Henny Penny and her six chicks

This is the cute gift I whipped up for my friends baby shower on Sunday although when I say 'whipped up' it actually took me a day to make plus the stuffing and hand sewing at night. As I mentioned before it is from the book 'Handmade Beginnings' by Anna Maria Horner and with her great instructions it was pretty easy and fun to put together.

All the fabrics are scraps from my stash and I had the yellow velcro left over from a previous project a few years ago. French knots and not buttons for eyes as they are too dangerous for young babies even though they would look nice.

I went with reddy/orangey colours as the parents have six hens themselves in similar colourings. I hope it gets lots of playtime from its soon to arrive owner.

Last minute gift sewing...

Just quickly popping in to show you what I'm working on today. These are going to be some little chicks that I'm making from a pattern in Anna Maria Horner's book 'Handmade Beginnings'  I bought this book because I know of 2 little babies due to be born during the next couple of months and I thought that was a good enough reason :-) I have Anna's first book and love the way she writes and of course the patterns are great too.

These little chicks are too cute and are a baby shower gift to which we are going to on Sunday. 

Hoping to finish them up tonight with some hand sewing in front of the TV. 

A very satisfying finish this week!

Yes I finished my crochet blanket last night!! I've been working on it at every spare moment and I got a lot done this last Sunday afternoon when it decided to rain heavily and not stop just as we were thinking of going out for walk on the beach for some fresh air. So the girls happily played on their Wii while I was happily ensconced on the couch keeping warm under my growing blanket and listening to some favourite music through headphones.

I don't know why but I'm surprised at how heavy it is. I guess it is a pure wool blanket and also I'm used to using our mohair blankets to snuggle under which are really light. I still have to weave all the ends through on the underside which is quite a job with all those colours. To think that just over a year ago I was a complete novice at crochet! I can thoroughly recommend  this project as a good beginner, maybe long term crochet project. It's a great project to take anywhere as you are just doing  it square by square although it was a little like a jigsaw puzzle to put altogether ;) 

Now I think I might like to tackle some crochet cushions to scatter around the house starting with this one and then maybe this one and I'd also quite like a scarf like this  pretty one.

And look who's given it the royal seal of approval!! She's been on it since mid-afternoon and is still there!

Starting new projects!

With my crochet blanket coming to an end I've been itching to pull out some fabrics for a new project or 2. Firstly I've decided to join the Amy Butler sew along over on Sara's blog Sew Sweetness. I love both Amy Butler's fabric designs and patterns so this was an easy decision for me to make and of course there's the added incentive of some prizes involved :) I've already have 2 Amy Butler bags but they are both in blues so I think I need a pink one for this coming spring/summer season. The pattern I've decided on is the Blossom bag which is a free pattern that can be found here. 

I'm also looking forward to finally starting on my yo-yo project for Penny's sew along that I signed up for a while back. I'm not sure how big I'm going to make this quilt yet but I have decided to use the above collection of fabrics because they are mostly small scale prints which I think would be nice made up in yo-yo's. I've had a lot of these fabrics for absolutely way too long just waiting for the perfect project. Some are vintage given to me from an Auntie, some were brought by my husband on a business trip to Portugal and some are Liberty prints and of course some I just bought on whim as you do when you like fabric :)

So looking forward to starting both these projects!

The final stage.....

Yes the crochet squares are all finished (all 199 of them!) and I have finally started sewing them all together.  Caitlin and I laid them out yesterday afternoon according to the pattern diagram. You are actually looking at what my lounge room floor looks like right now. My original idea was to lay them all out fiddle around with the right mix of colours, take a photo or two then gather them back up so I could vacuum the floor today. However when I started sewing them together I realised it wasn't going to take as long as I thought and it's so much easier to have them laid out than having to refer to a photo for the correct layout. Plus they are really brightening up the room! Hopefully a full reveal soon!

Works of art.....

In between trying to keep warm, get washing dry this is what the girls and I have been working on. After seeing Leslie's modern barn quilt canvas I was inspired to create one myself and then realised it would be a great holiday activity for the girls as well. Leslie directed me to the original instructions here. Thanks Leslie! I really enjoyed messing with the paints and creating all the colours from the limited paints we had on hand plus it was great to work on something creative but in a different medium to what I normally work with. Next time I might tackle something wonky like Leslie's!

Another bonus with these paintings was that the canvas's at our local book/stationary store are 1/2 price at the moment so Caitlin ended up doing 3 and Amelia has another couple of ideas for 2 more when she gets back from her stay with her Grandparents. You can see more inspiration here on the flickr group.

My new toy!

If you've been reading my blog for a while now you may remember that back in December /January my sewing machine that I've had for 20 years (yes that makes me feel old!) broke down. I was devastated and lost without my trusty sewing machine but thankfully my repair man came through and managed to fix it with glue and screws. Ever since I have worried about what I would do if  it couldn't have been fixed as there is no way I could afford to replace it with a similar machine. 

A few weeks ago I was in the local sewing shop in Thames waiting to be served and I spotted the above machine with a sign on it saying "Second hand, just been serviced, $350".  It is a  Janome 'Quilters Campanion' 6260, looks brand new and was too good a bargain to be left behind!  It has 60 built in decorative stitches and comes with a perspex extension table. While it isn't my dream sewing machine it is going to make the perfect back-up machine if my trusty Elna is ever non-repairable. My Elna was a top of the line model back when I purchased it with 155 built in stitches plus 4 cassettes each holding a further 48 stitches but the Janome has some lovely modern features that I love plus I can do free motion quilting on the Janome which my Elna can no longer do in its delicate state. 

I love the built-in storage on the top and the handy stitch guide!

I picked it up this last Monday after the store owner gave me a wee demo on all its cool features like the needle threader, the slide control for sewing speed (great for beginner sewers like my girls), the straight stitch that automatically reverses at each end, to name a few. It also comes with a walking foot for quilting and a handy 1/4 inch foot for patchwork seams. 

I have yet to have a play on it yet as its school holidays here and we have been keeping busy with:

• sleepovers
• playing on our new Wii
• using up our free passes to Rainbows End
• shopping for shoes, clothes and books
• reading new books
• visiting Grandparents
• cooking, baking and eating

In between I have finished my crochet squares and are now just fixing up the squares I did at the beginning when I had no clue as to how to crochet :). Hopefully today I will find the time to have a little play with my new toy!