Merry Xmas and a Very Happy New Year!

I know it has been way too long since my last post...but I have still been sewing!  Grab a cuppa and I'll show you what sewing I've been up to.  First of all I wish you all a Very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!  I hope your Christmas has been wonderful and you have been able to spend time with family and friends.  We have had a lovely, relaxing Christmas and I have eaten way too much over the last week!  I definitely need to get back to the gym now and work off those chocolates and Christmas dinners! 
This first photo is of my daughter and a little purse that she made.  I managed to go along to the Australian Quilt Market in Melbourne with my local patchwork shop 'Riviera Patchwork' (a huge Thankyou to Gayle for letting me tag along and 'help' her).  We saw heaps and heaps of fabrics (how on earth do you choose just some of them to stock in the shop?) and heaps of new patterns too.  We met up with the designers and a had a look at their new designs and talked about what they've been up to. 
I found this little purse kit there and brought it home for my daughter to make up.  All the fabric, threads and purse closure was included.  My daughter and I sat down and made it up over a couple of days - and she managed to do the hand blanket stitching herself too.  I think it looks lovely.
This is from Dali Zakka (http://dalizakka.blogspot.com)

   
The next photos is of another Mini Magoo (a Melly & Me pattern) I made up recently - I think this is a cute little pattern and perfect as a present for a newborn. 

Now - to the Christmas Presents!  My son asked me a couple of months ago if I could make him an Angry Bird.  Now if you are not familiar with Angry Birds - it is a free App you can get on your smart phone or ipone.  He loves playing this game and is often asking if he can use our phones to play the game.  They have lots of Angry Bird toys and things you can buy from the shops - but he really wanted me to make him one.  So here is my version of an Angry Bird that I made for him for Christmas.  It's made of polar fleece and so is nice an cuddly.

He was VERY happy with it and said he just LOVES it which makes it all worthwhile! 
For my daughter I made up a Jodie Carleton (from Ric Rac) design called Little Red.  She is made using a wool fabric for her body (called Doctor's flannel - which I sourced from Ballarat Patchwork).  The other fabrics for her dress (is the Woodland range - which is definitely a favourite of mine) and the cape fabrics came from my local patchwork shop Riviera Patchwork. 

My daughter LOVES her and loves the details of her shoes and laces and the little basket of carrots and strawberries she is carrying.  I spend many late nights making her and trying to keep it secret so it was a big surprise on Christmas day.  I definitely succeeded there - as she had no idea about my secret late night sewing! 
I also made these cute little Christmas decorations as pressies.  They are from Rosalie Quinlan's Petit Noel book.  I used the left over doctor's flannel fabrics for the bodies and felt for the hats and scarves. 

And lastly I also made another Kinder girl (Ric Rac design).  I do love these dolls.  They are very lovable and just the right size for a child to hold and play with.  She is made from doctor's flannel too and the dress fabric is also from the Woodland range (told you it was one of my favourites!). 

 

I did also make one of the stitchery hearts from the Petit Noel book (but didn't get time to take a photo) and another one of my Christmas Birds as teacher's gifts. 
So now you're all up to date!  That's the sewing I've been doing lately - and I still have a few more items on the go (but don't we all!).  Have a great New Year and I hope to be back sooner - rather than later - next time. 
Happy Sewing!
Jody

Two Birthday's, a frog and a lovey dovey!

Both my little man and my bigger man celebrated their birthday's yesterday.  It was nice as the kids had a curriculum day off school on Monday and today was Melbourne Cup Day holiday so we were all able to spend the last two days home together.  They both seemed to have a really great birthday filled with lots of presents and yummy food and just relaxing at home.  We all had a wonderful time.  For my little man Lego was a big hit in the present department as well as games for the Wii and a DS.  He and I have spent the last two days building his lego sets and it has been great quality time spent together.    Having my bigger man around always makes me happy and it has been great for him to spend some family time with us.  I love these times of the year!  Here they are about to blow out the candles on their cake.

