For the babies.....

These bibs are the latest additions to my shop this week. I love working with such cute fabrics and they don't take at all long to whip up in an afternoon. Putting the fabrics together is of course my favourite part of the process and I keep finding further combinations that would look good together. I was challenged a couple of months ago by someone who has a couple of grandchildren due but was finding it hard to find suitable non-gender specific items to give before the babies arrived. When I looked at the baby items that I had already made I realised that they were definitely either for baby girls or boys so I have since been looking at my fabrics in a different light.

It is definitely more challenging to make non-gender specific items. I seem to have a lot of fabrics that are 'for the girls' because of the colours but also the motifs on them. The front 2 pairs of baby shoes in the above photo are what I came up with that I thought could be for either boy or girl. Most expectant parents seem to want to find out what they are having beforehand so it was refreshing to hear of parents wanting to wait until their bundle of joy arrived to find out whether they were having either a girls or a boy. Maybe I'm old fashioned but I kind of like the idea of a surprise at the end of all that pain of giving birth.

New cushion cover designs....

 I started these cushion covers a couple of weeks ago now but they had to go on the back-burner for a week while I worked on Amelia's ottoman in my last post. The blue/purple/green 'brick' design cover is just a simple pattern I have wanted to try for a wee while now. It is made up of some scraps leftover from making these memo boards for Caitlin's room. It always feels good to use up leftover scraps doesn't it. The big pink flower design is an idea that came to me while doing some design doodling one evening and I decided to make it while the inspiration was fresh in my mind. 

 The centre of the flower is made up of 3 different sized yo-yo's with button centres. I do seem to have a thing about yo-yo's I think :-) and yes they did take a little while of sitting in the sun to sew them all on.

 The blue brick design cushion cover is just simply quilted with some fairly random wavy lines to break up the straight lines of the piecing.

The backs are a simple slightly off centre envelope enclosure using some of my favourite buttons on each.

Available in my shop from tomorrow :-)

The Ottoman....

A few weeks back I posted a teaser of what I was working on....sorry about the delay in revealing exactly what it was I was making! My eldest daughter, Amelia, has just turned 16, making me wonder where all those years went so quickly :-) I have wanted to make one of these Ottoman's for a long time so I pulled out an assortment of mostly aquamarine blues to go with the predominate colour in Amelia's bedroom. As you can see from the above photo it has been given the seal of approval from Caitlin's cat who decided to rub up against it just as I was taking a photo.

I've had the large white pom-pom trim for a while now just waiting for the perfect project, and I love the element of fun it adds to this piece. 

Some aqua and white polka dot piping frames the bottom perimeter perfectly. As you may be able to tell it is quite a decent size. It took 54 5" squares to complete and an enormous amount of polyester stuffing to fill it properly. Amelia's cat in the background took no notice whatsoever in my photo shoot, seemingly more interested in taking in the view from her 'throne'.

Amelia celebrated her big birthday with a sleepover with 3 of her good friends,watching movies, chilling in the spa that I got going just for the occasion and eating lots of junk food as you do when you're 16! For her birthday cake I made her a 'red velvet cake' with cream cheese icing and sprinkled with pink coloured coconut, a recipe on my 'to do' list for a while now.
I have just this past week finished making a couple of items for my shop so hopefully I can find the time to show them here tomorrow :-)

Back to my happy place......

 This past weekend I got back into my Sewing Attic aka "my happy place" :-). Not much sewing or much at all has been happening around her for a couple of weeks due to a minor operation on the arch of my foot to remove a sunspot. Although the operation itself was minor the recovery was very unexpectedly not so minor and I have had to keep walking to a minimum even resorting to getting crutches to help get myself get around more easily. (Whilst hopping around was good for working those abdominals it was hard work and crawling up and down stairs is slightly undignified.) Thankfully my girls have been very helpful, cooking, cleaning and hanging out our washing etc... plus I have good friends and neighbours that have also helped us out. I am getting around a little bit better today and the stitches come out on Wednesday so hopefully I'll be even more mobile by the end of the week as my eldest, Amelia, turns sweet 16 on Thursday :-)

For this project that I'm currently working on I have picked out some mainly turquoise/blue prints and have even cut into some favourite 'Amy Butler' and 'Heather Bailey' prints to get the right mix of prints. These colours are so me. My bedroom has various shades of aqua/turquoise and I plan to redecorate my lounge one day soon in these colours. They are so calm and restful don't you think?

Happy Mother's day....

So this cushion that I was working on last week wasn't actually for my shop :-) I had to tell a tiny white lie as it was my Mother's day present for my Mum and she reads my blog so I didn't want to give away the surprise for her. I chose 16 florals that I thought she would like, some have been used before in other projects I've made for her. She has long admired this cushion that now resides in my downstairs window seat so I knew she would like this design.

The centre came out nearly perfect but good enough for me with all those points to match up. I actually meant to sew on a button but completely forgot :-( 

On the back I did a scalloped button enclosure which seemed to go down well with Mum as she likes this side more than the front??!!

Anyway I hope everyone had a lovely Mother's day like I did. We were blessed with a beautiful clear sunny day here and my girls spoiled me by giving me a set of  champagne glasses (I might have dropped a small hint earlier) and some dark chocolate. My day was made perfect with a walk along the beach and an ice-cream.

Sewing on a wet Sunday afternoon....

What better way to spend a wet Sunday afternoon than sewing together some pretty florals whilst listening to some favourite music to drown out the thunder. One of a couple cushion cover ideas for my shop.

A perfect Friday.....

So I've had another busy week plus it's been a bit of an emotional roller-coaster with some personal stuff I've been processing but today was the perfect ending. Spending time with good friends makes everything feel much better and of course getting out and exercising in the forestry surrounding our town is the perfect tonic when you're feeling a bit down about things. After a couple of hours of somewhat leisurely biking and chatting we headed back into town and home to shower then we gathered again for some more girls talk over tea and cake at my place.

For some reason I felt like baking late yesterday afternoon and was also in the mood to try out a couple of new recipes that I had come across recently. The above loaf is a coconut loaf with pink raspberry icing. Perfect for a girls afternoon tea not that I had that planned at the time of making it :-) Here's a quick run-down of the recipe because it is too delicious not to share.....

• 125g butter
• 1 cup sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 teaspoon coconut essence
• 3/4 cup coconut cream
• 1 1/2 cups self-raising flour 
• 3/4 cup desiccated coconut

Preheat oven to 175C. Line loaf tin with baking paper.

Beat butter and sugar until pale and creamy. Beat in eggs, one at a time. Add coconut essence and coconut cream and beat to incorporate. Stir in flour and coconut. Spoon into prepared loaf tin and bake for 45 minutes or until a skewer inserted comes out clean. Remove to a wire rack to cool. Once cold, drizzle with pink, raspberry flavoured icing made with 2 cups of icing sugar, a drop or 2 of red food colouring and 1/2 teaspoon of raspberry essence, 20g melted butter and 2 tablespoons of boiling water. Slice to serve. Enjoy!!

The second item I made was these maple walnut bars which are divine ! You can find the recipe here on Susan's blog Hanging on by Needle and thread. Susan often shares her delicious recipes :-)  and this one certainly is a keeper.

Today has reminded me how thankful I am to have such caring and supportive friends and to live in a town with so much to do right on our doorstep.