surprised when I came across this picture today and knew I had to get my hands on some of that fabric. I think I might be lucky enough to find some of that under the tree for me on Christmas morning. Aren't my children thoughtful?

A throw for J

I finished the quilt top for J's throw. I was going to make a single bed size (that's a twin size for those of the in north america) but I really did fall in love with those PB quilts and I have changed my mind about what I want to make for his bed so this is going to be big enough to snuggle under but small enough to cart around. I might even try machine quilting this one to speed things up.

I am going to embroider something in the large light blue block but I am not sure if I should go with slaap lacke or fait des beaux reves. They mean 'sweet dreams' in dutch and french.

Making flowers

G is making her first communion in a few weeks time and I want to make a sash for her to make her dress a little more special. It wasn't easy to find a nice, simple dress for her. I don't want her to look like a sparkly bridesmaid and I don't want her to look like a 17 year old but there isn't much in between!

I really need to learn to sew clothes so that I can make some things for her that are appropriate.

Luckily, my mum found a very sweet white broderie anglais sundress at Myer that will be perfect but it's a little plain so I have been wondering how to decorate it. I thought a sash with a flower would be sweet but I haven't been able to find any flowers that I like.

That was until today when I stumbled across this tutorial today via JCasa Handmade and I think it will be perfect! Now I just need to get some light grey/silvery cotton fabric and some fray stop and I can get started. I think G will enjoy working on this with me so I'll leave it for the weekend when we can do it together and Mr Duyvken can help keep my 3 other little helpers busy.

Mathilda's Markets

I went to the markets today and saw some of my Craft Roomies. Belinda was there and almost all sold out of her beautiful new earrings, Sophie was there with her gorgeous new niece, Niamh and all the lovely Barefoot Babies stock. and I also met Clare from Lulu and Lisa from The Red Thread. Ingrid was also there but I couldn't find her. Hopefully, I'll see her next time.

I bought this lovely bright dress for my niece from CrazyApeBananas and picked up several cards for things I want to follow up on. There were some adorable knits from Miller & Harry and the sweetest rashie suits I've ever seen at Alfie and Nina.