I managed to find some time to make my little man a present for his birthday.  This is Archie (a Ric Rac design) or as my son and I call him - the Super Hero frog!  I have made this design a few times before and each time my son has wanted one for himself - so I am very pleased I was able to make him his own Super Hero frog.

I also managed to finish off this sweet little babies toy - a Lovey Dovey.  This is a cute little cat face that is attached to a blankie body and is made from polar fleece so nice and soft and cuddly - just right for a little one.  This design is by Abby Glassenberg and you can download the pattern from her Etsy store.  It comes is four animal designs - a rabbit, dog, cat and bear.  I love this pattern. Both my kids have a teddy/blankie toy which they have had since birth - I only wish that I had been able to make this for them back then!         

 

 

Have a lovey day and happy sewing everyone!

 

Jody

Owl cushion & a fairy mushroom house

I wanted to make up a floor cushion for the kids and found this great fun design at Claire Turpin Design.  It is called 'a Family of Owls'.  I was able to buy and download the pattern off her Etsy store - so no waiting for it to arrive in the mail! 

I used cotton drill for the main fabric on the front and back and then was able to go through my stash and found enough fabric to make up the owl applique on the front.  It makes up into a 50cm x 50cm cushion which is a nice size for them to use when sitting on the floor reading, playing a board game or something like that.
I also found a great free tutorial and pattern from Browyn at Red Brolly to make up a Fairy mushroom house pincushion.  I thought it would be a great project for my daughter to do over these school holidays so I downloaded it and slightly enlarged the pattern so it would be easier for her to make.  We used fabric glue to stick on the felt shapes and then she used her sewing machine to sew the roof and the house together. 

 

 

I think it came out well and she loved making it.  It would also make up into a very sweet pincushion so I may just have to make up the original size one too! 
Happy sewing!
Jody

Feeding the calves & Mini Magoo

Well it has been school holidays over the last week and it has been great fun.  We have spent time just relaxing at home and doing things around the farm with the kids.  It's nice to have a break from the usual busy morning routine and rushing out the door to get the kids to school on time. 
Here are a couple of photos of the kids. We have quite a few poddy calves and the kids asked if they can each have a calf to feed and raise. 

 

 

So they now have their own calf that they have to feed every morning and night.  They are really enjoying this and have been very dedicated and are doing really well feeding them every day.

I also managed to finish the softie to fit the dress from my last post.  So here she is - this is my Mini Magoo (a Melly & Me design). 

It was fun to make her and I think she is a great size and I love her little dress, and the flower on her head. 

Hope you all are having a great school holiday break too.
Jody

FNSI Results

I worked on a couple of things for this Friday Night Sew In.   I did some more work on my stitchery and then also make this dress for a softie toy. 

The dress will fit a Mini Magoo (Melly & Me design)  monkey.  So now I just have to get the monkey made up! 
Have a look at what everyone else got up to for the Friday Night Sew In.
Happy Sewing!
Jody

Friday Night Sew In

It's Friday Night Sew In tonight - so time to get out some of those projects and get a little more work done on them. 

So click on this link HERE and join in the fun!
Happy Sewing!
Jody

Time for some Stitching....

Well I have finally found some time to do a little stitching!  After looking after my daughter, husband and then son when they got this nasty cold & flu that has been going around - it finally got me!  So I have spent the last few days not doing very much and when I was able to drag myself out of bed I sat on the couch and got out my stitching.  I had forgotten how much I enjoy just sitting down and stitching and have decided this is definitely something I should do more often (although next time I would rather not have this nasty cold!).  So I managed to make some progress on this stitchery project that we received in our gift bags when we went to the Urban Stitches day in Melbourne in July.  This is a Melly & Me design called 'Birds of a Feather'. 

