Emptying the WIP box

I started fixing some double moss stitch that slipped into a single moss for a row that was 4 rows back on the little cable vest I started for Austy back in January. It was painfully slow, one stitch at a time, dropping them and picking them up again stitch by stitch, to save me frogging several rows of the cable pattern and losing my place. But I got halfway through the mistake patch and popped it back in the box, pulling out these instead.

All they needed was a grafted gusset and a second eye stitched into the back. Oh, and the elastic put in, but that is the easiest bit. I had put them aside several months ago because I didn't think Austy would get any wear out of them since they would have fitted him the best over summer, which was far too hot for longies. But last night we had another soak through. Austy's Dad has misplaced a pair of his woollies leaving me a pair short, so instead he had PUL on last night. And tonight I am washing every sheet, every blanket and even the mattress got wet - there was so much that didn't get caught by the nappy that it a lot ran down over the mattress protector and soaked into the mattress protector at the side. So these might be slightly too short for him (they were made to fit him LAST winter) but they will do the job and keep him dry until I can get another pair whipped up. Extra large is not fun to knit though. Give me newborn longies any day. If only we could toilet train him at night as well... we're only just getting the hang of the day training though.

Please excuse the dodgy pics - I give up waiting for sunlight now as it's dark every night when I get home and it would mean no blog posts till the weekends if I was too fussy about my photographs. And don't look too closely at my knitting stitch embroidery either - I'm still getting the hang of it. I think these would have been better with the face stitched into the knitting using a fair isle technique instead.

A long time in coming...

Seems to be the theme for everything I have been making lately... I always think there are more hours in the day than there actually are and as a result start things that take ages to finish! And this one is finished just in time, I think. I give you... the "Wombat zippie"!





I tried it on Austy the other day, when all that was left was to stitch that pesky zip in. In fact that has been all it was waiting for, for a long while. But first I bought the wrong length zip, so went and bought another one and went to stitch it in, only to find that it was a dress zip and not the open ended zip I needed. It was a good thing though, because then I found this one, a much better colour match than the chocolate brown one I had (this is more of a wombat brown), and I like the chunky look of it much more than the standard ones. There was a big problem however - the chunky zips have quite chunky reinforcing at the bottom! It has a VERY hard plastic coated bottom that was IMPOSSIBLE to push a needle through, so I tacked it all down as best I could and (fear of fears) ran my knitting under the sewing machine!!! I'm not entirely happy with it as the tacking didn't stop it from stretching as I went and the tops of the pockets don't line up properly but there was no other way of getting that zip on there, unless I went and swapped it for a chocolate brown non chunky one which didn't have the plastic coating.


Not perfect... but FINALLY... done.


Austy will be snuggly warm this winter.

Oh, and a swap update. I am stalking my letterbox daily! I should soon have a DQS3 quilt in there waiting for me, and I have ordered some bright summery fabric for the Apron Swap. I will post pics as soon as the postie does his job.

Newborn colour

I am struggling to keep up in here lately. Austy will not have day naps anymore, so is very tired by the end of the day when I'm trying to cook and then I have a huge mess to clean up when I finally win the battle to get him into bed, which eats into my sewing, knitting, quilting time. I have quite a few baby gifts in progress for all these new babies popping into the world this year, so am happy to say that this one has been DELIVERED!! I thought I'd better get it to her before she grows out of it. These little longies landed at Natalie's house for her sweet little princess Cheriese. I even got to have a good cuddle while I was there, despite it being a very rushed visit as Austy was wreaking havoc at home while his Dad was trying to run cables through the roof and needed me home to help him out.

This little pair was made using the picky pants pattern from little turtle knits, and I tried out the ruffle edge. There was no photo of it on the pattern so I was very scared it would turn out bad... but I really started to like them once they settled a bit after my cast off. I dyed the wool with a bit of jelly (the blue and pink and a touch of the lavender) and with Kool Aid (still loving that stash my lovely bag swapper sent me from the US last year!) was used to get the deep purple and bright green. It was nice to knit with such happy colours. I was kicking myself for hiding the wool in the cupboard for a week thinking the dye job was bad (I was shocked at how dark the purple came out). It wasn't so bad after all!

