Some Knitting and a Quilt Update

Here is my first project with Michael's wool. It's going to be a beanie. The braid will be the bottom of the hat. Then I'll pick up stitches along the edge and continue knitting upwards toward the crown, tailoring it to fit me as I go. That's the plan, anyway!

I pieced six more rows of my Row by Row quilt, and am still loving it.

Here is another close-up. I'm managing to line up all my corners with a bit of easing here and there. 

The rest of the weekend will be spent finishing painting the bathroom window frame and maybe thinking about the little curtain I'd like to make.

Happy Birthday Sara (and a quilt sneak peak)

Last week my beautiful friend Sara turned fabulous 40, and one of my gifts was this cloud and raindrop wall hanging. I based it on one of many similar items floating around on the web and am very happy with the way it turned out. I used a wool blend flannel and some acrylic felt. Happy Birthday beautiful lady - I hope you have a wonderful year!

During the summer holidays I had fun making some other 'just because' gifts for Sara too, including a beautiful Poppy Doll and a doll quilt.

The quilt was inspired by this magnificent creation, and was a test run for a full sized quilt I'll make in the future.

Here's the doll showing her fabulous flannel trousers.

And another view with different outfit, gift bag and paper garland.

And a close up of the garland. The paper circles were cut from an old book using a circle cutter, then 'chain pieced' together in pairs on the sewing machine. You open out the circles, and voila - a beautiful paper garland!

One last close up of the doll quilt - I just love those yummy colours!

The Row by Row quilt is starting to take shape. I cut out many little colourful pieces of fabric. They are lined up in sewing order on my ironing board,

And along the back of my couch.

Then after cutting out 240 little calico squares, is was time to start sewing...

The colours remind of the covers of old Noddy books from when I was a kid. I'm loving this quilt already...

Vintage Delights, Bags for the Boys and a Quilt Kit!

First on the list in this post is a big thank you Lynda, Nikki and Kerryn for your generous and positive comments about my blog so far. I am very touched and encouraged to keep on going - thank you!


The items above were sent to me as a belated Christmas present by my lovely friend Michael in Castlemaine. I am just thrilled with them! The vintage knitting patterns belonged to his grandmother, which makes them very special indeed, and the wool is from the Victorian Handweavers and Spinners Guild.

Here is a close up of the wool. It's all hand dyed, and one hank is recycled. I already have a beanie in mind and am looking forward to getting my hands around the knitting needles again. Thank you Michael! By the way, Michael is an ambassador for beyondblue and you can make a donation at their website to help them continue their vital work.

During the school holidays my nephew visited from Melbourne and we had a play date at my place with one of his Hobart friends. I organised a treasure hunt and the prizes at the end were these zip pouches inspired by Denyse Schmidt's designs in her book. The green square of leafy batik represents a krynoid from one of the old Doctor Who series. My nephew and I love watching those shows together and 'The Seeds of Doom' was voted best series so far!

I put the boys' initials on the back and used a string of vintage buttons as zip pulls. My nephew uses his for his Nintendo - it is the perfect size and he is chuffed to have a special safe place for his favourite game.

People keep asking me for renovation photos, so here a couple so far. This is the bathroom window after sanding. I finished it at 9pm last night as I was determined to have everything done and most of the dust cleaned up before I went to bed. There is still a fine layer of dark brown dust over some of the walls, and I'll clean that up before the long weekend ends. I didn't have the strength last night!

Here is the first coat of undercoat - fresh on this morning. I'm a little concerned that residual wood stain has wicked up through the paint, but I'm hoping that a second layer of undercoat will seal all that in before I start on my top coats. The bathroom seems a lot brighter already with the dark brown wood gone.

Last of all in this post, I am excited to share with you my new quilt kit! I bought the latest copy of American Patchwork and Quilting and totally fell in love with the quilt on the front cover. I hopped online and bought the kit and it arrived in a week! I think everything else will go on hold while I get straight into my lovely American Jane Row by Row quilt!

Rural Jardin Lap Quilt and a Very Small Tote

Well - it's done! My mum's lap quilt is finished and ready to be delivered. I just love this fabric line and it's a pity that it's getting hard to find. The colours are so rich but soft at the same time, and the pale duck egg-ish green is absolutely lovely.

I used a charm pack bought online, one metre of pale green to complete the top, and half a metre of rose pink for the binding, both from The Needlewoman in Hobart. The backing is a plain off white cotton. So overall, this is a very economical quilt to make. I have some pale green and pink leftovers and will treasure those for a special project sometime in the future.

The finished size is 1.05 square metres.

I quilted it on my Husqvarna - an eighth of an inch each side of the seams using my walking foot to stop any puckering. I spent the afternoon hand finishing the binding while watching 'The Dam Busters'. I loved that film as a kid, and it certainly holds up over time! - except for the dog's name - I cringed every time someone said it...

Here is the quilting in progress in my little craft space. My flat is quite small, and I've converted the dining table into a dedicated craft space. I loved making this little quilt and can see more 'charm pack' quilts being made in the future - maybe as Christmas presents for family this year.

I bought a Hope Valley scrap pack on Etsy a few weeks ago and this is my first project - a very small tote. It holds two small water bottles and a snack bag for work.

The lining is a black hanky linen, and the main fabric is a pure linen in an oatmeal colour.

I love Denyse Schmidt's Hope Valley line - a little goes a long way in terms of impact, and I'm already getting a lot of pleasure carrying this little bag to work each day! The bag sits on my desk and it makes me happy to glance up from my computer and see something pretty.

The renovations are plodding along slowly. My new cooker was delivered a couple of weeks ago, and will get wired in once I choose tiles and book a tiler. The electrician needs to do some major drilling into my concrete kitchen wall to accommodate wiring to fit a switch that conforms to new safety standards, and then the tiles will cover the drilling. It's a bigger job than I thought!

I also bought a new toilet, vanity unit, sink and taps. They will be delivered in about three weeks time and in the meantime I'll sand and strip the window frame, sill and pelmet, paint the woodwork white and make a little curtain. I shall post before and after photos when it's all done!

Happy Birthday!

I wanted to make something for my sister's birthday and her favourite colours at the moment are purple and green. So I themed the gifts. The paper flower instructions are in this glorious book.

The flower bag is made from kimono scraps, silk dupion and a vintage button, and the pattern is from Kumiko Sudo's beautiful Omiyage book. The patterns in this book are beautiful and the instructions are easy to follow.

You can see here how the underside of the flower opens into a bag.


The tote bag and zip purse are made from simple cottons and a dark olive pure linen. To top the package off I included a book by Lois Duncan (a favourite author from our childhoods) and some Aesop hand cream. I hope my sister enjoys the gifts as much as I enjoyed putting them all together!