A late birth present for Eva

I know it has been a while between posts but I have been very busy building a baby (now 35 weeks) and haven't felt too crash hot about sitting at a sewing machine let alone at the computer to blog about it. Well now I have finished work (since Christmas!!) I've had a bit more energy to sew and sit at the computer so we'll see how we go now.

Above is a gift I finished a while ago (November to be exact) but haven't written about, I wanted to give it to baby Eva first. So before I do a year in review post I thought I better write about this one first. I had ideas of what I wanted to make Eva but none seemed to get made through the bit of a sewing slump I had, until I saw "Once Upon A Time - Girl" in Homespun Mag 11.10, designed by Natalie Lymer of Cinderberry Stitches. It was perfect. I was home sick with a cold so whipped the stitchery up in no time. I had a few problems with the kind of thread that Natalie suggested but just ended up going through my extensive dmc thread stash and used that. I used a jelly roll from spotlight and trimmed it to the correct width, it would have been ok if they sold honey buns as well. Anyway, I found that the material wasn't cut straight at the fold which was very annoying, if you are going to use one of these rolls watch out for this. I also found that my 1/4 inch foot isn't, nothing joined up. I found that the gauge is out but the metal part is ok so from now on I ignore the gauge, very annoying. I'm happy with the finished product and had no problem with the pattern at all, just need a boy to stitch the other one for now!! More close up picks on flckr.

TTFN

Mandy

Check this out

I got my very ace name tag today for Sew It Together.

Kelly from Purple Paisley Patch made it for me. She also wrapped it in some lovely fabric to fit in with the colour theme.

I was in a hurry to open it and didn't take a photo so it's not as perfect as when I recieved it. The parcel looks too big for the name tag doesn't it. That's cos she made this for me as well.

Front

Back

How cool is that?

And now my swap partner has received her tag I can reveal what I made.

Sorry Katia I didn't include any other cool snazzy stuff, I'm new at this swap thing, next time.

Something else happened to pop in my mail box this week.

I won mail bag in Homespun magazine. I sent these photos in ages ago and completely forgot about it. Well there you go. But as luck has it, I wont be able to use the prize. It's all this lovely perfumed stuff which, unfortunately, started to give me a migraine as soon as I opened the box :-(, so some very lucky ladies in my life might be getting some lovely gifts soon.

Well I think that is it for a while. I've been doing a bit of crotchet over the school holidays, which I'll take a photo of soon I hope, other than that I have a super secret pressy on the go and all of my other WIP's.

TTFN

Chrissy pressy for Mum

Chrissy pressy for Mum
Originally uploaded by MandyMade

Ok this is the last post that should have been done last year!!

I made Little Miss Millicent for my mum for Christmas. It was from a Christmas homespun issue from the year before. I wanted to make it then but had a long list before it. Even though there is a lot of tiny detail in it, it was easy to make and didn't take too long. I had to make it in-between other commitments so it seemed to take longer than it should have!! I love working with felt and hope to be making more like this, even though I have made this year, year of the practical projects, I still want to squeeze a few decorative in here and there!!

TTFN

Little Miss Millicent, pattern from Homespun Mag 9.11, design by Louise Hatchard, handmade by MandyMade.

Tickle the Turtle 2

Tickle the Turtle 2
Originally uploaded by MandyMade

Yes you have seen this turtle before but this is it's twin. I made this turtle at the same time as the last one but didn't want to blog about it until I had give in it to it's very precious owner. One of my girlfriends had a very premy baby back in September, she has now reached 100 days so it's very exciting, Tickle the Turtle (or what ever baby Gaby will call her) is now with her new owner.

If you want to read more about the making etc of the turtles go here

TTFN

Tickle the Turtle, Design by Audrey and Maude, in Australian Homespun Vol 10.9, handmade by MandyMade

Ooo my

Ooo my
Originally uploaded by MandyMade

He he, got my Homespun mag in the mail this week and look who was in it. I sent the photo in ages ago and didn't think it would make it to the Mailout section of the mag. But here it is.
At the time of writing the email to them I was very happy with the range of projects, materials and colours that they had, and I did have a few projects in each edition I wanted to make. But lately, I haven't been as happy, sorry Homespun. The thing I liked about the mag was that country craft was kind of in the back burner, there are enough mags out there that cover country craft and prim. But lately there seems to be more and more, so less projects for me. So if you are reading this and make stuff out of the mag that isn't country craft or prim please send in photos so they know what we want in the mag.
That's my two bits, I am looking forward to the next block of the month though, I have never done one but this one appears to be more my thing, lets see.

TTFN

Pencil Roll

Pencil Roll
Originally uploaded by MandyMade

Another one of Little A's friends turned 5 over the weekend. I made this pencil roll for her. The original pattern had a caterpillar applique on the front and Hungry Caterpillar material. Well, I didn't hunt too hard to find that material and I had these wonderful pieces in my stash. So this is my version. I sewed the lines for the pencils from the front instead of the back as I was still a bit unsure of how my tension was going on my machine. I ended up not having to worry, a good clean does wonders!!