Oh, and I am absolutely addicted to swaps, and it really must stop! I am not getting a study break this year as I have set a deadline for myself that I MUST finish my Masters by December, so I really need to stop overcomitting myself with so many babies on their way and assignments to do. But I will just do one more swap to end my addiction for a little while! ;) I have signed up for the Sassy Apron Swap. I liked the idea of making an apron that is quite simple to make and would let me play with some designs of my own. Then, browsing through flickr for inspiration lead me to this pattern. I think I am in love! It is an apron that DOESN'T make you look frumpy, is very modern and in the right fabric would look FABULOUS. Now I'm tossing up whether to order that pattern (just because I love it so much) or make one of my sketches a reality. Better get cracking, I have 4 weeks!

Little things

I have finished my doll quilt for the swap but still need to label and wash it before it can be sent on it's long journey to America (and believe me, it IS a long journey... I spent two whole days flying to get there back in February!)


And a sneak peak at something little on the needles... I spoilt myself and bought two skeins of Debbie Bliss Baby Cashmerino. Quite expensive yarn, but something small like this is okay. I just LOVE how wonderfully soft it is. It almost feels like cotton, not wool, but even softer. I might just splurge again...


Oh and that's the back of the doll quilt you can see underneath.

Now for the fun part!

Here is my little quilt in progress for the Doll Quilt Swap 3. There are 300 tiny pieces in the background alone, and at one point I thought I was making a big mistake as it seemed to be taking forever and I wanted to get to the applique.

I did a test run last night on my sewing machine doing applique with invisible thread and a button hole stitch, but decided it would be much nicer if I did it by hand especially with those little leaves as they need to stand out a bit more. The quilting will help but perhaps a slightly darker embroidery thread will do the trick. ANd maybe I need a leaf or two more on the bottom branch. We'll see how sick of the handstitching I get before I add more though!

I have a gazzillion embroidery threads, but unfortunately none of them where the right colours so that's a good excuse to go to the quilt shop right?

One block down...

And I've made a start on the doll quilt! I spent most the night quilting one of those baby quilts as I have a primary school buddy that is ready to give birth any day now and I really need to finish it but the quilting table, teamed with a too low chair was giving my shoulder agony. I got to the borders and stopped... and pulled out more fabric to start something tiny. Inspired by Austy's teddy quilt that the lovely AJ painstakingly created I decided to challenge myself with tiny triangles. The seams don't meet perfectly but it's pretty hard when you're working on 3" finished 9 patch blocks (each triange is only 1" across) so I'm hoping that cuteness makes up for it!

Back into it

Please excuse my MIA status lately – we have had no internet since we left the old house 3 weeks ago.

We’re all moved in now, and can you believe I have actually been sewing! I had an exam to do on the Thursday before Easter which meant my first week at the new house was spent catching up on missed lectures and studying, but the Easter holidays gave me a chance to get the boxes in my sewing room emptied (we used the sewing room as the room to put everything when we moved and then as things got unpacked they were moved to their new homes so that we didn’t get overwhelmed by all the boxes). Once I begun, I was on a mission and had DH move my sewing desk in off the trailer on Good Friday night (despite it being near 11pm!). I set it all up again and was sewing by Saturday night, completing a strip pieced baby quilt top I started when I should have been packing in the final week at the old house (I only did a couple of blocks then but it was procrastination all the same!).

Then, once that was done I started a new quilt top, this time a gift for my sister (who’s birthday was on Friday a week ago... and the quilt still isn't finished!) using the moda day dreams charm squares that I knew would be perfect for her the moment I saw them. Just a simple disappearing nine patch, but I looked like I was going to run out of squares so added a couple of aqua ones in from my stash and then some white ones ready for either embroidery or appliqué. It turns out I ended up changing my configuration anyway to make it a square quilt so would have had enough charm squares, (with the two aqua ones added into the mix) but I guess it’s better this way as there are now white squares incorporated into the body of the quilt not just the border so they are not just looking like an after thought. But now it has been sitting with me wondering what to do with the blank squares...

