Birthday Boy

Happy 10th Birthday James – who woke up every 1/2 hour from 4am onwards asking “Can I open my presents now?”. He was so excited & thankful to get some more DS games, Lego & books, and was happy that Mum had finally made him this…

He shares a birthday with our friend Sammy, who is also 10 today. Her Mum Kathryn asked me to create her a bag, she chose the fabric and this is the end result.

Its a reversible denim and fabric bag, about 2/3’s the size of my usual bags. I have made her a matching fabric covered notebook with the lining fabric which is ‘Zen Blossoms’ by Michael Miller.

I have been borrowing some more fabulous crafty reading from the library again, take a look at some of these inspirational books.

The chocolate cake is in the oven and the birthday boy has chosen meatballs and spaghetti for dinner tonight. He will be having a party on Friday with 6 boys, pizza making with Dad and a bouncy castle!

With Love

PS Thimbelina is having a 100th blog post giveaway with 2 prizes, just leave a comment (and become a follower for an extra entry) and you could win either one of these. Entries close on the 4th July.

 

You scratch my back, I’ll scratch yours :)

I have always loved the idea of bartering. Remember this bag -

I made this Ivory rose bag for Janet in exchange for these gorgeous Amy Butler ironing board covers.

It makes ironing a lot more fun!

A few weeks ago one of my favourite customers at work came in and gave us all some fabulous stretch shopping bags (no photo – I’ll update later). I asked her if she would make me another one for my Mum, and I’d be happy to pay for it. She said no to being paid, but asked would I please help her finish off a quilt UFO she’s had since 1998 – how could I say no!

The pattern is called ‘Reef Fish’, and she did the class 12 years ago with Wendy Sier at Calico House, now known as Calico and Ivy. She did all the hard work, I just finished the borders for her.

Some more happy news! The Sewing Sisters are going here in September.

We 3 will be attending the Saturday workshop on the 18th September with Rosalie Quinlan, Leanne Beasley & Melanie Hurlston. Are you coming too?

With Love

The Postman Always Rings…3 Times!

Lots of happy mail today :)

This bundle of goodness arrived from Katherine in Canada. I asked Katherine if she would consider doing a swap – one of my rose bags for a set of her gorgeous Babushkas, and she said YES! Not only did I get this customized family of dolls (shabby chic with brown hair), she also included some vintage Ric Rac, a cupcake fat 1/4, a bar of dark chocolate (which has disappeared…)& a sweet card – which all came wrapped and presented in this fabulous zippered selvedge bag.

Thank you ever so much Katherine, you have blessed my socks off!

The 2nd parcel to arrive was this…

Bree organised an International fat 1/4 swap, I was lucky enough to be partnered with Ali from Georgia, USA. She sent me 2 fat 1/4’s (we both agreed that 1 just wasn't enough!). The 1st is Earth by Amy Schimler – who lives in Georgia like Ali - & the 2nd is Summer Soiree by Paula Prass – who is from Carmel, Indiana - near where Ali was born & raised. Thank you ever so much Ali, I love the fat 1/4’s & the stories behind them both. I am going to laminate the handmade card to use as a bookmark, which leads me to my 3rd parcel…

I’ve been shopping at The Book Depository again, but this time it’s for the kids – Really! Rachel has been reading these books at school and wanted a copies of her own. James got some books too, I will show you them when I finish making his cowboy vest :) 

My friend Vikki came over to work on her daughters quilt and was very impressed with all the parcels. Here is a photo of her work in progress.

Our girls are both getting quilts for their 12th birthdays this year - Yay

With Love

Gerberalicious

It was love at first sight when this fabric - ‘Gerberalicious’ by Michael Miller - came into work. I knew I just HAD to make a sample bag out of it. I used Butterick 5367 and came up with this.

I chose black velvet for the pockets and used sew in Shapewell as my stabilizer. I am not usually a red kinda gal, but this has changed my mind.

I have made some more ribbon rose bags…

This one is travelling to Katherine in Melbourne

& this one is winging it’s way to Canada!

I also got to catch with my bloggy friends last week. We had a wonderful time chatting, browsing through craft books, eating delicious food (Lisa brought lemon macaroons & Susan made cherry choc slice) and even getting a craft demonstration. Susan’s creative studio is a wonder to behold, thanks for inviting us over.

