I have been making a range of christmas stockings, They have come out so well that we are selling them in our shed by the plants for sale section, the shed is a new venture so we will see how many customers we get!! (Although with the constant raining, our shed will be shut for the time being) here are the stockings:

sew funky christmas ornaments

Well amazingly I managed to finish and send my ornaments on time, but the procrastinator in me didnt let me get too carried away so sent them on the due date! I decided to make little birds in pastel colours with felt wings, I am quite pleased with them!

holy moly guacamole its November!

Woah, how did we get to November so fast!
This means it is only 8 1/2 weeks until Christmas!
woohoo I love christmas! I especially love the sparkly lights and twinkly decorations, actually if it was up to me, I would have my Christmas tree up year round!
Anyway, so what is the right time to put up your tree?
When we were growing up it was tradition to put the tree up on my birthday, 12th December, but now I just can't wait that long and we usually go for the first weekend in December, but I'm thinking this year I may go crazy sometime in November. It doesnt help that my daughter is also mad about christmas trees and anything that sparkles. ooh and I am thinking of treating myself to a white christmas tree too!

So of course I am super excited to be in the Sew Crazy Christmas Decoration swap, yay this is going to be super fun!

overlocker mode

Well, I have just spent this morning tidying the workroom (it seems to throw it's own party over the weekend) and I have just finished doing some bulk loading of bobbins.
I have had a good weekend though, I got an awesome package from one of my swap-bot partners and it had a heap of patterns in it, I have already made skylar a peasant style gathered dress from it (which came out awesome) and I finally decided to not be so scared of the overlocker and had my first go at it! I just wish i had tried it sooner!
I then made a very simple skirt for skylar from just a rectangle of fabric, I cut my fabric 40 inches (skylars waist measurement x2) by 14 inches (the length I wanted for her skirt), overlocked the top and bottom and the sides together, then folded down the overlocked waistband about 1/2 an inch and sewed around the top leaving a gap for the elastic, then threading through the elastic with a safety pin and sewing up the gap. all done! I will probably make a few more of these and add some cute pockets and trims. I meant to get sewing straight away this morning but I couldnt think because of the clutter! Now we are all tidy and I am ready to get going. yay sewing time.

random stuff

Yay the All Blacks won the rugby world cup, by just one point! and then the silver ferns beat aussie by just one point! Talk about the skin of our teeth!!!

Well I thought I would talk about our Workroom, I am lucky enough to have a quilter for a mum and we converted our garage into a sewing and craft room, It is brilliant to have a special crafting space but I do have trouble keeping it tidy, I sometimes get so involved in my sewing project that I pretty much let my Rambunctious 2 1/2 year old do her own thing, she is really happy in the workroom and has all sorts of toys to occupy her, but sometimes she gets up to mischief and pulls out all my fabric and hides it in her cupboard (she is a fabric hoarder like her mum! Here are pics of the workroom - both messy and tidy!!

i'm a lucky girl

So once again the weeks have disappeared on me, I have no excuses! Anyway 2 weeks ago I was lucky enough to win $25 on the lottery and what do I do with it? Yep straight to Spotlight to grab a few bargains, Then last Thursday my Mum and I went to a factory material shop in Otara and more bargains were found, I got 10 small zips for $1.00 and some great dress fabrics, yay! And to top it all off I won lotto again last night (last division again unfortunately), and I will probably spend it on fabric again! I am addicted, I can not get enough.

Keyka Lou Dumplings

I came across this zippy purse pattern on trusty swap-bot yet again, so before I signed up I thought I better do a test run, to see if I was up to the project. I totally fell in love with the design (and the name!) The pattern is super easy to follow and they are fairly quick to make.


http://keyka.typepad.com/my_weblog/2011/08/lets-make-dumplings-free-zip-pouch-tutorial.html


I personally have a wee problem with bias binding (mine never looks neat enough, I really need to practice as I'm a little scared of it!) so I used a thin strip of felt to cover the unfinished ends and it works pretty well. I can't wait to try some more of her patterns!

