baking and making with my family of 9
sometimes fabric is so pretty that you don’t need to do much to it. I think this has to be one of the prettiest fabrics ever and today I whipped this up….
simple bias binding ties and my machine whizzed through it all giving a much neater finish than my old machine ever would what with trimming and speed control to keep me in check. I can’t wait till little miss keira comes home from pre-school to find a new dress!
I’d made this dress before and its a real favourite!
I’ve spent the past few years chugging along on a very old janome dreaming of something nicer! its been trusty but was old, brown, 25 years old and getting tired. And I work hard in this house of ours and decided it was about time I treated myself to a new machine….so here she is…
isn’t she pretty? she does everything for me like thread a needle, cut my threads, quilts, has a knee lift, extension table, totally computerised and from the moment I turned her on I knew I had come into the 21st century…
to quote retro daddy ‘if you sell your machines you can get a new one’ and let me tell you I wasted no time in buying this. Service and shipping was fast from this lovely store and while its too far from home for a free lesson I had lots of fun yesterday testing her out! Ok well it only took 30 minutes to thread a bobbin and get started but I love her! look she’s telling me what she’s doing…good girl!
you’ll be seeing some more of her and today she’s whipping up a quick dress for a family function on sunday! Thankfully retro daddy hasn’t noticed her slip into the house and onto my sewing table…mind you I won’t be going anywhere near the shops and there is no fabric, yarn or books coming my way this month so she will be paid off!
ps if you need to do some clearing out ebay is just fabulous…I have a grand total of 27 people watching my machines so yay ebay! ‘use it or lose it’ I say and buy something nice for yourself instead of just having stuff just sit around!!!!
In this house meals need to be quick, easy, healthy and meat free…..and since I’m the one who does all the cooking its up to me to deliver. One of our absolute favourites is frittata, served with garlic bread (ok not so healthy but yummy and always in my freezer) and a salad.
Sweet potato and feta frittata
8 eggs
1 sweet potato, peeled, cubed and steamed
1 cup spinach leaves
1 packet low fat feta, chopped (our favourite is danish as its soft and melts)
4 cheese slices (not the wrapped in plastic kind or 1 cup grated cheese)
1/2 red onion (sliced)
whisk eggs and add sweet potato, feta and spinach. Season with pepper then pour into lined square cake tin. Top with red onion then cheese and bake in 200 degree oven for 20 minutes. This can be on the table in 30 minutes from the time you take the ingredients out of the fridge. And its got calcium, protein, vegetables and served with the bread provides carbohydrates…perfect meal for everyone!!! I love it cold the next day too.
well, here is my progress on the ripple blanket…I take it to bed each night with good intentions, but usually get too tired after a few rows or have to turn off the lights to get miss keira to fall asleep (a little miss who doesn’t like going to her own bed)
I’m loving it and had a few nice ladies on ravelry sell me some more of the green from their stash as my spotlight was all out and I seriously underestimated how much yarn this blanket would gobble up.
I hope to finish it soon so I can start something new ……I think miss tillie has claimed it for herself! If you want to ripple and find patterns go here
I picked up this cord from Spotlight for about $15 a metre last week because it looked so european and not like I bought it from spotlight. This morning was raining and pouring so I pulled out my pattern mags and whipped this up….
The pattern is from Ottobre 4/2007 and took about an hour to make which keeps everyone in the house happy….I just need to press the pleats but I’m really happy with how it turned out EXCEPT I tried to follow their waistband instructions and really should have stuck to my own tried and true method.
but all in all a success…did my model stand still???? no, better luck next time!
I’ve spent the past 24 hours knitting up a storm making this little shrug for keira…I also made a serious dent in the chocolate left over from easter at the same time (knitting, coffee, chocolate = a nice way to spend the day except the background music was crying babies!)
but trying to get my little miss to model sweetly….
well I tried and tried
and tried some more
and then I gave up and decided to use what photos I had.
The sweet little shrug is from Debbie Bliss Essential Kids and only required 100g yarn (Ella Rae classic), however I made a size 2/3 and next time will do the next size up with a full sleeve.
anyone would think the food was bad or that they never leave the house
because these two just want to make a break for it and leave home at every opportunity.
I hope they decide to stay because they’re just too cute!
Before I even had time to feel guilty about this purchase Keira told me she wanted a princess pillow and blanket for her birthday! Phew, thats a relief because this fabric isn’t cheap but please….princesses, frogs and flowers….in gorgeous shades of pinks and apricot has my name all over it (oops I mean keira’s!!!). I only got 2 1/2 yards because shipping was based on $ value rather than weight and one more little bit was going to double my shipping charge but it was so worth it!
So now I have to think about what quilt design I’m going to use …..the princess fabric has been a sell out but stores are due to be restocked in May. If you want to hunt it down search superbuzzy, sew mama sew and etsy….
