Zipper Pouch Sewing

Over the weekend I crossed a small project off my to do list and that was to make myself a zipper pouch big enough for my Jamberry mini heater, deluxe tool set and a few jams. 

I picked a purple geometric print fabric so it would all colour co-ordinate (of course) and in less than 20 minutes I had a zipper pouch that was the perfect size. 

I can even fit my application kit and a few extras in there too.

Now to figure out another way I to combine my love of sewing AND Jamberry....

Have you been crafting lately? 

Beehive Catch up

Yesterday I actually had time to sew! It was like an Easter miracle, I got up in the morning and B asked if I wanted to sew today? Did I want to sew? Heck Yes! No need to ask me twice.

First up I had to finish of some Wanta Fanta blocks for our January Queen Bee. Yes I am soo late in getting these done, but they are done now and they will be in the mail today.

Then it was onto this month's Queen Bee's block and she picked Tic Tac Toe in Aqua's, Navy's and Low Volume. I love the tic tac toe block, it is SO EASY to put together I don't even need to refer to the cutting or piecing instructions anymore. I can put this baby together with my eyes closed, well almost!

And since I was on a roll I thought it was about time I pieced together my blocks from last years Beehive. I still need to make four of those blocks, but the 12 I already have are pieced into rows so that they are ready for my last four blocks that I am hoping to get made this week.

And with that, I am all caught up with my required sewing! We for the next three days anyway, before I start on next month's Queen's blocks. I've had a sneak peek of her block and it's one I haven't made before. I excited to give it a go.

Wordless Wednesday

Bee Blocks #thebeehivequilts

I was so far behind in my bee blocks for my bee group with The Beehive Quilts but last month I got all caught up and for the past two weeks I've actually been twiddling my thumbs waiting for October's block to be announced.

I really don't know what's come over me! But anyway, I realised that I hadn't even blogged them and thought I'd better document them here or they didn't really happen :P

So here they are:

I don't have too much longer til I find out what this month's block is and I can't wait to get started!

I've shared more about my bee blocks both here and over at And Sew We Craft. You can find those posts here, here and here.

DIY: Harry Potter Wands

I was feeling particularly lazy this year and decided that we would just do bought costumes for book week. So I asked the kids want they wanted to be and set about the expensive but a lot less time consuming task of ordering their costumes from ebay or raiding the dress up box.

I had a two week delivery timeframe so everything should have been here in time but NOPE! The wands didn't arrive for C and M's costumes and since we live in the middle of nowhere I couldn't just duck down to the shops and pick up something so I first raided the cutlery drawer and decided that the chopsticks were too small so my next move was my knitting needles. Luckily I somehow ended up with two sets of 10 mm wooden needles!

Then I had to hunt down my hot glue gun. That was no mean feat since my craft supplies are stored in many places around the house. But never fear I found it and managed to turn the needles into something resembling magic wands as well as not burning myself in the process. WINNING!

Anyhow, I thought I'd share here just how I did it.

WHAT I USED:

10 mm bamboo knitting needle- but you could use dowel, a tree branch, anything wooden really. The knitting needle is just a perfect size and shape especially because of their bulky ends.
Hot Glue Gun
Acrylic Paint
Clear Varnish- I haven't sealed these wands yet because I was on a strict timeline, but sealing them with some clear varnish will ensure that the paint lasts and doesn't chip away or rub off.

WHAT I DID:

All I did was spread hot glue around the base of the needles until I was happy with it.

There was no pattern in mind at all. Again, I was on a strict deadline!

Then I pulled out the kids cheapie acrylics and painted one brown and the other silver.

And ta dah! They were done. 

Both kids were happy with the results and that's really all a mother can ask for! 

Do you do handmade or store bought costumes for book week? 

WIPS Wednesday

So at the beginning of the month I had grand plans to blog everyday in May with Cate but then I feel off the wagon big time. I went great for the first week and then the weekend came around and our weekends are BUSY so I thought to myself no worries, I'll just skip the weekend and then Monday came and I had sick kids at home for most of the week and then I had a huge to do list to get through and blogging was on the bottom of that list so another weekend went by and well I decided that blogging every day was a bit to much to expect of myself. Maybe 3 times a week is a more realistic goal considering I've also got posts to write for ASWC and so many other things that take up my time. 

And honestly, lately I'd rather be crocheting than blogging... Sorry!

Anyway, back to the point of what I was originally blogging about. And that's my WIPs, I have so many but I thought I would share my current once. 

Of course I am still working on my ASWC Crochet Along blanket. It's almost finished by the way! 

And then there is my gifts for the Gnome Swap

My swap needs to be sent in the next fortnight so I'm hoping to get it all finished this weekend. 

Then I might get to work on a few other WIPs I have sitting around... 

I'm linking up over at ASWC

Blocks, Blocks and More Blocks

This week has been a pretty good week sewing wise. Whilst I haven't done much, I have done a lot more than I have managed in a long time. 

I joined the Sew Delicious Quilt Block Boot Camp a little while ago and then promptly got left behind as the weeks went by and I didn't sew ANYTHING! But this week I've managed to do week 8 & 9's blocks.

