Catching up..

Goodness me! I've just realised that it's been a month since I last posted about something crafty on here! It's not for lack of crafting, let me tell you! Infact, it's probably exactly why I haven't managed to post.. aside from the fact that it's "that time of year" and things have been super busy with end of year concerts and parties as well as half a dozen birthdays, I've been spending quite a bit of time focussing on the actual crafting which has left significantly less time for the blogging. I've been lagging behind badly on my blog reading, too - falling asleep on the sofa has become my new normal.

So here's some of the stuff that I've been doing this last month...

Crochet "wine glass cover" #3 - about 3 rows to go.

My first completed "Split Drunkard's Path Star" (will blog tutorial)

2 stars plus the tumbler medallion.. Harry Potter Quilt still in progress

Quilt for Blossom's Kindy teacher, who is retiring.
Each child in the class decorated a square, and I put it all together.

Back of the teacher quilt.

Christmas table runner, complete!

I just love the backing fabric.. might even pretend it's reversible ;)

I also broke my fabric ban.. it all started so innocently.. with a voucher for $40 off at Spotlight when you spent $100... and I needed more fabric/batting for the quilt for Blossom's teacher, so it totally didn't count towards the fabric ban.. and my husband decided that I should make some "Minecraft Creepers" for Bean & Blossom (like these) so I had to buy fabric for those (because I seriously need ANOTHER project that has to be finished in time for Christmas!) and my SIL decided that she wanted a jungle themed quilt for her nursery instead of Peter Rabbit, and I found a gorgeously perfect panel..

And most people would leave it there. But not me... once the flood gates were open, it was on. It didn't help that there were a whole pile of Black Friday sales being tweeted left, right and centre... The first thing I indulged in was a 21 FQ set of Riley Blake's Delighted from The Intrepid Thread, which reminded me how much I love fabric designed by The Quilted Fish so I went hunting for some more Sweet Divinity to go with the fabric that I bought a couple of months ago (which will be turned into a quilt and accessories for Blossom's new room when we finally move)... and I found what I was looking for at two separate etsy stores.. A total of 10 yards, made up of 10x Sweet Divinity fabrics, 9x Sugar & Spice fabrics and the "Quite Contrary" Green Stripe by My Mind's Eye. Yes, way more fabric than I will need to make Blossom a quilt, given that I already have 5 yards of Sweet Divinity (5x fabrics).

My Christmas present to myself

And then I went back to Spotlight and bought myself a walking foot, some coordinating fabric for my SIL's baby quilt, some more fabric for the teacher quilt (because my backing fabric was an inch short and I decided just to buy another piece than mess around) and then decided that I was all binged out.

Holiday shopping trips...

I've done lots of shopping this last week.. whenever we head up to visit my grandparents there is a standard list of places to visit:

* The second hand bookshop

* Katies 

* Rivers Clearance store

* Good Sammy's (thrift store)

* Spotlight (I know this sounds weird considering there are two Spotlight stores within a 30 minute drive of my house, but it's just what I do!)

This trip Mum and I added the local quilting store, farmers' market and the regional patchwork & quilting exhibition to our list as well. And I must say that we've had a very "successful" trip so far.. we head home tomorrow and we've actually managed to cross almost everything off our list! While I haven't specifically taken photos of the other things I've purchased, I found a top & 2 pair of pants at Katies, 2 pair of sandals & 2 shirts for my husband at Rivers, a Fred Bare pinafore and a pair of Clarks shoes for Blossom at Good Sammy's and we managed to trade 2 and a half bags of our own books in at the bookstore ($100 instore credit) for a bag of new books with no extra to pay! Woohoo!

But I *will* share with you my fabric/sewing related purchases with you:

Spotlight shopping trip #1 (Thursday)

 The local Spotlight was having a sale, with 30% off new release Christmas fabrics, buy 1 get 1 free patterns, $6 off Fat Quarter bundles and $6/metre clearance quilting fabrics (amongst other things!). It also turned out that today (Saturday) is their 5th birthday celebration, so they were running other specials/prizes/activities today and haf even more quilting fabrics still to be marked down so of course I had to schedule another trip for this morning. But more about that in a moment (or another post if this gets too long)..

Have I mentioned I have a thing for Holly fabric?

Pillowcase dress & pants pattern & fabric

 I found some cute strawberry print fabric on the quilting cotton clearance table as well as some blue checked fabric and another blue fabric that coordinated nicely (not the same range specifically) that I just couldn't walk past but couldn't justify without a project.. so I went and trawled through the pattern books for like an hour until I found 2 patterns that I thought I might like to add to my immediate project list. The first pattern was a pillowcase dress/top/pants collection that I thought would be lovely to make for Blossom. The top fabric (above) will be the main fabric for the top, with the strawberry print as the contrast panel at the bottom (see image D below) and the blue check fabric will be the pants, again with the strawberry print as contrast. I still have to go looking for ribbon though.

Another apron pattern - I plan to make design B 

Much as I love the apron that I made, I think it's too pretty to use every day, and I had originally wanted more of a smock type apron so when I found this Kwik Sew pattern I decided it would be perfect. I plan to use the strawberry print fabric I bought a while ago (before I found the rose print fabric and got sidetracked).

$6.95 - bargain!

I'm not sure why I bought the "Flat Fats Bundle" aside from the price, at $6 off it came down to $6.95 which made it hard to pass up. The top fabric is the same as the one I used for the beaks on my Hedwig the Owl blocks, and it makes me think of my friend Phillipa's daughter Miss J who LOVES orange.