I have a birthday boy in 2 weeks time – the Big 10/double digits! Katherine knows what I mean, her boy turned 10 on the 3rd June (Happy Birthday Joshua). I was asking DS what he’d like for his birthday and he said “Well, I really need a magicians hat and wand, & I’d really like you to make me a cowboy vest” – music to a sewing Mum’s ears.

With Love

A Weekend for stitching

Kylie and I went away for another of our semi regular sewing weekends last weekend. It is always a lovely time away. This time we stayed in a different holiday house in the coastal town of Anglesea. We both apologised to our Janome’s for leaving them at home and took our new Bernina machines.

I finally pieced my son’s 10th birthday quilt – his birthday was actually last Thursday!!

Now I need to find an orange border fabric, finish the backing and drop it off to be quilted – it might be his 10th Christmas present!! I now have twin nephews, also born on Thursday, so I made these small quilt tops which can be side by side in a cot or used in the twin pram. They are made with “Giggles” flannel – very snuggly!

Kylie was also very busy with lots of tiny pieces of happy fabric… she might fill you in with her progress there. We both got out the BSR foot and had a go at free motion quilting. It was a little stressful and my shoulders were quite tight by the end of it all, but we did it!!! Here is my practise piece…




I then moved on to our “camping quilt” which has been in a pile of quilt tops waiting to be finished…


Not too bad for a first effort – even if I do so say myself! Here is a close up… I worked one square at a time for the centre section and then did the borders.

It was a lot of fun quilting this one, especially as I knew it would be going to the bush and not as a gift for someone’s bed or couch! Here is a shot of the back (I loved this “Happy Campers” fabric):



Here’s to many more hours of sewing and let me encourage you to give it a go too – it might not be as hard as you think…

 

Happy Stitching,

 

Krafty KJ

Market time…

Our local kinder had an open day and fair  on the first weekend of June and I had a stall there to advertise my NEW BUSINESS!

There were little gnome and fairy homes…

Dress up crowns, button hair ties, and these little men…

There were also kits to make peg dolls, and other creative projects – but more on that another time… I have lots of pattern writing to get to and that’s never as much fun as the creating and making!!

 

Happy stitching,

 

Krafty KJ

Winners are Grinners, so are Runners Up.

My 2 cherubs are huge Saturday Disney fans (I am quite partial to Phineas and Ferb myself). Last December, Rachel thought it would be a great idea to send Shae, Sally and Jack (the hosts) a Christmas present. The conversation went like this – Rachel - “You make bags Mum, lets make them a bag together”. Me - “What about Jack?”. Rachel - “He can have a notebook”. I bought some Disney fabric from work and got creating with Rachel, I sewed and she ironed, turned out handles, made cups of tea, whinged… Anyway, this was the finished product.

We parceled them up with a Chrissy Card and express posted them, that was the end of that – until just recently. The kids got a parcel from Saturday Disney with a letter saying they had won a runner up prize, there was much rejoicing and dancing around the house. They won a Justin Bieber cd, some pens and a signed photo.

The best news was that there names will be in TV tomorrow (5th June). Why do kids find it easy to get up at the crack of dawn on the weekend when they can’t get out of bed during the week?

The Sewing Sisters are off on another sewing weekend, was it really 3 months ago that I got to join them! I have been making a few bags for gifts, orders and work samples.

A denim Babushka bag made as a work sample that now belongs to my dear friend Vikki.

Another rose bag for Janice

DH has also been working on a banner for my Etsy shop, what do you think?

With Love

‘The Book Depository’ Love…

Mr Postman dropped off 2 lovely parcels from The Book Depository yesterday – I love getting fabulous books, at great prices, with FREE delivery.

This is Prints Charming, the first book by the Sydney based fabric designers Cath Derksema and Kirsten Junor of Prints Charming original fabric. Rachel & I have been pouring over the pages and have already chosen a few favourite projects.

The 2nd book is Small Stash Sewing by Melissa Averinos of Yummy Goods – this is her first book too.

I am a huge fan of Melissa’s fabric designs, on of my favourite’s is the pink cupcake fabric (which she designed for Robert Kaufman fabrics) featured in the apron below. I have also spied another bag I MUST make :)

I have also pre-ordered Tilda's Summer Ideas for the amazing price of $6.29AUD! Here is a wee look at the cover, cute huh.

I am going to get together with my bloggy friends next week so we can pour over each others new book purchases.

OK, back to the sewing machine

With Love