Sunday, December 21, 2008

Time to Rest.....

Time is slipping away so quickly at the moment. My head seems to be spinning as I rush about trying to squeeze a few final crafty things in before bub #2 comes along. Some finishing touches to my niece's Xmas pressie..... A cute little outfit that I'm sure her mother will just LOVE!!!! And another new top for Miss Connie to wear over this festive season all washed and drying on the line....
My bodies really trying to tell me to rest today... Connie is taking a special fondness to snuggling up with Mummy and reading her lots of stories. I wonder how she'll be with the new arrival???? I can tell, especially today, that she senses something is in the air.... :)
My emails are really backing up at the moment and I'm trying my hardest to get on top of them.... Please forgive me if you're waiting for a reply I promise I'll get back to you soon.... I love hearing from you all and feel so terrible that I've been so slack... :(

Saturday, December 20, 2008

Not Long Now....

Seen as though I'm using the same pram for bub #2 that I used with Connie I decided to make it a new insert to freshen it up a bit. I cut a heap of 6" x 3 1/2" strips and sewed them all together pretty randomly like this.....All up it was a 2 hour project late one night while DH and Connie were in bed and I was awake til the wee hours nesting..... LOL!!! All that's left to do is sew some button holes where the straps go and it's all done.....

I came across a great little diaper cover pattern on Raverly the other night and just had to give it a go..... It was super easy and only took a couple of nights in front of the TV to complete. I've already cast on a purple one and should hopefully have it finished tonight.....Also speaking of knitting, a little while back I whipped one of these mug cosy's up for someone (can't tell yet) to go with their Xmas pressy.....What a great little project!!!!! I can't wait to make myself one as well, I also like this little pattern too...

Only a couple of days til Xmas, can you believe it???? How are all of your preparations going????? I'm doing a pressy drop tonight before I head down to Cootamundra to my Mum's for Xmas, oh yeah and to have bub #2 seen as thought the closest hospital to have babies around here is 370 km's away from me..... One last belly shot, 3 days before I'm due.....
Take Care :)

Tuesday, December 16, 2008

Simple Sewing.....

I have a couple of little tops on my list to make up for Miss Connie for Xmas this year and if I'm happy enough with the pattern I'm going to scale it down and make a couple of tops for my new little niece too..... I made a trial one last night using some of this Japanese fabric. I must admit, it's turned out super cute and now I'm itching to make some more.....I used a New Look pattern that I bought ages ago and traced but never got around to sewing up. I still have the traced copy but have somehow managed to loose the original, heaven only knows what the pattern number is... LOL!!!!This project took only 2 hours all up so unless bub #2 decides to come along early I should easily be able to manage another couple of these little tops before Xmas....

I've hung my advent stockings now that the countdown to Xmas is under 10 days (remember I only got around to making 10 instead of 24... hehehe). Don't they just look so cute with the little cheeky chocolate Santa heads popping out the top???? Maybe next year I might be able to get around to finishing off the rest of them....

Take Care.... :)

Monday, December 15, 2008

More Xmas Pressie Crafting.....

I'm so happy that I've finally finished the quilts I had planned for Miss Connie and DH for Xmas this year..... With the count down to Xmas now only 10 more sleeps and Bub #2's due date fast approaching I never thought I was going to get either of them finished.
DH's is a denim rag quilt made out of 8 pairs of his old favourite jeans that no longer fit....I've never made a rag quilt before and am so happy with how this one turned out.... I had no pattern just some basic instructions I'd found on the web. I cut the old jeans into 6" squares and sewed 2 of these together at a time wrong sides facing on the diagonal. Once I had all of my 6" squares sewn together I than had to sew my strips to start making the quilt. I used a generous 1/4" seam allowance when sewing it all together. This was all easy enough and I went for a checker board look like on this denim rag quilt. The trickiest part of the whole quilt was cutting the seams to make the rag's.... I had to cut through 4 layers of denim and my poor old scissors really couldn't handle the pressure so I opted for a butchers knife instead and that was much less painful on my hands not to mention the scissors.....

Miss Connie's quilt is a raggy square quilt that I roughly followed this tutorial for.....

I just used what ever purple fabric I had on hand for this one and some extra thick polyester wadding as I wanted it to resemble a doona, nice and fat and fluffy..... It was really hard to quilt with the extra thick wadding as it kept wanting to pucker up, any tips as to how to stop this from happening next time would be great... :) I'm so glad that I used the extra thick stuff though, it definitely gave me the effect I was looking for... The fabric frayed really nicely after the first wash and I didn't need to trim many threads at all...

I also managed to whip up a little snuggle bunny for bub #2 last night using some lovely soft and fluffy fairy floss yarn that I got a while back from here.....The pattern was a freebie when I bought the yarn and was a little bit confusing. You had to knit the front and back of the head at the same time and than stuff it at the end but once I finished I could barely fit any stuffing in the head.... Very strange????? Maybe I need to make another one just to make sure I was reading the pattern correctly.....

The button eyes look a bit freaky in these pics but I promise it's very cute in real life... LOL!!! I have almost finished all of my Xmas crafting now thank goodness.... I will have to post a lot of my pressy pics after Xmas though as many of the people receiving these gifts often pop in to have a read of my blog.... How's your Xmas crafting coming along????

Take Care :)

Thursday, December 11, 2008

Heating Up.....

The weather sure has been heating up a bit lately and being pregnant I swear that I feel an extra 5 degrees hotter than everybody else... LOL!!! Whatever possessed me to decide to have a baby at the peak of Summer???? Am I crazy or what????

You'd think that knitting would be the last thing on my mind with all of this hot weather now wouldn't you but no that's not the case..... I'm still poking along, pumping out the projects for Xmas including one of these little cute singlets for Miss Connie, my little princess.....
I changed the pattern just a little by cutting about 15cm off it's length.

I also cut about 3cm off the moss stitch at the top and added buttons to the back to fasten the straps instead of sewing them down. I'm dying to make another one of these little tops and am thinking of trying to incorporate some kind of lacy pattern into the stocking stitch to jazz it up a bit.....The cotton yarn that I used was an absolute pleasure to work with, once again from here, and I think I may just have enough left over to knit up some booties like these little cuties from the Living Creatively site for bub #2.....The festive season is in full swing here with 'get togethers' every time you turn around.... We had our town 'tree lighting' on Wednesday night which was a great turn out for our little country town. Miss Connie loved the Xmas lights SO much that she insisted we put some up in her room just in case Santa couldn't to find her now that she's in her big girly bed..... Too Cute..... :)I hope everybody is enjoying this festive time of year and spending lots of time with their loved ones where they can.... Take Care :)

Tuesday, December 2, 2008

Good Intentions......

With all good intentions in mind I was going to knit 25 of these little cutie's to make into an advent calendar. I got a total of 7 done..... Pretty sad hey??... LOL!!!!
So instead this year I've decided to do a 10 day count down to Xmas for the little princess and aim to get the rest of the stockings made for next year......
While I should of been knitting more Xmas advent stockings I was making more wash cloths instead. Here's a pink one the same as the brown one in my last post, pattern from here...I also got a chance to knit up this little moss stitch and cable bib (the pattern's a free Raverly download) for a special little baby girl to go with her Xmas pressie.....The pattern was really easy to follow but for my next one I've decided to change it just a little and put a row of cables down both sides and a fastening at the back instead of the side..... Take Care...... :)

Spring Seed Swap?

I had big plans of sharing a late Winter garden update with you all this post, full of beautiful pictures of Wintry produce such as peas (...