Nesting {Part 2}

This is a continuation of my previous post of how I doing up the kidlets bedroom on the cheap! Firstly there was the painted chevron rug now we have a dresser and some bunting for Mr Clyde and a new doona cover for Miss Elsie!
The Dresser

This was upcycled from a set of drawers we found on Gumtree. It has been finished for a while (though Clyde was about 6 weeks old when it made it into the room!) Hubby did most of the work, but hey I was heavily pregnant so I have an excuse! He took off a lot of the original trim and sanded it back. We had a bit of a domestic in Bunnings deciding on the paint. The one we originally settled on just didn't work for me after the first coat so I decided on a navy and funky blue drawers. I loved the idea of a painted giraffe, but I have pretty much no artistic talent at all - lucky hubby does!

Bunting 
I got a new toy! 60 degree triangle template!! So I immediately had to use it - perfect for some bunting!



Miss E's new Doona Cover

Her bed is only half painted - we ran out of time before we moved her into the big girl bed. It is the same blue as the Drawers on Clyde's dresser.
Here Doona cover is a mix of fabrics - Chevron, Stripes and Peacocks. The back is lions and chevron.

Still a bit of work to do on their room but it is slowly getting there!

Quilt bloopers

I see a lot of quilty blogs out there about cats sitting on projects - well not all of us are cat people (well I classify myself as a one cat person - gorgeous Ralph who we had growing up - no other cat could compare in awesomeness to that cat - and I even have a cat tat). Anyway I have dogs (Nala and Sierra - but mostly Nala) that like to sit on projects and photobomb pics. Tsk tsk... oh and the occasional child 
Featuring Sierra's behind

Nala admiring

Nala and child wrestling for prominent quilt position

Nala close up

Nala asleep on my wadding

Child wins

Sydney weather = happy place

Gorgeous Sydney weather and nephews birthday parties kept me busy this weekend! Happy 3rd birthday to my gorgeous nephews Jonah and the twins Max and Xavier, and Happy 1st birthday to little Fox! I usually like to give handmade pressies to them but I have run out of ideas! They all have quilts, cubes, library bags, texta rolls, cushions. I might have to venture into toys for next year! Any suggestions?
onto other presents... I finally finished some placemats for my sis-in-laws engagement pressie. Purple and Green were apparently the colours that both of this was what I came up with!
They seemed like a good idea at the time - until I got to the binding - 32 mitred corners = not fun.

March Bees & BOMS

I must admit - I am loving the Skill Builder BOM, especially the FMQ. I have always been a straight line quilter, sometimes sneaking some curves in but always with my walking foot. So it was quite daunting to use the darning foot to FMQ. The block this month were the Em-Dash

and The Mood

I am getting used to the circles/pebble quilting but still quite wonky!i had one triangle the wrong way round in The Mood but as it contained precious coveted Anna Maria Horner Good Folks fabric it was staying that way!!
My 4 blocks together so far...

The March block for the Simply Solids: a modern {bee}was for Kirsten who requested a X and + block from the stash.

Hubby was admiring this block hanging on the door so it looks like there might be a X and + quilt in the future...

A few Charity Quilts

I sometimes randomly create quilt tops - might be remnants from a few quilts or a random fabric pull or i do have a pile of 6" squares. At first I was keeping these as "in waiting" quilts for when friends had babies but then I always seemed to make them another quilt that was more personalised with fabrics about them. So when a friend from Baradine mentioned that the Baradine CWA were collecting quilts for those affected by the Warrumbungle bushfires in Janurary I knew what I wanted to do with them. The drive is called Caring with Quilts and details can be found at the link if you can help.
I love the Warrumbungles! My Nanna lives nearby in Coolah so we are out that direction often. We have been to the Warrumbungles a few times and they are gorgeous. So it is devastating at how fast those fires came through and the destruction they caused.
The quilts I sent off where two baby/kids quilts.
I FMQ some large bunting on the quilt - to match the back of the quilt (which is an ikea bedspread!)

