My most recent gift idea

Recently I've made a few handmade gifts with the same theme.. I think a hat is a great present for a little person (considering they can cost upward from $10 new) and I love this hat pattern from Etsy.  And I think when teamed with a little applique on a bonds singlet - they make a cute gift. And the part I like the best is that they're fun to make!  These gifts will be given out in the next few days to two little boys turning 2, and a new baby girl (I looove polkadot fabrics!).

How is the quilt progressing you ask?

The quilt top has been sewn together and pinned (with a lot of help from Hsuyin, and a little help from my daughter)..

The quilting has been finished (I'll admit - it wasn't my favourite part of the process, but it wasn't as bad as I was expecting either :) The new walking foot sure helped I bet)

And the final steps to complete - are attaching the binding and sewing my little message of love on it to Lola.. I was thinking "Dear Lola, Every stitch a stitch of love. Happy 2nd Birthday. Love your mama"

My Nana always puts a note inside anything she makes for us and it always says "Every stitch a stitch of love" so I'm happy to carry on that tradition. Although I will admit that some stitches included a small amount of frustration.

But my favourite part is yet to come. I am so keen to post the final picture of the 'folded quilt'... Everyone knows what picture I mean - it's the one where the quilt is finished and folded neatly and it looks just perfect. I've been surfing pictures of folded quilts on flickr and think this one looks the most like the picture I'd like to take:

image courtesy of crazymomquilts (flickr)

So stand by for my final picture of the finished 'folded' quilt.

Fathers Day 2010

It's my husband's 2nd fathers day ever this year, and I love to try and make it special for him. He is an awesome Dad to our daughter, and I know he's just bursting with excitement about having a son later this year (I know he's secretly always wanted a little boy :) ). 

But last year I wanted to make his first Fathers day special, so I sewed him up a treat, and I made him a Snapfish album as a momento of all the Daddy moments with Lola in their first year (sewing project blogged about here). I know he loved it - and I was delighted that I'd managed to capture so many fun moments between the two of them (not sure how he'd go making an album of lola and Mummy photo's though - as Dad's just aren't as good at taking photo's as we sentimental mums are! - sorry for the generalisation!)

But I decided that I would make him another album this year. It's the best way of getting our photo's off the hard drive and also of reminding him of what a wonderful Dad he is (oh, and of course how cute our daughter is too :))

Here are just a few of the photo's I've found to use in the book:

The neglected one's...

I find it really difficult to rationalise time spent crafting.. I say to myself that it's 'me time', and anything that makes me happy makes me a nicer mama. I make things for my daughter, and say to myself that she will have special things that I've made for her with love. But it's the times that she's hanging onto my arm while I try to finish one last seam, or screaming at me for a cuddle while I finish cutting one more pattern - that I find the most difficult.  She's not yet 2 and can't understand the irrational logic that I cling to..  All she knows is that her mama isn't paying her the attention that she wants right at that moment.

One of the ways that help me rationalise things, is to spend time crafting with friends. Again - they're the friends I choose for me - but I will admit she does love her friendships as much as I love mine. And with a whole new set of toys and experiences at each house we go to - the visits bring many happy memories, cups of tea, and sugary treats for both mama and daughter.

Lover Carrots

Do these carrots look lovers?  I like to think that they grew together and developed a mutual love and respect for one another. It's easier than accepting that I overplanted and they were forced together. I'd feel awful if they didn't even like each other? I think they love each other - whiskers and all.

ok, so i'm both proud, and not so proud...

things i'm proud of:

1. sewing 42 squares for Lola's quilt on the weekend
2. ironing after sewing each piece on (I'm not an ironer)
3. being precise and careful with my seam allowances and measurements
4. laying the squares all out on the spare bed last night and jigging around with the pattern
5. choosing a combination of fabrics that I think look great together (Amy Butler - midwestern range)
6. achieving this much sewing over 2 and a half days

things I'm not so proud of:
1. letting Lola watch a ridiculous amount of television over the weekend
2. letting my sick husband look after himself
3. letting my house become a bomb site
4. thinking while I was sewing that I would NEVER make a quilt for someone I didn't love (you have to love someone a lot to be that meticulous I think :))

So the squares are all done but they're not sewn together. I changed the pattern a little bit (the squares are each meant to be 12.5 inches, but I didn't sew the last row around the outside of each so they're only about 10 inches). Basically I was worried I was going to run out of fabric.

The next step is sewing the top pieces together, then starts the quilting. I feel like I've done the hard part already, but I suspect I'm probably wrong.
 

Everything is growing..

Things are growing at an alarming rate in our little household these days...

The vegetable patch has gotten out of control (don't you love 'action girl' in this shot)

We've been eating fresh beetroot (round 1 of the vege patch planting has highlighted a slight issue of overcrowding - so these biggish beets were a surprise)

The tomato plant is 'finally' starting to produce (although nothing is ready to eat yet)

The father of the house has gotten 1 year older

Baby Andrew is now 21weeks developed

And of course our sweet daughter Lola is just growing by the day (as is her new fascination with dress up clothes?).. lucky we have plenty on hand from her cousins

My crafting is coming along again these days, and I'll have some images of the quilt I'm making for Lola in the next few days. It's very exciting :)