Green monkeys from Ikea

Thanks to an extra long Easter/Anzac Day public holiday (5 days, woohoo!), I was able to get down to some serious making :)

So I finally finished the tiny baby quilt that I've been working 'off and on again' for the last few months now ... it's a really simple 'cheats' quilt, purely because I couldn't bring myself to cut up the super cute Ikea fabric :D (I love those crazy green monkeys, lol)

It is just Ikea animal fabric on the top, and Ikea red/orange striped fabric on the bottom, with all of the animal designs outlined with 3 strands of embroidery thread :)

I also made a whole heap of baby and toddler hats (most of them have already been gifted, but I'll try to get photos of them soon).

These are two hats that I made from the Ann Budd Handy Book of Patterns that I borrowed from the library ... I love the accessories in this book, knitted from a clever little gauge/size grid. Looking forward to trying the mitts and socks :)

I was intrigued by the sweater pattern, but after getting about half way through knitting one for myself, I decided that the pattern was just a bit too much 80's ... you know, big armholes shapeless body, so decided to frog it and make this Super Birthday Sweater instead. Easy top down knitting and hopefully a nicely fitted shape :) I will try another Ann Budd one soon, because I do like the pattern format, but next time I'll probably stick to a toddler one :)

Girly things

.... so here is the reason that I've been a slack blogger of late ... a brand new grandbaby :) ... pretty good reason don't you think ;D

It's been good to make some girly things, there are so many awesome things to make (notice her cool 'itty bitty baby dress' from this post) ... I love it!

I would have liked to be making tiny knitted cardies and hats, but unfortunately, long sleeved woolens are not of much use for an aussie summer baby, but I did love this Confection Shrug pattern. It's a bit big, but totally cute (and practical :))

And thanks to Kate Atherley for this super-easy training sock pattern. The socks were my first venture into cuff-down, heel-flapped socks. It was so easy to follow, and came out so good, that I'm looking forward to making some adult sized ones ... thanks Kate :)

... and then some sewing :) .... on an op shopping trip a while back I bought some upholstery fabric samples for $5 with the thought of making a quilt ... I loved the colours and designs but decided that the furnishing fabric might feel a bit rough, so instead, we now have a very sturdy, reversible play mat for the new little miss :)

Quilty bits

Finally, my Rocket Man quilt has made lift-off :)

I had quite a hard time quilting it ... as requested by my daughter, it has a double layer (yep double layer!) of polyester wadding (cold Adelaide nights bbbrrrrr!!). She only wanted the applique shapes to be quilted so that made the job a bit easier ... but even so, I had a few sore fingers for a while :D

So, here is Rocket Man 2010 and I'm happy to say, it is much loved by our little rocket man and his mummy :D

I also finished Fay's quilt ... Fay is my friend's mum, who lives in a nursing home. I made her a lap quilt (about a metre square), just big enough to comfortably tuck in around her legs. I wanted it to be bright and cheery, but not over the top (so I hope that I've got the mix right) ... I also wanted it to be instantly recognisable as her own ... hope she likes it :)

Not quite ready for Lift-Off yet ...

... but we're getting closer :)

The progress so far on my Rocket Man quilt :)

The applique is nearly finished, which will then just leave the quilting. I'm going with a really easy running stitch with embroidery floss, just to outline the applique, and maybe a few of the pieced stars :) I'm really loving making this quilt ... Lift-Off will follow shortly!!

Rocket Man

I started making this cot quilt for the Little Star Man of our family :)

It fits in great with my stashbusting because I wanted it to have a really scrappy look ... plenty of tiny little pieces to use up on all of those free-pieced stars!

The pattern is from a book that I received as a pressy some time back, called Material Obsession.

The pattern is written for a pre printed panel to go in the centre, but I decided to go with applique for mine instead ... so far I've got up to cutting the applique shapes out of paper, and getting the placement right ... the next step is to decide on which fabrics to use :) The main inspiration for the rocket ship came from this awesome free applique from Kellie at Don't Look Now (thanks Kellie, it was just what I needed :))

...and ... I think that I've just found a great soft toy to accompany this quilt ... (that is so me, planning my next project before I'm even close to finishing this one!!) :D

Still de-stashing

...yes, the de-stashification process is still going strong :-) It has been hard to stop myself from adding to my supplies (I came very close to caving in at Spotlight this morning!)... buuut... so far, so good :-D
It took me a while to figure out what to make with my two lonely balls of Sean Sheep Armytage. It's too scratchy for baby things, and far too prone to accidentally felting for a teething, drooly bub (although it would have made an awesome looking earflap hat!), so in the end I settled on my old faithful,' go to when in a knitting funk pattern', the One Skein Wonder. I followed the pattern without modification, phew!!, and it pretty much saw all of my two balls :-)

