Quilt top finished

This has been sitting in the to-do pile for far too long. Earlier this week I finally dug it out and realised that I only had to sew the strips of triangles together and add a border for the top to be finished.

This quilt came to me in pieces via a Trade Me auction (and the person I bought it from told me she had bought them at an op-shop) - the pieces were already cut out and I had to try and figure out what pattern was intended. In the end I opted for large triangles, with lots of white in between. The white fabric also has a history - it played a part in our wedding 7 years ago. We got married in a forest clearing in Rotorua and I walked down an "aisle" of white fabric strewn with rose petals. I'm slowly using the 20m or so of white cotton in my craft projects.

In retrospect, triangles were not an easy choice for a first quilt - it is really difficult to line up the triangles with each other without loosing the points in the seam allowance. There are rather a lot of truncated triangles in this quilt, but I think it just adds to the charm...

Next up, backing and quilting. I think that in keeping with the thrifted/re-used theme, I should really back it with a vintage sheet. The hunt is on for the perfect sheet to use.

Shop updated

I have just updated the 20cmixture felt shop with some new bib prints and a couple of pinafore dresses.

Raindrops on roses

It has been pouring with heavy rain for most of the day here, but I managed to snap these photos of our rose bush during one of the few spells when the rain stopped. It was only later that I made the Sound of Music connection.

Where oh where has my blogging time gone?

Sorry about the length between posts. I'm still working out when I'll get time to craft and blog while being a full-time student (I'm actually doing the readings and going over my notes this time, unlike the first time I went to University, when studying was secondary to socialising, ahem...). I know it is possible to do both, because there are some amazing bloggers out there who are managing to craft, blog about it, take care of their children and sometimes even go to work. I just need to find the right balance for me.

We spent the long weekend in Rotorua celebrating my grandparents' 60th wedding anniversary - a stellar achievement if you ask me. Congratulations again, Nana and Poppa, you are an inspiration to the whole family. I also got to have more cuddles with my 4-month-old niece who I swear is getting cuter by the day.

While in Rotorua I caught up with a friend who is due to give birth to a little girl in a few weeks. I sacrificed some of my study time to knit the baby a matching set for winter.

Booties and hat knitted in bamboo-cotton blend yarn. Booties pattern can be found here (or here on Ravelry). More details on modifications etc on my Ravelry page.

I managed to get some sewing done today. I should be able to update my shop with some new items on Friday.

Pink and red

It was only when I finished sewing today that I realised I had a colour theme going. Pink and red together used to be a no-no when I was at primary school in the 80s. But I do love how they look together...


New skirt


My favourite almost-falling-apart pj pants - now with new waistband


Fabrics to cut out for baby dresses for the shop

Edited to add: for those of you that are interested, yes I did make the skirt. The pattern was drafted by me at a pattern-making course I went to. Fabric is "nouveau bouquet gold" from Anna Maria Horner's wonderful Drawing Room collection. I bought it at Juniper Gallery in Newtown a couple of months ago.

Tear-water tea

A couple of weeks ago I happened to catch the childrens books Saturday morning segment on National Radio and Kate de Goldi was talking about Arnold Lobel (click here to download the podcast of the segment). I didn't recognise Arnold Lobel's name, but during the segment she read out a wonderful sounding book called Tear-water tea, which Alex remembered from his childhood. In the story Owl thinks of lots of sad things so that he can fill his teapot with tears. Things like pencils that are too short to use, mornings that no-one will see because they are still asleep, spoons that have fallen behind the stove and are never seen again, and songs that cannot be sung because the words have been forgotten. The quirkiness of the story and the things that Owl found really sad appealed to me, and I decided to search out a few more Arnold Lobel books. In my internet searching I discovered that he was actually quite a prolific author and wrote a lot of the "I Can Read" series of books (including the Frog and Toad stories, which I had as a child).

I managed to track down a second-hand copy of Owl at Home, that includes Tear-water tea, and another couple of Arnold Lobel books and I thought I'd share some pages with you. The stories are actually quite funny and appealed to me as an adult reader (very important I think - reading out loud to children is much more enjoyable if the adult likes the story too). These are going to go in my growing collection of books for my future primary school classroom.

