Uh oh...

My stash busting really isn't going that well - 89 FQ up already! I really need a finish to save me soon.  Luckily every fabric I have purchased this year is to finish a WIP (or in the case of the BOM fabrics, to start a quilt that I plan to complete this year), so the news isn't all bad since my goal is simply to be at a negative by the end of the year.  It is a bit scary though, seeing it is only January, and a bit of a shock since I have never really tracked my fabric purchases before.

 

This little bundle arrived from equilter.com yesterday, and because it includes 108" backing fabric, it really made my stash count soar (just as the Blockapalooza backing did when I went to Tricia's Discount Fabrics).  The good news is, I now have no excuses to not finish Madelyn's quilt!  And the race is on between my hubby and me - will he finish building and painting her bed first, or will I finish the quilt? Seeing as he still hasn't built the trundle drawer for Austy's bed, I might be the one to back!  48 blocks down 26 to go... and another trip to Tricia's for the solid border fabric.

 

More happy mail came today - the last of the border fabric for my Central Park Blockapalooza quilt, some greys for my Lucky Star BOM and the new Ottobre mag - with some very cute outfits for the kids!

 

I did finish this little set for Maddy and her Australian Girl "Emily" doll, but that only used up an amount of fabric equivalent to 3 FQs.  Still not going in the right direction. I think I need a quilt finish to make a big dent.

 

I made this little cotton knit top for Emily at Christmas too, so since it was last year's efforts (just) the top is my Flashback Friday project for today.

 

Flashback Friday #1

I have a bit of an unblogged project backlog - some things found their way onto facebook but others were never shared, so I thought I might use Fridays to flashback to projects that have not had their 5 minutes of fame.

I always wanted a little girl, so I could knit her a little layette like I made for my first niece, back in 2001. In fact it was for this reason that I opted to find out what we were having second time around. But because we were keeping it secret, and because there was a little voice in my head telling me that sometimes little girls turn out to be little boys, all I managed to knit while I was pregnant with Madelyn was unisex: a little aqua raglan cardy, and a sweet little cream lace matinee set (hat, booties and jacket) which she wore over a pink hand sewn dress. I was a bit scared to commit the time it takes to knit a little dress and have her turn out to be a little boy! A bit ironic that now I have finally gotten around to knit her a dress she's wearing a size 6, and that newborn dress would have taken far less time! Admittedly I have used 8 ply (and 10 ply for the second one) which is a bit faster than what it would have been to knit a seamed, lace, 4ply dress from one of my antique pattern books as I was planning for her as a baby, but there is a heck of a lot more knitting in this size!
I am forgetting - I did make her a dress from 4 ply when she was about 10 months old, but of course she grew out of it as soon as I finished it, so it always looked like more of a top than a dress and didn't last long. But now she has two dresses from my pre-Christmas knitting adventures that she can wear next autumn and winter. 

She has worn thisTeacher's Pet a few times already, as it is great for sunny days in the early 20's (Celsius) which we were blessed with in November. After finishing this one, I was on a roll, so signed up to test knit another dress!

This Primrose dress is a little big so she can get a bit more wear out of it with leggings and long sleeves next winter.  The oversize was a bit due to my poor measurements, and a bit due to the wool growing when I blocked it. Not so great as I was test knitting and was unable to help much with sizing, but I am happy because my little princess just keeps on growing!  She is already topping Austy's 5 year old mark on our growth chart and she only just turned 4!  It won't be long before she catches up...

Both dresses were designed by Julia Stanfield.