I made a few pairs of toe-up socks. The white pair here were made with some old 'no label' acrylic, and the pink ones were Lincraft Cosy 8 ply wool. They're basically the same sock, 8 ply yarn with 4mm needles. Turkish cast on (12 sts) increasing to about 24 (or whenever the sock fits snuggly over your toes), work straight in any stitch (on my lace pair, I did plain stocking stitch on half the stitches, for the sole). I tried a Short row heel this time, instead of the Afterthought one, and really surprised myself with how easy it was, although I do need to practice it more to eliminate the little holes on either side. After the heel it was just ribbing on all stitches until I was happy with how they felt on :-) I found this elastic bind off, which made a heap of difference to getting the socks on and off!
....and finally, I attacked my fabric stash, and started making random quilt blocks...not sure what I'm making with them yet, but I'm pretty sure that a baby quilt will be following shortly ;-D

Warm ears and cosy sleeps ...

Finding a hat pattern to perfectly fit a baby's head is not that easy ... finding an online hat generator however, to design a hat in your own yarn, and to your own measurements, is as easy as clicking here :-D ... how cool are those ear flaps?! I thought that I'd made some sort of mistake whilst I was knitting it... having never made (or worn) ear flaps before, I imagined the flaps to be exactly opposite each other, but (very cleverly) they're not, they are positioned a lot nearer to the back than the front. The result is a hat that fits so well, that it doesn't move about, or need adjusting every few minutes ... love it! ... my only change to the pattern was to do a few less rounds in the main body of the hat ... other than that, I followed the pattern (surprised eh?! ... yep, me too!)
I finally finished a baby quilt that seems to have been waiting around forever. The top is all machine pieced, so that really didn't take too long ... the waiting was just for the quilting to get started (but as soon as it was, it only took a few days to complete). I placed the quilt top directly onto the backing, and hand quilted it, using 3 strands of embroidery thread. I'm not sure what the backing fabric is called ... it's got a really soft fleecy/furry kind of feel (it's the same fabric that heaps of this seasons dressing gowns are made out of) ... I'm sure it's got a name, but I just didn't think to look when I bought it from Spotlight ... maybe I'll remember to check next time I'm there :-D (but, whatever it's called, it's soft, warm, and very snuggly ... and perfect for this Adelaide winter)

A Quilting Ravelry....

...how good is that?! Anybody that has ever used Ravelry for their knitting addiction, will know just how awesome that site is. I've been reading on people's blogs for ages, how everyone wants a quilting equivalent, and yippee!!!...it looks like there may be one forming :-) Quiltgroup is now in the process of sending out invitations. Mine came within a week, and so far, it looks like the site will be a good one! My username over there is Linda

It's still been too hot to knit here in Adelaide, so I got to work on a new quilt instead....I've got no real plan in mind for it, other than I want it to be 'liberated' and busy!
The quilt so far....

Chrissy quilting time

...this quilt has been a long time in the making, but finally it's done :-) It started with me using five star blocks from my block stash, and a few oddments of Christmas fabric....It's machine pieced and quilted onto some creamy coloured polar fleece, with the holly leaves appliqued on top. There really wasn't much finishing off to be done..just the applique , some more quilting, and the binding being sewn down :-)

The small quilt with the log cabin corners I made in 1999...it was from a book that I borrowed, called Appliquilt to Go by Tonee White. I loved that I could combine the applique and quilting stitch into one action (I used the same technique this week for my holly leaves).

Reading the forums over on Ravelry I read about a new author (with a knitty twist) to look for...I love mysteries, especially really old Agatha Christie type books, so I couldn't wait to read Patricia Wentworth's Miss Silver Mysteries....Maud Silver is a private detective with a passion for knitting....what's not to love about that!.... so far I've started The Key, and already she's knitting some socks (whilst solving the crime of course!) :-)

December already!

We returned from a road trip to Port Augusta on saturday, and straight away, got the Christmas decs out :-)
This is a chrissy quilt I made a few years back...the centre section (up to the plain blue border) was from a pattern in Australian Patchwork and Quilting (applique special)...I just added some scrappy borders to make it a more usable size. In keeping with the scrappy theme, I made the backing out of any red or blue fabric I had (and used a house block from my pile of lonesome blocks, for the label)...I kinda like the back better than the front :-)

I also 'found' this nearly finished quilt in the box with the rest...(yep, I find my UFO's everywhere!)...all it needs is a bit more machine quilting, and some holly leaves to be appliqued....I should be able to finish it before Christmas ....(that is this Christmas) :-D

Stashbusting potholders

I found this pattern through Ravelry, and thought that it would be a great way to use some of my box full of spare quilt blocks (this one was part of a block swap I did a few years back). I followed the idea from the pattern, not the actual pattern itself.........on my Bond knitting machine, I made a huge square of stocking stitch in random stripes, which I then cut into smaller squares and backed with fusible interfacing....