I can see many more of these being made, I even went out and bought basting spray. Anyone had any bad experience with basting spray? I would like to hear about the good or the bad.

TTFN

Mandy

Pattern from Australian Homespun Vol 9.12. I'm a Hungry Caterpillar Pencil Roll, design by Lynne Power. Handmade by MandyMade

Olivia's birth present

Olivia's birth present
Originally uploaded by MandyMade

I know it's been a little while, been really busy. Not to mention reading everyone else's blogtober fest blogs!! I don't know how you all have done it!!

I made this little friend for new born baby Olivia. It's from Homespun Vol 10.9 Designed by Louise from Audrey and Maude. The majority of it is hand sewn. Yes the hexagons are hand sewn. It's the first time I have sewn this technique (I think its called American piecing) and I must say it was very relaxing. And it came together very quickly.

I was so impressed with it that I am making another, but for who, is a surprise still to come.

For more pics please go to my flickr page.

TTFN

Mandy

Tickle the Turtle, Design by Audrey and Maude, in Australian Homespun Vol 10.9, handmade by MandyMade

Little A's Library Bag

Little A's Library Bag - Front
Originally uploaded by MandyMade

This bag has been a long time coming, poor Little A, when he first saw it on the front cover of Homespun, back in Jan I think, he's asked me to make it. All these other projects got made for other people, but not the one he wanted. I have to admit I did have to get over my "never going to make a quilt" thing first, not that I had to quilt it, but it does look better that way. I was thinking of hand quilting it, but he would never have got it!! I did hand quilt around the rocket though.
I didn't change much from the original design, except for omitting the embroidery text and changing the teddy bears to aliens, apparently Little A is too old for things with teddy bears on them now!!
We are going to test drive it on friday, so if you're at the library and see a little guy carrying his brand new library bag around, stop by and have a chat.

This bag construction was also used for my niece's library bag.

It's an adventure library bag from Homespun Magazine Vol 9 No 12, Design by Rachel Measham-Pywell, Handmade by MandyMade

Sarah's Journal

Sarah's Journal
Originally uploaded by MandyMade

Another 5th birthday, coming thick and fast now. This little friend of Little A's I am told loves to write in a journal with her mum, so when I saw this pattern in Homespun Mag 10.8 (design by Danielle Carey) I had to make it. There was supposed to be a stitchery but I thought with the age of the recipient, I would fussy cut into a panel instead.

It ended up being slightly smaller than the pattern said and I was lucky enough to find a note book to fit, too big for an A5 and too small for the intended size.

So there you go, another stash buster down!! 26 days now since I bought material!!!

TTFN :-)

Wow what a week and it's only Tuesday!!

Christmas Birds
Originally uploaded by MandyMade

Wow have I had a interesting start to this week, bit blown away really!!

Last week I email Homespun Magazine and suggested they start a Flickr group for Homespun, which I mentioned in my previous post. Well that was last week, this week they have featured my suggestion on their blog here, wow, and a few of my pics.

It doesn't end there. Last night I got home and found in the letter box a card for registered mail, I had noooo idea what it could be with all these possibilities in my head, and I couldn't pick it up until the morning. So off I go this morning to the post office, and what did I pick up? A parcel. I won a comp that I entered ages ago in Homespun, I hadn't heard so assumed I hadn't won so forgot about it, what a surprise. Thanks to Lara Cameron's blue birds I made and a few questions. Oh guess you want to know what I won. This. Melly and Me's Once Upon A Time BOM pattern. Now I have to go in search of some fabric..... What a Homespun week.

Octavius Owl

Octavius Owl
Originally uploaded by MandyMade

I completed Octavius Owl. It was really easy to make I must say. I have never quilted any of my softies before so this was the new challenge. The back part seemed to end up being too long (about a seam allowance) so I trimmed it back, this worked. I'm not very good at top stitching around corners, I like to think it's my machine that's restricting me!! So I hand top stitched.
As I have blogged before about the fabric I wont go in to detail but I now think that some of it is Moda, but please don't quote me.
Check out more photos on my flickr site for more detail.
Octavius Owl from Homespun Vol 9.10 Design by Jhoanna Monte Aranez. Handmade by MandyMade.

Octavius Owl
Originally uploaded by MandyMade

Lily's Birthday Present

I went to spotlight to buy a new rotary cutter blade, I knew I shouldn't have cos I also came out with a quilting ruler some other stuff and the fabric I ended up making this bag out of. I don't know why I didn't get the quilting ruler sooner, it made cutting the strips for the bag sooooo much easier, can highly recommend one. I ended up getting the one with inches as all patterns that require this kind of cut have it in inches. Anyway... I also think it was my metal ruler that was making my rotary blade blunt.

I knew I wanted to make my niece a library bag and had my eye on one in homespun mag. I didn't think I had enough time to make it and thought i'd have to iou. So I changed the look of the bag but kept everything else the same, and finished it in time, approx 5 hours i think.

She seemed to like it (as much as a 3 year old does).

Lily's Library Bag
Originally uploaded by MandyMade

Lily's Library Bag
Originally uploaded by MandyMade