These two, plus my pinwheel baby quilt top, Austy’s quilt top and my own D9P from the EB quilters charm square swap brings the tally of quilt tops up to FIVE! Something tells me I had better overcome my fear of the actual quilting and get them finished… especially since my sister’s is now overdue (not that she minds as she still hasn’t given me the birthday gift she promised me back in January.) I have armed myself with a machine quilting book, Emma’s wadding scraps and some calico to try my skills at a few exercises. I reeeeeeeeally wish I could meander and stipple, but I think I’d be happy with just using my darning foot for the first time at the moment. It’s like a big scary monster to me!

Austy also needed a new pair of PJ’s so as a reward for getting two assignments done last week I let myself sew, whipping up these snugly cute things. The fabric was just too cute to pass up. I wanted to do a dinosaur machine embroidery on the front but needed the net on to find a design so it has had to wait as the net only got connected (along with our phone) on Friday.

On the knitting front not a lot has been going on there as we have just come out of a heat wave (thank goodness the new house has a pool!) but it’s suddenly getting cool now so it will certainly come out of hiding. I have a few WIPs to finish off, and then DH’s Aunty popped over to give me some old patterns and fabric she had. In the pile was this booklet and I fell in love with the outfit on the front! That’s on the to do list now – too cute!

And finally, I have signed up for the flickr doll quilt swap! Not that I actually need a doll quilt, but I love making that size quilt. Austy still loves his little teddy quilt and it now adorns his dark wood toy chest with all his soft toys sitting around it. But this time I might get something to hang in my new sewing room to make it more like a crafty room rather than a bedroom with a sewing desk shoved in the corner. I have a plan and some beautiful FQ's and look forward to starting. My recipient still hasn't posted her preferrences so I'm just going to do it and cling to hope that she loves it. Helen and a few other EB Quilters are in on the fun with me!

So glad to be home

Amused, originally uploaded by austysmum.

Just look at this boy! How could I not be glad to be home to be snuggled and kissed and squeezled to bits all weekend by this adorable son of mine? Sorry, totally self indulgent non-craft related post, but I just HAD to share this photo of my darling little boy. For those of you who don't mind seeing doting mummy photos, you can check out a few more at Austy's blog where I let myself dribble on about him for all the rellies.

February? Where did you go?!

I just realised that I haven't blogged for a whole month. I did try once or twice but the posts just stayed drafts as I kept running out of time. Then, when I finally had a chance to finish one of those drafts, our net connection went awol for about a week! Just before I flew out to Detroit to finish off the month overseas on a work trip.

I guess I didn't really have much to blog for the month anyhow. I just did lots of little bits and didn't finish anything because I kept getting to a certain point in each project and realising I didn't have everything I needed to finish with so much of our stuff packed up and in storage. I did do a little bit of knitting until the heat really put me off and took three knitting projects with me to the US, thinking that since I was child free and staying in an apartment by myself for 7 nights I'd have time to knit and finish at least one of them off. How WRONG was I?!!

The workshop I was there for finished at 5pm each night but we often all stayed back late to talk more work with other GM reps from around the globe, so we never really left until 6pm. I got lifts with the German guys most of the time as I was terrified driving on the wrong side of the road in icy conditions. This meant that I had to go wherever they went, which wasn't so bad as they were lots of fun and we went shopping a couple of times and were great dinner companions. I would have been having a boring dinner in the apartment on my own if I wasn't out with them. We also went out to a sports bar one night with the local guys which was a very American experience - big screens on every wall and a very blokey menu of burgers, fries and steaks.

I didn't get back to my apartment any earlier than 9:30 -10ish, and then hooked up with DH and Austy on a free skype call for about an hour and then, absolutely exhausted, fell into bed. Can you believe I didn't knit even a stitch!!!?

Now I'm back (to a record heatwave after all that snow in Michigan!) and have loads of study to catch up on (thank goodness next week is Spring Break at Purdue so I can watch my lectures without having to download any new ones!), and we're finally moving house on Friday. So as you could imagine it's still a super busy household and I'm dying to have some one on one time with my crafts!