They have also just announced Urban Stitches for 2013!  This year the designers will be Rosalie Quinlan, Melanie Dekker, Jodie Carleton & Simone Gooding.  So if you feel like a day out with friends - stitching, laughing, indulging in a beautiful lunch, morning and afternoon tea and chocolates (YUM!) then you better get in quick and book your spot for next year as they do get booked out fast.  We have managed to book our spots again for next year - so it should be great fun.  We are also going to another stitching day next year that has also just been announced called 'Friends in Stitches'  with Leanne Beasley, Natalie Lymer and Gail Pan - which is going to be held in July 2013 at the same great destination - the Novotel in Glen Waverley.   So again if you want another great day out you had better book your spot quickly. 

I also had some time to organise some of my threads - here are just some of my Cosmo threads all nicely wound around these cute little wooden spools.  I found these from Quilt Fabric Delights and they hold one skein of thread just nicely. 
Today has been just beautiful - the sun has been shining and your can really feel that Spring is here.  I couldn't help but take a few shots of some of our cows and calves we have on our property. 

These girls are calving and these calves you see here are only a couple of days old.
So now I am off to continue my stitching and try and get rid of the last of this nasty cold. 
Happy sewing!
Jody

Bunting & a Garden Apron

Here are another couple of things I have just finished recently.  I made this Garden Apron as a birthday present for my Mum - it is from Homespun Magazine (Vol 13 No. 8).  I made a few changes to the original pattern to suit what I thought Mum might use it for. 

I made three pockets on one side (to fit small hand garden tools - like your trowel, cultivator & weeder) and then the pocket to the right will fit her secateurs.  I also used cotton drill fabrics to make it more durable.  She was very happy with it!  Now I'll just have to make one for myself - saves me keeping the secateaurs in my back pocket when I'm out in the garden!
I also made this bunting - great way to use up some fabric scraps!  I'll use these on our stall at the makers markets to jazz it up a bit. 

Happy Sewing!
Jody

A Finish - finally!

Last night was the Friday Night Sew In and I managed to finally finish my Woodland Faeries stitchery, place it over a canvas and hang it up for my daughter. 

You may have seen this project a couple of times on my blog as a work in progress.  I was so pleased to finally finish it and hang it on the wall!  This was a free pattern from the Lecien website by Natalie Lymer of Cinderberry Stitches.
Happy Sewing!
Jody

Friday Night Sew In

It's Friday Night Sew In again tonight, so come on - get out some of those projects and join in the fun! 

Make sure you drop back on Saturday and see what we all got up to!
Happy Sewing,
Jody

Urban Stitches Melbourne

Last weekend I went with 2 of my lovely friends down to Urban Stitches in Melbourne.  It was at the Novatel in Glen Waverley - great location and easy to find.  Melanie Dekker of "Melly & Me", Leanne Beasley of "Leannes House" and Rosalie Quinlan of  "Rosalie Quinlan Designs" were the three designers there.  They all had their beautiful samples & quilts on display which were just amazing.  I don't know how these ladies find the time to do all this amazing work!  We also received goodie bags filled with three fully kitted patterns - one from each designer, plus all the threads, some fabrics, needles and scissors.   We had a lovely day stitching, shopping (Under the Mulberry Tree had a shop setup) and indulging in a beautiful lunch and just relaxing and taking some time out for ourselves. 

Just some of the samles and quilts on display

My lovey friends Jenelle & Lisa

More samples

I managed to start stitching Melly's project which is a beautiful bag with embroidery on the front called 'Birds of a Feather'.  Thanks girls for a lovely day out stitching!

Happy Sewing!

Jody

Uptown girl jacket

I just realised it has been a while since my last post - but I'm back!  I just finished a jacket for my daughter yesterday and we managed to get a couple of photos this morning.  This is the 'big Uptown girl' jacket (sizes 6 - 10 yrs) by Make it Perfect.  I used Natalie Lymer's 'Woodland' fabric range for this that I just LOVE.  The jacket was very easy and quick to make so I would definately recommend this pattern.  We are going to add one or two press studs just to keep the jacket closed a bit more - but otherwise my daughter and I are very happy with it. 