I remember a time (pre-children) when we hardly ate lunch at home on a weekend because we loved to go out shopping for ourselves (ok I enjoyed the shopping) and eating a nice lunch out…..these days we don’t get out for a meal as much as we’d like too but when we do it follows the same format. It usually starts out well….you order straight away and keep your little miss entertained until the food arrives
after the plates are cleared you might get a bit of time with some happy play
there is always something to play with…sugar sachets, salt and pepper shakers, chopsticks
and then before you can say lets get the bill it all descends into a big mess and keira usually can’t sit still and is ready to go home…here she is today reminding the chopsticks who’s the boss and signalling that its time to go home.
Everyone was up early this morning discovering what the easter bunny had left
including some cuties for my own little cuties
but being up early doesn’t guarantee you will be early to church so we snuck in very late before joining the rest of Sydney at the Easter Show. The farmyard nursery was our favourite
where we made friends with the animals
then there were scones with jam and cream to enjoy at the CWA cafe followed by a walk around the knitting and quilts…this made me realise I need to knit for my own babies (not in aqua of course)
and here is my favourite quilt…..I just love her choice of fabrics
and we finished the day with showbags, chinese takeaway and a night on the couch with chocolate. A pretty good way to spend the day with our own little family and forget yesterday!
yep you guessed it….another project from THE book! I just can’t help myself. We have church this afternoon so I thought my little miss could do with a new dress to wear. This was my first shirring adventure and I need more practice….my lines are ummmmmmm wonky and I probably would have benefited from doing a couple of parallel lines on some scrap fabric first.
but Heather’s instructions were super simple and I wonder why I was so scared of shirring because once you iron it, the whole thing crinkles up and is pretty forgiving….
I whipped this up in less than 2 hours using some very cheap but pretty cotton in my stash (that Keira actually selected herself) and that includes several breaks to feed babies, change nappies, pick up crawling babies from the hallway and return them to the loungeroom and supervise Keira’s breakfast. I will definitely make some more once I go back to the shops to get more elastic thread!
Armed with coffee and chocolate I made another project from my new best friend, Weekend Sewing!
I really like this little scarf and I bet it looks fab if you have more hair than I do (why oh why did I cut all my hair off).
And last photo of myself for a while me thinks…..time to get back to my lovely model Keira
Today I received this great book in the post! oh how I do love it! I had resisted purchasing it as I have way too many books already and feel like I buy every good crafty book that comes out…..but once I started seeing the projects I knew I had to have it. So it arrived this morning and once my little ones were down for their afternoon nap and Tinkerbell was in the DVD player…I started making the summer blouse pattern. This is before I slip stitched the front….so as not to reveal too much of myself!
A few boo boo’s along the way like making the neckline wider but forgetting to adjust it at the bottom of the placket but it meant I got to make a cute little pleat. I also made wider bias tape than was necessary and attached it differently but it still turned out great considering this was my dummy run made in cheap cotton from my stash before I made it in a nicer fabric.
and I actually kept it on for the rest of the afternoon and night as its so comfy and perfect for wearing around the house or for when I have to pop out and still want to look nice. Here I am testing it out with Tillie….I now see how tired I look at the end of a day running around after my three….and can you tell I’m growing my hair out…it seems to be taking f-o-r-e-v-e-r!!!!
So if you only buy one book this year then Heather’s book really is fabulous because there are so many patterns you’ll want to make!
I started making these scrap blocks way back in 2007 and just never got around to finishing them…..but after the success of this quilt I decided it was about time I finished it off! I just need to tie it with some perle cotton and do some hand quilting in each block just to keep it all together but I’m almost there.
If you want to make your own you will just need 12 scrap blocks cut to the same size, strips of homespun or another nice fabric for the borders and then I used minkee for the back (only $9.95 a metre from good old Spotlight). It is sewn right sides together, turned out and top stitched all around with your walking foot. It is just so warm and cuddly that I fell asleep on the couch under it watching The Real Housewives of Orange County last night (I’m strangely addicted to this show full of blondes and bossoms) and was woken by retro daddy in his suit this morning! oooops! Anyway give it a go as its a huge hit with Keira!
And I think I’m on to a winner with this variation of my One Cup Cookies…. 1 cup of chocolate chips (or melts or chunks) in dark and milk choc and 1 Tbsp peanut butter (melted with the butter)…….I’m calling them Double Chocolate and Peanut Butter Cookies and they are goooood.
we had a touch of easter here this morning with a mini easter egg hunt at a morning tea I host for local twin mummies……yes that would be my child running around in her underwear while the rest of the little ones were rugged up! I lost count of how many times I tried to get her back in her warmer clothes.
and I’m enjoying some very pretty flowers in my garden at the moment…I had no idea of all the lovely flowering plants when we moved in but as the seasons change I am really enjoying these lovelies (does anyone know what they’re called) outside my loungeroom window! And the dear little vase was a recent freebie on the lawn of a neighbour where everything was going free at the end of their garage sale.
and I’ve been so naughty still buying fabric and books (all to help our economy of course) and at the same time saying ‘this weekend I will take photos and get stuff on ebay’ but of course there is never enough time but last night I decided enough was enough…..ebay. Keep checking for more lovely things to be added this week…..
