Log Cabin Cushion

We are of to Clara's birthday party this morning, Ellyse is very excited (well at least I think she is, she is on night two of a 5 night sllep ver binge at my mum's apperantly). Clara became a big sister earlier this year and I made little Lilly this . Her mum told me last week how muc Clara loves it and is always carrying it around. So out went the plans for a rara skirt and in in with the idea of a cushion for Clara. I went with reds this time as I didn't want it to look too much like Lilly's. Sadly that was my only other option other than pink, I really need to get some different colours in my fabric collection.

K and I celebrated our 8th wedding anniversary this week. I just cannot believe it was 8 years ago since that special day. I absolutely loved my wedding day, everything went to plan,and even though it is well known as having more tears than a funeral (we were living 1000km apart at the time and I hadn't seen him for over 8 weeks), it was one of the happiest days of my life.

The many faces of Ellyse

Another creation from this pattern. My sister has bought Ellyse a gorgeous denim skirt from an airport somewhere in the world that has red stitching. It just doesn't look right wearing any other colour than red with it. When I saw this fabric at SL I knew it would make a lovely top to wear with the skirt.

Ellyse was in a playful mood while trying the top on, here is Ellyse being

Happy

Sad (well sort of, it is more of a happy sad isn't it?)

Excited

Surprised

Angry

After the last dress being too small, this top is just that bit too big, but she will grow into it.

Hasn't she changed since my first blog post 2 years ago?

Father's Day and some sneaky peaks

We had a very busy FD here as we also had a wedding to attend. Ellyse and Ashton made some handmade goodies, adn I also bought Keiran this book. I heard the author on the radio and just knew Keiran (and I) just had to read it. It will take hima while I am sure!

We had a lovely morning at home, then dropped the kids at K's parents' house for the afternoon. We don't relly do gifts for them (very sad I know), but I did make my dad this bag. He is so hard to buy for and I had this fabric - he loves everything old holden and even owns a few so it was perfect. I used this tutorial from Tin Whistle, although I made mine a lot bigger to make the most of the fabric.

Then in the afternoon we went to the wedding - here is the top I was so anxious about! I did feel a bit different to my 6 other friends who all wore dresses, but oh well.

And lastly a sneak peak at some gifts of love that should hopefully be arriving to their destinations tomorrow.

A VERY belated gift

My hairdresser had her baby 7 months ago and when I told her I had a gift in mind she asked for something handmade as she loved the clothes I had made for Ellyse. It seemed silly to sew something for winter, so now it is warming up (an dthe fact I have an appointment tomorrow) I whipped up this little Madeline Dress tonight. It is very easy and the result is just too cute!

Off to bed for me, I have a busy day tomorrow!

The Versatile Wrap and a little apple top

I must have made this top at the end of last summer. I remember thinking that it was way too short and I doubted that I would wear it. Well I must have had much bigger milk boobies then...I rediscovered it last week and it fits much better than I remembered. I did a little hem and it is all finished. I am not sure where I will wear it as Keiran tells me the apples look a bit odd on a grown woman! I think it is cute though, and Ellyse does too!

I finally received my fabric order yesterday and was straight on to making the versatile wrap. I have been really looking forward to this, so you can imagine my disappointment when I realised, with a directional print like this, I didn't have enough fabric. It was easy enough to fix though, I just have a seam on one of the panels.

The skirt was easy to make, the instructions were great. I am not really happy with the way it sits at the moment, a button hole might help that though, but I think that is more my shape rather than the skirt!

The RaRa Skirt is making a comeback!

Who would have thought my favourite skirt when I was 12 would be worn by my 3 year old 20 years later? I spotted some in Target last week and thought they looked sweet so thought I would have a go. I have had this fabric sitting in my stash for awhile and Ellyse is pink crazy at the moment so I thought it would be perfect. I will admit to having unstitching once or twice while I got my head around how exactly I was going to do it, but I am most happy with the end result. I had seen this mariposa applique on Sandi Henderson's blog anf thought it would be perfect for a matching T.

Watch here how Ellyse goes from grumpy to happy in one shot! Had to include both sides of her!

and one from mothers group on Friday. Ellyse loves looking after Ashton while I am busy, who am I to argue?

I am not the only one getting ready for summer with skirts, check out these gorgeous skirts by EB sewing buddies Leah and Helen.

Getting my groove back!

WOW 3 sewing posts for me in a week! I am loving getting things finished and doing something for myself again. I think I was a little bit lost without projects on the go and things to do.

I started this dolls quilt back in January as a gift for a friend's one year old. All that needed finishing was the binding, but for some reason I thought it would be too hard for me. Well after doing the toy mat last week and realising how easy it was I was looking forward to getting this finished. It is my first go at quilting and I am pleased with it, it is simple but lovely at the same time.

Summer sewing begins here

The day I saw this dress in Novy's blog, I just knew I wanted to make one too. I just love how simple it is, but having the two fabrics makes it special. Of course seeing a similar style in Myer was a good motivator also. So I pruchased the pattern from here and Iwas set to go.

