A doll bag, a doll quilt and my little doll!

I have a little bit of crafty stuff to show you that is completely unrelated to a swap or Audrey and Maude.

Chloe was invited to a Birthday party tonight at a ceramic painting shop. They had to wear their pj's and make icecream sundaes! So what to buy an eight year old girl that is not Smiggle or Build a Bear?? After wandering around for ages I suddenly realised it would be quicker and easier to go home and make something.

So, inspired by a top of Chloe's, I whipped up this little number this afternoon and I LOVE it!!



Chloe and I went through the ribbon jar, the button jar and the fabric stash and together came up with this colour combination.

You can see I was interrupted - check out how I sewed on the buttons!



I added some ribbon to the straps for a bit more detail.



And gave her a little happy face.



I might have to make some more of these!

But that was just a little break from doing my doll quilt for Doll Quilt Swap Four and creating my latest Audrey and Maude pattern. The latter is a secret but here is a teaser of the doll quilt.



It is due to be finished this weekend so other than going to work tomorrow, you know what I'll be doing.......

I leave with you with a snap of my other little doll who just looooves the camera!



How I wish I had those eyelashes!!

The full Reveal!

Just a quick one tonight.

Here is a full reveal of that little project I was working on.



I was invited to participate in a 'white bag' challenge for a Living Creatively installation at the Sydney Stitches and Craft show. The brief was to decorate it in any way you like without changing the shape of the bag. I couldn't resist doing little aprons!

We had a fantastic time at the show. Look here.

Now I have a doll quilt to complete!

A sneak peak!

You must be wondering if I've decided to pack it all in! Sorry, I didn't realise it had been quite so long.

I have been very busy with a couple of bits and pieces and of course whipping up some more designs for Audrey and Maude which will hopefully be out pretty soon.

In the meantime, here's a sneaky peak at a little project I have been working on that will be a part of the Living Creatively stand this weekend at the Sydney Stitches and Craft Show.



Cathy and I are flying out very, very early in the morning so I'm off to bed!

It's Summer somewhere.

It's time to finally reveal the very last of the Four Seasons Quilt Swap quilts - received and sent.

Last week I got a big surprise and found a squishy parcel jammed into the letterbox. Lo and behold it was my Summer quilt from my friend the superwoman Fiona.

Isn't it just wonderfully summery and gorgeous!



It's beautifully quilted so that it puffs up like little pillows - you really want to touch this quilt.



And the fabrics - so very Fiona - deliciously vintage and super pretty!



And a sweet little label.



Thanks Fiona. I absolutely LOVE it! It will be hung in Daphne's room where it will make us all very cheerful!


And now to the quilt that I have sent far, far away.

I wanted my Summer quilt to have a similar look and feel to my other Four Seasons quilts. I'd like to think that they would look a little like a set if they were all together. I love doing applique and the single image I kept coming back to was 'the summer dress'.



This time I used my machine a bit more and did the applique with the buttonhole stitch.



The dress fabric is one of the stunning new fabrics in Anna Maria Horner's new range 'Garden Party'. It just seemed the perfect colours for a summer dress.



I tried a little bit of free motion quilting, which is not super flash. I wanted it to look like wall paper in a girl's bedroom.

And to finish, a little coat hanger.



And that is the last of the Four Seasons Quilt Swap quilts. Thanks Margaret - it's been fun!!

More Gorgeous Goodies!!!

I have nothing of my own to show you until tomorrow but I can show you lots more lovely goodies people have sent me!

First up a rather bad photo of the gorgeous sock monkeys from our lovely friend Kellie. Kellie and her beautiful children came for a visit during the school holidays and brought these with funny monkeys with them. Kellie whips these up in a nano second and they are soooooo cute, my girls absolutely love them! They have each been christened but the only name I can remember is Daphne's - Boom Boom. I was hoping to get a better photo but I only remember when they are all in bed so this will have to do! A pj's, first thing in the morning one with breakfast all over Daph's face!



The last couple of weeks I have received such a lot of fabulous parcels in the mail.

I had the very good fortune to win a giveaway on Valerie's blog.

Can you believe she sent me this stunning little vase from Anthropologie! It's just lovely and such a wonderful colour combination.



With it was a foodie magazine which is one of my favourite things in the world.



And the sweetest little ballerina dollies that she made for my girls.



They were so thrilled and immediately picked out one for themselves. I have forgotten the name of Chloe's but Lucinda's is called Waterlily because it looks like a fairy in a book and Daphne called hers Christina (after my friend who wears bright red lippy).