Pattern Review - a great sewing resource

I have a much better hit rate when I sew from patterns than when I make up patterns from scratch, but I still get a bit overwhelmed when I'm in the fabric store and I'm trying to choose a pattern to buy, especially a pattern to make a garment for me. It's hard to know from the pictures in the big pattern books which designs fit well or have good instructions. And when they cost upwards of $10 each, I'd rather not fork out for too many duds! That's where I've found that Pattern Review really helps. It is kind of like a Ravelry for sewing patterns. There is a searchable database of patterns and when people make up a garment from a pattern they can post pictures of the finished product and write a review. It can really help you narrow down just which cross-over top pattern or A-line skirt pattern is going to turn out how you want it.

Just last week Pattern Review did a round-up of their most popular patterns of 2008. Read the list here and join up to become a member (it's free!) and get on their mailing list here.

What other resources do you know of that can help us crafters pick out the gems in a sea of patterns?

Baking

Studying is eating into my crafting time at the moment, but I'm still finding time to bake...

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Oat, raisin and chocolate cookies, recipe adapted from The Joy of Vegan Baking


Chocolate cupcakes. Cupcake recipe taken from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World (recipe is online here). Icing recipe from The Joy of Vegan Baking

Long time, no see

Blue sky on Christmas Day in Greytown

I think that must be my longest break between posts, apart from when we went to Europe last June. Unfortunately I don't have much to show for it. We've been spending most of our free time finishing up the prep for painting the house (sanding..ugh) and then on Thursday we got to finally start painting. We're about halfway done now, but the weather isn't looking great for the next few days so I doubt we'll be finished by the time I start my classes at teachers' college next Tuesday.

I finished up at work earlier in the week. I'd been there for almost 5 years and it feels a little strange to think I won't be going back again. But it really feels like the right decision and I'm looking forward to the new challenge of being a student again. We bought movie tickets today and I got a student discount - woohoo!

Not much crafting has been done in the past few days - after a day of painting all I've wanted to do is vege out on the couch. I did get to watch a couple of great dramas on TV though. I recorded Lost in Austen when it was on TV a couple of weeks ago and watched it earlier in the week. The premise is that a modern London girl switches places with Elizabeth Bennet. I wasn't sure what it would be like, but I really enjoyed it. If you like Pride and Prejudice and the BBC adaptation (Colin Firth as Darcy), I'd highly recommend it.

Tonight we also finally saw Lars and the Real Girl. It was classified as a comedy at our video store, but it's definitely more of a drama. It's a very sweet story and Ryan Gosling was really good. Another one to watch if you haven't yet.

New Year crafting

Happy 2009! Hopefully most of you are still enjoying your Christmas break. I cut my holiday short this year and went back to work on Monday since I'm finishing up for good next week. From next Tuesday I'll be an unemployed student for the first time since 1999. I've been accepted into the postgrad primary teaching course at Victoria and I start in a couple of weeks' time. I can't wait!

I promised some finished knitting projects in my last post, and here they are - my first pair of socks and another stripy baby hat.



The socks are knitted using this great pattern and soy yarn (I've christened them my "tofu socks"). This was my first attempt at using vegan yarn - it knitted up really soft, but the yarn was pretty splitty because it has a lot of strands and is loosely plied. I'm not sure what you can do to stop this as I'm guessing that a tighter ply (if that is the right technical term) would lessen the soft smooshy feel of the finished product. Anyway, I'm happy with how they turned out. I would highly recommend the pattern for first time sock knitters - it has a great short row tutorial to show you how to shape the heel and the toe. The only tricky bit is doing the kitchener stitch on the toe, but after consulting my knit aid book, I managed to fumble my way through that OK, with a minimum of swearing and ripping out.



This hat is another in the series of stripy baby hats I've made from the wonderfully soft Merino et Soie yarn. This was sitting almost finished in my knitting bag for a couple of months, and I finally got around to seaming it up. It's the last one I'll make using wool I think - I'm trying to use vegan yarns from now on. I'm not sure who it will go to, but our friends just keep on having babies, so I'm sure I'll find someone to give it to.

And finally, here is a picture of my beautiful niece Ella modelling one of the dresses I made her for Christmas. I was worried that they might be too big, but apparently they fit perfectly!