I think I have an obsession

2 1/4 inch squares. I am in love with them! It all started with just wanting to use up some of my scraps - no nothing gives me more joy than cutting them out and sewing them together! I love the anti voodoo chain piercing method from Poppyprint and the randomness of making a scrap vomit quilt but most of all using up my scraps!!! So far I have made my posy love quilt, making progress on my scrap vomit quilt - 4 blocks done, numerous other rows sewn but just need to cut some more

also started on a bit of a crazy, quirky quilt for a friend that has a great big multicolour 2 inch squares ninja star on the back - as well as Nelson Mandela, some Scortish tartan, Packman and Ninjas (more to come later) And now now placemats for my sis-in-law for an engagement pressie

Also started fussy cutting some of the squares (these are a teeny bit bigger at 2 3/4 inches). Hopefully I will turn these into a car quilt for the kidlets - kinda a funky eye-spy quilt.
Now need to start finishing them all (she says as 2 new projects are sitting on the sewing table) and seriously considering a Scrappy Trip quilt...

Posy Love

Well after my little play with the mini charm pack of Aneela Hony's Posy pack I decided to keep with my mantra of finishing projects this year and fully commit to making and finishing the quilt. So I had needed to order some more fabric to complete it. I found a Charm pack on Ebay so even though it was a little more expensive than I would usually like to pay I thought it was still cheaper than placing an order from overseas and filling up my cart to make the postage worth it!
So this is what I ended up with! Very girly, sugar and spice. All 2 1/2 inch squares for the middle bits and for the border just some charm squares cut in half.
I quilted it in a cross stich like pattern - I was surprised how easy it was. I thought I would make a bit of a mess but having close lines made it easier.
The back was some pale pink homespun with a strip of gorgeous flowery fabric (not sure what it was, just that I bought it from fabric shack on special). Binding was a bright aqua turquoise print from Sarah Fielke new Spotlight collection.
It was the first quilt I have quilted since having my beautiful boy who is an amazing sleeper (6 weeks old and already doing 7hr night sleeps)
I have a few charity quilts to get quilted this week for the Caring with quilts for the Warrumbungle fires earlier in the year. I am hoping to quilt up two kids quilts that have been sitting in my unfinished pile for a while. Just need a bit of charity motivation!

January progress

Well apart from litle Mr Clyde keeping me busy, he has also allowed me to get some sewing done over the past few weeks (wow can't believe he is 4 weeks tomorrow!) while I haven't felt motivated, or had the energy to tackle the "big" projects I need to tick off I have managed to do a few small things here and there - and most importantly snuck in a sneaky fabric order while hubby was away working for the week. I like to think of it as a present for Clyde as I saw and fell in love with Safari Soriee by Dan Stiles for Birch Oragnic - and as I am currently waiting for hubby to finish painting a giraffe on a set of drawers for my new little man I thought it would go well! So I ordered a fat quarter bundle - no plans yet for it...but soon!
A few other things accidentally fell into my cart to make shipping worthwhile, including a mini charm pack of Aneela Hony's Posy. Über cute girly squee is not my usual style or Miss E's but there are a few bubba girls making an appearance this year and I like the green with the pink. So playing around with the mini squares I came up with this heart. Only problem now is that I want to make it into a quilt but I need some more and bigger pieces! *sneaky ebay order for a charm pack done*. So more to come later...
I also finished the Feb bee block for the Simply Solids: {a modern bee} for Adrianne in NZ. She requested HST and sent through some fabrics. I was a litle unsure of the colours to begin with but as it came together I certainly dig the colour combo and think it will be a strikingly beautiful quilt when finished.
I also made a start on the Pile O Fabrics Skill Builder BOM. I decided to make it completely scrappy as I don't really want to purchase fabric for it- I am more interested in learning some new techniques. I am using a light grey as the background and some of the Spotlight Denyse Schmidtt fabric as the backing - but the rest is what ever is in my scrap box. Trying to do a turquoise/yellow/bright pink/dark grey combo but we will see!
Block 1 : Soundwave
Block 2 : Magnum