This week I had another lovely parcel with this very pretty embroidery I won on a giveaway on Katy's blog.



It's just lovely and perfect for Chloe and Lucinda's bedroom.



I have to say my girls have done very well out of this blogging caper and seem to always be included so thank you very much from all of us!

One of my favourite customers came in last Saturday to kill some time while her children were at gym. She helped me put some fabrics together for some samples for an upcoming pattern - she has a very good eye and a great sense of humour so we had great fun. She then offered me some of her stash!

Sure enough, on Tuesday she came in with this fantastic pile of fabric. Just look at this gorgeous repro 1930's loveliness!!



I'm so in love with this fun, fun fabric and can't wait to come up with something to use it for - a quilt I think?

Speaking of quilts, after all my promises I am late again with my Four Seasons Summer quilt. It is done now so only a couple of days late, but I have no photos.

I also received my stunning Summer quilt this week from someone I know well - but you'll have to wait!

Next post - some overdue quilty love!!!

Just a Quickie!!

This is just a quick post to update you all. I'm finding it quite hard to keep up with everything these days so I apologise for posting so infrequently. With kids, work, Audrey and Maude amongst lots of other things life is pretty busy!

And speaking of Audrey and Maude I'm here to announce our latest patterns.

Poppy and her Puppies

and

Robot Boy and Robot Girl

And to celebrate our new friends we are having a giveaway.  So scoot on over to Audrey and Maude and leave us a comment.

Playing Catchups

Firstly, thanks for all your lovely comments about the train quilt. It is wonderful to have it finished and be able to get on with the next bunch of projects.

I have so much stuff to post I have been putting it off!  And this week I have been very busy and too tired to do any posting. So here goes - be prepared for a long photo heavy post.

After patiently waiting for several months my gorgeous little Doll Quilt 3 Swap quilt finally turned up last week. Yippy!!  Isn't it absolutely stunning!! Wonderful colours and a lovely design by the very fabulous Laura Jay. I have offered it to my girls for their bedroom wall as we are rearranging things and it will look perfect with all their red and aqua.  

And check out the sweet and very intricate little pin cushion she sent with it.  I LOVE it all! Thanks so very much Laura Jay - you can relax now, all is well.



And how weird is this - my Doll Quilt Swap 4 quilt turned up on the very same day!  This little beauty was made by Ros and is to be hung in Daphne's bedroom.  It is so very pretty and very us. Ros also included some absolutely gorgeous ribbons that are also just the right colours!  Thanks Ros.



And here's more that I haven't had time to photograph and blog about.  I have participated in the Sassy Apron Swap twice now and haven't posted either apron - so sorry!!

First up is my most recent Summer apron from the very lovely Lucy Byrd who runs the Sassy Apron Swap.  It's a great design based on an old pattern and is the first apron I have had in this style.  I really like how it does up and plan to make a few of these myself.  Most people I know request full aprons and this is a lovely version.  Thanks Lucy.



And even more embarrassing, I didn't post this sweet little apron which I received in the Spring round of the Sassy Apron Swap. It is from Suzie and is super cute with the lovely Kristen Doran fabric and little flower appliques. Chloe fell in love with it instantly and as her dreadful mother has never made her an apron - true - she has claimed it as her own. Thanks Suzie and sorry I took so very long to post a picture. Don't worry everyone I did thank all of these people via email when I received them - I'm not that bad!!



And last but by no means least, my little doll quilt from the Lemonade Stand quilt swap. This was made by Mary Whidden (can't find a link) and is her very first attempt at a quilt. Having just completed a two day course in machine quilting, I have to say I'm really impressed with what Mary did without being shown how and how good are her joins. It is now being hauled around and used on various dolly's which is as it should be. Thanks Mary.



I haven't reported in about the lovely little girls class Cathy and I did last week at Amitie. It was a lot of fun and the girls were hilarious and really lovely. A couple of favourite comments were "boys can't multi-task" and "don't you love reading so much that your mum has to get mad at you to stop reading and come and eat your dinner". Gorgeous!

Here they are hard at work.







And proudly displaying the finished product.



Cathy made lovely pink meringues.



And I made pink cupcakes.



We think it was a big success and look forward to doing some more kids classes in the future. Speaking of classes, I attended a two day machine quilting class at Amitie with Deborah Louie. I shall report on that next post, this one should keep you busy for at least a few days!!