Checking In

I'm back from a few days away for Christmas. We stayed in a lovely little cottage in Greytown in the Wairarapa. It was lovely and private, with tame chickens roaming in the garden. Apart from Christmas Eve, the weather was perfect and we were able to fit in a couple of runs in Greytown park plus visits to the Putangirua Pinnacles, Cape Palliser lighthouse and Mt Bruce wildlife centre. Plus plenty of lazing around, eating, knitting and board games of course.



I won't be blogging much in the next few days as we are trying to paint the outside of our house while the weather is nice (a much bigger job than I'd expected, but it will be good to get it done). I'll be back in the New Year to share some finished knitting projects. I hope you're enjoying your Christmas break, perhaps getting some crafting done and keeping cool or warm wherever you are.

Berry tart

One of the things I love about this time of year is the fruit - berries, stonefruit, melons. Yum! I must investigate planting some berries in our garden so we can have homegrown ones next year. The berries above just came from the supermarket, but they made a rather nice vegan fruit tart. We had some friends over on Saturday night for a pre-Christmas get-together and I made the tart for dessert. Recipe once again was from The Joy of Vegan Baking.

We are off to the Wairarapa tomorrow for a relaxing, quiet Christmas by ourselves. Normally on Christmas Eve we are packing up the car and making the long slow drive up the country to my family in Rotorua. This year we thought it would be nice to have some time away together close to home before the rush of study and work starts again in early January. I'll be taking a blog break at the same time. Merry Christmas to you and yours. See you in a couple of weeks.

PS: totally unrelated, but I think this must be the coolest thing I've seen this week

Ornament Swap Roundup

Some of you may have already seen these in the flickr pool, but I wanted to share them here as well. I've now received all the ornaments from my swap group, plus a few extras:


Above are the ornaments from my group: Robot from Jenny, Angel from Helen, Flower from Jessicah, Bauble from Nikki, Owlaments and Stocking from Dione and Pohutukawa made by me. Thanks ladies, they are lovely! Also special thanks to Jessicah for including some vegan chocolate (mmm Whittaker's dark, my favourite) and vintage buttons in her parcel. And to Dione for filling her knitted stocking with more vintage buttons!



I also received some bonus ornaments to thank me for organising the swap - these gorgeous snowflakes from Marrianne and cute little present from Mel. Aww guys, thanks so much!

You are a talented bunch - my tree is full of handmade loveliness! Thanks also to everyone who participated. In the end I had 38 people sign up - way more than I expected. Since it went so well this time, I'm planning on running the swap again next year.

The flickr pool is looking great. If you haven't yet uploaded any photos of your ornaments, please do, so that we can all admire them. And if you participated but aren't on flickr, please feel free to email me a photo of your ornaments and I'll post it on the group so we can all share in the Christmas crafty goodness.

Baby Dresses

I made a couple of dresses for my cute niece for Christmas. She'll be 2 1/2 months on Christmas day so I made what I thought was the 3-6 month size, but they still look huge. I think she'll have to grow into them...






I really like these styles of dress. Once they are too short to be dresses anymore they can be worn as tunic tops. They are both different views of Butterick 4784, dated 1987. I picked up the pattern from the op-shop for 50c a few months ago. The yellow strawberry dress is made from Japanese fabric that a friend brought back for me from Kyoto. The tulips fabric was on the sale table at Spotlight a few weeks ago (I love $4/m fabric!). Because I already had the fabric in my stash, the only thing I needed to buy was the cute lime green buttons for the tulip dress. Apologies for the bad light in the photos. I took these at night just before I wrapped them up.

The strawberry dress, with all that homemade bias, was a bit fiddly to make, but I whipped up the tulip one pretty quickly. I'm planning to slightly tweak the pattern and then make some more of the tulip style ones and put them up in the shop in early January.

I've now received all of my ornaments for the swap, plus a few bonus ones. Pictures tomorrow.

First sale

I made my first sale in my felt store yesterday! You should have seen me - I was so excited you'd think I'd won Lotto.

To celebrate, I've uploaded the last of my current stock to the shop: some appliqued baby tshirts (some of which match the shoes and bibs already for sale), and a couple of cosmetic bags/small purses.








I'm working on a few new design ideas at the moment, but with the rush of Christmas, I don't think I'll be updating the store again until early January.