blog fail

Wow. I thought I'd forgotten the password to this blog, to be locked out forever (clearly I hadn't reckoned on google's epic feats of memory). So, yeah, its been more than three years since I've posted anything on here, not that anyone has seemed to notice.

Anyway, I did start this blog as a way to keep a record of things I've made. And I have made a lot of stuff in the last few years. I'll try and share some of it more regularly.

First, this quilt was started (ahem) a while back, to be finally finished some time late in 2014. There are a few tutorials around for quilts like this - I can't find the one I used, but this one from Jeni Baker looks good.

This is a work-in-progress that has (also) been a very long time coming. The original plan was to make a doona cover with large Anna Maria Horner triangles. But the smaller triangles, made with offcuts from the original large triangles, make perfect large triangles! So I'm going to blend them throughout in a kind of colour wash. Or something. Waiting for the next big block of time to take a swing at this one.

work in progress...

Ah, yes, another bad photo! This is a pattern from This Tiny Existence which I was eager to attempt - although it might defeat me yet. Let's just say it took a loooong time to do all this backstitch, and I'm thinking it's going to take even longer to fill it all in. Will give a progress report soon...

napkins

Another bad pic, but I think these came out rather well - for my friend Amanda's birthday in (ahem) April. Another lovely pattern from one of my favourite blogs, Chez Beeper Bebe.

prints charming skirt

Well, this is rapidly turning out to be the blog of bad photography - the curse of the time-poor! But I wanted to post about this skirt which I just finished last night... I bought a pack of Prints Charming offcuts from Kelani at the craft show (hmmm, craft show - actually, there were too many teddy bears, beads and scrapbooking stuff for it to be completely fab) and I then followed the fantastic instructions on this great blog, as well as the pattern-making instructions in Sew What Skirts which are very easy and produce really good patterns. The fabric pack had some great bits in pink and blue but in the end I decided to stick with these three colours - I'm thinking I might wear this to work so I didn't want it to be too loud (I already get comments when I wear red tights to work...). Just did the hem and the waistband with bias binding and it fits so well it doesn't need a top fastener.
I've lost my crafting mojo of late so this was a welcome return to form, and finished quickly enough to give me the satisfaction of a finished project - yay! I think this method has possibilities for using small bits of other beautiful fabric too...

Froggy

Well, Saskia asked and asked for a frog, and for a small person with a gnat-like attention span to ask for something more than once, over the space of a few days, this was significant. So what could I do but make her a frog? I had no frog pattern and couldn't find one online, so I kind of made this one up. And I think he's pretty darn good! I'll pop a free pattern up for him as soon as my scanner goes off the fritz. I like his little splayed legs, and his happy face. Saskia tells me that his tummy has 'watermelon pips' on it.

Cute!

For the last three years, I've made a softie for Meet Me At Mikes 'Softies For Mirabel' - a lovely idea to support the children of the Mirabel Foundation. Earlier this year, Pip Lincolne reported that Vogue Japan had featured some of the softies in a little video - including one of mine! The little girl in the red dress is my softie. See the video here (sorry - couldn't work out how to embed it properly).

Teddy bear

This bear was based on a picture I saw in a magazine (can't remember where) - I couldn't shake the picture and thought making him for a friend's new baby boy would be a good way to get him out of my system. I used some grey wool suit fabric and some Japanese fabric with pigs on it and I was pleased with how he worked - the face was exactly as I had intended, which doesn't always happen.