scrappy string quilt

Scrappy String Quilt

This is a little string quilt that I made last year and haven't yet shared. A young couple we know were expecting their first baby last year and I really felt strongly about making them a quilt for their little one. I decided on a string quilt, as I had always wanted to make one and it also allowed the quilt to be a gift from my family to theirs. Every piece of fabric used in this baby quilt has a story that is part of my family. There is fabric that Grandma used to make skirts for the girls, fabric sent from Kate Spain (Zoe will tell you that I squealed when the package arrived and I won't deny it), fabric used for the cushions that adorn our couches, fabric that has been used to make birthday party bags, library bags, chair bags, bed quilts - lots of things that are part of our daily life and are special to us.

I know I could have wrapped up some other gorgeous baby item instead of making a quilt and it would have been just as lovingly received, but I didn't. You see, the grandmother of this baby has dementia. As a farmer's wife, and from what I know from others, she raised her five children - one of her daughters' is the mother of this baby - providently, patiently and lovingly. Home cooked meals, stories at bedtime, digging together in the vegie patch, caring for far away neighbours and lots of hugs. This is the kind of family that this young mother grew up in.

I imagine that if she were able to, the grandmother of this baby would have made a quilt in anticipation of such a precious arrival. Dementia has robbed her of the opportunity. It came suddenly and at a younger than expected age.

So, I made a quilt for this baby in honour of her grandmother.

I gathered up my chosen fabric scraps and rotary cut it into strips of various widths. I think the narrowest was 1.5" and the widest 3.5".

There are a few ways of making string blocks floating around the blogosphere and pinterest. I chose to use a foundation fabric, as I had a whole lot of white poly cotton from my mum's sewing cupboard that I thought would be great for this very thing. I cut it into 5" squares and started sewing my fabric strips to it. I wouldn't use poly cotton again. I found that it stretched and was a bit annoying. Cotton or nothing for me next time!

Once all the 5" white squares were covered and trimmed back to 5" I sewed them together.

                                                          

As this quilt will probably be used as a blanket as well as floor mat, I backed it in flannel for softness. I used varying strips of purple, blue, green and red flannel that were in my stash. The binding is scrappy - one of my favourite parts of this quilt!

                                       

                                                                           I loved making this little quilt.
                                                       As I reflect on my many blessings I am truly grateful for every day.

Linking up to the Blogger's Quilt Festival hosted by Amy's Creative Side. Have a look at the amazing quilts and the stories behind them.

key pouches

Front view

On Saturday Jed suffered a broken wrist while playing Australian Rules Football. His injury required some time in hospital, including a trip to theatre under a general anaesthetic to set the bones. While he was in theatre - which was late at night - I was at home busying myself with all sorts of things so as not to become a major worry wart.

I knew Jed was going to be fine (Tim was updating me regularly from the hospital), but I also know myself quite well by now and decided that a bit of sewing would be helpful.

Heidi recently posted a tutorial for making key pouches that I really wanted to try. So, Saturday night became the night for key pouches!

Ready for stitching

 Heidi's tutorial is fabulous; clear and logical it was very easy to follow. Cutting out the fabric took the most amount of time. I went with a boy theme with these. No reason why, except that I tend to do more girly things than boy things so I thought I'd mix it up a bit.

Back view

I used a 7" zip for my two key pouches - that's what I had in my zipper box - but I would recommend going a bit longer (at least 8") to make it even easier.

Eli hasn't seen these yet, but I'm guessing he'll claim one when he does.

Oh, and Jed is fine! We go back to the hospital in a week for another xray and if all is well a fibreglass cast will be put on.

I am very, very thankful for the excellent medical treatment Jed received!

tail feather pattern {giveaway}

Tail Feather from Sally Giblin's The Rivendale Collection.

I recently had the good fortune to win some beautiful patterns from Sally Giblin's The Rivendale Collection via Anorina's blog Samelia's Mum.

Sally's patterns are both whimsical and pretty. I would like to share one with my readers!

The pattern up for grabs is for a Tail Feather bag. The finished design size is 15" x 24" including handles.

How do you enter? Just leave a comment at the end of this post telling me your favourite online fabric store to be in the draw to win. If you don't purchase fabric online, tell me your favourite place for buying fabric.

Zoe will come up with a creative (fair and random) way of choosing a winner. We were both very impressed by Rachael Daisy's method that can be found here.

International entries are welcome! One entry per person. Competition closes 10pm, 16th May (that's Australian time folks - GMT+8).

Have a look at Sally's other patterns in The Rivendale Collection here. They are all beautiful!