So when K decided to go fishing tonight I put my UFOs (and my extremely tired eyes) to the side to have a go at the dress. It was really easy to make and the instructions were fantastic. I used a fabric for the main part that I bought on impulse when Ashton was first born and I had 20 minutes in Spotlight one day. I was actually planning on making something for myself with it as it has a great boarder at the bottom, but thought it worked well with the pink and white spot for this dress. I made the size 3 but it looks a bit small, fingers crossed it fits, if not some friends are coming for dinner tomorrow night and they have a two year old I can give it to....then I can order some of this gorgeous fabric.

I will update my blog tomorrow with a photo of Ellyse wearing it.

Toy Mat for baby Jasper

My older sister Nicole and her husband Jort welcomed a baby boy into their lives about 9 weeks ago - this is how long it has taken me to get this toy mat finished! I was lacking some motivation, but it was also very time consuming. I hand blanket stitched all of the applique which took hours.

It was all worth it though, I simply love the finished product and hope that Jasper does too. It has cord around it so it can be closed and used as a storage bag for toys, which will be handy for my sister as she lives in a one bedroom flat in Japan.

Not a great photo, you can't really see the detail, but I know you will appreciate it!

I will have to get a photo of little Jasper on it before they return home on Tuesday.

Songs to make you smile

Today Ellyse and I went to see Justine Clarke's show - Songs to make you smile. It was great fun and it sure did make me smile. Ellyse just loved the songs, eventhough she was not familiar with any of them. She was soon singing and dancing along. I just love the feeling at these shows, all of the parents with their children who are just so excited to be there. Watching Ellyse respond to Justine was magical.

We bought the DVD and Justine was signing copies, so we lined up and Ellyse got her copy signed. She wanted to tell Justine all about Ashton and her other babies at home, it was very cute.

12 months and still loving it!

My baby is 1

Ashton turned one on Tuesday and I thought what a great way to get back inot blogging, it sure has been a while. I can't believe it was a whole year ago that we welcomed him into the world.

We had a lovely party with our families and some close friends on Sunday, Brisbane turned on a beautiful winters day, it was just perfect. Ashton wasn't looking his best after a fall out of the sandpit on Friday afternoon, but I still think is is awfully cute. Ellyse was in her absolute element being the big sister and helping with everything from the pinata to the present opening.

We are looking forward to another magical year with our 2 beautiful children.

To borrow Tiger Filly's term -Ashton is such a snuggle bunny, he is forever crawling up to someone, popping his thumb in his mouth and going in for a cuddle. In this pic Ellyse is so zoned out watching Hi 5 that she didn't take much notice!

A bit of picture overload but I have a lot to make up on!

Today's sewing..

...just couldn't think of a good title tonight.

Well I decided to use my Ellyse free day wisely today, in a few weeks that day will be gone as I am going back to work.

I completed this pinni for her which I decided to make reversible - two dresses in one, why not? I chose some lovely soft pink corduroy and some gorgeous cream fabric with little pink flowers that I recieved from Novy in a swap we participated in awhile ago. I just love the fabric and think that it is perfect for the pinni. The pinni is a littl big but we should get away with a long sleeve shirt underneath. I am a bit disappointed with my sewing, I just better keep practising!

I made Ellyse these pants last year to go with her 'big sister' shirt. I will never forget the nesting I went through while I was pregnant with Ashton. There was no cleaning involved, it was all sewing. I made these pants on the Friday when I was already 5 days overdue. The plan was that Ellyse would wear them to the hospital with her matching big sister shirt. My poor mother in law got so distressed when Ellyse refused to wear them because they were scratchy, MIL thought I would be devastated - turns out I had more important things to worry about!

Anyway I have been washing them almost weekly for 10 months and they are still as stiff as a board, but I thought I would try my luck again today and she put them on without a fuss and wore them all day! I just love them.

Finishing things feels so good...

I have had a number of unfinished projects on the go and finishing them is the motivation I needed to get into some winter sewing for the kids.

Firstly, I was a bit cheeky on Ellyse's birthday and only sewed enough of her dressing gown so that she knew what it was! Three, or is it four, weeks later I finally finished it! It is just the moat adorable fabric, so soft, and she just loves looking justlike mummy in the mornings (well the one cold morning we have had anyway!).

For a long time I have wanted to make a log cabin cushion after seeing them here a long time ago. Finally I got some cheap cushions from Ikea and 2 little baby girls have recently been born so I thought I would have a go. I am pretty impressed with my little cushion, (not so much the fabrics though, I just used some from my stash) I just need to make sure I pin it and be more accurate with my seams next time....it ended up far from square. The quilting shows that off! For a first attempt I am happy though. This one is for a little baby from Mothers Group called Lily and the next one will also be for a Lily, my hair dressers new little bundle of joy.

I had these shirts all ready to go for a pirate themed birthday party a few weeks ago, but I just wanted to make sure the shirts would fit the little boy before I stitched them. I am so happy with how they have turned out. No more hand blanket stitch for me! Although this is using my mum's sewing machine, not sure if mine would do as good a job.

Speaking of the pirate party, here are my 2 little pirates. This is the best photo I have as my batteries (yes I have 2 and they were both flat) were flat on the day. Ellyse did have a little pirate hat and a blow up parrot for her shoulder, but I think they were disregarded quite quickly.

Now I want to get into sewing some winter clothes for the kids. A pinni and some pants for Ellyse and some pants for Ash too....I just have to get through the ironing pile first.