Stash busting Pillow

This pillow was made for a swap-bot swap for the free pattern creations group, (I love this group!) I decided to do my pillow in a very bright bright pink Corduroy (as always, I struggle to stay away from the bright colours!) Anyway I love it so will most likely make another one, This is actually the first ever cushion I have made and I found the construction much easier than I thought. Here is the link for the instructions:http://www.cluckclucksew.com/2009/10/tutorial-scrap-buster-fall-pillow.html

what a bad blogger I am

Gosh, where have 2 months gone? I have completed heaps of projects and haven't uploaded a thing as my computer connection has not been the best and I have been relying on dial up. yikes!!
Fear not I have got a new thingameejig which should keep me more up to date: so I endeavor to post all my latest things asap!!! As always the longer you are away from something the harder it is to get back into it!
peace.

I am wracking my brain at the moment for something wonderful to do with my latest round robin quilt, I added about ten inches of this pink fabric for the borders and now I just have to think about how to applique it (I added the borders before applique as I find it easier to work out what to do on it (in other words I lack vision!) Anyway I am wanting to do something bright and fun, I am thinking about leaves, birds and hearts in the corners but have just seen a lovely tree with pears! so I just don't know! watch this space as I am too full of ideas and not too full on practicality!!! Anyway it's our last round this month so we will get our own quilts back next meeting, I can't wait!!!

update: I decided to applique leaves in this grid circly pattern and I love it! It came out so good but took a rather long time to do!

monkey

I was looking for a simple rag doll pattern online to make up for my daughter but didnt find any that I really liked, I did however find this awesome monkey pattern that I just could not resist!!! the pattern is at http://mmmcrafts.blogspot.com/2008/07/drum-roll-pleasemolly-monkey-pattern.html

Once I started making the monkey I couldnt stop! the pattern was so easy to follow and I am so pleased with how she has turned out! she looks awesome and Skylar just loves her (so much so I had trouble getting her back so I could sew her stuffing holes up!!! I will definately be making another one, she is super sweet! I made her out of a dark purple cordoroy which suits her really well!

sewing weekend

Well I've had a few projects completed this week, the first is for a Summer Handbag swap, I decided on a buttercup bag using Rae's free pattern, The thing is, I thought it was way too small and I like a long strap on my bags, so I made it much larger and added a zip at the top. Its funny as I received my summer handbag from my swap-bot partner and they also used the same pattern and its tiny! (The bright orange bag in the picture is what I received from another swapper, see the size difference!!)

I used a rather stiff interfacing and I am not sure if it is too stiff but it does hold its shape really well! It is quite challenging to sign up for a swap like this, especially as I had looked at my partners bags and they were quite accomplished!!! I used black and white fabric as though its not very summery I thought it was really cute! I also made a matching pencil case, the hardest part was making the zipper pull!!! its tricky! Any tips for making one?

round robin

I am doing a round robin quilt with my local quilt shop group, we have 5 in my group and we all started with one 12 1/2 inch square and each month we get someones block to work on.
We are into the last month so next month I get my own square back! very exciting. This is one I did last month, I added the bright square border and then a scalloped border, I am very pleased with it! This month I have a very pretty block to work on, I wonder what I will do with it! Most likely Applique of some kind as I like doing applique a lot!!! (much more than piecing as i'm not that accurate!

first blog!

Hello! and welcome to my very first blog, I am a late starter I know!

I love to sew, so thought I would start this blog to show my projects!
A little bit about me: I'm 34 (although still think i'm 24!) I live in rural New Zealand in a very very small town called Awhitu, I live with my parents and my 2 1/2 year old little girl Skylar.
I just love fabrics and would spend all my money on them if I could! when it comes to sewing my heart is bigger than my head and I always try the difficult projects before I know what i'm letting myself in for! oh well that's my learning style ;)