I am also very excited about going to Melbourne with a couple of friends to 'Urban Stitches' at the Novatel in Glen Waverly.  It's a stitching day with Melanie Dekker of 'Melly & Me', Leanne Beasley of 'Leanne House' & Rosalie Quinlan of 'Rosalie Quinlan Designs'.  So it should be a fun day for us all.  I'll post some pictures when we get back.

Happy Sewing!

Jody



FNSI results

I managed to get the middle section of my quilt done last night for the Friday Night Sew In.  It's going to be a single bed size roughly - and it will live on the back of the couch and can be used to snuggle under when we're cold.  I love this fabric - it's Saffron Craig's 'owls nesting' range.

Happy Sewing!
Jody

Friday Night Sew In

It's Friday Night Sew In tomorrow night.  So I'm going to start a project that I've been wanting to do for ages - it's the perfect excuse to do it.  So come on and join us!

Happy Sewing!
Jody 

Santa's Little Helpers - in Tilda Fabric

I made up a new sample of my 'Santa's Little Helpers' in the new Tilda fabrics.  I think they look lovely in these fabrics, so thought I would show them to you too. 

Happy Sewing!
Jody

Custom design doll

Well I'm still very busy, but I have managed to fit in some sewing.  This doll is a custom designed doll made using an image/logo on a business card.  So it was an interesting process of taking this business card and coming up with the design and pattern to make the doll.  I enjoyed the challenge and I do love the whole design process and coming up with a unique softie in the end.  It feels good to design and create something again as it has been awhile since I've had the time to do this.  The feedback I got from the lady that received her was really good - so that makes me happy, and makes it all worthwhile.  So here she is.

Have a lovely day and Happy Sewing!
Jody

Wow - where has the last month gone!

Busy, busy, busy!  Yes - that's me right now and it has been that way for the last month or so.  I have had heaps on - doing a Safe Food Handling course, organising the Catering at our local Field Days, doing my TAFE course in Children's Services, feeding poddy calves, looking after my parents dogs, starting my sewing class with the Grade 6's at school, Auskick with my son, mother's day stalls at school.....and the list could go on and on!  I haven't been able to get alot of sewing done amongst all of that - but I can show you another Magoo Monkey I made, that's for a newborn baby girl. 

Hoping things will slow down soon - but I don't think they will!  But that's ok - I don't mind too much, I do actually enjoy being busy - I probably wouldn't know what to do with myself if I wasn't!
Have a lovely day and Happy Sewing!
Jody

Chick and Egg

I made this cute reversible Chick & Egg for both my kids for Easter.  Such a clever idea - a reversible toy!  You turn it inside out and the egg becomes a chick and turn it back again to become an egg.  The kids loved them.

This pattern is designed by the talented Abby Glassenberg.  I bought this from her Etsy shop and the pattern was emailed through and I managed to make them up just before Easter Sunday.   A great way to use up some polar fleece scraps of fabric and they didn't take very long to make at all.

Here's something else I have been making too.  These are the party bags for my daughter's birthday party this weekend.  There will be 5 girls and 2 boys so I made all the girls ones using the Woodland range of fabric by Natalie Lymer.  I just love this fabric range.  The boys fabric was some I had in my stash and originally came from Spotlight.

This pattern is by Monica Solorio-Snow of Happy Zombie.  She calls them Small Treat Totes and it is a free pattern you can get from HERE. 

Have a lovely day!
Jody

Sally & Magoo

My daughter has been busy sewing yesterday and today and she has just finished her 'Sally' dog.  This is a Ric Rac pattern called 'Sally and Smith'  by Jodie Carleton and especially designed for beginners.  It is a fantastic pattern - all the instructions are well thought out and gives you very specific steps at every stage.  So my daughter was able to read through the instructions herself and understand what they mean.  I gave her a little help in some areas - but she managed to do everything including sewing on the button eyes, sewing and attaching the ears and embroidering the mouth on too. 