Actually I've done 6 of week 8's Churn Dash Blocks (tutorial by Cluck Cluck Sew) . But with a twist, I turned the half square triangles on the second block of the same fabric to create a completely different block all together. 

I like how they have all turned out. I'm planning on using b&w prints for the background fabrics and pulling random colours of fabric from my stash to make one (or 2) very scrappy quilts.

Week 9's block was the hashtag block and I plan on making a lap quilt for C for his birthday using fabric from the same line (although I can't remember what this fabric line is called...)

Now just to keep up the momentum!

Harry The Hedgehog #hazelqal

Last month I seen Hazel the Hedgehog popping up all over Instagram and decided that it was a bandwagon that I NEEDED to jump on. I discovered that Angie from GnomeAngel was hosting the QAL and then a week went by and I remembered again so I bought the patterns and started to cut fabric for a gigantic Hazel to use as a cover for one of our floor cushions.  Then 2 weeks went by and the deadline was looming so I sat down and finally starting sewing it up.

It was easy enough to piece together, especially with the large pieces. It was just what I needed after a dismal attempt at paper piecing for the Beehive quilting bee that I am participating in. So Harry seems to have boosted my quilting confidence and I think that it just what I needed. 

As I said before, Harry was destined to be a cover for a floor cushion. You see we have two great big floor cushions but they have really ugly covers and since the kids are always using the floor cushions I couldn't just hide them away. So re-covering them has been something that has been on my to-do list for way to long. And by the look of it the other cushion is going to turn into a hedgehog too as those two above have been fighting over Harry since I finished him last night.

I wonder how long it will take me to get started on the next one?

Not to worry, at least Harry is finished. And I'm linking him up with Angie for the QAL wrap up.

my creative space {wk5 2015}

This past week I actually pulled out my sewing machine for the first time since November last year. Yes, it's been a long time between sewing sessions and it was great to get back into it if only for a short time.

I had two things on my to sew list. They were some dribble bibs and a teething toy for Darcy.

The dribble bibs needed a bit more tweaking to accommodate his chunky checks and neck (and my pliers for my snaps has gone walkabouts)

But the teething toy is all done and it was a super quick project so I think a few more will be in our future.


Has anything been happening in your creative space this past week?

Crossing things off my to do list

I've got a week until I fly down to Perth to wait patiently for this baby to makes it's appearance so I've been trying to get everything organised and project finished before I go.

Realistically I'm not going to get it all done, but I'm slowly getting the most important things finished.

I've finished a fair few baby related crafts recently and just have three more things that I want to get finished before I go.

They are:
The modernqal baby quilt
The Low Volume baby quilt
Some bloomers that I cut out the pattern and fabric for about 2 months ago...

With the house stuff, well I'm pretty much done with all of that. There is no point in my cleaning showers within an inch of their lives or scrubbing walls, because B and the two older kids will be here messing up all my hard work for just under two weeks after I leave. Instead I'm leaving all that on B's list (insert evil laugh here).

Round the World

I've been such a slack blogger. This is actually my first post since the 16th of August! I think that's my longest stretch without blogging yet, even including when I moved across the country in 2012!

Anyway last month Amy of Ladybugs and Daisychains asked if I would like to participate in the Round the World Blog Hop, I said yes and saved this post in my drafts AND wrote it in my calendar so I wouldn't forget to write the post AND publish it, but guess what? I was supposed to do that LAST week... see I'm bad bad blogger!

I only remembered that I was supposed to write it yesterday. 

So without further ado, here are the questions and my answers. 


What am I working on?

Hmm, a lot of things actually. I've got a few baby projects on the go that I really want to finish this weekend. Two of which are these quilts, plus some bloomers.

Plus some crocheting that again I'd like to finish by next week. One of the crochet items is Ethans blanket and the other is some face washers for the baby and some for the rest of the family.

How does my work differ from others in my genre? 

Honestly I don't know, I don't really have a genre because I dabble in a bit of everything. You know the saying jack of all trades and master of none? Well I think that pretty much sums me up. 

Why do I write / create what I do? 

Crafting is my me time and as I said above I dabble in a bit of everything. So I have idea why I create what I do besides the fact that I enjoy it immensely. 

How does my writing / creating process work?

Hmmm, what creative process? I'm big on winging it most times. But seriously I always start out with some kind of plan that usually evolves as the project grows.

I'm supposed to pass it on to two people now... But because I completely forgot about this blog hop I haven't asked anyone yet. But I'll tag two people here and hopefully they will want to play along too...

So I'm tagging LittleWhiteDove and Cate of Life Behind The Purple Door.

The week that was

1. Ollie the poser
2. Back to school baking
3.My Granny has been knitting for the new baby
4. I pulled out all my scrapping supplies and did a few new pages for my scrapbook. I'm sharing them over at ASWC soon.
5. We are finally back at soccer training after a long break for the holidays
6. I finished the babies blanket
7. Ethan was less than impressed by our Sunday morning soccer games
9. I made a huge stack of burp cloths for the baby
10. Ethan's crochet blanket is getting bigger.