mayhem all around

oops been away for a while - had a surprise wedding in which 99% of the guests thought it was just a BBQ, went overseas travelling through Turkey, Syria, Jordan, Egypt, Rome and Malta, turned 30 sailing down the Nile and got back to discover my new sister-in-law is pregnant with twin boys (now i just need to learn to make "boy" clothes - but have a great excuse to sew twice as much!!)

Scrap Sunday Week3

Scrap Sunday Week3
Originally uploaded by craftykat

Week 3 - I continued with the String Strip Block - my scrap pile is dwindling! This week I teamed it up with Project Runway Season 3!!! I went for a more pink/blue/yellow theme this week.

my sunday scrap project

At the moment I am trying to get organised and move my craft corner (which is a series of tubs - way too embarrassing to photograph) to a cupboard with all these nice little boxes I got from Ikea. As part of the process I have been trying to use up scraps - mainly because I know they will sit there for years and I will probably never get around to using them - and of course it is a great form of procrastination.

I have decided that Sunday afternoon is my trying to use up scraps day. And because it is winter and the last few weekends have been wet - it has been the perfect excuse to put on an old movie and sew! So week 1 I decided to do some little log cabins using yellows and purples. I am not sure what my next step with this one will be - I might add some more fabric or turn it into a doll quilt. I paired this one up with Marilyn's The seven year itch

Week 2 I thought I would try Film in the Fridge's String Quilt Block tutorial. I have never done paper piercing before and lucky we had a new phonebook arrive the otherday so I could tear out the pages of the old one to use. I had fun making this one (+ it uses up some of the bigger scraps). I think I will be making more! While making this one I watch K Hepburn & Bogat in The African Queen

I still have a lot more scraps to go....

Quilt top for Mum

Quilt top (not yet fully sewn together) Quilt for my mother who loves turquoise at the moment. Made from Amy Butler Daisy Chain - I was inspired Pressed Flower fabric (centre) which reminded me of a tile - surrounded by some kona solids then more Amy Bulter!! Because of the pattern I could get 2 different "tiles". I am loving the fabric combination and hoping it is a raining miserable weekend so i can finish it without feeling guilty that i should be doing other stuff!

Scrap Bag

Scrap Bag
Originally uploaded by squishedfairy

I recently bought a copy of Patchwork Style: 35 Simple Projects for a Cozy and Colorful Life (Make Good: Crafts + Life) by Suzuko Koseki and have fallen in love with half of the projects and the use of scraps - i wish i could get my hands on some of the fabric she uses!. For my first project i made the fan bag from some black white and red scraps. I am keeping this one for me!

Katie's 30th Quilt

Katie's 30th Quilt
Originally uploaded by squishedfairy

On the weekend I finally finished my hope-to-one-day be sister in law Katie's 30th birthday quilt. It was the quilt i was doing as part of the oh fransson quilt-a-long. It uses Amy Butler Midwest Moderns and Quilting solids + some dark grey sashing. The back is made up of some of the scraps and two pieces of an early Amy Butler print. I am still not confident to do free motion quilting so I am still just following the lines. I hope she likes it ( it is a month late)

quiet but busy!

oops ... i was supposed to update this right? Been a bit busy the last few months - new job - holiday planning - trying to tidyup the place - trying to use up scraps- buying more fabric!!!
A few weeks ago I was getting ready to migrate my sewing junk pile corner into a new cupboard and I decided instead of putting everything straight in there I would sort things out and finish things! As a result I found I had some old cut up sheets, a pair of pjs with an unfortunate rip, binding and scraps left over from a view different projects. The result .... and a chance to practice my applique - some cute little kimonos and pillowcase dresses made using the patterns of Habitual at http://habitual.wordpress.com/.

First up we have thekimonos. The cute butterfly material is my friends pj pants. So I gave it back to her to give to a high school friend of ours that just had a baby. My friend also took a few more to give as presents! I made them all the smallest size so they are for 6 months olds. Others have been given away and I have 2 left waiting in my emergency gift pile.

Butterflies and Windmills
Balloons, Dots and Diamonds


Kites, Butterflies and Dots

Next is the pillowcase dresses. I made these for 18 month olds - as I calculated when it hits summer in Australia again my beautiful god-daughter Zoe should fit into them. And the brilliant thing is that when they no longer fit as a dress they should fit as a top! So the butterflies and the pink damask went to Zoe and the others are in the emergency present pile. (the dresses would probably look better modelled - but alas - don't know many 18 month old in the same city as me!)

baby boys...

I recently was visiting a friend over in Perth and became a godmother to her little girl. Her mother had created this amazing quilt for little Zoe and it gave me inspiration to make a quilt for another friend who had just had a little boy Maximus. I have tried making quilts for boys before and have had a horrid time trying to find suitable fabric. Well little Maximus' father owns a demolition company - so I could not go past Michael Millers Dig it! fabric and I also found some David Walker Robots fabric. For the backing I found a cute print at the local spotlight store that was gingham and had trucks and mixers etc

The great thing about this quilt is the little velco shapes that will be highly educational or make great chew toys. Also when he is old enough we can just unpick the velco and it can be a normal quilt. and just cause i had some leftovers I also made a cute little double sided bib and appliqued at detour sign on a little singlet.

fabricmanic

I realised the other that this is a year for significant birthdays - I have an 18th, 21st and numerous 30th (including my own) ... and i want to make quilts for all of them!!! I have therefore gone into a fabricmanic mode and trying to match fabric collections to friends and family and am scouring flickr to find inspirations for patterns. so much FUN!
So the first one I have to get done is for an 21st in 3 weeks time. I had some dots & stripes from Heather Ross Lightening Bug Collection + the extra cute dog print. Of course i had to order in some more fabric especailly the horse fabric as this person is a mad horse fan. I am hoping it arrives before next weekend so I can complete it on time. I am going to use this great pattern from o fransson and the Paintbox blocks

first post...

Well I finally got on the blog bandwagon. I should be posting some interesting stuff about my craft, travels and so forth.