Enjoying spring

You've got to love spring ... plenty of sunshine, catching up with the gardening, and enough rain too.  My father in law gave me a gift voucher in August and I finally spent it on the big polka dot teacup and planted it up with strawberries.  Yum, I can just imagine sitting on the deck and picking strawberries straight from the cup!  I have also been working hard  on the items for the Christmas Angel swap and am up to the wall hanging, the last thing to make.  I had made one but was unhappy with my finishing (sigh) so I unpicked it and added new borders and backing. But once again I was unhappy with my quilting and finishing (bigger sigh).  So, I scrapped that one and started a new wall hanging.  This pattern had appliqué,  paper-piecing and embroidery and I decided to make two; one for me to keep and to practice each step on, and one for the gift. I am loving how this one looks and I am getting close to finishing, in fact, I hope to get some more done on it tonight.  Then I just have the food gift to buy, which I am sensibly waiting until the last minute to get so it will make it to the postbox!  Wendy xx

A fab day and a finish

Washi dress - designed by Made by Rae

We have two teenagers in the house, Josh is 13 today!  As it is such a milestone, on Thursday we took Josh, Charlie and Josh's best friend and cousin, Sam, to Rainbow's End in Auckland.  It really was a fabulous day, perfect weather and so much fun.  I love days out together as a family; storing up memories of new experiences, laughing with each other, just enjoying the day with none of the usual rush, no rush at all.  I love recording it all with photos too and later putting them into albums.

As for my finish, I completed the Washi dress.  I added two little tucks in the neckline, which you can't really see in the photo, and this made it sit snugly against me instead of gaping.  Of course, if I had made a muslin first as the pattern suggested, I would have made this adjustment on the paper pattern instead of on the final dress!  I guess I could see this as my 'wearable muslin' and make another one sometime with better quality fabric.  This is a funny cotton, not as crisp as quilting cotton, and it sort of sticks so I prefer to wear it with a slip underneath. And I am quite tall so it is only just long enough so next time I would add a little more length.  However, it will be lovely and cool to wear in summer.  I have also dusted off Charlie's quilt and finished three more appliqué flowers, only two more to do!  Wendy xx

Tis the Season

I pieced my Tis the Season quilt together on Sunday and I just love it.  I used Lynette Anderson's latest Christmas fabric range, Christmas Fun.  The border print is pretty fun I think.  I am going to get it professionally quilted so it will hopefully be finished before Christmas.  Other things making me happy at the moment are my new door knobs on my new wardrobe doors (a little bit of progress in our bedroom!) and seeing the beautiful spring flowers blooming in our garden.  I sewed the little sleeves on my dress last night and it was very close to being finished but the front gapes on me.  I unpicked the facing while visiting Dad this morning and I will try adding some tucks or darts to make it fit better - perhaps tonight!  Wendy xx

Term 4 already

Well the school holidays are well and truly over and this is the second week back at school for the kids.  We have had very mixed weather with lots of rain and wind!  In fact, the evening the kids decided to try out the temporary ice rink, we were in the middle of an icy weather bomb!  We keep telling ourselves that summer is just around the corner.  Yesterday was an extra day off for Labour Weekend and I tried a new recipe, upside down apple cake, and family visited for morning tea.  It was so nice to take things slowly and I also enjoyed some sewing  time in the afternoon.  Today I received some lovely mail; I had won beautiful fabrics from Anthea and she also included a gorgeous variegated thread.  Thanks Anthea, I love them!  I am keeping busy in my spare time, working away on my Christmas Angel sewing list and the Tis the Season quilt.  I completed another Angel item and  four more Tis the Season blocks - only one more to make!  As for my Labour Weekend sewing, I am making a washi dress for myself.  After the success of my skirt I was encouraged to try to make myself a summer dress and I love the look of the washi dress that is popping up all over blog-land.  So far it is going well and I just need to add the sleeves then hem it.  Hopefully I will be back soon with a new dress, Wendy xx

Holiday sewing

Wrap skirt on yoke - Polli's patterns

So, my holiday sewing consisted of a new skirt for me, three more Tis the Season blocks and some Christmas gift sewing (you just get a sneak peek of the Christmas item.)  Would you believe I have had this skirt pattern and fabric all cut out and ready to sew for two years!  I think part of the reason for my procrastination was that I wasn't happy with the size I had cut out, not that it was the wrong size for me at the time, but it was a size I was unhappy about being.  But that's a story for another day!  I am immensely satisfied with the skirt for lots of reasons:  because I finally sewed it and it only took a morning to complete; because I was able to trim the side seams to a more acceptable size; it was an easy enjoyable pattern to use and fits perfectly; and I love the fabric!  The photos are not the best and I was reluctant to include the full length photo but hubby Paul says I shouldn't have another faceless 'Wilson' shot!  I am still loving working on the Tis the Season blocks and try to always have one ready to stitch when I have spare moments.  It was also a good feeling being able to tick off another item on the Christmas Angel list.  Well, I must get my next Tis the Season stitchery traced ready to start sewing tonight, Wendy xx

Cake pops and birthdays

It has been school holidays this week and we have had a pretty nice time.  It has been lovely for me because I had a week's annual leave, it has been so nice to not think about work, and it has been a special week for Charlie because it was her 16th birthday yesterday.  The day started with a full-on breakfast of hash-browns, bacon, breakfast sausages and eggs, then she and a friend went to a local pottery studio and painted a plate each.  The day finished with dinner out at a restaurant.  Charlotte shares her birthday with my two sisters, who are twins, so one of my sisters and her family joined us for dinner.  Instead of a birthday cake I made an easy version of cake pops, using mini cupcakes, which Charlie loved.  Happy birthday sweet Charlotte, I'm glad you had such a special day!

The week has been pretty wet so one of the days Charlie treated us to her delicious home-made fudge and I let the kids choose a DVD each.  Movies and fudge, just the thing for a wet day!  I also got some sewing done this week so I will share that once I get some photos of it, Wendy xx

Something for nothing

Before



Back here I wrote a to-do list for a pretty crafty home and I am happy to say I (with Paul's help) have completed the second item on the list.  Sandra's idea for June was to get something for nothing and I did it!  I had seen photos of pretty white kitchen shelves in books and on the net and my little knick knack shelves just weren't doing it for me.  We had the larger shelves in our laundry and Paul very kindly tidied them up and painted them white and I enjoyed finding some pretty things to sit there: the kids gave me the Keep Calm tea pot and cup for my birthday in August and the goose teapot was a wedding gift (almost 20 years ago).  There is room for some more things I think and perhaps I could hang something from the bottom bar at some stage.  I was also able to hang the gorgeous teapot wallhanging that I got from Sheila, doesn't it look perfect there?!  So I love my new kitchen shelf, definitely a happy little corner.  Also making me happy this week is the Tis the Season quilt, I am so enjoying stitching these blocks and got three more completed.  I love the little stitcheries, Wendy xx