And last but not least I found this cute Belle cross stitch pack for $3 so I thought I might do it up for Blossom to hang in her new bedroom.

I'll post about today's shopping trip later - right now I have to run off to buy wine and go to a seafood BBQ at my Aunt's house! Yummo!

It's finished!

I finally got over my annoyance and unpicked the stitching on the waistband. It wasn't so bad as I'd originally thought and I only had to re-stitch half. The pattern said to slipstitch the back side of the waistband, but I ended up top stitching the right side of the waistband so that it sat nicely instead.

The topstitched waistband

The completed bodice

The final thing to do was to sew the button holes & buttons. I realised at this point that despite having checked more than once, I'd sewn the bodice onto the skirt backwards. You can only tell if you look at the lace closely.. isn't it annoying when you do something silly like that?? 

 Meanwhile it's been quite some time since I've sewn a buttonhole, so I grabbed my sewing machine manual and referred to the instructions.. there's a time for flying by the seat of your pants, and a time for making sure you don't stuff things up! I used some of my selvage offcuts to practice some buttonholes first, which was a good idea seeing as I needed to adjust my stitch length & width to suit. I'm so glad I didn't take a lazy shortcut, especially as the first "real" buttonhole still looked a bit funny (because of the added bulk of the lace that hindered the fabric feeding properly) although the buttons went on like a dream. Thank goodness!

All buttoned up!

 One of the added bonuses to this pattern appears to be that if you're in the mood you can just let the bodice hang down (you can see the ends peeking out, but when it's done up it doesn't) and just wear it as a half-apron. Which would be handy if I were someone else... my main problem is usually that something splashes onto my top, which is why I need the bodice in the first place!

And so here she is! All finished and complete! And as Bean pointed out, I only have two more to make now (one for him.. in a different design of course! and one for Blossom). I finished the apron just in time to pack it to take on holidays.. Blossom, Bean, my mom and I are heading off on a road trip in the morning to visit my grandparents for a few days. There could be no better opportunity to test out/break in my new apron than with some holiday cooking/baking!

Tied up

So the weekend was a bit of a bust.. I *did* get a chance to do some sewing on Sunday... for all of an hour! And then it was time to head off to the next activity for the day *sigh*

I managed to sew on the lace trim onto the apron skirt and I also made, pressed, pleated and pressed the apron ties.

Then it took me all week to be able to get another chance to get sewing! This morning I FINALLY had enough time to head over and play for a while before I had to take Blossom to kindy. I top stitched the ties along the seam lines so that they don't twist when the apron gets washed, then I gathered the skirt, attached the ties to the waistband and then basted the waistband to the skirt. Now (if you don't look too closely) you could almost pretend that the apron was finished (if it were only a half-apron).

Then I pinned the lace trim onto the bodice and hemmed the top ends of the lace before Blossom started whinging about being hungry and once again, it was time to pack up and go... but on the upside, the bodice is the only thing left to complete.

Meanwhile, my backordered Accuquilt GO! dies (Baby 2.5" strip & 3.5" tumbler) came on Tuesday! Yay! Not that I've had a chance to  play with my new toys - I figure that I just need to get the apron finished first and then I can throw myself into Harry Potter quilt mode.

My kingdom for an apron!

One thing I've been wanting for a long time is a nice apron. Not just a generic style apron, but something pretty, classic and evocative. I want it to inspire me to bake. I want to feel like Martha Stewart or Nigella Lawson when I put it on.

Isn't it pretty?

I mentioned in a previous post that my girlfriends and I had been on a shopping trip to Spotlight the other week, and that I finally found a pattern that I liked (and on sale too, more importantly!) and some fabric that I LOVED. But in amongst all my other bits and pieces I just hadn't had a chance to get it started.

I also love that the pattern is multi size & multi design.. and do you love my fabric as much as I do?

Well! On Tuesday night, after I finished cutting shapes for my Hedwig owls I pulled my pattern out and cut out all the pattern pieces that I needed. On Wednesday night after finishing my owls I got my fabric out to press.

Pattern pieces pinned.. dammit, the fabric is folded the wrong way.

On Friday morning I went and laid out my fabric, laid out my pattern pieces, adjusted my fabric to minimise waste and finally pinned all my pattern pieces to the fabric. Then I realized that I'd folded it right sides out instead of right sides together! Argh! Oh well, it won't matter- all of the pieces are symmetrical. So I experimented with cutting my pieces out with my rotary cutter instead of scissors and how much quicker and easier is that?!

That was quick! I love my rotary cutter.

Then I had to set aside my sewing so that I could go to a soy wax candle making workshop with some girlfriends (as blogged on Needles in the Haystack).

After my fragrant excursion Bean, Blossom and I headed back over to my mother-in-law's to show her the candles, have a cup of tea and have her amuse the kids while I holed myself up in my sewing room. I prepared the pockets and attached them to the skirt, then I pressed and hemmed the skirt.

"Easing" the corners while pressing

One pocket all done!

Two pockets all done!

Pockets sewn on. Can you see them? Neither can I.

Pressing the hem on the skirt

After I'd pinned the lace to the skirt I realized that it was quite late and I really needed to take the kids home for bed and cook dinner for my ever patient husband!

Lace all pinned and ready to sew

I'd hoped to finish it off today, but with dancing concert rehearsals, tee ball "meet the coach" day and a "reward" visit to our local indoor play center, the day has just disappeared on me! But there's always tomorrow, right?