This little quilt was made for a newborn, but will now be lucky to reach him for his 3 month milestone. I finished it in January but it's still waiting for a label as our printer has been packed somewhere since Christmas. Thankfully, Emma has come to the rescue and printed a label for me which I should get on Tuesday, and the quilt can finally go out before we move.

And here are some progress shots on my Round Robin centre block. I was going to do a whole underwater scene but decided to keep it simple as I had already stretched out the deadline and I figured it might get too busy with the coral, seaweed and starfish on there as well. The shells were pieced VERY randomly, and there are some weird shapes in there but I like how I have used some of my favourite (and tiniest) scraps from past quilt projects. There are memories in each piece.

And finally some fabric goodness - I bought this stuff in a quitshop in Michigan called Guildcrafters, a HUGE shop that overwhelmed me at first, but to be honest I wish I had more time and a bigger suitcase. I could have brought home half the shop VERY easily. They had such beautiful fabrics and of course fabrics are half the price in the US as opposed to the $22-28 a metre we are expected to fork out here so it was very tempting. I fell in love with those rocketships straight away, perhaps because Austy didn't leave my mind for a moment (he scored so many things from Baby Gap, some little Nikes, a leap frog computer that was less than half the Aussie price and some other cool toys we don't have here).

Then I found the swirly bright fat 8ths packs that matched perfectly so I'm all set for another quilt. The batiks were for my Round Robin (just divine and matched my theme perfectly) and the other fat 8ths pack was just because it was irresistable with those gorgeous colours. Sadly the girraffe pattern I wanted to buy was all sold out.

When I arrived home a neat little package of fabric and charm squares from the Fat Quarter Shop. How beautiful are those Daydreams squares!? I was very impressed when I opened the parcel - perfect for who I am making the daydreams quilt for.

I look forward to settling in to the new house and getting crafty again. Unfortunately this Masters is going to keep me busy for a few months yet but I hope to fit in some craft time to unwind sometimes.

Eye Spy a car... a truck... a plane... a train!

Finally, I have pieced together the main part of Austy's quilt. I'm not so pleased with it as I measured wrong and made lots of mistakes when I made the blocks, this being my second ever quilt when I started on it (I just started and finished a few other quilts while this was underway because once I started this I realised how difficult it was for a beginner like me). Some of the blocks had seams pressed open (the rest didn't as I changed my methods as I learnt along the way), and the strippy blocks came out at 8.75" square, while the picture blocks varied between 8.25 and 8.5". Of course the finished block was meant to be 8.5" for ALL blocks so that once in the quilt they would all be 8". However, that wasn't to be so I needed top spend hours trimming and squaring up my blocks. This meant that some seam allowances were left very scant, and all the strippy blocks ended up with a mich thinner outer strip than the rest of the strips. Another problem was that I cut everything into the shapes they are in the block... I should have kept my triangles squares and cut them into triangles AFTER I seamed them. As a result, many blocks were off square and after all that trimming, making nice block joins was near impossible. I think about 2 in 5 block joins are near acceptable in my standards, the rest are ATTROCIOUS!!! But, we need to make mistakes to learn don't we? Someone could have told me how to do it all but I wouldn't have understood why. Now I know better, AND I understand why, so my future quilts will be much better. I'm just a bit sad that poor Austy gets two learning quilts (his baby quilt was my first quilt), so I am now thinking up a third quilt for him that will be much more worthy of hanging onto through the years.

What I am getting to is that this has been a very daunting project for me. My design was much more complicated than I thought it would be (although I'd probably be fine with it if I attempted it again now) and the size alone scared the bejeezes out of me. So getting this far has been somewhat of a challenge. Austy is dutifully impressed though (aren't two year olds the greatest when it comes to "Mummy Made-em's" appreciation?!) so now his excitement at seeing his quilt this near completion, is the push to make me finish. I am wondering whether or not to add a border. What do you think - 2" scrappy squares in left over blues and car/truck/plane/train fabrics with a tiny bit of red? It will make it slightly larger than a standard single bed quilt. Then I will bind it with navy????

Austy is sitting here pulling out these leftover fabrics and placing them on the quilt top saying "Mummy sewed a quilt for Austin! I love it, I love it! I really really do" Makes it all worth while.