I also made up another Magoo monkey (Melly & Me design) just before the school holidays started.  So here he is just hanging out in the cubby house.

I hope you all have lovely Easter!
Jody
  

A few more things...

I should be doing bookwork & cleaning my house - but I thought I'd write up a quick post first!  Here are a couple of things I made recently.  The first are some pyjama's and dressing gown for my daughter's kinder girl doll.  This is another pattern that goes with the Kinder Girls pattern by Jodie Carleton from RicRac.  I have had this pattern for a while - but have only just got around to making these for her.

The next photo is a spider I made for my son to wear for Creepy Crawly day at school today.  All the preps and grade 1's had to come dressed as Creepy Crawlies - so he wanted to wear a spider.  But it had to be the Spiderman spider (the one that bit Spiderman and gave him his spidery powers!).  My son was very specific about that!  So here he is wearing his Spiderman spider.  He was very happy with it.

Now - better get back to my bookwork and cleaning!
Happy sewing!
Jody

FNSI Results

Last night was Friday Night Sew In again.  I find this is always a good excuse to get a project finished off - so last night I managed to get these little bean bags completed.  These are actually for an assignment that I am doing at TAFE as I am studying my Certificate III in Children's Services this year.  These bean bags are part of my Quiet Time box I am putting together for pre-school children.  They can stack them, count them, it helps them recognise numbers and they can also use them in a game of toss the bean bag into a box.

I made these from a tutorial put together by Holly Keller of Beeper Bebe.  She has some great tutorials for babies and children on her site so it is worth checking out.  

Also pop over and see what the other participants of Friday Night Sew In got up too. 

Earlier in the week I also finished this Kinder Girl.  I do love this design by Jodie Carleton from Ric Rac.  I have made one of these before and I love using the doctors flannel wool fabric for the body as it's so soft and warm and the reversible dress and jacket are just great.  Great for a baby or child of any age.

Sorry the photos of her aren't the best quality - it was early in the morning when I took them. 

Happy sewing everyone!

Jody

A mouse in the house!

As you may or may not know, we live out on a farm out in East Gippsland, Victoria.  Over the last week or so we have had heaps of rain - no flooding thank goodness - but definitely a lot of rain.  One of the common problems we deal with living out on a property is rats and mice.  Normally they stick to the machinery and hay sheds - but with the season we have had they have multiplied so much and they just seem to be everywhere.  It is not uncommon for the dogs to leave me 'presents' of the odd dead rat, mouse or hare near the clothesline. 

Well, on Tuesday morning I opened the door to the laundry to let our cat out (she sleeps in there at night) and she presented me with a 'present' of a lovely (dead - thank goodness) mouse.  I was extremely proud of her - as this is the first mouse she has caught (and she is only 6 months old) - and then also a little worried as she had obviously caught it during the night INSIDE the house in the laundry.   I can only imagine that it was trying to get out of the rain and find a nice dry spot to live and it somehow squeezed under the outside laundry door.  I looked around but found none of it's friends or relatives and so left it at that. 

I did not expect, however, to open the case on my sewing machine this morning, and open the compartment that holds the sewing tools, sewing machine feet etc and find that THAT was where the mouse had been living!  How dare it!  I could not believe my eyes.  I was - and still am, very upset that the little mouse had camped out IN MY SEWING MACHINE!   I had only put the machine on the floor in the laundry on Sunday when I was cleaning up as we were having friends over for tea.  Normally it lives on my dining room table.  So in two days a mouse had set up camp there - I couldn't believe it!  I haven't done any sewing all week - so today was the first chance I had to take the machine out.  I have just finished cleaning and disinfecting now.  Thank goodness we have a cat and that she caught this mouse before it did any more damage or got into the rest of the house.  So a big cheer for our cat Mittens!

Well done and keep up the great work!  And here's a warning to any other mice - stay clear of my house and especially my sewing machine - there is a cat on patrol! 
Jody