1.Pre-quilted block cut to 40cm square with roughly cut (interface backed) knitting...
2.Quilt block placed on wrong side of knitting...
3.Machine sewn, 5mm in from edge using a triple machine stitch (I also used a walking foot)...
4.Knitting cut to match quilt block...
5.Machine overlocked around the edges.

I was going to add some fabric binding around the edges, but decided that I liked the raw edge look better...to be extra sure that no unravelling happens, I'm going to add another row of triple stitch around the edge, just inside the first row.
A load of these all zigzagged together would make a really nice quilt on one side, and blanket on the other :-)

Power to the Pinny

...As promised, a modeled shot of my pair of matching(ish) aprons :-)
Meet James...he was the only member of this household who didn't have a problem modeling a pinny with me! :-D
I really should edit the photo, and have a thought bubble coming from Mighty (the dog)....he's looking at our daughter who's taking the shot, and thinking "what the hell do these two think they look like!!?!!" :-D
The pocket on James' one is maybe a bit low...I did it like that because I quilted it with the idea of using it as an oven glove, and I thought that lower would give it more flexibility...I haven't put it to the test yet though.

Instant knitting gratification!!...I have a new Nintendo DS lite(yay!), which I really don't want to get scratched in my bag, so I made it a cosy (to go with all of the other ones that I made for my phone..ipod..keys..sunnies...my handbag contains nothing but cosies!).
I used the same basic pattern as with the phone socks, but cast on extra stitches (30 in total), and just knitted until it was the length of the DS. The yarn is Daisy by Seansheep, the same as I used for my Unbiased bag, but this time in a brown...(yep, I'm still working my way through my Seansheep stash :-))

....and as for my fabric stash, I laid out a couple more bag blocks for my handbag quilt...now I just need to get working on their embellishments :-)

...my invite has arrived...!

...such excitement...I have hardly anything to show you (other than this progress I'm making on my handbag quilt)...but, but, but...I have my invite to Ravelry :-) I'm using my clickertyclick name, as Linda was already taken (ha, who'd o' thought! ;-D)...it'll probably take me a few days to learn how to navigate around the site, but so far, I'm impressed :-) (and very excited!)

Stashbusters!

Over the (very cold) Queen's Birthday Long Weekend, I tried to make a move on some of my stash :-) (really....it did nothing to deplete my 'supplies'...it just made me realise how much stuff I have!).
With the weather being the way it was, I started to make some quilts/blankets ... I don't have a plan for them yet, just started knitting and sewing without too much thought ;-D
I wish I'd have known that the new Knitty was up ... I love pretty much everything in this issue (and they're nearly all, small, quick knits! :-) ).

Quilts,quilts,quilts!

I've spent all week working on some quilting UFOs...these 3 quilts have been waiing around forever to get finished (the house one has 2002 appliqued on the top!!)...I don't seem to have made too much progress, but hey, at least I've got them out and done enough to get me enthusiastic again :-)
As you can see in the photo, all 3 are scrap quilts....the double wedding ring was pieced by hand, using the english paper template method (cut out the shapes from freezer paper, iron them onto the back of the fabric, tack the edges over the paper, then whip stitch the fabric pieces together). The house one was machine pieced and hand appliqued (again, over the paper templates), and the star one is machine pieced and surrounded by red and white log cabin blocks.
I 'found' another Bonfit Patterner this week (yay!!...can you see me jumping for joy from where you are?!!) I was SO impressed with my pants patterner that I started looking for the other 2 (skirt and bodice) patterners. No luck yet with the bodice, but I bought the skirt one off ebay :-D Hopefully, it is winging it's way from Tasmania right now....soooo excited!...and just the bodice one to go now :-)
Thanks heaps for the comments about my pants both here and on Wardrobe Refashion...the bonfit system is really clever...you just need to take a few easy measurements (pretty much just waist, hips, crotch) and then slide the patterner pieces along until your measurement appears at the arrow, and tighten the knob to hold it in place..there is a bit of pivoting to do as you're drawing around the tempate, but once you've done it a few times (and watched the video), it's really easy. It took me a couple of attempts, and about an hour, to get it sorted in my head...next time should be as easy as! I dropped the waistline slightly, and shortened the crotch, because I wanted low slung, not waist hugging...to do this, I measured my waist a few centimetres lower than I normally would, and took the shortened crotch measurement from there...easy :-D
Can't wait to get my skirt one!!

Necklace no more

Well, my Cheap as Chips necklace has now turned itself (with the help of some wire snippy thingies) into 8 new stitch markers :-) It worked out really good, coz the big rings that go on the needles were also part of the necklace (I think I may have left too many beads dangling...but they looked so cute!...I'll just have to snip again if they get in the way of my knitting).





I started to do the lettering for my Handbag quilt. I think it would look good to have all of the writing in the centre on a pink background, and have the bags around the edge in a medallion style quilt (I will remember to iron the blocks next time I decide to take a photo!...I was just too anxious to see how they looked on the pink background!) :-)