Linking up with the Sew Mama Sew Giveaway Day! Check out all the other giveaways - there are so many!
                  

chocolate eggs

This Easter, after seeing this amazing post on one of our favourite food blogs (have a look around Ann's blog - she is INCREDIBLE!!) Zoe was really keen to make chocolate eggs. Her eagerness far surpassed mine. But, because I love her very much I agreed that she could have a go at creating some custom made chocolate eggs.

So, at 8pm - well after the younger children were in bed - we began. Zoe decided that her eggs needed to taste great, as well as look great. Because of this she was adamant that we use Cadbury chocolate. I was happy with that. Cadbury chocolate is wonderful. I don't really care for anything else but Cadbury! Unfortunately, 'real' chocolate like Cadbury chocolate (i.e. chocolate with cocoa butter in it) needs to be tempered if you are re shaping it. Otherwise it will lose it's shape at room temperature.

Tempering this bowl of deliciousness didn't sound very tricky.

Zoe and I soon discovered that it was a bit more difficult than we thought. We grated the chocolate in the Thermomix and then began melting it in the microwave according to Ann's instructions.

Despite having lots of fun filling the egg moulds in a variety of different ways, our chocolate didn't harden the way that tempered chocolate should.

We decided to clean up our mess and try again the next day. On our second attempt we used milk melts instead of 'real' chocolate. We had much greater success and filled the large eggs with jelly beans before joining the two halves together.

 

This was a wonderful experience. I enjoyed spending time with Zoe during the quiet hours of the evening. We laughed a lot and nibbled chocolate together. Zoe discovered how to remove bubbles by banging the egg moulds on the bench, that it is always best to clean up as you go and that she has a really cool Mum (okay, maybe not that!). Zoe also learned that things often look simple, but are sometimes more involved than they appear. And that you should always allow for twice as much time as you think you need!

Our neighbours were the recipients of the jelly bean eggs. With one jelly bean egg staying with Zoe who deserves to eat the fruits of her labours!

I hope you have had a safe and glorious Easter.

shoes

This morning we walked to a playground a couple of streets away from our house. We were meeting a family that have moved back to Perth after spending a few years overseas. Ten minutes before we were due to head out the door I asked everyone to go to the toilet and put their shoes on.

These are the shoes that Eli put on. Tinkerbell shoes from the dress up box.

Note to self: be much more specific when giving instructions to a four year old.

princess leia

I have finally made a start on Lily's Star Wars quilt. It's about time. There was a bit of a hold up while Lily and I searched for a background fabric we both liked, but after deciding on Space: The New Frontier by Benartex there was no reason to delay the start of this quilt any longer.

Except for not having any brown for Princess Leia's hair. We are enjoying two weeks of school holidays right now, so we made a family trip to the fabric shop to purchase brown fabric. Or hair fabric if you ask Eli.

A little while later and Princess Leia emerged. Minus her facial features which I will hand stitch later. Much later.

So, who will be next? Chewbacca? C3PO? Take your pick - Kristy has designed them all!

hair clip holders {tutorial}

I am very fortunate to have some very clever friends. One of my friends has been making these fabulous hair clip holders and invited me to make some with her. This is where I disclose that she did all of the work while I chatted!

This particular hair clip holder is for Zoe. I rummaged through my fabric and chose two very different fabrics for Zoe and Lily. You can see Lily's at the end of this post!

Want to know how to make one? They are very simple, cost effective, useful and they make great gifts for girls.

Cover a canvas with your chosen fabric. Our canvas is 30cm x 25cm (12" x 9 3/4") and we used a hot glue gun to secure the fabric to the back.

Make sure that the fabric is stretched fairly tightly across the canvas. If you are using fabric with a directional print ensure it is placed in a way that is pleasing to the eye. In this case that meant no wonky chairs!

On the back of the covered canvas mark the placement of the ribbon. We used four lengths of ribbon. To space the ribbon evenly, divide the length of your canvas by one more than the number of ribbons you would like. For example, for a 30cm long canvas requiring 4 ribbon strips:

30cm divided by (4 + 1) is 6cm.

So we marked our ribbon placement at 6cm intervals.

When working out the length of each ribbon, add 10cm (4") to the width of your canvas. Our canvas was 25cm, so we cut our ribbon lengths to 35cm.

We used ribbon that was 2.5cm (1") wide.

Check your ribbon placement measurements by placing the ribbon before gluing.

Hot glue in place. We secured all the ribbons on one side before turning the canvas around and gluing the opposite end of each ribbon. Make sure that the ribbons are pulled tight.

If you'd like to hang your ribbon holder, secure a piece of ribbon - loop style - to the back. Cut a piece of white cardboard and glue to the back to cover up the innards. Or not. If it is to be kept against a wall you won't see the back anyway!

Attach your hair clips and admire your creation!

These look great in a variety of colour combinations. Lily's is the holder with the purple ribbons!

A big thanks to my lovely friend who allowed me to ride her coat tails for these!